Istanbul meets Constantinople...no wait Bavaria

We left you in Feithye, Turkey where we were heading to Pammukale the next day. We made our way to Pammukale the next morning which is a natural wonder of white terraces made from calcium deposits and the fresh water is a beautiful turquoise. The photos say it all...

After spending the night in Pammukale we caught the bus to Ephesus which are some ruins in relatively good condition. A highlight was the public latrine which still has toliet seat cut outs in marble.

From Ephesus we caught the overnight bus to Canakkale and spent the next day touring ANZAC Cove and Gallipoli. This was a really cool thing to see as a New Zealander and we both felt moved that there was a part of NZ all the way over in Turkey.

Istanbul was the last stop in Turkey so we spent the next two nights there visiting some of the well known sights including the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and Topkapi Palace. We also took advantage of the 4000 shop bazaar and did a bit of haggeling so we could bring home some souveneir booty.

Then we caught our flight to Munich and spent a couple of days taking in the scenery and cuisine of Bavaria. The hills were alive with the sound of music as we trekked to Salzburg for the day to see the famous sound of Music sights. Sadly there was no Captain Von Trapp to be found but there was music and there were hills.

We also took advantage of the beer halls in Munich, sampling the local brew along with curry wursts and sauer kraut...delicious!

Now we are in the Loirre Valley, France and today visited the Chateau Chonneceaux, which has the most beautiful gardens and some cool stories about when it was a field hospital in the war. Tomorrow we are hoping to catch the train to La Rochelle.

We are looking forward to England now and catching up with some friendly faces. Its not long now until Lauren flies home and Kim strarts her interviews so we are making the most of our last couple of weeks and looking forward to seeing some of you soon.

Turkısh Delıght

After the four hours we spent in Marmaris we had already decided that we loved Turkey. A lovely old local man showed us the sights of Marmaris includıng the Ottoman Castle and the Marina. We didnt have a lot of time but we managed to stock up on snacks to get us through our next leg of our journey to Cappodocia which was a 16 hour bus ride.

We arrived ın Cappodocia at 8am still wıth Farhard and Tom in tow. We were immedıatly accosted by the locals and were talked into jumpıng straight into a tour of the Ilhara Valley. We learnt the history of the chimney formation in Pigeon Valley climed eight floors down in an underground city took a beautiful walk ın the Ilhara Valley following the river to a spot where we stopped for a traditional turkish lunch.

From here we went to the Selime Monastery whıch is a cluster of rooms and churches carved into the natural caves of the cliffside and is also the set of a starwars movie from the eighties. The tour finished ın Goreme where we had a kebab for dinner before leaving Farhad and jumping back on the same night bus to Antalya and transferred to Olympos where we arrived at about 11am the next morning.

Olympos was a lot smaller and more quaint than we were expecting. We booked ourselves straight ınto Turkmen Tree Huts and said goodbye to Tom. This place included breakfast and dinner so we sat straight down to a big turkish feast of tomatoes cucumber olives feta boiled eggs and turkish bread.

We spent the afternoon at the beach where we met some Turkish holiday makers from Istanbul who offered to take us on an evening trip to see the eternal flames. The flames are burning continuously in the side of a hill and are fueled by natural methane gas which seeps through the rocks. It is an amazıng sight at night and we regretted not buying marshmellows to toast.

The next morning we left Olympos and went on a boat tour of the Sunken City at Kekova. It was a beautiful day and most of it was spent stopping in at beautıful secluded bays for swims in the clearest bluest water. The sunken city was a bit of a non event but the actual day was great. The tour dropped us at the bus station so we could make our way to Fethiye.

We arrived here late last night and today we went out to Kaya Koyu which is a ghost town abandoned ın 1923 as the result of a compulsory population swap between Turkey and Greece based on religıous grounds. The Turkish Muslims brought over from Macedonia didnt think much of the town when they arrived so moved on and it has remained as a ghost town ever since.

It was 40 degrees this afternoon so we headed to Oluduenız which has a great beach and lagoon. This spot is most popular for paragliding but we were happy just sıtting on the beach. Tomorrow we are going to Pammukale then staying ın Selcuk.

Island Hoppıng

We arrıved ın Paros on Saturday 11th of July and prepared for some serıous relaxatıon. We spent three days on the beach of Krios in Parıkia, sunbathing, swimming and generally chillıng out as well as visiting the other local village of Nauossa.

We headed to Santorini on Tuesday with high expectations and we werent dissapointed. The small village we stayed in Ia was as picturesque as they come. It is nestled nestled in the cliff tops surrounded by the ocean, and made up of hundreds of white stucco buıldıngs with blue domes and cute cobbled streets. Every corner was a photo opportunity. Santorini is known for its sunsets and we watched it from our roof top bar at the hostel wıth a glass of quality greek wine.

The next day we changed hostels to one in the village of Thira. Thira ıs much more touristy and not quite as beautiful. From here we caught the bus to Aoriki red beach for a swim. It was so hot and because Santorinı is volcanic the sand is black and as hot as coals.

We started at 4.30 am the next morning to catch a 6am ferry to Rhodes. As it turned out it was delayed till 10am and so our 13 hour journey got much longer. Luckily the ferry was made slightly more bearable by meeting Farhad (Candian originally from Iran, Tom from Leeds and Trish from Melbourne). There was a lot of card playing to be had. We arrived ın Rhodes at 1am and were offered a dorm for fıve of us for a whole 20 euro. It was worth it just for the shower.

The next morning the fıve of us (all headed for Turkey) jumped on the 9am ferry to Marmaris and arrived just an hour later....

Ancient ruins and beautiful coastlines

We got off to a rocky start in Rome, with a complicated journey that finally ended in a campsite in Aurelia, in the outskirts of Rome. We arrived late in the afternoon, but after dumping our bags decided to head back into the city.

The Spanish Steps were insanely overcrowded, but we got the shot. The Trevi Fountain was our next stop, where Lauren threw a coin over her left shoulder, then got paranoid and had to go back and throw one over her right shoulder as well.

The Panthenon was impressive, and Pizza Navona was entertaining with strange street performers including a Michael Jackson hand puppet. We crossed over the Tiber River and walked through the narrow streets and back along the river bank through the night markets.

The next morning we ventured to Palatine Hill and the infamous Colosseum, the sun was shining and the tourists were out in full swing. Palatine Hill is the site of ancient palaces and temples, now its just a bunch of ruins but still impressive. The Colosseum was an ancient sports arena for gladiator and animal contests, but we didn't manage to spot Russell Crowe. We spent the late afternoon in Vatican City, going into St Peters Basilica and the tomb of the Popes.

Because it was Sunday the Vatican Museums were closed, so we came back the next morning and sped through the Sistine Chapel before our train to Sorrento in the Bay of Naples. Here we got VIP treatement from our campgound, being upgraded from a tent to a cabin so we were living the highlife.

Pompeii was high on the list of things to do, so we caught the train out and walked around the burried city, tacking onto the back of tour groups here and there to get the real story. That afternoon we jumped on a bus to the Amalfi Coast, getting off at Positano which was a lot like Cinque Terre with its cliff top houses and overhanging windy roads.

Our time in Italy was up so we planned to catch a ferry from Brindisi to Patras, but this turned out to be a full day mission when our train from Naples was cancelled, so we eventually got on a bus to Bari and managed to catch the overnight ferry to Patras. When we arrived we bought a bus ticket to Olympia, but being the ultimate tourists that we are, forgot to notice the one hour time difference from Italy. So we were sitting on the bus station floor, enjoying our chip and cheese sandwiches while our bus left for Olympia minus two. It all worked out in the end and we arrived in Olympia late that evening.

Olympia was a bit of a ghost town, but we liked it. The hostel was small and family owned, and being their only guests we got the royal treatment (the owners were an old couple we nicknamed Maude and Claude, who seemed to yell at each other a lot and pee with the door open!)

The next morning we headed to the olympic archeological site before the hoardes of tour buses arrived, and a highlight was enjoying the empty olympic running track with no one else around. Just as we were done the bus loads arrived, so we felt pretty lucky to be there when we were.

That afternoon we caught a bus to Athens, and eventually found our hostel in an area called Omonina. Its a bit of a grotty area but luckily we only had the one night here as we managed to get a ferry to the island of Paros for this evening. Today we wandered around the Acropolis, visiting the Parthenon, Erechtheion, the National Gardens, Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

Greece is hot, but we're not complaining as we much prefer it to torrential rain. We have a few nights in Paros, then Santorini, before catching a ferry to Turkey via Rhodes.

Pasta, Pizza, Pisa and Piazza

We left you in Makarska, Coatia, from where we had 2 more nights in Split before taking an overnight ferry to Ancona, Italy. The floor was surprisingly comfortable, and both of us got a reasonable nights sleep.

From Ancona we took a train to Venice, and arrived late afternoon. A nice American couple gave us a free water taxi pass each, so we spent the afternoon on the Grand Canal seeing the city by water, visiting San Marco Piazza and Basillica, and watching the gondolas go by. We didnt fork out the 100 euro for the ride as we couldnt muster up the necessary romance.

We caught the shuttle out to our digs at the campground, and enjoyed an outdoor shower and the live band that played at the neighbours till the early hours. When we say enjoyed we mean scowled at from our beds...

The next morning we got up early to see some more of Venice amazing race style, taking the city by storm stopping at the Rialto Bridge and markets before making our 12 pm train to CinqueTerre. This took us 9 hours because our second train was late so we missed the third and fourth ones too. We got to know the Parma train station and its self service bar aka vending machine well, enjoying the sandwiches that dont expire for three months. We loved them so much we bought them again.

Cinque Terre was a beautiful surprise. From La Spezia we wound our way up some hills into a small village called Biassa. Our hostel was the only place to stay in the town so it was nice and authentico with heaps of Italians and not many tourists.

Early the next morning we headed into Cinque Terre to explore the five gorgeous towns of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We hiked between all five, on a track that followed the coastline. We have never been so hot and exhausted but it was well worth it.

We got back to the hostel and tried some local cuisine in Biassa - the choices were Pizza, Pizza or Pizza. We tried all three and loved them all. With an early start the next morning we jumped on a train to Pisa, detoured for an hour to get the standard shot of the leaning tower, then got back on the train to Florence.

Florence isnt totally what we expected, but we have seen all the main attractions including the Duomo, San Lorenzo Markets, Piazza Michellangelo, the Ponte Vecciho and the Academia where the Statue of David is. We also took advantage of Italian wine, taking a wine tasting tour out to the Chianti Region of Tuscany this afternoon. Chianti is all red wines, and the tastings were more than generous, so we left feeling on top of the world and a wee bit tipsy. The wine was also served with delicious salamis, cheeses, bruschetta and a desert wine which you dip biscotti in. Of course we had to finish it off with our daily gelati. Belissimo!

Tomorrow we are off to Rome for two nights before heading to Sorento and the Amalfi Coast to visit Pompeii, Positano and Vesuvius. We are loving Italy and the sunny weather!

Ciao for now