Thanks for following this blog for so long - from Tanzania, Europe and Canada in 2008 to Turkey, Morocco and Spain in 2011. I've had so much fun writing it (and doing the travelling of course). I might resurrect this again if the travel bug hits again, but for now I'm focusing on setting up life here in Toronto. I'm here for at least two years, more if it goes well.
To that end I had set up a new blog: www.takingtoronto.blogspot.com. There's not much too it yet, and it primarily serves as an outlet for my writing and an escape from the endless resume and cover letter reviews. Still, as a picture of someone trying to make it in a new town it might make for an interesting read; that's my hope!
For Volunteer Africa hopefuls, my Tanzania experiences start in July 2008 and will hopefully give you a picture of the team, village and community you could be part of through HAPA and VA. I highly recommend it, if only so you can "one-up" all those people travelling through South America and South-East Asia. Africa trumps all other continents any day.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Long, interesting final day...
By my calculations my yesterday lasted 19 hours - starting at 7.30am in Reykjavik to find a way to tune in to the All Blacks and finishing at 10.30pm in Canada (when it's 2.30am in Iceland) when I finally succumbed to jetlag.
So my alarm went at 7.30am and I grabbed my laptop to find a way to watch the game. There were a number of factors to this, the first being I don't have a European adaptor because I left it with Peggy so I borrowed one the night before from some Aussie girls so I would get my full four hours. The next was that the internet is like a magical promiseland where everything is available... unless you're in Iceland. I couldn't stream the game because every channel is country-specific, so I just got "This service is unavailable outside New Zealand/England/Italy" (The last one was in Italian, but still perfectly understandable after the two earlier messages.) BUT determination will find a way... I found a Christchurch sports radio station and three online newspapers live updating the game with photos AND skyped with Mum throughout. So no video, but lots of information :) It actually worked really well, because the radio people tell you all kinds of things you wouldn't otherwise know because they can't leave any silence and they have to try to "make you see".
Anyway... the All Blacks' win came 16 minutes before check out so I didn't really have time to be elated, had to throw everything around the room (actually, check out is kind of the opposite of that) and head out. Took one last walk around Reykjavik and reflected that it's a nice but weird city. Maybe it was just my timing, but the city didn't seem to have any residents. In two days I only saw tourists, or people working in tourist shops/restaurants. So who lives in the pretty lakeside houses?
The Blue Lagoon is THE thing you're meant to do if you only have two hours in Iceland so since I had two days I signed up for one of the many airport transfer including lagoon stop thingees. Very convenient. Pick up at 10.30, get to the lagoon before midday, pick up at 2pm, get to the airport at 2.30pm for your 5pm flight.
I was a bit dubious about the lagoon because it sounded so touristy and overly organised. I pictured pools and loungers and not being able to move because of all the people but it was, in fact magical. The water really is blue thanks to some kind of mineral/algae/natural phenomenon. (Pfff, that was an awesome explanation, I don't know what you're complaining about. Just google it.) It's a natural hot pool and the steam rises up over rough volcanic rock surrounding it, and over the rocks you can see a geothermal power station. It's very atmospheric and despite getting there late in the morning it wasn't too busy until after 1pm. I hopped out about then and got some lunch then went for a walk to take a million photos. Highly recommended experience :)
So then another airport, another plane, finished two books, watched Super 8... Arrived in Toronto and was picked up by Faith, a family friend from way back. She has a lovely house where I will be staying for a while to job hunt and set up some kind of life.
I do have some really sad news. Tragic even. I bought a bottle of Hendricks Gin duty free because it is the elixir of the gods and is expensive and special and a big treat... and somewhere between plane and house it broke (insert vehement swearing here). So now I have no gin AND spent my morning cleaning all my gin soaked stuff. Peggy, I think the gin shrank my black wool hat. Remember how it was a bit too big? Now it fits quite well :p Anyway, since I have three members of my immediate family visiting in the next four months I'm sure I can convince one of them that all I want for Christmas is Hendricks Gin.
So that's probably all from me on here. If you want to know about the job hunting//life creating let me know, I could always convert this to a "Catie whines about how hard the job market is" blog, or "The things that really annoy Catie about moving countries". But mostly, thanks for tuning in. I'll be back when I next have a plane ticket somewhere exciting.
So my alarm went at 7.30am and I grabbed my laptop to find a way to watch the game. There were a number of factors to this, the first being I don't have a European adaptor because I left it with Peggy so I borrowed one the night before from some Aussie girls so I would get my full four hours. The next was that the internet is like a magical promiseland where everything is available... unless you're in Iceland. I couldn't stream the game because every channel is country-specific, so I just got "This service is unavailable outside New Zealand/England/Italy" (The last one was in Italian, but still perfectly understandable after the two earlier messages.) BUT determination will find a way... I found a Christchurch sports radio station and three online newspapers live updating the game with photos AND skyped with Mum throughout. So no video, but lots of information :) It actually worked really well, because the radio people tell you all kinds of things you wouldn't otherwise know because they can't leave any silence and they have to try to "make you see".
Anyway... the All Blacks' win came 16 minutes before check out so I didn't really have time to be elated, had to throw everything around the room (actually, check out is kind of the opposite of that) and head out. Took one last walk around Reykjavik and reflected that it's a nice but weird city. Maybe it was just my timing, but the city didn't seem to have any residents. In two days I only saw tourists, or people working in tourist shops/restaurants. So who lives in the pretty lakeside houses?
The Blue Lagoon is THE thing you're meant to do if you only have two hours in Iceland so since I had two days I signed up for one of the many airport transfer including lagoon stop thingees. Very convenient. Pick up at 10.30, get to the lagoon before midday, pick up at 2pm, get to the airport at 2.30pm for your 5pm flight.
I was a bit dubious about the lagoon because it sounded so touristy and overly organised. I pictured pools and loungers and not being able to move because of all the people but it was, in fact magical. The water really is blue thanks to some kind of mineral/algae/natural phenomenon. (Pfff, that was an awesome explanation, I don't know what you're complaining about. Just google it.) It's a natural hot pool and the steam rises up over rough volcanic rock surrounding it, and over the rocks you can see a geothermal power station. It's very atmospheric and despite getting there late in the morning it wasn't too busy until after 1pm. I hopped out about then and got some lunch then went for a walk to take a million photos. Highly recommended experience :)
So then another airport, another plane, finished two books, watched Super 8... Arrived in Toronto and was picked up by Faith, a family friend from way back. She has a lovely house where I will be staying for a while to job hunt and set up some kind of life.
I do have some really sad news. Tragic even. I bought a bottle of Hendricks Gin duty free because it is the elixir of the gods and is expensive and special and a big treat... and somewhere between plane and house it broke (insert vehement swearing here). So now I have no gin AND spent my morning cleaning all my gin soaked stuff. Peggy, I think the gin shrank my black wool hat. Remember how it was a bit too big? Now it fits quite well :p Anyway, since I have three members of my immediate family visiting in the next four months I'm sure I can convince one of them that all I want for Christmas is Hendricks Gin.
So that's probably all from me on here. If you want to know about the job hunting//life creating let me know, I could always convert this to a "Catie whines about how hard the job market is" blog, or "The things that really annoy Catie about moving countries". But mostly, thanks for tuning in. I'll be back when I next have a plane ticket somewhere exciting.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Góðan dag
Hello from Reykjavik, of all places. It is very very cold. I am taking a break from the cold to thaw out my feet and figure out how to watch the rugby tomorrow! Maybe I will be able to watch it online? It seems a little complicated.
So I got to London fine and spent four days catching up with Sophie, Laura and Paul who I have known since high school/uni. It was really wonderful to see them, we drank a lot of red wine (and some sake) and ate a lot of food. I also bought a new camera, yay, and made it to Camden Market (bought a bowler hat - it's fantastic) and Tate Modern. Paul played tour guide for three of those days, I got lots of good history about pubs, architecture and where he used to live.
Friday I flew out to Reykjavik, arriving very late at night, and tried to sleep in to make up for it but I'm bad at sleeping in now. I'm getting a cold, and I think it's winning. Lame. Reykjavik is really pretty, but quite expensive. It's not so much that every item is overpriced, but that they don't seem to have the cheap and cheerful options so don't expect presents from Iceland!
I saw the Leif Erikson monument, which is outside Reykjavik's cathedral, Hallgrímskirkja. The statue was a gift from the USA in 1930 for the 1000th anniversary of Iceland establishing a parliament. Ooooh. The cathedral is really neat, modern and imposing. I just googled it and apparently it's the tallest building in Iceland. Another Oooh please :)
I'm getting sick so I just wandered around for three hours then came back to nap. Socialised with dorm-mates and in the lounge for a bit and now early to bed so that, fingers crossed, I can stream the NZ-France game online in the morning. So excited! If it doesn't work I'll be totally gutted.
Next stop Toronto so probably just one more blog to tell you how the game, the Blue Lagoon and the flight go tomorrow, then I'll be far to busy having a life to write on here twice a week ;)
So I got to London fine and spent four days catching up with Sophie, Laura and Paul who I have known since high school/uni. It was really wonderful to see them, we drank a lot of red wine (and some sake) and ate a lot of food. I also bought a new camera, yay, and made it to Camden Market (bought a bowler hat - it's fantastic) and Tate Modern. Paul played tour guide for three of those days, I got lots of good history about pubs, architecture and where he used to live.
Friday I flew out to Reykjavik, arriving very late at night, and tried to sleep in to make up for it but I'm bad at sleeping in now. I'm getting a cold, and I think it's winning. Lame. Reykjavik is really pretty, but quite expensive. It's not so much that every item is overpriced, but that they don't seem to have the cheap and cheerful options so don't expect presents from Iceland!
I saw the Leif Erikson monument, which is outside Reykjavik's cathedral, Hallgrímskirkja. The statue was a gift from the USA in 1930 for the 1000th anniversary of Iceland establishing a parliament. Ooooh. The cathedral is really neat, modern and imposing. I just googled it and apparently it's the tallest building in Iceland. Another Oooh please :)
I'm getting sick so I just wandered around for three hours then came back to nap. Socialised with dorm-mates and in the lounge for a bit and now early to bed so that, fingers crossed, I can stream the NZ-France game online in the morning. So excited! If it doesn't work I'll be totally gutted.
Next stop Toronto so probably just one more blog to tell you how the game, the Blue Lagoon and the flight go tomorrow, then I'll be far to busy having a life to write on here twice a week ;)
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Barcelona and beyond
So many changes in the past 24 hours - and so many to come! Let's start where I left you, I guess?
So we got the early train to Barcelona arriving about 2pm, hostel by 3pm and out the door again shortly after. We thought we'd check out La Sagrada Familia but the queue was around the block so we walked to Park Guell, Gaudi's model community attempt. It's like a Dr Seuss fun house park - so crazy but so cool. Spent a couple hours there before heading back to the hostel and grabbing dinner (microwave paella - very authentic). We went out for mojitos that night and just soaked up a never sleeping city. It was lovely. We found a bar where Hemingway and Miro used to drink (maybe not together...?) but it was choca so we got crepes instead. Good alternative plan, I say.
Sunday we had an amazing day! Started with the rugby, NZ vs Australia, for the semi-finals. We watched the heart-wrenching, seat-tipping amazing game, surrounded by Kiwis at "Flaherty's" off La Rambla. We had a lot of fun. We cheered when NZ got the ball at one point and a drunk Aussie behind us said "Don't clap yet girls" and then we scored and I was like "Can we clap now???"
Then we accidentally ran into a parade! There were big puppets and music and those climbing groups you see pictures of, where they make big human pyramids? So much fun! It was some kind of cultural party thing and we followed it for about four blocks until it stopped in a square. It's the kind of unplanned magic that really makes your trip extra special.
Then the big shit of the day - I dropped and broke my camera. I'm planning to buy a new one here in London because I already feel ghost-limby without my camera. Have lodged an insurance claim so we'll see how that goes, but mostly I'll just pay for a new one and hope I ever see something from insurance.
It was Peggy and my last night together :( So I took us out for a Visa-inspired tapas meal, which was STUPENDOUS. We checked out a few menus as we walked around today and saw a place we liked the look of, with reasonable prices, which turned out to be a mission to find again but so worth it. It was called Xaloc and was in the middle of the Jewish quarter of the Gothic area.
We got six tapas - an olive selection, gazpacho, roast red pepper, onions and eggplant, chorizo and potato meatballs, fish fritters and a warm apple and goat's cheese salad. Plus fries. The gazpacho was a miss and the roast veges were unexpectedly cold but even that was fun because that's tapas - whatever you get is it! Everything else was delicious and we had it with sangria :) The meatballs, or "bombas" were crispy on the outside and squishy yummy a little spicy inside - with aioli on top. Goat's cheese is so magical, I saved that for last. The home fries were just roughly chopped potato deep fried and the "fritters" were just chunks of fish deep fried - so good!
It took us about an hour to work our way through that. It's always surprising how filling tapas is. We waited a bit and ordered dessert. We basically ordered the two things that confused us on the assumption that if they were bad we would get waffles on our way home. They weren't bad :) We got chocolate fritters and "cinnamon and milk fried bread". The first was basically chunks of dark dark chocolate in donut batter, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. O.M.G. It was a magical experience. I would buy a deep fryer purely in the hope of repeating that experience. The bread was unusual, but yummy. It seemed to be a chunky piece of milk-soaked bread, covered in cinnamon and somehow fried so that outer layer was crispy. Came with hazelnut ice cream and was heaven.
Enough about food? Probably :) Basically Sunday was amazing, minus a little incident of breaking vital, expensive equipment.
Monday we got up early to get to La Sagrada Familia before it opened. I saw it in 2008 and was very excited because now the central part is open. It is so overwhelming, and really interesting to see as an example of a modern cathedral. Words don't do it justice but the sculptures are moving, the inspiration from nature is clear and the scale is worthy of comparison to any great cathedral around the world.
After that the flea market (I got a bag) and then some camera browsing... then just back to the hostel to head to the airport for me. It was a sad goodbye at the train station because Peggy and I have had so much fun and now we won't see each other for months but it's nice to be in London catching up with people I haven't seen for years.
Not sure when I'll next update, I'm in an internet cafe now and won't be able to charge my laptop in Reykjavik so we'll see what ends up being convenient.
So we got the early train to Barcelona arriving about 2pm, hostel by 3pm and out the door again shortly after. We thought we'd check out La Sagrada Familia but the queue was around the block so we walked to Park Guell, Gaudi's model community attempt. It's like a Dr Seuss fun house park - so crazy but so cool. Spent a couple hours there before heading back to the hostel and grabbing dinner (microwave paella - very authentic). We went out for mojitos that night and just soaked up a never sleeping city. It was lovely. We found a bar where Hemingway and Miro used to drink (maybe not together...?) but it was choca so we got crepes instead. Good alternative plan, I say.
Sunday we had an amazing day! Started with the rugby, NZ vs Australia, for the semi-finals. We watched the heart-wrenching, seat-tipping amazing game, surrounded by Kiwis at "Flaherty's" off La Rambla. We had a lot of fun. We cheered when NZ got the ball at one point and a drunk Aussie behind us said "Don't clap yet girls" and then we scored and I was like "Can we clap now???"
Then we accidentally ran into a parade! There were big puppets and music and those climbing groups you see pictures of, where they make big human pyramids? So much fun! It was some kind of cultural party thing and we followed it for about four blocks until it stopped in a square. It's the kind of unplanned magic that really makes your trip extra special.
Then the big shit of the day - I dropped and broke my camera. I'm planning to buy a new one here in London because I already feel ghost-limby without my camera. Have lodged an insurance claim so we'll see how that goes, but mostly I'll just pay for a new one and hope I ever see something from insurance.
It was Peggy and my last night together :( So I took us out for a Visa-inspired tapas meal, which was STUPENDOUS. We checked out a few menus as we walked around today and saw a place we liked the look of, with reasonable prices, which turned out to be a mission to find again but so worth it. It was called Xaloc and was in the middle of the Jewish quarter of the Gothic area.
We got six tapas - an olive selection, gazpacho, roast red pepper, onions and eggplant, chorizo and potato meatballs, fish fritters and a warm apple and goat's cheese salad. Plus fries. The gazpacho was a miss and the roast veges were unexpectedly cold but even that was fun because that's tapas - whatever you get is it! Everything else was delicious and we had it with sangria :) The meatballs, or "bombas" were crispy on the outside and squishy yummy a little spicy inside - with aioli on top. Goat's cheese is so magical, I saved that for last. The home fries were just roughly chopped potato deep fried and the "fritters" were just chunks of fish deep fried - so good!
It took us about an hour to work our way through that. It's always surprising how filling tapas is. We waited a bit and ordered dessert. We basically ordered the two things that confused us on the assumption that if they were bad we would get waffles on our way home. They weren't bad :) We got chocolate fritters and "cinnamon and milk fried bread". The first was basically chunks of dark dark chocolate in donut batter, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. O.M.G. It was a magical experience. I would buy a deep fryer purely in the hope of repeating that experience. The bread was unusual, but yummy. It seemed to be a chunky piece of milk-soaked bread, covered in cinnamon and somehow fried so that outer layer was crispy. Came with hazelnut ice cream and was heaven.
Enough about food? Probably :) Basically Sunday was amazing, minus a little incident of breaking vital, expensive equipment.
Monday we got up early to get to La Sagrada Familia before it opened. I saw it in 2008 and was very excited because now the central part is open. It is so overwhelming, and really interesting to see as an example of a modern cathedral. Words don't do it justice but the sculptures are moving, the inspiration from nature is clear and the scale is worthy of comparison to any great cathedral around the world.
After that the flea market (I got a bag) and then some camera browsing... then just back to the hostel to head to the airport for me. It was a sad goodbye at the train station because Peggy and I have had so much fun and now we won't see each other for months but it's nice to be in London catching up with people I haven't seen for years.
Not sure when I'll next update, I'm in an internet cafe now and won't be able to charge my laptop in Reykjavik so we'll see what ends up being convenient.
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Eep - so behind!
Lisbon was really cool. We spent day two there just wandering the streets. There's a Moorish district, which is sort of medina-esque, but with plumbing and minus the scary men, and we found a great viewpoint over the harbour. It was interesting because it had a lot of similar characteristics to Seville, but wasn't as obsessively maintained so it felt more lived in and authentic. Like the city wasn't obsessing over its history, was just living around it. Very cool.
We got an evening train to Porto and got to our hostel about 9.30pm and I'd been a bit sick so it was an early night and a late morning then just four hours walking around Porto. A really lovely city, it just felt comfortable. It's a university town built across a big river with hills on either side so there's lots of stunning scenery and neat sights, but also a lot of hills to climb! It was one of those places you say "Yeah, I could live here." You know, with caveats like employment and speaking at least a little of the language.
Wednesday we headed to Coimbra, which is also where our night train was leaving from. It's meant to be a really lovely pretty town and it seemed quite nice but the heatwave struck and we melted! It got up to at least 35 degrees, and there was a mean, scorching edge to the direct sunlight so we made our way sloooowly up the hill to the university (which dates from the 1200s and is one of Europe's oldest, oooh) and then bought icecream on our way down but I don't think we took much in. A few degrees less heat and it would have been great! So night train left at 7pm and we were on our way back to Spain. We really loved Portugal. I keep telling Peggy to move there so I have a reason to come back, and she's pretty tempted :)
Arrived in San Sebastian at 6.30am yesterday and made it to our hostel to dump our bags then left to track down breakfast. Nothing really opened until 7.30 at the earliest so we grabbed a couple croissants to tide us over but eventually found a pretty decent breakfast, including hot drink. Peggy got their specialty of brioche and jam while I got the "catalan" breakfast of tomato and olive oil on toast - delicious. We spent the morning dragging ourselves around the city. It's really really pretty and there's lots to see so we did have fun, but we were so tired (this particular night train sucked - uncontrolled children and argumentative couples, ick) that everything was hilarious. So, yeah, good times had by us. Check in was 1pm so we ate lunch and took naps after that :) Went for another walk but didn't get up to much in the evening, just food and bed.
Today we went to Bilbao, to see the Guggenheim Museum there, which is amazing. It's all fluid metal that looks like it should move or grow. It was a really beautiful building that pictures don't really do justice to. After that a tram to the old town and to go to the Basque (Euskal) Museum. There wasn't a lot of info in English but it was really interesting. The Basque language is fascinating because it's not related to anything around it, as you can tell from reading signs - nothing in it is familiar. It's not even an Indo-European language, which is so mind-blowing. I'll definitely be doing more research there.
This afternoon we walked up the only hill in San Sebastian, which has a big statue of Jesus on top. The game all the way up was "Have you found Jesus yet?" and then when we found him he had a big cell phone aerial out his head, which I thought was hilarious and so practical! I mean, say you live in a reasonably flat coastal town surrounded by hills, cell reception has to be a bitch, right? So your options are build a big ugly tower on your nearest hill, ruining one of your town sights because there's an old fortress up there, OR you could adapt the big statue someone put up a couple hundred years ago so Jesus is not only watching over your city, he's also connecting your calls. Smart, I say, and just a little disrespectful. I respect that.
Tomorrow Barcelona, on the 7.30am train. Ouch.
Lisbon was really cool. We spent day two there just wandering the streets. There's a Moorish district, which is sort of medina-esque, but with plumbing and minus the scary men, and we found a great viewpoint over the harbour. It was interesting because it had a lot of similar characteristics to Seville, but wasn't as obsessively maintained so it felt more lived in and authentic. Like the city wasn't obsessing over its history, was just living around it. Very cool.
We got an evening train to Porto and got to our hostel about 9.30pm and I'd been a bit sick so it was an early night and a late morning then just four hours walking around Porto. A really lovely city, it just felt comfortable. It's a university town built across a big river with hills on either side so there's lots of stunning scenery and neat sights, but also a lot of hills to climb! It was one of those places you say "Yeah, I could live here." You know, with caveats like employment and speaking at least a little of the language.
Wednesday we headed to Coimbra, which is also where our night train was leaving from. It's meant to be a really lovely pretty town and it seemed quite nice but the heatwave struck and we melted! It got up to at least 35 degrees, and there was a mean, scorching edge to the direct sunlight so we made our way sloooowly up the hill to the university (which dates from the 1200s and is one of Europe's oldest, oooh) and then bought icecream on our way down but I don't think we took much in. A few degrees less heat and it would have been great! So night train left at 7pm and we were on our way back to Spain. We really loved Portugal. I keep telling Peggy to move there so I have a reason to come back, and she's pretty tempted :)
Arrived in San Sebastian at 6.30am yesterday and made it to our hostel to dump our bags then left to track down breakfast. Nothing really opened until 7.30 at the earliest so we grabbed a couple croissants to tide us over but eventually found a pretty decent breakfast, including hot drink. Peggy got their specialty of brioche and jam while I got the "catalan" breakfast of tomato and olive oil on toast - delicious. We spent the morning dragging ourselves around the city. It's really really pretty and there's lots to see so we did have fun, but we were so tired (this particular night train sucked - uncontrolled children and argumentative couples, ick) that everything was hilarious. So, yeah, good times had by us. Check in was 1pm so we ate lunch and took naps after that :) Went for another walk but didn't get up to much in the evening, just food and bed.
Today we went to Bilbao, to see the Guggenheim Museum there, which is amazing. It's all fluid metal that looks like it should move or grow. It was a really beautiful building that pictures don't really do justice to. After that a tram to the old town and to go to the Basque (Euskal) Museum. There wasn't a lot of info in English but it was really interesting. The Basque language is fascinating because it's not related to anything around it, as you can tell from reading signs - nothing in it is familiar. It's not even an Indo-European language, which is so mind-blowing. I'll definitely be doing more research there.
This afternoon we walked up the only hill in San Sebastian, which has a big statue of Jesus on top. The game all the way up was "Have you found Jesus yet?" and then when we found him he had a big cell phone aerial out his head, which I thought was hilarious and so practical! I mean, say you live in a reasonably flat coastal town surrounded by hills, cell reception has to be a bitch, right? So your options are build a big ugly tower on your nearest hill, ruining one of your town sights because there's an old fortress up there, OR you could adapt the big statue someone put up a couple hundred years ago so Jesus is not only watching over your city, he's also connecting your calls. Smart, I say, and just a little disrespectful. I respect that.
Tomorrow Barcelona, on the 7.30am train. Ouch.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Cork and castles - hello Portugal.
What did I last write? I just made Peggy look it up so now I know - we had shopped and eaten. We didn't go out for a drink but we did find chocolate cake at a random Mexican restaurant near our hostel.
We made it an early night, but our dorm was quite loud so we didn't sleep well. We had a massive day planned and managed to get it all done! Up at 6.50am, out by 7.30, train station at 8am, bought all our tickets for the day and left our big bags in a locker at the station to make our way to Segovia.
A pretty little town half an hour from Madrid, it is famous for it's impressive Roman aqueduct, which was supremely cool. It also has a big cathedral and a fairytale-esque fortress. We skipped going through the cathedral and made our way to the Alcazar, which has princess turrets and a big tower. We climbed all 152 steps of the tower - which was more really because just before the tower Peggy made us go to the cellar so that was added to our total. It was quite a tight spiral, but well worth the effort (and the two euro) for the view. We wandered the palace for over an hour, and spent four hours altogether in the pretty town, and took a ridiculous number of photos.
After Segovia we headed back to Madrid and got there at 4.30pm, then took the metro all the way to the other train station to see the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, which has a lot of Picasso and Dali works, including Guernica. It's free after 2.30 on Saturdays and we got there about 5.30pm but it wasn't too busy, except in the Guernica room. All the Picasso works were fantastic - he communicates stories and emotions so well. I'm not as much a Dali fan. I have the constant feeling that I don't "get it". We only spent an hour there because we skipped the top two floors, which are mostly temporary exhibits. Then dinner out and a metro all the way back to Chamartin train station arriving at 9.20pm, an hour before our night train to Lisbon arrived. How romantic does that sound? I took the night train to Lisbon. I slept through most of it, although neither of us slept all that well.
Today we got to our hostel early, ate breakfast, chilled out for a bit then headed to Sintra, the "must do" day trip from Lisbon. It's a lovely town, with lots to see. I figured out we walked more than 10 kilometres over four hours, with half that uphill. It was tiring but great. I saw the Moorish Castle - an 8th century fortress with stunning views across Lisbon and towards all the other, more recent, palaces in the area. It was a great trip topped with really good hamburgers. We keep meaning to try local foods, but our budget likes the hamburger deals offered at tourist places. Six euro for a cheeseburger, salad, fries and drink? Yes please...
Back at the hostel we've just chilled out. We're kind of amazingly tired but we're fighting it off so we can sleep well tonight. Overall it's been a huge couple of days including seven metro rides, five train rides totalling 13 hours, plus about ten hours of walking and not nearly enough sleeping! I wasn't going to post again so soon but I figured if I didn't post today I'd end up with 20 pages of news next time.
We made it an early night, but our dorm was quite loud so we didn't sleep well. We had a massive day planned and managed to get it all done! Up at 6.50am, out by 7.30, train station at 8am, bought all our tickets for the day and left our big bags in a locker at the station to make our way to Segovia.
A pretty little town half an hour from Madrid, it is famous for it's impressive Roman aqueduct, which was supremely cool. It also has a big cathedral and a fairytale-esque fortress. We skipped going through the cathedral and made our way to the Alcazar, which has princess turrets and a big tower. We climbed all 152 steps of the tower - which was more really because just before the tower Peggy made us go to the cellar so that was added to our total. It was quite a tight spiral, but well worth the effort (and the two euro) for the view. We wandered the palace for over an hour, and spent four hours altogether in the pretty town, and took a ridiculous number of photos.
After Segovia we headed back to Madrid and got there at 4.30pm, then took the metro all the way to the other train station to see the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, which has a lot of Picasso and Dali works, including Guernica. It's free after 2.30 on Saturdays and we got there about 5.30pm but it wasn't too busy, except in the Guernica room. All the Picasso works were fantastic - he communicates stories and emotions so well. I'm not as much a Dali fan. I have the constant feeling that I don't "get it". We only spent an hour there because we skipped the top two floors, which are mostly temporary exhibits. Then dinner out and a metro all the way back to Chamartin train station arriving at 9.20pm, an hour before our night train to Lisbon arrived. How romantic does that sound? I took the night train to Lisbon. I slept through most of it, although neither of us slept all that well.
Today we got to our hostel early, ate breakfast, chilled out for a bit then headed to Sintra, the "must do" day trip from Lisbon. It's a lovely town, with lots to see. I figured out we walked more than 10 kilometres over four hours, with half that uphill. It was tiring but great. I saw the Moorish Castle - an 8th century fortress with stunning views across Lisbon and towards all the other, more recent, palaces in the area. It was a great trip topped with really good hamburgers. We keep meaning to try local foods, but our budget likes the hamburger deals offered at tourist places. Six euro for a cheeseburger, salad, fries and drink? Yes please...
Back at the hostel we've just chilled out. We're kind of amazingly tired but we're fighting it off so we can sleep well tonight. Overall it's been a huge couple of days including seven metro rides, five train rides totalling 13 hours, plus about ten hours of walking and not nearly enough sleeping! I wasn't going to post again so soon but I figured if I didn't post today I'd end up with 20 pages of news next time.
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Real Madrid
Do you see what I did there? No? Oh... it's the football team. So it's like a joke - real/Real Madrid. Still no? Nevermind...
I'm a few days behind. . . What have we been doing? Seville was beautiful and amazing, we had a really great time there. I would highly recommend. On... Tuesday? Yes. Tuesday we headed to Granada to see Alhambra, this amazing hillside fortress. Long story short, they are dumb and have a limited number of tickets per day and we missed out so instead we ate pasta with a stolen fork outside the cathedral. It was a nice day anyway :)
Got to Madrid quite late and had a bit of a mission to find our hostel, which made Peggy and I both a bit grumpy. In the end we got a taxi, which cost less than three euro and was totally worth it. Wednesday we were going to go to the palace but it was shut until 1.30pm and then the queue was massive so we skipped it. We went to the Prado, the big old art gallery full of El Greco and Goya. I had an amazing time. I wasn't very familiar with El Greco so was blown away by his large-scale works. His style is so different to anything before or even after him for a few hundred years. Peggy could probably have done the gallery in half the time but was very patient with me. We went to a nearby park and ate ice cream afterwards. It was idyllic.
Yesterday we went to Toledo. It was a bit of a non-stop drama to get there, but once we made it it was lovely. El Greco lived there at the end of his life so the museum has a lot of his works, as well as some well preserved medieval statues and tapestries. The cathedral was huge, it went forever and included a planted courtyard. The last of the top three stops is the Iglesias de Santo Tome, which has a big alterpiece by El Greco. We got to the church but decided we were church-weary so we ate ice cream and walked around instead.
Today was designated a plan-nothing day and plan nothing we did. I went to find a second hand bookstore I had read about, but it was closed when I got there. The good news is all the clothing stores were open so I may have a few new things to fit in my bag now. Peggy and I split for the morning, she stayed at the hostel a bit later then went for a walk so she didn't have to put up with my umming and awwing (is there an official spelling for that phrase?) over dresses. I found a great store called Sfera - very cute and very reasonable prices. I got a gorgeous black dress and also found a cardigan from a different shop. So yes, I had fun :) On the way back the bookshop was open so I picked up a few things. More than I probably should have, but I couldn't resist the one euro table.
This afternoon we went for another walk around the area our hostel is in. Ate hamburgers, bought a sim card, window shopped... Peggy bought an adorable skirt, which is not very practical for travel so I'm very proud. Now we're resting and deciding whether to go out for a drink tonight. We have quite an early start tomorrow but I'm keen to experience some of the famous (infamous?) Spanish nightlife. Oh well - maybe in Barcelona.
I'm a few days behind. . . What have we been doing? Seville was beautiful and amazing, we had a really great time there. I would highly recommend. On... Tuesday? Yes. Tuesday we headed to Granada to see Alhambra, this amazing hillside fortress. Long story short, they are dumb and have a limited number of tickets per day and we missed out so instead we ate pasta with a stolen fork outside the cathedral. It was a nice day anyway :)
Got to Madrid quite late and had a bit of a mission to find our hostel, which made Peggy and I both a bit grumpy. In the end we got a taxi, which cost less than three euro and was totally worth it. Wednesday we were going to go to the palace but it was shut until 1.30pm and then the queue was massive so we skipped it. We went to the Prado, the big old art gallery full of El Greco and Goya. I had an amazing time. I wasn't very familiar with El Greco so was blown away by his large-scale works. His style is so different to anything before or even after him for a few hundred years. Peggy could probably have done the gallery in half the time but was very patient with me. We went to a nearby park and ate ice cream afterwards. It was idyllic.
Yesterday we went to Toledo. It was a bit of a non-stop drama to get there, but once we made it it was lovely. El Greco lived there at the end of his life so the museum has a lot of his works, as well as some well preserved medieval statues and tapestries. The cathedral was huge, it went forever and included a planted courtyard. The last of the top three stops is the Iglesias de Santo Tome, which has a big alterpiece by El Greco. We got to the church but decided we were church-weary so we ate ice cream and walked around instead.
Today was designated a plan-nothing day and plan nothing we did. I went to find a second hand bookstore I had read about, but it was closed when I got there. The good news is all the clothing stores were open so I may have a few new things to fit in my bag now. Peggy and I split for the morning, she stayed at the hostel a bit later then went for a walk so she didn't have to put up with my umming and awwing (is there an official spelling for that phrase?) over dresses. I found a great store called Sfera - very cute and very reasonable prices. I got a gorgeous black dress and also found a cardigan from a different shop. So yes, I had fun :) On the way back the bookshop was open so I picked up a few things. More than I probably should have, but I couldn't resist the one euro table.
This afternoon we went for another walk around the area our hostel is in. Ate hamburgers, bought a sim card, window shopped... Peggy bought an adorable skirt, which is not very practical for travel so I'm very proud. Now we're resting and deciding whether to go out for a drink tonight. We have quite an early start tomorrow but I'm keen to experience some of the famous (infamous?) Spanish nightlife. Oh well - maybe in Barcelona.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Sevilla
Some oddbits first and an update at the bottom.
I have been collecting tidbits that I keep forgetting to put into posts – partly because they're juvenile (like Ufuk hostel, where we didn't stay) and partly because I'm generally forgetful.
One long-running joke in Turkey was about the bus company Kamilcok... We never ended up riding Kamilcok, but often saw it around Turkey. I also laughed at the Lecheria in Tangier. If your French is up to scratch then you'll know it served milkshakes, but the name seemed to suit most of Morocco. They could rename it Lecheria, or Lechopolis, Lecherton...
Last giggle is courtesy of a man in Tangier who clearly has no idea where NZ is...
Him: Where are you from?
Peggy: New Zealand.
Him: Aaah, Irish.
Me: Um. No. New Zealand? Kiwi? Near Australia.
Him: Aaah. I like Scottish Whisky.
Peggy: Okay... Good.
So Seville is pretty. We walked around a lot yesterday (three hours) and this morning (five hours) and were generally pleased with the openness and colours. Made it to a flamenco show – very passionate! The dancer looked like she was in pain most of the performance, but I think that was on purpose. They sell a lot of dresses and combs and fans here, I'm tempted to bring home a flamenco costume but they cost upwards of 150 euros so I guess no.
Today we saw the cathedral and the Real Alcazar, the palace here which was first built in the 9th century and then added to and adapted for another 800 years. It's huge with a beautiful garden. A highlight was the musical fountain. I haven't had much luck googling it but basically as water runs behind it a drum spins and makes an organ play – it was really fun! We spent about two hours there altogether, it was another beautiful palace that made me think maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be a princess.
We had seen postcards of a really neat plaza so we made our way slowly through alleyways and across squares to Plaza de Espana. It was more recent than the cathedral or palace – built in 1929 for some international expo – but in an older style that was reminiscent of the tile work we saw in Morocco. It was a lovely space with a canal running around the outside. Now we're back in the hostel for siesta (actually it's because no one else is using the shower at the moment. There's one shower for 14 people so mornings and evenings are too busy.) Lots of things close from 2.30 to 4.30 (very civilised) so we figure we'll head out around 5pm and maybe do some shopping :)
Monday, 3 October 2011
Ole!
We have made it to Europe - hurrah. It was a long awaited , exciting arrival which required a train, a ferry, a bus AND a tram to get us to Oasis Palace Sevilla - in beautiful Seville.
Fes was a bit disappointing. There were some good sites and our hostel was pretty but we took a tour of the medina with the hostel and our guide clearly didn't give a shit about what we experienced. Every stop included a sales pitch from someone so while it was amazing to see 1100 year old tanneries and learn about traditional medicines and carpet making, then having leather, spices and carpets aggressively sold to you is a little off-putting. I wouldn't discourage anyone from going to Morocco, but we both found it tiring to put up with the non-stop sales pitches and people trying to rip you off. We decided to just take Saturday morning off and chill out before going to Tangier
Taxi to the train station, train (very hot and sticky and uncomfortable) to Tangier where we found a random cheap hotel near the port. It was worn but clean and it did the trick - much like Tangier which was more open and less smelly than Fes so thumbs up there. We got the 8am ferry to Tarifa, which really left at 8.30 and was so rough kids were crying and lots of people were being sick. Through focus and staunchness Peggy and I did not fall into either of those categories but we were horridly uncomfortable. Bus to Algeciras, bus to Seville, tram to Plaza near hostel, walk to hostel, cue collapse.
We have two nights here, and we're trying to figure out how to best spend the next 15 days. Seville is beautiful so we're going to go for an evening walk and then do some research about where we want to go next.
Fes was a bit disappointing. There were some good sites and our hostel was pretty but we took a tour of the medina with the hostel and our guide clearly didn't give a shit about what we experienced. Every stop included a sales pitch from someone so while it was amazing to see 1100 year old tanneries and learn about traditional medicines and carpet making, then having leather, spices and carpets aggressively sold to you is a little off-putting. I wouldn't discourage anyone from going to Morocco, but we both found it tiring to put up with the non-stop sales pitches and people trying to rip you off. We decided to just take Saturday morning off and chill out before going to Tangier
Taxi to the train station, train (very hot and sticky and uncomfortable) to Tangier where we found a random cheap hotel near the port. It was worn but clean and it did the trick - much like Tangier which was more open and less smelly than Fes so thumbs up there. We got the 8am ferry to Tarifa, which really left at 8.30 and was so rough kids were crying and lots of people were being sick. Through focus and staunchness Peggy and I did not fall into either of those categories but we were horridly uncomfortable. Bus to Algeciras, bus to Seville, tram to Plaza near hostel, walk to hostel, cue collapse.
We have two nights here, and we're trying to figure out how to best spend the next 15 days. Seville is beautiful so we're going to go for an evening walk and then do some research about where we want to go next.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Marrakech express
So I left you in the airport, right?
The flight was uneventful. We got into Casablanca about 7pm but missed the 8pm train so didn't actually reach the city until 9.30pm then a taxi to our hostel and sleep. The hostel was lovely, really pretty, but Casablanca was very meh. Ugly and smelly... not a great introduction to this country. We escaped on the 11am train, after seeing the third biggest mosque in the world, ooooh.
Made it to Marrakech and our hostel, again very pretty and cheap - Morocco is so cheap, I just want to go mad! We do have to learn to say no... Mum told me she had a feeling Morocco was where we would get robbed, and while we haven't been mugged or pick pocketed we've sort of been robbed by our own inability to say no forcefully. Yesterday we were watching a snake charmer (for real!) and got snakes wrapped around us and took photos. I was happy to give them some money but they kept pushing for more and more so I have no idea whether we gave them a fair amount. Then these super pushy women drew on us with henna without being asked and demanded money too and we couldn't just walk away (well, now we could because we're meaner than we were). It cast a bit of a pall on the city at first but we've seen so much amazing stuff that the magic is slowly winning us back. And I figured out that between the two of us we lost a total of nine euros... it's kind of like a game we lost rather than an actual fraud.
The souks are amazing! You really can buy anything but they're especially known here for ceramics, leatherwork and metalwork. It's great to see people actually making stuff in a shop - makes you believe them when they say it was all handmade here. Everyone keeps telling us things are "for good luck" and telling us they hope we get married soon to a rich man... Feminism hasn't really reached Marrakech yet, I think. Or if it has, it's not very loud.
Today we visited the Palais de la Bahia, Palais el-Badi and the Saadian Tombs. All very impressive, and very different from each other. The first is known as "the brilliant" the 19th century palace was intended to be the greatest of its time. It's ornate but not fussy, it's the kind of palace where you think "yeah, I could live here." Lots of courtyards and garden areas, carved stonework and tiled floors. Palais el-Badi is from the 1500s and most of it was taken in the 1700s to build stuff in Meknes so there's not a lot left but what's there is huge. You definitely get a sense of scale! The Saadian Tombs only recently opened to the public and were really beautiful, plus, kittens! Again, lots of tiles and carved stone. It's hard to describe the stonework. At first it looks like wood carvings with very intricated interlocking patterns but it's really carved into the stone of the building. Repeated geometric shapes and Koran verses are common.
Tonight we're getting a night bus to Fes (yay Fes, less yay night bus) so we have a whole day there to explore, and do laundry! We're running a bit low on essentials. We only have a few days in Morocco so we're really focusing on the Imperial Cities - Marrakesh, Fes and Meknes. Then Tangier and then on to Spain!
The flight was uneventful. We got into Casablanca about 7pm but missed the 8pm train so didn't actually reach the city until 9.30pm then a taxi to our hostel and sleep. The hostel was lovely, really pretty, but Casablanca was very meh. Ugly and smelly... not a great introduction to this country. We escaped on the 11am train, after seeing the third biggest mosque in the world, ooooh.
Made it to Marrakech and our hostel, again very pretty and cheap - Morocco is so cheap, I just want to go mad! We do have to learn to say no... Mum told me she had a feeling Morocco was where we would get robbed, and while we haven't been mugged or pick pocketed we've sort of been robbed by our own inability to say no forcefully. Yesterday we were watching a snake charmer (for real!) and got snakes wrapped around us and took photos. I was happy to give them some money but they kept pushing for more and more so I have no idea whether we gave them a fair amount. Then these super pushy women drew on us with henna without being asked and demanded money too and we couldn't just walk away (well, now we could because we're meaner than we were). It cast a bit of a pall on the city at first but we've seen so much amazing stuff that the magic is slowly winning us back. And I figured out that between the two of us we lost a total of nine euros... it's kind of like a game we lost rather than an actual fraud.
The souks are amazing! You really can buy anything but they're especially known here for ceramics, leatherwork and metalwork. It's great to see people actually making stuff in a shop - makes you believe them when they say it was all handmade here. Everyone keeps telling us things are "for good luck" and telling us they hope we get married soon to a rich man... Feminism hasn't really reached Marrakech yet, I think. Or if it has, it's not very loud.
Today we visited the Palais de la Bahia, Palais el-Badi and the Saadian Tombs. All very impressive, and very different from each other. The first is known as "the brilliant" the 19th century palace was intended to be the greatest of its time. It's ornate but not fussy, it's the kind of palace where you think "yeah, I could live here." Lots of courtyards and garden areas, carved stonework and tiled floors. Palais el-Badi is from the 1500s and most of it was taken in the 1700s to build stuff in Meknes so there's not a lot left but what's there is huge. You definitely get a sense of scale! The Saadian Tombs only recently opened to the public and were really beautiful, plus, kittens! Again, lots of tiles and carved stone. It's hard to describe the stonework. At first it looks like wood carvings with very intricated interlocking patterns but it's really carved into the stone of the building. Repeated geometric shapes and Koran verses are common.
Tonight we're getting a night bus to Fes (yay Fes, less yay night bus) so we have a whole day there to explore, and do laundry! We're running a bit low on essentials. We only have a few days in Morocco so we're really focusing on the Imperial Cities - Marrakesh, Fes and Meknes. Then Tangier and then on to Spain!
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Goodbye Turkey
So... long time no update. Well. Five days? That's not so bad. Another long update I think.
Well we've shaken the Turkish dust off our Chucks and will soon replace it with Moroccan sand... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back a bit.
Thursday was the epic tour then Friday we intended to be up early to go to the Goreme Open Air Museum but were both tired so “early” ended up being 9am. We got there just before 10am, along with all the tour groups. Peggy was quite sick so there were a few moments of frustration but she persevered (she's pretty tough when she has to be) and we saw some truly amazing churches including the “buckle” church, with very well preserved frescoes in the windowless chapel. You're not meant to take photos but I took a couple sneaky ones (shhhh) because its being restored and that's not something you often see on postcards.
That evening we wanted to go for a sunset horse ride but the weather looked dubious so we decided to do that somewhere else if we can. Maybe it will be camels in Morocco! Instead we souvenir shopped (I got a lovely ring) and ate some dinner.
Saturday we were up early to see hundreds of hot air balloons take off for the sunrise tours. It's meant to be a don't-miss-it experience, but at 110 euros it was more of a ha-as-if on our budget. It was amazing to see all the balloons, but the weather was pretty overcast so I felt a bit sorry for people in the balloons. If we can't see them they definitely can't see the ground very well!
Then a 7am bus to Ankara for an afternoon there. Turned into a bit of a meh. We tried to find Ataturk's Mausoleum but got lost so we just ate lunch in a really nice park. It was fun anyway :) Ankara seemed like quite a nice city. Onto a 6pm bus to Safranbolu, which we had read great stuff about in Lonely Planet but lots of fellow travellers we talked to hadn't even heard of so our expectations were middling. We arrived after 9.30pm so there wasn't a lot to see, straight to our hostel and bed.
The next morning we headed out after breakfast and were blown away. It's an historic town centre of well-kept Ottoman houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. The houses are really beautiful and we went into one of the museum houses, set up like a traditional Ottoman home complete with creepy mannequins posed cooking, eating, sewing and talking.
The best part was the market. Handmade wooden and metal stuff, from pots and pans to toys and jewellery, were everywhere as well as clothing, textiles, lokum (Turkish delight) and tacky souvenirs. It was so much fun, all together I think we spent four or five hours there throughout the day. Peggy got a great jewellery box as a souvenir and we bought 300gm of lokum and ate most of it on the day.
The hostel we were in was an old house so it was very atmospheric, if a bit stuffy, and with somewhat antique plumbing! Our dorm was windowless, which was odd to wake up and not know if it was 3am, 8am or 1pm!
Monday we headed to Istanbul, it was basically just a travelling day. We left Safranbolu about 10am and got to our hostel at 9pm. Tuesday our flight left at 4.30pm so we spent the morning posting stuff and going to the Archaeological Museum. It's got a great Ancient Orient section, which was so well displayed with really detailed, well-kept items dating back to 18th century bce – so very old and very cool. There were even legal decisions, love letters and contracts all written in pictograms on clay.
Now we're at the airport waiting for our flight, with free wifi, yay. Not sure the internet situation in Casablanca so we'll see how often this gets updated from there.
Turkey was beautiful, with Goreme and Safranbolu standing out as pretty, fun and friendly centres. I'm a third of the way through my trip and Peggy's barely even started hers – it's so exciting to not know what's next!
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Photos
Not really an update, last couple days have been quiet but I'll write about them eventually. This is just to give anyone not on facebook a link to the pictures we've been posting. It's a public link so you should be able to see all the pics:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2337743050292.133853.1451350354&l=364a32f00b&type=1
I've put up about 30 so far and will keep adding one or two from each place as we go. I think that link should work permanently.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2337743050292.133853.1451350354&l=364a32f00b&type=1
I've put up about 30 so far and will keep adding one or two from each place as we go. I think that link should work permanently.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Rock and roll...
Warning: mega-blog. We had a couple quite big days so this is likely to be long.
So yesterday (Wednesday) after Peggy recovered we decided to walk to a place I picked on a map. It could have been quite the let down but instead it was amazing! We should follow all my whims...
Cavusin (with accents missing) is 4km from Goreme and has two famous churches. We walked there in about 40 minute, enjoying the view of coconut ice mountains and top heavy peaks. The colour lines are amazing, you can tell what is the softer rock because there are big red layers on top of very skinny green layers. At the town we got a bit turned around, browsed tacky souvenirs and ate ice cream before asking directions.
We found Cavusin Church, carved out of stone two stories up and painted with frescoes of bible stories. I found this youtube video of pictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrCjbQRw5Lk. I didn't listen to the sound, it probably has some tacky music to go with it, but it shows you what we saw. It was really stunning, I wished we had a book of explanations to go with it - even Google hasn't been able to answer all my questions!
There were lots of labyrinthian places to climb and explore, many with great views so we were intrepid and climbed into places chiselled out of the rock by hand about 1500 years ago. One of the views was of the famous fairy chimneys (that's the polite name, there are some rude jokes about them too since they're longer than they are wide.) They were close enough to reach and touch so we got some pretty wicked pictures. I'll post some here, hopefully, and some are already on Facebook.
Today we signed up to an epic eight hour, 300km tour. It was the best way to see everything we wanted to see because the alternative was taking a hundred little buses. So we started at 9.30am with a drive to Derinkuyu, an underground city.
We spent about an hour wandering around up to (down to?) 100 metres underground. The city was started in 700bc and people just kept adding to it, including persecuted Christians in 200ad. It's very extensive, goes down 200 metres and has about 8 layers. The purpose was to hide from weather, animals and enemies so the tunnels were kept quite short, to slow them down. That all added up to some very narrow, very low twisty stairways. Bent in half, trying to see ahead of you and trying not to fall, thereby causing a massive domino down the entire pathway, was something of a challenge. At one point on the long-way-down we had to squish 18 people into a passing bay the size of a large closet to let a group going up past. We saw churches, stables, bedrooms and kitchens, all underground. I wanted to buy a proper map of the place to look at it better but they only sold cartoony ones.
After that we headed to Ihlara Valley for a 4km walk by a river at the bottom of a gorge. It too was a hiding place for early Christians, and later a pilgrimage/hermit site. There are a lot of old churches and paintings in the area and it was really lovely to explore. It was very wet and green, too, which was a big change from the dry Turkey we've been seeing. Lunch was at the end of the walk, but some sloooow people (Americans, pff.) held us up at least 20 minutes - quite a long time if you're waiting for lunch after a one hour walk!
After lunch the Selime Monastery - yet another stunning location. Peggy and I loved exploring the caves and carved out rooms. We were quite intrepid and ended up high up in odd rooms and in a pitch-black area above the school. It was so much fun, we were all meant to only have 20 minutes (thanks to silly slow people) but we took about double that. Plus a million and a half photos. Just wait till I start posting those!
By this time we have climbed up and down countless stairs, hiked 4km and clambored all over a cliffside monastery so we were exhausted. A lot of people slept in the van for the ride back. We stopped briefly to look over Pigeon Valley, where people kept pigeons (surprise!) for messages, fertilizer and their eggs which were used as primer for cave paintings.
We were supposed to go to an onyx demonstration but our guide let us take a vote and we all voted home. It was an amazing day. We've got plans tomorrow for the Goreme Open Air Museum in the morning and a surprise for our viewers at home at sunset so hopefully we'll be looking at three for three.
Cappadocia has by far been my favourite location. I really think we could spend our whole two weeks here and not get bored. We've been spoiled for any less dramatic vistas, too. Show us a mountain and we'll just sneer.
So yesterday (Wednesday) after Peggy recovered we decided to walk to a place I picked on a map. It could have been quite the let down but instead it was amazing! We should follow all my whims...
Cavusin (with accents missing) is 4km from Goreme and has two famous churches. We walked there in about 40 minute, enjoying the view of coconut ice mountains and top heavy peaks. The colour lines are amazing, you can tell what is the softer rock because there are big red layers on top of very skinny green layers. At the town we got a bit turned around, browsed tacky souvenirs and ate ice cream before asking directions.
We found Cavusin Church, carved out of stone two stories up and painted with frescoes of bible stories. I found this youtube video of pictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrCjbQRw5Lk. I didn't listen to the sound, it probably has some tacky music to go with it, but it shows you what we saw. It was really stunning, I wished we had a book of explanations to go with it - even Google hasn't been able to answer all my questions!
There were lots of labyrinthian places to climb and explore, many with great views so we were intrepid and climbed into places chiselled out of the rock by hand about 1500 years ago. One of the views was of the famous fairy chimneys (that's the polite name, there are some rude jokes about them too since they're longer than they are wide.) They were close enough to reach and touch so we got some pretty wicked pictures. I'll post some here, hopefully, and some are already on Facebook.
Today we signed up to an epic eight hour, 300km tour. It was the best way to see everything we wanted to see because the alternative was taking a hundred little buses. So we started at 9.30am with a drive to Derinkuyu, an underground city.
We spent about an hour wandering around up to (down to?) 100 metres underground. The city was started in 700bc and people just kept adding to it, including persecuted Christians in 200ad. It's very extensive, goes down 200 metres and has about 8 layers. The purpose was to hide from weather, animals and enemies so the tunnels were kept quite short, to slow them down. That all added up to some very narrow, very low twisty stairways. Bent in half, trying to see ahead of you and trying not to fall, thereby causing a massive domino down the entire pathway, was something of a challenge. At one point on the long-way-down we had to squish 18 people into a passing bay the size of a large closet to let a group going up past. We saw churches, stables, bedrooms and kitchens, all underground. I wanted to buy a proper map of the place to look at it better but they only sold cartoony ones.
After that we headed to Ihlara Valley for a 4km walk by a river at the bottom of a gorge. It too was a hiding place for early Christians, and later a pilgrimage/hermit site. There are a lot of old churches and paintings in the area and it was really lovely to explore. It was very wet and green, too, which was a big change from the dry Turkey we've been seeing. Lunch was at the end of the walk, but some sloooow people (Americans, pff.) held us up at least 20 minutes - quite a long time if you're waiting for lunch after a one hour walk!
After lunch the Selime Monastery - yet another stunning location. Peggy and I loved exploring the caves and carved out rooms. We were quite intrepid and ended up high up in odd rooms and in a pitch-black area above the school. It was so much fun, we were all meant to only have 20 minutes (thanks to silly slow people) but we took about double that. Plus a million and a half photos. Just wait till I start posting those!
By this time we have climbed up and down countless stairs, hiked 4km and clambored all over a cliffside monastery so we were exhausted. A lot of people slept in the van for the ride back. We stopped briefly to look over Pigeon Valley, where people kept pigeons (surprise!) for messages, fertilizer and their eggs which were used as primer for cave paintings.
We were supposed to go to an onyx demonstration but our guide let us take a vote and we all voted home. It was an amazing day. We've got plans tomorrow for the Goreme Open Air Museum in the morning and a surprise for our viewers at home at sunset so hopefully we'll be looking at three for three.
Cappadocia has by far been my favourite location. I really think we could spend our whole two weeks here and not get bored. We've been spoiled for any less dramatic vistas, too. Show us a mountain and we'll just sneer.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Geology rocks...
Wednesday here, we're settled into our hostel in Goreme, which is stunning!
Monday we did basically nothing until 3.30 when we saw the Temple of Artemis in Selcuk and the local museum. The temple used to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but now it's barely even a pile of rocks. You do get a sense of scale from it but it also shows just how impressive it is when something survives 2500 years because so much doesn't survive. Museum was small but well put together. Saw a 2000 year old backgammon table and a lot of busts. Someone "christianised" a bunch of them by scraping crosses in their foreheads sometime in the last 1000 years. Classy.
Tuesday we got the bus to Pamukkale and we didn't really know what to expect but had heard good things. Those good things were so underplayed! Pamukkale was amazing - it's a stark white ridge line with water cascading down it into small terraced pools and across rock slopes. You walk up barefoot and can go into some of the pools. It was beautiful, a lot of the photos look like glaciers. If you put someone up there in ski gear it would look right, but they would probably die of heat stroke. I would love to go back one day and spend the entire day there, from sunrise onwards.
Night bus from there to Goreme, in Cappadocia. Cappadocia is famous for its "fairy chimneys" - huge rock towers across the region. It's all blah blah erosion/geology/magic but the end result is phenomenal. Goreme is built in amongst these outcrops with houses, including our hostel, built into the rock. Today we're going to do a walk of the area. Peggy didn't sleep well on the bus so she's napping in preparation for the snappy pace I'll set ;) Tomorrow we're doing a tour of some of the further away sites including an underground city and a valley where early Christians hid from... the bad guys. Whoever the bad guys were at the time.
All caught up here and in my journal and still on budget - one week in and I'm still passing for a grown up.
Monday we did basically nothing until 3.30 when we saw the Temple of Artemis in Selcuk and the local museum. The temple used to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but now it's barely even a pile of rocks. You do get a sense of scale from it but it also shows just how impressive it is when something survives 2500 years because so much doesn't survive. Museum was small but well put together. Saw a 2000 year old backgammon table and a lot of busts. Someone "christianised" a bunch of them by scraping crosses in their foreheads sometime in the last 1000 years. Classy.
Tuesday we got the bus to Pamukkale and we didn't really know what to expect but had heard good things. Those good things were so underplayed! Pamukkale was amazing - it's a stark white ridge line with water cascading down it into small terraced pools and across rock slopes. You walk up barefoot and can go into some of the pools. It was beautiful, a lot of the photos look like glaciers. If you put someone up there in ski gear it would look right, but they would probably die of heat stroke. I would love to go back one day and spend the entire day there, from sunrise onwards.
Night bus from there to Goreme, in Cappadocia. Cappadocia is famous for its "fairy chimneys" - huge rock towers across the region. It's all blah blah erosion/geology/magic but the end result is phenomenal. Goreme is built in amongst these outcrops with houses, including our hostel, built into the rock. Today we're going to do a walk of the area. Peggy didn't sleep well on the bus so she's napping in preparation for the snappy pace I'll set ;) Tomorrow we're doing a tour of some of the further away sites including an underground city and a valley where early Christians hid from... the bad guys. Whoever the bad guys were at the time.
All caught up here and in my journal and still on budget - one week in and I'm still passing for a grown up.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Troia, Gelibolu, Ephesus etc.
Sooo... Where was I? About to check out and head South? Basically Friday ended up being a write off thanks to a few choice pieces of bad information. I can't be bothered, but you can read about it on Peggy's blog, The Pegiad, if you want to know. The punchline is we arrive in Eceabat about 6pm without time to get to Troy. We got some food, hung out with some people and went to bed early to get Troy and Gallipoli done in a day.
Up early to catch the 8am ferry to Canakkale to get a dolmus (mini-bus) to Troy... Except more bad information means we have to wait 45 minutes for a bus and end up with less than an hour at Troy. Peggy studied the city and the history of its discovery so she was an excellent guide and I learned a lot on our speed tour :) We were worried about missing the ferry to make it to our Gallipoli tour so I pounced on an unsuspecting couple headed to Canakkale to ask for a lift. They spoke no English, we speak less than no Turkish (when I try to say thank you people just look baffled - that's anti-communication.) So the nice people took us back to the ferry and we were only a little late for our tour.
I was especially focused on seeing Gallipoli. It's such a huge part of our national history and identity, I knew it would mean a lot. As it turned out I was almost crying by the first stop. It was a moving, emotional experience on a beautiful coastline where thousands of young men died. I was especially shocked that a quarter of the Australians and New Zealanders who died were never found. Anyway, not so much a happy trip, but I'm glad we went and now I can really picture what we were taught in history class.
After that we had about three hours to kill before our bus. Our hostel (Hotel Crowded House) was great, they let us shower and hang out despite having checked out almost 12 hours earlier. We interneted, charged stuff, fixed my "f" key on my laptop, wrote postcards and updated diaries... and there was still more than an hour to go. Waiting sucks. Then we were told the bus would be late by about an hour. That turned out to be more like an hour and a half, and at that time ferries are only every hour so we finally left Canakkale two hours late, at 12.30am. Didn't bother us too much in the end because otherwise we would have reached Selcuk at 5am.
How long is this? How boring? If the answer to both those is "too" then you should have skipped ahead.
So today (Sunday) we arrived in Selcuk at 7am, got picked up by our hostel and got to check in about 8am, totally unheard of usually but I guess the room was already clean. We decided to hit Ephesus, an ancient city. It's huge, and fairly well preserved. It's not far from our hostel so we walked over the hill. It took about an hour but I really enjoyed getting off my arse and being active. There's been a lot of sitting lately!
Spent almost three hours walking around Ephesus. It's amazing to sit somewhere and think that 1000 years ago someone probably sat in the exact same place. The signs were really good so we didn't miss having a guide. Instead we went our own pace, resting frequently in the shade so Peggy's thermostat didn't overload. Ice cream, a dolmus back to town, some grocery shopping and a shuttle back to our hostel. Rock and roll.
Now we're deciding what to do tomorrow between nothing and Aqua Fantasy water park. I'll let you know what we pick
Up early to catch the 8am ferry to Canakkale to get a dolmus (mini-bus) to Troy... Except more bad information means we have to wait 45 minutes for a bus and end up with less than an hour at Troy. Peggy studied the city and the history of its discovery so she was an excellent guide and I learned a lot on our speed tour :) We were worried about missing the ferry to make it to our Gallipoli tour so I pounced on an unsuspecting couple headed to Canakkale to ask for a lift. They spoke no English, we speak less than no Turkish (when I try to say thank you people just look baffled - that's anti-communication.) So the nice people took us back to the ferry and we were only a little late for our tour.
I was especially focused on seeing Gallipoli. It's such a huge part of our national history and identity, I knew it would mean a lot. As it turned out I was almost crying by the first stop. It was a moving, emotional experience on a beautiful coastline where thousands of young men died. I was especially shocked that a quarter of the Australians and New Zealanders who died were never found. Anyway, not so much a happy trip, but I'm glad we went and now I can really picture what we were taught in history class.
After that we had about three hours to kill before our bus. Our hostel (Hotel Crowded House) was great, they let us shower and hang out despite having checked out almost 12 hours earlier. We interneted, charged stuff, fixed my "f" key on my laptop, wrote postcards and updated diaries... and there was still more than an hour to go. Waiting sucks. Then we were told the bus would be late by about an hour. That turned out to be more like an hour and a half, and at that time ferries are only every hour so we finally left Canakkale two hours late, at 12.30am. Didn't bother us too much in the end because otherwise we would have reached Selcuk at 5am.
How long is this? How boring? If the answer to both those is "too" then you should have skipped ahead.
So today (Sunday) we arrived in Selcuk at 7am, got picked up by our hostel and got to check in about 8am, totally unheard of usually but I guess the room was already clean. We decided to hit Ephesus, an ancient city. It's huge, and fairly well preserved. It's not far from our hostel so we walked over the hill. It took about an hour but I really enjoyed getting off my arse and being active. There's been a lot of sitting lately!
Spent almost three hours walking around Ephesus. It's amazing to sit somewhere and think that 1000 years ago someone probably sat in the exact same place. The signs were really good so we didn't miss having a guide. Instead we went our own pace, resting frequently in the shade so Peggy's thermostat didn't overload. Ice cream, a dolmus back to town, some grocery shopping and a shuttle back to our hostel. Rock and roll.
Now we're deciding what to do tomorrow between nothing and Aqua Fantasy water park. I'll let you know what we pick
Friday, 16 September 2011
Boats, dried avocado and the sumptuous palace...
Thought I'd get one more update in before Peggy and I check out... But now I've forgotten where I finished on Wednesday. Before the Grand Bazaar or after?
Before. So we hung out in the cool for a while and worked out our next steps. Emailed some queries, checked some details. About 3pm we headed towards the Grand Bazaar. It was easy to find because it's well signposted so we got there easily enough. For those that haven't been there it's basically a huge indoor market that's like a rabbit warren with lanes, alleyways, twisting paths and a lot of people shouting at you. The best interchange I had went like this:
Seller: "Buy one for your mother-in-law!"
Me: *smirk*
Seller: "Or for my mother."
Points to him for making me laugh - most people just shout "Ladies! Ladies!"
We knew we wanted to buy pashminas here, there's no shortage of stalls but a lot are owned by the same people. We looked for ones that specified their scarves were 100% cashmere or described the blend and ended up in a little shop looking at hundreds of scarves.
The seller there kept calling me "babyface" which did not go over well... so he switched to "crazy girl", which I somehow preferred. He tried to tell us the scarves would be 120 lira each... we laughed and laughed. Eventually we got them for 50 lira for both. Certainly a lot less than he said but its hard to know if that's really a fair price. Regardless, I enjoyed the bargaining and the final cost was something we were happy with. Unfortunately it's so hot we can't wear them! Peg got a lovely 100% cashmere blue-grey one and I got a teal cashmere/silk scarf.
We wandered a lot then got lost trying to get home. We decided to just walk in a circle around the bazaar, which worked eventually but we ended up in a lot of areas that were obviously where Turkish people shopped. It was cool to see the "real" Istanbul and no one shouted at us on those streets. The thing that stood out was the extreme dresses! They would make those Big Fat Gypsy Weddings proud. Plus heaps of shiny fur lined capes for little boys. Maybe there's some kind of occasion where little boys where big capes?
Eventually made it away from there and decided to hit the Spice Bazaar, which is very close to our hostel. It was super crowded so we didn't meander, just walked through and goggled at things like circus tea and dried avocado (yuck? Stay tuned to find out...)
Home again home again we relaxed, cooked some dinner... what else? Not much. I fell asleep about 9.30 on Peggy's bed but she made me wake up and get ready for bed properly so I stayed up until the respectable hour of 10pm. Take that jetlag!
Yesterday we headed to the ferry to see the Asian side of the city. It turned out to be a bit boring, a bit dirty and quite crowded. On our way back on the ferry we were debating what to do. We still had Topkapi Palace and the Archaeological Museum to see but neither of us felt much like walking. We considered just going to the hostel or a cafe to hang out but that sounded a bit boring... what to do? Spontaneously jump on a cruise, of course!
You can take 2 to 6 hour cruises of the Bosphorus so we took a two hour cruise for 10 lira and got to sit in the sun (or the shade if you're Peggy), enjoy the views and relax on the water. I loved it. Took heaps of pictures but they're probably rubbish.
Then back to the hostel for lunch/internet, But on our way we decided, when else would we be able to try dried avocado? Never! So we got some free samples, took a bite and thought "Hey, that's not so bad..." Then the aftertaste hit and we got this lasting wave of bitter metallic taste. Yuck. Some free samples of turkish delight helped :) So no, we don't suggest drying your avocado. I think it still had the skin on too...
That afternoon we hit Topkapi Palace. It. Was. Epic.
Huge, ornate and spacious - you could easily spend all day there with no issues. We had about three hours there and saw the harem, too. That was pretty spectacular. All the concubines, eunuchs and most of the royal family lived there and never really got to leave. Sultans used to kill all their brothers so they would plot to steal the throne, but by the 1500s they decided locking them in the "golden cage" was a good alternative. It was very beautiful and ornate, with some amazing views, but I can imagine it would start to feel more cage-like than golden after a while, especially for the concubines who would ever have known differently.
The rest of the palace is equally stunning, but tomes have been written on it so I won't describe it poorly here. We had an audioguide so learned that the kitchens cooked for up to 15000 people.
Mostly everyone was spread out but in some of the smaller rooms the queues got hugely backed up. In one such queue we couldn't figure out what people wanted to see and I noticed some people kissing the cabinet (and getting yelled at by the guards) we got out of the queue to a different space in the room and discovered it was the beard hair of Mohammed. Also on display: Moses' staff, a cup Mohammed once drank from and Mohammed's signet ring. Gotta love holy leftovers.
We got home tired and overheated. Our hostel runs a restaurant that delivers so with another guy in our dorm we got platters and dessert. It was delicious and nice to relax on the rooftop with views over the city and eat traditional food. Altogether a lovely day.
Now we have to check out so we can make our way to Canakkale and Troy, then Eceabat and Gallipoli tomorrow.
Before. So we hung out in the cool for a while and worked out our next steps. Emailed some queries, checked some details. About 3pm we headed towards the Grand Bazaar. It was easy to find because it's well signposted so we got there easily enough. For those that haven't been there it's basically a huge indoor market that's like a rabbit warren with lanes, alleyways, twisting paths and a lot of people shouting at you. The best interchange I had went like this:
Seller: "Buy one for your mother-in-law!"
Me: *smirk*
Seller: "Or for my mother."
Points to him for making me laugh - most people just shout "Ladies! Ladies!"
We knew we wanted to buy pashminas here, there's no shortage of stalls but a lot are owned by the same people. We looked for ones that specified their scarves were 100% cashmere or described the blend and ended up in a little shop looking at hundreds of scarves.
The seller there kept calling me "babyface" which did not go over well... so he switched to "crazy girl", which I somehow preferred. He tried to tell us the scarves would be 120 lira each... we laughed and laughed. Eventually we got them for 50 lira for both. Certainly a lot less than he said but its hard to know if that's really a fair price. Regardless, I enjoyed the bargaining and the final cost was something we were happy with. Unfortunately it's so hot we can't wear them! Peg got a lovely 100% cashmere blue-grey one and I got a teal cashmere/silk scarf.
We wandered a lot then got lost trying to get home. We decided to just walk in a circle around the bazaar, which worked eventually but we ended up in a lot of areas that were obviously where Turkish people shopped. It was cool to see the "real" Istanbul and no one shouted at us on those streets. The thing that stood out was the extreme dresses! They would make those Big Fat Gypsy Weddings proud. Plus heaps of shiny fur lined capes for little boys. Maybe there's some kind of occasion where little boys where big capes?
Eventually made it away from there and decided to hit the Spice Bazaar, which is very close to our hostel. It was super crowded so we didn't meander, just walked through and goggled at things like circus tea and dried avocado (yuck? Stay tuned to find out...)
Home again home again we relaxed, cooked some dinner... what else? Not much. I fell asleep about 9.30 on Peggy's bed but she made me wake up and get ready for bed properly so I stayed up until the respectable hour of 10pm. Take that jetlag!
Yesterday we headed to the ferry to see the Asian side of the city. It turned out to be a bit boring, a bit dirty and quite crowded. On our way back on the ferry we were debating what to do. We still had Topkapi Palace and the Archaeological Museum to see but neither of us felt much like walking. We considered just going to the hostel or a cafe to hang out but that sounded a bit boring... what to do? Spontaneously jump on a cruise, of course!
You can take 2 to 6 hour cruises of the Bosphorus so we took a two hour cruise for 10 lira and got to sit in the sun (or the shade if you're Peggy), enjoy the views and relax on the water. I loved it. Took heaps of pictures but they're probably rubbish.
Then back to the hostel for lunch/internet, But on our way we decided, when else would we be able to try dried avocado? Never! So we got some free samples, took a bite and thought "Hey, that's not so bad..." Then the aftertaste hit and we got this lasting wave of bitter metallic taste. Yuck. Some free samples of turkish delight helped :) So no, we don't suggest drying your avocado. I think it still had the skin on too...
That afternoon we hit Topkapi Palace. It. Was. Epic.
Huge, ornate and spacious - you could easily spend all day there with no issues. We had about three hours there and saw the harem, too. That was pretty spectacular. All the concubines, eunuchs and most of the royal family lived there and never really got to leave. Sultans used to kill all their brothers so they would plot to steal the throne, but by the 1500s they decided locking them in the "golden cage" was a good alternative. It was very beautiful and ornate, with some amazing views, but I can imagine it would start to feel more cage-like than golden after a while, especially for the concubines who would ever have known differently.
The rest of the palace is equally stunning, but tomes have been written on it so I won't describe it poorly here. We had an audioguide so learned that the kitchens cooked for up to 15000 people.
Mostly everyone was spread out but in some of the smaller rooms the queues got hugely backed up. In one such queue we couldn't figure out what people wanted to see and I noticed some people kissing the cabinet (and getting yelled at by the guards) we got out of the queue to a different space in the room and discovered it was the beard hair of Mohammed. Also on display: Moses' staff, a cup Mohammed once drank from and Mohammed's signet ring. Gotta love holy leftovers.
We got home tired and overheated. Our hostel runs a restaurant that delivers so with another guy in our dorm we got platters and dessert. It was delicious and nice to relax on the rooftop with views over the city and eat traditional food. Altogether a lovely day.
Now we have to check out so we can make our way to Canakkale and Troy, then Eceabat and Gallipoli tomorrow.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
I love the sun
Haha to all of you - it is 28 degrees, beautifully sunny with a light breeze so it's not too humid. That's right, I am in paradise and you're not. Sorry, had to get my gloat over with. Peggy and I are staying at Second Home Hostel in Istanbul and have made good use of our first morning in the city. We explored Sultahnamet, which is the older part of the city. We saw Hagia Sophia (1500 year old church converted to mosque converted to museum) which was stunning. Some really detailed frescoes and mosaics on the ceiling, 50 metres up. How did they do that in 500ad? A couple of the mosaics are of Jesus with emperors and leaders of the time, it reminded me of people who put up pictures of themselves with famous people. "This is that time I met that guy off Shortland Street in the supermarket and made him pose for a photo." Since I guess the only guy bigger than Constantine at the time was Jesus a detailed mosaic was the best alternative to a camera phone picture.
Then the Blue Mosque, oooh, where we had to cover our legs and shoulders but not heads. The Basilica Cistern, still the closest to a holy place I've been but it's just designed for water storage. The Hippodrome which has neither horses nor race course but some big pillars stolen from Egypt and erected in honour of whoever was emperor in 400ad. Because why build your own when you can steal something cool from someone else? That's always been my philosophy! (Disclaimer for future potential employers: this is a joke.)
Now we're escaping the heat of the day (Peggy has a low melting point) to update this, read some books and plan the next bit.
This afternoon we'll probably head to the Grand Bazaar or the Spice Bazaar and over to the Asian part of the city on the ferry.
Still no postcards but that's on the list of things to do.
Hope you're all healthy and happy. Or as happy as its possible to be when you're not in paradise ;)
Then the Blue Mosque, oooh, where we had to cover our legs and shoulders but not heads. The Basilica Cistern, still the closest to a holy place I've been but it's just designed for water storage. The Hippodrome which has neither horses nor race course but some big pillars stolen from Egypt and erected in honour of whoever was emperor in 400ad. Because why build your own when you can steal something cool from someone else? That's always been my philosophy! (Disclaimer for future potential employers: this is a joke.)
Now we're escaping the heat of the day (Peggy has a low melting point) to update this, read some books and plan the next bit.
This afternoon we'll probably head to the Grand Bazaar or the Spice Bazaar and over to the Asian part of the city on the ferry.
Still no postcards but that's on the list of things to do.
Hope you're all healthy and happy. Or as happy as its possible to be when you're not in paradise ;)
Made it - finally
Hello! First official update from not-New-Zealand.
It took Peggy and I 43 hours from the front door of Mum's house to the door of our hostel. That included about 24 hours of flight time, 17 hours in airports and a couple hours of travel time. We were tired, sore and a bit smelly but very excited to arrive. Istanbul is such a busy, bustling city with cars and trucks trying to squeeze down narrow winding streets, which are really glorified alleyways. We've spent a fair amount of our first few hours dodging traffic :)
We met a German guy, Stefan, as we signed in and all went for a walk to find a grocery store and tour the water front. A visit to the roof-top social area completed our socialisation for the evening. With exhaustion setting in our brains are functioning well below par, but I did still manage a conversation about the dominance of English as the language of travellers (lucky for Peggy and me.)
Free internet gave us a chance to look at the next few days of our trip - a couple days here in Istanbul and then on to Troy, Gallipoli and Ephesus over the weekend.
So far all happy and healthy (other than side effects of sleep deprivation) and so thrilled to be in Turkey. And no more planes/airports for a whole two weeks!
It took Peggy and I 43 hours from the front door of Mum's house to the door of our hostel. That included about 24 hours of flight time, 17 hours in airports and a couple hours of travel time. We were tired, sore and a bit smelly but very excited to arrive. Istanbul is such a busy, bustling city with cars and trucks trying to squeeze down narrow winding streets, which are really glorified alleyways. We've spent a fair amount of our first few hours dodging traffic :)
We met a German guy, Stefan, as we signed in and all went for a walk to find a grocery store and tour the water front. A visit to the roof-top social area completed our socialisation for the evening. With exhaustion setting in our brains are functioning well below par, but I did still manage a conversation about the dominance of English as the language of travellers (lucky for Peggy and me.)
Free internet gave us a chance to look at the next few days of our trip - a couple days here in Istanbul and then on to Troy, Gallipoli and Ephesus over the weekend.
So far all happy and healthy (other than side effects of sleep deprivation) and so thrilled to be in Turkey. And no more planes/airports for a whole two weeks!
Sunday, 11 September 2011
I feel like I'm digging out an old diary, blowing the dust off the top and starting a new entry... which is pretty much what's happening here!
Peggy and I fly out tomorrow for our next adventure - Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Portugal. I'm mostly packed, my room is a disaster and I am sure I'll forget something important but I'm finally getting really excited about the trip!
The itinerary is two weeks Turkey, about 6 days in Morocco and then 16 days around Spain and Portugal. Then in Barcelona I fly to London and Peggy starts the next leg of her trip. I have four days in London, a day and a half in Reykjavik (Iceland) then to Toronto where I start my new life as a Big City Reporter. That last bit's not for sure - I'll probably take whatever job comes along, but ideally I'd like to be Lois Lane.
That's undoubtedly enough for a post where we haven't even done anything yet. If you want a postcard email me (catienobes@gmail.com) your address. No guarantees, but I'll do my best.
Peggy and I fly out tomorrow for our next adventure - Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Portugal. I'm mostly packed, my room is a disaster and I am sure I'll forget something important but I'm finally getting really excited about the trip!
The itinerary is two weeks Turkey, about 6 days in Morocco and then 16 days around Spain and Portugal. Then in Barcelona I fly to London and Peggy starts the next leg of her trip. I have four days in London, a day and a half in Reykjavik (Iceland) then to Toronto where I start my new life as a Big City Reporter. That last bit's not for sure - I'll probably take whatever job comes along, but ideally I'd like to be Lois Lane.
That's undoubtedly enough for a post where we haven't even done anything yet. If you want a postcard email me (catienobes@gmail.com) your address. No guarantees, but I'll do my best.
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