Thu, 01 May 2003

author Tim	location Spitalfields, London, England
posted 14:41 BST	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

We are back! ( No photos )
All safe and sound back in London, although we haven't had time to get the journal up to date. This will be a task for the coming long weekend.
We made it with no real problems. In a nutshell we had a great time, the only problem being two nasty bouts of food poisoning which almost everyone else there also had. Could have been much worse.
We are now planning our next trip...

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 21:00 BST 29/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Last Day in Turkey ( 6 photos )
Tuesday was our last day in Turkey. We got up early and skipped the hotel breakfast (just in case that was the cause of the food poisoning), and we headed up to the Grand Bazaar because there were a few last things we wanted to get. After more bargaining, we bought the following: a Turkish fridge magnet, two Turkish tea sets, complete with apple tea, Turkish delight, and an evil eye. This is a blue glass 'eye' which the Turkish believe will ward off evil if you hang one or more up near you. I am a bit sceptical of this, as our first Bus Number 5 had three or four evil eyes attached to its interior, but they didn't seem to help much. Nonetheless, we now have our evil eye inside the van, warding any evil away (we hope!).
We had a while before we had to get to the airport, so we went and sat outside one of the tea houses and enjoyed a last Turkish tea and coffee. It was wonderful to sit and relax in the sun and chat about our adventures in Turkey.
Back at the hotel, we grabbed our bags, met one of the guys from our bus in the foyer, and then the three of us caught a taxi to the airport. We even managed not to get ripped off like we did on our first day in Turkey when we got a taxi from the airport to our hotel.
We checked in (after the security staff scrutinised us and our luggage), and then went through to departures, wandered around duty free, had some food with the last of our Turkish lira, and then finally boarded our plane.
The flight back was good, and before we knew it, we were back in cloudy old England, safe and sound!

So that was our trip to Turkey. Both Tim and I had such a great time, and we saw so many wonderful and beautiful sites. One of the most exciting experiences was trying to communicate with the Turks who often only knew a few words of English. We will never forget Anzac Day when we were in Gallipoli, and we are so glad that we went to support the diggers.
Turkey was nothing like I thought it would be, and now I know a lot more about it, I can't wait to get back there again sometime in the future.

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 20:15 BST 29/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

A Long Drive to Istanbul ( 3 photos )
On Monday morning we had an early start, as we had a long drive all the way back to Istanbul. Some people awoke with very sore heads, but Tim and I managed to be some of the first few at breakfast.
The rest of that day was spent on the bus driving North through Turkey back to Istanbul. We had a few breaks for food and toilet stops, and one ferry trip to save on some driving, but it was a pretty long day. We were on the bus for about 12 hours, and we filled our time by sleeping, eating lollies, chatting and watching the countryside, villages and towns roll by. We started off with snow-capped mountains around us, and then we were in flat green farmland, and finally drove through bigger and bigger cities.
At about 8 o'clock that night, Bus Number 5 (mark 2) pulled up outside our hotel in Istanbul. We were back at the same hotel we stayed in before we left Istanbul, a few days earlier.
We gave our fabulous tour leader, Kaan, a huge big cheer, because with all our buses problems and our food poisoning, he had held the whole thing together, as well as giving us loads of information about his country and its people and traditions. I almost feel like I now know more about Turkey than I do about Oz!
The tour was over, but Kaan, being the wonderful tour leader that he was, said he would take us all out to dinner and teach us more about Turkish food and Istanbul nightlife.
An hour later, we all met in the lobby, and then we piled into five taxis.
Now I think I talked about crazy Turkish drivers before - just to refresh your memory, these are the people who see a 'one way' street sign, and then happily proceed to drive in the opposite direction. Speed limits, road rules, red lights, you name it - on Turkish roads they are all optional. So when these five taxi drivers had us all in their cars, they sped off - and then decided to have a rally drive through some of Istanbul's main streets in order to be the 'winning' taxi, and reach our destination first. I have honestly never been on such a nail biting drive (and that's including the time Tim managed to test the speed of the old yellow Laser. Disregard last sentence if you are Tim's mum!). One of the taxis really did run a red light, just to try and come first, while another came a bit too close to knocking down a pedestrian. Our taxi driver was so intent on winning that he went past where we were meant to have stopped, and then realised in his excitement that he had forgotten to turn on his meter!
We all leapt out of the taxis, laughing, but a bit shocked and more than a little scared :)
Kaan took us to Taxim - the nightlife spot in town, and we went to a restaurant near where the fresh fish sellers are. The food was delicious, and we had so many dishes that its hard to remember them all. We started out with mezzes - a whole load of dishes of little appetisers - little fishes, potato, dips, beetroot...and heaps more. Then there was fresh fish which tasted very nice, a Turkish dessert that was a bit like peanut butter, fresh fruit, I could go on and on!
It was nice having Kaan there, because he could tell us what we were eating and what it was called and so on.
After dinner, we went to a local club with a band playing. Later on in the evening, Tim and I caught a taxi back to the hotel - much slower and safer than the previous taxi.

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 19:45 BST 27/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Ephesus ( 70 photos )
After breakfast on Sunday morning, we drove a short distance to Ephesus - one of the greatest ruined cities in the western world. It started out as a greek city in about 1000BC, but the city that stands today was built in the 4th century BC. Most of the city ruins that remain today stand in a valley between two towering hills.
As we got off the bus at the entrance gate, all the hawkers started yelling at us to come and but their wares. One ingenious guy, who was selling bottled water, had a classic line: 'Yesterday, five men went in there' pointing towards Ephesus. 'They bought no water from me...and now they are all dead!'. Its a big city, but really!
We decided we would survive with our own supply of water, and then we spent the next couple of hours being led around the ruins by our guide, Kaan.
The city has been preserved remarkably well. There are statues, tile mosaics on part of the ground, little shops, a huge roman bath equipped with hot and cold water pipes, latrines...I could go on and on.
One of the best sites, and what one of the city's main roads leads to, is the Library of Celsus (seen here with the people from our bus). This huge stone structure towers above you as you walk up to it. It is almost too good looking - like it has been built for a film set!
There is also a Temple of Hadrian - the same person who has Hadrian's wall in England. The temple entrance is pretty much all that remains of the temple, but this alone is awesome itself. It is covered in beautifully detailed carvings of mythical gods and goddesses.
Another fascinating view here is the theater. It is apparently the biggest in the world, though it isn't as steep as the one we saw at Pergamum. They still hold concerts here, although they only hold classical concerts now, because when Sting played there a few years ago, the huge crowd caused damage the theaters foundations. The classical crowds aren't quite as destructive!
There were so many beautiful sites in this one amazing tourist spot, and it was well worth going to.
Back at the bus, we soon noticed a strong smell of diesel fuel coming from our bus, and discovered a large amount of fuel running out near the front wheels. Tim was out having a look at the large puddle of diesel that had formed under the bus when the bus drivers 18 year old son came to fix the problem. His version of 'fix' involved opening up one of the storage bins under the bus, putting an old towel in to soak up the pool of diesel and then closing the bin again. He then turned to Tim, gave a big grin, and said the only English he knew: 'No worries!' :)
Fortunately for us, it was decided that the fuel leak was indeed a worry, so after lunch and a drive of about an hours distance (with the smell of diesel strongly in the air), and then a wait at a roadside stop for another hour, a new (and much nicer) bus turned up to a cheering crowd of Bus 5 people.
We did a few more hours of driving before we went through a quaint little Turkish village with a strange old tradition. Among its old houses complete with falling in roofs, there were a number of roofs with a glass bottle perched all the way up on the ridge capping, a few of which were smashed. We were told that it used to be this villages custom to place an unbroken glass bottle on their roof when they had a girl of marrying age in that house. Any would-be suitors had to shoot and break the bottle to declare they wanted the girl. If the girl's family accepted that man, the broken bottle would be left on the roof. If the family did not want that particular man to marry their daughter, they would take that bottle down and put a new unbroken one up again. Talk about hurting a blokes feelings!
Shortly after driving through that village, we arrived at Pumukkale - a town with a series if white terraces, formed by water from thermal springs which deposit layer upon layer of limestone. The white terraces looked beautiful as the sun set behind the mountains in the distance.
Before the sun went down, we trooped into the nearby pool - a thermal pool filled with broken columns and the like, and the only tourist swimming spot left in the area. For a bit of a hefty price, we enjoyed a swim in the pool. The water was so clear and warm, and little bubbles were constantly floating to the surface and fizzing around us. The bubbles stick to your skin, and as we discovered, you can leave a handprint or even write something in the bubbles on your skin. We also discovered what a hilariously strange sensation it was to open your mouth under water and stick out your tongue and feel the bubbles tingling and tickling - a bit like warm soda water!
None of us wanted to get out of the water, but eventually it was closing time. It felt very cold when we got out, so we rushed to get changed and then a few of us went down to the terraces for a last look at the setting sun.
Our bus then took us down into the village to our hotel. We all had dinner, and then spent the rest of the night in the hotel's pool, which was full of thermal water. A lot of us had very pruny skin by the time we got out of the water, although some of the boys were in the pool for most of the night. Even a power cut to the hotel and the entire village didn't coax them out of the warm water.

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 19:00 BST 27/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Pergamum ( 34 photos )
Ok, so I know we've now been back from Turkey for quite a few weeks, but our London lives have been busy of late, so I am only just getting towards the end of our time in Turkey. I last left off at the end of Anzac Day, in our hotel in Ayvalik, so here is all about the rest of our adventures in Turkey from Saturday 26th April:

The night before, we had gone to bed without our luggage, as it had been marooned with our bus a couple of hours away. So when we woke up, Tim went down to the lobby to discover our bags all piled in a big heap. The joy of clean clothes!!
Next was breakfast in the hotel. All the breakfasts in the hotels were pretty much the same: hard boiled eggs, cucumber, tomato, cheese, olives, bread, jam, honey, tea and coffee. This is a fairly typical Turkish style breakfast, and it was a nice change from the usual cereal and toast we have at home.
We got back on our bus which had had its wheel fixed and was back to working order (at least for now), and drove a while before coming to Pergamum. This is an ancient city (originally settled in 8th century BC), and it is up on top of a very high hill, which now looks out over the city of Bergama.
The old city has a lot of stone work, some of the best sections being huge marble columns or the library passage - all of which remains are a long row of the column stumps. Even better is the steepest theatre in the world, with a capacity of about ten thousand. Sitting at the top made me feel very giddy, and I foolishly decided to walk all the way to the bottom to take some photos, and then had to drag my puffing body back to the top. It was very, very steep.
The view overlooking the city of Bergama in the valley below us and of the surrounding mountains was really beautiful, and the nice sunny weather made the view even better.
After stopping for lunch in Bergama, our next stop was at a Turkish carpet weavers warehouse. We learnt all about how the wool or silk is prepared (they even show you how to get silk from the silk worm cocoons), and how to weave a carpet (at least we watched it being done), how many knots are tied on different carpets, the length of time a carpet takes to make (a silk carpet 30cm x 30cm takes about a year to make!), and what the various patterns and colours mean.
Then they sat us all down and served us drinks and showed us hundreds of different carpets and kilims. It was obviously to try and sell to us, but the information the gave about each carpet was great, and the number of different styles and colours was mind boggling.
I came very close to buying a beautiful carpet, but decided the money could be better spent on travelling. I will just have to get back to Turkey one day when I'm rich, and spend up big on a couple of nice carpets!
Back on the bus, and we had a long stretch of driving ahead of us, so for a few hours we entertained ourselves with games and jokes and getting to know more people.
We arrived in Kusadasi and found ourselves in another beautiful resort. After dinner, we went outside to the beach where the hotel was holding a party, complete with bonfire, music, games and fire twirlers. We spent the evening chatting away to people and warming ourselves next to the bonfire.

author Liz	location Saltney, Chester, Cheshire, England
posted 08:35 BST, 18/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

ANZAC Day Proper ( 40 photos )
At about 4am on Friday 25th April, an Aussie singer (never heard of him and unfortunately cannot remember his name) got up on the stage and he spent the next hour or so telling stories of the brave Anzac's at Gallipoli, and we all sang along to Waltzing Matilda. It was a nice start to the morning.
Next, we heard the Band of the Royal Military College of Australia (they were fantastic), and then the Dawn Service began.
It was freezing cold, but it felt so awesome to stand and look at the Australian flag as the light slowly crept into the sky. Tim and I stood for the whole service, and even though we could see the flag poles with Australian, New Zealand and Turkish flags on them, we couldn't quite see the stage. There was a huge screen not far from us, so we watched the ceremony on that and we could see what was going on quite well.
At the end of the service, the band played all three national anthems, and Advance Australia Fair was sung loudest of all - I felt so proud of myself and all the other young (and old!) Aussie's and Kiwi's that had made it to Gallipoli. Numbers were apparently about half compared to last year, but there was still a huge crowd there.
After the Dawn Service finished, we quickly packed up our belongings and then headed up to Lone Pine.
It's about a 2km walk, a lot of which is up a very steep and winding dirt track, and even though the Australian Memorial Service wasn't starting for another three hours or so, we wanted to get a good spot, so we hurried as much as our cold sick bodies would let us! I don't think I have ever had such cold feet before - it was like dragging around a couple of blocks of ice attached to the end of my legs, but the walking soon warmed me up.
We were glad that we hurried, because we found a great spot to sit - close to the ceremonial area, and in the sun but out of the wind. I have no idea where they would have put everyone if more people had actually come, because within an hour, the whole cemetery was packed out. They had huge stands all around the edge, and they were all filled up too.
As Tim and I sat in the sun, we kept dozing off, and our beanie covered heads would bump into each other, waking us up to do it all again. It must have looked hilarious.
At 10.30am, after more music from the Band of the Royal Military College of Australia (including some very familiar Ed Wilson tunes), some two-up in the crowd and big waves going all around the stands, the Lone Pine Service began.
I can honestly say that this was one of the most moving events I have ever been to. The speeches that told of the hardships the Anzac's endured were awe-inspiring, and it was so nice to sing along to the hymns rather than playing them this year. It was such a special ceremony and Tim and I were so proud to be there. The site of the Lone Pine memorial is where a large number of men were killed, and it was a very emotional morning for a lot of people.
Again we all sang Advance Australia Fair, and it was great to hear so many young Aussie's showing their support and recognition of the Anzac's.
Afterwards we walked around and looked at many of the gravestones - so many of those poor men were so young - younger than me at 23. Our night in the cold was nothing compared to what they went through.
We also went and walked around some of the other nearby cemeteries. Huge numbers of the gravestones say 'believed to have fallen here' or similar. There were so many people killed that there wasn't time to bury them all. A lot of the dates of death are also unknown. It really hits home how horrific the whole situation was when you start walking around the cemeteries.
We had a look at some of the old trenches which was really interesting. They have become quite eroded over the years, but we could still see them quite well. In some areas, the Anzac and Turkish trenches were only a meter apart, so they used to throw food and cigarettes to each other before resuming the fighting. And here's a pretty Australian-type thing to do: When the Anzac's were leaving Gallipoli, a few of them left a table set with dinner for the Turks to find and enjoy. How nice is that!
We had a long wait for the New Zealand service to finish before the bus picked us up. In the meantime, six jet planes did a fly-over to commemorate the Anzac's.
Once we were back on the bus, we drove to Eceabat to catch another ferry - this time across the Dardanelles to ‚anakkale. This ferry trip was much quicker, and after about 20 minutes we got off the boat and the bus headed south along the coast.
Everyone was tired out, partly from being sick, and partly from lack of sleep, so the whole bus was asleep for the three hour drive. At least, we would have slept all the way, except that as we were passing through a small town, one of the wheel suddenly started making a weird noise. The bus was stopped, and we discovered that of the twelve wheel nuts that were supposed to be holding the wheel on, only three nuts remained! It was going to take an hour or two to fix, but luckily they managed to squeeze us a few at a time on other buses from our tour company as they went by. We had already been dubbed the 'food poisoning bus' by the other groups, so now they thought it was even funnier that we had had more troubles on Bus Number 5.
We reached the town where our hotel was, Ayvalik, and drove up to our hotel, which turned out to be a beautiful resort right on the coast!
Our bags were still on our bus (which didn't make it to the hotel for another five hours), but there was shampoo and soap in our rooms, so at least we could have a hot shower.
Dinner was a buffet, Turkish style, and after that we dragged ourselves to bed!

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 19:30 BST 07/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

So Sick Before ANZAC Day ( 29 photos )
On Thursday the 24th of April, Tim and I dragged ourselves out of bed and onto the bus. Because of the food poisoning, we had not had much sleep the night before, so we spent a few hours asleep on the bus that morning as we drove towards Gallipoli. The drive took 3 or 4 hours, and we had a couple of stops along the way at service stations.
When we arrived at the Gallipoli Penninsula, we could already see that security was tight, even though we were still about 20 minutes drive from Anzac Cove. They had a lot of police and army personnel, and there were checkpoints everywhere we drove.
We drove around the Gallipoli Penninsula, and were shown the beach where the Anzac's were supposed to have landed. There is an unconfirmed story that the allies had a buoy near this beach as a marker to show the soldiers where to come ashore. The Turks discovered this buoy and cut it loose so that it drifted along the coast to the spot where the Anzac's did land - a tiny beach with no protection, but cliffs looming overhead where the Turk's were lying in wait for them.
It was so hard to look at the very beautiful Anzac Cove and imagine the horror that so many men suffered here.
We left Anzac Cove and headed up to the Lone Pine Memorial, which is the Australian memorial cemetary. We had a short while looking around up there, but would have more time on Anzac Day for a good look around.
Back on the bus, we drove to Eceabat, about 20 minutes away, and then we boarded a ferry for a cruise all around the Gallipoli Penninsula. The cruise went on for more than two hours, and as we didn't know what areas of land we were seeing, plus the fact that a lot of us weren't feeling the best, it wasn't the best part of the tour. We would have preferred to spent that afternoon exploring Gallipoli some more.
Once the ferry docked, we got off and had a barbeque nearby. Tim and I sat on the beach for an hour watching the sun setting over the water and then we went and had some food from the barbeque.
By now it was about 10pm and dark, so we headed back to our bus which was parked near the barbeque area.
The bus was supposed to drive straight to Anzac Cove and drop us off, but long before we reached there, we were refused entry by a group of soldiers. It turned out that they weren't letting any buses through certain roads, so to get anywhere near Anzac Cove, we had to drive all the way around the Penninsula which took close to an hour.
When the bus stopped, we got off and walked the rest of the way, which was only about 500 meters. We found a patch of grass on the hill, and settled down for the night. Most of us were worn out from being sick, but it was very cold and windy, so getting any sleep was a challenge.

(Continued 08:35, 18/05/03, from Saltney, Chester, Cheshire, England, by Liz)
They had music playing for most of the night, so every now and then people would start singing along to 'I am Australian' and things like that.

author Liz	location Commons Wood Caravan Park, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
posted 09:00 BST 05/05/2003	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

The Tour Starts ( 38 photos )
On Wednesday, the tour really got going. After breakfast, we went down to the lobby and then got on what was going to become the rather infamous Bus Number 5.
We started out by meeting our guide, Kaan, and then we had a drive through a small part of Istanbul, having various sites pointed out to us, before we stopped at the Hippodrome. This is a long narrow stretch of park and gardens near the Blue Mosque, and was once a giant stadium where chariot races were held. All that remains now are a couple of ancient obelisks and a section of the top of the wall that used to separate the chariots as they raced.
Next, we walked across the road and into the outer courtyard of the Blue Mosque. We were told of its history and then taken around to the tourist entrance where we removed our shoes and the girls donned blue headscarves. It was nice to have something wrapped around my head to keep me warm, because it was very cold once we got inside the Mosque!
It is called the Blue Mosque due to the large amount of blue patterned tiles covering the interior. When were told more interesting information about the Mosque as we stood inside, but it was hard to soak up its beauty due to the huge crowds of tourists everywhere.
After a rushed look at the inside of the Mosque, we went out and then across to Aya Sophia. Along the way, we came across some ornately dressed men, carrying big metal urns on their backs. When they bend forward, juice pours out of a spout and into the cup they hold. Tim and I had come across these funny little men the day before, and for a small fee, they'll give you a glass of apple juice and let you take a photo of them.
Apart from them, there was also the usual myriad of men selling postcards, hats, whistles and any other touristy rubbish they could get their hands on.
The next part of the tour was going into Aya Sophia, but as Tim and I had done that, we went back to the nice outdoor cafe in Sultanahmet Square and enjoyed a Turkish tea and coffee in the sunshine for an hour.
We met up with everyone and the bus then drove us to the Grand Bazaar, where we were free to wander on our own for an hour or so. Tim and I ended up buying an onyx chess set after some haggling, so that should come in quite useful as we travel around in our van. We also bought a couple of salad rolls from a deli. The rolls had salami on them, and I think this was the probable cause of a bout of food poisoning we both suffered over the next few days.
Once again we all got back on the bus and were driven down to the water where we boarded a ferry for a cruise on the Bosphorous. We tried to sit outside, but it was too cold, so we found a spot inside and admired all the nice views from there.
We went past the Galata tower, which seemed a lot higher up than it had appeared from the top, and then out onto the Bosphorous, up along one side up to the second suspension bridge, and then back along the other side. One of the guides provided some commentary, and it was nice to know what we were looking at.
After the cruise, we went back to the hotel. By now I was feeling pretty sick, so we ended up staying in for the night, apart from a short trip up the road for Tim to get some food (I didn't feel like eating anything). Unfortunately, both Tim and I spent the rest of the night being quite sick, but at least we weren't alone, as it turned out most of Bus 5 also had food poisoning.

author Liz	location Commons Wood Caravan Park, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
posted 08:30 BST 05/05/2003	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Catching up ( 57 photos )
Well, although it is now the 5th May, I am about to go all the way back to Tuesday the 22nd of April, which is the day our Turkey tour officially started. Even so, the only thing that was happening all day was a 'meet and greet' party at 8pm that night. Which meant that Tim and I had another day to ourselves to explore Istanbul.

We started off with breakfast in our hotel, which consisted of hard boiled eggs, bread, olives, cheese, tomatoes and cucumber. This is a fairly typical Turkish breakfast. While we were eating we met a couple of other Aussie's who later turned out to be on our bus. One of them even knows where Connells Point is (his Grandma lives there), and they both live about 10 minutes walk from where we are in London! Small world.
After breakfast, Tim and I headed up the road, past the Grand Bazaar, and then made a stop at the internet cafe' we had visited previously. We then went to a nearby outdoor tea and coffee house in Sultanahmet Square where we sat in the sunshine enjoying Turkish tea and coffee.
Feeling nice and refreshed we walked across the road and found the Basilica Cistern or Sunken Cistern. This is a huge underground water storage place, where the towns water supply used to be kept. The roof is held up by 336 columns, some of which have been stained a beautiful green colour by the water.
We walked all around a platform, watching fish swim in the water, and listening to dripping water and classical music. At the furthest corner, two of the columns are supported by giant stone heads, one of which stands on its side, and the other upside down. These are Medusa heads, and are evidence of plundering by the Byzantines from earlier monuments.
The whole place is beautiful and very relaxing to wander around, although some of the darker sections are a little spooky :)
Next, we continued wandering along the tram tracks through the city until we were back at the edge of the Golden horn where the fish sellers and ferries are. We crossed the Golden Horn via one of the bridges which was full of men dangling huge fishing rods over the side of the bridge in the hope of a catch, and then we were in the area known as Beyoglu.

We spent quite a while walking around backstreets here - it is quite a big residential area, and is obviously not kept as nice as the more touristy areas. There were bare-foot children playing soccer in the street and scrawny-looking stray cats wandering everywhere.
We headed to the Galata Tower, built in 1348, a tall conical building at the top of a very steep hill (we were puffing when we got to the base of the tower!). This was first used as an observation tower to see which boats were coming up the Golden Horn or the Bosphorous, and when we got to the top of the tower, we could see fabulous 360 degree views of Istanbul. On one side we could see the Golden Horn and the bridge we had crossed earlier, and on the other side was the shiny blue Bosphorous with its two giant suspension bridges that cross it. We could also see a huge number of Mosques poking up between all the other buildings, and the sun made our view even better.
We were very high up, and at the top of the tower, there is only a very narrow platform to walk around. I was feeling dizzy every time I looked down, and clutching the hand rail as hard as I could :)
Once we got our feet back on the ground, we did some more walking around a part of the city that is frequented more by locals than tourists. There were lots of shops selling food, drink, household supplies and even Turkish musical instruments.
We decided to head back to our hotel, which involved a long walk in the warm sunshine, firstly heading back down to the Golden Horn and crossing a different bridge (also filled with fishermen), and then following one of the main roads through Istanbul until we made it back to the Laleli district where our hotel was.
On the way, we had a great view of, and eventually walked under, a huge series of viaducts, which we later found out were what was used to bring water into Istanbul for storage facilities like the Sunken Cistern we had visited earlier.
We also saw just how crazy Turkish drivers can be. As we walked along what could be termed as a freeway, we noticed a car that seemed to have taken the wrong exit, so the driver decided he would reverse back onto the main road, even though there were vast numbers of oncoming cars, buses and trucks swerving all around him! Apparently road rules in Turkey are just there as a suggestion. One way signs are ignored, as are no entry signs, pedestrian crossing, red lights, other vehicles on the road, and generally anything that gets in their way. If they have bothered to stop for a red light, the absolute instant it turns green, the driver behind the first car will toot his horn. Sometimes they even give a toot before the light changes, just incase the guy infront has forgotten he is sitting at the lights. It is also worrying how many dents there are in all the yellow taxi's driving around, and as we learnt on our very last night in Istanbul, it is not suprising that they have so many dents! More about that story later...
Back at out hotel, we spent an hour or two resting our tired feet, before we met up with the people we had met at breakfast and walked about 20 minutes up the road to the venue of the 'meet and greet' party. The night was spent enjoying some Efes (Turkish beer), finger foods, a belly dancer whose main priority was to wobble her boobs infront of any single men until they stuffed cash down her top (Tim firmly stood me infront of him to protect him!), chatting to people and dancing away to the music.

author Tim	location Gen¨türk Cadessai 29, Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey (SULTAN)
posted 22:43 EEST	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Contact with Home for Easter, Spice Bazaar ( 45 photos )
Happy Easter to those back in Christian countries, it's easy to forget it all here since we have only seen one (yes one) chocolate bunny in all our wanderings around here. We have to admit it is nice to be away from the constant "buy chocolate now!!" advertising that has become all to much in our culture. I'm not a religious person, but for those who are, it's a pretty astounding place here in Istanbul. Their beliefs, whether you agree with them or not, are followed closely, and stuck to through thick and thin, although it is easy to see this becoming less so in the younger generations.
This morning we awoke to call the traditional Gould family Easter gathering back home at Mum and Dad's place, so we wandered down to a phone box, put in our phone card we purchased yesterday for about seven aussie dollars, which gives you one hundered "credits". This lasted all of about four minutes, during which we were quickly passed around for a "hello, are you going well?" with everyone there. Great to hear voices, it was however a shame that we couldn't chat longer. The government has a strong monopoly on telecoms here which means that there are no ultra-cheap phone cards like we can get in the UK. Oh well, can't have everything I guess.
Before I forget, how would you like one of these at the end of your road? We have one here - very pretty if you can deal with the Call to Prayer five times a day!
After the phone call, we wandered into town in search of breakfast. That meal here seems quite elusive. You can either have one of several breads/pastries, something sweet, or a kebab. None of these really appealed, and we searched out a little cake shop / cafe where we got some half pastry half meat thingies (ok, still pastries but we tried!) which were nice, as well as cheap.
After eating those sitting in the park, we decided that we wanted to head off to the Spice Bazaar. Similar to the Grand Bazaar we have been to a few times now, this one specialises in all things tasty and good, so we needed to search it out. Heading off in the rough direction, we eventually made it down to the water on the North side of the Istanbul peninsula (that's under the Golden Horn), where Liz had some barbequed fish on a roll which they cooked on a boat attached to the water-side. An interesting concept, the boats rocked crazily whenever a ship passed by (which was very frequent).
From there, we fought off touts, and found peace under the Galata Bridge, where we had our first beer in days (they drink very little here compared with England). After relaxing in the great weather for a while, we were approached by what we first assumed to be just another annoying local attempting to find a new home for our foreign currency. However, this man turned out to be friendly enough, having friends in Australia, and just wanting to talk. Perhaps he wanted to practice his English. It is sad in a way that the Turkish touts do the rest of their country-folk a disservice by making the tourists weary of anyone walking up for "a chat". Everyone seems friendly, but then just want to sell you something or other.
As it turned out, this guy owned the kebab and fish restaurant next door and simply said "if you are back here some time, why not drop in?" Well, we might just do that.
Some of the great lines we have had layed on us as we walk around the stores:

• "Shall I wrap it up for you?", delivered approximately 1.5 seconds after Liz's eyes flicked at a Turkish carpet.
• "You are walking past my shop!", as if we had missed it accidentally - how silly of us!
• "This shop is paradise, we are the angels - we may not look very good but we are", from an un-shaven but otherwise nice enough Turk.
• [Us looking up at random Mosque we have wandered near] "Do you know what mosque that is?" "No" "That is Nuruosmaniye Mosque. And this is Ali's carpet emporium, neighbour of Nuruosmaniye Mosque. Will you come inside?"
• "Hello? Bonjour? Guten tag? Bonjiorno?" They speak a lot more languages than we do here.
• Plenty more, will have to add some of them as they come back to memory. It's great fun here, but you have to be prepared to deal with the pushy locals! We have seen plenty of people who fall for all of their tricks and no doubt end up parted with cash for things they don't really want/need. I guess that is all part of the fun though.

author Tim	location Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey
posted 14:18 EEST	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Hagia Sophia ( 63 photos )
Today we have wandered around the Hagia Sophia, which I will do a more complete write up complete with photos some time soon.
We have found an Internet cafe not far from the centre of town in a Hostel called the Antique Cafeteria and Internet. Quite a quaint little place really.
OK, going now, we are both well and the weather is much better today!

(More at 16:28 EEST 21/04/2004, from Gen¨türk Cadessai 29, Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey (SULTAN), by Liz)
In the morning, we had a quick shower and then headed off in the direction of Sultanahmet, via the Grand Bazaar (which is closed on a Sunday, but as we discovered, there are still plenty of people trying to sell stuff around the place). We had bread again for breakfast, but I'm hoping to try something more adventurous in the coming days.
We then went past a Turkish Tea House, so we decided to go in. It was a very relaxing place, with lots of brightly coloured chairs and tables to sit at. We ordered two teas and they came to us in the proper Turkish way - a little glass cup that you hold by the rim, on a saucer, and a couple of cubes of sugar. We found you need a suprising amount of sugar for such a small amount of tea. It has a strange taste, but I think I could get used to it.
After sitting there a while, we walked futher onwards to the Hag(h)ia Sophia. This is a massive building steeped in history - more than 1400 years old.
The building that stands there now is built over two earlier churches which were both burnt down (or maybe just the second one was burnt down). There is no trace of the first one, and a small excavation of the second one.
The building that stands now was built in under six years (incredible when you look at the height of the dome, let alone all the pillars and giant marble slabs everywhere. It was finished in 537AD, and the architecture is spectacular, as are the mosaics, paintwork and generally the enormity of the building.
It started out being a Christian church, and then in the 1400s it was taken over and became a Mosque until 1935 when Atatürk (the founder of the Turkish Republic) put forward that it should be a museum, and it has been ever since.
The height and size of Hagia Sophia is breathtaking. It is one of the seven wonders of the world, and I can easily see why.
The mosaics of Christian scenes - mostly with Christ or the Virgin are beautiful and very detailed. Unfortunately, large sections of some are missing, as they are made of hight quality gold, and others remain covered up by plaster from when it was a mosque.
The decorative paintwork on the walls and high ceilings soaring overhead, the marble columns, the few stained glass windows, the height of the dome are all incredible. It is well worth the expensive entrance fee, especially if the majority of the money goes to the upkeep and restoration of the building.
I could write all day about the beauty of this place :) The outside is comparitvely quite ugly - a lot of it has been added on to reinforce the original building.
We then decided to go for lunch - and the food was almost as breathtaking as t the Hagia Sophia had been - stuffed tomatoes, potatoes and zucchini, meatball (kofte) and potatoes and chicken goulash.
It all tasted delicious, and I would be very happy to eat that kind of food every day!
Next we wandered to an Internet Cafe we had seen the day before - attached to a youth hostel. It was quite nice inside, and we were lucky to be able to connect the laptop up. We were there for about an hour, emailing and ICQing to Tim's parents.
After that we wandered back to our hotel, stopping to buy some baclava along the way (delicious as well!), and then we went and had tea again at the same tea house (Tim had a coffee that was thicker than yesterday's one!). I also bought a hairclip from a street stall, and then we made it back here to our room.
The weather today has been much better. It is still cold outside, but the sun has been out quite a lot, which has made it a very pleasant day to be walking outside. It will be nice if the weather stays like this.
I was really expecting it to be much hotter here, but it is cooler than last week was in London.
There are quite a lot of Aussies wandering around here, and we will get to meet some in a few days when our tour starts.

author Tim	location Gen¨türk Cadessai 29, Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey (SULTAN)
posted 19:16 EEST	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Looking around Istanbul ( 22 photos )

This morning I was awoken around 6am (still dark though) by the Call To Prayer. For those who may not know what this is, allow me to attempt to explain. Istanbul contains lots of Islamic people who generally worship at mosques all over the city. One of the five pillars of Islam is that they should worship five times a day - once before sunrise, again in the morning, after lunch, before sunset, and when it is dark. Each time this happens, the Call to Prayer is sounded from each mosque.
The Call itself consists of a heavily-amplified male voice singing a short verse, heavily embelished, in one of those voices which sound particularly grating to the Western ear.
Where we are staying, I counted five such calls this morning, each over-lapping by about a minute, lasting ten minutes, and totally ignorant of each other.
Exactly how Liz managed to sleep through all this is a mystery to me, perhaps I will get used to it. No matter, it is due to start again soon!
Awaking again at around 10, we did little but relax in our room for a while, before deciding that we should go find some breakfast, and look around this historical city we are in.
After getting some pastry-bread stuff that the many street touts have to sell (great advice for travelling - eat what the locals do), our first stop was the Grand Bazaar. This mind-blowing place used to be a bunch of streets with shops selling shiny things, carpets, and bascially anything you could ever want. A while back someone had the great idea of putting a very impressive roof over it all, and making it a pedestrian-only zone. The result is a labyrynth of good deals, rip-offs, good and bad products, but generally a very interesting experience.
It was here that it really became apparent that we stick out like sore thumbs. The bred-on-the-streets seller of wares can spot a tourist with strong foreign currency a mile away, and will stop at very little to get your business. Of course, they all speak Turkish here, but as we wander around, we have been greeted in German, Italian and English, just trying to get a reaction from us. The best by far, however, was a man who delivered the very well-rehearsed line "I have exactly what you are looking for in here" just as we walked past! He actually had no such thing, but it was all we could do to not giggle at him as we wandered off to push off more people.
Eventually, we bought two things for Liz - a beanie and a bag, both of which worked out quite cheap. For the beanie, we started by asking how much. "Fifty million" came the immediate reply. Using the convient rough conversion of one million TL = AUD$1, asking $50 for a beanie was a bit much. Very quickly his price tumbled, eventually letting it go for Twelve million. I wonder if anyone ever falls for the first price? I'm sure we could have done better. Similarly for the bag, where we were bargaining in Euros. Starting at 40, we decided we wanted to look around a bit more, walked away and increasingly low prices were hurled at our backs as we wandered away. A quick trip around the block, and we came back to pay 14 euros for a nice leather backpack/bag for Liz.
Besides the Bazaar, we have today wandered around the outskirts of the European side of Istanbul (since the river down the middle, the Bosphorous divides Europe and Asia), where we took a cold walk on a wall before a quick lunch/afternoon-tea stop at what turned out to be the pub where our tour group is meeting on Tuesday night.
Liz has just awoken from her sleep, proving even she cannot escape the sound of the 8pm Call To Prayer.

(More 14:18 EEST 20/04/2003, from Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey)

Last night we wandered up Urdu Cudasai towards the Bazaar, looking for somewhere different to eat. We ended up at a small little eating place where we ordered a couple of pide, some Turkish Apple Tea and had a relax on the first-floor above the shop itself.
To order, we had to resort to pointing at the menu and trying to read the items back to the guy, so at least it was nice to be away from the tourist traps.

author Tim	location Somewhere over Europe
posted 17:11 EEST	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

In the Sky Again, Then Istanbul ( 1 photo )
(Continued from Working in London 1)
No major problems so far - we are about an hour from the end of our flight to Turkey and all is well!

(More at 19:16 EEST 19/04/2003, from Gen¨türk Cadessai 29, Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey (SULTAN) )
The remainder of the flight went just fine, we found the staff to be courteous and the food much better than we had expected.
Upon touch-down, we floundered around the airport for a little while before locating the Visa desk, where we each forked over Fifteen Euros for our three month visas. I got the feeling that the Turkish don't like the Americans much, as their visas cost a whopping $100 US for one month. Ouch.
Luckily we had some Euros left over from last week's trip to The Netherlands, as these have come in handy. I suspect in a few years time, the governments of many countries may have to consider adopting the Euro as at least a semi-official currency, as it is accepted all over the place here. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that one euro translates into 1,750,000 Turkish Lira, about the price of a cup of coffee.
While waiting in line for the Visas, Liz ducked off and became an instant millionaire at the ATM, withdrawing 100,000,000 Lira for use around the place. This turns out to have been a good move.
We then wandered on to baggage collection after passing passport control with no problems, where we once again were suprised at how quickly our bags were available. Perhaps only Sydney airport is inefficient in this regard?
Next task was to try to get to our hotel. I had rang the tour company the day before, asking whether to expect a hotel transfer, since they only typically offer them two days before the tour starts (ours starts Tuesday), but we had been told we would get one. The answer was that there might be one, just look out for a sign, otherwise keep your reciepts.
Well, we wandered around the arrivals section looking at lots of strange signs, but none had our name on them. The closest was a person who approached us directly saying he was from Fez tours. Nothing registered then, but Fez tours is the Turkish partner of On The Go tours, so we suspect that was our transfer. I had been specifically told to look for an On The Go sign, otherwise it might have rung bells in my head.
Anyway, we jumped in a cab, showed him the address and were rapidly taught how the Turkish drive. Badly. We scrambled in vain for the seat-belts but none were to be found. Instead, we held on and tried to admire the scenery as we hurtled towards central Istanbul at roughly twice the speed limit.
We had to walk the last little bit to the hotel as the traffic was pretty heavy, but he got us there ok. However, we think he ripped us off, claiming (and showing us) that we had handed over a smaller note than I thought I did. Only later did I realise that the notes were definitely all the same - they had come from the ATM! In all the hustle and bustle we had also forgotten to get a reciept. Live and learn, and expect to get ripped of by taxi drivers, especially in countries which have huge amounts of zeroes on their notes.
We settled for a little while in our room on the sixth floor of our hotel for the next few days - the "Sultan Otel", located fairly centrally, complete with semi-English speaking concierge (better than none), a lift which has the door attached only to the building itself (stand back as five floors whiz by!), and a cosy, clean yet quite old room.
After gathering our thoughts, we wandered off in search of food. This is where Turkey really excels. There is of course the ubiquitous doner kebab, rendered relatively healthy by the fact that over here it is a common family meal rather than a greasy beer-sponge after a big night out. We haven't yet sampled too many different types of food, and last night we just located a local family-run kebab shop, and had a great tasty meal.
After a slight diversion home, we retired for the night.

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 23:14 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

A slow day, some site updates ( 3 photos )
Before getting into the details of today, take a little time to note that the header box above now has a working Itinerary/Photos link, as well as an added Contact link. We've got ten photos from Singapore online. The number we get to put up depends on how much time/money we have for Internet access. Plus, only having a few forces us to pick out the best ones!
Breakfast was in the hotel today - $20 each, so we ate like you wouldn't beleive, only to be outdone by a Greek couple at the next table who looked like they were intending to build The Acropolis with the personal bread supplies on their table. Dinner was at a food court where we ate cheaply but very well. $5 each or so, for a great curry (Liz), and some Thai (me).
We didn't do too much today - wandered up to the Internet place to catch up (as you may have noticed), and then across to Orchard Road to see what the fuss was all about. To cut to the chase, not a lot. If you imagine twenty Miranda/Hurstville Westfields together, with a few streets stalls and banks promoting credit cards (???) for good measure, you've got it. I guess we're just not shop-a-holics. Liz must be getting tired, because she usually is!
The only good thing that we did find (tune out now if you're not interested in nerd-detail) is that the Apple store there was running a promotion for the release of Mac OS X 10.2 - where I scored a free mouse (with no buttons!) and a T-shirt with my purchase. The T-shirt is great because it means we can go one day longer without washing. Which is a bonus because we (ok, Liz) was drying our clothes with a hair dryer earlier today in preparation for tomorrow's plane journey.
Which is the next item on the agenda - it seems that our time here has gone very quickly, and we now have a twelve hour flight ahead of us, touching down 15:30 Heathrow Time. Transfers are all organised, as is the wake-up-call (no SIM in the phone means we can't use the alarm - how very clever of us).
However, we've almost had enough of Singapore - Liz has a huge blister on her little toe from walking around so much, which she refuses to let me pop, and we're both looking forward to seeing Meaghan again (yay!), as well as getting out of this heat.
[The next day, we were on our way towards London.]

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 22:04 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Sentosa Island ( 70 photos )
Our first "real" touristy thing here, we spend the day on Sentosa Island. We were both expecting it to be very over-the-top touristy, but it wasn't as bad as we thought.
After a long walk which got us about half way, then a taxi for the rest as we gave up in the heat of the day, we took the cable car over to Sentosa, refusing the glass-bottomed variant on offer.
Suffice to say we have had yet another very good day, including a monorail ride, rainforest walk, beers on the beach, feeding peacocks, spotting monkeys, butterfly enclosure, Liz touching a snake, swimming, etc.
The only down side to the day is that my camera is playing up. Seems to dislike being powered on and off. However, we still managed to get enough shots in for the day, which is the main thing. I'll now have to try to get it serviced somewhere in London, which could be another adventure. Of course, this all happens after the three weeks of extensive testing before we left Sydney.
We're not sure what tomorrow will hold - will probably wander up to the Internet place again. Most of what we wanted to do has been done, yet it seems a waste to laze around by the pool.
It's mighty tempting though...

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 17:17 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Little India, Pulau Ubin ( 36 photos )
What a great 24 hours! Without going too far into the history or politics, Singapore is traditionally divided into three main Ethnic Quarters. Our hotels have been near "Chinatown", and yesterday, we went for a walk up to "Little India". A huge eye-opener! We went on a walking tour around the area, and saw a huge variety of Indian traditions - gold jewellery, saris, body art and of course food.
We suprised ourselves by walking into a vegetarian restaurant, and doing the "I'll have one of what they're having" trick. Liz was excited when the menu came, since it was in English. Imagine our deflation when we realised that while the letters were English, what they came together to form was certainly not something we had encountered before. The communication with the waiter was quite amusing - he came back to ask if we wanted one of the things or the other. "You'll have to suprise us", I said.
But, as you can see on the left, it was all worth it - fantastic food, highly recommended. We just have no idea what it was. It was about a 45 minute walk from our hotel - in the heat, we're both sleeping a lot and feel very fit from not yet taking a taxi, even though they seem to make up around 50% of the traffic.
Today we followed on a suggestion by Alan Heighway, and took a trip out to Pulau Ubin. Pulau seems to mean "Island", and Ubin is the particular island. It is quite a long way off the beaten tourist track - in the strait between Singapore and West Malaysia, but governed by Singapore. This involved a walk to Outram Park station (about fifteen minutes), train to Pasir Ris - the end of the line (CityRail could learn a lot by sending a few representatives over to observe the trains here - they are absolutely fantastic), a bus to Changi Village (at the North East corner of the main Singapore Island), then a ferry to Pulau Ubin (actually called a "bumboat"). Yes, it was a very interesting trip.
The island itself seems to survive mainly on tourism - most of the shops hire out bikes, which we of course did. Liz had two out of fifteen gears working, mine managed four. We ate lunch out there before heading back, utilising all the modes of transport that we did before.
This was the first part of the trip where the GPS has worked - in the city the tall buildings obscure the signals, since there are very few satellites directly overhead (being so close to the equator). It was very handy, but we've found our way around most places using low-tech maps and memory.
We feel we've accomplished and seen a lot here already, and still have a few days to go! Might need to spend a little more time in the hotel pool (pictured right, from our room's window), and we're still intending to get to Sentosa - possibly tomorrow.
Until next time...

author Tim	location Cyberstar Internet Cafe, Singapore
posted 17:02 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Woohooo connectivity! ( 24 photos )
A nice little internet cafe which will let us use the laptop. I'll attempt to bundle some pictures for the next update.
The new hotel is the Novotel, and it is quite a bit nicer than the last one. The pool is actually outside, which is a strange concept here. We've both worked on our tans a little (don't worry mum I'm not pink yet!).
This cafe is right near the Raffles Hotel, which has some historical significance in that some guy landed here, walked up the beach a bit and built a hotel. Or something.
I managed to restrain myself as we walked through eight levels of heaven at the I.T. Mall - so many computers! Liz had to physically restrain me as we walked into some of the shops. Interestingly enough, they had a few "girl" shops (Liz's term, not mine) to keep the women occupied. This worked well enough so that I bought an extra set of batteries for the camera.
Enough for now, will write again in a couple of days. Cheers!

author Tim	location Singapore
posted 10:52 Singapore Time	section Europe2002/Asia/Singapore/Singapore 1 ( all photos )

Concorde Hotel ( 24 photos )

(Continued from Before Leaving Australia)
We've successfully survived a flight, transfers, lots of queues, two meals and a very hard bed.
It's been great so far - last night we went to a place called the Heng Heng Fish Head Steamboat (I'm serious) for dinner. The food was great, washed down with a few Tiger beers. However, it was a bit overpriced. We stand out a mile away over here - taxis stop and beep to see if we want a lift, and the menu prices are only shown if you ask enough - some not at all. It was late, and we just wanted some food.
So, this morning we set out to get miles off the beaten tourist track, and instead had breakfast at a little "cafe" in the middle of a business district. Prices (suprise, suprise) were much cheaper, and the food just as good.
The hotel is reasonable - we're on floor eight out of twenty-seven, and there's open-glass style lifts in the middle which are lots of fun. The "entertainment" at the bar downstairs last night was four young kids and a drum machine doing Abba hits, so we stayed well clear.
I had to teach Liz how our shower worked last night - it's one of those ones where you only have one set of taps for both shower and bath, and you have to pull a little button up to get the shower to come on. I think they are going to become very common sights from now on.
We're just having a bit of a break now before we transfer to our other hotel, which I can see out our window so it's not a long haul, and then head up to Orchard Road to hunt out Internet connectivity, change some money and perhaps spend some of it.

(customised)