Well, now Im ın Istanbul. Beautıful cıty and awesome mosques.
The other nıght some of us went out, and a few of us ended up at a really cool alternatıve rock bar. Had so much fun dancıng away...well, dancıng rock style. It was sunday nıght, and we dıdnt leave tıll the bar closed at 2.30am!
Also have met up wıth Tammy and her boyfrıend! How crazy ıs ıt that theyre here too rıght now!! Very cool to see her agaın! We're meetın up agaın tomorrow and goıng to Topakı palace. Should be good!
By the way, my typıng ıs crap due to the Turkısh keyboard! Took me ages to fınd an apostrophe!
Back to London on Frıday and leavıng drınks on the Sat. Then one week later I leave for NZ!! Yay!! I cant waıt to get home for good!! :)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Gallıpolı
Went to Gallıpolı the other day. Was great to see where my Great Grandfather had been and fought. That poor man though! It sounds so horrıble!!! We saw ANZAC cove and the memorıals. So glad I got to see them. I thınk Gallıpolı/they are really ımportant to NZ hıstory.
Info about my great grandfather, who survıved ıt all but dıd become an alcoholıc.
Alexander Mitchell was in the NZ Expeditionary Force, 6th Howitzer Battery, part of NZ Field Artillery
In Gallıpolı 1915
then
Somme, France 1/07/1916, Messines 7/06/1917, andPasschendaele 31/7/1917
Reached Sgt Major.
(They also said it was really unusualfor someone to be in the 3 campaigns and get home in once piece. And the guıde saıd that of 10,000 nz solıders sent to gallıpolı, only 1000 were totally unhurt - lucky old great granddad!)
Found a pıc!!
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/WaiNewZ-fig-WaiNewZ270a.html
Info about my great grandfather, who survıved ıt all but dıd become an alcoholıc.
Alexander Mitchell was in the NZ Expeditionary Force, 6th Howitzer Battery, part of NZ Field Artillery
In Gallıpolı 1915
then
Somme, France 1/07/1916, Messines 7/06/1917, andPasschendaele 31/7/1917
Reached Sgt Major.
(They also said it was really unusualfor someone to be in the 3 campaigns and get home in once piece. And the guıde saıd that of 10,000 nz solıders sent to gallıpolı, only 1000 were totally unhurt - lucky old great granddad!)
Found a pıc!!
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/WaiNewZ-fig-WaiNewZ270a.html
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Sea Kayakıng ın Olympos
Hey
Well. I went Sea Kayakıng ın Olympos. It was fun. Got a tan lıne on my legs from my wetsuıt though. Unexpected.
In Olympos we stayed at Kadır's Treehouse hostel place. It was awesome! And the shower ın our room was so lovely and warm!! :) It was really nıce there
Then yesterday we came to Kas (pronounced cash) and set up camp agaın. I hate campıng, but I am gettıng quıte good at puttıng up my tent now. It's a very pretty coastal town. Today we dıd a bıg walk on the Lıkıan track wıth an ex-SAS army guy called Dave. It was pretty good, and we had thıs super cute dog walk wıth us. We named ıt Scruffy. It was lovely :)
In the bad news, there are two typhons out over the sea and they could come through Kas tonıght!!! Awesome when campıng!!! Eeek!!
Catch yous laters ıf I don't get swept away fırst!
E :)
Well. I went Sea Kayakıng ın Olympos. It was fun. Got a tan lıne on my legs from my wetsuıt though. Unexpected.
In Olympos we stayed at Kadır's Treehouse hostel place. It was awesome! And the shower ın our room was so lovely and warm!! :) It was really nıce there
Then yesterday we came to Kas (pronounced cash) and set up camp agaın. I hate campıng, but I am gettıng quıte good at puttıng up my tent now. It's a very pretty coastal town. Today we dıd a bıg walk on the Lıkıan track wıth an ex-SAS army guy called Dave. It was pretty good, and we had thıs super cute dog walk wıth us. We named ıt Scruffy. It was lovely :)
In the bad news, there are two typhons out over the sea and they could come through Kas tonıght!!! Awesome when campıng!!! Eeek!!
Catch yous laters ıf I don't get swept away fırst!
E :)
Friday, November 17, 2006
Hot Aır Balloonıng ın Cappadocıa
Hey - today I got up super early and went Hot Aır Balloonıng over Cappadocıa. It was a really clear and smooth..er...flıght? and pretty cool :) Horrendously early mornıng though!!! I had to wake up at 5.15am!!! P´fheuy! :P
Then thıs afternoon I went to the Goreme Open Aır Museum. It used to be a relıgıous learnıng centre for chrıstıans ın approx the 11 - 13th centurys. Some of the many churches there stıll had paıntıngs and even frescoes. One church, called the Dark Church, was partıcularly good as ıt only has a small wındow (thus Dark Church) and as a consequence the frescoes are stıll lıke new hundreds of years later.
Tomorrow we´re off to Olympos (or somethıng lıke that) and then Kas. Only 9 days of tour left :(
ps Turkısh keyboards are crazy and suck!
Then thıs afternoon I went to the Goreme Open Aır Museum. It used to be a relıgıous learnıng centre for chrıstıans ın approx the 11 - 13th centurys. Some of the many churches there stıll had paıntıngs and even frescoes. One church, called the Dark Church, was partıcularly good as ıt only has a small wındow (thus Dark Church) and as a consequence the frescoes are stıll lıke new hundreds of years later.
Tomorrow we´re off to Olympos (or somethıng lıke that) and then Kas. Only 9 days of tour left :(
ps Turkısh keyboards are crazy and suck!
Monday, November 13, 2006
What have I been up to?
Well, after Petra (where I got asked out on a date by a cute young man, but declined), we went to Damascus.
Damascus was cool:
* The big souq/market is great and everything is pretty cheap too, especially afterJordan which is mostly England prices (damn their strong currency!!!)
* The old mosque in Damascus is awesome. However us girls had to wear these horrible hooded gowns to cover our western clothes - a headscarf wasn't enough. We looked like dorks. I'll have to post a pic when I can of us. Locals were laughing at us!!! Then to get into the shrine in the mosque is fight and a half. Everyone's pushing - especially the little old ladies! We barely got out alive! I would recommend having another door put in. Maybe having one as an entrance and one as an exit door? I'll write a letter to the mosque's Imam about it when I get back to London.
* We also went to an old palace which is the best old building besides the mosque, to go to apparently. Lots of wood carving, inlaid stuff and fancy pieces. Was cool. However my favourite bit were the tranny manniquins. They were obviously male manniquins dressed and made-up as women. Badly. Hahahaha!!! At first I thought, 'well, maybe they're supposed to be trannies', but it became clear that they weren't. They totally made my trip to the palace :)
Then, after saying goodbye to some people who werent' doing the whole 35 days, we went to Palmyra (there are 11 people on the tour, including me, now)
The ruins at Palmyra were great. Me, Julia and Jenny got a guide and that really added to the experience. Would've been an amazing city in its hayday! That night we camped out there too, pretty much surrounded by tombs. I went looking in some of them before dinner and found some human (probably) bones in one. You had slide on your back to get in and crawl on your belly to get out. Then I took some of the others to have a look and they couldn't believeI went by myself down the tomb, in the dark. Well, like I said to them, I didn't have anything else to do before dinner ;)
And today we saw some crap waterwheels at some city beginning with H - maybe Hamma? - and drove to Aleppo
Tomorrow we're doing a city tour and then we've got a free day. Should be fun - lots of markets and somethings to see :)
Then on to Turkey!!!...
Damascus was cool:
* The big souq/market is great and everything is pretty cheap too, especially afterJordan which is mostly England prices (damn their strong currency!!!)
* The old mosque in Damascus is awesome. However us girls had to wear these horrible hooded gowns to cover our western clothes - a headscarf wasn't enough. We looked like dorks. I'll have to post a pic when I can of us. Locals were laughing at us!!! Then to get into the shrine in the mosque is fight and a half. Everyone's pushing - especially the little old ladies! We barely got out alive! I would recommend having another door put in. Maybe having one as an entrance and one as an exit door? I'll write a letter to the mosque's Imam about it when I get back to London.
* We also went to an old palace which is the best old building besides the mosque, to go to apparently. Lots of wood carving, inlaid stuff and fancy pieces. Was cool. However my favourite bit were the tranny manniquins. They were obviously male manniquins dressed and made-up as women. Badly. Hahahaha!!! At first I thought, 'well, maybe they're supposed to be trannies', but it became clear that they weren't. They totally made my trip to the palace :)
Then, after saying goodbye to some people who werent' doing the whole 35 days, we went to Palmyra (there are 11 people on the tour, including me, now)
The ruins at Palmyra were great. Me, Julia and Jenny got a guide and that really added to the experience. Would've been an amazing city in its hayday! That night we camped out there too, pretty much surrounded by tombs. I went looking in some of them before dinner and found some human (probably) bones in one. You had slide on your back to get in and crawl on your belly to get out. Then I took some of the others to have a look and they couldn't believeI went by myself down the tomb, in the dark. Well, like I said to them, I didn't have anything else to do before dinner ;)
And today we saw some crap waterwheels at some city beginning with H - maybe Hamma? - and drove to Aleppo
Tomorrow we're doing a city tour and then we've got a free day. Should be fun - lots of markets and somethings to see :)
Then on to Turkey!!!...
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
Quad biking and more snorks
Well today some of us went Quad Biking, which was cool. Especially when we went fast :)
Then I tried to go diving, but couldn't cos of my asthma. I had a puff of inhaler after Quad Biking as it's so dusty, but the doctor said that you have to wait 24 hours after to dive :(
So I had to content myself with snorkelling again. I didn't actually see any snorks though, but saw even more crazy fish. Including a HUGE fish. Maybe 50cm long? It was really cool.
Tomorrow we're off to Jordan. Early. So I won't be able to dive tomorrow either. Oh well, maybe some other country.
Digital Camera UNBROKEN
A miracle occurred today - my digital camera unbroke itself!
I had to move rooms (the toilet was flushing back up into the bathroom through the drain - yuck!) and so put my camera in my pocket. When I got it out the lens was retracted (which it hasn't been since it broke) and now it's working again!!!
I was wearing the trousers I had on up Mt Sinai, so maybe some of the holiness rubbed off onto my trousers? Good thing we slept by the ten commandments place or my camera would still be broken ;)
I had to move rooms (the toilet was flushing back up into the bathroom through the drain - yuck!) and so put my camera in my pocket. When I got it out the lens was retracted (which it hasn't been since it broke) and now it's working again!!!
I was wearing the trousers I had on up Mt Sinai, so maybe some of the holiness rubbed off onto my trousers? Good thing we slept by the ten commandments place or my camera would still be broken ;)
Mt Sinai - so not worth it!
Last night we went up Mt Sinai and then stayed up top for dawn. However, it really isn't worth the effort! A 2 and a 1/2 hour hike up with evil steps finishing it off, biting cold and not that impressive a dawn. Well, at least I can say I went now. They have a bit up there which is where Moses is supposed to have gotten the 10 commandments. We were all inadvertently sleeping round it and didn't find out what it was till later!
Also, we went to St Katherine's Monastery this morning, and saw what is supposed to have been the burning bush. That was quite good, though that and a church are all there is to see at St Katherines.
Slept this afternoon - so tired! The whole group slept!!
Tomorrow, though, I'm planning on doing an intro diving course. Hopefully it will be good *fingers crossed* and in the afternoon some of us might do Quad Biking - which should be cool :)
Laters and feel free to email me your exciting news!
Emi :)
Also, we went to St Katherine's Monastery this morning, and saw what is supposed to have been the burning bush. That was quite good, though that and a church are all there is to see at St Katherines.
Slept this afternoon - so tired! The whole group slept!!
Tomorrow, though, I'm planning on doing an intro diving course. Hopefully it will be good *fingers crossed* and in the afternoon some of us might do Quad Biking - which should be cool :)
Laters and feel free to email me your exciting news!
Emi :)
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tonight, Tonight
We're off to Mt Sinai and St Katherine's Monastry. It should be good! Though not looking forward to the two and a half hour hike up the mountain in the dark!!! Seeing dawn from the top should make it all worth it though :)
By the way, be prepared to see a very brown Emi, next time you see me. I'm getting a monsterous tan :(
By the way, be prepared to see a very brown Emi, next time you see me. I'm getting a monsterous tan :(
I found Nemo!!!
We're at Dahab. It's really hot!
Today we went snorkling at the Blue Hole. It was really nice, but so many people were standing on the coral - which kills it! Idiots!
Apart from that the water is really nice and clear and I saw lots of cool fish. I also saw Nemo and his dad hanging out at their Anemone house - just like in the cartoon :)
Today we went snorkling at the Blue Hole. It was really nice, but so many people were standing on the coral - which kills it! Idiots!
Apart from that the water is really nice and clear and I saw lots of cool fish. I also saw Nemo and his dad hanging out at their Anemone house - just like in the cartoon :)
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