Molymos, Lesvos, Greece 18th August 2014 “My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.” Rumi It's my daughters 25th birthday. I stuffed up our Skype appointment with my miscalculation about the time difference between Australia and Greece. So it goes. At least I know that my parcel from Konya reached her in time. And through email today I read that she likes it a lot. Molymos is beautiful. The Aegean Sea is gorgeous. Swimming is fantastic. Greek yoghurt is to die for. And …. it's fig season. This means that figs are freely available wherever you walk, ripening before your eyes asking to be plucked and consumed. Yesterday after yet another wonderful fresh fig and yoghurt breakfast, I feasted on more fresh figs on my walk home from ... read more

Konya, Turkey August 4th 2014 “Either seem as you are or be as you seem” Hazrat Mevlana Mohammed Jalal al-Din (Rumi) Unlike most of my travel in Turkey to date, coming to Konya was a premeditated plan. I had an appointment with the Mevlivi (aka the 'Whirling Dervishes' which is a western appellation). There was something drawing me to this place, one of the longest continually habitated cities in the world, and perhaps the 'holiest' place in Turkey. My first and lasting impression of Konya was that it is a city that knows itself and its place in the world. A prosperous centre, it has a proud and long history, and of course at its heart is the heritage and ever-presence of Mevlana (Rumi). A dervish is actually a Muslim sufi ascetic, often travelling around the ... read more

Amasya, Turkey July 24th 2014 “The best laid plans of mice and men” Robert Burns, To a Mouse I was 'free' after my Georgia saga, albeit that now I had my first ever 'criminal conviction' (but that's all another story ….see previous 12 blogs). My lift from the border got me to Posof at about 2 pm: a cute little Turkish town parked on the side of a mountain just 10 kms from the Georgian border. But it was a Muslim holiday, which while of no consequence in larger places, meant there were no buses out of this place to anywhere. And I wanted to get to Ardahan (78 km away) at least, and possibly all the way to Dyabakir in the middle of Kurdistan. So... I decided to try and hitch a lift. I walked ... read more

Akhaltsikhe, Georgia July 22nd 2014 “Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy” Franz Kafka “Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not yet the end” Sony, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Finale; Scene 1: Tuesday July 22nd: The story of today should not have been needed. I should have been on the bus out of here to Turkey by midday. Except that Georgia suffers from a bureacratic quagmire that I have never before encountered, and it deserves a dedicated write up. I wake up early and do my stuff. I go to the ATM because yesterday when I heard about my fine and tried to withdrawer the amount from my travel card, there was a limit per day stopping me... read more

Abastumani, Georgia July 17th 2014 “It ain't over till the fat lady sings” Ralph Carpenter, Dallas Morning News 7 pm Thursday evening, July 17th: This was to be my last prepared meal in Abastumani (I have been doing my own salads on my room balcony using great fresh ingredients bought from the growers' market held every two days across the road, supplemented with local breads). I was to go back to Akhaltsikhe in the morning to finish this business: The Public Prosecutor will have prepared my paperwork, having decided on my plea-bargaining, and we would go through the motions of 'processing' me so that I could leave Georgia by midday. That was the plan. Being my over-efficious self, I was trying to use up as much of my supplies kept in the hotel fridge as possible. ... read more