Hello blog readers,

Evan here. Due to the overwhelming positive response I got from my first blog from our last trip, I have been tasked with penning our blog for our homeward travels.

We departed London on 22nd April for Turkey and it was sad to leave our home at 61 Lochaline street. We met so many awesome people in London and saw amazing things and although We will miss London will definitely be back!

Now for the trip so far.

We arrived into Istanbul and were greeted with a 2 hour long border patrol queue. Great start to our trip! Our first night involved meeting our fanatics leader and group for the 15 day tour ahead and also seeing our friends tegs and Kahn who also were on our same tour. We went out for dins and had a few drinks.

Day 2 of the tour kicked off with the meeting of our tour guide for the 2 weeks, a Turk named bortar (eventually answered to borat and border). We saw the blue mosque, underground cistern and eye of Sophia. All too sights. That afternoon we watched the annual fanatics v fez travel football match which we won 6-4! We then hopped on our bus and headed for Gallipoli! We stayed in a deserted hotel about 4 hours from Istanbul.

Early day 3 we arose and jumped back on the bus in order to arrive into Gallipoli as early as possible to get the best spot in the bus queue. Our tour leader bianca (bonkas) said we had to get number 1 as it was a battle with the other fanatics tour leaders. We ended up getting bus 4 which is still pretty good. This order determines who gets into the Anzac cove site first and therefore decides who has to sleep on the grass or grandstand. After getting our bus number we drove up to chunik bair and also saw the Turkish memorial from the war. We were going to the Aus site (lone pine) the next day so we didn't see that. After seeing these sights we went back to the waiting area and eventually got into Anzac cove about 6pm! Me rhi tegs and Kahn were all interviewed for abc TV so if you saw us let us know! We had a fun night sleeping out under the stars. Lucky the predicted rain didn't arrive :-)

Day 4 was Anzac Day and after a few hours sleep we awoke for the dawn service. It was a very moving experience and I can't imagine what went through the young soldiers minds as they approached the shore 99 years ago. Following the dawn service we walked for about 45 mins up to lone pine and saw the Australian service. Following this I managed to find the name of my great great uncle who was killed in action in August 1915. That was a proud moment for me. Following the services we headed to kusadasi on the bus which was to take 8 hours. We played a bit of two-up when we got there.

Day 5 we went and saw Ephesus which is ancient ruins. This was pretty amazing. We then went to a ceramic making place where rhi had a turn making a bowl (she was pretty good!). After this we went to handmade carpet makers and after an interesting demonstration Rhis face lit up when they mentioned a sale!! 20mins later we were new owners of a lovely handmade hall runner haha. That night we hit the town in kusadasi and went to a club called pacha!

When I awoke on day 6 of our tour, to say I was hungover would be an understatement. The whole tour had a huge night and was paying for it the next day. We headed to pumakkale and swam in natural calcium pools. The swim did us all good. However we then had a 6 hour bus ride to our next stop (fethiye) and that days lunch decided to make an appearance near the end of that journey! We had a top dinner when we arrived into fethiye with some people getting a whole grilled fish!

Days 7 - 9 was our 3 night cruise along the Turkish Coast! We had to split our group into 2 boats as we had too many people but we met each night and every time we docked. The crew on our boat were amazing and the food they delivered from their tiny kitchen was ridiculously good. We saw many sights along the way including a sunken city and a town named Kas. Would definitely recommend doing a sail in these parts of the world!

Day 10 our cruise ended and we headed for Olympos to sleep in tree houses. Not much happened this day.

On day 11 we went for a hike through the ancient city of Olympus with our tour guide bortar stating 'today, we walk'. We had a top lunch on the beach and then had a few drinks that night. Was definitely cool sleeping in tree houses.

The next day was the first of our two 11 hour bus rides. We left early at 6am headed for cappadocia. Once we arrived that night we all had a Turkish Bath, that was an experience to say the least. We had a top buffet that night too (one of many buffet lunches/dinners of the trip)

Day 13 of the tour saw us rise at 430am to go hot air ballooning! We were delayed for 30 mins as the weather wasn't perfect but once we got the all clear we were on our way. It was so smooth taking off, you wouldn't even know u were moving if u had your eyes closed. Again, seeing all those balloons in the air at once was breath taking and it's a memory I'll never forget. That afternoon we explored cappadocia and saw a buried city and went up to the castle.

On Monday (day 14) we made the long trek back to Istanbul. This was another 11 hour bus ride and a few movies were watched by all. When we finally arrived back we dropped off our bags and hit the tins for one last night with the gang. Was a great ending to such a wicked 2 weeks.

Today (6th may) was the day our tour ended. We farewelled we our fanatics friends and myself rhi tegs and Kahn explored more of Istanbul and saw the grand bazaar and taksim square. We also met up with jac and holly who were also in Istanbul that night. The leg of this blog ends here as we are off to Sarajevo tomorrow for 2 weeks in Eastern Europe!

Talk soon bloggers!