Sunday, 2 April We’ve now been here one week and I think it’s fair to say that Mum and Dad are not enjoying it as much as Eastern Europe. They have issues with a couple of things: · The language barrier – not many people speak English and whilst Dwayne and I have been able to pick up a word here or there, Mum and Dad have found it more difficult to communicate. Just this morning at breakfast, they ordered an Americano breakfast from the a la carte menu, but ate from the buffet table and had to pay an extra 45 MXN ($3)pp for the upgrade. · Toilets – you can’t flush toilet paper here. You have to place all used toilet paper in bins beside the toilet. · The food – whilst Mexican is ... read more

Sunday, 26 March Both flights were quite eventful as far as turbulence went. The LA leg was bumpy for over 80% of the time, and the Mexico City flight was like a rollercoaster with those high rises and stomach curdling drops. I didn’t mind it though. The Air Canada lounge at LAX was a good place to whittle away a couple of hours between flights. We arrived 2 mins late to our Mexico City apartment, which is pretty impressive given I had to estimate how long it would take to get through customs and immigration and catch a taxi. Our AirBnB host, Pablo, was there as organized, and after a quick handover of how things work, he walked us several blocks out of his way to one of his favourite restaurants, La Buena Tierre. The menu ... read more

Photos of our trip to Turkey in May 2016... read more

Sabbath, 21 May – Fethiye (“Fet-ee-aye”) We decided on the scenic route along the water, even though it was going to take longer than the inland highway. However, we were rewarded with drop-dead gorgeous scenery as we wove between coast and mountain. The landscape is rocky yet shrubs and trees abound on the steep slopes between coast and peak. The Grampians meets the Aegean. Along the way there were families selling gozleme from their open-air pizza ovens. I wanted to stop but we didn’t have any small change and we couldn’t ask a poor family to break a hundred. 100kms later we re-joined the main highway and we both agreed that today has been the prettiest day of driving thus far. It still astounds me how mountainous and green Turkey is. Once in Fethiye, we spent ... read more

Friday 6 May – Istanbul to Gallipoli Turkish drivers are absolute tossers! Indicating is non-existent and lanes and directional travel are optional. Merging is about cutting in at the last minute with only 30cm of vacant space. They don’t wait for you to let them in and they don’t let you in unless metal is about to clash. Even trucks pull out with no warning. People overtake on blind corners, reverse down motorways in the emergency lane and if they have time to turn around and face the direction of traffic, they’ll do that and then drive back down the emergency lane to the exit they missed. If we ever felt ripped off, it was today. We were approaching a police radar and I looked at our GPS and said to Dwayne “You’re good. We’re only ... read more