Rome Walks!

I'm happy to say that I decided what to do on Christmas Eve day while in Rome this year...take a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter.


I booked a walking tour with Rome Walks for 11am on Christmas Eve day. It's a 3 hour tour, so I'm thinking it will end at a good time for a late lunch in the Jewish Quarter where I'm anticipating more restaurants will be open then in most other parts of the city...keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

Other than reading some posts on the Fodor's message boards about Rome I haven't started any "heavy duty" Rome trip research yet. After all, I have my trip to Turkey first! :) And I've started the wheels rolling on some preliminary research on Ireland for 2008...I know it's a disease I have..."Travel Planning-itis! :)

Ciao!

Travel Friends Re-Unite!

It happened again last night!

CL and I had dinner with Beth and Vivian who we met on our Central Europe trip last year. Beth and Vivian have a time share here in Hilton Head every year for a week in May, and this was their week! So we were able to meet up with them and had dinner at the Santa Fe Cafe...love that place!

It worked out so well, we all pulled into the parking lot at the same time, had a great time catching up on travel stories and getting tips for the Turkey trip this year. Beth and Vivian went to Turkey last year, so we got some "inside scoop"!

It was such a nice evening, we had good food, good drinks and lots of laughs. And believe me, after the crazy week at work I had, I really wanted the margarita last night...it tasted REALLY GOOD! ;)

We commandeered our table for almost 3 hours! I even brought my pictures from the trip last year so Beth and Vivian could see where we went after the tour ended (Hvar and Dubrovnik). Beth gave me and CL Cd's with their pictures from the trip. I haven't had a chance to look at the CD, but should have time to do that over the weekend.

They are such nice and funny ladies...and since they come here every year, we'll get to see them again!

I love reconnecting with fun travel friends...just like last month with Rosemary!

Happy Travels!

The "BIG 4-0" Celebration!

Well, I did it. After months of mulling it over in my head and talking to a few friends about the possibilities...I sent out the big email "invite" to a group of "travel junkie" friends.

And the story goes like this...

In January 2008 I will be turning the "BIG 4-0"! I can hardly believe it! And I got to thinking about how I might want to celebrate this "earth-shattering" event. Now, I'm not keen on big birthday celebrations for myself in general...but I started to think 40 is a milestone, why shouldn't I celebrate it in a way that would make me happy?

CL and I had been talking about going to Ireland for a week (maybe 10 days) over the last few months and I keep thinking about when friends Sandy and Alan did their 5th anniversay trip (with 20 of us!) in Tuscany. Renting a villa for a week and having a blast...that was one of the best vacations I've had. So I had it lodged in my brain that I might want to plan a trip like that some day.

Well, the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. But first I wanted to find out if CL had a problem with opening the trip up to more then just me, her, and one of CL's friends. CL didn't have any problem with it...hey, the more the merrier we say!

So then I painstakingly composed the email invite...my brain was reeling...what should I say, how many people should I invite...finally after about a week of working on the invite I was happy with what it said. Then for whatever weird reason I kept hesitating to hit the send button. The email sat in my draft box for about a week.

Then I figured out why I was hesitating. I love planning trips, but taking on planning a trip for more then just me and one friend could be alot, and then what if those who decide to come don't enjoy themselves...I would feel awful. Then I remembered advice Sandy gave me...I'm not going to be able to please everyone and I need to know that going in...so going with that philosophy I started feeling better about hitting the send button. Plus I was really putting the cart before the horse because I didn't even know how many people would want to go. I may still end up going with just CL and her friend...which is ok with me, but think how much fun it would be to celebrate with a group of good friends. So I finally hit the send button and now I'm just waiting to hear back and find out how many people want to go!

Now I am anticipating planning a week in Ireland to celebrate my "BIG 4-0"! It will take a lot of work, but will be so worth it in the end!

Marcy Meets the "Maidens"!

I love reconnecting with friends I have met during my travels!

And what could be better then reconnecting with past travellers? Meeting future travel companions of course!

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting with Rosemary who I met on my trip to Central Europe last year.

Rosemary is from California and she has a group of lady friends who love to travel and the name of their traveling group is the "Maiden Voyages".

Lucky for me, one of the trips the "Maidens" decided to take this year was to Savannah and Charleston! So when the last week of April rolled around Rosemary and I coordinated getting together and I met with the "Maidens" for dinner in Savannah last Sunday.

Rosemary picked a great restaurant...The Sapphire Grill on W. Congress Street and the food was amazing but the company was even better.

I met 6 other "Maidens" and they all love to travel just as much as I do! Looks like I have the good fortune of meeting some fun future travel companions! I look forward to traveling with the "Maidens" on one of their trips in near future!

Here's to many Happy Travels! And here are the "Maidens"...

Wooo....Hooooooo!

I cannot contain my excitment!

I am going to have one of my pictures published in a travel guidebook...Yes...Marcy's 15 minutes of fame may have arrived...ok, so the picture may be burried in the pages of an enormous guidebook...but it's still MY PICTURE!

So, the story goes like this...

A couple weeks ago I was browsing the Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door (ETBD)website, no big surprise there! When I saw a post that interested me. They were looking for some photos for the 2008 guidebooks. There was a list of maybe 15 or 20 different travel topics. I perused the list and towards the bottom there was a topic that was perfect for me...Solo Women Travelers...I thought...Hey! That's me!

Then I went through my photos of the last few trips I had taken and thought to myself I really need to find a picture of me doing "something" instead of just standing in front of a monument! :)

Lo and behold I got to my pictures from my trip to Ireland in 2005. And I had gone biking while in Inish Mor, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. There I was standing next to my bicycle with the low stone fences in the pasture behind me, with my bicycle helmet and sunglasses on grinning from ear to ear...well, why am I describing it when I can post the picutre! Here it is...

Then yesterday to my utter astonishment I got an email from ETBD telling me they had selected my picture for the 2008 Europe Through the Back Door guidebook for the Special Concerns chapter! My name won't be next to the picture on the page, but it will be in the back of the book with the page number the picture appears on! And after they receive the books from the publisher I will get an autographed copy!

I am more then THRILLED about this! And the Europe Through the Back Door guidebook is what I like to call the "holy grail" of the Rick Steves' guidebooks....it's got everything in it!

Who knows...this could be the start of a new "adventure"...travel photographer! :)

Atlas Jet...adventure flight???

I can tick off another item on my "Things To Do" list for my trip to Turkey in September! :)

Last week, on a whim I started checking the budget Turkish airlines to see if any of them had published their October schedules. I checked Onur Air...no luck, I checked Pegasus Air...no luck, then I hit the jackpot with Atlas Jet! Now just because I have never heard of Atlas Jet does not mean it is "Fly By Night Air" as some friends have suggested. I even went so far as to do a search on FlyerTalk.com (the airline equivalent of Trip Advisor.com) to find out if anyone has posted any comments about Atlas Jet. There was only one comment, but it was favorable...so I am going with it! :)

Anyway....Atlas Jet had their October 2007 on their website and a 3:20pm flight from Izmir to Istanbul with a one way fare of 49 New Turkish Lire, before taxes (which is about $38USD)...it looked good to me, especially since the only other airline with October fares listed was Turkish Airlines for a price over $100USD.

I didn't want to book it that night without checking with CL, so the next morning I called CL and she said "Go For It"!

That night I sat down at my computer and went through the booking process on the Atlas Jet English version website. When I got to the section for entering passenger names I was cruising right along, that is until I got to the drop down box for gender of passenger. My drop down choices were not "F" or "M" like it would be in English but "E" and "B". Being the "savvy" internet guru that I am (yeah, right!) I managed to get to a free translation website and when I typed in "female" and hit "translate to Turkish" a word neither starting with "E" or "B" came up. OK...type in "male"...no Turkish word starting with "E" or "B".

Now I am getting a bit exasperated, but I go back to the Atlas Jet website and start the booking process again. This time I just keep the "E" in the gender box and move on to the payment screen. I type in all the pertinent credit card information and get to the drop down menu for type of credit card. Instead of the "usual" types that would pop up in English, up comes dozens of choices all in Turkish! But many of them have MasterCard after a Turkish word, so I just start choosing ones with MasterCard at the end...nothing is working! I keep getting a error message that the transaction cannot be processed.

By now I am ready to give up...but I realize there is a 24 hour reservation office phone number I can call in Turkey or I can send an email. I decide to send an email asking what credit card selection I need to make and pray I get a response. Then I shut down the computer and go to sleep.

The next morning as I am checking my emails there is a response! Wow! less then 24 hours to reply...I'm liking this airline! The reply indicated which credit card choice I needed to make, and no, it did not have the word MasterCard in it!

I immediately go to the Atlas Jet website and start the booking process, use the credit card type selection they told me to use and Voile! I have booked 2 one way seats from Izmir to Istanbul! Of course, I left the gender drop down box as an "E" so we may be booked as "Males", but I am not going to sweat that right now! With taxes the charge for each ticket is $46 USD and some change! I think it's a pretty good deal! It will cost me more to take the Low Country Airport Shuttle van from my house to the Savannah airport then what it will cost for me to fly from Izmir to Istanbul!

And why do I need to fly from Izmir to Istanbul? The Rick Steves tour I will be on ends in Kusadasi, Turkey. The closest airport to Kusadasi is Izmir and CL and I will be going back to Istanbul at the end of the tour to spend an extra 4 days in Istanbul. So, we need to get from Izmir to Istanbul!

Now I am happy to say that almost all of my Turkey trip transportation and lodging is set. The last few arrangements for this trip don't have to be worked out yet, like the shuttle from home to the airport and then a hotel room in NYC for our one night lay-over on the way back from Istanbul...I can coordinate that in the summer. YIPPEE! Things are looking good for the Turkey Trip....now it's just 5 and a half months away....it will be here before I know it!

Is it coincidence???

OK, I think this is a sign...in the last 2 days I have had 2 different people ask me for thoughts/insights/recommends for their vacations to Ireland.

A co-worker emailed yesterday saying she heard I was the "resident" Ireland expert and could I give her any trip planning advice on her trip to Ireland this year. I was more than happy to shoot off a lengthy email to her giving her a few recommendations based on my experience in Ireland a couple years ago and I gave her one of my old Ireland guidebooks to get her started.

Then tonight when checking emails a friend sent me an email saying she may be going to Ireland next year and asked for my insights on Ireland.

Having only been there once, I am by no means an "expert", but my love for travel and travel planning took over and I can't help but dive into any request someone makes to me for travel recommendations!

Now, since I've had 2 Ireland "incidents" within 2 days I really think Ireland is calling me back! CL and I have talked casually about going to Ireland for a week in 2008...me thinks it time to stop being casual about making plans and start putting my thoughts together to make it happen!

I can hear the Emerald Isle calling my name! :)

What Travel Means to Me...

What does travel mean to me?

Well, it means many things to me. It provides me with a sense of adventure. Kind of like living life for a little while on "over drive"...senses are heightened and I see the world in a different light. Stepping outside of my everyday life and experiencing something different, exciting and sometimes exotic. It's about seeing other parts of the world and meeting people from different cultures who may do the same everyday things I do at home, but in their own way, different then mine. And that intrigues me.

It's about sometimes getting outside my own comfort zone and doing things I wouldn't normally do at home...how about climbing to the top of huge suspension bridge on the other side of the world? Or crossing over a tiny rope bridge to a minuscule island where the grass is so green you think you are looking at an emerald. Or sailing down a coastline on water so blue you think sapphires are sparkling back at you and looking up to the land and seeing enormous mountains crashing into the sea.

Travel also helps me to remember how fortunate I am. How I am able to provide for myself and create opportunities where I can see the world, which many people will never have the chance to see or do.

Travel gives me joyful memories I will have for the rest of my life, more joy then a new electronic device or posh new fashion wardrobe. The tangle things are nice, but in 40 years will I really care that I had an iPod nano or will my memories of a month in Eastern Europe or a week in Rome at Christmas be what's really memorable? I heard somewhere a study was done to gauge the happiness of people who spent their money on tangible items such as purchasing expensive cars, as compared to people who spent their money on travel. Guess who was reported to be happier people...you guessed it...the people who traveled. Because once the newness of the tangible items wears off, the buyer wasn't happy anymore, but the people who traveled had the benefit of a lifetime of wonderful memories...it makes sense to me!

Blog Slacker!

I admit, I have been slacking big time on my blog entries! Probably because I haven't done much trip planning in the last few weeks.

Since purchasing the Rome tickets I don't have any major trip arrangements to make right now. I've got the "big" stuff done and the other "smaller" arrangements don't have to be done for a few months.

I still have to purchase a one way ticket from Izmir back to Istanbul in October, but I want to use one of the budget airlines and they don't have the fall schedules/airfares available yet, so I have plenty of time for that.

The Italy trip seems so far away at this point and I just have a few things to tie up for that trip, so I'm "sitting pretty" as far as trip planning is concerned.

I did check the Delta website to see if my Rome airfare had gone up and it did by about $200, so I am happy I jumped on the fare when I did...now let's hope it doesn't go down below $1000!

The next step in the planning process will be to get my hands on a few guidebooks and start reading about the places that interest me and consider definite "must see" sites for both Turkey and Rome.

Here's to smooth trip planning! :)

Roma Air Ticket Purchased!!!!

Ciao!

After watching the Delta Airlines website religiously for the last month trying to gauge what ticket prices might be for Christmas 2007 to Rome the dates I wanted to fly finally opened up. Gotta love that 332 day maximum on flight booking. But the 332nd day arrived last week and I was a mad woman monitoring the prices everyday.

I knew the prices would be higher for the week of Christmas and I was right. But it wasn't too much higher. The prices for dates at the beginning of December were about $950, so I was keeping my fingers crossed that I could get a fare that would be close to that, or not much over $1000. Can you believe I think $1000 is a good deal???!!! Gone are the days of just jumping on a flight from JFK for $400! That's the down side of living where I do...I have to always get a connecting flight to a major airport!

So my flight to Rome is a done deal. Yes, I chose Delta for a couple reasons:
1. I could get a ticket that only had one connection...through Atlanta.
2. I wanted to avoid connections through any Northeast city and with USAir or United I would have to have connected through Philadelphia or Washington DC. I know Atlanta may get snow in the winter but the Northeast has the potential to be worse, so I went with the Delta connection through Atlanta. Plus this way I only have 1 connection instead of 2 with the other options!
3. And the last reason I booked Delta is because I flew them last year to Europe and now have Delta Sky Miles and I figured it would be good to build up that frequent flyer account, especially since I am also flying to Turkey on Delta.

So with the Rome tickets purchased and hotel booked all the "major" leg work is completed. The only other things to get in order for Rome is arranging for transportation from the airport to the hotel which can wait several months to be done.

And....this week I emailed the Vatican to request tickets for the much talked about (on Fodors) Scavi tour. This is a tour of the excavations below St. Peter's where the bones of St. Peter are said to be buried. They only take 200 people per day on these tours and the groups are limited to 12 people...and the tickets sell out quickly. The tour booking must be done directly through the excavations office at the Vatican. The process is I send an email requesting a variety of dates and about 4 weeks later I will get a response email giving a date and time I can be scheduled. If I agree to the date and time I send them credit card information for payment. Thanks to my constant "trolling" on the Fodor's website I found out about this tour!

So, the Roma 2007 trip planning is going very well...and again, I have not yet purchased a guidebook! I can't wait to start deciding on the places to see and restaurants to try when I am there!

I can feel the excitement building!

Turkey Trip Details Falling Into Place!

In my excitement about my Christmas in Rome trip I was temporarily neglecting my Turkey trip plans...but no more!

I've booked my flight to Istanbul for September 2007. CL and I got round trip tickets to Istanbul instead of an open jaw because we decided after the group tour ends in Kusadasi, Turkey we will fly back to Istanbul for 4 extra days to explore the city. The group tour starts in Istanbul and we will be flying in a day before the tour starts so with the 4 days at the end of tour we will have a total of 8 days in Istanbul...plenty of time to explore this city.

We also decided on the return flight home to have an overnight layover in NYC. We will get to spend an evening in the Big Apple after a 12(ish) hour direct flight from Istanbul and a morning before we have to fly back home. I like that we are breaking this up instead of flying directly home from Istanbul, which would have been close to 24 hours in transit!

I've booked the first night in Istanbul with the same hotel we will be staying at on the group tour. It's the Best Western Obelisk Hotel in the Sultanhamet area of Istanbul...and with the tour group discount we are getting the room for 68Euro per night. We contemplated staying in that hotel again for our 4 day return to Istanbul but I found some other hotel options through my research and came up with the Hotel Uyan in the Sultanhamet area for 90Euro per night (if we pay in cash we will get an 8% discount!), but it's had rave reviews on Fodors and Trip Advisor so we decided to book it. And the great thing about both these hotels is that they provide complementary pick up at the airport, which we will need for both stays.

Now that the hotels and trans-Atlantic airfare are squared away the only thing I have left to coordinate for the Turkey trip is the one way flight from Izmir (closest airport to Kusadasi where the tour ends) to Istanbul. There are several options for this...2 low cost air carriers which haven't published the schedules for October 2007 and Turkish Airlines. It looks like we will be able to get a fairly inexpensive airfare for this short flight (takes about an hour)...I think the price will be around $60.00, not too bad! The only other loose ends to tie up will be a hotel for the layover in NYC, but I will work on that during the summer and maybe get some help there with a former boss from one of my old hotels...keeping fingers crossed on that one! And coordinating transportation to and from the airport here at home.

All this planning has been done so far without a guidebook! Gotta love the internet! I determined that there are several Turkey guidebooks which will have new editions published in the spring, so I don't want to buy a guidebook now that is 2 years old...I am patiently waiting for April to roll around when I can get my hands on the "latest and greatest" edition of a Turkey guidebook! :) Yes, I know a bit "anal" but hey, that's me when planning a trip.

So, although I have a good grasp on hotels and flights my "top things to do" haven't been determined yet...that's where the guidebooks will come in!

I'm happy to look at my "trip coordination" list and see it getting smaller!

Well, only 8 more months to read as much as I can on Turkey, and of course start trolling the airline websites for prices to Rome for Christmas...why do I always keep coming back to that Rome trip...hmmmmmm....

Hotel Aberdeen Confirmed!!

I'm happy to report that one of the emails I received over the weekend while I was in Tucson was the confirmation from the hotel in Rome.

I am booked in for the 2 nights prior to the tour starting. December 23 and 24 of 2007. I know, maybe I'm a little "annal" when it comes to trip planning, but I wanted to have the room booked early since it is during the Christmas holidays and I didn't want to be going crazy later in the year trying to book a hotel.

Bon Natale...Roma 2007!

Ciao!

The coldest weather in years!!!

Yes, I was in Tucson over the past weekend and the temperatures were the coldest they have had in years! The high during the day was in the upper 40's. But it was sunny and clear blue skies.

The weather didn't really matter though since the purpose of the trip was to visit some of my very most favorite people...The Blanchards!

Lisa, Allison, Sara and Ken met me at the Tucson airport on Friday afternoon. My flight was on time and I didn't check any bags so we were out the door and in the car just before 5pm!

We were all pretty hungry so a stop at Mi Nidita was in order..some of the BEST Mexican food I have ever had...and of course the celebratory margarita! This restaurant is very popular and it was crowded when we got there, we had a 45 minute wait, but it was so worth it.

I had my first tamale there and LOVED it! Very Yumo. The chile rellano was a bit too hot for me, but that didn't stop Ken from eating it! :) After all that food we were ready for the next expedition.

And where would that expedition be to? Target of course! The story goes like this...I thought I was being so diligent. I checked the US Airways website for the carry-on bag rules and it said to use 3 ounce bottles for liquids and everything had to fit into one 1-gallon ziplock bag. What the website failed to mention was that the 3 ounce bottles had to be labeled "3 ounces" and the ziplock bag had to be quart sized not gallon. So, at the security check point in Savannah I had to dump my shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and deodorant among other things. At first I was a bit ticked off, but then I calmed down and figured since I was visiting Ken and Lisa they would have this stuff and I could stop at a store and pick some stuff up. So that's why I needed to stop at Target! After the shopping adventure it was on to Ken and Lisa's house for some quality "catching up with our lives time"!

On Saturday we went to the Tucson Botanical Garden to see the butterfly exhibit and it was great. Saturday evening we had dinner at Ken's mom's house...chicken cordon blue, it was delish!

Sunday we went bowling and it was lots of fun...the kids were too cute rolling the ball down the bowling alley! Sunday night Ken and Lisa got a sitter for the girls and the 3 of us went to dinner. We went for Italian and it was excellent...I had Eggplant Parmesan and Lisa and I split tiramisu for dessert...YUMMO! :)

Monday we spent some time at La Encantada looking in the shops...I went into the Apple Store, that was a first for me since there is not one near me. We had lunch at Sauce which is one of my favorite restaurants in Tucson. I had the chicken, tomato, pine nut and gorgonzola cheese salad...really YUMMO!

All too soon on Monday it was time for me to catch my flight home. I left Tucson at 8:30pm-ish and flew to Phoenix...all 23 minutes from take off to touch down. I had about a 2.5 hours to wait in Phoenix for the "red-eye" flight to Charlotte. I was surprised to find the flying time from Phoenix to Charlotte was only 3 hours, going out it was more like 5 hours...guess the tail winds going east were better then going west! I tried desperately to sleep on that flight, but the 2 people in the row with me decided they wanted to talk for half the flight and I didn't get any sleep at all...even though I kept my eyes closed and my ipod volume up! The plane landed in Charlotte at 5am and the flight to Savannah was scheduled to leave at 9:15am, so I had to kill 4 hours. I tried to rest, but was not able to sleep at all...I was definitely doing the "head bob". By 6:30am the shops and restaurants were opening and I had a bagel and Starbucks coffee. The flight to Savannah left a little late, but we landed at 10:30am and I was home at my house by 11:30am.

I had every intention of sleeping when I got home, but I started going through my emails and then before I knew it 12noon rolled around. I did try to sleep for about an hour but then I had to get up because the pest control man was coming to the house to spray and I was getting my haircut around 3pm.

Once I got back home around 4:30 I got my second wind and was wide awake. By 8pm I was starting to fade and by 10am I was finally in bed and closing my eyes. Needless to say I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I managed to get out of bed and get to work on time, but my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton!

So I will spend the next couple days catching up on my sleep, and think twice about doing red-eye flights...that is until my next trip to Turkey in September! :)

One more day and I'm Tucson bound!!!!

I just need to get through tomorrow and pack my bags and I am ready to head off to Tucson.

Of course I will be getting up at the crack of dawn on Friday to catch the 7:10am flight out of Savannah...but hey, it's a frequent flyer ticket so I'm not complaining. The only down side is that I won't arrive in Tucson until 4:30pm...I have a really short connection time in Charlotte (just 50 minutes) and a really long connection wait in Phoenix (almost 4 hours)...but it's so worth the final outcome when I get to see my favorite family...The Blanchards! :)

Believe it or not I have not packed my suitcase yet, but I do have a bunch of stuff piled up next to the suitcase. I figure that since it's a relatively short trip, I'll really only be there 3 full days, I don't have to pack a whole lot and I do have a packing list done, so it's really just a matter of tossing everything into my bag and zipping it closed.

So now the big luggage question is to check my bag or carry-on. If I carry-on I have to put all my liquids (toiletries) into one 1-gallon ziplock bag. And I can't put each bottle into a smaller ziplock bag...so the "spill factor" is really getting to me. See, if I have to put all the bottles into just one bag my gut is telling me at least one of those bottles will crack open and then everything in the bag will be goopey. But if I check the bag and put everything as I usually do in individual ziplock bags I run the risk of my bag not showing up in Tucson when I do, especially with just a 50 minute connection time in Charlotte! This isn't the end of the world since I'm staying with friends and I can always put extra stuff in the bag I do carry on, it's just the inconvenience of not having my stuff. At the moment I'm actually leaning toward putting everything into the one ziplock bag and carrying in all on. But I may change my mind before Friday morning! :)

Well, I hope that I will have some fun story to post back here when I return from my trip.

Hola Tucson!

Hotel Aberdeen...Via Firenze 48, Roma, Italia!!!!

Just yesterday I received the information about the hotel I will be staying at in Rome with the Rick Steves tour for Christmas 2007.

I will be staying at the Hotel Aberdeen and being a "good little travel addict" the first thing I did with this hotel information...log onto Trip Advisor and check to see what the reviews are for this hotel.

And let me tell you....I was one happy girl. Now I know you have to sometimes take these Trip Advisor reviews with a grain of salt...but there were 101 reviews and most all of them good. In fact the ones that did indicate slight dissatisfaction were for things like the room being too small...HELLO...this is Europe...and a city....you have to expect small...another cited it was very noisey...mostly street noise and could sometimes hear other guests walking down the hall. But that is all subjective stuff anyway.

The important stuff...in my opinion anyway...was clean, safe, decent breakfast and friendly/helpful staff...that's what's important to me. In all the reviews I read these items got really high praise...YIPEE. Another thing that is VERY important is LOCATION and this place has it...a 20 minute walk from the Termini train station, Metro a block away and a bus stop on the corner. The one other thing that is also important for me is the price and from what I have read this place is a really good deal. This is good news to me because I plan to arrive in Rome a couple days before the tour starts and would like to stay in this hotel so I don't have to go between 2 hotels.

It certainly seems like both my Turkey and Italy trip plans are really starting to take off!

Ciao!

Happy New Year!

Here's to another travel adventure filled year!

As far as New Years Days go this one was pretty quiet...except for the gym! I got to the gym as the doors opened at 10am and jumped right on the cardio machine of my choice. Good thing I didn't wait until 10:15 am to get there...most every machine was in use by then! And they were 3 deep at the front desk filling out membership forms.

Looks like the gym will be crowded for the next 4-6 weeks...then I predict it will be back to normal with the "regulars" there!

And now for some travel news....

I purchased my airline ticket for the Turkey trip on Saturday. CL cashed in some of her frequent flyer miles on Saturday and booked her flights in the morning and sent me her itinerary. I jumped on the Delta Airlines website Saturday night and purchased my tickets for Istanbul!!! Not cheap, but I wanted to buy them now because my gut is telling me the prices will most likely go up and not down. And it was just about the same price as we paid for last year's Central Europe flights, so I felt it was time to purchase. Now I can check "airline tickets" off my Turkey Trip "to do" list! :)

Also I just sent an email to the hotel we will be staying at in Istanbul with the tour to get a reservation for the day we arrive. We are arriving the day before the tour starts...since we hope to get over jet lag, or at least have a bit of a head start on getting over the jet lag! :) This way we won't feel like we've been "shot out of a gun" when we meet up with the tour group.

So, as it stands now we will be departing Savannah on Saturday, September 22, 2007 and arriving in Istanbul on Sunday, September 23, 2007 and the tour starts in the evening of September 24th.

We also decided on the return to stay over a night in NYC. We will leave Istanbul on Wednesday, October 10,2007, arrive in NYC that afternoon and stay there overnight and fly back to Savannah on October 11, 2007. This then gives me 3 days (Friday -Sunday) to get over the "returning home" jet lag before I have to be back to work on Monday, October 15th.

Whew...and this was just the airfare coordination. We still have to meet with CL's Turkish friend to coordinate our "extra" days in Turkey...meeting with his family and have dinner with them while in Turkey. And then the hotel in NYC and transportation to and from the various airports and hotels during the trip...it will all come together.

Once I get a handle on the Turkey trip plans then I can start doing my Rome at Christmas research...but I can't even start to look at airfares for that trip until the end of January so I can hold off on that.

I am soooooo EXCITED about all my trips this year! AND the first one is in just 11 days...4 days with my best friends in Tucson...Can't wait!

Happy Travels!

Christmas In ROMA!!!

Next Christmas that is!!!!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to add this entry to my blog!

I will be spending next Christmas (2007) in Rome....ITALY!!!!! At Christmas...I can feel the excitment oozing out of me and it's 12 months away!

My mind is already reeling with all kinds of things I want to do and see while I am there. I hope I can do everything I want to in the 9 days I will be there! I'm sure after my research I will be paring things down to a managable agenda.

Where to start...can I get tickets for Christmas Eve midnight mass at the Vatican??? Will I be able to schedule the Scavi tour??? So many things to figure out!

Plus this will be another Rick Steves "Adventure". It's the Europe Through the Back Door 7 day tour of Rome, the itinerary looks great but I will be arriving in the Eteranl City a few days before the tour begins to soak in some of the holiday "vibe" around Rome!

But there is lots of planning to be done...so it looks like I will have my hands full this year with planning trips to Turkey and Rome....ahhhh.....I am a Happy Girl...make that a Happy Travel Girl!

Ciao!

Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again when thoughts go to the holiday season.

Having spent my youth in northern New Jersey it's still a bit tough to feel in the holiday spirit here in South Carolina. Especially when the temperatures are unusually warm for this time of year.

Don't get me wrong. I do not miss dealing with the freezing temperatures and snow that inevitably turns to brown/black slush and creates black ice which makes driving hazardous. So I have no reason to complain about the 70 degree (F) temps we have had the last couple days. In fact it was so warm today when I went to Starbucks for my usual Saturday morning post work-out coffee I ordered an iced coffee drink and sat inside because it was air conditioned! Ok, so maybe since it had rained earlier in the morning I didn't want to sit in a wet seat outside the store, but you get the picture. I can't help but wonder if we will be getting hit with some cold weather in the next few days, just to "mess with us"!

As 2006 comes to a close I cannot help but start to get excited about my 2007 travels and I'm happy to say those travels start with a trip to Tucson to visit some of my favorite people...Ken, Lisa, Sara and Allison. I can't think of a better way to start the year off and celebrate my birthday.

Here's to a very Merry Christmas!

Has it really been a year???

Wow! When I looked at the calendar recently I realized it's been just over a year since I started this blog!

Where does the time go? What a year it's been...a promotion at work in the spring and a month's vacation in Central Europe...what more could a girl ask for?

And now looking forward to 2007 I'll be doing some more traveling.

January will see me heading out to Tucson for a long weekend over the MLK holiday. I'll get to visit with Ken, Lisa, Sara and Allison...it's been more than a year since I've seen them so it will be great to see the girls and catch up with the Blanchard family.

Early September will see me heading up to Durham, NC for a visit to friends who have a son who will be having his Bar Mitzvah.

Late September/early October will see me heading off to Turkey for another Rick Steves ETBD group tour and a few extra days added on at the end, so it will most likely be a 3 week vacation. And yes, I will be going with CL again...I'm really looking forward to this trip!!!!!

I maybe making another trip to Tucson in the fall for a special celebration.

And...since in 2007 the "powers that be at work" will be giving us Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as paid holidays (the "eves" fall on Mondays and the holidays on Tuesdays), I may take advantage of the 4 paid holidays and add in 3 vacation days and take the week of Christmas and New Years off and head off to Rome for a week. But this is not yet "set in stone". But, how cool would it be to spend Christmas in Rome!!!!

Yes, I am addicted to travel...but there are worse addictions to have! :)

Happy Travelin'! :)

Oh My Gosh....How Am I Going to Decide????

How and where to spend the Turkey trip extension???

CL and I have been batting back and forth what we want to do for about a week after the Turkey tour ends next September. CL tossed out the island of Greek Island hopping and Santorini would be a must see for that since she has heard great things about Santorini and I have too through some brief research. But then I tossed in the idea of staying in Turkey and heading back to Istanbul and save the Greek Island for another trip.

Part of the reason for saving Santorini for another time is purely logistical. Because the Turkey tour ends in Kusadasi, which is a 90 minute ferry ride from the Greek Island of Samos, I originally thought "Greek Islands...great idea". However, Samos is in a different "island group" then Santorini and the options of getting from Samos to Santorini aren't ideal. The ferry would be long (7-9 hours from my estimations) and there is the option to fly from Samos to Santorini, but there are no inter-island direct flights, so we would have to connect through Athens, which is "do-able", but we also really want to consider staying the extra time in Turkey.

CL has a Turkish friend who lives here and we probably need to sit down with him and discuss options. As CL said he will probably say "Stay in Turkey"! :) And, actually I am leaning that way too. One reason and this is purely from a "tourist" standpoint. But if we start the tour in Istanbul and see something there we want to buy (such as a rug), I wouldn't want to buy it 2 days into the trip and then have to lug it around half of Turkey and parts of Greece with me! If we plan to stay in Turkey after the tour ends and work our way back to Istanbul, we can wait to make any purchases until we get back to Istanbul and not have to carry them with us for 2+ weeks!

Plus I am going on the thought that I am only going to take 3 weeks off from work for this Turkey trip, since this past September I took off 4 weeks, and I didn't want to give work a "heart attack" by asking for another month off next year...yes, I am the "ever considerate" co-worker, not that it would necessacerily matter as long as my work is done and/or covered by someone. Plus I may want to have some vacation time left over for another "little" trip maybe over the holiday season next year! Yes, I'm starting to plan for 2008 even though it may only me in my head at the moment! :)

So, now that I have rambled on, the ultimate conclusion is to do some research and find out how we could spend 5-7 extra days in Turkey. So I am sure there will be future blog entries as I think out the 2007 Turkey travel experience!

And now for my newest favorite travel related closing comment...

"I want to go everywhere I've never been"