With the allure of 'cotton candy' like mountains with sparkling blue cascading pools, we headed off from Kusadasi on the two seats we felt privileged to snag. After all the shenanigans that we had to endure to get bus seats....not the 'FULL' crap this time, this time, even the bus companies seemed not to know how to get to Pamukkale from Kusadasi......come on!!!!!...We eventually found a nice guy to sell us a couple of tickets and we were off wi...

Kusadasi – a long 8 hour bus ride south from Cannakale through some lovely rural communities, along the Agean seaside. As we approached the big city of Izmir we started to see small unfinished seaside communities with half finished three and four story condo buildings. I imagine this is what the south of Spain looks like with the deflation of the British and Irish holiday home buying markets. Those same tourists have frequented this part of Turkey for th...

This blog was ripped off directly from Jan's blog. Perfect for the lazy writer - she already posted this so...why not......? Pics are mine. A bit wistful leaving Istanbul as it was, IS such a great city, but Deb & I were very much looking forward to what else Turkey had to offer us. On to the ferry (with revised travel plans in hand) and we scored primo outdoor seats on a VERY fancy boat. The very fancy boat is actually a normal, everyday, transportatio...

One year later and I am back in Istanbul. As I try and write this - nearly three weeks late, it reinforces why I write my blog. So much happens in a day, in a week when I travel that, if I don't try and record some of it, it is gone...until I look at some pictures. Even then, many funny things I want to remember often are lost until I see something or smell something and it comes back.So, as memory serves me....I got here by flying Turkish Airlines (wow ...

Istanbul with Andrea - A week of laughing.  Andrea and I met in Vietnam last year: we spent a couple of days cycling through the rice paddies in Nimh Binh. She is 35, Dutch, works for government, lives in the city of Arnhem and is an only child. Her parents live in a tiny village between Arnhem and Amsterdam and they are adorable.The Dutch election was on while I was in Amsterdam. Andrea had lots of election related tasks and had been working long days so...