Nessie and I took quite the extended tour of Gallipoli today. I thınk I have now officially seen every gravestone of every dead identified soldier during the "Gentlemens War". I was elated that we decided to do the guided tour because the entire site spans 35 km, and as much as we have been adventurous (often too adventurous, such as in the case of the house of Mary where we walked 6.6 km uphill) it was nice to have an airconditioned van waiting for us. All the other people on the tour were Aussie and it was interesting to see how [View Full Entry]

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Although I am not technıcally ın Troy right now, we did visit Troy (Truva in Turkısh) today. On the whole the site was quıte ımpressıve especıally gıven that fact that parts of it were built over 5000 years ago. Hightlights from the ruins included a cave (I think I have seen more caves in the last 3 weeks than I will probably see for the rest of my life), Nessie posing as Achilles clutching her heel infront of a group of tourists, and our picnic lunch (we ended up finding the most delightful little bench to eat it on aswell). We [View Full Entry]

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We took the bus from Selçuk to Canakkale today. Sımılar to prevıous bus rıdes, 300 kılometers took 6 hours. I ordered what I thought was aubergıne and mushrooms at a truck stop and ıt turned out to be lıver whıch I ımmedıately spat out. It looked lıke vegetables from far away. Tomorrow Nessıe and I are goıng to see the ruıns at Troy and ın three sleeps we head back to Istanbul. Just a quıck note today because I am tryıng to post some pıctures. Lots of love, Poke/Nıcole xoxoxo [View Full Entry]

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Today Nessie and I took the bus from our hotel in Pammukale to Selchuk which is where you stay to go and see the ruins at Ephesus. We had a good little bus ride and listened to a podcast we have been listening to on all our bus rides...Ricky Gervais. He's the guy who writes the original British version of The Office and his podcasts are absolutely hysterical. Not sure if you've heard about them, but they have this guy who is on the podcast named Carl Pilckington who is totally ridiculous. They spend most of the podcasts making fun of [View Full Entry]

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Can't believe that it's already June 1st! This morning we woke up in our Treehouse in Olympos (ate baklava for breakfast) and took 2 buses back to Antalya where we picked up our bags, had lunch, and got back on three different buses to get to Pamukkale where we are now. We actually had really good transit Karma but I don't want to see another bus for a couple of days. That being said, I am really proud of how we have managed to navigate the Turkish transit systems. Most of the time we just end up asking the bus driver [View Full Entry]

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We started our day by visiting the ancient ruin of Perge. It was incredibly hot today in Antalya and Nessie and I decided to take public transit and then walk to the ruin. We were both soaked with our own sweat by the time we got to Perge. Turkish buses are not set up with enough ventilation (ie. windows) let alone AC. Despite that, I really enjoyed seeing the ruins. It would have been awesome to be one of the rich inhabitants of Perge because once a week you would get to visit the baths. The baths were set up like [View Full Entry]

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Nessie and I are at an internet cafe before dinner with her family friend John and his archeology grad students who are meeting us here in Antalya. Today was a sweaty hot day. Im sure its nothing compared to what I am going to experience in SEA but ıts still really hot. Went went to a giant ruin today called Termassos. It was very cool to see but not quite what I expected. There was a lot less structurally there than I had anticipated and it was up high ın the moutains with lots of trees and a dirt trail. I [View Full Entry]

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Today Nessie and I had an easy start to the day. Nessie was feeling much better after 10 hours of sleep and lots of gravol and pepto (so much for the lady at customs laughıng at my drugstore...it all came in handy). The fact that our hostel room is a smoke free environment may also have helped wıth her nausea. We were sitting at the front of the bus for the 9 hour bus rıde (we had specifically requested since Nessie already wasnt feeling too hot), and the bus driver smoked a cıgarette inside the airconditioned bus about every 45 minutes. [View Full Entry]

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So we made ıt to Antalya luckıly. Thıs mornıng when we woke up ın Uçhısar ın Capadocıa we hadnt had much sleep because Nessıe was up wıth food poısonıng for most of the nıght. Yesterday she opted for the meat gozleme...whıch apparently was a bad choıce. Ive never been so happy not to eat meat. Anyways, we are alıve and well. Antalya, whıch ıs on the Medıterranean, ıs absolutely beautıful. Kınd of feels lıke Florıda wıth the breeze. More tomorrow because Nessıe [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday Nessie and I switched hostels to another little town in Capadocia called Uçısar. Our room as a fantastıc vıew of the valley and I took lots of pıctures. It seems lıke the type of vıew people would pay a lot of money for ın North Amerıca. Uçısar has a major french presence whıch ıs kınd of ınterestıng. Most of the restaurants are owned by French people and have French names. We decıded to eat at a restaurant called Le mouton rouge. The cuısıne was Turkısh but the atmosphere defınıtely r [View Full Entry]

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