King of the Hill

Thurs Jul 31 - day 19

Eaaaarly morning flight to Athens.  Alarm went off at 3:45.  Yes there was a cat hanging out at baggage check.

Took bus the wrong way, those hotel instructions again!

Food was far away.  Two restaurants with no food, so we had to leave twice.  Third time was a charm. 

Tackled the National archeological museum.  Wow factor was out of this world.  However, apparently mimicry of the sculptures for photos is considered "disrespectful", so Sherisse, knowing this ahead of time, had to explain why she wouldn't take my photo.  The sculptures were so very good.  There's a reason ancient Greek culture inspired all those dudes in Europe to start a renaissance.

Fri Aug 1 - day 20

Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, top of the bucket list, check!
But the people won't get out of the way for our photos, and the other people are constantly taking photos when I just want to see stuff.
We started early and by the time we left people were climbing the hill in dense herds like cattle.
Ancient Athens agora, we walked the pathways of the ancient city where Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates taught. 
Acropolis Museum, its amazing how much stuff they have, but the statues have taken their greatest beating in the last 50 years from pollution.
"But which parts are real?" Repeated many time through the days.
We were moving slowly all day,  "Respect the heat".

Sat Aug 2 - day 21

Walking tour of Athens
Freedo cappuccino at McDonalds
Pedestrian street to church
Three little orthodox churches
Little white houses with narrow alleys
Roman agora
Flee market
Lunch on pita row
Walk to cemetery
Museum of Byzantine history
Delicious dinner of meatballs with egg and lemon sauce aaaand another Greek salad.

Across the Sea to Greece

Mon Jul 28 - day 16

High speed hydrofoil ferry from Fethiye to Rhodes.  Goodbye Turkey, hello Greece!

Arrived in the old city harbor.

Our hotel was far superior to the Star hotel.  Glad we skipped that.

Old city castle wall is a medieval crusader fortress in amazing condition. 

Played frogger with high speed scooters whipping through the castle walls.

Mythos on the rooftop patio, overlooking the city gate, harbor and market square fountain.

Avenue of the knights
Grand palace of the masters
St. Paul's gate, climbed the walls and soaked in the endless Mediterranean sea.  The lighthouse and windmills were surrounded by yahties.
After Mythos and wine in the market we found the Ambrose gate and dinner.  Then we were ready to climb the Acropolis. 

Sea spreading to the distant mountains. At sunset we absorbed the vista. We found the Acropolis Temple as dusk fell. It was huge.

No taxis after four phone calls by a shop owner.  A long 50 minute walk later we crashed back at home.

Tues Jul 29 - day 17

Lindos

White houses
Narrow streets winding around the side of the Acropolis.  Steep climb in the heat to the top.
Old crusaders fort guards the ancient temple.
Ocean views, white cube houses and beaches surround this Greek island fortress.
Hit the beach to beat the heat.

Found an amazing little restaurant by our hotel.  Delicious huge Greek salad and meal.

Wed Jul 30 - day 18

Beach day in Rhodes
Wall to water people
Randall had to conquer the fear. Jumped from the high platform way out in the sea.
Surrounded by endless deep blue sea, with island mountains in the distance and the historic city of Rhodes behind us. It was a great day.

Back to our favorite restaurant for Greek salad and we discovered Giaourtiou, sausage in yogurt sauce with pita.  Amazing with a Greek salad.  Sherisse had to run from only one cat.
"Randall it is coming at me!"

Time for the Beach

Thurs Jul 24 - day 12

Bus from Selcuk to Fethiye

Excessive chagrin about hotel location, far from otogar (bus station), proved to be misplaced once we found the beach, a ten minute walk away.

Found the beach filled with English tourists and walked the boardwalk cramped with restaurants and shops while the sun set over the bay.

Found the best baklava and tea yet

Fri Jul 25 - day 13

Party in the house (or boat)

Drove over the mountain to board the party boat to visit six beaches of southern Turkey.

Butterfly valley
Sherisse wasn't satisfied with the first waterfall so she decided we would climb right to the top.  We saw one butterfly.

Two teachers on a beach vacation.
Sherisse "isn't it so easy to float here?"
Randall "Yes, you should add salt water to your science class density tower."
Sherisse "Ya, I was thinking about density."

Cold water lagoon.  Swim for 5 minutes and become 5 years younger.

Dare devil Sherisse conquers fear and does the super steep waterslide into darkness them outdoes herself by jumping 3 meters off the side of the boat into the water.

Randall, not to be outdone jumps from the top deck.

Sat Jul 26 - day 14

Disastrous bus extravaganza takes us into the hills on a mom and pop chicken bus.  One hour bus trip takes four hours. 

First hotel proprietor sends us to the wrong bus station.  As we wait for the first bus pick up Randall says "we're lucky we haven't had to wait much for busses this trip".  Famous last words. 
At the otogar, the bus guy says what every bus guy say  " bus ten minutes coming".  Its magic, every bus in this country no matter when you arrive is "ten minutes coming."
On chicken bus full of local senior citizens and we have to stand because the seats ran out.
Changed busses just outside of Xanthos, and bus driver forgets our stop and drives into more hills across the valley.
We keep driving into Kas until we meet the bus coming the other way and change busses.
Get to the turnoff for Patera and change busses again.  We got off that bus too early in the village but as the the prior bus driver was following us, he directed us to get back on.
At 1:40 we finally roll into the beach surrounded by the ruins of ancient Lycian Patera.

Randall wanders away to find a lighthouse while Sherisse finds a huge snake in the ancient temple.  Terrified, she bolts through the bushes and eventually finds Randall 800 meters away at the lighthouse.  She is not happy with him.

The ancient lighthouse was probably built by Emperor Nero.

Walk to the head of the Lycian way at the gate way entrance to the city.  The hike we planned  seems unlikely now in the sweltering 5 o'clock heat.

Bus guy at the road home "your bus 10 minutes coming".  We catch the real bus home and one hour 15 min later we crash in our hotel.

Sun Jul 27 - day 15

Slept late as we needed to recover from our bus ordeal.

We visited a Turkish hamam today.  Here's how it went down.  After a warm sauna, you lay on a large stone platform in the middle of a 400 year old room, wrapped in a towel.  Next, a middle age man, also in a towel, roughly exfoliates most of your body with a scrubbing tool and then throws hot and cold water on you.  After that, another middle age towel clad man covers you with soap, gives you a light body massage, cracks your back, throws more water, sits you up to wash your hair, and then finally drowns you like a cat with more water.  So relaxing.

Followed hamam with lunch by the harbor.  Efes, and gozleme were delicious. 

Huge Sunday market was right outside our hotel and Sherisse drove a hard bargain to get her turquoise ring.

Ephesus: Trouble with Cats and Roman Latrines

Tue Jul 22 - day 10

Travel day.  Expected 3 hour bus ride  from Pamakkale to Selcuk that actually took 6 hours.  Long morning.

Solomon, our friendly hotel proprietor, gives the comprehensive rooftop tour of Selcuk and Ephesus.  Then prepares our scrumptious lunch of mezes (Turkish tapas).

We walk through the ruins of the Church of St. John, named such as he apparently wrote his gospel and died looking after Jesus mother here.

Wed Jul 23 - day 11

Early morning excursion to Ephesus to beat the tour crowds.  Do all tour guides talk so obnoxiously loud?

Trajan rules the round world.  Hadrian rules the free world with an arch. The wisdom of Celsus archived not in scrolls but books.  Randall and Sherisse promenaded the Hercules gate onto the sacred way.  It's like the Disney Land of ancient ruins.  Sherisse brings Ephesus to her grade 8's in her selfies of Rome tour. 

Randall gets reprimanded by grumpy tour guide for testing out the ancient Ephesian latrines.  There was a cat doing the same.

Spent the afternoon playing in the waves of the Agean sea at Pamacak beach.  Palm trees are better than Randall's beach umbrella.

Deeeelicious dinner at Walabee's Aqueduct Restaurant.  Order the  "surpise dinner" and they choose for you.

The lonely planet book was used as a weapon against cats three times during dinner so Sherisse only had to leap from her chair twice.  She didn't fall into the fountain but it was close.

Beach Day on a White Mountain

Mon Jul 21 - day 9

Arrive in Pamukkale after night bus that doesn't stop for first 6 hrs.  Bladders ready to burst.

The turquoise mineral pools winding up the stark white travertine cliffside provided one of the most unique beach days ever.

Take breathtaking natural phenomena and ancient historical monuments, add blazing sun, water, beachwear and cameras you get the temple to narcissism.  (It was a nonstop sea of selfies and sports illustrated swimsuit wannabes.  Not us though...well mostly not us).

Randall chooses not to startle Sherisse so he says nothing as cats creep stealthily under the table at dinner.  He then scatters them stealthily.

Two Days Discovering Lost Cities in the Desert: 2 teachers need a better map

Sat Jul 19 day 7

Its funny how hotel room features like a/c and  floorspace become important after a sleepless night in the heat, tripping over luggage getting to the bathroom.

Mememem and pancakes  on the panoramic rooftop for breakfast. Off with our tour group to see underground cities, but our bus is stuck in an alley behind a slow moving tractor

The green tour

Erbil our tour guide gave us Turkish
Name Layla (means intoxicating beauty) and Mecnun (meshz noon) (means crazy in love), famous lovers from a Turkish love story.

Selime Orthodox monastery

Ihlara Valley walk - first Christians arrived here after 70 AD to avoid Roman persecution.  St.   ...   Church in ruins but you can take pictures of the frescoes.

Derinkuyu underground city.  We went down 7 levels, 50 meters while four people panicked and had to be escorted to the surface.   Sherisse finally had to retreat as we decended the tiniest passage towards the 8th level graves. Maybe she saw dead people.

Sun Jul 20 - day 8

Day 8, that means the first week is over.  Sad

Missing socks and serious back pain cause early morning drama. Sherisse, against her better judgment, attempts chiropractic treatment. Randall finally seeks help from random Boston backpacker for back cracker.

Hiking! Rose valley, the Ucichur castle, and Love valley on the agenda.  Well, making one out of three ain't bad. 

The name  of the village, Goreme, is Turkish for invisible, but I think it should be applied to the hiking trailheads.

This invisibility required some off trail hiking which almost went well until 25 feet from the bottom we ran into a sheer cliff.  Well, almost sheer because there was this one spot with a slight rut caused by washout, so of course Randall was game.  Sherisse was slightly more hesitant, or very hesitant, or terrified to go down but too nervous to go back up.

Sherisse proved once again that she is Ms. Unstoppable because she followed Randall down the almost sheer rut.  This took a good 20 plus minutes, a continuous stream of encouragement, and an elaborate plan to catch her if she slid all the way to the bottom.  She made it.  Random Turkish men applauded from across the valley.  Randall ate more dirt than he has in the past several years.

The entire situation was obviously Randal's fault; however, a still somewhat miffed Sherisse gamefully agreed to climb the red peeked mountain which revealed some of the most breathtaking vistas seen yet.

Efes, Coke and Ruffels at the Rose Valley Tea garden.

Long hike back from Rose Valley.  Two hour hike turned into five and a half.

Evening restaurant crawl.  Water, lots of water and baklava by the 'river'.  Next patio, Efes.  Last patio, curry and the second Efes on the tip of the highest terace overlooking the vista of Goreme at Manzara's.

Capidocia, Crossings Over to Asia

Fri July 18 - day 6

Overnight bus to Goreme arrives after nine AM.  11 hour bus ride accomplished.

After "sleeping" on the bus and checking into our hotel we head out in the hammer pounding anvil heat to find the Open Air Museum with the Orthodox cave churches.  Passing numerous hotels advertising pools we reconsider our booking priorities.

Our cave church tour happens in slow motion.  I think the ancient Christians were more about living in cool comfort than hiding in caves from persecution.

Domes, columns, amazing orthodox frescoes all in miniture cave sized churches.

Hiking the house cave filled valleys around Goreme almost didn't happen because Sherisse got stranded at the steep part halfway up the first cliff.   Thinking she was going to die, Randall must save her.

Randall is surprised the hike continues as Ms. Determination isn't going to let some random cliff stranding stop her.  

We discover slot canyons, amazing rock formations and narrow riverbead passageways as Sherisse continuously wonders if we are lost.

We are unexpectedly forced to negotiatiate several steep narrow ladder decents down the river bed.  Sherisse repeates here uncertainty about our direction of travel.

We round a final corner to suddenly come upon the Tea Garden restaurant?!  We have the fresh squeezed orange juice.

One final hour of hiking/walking and we stumble barely conscious into our hotel room.

Nazar's delivers a great supper where we discoverwith vegetable gozleme.  A savory fried pancake with veg inside.

Late evening at the hotel room, with the windows open for essential air Sherisse queries "Can cats get in there?".
Because fresh air equals sleep, Randall replies no.

It's Raining Cats and Dogs

As Sherisse has noted numerous times, Turkey has serious dog issues.  Let's just say there is no law in Istanbul to keep dogs, or cats for that matter, on a leash.  Sherisse has in fact struggled to stay seated at a table throughout  entire meals without jumping up as cats approach or at least requesting some level of protection if she sees one in advance.  This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that we, but especially Randall enjoys nothing more than taking a meal outdoors on a patio.

Thus on our first morning down to the hotel breakfast, after loading out plates with fresh fruit, olives, exotic cheese and breads, Sherisse noticed a pleasant outdoor eating area; as she also noticed it was overrun with a host of vagrant kittens, she said nothing.  By the second day I had still not grasped the full extent of her phobia so I lead us out onto the patio to eat.  Things quickly got tense.  Several chidren were playfully working the flea bitten kittens into a full frenzy. At one point I was gazing past her at the vine covered wall and she was suddenly startled, exclaiming "what are you staring at!". She thought a cat was behind her on the wall ready to pounce.  So later, as we wandered the park surrounding the Hagia Sophia or toured the shops of the spice market, when I felt Sherisse's grip tighten dramatically on my arm, I learned that she wasn't being overcome by the beauty of her surroundings.  Rather, I was being called upon to serve as her protector from another random mangy cat or dog encounter.

Istanbul!

Sun Jul 13 - Two Days in One

14 sleepless hours into our travels we realize three babies next to us and a plane full of families with kids makes for an enthusiastic plane vibe.

Turkey comes into view out the plane window...exciting!

Patting ourselves on the back for figuring out the subway didn't last long when we couldn't find out hotel on the map.  Sherisse submits to a moment of panic and Google maps the hotel on her iPhone.  Later, at the hotel MTS kindly texts her to say the 8mb of data used over 10 seconds are going to cost her a little more than $100. 

Apparently the key to overcoming jet lag is to stay awake the first day at all costs despite crying babies keeping you awake the entire flight.  Sounds fun.

Tour of the Ottoman Sultan's palace took us through the afternoon and Sherisse had fun posing for pics in the harem.

Supper across the channel at a guide book recommended restaurant lead to an extended walk through abandoned warehouse district?  Couldn't be we got lost from lack of sleep.

Supper tasted good but the couple making out at the table beside us took a little something away from it.

We discovered the quaint waterfront restaurant district we had been looking for earlier on our way home at sunset.

Wrapped up the day with a roof top patio respite.  The amazing view overlooked the Bosphorous strait, surrounding mosques of the seven hills, and the cosmopolitan bustle of one of the worlds more ancient cities.

Tues July 15 - day 3
Hagia Sophia
- Jump the line pass brilliant
- it's full of scaffolding?
- whew, found the mosaics
Turkish language lessons from Layla
Street corn is disgusting corn
Call to prayer from blue mosque is poetic
Blue mosque is beautiful and serene
Horse mackerel is disgusting
Midnight bidet surprise

Wed July 16 - day 4
Attack of the killer kittens breakfastcapade
Bus ticket trip
Grand bazaar - Turkish delight, tea and baklava
Hagia Irene - empty and under renovations but good acoustics
Randall's gets the travelers trots which prove Sherisses's prophecy true
Bosphorus cruise
Rooftop patio respite

Thurs July 17 - day 5
Spice bazaar
Mosaic museum
Carpet dude with green bay hat
Rice with catcapades
Turkish Science Museum
Climbed the hill to Istiklal street
Turk tea n icecream
Orthodox church
H&M
Ran from police army protest
Walked down 2nd of the 7 hills
Shared dinner with a seaside sunset view
Several Sherisse scurry scampers and one escalater escapade later we caught a night bus to Goreme

We cross the only city bridge in the world connecting one continent to another.  Leaving Europe we cross into Asia!

Travel Plans

So it begins.  Sherisse and Randall are about to set off on their first really epic adventure.  We will try to post any interesting tidbits and vignette as we go.  It should be a fun ride.

Sunday July 13

• Early morning flight to Toronto with a short lay over.
• An overnight flight to Istanbul, Turkey arriving in the morning.

Monday July 14th to Thursday July 17th

• Touring the wonders of Istanbul, former capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, home of the Eastern Orthodox church and capital city of the Ottoman Turks.
• Visiting the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the old city ruins and the famous old market.  Hope to experience the Turkish Hamamm (bath).  Also hope our skin is not totally scrubbed off.
• Randall tastes as many different olives as he can.  Sherisse thinks about trying olives and gets ill.

Thursday July 17th to Sunday July 20th

• Overnight bus to Gorem in Cappadocia the night of the 17th
• Exploring the underground cave cities of the early Christians who fled the Roman persecution into the deserts of Cappadocia.
• Sherisse decides she doesn’t need to climb every hill they see while hiking with Randall who is badly sunburnt.

Sunday July 20th to Wed July 23rd

• Travel to Ephesus.  Sunday overnight bus to Pamukkale
• Monday,  bath in the hotsprings on the cliffs of marble white Pamukkale
• Tuesday, travel to Selkuc the city outside of ancient Ephesus.
• Wednesday tour the best preserved Roman city in the Mediterranean.  Maybe we’ll stand where good old apostle Paul once preached.
• Sherisse is embarrassed that Randall climbed a stone column and tried to mimic apostle Paul preaching to the Ephesians.

Thursday July 24th to Sunday July 27th

• Thursday, travel to the southern coastal town of Fethyie where our hotel is near a beautiful Mediterranean beach!
• Friday, probably find a cruise around the bays of southern Turkey’s ancient coastline.  Hopefully hiking some ruins, swimming with the fish and chilling on the deck.
• Saturday, find the beginning of the Lycian Way, an ancient Roman highway traveling through cities abandoned centuries ago by both the Lycians and Romans.
• Sunday, more hiking on the Lycian way.  We hope to find a coliseum in the desert, a triumphal arch, an ancient aqueduct, a tranquil little market in a seaside village nearby and end with some time on the longest beach in Turkey.
• Sherisse and Randall decide they love cruising the Mediterranean coastline and decide one day to buy a boat and become yachties cruising the Mediterranean coast.

Monday July 29 to Wednesday July 30th

• Monday, travel by ferry from Fethyie into Greece!  We land on the famous island of Rhodes, powerful Mediterranean shipping port, home of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the ancient wonders, and visited by biblical characters.
• Tuesday and Wednesday, tour the old city and find some of the amazing beaches.
• Missing the last bus back to Fethyie where there hotel and worldly belongings reside, Randall and Sherisse wonder about hiking back into town to find a room to sleep in; however, at the last moment a friendly cabbie offers them a ‘deal’ on a ride all the way back to the city which burns their food budget for the rest of the trip.

Thursday July 31st to Saturday Aug 2

• Thursday, morning flight from Rhodes to Athens
• Friday and Saturday, tour the Acropolis, birthplace of western democracy, find the temple of Zeus, visit an Orthodox Christian museum, as well as numerous other Greek, Roman and Christian landmarks.
• Sherisse starts her collections of selfies which she will use to restructure her ancient civilizations course for her grade 8’s

Sunday Aug 3rd to Monday Aug 4th

• Sunday, Bus to Delphi
• Monday, find the oracle of Delphi who had a significant impact on the direction of ancient Greek history. 
• Sherisse makes an oracle like prediction of the future that Randall will climb some ridiculously unsafe rocks in Meteora, two days hence, and she is not going to be happy with him.
• Tuesday Aug 5th to Friday Aug 8th
• Northern Greece

Tuesday, Bus to Meteora

• Wednesday, climbing the craggy rock pinnacles adorned with lost monasteries of the ancient monks.
• Sherisse is seduced by the call to a life of seclusion and meditation and Randall has to talk fast to persuade her to leave and continue on their journey.
• Thursday, bus to Thessaloniki, maybe a whirlwind one evening view of the sights, maybe just a collapse into bed in the hotel.
• Friday, morning flight back to Istanbul

Friday Aug 8th to Monday Aug 11th

• The conclusion of our massive Grecco-Turkish extravaganza in which we have circumnavigated the Aegean Sea.
• Visiting any last ruins and catching the last rays of salty Turkish sea side sun on a beach and one last visit to the massive markets of chaos.
• While the discussion throughout the trip has been about how Sherisse cannot buy another exotic drum to bring home because we have no room to carry it, it is actually Randall who packs their bags full of mugs, key chains, artwork and exotic memorabilia.
• Monday, flight home to Canada

Monday Aug 11th to Friday Aug 15th

• Four days with the family in Southern Ontario
• Tuesday and Wednesday, Randall introduces Sherisse to his teenaged home, exploring the beaches, Sandhills and Thiessen farmsteads of Port Rowan.
• Thursday, Big Thiessen party at Albert’s place in Waterloo.
• Randall goes out to shoot stuff with Uncle Bill while Sherisse is not thrilled by her husband’s use of firearms.  She does however discover a love for the freshwater beaches of Long Point, Port Rowan and the beauty of Southern Ontario.
• Friday, last early morning flight of the trip.  The Spensts arrive home exhausted from five weeks of other worldly wonder.