This leg of our trip we spent with Garth and Emily, in Greece and Turkey! It all started in London, arriving at the airport 30mins before our flight! Whoops! No Alarm set, lets just blame Ben (a friend we stayed with overnight) for that one.
As soon as we landed Garth was there literally picking our bags up for us! Was great to see both Em and Garth and we were very excited about our next leg, albeit a very different leg. Garth and Em had planned it out so well and down to a tee, we were treated to some amazing accomodation and there extensive research into the sights made two perfect tour guides by our sides. Our first stop was the city of Athens, taking in many sights such as Acropolis and Syntagma Square and also a DIY walking tour with Garth as the leader. Our accomodation was very central to everything and made it very easy to see most tourist sites. We all fell in love with Greeces Gyros (a simple souvulaki), constantly indulging in them. A ferry to the islands of Santorini and Kos was next. Our Santorini accomodation was fantastic with great views and in the town of Oia where Santorini's magic sunset can be appreciated. We found a neat little swimming spot at a church on a little island 30m off shore. There was a 5-ish meter jump into the crystal clear water, that we enjoyed doing. Arriving at Kos it was our 1st year anniversary and we were able to stay in a Hotel room for the first time on our trip. We also received an amazing cake, flowers and champers! Thanking both our mothers for the all their thoughtful gifts.
Kos was a nice little island which had a great younger vibe along with Ancient ruins and nice beaches (for europe)
Hello Turkey! Now after our 3rd ferry , first port of call was Bodrum, only a 1hr trip from Kos. A very cool coastal town with great little sttreets and lots of yummy street food treats! Different culture straight away, we used a day trip to get up to Ephesus and circling back around to the southern coast to Kas! Kas (pronounced 'cash') was a very small yachting town, we did a couple of day trips to visit some of the best swimmming spot we will ever experience. We camped at a lovely campsite that was right next to the water. After an overnight bus we were in Goreme in the Cappodocia region in central Turkey. This area is home to townships that live in caves and have amazing rock formations such as the fairy chimneys! We all spent 3 nights in cave accomodation by night and explore the valleys by ATV by day. Once again the old overnight bus into the amazing city Istanbul. Garth was already shaking at the knees in anticipation due to the excessive lonely planet research, but by the time we arrived it rubbed onto all of us and being our last stop with Garth and Em, we were keen to get into it. We basically just dropped our bags (after a heated argument with the hostel staff) then wasted no time checking out Istanbul. Why not start with the best, The Blue Mosque, an absolute stunning building finished within 6 years, something Baddeley Built Construction may struggle with. Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sophia, Bosphorus River, Galata Tower and Spice Markets were among our favourites. Not to mention a first class public Tram and Train system and easy payment system in which puts Melbourne to great shame. Still loving the delicious durum kebabs, we found our favourite (and cheapest) in Istanbul. After another big night eating and singing to 60's rock, we woke up a bit groggy and said goodbye to each other before Garth and Em flew to Zagreb, Croatia and we jetset to Cairo, Egypt.