17/4/06: Turkey Part 2 (back posting)


Hi All

Happy Easter! To all my friends from Calvary I hope you had an amazing weekend - I was thinking of you all heaps. So I've finally figured this gmail business out, to those that didn't receive Turkey Part 1 and would like to read up on the first leg of our trip just email me and I will forward it to you.

The last time I wrote I was still swaying after we got rescued from our yacht cruise gone wrong, it feels like months instead of just a week and a bit has passed since then. Apparently I'm getting 'travellers fog' and my brain has turned a little mushy so apologies if what follows doesn't read as it should!

On the Sunday night after the boat cruise we took a bus to Goreme, Cappadocia, woah this place was out of this world and by far the highlight of my trip so far. I seriously felt like I'd landed in the middle of Star Wars Episode 1 (which was partly filmed there when Anikin was young) or the set of the Flinstones! The bus pulled in there at 5am and instead of going to bed we climbed a hill behind our hostel and watched the sunrise and all the hot air balloons take off over the fairy chimneys. I will email you some photos shortly but it is basically all caves and 'fairy chimneys' that people still live in today. We stayed at Travellers Cave in a little cave room that was so cute. Spent four days there and the crew got up to all sorts of shenanigans - hot air ballooning, scooters, tour of an underground city (this was awesome but a little claustrophobic being so far underground in some pretty confined areas) and the Star Wars site, a few late boozy nights and some general site seeing!

We really didn't want to leave this area as it was so beautiful but on the Thursday morning the crew split up for the first time since we left Melbourne - Dan headed to Israel, Ant headed to Istanbul on his way back to Australia and Drew, Narelle and Mike headed to Egypt. It was really sad to say goodbye to them but we will be meeting up again (all except Ant) on 23 April in Istanbul for the Anzac tour. Claire, Lauren and I had been told about a place called Lake Egidir that was meant to be beautiful and we could go fishing etc. there so we caught a night bus out and got there around 2am Friday morning. After some sleep at this highly recommended pension, Lale, (which turned out to be the worst so far!) - we got up to find it was raining and howling wind and it wasn't going to let up for a few days and there was absolutely nothing to do in those conditions! After hearing this we pretty much ran into town and booked bus tickets out of there at 4.30pm that afternoon - back to coast we went.

Caught the bus to Antalya and missed our connecting bus to Kas by 5 minutes, devasted at the thought of having to stay in boring Antalya for the night we decided to get a different bus to Fethiye to the hostel we'd stayed in after the yacht cruise - endured the most uncomfortable and smelly (Turkish men don't have the best personal hygiene..) mini bus ride there and arrived around 2am. We were getting pretty sick of buses by this time. The 3 person room promised to us had been given away so we ended up having to share a dorm with the hostel staff! This was fine but one of the guys snored really bad. Spent the Saturday there shopping and cruising around, Lauren braved a Turkish hairdresser to get her hair dyed, they had about 6 people working on her at the same time, and spent the afternoon drinking in a pub near the marina. Headed back to the hostel and one of the guys working there took us and another guy Mark, also from oz, to a bar called Deep Blue - it was full of loud gross Turkish guys so we only stayed for a few hours. As it turns out Mark's uncle manages The End in the UK (my drum and bass friends will know how good this news is) and he can probably arrange some work for me there - nice!

Whilst it was good to be back by the coast and in a marina town, we'd already seen most of Fethiye so the next day (yesterday) we took a bus to Selcuk where our friend Alice has been working in a hostel (more like a budget hotel though it's really nice) and we are stayed here for a few days. Today we pretty much just cruised around Selcuk which is a really cute little town with heaps of cafes and shops and a few quiet places just to sit and enjoy coffee or whatever. Actually we found the BEST coffee I've had since leaving Melbourne today - I will definitely be visiting them again before leaving! I'm so sick of Nescafe with powdered milk... I was spoiled for too many years working on Chapel St surrounded by the best coffee.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Pamukkale to see the calcium pools - the pictures look amazing so I'm really looking forward to it. The rest of the week is open, not sure what I'm going to do yet. The only plan I have is to be back in Istanbul by 22nd April and we head off on the Anzac tour on the 24th for 3 days. Really looking forward to the Anzac Day ceremony - Nan I will be thinking of you heaps while I am there. I am hoping to book a flight to the UK for the 27 April.

We have all been very healthy and happy - me and the girls are getting really sick of the Turkish men though, they really don't respect women at all. I have built up a very thick skin to them and also anyone trying to sell us anything!

Righty-o I'd better sign off now but look forward to hearing how everyone went over the Easter weekend. If I'm missing people, especially from Village, on these emails just let me know so I can update my address book - it was all pretty crazy when I left Melbourne that I'm sure I forgot to punch in a few addresses.

Miss you all a lot but travelling is definitely agreeing with me and I just really wish some of you could be here to share these amazing experiences. Will write again soon!!!!

Much love
Ren xox