Sharls and Shane

9th - 11th March 2020 Plovdiv, Bulgaria After taking the first class train (hilarious in itself, but so much better than 2nd class!), we arrived in Plovdiv and caught a taxi to our apartment. The service of Hippo taxis in Varna was second to none. They dropped us off initially and didnt try to rip us off, they prebooked a taxi for our departure, and they showed up right on time as promised. Why would it be any different in Plovdiv? Dirty old thief. This ride cost us three times as much for the same distance in a grotty old taxi, where he used a hand held navigator and pretended not to know where he was going. Then he dropped us off at the top of the street indicating he couldnt go any further because it ... read more

3rd/4th Feb 2020 Goreme, Cappadocia The Green Tour! There are three tours you can do at any one of the hundred tour agencies in the little town of Goreme. Red, Green and Blue. We opted for green and today we travelled around 250 kms to visit some spectacular sights. The Derinkuyu underground city: These cave cities were originally excavated around 1700 BC, and are as deep as 85m! That's almost 4000 years old! They believe they were built to withstand attacks rather than be permanent dwellings, but they contained all of the usual rooms found in a normal city - stables, storage rooms, kitchens, wineries, studies and churches. The extensive network of passages and tunnels and inclined corridors linked family rooms and communal spaces where people would meet, work and worship. Corridors could be quickly blocked ... read more

25 Feb 2020 Pamukkale Today turned out to be one of my favourites.This morning we drove out to the last of the ruins at Laodecia, another ancient biblical city mentioned in Revelations, and the last use of the infamous Museum Pass! Each site we've visited has had its own unique highlight. Today, we are at a live excavation site, and the team are reconstructing the western Theatre. It is facsinating to watch the sand blasting of pillars, meticulously measured so that each piece perfectly fits the next. This site is going to be absolutely incredible in years to come. It covers 5 hectares! Shane says: Museum card totals: Up 120 lira. There you go Sharls, well worth the museum card. Sharls says: There's a little spot that has piqued my interst around 40kms away called Kaklik ... read more

21 Feb 2020 Izmir - Selçuk Today we caught the train to Selcuk and we're staying at St John Hotel for the next three nights. The dude at the front desk hasn't made a great impression, and neither has the damp smell in the room. There are about ten things on the list to do here over the next two days and I'm wondering if we're going to fit them all in. We arrived at around 2 and had a delicious bowl of lentil soup for lunch. The restaurant is owned by a lovely couple. The dishes are made for the day and you basically choose what you want from whatever is cooked on the day. I did notice on the board out front that they serve Moussaka. I asked the owner if they have it ... read more

13 Feb 2020 Çanakkle Its a beautiful sun shiney day here today, so we took a trip out to the ancient city of Troy, about 35kms from here. Its quite astounding that there have been nine cities built one on top of the other over the last 3500 years! We pretty much have the site to ourselves too which is one of the benefits of travelling here in the off season. We took some left over bread with us to feed the puppies and dogs as well. The Gallipoli guide did it a couple of days ago too, so we thought why not! TheTurkish government has a special program for stray dogs. The stray dogs have an identification tag on their ear which means they have already been picked and brought to the local shelter for ... read more