Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Lets begin again
Hi well its a while since I was here. Ive decided to keep this running rather than hae multipul blogs so here we go.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Glad to be home
Hi we are home now and it is very cold.
We left Turkey with some sadness. This is a beautiful place with such an amazing mixture of history, religion, culture and occupations and new friends.
We stopped of at Dubai on the way home and I wondered if I was in another world. The Arab people have a national costume. The men wear a white cloak and a veil like head dress and a lot of the womwn wear a black dress and veil. At the airport there were some beautiful African women dressed in their natural dress which has big puffy sleeves with a long skirt often worn with a layer of shawls and a headress made from matching fabric The earthy colours of these garments are spetacular.
The heat was in the high 30s so we caught a bouble decker bus the next day and did a tour of the city.This was surposed to take 2 hours and ended up being 4 due to heavy traffic congestion in the downtown city area. The builders working on the site by our hotel worked all night. The guide told us that on one particular building site there was 3000 workers working a 24hour shift. They had hoped to build a floor on the tall building of 75 floors in 4 days. Everything had to be big and the best in the world. It seemed a waste of enviromental resources. Sea water is recycled to water the trees in the city about 30,000 gallons is used so people forget it is a desert and it looks green and lovely. This place is built on sand. Our hotel receptionist told us to do indoor activities as they were expecting a sand storm.
Im so glad to be home and hope you have all enjoyed sharng our trip with us.
We left Turkey with some sadness. This is a beautiful place with such an amazing mixture of history, religion, culture and occupations and new friends.
We stopped of at Dubai on the way home and I wondered if I was in another world. The Arab people have a national costume. The men wear a white cloak and a veil like head dress and a lot of the womwn wear a black dress and veil. At the airport there were some beautiful African women dressed in their natural dress which has big puffy sleeves with a long skirt often worn with a layer of shawls and a headress made from matching fabric The earthy colours of these garments are spetacular.
The heat was in the high 30s so we caught a bouble decker bus the next day and did a tour of the city.This was surposed to take 2 hours and ended up being 4 due to heavy traffic congestion in the downtown city area. The builders working on the site by our hotel worked all night. The guide told us that on one particular building site there was 3000 workers working a 24hour shift. They had hoped to build a floor on the tall building of 75 floors in 4 days. Everything had to be big and the best in the world. It seemed a waste of enviromental resources. Sea water is recycled to water the trees in the city about 30,000 gallons is used so people forget it is a desert and it looks green and lovely. This place is built on sand. Our hotel receptionist told us to do indoor activities as they were expecting a sand storm.
Im so glad to be home and hope you have all enjoyed sharng our trip with us.
Monday, June 4, 2007
A Day Doing Nothing
Well today has been a real day for doing nothing. All the weekend visitors had gone when we got up for breakfast and the place certainly looked deserted.. We watched the little fishing boats go in and out. Fishermen cleaned the crabs from their nets and local restauranteers came down to buy some red mullet, a small fish like a sprat and sea bass which looks like our mullet. A fish meal costs 15L.
Yesterday we bought a loaf of bread for 00.25, a couple of bananas and a bottle all for 5L and that was lunch. I'm surprised there are no sea gulls here. I've seen one and a shag. Today we walked out to the coast army post about 2km away and were surprised to find 50boats waiting to go through the straits.
The little village of Kilyos has approximitaly 12 places to eat, 2 vege shops, 2 small grocery stores and 3 shops selling swim wear. Tomorrow we return to Istanbull to pack our bags ready for home.
I forgot to tell you about the 2 tortoises we saw trying to cross the road. Our driver stopped the car and lifted them across!
Yesterday we bought a loaf of bread for 00.25, a couple of bananas and a bottle all for 5L and that was lunch. I'm surprised there are no sea gulls here. I've seen one and a shag. Today we walked out to the coast army post about 2km away and were surprised to find 50boats waiting to go through the straits.
The little village of Kilyos has approximitaly 12 places to eat, 2 vege shops, 2 small grocery stores and 3 shops selling swim wear. Tomorrow we return to Istanbull to pack our bags ready for home.
I forgot to tell you about the 2 tortoises we saw trying to cross the road. Our driver stopped the car and lifted them across!
Gateway to the Straits
Well this is meant to be 3 nights rest and recouperate before we head for home. Getting out of Istanbul was a mission - it was Saturday midday and traffic jams were every where with people heading for parks, shopping and to watch an airshow overhead. We have a hotel room over looking the sea. It was 20l cheaper with no view.
The beach front directly infront of us is stony and an anchor place for the small fishing boats tied up to a concrete wharf. There is a hole through this to the other beaches which are cordoned off and you have to pay 30l to swim there. However the water inside the area is so shallow people all swim outside the bouys. There is a rusty old ship in the bay which I may endeavour to walk out to later. It's not a case of walking along the beach but walking along the bouys in the water as the sea has little difference in high and low tide.
Today the water is dominated by young teenage boys and noisy music which is needed as the water is so cold you have to do aerobic exercises to get wet. Last night there was one ship waiting to go through the strait - this morning there are about 20 out there. Not short of entertainment..
The beach front directly infront of us is stony and an anchor place for the small fishing boats tied up to a concrete wharf. There is a hole through this to the other beaches which are cordoned off and you have to pay 30l to swim there. However the water inside the area is so shallow people all swim outside the bouys. There is a rusty old ship in the bay which I may endeavour to walk out to later. It's not a case of walking along the beach but walking along the bouys in the water as the sea has little difference in high and low tide.
Today the water is dominated by young teenage boys and noisy music which is needed as the water is so cold you have to do aerobic exercises to get wet. Last night there was one ship waiting to go through the strait - this morning there are about 20 out there. Not short of entertainment..
Back in Istanbul
Well we feel as though we are home. It was a funny feeling coming over on the ferry from Yalvas into Istanbull - we all felt the same. It had been an absolute action packed 6 nights. Our gamble with a car and driver certainly paid off.
We had left Pamukale about 11am and it was about 500km to Istanbull if you followed the straight roads: however our driver was reluctant to do this due to his experiences in the army when you only drove on main roads for security reasons. Thankfully some local men persuaded him it was pefectly safe saving us another 200km. The road was similar to our roads so our rally driving driver slowed down a fraction. Once again we were looking at farm lands of wheat and poppies this time. And a few tea and cotton fields. We stopped to také a photo of a young lady following a donkey home from the hills. When she saw Braydon and Bill in the car she picked up her donkey stick and truned to go the other way. She relaxed when I got out of the car but the donkey then decided to run off on its own without her. In all the confusion we all forgot to find out what the donkey was carrying. I think it was cut grass in sacks for the animals at the farm house. It seems that most people travel out from a central farming village to their work place. Plastic houses to grow tomatoes in dominated one village we passed through.
Back in Istanbull we went out to dinner with Braydon and his wife who spoke no english. They were giving us a special Turkish food meal which I can describe but not name the dishes. We started with an awesome hot bread bun baked in a wood fired oven. To go in this was butter and a small square of blue vein cheese with walnuts in the centre. Oh it was delicious. Along side this was a rice dish with an egg topping served from a small dish the size of a breakfast cup. Next came a diamond shaped meatball with yellow cheese in it. As the meat wasn't quite cooked in the middle I passsed this on. We then had a piece of mutton served with a green chilli and a tomato. Following this we had a desert of coconut shredded and soaked in honey encasing cheese. It was very rich but the taste was delicious. I think we have made a long lasting friend in Turkey.
We stayed 2 nights in Istanbull and are now in Kilyos a small fishing village on the Black sea. After over 2 weeks being on the go daylight to midnight it was time to také a break.
We had left Pamukale about 11am and it was about 500km to Istanbull if you followed the straight roads: however our driver was reluctant to do this due to his experiences in the army when you only drove on main roads for security reasons. Thankfully some local men persuaded him it was pefectly safe saving us another 200km. The road was similar to our roads so our rally driving driver slowed down a fraction. Once again we were looking at farm lands of wheat and poppies this time. And a few tea and cotton fields. We stopped to také a photo of a young lady following a donkey home from the hills. When she saw Braydon and Bill in the car she picked up her donkey stick and truned to go the other way. She relaxed when I got out of the car but the donkey then decided to run off on its own without her. In all the confusion we all forgot to find out what the donkey was carrying. I think it was cut grass in sacks for the animals at the farm house. It seems that most people travel out from a central farming village to their work place. Plastic houses to grow tomatoes in dominated one village we passed through.
Back in Istanbull we went out to dinner with Braydon and his wife who spoke no english. They were giving us a special Turkish food meal which I can describe but not name the dishes. We started with an awesome hot bread bun baked in a wood fired oven. To go in this was butter and a small square of blue vein cheese with walnuts in the centre. Oh it was delicious. Along side this was a rice dish with an egg topping served from a small dish the size of a breakfast cup. Next came a diamond shaped meatball with yellow cheese in it. As the meat wasn't quite cooked in the middle I passsed this on. We then had a piece of mutton served with a green chilli and a tomato. Following this we had a desert of coconut shredded and soaked in honey encasing cheese. It was very rich but the taste was delicious. I think we have made a long lasting friend in Turkey.
We stayed 2 nights in Istanbull and are now in Kilyos a small fishing village on the Black sea. After over 2 weeks being on the go daylight to midnight it was time to také a break.
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