Ashgabat is like a city we’ve never seen before. It is so unique, so strange, can’t even really describe it. It was flattened during an earthquake in the 1940’s/1950’s. It has more or less been completely rebuilt during the Turkmenbashi days since their independance from the Soviet Union. It has streets with giant city blocks of beautiful brand new white marble buildings/hotels that are generally empty inside. Ashgabat doesn’t have a “downtown/city center” area like most cities in the world. Lots of streets with many large water fountains and statues of either the new President or the late Turkmenbashi (who look incredibly alike). Obviously they are not too concerned about any sort of water shortage. There is an 11pm curfew here, and we have to be very careful about what we were taking photos of (i.e. ... read more

Persepolis lies about 40 km outside the city of Shiraz (origin of the wine grape). It’s an amazing archaeological site dating back to 512 BC. It takes some imagination to get a full appreciation for what the place used to look like because it was burned to the ground by Alexander of Macedonia and hasn’t had much reconstruction done since it was rediscovered in the 1930s. It was really neat to see, but we’d recommend visiting at a different time of year when it’s not so hot during the day.It was a bit tough with the group travel thing since it was mid-morning when we arrived at the site and it was already getting pretty hot. The lighting wasn’t very good for photos but our guide was really knowledgeable so we learned a lot about the ... read more

First impression of Iran - the people, they have been absolutely wonderful and very welcoming. We crossed the border on Friday, August 13th and headed towards Kandovan where we did a homestay thing. Driving into the city/villiage was amazing, most people seemed to wave, or smile as the big Dragoman truck drove by. The following day we stopped briefly in Zanjan to visit the bazaar and have a look around. We split off from the group and just wondered around. Sadly we only brought out our small camera to take a few photos. We found that so many people seemed excited for us to take their photo (quite different than many other countries we've travelled to). For example, we walked by a bakery and the guy making bread motioned for us to come in and take ... read more

Upon arriving in Cappadocia we found that it's kind of like the Badlands of Southern Alberta, except that here they call hoodoos "Fairy Chimneys". Anyways, it's kind of interesting because they have homes and churches that were carved out of the rock formations as well as complete underground cities where they used to hide from invaders. We only went part of the way into the underground city before turning around after our guide told us about all the areas that had been closed off due to cave-ins, "but these areas are all safe..." Everyone else made it through okay, but it made us a little nervous knowing that we could be 50 meters underground with thousands of tourists on floors above us... The churches were really cool because they date back to the 10th-11th century. The ... read more

Our experience taking the train from Vienna to Istanbul was a memorable one. We followed part of the traditional Orient Express route via Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia on two trains over three days. Here are some highlights/lowlights: * 2 bed berth * Getting to sleep on the bottom bunk (Jordan was on the upper bunk) * Drinking wine (in wine glasses, from Vienna) & eating sausage, cheese and bread for supper - both nights * Border/passport control stops that were often in middle of the night that we needed to wake up for. * Sudden stopping, loud breaking screeches * Feeling hot, sweaty, and sticky during the day and getting no air blowing through because for unknown reasons we are stopped on the tracks. * Hanging head out the windows for fresh air * Figuring out ... read more