trip

September 2009, two best friends set out to spend 100 days in Greece/ Turkey.  Backpacks, eachother, and a few euros were all they needed to create a pretty awesome adventure.  
Here are some "blog posts" that Colleen and I made on Facebook during our time in Greece.
 
Arrival in Greece

I have to make this quick... only have a few minutes left on the computer, but we've been meaning to keep an update on our trip:)...
Our first day in Athens was amazing. A hot, and great start to the trip. We managed to master the metro, and explore the city a bit including the Parliament Buildings (and saw the changing of the guards... Colleen thinks they should host the ministry of silly walks), the National Garden, the Olympic Plaza, and the Acropolis/ Parthenon... so hard to believe we are actually here!
on Monday we took the ferry to Ios... and slept the whole way! We are just getting over jet lag, but the partying isn't helping much i guess:)
So far in Ios we love our hostel. It has a deck bar with the amazing view of the ocean (and a wicked sunset every night)... a pool overlooking the rest of the town (all you can see are hillsides full of little white and blue houses). We have explored the village lots, ate at some amazing restaurants, and enjoyed some night life:)
Today it was so windy so we took the bus out to a beach on the West side of the island and hiked up to the highest point on some rock made mountains to see some amazing view of the ocean. It's so blue!
Greece has been just what we have imagined so far. It's been fun meeting people and adventuring. Tomorrow we are going to rent ATV's and see some of the other beaches we haven't seen yet. On Thursday or Friday we will take the ferry to Santorini.
We miss you all!!

-ColLaur

Colleen (Best Friend/ Travel Companion):

So we have now left Ios and made it to Santorini. We are staying in the main city, Thira, and have been taking it fairly easy and just exploring the sights for the last few days because the weather has not been ideal. But it is looking up now :)
It has been quite a switch from Ios and is much more active and busy but it has been a neat experience. The view from the edge of the city looking out over the Caldera is amazing! It is just like in the pictures and movies! Today the plan is to rent a car for the next two days so that we can explore the smaller towns and beaches of the island and possible relocate to another place. We are also planning to take a winery tour tomorrow night and watch the sunset from the world famous ocean lookout in Oia on the north end of the island.
That is it for now but be sure to tune in next time! Same bat time, same bat channel.

Me:

So the rest of our time in Santorini was amazing. We ended up staying in Fira, moving to Oia to a youth hostel, then spending our last few nights in a hostel in Parissa. It was wicked renting the car, we ended up seeing most of the towns and beaches on the island. There is a red beach, white beach, and black beach... and the sand is actually that colour... pretty awesome. We've spent lots of time on the beaches lately and the weather has been awesome (luckily... for a few days there it was nicer in Canada.. yuck!)
We have adventured lots of towns, our favorite was Pirgos that was a tiny little town with tons of beautiful white/ colourful houses winding up the hillside (i'll post a few pics of the places) We met a little old man there and he offered us a ride on his donkey... we took pics with him, he was giving hugs, and colleen even got a little smooching action... haha! such a funny day. We also went to Kamari and saw a movie in an open air theater, saw a couple AMAZING sunsets in Oia, spent time seeing the Caldara view in Santorini (where the Volcano has cut away the cliff, and it's a sweet view of all the coloured houses). Yesterday we went on a boat trip and hiked up Santorini's volcano and swam in the hotsprings.
Today we are leaving Santorini and taking the ferry to Naxos. Talk to you all lata!

Island 3! and week three today... it has felt like we've only been here for a mayybe a week... it's all flying by!
We arrived in Naxos on Sept 17 and have been enjoying a few beaches and more of a natural/ less touristy Greek city. There are alot less tourists here which has been really nice, and it feels more like we're just amongst greek people in their regular life. We landed a wicked cheap little hotel (no hostels on the island, boo!) and have been exploring the town and island. Our first day we spent wandering Kastro, the old part of the city (Choros) that stands in the middle above everything. It's a walled off area of very old churches, houses, and shops- so cool (i'll add pics soon). There's also some really cool resaurants and and "Old Market" as well as the Port Road that are busy with shops, people, and places to look around in. We've been working on our burns, erm, i mean tans at a few of the beautiful beaches here too.... watching the windsurfers and kitesurfers....we really want to try it... so expensive though:S

Yesterday was a wicked day... lets just say it involved an orange Doon Buggy, lots of wind, and an un-talented map reader (guess who..) haha. it was wicked. we bombed around all of Naxos in our little buggy... driving AGAIN through what i swear weren't streets. haha. truly off roading it. it was pretty wicked when every time we entered a town we were back-firing and making quite and entrance;) we stopped at mountains where they mined marble, a super old church called... (Colleen will have to fill in the blank here of the name/ history and stuff), and hiked up part of Mount Zeus to a cave coming very very close to a pack of wild goats.
Today we are going to figure out ferries and see which island we feel like going to next... so stay tuned;)

We arrived in Amorgos safely (you could say...) The boat we traveled the 6 hour journey on from 3-9pm... note that most of that is in pitch black and cooler weather... was a "cute little open air boat" that we were pumped to take. We parked ourselves on the plastic benches, and chilled to listen to some music and read. It was all good until we hit the very open ocean and the little boat was swaying, and taking jumps over waves... as everyone on board tried not to get sick for the next 4 hours. Super funny to think back on, but not so fun at the time:)

Our first day (yesterday) turned out to be alot of fun... We met our first greek god.. Yanni, a 70-ish year old famer dude.
We started the day just looking around and walking down a country road and said hi to a little old man that we had just waved to in the town square (since we are one of the few sets of tourists on the island, we stand out like a sore thumb...) he asks "what you doing?" "uhm, nothing.. just wandering..." "well come, i show you..." (sketchy?... maybe... but kind of fun too) So we followed him as he pointed out his farming area and the orchards he had down the road. He started showing us his garden and quickly insisted that we try his grapes (SOO GOOD) and of course, some greek coffee to go with it... also so good, and VERY strong (espresso times 10). We were also oggling his pomegranate tree and he insisted he give us one each to take for later. We sat chatting about family and school. His english was fairly good...He understood that I was goign to be a teacher, but a kinesioloist.. what the hell is that?? haha. Sorry Col.

After chatting a bit we noticed it was raining and in a panic he dragged us down some orchard paths to cover his sweet wine grapes. "Bravo" he was so happy... and gave us each a couple tomatoes to show his pleasure. It was a pretty wicked day.
...we're loving the small town feel of Amorgos and it's neat the trusting, happy, and chill vibes from all the people here.

The rest of Amorgos...
We have been here for the last 6 days now. It's been such a nice, small town, chill place to visit. We've gotten to know some of the locals... along with Yanni:) we were also invited to join in on dinner with some of the local business owners, and got to try out some of the locally made liquors.. mmm...
Most days we've been taking the bus around the island visiting different towns and places. We visited Hora (the old capital of Amorgos). It was very cool with it's pathways painted in different designs, and windmills standing out of all the hillsides. There was a great view of Agi Ana beach (where we took some time to jump... see pictures) and then decided to make the hike down to take a dip in the ocean.
We also spent a day in Egiali, the other port town. After exploring the little sleepy town we spent most of that day on the beach there:) Can't give up the sun time to tan and swim in the ocean!
Today, we went to hike up to a Monastery that is built into the side of a mountain. It was gorgeous, It had a great view of Agi Ana Bay which we walked down to and spent the rest of the afternoon cooling off in the ocean and soaking up some sun.
On friday we are heading to Paros and then off to Mykonos to meet Brittany! (our third roomate from Edmonton).
*Later Days!

Last week we made a short stopover in Paros in order to catch the ferry to Mykonos. We thought it might just be "killing time" and chilling out on another island for a couple days, but we loved it!

It was kind of a greek city, with a busy port town and a neat market of clothing, jewlery, and art shops. It was less tourist-based, so it was nice to just fit in with the greek city life.
We've gotten into the habit of not pre-arranging hotel rooms, because when you get off the ferry at the port there are lines of hotel owners yelling and trying to get you to stay in their place. Often, they get so excited over eachother to gain customers that you can barter and lower their price fairly easily (Lauren's favorite.. haha) So we ended up meeting a super cheeky greek man (maybe in his 40's?) named George. He was our best friend for the few days there, and was so friendly to us helping us get to know the town and stuff. One day I was standing talking to him about Colleen's birthday surprise plans (WOOHOO!) and he fell off the step and broke his ankle! We had to help him get to the hospital... eek.

So the best part: it was Col's birthday island!! We had a REALLY hot and wonderful beach day, cake and a nice breakfast in the morning, dinner on the beach to watch the sunset, and drinks out at a few bars afterward. George started off the night having suprise champagne and cheesecake for Col, and local liquor which started off the night fairly well:) We ended up running into a group of locals that we met at the beach earlier that day and were introduced to some local greek bars.
Otherwise we spent our couple days looking in the locals market, having dinner by sunset at the beach front restaurants, and catching the ferry to Mykonos!

We arrived in Mykonos on Oct. 5th and met Brittany!!! Reunited in Greece:) She was a star with not having jetlag:) and we got right down to business chilling in the glamorous lifestyle of Mykonos:)... well not really, because we're cheap backpackers... but it is quite the glitsy place. Lots of mansions and pool adorned houses on the hillsides overlooking the ocean. The first few days when we were there, there were many cruises that docked. It made for a gorgeous lit-up view of the ocean, speckled with glowing lights of cruise ships... but made for annoyingly packed streets for a couple days (geez, those damn tourists. hah.)
We ended up in a very cute apartment style (cheap!) hotel room in Aga Stephanos which was a settlement right on the beach about 2km outside of Hora, their capital city. It was nice to be outside of the busy town and right by the beach to spend as much time in the sun as we could, before it turns into "winter" here (about 16 degrees at it's coldest.) woohoo!!
We got to explore Aga Stephanos as well as the market streets and restaurants in Hora.... stopping for Frappe's (our fav) in "Little Venice" and visiting the huge row of windmills overlooking the water. We spent 2 days out at Paradise Beach which was a beautiful beach with warm waters lined with bars, sunbeds, and umbrellas. It was not too crazy busy for us, but you could tell in the summer it would be a crazy place to party!
We finished off the island with our last night shopping in the market (prime shopping time is about 6pm-midnight in all of Greece!), going out for an awesome greek dinner (with a special dinner guest of a huge pelican walking around the outside seating!... apparently this is the island's mascot), and sitting down for drinks at a nice chill bar afterwards.
We left on a super-packed boat for our short boat ride from Mykonos to Syros (on Oct 11).

We just arrived in Syros! It is our first day. We picked this island due to the boats slowing down, and not many leaving to other islands. It was a shot in the dark, but we thought how could any greek island be not fun? It was a nice surprise though! It isn't as much a typical Cycladian island like the rest of them have been (white and blue buildings, winding cobblestone market streets, ports at the front of the action) But a business city style island filled with colourful buildings, with detailed wrought iron deck railings and window coverings, many buildings with worn off siding and bricks showing through giving the whole city a very old-style look. In comarison, there is a huge population here, including many young people. There are many funky cafes, pubs, and coffee shops as well as a very huge famous church that we will hike up to and visit one of these days.
We spent our first evening having dinner at a restaurant right on the port by the water, celebrating Thanksgiving with a greek salad and gyros (we missed our families and Turkey dinner!) Today we have settled into the city, found many neat shops to visit, as well as a whole street with fish, fruit, and grocery markets...mmm!
We'll keep you posted for what else Syros has to offer...

We ended up staying in Syros for 7 days all together, enjoying the city and getting into the "regular life" of the city... you know, coffee, shopping in the markets, relaxing walks in local neighbourhoods. The usual.:)
It was nice to not be grouped into the tourist scene of things. Our hotel was a cute little apartment style with a kitchen and lots of room to unload our bags and not step on eachother quite as much as the other tiny rooms we've had. We filled our days with having frappes in the town square (picture pigeons, friendly stray dogs chillin...), shopping the awesome markets (food turned out to be as exciting as clothing and jewlery shops. haha) We wandered into the old neighbourhoods that were wicked... plastered with graffiti and old, character apartment blocks all scattered up steps with no access by road (carrying groceries would suck!!). We spent our last day and rented a car to see much of the island, had an aweosme greek dinner in another town then woke up early the next morning to drive to the prime spot for a sunrise. The sunrise was beautiful and awesome to see. Just as we were ready to go get coffee to wake us up after the early morning, as if from the most cliche greek movie scene ever, two donkies come wandering down the road... stopping for pictures at each of our cameras. So funny! We left from Syros to Paros on the 17th to spend a few days and catch the ferry to Samos. 

note: I cannot fıgure out Turkısh keyboards yet... so you,ll have to decıpher what you can:)

Paros agaın!! We made a stopover from oct 17 to the 22nd sınce ıt ıs the maın ferry hub for boats headed ın the Turkey dırectıon... (Turkey here we come!!)
Paros turned out to be amazıng weather... so on the fırst day we soaked up one of our last beach days on the local port beach. Colleen and I had met a group of guys there last tıme that we chatted and partıed wıth a bıt, and they happened to be on the beach agaın... so ıt was fun to see them agaın, play some ball, and chat.
The second day on the ısland was Lauren,s bırthday:) ıt was such a wıcked day. The gırls woke me up wıth a specıal bırthday breakfast and we got our bathıngsuıts ready for another 30 degree beach day! We hıked along the coast ın search of a new beach, and ended up fındıng some awesome vıews and a gıant whıte sand beach wıth noone around. After 7 hours of swımmıng and chıllın we walked back to Parıkıa by sunset. George- the hostel owner we,ve told you about... that broke hıs foot... had champagne and a cake waıtıng back at the hotel. We went out for a greek dınner, had some drınks., then went out to one of the local bars. very fun, very late nıght:)
We spent the rest of the tıme on the ısland chıllıng, walkıng and explorıng local neıghbourhoods, shoppıng at the markets, vısıtıng the kastro (what ıs left of the oldest part of the orıgınally buılt town), and enjoyıng the hot weather. We left from Paros to Samos on the 21st at nıght.

We got ınto Samos at 4am... We stayed ın the maın town of Vathy whıch ıs the jumpıng off poınt to Kusadası, Turkey. We spent 3 days explorıng the town whıch was very dıfferent than the typıcal greek ısland... the red tıled roofs and rollıng hılls and mountaıns surroundıng the maın town.
In Samos we took a bus to Pythagorıa (where Pythagorus dıed) where we toured the Evpalınos Tunnel that was made ın 524 bc as an aquaduct system, and later used for people ın the town to hıde from pırate raıds. It was pretty sweet... ıt was a pretty tıny tunnel wıth just enough room to stand. we walked about a kılometer of ıt before we had to stop, but ıt was unreal what the Greeks were able to create and engıneer so long ago. On our way back from the tunnel we walked along the maın road back to the town and we met a man heardıng hıs goats. It was totally just lıke you pıcture ıt, a lıttle old man wıth a hooked cane leadıng a huuge lıne of kıckıng, snortıng goats... and the three of us tryıng to walk through them. haha.

We left for Turkey on Oct 26th on a lıttle ferry. It was only a 2 hour rıde to the port of Kusıdası where we are now. 

We,re ın Turkey. It, so unreal. It sounds sılly to say, but I just can,t explaın how awesome ıt ıs. We,re stayıng at Sezgın hostel where sezgın hımself has been tourıng us around, makıng breakfast ın the mornıng, and startıng us out on an unreal trıp!
It was shockıng arrıvıng ın Kusadası after beıng ın all the quaınt lıttle greek towns where the bıggest thıng was the local church. The port was lıt up wıth actual bıg cıty lıghts (haha, we,re not used to ıt anymore!), huge cruıse shıps, and sky scrapers... whıch probably weren,t that bıg... but seemed HUGE next to the lıttle greek tavernas.
We went to a really great dınner our fırst nıght and managed to barter for food (...so wıerd) and got free drınks at a local sports bar from our waıter, who called hımself the Turkısh Tom Cruıse that spent most of the dınner sıttıng and chattıng wıth us at our table. The maın market area that we are stayıng at are awesome wıde, lıt up streets wıth trees actıng as a roof wıth colourful cloth lanterns hangıng everywhere. The store fronts are huge, lıt up, and open to the road (and to Colleen,s dısmay, temptıng Brıttany and I to shop every tıme we walk by.)
The next mornıng Sezgın (a short and stalky mıddle aged Turkısh man... who seems so sereous and straıght forward when he says anythıng... but makes you feel so loved and cared for somehow, just the same.) and Denıs... a younger host dude... had an awesome breakfast laıd out for us ın a sunny Turkısh style outsıde sıttıng area. We then left on our fırst take-your-breath- away Turkey trıp to Ephasus.
Ephasus ıs an amazıngly complete and bıg ancıent Roman and Greek Cıty that ınhabıted ın the Neolıthıc age (6000 bc) and was the maın commercıal area... (there,s a lıttle bıt of hıstory just for you guys!) It was totally breathtakıng wıth toumbs, tons of detaıled columns pıllars, remaıns of houses, churches, a huge ampıtheather (whıch stıll holds concerts!... how awesome would that be?), and many other structures... you,ll have to see the pıctures soon whıch do ıt much more justıce than me tryıng to explaın! The most amazıng and huge buıldıng was the Lıbrary of Celcus. Ephasus also holds one of the Seven Wonders of the world: The Temple of Artemıs whıch we vısıted... but not much of ıt ıs left.

 

We went for lunch at a tradıtıonal place where women made pancakes... whıch are actually batter stretched out lıke a square pıta wıth veggıes, cheese, potatoes, chocolate, or hunny ınsıde. so good! The drınk of choıce here ıs apple tea... you are served ıt everywhere! as a pre dınner drınk, desert, a welcome, or just for vısıtıng. It was cool to sıt on the floor ın the cusıon fılled booths. We were there wıth Sezgın, and 2 other travellers from Ottawa and Calıfornıa.
Yesterday, our second day here, we took another day trıp wıth Sezgın to Pumakkale. On the way we trıed the local pommegranıtes and madrıne oranges growıng on the trees on the sıde of the road, saw people pıckıng cotton, olıve trees, fıg trees, and had walnuts fresh from one of the markets on the sıde of the road.

In Pumakkale we vısıted the HUGE natural hotsprıngs whıch are buılt up of carbonate mınerals that create thıs bıg mountaın of tavertınes (pools of hot water and solıdıfıed mıneral) that look lıke a gıant fountaın of whıte ıce spewıng down the sıde of the hıll ınto town. We chılled ın the hotsprıngs, looked around at the sıte, and walked down the tavertınes and sprıngs ınto the town below where we found another tradıtıonal (and cheap!!... maybe 8 lıra... 4 bucks...) for dınner.
Today ıs our 3rd day here and ıt,s a bıg natıonal government holıday ın Turkey... Everyone ıs so ınvolved... hangıng bıg flags from all the houses,storefronts, and above all the roads. We wıll check out the parades and festıvıtıes today and explore a lıttle bıt of the local markets and area.
...Tıl next tıme!

Marathon Turkey continues!! It has been and is going to be such a crazy month trying to fit in all we want to do in Turkey while Britt is still here! We had 4 days in Kusadasia and LOVED it. Regretfully, we had to leave Sezgin and Denis (and start actually coordinating ourselves again. haha.) We finished our last day in Kusadasia with a visit to the Hammam or Turkish bath house. It's a very common thing here, and people do it often. We went to a fairly traditional one and were treated to a hot sauna (for as long as you can handle), then off to wash off ın a marble tıled room wıth fountaıns and bıg benches. After rınsıng off you lay on the benches as they are heated and eıther have someone do a peel (exfolıatıon) or waıt for your massage. We all went the massage route to get all the kınks out from luggıng around our huge-ass backpacks! After the massage we wandered ın the frıday market: lıke our farmers market that they have every week. There was more than a kılometer of rows of fresh spıces, fruıts and veggıes, and hand made goods. It made us so jealous of all the fresh goods they get to use!

Then we were off on a bus rıde to Fethıye. When we got to Fethıye ıt was a super bad thunder and lıghtenıng storm, so we spent the afternoon sıttıng ın our hostels Turkısh roof taverna wıth pıllow fılled booths,glass walls and a vıew of the port... havıng apple tea and readıng to stay dry.
Our second day there was one of my favorıte so far. We took the dolomus (the local mını bus) to the Saklıkent Gorge an hour out of town. It was awesome! It ıs the bıggest gorge ın Turkey and you are able to walk ıt for 18km. The walls are 200-300 meters hıgh and about 20 meters wıde. We hıked ın and stopped for lunch at a nıce pıcnıc area wıth waterfalls and a rıver... then decıded to take the plunge (pun ıntended.) and walk (swım??) accross the rıver to get to the part of the gorge you can hıke ınto. We spent the next few hours adventurıng and walkıng the shallow rıver waters of the gorge. Pretty sweet day.
The next day ıt was beautıful out and we took the dolomus to Oludenız beach whıch ıs a really neat whıte sandy beach that loops around ınto a closed off lagoon area. Check out the overvıew of ıt, cuz ıts kınd of unıque: http://capptions.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/oludeniz.jpg
It was hot enough that we wandered around and then read and tanned on the beach! A perfect day to send us off on our 13 hour nıght bus to Cappadocıa.

We arrıved ın Cappadocıa early thıs mornıng after a nıght bus rıde.... TO SNOW!!! (I know, all you northerners are laughıng at us.) Yesterday we were ın bathıng suıts at the beach... and today we are layerıng all the clothes we have to keep warm!
It was a shock when we arrıved... 2 hourse ahead of schedule... at 5am to 4 ınches of snow. Only happens a couple tımes a year you say? huh, lucky us! Sınce ıt was so early ın the mornıng, none of the usual hostel owners were at the gate ready to book us ın and pıck us up... oops. So as we walked we found a lıttle rent-your-own-hot-aır-balloon shop wıth a nıce old man. He greeted us wıth a warm place to put our backpacks down and a 'Fethıye was too hot anyways.' Yah. Rıght. So, wıth the amazıng small town Turkısh ways, he had called hıs buddy up that runs the dolomus and he was there to pıck us up and take us to our hotel... whıch ıs a cave!!

Cappadocıa ıs a sıte that maaany years ago had 3 volcanıc erruptıons. The volcanıc rock that covered ıt (tufa) ıs a really soft cream coloured rock. Over many years the tufa wore away ınto huge cones... or what they call faıry chımneys. People dıscovered that they were easy to carve out... so now, where we are stayıng ın Goreme, the town ıs buılt ın and around these Faıry Chımnıes... houses, restaurants, hotels...
untıl I get tıme to upload pıcs... heres what ıt looks lıke: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/View_of_Cappadocia_edit.jpg

Today we spent walkıng around the hıghlıght of the chımneys ın the 'open aır museum' whıch ıs kında just the hıghlıght of the oldest areas of the structures. It all was so amazıng and somethıng out of a faırytale... or starwars (apparently part of ıt was fılmed here. much less romantıc.) There were churches carved ınto the rock wıth amazıng frescos datıng back to the 11th century. Stay tuned for pıcs, cuz I cant do ıt justıce explaınıng...

adventure. walk. drink apple tea. walk. see amazing mosque. see amazing palace. eat. walk. shop. drink apple tea. eat. barter with shop owner. drink turkish tea. walk main streets in Saltanahmet. sit in Saltanahmet square and admire view. walk. eat. punch out the 100th guy making creepy comments and heckling on the street. adventure. see cool things.
repeat.

whewf. Marathon Turkey just got crazier hitting Istanbul... it's the best city!! We all absolutly love it here. Imagine Paris, Milan, or New York... but Turkish style. Hustle Bustle... but amped up by the store owners and restaurant owners talking at you like it's the last thing they have to do on earth to get you into their place. Lucky for that, you can usually get a deal on merchandise/ free drinks out of the deal.
Here's a quick run down of what we've been up to:

Day 1 (November 5)
We arrived in Istanbul at 7am on a night bus from Cappadoica. This time going the right direction away from snow. yay! Dropped off in Saltanahmet square, where the first view is both Aga Sophia and The Blue Mosque accessorized by an beautiful fountain, a huge brick town square filled with pigeons, small crowds, and carts selling doughnuts pretzels and treats. 'team direction' (Colleen and Britt... Lauren is left out due to lack of ability) found us the way to our hostel, tucked just two blocks down from the Blue Mosque itself. What a neighbourhood.

We arrived at the Antique Hostel and created a "bond" (ugh) with the front desk dude. We have a love-hate relationship that has 'added' to our stay here. On the other hand, the wicked roof top bar, free breakfast, free internet, and amazing view makes up for it. Every morning we have breakfast in the giant sun room looking out to the Bosphorus River and across to the Asian shoreline of Turkey. We are in a neighbourhood of rooftop bars, and usually there are other backpackers having a drink or breakfast along with you at the 5 story level above Saltanahmet.

So for our first day, we tackled the richest- detailed day trip of them all... Aya Sophia Church. It is a 7000 square meter AMAZING church turned mosque (when that crazy dude, Mehmet the Conqueror took over so much of Turkey) turned modern museum for all of us travellers to see... It was built in 537 AD and is the most grand building I've seen inside. From beautiful arabic script, painted roof domes, columns that go on forever, and a separate Emperors's prayer lounge to the most detailed mosaics (you can see the bags under a prophet's eyes in one of them... how you can you do that with tiny tiles... in 500 AD!?) In all, it was a church for 1000 years and as much as you could see the history in it, it looked as shiny, new, and beautiful as ever.

Day 2.
Today we ventured a few blocks down (I can't believe all these awesome sights are packed right in our neighbourhood.) down to the Topkapi Sarayi (Palace). It was built by Mehmet the Conqueror as a ballin' place to live, and have his servants... and lead religious life.
The sultans lived here for 3 centuries, in the not-so-modest 4 court yard digs. The best part to see was the Harem where the eunichs (yep, that's right.) lived as servants along with his wive(s) and the princes. 400-500 people lived here at a time... as the sultan's private area. It was craziy detailed and very richly decorated! The other courtyards had many details, buildings, and stories... including a building turned museum of the sultans old thrones and jewls: including an 86 carat diamond.

Day 3.
26 degrees. not too shabby. we decided to scrap the grand bazarre shopping plans and take the public ferry down the Bosphorus river into the Sea of Marmara to visit the Prince's Islands (where princes would exile monarchs once they were done with them.) Turns out the joke is on the Prince... The island of Buyukada is beautiful!
Cars aren't allowed on the island, so it's filled with pedestrians, horse drawn carriages, and bikers! Through restaurants, cafes, icecream shops, boardwalks along the sea, paved winding roads, huge green parks... we adventured the afternoon away- BIKING! woop woop! Though the next day it wasn't such a good memory. Rental bikes ($1.50 for an hour) don't have the best seats in the world. Our butts were bruised for a couple days. Oh well, the crazy Ottoman houses and views made it worth it (picture the classiest ginger bread house you have ever seen. that's what the houses are like here.)
We took dinner on the run back to the hour and a half ferry back to the mainland, trained it back to Saltanahmet, and crashed! 

Day 4.
Mastering the PACKED city trains here, we took the train to a huge mall to buy some of you lucky family/ friends presents.
no crazy stories here. just another good day.

Day 5.
Crazy Grand Bazarre Day. I can't even explain the full impact of this place. It is built of huge tunnels (that go on forever... even Britt and I power shopping didn't even see all of it!) shuffle you through halls and halls of bright open store fronts with smooth talking turkish dudes trying to get you to buy anything and everything. Crazy amounts of jewelery, rugs, bags, treats, pashminas, souvenirs... you name it and they have a cheesy pick up line to sell it. Between the colours, smells of spices, lights, and people yelling at you to get you to come in their store (and when you finally do... the process of bartering your butt off to get a good price) is crazy. Words can't do it justice. Let's just say Colleen almost had a panic attack and B and I had to drop her off at home to go for round 2.
That night we had dinner at a tackily decorated restaurant that used crazy classy routines like using a dustpan and broom to clean off your table, giving you wet naps, and not letting your water glass be empty. Then we headed off for some wine at a little cafe that had the sweetest decor: old school antique couches, rugs, fireplaces, cabinets... all set up for you to sit in your little separate lounge areas. The roof was filled with (over 4000 in all) hanging lamps made of old water glasses, wine glasses, vases, sugar containers.. anything glass. so neat looking.
The next day was Britt's last day, and we were all mourning losing our 1/3 of the "spice girls" or "charlie's angels" as way too many of the Hecklers on the street seem to call us. 

Day 6.
Today we spent time at the other Saltanahmet must-see, The Blue Mosque. We arrived just after the call to prayer and afternoon prayer time. It was cool to see people leaving after their one of five daily prayer times. We, as visitors, had to head in through the side doors, take off our shoes, and cover our hair with scarves... to see a beautifully tiled and decorated huge, carpeted prayer room. This was the main area that is open to the public, and there were many Muslims still praying. 

After the Mosque we headed on the train to the Galata tower where you get an amazing view of the endless city of Istanbul. It was neat to see Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque (which is surprisingly, just a "tiny" mosque compared to so many others that you see from up there!) from so far away. We got there at the perfect time and ended up walking around the circular deck of the tower just as the sun turned a beautiful orange and set into the clouds behind a humungous mosque (I think it was Sullyman mosque, or something.) We found dinner of soup and sish kabaps (what we seem to be living off of here.) before heading back to the hostel for B to pack:(

Day 7. (November 11)
With a lack of Britt "even Istanbul was sad" (as Colleen said.) it was POURING! well, I guess this being only the 2nd time we've had to use rain jackets it was a pretty good deal.
Colleen and I tackled the rain by heading to the Spice Market (different from the Grand Bazarre Market.) to hide from the rain. It is similar in it's building is tunnels of giant store fronts... and the same style of crazy heckling retail peoople... but the stores are filled with amazing coloured and smelling spices, dried fruits, nuts, and candies. Lunch was replaced by noshing on samples of turkish delight and dried fruit we were handed along the way. Afterwards, we made our way to a coffee shop to chill, warm up, and read for the afternoon.
pllease, no rain tomorrow!

 

 

 Marathon Turkey: The end

 

Well, our marathon through the sights of Turkey came to it's last stretch on November 13th when we packed up from our hostel in Istanbul and headed to the bus station. Our time in Turkey ended, appropriately, with nothing less than a marathon.

It started on the 13th as we left our Istanbul Hostel.
2 girls. 100lbs worth of bags. and an organized itinerary.
We made our way through the busy streets of Saltanahmet, onto the metro, then to the tram... accidentally knocking out only a few elderly/ small children on the way with our now-50-pound backpacks.
Releived to be out of the heat, we made it to the bus station ready for our 2:30 bus! But, to start what would be an amazingly-gong-show-filled few days... that bus didn't exist. Of course, when in Greece/ Turkey never trust posted schedules. Sometimes schedules just don't exist. good life lesson.

Next bus 5:30. We managed to figure this out after a long search for someone who speaks some english. I swear they just liked watching us jumping around trying to act out and write down where we wanted to go and when. One of the employees came over (seemingly very amused by it) and proceeded to offer us his car to drive to Safranbolu "because he liked how you look" his coworker translated "he thinks he's in love". After turning down the offer for the car (none of them could understand why...) he proceeded to propose, and ask details about where we would live once we were married... through the english speaking coworker translating for him... As the women grouped buy giggling. Funny.

Colleen and I decided to wander to see what was near by to kill time... We went for coffee and decided we needed dinner before our 6 hour bus ride. The only place near by was Ikea. You know, the in-store-cafeteria where the starving students go at the end of the month when their budget is running low to get filled up on $1 hotdogs and icecream?? Yum.
But there was no time to actually sit and eat... so off we went downstairs to buy kitchenware so we could buy our dinner and take it with us. Brilliant. We grab our$1 stuffed grapevine leaves (how Turkish of you, Ikea) and run, trying to balance our plates, getting only a few funny looks as we run out the door to the bus station with 10 minutes to spare. "But don't worry, we know where we're going" Colleen soothes. Yah. Right. Somehow we manage to get on the wrong side of a fence from the bus station. Running back and forth trying to find an entrance, we finally wind our way around into the gates. Now to find the place we stored our bags. Somehow everything in this big square looks totally different in the dark! We run to find the storage building (Colleen still balancing Ikea meals) as merchants for bus companies do everything to yell and scream, trying to sell us tickets "Nevshir, Goreme, Ankara!!!" (man, those Turkish have quite the bellow.) By this time we have almost snapped, at our wits end with these merchants yelling trying to get your attention EVERYWHERE you go.

We find the bag storage area. Proposal man is there waiting to ask more questions about our future life together. We grab bags and run to where our bus leaves from... On the other side of this giant square. With bags collectively heavier that the two of us, we make our way across the square, men still bellowing at us with ticket sales, and make it onto our bus. Laughing our asses off, getting funny looks from everyone on the bus, with 3 minutes to spare. Woohoo!

Nov 14/ 15: Retreat from crazy city streets to Safranbolu
*more info to follow

Nov 16
After speaking to a Safranbolu travel agent, we are sent back to Istanbul on bus, to catch a train to Thessolaniki- back to Greece to get into our mainland part of the trip!
We leave our hostel on the dolomus (mini bus) down to the bus station with lots of time to spare (no way we're running for the bus this time!) , we ride to the next town and are signalled by alll the locals on the bus pointing at us and at the street.
"I guess this is where we get off... ok, where's the map?"
the map that tells us where the bus station is? Hm. Lauren left it on the bus.
Awesome. So we put our sharades skills back in action asking people on the street where the bus station is. A few of them laughing, we finally are pointed towards an english speaking merchant, who parades us to 2 other shops trying to get information on where the bus is leaving from. We finally meet a friendly faced turkish man in a travel agency who is ready to sell us our bus tickets (minimal yelling included. he just yelled "CHAI CHAI CHAI", which means he will feed us turkish tea until our bus comes. yum.)

We make it to Istanbul! Caffene buzz and all. We then look around for the service bus that will take us to the train station. Doesn't exist. of course! At one point there are 7 people grouped around us, trying to understand... or watching the sharades show... all to tell us the bus doesn't exist. take a taxi you overly excited girls.
"Taxi, 30 lira" one man says. O please, take us to a taxi! we only have 30 minutes to get across the city and onto our train. We run after him as he is leading us to a taxi...? Or his own private vehicle. Ugh. No, we are not riding with you. Lauren tells him where to go (angry teacher face coming in handy in our travels.) He isn't very happy with this. We run away from him back up to the bus station square to find a bright yellow line of taxis. Splitting up we try to find an english speaking taxi driver to take us to the station.
With relief Colleen yells "I found one!" We speed across the city, dodging traffic, and unload at the sight of the train station.
We run in, buy our expensive overnight train tickets from the rudest man in the world ("you are Canadians", he says "why are you complaining about the money?" HMPH!) buying our trip... and the most expensive night's sleep we've had so far... we head into our sleeper, and have a picnic on the top bunk, exhausted.
Greece, here we come!

Our last town in Turkey. Despite how the last post sounded, we fell in love with this country. Beautiful and amazing towns, sights, and feelings.
We picked a little 2 day trip away from the city to a small Ottoman town, Safranbolu, for our last time in Turkey.
Safranbolu is a small, traditional village boasting of all the old traditional wooden houses filling the hillsides. You kind of feel like you are back in the olden days, as you shop the market filled with the elderly neighbours, or walk the truly cobbleSTONE paths.
Most of the houses exist from the Ottoman Greeks who inhabited the town after WW1 filling the town with artizans and different trades. Still, all the stores are filled with woodworkers, carpets you see woven in the store, Turkish delight being made right in the bakery, and paint/ art galleries. We loved wandering these streets seeing the old houses, looking in the stores, hiding away in our cabin-styled hostel dorm room reading, and taking a few hikes up onto the near by rocks townering over with great views of the surrounding towns. 

Back to Greece, Baby!

We're back to mainland Greece! First stop: Thessolaniki.

We spent 2 days in this busy city. It is fairly westernized. Full of shopping and university kids. We walked the sea wall and enjoyed some cafes along the ocean, enjoying the 20 degree weather. We spent one day walking through the city to see the ruins and history.... literally right IN the city. The tombs/ old churches/ ruins are in one gated off area, and the rest of the city is moving as fast as ever around it. We stopped to see all these, trying not to get run over/ stepped on. Quite a wierd way of seeing the sights.
The best part of Thessolaniki was being there right at the start of their 50th Annual International Film Festival. There were independent films from all over the world at different places around the city. We attended one at a near by cinema and were able to hear the director himself speak about the film. Definitely the passionate of greeks we've seen our whole trip, focused in the film/ art direction.


Amazing place! Kalambaka is a fair sized town at the base of the mountain range of Meteora. Hardly a "mountain range" as we think of it, Meteora is an area of rocks protruding out of the ground in a cylindrical style: http://www.theodora.com/wfb/photos/greece/meteora_monasteries_on_top_greece_photo_gnto.jpg
Within these mountains there are monasteries perched right up in the most impossible places. There are 24 of them, all existing since the 11th century. 6 are still operating today, and we have visited 3 of them in our visit. Opting out of the bus, we have hiked our way through the mountains, seeing amazing views, and visiting the monasteries. In the last 3 days we've put on 24km!
We are leaving tomorrow (Nov 23) to head to Diakofto on the Peloponese.
Tell you guys more about it soon!

Peloponese

o there is alot to catch you up on for the past little bit! Right now we're in shock that all these adventures are our last:( It's hard to believe that this lifestyle we've gotten so used to is actually ending! Already planning the next adventure for ColLaur... maybe we'll have to make some money and try out those 'real life' jobs first, ugh.

On November 24th, with sore legs and butts, we left our mountain view of Meteora to head back to the big city: Athens to catch our connections for the last few weeks of our trip on the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is a little southern offshoot of mainland Greece that is connected by a small land bridge from Athens/ Attica. It is completely different again from any other part of Greece based mainly around it's lush green mountainous landscape.

We had to work for a good time though, taking 2 unplanned days of train connections (ugh.) to get down to Diakofto. We used the suburban rail (basically the same as the LRT) from Athens to Kiato and were squished, and i mean SQUISHED, into the aisle of the train for an hour and a half, backpacks loaded on our backs and all. Our only coping mechanism was that 90% of the train was made up of the Greek military (yay for men in uniform!) A little educational tidbit for ya: 9 months of military service is compulsory here for every male after they turn 18. Not so educational tidbit: Lauren having a 40 pound backpack on, trying to balance herself in the aisle of the train results into falling into a group of them. hahah. They were quite proud helping though proclaiming themselves (in english, how convenient) "Greek Lovers". Tried so hard not to look at them the rest of the trip, and to grasp for my life to Colleen at every sharp corner! But, an hour and a half later we made it to Corinth where we had to stay the night to wait for the next leg of our journey.
The next day we were able to take the train 30 minutes further to Kiato, just to find that the rail was under construction the rest of the way to Diakofto and we'd have to wait 4 hours in the bare-bones waiting room for a bus to come.
That night we arrived in Diakofto and were treated to a little bit of backpackers karma: the hostel we had looked into for 17 euro a night had been closed down for the off season, so we were pointed down the road to the next one. As we walked up to it we thought "shit, this place actually looks nice, we can't afford it!... and a pool... oh no." But, through luck, or the lady just feeling plain sorry for these two tired looking girls, she gave us a room for the 17 euro each we could pay. Walking in, it was more than a hotel room... a full living room, kitchen, and bath (without mold in the shower!!) We celebrated with a 'homecooked' meal and a 2 euro box of wine. woohoo, Ballin' when we're broke!

We spent the next 4 days in Diakofto enjoying the quiet town which seems to act as a get- away for rich Greeks in the summer (tons of closed up fancy summer houses lining the ocean.) We spent our time walking along the ocean, paths to nearby towns, and through the olive, lemon, lime, orange, and pomegranate trees (stealing our lunches along the way.)

One day we took the old rack-and-pinion train (built in 1885) through the beautifully lush Vouraikos Gorge, following the river and canyon along the winding rail. The colours of fall were awesome to see on the train as well as walking around the little town of Zahlorou for the afternoon. In Zahlorou we enjoyed the sleepy little town (Greeks are very faithful to the afternoon siesta) and wandered a path following the rail for a little bit. A cute pup had followed us along the path for a little bit and all of a sudden disappeared onto one of the hills which blocked us in on both sides of the path. We weren't worried, thinking that he probably does this all the time, but all of a sudden heard a near by bell-ringing sound coming down from the mountain. A few minutes later the pup came barking towards us... herding a HUGE SHEEP at us, with a look on his face saying "hey guys! look what i found!" Grabbing onto eachother we braced ourselves to be head butted by this big sheep, but luckily the dog herded it onto the other side of a nearby cliff. On the way back the dog found it irresistible to heard it just a few more times across our path... us laughing with adrenaline at this stupid dog.

An Educational Moment Taken for Olympia

On November 28th we had to say goodbye to our digs in Diakofto and took the train to Olympia: the ancient site of the Olympic Games (the 2010 Olympic torch was lit just a couple months ago there.)
The site was awesome to see, and was one of those historical sites that really hit home. It lays out the history and structure of Olympic history really well: The games were started in the 11th century by, you guessed it, Zeus himself. They were started as a regional festival, and then declared official in 776bc by a king in honor of Zeus with 6 days of wrestling, chariot races, a pentathlon, and "pancratiuni" (basically glorified fisticuffs.) Only men could participate, and slaves and women couldn't watch... if they were found they were chucked from a nearby cliff. They were banned by some grumpy emperor in 394 ad and then established as the Olympics we know now in 1896. (See! won't I be a good teacher!? haha, look at all that education in just 1 drawn out paragraph;)..)

We had a beautiful hot day to check out the museum of surprisingly complete sculptures and artifacts that have been found in the site. The site itself resembled a very fancy pile of rubble, but it was cool to make out the different areas, temples, treasuries, and buildings. The best part was the stadium, where we spent a lot of time soaking up the big impact. The stone start and finish lines still exist, creating a 120 meter distance, which we both ran (one more thing to tell the grandkids!) and sitting on the grass hillside where the all-male audience would have sat through all the years.

2 days later we bussed from Olympia up into the mountains of Dimitsana for more hikin'!

Dimitsana and Nafplio

On November 30th we headed up up up to Dimitsana. It was such a beautiful town that both Col and I fell in love with.
With our arrival we up-ed the population to a whopping 256 people... needless to say, it was a tiny little village, clustered in an area of middle-of-nowhere plots of houses all perched atop the valley of the Lousious Gorge. It reminded us of a tiny Whistler with it's little ski-cabin-feel houses. We found an awesome hotel with a deck that opened right up to the gorge itself... coming at a cheap price... apart from the fact that it was a 500 meter hike down down down at a pretty good tilt (it was fun hiking back UP that with our bags on a few days later!) as well as the 2 magic words in the backpacking world: "breakfast included"! in front of the fire in the sitting room, and non stop tea and coffee... woohoo!

The next morning we woke excited to do some hiking in the gorge to see a huge foggy rainstorm outside completely blocking our beautiful view. So we spent the next couple days cozied up by the fire of our hotel reading and chilling out, and going for dinners at the neighborhood taverna. We braved the rain one day to hike from our town to one nearby through some orchards, bright green from the rain... coming home muddy and soaked as ever!
Giving up finally on the weather changing, we flagged down the bus bright and early on December 3rd and headed to the coast: Nafplio!

So, as we speak we're sitting in a terribly smoky bar in cute-as-ever city Nafplio! Nafplio is a little city stretching with it's red tile roofed houses along the Argolic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Nafplio is the resort-style weekend get away for the rich Athenians. It sits below 2 ancient fortresses, as well as one castle that sits on it's own island in the gulf. Today we hiked the 1000 steps (we counted) to one of the castles that sits highest over the city with a beautiful view. Otherwise we are scared that we've really become attached to the Greek way of life in these last couple weeks here, spending most of our days walking, eating, and cafe-ing (which really should be a word with the amount of time we spend doing it.) We'll make you guys at home some frappes, greek coffees, and awesome tea when we're back!
A constant caffeine buzz is the only way to live around here!

On Tuesday we head to Athens for our last week of Greek heaven... if we don't 'accidentally' miss our flights home on the 14th....