Passport Party Project

Hey, all!

I thought I would do a vlog since I haven't done one in awhile. Video on two posts in one week. Oh my! :)

As mentioned in the video, here's the link for the Passport Party Project so that you can learn more about it. I'll be helping with the Passport Party Project events next summer in New York City and will be sure to blog about it.

When did you get your first passport? Where did you go after you received it? What has having a passport meant to you?

Happy Weekend!

Where to Next? - Return to Wadadli!/Beach Snobbery

Hellloooo!!! Remember me?!!

I've had a fairly unintended whirlwind couple of weeks, but that just means a whole lot more to share with you all. I ended up being away for a little longer than I would have liked, but it allowed me to have some quality time with some great people. Anyway, enough of me being coy. I'll let you know where I went in the video.

IntrotoWadadli (Antigua) from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

(By the way, I totally didn't mean for that to be a gratuitous bikini shot. I was supposed to be a bit more covered. :( Also I know the waves make it hard to understand me at parts, but that's what happens when you've only got a Flip video camera and still learning video editing.)

By the way, Wadadli is the name given to Antigua by its native peoples, the Arawaks and later the Carib Indian tribes.

So, yes, I visited one of my favorite places in the entire world, Antigua. I got to see my family, which made me very happy. I was sad to leave this time. I miss them. I need to make sure that I return more often. The last visit was three years ago. I must do better. I'll be sharing the trip in the next couple of weeks. Be prepared for some beautiful beach shots and down home local Caribbean food.

Part of Ffryes Beach & Cocobay Resort (we almost stayed here)

Points to whoever guesses what tropical fruit this is!

At Betty's Hope

Ducuna & Ling Fish with veggies

The view from Shirley Heights

More to come! Happy Tuesday!

Different Country, Different Customs - Saudi Arabia

I am beyond thrilled to end Expat Week with a bang....and a vlog! My namesake Terri made a vlog just for us!! Terri Lundberg is an American expat who has been living in Saudi Arabia for three years. Originally from California, she is a self-professed travel addict, photographer, trailing spouse, and mother. She's been to 85 destinations in 22 countries and looking forward to more. She writes about her travels and produces hilariously opinionated and honest vlogs about her life as an expat. You can keep up with her on her blog blackchickontour.com. - T

In this video, I discuss how I feel about being a female expat living in Saudi Arabia and how I'm affected and not affected by the customs and culture of Saudi Arabia. Even though I reside on a "Western/Expat" compound, it's not just Americans on the camp. There are people from all over the world (think 3rd world), including Saudis. It makes for a weird mix. So, even though I'm on a compound and I pretty much live like I would in the United States, there are still some things that make me conscious of where I am. That's typically related to what I'm wearing. You can watch the video to hear more about that.

Also, in the video I make reference to a situation with my vacuum cleaner. LOL. :) If you want to get the back story the link to the post is here: http://blackchickinsaudi.blogspot.com/2009/10/too-funnythe-vacuum-cleaner.html Check it out for a quick laugh.

How I Feel About Being A Female Expat in Saudi Arabia from Terri Lundberg on Vimeo.

Touring Turkey - Ephesus, Part 2

I hope you enjoyed the first post about our visit to Ephesus. Our time at Ephesus was not over, and we still had a few major sites to see amongst the ruins.

Behold, the Grand Theater......

This theater can hold up to 25,000 people. It's huge!! This isn't just any old theater, either. For those of you who are a little familiar with the Bible, this theater was the scene of an early incident mentioned in the Bible between early Christians and the residents of Ephesus. I'll tell you a little more about it in this video.

By the way, I'm squinting a lot because I had to look straight into the sun to film this. I just bought real sunglasses last month. I kid you not. I also say "Um" too much. :(

EphesusTheater from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

If you want to look up this story in the Bible, check out Acts 19. It starts to get good at Verse 23.

Here's the lady I mentioned in the video. The Grand Theater has some pretty great acoustics.

If you wanna check out the acoustics, watch this.

EphesusAcoustics from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

You can hear me and Husband J cheering at the end. I was saying "Merci!" because our songstress was part of a group of French tourists.

After passing by some more evidence of Ephesus' former glory, we knew we had to see one last thing.

Arcadian Street. Imagine a really nice open-air mall. Perhaps Ephesus' Rodeo Drive?

On the very edge of the Ephesus site is the Church of Mary. It was built as a church to commemorate the Council of Ephesus, a religious conference to discuss Christian doctrine. The organizers built a basilica in Mary's honor. Many believe that Mary, Jesus' mother, spent many of her last years here in the Ephesus area under the care of John the Apostle. (Remember him?) You can actually visit a house right outside of Ephesus that many think was her actual home.

Church of Mary

If you are thinking about going to Turkey, you must include Ephesus on your trip.

So THAT'S ALL, FOLKS! That was our trip to Turkey. I'll write a hotel review or two more, but this will be the last Turkey post for awhile. I hope you enjoyed learning about this fascinating and beautiful country.

Touring Turkey - Goodbye to Cappadocia!

Here's a quick video to commemorate our final moments in Cappadocia. The very funny guy is our guide, Ibrahim. I mentioned him before. I was too sad to say goodbye to Cappadocia, after we'd seen so many awe-inspiring things.

This video was shot at the top of Uchisar Rock Castle, which was one of our last stops. As soon as I saw that our hotel was close by, I made a mental note to climb to the top. It's a long way up, but the view was worth it. Uchisar means highest point, and the view from the castle is one of the best in Cappadocia.

Uchisar Rock Castle

Goodbye to Cappadocia from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

Next stop in Turkey? Ephesus.

Touring Turkey - Up in the Air Over Cappadocia

I've finally saved the best experience we had in Cappadocia for last. Husband J and I took our first hot air balloon ride! I had never been on a hot air balloon before and knowing that I was going to be able to see Cappadocia's landscape in the process was too much to pass up.

There are lots of balloon operators in the Cappadocia area. After doing some research and at the suggestion of the hotel, we decided to book with Royal Balloon, and I definitely don't regret going with them since they were fun, informative and professional every step of the way. Whatever you do make sure to fly with a reputable and trustworthy company (Yes, I know I'm being Captain Obvious, but please do).

Let's start from the beginning...

Most hot air ballooning in Cappadocia starts EARLY in the morning. Be prepared for an early morning pick-up. I hope 5:00am is early enough for you! Royal Balloon dropped us off at their offices/dining room. Part of our experience included breakfast with many of the customary elements we'd come to expect at that point in Turkey: bread, olives, tomato and awesome cheese plus all of the cereal, fruit, eggs, etc. that you could want.

Royal Balloon Headquarters

We took another trip over to a field where we finally caught sight of the balloons preparing for our trip.

I think I enjoyed watching the balloons getting blown up almost as much as the balloon ride itself.

Fire, fire! (Beavis & Butthead reference, and yes, I am old).

Finally done!

Getting into the balloon was a lot harder than expected but the handlers from Royal Balloon were very helpful and accomodating. It was finally time to see Cappadocia from the sky.

Even though the sun had already risen, and it was both overcast and cold, it was still a spectacular sight to all of these rock formations from above. The early morning calm, the stillness of the countryside and the quirky but beautiful scenery was so magical that there were many moments of silence in our balloon.

Here's a little of what we saw:

We flew over the Goreme Open Air Museum. Remember my visit there?

We were having a great time getting to know the other visitors to Cappadocia in our balloon, who turned out to actually be from New York City, too. The older gentlemen in the group knew someone from my childhood. Six degrees, I tell you!

We were just geeked to be there and perfectly happy to show it.

I knew that our balloon wasn't the only one up in the air that morning. It seems that almost all of the companies find the best course for the balloons to follow at that time of day. It ended up being one big balloon caravan.

How many balloons can you count in this picture? At one point we saw 25.

As much as I'd like to think it's the case, I don't think pictures do this experience justice. Below is a quick video to give you a taste of what we saw, heard and talked about (I thought about editing out the background conversation, but conversing with our fellow ballooners was really a pleasant part of the trip.). I'm still learning video editing, so please bear with me if it's not all that great. :)

In the video, I mention the fact that I was a little worried about dropping money on this little excursion. It's the truth. I was. When our Egypt trip fell apart, I had the sole responsibility of planning this trip, and I wasn't sure if it would be worth it or if Husband J would like it. Pressure! Anyway, you'll see what I mean in the video....

Up In the Air Over Cappadocia from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

Who was the mystery person I was referring to in the video? Ms. Martha Stewart herself. She was guided by Royal Balloon when she came to do a shoot in Cappadocia for her show.

If it's good enough for Martha..... :)

When we finally landed, the team from Royal Balloon treated us to a champagne toast. As much as I enjoy a little bubbly in the morning (I guess?), it was FREEZING, and it had started to lightly snow at our landing area.

I know we're smiling here, but we were COLD. Check out how my hand is gripping the glass.

I'm so glad that I didn't chicken out about going on our little hot air balloon adventure. It was by far one of the highlights of our trip to Turkey.

Touring Turkey - Pasabag & The Fair Chimneys

On our last full day in Cappadocia (I'm still skipping around time wise), we spent the day with a private guide, Ibrahim, who works with Matiana Travel. I've only had a private guide once before, but I think Ibrahim was different. He was around our age, so it was like being with your cool friend who knows all of the spots to go to, lots of random bits of history and makes you laugh. You'll see him soon.

What the Cappadocia region is known for are the rock formations called fairy chimneys. I wish I could explain all of this in a really clear way, but I wasn't so good at 8th grade earth science. Here's a description of what they are and how they are made:

The peaks of three volcanoes - Erciyes, Hasan and Melendiz Daglari- dominate Cappadocia. It was their eruptions some thirty million years ago...that provided region's raw material: tuff. This soft stone, formed by compressed volcanic ash, has been worked ever since, by processes of erosion, to form valleys and curious fairy chimney rock...

The tuff surrounding basalt [another rock] is worn away, until it stands at the top of a large cone. Eventually the underpart is eaten away to such an extent that it can no longer hold its capital: the whole thing collapses and the process starts again.

-The Rough Guide to Turkey, p. 462

Yep. That's it. This erosion process produces a place that looks like this:

Fair Chimneys near Goreme

It's even more freaky (for lack of a better word) when you get to walk through them. You feel like you are on another planet. Please let me know if you have ever seen ANYTHING that resembles these formations. Hollywood has even taken note of Cappadocia's oddly beautiful setting: parts of it served as one of the sets for Nicolas Cage's next installment of Ghost Rider (I'm sure you all will be rushing to see that one. Ahem!)

Anyhoo, I was determined to make a quick jaunt through it all to get up close and personal with these rocks (and to see if I could find some fairies).

Staring off into the valley

I'm sure you're wondering why they are called "Fair Chimneys" in the first place, right? Well like most funky rocks in Cappadocia, people used to live in/near them. When invaders would come to this region (the Ottomans, Romans, whoever!), they saw the flickering lights from candles used by the area's residents. Supposedly, the lights looked little dancing fairies. Cute, huh?

These particular fair chimneys below happen to be my favorite. This is also one of my favorite pictures of me and Husband J from this trip.

Husband J and I at the Three Beauties Fair Chimney area

Here's a short unedited video (it's much more fun that way, I promise) at Pasabag, one of the more well-known fair chimney areas. You'll see the tuff mentioned above and hear and see a little of our guide, Ibrahim.

At PacabagTAO from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

After this post, I'm sure you can see why I fell in love with Cappadocia's eclectic beauty. Wouldn't you?

Touring Turkey - A Video Intro to Cappadocia

Hey, all!

I'll be shifting gears next week with the Turkey posts and moving from Istanbul to the Cappadocia region. Honestly, Cappadocia was my favorite part of the trip and the place I anticipated seeing the most. I promise you'll be really intrigued by the beauty and history there.

Since it's 2011, and I'm supposed to be upping my blogging game (watch out now!), I made sure to do some on-location vlogging. Here's the first of a few pieces of video/vlogs that I hope to show you here on the blog. I'll also be adding some video to the Facebook page that will not appear here, so be sure to check that out.

Some things to know about this video/vlog:

1. I say "um" a little too much. It's my first video. I promise they get better. :)

2. Husband J was not a very good camera person. We joked about how I was talking about something, and he was still focusing on me. He gets better at it.

3. Pronunciation key. It's Kappa DOH KEY UH ....NOT Kappa DOH SEE UH for Cappadocia. Also GOH REHM EH not GOH REEM for Goreme. I was wrong in this video. Oops!!

Some of the videos will be completely unedited because they're more fun and better that way; however please bear with me as I learn video editing. You guys don't mind, right?

Here it goes:

A Video Intro to Cappadocia from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

Also since I was born a British subject, I want to send a quick "Congratulations!" to the newly married Prince William and Princess Catherine. My advice to them: Marriage is good. Cherish each other.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

100th Post!

Hey, all!

I can't believe it. This is my 100th post! Where has the time gone? I thought I would step outside of the usual blogging routine around here and do a vlog!

I had really wanted this to go up on Friday but was having some major problems with Quicktime and You Tube. The audio syncing kinda sucked. :( I tried multiple times to upload the video, and it didn't work. I'm testing out Vimeo for now, and apparently it supports Ipad and Iphones now just in case you guys can't get enough of me when you're away from your computers. :)

Also, I've got two questions for you at the end of the vlog. I hope you give me some questions and answers in the comments sections.

Anyway, enjoy my prattling!

Try Anything Once - 100th Post Vlog from TAOTerri on Vimeo.

Happy Monday off for those in the U.S. (and actually get this day off)!