Afghanistan Pictures

Cameron sent me a CD of pictures recently to give me a better idea of what he's working with over in Afghanistan, so I thought I'd share a few of them here. I don't know much about the pictures since he didn't send much in the way of captions, but at least you will have a better idea of what the landscape is like.

The camouflage works pretty well!

I'm guessing this is Powder, a dog that adopted Cameron when he got to FOB Lane. Unfortunately Powder was killed- I think he got run over by a convoy of trucks. RIP Powder.

Surprisingly pretty!

Cameron Update

Hi everyone,

Its been a while but here's a quick update on Cameron. He has moved from FOB (forward operating base) Lane to FOB Apache. Apache is a larger base so he will have better internet connection and access, and his quality of living will be better. His new job starts tomorrow, and involves working with contractors. He's got his own (plywood) room and has been catching up with friends over meals. So far he sounds like he is enjoying the move, but we will see how he likes the new job in a week or two! If you are interested in sending him something, you can email me or check facebook for a current address.

Ideally Cameron will be able to post some pictures and do some blog updates, but that will depend on how busy he ends up being and how strong his internet connection is. As he sends me pictures I will do some posts for everyone to get a better idea of what the area is like.

On a totally unrelated note, Rachel and I took Daniel to Popham Beach last weekend... he had a great time crawling through the sand and splashing in the water!

Bye Bye!

Well, Cameron has left on his year-long business trip and I've started packing up the apartment to move back to the good ole US of A. LT Cam took a bus from Vilseck to Ramstein AFB, where he then took a chartered Delta flight to Kyrzgstan (he said they had in flight meals and everything!). Apparently there's a pretty nice base in K where they hang out until taking an Army flight to Kandahar and from there a helicopter to his outpost. I will keep everyone updated on his whereabouts and any package requests he has. We have been told not to mail anything until our guys take over the mail service down there on July 7th, so I will send out his address when we get it.

I am going to stop receiving mail on July 2nd, after that it will be forwarded to my parents house. The first round of movers come on July 1st (I am NOT turning 25 this year, I've decided to put it off for another year until I'm ready) and the final round come on the 2nd. I'm looking forward to being home, closer to the ocean, Daniel, and English speaking people in general, but it is sad to think that Cameron and I won't be returning to our first "love nest" and that our European adventure is, for the most part, over.

See you all soon, stay tuned for updates on Cameron's whereabouts and address.

Heaven on Earth

My favorite of the cruise stops were Santorini and Mykonos. They were both very touristy, but that didn't take away from their charm. The area of Santorini that was formed by a volcano and the towns rest on the lip of the volcano. To get up to the towns you have three options- cable car, donkey (no guide so they walk wherever they want) or walking up the same path as the donkeys (potential to be squished by aforementioned uncontrolled donkeys and sidestepping their abundant droppings). We chose to the take the donkey route. It was fun, but an adventure for sure!

Here is one of the old Greek donkey- herder. They spoke no English, he yanked me off when the ride was over!

Beautiful Fira; we took a taxi to another town, Oia, to walk around and have a delicious Greek dinner. We also got authentic baklava to have for a late night snack. Mmmm!

Next stop, Mykonos! We rented some ATVs and drove them around the island eventually stopping at a beach to spend the rest of our time there. It was so fun to drive around the island and look down at the water and different little villages.

Here is the beach we stopped at. The water was a little warmer than Croatia and we rented a couple of beach chairs under thatched umbrellas. It was blissful!

This is the town of Mykonos that we wandered around before catching the last boat back to the ship. Every building was white with brightly colored shutters and doors in shades of blue.

One night on the ship they talked up a "Chocoholic Bar", so we got in line early and I ate a light dinner to save room. Between Cameron and I we tried everything, and I can't say they had anything spectacular. We all left feeling disappointed, unfortunately. Luckily, I had gotten more baklava in port that day so it wasn't a totally rotten day!

And... the chocolate Eiffel Tower.

This was Crete, we took a bus to the Palace of Knosos, and ancient Roman settlement and walked around. Crete was a lot more industrialized than the other places we had visited.

Towel Dog, he's such a stud!!

Split & Corfu

Here she is! Our floating resort, the Norwegian Gem. You can't tell from this angle but she had super tacky "gems" painted along the sides near the bow- so American. Our cabin was long the port side around the middle.

Our first stop was Split, Croatia. The ship uses their lifeboats as ferries to bring people back and forth from the docks, which I thought was pretty creative. Diocletian's Palace is the main attraction in Split, besides the beach. We walked into the old city and randomly found a tour guide that was about to begin, so we hopped into her walking tour to see the Palace and hear about its history. After the tour, we made our way over to a beach where we cooled off before heading back to the ship. Beaches in Croatia are supposed to be fabulous, and while the one we went to was nice, clean, and family friendly (other than an anorexic looking woman doing topless pushups...) , we would have liked to have enough time to venture to some out of the way beaches.

This is the view of Split from our cabin balcony. The main dock area of the port is off to the right, while the Palace area is behind the more modern looking buildings.

The next stop on our itinerary was Corfu. This was the one place that we chose to do an excursion through the cruise. We took a bus about 45 minutes to a farm to horseback ride through the countryside. It was great to get away from the main tourist areas and see what the more rural parts looked like. We rode through olive groves, along a rocky beach, and through more olive groves.

After sufficiently bruising our bums, we returned the horses and took the bus to a beach for some relaxing before returning to the ship. Above is Cameron swimming- the water was still pretty chilly and it was a windy afternoon so he was on his own.

Here is a jetty that formed a cove for some fishing/leisure boats, and below are the boats and the shore (the beach was on the other side of the jetty to the right).

Every single night we had a sunset better than the night before!

Verona and Venice

We've driven in a lot of countries, but Italians are by far THE CRAZIEST drivers I have ever encountered. Driving into Verona was not really a good idea, but we didn't realize that until too late. The old, narrow streets mixed with construction and inability to read the road signs was bad, but their traffic patterns were out of control. Picture a 4 way intersection without stop signs and all lights green at once, throw in some extra roads and hot blooded Italians and thats what driving in Italy is like. Whew... it was stressful but we came out only mentally scarred.

Verona was a very pretty city with a small town feel. The third largest colosseum in Italy is located in the center of town, and still functions as a stage/arena (they were setting up for Madame Butterfly while we were there).

Verona is, of course, the hometown of Romeo and Juliet. While there is no proof that this is Juliet's house and balcony, there is no proof that it is not - according to our good friend Rick Steeves. Apparently there was a fueling family the play was based off in Verona, and the above house is located on a street which was occupied by hat makers- hat = cap = Capulet. Thousands of tourists have left graffiti and notes along the walls leading to the balcony, and for a small fortune you can walk up and stand on the balcony. Personally, I would rather have a couple who didn't off themselves as role models.

This is the river that runs through Verona

A Roman settlement was built along the river that has been uncovered and preserved. In the photo above you can see they put up scaffolding for concerts in the area of the old stage. There is a museum with Roman artifacts recovered from the area as well as statues preserved from the early years of the town.

After two nights in Verona we went to the Army post in nearby Vincenza; we spent a night there and left our car in a lot on post before taking the train to Venice (about an hour).

The picture above is of all the gondolas at night. I heard some statistic that each gondola is worth like 40,000 Euro!!

A similar view as the picture above, but this one was taken from the top of St. Mark's cathederal- LOTS of tourists!

Cameron on one of the many bridges crossing the canals. We had to lug our luggage up and down stairs like these multiple times as we got a little lost. (P.S- GPS don't work so well along all the canals/narrow streets/tall buildings!)

This is the view from our hotel's "dock". Historically the docks would paint the poles different colors as their family seal. In the right of this picture you can see the red and white striped pole.

I leave you with this gem of maturity from Cameron... one of his meals in Venice had octopus so of course, he wanted to confirm if the tentacles would really stick to a glass...

Italian Road Trip

I have to start off by saying it snowed during our road trip. In May.

The weather in Germany has been crappy for weeks, and as we drove towards Italy it continued to be crappy. We were somewhere in the Austrian Alps when it started snowing, but as soon as we passed through a tunnel and crossed into Italy it stopped. The sun came out, and the temperature gradually rose about 30 degrees in an hour- so yeah, we knew we were going to like Italy!

Our first stop was Sirmione on Lake Garda. It is a skinny peninsula that sticks out into the lake and historically was a vacation spot for rich citizens of Verona and Roma. Below is Cameron on a path that outlines the peninsula with the Alps in the distance.

I like this photo because you can see the rain shower off in the distance. The town had a lot of olive groves (not ripe though) and is also known for its thermal spas.

Sirmione has an old castle that was used to protect a fleet of Naval vessels built in the 13th century, if you climb a lot of narrow stairs there is a great view of the town and lake.

Sirmione's rooftops

This photo shows how long and skinny the peninsula is

These are the docks during the day, and the docks during sunset

Next stop, Verona!