My Winter Vacation

I left Marmaris and hoped on a bus to Istanbul, from Istanbul we headed to Sophia by bus. Afterward,  we went to Budapest, Hungary. Then hoped on an over-night train to Vienna than a day train to Salzburg .we went to Zell-am-see Austria and went skiing, than train to Munich and picked up car and drove to Strasburg. We decided to go to Paris. Then a car ride to Dijon France, than to St. Gervais, after that we went to Munich. Then we flew to Dalaman and took a taxi to Marmaris.

Budapest

There are two sides of Budapest. One side is Buda because it’s hilly. The other side is Pest because it’s flat. We went over the chain bridge! It’s cool to go over the chain bridge because there are two big rock things that hold up the whole bridge. Did you know we went to the thermal baths? The thermal baths are cool because there’s a men’s and woman’s bath in the men’s there is a 35 and a 37 degree pool plus an 18 degree pool. It was very colorful with lots of statues. I love the thermal baths because I like the temperature. I think grand mom to.

Vienna

In Vienna we stayed in a mercury hotel. We went and saw Mozart’s house. It’s cool to think you’re in the footsteps of Mozart. We also saw Saint Steven’s church… so we took a tour of under the church with the dead from the plague. It was very stinky at first in the tour but it got it was the real deal though with the bones it felt like a haunted house with skeletons. Then we went to a metro and went to  a house that my mom used to live in. it was freaky to see a place my mom lived in for six months and studied Vienna.

[Editors note: Aethan typed the above and used ‘Word’ to correct his mistakes. Below, his Dad retyped what Aethan had written verbatim- no corrections for spelling etc.]

Zell-Am See (Austrian Alps)

In Zell-am-see we stayed in a part-ment for 2 week’s when we were skiing. Plus we could walk to a really cool pool… when  we’re at the pool we can jump off a high board or a regalur board. There is also a really cool big waterslide that is almost dark inside. From our apart ment it’s about five minutes walk to the gondola… and five minutes up to the top. Then we switch over to the easy hill so I can go fast and mom and dad can snowboard (+ Graeme) . When you snowboard toes, heels, toes, heels, theres a blade for toes and one for heels. I feel very proud for going straight down the hill.

Paris

In Paris there are lots of fun stuff to do like… go the Sciene (the river), Museum orsey, the sewers, and Eiffel  tower. Did you know the sciene goes threw many countries, and we ate on the water front. The louv  is very colorful but the big hit is the Moni Lisa it is very hard to see because of all the people. Did you know there is 1,300 miles of sewers in paris. And there very stinky. The Eiffel tower is magnificent. It is really fun to Look out from the top. On the second floor we went ice skating. It felt very cool. My favorite thing in Paris is the Eiffel  tower because I saw the apartment he lived in. (nb: referring to Eiffel’s small apartment near the very top where he entertained guests…)

St. Gervais (French Alps)

We stayed in St Gervais for one week. Our hotel has a pool but we have to cross some snow to get there. The ski hill is five minutes by car. Then five to the top. Then five to the next run. The terane park is awesome because there is huge jumps. On my first jump I had to be five feet up in the air. I felt nervous. But I did ad landed on my butt but I lived. On the last day my dad did a radical jump and almost broke his butt so he sat out for two runs while me and my mom raced down twice at the same speed.

Our trip through Turkey (Oct-Nov 2011), by Aethan Cubitt

Overview:

We packed our bags and I carried them to the car.  Then we drove to Ephasus.  Next we drove to Troy.  Next we drove to Istenbul, then we drove to Ankara.  After AnKara we drove to Goreme Capadocia. Then back to Marmeres.

Ephasus

Ephasus used to be the 2^nd  biggest city in the world nexgt to Rome which we saw earlier in the year.  It was enormous.  Plus I stood in exactly the same spot where Saint John gave a speech.

Troy

Troy was rebuilt 11 times because of a fire, got flooded, or got attacked.  The seventh time it got rebuilt the Greeks attacked and they retreated exept one guy stayed behind to convince the Trojans that they were sorry.  They didn’t see how nice they were.  The Greeks gave the Trojens a 50 foot wooden horse and they brought it to the city walls.  At night when every Trojan was asleep, the GreeKs jumped out of the hourse and opened the gate and sacked the city.

Istanbul

Istanbul is half Asia half Europe.  We stayed close to the blue mosque.  On the way in you have to take off your shoes.  It’s enormous but you can only stay on ½ of the area.  Did you know Muslems pray 5 time’s a day.  The most annoying time of the day is 4:30 am.  Their bible is called the Koran.  The towers that remibnbd them to pray are called mineret’s.  The small building beside the minaret is called a mosque.  The cistern is a place where the store water for the towns people.  2 of the collumns at the base there are priceless Medusa heads holding up the street.  The Hagia Sophia is a place where Christians had had a church.  But muslemes have a different religen.  In there religen you can’t draw a picture of other faces.  The Grand Bazarre is huge.  There are people saying use your money here, no use it here, and other people are giving you little trinkits.  There are thousands of stores there.  The ToKaia Palce is a place where a Sulten use to live.  The suulten had a 86 carrot diamand that a jeler found in the trash.

A couch full of small emerelds, rubys, and dimond.  There is a great view of the water way.  It is a beautiful view.  Next we went to the Topkapia Palace museum.  All the statues from Ephasus, Troy and even some from Egypt are held in this museum.

The underground cistern used to hold water for the Topkapi Palace.  In the cistern there are lots of fish and the cistern is 140 meters by 70 meters.  In one of the corners there is 2 collumns.  At the base there are priceless marble Medusa heads.  One is side ways and the other one is up side down, and we got our pictures taken like sultens.

Ankara

In Ankara we stayed in a 4* hotel with the luxury room.  It was fabulous.  We also saw a calse and people were living in shacks closed on all 5 bsides.  When your at the top you can see around for miles.  Then we went to a fair there was all sorts of stuff like bumper cars super freekey rides and a ride that you go up side down at 50 mp.  Half the rides you have to be 13 to go on.  Ankara was a very fun Place.

Goreme Cappadocia

Cappadocia is better then the badlands because there are caves that are under ground that holds over 50,000 people.  And we only know of one entrance.  They brought animals in when they were baby’s, grew them, and ate them.  There many comunaties. That have 1,000’s of people .

Antalya

In antaly there there was nothing to do so we stayed in a 5 star hotel with an indoor pool.  There is 103 hotels in this provence but only 3 have indoor pools.  The name is Sea Life.  But only half the half of the hotel was open when we were there. But now it’s closed.

*typist's notes:  all grammatical and spelling is transcribed as found in the original script.

Hotels where we stayed in Cappadocia

Hotels where we stayed

On the 8^th of November I was sleeping in a cave!  Now I am sleeping in a 5-star hotel called Sea Life.

The city where the caves were is Cappadocia.  In Cappadocia there is giant rock formations of cones with caves from about 2012 years ago.  The first caves were natural, but the early Christians added on.  We saw one third of an underground cave city and even I had to duck through the narrow spots.  People were a lot smaller back then.  It was enormous.  Up to 50,000 people lived there because the Romans extremely hated the Christians because they thought they would get all the power.  The early Christians walked to Cappadocia in a caravan so that they could escape from the Romans, who were in Italy, Istanbul, and along the Turkish coast.  They walked the whole way!  They had kitchens, living rooms, graves, and churches…everything you need for living.  They would go out and bring baby animals inside and to grow and later kill them for food.  I wondered how they could carve out so much cave for 50,000 people (and we saw so little of it and the violation shafts (editor’s note: ventilation) were really cool. 

We stayed in a cave hotel for the experience.  Very few people get to do it in their lives but in Cappadocia there are probably only 3 hotels that are not it caves.  The hotel owner says that they added on to caves, but in our cave you can see the original markings of where the original cave was made.  And the first night that we were  in Cappadocia (the 7^th) we ate dinner on the floor in a restaurant because that is how they did it back then.  If you are in a caravan, it is too hard to bring up to 50,000 chairs, so they used short tables so that they would not need chairs and they sat on small rugs.  I wasn’t too comfortable, but when you are done eating, it is very comfortable for relaxing (and good for stretching out and going to sleep for Graeme).

We did some horseback riding instead of camel riding, because we could not find the camels. 

Our Turkey trip.

We started on off in Marmaris, which is where we are staying for the winter.  We first went to Ephesus, which used to be the 2nd largest city in the world 1,000 years ago.  It felt like it was 300 miles long.  I saw a library made from rocks and I saw public toilets made out of marble!  They were just holes with drainage.  Only men could use the toilets.  Women and kids went somewhere else.  We went farther, and Graeme and I saw a mini-amplitheater.  It was very small but very cool because only 100 people can fit in it.  Any earlier on the trip we saw a ampltheater that could hold over 24,000.  My mom was very excited about it because she stood exactly where Jesus' friend, Phil ...or was it John stood and talked about Jesus' religion and people stood there for 3 hours.  After the 3rd hour, the mayor had to come and calm everyone down after he literally got booed off the stage. 

Moving on to Troy.  On the way to Troy, we saw lots of farms; there farmers driving tractors driving along the highway.  On the way, we saw a salt farm and we saw live flamigos that were not it the zoo.  After that, we saw cotton growing on a farm and we picked it fresh off the vine. 

In Troy, more than 1,000 years ago (editors note: about 2000, BC), there was a small city.  Over time, the city grew and was covered in dirt, caught on fire, collapsed, or got took over.  About how it got took over:  it had a war on the 7th rebuild of the city.  The enemies built a horse and one guy stayed behind and convinced the Trojans that they understood that the people of Troy won the battle.  So they gave them a present, which was a big, wooden horse.  But the people of Troy didnt know that there were enemies hiding in side. 

The enemies hopped out at night and they opened the gates to let more warriors in (there were only 30 warriors in the horse), and they conquered the city.

Modern people used technology based on what others told them to make an exact replica of the horse.  I got to go inside.  Then we toured the city of Troy.  Twice.  Then we went back into the horse.  I barely got out in time before a class of teenagers came in and filled every single window and the stairs up to the horse.  All you could hear was their screaming!!

The end.

Editors note: we are now in istanbul.  More, I hope, later!!

Corinth Canal

The Corinth canal is 25 meters wide and 3 miles long. It took us about half an hour to get through. There were lots of landslides and I thought it was cool. There was no danger because they were the size of pebbles, so we weren't worried. 

It was started by one person named Nero, who did a bunch of planning, and then 3 months later he died. He had 6000 slaves ready to work on it and that wasn't even enough. he wanted to build the canal because before they had to drag boats across on barrels, or even take them apart.  

I think the canal was finished in 1630, or something like that. (Actually in 1893 by the French)

On each end there are bridges that go underwater to let boats go through. This is cool because a boat can drive over where a car can drive. 

it cost us 159 Euros to cross which is about $235. This is about 30 cents per meter that we went. 

I wanted to write about the Corinth Canal because it is perfectly straight all the way through except it has a bunch of chisel marks and it has pull overs for boats. There was not a single other boat with us in the canal. Its very special because we would have to sail a hundred miles more around a giant island (Peloponnese) Only cruisers get to go through the canal and I'm a cruiser so I'm special.