Three days here in the beautiful south of Turkey. The water is blue, the mountains are tall and the ruins are old (sadly, I am having technical difficulties with the photos, so for now please enjoy this picture of Turkish cats). Best of all it's affordable! The old town here is, unfortunately, dominated by hotels and restaurants. However, it retains a great deal of charm, being a twisty brick and stone affair, dotted with crumbly old mosques, surprisingly str...

Greetings from the ancient city of Ephesus... it's a dramatic collection of ruins on the Aegean coast dating back to the time of Rome and Greece. The sun here is boiling, and there are thousands of tourists clogging up the crumbling bathhouse and the enormous open-air theater, but it's a very impressive place. You can still read the Greek writing on the market stalls (er, if you knew Greek anyway), and admire the statues of Sophia and Episteme on the tombs, and...

Istanbul, the brilliant jewel of various empires for thousands of years and a place I was greatly looking forward to, did not disappoint. Turkey is among our most exotic destinations this trip, and as I alluded to last blog, it rekindled my traveling spirit. Don't get me wrong, as our trip begins to wind down I still feel a measure of relief. But this place is definitely a breath of fresh air and gave us plenty of fun stuff to explore. Our hostel had one of t...