M & M world!

Wow is all we can say! This place is crazy!! We have nothing like this at home so we-Toma especially- were in heaven. This isn't too much to say, we just felt the need to create a post to show you all the pictures!

lozzzy!!

We have missed this girl so much.

Early last year she left our shores to venture off into the unknown, explore Europe as well as herself. She did what is typical of Australians and packed up her stuff and moved to London (not that its bad as we are doing the same now!). To be totally honest we didn't think she would last this long. She has suprised us and we are sure a lot of other people. But good on her, she has done such a fabulous job at it, continued to travel and looks better than ever. I have never seen her this happy and we wish her all the best as she deserves it more than anyone else.

We have never really travelled with Loz before and there was definitely a lot we were about to learn from here. She is such a special girl isn't she... sometime we really need to look out for her. The poor girl, such a kind heart and she managed to get the shit end of the stick half the time.
Nights out she was a blast, doing her usual, getting blind and trying to buy everyone drinks so that they are having a time as great as hers, but sometimes it goes beyond what you expect. One night in Kusadasi (which was a brilliant night may we add) she comes up to us in the latter of the night asking for her wallet. Toma and I had not seen her in over 2 hours as we did not have her bag.....so we came to the conclusion that it was lost and began the search whilst asking the major questions "What is in it? How much money? What do we need to do in terms of calling home or anything?" but of course this girl can never let anyone worry she is way too kind!!! So we give her a few sneaky drinks to calm the nerves and try sort it out for her the best we can. Cheers to the bag that Lozzy now once had! (Can't imagine that happening to us, she really did take it quite well in the end!)

But it does't stop there for her. No, at breakfast the next morning and yes you guessed it, an early start for us, she walks on down, still intoxicated and grabs a bite to eat. Off the baths for us that day and of course, she forgot to put the swimmers on so lucky we thought ahead and packed a spare for her. Problem solved. Later that afternoon we arrived in Fehitye (and what a beautiful place it was) and grabbed our bags off the bus....hold on 'Where is my bag?" cries Loz. Bless her cotton socks, she forgot to put her bag on the bus!!!! Ouch!
No bag for 3 days, this is most definitely where i would have broken down but no, she is a trooper... she took it on the chin and we all swapped and borrowed clothes to accommodate for us all. We soon located the bag and arranged for it to meet us in Olympos as we got off the boat.

Finally, we finished our boat cruise and time to pick the beloved, long lost bag up only to find that the pick up place is 40 mins out of town and shut so looks like Lozzy had to get it the next day at her own expense. So we got up early the next day and ventured out, we celebrated the reunited bag, checked it was all there and finally luck was in her side!!!! We even celebrated the moment by going to the bakery and pigging out, even buying a cake (yum)!

We wouldn't change this girl for the world, she is so kind, caring and compassionate (sometimes a little too much!) and we wish her all the best. It has been an absolute pleasure to be back with her and we can't wait to continue building up our memory bank of funny, exciting and happy nights! xoxoxox

Istanbul

My first impressions of Istanbul weren’t particularly the greatest as I felt that it was very westernised, expensive and nothing like people talked it up to be. However, we only spent 1.5 days here as part of our tour and it wasn’t until we explored Istanbul on our own for 2 days after the tour that I fell in love with the place. Toma on the other hand fell in love straight away and was persistent in telling me that our last few days would change my mind- she was spot on!

Where we stayed was very backpacker central and the Turkish are able to make a buck charging travellers for expensive meals and creating some sort of holiday destination. It wasn’t until we did as we always try to do- live like the locals- that we were able to explore what the city had to offer. Thus, it left us wishing we had booked more days in Istanbul at the end, as we definitely didn’t feel like we had seen it all.

We come from Australia (7, 741, 220km2), a country with a population of approximately 22 million people and our population density is roughly 3 people per km2. Turkey has an area of 783, 562km2 with 70 million inhabiting the land, but wait- in Istanbul (1, 831 km2) alone there are 20 million people, not including tourists. Spread this vast population out and thier density is roughly 94 people per km2. That is one hell of a lot of people to cram in so you can imagine just how busy  the streets were. There is so much to do and see in Istanbul that we can’t explain it all otherwise we would have to write a novel so here is a few brief points about each place we visited whilst here:

Blue Mosque: Built in the early 1600’s by Sultan Ahmet 1 with the intention of rivaling Aya Sofya  it’s nickname comes from the luminous blue impression created by the magnificently tiled walls and painted dome inside. It does have beauty to it and definitely something you should see but not as good as Aya Sofya.

Topkapi Palace: This is where the Sultan’s used to live. It is massive, comprising of 400+ rooms and you can’t help but wish you lived there, even as a slave, back in those days. Although, the most spectacular exhibit there are the jewels that they keep on tight-lock security. All I can say is WOW! It is insane how people have this much money and feel the need to have these kinds of possessions. No photos though guys its simply not allowed!

Grand Bazaar and Spice Market: Everyone raves about the Grand Bazaar however we seemed to have enjoyed the spice market much better. There was even a super happy bonus for us as we saw the new James Bond being filmed as well as all the smashed up cars from a scene.

Underground Water system
Built due to the threat of a war this water system was made to store enough water to supply the town. Upside down Medusa heads where placed near main entrances to scare off any intruders as it was thought that if you saw this you would turn to stone. Pretty cool thing to see.

Boat tour between Asia and Europe
You can definitely do this on your own by getting the ferry over to Asia and explore what it has to offer yourself. This is something we didn’t quite get to do. One night though we did go out in Asia (felt so weird to say we went out in Asia and slept in Europe) and it was so fun. We never went back though as we ran out of time so we highly recommend this.

Aya Sofya: Now a museum, Aya Sofya was built in 532 AD as the ‘grandest church’ in the world then in 1453 it became a mosque and as Islam prohibits images of living creatures the walls were covered. For years after there were arguments regarding whether it was a Church or mosque and it wasn’t until the 1930’s that Turkey’s ‘greatest leader’ Ataturk turned it into a museum. It is really beautiful and moving to see a mixture of two religions within one building. We don’t know if it was just because it was our last day and sight seeing but this was one of our favourites here. 

Fehitye-Olypmos Cruise and Cappadocia

This was one of our highlights of the tour. Not only did it bring us closer to the people in our tour group but imagine cruising the Mediterranean with Turkey on one side and Greece on the other. I think this is where we really got into holiday mode and it really begun to sunk in just what our life would be like for the next few months. We were also super lucky because the previous year’s tour group had nothing but rain when they did this and we were going as the first cruise of the season so the weather could have been touch and go yet we managed to have 25 + everyday and could say to ourselves ‘this is the life’ at any moment of the day.

Our boat started from Fethiye and over 4 days made it’s way to Olympos. It’s really unfortunate that we weren’t in Fethiye longer because the little time spent felt like a tease.  Due to the size of our group we were split between 2 boats but were always docked side by side and partied on the one each night. Boarding at 11am we met the crew, who very friendly and chose our rooms then it was straight to the top deck for drinks and sunbaking. There was a problem with staffing at some gate near the dock and the crew were ever so apologetic but as along as the bar was open we didn’t have a care in the world so by 2pm when we set off everyone was already yelling Happy Birthday to Chris and running a muck.

Its safe to say that on this cruise we drank roughly the same amount of alcohol as we had done in the last year and whilst we expected dreadful hangovers, like everyone says, they just do not occur when in Europe. We had a rule: No hangovers and no seasick and strangely enough everyone managed to stick to it. Days were filled with sunbaking, dancing, sing-a-longs, card games, pass-the-pig (we must find this game for Europe!), drinks and loads of swimming. We had a perfect balance between cruising and docking and we definitely never went hungry. The food was delicious and some of the best meals we had. The water was always picturesque; so clear and pretty and always refreshing no matter what time of the day or night we jumped in.

Every night we were blind before dinner and we migrated to one boat or a hide away club on the coast of Turkey. With such great weather we were able to sleep on top deck every night so the cabins, which were a decent size, were purely for getting changed and storing our stuff. The time we had on this boat was unforgettable and we witnessed some of the most magnificent hideaways that’s its hard to imagine there are such places on Earth. If you every go to Turkey you can not leave without doing such a cruise because it is truly spectacular and full of fun!

Once the cruise had finished we made our way to Olympos. A lot of people rave about Olypmos but once you get there it really is just a lonely stripe in between mountains....but it is beautiful!!! We stayed in these treehouses that were so cool! To be honest we didn't stay in the nicest set of tree houses as Loz had showed us where she stayed and the common area seemed much nicer although we did like our treehouse set up a lot better. Nevertheless we still had such a great time just simply relaxing. It was the first bit of wifi we got though so it was a funny look seeing everyone at this massive table and no one talking as we were all on our phones contacting home and friends and family etc. All we did here was relax, drink, eat and smoke shisha (thanks to Loz!)

Finally, next stop after the cruise was Cappadoccia and even though it wasn't a true highlight we thought it was best to mention it as many people have been asking us what those funny looking mountains are. They are formed from thousands of years ago and are now known as Fairy chimney's. People actually live in them too but not in the winter as it is definitely too cold for them. If you like hot air ballooning this is the number one spot in the world. The weather was touch and go so both Toma and I gave it a miss but me being in love with photos I would have loved it...just not paying the 150 Euro for a picture though.