http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/TeamTurner/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from TeamTurner en-us Mon, 12 May 2008 10:18:03 BST Mon, 12 May 2008 10:18:03 BST If Underwear Were Food Then Long Underwear Would Be Manna From Heaven Yep therersquos something to be said for a catchy title. Seems that the catchy titles are the ones that get people reading and frankly thatrsquos why I write these blogs so that you will read. So read on world read on Restlessness had finally set in. It was only a matter of time before Kel could no longer handl http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Quebec/Quebec-City/blog-259321.html Boratrsquos Rodeo Appomattox Courthouse and Foamhenge An Odyssey Through Western Virginia It can be sad ending a big trip. A year abroad brings huge changes to your worldview and makes home seem so much smaller and in many ways just plain odd. But there are good things about home too as long as you are willing to spend a minute to stop and look around you.Being thankful is not something http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Virginia/Roanoke/blog-235641.html It Seems That Some Stereotypes Do Contain Truth Arriving back in the US was as exciting as it was scary. Coming home meant a chance to reconnect with friends see family and enjoy foods that we had really missed over the last year but it also meant coming to grips with the United States. After a year long eye opening view of the rest of the world the United States had become a big loud sca http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Massachusetts/Cape-Cod/blog-227421.html A Bittersweet Trip To The Land of The Leprechaun How do you plan the end of an extravaganza Where do you go What do you do Do you end on an adventurous note Do you end with some relaxation Who knows Certainly not me and certainly not Kel but ending the trip was our final step and it was a step that had to be taken.By time we reached Istanbul we were tired. We werenrsquot tired of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/blog-223268.html Three Mosques Two Markets and One Boat Cruise Istanbul in a Nutshell To begin our trek westward we decided to start with Istanbul gateway to the west or east depending on which way yoursquore heading. Located at the natural divide between Europe and Asia Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus Straight. One side of this huge shipping lane is Europe the other side is Asia. Istanbul contains http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-220466.html Floating In Salt After A Day Of Petrafication After spending a couple of days seeing Roman ruins Byzantine churches and Biblical lands yoursquod think wersquod be tired of the old stuff. In most cases I would agree with you. I have a longer shelf life when it comes to ruins than Kel does but even I have my limits. After a couple of days of solid ruins rumination itrsquos usually time http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/South/Petra/blog-219647.html The Heart of The Holy Land Sure if yoursquore going to go to the Middle East you might as well find yourself a safe corner right Thatrsquos what we figured when we were planning the end of our trip. Much like our recent read as too late infatuation with Africa we also have a serious infatuation with the Middle East. How can you not have an interest in the cradle of civilization Sur http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-217919.html Beautiful Weather As Far South As You Can Go Well the titlersquos a little bit of a lie. First off Cape Town or even Cape Point which we visited isnrsquot as far south as you can go in the world. Second off it isnrsquot even as far south as you can go in Africa. But in this case consider it literary license. The weather was beautiful and we were pretty far south.After our days in th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-216619.html Diversity Can Be Amazing And It Can Be Challenging Kel has written a section below on South African culture which will explain the title of this blog better than I can. Instead Irsquom gonna continue to focus on some of the most fun Irsquove had on this whole crazy one year tour. SAFARI I was such a skeptic when Kel brought up this safari idea but thanks to her persuasiveness we came an http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Mpumalanga-/Kruger-National-Park/blog-216386.html The Pictures Speak For Themselves It seemed like a crazy thing to even consider this late in our trip. Here we had spent almost 5 months straight in Europe and the surrounding area and were getting on a plane to head as far south in Africa as we could get. As we left our hotel in Barcelona at 6pm on Tuesday I wondered how I had let Kel talk me into a crazy trip a quarter of the way around the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Mpumalanga-/Kruger-National-Park/blog-215886.html 30th Birthday In BarcelonahellipIt Could Certainly Be Worse I had some trepidations about coming to Barcelona. The first reason to be frightened my birthday. After making fun of Kel for the last four months it was finally my time to cross the dreaded line into my 30s. The second reason was that Barcelona was the first place we were visiting on the whole trip that we had experienced on a pr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-212889.html Forgotten France And Sickness Recovery It seems that while France is a major destination for many people the world over there are large parts of the country that just get overlooked. If you do your research and have a good amount of time then probably the underexplored parts fit into your itinerary but for the average guest to this nation only the big tourist stops make it onto the must see http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Aquitaine/Dordogne/blog-211516.html A Couple of Days in Castle Country chabullteau also chbullteau1. a. A French castle.b. A French manor house.2. An estate where wine is produced and often bottled especially in the Bordeaux region of France.3. A large country house.France really is all about the Chateau experience. Everywhere you go there are signs pointing to huge old castles or smaller younger yet still quite old manor http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Pays-de-la-Loire/blog-210173.html Chilling History and Amazing Landscapes Normandyhellipthe immediate picture most Americans get is of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan when US soldiers storm Omaha Beach as part of the DDay operations that lead to the eventual liberation of France from the Nazis. My father and I both share a love of WWII military history and Kel has long been a WWII culture buff. It seemed like a lo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Lower-Normandy/blog-209141.html Rock The Kasbah Our final bit of Morocco involved a ton more driving. It seems that you canrsquot get anywhere in Morocco without driving a long way. The roads are definitely better than many parts of the world but the drivers are exactly the same. You start to wonder after traveling this long if most of the worldrsquos population learns to drive by playing video games. Aggressive is a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Essaouira/blog-208337.html Roman Ruins and Medina Blues As they seem to say in showbiz ldquoThe Show Must Go On.rdquo Despite our love of Fes with its gigantic medina its friendly cultured population and views of the ArabianBerber lifestyle of yore it was time to go. It was sad to move on after a beautiful day exploring but the time had come for us to move on to new sights and sounds. Volubilis Roman Border To http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-206413.html Out Of Europe And Into The Frying Pan It really was time to leave when we woke up at 4am to catch the first in a series of flights that would end in Casablanca Morocco. There is only so much time you can spend and so many sights you can see before Europe begins to be just a little monotonous. You really do become Old TownCastleMuseum fatigued after close to five months out of one year sp http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/F-s-Boulemane/Fes/blog-206405.html Itrsquos BiPolar No Matter What They Say It may be called Budapest written only as one word but itrsquos actually two cities in one Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other. Which is betterhellipwell thatrsquos up to you to decide. It feels to me like Pest is the better place to see and be seen since it is the center of life in Budapest. It just feels like more living http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Budapest/blog-204613.html A European Crossroads The moment you drive across the border in Slovenia from Croatia you feel very much like yoursquove entered a different country. For the most part the other Balkan states that we traveled through have very similar geography and ecology they all seem to have tall mountains low lying scrub plants and wide vistas. When we left Plitvice for a quick drive through Zagreb and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Slovenia/Ljubljana/blog-204054.html Land of Beaches Mountains and TouristshellipNope Itrsquos Not California Driving through most of Croatia especially the Dalmatian Coast yup thatrsquos right this is where Dalmatians come from you get the feeling that you are driving through a weird mixture of Italy and southern California. From tall craggy mountains lined with evergreens to cliff side villages filled with sunshine http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Central-Croatia/Plitvice-Lakes-National-Park/blog-203429.html