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Published: August 29th 2011
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OUR DEPARTURE DATE IS GETTING CLOSER
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We're off to Turkey
"Merhaba arkadaşlar ve ailea"
(Hello Friends and Family)
Some of you will be aware that Sheryll and I are off to Turkey for our "BIG OE" early in September for 6 weeks, for those that dont take a look at our TravelBlog and see what we will be getting up to for the next 6 weeks. Our Emirates flight was booked by Adem Ozkan from Mondo Travel in Orewa. Bey Adem is one of Emirates Airline's top sellers and has been able to offer us a valuable insider's guide to Turkey, as it were. Adem who is Turkish has encouraged us to explore his country, he has a great knowledge of Turkey as prior to moving to New Zealand he was a tour guide. Adem has become a good friend and we will be meeting up with him and his partner later in Turkey as he plans to be there at the same time as us.
www.mondotravel.co.nz The trip has been in the planning stage for the last 18 months or so and now with only a week to go, it is finally becoming a reality.
We leave on September 3rd and return home on October 16th, with a 2 day stopover in Dubai on the way over.
In our usual exploring style nothing has been booked apart from our first five nights accommodation in Istanbul. where we will be staying in a hostel at Sultanhamet this will give us time to settle in and get used to the different culture and prepare ourselves for the journey ahead.
The rough plan is to spend the first week in Istanbul, then fly to North Eastern Turkey, from there we will start travelling through Eastern Turkey towards the Mediterranian Coast.then back up to Istanbul to complete a loop of this fascinating country.
After the flight on the 10th September from Istanbul to Erzurum nothing is booked so we will initially be travelling by train or bus to Kars which is close towards the borders with Georgia and Armenia. We want to explore the fascinating ruins at Ani nearby
From there we will hang a sharp right and travel through the eastern provences of Turkey along its borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria Our only other booking is when we stay with a Kurdish family at Yuvacali near Sanliurfa
Yuvacali
Yuvacali is located in South east Turkey between Urfa and Diyarbakir in the South East where we are encouraged to join with the family and assist with daily chores such as cooking bread over an open fire and milking the sheep.
It is a fascinating part of the country and we are especially looking forward to this section of our trip After leaving the South East we pop back out at the Mediterranaen Coast and travel back northwards towards Istanbul visiting all those amazing historical sites along the way. We hope to meet up with Adem at Izmir along the way. Before returning home we will have a few days around the Gallipoli Peninsula, then back to Istanbul by the 14th October for a our flight home.
We hope to update our TravelBlog as we go, so if we can master communicating with the Turkish words we have learnt so far all should go well, Though going by the Hotel booking I tried to make over the phone last night we may have some fun. Watch this space as we make our way across Turkey and open our eyes to a new culture and country. So why don't you jump onboard and come along for the ride with us.
Insha
Allah
Murray & Sheryll
P.S Comments are welcomed - see the comments link at the very bottom of the page.
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Exciting Stuff!
Hey guys, very exciting! Looking forward to reading of your adventures!!