Three nights at Ölüdeniz, staying at Sugar Beach campsite. The day we arrived was Queen's Day in the Netherlands. Our two Dutch people organised a party and we were all asked to wear something orange, so all sorts of imaginitive costumes were devised. We had a great night, complete with orange punch. The next day was bright and sunny and after a great hangover breakfast of egg sandwiches, Shane and I spent the morning on the beach (during which time I ma...

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> We headed pretty much directly east through some beautiful green valleys and past some snow-topped mountains until we got to the town of Pamukkale and the ruins of Heirapolis. There was a massive Roman city here spread across a plateau above the plain where Pamukkale is - now there are a few buildings still with walls standing but it is mostly just random rocks spread across the field, and ...

On the way from Canakkale we stopped at Troy - Shane and I decided not to go in since we had heard it was pretty rubbish and we were glad of the rest. We were really looking forward to visitng Ephesus though, and it was well worth the visit. The buildings and roads were welll preserved and gave a good idea of what life was like there. We spent all morning at the ruins, then went into the town of Selcuk to see the museum, Basilica of st John the Evangelist (whe...

The road down to Gallipoli is soooo beautiful, very green with fields and forests, especially in the afternoon sunlight. By the time we arrived it was actually dark, and freezing cold already. I put on as many layers as I could wear and a group of the 6 Aussies and a few others headed down the road past the long line of tour buses and into Anzac Cove. We went through security checks where they made us throw out our bottles of water (no alcohol allowed), but ...

Istanbul - 3 nights We didn't have far to drive the next day to get into Istanbul, but the fun part was getting through the tiny streets of Sultanhamet in the truck to where our hostel was. Adam managed to squeeze through and Shane and I were happy to discover that we had a double room complete with our own bathroom. We headed off almost right away and had a peek around the Blue Mosque (where we had to take our shoes off and I had my first go of wearing a he...