I'm Back (European trip report)

I'm a baaad blogger.

It's been a while, sorry 'bout that.  We were on vacation 'til the 5th, then I got massively jetlagged (which was weird, because I didn't have any jet lag issues on the trip to Istanbul, usually I have problems going west to east, not east to west).

 

Anyway, we had a great time on the vacation - there were 11 of us traveling (the 4 West Coast Ostermans, 3 of my 4 siblings, my younger brothers girlfriend, my step-mom, our "adopted grandparents"), so we were quite the pack.  We started in Istanbul, staying at the Four Seasons (I HIGHLY recommend it - it's in the Sultanamhet, literally steps away from the Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque,and Topkapi Palace.  The Hagia Sofia:

 

We then moved to the Greek Isles. Visiting Santorini, we hiked up to the top of the remnants of the old Thera volcano - it's still active (if not very).  I kinda went a bit overboard taking pictures of Bougainvillea, for whatever reason, I just find it picturesque.  This is a house I ran into in Oia (2nd largest city on Santorini):

Next on to Naphtlion.  We visited the ruins of Mycenia, and had an awesome lunch in a small cafe in the harbor.  We left early in the evening, so I was able to get a couple of evening pictures (an unnamed fort in the harbor):

After Naphtlion, came the city of Itea, which is where the Oracle at Delph is (a rock wall at the oracle):

Then to Corphu (where they offer bowling at their casino):

 and Korkula (in Croatia).  At Korkula, we went swimming in the Aegean sea, the water was WONDERFUL.

 

We finally ended up in Venice (on a water taxi ride to the island of Morano):

This was the view from our hotel:

And, for my sister Edie, a laundry picture (she collects them):

I'm a bit annoyed at the cruise line (Seabourn), but except for the issues we had with the cruise, the trip really was magical.  I ended up taking close to a thousand pictures, of which we're likely to print up and frame a dozen or so.

The reason there are so many Venice pictures here was simply because the city is so unbelievably photogenic.  I really was blown away by it - the color palate there is different than any other city to which I've been.

 

 

Anyway, after we got back and I recovered from jet lag, I got dropped into an insanely high priority project that only finished up on Tuesday, I spent today recovering from that project.

But I'm back, and ready to resume blogging.  For real this time :)