Back in the land of Oz

After 9.5 months, 3 continents, 31 countries, and one hell of an awesome holiday, I finally arrived home Tuesday morning a 6.30am, a nice early morning for my parents and grandma who came out to pick me up.

Over the last 9.5 months I have been happy, sad, scared, excited, overwealmed, amazed, lost, confused, angry, annoyed, injured, awestruck, lonely. It has been the hardest, most exciting, interesting remarkable holiday I have been on, I have met the most amazing people, seen some truely unbelievable sites, been hot airballooning, dog sledging, skiing, driven on the wrong side of the road (for us Aussies), walked with Lions, been locked in a car with a cheetah, fed vultures, had so many delays. At times I have wanted to give up and jump on the next plane home, but the final destination (when I eventually get there) has always been more than worth it.

The experiences I have had, the sights I have seen, cannot be done justice to with words, to truely understand they must be seen. They say a picture says a thousand words, but the experience in getting those pictures are priceless.

What does the future hold for me now.....I head back to work after a weeks rest and relaxation, to slave my guts out so I can save as much money as possible so I can head back on my next adventure as soon as possible.

Expensive Scandenavia

I have made it to Scandenavia, and it is so expensive here, compared to the rest of Europe and Australia, especially after coming from Turkey!!! I had been told that, but didnt find Finland too bad, but Denmark, Norway and Sweden are not cheap places to visit-luckily I am only here for a few days.

Started in Copenhagen where I wandered around the city looking at many statues, watching the changing of the guard, visiting the Hans Christian Anderson museum (I want to go home and read his stories now, relive that childhood), and then headed out to an open air museum and to visit some Viking ships which had been underwater for 600 odd years, then raised and restored as much as they could. I found these particularly ineresting. I was devistated to lose my lovley weather from Turkey though, and was back in the rain and cold, altough it did fine up for my last half day here.

I then caught the train to Oslo, where I had a day and a half to explore. Again I visited some Viking ships, this time they had been in burials, and so had many interesting artifacts with them, and were also a lot better preserved, complete with some amazing carvings, particularly on the carts which were found on them. I also visited a Polar Museum, where you could have a wander round a polar ship from the late 1800's early 1900's, very interesting. It was then out to a sculpture park, and many many nude sculptures, it was a lovely park however, and some very nice sculptures as well.

From there it was another long train-bus-train trip to Stockholm. Again I visited a war ship which had sunk in the 1600's on her maiden vouage, it made it an impressive 20 minutes, and 1.3 odd kilometers into it before it sunk in the Stockholm harbour. Sadly, the water was so shallow, it didnt even go completely under, but the top of the masts were still sticking out of the water. However it sat there for the next 333 years until it was raised and restored. They have done the most amazing job of it, and have even managed to work out what colours the 500 or so carvings were painted-they were all so bright!!!

I am finding it hard to get used to the lack of darkness here, gets dark about 10.30pm and light about 3.30-4.00am-and a lack of curtains on the windows makes getting much sleep very difficult!! 3 hours on a good night.

Turkey finished

On my last day in Gerome, I was planning on walking through the Rose and Red Valleys, which are supposed to be supurb (I had seen them from a distance and hot air ballooned over them and was quite excited to get up close to them. I had just started my walk through the valleys when I met two people from my hostel at the first tea house. They were talking to the owner, who had decided that he was bored and wanted to take them on a motorbike tour-and as I was their friend he rang another of his friends and thus I was included.

It was a lovely day, taken around some of the superb valleys I would otherwise not have got to. There was Love Valley, so named because of the shapes of the formations (think back to the first valley I visited-its quite a common shape!), then one with what looked like a whole city carved out of the cliff. To get to this one we had to ride up the road which had turned into a river-a little hair raising at times!! Once we were there we climbed up into the church, two of us literally getting pulled and then lowered through the hole-an interestig experience.

We made it back to town just in time for me to collect my bags and catch my overnight bus to Istanbul, and thus I never did make it to Rose and Red Valleys-they will just have to wait until next time.

Back in Istanbul, I visited some museums, went on a boat tour up between the two continants, and bought some souvenirs before I had to head to the airport.

Unfortunatly the shuttle buses dont run all that frequently to the airport, and thus I had to arrive 6 hours before my flight, and am currently sitting on the floor waiting to check in, while using their free interent.

Hot air ballooning take 2

Turkey is such an amazing place, I wish I had so much longer here to exploer (Ok so I wish I had much longer in a lot of places to exploer, but I have been so surprised by Turkey!)

From Fethiye, I caught a bus to Olympus, a stunning place where you stay in tree houses, how fun. When we eventually managed to get there (driver missed out stop, so dropped us off 3km down the road, we walked back up the hill until we found a road with a mini bus on it, and said where we wanted to go-yes he could take us there. Got dropped off and told that the hostel was 100m down the path, so headed off, crossed a river, through the resteraunt, getting more directions, 100m down the beach, at the end of the beach were told we had to pay to get through the ruins to the hostel. Found a very nice guy who spoke both Turkish and English who explained that we would have to pay to get to the beach anyway so might as well pay now, and yes the hostel was just through there. Eventually made it after a 3km walk!!!) The hostel was fantastic however, staying in a treehouse-how fun.

I spent the afternoon exploring the "town" where I was dropped off, then experienced a Turkish wedding party that night (the owner of the hostel was married 5 weeks earlier, and was having the party bit, and we were all invited) Was an interesting evening, dancing the night away.

The next day I spent exploring the ruins, which were so facinating, scattered around through the forest, it had the most amazing atmosphere. There wasnt a huge amount left, and not a lot of explination about what they were, but the location certainly made up for it. I then decided to climb a mountian to see the view from the top, and the ruins perched on the edge of it. After getting to the top, I decided that it probabaly wasnt a good idea to do it in thongs, getting down was certainly interesting. The afternoon was then spent relaxing and enjoying the beach (stones, no sand, but still beautiful. I am hanging out for a beach with sand!)

I then caught the night bus to Goreme, along with 10 other Aussies fromt the same hosstel, all going to the same place, a very interesting 11 hours!!!

Goreme has the most amazing landscape, like an alien planet. There are lovely pillars of rock in fantastic shapes (including Dick Valley, yes named from the shape of the pillars), with houses, churches etc built into them. I could have spent so long here exploring, but unfortunately, I only had 3 days.

This is also one of the best places to go hot air ballooning, so not wanting to pass up this special opportunity, took the plung and splurged on another hot air balloon ride. It was worth every penny. If I thought the scenery was fantastic from the ground, it was something else from the air!!!! Words cant do it justice.

After spending the first day wandering around the open air museum, 5 of us decided to hire a car and go out to explore. I ended up driving, which was certianly a different experience. Having not driven for 9 months I was pleasanlty surprised how well I did, given that I was also driving on the wrong side of the road, and sitting on the wrong side of the car. In 200km, I only ended up on the wrong side of the road once, and only for a few meters-Yay for me!!!!

We visited an undergound city, which was great, the rooms winding round, little alcoves, etc. I was surprised by how short the rooves were, at times I was almost bent double. We then wandered up a lush valley, and explored the most amazing monastry built into the rocks. I could have spent a whole day here exploring here, but unfortunately only had about an hour.

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Rock tombes

Calcium Terraces

Temple of Artimus
Effisus

Troy

I am continuing my tour of Turkey, continuing on from ANZAC cove, and heading southish to Selcuk, then east to Pamukkale, and south again to Fethiye. After experiencing the "quick" travel on trains and buses in Europe, I am now experiencing the joys of travel in Turkey. While the buses are fairly regular, are very clean and safe, they are not the quickest of transport (however trains dont really exist so they are the only option).

My first trip was of about 400km, so expected it to take about 4-5 hours, 8 hours later I arrived. Two days later it was anoteher 8 hour trip, however I did have a stopover on the way to look at some fabulous calcium terraces.

Before leaving Eceabat (Anzac cove), I went on a tour to Troy which was fantastic. Not much left, just ruins and a reconstructed horse, but you can see the remains from the 8 different cities which were built on top of each other.

I then headed down to Selcuk, where I spent the day exploring Ephisus, a ruined roman city which was absolutely faciniating. Just down the road is the Temple of Artemis, one of two remaining wonders of the ancient world. Well there is one pillar of the temple left at least!!!! Very spectacular, sitting in the middle of a swamp. (not sure if I or the English couple I was visiting with was insulted here, they were in their late 30's, and were asked ifI was their child!!! However, considering I have been asked for ID twice while out with friends, could be me!!!! Didnt think I looked that young anymore)

I then caught a bus out to Pamukkale, where I had 3 hours to wander around the calcuim terraces and ruins at the top of the hill before I had to catch a bus to Fethiye. The terraces were beautiful, although not quite what I was expecting. A lot of the water has dried up, so not a lot of them are filled anymore, but are just sitting there empty, I can imagine in several years they will start to disappear. The ruins at the top were nice, however, after being spoilt at Ephisus the day before, I did find them a bit of a disappointment, there wasnt a lot left, and very little explination on them.

I left just in time, as just after getting on my bus, a massive thunderstorm which had been looming for the last few hours broke and we had a massive downpour. After a very packed bus trip (I am not designed for such cramped conditions, the legs are too long), I arrived at Fethiye at 10pm, where I went in search of some accomodation. Managed to find a lovely hostel just out of town, and crashed for the night.

Today was spent exploring the town, with supposidly a fantastic beach (still stones, bring on Aussie beaches!) and some fantastic tombes carved into the cliff faces. It then started to rain again in the late afternoon, so I had a look around the shops, and headed back to the hostel.