Holiday Slideshow : San Francisco

The last stop on out US adventure was San Francisco.  San Fran has a special place in my travel memories - it was the first American city I ever visited, and what a wonderful introduction to America it was!  I have fond memories of warm days spent wandering up and down hills, lazily admiring the gorgeous 'Painted Ladies', eating delicious chewy crust pizza, smelling the sea salt in the air and just generally picturing myself becoming a local.  

And this visit was really more of the same.  We ate great food, held our noses while laughing at the antics of the Pier 39 sea lions, caught a cable car up a ridiculously steep hill, admired the city from the top of Coit Tower and watched the mist roll over the city.  

We also visited Alcatraz where I took roughly half a million photos, which was actually quite restrained considering...

Holiday Slideshow : Vegas baby!*

I adore Vegas.  It's one of those only-in-America places.  These days you might find similarily ridiculous over-the-top, just-because-we-can, ostentatiousness in places like Macau and Dubai, but they don't come with the history, heart and sense of pure fun that you find in Vegas.

If you google 'kids in Vegas' you'll find all kinds of sites telling you that Vegas is not a family holiday destination.  But both the step-sons loved Vegas - in the post trip review that we always do, Vegas was the bit that everyone agreed was completely ace. (FYI, the step-sons are 11 and 13 years old.  Also FYI, we don't gamble.)

They were intrigued by the stories of how Vegas was developed, they loved the idea that all this crazy stuff was built just for fun, and they never got tired of making jokes about France being right next door to Egypt which was right next door to New York... They loved all the great meals (especially one at Switch - a super tasty steakhouse in the Wynn where the decor changes every 20 minutes or so), and the view from our amazing room at the Bellagio (see photo above).  Vegas was a hit - and that's even though we didn't have time to visit the sharks at Mandalay Bay, ride the roller coaster at New York, New York, or even go for a swim!

Probably the most amazing thing we did in Vegas was a helicopter ride out to the Grand Canyon, via the Hoover Dam and all kinds of amazing desert landscapes.  The weather wasn't great - there was a lot of rain and mist about - which meant we couldn't land in the Canyon, but it was still pretty amazing.

Seeing as I have inherited my Mum's dislike of flying, small spaces and heights this part of the trip was somewhat challenging for me.  Especially as the pilot decided the front seat was the best place to put me.  I was basically in a perspex bubble, vibrating high above the earth.  For the first 45 minutes I was completely kind of freaking out, much to the amusement of my fellow passengers.  

If you haven't experienced that kind of panic before, it's like your brain just constantly screams at you 'get out NOW', but you can't, so you're trapped, and it's not very fun, at all.  And also clearly not very logical.  And a bit embarrassing, especially once the swearing kicks in.  I've found ways to calm myself down (counting is good, as is photography - they give me something else to focus on).  And once my body/brain got used to the way the chopper moved it was all okay.  So for the last 45 minutes I was actually able to stop freaking out and enjoy the views.

*As we helpfully taught the step sons on this trip, you can never ever just say 'Vegas'.  It's always always 'Vegas, baby!'.

Holiday Slideshow : Hoover Dam!*

Before we hit the bright lights of Vegas (baby) we headed to Hoover Dam.  I had pretty low expectations here because when it comes to giant feats of engineering and historical milestones I've really only got about five minutes of 'wow, that's cool' or 'hmmm, interesting' in me before I start getting bored, bored, bored.  So it was a pleasant surprise to find that the Hoover Dam was in fact amazing.  A prefect combination of stunning natural scenery and grand human design, with just enough interesting factual tidbits scattered about the place.  

It was built in the early-mid 1930s, and the public areas were purposefully designed to be beautiful, so there are all kinds of gorgeous Art Deco touches everywhere.  Whilst everyone else on our tour was agog at how much cement was needed to build the thing (over 5,000,000,000 barrels if you're curious), I was obsessing over light fittings and tiles and mosaics and fonts and the way the tunnels curved just so. It was wonderful!

*Said in Penguins of Madagascar style, aka this.

Holiday Slideshow : Death Valley

These pics were taken at Zabriskie Point, in Death Valley.  Pretty amazing huh?  Death Valley is pretty amazing actually - apparently it's one of the hottest, driest, lowest places on earth (I was pretty glad we were there in the cool season, I imagine it would be almost unbearable in Summer).  There's peaks and troughs and giant salt plains; there's sand and stone of all colours and mighty, ferocious winds.  And apparently some scenes from the original Star Wars were filmed there.  Awesome.

With all these wonderful natural patterns around me, I couldn't resist taking a few black and white shots. I think Death Valley looks pretty great sans colour, don't you?

Holiday Slideshow : Mammoth to Death Valley

I'm back in Seoul and loving sorting out our US holiday photos - it was a seriously great trip, with lots and lots of good things packed in.  So, let the holiday slide show begin!

After our ice skating skiing in Mammoth we picked up our hire car (a giant leather-lined boat of a thing that the hire car guy called a 'pimp-mobile'!) and had a most amazing drive through to Death Valley (during which we were listening to our US road trip playlist, of course!).  

For most of the drive we had the misty Sierra Nevada on one side, and the arid White/Inyo Mountains on the other, with unbelievably vast lengths of straight road stretching out in front of us.  It was some of the most spectacular, wondrous scenery that I've ever had the pleasure of seeing - other worldly and oh so majestic.

Holiday Slideshow: Gaeta, Italy

Do you get a bit sad on the final night of your holiday?  I always get a bit sad.  Because I know I'm heading back to reality, to bills and emails and groceries and laundry.  Because I know I'm saying goodbye to the possibility, the anything could happen, of travel (at least for a little while).  Even writing this post, about the final stop on our holiday is making me feel a little bit sad!

After getting off the big boat we headed towards Rome and stayed in a little seaside resort called Gaeta.  The old town is rather pretty and lovely to walk around, and we had the best meals here (seafood pastas, simple grilled fish, yummo!).  Gaeta is packed with hotels and restaurants and places to camp.  It feels a bit like the kind of place where families from Rome would go every summer holidays, year in year out.  A bit like Sorrento or Torquay in Victoria (what would be the equivalent in your neck of the woods?  Maybe the Gold Coast for Queenslanders?  Or the Sunshine Coast for New South Welshians?)

We stayed in a stunning hotel a bit out of town, Grand Hotel Le Rocce.  It had a beautiful little beach (though it was quite a trek getting down to it and back, probably for the best after all that pasta...) and gorgeous terraced gardens with the most amazing collection of succulents. If you have a few days to kill and you're flying out of Rome I'd highly recommend a couple of days swimming and eating in Gaeta.

Our holiday ended the way all our European holidays end - with my husband completely underestimating the amount of time it will take us to drive to Rome airport, which leads to a very nervous hour or so watching the clock in the car and me telling him to 'drive like the wind!'.  And then we get to the airport with barely a moment to spare, so the husband throws the step-sons and I out of a moving vehicle whilst yelling 'grab the bags! run to the check in desk!' while he speeds off, throws the car keys at the poor hire car guy and sprints back to meet us.  Ahhh, the fun of family traditions huh?

ps. thanks for indulging me and my holiday slideshow posts!  I hope you enjoyed them - if so, there are lots more photos on my Flickr.  And if not, normal programing will resume shortly!

Holiday Slideshow: Dubrovnik, Croatia

I adore Croatia and I especially adore Dubrovnik (doesn't everyone?).  It was our third visit here and it just made me want to come back and spend a lazy Summer month exploring the little back streets of the old town, jumping off rocks into that stunning Mediterranean Adriatic water, and whiling away afternoons with a gelato and a cool beverage.  Unfortunately we only had half a day so we couldn't quite do all of that, though we did do most of it (including the leaping off rocks bit - well, I didn't leap but others did!).  Even with the summer hordes and the stinking hot heat, Dubrovnik was as beautiful as ever.

Holiday Slideshow: Istanbul, Turkey

It was this stop on our cruise itinerary that gave us our 'Song of the Trip', which was of course Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants.  It was also this stop that I was most looking forward too.  My husband has been lucky enough to get to Istanbul three times previously, but I'd never been and it's probably been number one on my 'cities I want to visit list' (followed very closely by Chicago.  And St Petersburg.  And Jerusalem.  And...).

Istanbul did not disappoint.  It was sprawling and beautiful and delicious (and surprisingly clean and organised).  And chock full of aesthetic inspiration.  I think I have 100 photos of painted tiles - the colours, the patterns!  Oh my!  We spent most of our time at the Topkapi Palace (if you ever go there, it is well worth paying the extra money to see the Harem), but also managed to have a look at the Basilica Cistern and The Grand Bazaar.  I can't wait to return to Istanbul one day...

Holiday Slideshow: Izmir, Turkey

First stop for our big boat was Izmir, Turkey! (As a side note...despite all the drawbacks of going on a cruise you do get to see cities from perspectives you couldn't get any other way - like the one above, as we pulled into the port of Izmir - which is all kinds of awesome).  People stop at Izmir to see Ephesus (or Efes in Turkish), an Ancient Greek and then Ancient Roman city (the 2nd biggest Roman city for awhile, actually).  So that is exactly what we did too.

The cool thing about Ephesus is that the ruins are surprisingly intact.  Even when it is packed and swarming with tourists (like it was when we visited, damn cruise boat tourists!), you get a real sense of what it might have been like to live in the city way back when.  This is especially so when you round a corner that takes you to the main street of Ephesus, still paved with marble and still flanked by the ruins of various temples and buildings.  It's quite an amazing sight.  Actually, if you squint you can imagine all the other tourists in togas...  

Holiday Slideshow: Bari, Italy

Next stop on our travels was Bari.  We went there to catch a boat (a very big boat!).  This is my second time to Bari (both visits have been boat related) and I have to say that aside from catching a boat there is no good reason to go back.  The old part of town, which is where all the boat people go (and by boat people I am not referring to the kind that most Australians seem inexplicably afraid of, I mean the hoards of tourists piling off the cruise boat when it pulls in to port).  It has a lovely old church and lots of winding, cobbled alley ways, and is (relatively) clean and prosperous.  

But outside of that Bari looks like a town that is decaying one brick at a time.  We dropped our hire car at Bari airport and got a cab to the port, and when I wasn't fearing for my life (if I never catch a taxi in Bari again it will be too soon), I saw boarded up buildings, parks filled with rubbish, sports arenas rusting away.  All rather sad and depressing really, and not the thing for a holiday slideshow...So instead, here are some shrines!

Being raised in a secular country by parents who where decidedly not into organised religion, I am always intrigued by people and places where religion plays a significant role in everyday life.  I love these little shrines that you see everywhere in Italy (especially in the south).  I love that they are so well maintained; I love the plastic flowers, the mix of kitsch and reverence; I love how they fit in to the landscape, that they peak out from freshly laundered sheets and sit next to traffic signs.