Footnotes

It's Wednesday the 19th of August and there is two hours to go before we leave for Heathrow, as Lauren makes her way back to New Zealand.

Since we left you we have returned Black Betty and started getting Kim sorted in London. We've been flat hunting, job hunting and just generally hunting for anything that resembles a life.

We thought we would finish this blog with a few closing thoughts and a blooper reel.

Thoughts are in no particular order, but all are little nuggets of gold:

1. Always, always, ALWAYS check the time difference

2. 30 bed dorms are never a good idea despite the savings you might make

3. Its never too inconvenient to eat gelato. Any time is a good time

4. There's no such thing as a bad hair day when you are backpacking. Every day is a bad hair day

5. Always carry toilet paper

6. It's not shameful to eat casserole cold out of a can

7. When a Turkish man asks if he can ask you a quick question, be prepared to lose half an hour

8. Despite what anyone tells you, it DOES rain in Croatia

9. There's always enough money for chocolate

10. "Travel is glamorous only in retrospect" - Paul Theroux

We've been travelling for two months, three weeks and five days, been to more than 30 cities in fourteen countries. We've caught countless trains, busses, planes and ferries. We've eaten more bread, cheese, chocolate and gelato than ever before.

And guess what...? We're still friends.

Here are some snap shots that never made the blog. There's a good reason for this.

France, ferries and family ties

Last time we spoke we were in Tours in the Loire Valley. We left Tours for La Rochelle, a small seaside resort town on the west coast of France. Here we took advantage of the town's free bikes and saw the sights on wheels. We also struck a new low with our meal of cold canned casserole and bread before jumping on another train bound for Toulouse.

We arrived late at night to a city drenched in rain, proceeded to get lost finding our hotel (yes that's right, the first hotel of the trip) and when we finally found it we jumped into bed and watched the BBC - the only english tv channel in France. The next morning we wandered the streets of Toulouse and took in the Saturday morning market before boarding yet another train, this time to Carcassone.

Carcassone is a small town with a medievial castle-like quarter up on a hill enclosed within fortifying walls, and is the inspiration (apparently) for the Sleeping Beauty story. Our hostel was right in the middle of the fortress so we climbed the hill and wove through the cobbled streets to stay in the most modern building within the fortress. We enjoyed the view best at night, with the cute stalls and cafes all lit up within the castle walls.

After our brief stop in Carcassone, the next day we headed to Avignon for a night, which is another medievial city enclosed by fortifying walls. Our digs were just outside the walls on the far side of the Rhone. This meant we enjoyed a great view of Pont Neuf (an old bridge that's half washed away from floods and which the French charge you four euro just to stand on. So when we say view we mean we stood on our hostel side of the river and looked across at it). We also saw the Palais des Popes, a great monstrosity built by the Pope in the 16th century, and Avignon is now known as the city of the Popes. We also ate a whole box of magnum ice creams but that's a story for another day.

After Avignon it was a day of travel to Calais via Paris to catch the ferry to Dover the next morning. Calais felt as if it was part of England rather than France with its pubs and British tourists, but our visit was short and sweet. Sweet because we had the biggest plate of chicken kebab we had ever seen and after almost 3 meat-less months it was a sweeet feast. We missed our ferry the next morning for women map reading reasons but luckily there are several, so with a somewhat belated arrival we saw the white cliffs of Dover from the boat before picking up our racey rental car (Black Betty) and jumping on the motorway.

The rental is a little black Vauxhall Corsa (we think its a Holden) which goes like a rocket and is our new best friend. No more lugging of the packs, amen. We drove to Trowbridge in south west England to stay with Kim's rellies, Adrian and Kay Gouldstone, who are on holiday in the Scilly's but were kind enough to lend us the keys to their pad. And what a pad! It is fair to say that staying in their house had been our main topic of conversation for a good week prior. We were looking forward to clean beds, a TV, a kitchen and some good old home comforts. We thoroughly enjoyed "the palace" and its garden, and made the most of the vege patch and fruit trees.

While staying in Trowbridge we visited Bath and Stonehenge on our first day, which are both close by. The next day we drove down to Devon and stopped off at the seaside town of Dawlish for a picnic before heading inland to the countryside. We were on the lookout for a Devon cream tea, but couldn't find one so picked up some Devonshire clotted cream from Tescos and made our own the next day. We ate it in "the Palace" garden and it was delicious.

We were sad to leave Trowbridge but had to head north sometime so we packed up the car and drove through the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are lovely with thatched cottage roofs and quaint little towns with boutique shops. We then made it to Kim's cousins, Sian's, house in Manchester where we spent the night. Then the next day Sian took us around Manchester, showed us the sights including five town squares and took us for a pub lunch.

After spending another night at Sian's we made tracks once again, this time for Scotland to stay with Kim's friend Amy who she met at Camp America. Amy and her parents live in a farm house in the country just north of Glasgow.

From Glasgow we did a day trip to Edinburgh yesterday, and were lucky enough to be in town for the fringe festival. The Royal Mile was full of street performers, as well as actors and comedians promoting their shows. We took advantage of the free acts and managed to catch some pretty funny British stand up and a play called "twenty-something". Both exceeded expectations and we were very impressed with Edinburgh in general. It is a beautiful city set amongst the great castle and old town, its just a shame about the rain.

Today we drove north into the highlands and had lunch in a very small village called Glencoe. The scenery was beautiful and the road followed Loch Lommond most of the way, which is a picturesque lake set amongst the hills. There was even a piper on the side of the road to make it all the more authentic.

Tomorrow we will head for St Andrews to catch a gig that Amy's boyfriend Ryan is playing. Ryan is a local of St Andrews who by day works in the aquarium and by night plays and sings in a band. He has offered to make us haggis stuffed with chicken so we are very excited about our visit. Then it's back to London on Sunday and farewell to our faithful friend Black Betty.

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.