The Final Countdown. Day 6: Göreme

Today we were booked in to do one of the tours offered in Cappadocia. There are 3 main tours, Red, Green and Blue, each taking you to different attractions. The day before when we walked all through the Red and Rose Valley, we had largely followed to Red route already. The Blue route was on ATV which left the Green as a viable option for us. This tour would take us out of Goreme and show us quite a few different things, so this is the tour we opted for. We were on a tour of about 16 people.

* Goreme Panorama

First stop was a beautiful view over the valley with the volcano in the background. We stopped here to learn a bit more about what the tour was going to entail and to take some beautiful pictures.

* Onyx Factory

This stop took us inside a jewellery shop, which immediately put my heckles up as I don’t trust being taken into shops on tours. It seemed genuine, but it was awful because I basically wanted everything inside. We learnt about Turquoise - which literally translates to Turkish Stone. Turquoise can be found in many places, but the stone specific to this country has golden flecks and veins through out it. As it ages, it changes from a bright teal to a deeper green.

Also here we learnt about a new stone that’s been discovered called “sultanite”, (zultanite) literally “Sultan’s Stone”. It can only be found in this region of Cappadocia, and it is exquisite. On the surface, it looks like a bit of a dirty brown, shiny gemstone. But the moment the light changes, so does the colour of the stone. Bright purple, bright green, blues - apparently 16 different colours this stone can turn depending on the light that surrounds it. I inquired as to how much a brooch cost and it was…slightly too expensive (I think about €180).

* Pigeon Valley

In ancient times, the people of the area utilised pigeons for a number of reasons.

1) Their poop made good fertiliser for their crops and plants

2) They made good messengers between towns

3) Used their eggs for the frescos painted inside each of the caves to keep the paint on, and also help set the paint.

To be honest, they probably ate the pigeons too! Anyway, this explained all of the tiny holes that dotted the caves that we had seen the day before: literally pigeon holes. Holes were carved into the caves to attract pigeons to roost so they would do lots of pooping and egg laying. And that’s where the term pigeon holes comes from!

Here the view was also spectacular, and the sparse trees were bowing under the weight of the evil eyes attached.

* Derinkuyu Underground City

This was one of the main reasons we chose this tour. On the way to this destination, I couldn’t help but fall asleep! Which meant I was a little more refreshed when we arrived. They think there are as many (if not more) 100 underground cities and villages throughout the area, and a couple of them are open to the public. At first, it just seemed like ordinary caves that we had descended into, but soon it became apparent that this was quite different. 8 of the 13 floors were open to the public - all underground, of course! A whole city could be housed down there - originally only 2 floors had been excavated but during Roman times they expanded it to 13 to be used to shelter the people and even their livestock.

Kitchens, bedrooms, classrooms, churches, winery, stable - we saw one of each which was less than 10% of the entire structure. I couldn’t get over how small some of the stairways and tunnels became! This was to help prevent raids in ancient times, not just because they were getting lazy with the chipping like I thought. Even 5 foot little me had to bend completely in double to get through some of the entrance ways (and think really thin thoughts). There were a few elderly people in our tour group and they really struggled with the stairs and passageways.

* Lunch in Ihlara

Next up we had lunch. It was clearly a super touristy place but the food ended up being quite tasty. I went with the chicken kebap. We chatted with the guys opposite us who had been doing their Erasmus in Turkey near Pammukale, one from Romania and one from Spain.

* Walking in Ihlara Valley

Now we had a 4km walk through the longest valley in the world - it comes to 14km. If Dan and I had been by ourselves, I think we could have done the length of it! However the 4km was quite gentle and very beautiful. Originally, about 130 cave churches had been built into the valley, but time, erosion and rockslides have left only a handful standing. It was hard to take photos here because the colours were so contrasty, but the colour of the river running through the centre was a beautiful teal colour. 

On our tour were two guys that we nicknamed the Instagram models. At literally every turn, they would stop, perch, stand and pose - obviously working to get the perfect instagram shot (they even had a polaroid). I just found it rather hilarious - I love having my photo taken at these things but I look first at the scenery and then decide if I want my photo taken, whereas these guys seemed to just be on the look out for the perfect portrait!

About halfway along we stopped for a Turkish tea, and saw a baby goat and randomly some turtles.

* Selime Monastery

If I have a gripe about the tour, it’s that we didn’t spend nearly enough time here. Get rid of the Onyx Factory and allow more time here, please! It’s an enormous cave structure, and to get from section to section it really felt like you were scrambling over rock roof tops. My shoes aren’t very grippy so I kept expecting myself to tumble into the valley below! It was originally used as a Monastery, and then over time it became a religious school, and also a “castle” of sorts as it had perfect view to the Silk Road and could keep a watchful eye on those passing by.

__

So as you can see, a long day! I kept my travel sickness bands on for most of the day, and that definitely helped with the bus ride. 

But the day was far from over. We returned to the hotel briefly to get dressed up to go to the Turkish Dinner that night in a cave restaurant. It was going to be a bit touristy, but oh well! I was pretty sure we should have haggled the price down, but when I researched it I found we had paid the equivalent of €10-15 less than average anyway, so I was happy. We were picked up from our hotel by two gentleman who drove us to a neighbouring town, the only words being spoken were that they would pick us up again at 10.30.

We followed a suited gentleman inside and we were shown to our table. The room was a giant circle with a flat stage area in the middle, and cave seating all around the outside. We weren’t the table closest to the action, but we were raised a little bit and had a good view. Those behind us would have struggled to see any thing.

Our table had been pre-set with a big range of hummus, dips, cheese and more of that amazing Turkish bread. A waiter came up to us and said, “Our drinks for tonight are wine (pointing to an enormous bottle on the table), raki and soft drink.” I picked up at raki, and asked if we could try a bit of that and also have some wine. I fully expected the raki to just be a shot each, but when he returned with a 350ml bottle and began pouring it into a decanter I realised that we may have made a bit of a mistake.

Raki is very similar to ouzo, and you mix it with water where it turns milky. Across the course of the evening, Dan and I finished our raki, and also made a very decent dent into the 1.5L bottle of red wine… The other guests at our table didn’t drink, so we made a little bit of use of this…[cue headaches for the next day].

Soon the room was completely full and everyone was eating merrily away. We ordered our main dish (the dips would have been enough!) and both Dan and I chose the lamb. This was to come out much later - for now we sat back and enjoyed the dancing.

There was a troupe of 5 men and 5 women who displayed various Turkish styles of dance with amazing traditional costumes. At one point, another lady entered the ring and performed the “whirling dervish” style of dance with her amazing dress, which lit up. I had seen something similar in Egypt and it is very pretty! 

Just as our lamb was delivered, the 5 men and 5 ladies were inviting people down to the ring. We figured YOLO and joined the fray - upon which time Dan started to panic as the ladies were picking only men from the circle. It was a mock wedding/wooing ceremony, and each man had to perform for the lady, and invariably she gave him a big thumbs DOWN. It was hilarious watching the foreigners trying to do the Turkish dance moves, and thankfully for Dan he wasn’t called up. Afterwards we danced a little bit, before returning to our lamb, laughing our heads off.

We had introduced ourselves to the other couple on our table who were from Manchester. We had a good chat before the music became too loud - this was their first time to Turkey and while we had been dancing - they had filmed us! We exchanged details and promised to send the video (which they did :) ).

After our main course, the dancing turned to belly dancing. The 5 ladies changed costumes and one was clearly the “lead” belly dancer. Afterwards, a solo dancer came out, and she was utterly beautiful and shimmered her way around the room. I was very impressed! She then grabbed various men and women from the audience and had them try some hip wiggles and boob jiggles, much to everyone’s hilarity.

Soon it was time to end, and Dan and I were just finishing off our raki when Jay our hotel manager surprisingly walked in. He had come to collect us, but he was a little early and so we sat and chatted while we finished our drink. We were wondering when we would have to pay for the liquor but turns out it was all included! Jay couldn’t get over the fact that we had drunk the full bottle of raki and didn’t even appear to be drunk.

When we got back to the hotel, he invited us into the reception area to sit with his friends and eat some, what I think is called “raw kebap” meat in pita bread. It was actually rather spicy, and I had eaten so much at the dinner that I couldn’t quite finish mine. It was so much fun talking and laughing for ages with Jay and his friends (who didn’t speak much English), but we had to go to bed eventually because we had an early start in the morning.

This morning we had decided to sleep in slightly and not visit Sunset Point like originally planned. The idea now was to do it on the morrow, which now only left about 4 or 5 hours sleep…and we had had a lot to drink…the morning was going to be interesting!

It was a long and eventful day, and I was certainly tired by the time my head hit the pillow (after drinking as much water as I could manage…)

Until next time,

xx

The Final Countdown. Day 5: Goreme

Wednesday 4 April will go down in history as one of the most amazing days of my life! What an amazing day. Let's start at the beginning.

After a pretty restless night (of course), partly due to me always being worried that the alarm will not go off, and also that some lady seemed to be locked out of her room and keep calling "Helloooo?", Dan and I got up at 4am to start getting ready for our hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia.

We knew this was never going to be a cheap exercise, but previously I had contacted a few companies to see if there was any way to haggle the price lower. Turns out not. However, in the mean time, the company we had chosen to fly with and booked through our hotel had upped their prices for summer to something pretty much out of our reach. I recontacted the company, and asked if they would honour their original quote to me, which they agreed to. And so we were fully booked to fly with Butterfly Balloons, a small but well respected ballooning company.

We got ourselves dressed as warmly as we could as it was only about 1C, and would be even colder up in the air, and after a call from the hotel reception we went and waited down the front. At 4.50am, a van pulled up, and in we hopped. The driver drove to another couple of locations and soon we had a full van.

Now, I had read that each and every company gives you breakfast (and that it's pretty shit), so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at a wooden building with rows of long tables, and fresh breakfast prepared. First though, we had to pay. We got to the front of the queue, and the gentleman requested €330. I started, as I thought something would have been written down about our cheaper agreement, and I had also forgotten to take a screengrab of the email exchange. "No," I stumbled, "I emailed..and..it should be €260 fo the two of us!" At which point, Dan in all his infinitie wisdom, produced paper copies of all my emails. Thank god. However, the guy behind the counter just shrugged and smiled, and said "I believe you!" and accepted our €260 without looking at the emails.

After that slight stress, we were through and fought our way through the crowd to secure a table. I joined the food queue, while Dan got us some coffees (it was very early, after all), and then rejoined me to collect some food. Breakfast consisted, quite simply, of bread (generally rolls, which turned out to be oddly sweet and salty at the same time) and fruit, strawberries, bananas and oranges, and to finish off with there were little cakes. Simple, but effective - it's been a while since I had fruit so I was very happy!

Soon it was time to leave the hut and make our way to our specified vans. When we had arrived, we had been given a piece of paper saying that our pilot today would be Mustafa. When we walked outside after breakfast, each van was labelled with the name of the pilot and so we found Mustafa, and hopped in. Turns out none of the people who were driven with us this morning were in our group, and we had a total of 16. One of the reasons I chose Butterfly Balloons was because they're maximum number in a balloon is 16. Other companies regularly do 20-24, and by having less people you all have more room (everyone has a spot on the outside of the basket) and also with a bit less weight, there's more fuel.

Once our van was full, we were off. We started driving out of Goreme and on the way, began passing balloons already being inflated on the side of the roads. Dan had said to me early, "There won't be that many balloons in the sky. It's not peak season." This made me feel really disappointed, and so I resigned myself to be happy if there were something like 10 or 20 balloons. I think we passed just this many being inflated on our short drive, and Dan and I started to feel the excitement build. Looks like there will be a few balloons, after all!

Our driver took us to an outlook that saw over the valley, and which was lined with Butterfly Balloons. We had some time to take photos, and for me this was a chance to practice with manual mode. The excitement kept growing, as balloons around us lit up with their flames in the still-very-dark sky. I could see the sky was lightening, and I was hoping we would be up there before the sun fully rose.

Time to get in! There's no door or hatch to get into a hot air balloon - you have to climb up and over. Imagine if a gate accidentally opened mid-flight! So the first challenge was getting in, which I did slightly more gracefully than I expected. Dan followed, and we got our postions next to the pilot in the centre of the basket.

In our portion were two other girls and in the portion behind us was a family of 4, who were quite adorable. I didn't really see the other people on our tour but they were on the other side of the pilot.

After a short wait while the balloon ahead of us cleared, "I don't want to crash!", saying our pilot, the balloon started to rise with a forceful gust from the fire. I was shaking with nerves and the cold and excitement. Even with the balloon on the ground, the view surrounding us was beautiful, and we were about to be up in it!

There are only two rules to follow when you're in a hot air balloon, as Mustafa pointed out.

"Rule 1: stay in the basket. Don't jump out!"

And Rule 2 was about assuming the correct position when the balloon was coming in to land, which he had us all practice.

And we were away. Words cannot really describe the journey. I had to stop taking photos occasionally and make sure I just lived in the moment and soaked in the beauty. First, the sky was a beautiful pink purple before the sun rose over the hills. I cannot count how many balloons surrounded us, at every conceivable height and every conceivable colour. Many were still on the ground being inflated, getting ready to join us in the air soon.

I took hundreds of photos and haven't sorted any of them - this is just from my phone.

Our pilot was a wizard, and would take us very low, and close to the rock chimneys, and into a valley, and back up again. He spun the balloon so everyone had a chance to see the view, which was constantly changing. Once the sun had risen above the hills, the view behind was golden. Ahead of us, awash with blue sky and vibrant green landscapes. All around were the famous rock chimneys and caves, creating an amazing alien landscape beneath us.

At one point, the father in the basket next to us - after Mustafa our pilot and navigated close to some rocks - said, "How are you so good at this?" To which Mustafa shrugged, and replied "It's my first time. Been about two hours." I laughed. Mustafa generally wasn't very talkative, but would point out important features and mostly just let us enjoy the serenity. Which was broken constantly by me going "OH MY GOD" repeatedly.

All good things must come to an end, and before long it was time for us to land. I had heard pilots could do this, but I never imagined that I would get to experience it - Mustafa was gearing up to land us directly onto the trailer. I watched with fascination as the ground crew lit little fires, threw sand in the air and flicked a lighter to check wind direction.

Mustafa asked us to assume the landing position, and we crouched down inside the baskets. A gentle THUD and we had landed, gracefully, on the trailer, with the ground crew quickly attaching us so that we wouldn't float back up into the air.

Amazing. We had to stay in the basket for a short time while the driver manouvered us so the wind direction was appropriate for the balloon deflating. "We'll be driving you to your hotel," Mustafa said, as we started being towed behind the car.

Time to get out. Less graceful than entering. Dan's dismount was amazing though - no one helped me out, but one of the ground crew literally lifted Dan up like he was a feather and deposited him on the trailers edge. "He's my elevator," Mustafa said. I thought it was amazing that I wasn't helped - but Dan was daintily picked up and put down.

I don't know if other companies did this - I certainly didn't see them - but once we were out of the balloon, we were encouraged to run and walk across the balloon to help deflate it (and take lots of photos doing so), and once it was flat, we all had to grab the rope and help pull it taught. Our balloon was packed up far, far quicker than any other balloon in the area, and it was a lot of fun to help out!

Still in the glow of the flight, we gathered around a table that had been set up with glasses and strawberries and cake. Our pilot Mustafa made a short speech, saying we had all "passed his test" and therefore we receive our certificate. He handed out each of our certificates, before grabbing a bottle of champagne and starting to shake it hard. It was champagne and cake time! He and another crew member continued to shake that bottle and then made it POP! I got sprayed as I was standing in the front - nothing wrong with eau de champagne, in my book!

I grabbed myself a bubbly and instructed Dan to take a bunch of selfies. These were a little less successful as I had hoped at first, and took us quite some time and so we were quite slow with the drinking. Once we had finally gotten some lovely photos, we stood talking to Mustafa, who has been a pilot for 8 years, I learnt, while we finished out drink. As it got close to the bottom, he asked, "Would you like another? Have more champagne!" And sauntered off to open a completely new bottle, and refilling our glasses. Another crew member popped another bottle and in the end, Dan and I had 3 glasses and a little bit more than everyone else (but are you really surprised?)

Mustafa hitched a ride back to Goreme in our bus and we continued talking on the way. Once back at our hotel, Dan and I collapsed for a little while - deciding to have our hotel breakfast as well. Once cbreakfast was being served, we walked down to the front, loaded up our plate with fruit, sausages and an egg, and went back outside to sit in the sun on the terrace. Breakfast was pretty tasty, and we had company in the form of a cat whose name turrned out to be Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer was pregnant, and very happy to take our food, but when I tried to pat her she gave me a good swipe and sliced my finger. I wasn't very happy about that, but oh well!

After breakfast, we wandered down to reception to actually pay for our accommodation and maybe book onto some tours. Our hotel receptionist is absolutely lovely but also a bit crazy, and he insisted we have some Turkish tea and coffee (one of each, each) and explained the different offerings, and showed us a route we could use today to explore Goreme.  We bought the "green" tour for Thursday (all day tour, more about that tomorrow!), and the Turkish dinner for tomorrow night as well - so it'll be a long day!

Once we were completely buzzing from the caffeine, we returned to our room and got ready to head out into the great unknown. First stop: the bus stop. On Friday, we will be catching the overnight bus from Goreme - Pammukale. I'm not looking forward to it, but it's cheap and basically the only option. At the bus station, the walkways were lined with different companies selling what looked to be exactly the same thing. I went into the first couple and asked their prices for our journey. 70TL, and a blank stare, mostly. We stood outside and pondered what to do, when a gentleman came up and asked us what we were up to. 

He was a proper salesperson, and gave us the journey for 60TL, and a lolly, and was far more interested in our patronage than another of the companies so we went with him. Pleased with our purchase, we set off on the route our hotel supervisor suggested.

Goreme Open Air Museum. So, in all honesty I came to Goreme for the hot air balloons. Turns out, this town is far more interesting than I had ever know. As mentioned previously, we are staying in what is known as a cave hotel. These caves are all over the landscape in the area, and for the last 1000 years people had used them as homes, temples, churches as tombs. The Open Air Museum has preserved some of the major churches and tombs, and allows you to wander through these tunnels and caves, many of which date back to the Middle Ages.

From here, we needed lunch, and wanted to explore what is known as the Red Valley and the Rose Valley. We were told it was easy and short enough, so why not? First we climbed up some cave pinnacles and had our picnic lunch - our sandwiches left over from the flight yesterday. Then we found a map and discovered a path down amongst the rock formations. It did warn that in places it was narrow and steep, but we dind't think too much of it.

Narrow and steep it certainly was, and intrepid! As we descended between the culmns, they got closer and closer together, and some paths were very slippery, or just required us to jump. Every so often "Red Rose" was painted on a rock to remind us that we were going in the right direction. I finally fell arse over, and slid on my bum down a hill for a while, favouring my cushioned arse to ripping my hands to shreds. I'll had a nice bruise tomorrow! This came about 5 minutes after I had said "Nothing has gone wrong, everything is perfect!"

Some of the path was rickety wooden step ladders between giant rock formations, and I had to steel my nerves to step over the ledge on many occasions. All the length of it, doorways and windows had been chiselled out of the rock, reminding us that once upon a time, an entire population used to live here.

Eventually the path flattened out, and more rock formations with doorways appeared. Some of them we could go inside, and we found a church very similar to what had been preserved in the Open Air Museum. It's amazing to think that people used to live here, and in another we found a two story home, complete with stone carved table and chairs and what was probably a hole in the floor to house a fire for cooking.

We continued along the path, and it started to get a little hot and dusty. We finally, for the first time, passed some people along the way - this whole time we had been completely and utterly alone. I couldn't help but think "If someone has set up an ambush..." but we were completely safe and alone. Just as we were starting to get pretty weary, the path broke out into a deep valley and we realised we had made it to the Red Valley and the Rose Valley, so named because of the colours of the rock.

We found a sign that said "Goreme: 3100m" and figured we had had a long day as it was now about 4.30pm, so it was time to return to our hotel. We did the walk pretty slowly and leisurely, as by now the feet and legs were getting a bit weary. On the way, we saw a horse and cart (which we had seen earlier in Goreme), and following behind was a young horse with a bell which would stop periodically, eat some grass, and then sprint to catch up to the horse and cart. Who know what this was about!

We finally made it back to our hostel and collapsed for a little while. We wanted to go to Sunset point to..well, see the sunset, but by now I was aching pretty bad and once we were ready, time was pressing! We attempted to race up the hill but I couldn't go very fast, missing a bit of the sunset. It was still beautiful and we may try to go back there either for sunrise or sunset another day.

I was starving. By now, I was desperate for food. Before we went to Sunset Point, I had researched places to eat in Goreme and happened upon a place literally 3 minutes from where we were staying called Omurca Art Cave Cafe. Now, the reviews were brilliant, but all explained that it was very, very strange. And had cats. Lots of cats. Only go there if you like cats. Also, it wasn't your typical restaurant - a man had transformed the front of his house into an indoor/outdoor terrace, and would personally cook you dishes from his specially made menu.

Everything about this sounded amazing and unique, so we gave it a go. Arriving, we were shown inside and opted to sit at a floor table covered in cushions. There was a cat here already, but when we came close the cat skittered away. This made Dan quite sad, but he needed have worried - we had plenty of cat attention during the night! After a short time, the owner came up to us with his menu hand written onto a piece of wood, and explained everything on it. Most of it was going to make me sick, but I figured what the hell!

We opted for a ravioli (I know that sounds Italian, but bare with me) which was apparently very typical for Goreme and Goreme alone, filled with cheese, onion and mint (!), and his speciality dish of beef with tomato and onion. I had also read that he made his own wine, so we got ourselves a bottle of red (I think it might have bee 1L). At this point I said something which confused him (I can't remember what), and next thing he has brought us fluffy bread and cheese as a starter.

Now we had food, the cats came a-flooding. In the end, Dan had two kitties sitting on his lap for the entire evening - at first they were very playful and desperately wanted to get to the cheese (and the wine, it seemed!) but Dan essentially patted them to sleep. This meant he was left reclined on the cushions and unable to reach the table, so I made sure his wine was nicely topped up! After a little while, the owner delivered the dishes to us. And oh my god. They were delicious. Each mouthful of the ravioli surprised me with the delightful mint flavour, and the meat and tomato combination was just divine - I can't quite put my finger on it! This was all mopped up with the delicious Turkish bread. The whole time, I was dishing up for Dan as he was a little immobilised with two sleeping kitties on his lap! At least they were sleeping now and not trying to get at our main dishes.

One was very young, male, and whose name I didn't catch. This kitty was a bit weird and skittish, and later when we tried to feed him a little he didn't seem to know what to do. Maybe he was a little hard of seeing? He couldn't find the food properly, or perhaps he was just so hungry. The other cat, whose name was Osman, was must more placid and just passed out immediately on Dan's legs. Across the course of the dinner, a fluffy tabby number joined the fray, and sat on my lap for a little while before joining the others on Dan's lap. In total I saw 5 different cats, although I think there were more than that.

It was such a unique, amazing, delicious and bizarre experience - and only came to about €20 after our two main dishes, an enormous bottle of wine and a tip. I cannot recommend it enough!

Absolutely exhausted and now a little tipsy, we returned to our hotel to discover they had been trying to call us - they had mistakenly booked us into dinner tonight instead of tomorrow night (and if it had been tonight, we had long missed it!). The mistake was quickly rectified and all was well.

It has been a stunning, sensational, amazing, long, fulfilling, intrepid, overwhelming, adorable, delicious day and I don't know how it could be topped! I am trying not to fall asleep as I write this, and so it is time to go to sleep. We are wanting to get up early to see the sunrise tomorrow morning...wish us luck!

Until next time,

xx

The Final Countdown. Day 4: Istanbul - Göreme

I'm not sure if it's just me being me, or the awful bed, or the hamam yesterday or maybe even DOMS somehow but I woke in the early hours of the morning in excruciating pain through my neck and shoulder blades. I couldn't find much relief from it so I just laid as still as possible. I got up before the alarm went off and had a painfully hot shower hoping the heat would loosen the muscles. It helped a little, but it is slightly worrying I'm already in this much pain only 3 days in - and today we have to laden ourselves with our heavy backpacks.

We had our usual muesli breakfast and started the repack. We have managed to fit the items that we were originally handholding into the backpacks now, so while they are a little heavier we have less stuff. We have eaten some of the food we have brought with us, so that's slowly lightening the load, and have literally bought nothing (yet) to add to the bags. Dan had the great point that we will be back next week, and to save any shopping (namely my magnets and his postcards) until then.

We were prepared long before we thought we would be, and so slowly left the hostel. We will be returning here next week, which I'm not thrilled about, but it'll do! We found our way to the tram stop and caught it to the ferry terminal.

My lovely friend Nat had warned us that Istanbul's airport can be a bit tricky and security can take a long time. Because of this, and not knowing how long it would take to get to the airport, we wanted to leave plenty of time. We got the ferry terminal and sat ourselves on the stairs for a while, watching the world go by and enjoying a bit of people-watching.

I was getting hungry so I convinced Dan we should get some more balik ekmek, or fish sandwiches, from the traditional ferry boats opposite. They were tasty, but didn't hold a candle to the amazing one we had yesterday! We will have to go back to the strange little man in his boat when we return to Istanbul next week.

Eventually, it was time to head to the ferry terminal, and slowly board. The journey was uneventful - watching the European side fade away while we approached the Asian side was lovely, and there was a couple busking on board. We had left plenty of time, so there was no rush to find a bus, but we managed to find the e10 relatively easily and hopped on board without being squashed as there were plenty of seats.

The bus journey to the airport was long, and I struggled to stay awake. When we got to the airport, we immediately had to put our belongings through a scanner. I was asked to remove the laptops from my bag and Dan was asked to open his, revealing my camera inside our checked luggage. Because of this, the lady at security put a sticker on our big purple bag to denote that there was something potentially dangerous inside.

This was all rather weird, and now that was done we joined the queue to drop our bags. The guy who eventually served us was a bit of a tool, wanting to charge us for two bags for the big purple, and he was unsure why we had the security sticker or what to do about it. I asked if it would be easier if we just take the camera in hand luggage and so I took it out as this was all getting irritating.

Next up: security. Again. In front of me in the line, a lady was taken to one side. I wondered if she had the wrong form of ID - she handed over an A4 piece of paper with a stamp and a signature on it instead of any kind of photo ID, and there was a lot of excited talking. Security was easy enough though and we were soon trough with lots and lots of time to spare, in an airport that has nothing and no free wifi. Good to know for when we fly to Albania next week!

It was all relatively smooth, a bit stressful with checkin and security but we made it.

There's one [terrible] thing I like to try wherever possible in different countries. And that's something from McDonalds. I know, awful right? The reason is, many countries have an item or two on the menu that is specific to that region. Eg, in Japan, there were burgers with rice cakes instead of buns. In India, there was the Maharaja Mac, which was like tandoori chicken. So when we spotted that Turkey had a few different items, we couldn't resist. We both went with the double "kofte" burger, based on the kofte meatballs that Turkey is famous for. It was actually pretty damn tasty - very light, which is unusual for a Maccas meal! It was also pretty cheap, unlike other countries...

Waiting at the gate and boarding the plane was uneventful. Many people were wheeled into waiting cars - I've never seen so many wheelchair bound passengers before! It's quite good though, it means that Pegasus and Istanbul airport must be very accessible.

The flight to Kayseri was also uneventful. An attendant came up to us, and to our surprise, said our names and handed us each a small baguette. That was a nice surprise - and dinner for later tonight! (As we had already filled up on Maccas...).

When we landed, it took an age for our bags to arrive, and then we went outside to look for our name for our shuttle to our accommodation. We were herded towards a bus and soon set off! The journey from Kayseri to Göreme took about an hour and a half, and it was so lovely to be able to see the stars.

We edged closer and closer to Göreme and the landscape changed dramatically as we were now surrounded by the amazing stone chimneys that define this place. Our shuttle deposited us at our Angel Cave Suites, as it's possible to stay in the chimneys! I write this now from our amazing suite, all chipped stone and amazing tiling. It's possibly the fanciest place we have ever stayed in, and is also the cheapest! It's beautiful and I'm looking forward to spending the next few nights here.

It's an early night for me because first thing tomorrow morning we are going hot air ballooning!

Until next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 3: Istanbul

Our hostel (and apparently the surrounding area) had no running water from at least 9pm until 9am this morning. That sounds like it should be fine, but consider for a moment the toilets, or washing your hands. The bathrooms very quickly turned into a disaster zone.

I'll mention it publicly - I suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and my trigger foods, amongst many, include garlic, garlic powder, onions and onion powder. Now these flavours are impossible to avoid in Turkey and so I expected any and all reactions to the food I eat.

What I didn't expect was the toilets to be essentially out of order. This caused me a lot of stress! Oh well. We got through the night. And toilet-wise, I guess it could be worse - they could be squat toilets! (Even with visiting India and Japan and I've managed to avoid these...I'd like to continue that trend...)

I actually managed a couple hours sleep last night, so that's pleasant. It rained all night - it seems the rain that was forecast for today tuckered itself out over night and now we have a beautiful albeit chilly day.

We finally pulled ourselves together enough and stepped out into the beautiful, clear day. We chose indoorsy things to do today as the weather was supposed to be shocking, so first stop was the Basilica Cistern which turned out to be just around the corner from our accommodation. There was a short queue and it wasn't long before we were down in the deep, dark depths. The Cistern is an ancient structure originally used to hold water when the city was under siege, and this one is lined with 336 columns, earning it the title of the Basilica Cistern (as well as there used to be a Basilica on the same spot). It was dark and damp inside, and much of it was under renovation, but you could still gain the sense of enormous size.

From the Cistern, we walked to the Grand Bazaar. As much as this is the "touristy" bazaar, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than the Spice Bazaar! It was huge, and most of the walkways were spacious, so I found it easy to stop and take photos, or just appreciate the surroundings. The wares were higher priced and I don't think as nice as those in the Spice Bazaar, but we weren't there to buy anything
anyway. (Although I seriously could spend so much money in this country!). After getting lost in the maze of alleyways in the bazaar, we popped out into the sunshine to begin walking towards the Süleymaniye Mosque.

Looking across the street, I noticed a man shaving döner meat off the skewer from a little platform which was located directly onto the street front, not inside a store. There was quite a queue, and we realised this was a hole-in-the-wall sandwich/kebap store. We heard the person in front of us say what we wanted, and so we copied as best we could and ordered two çeyrek. It was delicious. I said yesterday I love Turkish bread, and it just keeps getting better! We were handed two small bread rolls filled with döner meat, pickles and tomato. Simple, delicious, and hit the spot.

Soon we arrived at the mosque, which was still shut to the public for another half an hour as prayers were taking place inside. On the other side of the mosque was a beautiful view so we stopped here to take up a little bit of time. We returned to the courtyard and waited for the mosque to open. Outside the mosque, men were washing their feet, arms and face before entering to pray. As visitors, we had to take our shoes off to enter, and all women must have their heads covered so their hair is not showing. I struggled with my fashionable blue scarf as it kept wanting to slide off my hair (or over my face) but I got there in the end.

Inside, it was rather beautiful, with the low hanging lamps and patterned flooring typical of a mosque. We watched as some men finished their prayer routine, and spotted the tiny out-of-the-way women's prayer section.

Once we were finished in the mosque, I needed to visit the ladies. I'm mentioning this for two reasons: 1) I've finally used a squat toilet, which was generally unpleasant, and 2) I discovered that the women's feet and body bathing is located all the way out here in the toilets so that they can unwrap themselves without being in view of the men.

While on the mosque grounds, we noticed directly in front of us was a lovely rooftop terrace cafe. We climbed up here and had a delicious Turkish coffee with a gorgeous view. From here, we walked down via more markets and arrived at the waterfront, and turned left to go towards metro bridge as it would have a nice view.

On the way, we passed a little boat selling fish sandwich and, upon passing it, we made the snap decision to turn back and grab one. So. Delicious. It had a lovely lemon vinaigrette, and fresh fish straight off the boat. And that great Turkish bread again!

After our second lunch, we continued to the bridge which did indeed have a lovely view, before catching the metro back one stop.

On my list of things to do was to try Turkish stretchy icecream - dondurma icecream. We had found a store near our accommodation a couple of nights previously but today was perfect weather (still no sign of rain) for the cold treat. The man behind the counter was a wizard - he enjoyed tricking the children with empty cones and other tricks - and he even did the same to me! I didn't think I'd get the full service as I am an adult (debatable..!) but he did, even finishing it off my smooshing the whole icecream into my face. I couldn't stop laughing! When it was Dan's turn, he knocked an empty cone against Dan's face and then his crotch, which set me off laughing again (as I was still wiping icecream off my cheeks).

The icecream was also delicious, and it has a strange chewy texture to it. We walked and ate our icecream back to our apartment, where we had a short relax before heading back out again.



Since arriving, I've been wanting to experience a hamam. I didn't really know what to expect, and I was getting more nervous by the minute. Dan wasn't thrilled with the idea, but then again he had never had any kind of professional massage before and so this, for him, was really jumping in the deep end.

A hamam is a Turkish bath, and the general gist is that you sit in a hot gender segregated room (naked or near so) and sweat for a while, before a rough scrub and a massage. However, each one does things a little differently, and I knew there would probably be a language barrier. I certainly didn't make things easy for us because I chose a local hamam instead of a tourist-friendly one, called Kadirga Hamam. It received great reviews online, and was only 53L for the full package. This equates to about €12 including a tip, as opposed to up to €100 for the touristy ones. I figured if I didn't like it, I wasn't losing very much money!

It certainly was an experience, and I don't feel particularly relaxed but I know if I go again (which I hope to!) I will know what to do and when to do it - and won't be so tense. A quick run through of how it went:

First I was supposed to pay upfront. I had just been escorted out of the men's area to the ladies, and I never carry any cash on me so I panicked. I started babbling something about my boyfriend and she replied "Husband? Ok" and pointed me to an upstairs room. I took this to mean that she understood that my boyfriend/husband would pay for me at the end.

I took my gingham towel, went to my assigned little room and got nekkid. I left my knickers on because I hadn't been given a disposable pair, and that is what I had read you should do. Wrapping my tea towel around myself, I descended the stairs, and the lady shouted at me SHOO many times. I literally had no idea what she was wanting me to do, until she came up to me and pointed to some slippers, or shoes, and that I was supposed to put them on. Oops. From here I walked into a steaming hot room.

The room was laid out in a rectangle with fountain taps at various points around the wall, gushing water. a few ladies were sitting on the marble tiled floor, and I was motioned to join them. The first thing I noticed was that no other ladies were wearing knickers, and I was surprised by this as I thought you were supposed to. Hello tourist! I watched what the other ladies were doing and followed suit - when it got too hot for me, I would dip my bucket into one of the fountains and splash some cool water on myself.

I was the last lady to join so that meant I had a bit of a wait until it was my turn, but also meant I was reasonably well prepared for what to do when it did come my turn. In the centre of the room was a big marble slab, and when it was my turn I laid down on my belly, while a large-bosomed lady scrubbed my whole body with a rough loofa. Felt quite lovely actually, not painfully hard. She slapped my butt, which was the signal to turn over, and she scrubbed my front, and then had me sit up and scrubbed my arms, face and neck.

Then she motioned for me to rinse with some water from the fountains, and return to the slab. Now I was lathered up, and massaged at the same time. I have very sensitive feet, and couldn't help but curl my toes up and grit my teeth - after the first foot, I think she realised and only briefly touched the other one! After my front and back lathering, she gave me a short head and neck massage, before throwing cool water all over me. Now I was to shampoo my hair (which I didn't really do because I have a sensitive scalp) and could sit in the warmth for a little longer.

Here's where it got tricky. There was only myself and another lady left in the room by this stage, and she was also clearly a tourist. After sitting for quite some time, I caught her eye and motioned a sort of "Are we supposed to go that way?" She wasn't sure, so I gathered my things and just made a move for it. Once out, I had my hair towelled and dried, and it was time to get my clothes back on.

I wasn't sure if I could go back into the mens from which I had come, so I went out the ladies entrance and ended up on an unfamiliar street. I walked a bit, before panicking, and returned to the hamam. The ladies inside seemed exasperated, and motioned towards the mens, so I figured I should be able to go back in there. Which I did, and got Dan to pay for me, and quickly left. If I do it again, which I hope to, I'll know the correct entrances and to bring cash with me! But for now, my skin feels fantastic and it has scrubbed off all the grime of the last few days.

Tomorrow we are catching a plan to Kayseri and then travelling onto Göreme - I'm really looking forward to this part of the trip! We will spend a few days on the road before returning to Istanbul.

Oh and yes! I bet you're wondering the most important part - how many cats did Dan pat today?

Dan's Cat Pat Tally: 4. With one special mention kitty who just did not want Dan to leave.

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown. Day 2: Istanbul

Sunday 1 April

So, turns out the bed isn't so comfy after all. I know I'm already like the princess and the pea, but my god those springs had some pointy power! Definitely not the best room we have ever had and probably pretty much close to the worst, but you get what you pay for, I guess!

So after a very restless night, Dan and I got breakfast underway. To save money, we have brought with us a big bag of muesli and some implements with which to eat it. We trialled this in Prague a few weeks ago and it worked really well, so it'll save us money and time in the mornings when our accommodation doesn't come with breakfast included. 

Our muesli worked fine, and we got ourselves prepared to join our morning free walking tour, starting at 10.45am. We easily found our way to the starting point at Hagia Sophia, and were immediately confronted by the ridiculous queue to get into the structure. Good thing we weren't headed in there just yet! We found some people with an umbrella but we weren't sure if it was the right tour, but signed up anyway. Turns out, it was, so after we took a few more photos, the English walking tour set off. 

We didn't visit very many places on this tour, as I would have hoped. We spent a lot of time standing and listening, or sitting and listening, instead of being shown around the city. I usually like walking tours because they help me get my bearings in a new city and only half listen, so when I get talked to a lot I tend to tune out. And when prayer time came, it was basically impossible to hear her over the call to prayer. It was good though, and I learnt a lot about the city. We visited (but did not go inside the paid areas of):

• Hagia Sophia
• Topkapi Palace courtyard - this will be a good place to come back to if we need a rest as it is some quite beautiful gardens and the front is free entry
• Restored houses on the outside of the palace walls, where we learnt a bit more about the male/female divide from the Ottoman era 
• Our little break was in an artists residence and coffee shop in the backstreets of the Old City
• The various columns erected in the main square.

I was very interested to learn that tulips, my absolute favourite flower, originates from Turkey! Turkey are a little put-out that after gifting them to Holland, that Holland have made themselves to be the tulip capital of the world and therefore Turkey wants to try to take some of the recognition back. I don't mind! Keep planting those beautiful tulips :) 

By the time the walking tour finally finished, it was almost 2pm and I was getting pretty hangry. She had mentioned that there were good cheap places around the Spice Market, so we decided to make that our next destination. On the way to the tram stop, we quickly ducked into the courtyard of The Blue Mosque which is as far as we are allowed to go at the moment as the inside is under renovations.

We decided to give the tram network a go today, and after checking we had enough credit on our Istanbulkart, we passed through the barrier and waiting for a tram. One arrived shortly after, and the mass of people trying to get on and off was incredible. We chose to wait for the next one that was coming in 1 minute... There was slightly less of a push to get on this one and I managed to get a seat, but I almost died of heat exhaustion and lack of oxygen as there was literally no airflow. I was rather glad to get off a couple of stops later on the foreshore.

We followed some signs towards the Spice Market, and on the way we were beckoned into a kebap shop. It looked alright and it had nice seating outside. So we had our first kebap - I didn't know what we ordered as the gentleman didn't speak much english, but the meat was tasty so that was good. We also threw our first Turkish Coffee in there which started off rather delicious! And ended up gagging on it as all the grind had settled on the bottom. I'll try again tomorrow. The bill was far more than we had paid for dinner the previous night, and we were shocked. We reminded ourselves that we had probably just walked into a tourist trap and to be a bit more careful in the future!

Walking on, we found a market. We figured this had to be the Spice Market, but we were very confused as we circled the outside and could only find stalls for bird cages and pet food, leeches in giant bottles and some plants. I couldn't get over the leeches. I kept staring in morbid fascination. What are they using them for in this day and age?

Upon completing the lap, I noticed an archway and realised that in the lovely building next to the leech market was the Spice Market. Oops. Let's pretend that we knew that all along. Inside it was really beautiful, but crazy busy. Shop after shop selling turkish delight and other candy, spices of all colours, implements needed to make Turkish coffee, rugs, cushion covers and the absolutely gorgeous Turkish lamps. I could have spent a lot of money - and everything was very well priced, to be honest!

After emerging from the other side, we walked across the pedestrian bridge, stopping along the way to take photos of the mosques and many fishermen who lined the way. Once on the other side, I needed a sit down and we watched the big ferries coming in while we planned our next move. 

Our tour guide had told us that a hotel next to the Galata Tower would have amazing views over the city, and so we started trekking up the hill towards that. On the way, we realised we had ended up in the middle of the road and, following the locals, we ended up literally walking on the road against traffic. It seemed to work fine...!

At the Galata Tower (which is on my list to climb), the queue was horrendous and so we wandered into the hotel opposite. Unfortunately on the top level it is not open (as we had thought) and there was a wine bar there, and in the end we chickened out taking photos as it looked too posh and expensive for what we were after at that time (which was just to take a handful of free photos!)

I will digress here momentarily and mention that today I kept a Cat Tally. This turned out to be a hideous mistake but since I had started it I had to see it through. I will not be keeping a Cat Tally tomorrow or any other days this trip! It got completely out of hand. The Cat Tally is simply how many (stray) cats we witnessed wandering around the city.

Cat Tally: 29

Cats that Dan managed to pat: 3

From now on, I'll just keep a Dan's Pat Tally instead. Far less commitment! (Although knowing Dan, he might try harder tomorrow...)

This kitty was very happy for pats. And how about that creeper in the background?!

We sat for a while overlooking the city and rested our feet, and saw some stray puppies. They were sho cuuuuute. We then caught the metro to Taksim Square (the train was full of rowdy football supporters!), and then from there the funicular to Kabatas. There wasn't very much around here for us to do - the waterfront was mostly blocked off, but we spent some time watching A LOT of stray cats and ducks forage for food behind a fence.

As the sun was setting, we caught the tram back to Sultanahmet for some photos of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in the beautiful evening light. After wandering around for a bit longer (and seeing more cats), it was time for dinner, and we couldn't help ourselves but go back to the place we went last night! I normally hate doing this, but we had such an enjoyable experience there and the prices are ridiculously cheap (especially for Istanbul) that we just went with it. 

Tonight we tried a few different things on the menu, including salgam, which is parsnip juice - and very, very strange! I think I liked it, not sure I"ll buy it again though...it was spicy, and sour, and tangy, and not very refreshing but still mostly enjoyably. I think. I ordered just some dips because I wasn't super hungry, and Dan had something which translated to "cork tile", which seemed to be a sizzling mushroom dish. The dips came with that amazing bread from last night, and I was in heaven. We finished off with some more apple tea - the whole bill coming to approx €9.

And now we are back at our - quite literally - crappy hostel. Apparently the water has gone out in this section of the city and no one can flush the toilets. Hurrah for shared bathrooms!

It was a full on day, but tomorrow is supposed to be a bit rainy so we wanted to make use of the sunshine as much as possible today. Lots of indoor activities planned for the morrow!

Until next time,

xx

P.S. All pictures at the moment are just from my crappy iPhone 5, I haven't uploaded anything from my decent camera.

The Final Countdown. Day 1: Berlin - Istanbul

Friday was largely spent cleaning the apartment and thinking:
"Why didn't I do this earlier and more frequently so it wouldn't be this awful?"
and
"How much do I really need my deposit back...?"

We would be staying our last night in Berlin  with Sam and Steve, who very kindly offered to let us stay. When we finally finished cleaning, Steve came to our house to help carry all of the things we were offloading - I mean gifting - to them and help us back to his apartment. Good conversation, flammkuchen, wine and bier followed and soon it was time to head to bed.

The next morning, Dan and I repacked the mess we had made of our bags and after a lovely breakfast with Sam and Steve, and our final goodbyes, we made our way to the airport. It was pretty uneventful - the trains were a bit iffy but we found a relatively different straight forward solution. On the journey we farewelled the sites we could see from the window - the Dom, the Spree, and reminisced about what we did and where we were going at the various stations.

At the airport, bag drop, customs and boarding were all simple and smooth (despite me carrying all the technology - thankfully they didn't want to check anything!) and we were through. We were assigned an aisle and a window seat with someone in between us, but they kindly changed so we could sit together.

The flight was uneventful, and customs was a breeze. They opened the line up ahead of us and we were annoyed that a lot of people pushed infront, but then we spotted a desk that was hidden behind a pillar and ended getting through border security within minutes. Not a word was spoken! Our bags were almost first off too so our next hurdle was figuring out how to get from the airport on the Asian side of Istanbul to the European side of Istanbul where we were staying.

We knew we needed an e10 or e11 bus to get to the ferry terminal but we also knew we needed to get a travelling card, similar to an oyster. We finally found the machine but couldn't figure out how to use it. Eventually (after a long queue formed) we got it into English and quickly put money onto our new Istanbulkart. Hurrah!

An e10 was already waiting but it was stuffed full of people, so we decided to just wait it out until the next one. While we were waiting, we saw a bus leaving, door open, and people still running up and jumping onto the moving bus.

Shortly after an e11 arrived and we were one of the first people on. Beeped our card (we both can use the same card) and got ourselves a seat up the back where our luggage would fit better. The journey was uneventful but quite long - about an hour, and towards the end the traffic started to get really congested.

Things I noticed as we were driving along:

• the bus was playing cat videos and other cute animal on the screens next to the stop information. This was very enjoyable!
• the highway was lined with well manicured topiary and gardens
• lots of new and crazy buildings and skyscrapers are being built, some looked amazing

When we got to the ferry port, we discovered there were a lot to choose from - and we weren't entirely sure what to do. We spotted one with the area we figured we needed, it had an Istanbulkart machine on so we jumped on and hoped for the best. As it took off, the view behind and especially in front was rather spectacular - with the European side beautifully backlit by the setting sun. The ferry started to turn away from where we thought we had to go, and so we began collecting our belongs to get off and figure out what to do next. However, Dan noticed that not everyone was getting off, and that maybe there were more stops? So we stayed on, and Lo and behold the ferry backtracked and deposited us right where we expected to be. 

Oh my god, the people! The dock was just awash with people and amazing smells, and I could see mosque after mosque poking above the houses. Our bags were getting terribly heavy so we decided to just go straight to our hostel.

Dan expertly guided us to where the hostel should have been - but we couldn't find it. People were trying to talk to us but I'm a little untrusting and just smiled and didn't respond. Turns out one of those people *owned* the hostel and had been looking for us. Oops. He had tried English and Spanish and other languages and we had just ignored him - how terrible! He collected us and took us up to our room at Istlinai Hostel New.

Our room is pretty dingy but the bed seems comfortable, and while there light doesn't work very well, it's a beautiful Turkish lamp so that's nice. The shared bathrooms are hilarious - on my first visit I walked in wearing socks, and wondered why my feet got wet on the carpeted bathroom. Then I realised that the shower just falls straight onto what appears to be red astroturf.

After a short relax, I googled cheap eats in Istanbul and found a place called Ortaklar Kebap Lahmacun which had over 1000 great reviews and was only a short walk away. It was actually excellent. The kitchen was on the ground floor and more seating was upstairs. Once we were seated and had ordered, some delicious fluffy toasty warm bread was delivered with a spicy dip. I could have eaten that bread all day!

Our mains were delivered - I got the eggplant kebab and Dan the chicken kebap, both tasty and far too big. The peppers were surprisingly hot and we had to stuff ourselves with more bread to ease the burning. Afterwards, they offered us tea so we chose some apple tea - turns out the bread and the tea was complimentary, and it total we spent €10, including a tip, for dinner. Well in the price range!



It's not advised to drink the tap water in Turkey, so on the walk home we grabbed ourselves a few litres to get us through tomorrow. Now it's almost time for bed - after going through our bags I discovered one item in the toiletries bag had exploded (something had to, right?). It could have been worse tho - it was my tiny bottle of perfume, so how the room and our toiletries smell lovely.

This has been much longer than I should have written - I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up but I will certainly try!

Til next time,
xx

The Final Countdown

The Homecoming.

And that's it.

That's a wrap.

What was supposed to only ever be 2 years at the absolute maximum (and I was convinced I would never make it that far), has stretched to almost 4, and will be even longer since I left Australian soil by the time I return to it.

What a crazy journey it has been.

So this Saturday, 31 March, Dan and I will be jumping on a plane to Turkey.

Wait, did you just say Turkey?

Yes. Just because I will be leaving Germany doesn't mean I will be heading straight home!

Where will we end up

I always said I wouldn't return to Adelaide. It's too small and there's not enough job opportunities. And all of this remains true, however due to personal and family reasons Dan and I will relocate to Adelaide at the conclusion of our adventure, for a short while. Give him a preview of the Australian sun (and spiders…and snakes…) - if he can survive that, he can survive anything! 

The journey

For those playing at home, I thought I'd make a list of what we're doing and where we are travelling to. I'll probably still compulsively Facebook check-in at every available opportunity, but here's the full list:

• Turkey (Istanbul, Goreme, Pamakkule, Selcuk, Troy, Gallipoli)
• Albania (Tirana)
• Greece (Athens, Olympia, Santorini, Paros, Meteora, Thessaloniki)
• Macedonia (Skopje)
• Serbia (Belgrade)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Mostar)
• Croatia (Krka National Park)
• Slovenia (Ljubljana, Lake Bled)
• Italy (Venice, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre)
• France (Nice)
• Monaco (Monte Carlo)
• United Kingdom (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Isle of Man, Snowdonia, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Isle of Skye, Southampton)

That's just the beginning!

On 24 June, we are catching the cruise liner Queen Mary 2 from Southampton, UK to New York, USA. 8 days of tuxedos, ball gowns and definitely being the poorest people on board! (We will both be Jack, basically.) 

We will then make our way across America before arriving back in the Southern Hemisphere on 9 August. 




The whole thing will look like this:

During that time, I will attempt to keep up this blog as a diary - it will be poorly written and poorly formatted but I am going to try to get something up every day or two to help me keep a record! Make sure you give me some likes and comments so that I feel encouraged to keep going.

Highlights

As we have over 4 months of upcoming adventures, it's pretty safe to say that there will be some highlights in the future too! However, here are some of my favourite memories from the last few years:

• Falling in love, which was completely and totally unexpected, and has blessed me with the most amazing adventure buddy and partner in [not literal] crime.
• Seeing the Northern Lights, camped out knee high in -22C snow on a frozen lake, watching it dance above.
• Eurovision, because who does that? It was so much fun, as was everything we did in the Ukraine. I can't recommend this country enough.
• All of my employer acceptance letters, from Imperial College London, The Elders, and E.ON in  Germany.
• Tulip season in Amsterdam.
• Basking in the thermal baths in Budapest.
• The friends I've made along the way, there's too many to list, but know you'll always have a place to crash wherever I am in the world.
• Oktoberfest, to the point that we visited three times! So much for not being a beer drinker.
• Dimension Jump x 2 - I can't believe I made it to two DJs, meeting the cast of my favourite TV show and making so many friends for life.

And so so so many more, I can't possibly list them all.

Can you name all the countries?

The tally

The full country tally total to date is 36 new countries visited in the last 4 years (including New Zealand). After our 4 months travelling home, it will be 45 (including the Americas). I'm pretty damn impressed with that effort. That's an average of about 10 different countries a year.

Reminiscing about Germany

Getting set up in Berlin was by far one of the toughest experiences of my life, and I absolutely would not have been able to do it without Dan. If I had known just how hard it was going to be, I might have had second thoughts, but I went in brazenly on the confidence of how easy it was to make a life in the UK.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to have been able to live in Germany. There have been many good times, there have also been a fair few pretty damn awful times. I am glad to be leaving - it is time, and I never felt at home in Germany. It has been a tough almost-2 years and I'm looking forward to being in the Southern Hemisphere again.

There are many things I will miss, of course. Making friends in Berlin was incredibly difficult, but I am going to miss the wonderful friends I did make, and my colleagues who welcomed me even though I'm undeniably weird. You will all remain friends for life and never hesitate to contact me if you're heading Downunder!

I'll miss the cheap beer. There, I said it. I have become a beer drinker (and fatter because of it!), and I'm going to be sad to go back to low alcohol percentages and expensive bottles and brews. For that matter, I'm also going to miss the stupidly cheap wine that you can get in Europe - I literally never go above €2 (about AU$3) and that is an excellent drop. You can't get that in Australia, that's for sure. I'll also miss just walking down the street with a weg-bier, or as we would call it, a roadie, because you can happily drink in public basically anywhere. I took advantage of this fact many times.

I'll miss the carefree mentality of Berlin - anything goes here. And that people just seem to enjoy the moment - one of my favourite things to do was find a place to sit and just chill. You would never be alone, many people around you have also found a spot to sit and are just relaxing, watching the world go by. This was especially prevalent when the weather was lovely which encourages almost all of Berlin to leave their apartments and just be.

I'm not going to miss apartment living. Neighbours suck, as does sub-letting, so I'll be thankful to return to living in a little house with a proper real-estate agent, and neighbours much further away than they currently are.

I'm not going to miss the weather, although I do still enjoy watching the snow fall while I'm sitting all cozy inside.

I definitely won't miss German bureaucracy and red tape, but to be honest I think every country has its own foibles in this regard, so it'll be from the pan in to the fire!

I slightly regret never really getting into the party scene here, considering Berlin is renown for its mega clubs. I'm just not that into it anymore, and would prefer a few tasty beers and a good chat instead of listening to electro music, or possibly not even being let in in the first place because the bouncer "doesn't like the look of me".

My biggest regret is not learning the language properly. However, I don't feel so bad after talking to many other expats who have lived in Berlin for 3+ years and are still on their way to learning it. In Berlin, you simply don't need it. While it would be helpful, you can obviously get by just fine without it. The majority of Berliners also speak English, and if not there's usually a way around it (Google translate, for instance). However, I would have liked to learn a little bit more, so I'm taking all my language books home to hopefully continue my education one day.

I also regret never learning more about my family history, but it is such a tangled web of conflicting information, lies, fabrications and just confusion that I really didn't know where to start.

Being considered male due to my name has been a never-ending source of amusement. It's never made me mad, and I only occasionally correct someone, but I will say I will enjoy just being "Sasha" again, and not being "Mr O."

Some of my amazing memories from Berlin and Germany.

Looking to settle

Part of me feels like I can have adventures forever, another part of me feels it is ready to sit down for a while. I have a fair amount of pain when I am travelling, with fairly constant knee, foot/ankle, hip, back and neck pain, as well as a problematic left shoulder - actually the only part of me that doesn't hurt is my right shoulder, and I think that might be on the brink too. I have my bad belly, which inflicts on me crippling pain and embarrassing situations seemingly at will. I need to settle to have my health seen to as I have definitely neglected this over the last few years.

But I am going to miss it all - dreadfully. When I get home, I will try my hardest not to be that friend who constantly refers to that time in Paris or when I did that in Kiev but … I will be. It's been my life for the last four years. While my beautiful friends in Australia became proper adults, I galavanted around hostels and ate tinned soup to save money because I didn't ever want to grow up, and wanted to adventurise forever. It's going to take me some adjustment to not have constantly itchy feet, but I also look forward to exploring Australia and New Zealand now, too.

And so my dear friends, follow along for our journey home, and I will either be seeing you again soon, or will see you one day, when we are older but hopefully not any wiser!

Til next time,

x

A picture for every country I visited.