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Published: July 12th 2006
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Hey guys its group email time!
Back at work after 2 weeks in turkey which was wikid- but have definately had my fill of ancient rocks for a while. was pretty glad to take some time off as there was quiet a drama involving some of the kids at school a few weeks ago. Didnt have such a mare as in dubai, my tickets finally arrived a day before a left tho. not cool.
Started off in istanbul, had a day of freestyling before we meet up with the tour group in the evening so went for a look at the grand bazaar, after wandering around for a good hour or so trying to find it me and ness found ourselves in some randon little alleys, where every1 was coming out of there shops to point and stare at us- feeling a little out of place we high tailed it out of there and asked a friendly 'tourist' policeman carrying a rifle, a pistol, and a knife who pointed us in the right direction.
the bazzar was fun every1 trying to sell you crapola 'may i hassle you now?' they were polite i'll give them that- got a
few bargins used 'your dreaming'
quite a few times- seemed to work pretty well, even did the walk away. very effective. It was huge, got lost ended up by the water front and spice bazaar, vanessa bought some beads and was wearing them round her neck- was used to getting strange looks all day, though did notice some extra strange ones, the hotel receptionist was quick to tell her that they are not a necklace they are muslim prayer beads! oops!
Had some issues with the showers in the hotel, firstly red was cold and blue was hot (but only in the shower), secondly they wouldnt go at the same time (either freezing or boiling) and lastly the shower head pionted the water right over the shower cubicle and right onto the dry towels and my dry clothes. though speaking of showers, this wasnt as bad as the all in one toilet/sink/shower that was on the gullet, where we spent 4 days sailing the med. sea, stopping off for deckchairs and cocktails by the water in Kas. sn-iice. There was all these little pirates who kept climbing onto our ship and trying to sell us crap the second
we stopt, just cant get away from them- the crepe and icecream man was all good though!
Tour group was cool, all aussies so we got a lot of shit for our accents- meet some other kiwis on the gullet, who live in whangarei !! !!- 1 i went to primary school with who now works at DOC and the other worked at NRC while i was there.
one guy on the tour got covered in this gross rash thing (possibly bed bugs, didnt translate well) so we name him rashie, his room mate followed him round with a windex spray bottle of anti bacterial cleaning stuff spraying everything he walked past, turned out to just be a dermatitis heat rash type thing.
Our guide was a sleazy turkish dude called Can who got really chopped really fast, so he was named 'one can' which he was not very impressed with. our driver was mental- we had a 'nearly died' tally that was honestly about 50 times a day- red light, nah they just for decoration! what center lines!
we drove into a ditch. over a few road signs. our bumper fell off. got a flat tyre. hit a
chicken. and were pulled over by cops and fined for speeding (130kms in 50 zone) and driver not wearing seatbelts, but they pretty laxed about laws, as it happens you can talk your way out of anything.
Randomly we did stop at a service stop thing in the mountains and there were all these kitted out army guys pacing around armoured up with guns and everything- dont know what that was about, no one was taking any notice of them so i guess it just the norm.
Saw more or less one million mosques and churches, of all descriptions- one in an underground city (like fraggle rock), ones in caves, a whole city of cave churches. they all smelt like feet.
went to anzac cove, troy, pergamum, ephesus etc etc. went to a palace that had all this random stuff that belonged to mohamed (the mohamed), e.g. his tooth, his beard hair, dirt from around his tomb there was a guy in a booth who had to read aloud from the karan all day (when i say 'read aloud' a mean wail like a dying cat)
had a turkish bath in cappadocia, we were all sitting in the sauna
room for a while and we all going ' huh, whaaat, its not even hot, what are these guys on about' 2 seconds later the whole room is filled with steam you cant even see the person sitting next you let alone how to get out! after that you jump into cold water, then steam some more, then lie on some hot hot marble for a while, then you get exfoliated, then a foam massage. at some point during this i managed to get a massive bruise down my back
had a swim in the pools at pammukale (those white terraces you see on post cards)that are filled with naturally carbonated water, it was so nice could have stayed there all day.
went river rafting in freezing cold water, our guide was a tiny little guy who didnt speak any english, and was possibly a little mad. kept yelling something at us, but we had no idea, just smiled and waved back at him! the place had little platforms over the water for eating and sleeping, a couple of days later there was a flood and washed the whole place away!
Steak with jam and cream in prague was
wierd, but tolerable. However, mushy balls of squishy slimy dough in warm yoghurt soup covered with butter oil with a drink of salty yoghurt milkshake was not- i should have gone for the rams testicles.
My guts of steal handelled the food well, most of the tour got a bit sick at one stage or another though
Anyhow- i know you all busting to see my slide show of ancient rocks!
take a look at the George W with a tan look-a-like, photo a bit dark, but it was quite freaky
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jay
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wiked!!
Hey beth mean site a lil beta than bebo for what your doing..awesome photos makes us jeli man have a mean time for all of us..fragle rock hehe funi and mustafa and all the stories haha sounds like a blast..hello nes!!!