Before we go

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I find it so interesting the sorts of conversations we have in anticipation of our trip. For us, it means probably many things, but chiefly only two things. For others our trip involves different expectations.

For instance some have been blown away by the length of time we are going away. What are you going to do for all that time (10 weeks)?

'We did Turkey in two weeks.....etc"

Others have told us of places we must visit, sights we must see, things to be done. We agree with a lot of that, but we really want a walking holiday, in a place we do not know, but have been planning to visit for 15 years. We have reached a time of life where it has become possible to do it, and mixed in with all that, there is the anticipation of Iznik, the great pottery and ceramic centre of old, Gallipoli and all its resonances for Australians, Istanbul the exotic city where east meets west, and the vast expanses of the counrty, fertile and mountainous, that are perhaps less often travelled by time poor tourists.

So excitement mounts. The travelling is never so much the point for me, as the actual being there, but there are trials and tribulations in the mechanics of it all, and often these can amuse in retrospect, when the trauma is past! So the next entry will be the flight from Sydney to Seoul, overnight there before the connection to Istanbul. We have never been to South Korea, and we anticipate twisting a cabbie's arm to take us on a lightning tour of the city in our limited time. Let us see what transpires.

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