Krunch
I thought I'd name my bike sasha... Joined: May 16th 2008
Logged in: December 21st 2011
Logged in: December 21st 2011
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Travel Blog Posts
The frozen masses of travertine
What do you do with no passport and 30 turkish lira to your name? Hop in the van of the owner of the Otel Kora in Pamucakle and do a quick tour of Pamucakle. He said it would be no problem they would find my bag - to read about how I lost my bag click here and then I could pick it up once I got back to the bus station on the way to Ephesus - which we were hoping to go to tonight. The tour was 40 lira - but honestly speaking wasn’t really necessary because it was walking distance to the springs and the ruins from the town centre. It did include lunch though, and the 20 lira entrance fee to the ruins (though it probably would have been easy to jump ... read more
Mosque Tower
Stranded in Cappedocia? You might think that but we ended up buying the ticket to get to Konya which left the next morning. We went back to our hostel - and to our luck we organized a breakfast at 7 and the heating had been fixed and I had my second warmest sleep in Turkey to date. The next morning we hoped on the bus for a 4.5 hour drive to Konya. Unfortunately at Konya, though we had been promised otherwise - there were no direct tickets to Pamukale. We ended up getting the bus to Denizile. From Denizle we would change to Pamukale. Second potential problem. The first available bus was at 11pm. We booked that thinking well at least we would get the time to see the whirling dervish that evening. Unfortunately the whirling ... read more
Twilight was phenomenal like something out of Prince of Persia
The next morning I woke up more well rested at 8am - the heating was working alittle bit plus I had kitted up more in my sleep. We ordered the Green Tour in the morning to visit a few places in Cappedocia which were a lot easier to get to by car. First port of call was the beautiful panoramic view of Cappedocia where we rode to the edge of Goereme. From there we hoped back into the car and rode on to Derinkuy one of the many underground cities of Cappedocia. Our guide Ephesus told us that the underground cities were estimated to be built around 2000/700BC and were used until about 11C AD. We went into one of the underground cities that went down 8 floors - although some of the cities were known ... read more
pottery tree
Fortunately the bus did come. After a few 10 minute intervals passed we got to Goereme around 12:30pm and found a decent hotel - Guven cave pension. The unfortunate thing was it was super cold in Cappadocia in the evening. It was also pretty cold in our guest house and they did not turn the heater on when we arrived. So it was a pretty chilly sleep. After breakfast the next day we thought about hiking pigeon valley - a 3km hike which dad thought would be doable. However we then seriously considered the prospect of hiring some quads to see Cappadocia quad style. And therefore it was so that the Krunches did thier first day of Cappadocia on quads. From the 75 turkish lira price - Ivan managed to get them down to 55 lira. ... read more
Sugar beads, sugar beads and pistasciohs
On the bus I realized I texted the wrong number and messaged Fatih after which he called and organized that he would pick us up from the main bus station in Ankara. Ankara was a pretty nice city. I guess its comparable to Canberra in Australia, Sydney is where its at like Istanbul, but Canberra is the political capital. I think where Ankara differs is the architecture is older (obviously) but also I felt their was more nature like nice green areas that I didn’t feel they had the same of in Canberra. Though I heard Canberra has awesome pushbike tracks! Ankara was even sweeter cause we got to meet up with Fatih:O He picked us up at the bus station then took us to his house. Then his mum made us some really tasty Turkish ... read more
Bursa Tower
We got to Bursa and booked a hotel after dinner. There was some disagreement between me, dad and Ivan but we finally settled on a place. Me and Ivan went for a 3 hour walk to check out Bursa at night and met some boys that wanted to take photos with me doing cheek pressing and offered Ivan some booze. Heading back we grabbed dad from the hotel and got a traditional Russian dinner, a chicken (a whole one), rice and salad. I had an awesome sleep that night! We spent a day looking around Bursa on the 29 of November. After a yummy lentil soup for breakfast we got a cab (for 5 TL or 3.70 AUD) to Ulucami (mosque in Turkish) - a mosque in the Persian style of architecture. We then headed to ... read more
Inside the Blue Mosque
Istanbul where east meets west, Europe and Asian cultures collide, was also where it was time for me and brother Nemsis and father to congregate. After a farewell party for another staff member at my work and many good byes at the Dilan Hotel I combined the last of my packing with 40 minutes sleep and before I knew it, it was time for the bus trip to the Schiphol airport and my flight to Istanbul. I got to the airport, at 7.30am on November 27 to find out the flight had been canceled. Again. So now I had to wait 2 extra hours to fly. I checked in and had another snooze, only to find out that the flight had been delayed by another hour. I was wondering if I was leaving Amsterdam today? 5 ... read more
Amsterdam Elephants/Oliphants
Summer coming to an end in Amsterdam in 2009 was probably signified by one of my last balcony breakfasts. During this time I had two couch surfing virgins (meaning it was their first couch surf) come stay with me. Nastia (from Berlin, originally from Siberia) and Damian (from Toulouse, France) came. We hit up the historical museum, along with Shetal in Amsterdam’s city centre were I got to play some defunct bells. In the evening we headed out for Sahil’s - my husband from queens day - leaving do. Sahil had finished his rotation with the Royal bank of Scotland in Amsterdam and was going back to London to finish his contract and then make the move to Pennsylvania. We decided to hit up Odeon along with his mates and had a nice night until about ... read more
Namur
Following a successful girls climbing trip I decide to join Dan, his two kids India and Sasha, Celine, Joost, Jacco, Lee and Paul on the weekend of September 12 climbing in the Ardenes region. We even stay at the same guest house. On the way down I rode with Celine and Jacco. Celine was driving. I met them quickly at Rai station after work. We decided to skip climbing in Yvoir on Saturday and head to Beez. Beez had some nice routes, I attempted a 6a with mixed success and Jacco learned how to lead climb. The rest of the day I more so focused on 5a’s and 5b’s. There was even a hint of young romance on our climbing trip as with any good story. In the evening we had some delicious wine and Belgian ... read more
Thats a nice boulder
Ardenes, Belgium in the Flemish region of Belgium about 4 hours drive from Amsterdam, was amongst other things a great place to climb in. Me, Lin, Mel and Jen (whom I’d gone to France to climb with back in May) decided to do just that. On September 9, I rode my trusty stead after work to Lin’s house. After waiting for the others to arrive and having a quick cup of tea we loaded our kit in the car and started the drive down. Or rather Lin did who drove the car. We stayed in Chaveehut: Rue de la Chavee 7, B-5330 Maillen if you want to stay there the telephone number is +32 83 65 52 39, which I would recommend for anyone who isn’t camping to stay there if they climb, they do a ... read more
Been Here, Want to go back 
Going Here Next 
Where I Want to go 
Been Here 
Live Here Now 
