5 minutes in a day

It’s amazing the difference 5 minutes can make to a working day.

The bus I catch to work is being delayed by roadworks so is arriving at work 10-15 minutes later than it would otherwise arrive – so rather that getting in between 5 & 15 minutes before the guys I work for I arrive at the same time as them – this means that they are firing things at me while I’m getting my coat off, computer on and trying to check the calendar/to do list for the day. Needless to say those 3 things often don’t happen until much later in the morning

Yes?

Saying yes to things can be a scary thing. For all sorts of reasons, it’s a commitment of your time, your energy, it may be something that is going to take you out of your comfort zone – in away you are not sure you want to go.

Anyway I've decided to say yes more often to the random things that come my way and see where they take me....

Heaven in a Biscuit

had my first BBQ shape biscuit in 6 months today - oh the bliss
- there is nothing like Shapes biscuits over here - nothing that has that
crunch that shapes have *sigh*

The Cold Has Arrived

Ok I am SO not a fan of this cold malarki!!! 0 degrees is standard overnight low - with - degrees not uncommon.

Getting dressed to go out doors is a mission - there is a coat and a scarf and gloves and a hat - well I don't have a hat yet but mum's making me one.

this many layered michilen man impression is fine until you enter any building and then it is a frantic strip so as not to expire from heat exhastion

Home Time

I’m on the train back to London now and it feels really strange sort of like the past 2 weeks didn’t happen – the whole 2 weeks in Turkey were amazing – especially the last 2 days,exploring Istanbul – and I’m already trying to work out when I can get back there and go further east and also spend a little bit more time in a few of the places – because although the tour was fantastic – and it you are thinking about going to Turkey I can highly recommend TravelTalk – but it was a tour and you weren’t always free to do what you wanted.

Turkey is a country of contrasts and contradictions – their national hero seems to be adored and was a very forward thinker who created a secular government and law system, who in acted laws that established amazing equality for women – education, financial, the vote – including the banning of the headscarf in schools and government offices. But now when Turkey is wanting to join the EU it seems to be in part trying to turn back the clock to the government and laws prior to Ataturk.

It is the contrast & contradictions that are Turkey’s appeal – mobile phones, satellite dishes are commons sites but so are tradiditonal food sellers wandering the street (apparently these are under threat if turkey joins the EU due to health laws :()

There are amazing beautiful building here both old and new but then we would pass by places that in Australia you would wonder why they hadn’t been knocked down that were home to families.

Istanbul for all it’s bustling internationalism is also very old school – with the call to prayer heard a cross the city and business’s in go slow mode during Ramadan and in some respects seems to have a rather love hate relationship with it’s westerness. But it is all this that gives Turkey and Instanbul it’s character – the ritual of being offered tea when doing a deal is lovely

Wandering in Istanbul

As the weather was lovely we decided to walk back to the city – which made for a lovely adventure – we walked through a sculpture exhibition, I finally got to buy a bread ring from a street seller – it was delicious, be paused for some tea and a game of tavla, and a snooze at a tea house along the way.


We also stopped by the fish markets where the fish is so fresh it’s swimming, and it was here that Lorin and I got some lunch from one of the many food stalls we passed – pialf – rice with chick peas it was delicious.




From the fish markets we walked over the bridge – well sort of underneath it actually – passed lots of bars and cafes and then across the top past all the fishermen. Once we reached the other side we wandered around the stalls that were on the outside of the Spice Market – there were stalls selling, spices, nuts, clothes house hold items – pretty much you name it you could buy it here and finally we succeeded in our mission to buy spoons to go with our teasets!!!! The stall holder had very little English and we had next to no Turkish so it was one of our more unsuccessful bargining sessions but at a mere 4 lira we didn’t feel much need to kibble.

Feeling rather foot weary we headed back to the hotel and farewelled Frostie who is leaving late on Monday.

Lorin and I headed upstairs to our rooms and got our bags packed – with a bit of squishing and rearranging we managed to fit everything. Just!

Once we had finished packing it was still early so we decided to take one last wander down by the harbour. It was very different to the first night – which was due to a number of things – Ramadan was over, it was Republic day and we were there much earlier than Phillipa and I had gone out on our first night.

There were far more people around, and not just men – there were women as well – and lots more stalls selling, shoes, bags, toys belts clothes etc – there were also more of the delicious smelling portable food stands – I looked at having a fish kebab – they smelt divine but the fish were put in whole and my fear of bones wouldn’t let me have one. I did however get a sweet donut like thing from another stall – it’s not actually anything like a donut – it was a larger round version of the light and crunchy syrup soaked dumplings we had enjoyed.

Photos @ kodak

New Palace

Today was a busy and relaxing day – Lorin and I met Frostie in the hotel Foyer at 10am and from there we headed to the New Palace – between the 3 of us we had a rough idea of where we were going and managed to get ourselves on a train and to the New Palace with out any major dramas. The walk from the train station to the palace was quite nice – a few stalls on the way and lots of people heading to a soccer match.

The new palace is one of the most expensive places to go see – and as a result we didn’t go through the actual palace it’s self. But we did go to the Crystal pavilion, walked around the gardens, saw the clock collection and snuck into a ballroom in the Palace, saw guards marching and got our photo taken with a guard.

Photos @ Kodak

Trip to the Spice Market

Back at the hotel – Lorin and I got dumped our shopping, made plans to meet Frostie the next morning, I checked to see if my phone had arrived and we headed out to the Spice Market for a last couple of items.

This was the most fun part of our shopping day! The markets were not as busy as they had been in the afternoon and we were more relaxed than we had been in the morning. We found the sweets shop where we had been offered a special price – and he remembered us!! And we got the full treatment – he gave us tea and chatted with us, then we sampled various types of Turkish delight before deciding on our purchases which he then vacuum sealed for us.

While we were chatting the topic of backgammon came up – and he invited me to join him for a game later on – and while he seemed perfectly nice I declined – but it was very flattering and Lorin loved telling Canar and Cassie later on about me getting hit on my the Turkish delight seller.

After we had bought our Turkish delight we wandered about the Spice Market a bit more – after a full day of dealing with shopkeepers we were much more at ease with them and chatted back to them when they talked to us – and even though we assured them that we had already bought all the Turkish delight we wanted/needed they would insist that we try this or that type – all of which were very delicious.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped off at the lovely baklava shop where we bought some for a snack and I checked that they would be open the next day for me to buy some to take home we also stopped to buy a Turkish news paper to use as packing around our tea sets – we picked the fattest one and took placed it on the counter – as we paid for it the shop keeper asked if we read Turkish to which we responded no – the look on his face was classic

After dropping off the last lot of shopping in my room I headed out for some dinner the others had had a kebab on the way back from the Grand Bazar. Down stairs I ran into Canar and after chatting for a bit – he joined me for dinner – it was very interesting talking him with out his tour guide hat on a very ambitious young gentleman.

After dinner we could hear the fireworks – it was the start of the celebrations for republic day – and Canar asked me if I would like to see them as he knew a good view point near by – Of course was my response – the viewing point turned out to be a bar upstairs in the hotel – the view was amazing – wish I had had my camera with me – we could see the bridge and the new palace and topai palace and all all the fireworks in between.

A Day of Shopping in Istanbul

Today was the last day of the tour and breakfast saw the first of the farewells – to Joelene, Joel & Kristy – Phillipa had already gone – having an early morning flight.

Shopping with boys
After breakfast Lorin & I headed to the Grand Bazar with James & Chris. It was all a bit whirl wind as the boys had to be back at the hotel by mid day to get to the airport – so Lorin and I mostly just tagged along where they wanted to go. J&C are master hagglers – and made several great deals. I didn’t buy anything in the morning – Lorin bought a leather poof thing with the boys – they bought like 20 of them and got them for about ½ the original price.



After a speedy tour of the markets it was time to head back to the Hotel via jewellwery shop we had passed on the way – which after an abortive attempt to back track – James wanted to turn left which was back toward the Bazar – and Chris wanted to go straight ahead which was the opposite direction to where we needed to go master barginers they may be but with no sense of direction what so ever – we managed with ease.

James & Chris’s master bargining came into effect again at the jewellery shop – this was my favourite shop of the morning – as got to help spend other peoples money ;) the boys bargained for 20 pairs of earrings for 30 lira – this was ½ the price of one pair. It was fun helping Chris pick out 20 pairs of earrings. I bought 4 pairs of earrings – 2 for myself and 2 for gifts – I got them for the same price as the others got theirs – it pays to go shopping with big spenders

As well as earring the shop sold plates, drums, rings and bracelets. The Jewllery was all make there – they had the sheets of pressed copper – both plain and coloured – with the shapes marked on them which they engraved with the designs then cut out, curved and applied fixings to.

Back at the hotel we caught up with the rest of the group & Canar for the final time :( although it wasn’t quite good bye to everyone yet – Lorin, Frostie and myself were all staying until Monday – Cassie was staying until Sunday

Got some good news about my phone – it was on it’s way and for just 30 Lira I would have it that evening Canar’s friend would drop it off at the hotel for me YEAH – what a relief!!


Shopping with Lorin & Others
The afternoon was more shopping this time with Janet and Robert, Frostie, Cassie & Lorin – this time Lorin and I did so some buying – we had made lists and were on a mission as the markets weren’t going to be open on the Sunday.

We started off at the spice markets, where you are confronted with an amazing assortment of sights and smells – although we looked we didn’t buy at this time – but made a note of a couple of stalls to come back too.

Once through the spice market we made headed toward the grand bazaar – this tooking us through local shopping area – we didn’t see many tourists here. But we did see a number of the items we wanted to purchase so serious browsing was taking place. It was surprising how easy it was to keep our largish group together in the crowds.

Prices aways from the tourist areas were cheaper – so we had our eyes peeled for things on our lists – the first purchase I made was several evil eye protectors – which was followed up by the first bargining of the day for 2 tea sets – one for Lorin and one for me – and once the price was negotiated we had to find just the right ones – which we finally managed.

And finally we made our way into the Grand Bazar – at this point we fair welled Janet & Robert who had some other things to do before heading to the airport later that afternoon.

In the Grand Bazar against all odds I managed to navigate back to several stalls we had been to in the morning – where based on our return we managed some very fruitful bargaining. The biggest shopping missions of the day were Cassies search for a pipe – she succeeded after several shops and much bargining, and Lorin & mine’s search for spoons to go with our tea set – the closed we came was some at 200 lira for 6 – they were stirling silver – oh well we always have Sunday.

My final purchase at the Grand Bazar was a Tvla (backgammon) set – I probably didn’t bargaining the guy down as much as I should have but to be honest I was rather over it and had enough shopping.

After an afternoon of successful shopping we headed back to the hotel – via the jewellery shop we had been to in the morning where Cassie got the same great bargain as we had. I couldn’t resist and bought myself a ring to go with one of the pairs of earrings I had bought in the morning.

Photos @ Kodak

Long day of travel

Long day of travel from Cappidocia to Istanbul with a stop at Ankara the capital of Turkey to visit Anit Kabir the monumental mausoleum of Ataturk the father of modern Turkey.



Photos @ Kodak

Day 2 Cappadocia

not so may words today

we finally visited the underground city were the locals used to take refuge from invaders

visited a carpet seller - where had the opportunity to try our hand at knotting a carpert and learnt how they create the silk threads and the different styles of rugs



and as always there are photos @ Kodak

Turkish Night

Second night in Cappadocia sees us loading up on the bus and heading for a local venue that hosts “Turkish Nights” this is a all you can eat and drink night with entertainment. The venue is in a cave. The night starts with with a presentation by Whirling dervishes – it was fasinating to see them after having been to their museum – during the main part of the presentation we weren’t allowed to take photos or eat and drink out of respect for the prayer. At the end though they bring up the lights and do some more whirling and we were permitting to take photos then.

After that it was a continuous stream of various folk dances and food & drink. We didn’t get to be entirely passive – they got us all up to do some folk dancing which included a Turkish style conga line and to outside where they got us all dancing around a bonfire before leading us back inside.

Where they got us to all sit on the floor in a great big circle and did a dance that told the story of various suitors trying to win a girl’s love. Once they had told they story they got the audience involved – picking a Lorin from our tour to be the girl to be won and then various men from the audience tried to when her affection – her final choice was James from our tour.

The belly dancer got several of the boys up to try their hand – which was amusing – it was Frosties birthday so we made sure that the she got him up hehehehe

At the end of the evening – we stumbled and staggered our way back to the bus – well the majority of people did – Bridget, Selim and I for various reasons had drunk very little. It was very funny to see Canar as drunk as everyone else – this was the first time he had drunk alcohol with us as he had given it up for Ramadan.

Back at the hotel we continued to party on at the night club there – we were the only ones there – which was probably a good thing as we were very rowdy and it really wasn’t that big.

Photos @ Kodak

Cappadocia - Valleys and Pottery

Imagination Valley – first stop today was imagination valley where the rocks have been worn away into shapes that resemble various animals, objects and icons - I wasn’t particularly imaginative the only one I could really see was Mother Mary *



Photos @ Kodak

After some exploring it was time for the next item on the agenda

Pottery
The pottery place we were taken to is a family business which has been running for about 200 years – every pottery has it’s own family patterns – the ones here were beautiful and bright in a sort of Ottoman style.

We started our tour in the manufacturing section seeing where the clay was brought in and learning about the different clays. Next we were shown how they make there mass produced plates – still a mostly hand done process – but with guides to make the plates etc uniform

The 3rd stop on our tour was the artists – who hand paint the plates in a variety of designs – it was amazing watching them work on amazingly complex designs free hand.

Next was a demonstration by a master potter and some apple tea – a master potter must be able to throw a pot and make a lid for it that fits exactly – it was amazing watching this happen before my very eyes. The master potter we watched is the youngest in the area apparently and is considered very good husband material.

And the final stop was the show room for some shopping of course. The Owner gave us an automatic 50% discount so bargaining wasn’t really a big thing here. So many different designs to choose from – it was hard to know where to look – there were plates, bowls, cups, vases in all shapes and sizes and decorated in a myriad designs.

I was drawn to the family designs – amazing bright colours in a lace like pattern with tulip flowers breaking across them. One plate particularly caught my eye so I checked out the price – at half price it was 65 lira so I put it down and went to look at some other designs I quite liked – but once again not really in my price range. I wandered back to the original plate for another look – well more a drool really – and I suddenly I had a sales man of my own. He was very lovely even while doing the hard sell – he was chattered way to me while I looked at other designs – and even took me back down to the painting workshop to look at a plate I like down there but that wasn’t on the shop floor – it was a square plate with a white ??? design on it. Thankfully Bridget kept me company through this as it can get rather over whelming having so much friendly sales attention. My salesman – who was one of the family members offered me an additional 5 lira off and my indecision finally crumbled and I bought the plate.

I have to say I find my natural indecision to be a very good bargaining tool in Turkey

My dream plate was about the size of a small table top with a price to go with it at half price it was still around 2000 lira and even if I could have afforded it not sure how the hell I would have got it home.


Photos @ Kodak

Oh yeah also climbed Fairy Chimmey's as well - a skirt really isn't the best atire for this sort of activity - but I managed it ;)



Photos @ Kodak


* in Turkish Christian religion I found it rather interesting that they referred to Mary – Jesus’ Mother as Mother Mary rather than Virgin Mary as they do in Western Catholic religion - gives a very different value to her I think

Dinner and a bath 24 Oct 06

Tonight was dinner with the whole tour - :Lorin and I shared a local dish called Tesdi Kebab – they put all the ingredients in a pot and seal it with dough and bake it for a few ours – then to serve it they slice the top of the pot with a small sword like knife and pour it in to a heated dish – with a warning to watch out for bits of pottery. It was delicous!!

Meals with all or the group are great fun as everyone will share a taste of what they ordered so get to taste many more dishes than you could ever taste on your own.

After dinner it was back on the bus for short drive to the Turklish bath.

You start off by collecting a pair of plastic sandals and a checked sarong and then you go to a change room and get into our togs.

Once these preparations were completed it was time for step 1 – the sauna which was so foggy you could barely see the person sitting opposite you and so very hot it was hard to breathe – you endured this for as long as you could and then fumbled your way to the door where you were directed to the plunge pool – which was just a little bit of a shock to the system but oh so refreshing after the sauna and then it was back to the sauna you went. The sauna seemed so much hotter the second time and I didn’t’ last nearly as long – so I wrapped my now very soggy wrap around me and head out again this time I was directed to a second room where we were directed to lie down on a rather unappealing looking slab of marble – but rather than being cold it was hot – so hot in fact that we has to ask them to cool it off with some cool water. And while a slab of marble doesn’t sound very comfy to lie on it was surprisingly so.

After an unknown time laying on the slab you were lead off to an alcove were there were individual slabs and you were loofahed. Once you were loofahed generally you were sent to a shower to rinse off and from there it was off to another marble table for the massage

I was lucky and didn’t have to move for my massage – I was rinsed off where I lay. The massage was slightly disconcerting but blissful. First they soaped you up – by blowing up a calico bag that had been soaked in soapy mix and blobbing it over you and then they got down to work – one of the most relaxing things about it was that none of the guys really knew any English so no talking required.

After the massage it was back to the heated slap for a while before time to get dressed.

The final bit of pampering in the massage room happened just as you are leaving all languide and relaxed – they tied a fresh dry towel around you.

After we were dressed time for a relaxing cup of tea and mot of a game of Talva with Selim before time to head back to the hotel and sleep.

Leaving for Cappodiocia 24 Oct 06

A very early start – but we managed with 3 nights in one place to look forward to as well as a Turkish bath.

Our tourist adventure today was Ihlara Valley where there are many churches carved into the rock and around 1048 stairs to visit them

We were supposed to go to the underground city as well but didn’t make it in time

Photos @ Kodak

And we also stopped at the Whirling Dervish Museum - where amongst other things we learnt that ostrich eggs will stop spiders weaving webs..

Photos @ Kodak

Antalya

We arrived quite late after a long day of travel – our room was rather tight – it was a twin room that they had just squeezed a cot into – which was survivable as we arrived so late and were leaving so early.

A Group of us headed off to dinner at a local kebab shop, after which Chris, James, Lorin and I went for a little bit of shopping – Chris was on a mission to find a new pair of thongs – he was actually wearing his hotel slippers!!1

After dinner I headed off on my own for a walk – beautiful balmy weather – wandered down the main street – stopped for some dessert and made it all the way down to the water. The water was so still all he lights were beautifully reflected in it. I tried taking some photos but they didn’t work out very well

Olympus

Having finally collected the boat people we headed to Olympus for a few hours – Olympus is known for it tree hours and there is a beach and an ancient city.

Most of the land lubbers headed straight for “Canars house” for some lunch at the café they had platforms with low tables and cushions to sit on and growing all around them were orange trees which grew the most amazing green oranges

As I wasn’t hungry so I headed off to the beach with some of the boat people to get to the beach you had to pay 2 Lira entry fee to the ancient city – so after a short wander we made it to the beach where parked ourselves down on the small rocks as apposed to the large rocks.

I headed straight into the water it was beautiful – swam for a bit and then just floated looking up @ the scenery and pretending I was all along in the world.

Bridget took some photos of me bobbing about.

By the time I head back in to the shore the shade had crept over our possie on the beach.

After a bit I head back to the café and grabbed a drink and watched Selim and Canar play back gammon they play it SO fast it’s hard to know whats going on.

Talva (backgammon) is very popular in Turkey – tea houses have boards for customers to use

Photos @ Kodak

Why are we waiting?!

A late start today as we were picking up the boat people – the plan was to get to the harbour @ 11.30ish lazy on the beach until they arrived around 12 – which didn’t end up working so well – the beach a had a lot of rubbish washed up on it so one was going to go swimming – a couple of the girls decided to sun bather though, The rest of us decided to go for wander along the harbour.

Just as we arrived the boat came into the harbour however things didn’t turn out as well as you would think. 1.5 hours later hour guys still hadn’t come ashore and the only progress had been Canar being picked up by the little motor boat and going out to the boat. Finally 1 hour late and a nearly 2 hours after arriving in the bay the boat people arrived and we were on our way.

Photos @ Kodak

A Day @ Sea

On a boat today – stopping at random places and swimming. It was so calm I even did a bit of snorkelling and saw a fish or tow but only near the islands.

At the second place we stopped the Gulet with the other ½ of our groups was also moored so Rob and Frosty popped on the flippers and swam over to say hello and then swam back

And before too long Chris, James & Joel swam over for a visit and spot of lunch and not long after that Julie and Louie came over in the gullets small motor boat.

It was nice to see them but the noise level on the boat sure did spike with them on board.

After lunch the boat moved on to another bay where there was a ruined house and a very small castle ruin.

I swam over to the have a look and when Rob came over decided it was time to explore the castle we started out following a trail marked with red paint but somewhere along the way we lost it but we made it to the top one the less. We had a little explore of the ruins – they were only little but hey had a Turkish flag and a cannon. Both Rob & I wished we had been able to bring our cameras over from the boat.

We coooeeed to the boat and they took some photos of us as King of the Castle.

On the way down we managed to follow the path the whole way down – made for a much quicker trip.

It was like being a little kid again – find our way through the bush

Photos @ Kodak

A VERY Lazy Day

Went to the beach and lazed in the sun and the water. About the most activity I had was building and decorating a sand castle with Frosty – sadly although I took photos – they have vanish :(

Also did a little bit of shopping in Kas (Kash) and bought a small hand made pottery bowl.