Yesterday and today

Yesterday: The first day is always a bit boring because you must go over the syllabus and such. I had a pretty fun day too. After school ended atleast. LOL JK. My roomates are awesome, and Im not jsut saying that because they are right over my shoulder. After class ended we took a little hike. Some people might not know that the well from the ring is on my campus just up this little tiny MOUNTAIN. LOL we hiked up there after we ate lunch and found a perfect picturesque place to eat lunch, other than the horror background. It really is beautiful though, we are surrounded by farm land (though only a short drive to civilization) so you couldnt see people as far as the eye can see. My campus also used to be camarillo state mental hospital, which was important twice today. Once was as we hiked down the mountain we came across this beautiful garden and this lady offered to give us a tour of it. We said it was very nice and asked what it was for and she said it was for therapy for the wellness of mind. We were like ohh I didnt know that we had a class like that. She told us that it was actually a deal the school had worked out so that the patients from the hospital could continue to maintain it . . . back away slowly. LOL that explained by the one with the big clippers was talking to himself. Secondly this was important because when I was walking back from the parking lot to the dorms you walk past building that haven't been developed. It was really scary, lol and you know you keep seeing things out of the side of your eye. Good stuff like that, ending in you screaming and running for the dorms. Then we went down to the e1 lounge to watch the blair witch project. It was great because people kept walking by and joining us. We had popcorn and mnms to start and people even added to our pot. It was alot of fun. We shall def do it again, perhaps with the ring to show school spirit.

 

Today was much less interesting. I went to my Aunt Elises at like 10:30 to study. We swam and then went to cheesecake factory for lunch and then shopping. I went home around 5:30 without doing one lick of homework. Love you all. Except those of you who ditched me to go to florida. LOL I hope a hurricane hits you. Jk!  Love Ashley

 

Where I study!

I made it home alive! This is my dorm, ignore posts below, can't remember log in to delete them LOL.

I made it home alive! This is a picture of my dorm room!

Love you, Ashley!

I made it home alive! This is a picture of my dorm room!

Love you, Ashley!

I made it home alive! This is a picture of my dorm room!

Love you, Ashley!

Robin Hood statue

Where the Beatles started

Superlambannana

Prague

I had a lot of fun in Prague. I've been pretty sick :-( so I tried to get some r&r both days I stayed in the campsite late reading and laying out in the sun and then went into town. I read a few books, really liked holes (whoever says that you outgrow young adult lies! Plus its easier to find in English) I also read the notebook, devil wears prada, and the 4th harry potter. I went on a yummy lunch cruise and saw the sights from the river and got to go through one of those things that changes the water level like 15 feet. The other day I just wandered around the old town. I came back early
Both nights because I want to keep livng LOL I must have been nearly dead on the bus coming back the first day because I'm like slumped on the wall with my mouth hanging open so I could breathe and an old lady made me tqke her seat. I took it easer the next day. Overall I am feeling much much better other than a terrible hacking cough that scares everyone within 50 yards of me. LOL the most interesting things that happened... Uh well our bel our cook, katie our tour manager, and jayde got arrested the
First night and I think they were all a few long island ice teas for the worse and it was really really funny better try and get some sleep I wanna go out in Munich tonight :-) love you guys

Love you, Ashley!

Kris and his new faux hawk

Austria... So far

On our first night in Vienna we went to this little park that was
totally a rip off of Disneyland (waaa I wanna go to disneyland) like
they had a snow white ride where the characters looked totally
identical to Disney characters and mickey was on the sign too LOL felt
very at home. I am pretty sick :-( I was not going to go into town
today to give myself time to recover but ddbd and bel our cook had to
shop for food so I went for a couple of hours and met them and came
back early. I almost froze to death last night!! I think I had a fever
either that or it dropped to negative 3000000 degrees I put nearly
everything I have on and stuffed the bottom of my bag with clothes but
the cold seems to still leak in, I should have brought a warmer bag.
There was 4 contiki groups in our site last night so everyone went out
partying and drinking. Conveniently I was awake trying to solve my
cold problem at about 345 when one of the
Groups came over to play a prank on us as we all do to each other they
were opening the tent doors so we would be cold and our bags would get
wet in the morning but I flashed them with my light and was like try
it and youll be sorry LOL but unforionatly I didnt think to check if
they had done it to others and some of the tents were open when people
woke up. Best pranks of the trip so far, putting a peg through the
zipers of the tent which all meet at the bottom and putting it really
deep in the ground so they can't
Get out of their tents in the morning and when we were in venice the
came and flipped our flys ( the top layer of the Tent that is water
proof if it rains) backwards so that we couldn't get to out doors and
literally burying the pegs by beating them so far in the ground so we
coulnt get them out and were locked out of our tents. Ps dad you still
didnt email me a picture of how you masacred my car. Love

Love you, Ashley

Me at an amusement park in Austria

Me on the cruise in the morning

The eastern block in a nutshell

Sophia, Bulgaria
Stayed in hotel, spent most of day exploring. Shopped at stalls near
Alexander Nevsky cathedral. Didnt have to queue for shower. Gotta love
hotels. Found criminal minds in English on tv.

Ohrid, Macedonia
Camped again. Only had squatter pottys, I really hate squatters.
Stayed on lake ohrid, deepest lake in Europe. It was beautiful. Had
terrible terrible stopped traffic on the way there took about 3 hours
to go 2 kilometers. This guy crashed into our bus! We have a really
hot bus driver, like a footballer
from England if that helps imagine him. The guy freaked out and
tried to drive off and tony the bus driver went legging after the guy,
it was so funny we all thought that he was going to beat him up but he
only got his license plate. The guy was like, " I did not hit you" and
tony was like where the he'll do you think the big orange scrape came
from on the side of your car then. He was in a really bad mood for the
rest of the night. Apparently it was the first time he had crashed the
bus but it really wasnt his fault LOL the bus was literally in park in
stopped straffic and he hit us.
Tirana, Albania
Albania was sooooo beautiful if only I wasnt afriad to eat the food,
its all like
Little dingy resturants that dont refridgerate there meat. I literally
ate breakfast bars everymeal LOL they also looked like they could have
been in starqars because they have these little pill looking military
stations everywhere from communist times that look like ewoks might
use them it was cool.

Dubravnik, croasia
Not much to share here did a great cruise along the coast line and
spent the rest of the three days keeping kris company in the hospital
and trying to jailbreak him early against medical advice :-) silly
kris eating manky food and getting major bacterial infections and
getting dehydrated and having temp of 103 and needing to be on drip
for days.

Zadar,Croatia
Crossed through Bosnia and split. Saw amazing solar light show at night.

Budapest, Hungary
Beautiful buildings, really clean like with grafitti it was the
cleanist city plus
Didnt smell like piss. Did a
Cruise early in the day and got amazing photos. Went to house of
terror. Was the Nazi headquarters and had original cells and torture
devices it was scary love you guys but
Phone about to die love

Love you, Ashley!

My hotel room, notice that I took the bed right under the air. LOL and I'm sleeping in my sleeping bag, it felt weird without it I guess I'm just used to sleeping in it.

The windows of my room looking down on Istanbul.

it was really funny last night a bit after one ( I was already alseep)
a big group of rather drunk girl's from the tour came back to the room
with jackie and Leigh who I am rooming with and they all started
yelling spoon Ashley LOL so I wake up and I'm like being dog piled by
5 girl's I immediately went back to sleep and I woke up thinking I had
had a really weird dream only to head down to breakfast to pictures
LOL they are so funny

Omg!!!

I had the most amazing day today!!!! As you know I am in Istanbul, its the best city ever!!!!!! This morning we had a bit of a sleep in, then left for a walking tour of the city. The blue mosque was so beautiful it was really cool because its still an active mosque so we saw people praying. There were two entrances, the visitors line which was very long, if you were coming to pray you could just walk straight in. You also had to take your shoes off. It was cool because women and men pray separately and the girl's area is way better. Next we had a carpet making demonstration that was amazing because it can take 2+ years for one person to make a silk one ( they were super expensive though) after this I skipped out because I had a headache but everyone else went to the grand bazar while i napped my headache away. At 330 I met the girl's at the Turkish bath, it was about 90 usd *gasp* but that's now bad when you consider you get 45 mins on hot marble slab
that's heated from the bottom and feels way better than the sauna because you can still breath the air and its very fresh because they have a traditional roof that is open it feels amazing did I mention you are naked? It was really comfortable LOL by the end i didn't want to put my clothes back on. After you have sweated more then you have inside you a very large Turkish women that is completely naked comes over. I had left my panties on just to see and she said something in Turkish to me and I was like what? And she pulled my panties off I was like ok then LOL then she bathes and exfoliates you inside and out it felt soooooooo good, rolls of skin are like coming off your entire body then she douses you with buckets of cold water and you move to your massage I had a 45 minute full body massage that both hurt so bad and felt so good and then a facial. When I was done I had never felt so clean in my life!!! I wasalso over ever caring about being naked
again. In the old times like back in roman and bizantine and ottoman empires women used the bath house as a social thing, young girl's would go there and old ladies would scope them out as possible brides for there sons. Love and miss you!

Love you, Ashley!

Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul and checked into our hotel today. Free wifi again! Turkey is by far the most beautiful and facisnating country so far! I cant wait to go to the turkish baths tommorow. I miss you guys so much and I will update more tomorrow. Off to dinner now.

Love you, Ashley!

In Turkey!

The hotel that we are staying at has wifi so I am able to update. My tour manager played a mean trick on us, she told us that our hotel was really bad, had squatter toilets and minging sheets. We were all terrified LOL but we pulled up to a four star hotel, right off the beach with a pool and great accomadations and a fancy resturante we get to eat in. It not only has chairs AND a table but glass plates and glasses and you can use two forks at one meal!!! The food was awesome as well. One annoying thing about Europe is that you have to pay for water, i have descovered a way around this however, watermellon is the key! They give you nice juicy watermellon for free so if you just get alot of that you won't be thirsty anymore. So my evening consisted of a quick swim at the pool, eating until it was physically painful and then retiring to my room for A good nights sleep. We have breakfast at 6 and bags to coach 30 mins after that. I'd better off because half
the group wants to use my phone because I have wifi and they don't want to pay. Love and miss you!

Love you, Ashley!

Last update for a while :-(

Heading into Turkey today and I won't be able to update in all of the eastern block :-(. Had dinner, did nails, sleep, woke up to screaming at midnight and jumped up to put the fly on our tent. We were being lazy because were only here for one night and we woulda been screwed, but got a cool lightning storm :-). Up at 5:55 is LOL for a six aclock tents down. Love and miss you guys!

Love you, Ashley!

Athens!

I had a great day in Athens today, despite the heat. It was about 95 today but with no air conditioning or shelter that is a bit hot. In the morning we went to the acropolous (can't spell) it was very cool (not literaly) then into town. We shopped for a bit, I'm so sick of shopping its all anyone ever wants to do, then lunch at this over priced touristy resturant just because it had air conditioning. I ordered the cabage and carrot salad and he misunderstood and thought I just wanted cabage and lettuce so I got a plate of cabbage and lettuce it was ok with lemon juice and vinegar though. Afterwards people wanted to shop more so me and nicola split off to do very Greek things LOL we went and saw momma MIA in English and ate kfc for dinner inside a mall with great air conditioning we ended up missing the meeting time by about an hour so we just Got the metro and a bus back to the campsite all in all a good day, love and miss you guys
Love you, Ashley!

Athens!

Athens!

A couple of photos

A few photos of what I have been doing that last couple of days. After
Greece, today and tommorow, it will be a while until I can post again
because I can't use the Internet in any of the eastern countries which
is where I am heading. It seems that everyones inconciderate coughing
and breathing has gotten me sick! LOL its just a cold mommy not your
nighmare. A girl got bit by a posionious spider in Corfu and we had to
leave he behind in a private Greek hospital. She is supposed to meet
up with us today pending the results of her blood test, fingers
crossed. I conveniently forgot to mention this to my mommy till we
were out of the area. I got a bite on my eyelid that swelled my eye
shut it was terrible! The swelling is almost gone now. The bugs are on
steriods here. I better go but u miss you guys! How come no one ever
emails me anymore?! Amccollum08@yahoo.com!

Love you, Ashley!

At dinner with some of the girl's in greece.

Me overlooking the beaches of Corfu at the toga party

The Corfu market

Kerrys toe after she sliced it open in the ruins in Rome

Our first bed of the trip! It was great LOL next one is in 3 nights from now.

Me and kris at some castle that is supposed to be amazingly geometric for its time...I hate geometry

More Rome,Capri,sorrento

We seem to run into alot of unfortunate timings, in Rome public transportation was on strike so we couldn't get to the Vatican, on the way to Capri a bus crashed so we almost missed our boat because of traffic. It was alot of fun in Capri yesterday, we had an awesome and cheap lunch :-) by the beach then took the bus up to the top of the island we didn't realize how long that would take so we had to juump in a cab and head down to make our boat. The cab ride was the best part!!!!! It was so fast around these little corners and your hair was flying like crazy! He stopped and let is get pictures about 1/2 down because no one was behind us.the only bad part was that he charged us more than he quoted us at LOL but it was still cheap. After that we went to shop and dinner in sorrento, everything was cheap ;-) but ate really unhealthy and my tummy hurt afterward we are headed to Pompey now and a ferry to Greece tonight. love you guys, Ashley

Love you, Ashley!

Sorrento

Me on the island of Capri

Me at what I think is me and daddys fountain

Street preformers in Rome

Similarities and eyes!

LOL, love the comments. To MEB yes! There is both a zoo and a trailer park so we are twins. However next week I will be entering turkey, I'm not sure if there will be a zoo and trailer park there so you might have a leg up on me! Lol but i will have turkish bath houses, how about you? To mom mom LOL no worries I usually only post the good stuff, such as in Florence I said we went to a club but I left out that I drank a bit too much and everyone keeps calling me smashley;-)LOL I'm afraid it might stick. Miss you guys lots but having too much fun to notice most of the time, Ashley

Love you, Ashley!

Nice, Venice, and florence

Its been a while since I updated text, there is always just so much to do that I cant find enough hours in the day. Nice was very nice LOL but I never got to go on the water :-( we walked around and explored for a while then bought lunch and took it with us as we climbed up to le chateau. It was a hard long climb and we were all really happy to find some shade to eat in. Then we went back to the campsite and changed and ate dinner before heading out to the monte carlo. In Venice we took a walking tour and saw a lace and glass blowing demonstration damn can hand made lace be expensive. We wandered around for a bit then found some shade to sit in. They are very stingy with there shade in Venice because they kept making us move, finally found somewhere to sit. In florence we saw a leather demonstation then had a walking tour of all the art and landmarks but kris and I got lost and spent a few minutes looking for the group before deciding just to spend the
day together and headed down so prmising looking streets only to run into the group right when we stopped looking, finished tour, had lunch at cheap little cafe that was really nice, 6 euro for a pizza big enough for 3 people it was fun then shopping and exploring, found cute sunglasses. Then headed back the campsite for a nap, then back out for amazing 4 course meal and clubbing miss you guys, love ashley

Love you, Ashley!

Beautiful Venice

Me and Kerry in loveseat of gondola

More chilling in Venice

Me stacy Kerry andrea emily kris and tony chilling in Venice

Kris after a mosquito bit his eye lid, continued swelling until everyone was calling him quazzi motto

Kris and I at monte carlo just before heading next door to the cheap casino LOL

Me, jayde, jackie, Kerry, and cam at le chateau in nice

Me at le chateau in nice

Arrived at campsite an hour ago, already being eaten alive

Almost forgot

Bored on the bus the other day I was going through my iPod and
realized I have pride and predjudice and harry potter audio books on
my iPhone its totally awsome to pass the time, hopefully they last
Love you, Ashley!

Long awaited update

Back by popular demand...
Sorry I haven't posted recently I have been so busy! I dont even have
and good pictures to show u guys because they are on my other camera :-
( Barcelona was AMAZING! In the morning we did alittle sight seeing
but soon realized that Spain is much too hot for sight seeing. We then
went shopping down las rables, I wanted to buy a crocodile but I
thought it would be tough to get back into the us.we were now pretty
hot so we decided to hit a tapas bar. We dont do tapas bars right in
the us. In Spain they come in squares with like 20 different resturant
in a row. You dont go eat an entire meal at one you sit down and
everyone orders a beer or a pitcher of sangria (mmmmmm they make it
really sweet in Spain so its like halfway beetwesn red wine and
carbonated grape juice) and one or two tapas per group this way the
focus is conversation (and drinking) and then u get up and more along
and do the same, you do this several times per day. LOL then more
shopping then more tappas bar hoping then we met up with some others
at 6 and we went to this great locals only bar the pitchers of sangria
were super cheap and I think they had 10 shots for 18 euro idk I dont
like shots. We went and got paella for dinner (delish) then headed
down to the beach to watch the euro cup finals, espana vs germany. We
watched in an Aussie bar, they had the strongest sangria I have ever
tasted ( Kerry would like me to add we remained sober) the bar was
standing room only smokey and very very loud people were always
screaming and cheering. Spain won and the streets were filled with
celebrating people and the bars were opening champagne outside and
throwing it at people. I filmed to bar when the time ran out its
really cool I'll show you guys when I get home. At about 2:15 me Kerry
and two very drunk guys on our tour headed our to try and get a taxi,
the rest of barcelona was also trying to get a cab, while we waited
one of the guys started sobbering up a bit but one got much worse he
was passed out on the ground, we rolled him to his side after trying
to keep him Awake for a long time, life lesson number two something I
didn't know, cab drivers won't drive super drunk passed out people, no
cAb driver was getting near us LOL we were like fudgeI guess we should
wait until he sobers up a bit (dumb idea, he was only getting worse,
started throwing up unconcious (eww) making him even less likely to
get a cab, our friend cam had been partying with this local, he ended
up paying a cab driver off to take us, LOL Simon threw up in the car
pretty gross we arrive at about 3:30 I think, me and nathan get him
out of the car he tries to go to sleep in someone elses tent we
finally get him into his tent I go shower, his tentmate arrives in a
cab go to check on Simon find him throwing up in his tent so steeve
his roommate gets his stuff out them we roll him on his side so he
won't chock I send Steve to sleep in kris tent becAuse Kerry said they
were sleeping at beach, kris apparently wasn't so peaks in sees Steve
and ends up sleeping outside his tent LOL all in all it was tons of
fun in Barcelona at 3 in the morning the streets were totally packed
with people celebrating and drinking and it was my first time clubbing
LOL weird Spanish guys kept trying to dance with me LOL you kind of
dance away from them. there was this one guy who was totally rocking
out with himself he looked really silly. Love and miss you guys!

Love you, Ashley!

Campsite in Barcelona, first one with dirt and not grass grrr LOL and my matrrss has a hole :-(

The bus, plenty of room to stretch out.

Paris

Recap of yesterday: breakfast at camp! (btw camp is great! I was worried we'd all be miserable camping but everyone is really nice and its one of the most fun parts), bus than train to catacombs. Cafe for lunch, bus to notre dame, metro to musee d'orsay, metro to arc de tripmphe, back to camp to help with dinner (was kerry night) , then yummy French onion soup, pork chops, mashed potatoes and veggies. After dinner a bunch of people walked down to little pub to watch football match but I was so tired I stayed behind to shower and call mommy. LOL called mom got off phone with her saying I was going to take a shower and promptly fell asleep with phone still in hand (showerless) LOL woke up at 11 ish when Kerry came in (came back early to get sleep) took shower then (bad idea because it was freakin freezing and then my hair was wet so got even colder) LOL woke up this morning at 6. (way too early, helped with breakfast, packed took down tent ate croissant
with Ham and cheese and now on road to Lyon :-) love and miss you guys
Btw kerry blog user name is kerry_and_kris (if that applies to you)

Love you, Ashley!

Me and kris in the catacombs, millions of bodies piled to the ceiling as far as the eye can see it was scary! Sitting in cafe eating steak frites as we speak! Love

Us outside the catacombs about to go in then grab lunch across the street at cute cafe then shopping at champs élysées! Love and miss you all!

We went to dinner in the red light district before Kerry and I went to the cabaret (at the risk of sounding fruity, it was hott!! LOL way hotter than the "live shows" about and kris and tony went to see the Eiffel tower at midnight. Then we all went to the barI:-)

Kris and I spent an hour looking for amaratis (spelling?) code LOL but it was cool, way bigger than I expected.

LOL

Me at Versailles I will post text about Paris on the bus tomorrow but here is some pics for you guys to see.

Me and the ceiling at Versailles ps kerry user name: kerry_and_kris

Tour managers trying to get us wasted!

Me in the hall of mirrors

LOL, I fully intend on having a house equally as extravagant as the
chateau Versailles :-) it was really nice! LOL probably because it
wasn't 10,000 degrees out! Its not rainy here, the iPhone lies. I'm at
the louvre right now so I will try and give you guys a good update
soon. Love you

Love paris

Thanks mommy and elise for those awesome posts they make me feel a lot less home sick LOL to the rest of my deadbeat family and friends I expect to here from you soon jk LOL this picture isn't very interesting because I thought that the blog wasn't working so I took all my cool pictures on my other camera LOL but now that its back up I will take pictures on my iPhone again we saw so many amazing things today, right after this picture it lit up but I didnt think to take another picture we decided to visit versialles tommorow after we eat at the campsite then wander around to look for the best sandwich shop in Paris (and we will find it without a guidebook LOL take that daddy-o) I can't wait for a tomato basil and buffalo motzerella sandwich screw spelling LOL we are pretty much the only Americans on the tour, the majority are from aussi where contiki is apparently headed I have been hanging out with Kerry and kris but they bicker aloe so I have also been hanging out aloe with these two girl's from Australia amy and pic (short for something) they are both alittle older than me but really nice amy is 23 she is a high school teacher in aussi but only for one year she thought life was getting alittle to serious for her so she requested a year off she was in uganda doing volunteer work, then went to Asia and backpacked for a few months the she moved to Ireland where she worked in a bakery and lived for just over three months pic has also been traveling though just around Europe ( I guess its pretty normal for people in aus to take timme off to back pack) LOL they are both putting very naughty thoughts in my head about taking a year off after my first year next year and visit the places I want to LOL no need to worry about my health mom everyone went to a pub down the street but I've had enough of pubs for awhile LOL I'm going to bed now though its already 1130 LOL and the sun is just now going down oh i forgot to tell you that we are going out to a fancy French dinner tommorow its at the place where its like 4 courses and coffee afterwards and wine for one set price ( that I think is a bit high but everyone really wants to go and it looks nice) LOL than some people are off to the cabaray show but me Kerry and kris are just going to walk around and people watch and maybe find a club LOL I love you guys and miss you hope to get comments from you soon

Love you, Ashley!

blog not working

hey guys, I have tried several times (with wifi and over edge) to update my blog and the email goes through fine but the post never goes up. I done know why but it worked fine in the states at the airport but isn't working now :-( last night I had fun walking through London. We ate at. This little hole in the wall fish and chips place that smelled terrific. Its so great in London LOL and the cars are so small It makes me feel guilty about driving the gas prices here are really high as well we all started the night out feeling alittle ripped off because we made the mistake of taking a cab it was 70 pounds or about 150 bucks the night was fun though after dinner we went and go drinks at a really loud fun pub :-) but I only had water o:-) miss you all! Big kiss for aidan

LOL honesty In London

Wandering around the beautiful city b4 anything opens, damn jet lag

Leaving for Paris

Megan Kerry says "megan." LOL whatever that means. To Kerry and kris
parents Kerry says I love you and kris says I'm still alive to my
parents and family and friends I love you all! We had delicious fish
and chips from a hole in the wall place that smelled awesome :-) we
love you all so much and will post more
Pictures soon! Big kisses for aidan! Love

Arrived...

Hey guys, I have arrived safetly! We learned our first life lesson,
don't take taxis! I swear that guy was driving around in circles to
run up the meter! It ended up costing 70 pounds which is roughly over
140 dollars and almost all our pounds! Grr! Luckily we are only in
London for tonight then leave to Paris where they use euros we all
have more of that and we won't make the mistake of taking a cab again.
We are all alittle ruffled and have agreed to shower and then go out
and get a strong drink before we meet the other people in the tour!
Tired, cranky, alittle pissed but happy to be here! Love you guys
Ashley!