one minute left

I'm waiting for 10pm to watch Grey's Anatomy. I think it's been around a year since I last saw it. I am so excited!

Here's my favourite shop in the neighbourhood:



So what's been going on? I spent ten days in Turkey with my dad. That was pretty awesome. We went hot air ballooning:



IT'S ALMOST ON!!

we dance

Wondering what I've been doing with my time?

Why, dressing up in traditional Turkish outfits and dancing with small children, of course! That, and farewelling the fifth of my close friends to depart since my arrival six months ago. Dealing with the demise of my prized right nipple piercing. Getting acquainted with my beautiful new guitar, pictures to follow. Counting the minutes until the next time I see my shiny new boyfriend. Untold hours commuting. Cooking new recipes, making phone calls, uploading photos, ANTM dates. It's Leap Day today. I keep meaning to write but I look and the time is already passed. I've been telling everyone that the clocks go forward this weekend, but I'm four weeks early.

I have just booked a flight to Zurich for the day before my birthday in April. It is done!

Sunset - 16:56

I was only away for eight days but the days are so much longer already! And yet, there are fewer hours, living in London. Especially on a day like today, when the Jubilee line flat out refuses to cooperate. And I neglect my backyard, I neglect common sense, I neglect flickr. Don't take it personally.

In the interests of attempting to at least catch up on photos of recent holidays, here's a shot of our best discovery in Amsterdam - the fascinating and tiny Cafe de Dokter.



Click here for the set.

I'm just back from a holiday to Turkey. I spent a few days revisiting old haunts in İstanbul, where I was greeted off the plane by a sky full of swirling snowflakes - my first snow this winter! It was chilly but lovely, particularly as I shared my time with Libby and Guy as they wound up their own northern hemisphere adventure. After that I flew to Antalya and travelled on to Demre, possibly an unlikely holiday destination but nonetheless a worthwhile visit. This part of the trip was characterised by an eXtreme lack of planning, but it all panned out nicely - in fact, I was adopted by a Turkish family! Stand by for photos! Only don't hold your breath, because I still have my entire Italian Christmas and New Year waiting in the wings.

I don't think I'll ever catch up. Next holiday: Isle of Skye for Easter. And after that, I hope to catch up with Jakob on their forthcoming European tour. It'd be rude not to.

One other thing. I'm giving up sugar for Lent. Can't remember the last time I did that. I think I heard maybe two different people mention giving something up, and next thing this idea presented itself. Messages of encouragement welcome.

the past is a room I don't go into

Much as it is a little dull to post delightful holiday snaps that are more than two months old, it's better than considering just how early it got dark this evening.

Eceabat

Çayağzı

It hurts to sit down.

With the memory of my black, yellow and blue post-jetski incident left buttock barely faded, over the last few days I have taken on several remarkable additions to my catalogue of bruises. Aside from the usual range of who-knows-whys strewn about my legs, there's a strange rectangular mark on my tailbone, due I think to misadventures in the shower. Next we have a mean red and blue centred fading to a dull yellowish brown, again on my much abused left buttock - this one from excitedly landing on the pole the waterski/banana/biscuit rope is tethered to on the back of the jetboat. Also of note is a ludicrous bump on my forehead. This one really is embarrassıng. I was asleep on a mattress under the tables in the restaurant - we go to great lengths to find anywhere with a cool breeze - and my host had just woken me up to go help wıth watersports in the bay. I was remembering an odd dream I'd had, and as I went to recount it I lazily reached to pull myself off the mattress and instead succeeded in pullıng a chaır directly onto my head. Much hilarity, for everyone but me!

Since I've just written a lengthy paragraph on my latest crop of bruises, you would be right to guess that there's not much else to tell. I have one more week here at Gökkaya, and while this realisation nearly caused hyperventilation a few days ago, I'm talking myself into it, and I know that seeing my long lost family and friends in London will be a great thing.

It's been a wholly unexpected interlude, and one that I'll not soon forget.

Gökkaya

I have tramped along the Lycian Way from the ever lovely Gökkaya Bay to the village of Simena, situated beneath a castle opposite the ancient sunken city of Kekova. I was getting cabin fever, being reliant on boats to get anywhere aside from here. There's always the lilo, but options are limited.

This picture was taken just before we realised how lost we were, when Beth and I first attempted the walk to Simena. Look at those shoes! Fantastic huh.

My days go like this.. I am woken either by the sun, the unnecessary heat of my blanket, or the dog barking. I try to sleep some more, as we have late nights and otherwise I'll need a nap later on! Failing that I shift position into the shade of the platform and get stuck into my book, 'The Pillars of the Earth'. I'm almost finished, which I'm sad about, although I swapped 'Anna Karenina' for some nondescript thriller on V-Go's book exchange yesterday. Eventually someone wakes up and gets me coffee and breakfast, which could be the traditional 'Turkish breakfast' of cucumber, tomato, olives, white and yellow cheese, and bread, or some marvellous concoction of eggs. It may seem odd that I can't just fix it myself, but it's not the done thing. Afterwards I read some, or go for a swim off the jetty.

The days continue as they begin, chiefly focussed on lying about reading my book. Sometimes I have company, sometimes everyone is away. They go diving for fish a lot, with a speargun thing; we ate fish for my first five or so meals! No complaints from me. Around 8 I have a shower, before it is dark, and sometimes people come on boats to eat at the restaurant. Around half nine, the generator is started, the lights come on and we get the bar ready for an evening's business. I put on my smiley retail face and remember the days at Fuel, Refuel, and Zebo's.

The music is fairly middle of the road, stuff that everyone likes. Lonely Planet described Smuggler's Inn as "cheesy but fun", and I struggled to explain to the owner, Veli, what is meant by "cheesy". To give some indication, recent earworms include the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe', Sophie Ellis Bextor's 'Murder on the Dancefloor', and most recently Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi'. Long time listeners will recall the peculiar poignancy of that track for me.

Now I need to go seek out a jetski or something to take me home.

Leaving Turkey

We spent our last week in Turkey at a remote point on the Mediterranean called Gökkaya Bay. We stayed at a bar called Smuggler's Inn, spent our days sunbathing, swimming, sleeping, reading, learning Turkish, enjoying the Mediterranean playground on banana boat and biscuit rides, waterskis and jetskis. In the evenings I helped out at the bar.

Our last evening was a jubilant one. I worked, finding time for a few glasses of red here and there, while Ange kept me company and hung with the locals. Beth and Preeti were there, and also Ahmet (aka hot friend) and his sister Eda. Veli mashed up the sounds and we danced beneath the stars. Later Ilias, with Angela's help, created the most delicious dish I have ever tasted involving poached eggs and yoghurt, and we all sat and ate around the dining tables in the restaurant. Stories were exchanged and occasionally translated, meaning us yabancı could feel more involved.

I got to bed around half two, utterly shattered, and jerked awake not long after as my alarm went off just before six. I stumbled out of bed and gathered myself together. Kamil was already up, and he woke Ahmet while I found Ange. My contacts refused to adhere to my eyeballs, the clothes I had planned to wear were discarded, and we dragged ourselves and our belongings to the dock and onto İzmirli. Eda and Rocket were asleep on board, and they didn't wake up when Ahmet started the engine and pointed us out into Gökkaya Bay. Kamil stood at the dock and we waved goodbye to Smuggler's Inn.



It was a beautiful morning. The sun was not long up, and the sky was still tinted an orange pink. The water was calm, and the bay was populated with sleepy gulets.



With Ahmet at the rudder, we chugged across the bay and into the harbour at Myra. We passed by the dock and continued up a small river, before coming to rest near a restaurant. Here we met Sale and Barış, who were to escort us to Antalya. Our ride was a souped-up and lowered-out Mercedes, and we happily fell asleep in the backseat. We left Demre around 7am, and woke up in Antalya around 9:15am. We were supposed to be at the airport by 9am so we were mildly anxious, particularly since the airport has two terminals which are several kilometres apart, and we only had a vague guess as to which one to attempt.

We got to terminal 2, and went through metal detectors to enter the airport. We quickly found our check-in counter, to our great relief, and got our boarding passes. We were starving, but only had 10 YTL left between us. Ordinarily that would be plenty, but not so in an airport. A chicken sandwich was 11.50 YTL (pretty much NZ$11.50)! We decided to keep looking. Upstairs we were seduced by Burger King. How incongruous to our recent "it's nature" lifestyles. But we were determined, even when we got to the counter and saw that a whopper burger cost 20 YTL! We settled for double cheeseburgers, at 9.50 YTL each. Kind of gross but they hit the spot. After we got our food, I checked an info screen, and saw our flight was flashing "Last Call"! We were not in any state to be missing our flight so we ran ran ran down two escalators and found our gate, only to end up on a bus that took us to our plane.

Three hours later, including equal parts sleep and plotting ways to torture an obnoxiously happy small boy, we landed in Dresden. Being pretty new to travel, we were excited at the prospect of another stamp in our passports, and were most disappointed that the passport control counter was deserted. It's been a culture shock, arriving in Germany, staying in an apartment. Walls, doors, a road outside, a constant stream of cars, no ocean.

somewhere real

Hey all, boat cruise number 2 was most pleasant, we are now at Fethiye
where we have done some shopping. What we are doing next is anyone's
guess.

But at least you know we are alive :)

That's my last group-e. I know more now. We are in Kaş. We are gonna hang in Turkey for just one more week, and to seal the deal we've booked flights out of Antalya to Dresden for next Friday.

.. and back again

Merhaba to all from sunny Olympos. Since I last wrote, we have done a lot of shopping and passed a fairly unpleasant night on an overnight bus. We were booked to return to Istanbul, however we must have taken a wrong turn because here we are, back at Bayram's, in Olympos, on the southern coast of Turkey.

We figured we'd better get amongst it last night, so we had a few wines, met some other travellers and also some of the locals. It was a full moon. Around midnight we wandered down the road to find the famed Orange Bar. What a place! Open-roofed, with the towering cliffs surrounding it illuminated to great effect, and the place itself - a big sunken dancefloor, loads of lights, smoke machine, strobe and did I mention the banging trance? Haha, it was hilarious. The highlight was definitely a minimally-technofied version of Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust' - when the bass dropped at the false ending I thought I would take flight! Epic.

In a few minutes we will be driven to Demre, where we will meet our friends on board the V-Go boat Baba Veli and take another lap on the Med. Mmm. Nice to continue with the ostrich thing, in the face of some disturbing news - nasty stuff in London, not so good news with the yachting and rugby, and an impending life of toil. This sand tastes good.

Cappadocia

A few words from Göreme, in central Turkey. We caught an overnight bus from Olympos last night, and today took a tour around a few of the sights here in Cappadocia. Crazy rock formations, underground cities and a stunning monastery and cathedral hewn into the volcanic rock.

We also stopped by an onyx factory and once I found out that turquoise means 'Turkish quartz' and is good luck, I couldn't resist buying a piece. I tried haggling but I'm not sure that I didn't badly offend the guy.. oh well, I feel like I did okay.

We continue to have serious withdrawals from the Mediterranean, particularly since we're so far inland now, but we soldier on. We are here for another few days then the plan is to return to Istanbul, from where we will hopefully figure out (at last) how we are to travel to Croatia. The idea of learning a whole 'nother language is a bit daunting, considering how long the basics of Turkish have taken us, but we have our phrasebooks..

I'll leave you with that picture.

Olympos

Since it's hard to find time and energy to write here and send emails, I am cheating and posting my emails here.. enjoy.

June 25
A few words from Olympos, Turkey. We arrived here mid-afternoon, after five days on board the Baba Veli, a gulet cruising on the Mediterannean between Fethiye and Demre in Turkey.

Never have I experienced a time so relaxing. Sun, sea, swimming, life on board Baba Veli was really something else. It was so hard to leave that we (Ange, me and new friend Jane) ended up spending an extra night on board last night, moored at Demre. That was fine apart from some absolutely unbelievable hot, hot hot winds that blew relentlessly for about five or so hours - pushing 60 degrees, we think. Like sitting in front of a fire and it's too hot so you move away. Managed to sleep on the deck - just! Again I have many, many photos but still trying to catch up on the uploading, so I'm a few days behind. Have a look at flickr.com/photos/thebackyard/ anyway if you like.

We stay here overnight and head to inland Cappadocia tomorrow on an overnight bus. Not looking forward to tours after unstructured living of late :) Should get to Croatia by the weekend, but the pull of the Mediterannean is strong.

Gelibolu

We stayed the night in Çanakkale, and caught the 9am ferry across to Eceabat. From there we dithered around for a while trying to figure out the least expensive way to get to Kabatepe in Gallipoli, which is close to Anzac Cove. Several taksi drivers were soliciting our custom, then we thought we might get a dolmuş (4 lira as opposed to 20) and then we decided to try our luck hitching.

We walked down a dusty street, where we passed a small shaggy black dog. I greeted it, as is my tendency, and it jumped up and ran alongside us. Quite adorable, in spite of its unkempt appearance, but it had a sore right front paw and was limping on three legs - aw! He followed us right to the edge of town, where we commenced to stick out the thumb. And a little thigh for good measure. JK..

Our first taker was an ooold man driving a tractor and trailer. "Kabatepe?" I asked. He gave me an extensive reply which I gathered amounted to "No", with some regret.

Not long after, a small van pulled up and we climbed in the back, where another lady was already sitting. We initially thought that she was a tourist too, but it turned out that she was a local who works at the Kabatepe Information Centre. Score! We stopped at the museum, where there is a big courtyard overlooking the Aegean Sea. As we gazed around, we were surprised to see two fat puppies clamber out of a bush, then noticed their lean mother ambling out of the shade behind us. She wagged her tail wearily and lay down in the blazing sun. We went into the museum.

Our new friend Inci (meaning pearl) let us into the museum free of charge, and we checked out the display of wartime artefacts. Lots of bits of guns, equipment, uniforms, and also copies of letters sent home from soldiers.

Next Inci walked with us down to the Kabatepe Information Centre, right on the beach. It's a sort of junction point leading to Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, Çunuk Bair and lots of other places in the national park. Inci works at the Info Centre, and also sleeps there in a tent outside. She made us coffee, and then set about sorting us a lift to Anzac Cove. This involved flagging down a motorcade of two scooters and one very full car - Ange and I climbed on the back of a scooter each. Too much! I love scooters. We didn't even see the faces of the drivers beneath their helmets. So much fun, tucked on the back, hat blowing off, one of the foot pegs closing leaving me with little grip and a fear of losing my toe if a I tried to retrive it - and all the while, zipping along potholed roads of alternating seal and sand, passing stone obelisks and memorials, clear blue sky, white sand beaches and hot hot sun, and the landscape that once hosted such grim scenes of war. We passed by our destination, Anzac Cove, in just a few minutes, but there had been some communication breakdown as we kept on going for another eight or nine kilometres. Finally we stopped and our drivers discussed the situation with the 15-odd occupants of our escort sedan, before turning around and taking us all the way back to the cove. So friendly.

We stopped there for a bit, taking it in, and debating whether it was appropriate to swim - it was really hot - but there was some concern that as a memorial site, the beach was off-limits for swimming. So we started back towards the Info Centre. There wasn't much traffic and we wound up walking most of the three kilometres before a car stopped and let us squeeze in. And then we had our first swim! It was wonderful.

After we'd had some lunch we caught a lift with a couple up to Çunuk Bair. We'd hoped to see the NZ memorial, but our lift terminated at a Turkish memorial which was pretty moving all the same, with lots of grim, patriotic quotes from Atatürk.

We were aiming for the 3:30 ferry from Eceabat, so we scored a lift with a Turkish family in a van. They stopped at the NZ memorial, but just to buy some water, so we had no time to check it out. Such generous people, they even shared their water with us. We jumped out at the Kabatepe Museum, left a thank-you note for Inci and quickly got a lift with a silent man who took us all the way to Eceabat, right on time for the ferry.

And that was our day at Gelibolu. We continued on to Behramkale (Assos), where we spent a lovely relaxed evening checking out the ruins of a Temple of Athena, dating back to the 6th century BC. Set high up on the acropolis, with stunning views across the the Greek island of Lesvos, it was quite beautiful particularly as the sun was just setting.

Fast forward a few more hectic days, and we're at the little town of Pamukkale. Ange is currently visiting the travertine terraces and the ruins of Hierapolis, but I've opted (with some regret) to take the opportunity to sit quietly for a bit. I have a heap of photos to upload, but this computer is not up to the job. Roll on tomorrow, when we commence our four-day boat cruise on the Mediterranean!

Basilica Cistern

Istanbul on a Thursday

We really needed a sleep in, so it was a slow start to our second day in Istanbul. Natalia, Ange and I left the house around 2pm. Izzet wasn't with us as he had flown to Pamukkale early in the morning for a concert. We took a bus across the water, and Natalia helped us find a ferry that would take us up the Bosphorus, before leaving us to it. It was a lovely ride, and we saw many beautiful, huge mansions lining the water on the Asian side, as well as affluent houses with their own private marinas. Not to mention many mosques, and the odd castle.

Although it was approaching 5pm when we disembarked, we went to get some lunch - the light here is different, and the days are much longer. I guess that's daylight savings for you. Next we visited the Blue Mosque in the Sultanahmet district. Once we'd gotten past a tout beside the door, who was nice enough until we explained that we actually didn't want to come to his shop to see his wares, we made our way into the large interior. It was breathtaking. Every surface is decorated, and all the pillars and walls have beautiful mosaic tiles. Although the place was buzzing with tourists, Ange and I were both awed upon entering - the sense that this is a holy place was so strong.

We walked back to Eminönü and caught a cab, aiming for the ancient Galata tower (built in 653). However we had some communication problems with the driver, who simply had no english. Our Turkish now extends to hello, thank-you, counting one to five, ordering beer or water, declining the attentions of touts and friend-seekers alike, and saying 'how much?'. Luckily he was such a mad driver that we enjoyed ourselves all the same, even though we didn't manage to get him to take us up the hill that we were trying to avoid. What a ride! Imagine a three lane road, them forget that there are lanes, and just think of a mass of cars and buses all weaving in and out, braking and accelerating, tooting all the time. Eventually I got the language section of the guide book, trying to find the word for 'right' (sağ). That didn't help, so I found 'I don't understand' and showed him that. Final straw. He pulled over and gestured that we should walk!

The tower was a great experience. We had really good views around and could pick out all the places we've visited so far. Great to peek into the roof top terraces all around, too. We headed up towards Tünel and found a little store Natalia had mentioned, where we bought some cool head scarves, then continued on to our local. It was closed, but the one next door was just as good, so we sat and reflected and wrote postcards.

Best line of the day goes to a cafe hawker who ran after us calling, "Here I am!" Close runner up to Ange, who at my suggestion said, "Shooma!" to the hundredth sleazy man to say, "Sexy ladies!" to us as we walked by. I couldn't quite remember where I'd read it, but apparently this is the ultimate put down as it is a public statement of "shame on you" which makes the shoomee lose face. It seemed to work, at least another gentleman walking towards us approved. We were also impressed with the policeman who went out of his way to get us into a random building foyer so that I could use a telephone.

Today we will walk to Taksim, then return to the other side to see Aya Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapı Palace.

Merhaba, Istanbul

Once we negotiated the baggage carousel at Atatürk airport, it was 8am and we were in need of a beer. This seemed to raise eyebrows but we didn't care. We nursed that for a while, then bought phone cards, called our hostess Natalia and got on the train for Aksaray. Natalia met us and we grabbed a cab for Kasimpasir and chilled out at the house for a few hours. It's awesome - so full of character, and 200 years old! At one point the muezzin sounded, and thanks to pop culture it reminded me of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack!

Around 1 or 2 we wandered into the neighbourhood as Natalia and Izzet needeed to buy an iron. There's a mosque nearby and a lot of people were going about their business, and several strangers approached us - we are the epitome of tourist, a status to which we are reluctantly resigning ourselves - and tried to guess where we are from and whether we speak Turkish. We don't, although Natalia teaches us lots of words and phrases throughout the day. (Merhaba means hello.) It turns out that 'thank you' is THE hardest thing ever and we often go without thanking people, stalled with confusion at the unfamiliar syllables. The trick to remember it is 'tea sugar dream', but even so it's not easy. Iron purchased, we walked down to the water and caught a ferry across to Eminönu. The view was astounding, with spectacular mosques lining the horizon, and the day (like today) was perfectly clear and wonderfully warm, without a hint of the humidity that melted us in Singapore. We wandered up through long streets lined with shops, bustling with shoppers, before reaching the Grand Bazaar. I bought a lovely purple pashmina, and a small mirror with the 'evil eye' on it. The Bazaar is a sensory overload of colours, smells, faces, noises. Hours pass. Then it was after 5pm and we ate dinner at a tiny restaurant, 110 years old! We wandered on to Sultanahmet, where we chilled out beside a fountain in a park within sight of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia, which we will visit tomorrow. We decided to wind up the day as we began, with a beer, but on the way we passed a leatherworks store where Izzet went in to talk to the proprietor. Before we knew it, Ange and I were both trying on super comfortable leather sandals, and without much ado and thanks to Izzet the price had dropped - Ange needed to replace her broken jandals but I didn't need any at all.. they are lovely though. Stand by for exciting photos of footwear (..like this one).

We got a cab over to our side of the water, then rode Istanbul's oldest underground tram up to Tünel (apologies for the random use of proper Turkish letters) and went to Natalia and Izzet's local for a cool glass of Efes beer. It's a good drop and we enjoyed a couple, during which Izzet left for a recording session and we were joined by Mehmet. We adjourned to another bar to see some gypsy music, which is very lively, and then the conversation turned to the meaning of life before we called it a day. Not before time: my eyes were refusing to look in the same direction.

You can see photos of Singapore here, and some from Istanbul here.