Ephesus & Kusadasi

We headed to Ephesus, which is the best preserved ancient city in turkey.
It was built around 300 BC- 500 AD and most of the city is still preserved and some parts are slightly reconstructed . The original marble is still there and its so beautiful to see it all.
It literally blows me away and I can never get my head around that people built this absolutely amazing cities so long ago and that alot of it is still there. insane!!
There was a massive theatre built into the hill which the most impressive part of the city. Apparently Elton John gave a concert there.

We spent 3 hours around Ephesus its that big, they started excavating the city in 1856 and they say they have only found 17% of the city!

We stayed at a hotel right on the beach of kusadadi where I had another turkish bath. It was better than the first!! I could get one every week. We finally had a great dinner although I'm getting sick of buffet food, watched an amazing sunset over the water and prepared for the next day heading to gallipoli. Im very excited for it.

Antalya, Fethiye and Pamukkale

The bus trip from Cappadocia to Antalya down on the coast was another long one. I'm already getting sick of the bus, best thing is because we only have 22 people on our tour and still have a big bus we all get 2 seats each which has been pretty awesome. make the long trips slightly bareable.

We ended up getting to Antalya, early evening and pretty much went straight to dinner. This was the first time we had a set menu and I was just excited to have a nice salad haha.
After dinner we headed off for a few drinks. We went to a bar that over looked the water but we couldnt really see anything because it was dark.
Trace and I got a vodka and lemonade.. possibly the worst tasting drink I have ever had. it was so ridiculously strong we had to order a few extra bottles of sprite to make it slightly ok. It was still gross, but I think it had more to do with the fact that the local vodka Istanblu was just disgusting in itself.
After a few drinks at the bar we went to club 19 which was across the road. it was a tiny club with some live music and the 20 or so of us that were there filled the place. when we walked in we thought it was a guy singing, once we saw the band it was actually a girl which by our tour leaders comments was definitely a girl but i still strongly believe that it was a tranny. it had to be. there is no other option for a manly looking face plastered in makeup, ridiculously long fake hair and the manly voice. tranny.
the club was pretty fun, they played turkish music so we couldnt exactly sing along but it was still a pretty great night.

The next day we headed from Fethiye, thankfully not a massive driving day again. We got to Oludeniz beach where we had some lunch and a walk along the beach. We checked out the Blue Lagoon which would be pretty nice on a warm day but it started raining. We had to run back to the bus through the pouring rain and we all got drenched. my stupid 10 euro umbrella that I had got in vienna many months ago was close to breaking and constantly turns itself inside out all the side. it wasnt much help.

Mitch had woken up feeling really sick in the morning and even spewed on the bus on the way to Fethiye. we all thought it was a hangover but after many spews the whole day we worked out he must have eaten something bad or drunk some of the water. he was sick all night aswell and I felt really sorry for him.

The next day we made our way to Pamukkale. on the way we stopped at Saklikent gorge which was really beautiful, during the summer months its really popular to stay there for a while doing white water rafting and tubing.

I didnt know what to expect from Pamukkale, all I knew was there was white cliffs so I was thinking it was going to be something like the white cliffs of dover. But the cliffs were amazing. they were so white and looking at them up close the texture seemed like it was gumption or something. Apparently the cliffs are so white from all the calcium in the water.

Pamukkale means 'cotton castle' in turkish and is a natural site with hot springs. It was our only warm day of the trip so it was good to take of the jackets, wear a singlet and walk through some of the water.

We finished off the day with a jacuzzi and some drinks and gossip with the girls. a pretty good way to end the day.

Cappadocia

After our first day in Istanbul, the next day, Sunday we headed off to cappadocia in central turkey which is actually part of Asia. It was a full big day driving and took us about 11 hours. We stopped a few times but it was great to just finally get there.

Cappadocia was originally started by Christians thousands of years ago an known for it's amazing natural beauty of rock formations.
Our first full day was full on. Thousands of years ago the people used to live in caves carved out into the rocks. They were pretty cool and u could see what the rooms were meant to be, a kitchen, bedroom, dining room etc. It's amazing they were able to create these awesome places with such limited resources.

During the day we visited an open air museum which generally holds a number of churches. Back in the day they had to hide Christianity so built underground churches which are still
mostly preserved today. They used natural products, leaves, chestnuts etc to create paint and there are still preserved paintings on the Walls of the churches of Jesus and the disciples. It's amazing.

We also visited a Turkish rug factory where we learnt about how the rugs are made. We all thought it was going to be really boring and weren't that into it but they showed us how they are made and then showed us many examples of rugs it was actually really cool. I now the difference between a hand made rug and a machine made rug, If the rug is made from wool on wool or wool on silk. Haha such a geek.

After the first day we went to a Turkish night. We saw tradition dances and had drinks and nibbles. We tried the local drink Raki which you mix with water. It taste like licorice and it was so horrible. Im not a fan!! After the night we all didn't want to go back to our hotel so our tour leader barish took us to a local bar and it was so fun. I even busted out my thriller moves haha.

Our second day in cappadocia wasn't as full on as the first. We visited an underground city which was really amazing. Many of the people had to hide and so built a massive 'city' underground. The part we saw had 7 levels and we had to basically crawl through passages to get to other levels. It was so amazing that people thousands of years ago actually built these places and lived there for months at a time. It's no 5 star resort so I dont think I could do it. haha.

Our last night in Cappadocia we had a turkish bath which I loved. All of us girls were in bikinis as we were told to do but when we walked into the area we were instantly confronted with the sight of a few naked woman just walking around or getting soaped up. definitely caught off guard and it made it slightly awkward...
They separate the girls and boys and we all get clay face masks first. Then we had to sit in the sauna for a little while. some of the girls got a good view of  the naked ladies which made it a good talking point haha.
After the sauna they exfoliate you. The lady was pretty rushed and she sort of hurt me with the exfoliating glove, but afterwards she did tell me she thought i was beautiful... i think the steam fogged up her glasses personally...
The soap massage was the best bit. They use this bag/netting type thing that is soaked in soapy water , they fill it with air and then crush it over you to make the foam. pretty cool. the lady massaging me was pretty good and she gave a good massage. i was very very relaxed. just thinking about it now i'd like to go back and have another one haha.

So Cappadocia was definitely a highlight. I loved it there.

Istanbul

Our first day started way too early with a wake up call of 4.30am. We arrived at heathrow with plenty of time to spare. Dead set BA needs to get the stuff sorted. We sat on the Tarmac for an hour because of a broken landing light and it needed to be fixed!
We finally got to Istanbul an thought we were pretty lucky to have got to immigration quite quickly despite being one of the last off the plane. Turns out your meant to have a visa and we had to line up in the huge line to get that. After paying 15 euro for a sticker we finally got through immigration, got our bags and found our travel talk transfer. We waited and waited for the mysterious mike who was meant to be arriving with us and would be in our transfer. After waiting for half an hour we ended up leaving without him. Turns out he had a bender the night before, arrived at heathrow 5 minutes after check in closed. Good one mike!!
The journey fromthe airport to our hotel was... Interesting. Istanbul reminds me of KL, crazy traffic with constant beeping, streets littered with run down buildings, massive billboards advertising everything and anything. At one stage we almost got run over by a tram!

We walked around a little near our hotel which was great. Had a look in some souvenir shops that sell Turkish rugs, shishas, pottery and jewellery. I wentto buy a post card and the man gave it to me for free! The Turks are really nice.

After a welcome meeting for our tour to explain the trip, what we will need, what to expect etc etc, we headed off to dinner. The restaurant was underground in a converted old water resivior. Turkish gypsies (funnily enough dressed in suits and not at all what I expected of gypsies) played some tradition Turkish music. Our guide told us they were crap haha. All I could think of was borat "you do not fool me gypsie" hahahaha.

So my first impression of turkey is pretty good. Loving the different country and culture! So excited for the rest ofthe trip!!

Packing

I am so excited for our impending departure to turkey on Saturday.

Mitch and I have booked a 15 day tour starting and ending in Istanbul with a special stop to be in Gallipoli for anzac day.

I’ve been looking at the weather forecasts and its looks like we will get good sunny weather but will be between a cool 12-20 degrees. Bummer. I was hoping for extreme hot weather.

This leaves the impending question of.. What Do I Pack?

Packing is probably my least favourite thing about a holiday, actually I lie, UNpacking is my least favourite thing. But packing before a holiday stresses me out because I never know what to pack, how much to take, what I should leave behind. After all my trips so far I pretty much have packing down to a T now. I work out outfits, which shoes can go with which outfits and I keep it to a minimum and avoid over packing. It seems to work well, but then I always end up regretting not packing a certain top, dress or shoes.

For the past 10 months we have been using backpacks as our luggage, which is easy but I also struggle with carrying them and usually want to dump the bag and burn it all, so taking the least amount of clothes possible to lighten the load is what I have been trying to perfect.

This trip, I don’t know how it’s going to be possible. My warmest jacket is my thickest and most space taking, I’ll need an abundance of warm clothes for sleeping out under the stars before the dawn service on anzac day, but then I’ll also need some clothes suitable for 20 degree weather, and also some more clothes for those wishful days its going to be quite warm. Then there is the night time clothes I need to work out!

How it’s possible for a girl to fit this in one backpack and stick to 20kg is beyond me!

(I forgot to mention within this backpack and 20kg I need to fit a towel and a sleeping bag)

Hopefully I’ll be able to do a sneaky and pack a few extra things into mitchs bag when he’s not looking…fingers crossed he wont mind.

Where I have been

I found a website that tracks the countries you have been. So I spent my boring afternoon at work finding the best map.
I though it was pretty cool and it calculated the percentage of the worlds countries I have been... 10%. thats it! after all these countries I have only seen 10% of the world!

Australia
Thailand
Malaysia
Hong Kong
China
England
France
Monaco
Vatican City
Italy
Spain
Portugal
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Netherlands
Croatia
United States

Thats only 10% of the world!

By the end of the year I hope to have added

Greece
Morocco
Czech Republic
Hungary
Iceland

Anyone keen to donate towards the 'Lyndal's Travel Fund' is more than welcome. I wont deny you the privilege!

Borough Market

Today we ventured to Borough market. One of London's biggest food markets situation right at London Bridge. They sell everything from fruits and vegetables to homemade cakes and skinned rabbits. (Skinned rabbits.. gross I know)

It's pretty cool to look around at all the stalls of the Jubilee and Green market section, selling the variety of gourmet international foods. Homemade cakes and slices that get the tastebuds watering instantly, a mix of cheeses that actually has a nasty scent that is now imbeded in my nostrils, fresh made curries in massive woks. I loved to look at it all... although trying to actually look at anything is struggle. I dont do well in crowds and just end up getting angry so by the end of being there for about half an hour I was over it and needed to get out.

The food actually looks amazing and I would have loved to have tried alot of it, but lining up with the rest of the hundreds of people who are trying to get the food aswell is a mission. I started lining up to get a baguette for lunch and in the 10 minutes I waited in line I moved about a metre and still had another 5 metres to go. I ended up giving up and got a hot dog from a mr whippy type van haha.

All in all it was a pretty fun day. I'd definitely advise going there earlier in the day when its not so busy so you dont have to compete with other couple of hundred hungry tourists trying to get some of the delicious food.