http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Middle East , Turkey , Aegean en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:52:02 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:52:02 BST Nice holiday http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-303176.html We made it to Bodrum and then hired a car and drove to Kushadasi.......Shan did the driving on account of the fact I'd forgotten my licence in London. Have to give credit because the Lonely Planet Guide rates Turkey as one of the more dangerous countries to drive in......add to the fact they drive on the other side and Shan had never drived a Stick Shift before getting us the first 150kms was a p http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Kusadasi/blog-299150.html We crossed the small channel between the Greek island Samosand TurkeyAsia Minorin a short timebut waiting a long time to get things situated304'm using a Turkish keyboard and typing slowly with my mouth open. The biggest difference the i which apparently 304 use a lot...we crammed on with a large Italian tour group and were ushered off and into an ultra modern portburger king starbucks http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Kusadasi/blog-296180.html So we are back from our aegean cruise through the Greek islandsTo highlight we went to Mykonos Kos Syros Paros Kalymnos and Bodrum in Turkey. It was a budget cruise put on by the budget airline company easyjet. And it was worth every penny. Booking ahead for two people getting your own room with a bathroom and everything it was about 112 pounds or 224 dollars. That's about 112 dollars http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-293529.html When we got on the bus we realized that we had forgotten to stock up on food and water for the journey. We knew we would get water on the bus and a little bit of food but probably not enough to sustain us for the whole trip. After the first time they handed out water and snacks we both tried to get some rest. Around 200 we pulled into a rest station where we could go to the bathroom and buy http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Izmir/Ephesus/blog-293355.html HiSorry for the radio silence I am alive and kicking in TurkeyFollowing an exciting and communist collector item fuelled trip to Sofia and a trip to the beautiful mosiac filled Rila Monastary I got the remainder of the Orient Express to Istanbul.Apparently there was drama at the Turkish border at 3am and lots of American tourists complaining that the border guard had taken their passports a http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Koycegiz/blog-292454.html Tonight is my last night at what has been the very best place to stay on the whole trip. Tomorrow im of to catch a bout down the coast. I cant say enough about how great my time here has been. Yesterday was one of the best days yet. I started the day with a insane trak up a mountain and saw some beautiful vistas. Then after a few dips in the pool i went to the turkish bath and had a great s http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-287689.html Today we made our way through the ancient city of Ephesus. Normally the expedition costs around 5 lira for the bus round trip 10 lira entry to ephesus 10 lira entry to the grotto of the seven sleepers and 5 lira for water. I managed to do it for free. i rode down to the city with a group that gave free rides if you looked at their carpet store... weird i know. found a hole in the fence at http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-286877.html Well ive made it to turkey. the journey was long confusing exausting and abit pricey but so far its looking like it was worth it. We left ios tuesday at 10am. we were already down one brit buddy who had to return home early. So the four of us mesandycotton and dan struck out for the island of syrios. after a 6 hour ferry ride we sat in the port of syrios waiting for our next ferr http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-286398.html Twee weekjes turkije zijn nu bijna achter de rug. Ze zijn snel gegaan en terugkijkend heb ik eigenlijk niet eens zo heel veel gedaan. Ik heb vooral genoten van het niets hoeven doen. Wel had ik graag nog naar pumakkule gegaan zoutbaden die zich door de eeuwen gevormd hebben door de vele zouten en mineralen in het water. Ik zal er later nog een plaatje van opzetten. Ook had ik graag nog naar wat http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-285956.html Hallo lieve vriendenJa het werd toch maar eens tijd dat ik een waarbenjij.nu bij ga houden. Bij deze Ik ga jullie op de hoogte houden vanuit Spanje en zal er ook zeker wat fotootjes op gaan zetten. WinkOp het moment ben ik in Turkije waar ik een internetcafetje heb opgezocht. Turkije YepsGeen flauw idee hebbende van waar Loes en ik naar toe gingen als het maar betaalbaar zou blijven zijn http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-285954.html Pamukkale is a threehour drive from Selcuk the majority of which I sleep right through. Irsquom not actually sure if the little town with nothing to do at the bottom of the mountains is Pamakkule or if the actual attraction is called Pamakkule but honestly I canrsquot be bothered right now. I start the walk up towards the calcium pools with a stroll or sweaty hike in the blazing sun thro http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Pamukkale/blog-285450.html Eindelijk zitten we dan in ons eigen huisje Foto's volgen nog. Met internet. Wat nogal wat voeten in de aarde heeft gehad. Maar goed heb van ErikJan en bernice ex collega's begrepen dat ik me niet zo druk moest maken. Ik heb met pijn in mijn hart afscheid moeten nemen van de Imam. Toch 3 weken 5x per dag naar moeten luisteren en ben heel veel wijzer geworden hier in het oosten. Ook ga ik een http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-285403.html Which of the following would you rather be King Prime Minister Prince President Emperor Chief Pharaoh or Sultan lsquoKingrsquo would be cool but donrsquot you think a little overplayed And too many people have the tainted and failed the crown already. lsquoPrimer Ministerrsquo that just sounds toolish. Poor Monaco lsquoPrincersquo is a total ripoff. lsquoPresidentrsq http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-284745.html I can't say I was wildly excited about going to Fethiye before I got there... it was supposed to be just a place to crash for the night before I flew back to England. But it was brilliant Ended up having an awesome couple of days there.We got in about lunchtime and after four days on the boat basically wearing the same clothes and not showering an awful lot ok you got me I didn't shower at http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Fethiye/blog-282494.html After four days of not moving very fast in Olympos suddenly I was thrown into the fastpaced mania that is sailing in Turkey. Your heart will bleed when you hear of the stress involved... I had to walk across the road get on a mini bus to Demre. Then get off the minibus and walk at least 10 steps climb onto a dinghy get out of the dinghy and onto the boat. Luckily someone was carrying my bag http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Fethiye/blog-281465.html The next stage of our trip was to head off to the middle east we had organised to do an overland trip from Istanbul to Cairo. This trip would take us through Turkey Syria Jordan and Egypt. Overland trips are basically a heap of people in a big truck the trip drives you to various places and you camp some of the time and stay in hotels and tree houses and all sorts of other weird accomodations as http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Pamukkale/blog-280650.html On Friday we left Selcuk and headed to the coastal resort town of Bodrum. On the way there the chain on Pat's bike popped off again. Pat managed to get it back on the sprocket only to have it come off again 40 km later it was quite obvious that the chain lacked the proper tension and needed adjusting. While pulled over at a fuel station contemplating our next move Kemal approached us and aske http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/blog-277232.html Hallo vriendenOp de achtergrond klinkt de imam door de luidsprekers om iedereen een goede nachtrust toe te wensen. of zoietsGelukkig is onze tijdelijke woning maar 50 meter verwijderd van de moskee. En begint de imam iedereen pas om 0445 uur LUID toe te spreken.Maar je raakt er aan gewent en slaap rustig door zijn gezang heen.Even een kort updateWe hebben warm water in ons toekomstige huis. N http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-277021.html We woke up quite early on Tuesday in order to make our 700 ferry from Istanbul to Bandirma. Ali met us outside the police house at 545 in order to escort us to the dock. We got on the ship and settled in for the 2 hour sailing across the Sea of Marmara.We had set Canakkale as our destination for the evening. Canakkale is only a few km from the ancient city of Troy and was the setting for a mov http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-276541.html After breakfast and a walk around town we hit the road. We reached Fethiye Turkey around 5pm. This was a surprisingly great little town. At first sight we thought there was nothing there and nearly got back on the road for the next town. Then Al spotted a sign that pointed in the direction of the waterfront. Once again we are ahead of the tourist season by a few weeks so we had a great little ho http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Fethiye/blog-276540.html After breakfast we walked back over to the port purchase our insurance picked up the car and hit the road. On our way south we stopped in a small town called Ephesus to check out some ruins. This was far better than what we expected. It outshines anything we saw in Athens Greece. We arrived in Bodrum Turkey a very nice coastal town around 5pm. There were many nice restaurants hotels and shop http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-276536.html We arrived in Chios around 430am. We drove off the boat and were soon informed that the next boat leaving for Turkey would not leave at 8am as scheduled but at 4pm. They told us the boat was ldquobrokenrdquo. We made the best of it and spent the day exploring the town. We finally loaded the car around 330 then watched as the one other car squeezed on board this tiny little ferry. About 45min http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Cesme/blog-276533.html So I surv305ved the overn305ght bus. It really was not too bad no where near as bad as the overn305ght tra305n from St. Petersburg. I was 305n such a deep sleep that the attendant had to wake me up so I arr305ved 305n Selcuk at 6am halfasleep. There was an Austra305l305an couple who got off w305th me so I went w305th them to the hostel that they had booked at. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Sel-uk/blog-275064.html Daar zijn we weerLeuk om jullie reacties te lezenHet Autootje heeft ons vrijdag zonder enig probleem naar Bodrum gebracht.We leken inderdaad wel een echte Turkse familie. Want we hadden de auto bijna tot op het dak geladen. Gelukkig bleef het tot aan het dak oNooit geweten dat er zoveel in Renault Scenic paste. We moesten om 0515 uur op om de boot van 0730 uur vanuit Istanbul naar Bursa te http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-274848.html i live on the aegean west coast of turkey outside of town by the beach. it is very quiet between october and may..it is in silence where the soul speaks.. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/blog-273631.html Hallo vrienden ook via deze weg zal ik jullie vanaf nu op de hoogte houden van ons Turks leventje. Zou het leuk vinden om af en toe wat reacties van jullie te krijgen.Let wel iedereen kan het lezen. Zondag aangekomen op ataturk airport istanbul met 15 uur vertraging. Gelukkig was dat niet het enige kon ook nog mijn havana club heerlijke rum uit Cuba inleveren aangezien deze niet gesealed was. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Bodrum/blog-273604.html Day 7 Kusadasi TurkeyAfter sailing overnight through various Greek islands in the Agean Sea we berthed early morning in the Turkish port of Kusadasi.This port is close to Ephesus the Ageanrsquos bestpreserved ancient city. Layers of silt covered this 2000year old city over the years and much has been discovered but much is still buried.Associated with Ephesus is the tomb of St John the Apost http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Kusadasi/blog-273483.html