Blogs from Mediterranean, Turkey, Middle East - page 8

An old wine house, Turkish music in the background, a glass of red and a head full of memories. What to write for my final blog? I could reminisce about the places I’ve seen, the experiences I’ve had or even write about the history, food or culture. I could write about the people. It’s the people who I have met and shared this journey with that have provided the best memories. You ‘people’, you know who you are. You have questioned my logic, challenged my beliefs, shared your stories, given words of wisdom and touched my heart. It’s these connections that I have treasured the most. ‘Back to the real world’ so they say. Turns out I’ve actually been living in the real world; I encourage you to try it sometime. My final story is of ... read more

We had a really nice breakfast. Then went to Antalya. It took five hours with stops now an again. Once we arrived we checked in to our hotel with was really nice. Mom and me had a room with a double and a single bed. I got the single and mom on the double. We then went with the group to a nice restaurant. Ibo told us some good places to go. Then 7 of us went to the beach, while Francisco went to the museum. I went in for a swim. The water was cold but nice. We then headed back to the hotel when the sun started to set. We then all went for supper at the castle restaurant. I got deep fried mussels that were real tasty. Then we split up; some went ... read more

We were now headed for Antayla on the south coast of Turkey. We drove along a range of mountains that at first were sparsely cover with small twisted trees and dry brown grasses until they rose to sheer rock faces. As we moved farther south, the tree cover grew denser. We saw apple orchards and stretches of thick pine. The mountains grew taller and sharper, no longer soft sided ancient and worn, these were sharp thrusting rock with the road winding through valleys, turning corners to beautiful vistas. Then we met a mountain range running perpendicular to the one we had been following. Once we crossed over this range the climate changed dramatically. Now trees were green, not leafless. We could see the oranges on the branches. There were palm trees. This was the Mediterranean. Antayla ... read more

Woolly says – I could feel the excitement building as we approached the fifth of November. Not because of any plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament or because the nation wants to scare the animal population of the UK with loud bangs and pops but because it is the most important day of the year – MY BIRTHDAY! Having high expectations for his special day Woolly made short work of opening his presents and eating a huge slice of cake. Woolly says – No Ferrari, no yacht, no private jet……. I got clothes! CLOTHES!! What’s going on?? Okay the cake was yummy but it took me an hour to get the chocolate off my tusks! Finally we were able to load him into Ollie for his day out to celebrate. The plan – Find ... read more

Woolly says – we needed to stock up on food and snacks, a trip to Migros (one of the Turkish supermarkets that sell alcohol!) was on the cards. I thought that was it for the day but Jo and Ian had other ideas and took me on a detour to Green Canyon. Green Canyon is a huge tourist attraction and all the tour operators offer this trip, the pictures looked impressive and with the fifth highest Dam in Turkey there was no stopping us. Woolly says – we disappeared down the same back roads as a couple of days ago and kept going. We knew we were going in the right direction as we started to meet up with a range of different tours and jeep trips who were happily bouncing all over the roads spraying ... read more