Charlotte goes to EGYPPPT

So i went to egypt for 4 days. we stayed on the south east coast in a place called marsa alam by the red sea in the crowne plaza. it was really amazing! then we had 2 day trips to luxor and aswan both near the nile. i saw heaps of great stuff, temples, valley of the kings etc etc and the food was brilliant. it was bloody hot, 45 degrees one day!

agrigento

So today I went to this wonderful place called Agrigento in the north of Sicily, near Tunisia in Africa, with my friends from Australia and NZ. It was really amazing because it used to be a grecian city thousands of years ago so there were all these incredible temples and ruins. The coastline nearby was beautiful too!

venice, treviso, the alps

So with AFS we have a thing called 'exchange week' where the ones in the north go to the south and vice versa. because i'm in the south i went right up to the north and stayed in a small city called treviso, near venice. Everything was really genuinly different there, people, fashion, food, weather, building,accent, general way of life etc etc. I spent two days in venice, one day tour of venice city then a day on the islands. I also spent a day up in the alps near austria which was amazing. We also did a tour of the area, i saw some really old amazing villas and wineries. i loved it up there everything was so european and lovely!

ROME the second and better time!

So went to rome again! and saw sooooooo much I can't evendescribe half of it i have TRILLIONS of photos! i went with my host mum who lived in rome for 20 years so knew the city verrrry welland we had a hire car which made everything a lot easier and faster! i saw the vatican this time which was brilliant(even took a sneaky photo of the sistine which i really shouldn't have done), saw everything omg! we stayed at an apartment of her friends rright near vatican city! it was just so cool i'm going to live there on day seriously i just loved it!

carnevale!

this is just a quick post, i went to carnevale which is an international festa from brazil. in italy it's massive in venice but they have mini parties everywhere all over europe. In Catania the closest one was in a small town called 'mr bianco' is was very cold and very cute which hilar costumes on people of all ages.

La festa di St Agata

Ok so one really important ting in Catania is the festival for there saint 'santa agata' The festival is so massive and insane i've literally never seen anything like that! anyway so there's this old legend that's thousands of years old about a saint who was tortured then killed in the name of her catholic faith and now she's one of the most famous female saints in the catholic world. She was also magical because when whoever tortured her they cut of her boobs but they grew back or something. But it all happened in catania and once when mt etna was errupting, and about to destoy catania some priests brought her veil to the bottom of the volcano and the lava stopped! miracle or what.. the festa means no school and more feasting which i'm happy with, there's even a special deserst called the 'breast of agatha' it looks like a tit and tastes terrible bit quite funny if you ask me! iT LAST 5 DAYS AND HAPPENS in the first week of Feb. So the first thing that happens is the fireworks i think on a thursday! they were so amazing and in the middle of the cathedral square seriously they had no fire hazzard warnings or anything but they were just blowing these massive frieworks off the top of the 500 year old cathedral! that's sicily for ya! anyway so the day after the agatha statue is released from the cathedral and starts her journey around catania tere are all these devotees(thousands and they wear little outfits) who walk behind the statue for 24 hours it's just insane. i saw her release all these people were crying and praying screaming sooo intense then others were just casually smoking and talking on the phone being sicilian. anyway the next morning i got to wake up extra early and go see the nuns sing for here, these are the nuns who never come out of the little nun house accept for this festival! it wasn't actually particuarly moving or anything infact they were rather shocking singers! anyway i was sooo lucky becasue i got to veiw the hole thing form a balcony while the rest of the city were al squashed in this little street. all and all quite a good thing to see as it's so important for catania! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_of_Sicily

Ortigia and Siracusa

Ok so this is an extremely late post! So about 2 month sago I went Siracusa and the island off it called Ortigia. There wasn't much happening in poor old Siracusa, just a tiny Catania really but ortigia was sooo beautiful! Gabbana of dolce and gabbana is from there and I saw his house how exciting! anyway I went with the AFS girls in Catania and saw the NZ girl who lives in Ortigia which was really nice. I think so far ortigia was the most beautiful part of sicily i've seen, yes Taormina was AMAZING but it was kind of worked up to be that way and very touristy, ortigia was just naturally like that soo stunning lots of amazing old buildings, everything right on the sea just sooo nice! There's a Monica Belluci film called malena which is set there so that'll give you an idea if you're keen to see more!