Istanbulllll

alright.. sorry ive been so slack.. heres the last stop!! well, kinda.

another early arrival..surprisingly at 7:30- kinda sorta like the original travel time we had hoped for! we rolled into istanbul and i was, for a bit, over life... much how i always feel after everything aches from trying to sleep on a bus.. the free shuttle man was there as i had hoped..and everyone i had made friends with was more or less headed to the same spot... so if he was taking us somewhere else.. well, at least there would be 10 of us there together.. theres always dudes offering taxis and free shuttles..the smart cheeky bastards know what to say to get you to go with them..but our instincts or something thankfully got us on the right shuttle right to the perfect drop off point infront of the blue mosque.. it was raining.. bummer...but i found my hostel all too easily and made instant friends with the staff after i told them raymond sent me here.. so i am now a special friend too.. they were tellin me i could go get free accomadation elsewhere down the road..either joking around with me or thinking that every "beautiful american girl" who walks in here is a slut. cool. way to go america. and then they told me stories of americans who would work the carpet road as ill call it.. theres like 34 carpet shops on the street over.. for free food and places to sleep.. hmm ill take some food for sure...but then ill haveta peace out after that..quickly. after taking my first hot shower in days, settling in and getting into my room, i decided i had wasted enough of the morning and started my sightseeing... the weather report says its gonna rain the entire time im here, so i might as well get used to it.. and if i see at least one major site a day, i will have done well in istanbul... so today.. going cheap.. well go to the blue mosque.. i waited in the tourist line that wrapped around the corner, took off my shoes and joined the other 200 people inside the mosque. it was pretty cool, but nothing overly spectacular.. its kinda like an empty church inside. the wall detail was nice, the carpet fluffy, and the crowds were annoying, even though i stole a few tid bits from each of the over sized old people american groups oo-ing and ahh-ing inside.. i learned that the 3 ostrich eggs hanging near the top of the big dome kept spiders out, and that women haveta pray in the back while men can pray anywhere.. after that i wandered over to the grand bazaar.. grand, hmm... maybe not so much as huge, but there is definitely a lot goin on.. i got lost wondering around the differnet alleys of the indoor maze.. coming to the same point a few times and wondering the same streets outside around the place a few times before i got oriented... or lost and ended up in the spice market actually...where they were hustling me to buy some turkish delight.. i shoulda gave in because i ended up paying way more for less later on in the evening.. but first i sampled my way through every turkish delight stand i could find before i ended up in a little jewelry shop where i was too excited to even pick out the right jewels... and then the two men in the store started competing about asking me out.. the guy at the main counter was shaking... i told them i had to go find my friends.. so i walked until i found the water.. from there i could easily find my way home.. well a detour for some baklava and turkish delight.. and then i followed the tram tracks for a while until i knew where i was.. easy. back at the hostel i hung out with these brazillans who made me want to go there even more.. except for the chain smoking.. and we hung out all night way past my bed time chatting with the way too old american man and the english dude with short arms.. strange group.

the next morning i got up just in time to catch the breakfast.. they close up at 9:30..kinda early if you ask me! but at least it got me up.. so much for sleepin in and taking my time in istanbul.. i made friends with the americans in my room, all 5 of them.. they were all studying abroad in london but were all from different parts of the south/midwest.. alright. so we travelled together in a mob to the grand bazaar it was slow.. but i really wasnt on a time schedule at all.. so we walked around and observed more belly dancing costumes that were a rip off, cool colored plates, heaps of fake everything.. i like the one guy who tried to convince me the plastic beads were real stones.. and when i wouldnt offer him a good price, he handed me the actual plastic ones so he could trick someone else... more haggling, more fake purses and polos, and cool lamps and rugs, aladin hats, jerseys, jewelry and useless trinkets.. towards the end of hte afternoon i wondered off somewhere talking to someone too long and i lost the group.. and then i went around to the outside shops adn found some better deals.. so i shopped and got soaking wet, and decided i was kinda done with the day.. i went back to dry off.. but nothing really dried off.. but i didnt leave again til i went to get dinner. the americans went to find pizza hut.. im not joking.. so i went on a mission to find this yogurt covered noodle thing i had in olympos.. apparently its turkish ravioli.. but this one had meat.. so i tried something new at a restaurant where i sat and listened to these old farts ramble about all the places theyve been.. o new zealand.. o south africa... o antartica. grr. at that moment i wanted to be an old fart who could just go whereever on a cruise whenever i felt like it.. after inhaling my food listening to them babble on and on about their 'crazy' stories of how a lion roared and a whale jumped.. one of htem wanted my tea because they thought it was the 'famous' apple tea... i was just drinkin regular tea out of a little turkish glass.. so i told them it was turkish tea.. (i left the fact that they only sell apple tea to tourists out to be polite) and explained the difference. then of course they asked why i was tehre in turkey alone at a restaurant.. and i gave them my speal and then they thought i was the coolest person ever. ha. they were from tennessee i believe, or somewhere else near nashville... but they wanted me to be sure i told my mother how proud the 2 american ladies in turkey were of me. sometimes when the only people you hang out with are all doing the same thing as you.. traveling and surviving on next to nothing.. you forget that what you are doing isnt completely normal and not everyone else is doing it too. so i was special again for 10 minutes... and then it was back into the rain of istanbul... i walked another block or two before i couldnt take it anymore and headed back to the hostel for the belly dancing show! it was nice they tried to do something for halloween... it was offically my lamest halloween ever...but i guess its about time! haha. well the belly dancing wasnt too exciting as ive seen it before.. until the lady picked me to drag up on stage and dance with her.. cool. so i went with it. everyone was laughing.. and then almost everyone else had a go.. adn i think i can say i was definitely better than most of the people that went up... k. they were all boys which made it easy buttt thats just technicalities :)

another day come and gone and i didnt really see anything new. oops. haiga sophia today? eh. maybe tomorrow. the americans wanted to go with me to the asia side to check it out.. apparentlz shopping is way cheaper and the kebabs are better.. for only 1.50 lira a ferry ride, it was definitely in my price range.. so i went on another look through the blue mosque with them before heading to the ferry terminal to get across teh water.. the asia side of istanbul is, well, not touristy. at all. there were a few shops, a tiny bit of english, and a mcdonalds where most of the group ate, so it wasnt even cheap at all for them. i found a kebap that was alright.. not the best..and not even the cheapest ive had in turkey. because there were shops nad not an open market, there wasnt too much negotiation to be made. but we walked around anyway and scoped it out.. and it was funny to watch their faces of disappointment... ive defnitely been let down way bigger than this, and ive wondered plenty of places where there is just locals living their daily lives... its almost ironic because so many backpackers look for places like this in big city destinations but they cant find the 'real istanbul'.. i think this was as real as it got. we found a baklava shop where i showed everyone what baklava was and tried my best to describe it.. the dude was so nice and let us sample a few different ones.. and then sold it to us for less than half the price across the water. sweet. so the baklava is the deal over here... i wish i got more. i asked around for the bazaar... most people were confused and said o pazar!?! no not near here.. i think i later figured out pazar might be a town.. or maybe it is the market far away, but it really seemed like a town on the map...failed, we returned to the european side and made our way back to the grand bazaar.. surprise surprise! i think ive i could sum up istanbul in 1 word it would be bazaar. well the grand bazaar was closed as we suspected for sunday, but there were plenty of shops around it ready to strike good deals on anything and everything. i gave in a little to the 5 lira soccer jerseys (like 3 dollars) and hten i found as i continued looking around that my white and yellow stripes were actually goin the wrong way.. well i guess thats what you get for only 3 bucks! i also had a long and hard debate with this guy trying so hard to sell me a blanket.. i really liked it.. and was actually about to give in to the student price of 40 lira with 2 pillows until i noticed that an animal had chewed through most of the back.. hm. i wasnt about to pay almost 30 bucks for a blanket that had been chewed through.. no its ok! look! just look at this side.. no buddy..an animal has chewed through the back.. i dont think so. so then it was down to 30 lira without the pillows.. and i was thinkin that was about hte same deal as before.. and the animal had still chewed through over half the back. so i had to walk away from that one. tim, on of the american boys got us dragged into this scary back store to see this guys shop so he could get his lacoste shirt.. we were all pretty sure we were going to get shot... i chose to stand next to the door even though the man insisted i come in and sit... nah. i didnt even really need to be in there at all.. so when tim didnt get the agreed upon deal outside, he walked away as he should have and the guy threw the shirt at him. the other 2 and me saw it in the corner of our eye and were freaked out because we didtn know it was actually the shirt that hit tim.. haha.. we thought it was like a chair or something. o gosh. its funny how your mind plays tricks on you when your imagination gets going. so we shopped until nightfall, again, and then headed back to prepare for our turkish baths! o the turkish bath. what an experience. first we went to grab some food.. i bartered down my kebab sandwich and water to 3 lira because thats all i brought with me.. on purpose. it worked! also wearing my sandals helped too.. the guy was obessed with my nasty feet. looney. i showed him my ring and my boyfriend and we bailed... o yes this was only after the boys asked for no vegetables in thier wraps.. i was kinda hesitant, thinking they needed to word that better, but i let it go.. maybe it was fine.. well they got tomatoes and pickles? (i guess it was this kebabs shop specialty) like everyone else, and couldnt handle touching theirwraps, so i devoured another one and so did some of the other kids.. ha. you cant let good food go to waste! and then we walked down the road to the bath place.. it was nice from the front.. apparently its one of the first traditonal baths so we were in for the full experience.. alright. sounds good... i think.. i thought it might be something like the blue lagoon in iceland... completely wrong. we paid and were handed a little yellow tile, a box of something and what looked like a tiny tablecloth. this lady showed me and the other two girls to the changing room.. we were confused a bit.. like what to wear since we didnt need to bring our swim suits.. so we get butt naked under our little table cloths..and the lady comes back with these black granny panties for us.hmm. ok. we put them on and head down to the hamam.. we walk in and completely understand all of a sudden why we werent allowed to bring our cameras.. this is supposed to be a relaxing, spa like situation.. which i guess it could be if you are used to this type of thing.. our little tiles entitled us to a 15 minute scrub down by a big fat turkish lady with the sponge in the little box.. that was truly special. definitely a once in a lifetime experience.. everyone else in there is relaxing, enjoying the excessive heat and bathing themselves in the big water basins all around. and the three american girls are sitting in there laughing at the situation, not quite sure what to do.. but we paid to get scrubbed down.. so that we did. and then we had a wash down by the fat naked ladies.. and then it was time to relax in hte hot tub pool.. well i just about passed out in there and had to go cool down.. so we went out and realized that we still had at least an hour before we were supposed to meet the boys in the main room.. so we cooled down for a bit and headed back to the spa.. fishin around with my feet, i found a little red tile.. aka the ticket to a 30 min oil massage! yes!!! so all this mild torchure was worth it! the tile worked easily, and before you know it, i was getting rubbed down again by a half clothed fat turkish lady.. much better.. and i really needed that massage..i wish i couldve told her to focus on my shoulders that are sooo tight from carrying aorund my broken backpack lately.. so i was feelin good, and ran home through the rain and the cold.. only ate it on the cobblestone once...and i felt great going to sleep.

the next day was my last full day.. and the sun was finally out! o yay. it wasnt supposed to come out until the day i left.. but ill take it! and since the hagia sofia decided to be closed on monday... i decided it was now or never to see the black sea. i got the low-down on how to get there from the hostel man.. he thought i was crazy.. and said bye to my american friends before headin back to the ferry to catch a bus to sile.. apparently the place to be if any on the black sea.. the journey took the full three hours the hostel man warned me about.. and the fact that not one person on my entire journey spoke a word of english made it a little more difficult.. but i got there.. it rained and poured along the way.. and a few old ladies smacked me and pointed at my rubber sandals.. yellin at me cuz my feet were showing again. geez. i wont do that again! as we rolled into sile, i wondered if i was the first tourist to ever step foot here. there was nothing in english or anything that even signaled where teh beach was.. but i just looked at the sky and could tell which direction to head.. its hard to explain, but the sky always looks different over the water. i tromped down a hill, through a few puddles and mud spots, and found the roaring black.. well very brown... sea. it was freezing, i had to pee, and there was really no hope of me getting in that water.. there was no one around and no where to go to the bathroom.. so i jumped the sea wall and peed over the black sea rocks. cool. and that was that.. i was ready to no be there anymore. so i walked up a road, assuming it had to take me back to town.. stumbled into a grocery store for some cookies and milk and headed back to the bus station. everyone was blankly staring at me.. and my feet. i waited for the rigth bus to come, but it didnt.. so i went inside to try and get a bus seat on the right bus.. luckily there was a guy in the back who spoke some english.. and he told me teh buses were full until 3:30.. fine.. it was only 3:00. i could deal with 30 minutes just fine. so he wrote my ticket, and i wondered the little stores around the bus stop.. buying an eraser for my eurail pass nad some superglue to hopefully hold my strap on my backpack on better.. neither really ended up being the purchase i had hoped them to be, but whatever.. i only spent 1 lira. my bus had rolled in.. so i got on.. and then figured out there was assigned seating..so i swithced to my assinged seat.. and then got kicked out by this girl ranting in turkish at me.. so i went back in and tried to explain there was a girl in my seat too.. so they crossed out my 5 and wrote 17.. well there was someone else in 17 too.. and then this guy gave me his seat and he sat in the back.. except that wastn ok because then i was sitting next to a guy.. so the whole bus was playing musical chairs.. and they stuck me next to this woman.. and everyone calmed down.. and we rolled out.. back through another storm of rain.. luckily no one hit me on the way back. i found my ferry and headed more or less straight back because i was kinda over life.. until i got back to the european side and decided it was best to head straight to the bazaar becuase it would probably be closing soon.. i got caught up in another jewlery store, where i was required to stand by the heater as i look at stones... hah they were nice.. the blanket man was closed up, but i picked up a few other things id been waiting to get and headed back to the hostel. life as normal carried on there meeting strange people and talking with the owners. taking bribes to rate their hostel high so i could get a cheap airport shuttle ticket. ah. just another night in istanbul!

the next morning it was time to leave! could my trip really be over?! i got up early for my last hostel breakfast to hopefully have some time to run back to the bazaar (like i told you.. every single day!) to pick up the last few things i wanted when it closed last night.. well the bazaar didnt open til 8:30.. i was there around 8:20 and i had to be back for my shuttle at the hostel at 8:50. .and it was a solid 12 min brisk walk. nothing was opening at 8:30 like they had all told me.. but i roamed around quickly hoping just one person would be open.. no. not even my blanket man down the road.. guess ill haveta barter with him next time im in istanbul! i found a shop on the corner, and gave him all my liras for two little outfits for utes kids.. and sprinted my butt back to the hostel.. everyone was standing there waiting..but i did get back at 8:50 exactly! everyone in istanbul was once again staring at me. .you might think its normal to see someone running through a city.. but apparently its not so taboo here. i got in, made it to the airport nice and early, and then of course had to wiat an extra hour for my delayed plane.. they said sorry for the delay.. and i think they mightve also said there is no reason for the delay. thankss. but my cheap flight was still good.. they fed me and showed ice age 3.. too bad it was only in turkish and german.. but i think i got the gist! and then going through customs i was nervous because my visa for europe is due to expire before i actually fly out.. and all the turks were getting a million and a half questions.. they just looked at me and stamped my passport without a word. ha. guess i dont look like an illegal to germany. so i hurried to the train.. of course i missed it..so i just took the train to the main station in munich where i could eat away all the left over euros in my wallet.. the last time i was at this train station there were millions of people in liederhosens running around.. bummer they were all gone.. now it was just normal people in a freaking cold station. i got a kebab and some candy to keep me going.. and i found my train to minden! well hannover.. it was all a piece of cake once i got in the right direction !

Cappadocia

So nice and early we rolled into cappadocia.. upon waking from my last 15 min nap, i saw the coolest valley fillled with hot air balloons.. i just smiled, said cool.. and passed out for another 20 before rolling into goreme.. o but how could i forget to mention the first stop in nevishir.. ha i knew it was coming.. i was warned.. and i pretty much expected it actually.. what happens is before we roll into the city where basically everyone on the bus is staying, we stop in the main city just outside so the locals can jump on and scare the tourists off the bus and chase them into the travel agencies so they haveta buy tours and whatnot.. i watched as the canadian couple i talked to pre- bus boarding got snatched right up, as well as the other clueless tourists that believed the guys saying they had to get off the bus and hurry..in their defense, these dudes are pretty believable, but i knew better to just chuckle and roll over..then this big old turkish lady came and sat next to me and kinda slapped me..thanks. she started yellin at me i thinkk because i was wearing short sleeves.. it was freakin hot next to the heater!! we waited a few more minutes for the locals to dispute thier arguments about who took whose seat as they naturally filled into the ones left empty by the tourists who got off the bus too soon... suckers. i bet thats half the game in getting them off the bus so the locals can jack thier seats. anyway, most of us made it directly to goreme...as we were dropped off i found 3 aussies looking a bit lost at the station.. i got a map and showed them the two different places i was thinkin of stayin and they joined me at the nomad cave hotel..their only requirements were sleeping in a cave..mine was too be cheap..and so i did a tiny barter and we were all happy with our sardine style cave dorm :)

we had some turkish breakfast and headed out ambitiously to see as many canyons as possible by foot.. first we had to stroll through town past the carpet shops... new just in like 10 mins ago, antique carpets start around 500 lira for little baby size ones.. aka a big fat joke if they think ill actually buy one...maybe ill shop a bit in istanbul.. a little free apple tea and interesting fake conversations about my life never hurt anyone :)

so we headed down the road past these cool old trees.. apparently this pottery one is famous..and right next to it is this one tied up with garbage? equally interesting.. not to mention the backdrop! wow! we rolled up to the open air museum.. and then turned it down for 15 lira.. especially after the guy was at a loss of words to tell us what was in tehre that we couldnt find on our own in teh canyons... plus the church that is worth seeing inside is another 8 lira too.. hmm glad my new friends were on a similar budget! so we headed out into the great unknown, following painted signs that kept saying "red rose 2km" every km.. red and rose were apparently two different canyons.. but we actually never figured out the difference either.. the canyons are cool.. and i learned in my tour on the last day they formed from compressed volcanic ash.. the different colors are different minerals.. iron is the yellow? or maybe it was pink.. aluminum was .. ah. i forgot already... and sulfate? the white? anyway, the fluffy pillow, whipcream like ones are the ones that havent erroded yet.. and apparently what i saw is not anything what it will look like in 15 years... the fluffy ones will look more like the weiner ones we found in other canyons! ha.. so we prolly hiked a decent 10 km at least.. plus the up and down of discovering all the little nooks and abonded old houses and churches and crazy paths that were once carved into these strange "fairy chimneys" as they are called.. we were literally the only ones out htere for ages.. only after about an hour or two of walking did we come across 2 americans families travelling together... then we let the kids run up the steep cliffs to check out if there was anything in the fairy chimneys so we didnt haveta do the work! different ppl say different things.. maybe ppl actually really lived in these for real life.. we liked to make up our own stories about the hermits that were still alive and well and just out to kidnap the tourists and the stuff in their bags! we also had a few theories about the craaazy rock formations.. i thought there was water in the canyon because of the different color layers of stone that formed perfectly straight lines if you looked across teh rocks over a vast distance.. maybe i was wrong..it was just a layer of volcanoness... but it was a good theory for 2 days..



(from inside a fairy chimney)

along the way we often stopped to chow down on whatever fruit we could find.. it happened to be quite a bit.. grapes, apples, pumpkin patches galore, and those weird apple pear fuzzy things that we saw in switzerland... so we hiked and hiked, stopped for a little waterbreak in the middle of nowhere.. hiked and admired the scenery some more..and even had a run in with a local..we were sure he was originally a hermit..and eihter it was death if we walked down the path.. there was a cross of sticks, or not possible to enter.. so we took a new route.. we got to see a church with some painting from the byzantine era ..like 11th or 12th century in a little church out in the red valley.. or was it the rose valley?




we saw the clouds starting to darken.. and our feet were gettin pretty tired.. so from teh top of the valleys we could spot the main and only road a km or so out.. so we headed for it.. picked up a stray doggie friend and walked the last two km back into goreme... we found the "kebab corner," which became our only source of meals other than the free breakfast for the rest of our time, and sat and enjoyed the delicousness of a good durum...(or kebab or gyro.. depends where you are). we headed back to the nomad and had a little rest... while i was outside i ran into erik..one of my american friends from olympos walkin down the road to his place.. he was tellin me how cool it was so i haddd to go check it out.. he was stayin in a pigeon house.. a pigeon house is basically a fairy chimney carved with little squares for pigeons to sit in.. pigeons were sacred animals... good luck to have around.. .and their poop was even better for growing plants.. so i guess eating pigeon poop isnt all that weird afterall.. these ppl did it to survive 1000 years ago!? ha... its digusting...not gonna lie! but the pigeon house is at the veryy top of this little hotel.. you climb a rickity ladder and scale a small amount of white ash rock and hop carefully through a window to get into the room.. the room is an even more legit cave than our dorm...but a bit more pricey... i got to hang out there a bit anyway! so erik came out with me and the aussies.. we were all a bit slow and tired and just wanted to chill out by the fire inside the flinestone bar.. on the way there, we met a local who was standing out by a little stove in the middle of the road.. hannah and i ran up to get heat.. we chatted with "john," im sure thats not his name.. and eventually he had us all convinced to come up to his restaurant.. so everyone got a beer..hannah got the clay pot specialty.. they only use the pot to cook one meal and then you break it open! crazy!

and we all got a new local turkish friend.. he explained to us a bit of hte corruption in the turkish government and police system.. and how they dont usually put all the bills on paper because the taxes are so high.. but you haveta have them all on paper when a cop walks in.. except for his.. because his is free..and if you accidently hand him a check... your shit outta luck.. wow. and apparently this corruption is one of the things keeping turkey outta the EU... who knew we were gettin a free political science crash course as well.. anyway.. he took us to the flinestone bar.. apparently we had picked the most happenin place by chance..you know.. playin rounds of backgammon and whatnot...and then later it was to panchas for some pool and a lonnng crazy night that we had not planned for!

The next morning was a bit slow.. but i was up at 9 anyway because i suck at sleeping in.. so first i made um aquaintances with this english crazy old hippy man.. i was using the computer in teh common room and told me he needed my help to check his plane flight... fine... i did it in like 12 seconds after he gave me the info..but then i had to follow him down to the internet cafe and do it all over and print it out for him..because my tutorial wasnt good enough.. because he refused to learn to use the internet ever.. and cell phones were unnecessary to life as well.. but here he is pleaing for my help to type in the web address, his last name, and confirmation code.. i told him he prolly would haveta embrace technology soon..but he went off on how it was the devil. fine. so explaining my major to him probably made me more of the devil over my "thank you tea time" between all the locals at teh backgammon boards at 10 am.. one dude pulled up a chair to listen to our convo.. well it was really all his convo.. he was preaching ot me about something.. how he was allowed to go travel through iran because he changed the window in his house for his wife.. but travelling now is rough because all these damn young kids use the internet to reserve hostel beds and then they arent available when he rolls up at midnight.. yea. weve all been there.. so youre eihter with them or against them... and he would never ever consider looking up a hostel or reserving it online.. its the devil.. i guess he woulda been on the streets a few times had he ventured into western europe in the high season.. the whole time i was just thinkin...why am i still sitting here?! so i told him i had to go.. why does he want me to sit here if he is just bashin young travellers in and out? o he had a field day when we came in late that night... ha. he had been at our hostel a few years ago and knew where the dorm room was..adn the fact that the door is never really locked..so he crawled into the bed next to me and decided hed just crash teh hostel and then complain about us in the morning.. sorry. we were here first..and thats the beauty of a dorm.. maybe you should find a place thats at least 40 years closer to your age group.. aye yaye yaye... so i left him.. and the aussies were still passed out.. so i went for a walk into another valley.. i wondered up to a church that wanted 8 lira to go in.. mm im in the middle of the desert and this little dude wants me to give him 8 lira. no way... i told him i didnt have any money.. and he said ok, you my good friend...come come..and i got in for free..i thought he was gonna lock me in the tiny little fairy chimney church.. he showed me baby jesus.. mary.. the 12 apossstals, and the confession room which now had a metal gate and lock.. NO im not going in there.. i took a picture in someones tomb too and was ready to get out of hte little building.. i was soo glad i didnt pay for that.. then i sat for some tea and a little bread biscuit and listened to his speal on cappadocia..and how i need to do the tours.. i dont have any money.. remember? so he offered his own personal tour... i told him i had to go get my friends before i made any decisions but we would all come back in a little bit together..and he should me a real pigeon house.. up a ladder..cool.. but nothing new i didnt see the first day..and thennn it was time to go.. the other more beautiful churches that he would open just for me would haveta wait til i got my friends/never...

i walked back to round up the troops.. while they got ready i found a tiny little friend.. it fit in my hand and wouldnt let me go! and sat on my shoulder for a good 10 mins.. :)

we headed back to explore more of the same valley i had been in.. but found a new way back to town.. well we ended up on someone's tin roof.. and had to scale this crazy hill we pretty much slid down to prevent from ending up in their yard.. we attempted to head to hte castle which was in the horizon and apparently a walkable distance..but we clearly were not on the right route...o well.. of course i found some more food to munch on.. they asked if these were safe to eat.. i dunno! as i chopped away.. guess im still here so they were fine!

we went to get some bus tickets and then back to hostel so everyone could get ready for thier overnight bus back to istanbul... maybe i shoulda learned my lesson and went with them this time..but i reallly wanted to see the balloons in teh morning so i decided to stay one more day... what do ya know..it rained of course! shortly after they left, erik and steph came and found me and i went back to the pigeon cave for some wine and backgammon.. then i crashed kinda early since i only had about 4 hours of sleep..and i had to get up for the balloons!

i only got up around 6:30... and i was worried i missed them all as i saw 3 balloons decending in the horizon as i ran out in the morning.. they were just all dipping into the different canyons..and by the time i was out there wiht them.. there was sooo many! kinda glad i didnt pay the 150 euro for the balloon ride as teh sky was crap... and i feel like we had done a pretty good job exploring all those caves on our own.. im sure its an amazing experience though.. and i wouldnt mind adding a hot air balloon ride to the list of things ive done! watching from the ground was cool though.. cant complain for a free view! so i got myself together and decided that i might as well go on teh "green tour" for my last day.. the typical path that takes you to this canyon 110 km away to see more pigeon houses and a valley and underground city and whatnot... so i joined one like an hour before it left.. no problem.. didnt get the amazing rate that my american friends got who jumped off that bus into town early.. but eh.. guess they earned it for that.. so first up was a scenic spot adn then the underground city! kinda cool.. not too much to see.. this city was really old though.. i think 4th century status.. but christians only lived in it for 1-2 months while they were hiding from persecution from hte muslims all comin in.. the city had 8 floors down..and it was freakin cold in there..getting way colder with each level.. theres lots of tunnels that went to other connecting cities (they know of 128 in goreme that once existed..) and tunnels that were wells, conversation tubes, air, food storage, traps and so on.. it was a crazy network..with classrooms, churches and wineries...but i have noo idea how they knew where to go ever.. walking back up to the sunlight was ahhh! for like 2 minutes.. then the second morning prayer whipped me back into shape.. haha.. so apparently its only sometimes a recording.. often in small cities there is actually someone in the tower of the mosque sayin that beauuuuutiful song 5 times a day.. i guess most ppl get woken up by the 5 am one which is a little different..im yet to budge!

after the underground city, we saw the valley adn "hiked" 4 km of the 14 total for the valley.. it was the shortest easiest hike ive done on my trip.. some of the asians chose to sit it out and take the bus to the other end.. o gosh.. what a shame too because the valley was gorgeous.. the trees and river and fall just make you forget where you are... youre just in nature... its amazing how it all feels the same in a way no matter where you are in the world.. until theres some element of culture to remind you that you are in fact in a different country!
we explored a little church.. maybe even a pigeon church? taht was carved into the rock in the side of the valley.. its actually kinda nuts to see the sides of this pretty little valley all carved out into old houses.. this church was older than most.. no eyes painted on anyone because it was an era where people werent allowed ot paint..without eyes they couldnt see what was goin on.. there is still symbols of the roman eye ill call it.. that keeps away demeons and brings good luck.. its alllll over greece and turkey.. everywhere.. especially doorways. cool that it goes back a handful of centuries too..

2 km down the road was a rest stop where these little turkish ladies were brewin up some gozereme.. a hugge tortilla with cheezish stuff in it..sometimes they are reffered to as pancakes and have spinach or meat in them too.. so i watched them much and make.. ithink they ate more than they were actually producing..


at the end of our "stenuous"walk.. it was lunch time literally on the river... i sat with the korean boys and old aussie lady.. haha its funny how the turkish ppl judge you..they thought the boys were japanese.. since there are so many japanese ppl who come through turkey..and they always think im german.. so they whip out thier japanese and german for us.. and we look at each other.. and were like.. uh again?! kinda makes you realize what ppl haveta do for survival.. most americans are too lazy to care to learn another language... if you dont speak english.. well go to another country.. but here.. these people are lucky to have half the education we do.. adn yet they all speak at least 5 languages... need to work on the targeting a bit..but they know so much more than us in that sense.. interesting..

next was the best stop.. this old monestary that was first built by the egyptians, and then details and rooms and columns and whatnot were added on by the byzantine, romans, anddd the other guys..more christains? i forget who.. but there were 4 differetn groups of ppl that took advantage of htis monestary carved in these crazy rocks just out here in teh middle of nowhere.. they were reallly cool!





and we saw a few more look out sights.. and either our tour guide was lazy, or something with the rain..but we missed the onyx demonstration at the end of our tour where they try desperately to sell us all stuff at 400% rates.. bummer.. o well.. ive seen enough of those in egypt and thailand.. so right as i get back to the hostel, erik rides by on one of the scooters they rented for the day.. he had 40 more mins to drive it around so we went for a little ride.. i was gonna show him the road the aussies and i had found the afternoon before..but it was dark.. dumb idea.. but luckily we came across another pumpkin patch..and in the spirit of halloween, we jacked the only orange, big, and rightfully pumpkin looking pumkin from a patch and brought it back to the pigeon hole to carve up and bring halloween to turkey! we decided to stick with a pretty traditional jack-o-lantern... hopefully someone around here has seen an american movie with halloween in it.. i was soo excited to do smoething halloweeny in turkey! didnt think that was gonna happen! whoo! if you look closely in the pic..you can see the tower next to the mosque lit up through the door/window of the pigeon room...we set it outside for all of goreme to see.. i explained to one inquisitive turk.. he asked if it was something to do with christmas.. not quite..but he was on the right track i guess...

ooo and then time for my night bus... the promised 2009 model that was top of the line with a full refund from his friend if it wasnt up to what i hoped it to be.. these guys are magical liars.. its sooo frustrating. you have no idea who to believe and what to believe when they all get going.. you just haveta learn through trial and error... or talking to others who have made the mistakes first.. gah.. unfortunately i fell for this dumb bus twice.. they promised me wifi on the bus..adn our bus was the only one without wifi i figured out at a bus stop.. and naturally.. i had the burning heater on my left leg again..and the driver that lights up ocassionally while driving and smokes out the bus. gah. and who was i going to complain to? the guy waay back in goreme? he knew he wouldnt be on work when i got on that bus... and even better.. we had to take a shuttle to nevershir to get on teh bus so i couldnt even complain until i was almost 30 mins out.. so the bus that was supposed to get in at 6:30 after 10 hours was going ot get in at 9:00 now after a solid 12 hours and 45 mins.. ahhhhh! of course. before i got on the bus.. i wanted to be sure i was going to get the "free"shuttle from the istanbul bus station to my suburb where my hostel was... i knew my ticket needed to say the final destination.. ive learned that one.. so the ticket kid.. he was like 18.. took my ticket and ripped it up and said there was no bus for me tongiht.. i would haveta stay another night in goreme.. thanks... this is the first town in turkey i almost got out of without someone trying to make me stay another night.. there was free accomidation at his house..and hewould personally get me to istanbul in 5 hours the next morning..hahaha. yea right.. but he wouldnt write me a new ticket.. so i started to get a little mad.. adn he kept smiling telling me that i get to stay with him for the night.. i went and found a new bus dude who was like cmon kid give her her ticket back.. and only after everyone was in the minibus shuttle did i get my ticket rewritten for istanbul... still not sultanahmed.. aye yaye.. at least i got to get on my bus i paid for! so in my stressed out over nothing that i could really control state.. i made freinds with some morracans who were used to the system of it all.. and then a pakastinian couple that was on their honeymoon and was used to it all too.. and i just had to laugh..ooo turkey. you got me again..

Pammukale and Olympos

So I rode the "chicken bus" as it's been referred to Pammakale.. The journey took twice as long as it should have naturally, but Hassan was there at the bus stop to pick me up as was arranged on the phone... Once you get in one of these family circles, I think it is hard to leave. It makes everything quite easy though.. But you have no idea if you are getting ripped off or are getting the good deal they all promise... I suspect they are giving you a decent price with a premium. The chicken bus made a few stops.. One to get the bus washed, once for gas, another smoke break and of course the numerous roll bys for ppl to jump on and off. I even had the chance to pee in a hole again.. Incase I forgot how it felt being westernized again in Europe. After 4 hours on my 2 hour bus ride, I made it to Pammakale. The "four seasons" was there to pick me up and take me to my suite.. Another double room all to myself. It was just fine. And the staff soo friendly... Too friendly I've decided.. That's how they suck you in to milk you for all you're worth.. But Hassan quickly took me to the Pammakale site after my arrival... Well he took me to his farm behind it.. And from there I trekked through the wild bush in my rainbows James Bond style to get in for free..

I went over the hill and found an ancient city.. That's not what I was looking for! So I trekked back down and around and ended up at the front ticket booth..not quite where I wanted to be either.. So I went back to the hillside and a tumble and a roll later I was back in the grounds of the ancient city which apparently was the same as the crazy natural spring water dealy. I don't know what to call it exactly.. But it's way cool. Of course I was paranoid the whole time that someone was going to come over to me and catch me.. But luckily I was stealth enough to pull off the free entry. So I walked around, made friends with this little Asian lady who was verry worried about me walkin on top of the calcium or white stuff or whatever that stuff is..

Luckily I can show you pictures that help it all make sense! And the sunset from there was waay cool.. And reflected in the pools.. Even cooler. And I listened to some old dude telling this girl about how this place looked just 15 years ago.. Bet it was soo amazing. The lack of postcard sales in area I think has left them still advertising deals of postcards of a place that basically no longer exists.. And thank god neither do those 80s outfits! Basically there were heaps of pools alll over the mountain side, and you were free to roam and stand and Wade in whatever one you want. Now that unesco is in charge, people can only walk in one little area.. But it's probably a good thing as I'm sure the tourists climbing alll over the place were aiding in the quick erosion.. And the water levels aren't exactly what they look like on the postcards either.. New routing of the water controlled by large plastic garbage bags kept the minimal amount of water flowing just in a small area as well. Nonetheless, it was still pretty awesome.. Something I've never seen before! So after enjoying the sunset and the walk down back to the four seasons, I agreed to buy dinner from the hotel since I was lazy, they saved me 20 lira, and the food was a "good price". I feasted on a plate of chicken, salad, rice and a whole other plate of this eggplant stuff.. kinda like the menemen (a loose scrambled omelette situation) that is my breakfast of choice. Mmm the food here is really good. Delicious always actually. And I spent the night working on backing up my photos and chatting with/ half listening to the Internet man/ the family friend tell me about places in turkey that I wasn't going to.

The next morning I got up fairly early because Hassan was supposed to have the bus times for me.. And I knew somewhere that I read the only bus was at 9:30 to Olympos.. But he had told me the day before that the bus was in the afternoon so I wasn't too worried. By the time I had breakfast and relaxed in the sun waiting around, Hassan told me that the only bus is at 9:15.. And it was already past so I would just haveta stay another night... And tonight we would all go to this Turkish wedding together. Alright. I'm flexible, and it would for sure be cool to see that... except what do I wear and won't it be awkward showing up?? Hasn't this wedding been planned for more than one day too? How come this is the first you heard about it? Skeptical, I said ok.. I wasn't really in a rush around turkey anyway. So I went for a stroll to "town" to check it out..Hassan was weird about that idea.. I didn't get it at first.. He wanted to be sure I'd be back in time for lunch at 12:30... I had over 2 hours to check out the two main roads.. Think I can squeeze ya in buddy! So I strolled, not sure of where I was really headed other than hopefully coming across a pom tree for some bus snacks! I first came across this little old Turkish lady who was filling up some buckets at the local tap down the road.. I hesitated a bit because I wanted to get a picture of her but wasn't sure how that whole situation would go... She stopped me in the middle of my thought process when she turned to me and started mumbling in Turkish.. Pointing as the bucket already filled.. Guess she needed some help carrying it? So I helped the little lady out by picking up the bucket and following her to her house.. Laughing a little out loud that I was carrying a bucket of water down this little dirt road for a random lady in turkey.. Haha who does that!? O yea me! So we went not too far at all, and she said "come! Real Turkish house!" so I stepped in to check it out, getting a little sketched but fully aware I could this little old lady with my right pinky need be. And so we check out her two room house, covered with turkish fabrics and stuff piled everywhere. She kinda pointed to a mat on the floor and I took my seat.. Finally figuring out what was goin on. So I gave in and gave he 5 lira for 2 hand emboridered pillow cases and got the picture of her that I intially set out to get. I got a big hug and a little good luck key chain deal and tried to tell her I had to go now.. I think the standing up signal was all she understood but I got on my way into town.. Well like 10 more steps before I started getting hassled by the bus guys. So I looked into the prices and the times.. They were cheaper and goin in the next hour.. After some debate and discussion, and telling me that Hassan was his friend (after calling him a liar) I walked away to think about it.. and I remembered my golden travel rule: don't let anybody else hold up your agenda. I wanted to get to olympos to sleep in my tree house and so the Turkish wedding and convienient extra night stay would haveta wait until my next visit to turkey.. So I went back to get my bag and peace out of the four seasons.. On the way I noticed full meals advertised for 7 lira.. Hmm half the price of my very good deal meal the night before.. And thus I finally figured out how the Turks are genius Liars. It's all a game and they are just waiting for us white westerners to give in to their kind, sincere, and seemingly helpful smiling faces. Gah. I paid my dues and bounced.. Hassan wasn't around so maybe that made it easier to bounce and I wandered back into town to go buy a bus ticket.. On my 7 min journey I was stopped prolly 7 times by different kids who were all offering me good price bus tickets on the best bus.. The fastest and nicest and actually the same exact bus. On the way to the original bus company, I came across a man from a different company who offered me the same gig on the best bus company in turkey (because it was the oldest) for 5 lira less. I said fine.. Went into his office, and still ending up paying the full 25 lira instead of 20.. And in the middle of paying I was rushed onto a rando bus rollin down the tiny street to go to the main city. I naturally had to stand as the bs was full.. But in the gettin on process I saw the Japanese couple I had met in rhodes walk by, had a quick wave and smile and we both kept movin in our directions. That's when I love traveling. So onto olympos.. On the 3 hour fast bus that was still 4.5 hours.. And the bus was still no match for the spaceship bus I first had, but still good with snacks after our water and tiny cup of juice! At the rest stop along the way, I had the juicer man feel bad for me picking my pomegranate apart and he sliced it up nicely for free :) so I made I to Antalya, and then two more mini buses and 8 more lira later it was dark but I was finally in "the village".. And I was sooo glad I left pammakale and wished I'd left a bit sooner! Ah this place is sweet! The village starts with kadirs tree houses, which unfortunately were pretty wrecked from the flood last week.. Staying in the original place mightve been cool.. But I knew that bayram's down the road was open and doin business. So I was able to drive by the other 26 pensions of "treehouses" in orange and lemon groves that more or less were all identical with the slightest different twist. Bayrams was happening, and they eagerly greeted me and rushed me to the bomb buffet (included) dinner. I overheard some north American accents in my way to the table and decided to join them at the cool little sitting area where everyone was relaxed.. Just hangin and causally playin some backgammon as if they were all locals. There were two groups of ppl.. One was these girls who were just moving to different places all over the world every 3 months while filming themsleves and their lives of finding jobs and whatnot in different places. This was their vacation week in turkey.. And in the two days I never saw a camera between the two canadians and the LA girl who was originally from cayucos. Ha. The other three were a couple from Utah and their Vermont friend. And then at the apple tea table I found a kid who had graduated from cal poly in '03 and he joined us too. Quite the lack of diversity, but I was happy to finally have young ppl to talk to again! Yay! So we chatted for a bit and enjoyed the great night under the oranges... Bummer they were all still green!

The next morning I was up early with the roosters.. Apparently it was daylight savings so the roosters were really goin off at 5 instead of 6..ugh. But I managed to sleep in a bit in my little tree house! K so it's not quitee a full on tree house.. Nor all mine.. But it was still so cool. It was more of a rickity house built of wood on sticks next to trees, and I had to share the dorm with this old Turkish speaking lady.. She didn't look Turkish but she could talk to the owners and neighbor owners only. So I had an awesome buffet brekky, packed myself a vegetable sandwich on the huge bread slices for lunch later, and headed towards the beach. I had a really big decision to make at the gate, where you haveta pay 3 lira to go into the ruins of the ancient city of olympos to get to the beach.. Or a week pass was 5 lira.. Hmm. Would I really go to the beach more than one day??? Everyone else was leavin on the night bus to cappadocia, so I thought maybe I should head with them since I've finally found some friends.. But the happiness and unexpected sunshine helped me put out the 5 lira for a two day pass.. Another night here couldy hurt! So since I payed for the ruins I had to explore them a bit... They were actually way cool too because they were basically surrounded by jungle.. Untouched it seemed, and it felt like you were the first one to come across the old theatre or roman baths or old tombs wrapped in vines down a not so well travelled path.

Cool. Along the way, I found Noah, the Utah kid, and he told me there was this huge cave and castle up this one hill that he could see yesterday.. So we crawled up together.. The rainbows held up pretty well for their unexpected climb.. And we found the castle and a good view of the sea. The cave was way underneath us... And the 42+ feet drop to the water told me from experience that jumping was not the best idea.

So we hiked back down and trekked a bit through the nasty river to get across to the beach where everyone else was hangin out. The beach was a bit rocky, but almost sandy by Greek and Croatian standards. We all went for a swim in the Mediterranean, something decided to chow down on my burn wound, and I was done swimming for a bit. Bayram told me later it was probably a pirrahna.. I think that was a big fat Turkish lie.. But it would be cooler if I got bit by a pirrahna than a dumb little fish! Whatever it was ripped all the fresh skin that I had been working so hard to grow right off, and i was basically back at square one.. Boo. I took in what is probably the last bit of sun for the year as the clouds gazed the sky and the sun set. Back to the treehouses to chill out some more with our apple tea and backgammon. I waved off my handful of new friends as they boarded the minibus the Turkish way... Crazy happy but sad and really waving until the bus is long past gone... I've noticed at the bus stations that bringing the whole family to wave bye to someone is a normal practice. So dinnertime quickly came as I knew by the little boy ringing the cow bell for dinner.. He may have rang that bell a little to vigorously, but it reminded me of Peter pan or something.. Like I was a lost boy being called to the group dinner. O yea. After dinner ı sıgned up for a 'tour' of chımera.. ıt was actually just a taxı rıde that took you to the place where you hıke 20 mıns up a pıtch black hıll to fınd these flames.. the flames are cool though.. supposedly someone-lıke a greek god or hıs son- was fıghtıng thıs monster and ı thınk he won and sent the monster to hates and the flames are stıll burnıng from the monster.. to celebrate trappıng the monster ın the underworld... the people of olympos would run a torch lıt by the eternal flames of chımera.. (ı thınk thats the name of the monster) down to the cıty of olympos every year.. and well... thats where the olympıc flame came from! lıterally.. the flame that burns started rıght there.. and all ı could thınk of was ı wısh ı had a marshmallow..

they used to be bıgger and cooler apparently.. but ı guess thats lıke everythıng around here.. so those were cool.. and ı played wıth thıs 7 year old englısh kıd tryıng to put the flames out before ıt was tıme to trek down teh dark mountaın agaın... and as ı got back to my treehouse for bed, ı found my lovely roommate screamıng ın turkısh ın her sleep..contınuously. that was fun.

the next mornıng ı got up and contemplated a run.. but decıded layıng at the beach would be a much better ıdea... untıl the random downpour started. crap. ı couldnt even go to the beach...and ı paıd to go too! ahh.. ıt was a crazzzy storm brewıng.. lıghtnıng, thunder, the whole shıbang.. you better belıeve ı got out of that rıckıty tree house asap. rıght as ı got under some shelter, ıt actually started haılıng even though ıt wasnt cold outsıde... wow.. ı prolly shoulda headed to cappadocıa wıth the otehr kıds last nıght.. now ı had all day to sıt and watch ıt pour. whoo hoo. ı grabbed a few cups of apple tea and watched the streets start to flood agaın.. ı also had two rounds on the free breakfast.. why not?! around 1 pm the sky kında sorta cleared, and ı was tıred of sıttıng around wıth the old fart borıng tourısts, so ı ventured out ın the lıght raın to check out the rest of the ruıns and go for a stroll.. the ruıns on the other sıde of teh rıver were prolly even better, and teh raıny mısty weather added to the coolness factor.










so ı wondered up and down and all around them, gettıng covered ın mud before ı decıded take my huge ass pomegranate to the beach.. eatıng a pom ıs always a good way to pass a few hours.. especıally when they are bıgger than your fıst.. they take ages to pull apart. so ı walked and pıcked and ate some more.. and saw some black clouds comın at me.. okk tıme to turn around. ı got back just ın tıme.. and just lıke everyone else the treehouse ppl trıed to make me stay another nıght.. so ı could sıt around ın the raın the rest of today and all day tomorrow too? mm no thanks. peace. ı caught the shuttle to the maın road where you hop on the other mınıbus.. and got to the antalya bus statıon lıke 4 hours early.. ıt was pretty yucky and raıny there too.. but ı wasted a good hour wonderıng around.. ı shuoldve shopped for my bus tıcket there ınstead of gettıng ıt at Bayrams.. dumb. o well.. and there ı found another calıfornıa gırl.. apparently turkey ıs the happenıng travel place to be for amerıcans.. you guys just dıdnt get the memo! ı got bored enough to fınd the publıc bus ınto antalya.. ıts supposed to be a cool posh beach sıde resort place... so why not walk around there for a bıt? by the tıme the bus fınally came for town, ı dıdnt have too much tıme to spare, but ıt was worth gettıng out of the bus statıon.. the fact that ı had no ıdea where ı was goıng dıdnt help too much.. and thıs afrıcan kıd helped me out because he was goıng to the town center too.. sweet. ı cant quıte remember where he was from, but he was lıvıng ın turkey for 2 years.. playın for the the turkısh natıonal soccer team.. and he was so excıted to see a young face on teh bus that he ınsısted on takıng me to get somethıng to eat for my long journey ahead... ı went wıth ıt consıderıng the large number of boys ı have so recently turned down. haha. ıf anyone ıs lookıng for a boyfrıend, just come over to these parts and youll have lıke 17 ın one day. ı promıse. we had a huge pretty good meal adn then ı had to get back on the bus to the bus statıon so ı could sıt on another bus for 10 more hours.. so he helped me fınd the bus stop. and even paıd for me to get back because he couldnt fınd the free shuttle he was tellıng me about! o too nıce. so ı made ıt.. got on my shıtty bus.. and attempted to sleep.. apparently the göreme buses dont have free ınterenet adn arent ın lıne wıth the spaceshıp buses.. the bus drıver lıghtıng up and havıng hıs smoke blow through the heater system that was burnıng my left leg the entıre rıde was a nıce put you rıght to sleep remedy too... not. every 20 mıns when ı woke up, there was someone new sıttıng behınd me.. quıte strange.. and they were never ever sleepıng eıther. they just stare. rıght at you. lıke you are an alıen. ım sure ı looked haggard and then they had the rıght to stare a bıt...


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Turkey! The beginnings

So I got up nice and early, had some cheerios in my room, and headed to the port. The boat was easier to find than expected, and so I did the whole customs thing, got on, and passed out with my face down on my bag. I awoke to my named being called over the boat intercom.. That's the only part i understood.. So i jumped up and headed to the captian box and handed them my swines flu form.. Assuming that's what they were looking for. O you were the girl passed out. Yep. Cool. I guess the imprints on my face didn't help give it away or anything. So lookin around turkey is green!


Nice green and desert combo.. It's actually quite pretty. I got to marmaris where I had to buy my €15 visa for turkey and then pay another €5 for the cab to drive me to the bus station... Dumb. I knew it couldn't be too far, but I couldve easily walked.. Turkey doesn't throw 34 maps at you like the rest of Europe so I didn't really know which way to head. But I got to the bus stop right in time to be hurried onto the spaceship looking bus to head to Aydin.. I had missed the only bus straight to kusadasi.. Said something like soosadawsi.. But the bus was legit... Wifi and drinks served.. It was nicer than most of the airplanes I've been on. So the 2.5 hours flew by so quick and luckily I asked if I was supposed to get off.. As soon as I did everyone was "cuse me miss, where u go?" I pointed to the name on a bus and about 5 men showed me to the right minibus to jump on.. Def not the same luxury.. A little more authentic.. Hot and almost squished.. Stopping to pick up whoever needed a ride. There's no bus stops, just a bus route.. And u get on or off where you like.. Kinda what I expected.. Something between Egypt and Asia.. With a European twist. Actually it's not all that different to Greece either. It's one of the first countries I've imagined correctly.. Almost dead on... The spaceship bus threw me off a bit. So i eventually got to kusadasi.. And i made a 2 liyra phone call to get picked up.. Had i known to get off driving by the town center i couldve walked... Guess i shouldve followed the crowd on that move.. Oops. But after a while someone came to get me and i made it to the hostel.. $10 a night! With breakfast! The dude liked me.. Of course.. So I got upgraded to a private room for free.. This one isn't spooky cuz it's just for me! So I have a double bed and my own bathroom instead of a lonely dorm. Ok! The hostel dudes uncle was bbqin.. And he wanted me to join.. 12 liyra..(~$8) Hmm no thanks.. Im still on a budget and i blew way more than my budget just getting here today. So I went out for a walk.. Found the harbor and the bazaar with a million things to buy.. I gave in a tiny bit!! Im pretty sure its safe to say jaqi isnt reading my blog, but just incase, i got her a present and one for myself for 50 liyra and upgraded both for less than the starting offer of one. Maybe it can be done cheaper but def not by much.. Im such a haggler now! Haha I know theyll have all the same everything in istanbul so hopefully i can wait for the rest so I won't haveta lug it around. It's very touristy.. This place is really just a harbour side tourist trap, but it's not so bad. Theres prayer being blasted five times a day to keep ya in check.. I think it's the same recording from Cairo, They must share the tape! And I found a spot with kebabs, now Turkish style! For 1.5 liyra. Bomb. Not really too much meat, but you can't complain for a dollar. So I wandered some more getting back by dark, and the monkeys uncle was at me again to buy his BBQ. No! I cleaned up.. Myself and my laundry, and then went back downstairs. The hostel man kept babbling on and on and eventually I went up and joined the Dutch tour group who was learning to belly dance. I'm a natural at one move.. And can't do any of the others. It was good fun though.. I don't k ow what was better.. Seeing these tall lanky boys dressed in little pink hip scarves with beads, or watching them try to shimmy their chests.

The next morning I got up pretty early, I wanted to get to Ephesus early to beat the direct sun and maybe have time to see something else. I enjoyed my prearranged breakfast.. By that I mean it was kinda like Bali again where our fruit was precut, with exactly 4 bite sizes on each plate and then tea and juice. It was pretty good though.. Got a small piece of meat in there, cheese, an egg and bread. Way better than any hostel free for all carbo load. Then i asked when the bus to ephesus was.. Online it said the hostel gave rides, but I've learned that what's online isn't always true.. So the monkeys uncle was there again trying to give me a very good deal for a personal ride around, making it seem like the only way there was by car.. Skeptical I said ok for a bit, but I knew there was no way I was giving him 50 bucks... Thats waaay over budget! He said we had to wait til 11:30 to go.. Fine. I read a bit about it and the ancientness of it all, mary's house is just up the road and you can also see this hole where 7 men slept.. Maybe you've heard the story of the seven sleepers? I haven't. And one of the columns in Ephesus is the only remaining piece of one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.. Sweet. I found gramps and asked him if there was a bus to Ephesus.. Of course, just 4 Turkish liyra.. That's a bit more my style. So I peaced on the uncle and made my way to the "bus stop". Or the roundabout down the road...


I went to the wrong roundabout of course, but the nice bus man drove me down the road to the right one for free, because I am beautiful girl. Bah Im already sick of hearing it. Then I jumped on the correct bus and got to the crossroads between the highway and the road to Ephesus. Awaiting our arrival were 3 taxis, trying to sell us rides to mary's house on the hill.. I told them she would have to wait if they really wanted 50 liyra. She's been waiting 2000 years, I think she can hang on a few more for me.. Shell understand I'm sure. It's funny how intimidated I use to be by these guys, and now I just mess with them. So i stepped into their office.. Haha a little fold out table and chairs on the side of the road and negotiated. There was this couple there from New York who were only in their first week of their world adventures, and they wanted to share a cab to the top so you only haveta walk one way through "the city". Fine. For 3 bucks, I joined in... As I walked back though.. It probably wasn't even worth that.. It was an easy, plesant walk, but you never know til you do it wrong. So cab to the top of the hill, another freaking 20 TL to get in and then it was all good. You can literally climb on half the monuments or whatever you want to Call them.





15 bucks means youre free to roam as the cats do. So I climbed a tiny bit, then decided to respect the reallly old pillars and rocks and wondered for a solid three hours, going into the wrongly named brothel, the library, down the columned paths and taking pictures of tons of roman ruins and theatres that might as well have been Athens. Well, these are cooler than Athens though, so I'm glad I saw those ones first!





They are so old and cool, but in the end, it's all just really old marble rocks. I found myself at the end, not unimpressed, but not overwhelmed with excitement either. Glad I saw it but was mad I forgot to find the wonder of the world pillar! Dumb! After I walked back to the bus stop.. There actually was a stop for the way back where this little old man radioed the next bus comin through to see how many seats were available.. I coulda handled that on my own, but whatever. I tried to ask him about the one special column, then the reallllly very old column, then I pointed out ancient, wonder, and world in his dictionary.... All we ever got were yes many many columns in Ephesus. Yes alll are the same and all are ancient and wonderful. So maybe I got a picture by chance, maybe I didn't.. It's not a big attraction clearly as it wasn't marked, and I more or less followed all the different guides and tour groups to listen in on info and no one pointed out anything special. Maybe the books lie like about the brothel. Before I got to the bus stop I had to pass the taxi office again.. They offered me free rides back home, but I told them my mother taught me that nothing in life is free.. They thought that was hilarious. And said well yes just free for your wallet. Hmm no thanks. They also couldn't comprehend why my boyfriend back in California would let me leave.. I dont need his permission? (my boyfriend cant be in turkey because it isn't believeable when I'm wondering around alone) These guys have wives but would never let them go anywhere.. Especially without them or their permission.. Guess that's one way to put a perspective on what being free really means... So anyway, I delt with the creeps and the silly radioing bus man, and eventually got back to kusadasi to roam the shops a bit more.. My next bargain is a sweatshirt.. But even the beautiful girl price isn't what I want to pay.. The standard 40 TL, which is 5-10 less than the regular cheap price I've deducted. So hopefully I can at least get the beautiful girl price in istanbul.. For some reason I feel I'll be alright, and they will have the one I want somewhere even If it's sold out of every store in kusadasi.. Which it wasn't.


I got another 1.5 TL kebab and talked to some more shop dudes.. Making up new stories about my life, where I live, my boyfriend and so on depending on where the conversation was going. I learned that it'll be cold in cappadocia, which I expected, and I need to face the fact that I am going to get asked out every night from here on out at least 3 times a day. I also learned that it's less touristy and I will Lear. More about the culture inwards.. I guess the cruise ships in the harbor towns have built up the disgusting tourist atmosphere that I see here, and well, so many other places in the world too.


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Rhodes

I awoke to the little blue star man tapping me.. Telling me it was time to get up.. Was I in Rhodes already!? On time!? No way. Sleeping hours on the couch were just over.. And everytime I dosed off and layed down he was back tapping me on the shoulder. So I learned to sleep sitting up. Then around noon sleeping wasn't fun anymore, so I did a walking lap, ate my bread, people watched, cleaned my burn, sewed my jacket up again, and grew restless. The ferry was supposed to be 7 and a half hours to rhodes... Or maybe it was to kos where I bought my ticket to... But we freaking stopped at every single island in the agean sea... I shoulda just got off at kos... Over 13 hours later, after eating all the raw pasta in my bag and giving in to a €4 baguette on the boat, we FINALLY reached rodos! good god. Everyone who was on the same journey at least looked equally haggard. It was now late afternoon instead of the bustling morning of 8 am.. I made aquaintaces with this canadian mom who thought I was 18.. She was traveling alone.. Had an 18 yr daughter, and complained about a million things... Your a mom.. You shouldn't be tryin out the youth hostel thing anyway.. She kept tellin me about Lindas place where she was goin to stay for only €35 a night.. I told her congrats.. That's more than my entire daily budget.. Have fun. And she followed me off the boat into the care of this little old man who ran a "youth hostel" for €10 a night.. Not as cheap as santorini, but I'll take it.. Apparently the Canadian lady was ready to give it a go too? And so us and a Japanese couple all crammed into this dudes 4 seated little red beat up car.. Yea 2 bags were on the roof. We went to what we later found out to be the Jewish quarters of the old town.. Cool for history, not for sleeping. I'm used to gross and dingy so I don't think twice about where I'm staying too much, but the weird feelin when we got there just wasn't right, and the Canadian lady's face... Haha get me outta here now! And the Japanese couple weren't lookin too thrilled either, so we all left together. And like the most unusual heard you've ever seen, we took on the adorable little town of rodos to find the tourist info. I had no idea how awesome the little town was almost worth the extra 5 hours on the ferry! Apparently it's the largest lived in medival city in Europe! The old town has like 12 or 13 gates for the apostles into the town, and you still have to use one of the entrances to get in/out.





So just outside the walls we found the info.. I got my real hostel, crazy Canada got her hotel Linda and her cab for 2 blocks, and the Japanese couple came with me back to the hostel. It was not the coolest place to be for sure, but poppy was nice and welcoming and brought a better atmosphere to the almost equally old place. I got a whole dorm room to myself which was actually spooky.. I didn't sleep well either night because I was freaked out.. But getting to sprawl my crap over 4 beds was fun. The fact that one of the windows looked straight into the old abondoned building across the alley didn't help much either. I went to the little convienience store and got some food.. It was down two teeny tiny alley ways that you couldn't even find unless you were hunting for them. I hung out with poppy for a bit as she told about Rhodes and the different cultures of people just on the island... And how every month has a different fruit or something to harvest. I read up out of an old school lonely planet about the Greek isles and getting to and away from turkey.. I knew it was quite old, but the new suggested route to kastelorizo to kas wasn't looking too promising, although many people had done it and apparently it's way cheaper if you willing to spend an extra 3 hours by boat.. Of course! So I took it in.. Talked about turkey, kinda, with my new Japanese friend who's name I would butcher if I tried, but again, he had learned all his English traveling over the last two weeks.. Kinda impressive.. Apparently we were great
Friends after our 30 min convo.. I received a yen and a business card, and a photoshoot. In return he got a painted rock.. leo got 2 yesterday because he didn't understand pick one.. It's kinda handy havin them around! Ha. So I went to sleep in my empty room and million degree sleeping bag. It really is as warm as it claims.. The only time I haven't sweat to death in it was sleeping in the car in Iceland.. Now I know you def don't need a 0 degree bag!!!

The next morning I slept in a bit.. Still tired from my long journey to Rhodes. I went around trying to find the prices straight to marmaris, turkey and to kastelorizo and onto kas.. Marmaris has a dumb €15 port tax, and the one hour ride is €33.... Dumb. Katerlorizo is only €18.50.. But there's no way to find out when the boat go to kas, you have to go there to ask and thus no way to find out how much they were.. I was tOld €5.. so I suspected maybe 10 or15.. Which is still way cheaper.. So I thought I'd go find the beach and think about if I was ready to head on another adventure and to a new spot in turkey, scrambling up my plans a tiny but, but nothing too serious.. since there is no actual plans :) I was supposed to go to lindos, that's the tourist beautiful beach an hour away by bus with another ancient acropolis.. Eh. I didn't have the motivation and didn't want to pay so much to get there.. So I settled for the beach just outside Rhodes town.... Not too shabby :) the water was like it was on fire it was sooo bright blue! And I could see turkey across the water.. Perfect for my rest and contemplation..





It was a lovely beach day of my crazy iPod and sudoku.. And watching the fat kids float in the water.. The wind was pickin up a bit.. So I packed up and headed back along the ports.. Stopping to ask the private day tours to turkey how muh they charge for a one way.. Apparently I got offered a very special deal.. The dude didn't tell me that like ever other sales person in the world.. Poppy did later! So for €20 I could go one way.. Basically the same as the other Greek island without the hassle and the long unknown journey i'm sure it would entail. Cool. I took it. So I went to go find Internet.. I found a little restaurant with free Internet.. Obviously you haveta buy something so i settled for a kebab and Romeos company.. He wanted to show me his cool iPhone and then I showed him mine.. Haha.. His was way cooler. Apparently iPhones are €700 in Greece! Aye yaye. Maybe for his white 32 gig one I hope at least. So Romeo fell in love with me too, o great.. I just wanted to use the Internet to Find a hostel and make sure that I could get to where I wanted to in turkey.. and admire the cool parrots who spoke greek, He tried to get me to crawl on the straw roof to see the swimming pool.. Hmm. I'm blonde but not that dumb. So he asked to meet up at night for a drink.. I'll legitimately left my opinion undecided and would see where the night took me as we agreed to meet at 10. So I roamed the walled in town And probably saw some famous important ruins I was too lazy to look up. Saw another Byzantine church and maybe a mosque.. This islands identity has been confused being ruled by the Romans, the Turks, the Italians, the Greeks, and so forth throughout the past few hundred years. It was getting dark so I headed home to poppy who had dinner guests over.. I more or less joined them.. There isn't exactly a lot of places to eat at. I started chatting with the ol English couple who come to rhodes 1-2 times a year they love it so much.. And next month they are headed to Malta, and Cyprus.. Rough life. They never go to America tho cuz Bob doesn't want to fly for more than 4 hours. But after talkig all night, yea I blew off Romeo to hang out with the 82 year old man, he said he'd come to California just to see me.. Except he got too drunk to remember my name.. It was pretty funny. And his wife was so embarassed. Apparently I made his night and whole year.. Guess they don't talk to too many young people or something.. He was hysterical, cheers-ing every minute to me and my chocolate milk.. Which bob later turned to wine. O gosh. And poppy fed me some pizza omelette potato Greek thing that was interesting. I turned in the fun and excitement early to pack up my explosion and get ready to catch my ferry early the next morning.


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