some more pics..

Photo dump!

Selcuk - cute little city. very touristy because its where everyone stays at when they go to ephesus...


The Citadel


Funniest merchant sign ever!!


Ruins at Ephesus




Some gorgeous views of Istanbul from the Galatas tower (an ancient tower built by the Byzantines)...








Yet again another pic of my fav mosque at night

Incredibly laaame exhibit in the Turkey military museum that basically tries to calls itself victim to the "Armenian terrorists"...when in fact the world knows that Turkey had in fact committed genocide against Armenians at the time. I mean I loved Turkey, but the way the country has dealt with this whole issue and the fact that it tries to hard to rewrite history by blaming the Armenians is incredibly pathetic. Like ridiculously pathetic. I know this is a big issue as the country is applying for EU membership, and while Turkey and the EU (especially its relations with Islamic countries) have much to gain by Turkey joining the EU, I certainly hope that its rejection is rejected until it decides to take full responsibility and accountability of what has happened. Yes I know, a little long winded, but I just had to get it out there.

absolutely brotha

I need to be British; that pretty much sums up my visit to the UK so far. Added to the list of new food obsessions I've picked up abroad (kofta, congee, McVitie's, and toast lady being the major highlights) are tomato basil pasties, steak and kidney pie, jam roly poly, Jonathan's crisps, lion bars, rowntree's fruit pastilles, and, to top the list, evening tea. Currently in Edinburgh looking at all of the pictures/videos I've accumulated in the last week. There are several epic ones that I'll post when I have the wifi capabilities. Until then, here is my personal fav

Lovin' Turkey!

Istanbul
Probably one of the prettiest cities I've seen so far on this trip! The entire city is on three coasts, with the Golden Horn flowing right through it. And its pretty cool because one side is geographically considered Europe while the other side is Asia...so you're literally at a crossroads between the two continents. The history and culture of this city is literally a hodgepodge of eastern and western influences...which I find incredibly fascinating.

Okay on to pictures!

View of the Aya Sofia (right) and the Blue Mosque (right) from a water taxi

The Aya Sofia, which was originally a church, then a mosque, then a church, then a mosque...

Inside the Aya Sofia. When it was built by the Byzantines, it was the largest dome in the world...and I totally believe it, that thing is huge (twss). Anybody read Arabic? I'm curious to know what is written on the signs...i'm guessing something like "no flash photography" or "no shoes, no shirt, no service" ??

The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii)...such an EPIC mosque, I absolutely fell in love with it.

Inside the Blue Mosque

Really nice evening view of the city

At the Ritz Carlton, drinking a specially imported 2 liter bottle of Tongyi Lucha and watching the Lakers roll over the Jazz in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs....life could not be better!

Antalya
Took an loooooong 12-hour overnight bus ride from Istanbul to Antalya, which is a very picturesque coastal city along the Mediterranean.

On a boat cruise around the city

Olympos
A little backpacker's haven about two hours away from Antalya. Its right by some really cool ruins and a very nice beach. We also went on this crazy 4 hour night hike to the Chimera, which are like naturally occurring fires on the cliffside of this mountain....and it was funny because the guy from the hostel basically said "oh yeah its not far at all to walk...just four kilometers from here. Alls you gotta do is walk down to the beach, turn left, walk a little bit, turn left at a restaurant, and then keep going and you'll hit it". When in reality it took about half an hour to get to the beach (even more creepy because it was pitch black and there were ruins all around us). It took another half an hour from the beach to the "restaurant", which turned out to be a little town...that had at least 50 restaurants! So by the time we found out where to actually turn left (it wasn't at a restaurant, but like a half hour walk past the last one), we had to eventually hitchhike to finally get to the base of the mountain...which then was a good 30 min climb up. At that point I definitely wanted to kill that guy at the hostel. But it was pretty worth it.

The Mediterranean!! It's an incredibly calm body of water...and also a really cool deep blue color

Yeah even though the water was definitely coooold, I just couldn't resist the urge to go for a swim...it is the Mediterranean after all

Took another long overnight bus to Izmir and then to Selcuk. Off to see Ephesus tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Not travel related but I just wanted to wish Grandma Phan a huuuuuge Happy Birthday!!! She turns a big 9-0 today, which is absolutely incredible! (Though someone please help her blow out the candles). Here's to my Grandma and many many more years to come!

No. Not the bird.

I'm in Turkey ya'lls!!!!

WENT TO AN ARSENAL GAME, EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

So, thanks to Jullian's generosity (Dan's family friend), he was able to take me to the ARSENAL VS. VILLAREAL FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS. I apologize for the all-caps, but i was JUST THAT EXCITED. and it was incredible!! not to mention my first live football game ever...what a way to start!

(He could only get one ticket for tonight, so I went, but Dan's going to a more ridiculous Arsenal vs. Chelsea FC Cup Semi-final game this Saturday that will be out of this world)

Emirates Stadium!

Sportin my new Arsenal scarf

And the third/last goal of the crazy 3-0 rout against Villareal...which was a pleasant surprise, given that the two teams had tied in the first leg of this qtrfinal

Awesome game!!

One month left!!

Hard to believe but we only have a month left!! Time has been flyyyying by, but its been tons of fun. What's left?

4/15 - London
4/18 - I go to Turkey, Dan is exploring the UK
4/28 - Amsterdam for Queens Day!
4/30 - Barcelona where we'll have the next two weeks to explore Spain and Portugal by car
5/15 - I'm back home in LA and Dan's in NY

Craazy.

Places that unfortunately didn't make our cut: France, Prague, Vienna. =( that just means another trip, right?

the 'Dorf and the 'Lin

Went to Dusseldorf (dDorf) for a few days and visited Alison and Robin. Made pizza! And you know much I love my pizza.

Alison makin the dough

Robin kneading that dough...an d kneading it well

Stirrin the sauce (and of course gchattin' =P)

hella toppings!

our first of like eight pizzas

This is a meter of beer...

This is no longer a meter of beer...

Then we carpooled to Berlin...

Berlin Wall!

And naturally there's a Mr. Potato Head on the wall..

Brandenburger Tor

Yeah Reichstag

Mitfahrgelegenheit!!!

My absolute new favorite thing--mitfahrgelegenheit! Literally means organized hitchhiking. So Dan and I searched at this mitfahrgelegenheit website for postings, and we found a lady to take us from Berlin to Leipzig at 3 pm and another person to take us back to Berlin at 3 am (all for a cheap 10 euro per way fee).

Now if only the US didn't have so many creepos, this would be such a convenient and cool way to get around.

So now we're off to 12 hours in Leipzig!

Unforgettable Egyptian folks

Hustlers in training from Banana island.



Black cab driver who's car had been carpet bombed from the inside. Busted by the cops after dropping us off but back in action by the time we finished at the Citadel.



Hassan from Sunshine (felucca Captain). About to yell at this cruise ship "Helll0oooooooo Plastic tourists!! You have wasted your money!!"



Habbibi habbibi!!! (Sorry man, I tried to find a flattering one, but this is the only pictorial evidence of you)

oooh, what a nice looking rock (redux)

Thank you everyone for commenting!!! Although if anyone can identify this Brian character please tell him to cease and desist. :p

At the moment I'm looking through my pictures and realizing that my photo-taking priorities may be slightly skewed; I have seen some of the most breathtaking sights on the planet yet said photos can generally be divided into four categories:

1) Dogs
2) Food
3) Foreign-language Graffiti & Signage miscellany
4) Groups of dogs

Although these divisions make perfect sense to me--dogs, after all, are baller (sorry, just fine and dandy i mean) and food and signage tend to share this characteristic--others may disagree so allow me to provide some of my personal favourites:

Dog chilling while we were frantically lost in the alleyways of Cairo



Oh I took notice after this one, something that I never do after seeing "CCTV monitored" (lamme)



I'm not lovin' it




Drinking yogurt, smarties, and McVitie's, the single greatest fiber-laced cookie/snack thingy that her Majesty's Empire has ever conceived (my apologies to Arrowroot)

As an aside, the sheer volume of Smarties-related products may actually be on my top five list of reasons that Europe trumps Canada. Their futile attempts at hockey-playing are more than made up for byyy: Smarties, Smarties Peanut, Smarties Eggs, Smarties Bars, Mini-Smarties, Smarties Popsicles and Smarties Push-ups. The fact that all these products are contained in hexagonal packaging makes me consider buying a suitcase to hoarde them. Second greatest food discovery next to ...

Egpytian ketchup chips!!!




Or these not so interesting Oreos

*Editor's Note: Done and done. -DJFF

Euuuuuroooopeeeee!!!

ahhh apologies for not having blogged in awhile. Dan and I were suffering from Dengue Fever. Good thing for us, its currently subsiding. If anyone is curious as to where we are in Europe right now, forget our triptracker, just follow the series of punished toilets starting from Geneva onwards. =)

So where do we begin. Where did we last leave off. Oh yeah, some quick Egypt pics first:



The Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, one of the first universities in the world!



The Muhammed Ali Mosque in the Citadel in Cairo
Okay now that we got those last Egypt pics out of the way...its off to Geneva! We landed in Geneva and our first impression was "Cute city...but....what the heck do people do here?" We met up with Yin who graciously took us around the UN, which was pretty cool...although everything about the interior of the Palais totally reminded me of a high school, with the small rooms, hallways and class bells (okay i lied about the last one)



The UN!


Dan totally passed out in front of the UN entrance. Surprisingly we were loitering out there for an hour and no security guard even approached us....makes me a little nervous about the welfare of the compound

Then we booked it to Zurich. Bought an 80 franc train ticket....and NO ONE checked it the entire time. Crazy honor system they have going.



We ended up only staying about 12 hours in Zurich...again, cute city, but absolutely nothing to do.

Then we totally booked it to Munich...and...



Welcome to Bavaria, where you can get beers the size of your face!!





Then met up with Alison - my BE homegirl (who's turned quite German)

The next day we totally rented out a Smart Car!!


Sooo cool! Totally rode that on the Autobahn, which and tried the hardest to go fast (maxed out at 160 km/hr while all of these Audis and BMWs were zipping right past us)...it was quite pathetic...poor little car.

Then drove over to Neuschwanstein...


Supposedly it was the inspiration for the Disneyland castle...but the resemblance isnt all quite there in my opinion. Still a very very nice castle (and gave me yet more ideas for my future house...)

After a few days in Munich, bolted off to Cologne! Where I found quite possibly my most favorite thing in the world...



the Dom!!! OMMMMGGG its SOOOO BIIIGGG!!! (TWSS)
Like seriously, it took us 20 minutes to climb to the top. Absolutely absurd.

And...



PIGGY!!!

Okay, now in Dusseldorf making some pizza from scratch with Alison and friends!! Pics to come!