Best Cruise Ever!

So we decided to leave Europe with a bang - a big bang. Call us crazy, but we ended our adventures this year with a 12-day cruise to Greece, Egypt and Turkey. I still can't believe we really did it, but it was amazing! We had the best time and it was the perfect way to end. After traveling so often through Europe, it was overwhelmingly wonderful to not have to worry about places to stay, or where to eat, or getting lost - it just was perfect, blissful travel to places we wouldn't have made it to without the cruise. Plus, we got to spend even more time together without any interruptions whatsoever. I think it will always be one of my very favorite trips. The next 3 posts are the places we went and a few of the adventures we had!


Plus, I loved going to a fancy dinner every once in a while!

Turkey

We stopped in two places in Turkey. The first was the ancient city of Ephesus. The port city is now called Izmir, but Ephesus was one of the 7 churches in Asia Minor right before the apostasy. This is supposedly where John wrote his Gospel, Paul preached (letters to the Ephesians ringing any bells?), and where the Virgin Mary's house is. The ruins of Ephesus are also some of the most well-preserved in the world, since the cause for its desertion was disease instead of war, natural disaster, etc. It was the coolest place and I loved feeling like I was walking where ancient Apostles walked! I especially loved seeing Mary's house and imaging her living out the remainder of her days there.






There was also a huge amphitheater where they would punish and persecute Christians. This is also where many of the Gladiators fought. This is Kevin pretending he is a Gladiator.


The second place we stopped was in Istanbul. I have to say Turkey was completely different than I expected. The country is working fervently on becoming a member of the European Union and, as such, are surprisingly modern. Everyone speaks English, everything is really clean, the roads are brand new and the people are more than enthusiastic about introducing you to their culture and country. Turkey is technically considered both Europe and Asia, so it also has a wide variety of culture and influence.


This is one of the most famous mosques. We got there right when they were calling people to prayer over the loudspeaker. It is known for the blue tiles surrounding the inside and is often called the Blue Mosque.


It really was beautiful inside. We had to take off our shoes and they even thought my shade shirt was too immodest on the arms and made me wear this blue cloth around me. I was embarrassed that I hadn't dressed appropriately for their religion and kept wondering if they looked at me like I was a sinful infidel. Oh well.


Right across the street from the Blue Mosque is the Haggia Sophia. Interestingly enough, it was a Christian church and then a mosque and is now a museum of the combination.


One of my favorite parts about Turkey was this cute lady. We went down into some old cisterns under the city and I offered her my arm as we went down the stairs. She never left my side after that! She was 85 years old and I was actually amazed at how well she did! She climbed back up those stairs holding my hand but without a pause! She also went with Kevin and I all around the Bazaar after this as well and could haggle like nothing you've ever seen! I always get so nervous because I feel like I am taking advantage of people who need more than I do, but these people adored her while she practically got things for free! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen! I actually got a letter in the mail from her last week saying how much she loved us! She also bought me the funny hat in the picture! Such a cute lady!

Egypt

Egypt was one of the craziest places I've ever been! Because we are cheap and love an adventure, this was another one of the places where we decided to go off on our own instead of going with the cruise tours. For the first 20 minutes I was honestly afraid for my life. It is incredibly poor - surprisingly so. Even worse, it is filthy. There is garbage everywhere and I mean everywhere. Even at the pyramids there was garbage spread everywhere. It is also corrupt. The government there is terrible and take advantage of the people and the resources. It really is such a hard place to explain. If you want to hear more about it, call me and I'll show you some videos we took that still don't do it justice.


Seeing the pyramids was incredible though. I really couldn't believe we were there! We took these skinny horses and rode all around the desert and all through the pyramids. The cute guide who took us was so funny and kept making us pose in funny positions in front of the pyramids. He also kept trying to get Kevin to kiss me on the cheek while we were on our horses, but this turned out to be rather difficult and took us like 10 minutes since the guide would not give up on it! It was so funny!


My favorite thing was riding the camel. I have always wanted to and I was soooo excited for this part! I really thought it was the best thing ever and giggled the entire time. I am laughing now as I am thinking about it! It's amazing how tall they really are and it is almost like a roller coaster ride when they sit down and stand up. It was so fun! I can't wait to do it again!


We also got to go to the Cairo Museum while we were here. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take any pictures inside, but it was amazing! This is where all of the mummies are (which are the freakiest looking things ever!), all of King Tut's treasure and tons of other cool things! The place is filled with these scary cops in their government so we didn't even dare try to take some! Almost every single cop we passed asked if we were married and then asked Kevin how many wives he had. I guess they have at least 3 each there and it shows how manly you are the more they have. I told them I was enough woman for 3 others.


This was our crazy taxi driver that drove us around all day. He was really nice, but also had to keep stopping to get some tea - at a few places where we would get really nervous. An hour into though, we decided if it was our time to go, we would and it would be okay. After that, we really didn't worry.


The port we stopped in here was the city of Alexandria. It looks beautiful from out here so I thought I would end on this pretty note.

Greece

Greece was where we spent most of our time. We went to Athens, Iraklion, Crofu, Katakolon, Mykonos and Santorini. Most of it was gorgeous. The more populated areas were a little dirty, but Mykonos and Santorini especially were amazing. We also got to see where the first Olympics where held, lots of cool ruins and artifacts and, for some reason, tons of cats!


This is Kevin with the statue of the goddess Nike, for which the athletic line was named after.


This is Kevin's favorite picture from our trip. On Santorini, the boat parks at the bottom, and the island goes straight up a cliff. There is a steep, switch-back road that leads up to the top where the houses and stores are. You can walk, or you can pay to take a donkey to the top. These poor donkeys are worked to the bone and are extremely sweaty. They also use the restroom at any time on the road so, in addition to being steep, it is slippery - not to mention smelly. Again with the cheap and adventurous, we decided to walk. The bad thing was, these donkeys come down the narrow hill in big groups with heavy loads - and there is no stopping them. I kept climbing up on the wall to get out of their way, but Kevin kept telling me that if I just held my ground, they would walk around me. This is me being "body checked" by one such smelly donkey as I was attempting to hold my ground.

Here are a few other pretty pictures of Greece:

Good-Bye Belgium

Leaving Belgium was totally bitter-sweet. There are so many people there we have come to know and love and we will always feel at home there. In the last 2 or 3 weeks before we left, 5 new interns came in to work to replace us. It was surprising how sad we were that we wouldn't get to hang out with them very much! They are all so fun and the few times we were able to spend with them will always be some of our favorite. For our last day at work, our cute boss organized a party for us. We all went bowling in the center of Brussels and then went out to dinner. It made us feel so appreciated and we loved spending time with our office outside of work. This is the Obelis gang in the bowling alley - it wasn't mine or Kevin's best bowling day, but we still kicked butt.


This is us with Doram, one of our bosses and a killer bowler. It was so funny to be bowling in foreign country, it felt so strangely normal.


After bowling, we went to this delicious Greek restaurant. Everyone gave toasts and the management presented us each with a present - I felt like we were getting married all over again! Kevin got this really fancy Watermark pen and I got a beautiful handcrafted Swedish art bowl. Yay presents!


We also went to a rib place in town with some of our friends from the ward and from work. It was supposed to be the best rib place in town, but compared to all of the rib places in the States, it kind of fell short. It still was a cool restaurant with shelves of books like a library and this big cow out front. We asked a guy to take a picture of us in front of it and he kept saying "get closer! No, even closer!" I wanted to be like "just take the picture before I throw this cow at you!"


The hardest people to leave were the ward members, particularly the family we lived with for the last month we were there. The Passey's are amazing!! They have 5 great kids and we feel like they are an extended part of our family. We got so close to them and they were the hardest part of leaving! The night before we left we had a crepe party and took some fun pictures.

Luxembourg

We were lucky enough to have traded babysitting for a ward member's car the last weekend we were in Belgium and decided to take some friends with us to Luxembourg for the day. We had driven through the country before, but we specifically wanted to visit what is called "the valley of the 7 chateaus" and the WWII Bastogne memorial. While it is small, Luxembourg is a gorgeous country, encompassing the Ardennes (a small, but beautiful mountain region), lots of incredible castles, war memorials and history.


Kevin had wanted to travel to Bastogne the entire time we were in Europe. The battle fought here was a smaller battle in and around the Battle of the Bulge and is depicted in the television series Band of Brothers. The memorial is a tribute from the Belgian population as a whole to the American nation in honor of the 76,890 American soldiers who lost their lives during the battle.


The memorial was really beautiful and it was amazing to feel the gratitude the people felt for the Americans - kind of a different feeling than in other places in Europe we went. We even had some people thank us and ask us if we had ancestors who fought there! We also happened to see the Belgium Mission President, his wife and 2 of his AP's while we were there. It was fun to see people we knew in a far away place.


We went to 3 different chateaus, basically castles, during our day there. This was the only one we were able to go inside of, but each was beautifully nestled in the valley, with great big dance halls and bedrooms. I wish we would have been able to see all of them! There are also supposed to be some great singing monks in one of them that we were too late to see - we will just have to go back!


The castle we were able to go inside of had some fun depictions of how people would have lived during that time period and various artifacts they found there. Here are the boys in front of the suits of armor and Kevin in the stocks. While these ones were amazing, Kevin sticks to his claim that "they don't make castles like they do in England." While I agree with him, I think I would have much rather lived in these fairly newer, warmer castles than the frigid medieval ones in England.

In Honor of the Start of the 5th Season...

Obelis 20th Anniversary

Friday we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of our company! It was a total blast! I can't believe how much fun it was for Kevin and I to get dressed up and go to a real party together. I wish opportunities for fancy parties came up more often! We schmoozed, we danced, we dined and had a fabulous time. I even talked with an Israeli C.E.O. who asked me (in between his glasses on champagne) "So, you're a Mormon. What does that mean?" Wow, talk about taking me off guard! We ended up having a really great conversation though and he said he will come to church with us when we're in Israel this December!

Which reminds me that I haven't posted any of that information yet! The company we work for does a wide variety of things, but the heart of their business resides in 2 places: what Kevin does, and what I do. Kevin works for the commercial side of the company. Our office serves as the European Rep. for companies around the world - particularly in Israel where they have a harder time getting into Europe. Obelis will do the marketing, sales, orders, etc. for the company in Europe. One of the biggest companies we represent is called PolyD-Zine; they manufacture polypropalene (like a really nice, strong plastic) products. Kevin landed a deal for PolyDZine with Staples here in Europe to supply polypropalene office supplies to all of the Staples locations. Oh, only a 6.5 million euro a year deal!! The biggest one they have ever gotten!!! Hope we get a piece of that :) Way to go Kevin!!! 

I work for the part of the company that is completely Obelis. Any manufacturer who would like to place a product within the European Union is required to have a legal representative within the community - a European Authorized Representative (E.A.R.). So, we serve as the E.A.R. for these companies, helping them make sure their product complies with all of the necessary laws and regulations and acting as the contact point for the authorities - and a lot more. Recently, there have begun to be several key environmental directives which manufacturers have to comply with. Basically, we researched these and started a brand new company. I spent a lot of time dealing with one in particular that will make the most money for the new company, and our boss asked me to present on it at the big seminar they are having in Tel Aviv, Israel this December - all expenses paid! I said "well, I guess." :) And, since Kevin has done so amazingly well, they asked him to come to Israel to work for PolyDZine while I'm there. They also asked us to stay on at Obelis until Israel, but we couldn't miss Jackson's homecoming!

Anyway, though this seems long, it is really a very short blip of our lives for the past 6 months. We have absolutely loved our jobs and have learned and grown immensely. We leave for Israel the day after Thanksgiving and get back 1 week before Christmas. The only bad part is we don't know who will hire us for the 4 weeks we have in between! Call us if you need babysitters! :)

Switzerland - Hillyard Reunion '08

We were so happy and lucky (happy-go-lucky) to have Kevin's parents come visit us last week! It was amazing how wonderful it was to see family! We had the best time with them and were able to sneak away for a few days down to Switzerland to fulfill Lynda's dream of singing in the Alps - "The Hills are Alive!!" We got to see some amazing mountains, waterfalls, lakes - ahh, just the beautiful scenery. Not to mention the chocolate and cheese! Lynda and I have decided that it will be the first of many Hillyard trips to Switzerland and that we are going to have a big family reunion there when all of the grandkids are old enough - so in like 20 years? Just kidding!

We stayed in 2 places while we were there; the first was right on the French/Swiss border in a tiny town in the middle of the famous Mont Blanc mountains (the cool pen my boss used is names after them as a result of their constant "white top") called Charmonix. It was the cutest little town and you could actually see the huge glacier sitting right on the mountain. The second place was by the tallest Alp in Europe - the Jungfrau. We stayed in the little town of Lauterbrunnen right across from a giant cascading waterfall! It was magical! 

As wonderful as it was, we didn't get the best weather. It was quite rainy and cold, but that made for some whole new adventures! We decided to take a hike to go see all the new waterfalls the rain was making in the valley and went to the "Waterfall in the Cave." There was this huge waterfall that travels almost the whole way down the mountain in a cave! It was amazing, but we got completely soaked (even more soaked than we were from the rain)! While this picture does not demonstrate the waterfall to the best degree (see our Picasa album for better ones), it does begin to demonstrate how wet we were! Kevin's dad said it looked like I peed my pants backwards!

While the fog made skiing or even taking the train to the top of Jungfrau kind of a waste, we still decided to take the train up a little bit of the way. Kevin was so excited to see snow, I don't think I'm going to be able to get him off the mountain this season. Since it was still so cold up there and not much to see because of the fog, we spent a lot of time in the little shops at the train stop. This is Kevin and I getting in trouble because we were about to take a picture in these hats...we are both about to say "Oh sorry..."

Thanks for a great trip Hillyards!!

Belgian Birthday

We celebrated Sarah's birthday here in Belgium last week. Thank you so much to all the people who sent letters and kind notes to help with Kevin's present!! I think it is the best birthday present I have ever gotten and it meant so much to me to feel loved and at home, even though we are so far away! We had a great day, I got two birthday cakes both filled with amazing Belgium chocolate.

2 Year Anniversary - Paris, France

Kevin and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 9th of this month! I can hardly believe we have been married for 2 years, though in some ways it feels like we have always been together. Since we live so conveniently close to Paris, we decided to spend the weekend there for our anniversary. We were in Positano, Italy last year for our anniversary and Kevin keeps asking me how in the world we are going to top it next year! I think we'll always find a way...

So what do you do on a romantic weekend in Paris? Go to Disneyland!! Yes, we went to Disneyland one day. I think we were both surprised at how much fun we had. It was a little different having everything in French, and I was heartbroken when we discovered they didn't have a Splash Mountain (seriously??), but was surprisingly similar to the US versions.

This is us on the Tower of Terror - one of my all-time favorite rides!! I think I like it so much because it never fails to get me nervous/excited. Obviously I wasn't completely over my fears on this first run....

Ok, so in addition to Disneyland, we did some great stuff in Paris too. We have been there before, so we wanted to see and do things we didn't do last time. We went to the Sacre Cour Cathedral, some beautiful hidden parks and spent tons of time at the Versailles Gardens. Best of all, it was a perfect weekend for us to relax (I read "Breaking Dawn" in 2 days while Kevin watched the Olympics).

Welcome to the Hillyard's Blog!

We have finally succumbed to the wonderful, wild world of blogging! I always thought I would start blogging when we had kids, but after looking at several friend's blogs - I have gotten so excited about it and couldn't wait to start our own. Now I'm just sad we haven't been doing this the whole time! So, here it goes....