Around the World

January 4 - 7, 2007 Thursday We woke up in Chefchaoen at 5:30 am and left our hotel at 6 am. Our bus was a little late so we ended up pulling out of town at 7:45 rather than 7, regretting that we could have stayed cold in bed longer. The bus was fairly jerky but we were both able to sleep a little because we were very tired. If you’ve read the blog for awhile you know that 5:30 am wakeup calls are not the norm. We arrived in Rabat around noon and took a taxi with a fast meter to the train station. Amy went to look at hotels while Roger stayed outside the station with the bags. The first hotel was a category 5 hotel ($50) but did not have heat. We both ... read more

December 28 - 31, 2006 Completing this entry more than two years after we were in Morocco it struck us how lazy and boring we were in Fes (and maybe all of Morocco). We think at least our initial laziness boils down to a few things. First, we arrived in Morocco right before Eid-al-Adha (there are various names for this holiday used around the Muslim world) and we received conflicting information both before and after arriving in Morocco as to what impact this would have on our visit. Information ranged to the extreme in many cases, suggesting nothing - absolutely nothing - would be open, moving, or available on the holiday. We were scared enough of this we were frantically checking into an alternative stay for a week in Ireland. We didn’t bite probably because we ... read more

December 17 - 23, 2006 Sunday Our bus up the Dardanelles arrived in Istanbul at 8pm. After some confusion we loaded on to a servis van encountering the rare rude face the servis apparently brings out (two guys in the front seat took up three seats, the back seat someone always seems to sit down at the end and doesn’t move over so you have to crawl over them…). A local guy on the bus told us when to get out, and we did, ending up far from where we wanted to go (someday we will learn to identify the signs that indicate so clearly that we should just take a cab). Finding ourselves in Aksaray we hailed a cab. The driver drove up to Beyoglu, a route that was clear even to us to be ... read more

December 11 - 15, 2006 Monday After slicing inland to Pamukkale from the Mediterranean we cut back to the coast and the Bodrum Peninsula on the Aegean coast that is home to the town of Bodrum. Tourism is the local business in Bodrum, although we were told that the town retains a little more of its unique charms than other coastal cities overrun by tourism. We arrived in Bodrum after dark and navigated the narrow streets and crappy map in our guidebook to Mars Hotel which our previous innkeeper in Pamukkale had recommended. The neighborhood where Mars is situated seems to house a lot of guesthouses and is an easy amble down to the Salmakis Bay waterfront and its many attractions (bars, restaurants, bars, clubs, bars…). After getting situated we headed out to get something to ... read more

Antalya December 7 - 9, 2006 Thursday We arrived at the Antalya bus station about 5:30pm. There may have been a servis, a smaller bus that would take us closer to the city center, but we were stupid enough not to check. We ended up waiting for a bus to the gate of the old city for about 20 minutes when, with darkness quickly falling, we gave up and took a cab for 12 Turkish Lira ($10). After getting a room among the narrow streets of the old city we walked to a nearby park high above the crashing waves, able to see nothing but lights on the other side of the bay. Antalya was built up from a natural harbor and for much of the year has a mild climate that suits beachgoers and cruise ... read more