Blogs from Middle East - page 1230

26 DE AGOSTO DE 2002 Lo más hermoso del viaje a Turquía entra con fuerza en el selecto club de lo más hermoso que he visto: la Capadocia. Es una región en el centro de la Anatolia (la parte asiática de Turquía se llama así; la parte europea es Tracia), en la que hubo tres volcanes en la antigüedad cuya lava no creó las duras rocas que hay, por ejemplo, en el Valle de México, sino una gruesa capa de material poroso que el viento y el agua erosionaron de manera caprichosa: parece un lugar de otro mundo, con formaciones sorprendentes, como verán en las fotos. Para incrementar la peculiaridad de la zona, ésta fue ocupada entre el siglo II y el X después de Chuy, por antiguos cristianos que tallaron en la roca para construir ... read more

May 2002 Please note the original story with photos can be found here at http://ajarncharlie.livejournal.com/25043.html As I sit here at the Bodrum airport ready to depart back to Germany, I have time to reflect on the incredible experience that Turkey and Greece has afforded me. To say the least, the people are what make places like Bodrum and Marmaris Turkey warm and friendly. The azure sea, the warm breezes, the clear blue skies and the cosmopolitan atmosphere all blend together to make this one of the more magical journeys of my life. Where do I begin? It seems I arrived from Germany a bit ahead of the normal tourist season, which appears to start on June 1. Before that date, things such as ferry schedules and who is going where or when seems to be a ... read more

Landed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 2002 when the time that Dubai was beginning to boom i would say. Sheikh zayed road (The main high way in Dubai) was with just a Stand alone building that was the world trade center and a couple of others with just sand on both sides of the road. While the days passed by traveling every single day on that road for a good 7 years, could see the developments coming up. well it was not obvious when you pass by the same road twice a day and you don't realize that many projects coming up, but when you pass by these amazing buildings you start thinking was this there before?!? this includes the Burj Khalifa (The worlds tallest) or they call it ''At The TOP''... read more

Going to Nicosia was a long day. We all went as far as Larnica, where we had a look around the paleontology museum. It was small, but ok, and we were lucky to get in as it was about to be closed for a clean-up following flooding a few days ago. We couldnt get into the municipal museum, in the same building, as that had already been closed. Mum and Jo stayed behind in Larnica while Dad, Colin and I went another 1/2 hour or so along to the divided capital of Nicosia. We parked just outside the odl city walls, had a quick lunch, then set off for our afternoons exploring. We walked along the top of the walls to the Liberty Monument, a memorial to Cyprus's struggle against colonial rule, EOKA fighters raining the ... read more

We took a well maintained secondary road over the hills at the base of the Akamas peninsular. The road wound almost straight up, across a small plateau then straight off the other side, with some good views all the way. We stopped in a village called Agios Georgios where there is a 6th century basilica and other ruins with some more mosaics. The site was smaller than we’ve seen already, but the foundations had been reconstructed better and it was easier to see what was what. From there we went up to the Avagas Gorge. We walked along a gravel track for about 1km before actually entering the gorge. It was pretty spectacular, the sides narrowed right in and it was damp and dark at the bottom. We walked a fair way up before stopping for ... read more