Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 387

Saklikent Gorge and on to the Beach Well, the “Tree Houses” was a bust. Some of our group went “Canyoning,” billed as a cool hike up a canyon, with swimming and the opportunity to be cooler in this 110 F. degree weather, it turned out to be a fairly short hike. I planned to go sea kayaking, but the projected heat wave discouraged anyone else from signing up, so it was first delayed from 10 am to 4 pm, then canceled. There was also the opportunity for a hike to the top of Mt. Olympos to see the natural flames which have been burning “since eternity”, but again the expected heat and the prospect of a 2400 foot climb in the heat discouraged anyone from going. This hard to reach canyon is filled with small ... read more

November 26-28, 2006 Sunday, November 26 Istanbul is a big city. Arriving at the Sirkeci train station bleary-eyed in the mid-morning after our long rail journey the size of the city was immediately evident. At first blush it seemed remarkably familiar. A tram ran by the McDonald’s across the street, bakery-cafes were visible in every direction, traffic was hectic, and the sidewalks jammed with seemingly half of the city’s 16 million people. It felt very European and we have to admit it was oddly pleasant to see people in suits again. As we fumbled our way to the nearby tram stop for our ride to the tourist-friendly and convenient lodgings of the Sultanahmet district a call to prayer went out that signaled, western though it may look, we were not in Europe anymore. There is ... read more

Here we are in Olympos, on the Turkish coast with a pebble beach (costs $2.00 to go to the beach), but not much is happening today because it is forecast to be 50+ degrees. No, that is not Fahrenheit, that is Celsius. Remember, to convert you multiply Celsius times 9/5 then add 32. So 50 x 9/5 +32 equals 122 degrees F. It is 2:30p.m. now and it is only 43 C (109 F), but it is warming up nicely. It is so hot here they won't serve you ice water because they say it causes your body to go into shock. I'm willing to take that chance if they would let me. We are at the Kadirs Tree House camp/motel/bar backpackers rendesvous place; apparently famous, but it burned down last Feb. (electric blanket they ... read more

We have made it to turkey and have spent the last 5 days here. The flight from Helsinki to London went well, the night spent at Luton airport while waiting to check in at 4am was pretty painful. Even worse was the end of the flight when we arrived in Istanbul, a little boy on the plane appeared to develop chicken pox marks during the flight over. There was a mini quarantine scare as we all had to wait in the plane on the tarmac as the boy was checked out. We eventually made it and it was all worth it. Turkey is quite an interesting place to visit. The people are overly friendly and seem to love Aussie's and Kiwi's (especially in the cities around Gallipoli). The architecture of the buildings and mosques in the ... read more

Untitled Hello everyone! Earlier this morning, İ admit that İ was missing Vancouver a bit and that I wanted to come home, believe it or don't, as Samir says. Mom of course told me otherwise, not to wish away our trip, and "no more negativity", but İ seriously think 5 months is long enough, and we were thinking to go for a year! Anyway, that was just a small whatchyamacallit: Dad and mom have told us to express ourselves on paper (actually they only told Samir that when he got mad about his math page and wouldn't tell anyone what the problem was), so, anyway agaın, let me start writing about Turkey a new country and the last leg of our trıp. We flew first from Srinagar to Delhi and then made a stop in London ... read more