Highly Recommended: Travels in Turkey

 

Writing from the night ferry between Kos and Athens here in Greece, but would be remiss if i did not do a full post on the wonderful country of Turkey. Many of our friends seem to have visited the country within the last couple of years, it is a decidedly hot travel spot and the nearly two weeks we spent verified why this is the case. I already wrote on the cosmopolitan culture (but not political) capital of Istanbul and so i will pick up after we left the city of nearly 20 million people, somewhat surprisingly the largest city in Europe when all residents are counted as such, even though half of the city technically resides in Asia.

Cappadoccia

Anyway, enough geogrpahy and time for a travel update. As i wrote in a previous post, we really took advatage of the highly effeciove night bus system that connects the country, taking 3 night buses in total. These were needed, as Turkey is a pretty massive country, for example our first two night buses both coverd over 600 kms of road, and that left a ton of space to the east of the country.

Our first two night buses were used to do a quick hit visit to Cappadoccia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia). Many of our hip friends who visited Turkey recommended this as a highlight of their trip and we took their advice to heart and made our way there. This large area is located in the middle of Turkey that has a highly eroded landscape, which leaves deep valleys and stark cliffs. This would be enough to make it a worthwhile destination, but then there are thousands of caves carved into the cliffs, some which are still used for houses today and while some caves/churches contain frescos and other religious remnants that date back to as early as the 6th or so century AD.

Fresco from 8th or so AD

We spent our day hiking, probably covering 14-15 (hot) miles along a number of pretty canyon and cliff trails. We got back to the town at the center of the area and mu posted up to watch the sunset and i rented a Huffy equivalent mountain bike and hit out on the trails around sunset. The riding was quite nice, but seemed a bit more technical than the bike could handle without rear shocks or anything. Still, it was fun and i thought of the rides i got to take this year with Biebs, Tote and Dan and knew how much they would enjoy ripping these trails.



Antalya

Our next destination was the large coast city of Antalya, on the Med coast near the center of Turkey. We spent a week here, rock climbing and loved pretty much every minute. The climbing is stellar (mu covered this well in her posts), highly recommended for all our climbing friends, and the setting in a tranquil valley was a nice location to both push ourselves on the rock and recharge a bit from the somewhat relentless schedule we had been keeping those first couple of weeks.

In addition to the climbing, we took a day trip to the chilled out beach town of Olympus, which is a about 80km from the center of Antalya. During this rest day trip we discovered the joys of hitching in Turkey, covering nearly half of the journey with rides. These rides not only were the right price (read=free) but also proved to be quite interesting. We got rides from a number of professionals (vets and a doctor) as well as one guy who spoke almost no english but really enjoyed rocking out with a sub woofer in the trunk that got my heart's attention. Not sure how much we will be replicating this technique (my mom is probably reading this and thinking that the answer is zero), but for turkey it really worked well and was a cool point of connection to the warm and welcoming Turkish people that were helpful throughout our time there.

Beyond the fun we had along the way, Olympus was simply stunning. It has Roman ruins, meandering paths that are over 2 centuries old and functioning aqueducts. We hiked to a small crop of ruins overlooking the entire valley and the beach, giving us expansive views across both and the views took our breath away. Then we got in a few swims in the Med and had a feast with our bare feet playing in the sand and fresh, hot pita direct from the oven, before heading back tanner, happier and refreshed



After another several days climbing it was on to Greece, which has been great and will be covered soon in a separate post or two. Much love, i am off to check out the stars and nearly full moon as we cruise through the Aegean Sea.

On the ferry between Turkey and Greece

 

Itinerary: Kalymnos, Greece (Day 22) to Cagliari, Italy (Day 32)

Here we are on day 22, in Kalymnos Greece. We are staying in this great studio overlooking the Aegean Sea. Below is a picture of the sunset from our balcony

And despite news of major strikes, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/world/europe/greece-faces-national-strike-to-protest-austerity.html?hp&_r=0, we arrived here easily. We took a ferry from Bodrum, Turkey to Kos, Greece and then another ferry from Kos to Kalymnos.

Bodrum Harbor

We are here to climb. Today, was our first day and we will climb two more days. Then, we will take a night ferry on September 30th to Athens, Greece. We explore Athens for two days and then on October 3rd, we will take a bus to Volos, Greece and flight from Volos to Milan. We are flying from Volos because it is a cheap Ryan Air/Easy Jet flight. Using these carriers, our 3 intra European flights not included in our British Airways Round The World ticket (Volos to Milan, Milan to Cagliari, and Barcelona to Porto, Portugal) cost us less than $60 per ticket. It would have cost us even less if we had no baggage to check but with Wilson's 50 pound bag full of climbing gear and his stuff -- we have to check that beast.

When we arrive in Milan on October 3rd, we will rent a car so that we can drive to Verona. We will stay in Verona one night and climb in well regarded Arco for two days. Then we will drive to visit Wilson's cousin, Jennifer, in Bologna. Jennifer lives in Bologna with her husband and two children. After we drive back to Milan, on Monday October 8th (Day 32), we will fly to meet Tanya, Nick, and Josie on the Italian island of Sardinia in Cagliari.

Let us know if you have any travel recs for the next ten days!

 

Travel thoughts: sometimes you flush $$$ down the toilet

Our very long day had gone well. Wilson lead some climbs in the 11d to 12a range. (Very hard rated climbs).

I had gotten my climbing head back a little more and led five climbs in total. One was a climb rated 10b.

We had said goodbye to some new climbing friends, Gregor and Martina, from Austria. Here they are pictured below doing our 20th day for us from the balcony of their bungalow at the climbing camp that we all stayed at.

 

We had successfully hitched a ride down the long canyon road to the outskirts of the main city Antalya with all our bags. Our hitching hosts stopped to pick us up in their 5-seater small SUV even though there were already four individuals in the car -- 2 women from Russia, one of the women's daughter, and a Turkish man. We squished into the backseat by one women and her 5 year old daughter.

There was no universally common language in the car. My and Wilson's Turkish never progressed beyond the words, "Hello" - "Merhaba", "Thank you" - "Teshekur Ederim" and "Please" - "Lutfen" . And for the two women in the car, beyond speaking Russian, only one spoke a little bit of English but was distracted by car sickness. The other woman spoke Turkish. The man appeared to speak only Turkish and of course, the little girl only spoke Russian. Our attempts to piece together a little conversation did not go so well. One notable part of the attempt at conversation was the man doing the old-time American Indian whoop hollering and making a feather behind his head -- this was roughly translated by the Russian woman to mean that I look like an American Indian. After this, the conversation devolved into the two women and one man heatedly discussing something in Russian and Turkish. We were relieved to be let out of the backseat and the cacophony in order to catch a bus the rest of the way into town.

We reached town. We secured food and were delighted that the hot pot vegetarian dish and chicken kebap were delicious, enourmous and, for two of us, only cost 22 Turkish Lira (around $12). We walked through the charming marina, which have the old walls of Anatalya surrounding it. http://wikitravel.org/en/Antalya. We then made our way to the bus station to catch the night bus to Bodrum in order to then catch a ferry to Greece.

I am on the night bus now and it is 5:35 am. I hope that we reach Bodrum soon but when we do, we won't have any Turkish Lira. 90 minutes ago, the bus stopped and I grabbed my wallet to visit the WC / bathroom. In Turkey, you have to usually pay 1 Lira for a WC visit. Here at 4 am, somewhere along the coast of Turkey, it was no different, I paid my 1 Lira, entered the WC, and placed my wallet in my back pocket -- and the rest was history. I heard no noise and sensed that nothing was wrong until I heard the clink of Lira coins along with the flushing of the toilet. I reached for my wallet in my backpocket. I fruitlessly and illogically tried to open the water tank of the toilet. The wallet was gone.

I obtained the wallet at Galata tower in Istanbul. http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/Beyoglu/GalataTower.html. (You can also see the views from the top in an earlier post by Wilson: http://livingthekoroldream.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-couple-of-days-in-life-istanbul.html) At the tower, I was buying a leather bracelet for 10 Lira when the man in the tower gave me the pretty yellow turkish wallet for free. I really liked the wallet - it was very small, too small to fit my passport, but large enough to fit credit cards and it had a little turkish "evil eye" pendant attached to the zipper. In Turkey, you see the evil eye pendant everywhere -- in stores, restaurants, attached to dog collars, etc.

And the contents of the wallet? Luckily -- no credit cards. Only two types of stuff in it: Lira and the Turkish phrases that I had hesitantly torn out of our Lonely Planet guide to the Middle East. It was the last of our Lira. That Lira should have bought us our last Turkish breakfast and transportation before we boarded the ferry to Greece later today. Earlier, I had forgone buying my favorite Turkish cookies for 2.50 Lira because they were more expensive at the bus terminal. Now, approximately 65 Lira flushed down the toilet -- not too stoked to input the "Flushed down the toilet" entry into our travel budget ledger.

 

Travel thoughts: you grows up and you grows up

Writing today from the patio of the lovely climbing campsite/compound where we have been staying these last several days. The climbing is outside of Antalya and Mu has covered it in great detail on the previus post, which i encourage for folks that might not be that familiar with the sport. It has been very relaxing to slow down a bit and really dive into a sport that we both love, with several more weeks upcoming at climbing meccas throughout Europe.

View from the patio

The slower pace has allowed me to really ruminate on the differences between our approach to this trip versus past extended travels, either together or independent. It has been a gnawing topic in the back of my mind and i am glad to have this time to unlock it a bit.

There is an inherit ying/yang dynamic at play in our travels, in that Mu and i want to employ the travel tricks and techniques that have been so successful in the past, yet maintain the 'wisdom' we have garnered in our 5 years of marriage. It is an unavoidable (and pleasant!) fact that our lifestyle and station in society has increased dramatically in the those 5 years. Both of us had interesting and serious professional jobs, and our framework for vacationing/time/connection rose accordingly. One simple example is sampling many of the great restaurants in San Francisco, a city known as a culinary mecca, and not really thinking too much about what a luxury those meals represent. However, we face a reality that if we traveled in the lifestyle we have grown accustomed to in the last 4-5 years, our trip will be many months shorter than we have planned. This is the essnce of our ying/yang.

Upon reflection, i have come up with 3 major areas that define the difference between those past trips and this experience, Technology, Transport and Time.

- Technology: the world of technology continues to evolve at a lightning quick pace. I write this from an ipad2, which is our lone computing tool for the trip. Thus far, it has performed brilliantly, and i am sure that will continue. We are able to do most everything, with excellent battery life and a great synthesis across our various accounts and media.

The ability and opportunity for technology to improve lives is something i was fortunate to work on and write about at my old job, both at Avaya and Nortel, so this is an area i feel quite comfortable. There is always a concern about being too connected, and that is the challenge of a highly mobile and connected society/workforce. Thus far, i do not feel too connected, and feel very fortunate to have this blog for example to share our jounrey.

Another interesting change from past extended travel is the prevalence of wifi instead of internet cafes. Wifi has won the battle and the availability of internet cafes to plug in, and waste away a couple of hours catching up, has waned considerably. This seems like a nice development, but only for those with a computing, connected device. I can attest that it is much, much better to write, call, read and share from this ipad on the verandah than it is in a dingy cafe. However, sharing one mode of communication between two people is tricky.

Lastly, is the mesh economy (http://meshing.it/) that has been created over the last 5 or so years. The best example for our travels is Arbnb, but other examples include Zipcar and CouchSurfing. These networks allow people to share assets, be it cars, houses or realy anything else you can think of within that servce. We are jsut using Arbnb for now, which enables people to rent out their living space(s), and has proved qutie reasonabvle thus far for big cities. Instead of a stuffy hotel room or a drab room in a hostel, we had a really nice studio in Instanbul, right on the cutest street imaginable. That is a win/win situation and an example for the market and network enabling pareto efficency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_efficiency) .

- Transport: i will be honest, i love night buses. These allow the traveler to save a night of accomdation, can be quite pleasant and give a nice view of the countryside rolling along. They can also be exhausting, if sleep proves ellusive and the night becomes interminable. In many ways, this encapsulates my early 20's internatinoal travel. Until a week ago, it had been quite some time since i had taken a night bus anywhere, altough i did take my fair share of redeyes over the past several years. Even though we have grown quite a bit, Mu and i are back on the night bus bangwagon. We have taken two in the last week+ and have one upcominhg for tomorrow night. For me, the advantages listed above far exceed the potential downfalls and having a travel compaion (plus an ipad to watch the tv series, breaking bad, and movies) makes it even more of an appealing mode of transport.

A second major differnces in our approach to transport is the use of rental cars. Mua nd i have used them extensively for trips in Austrailia, Croatia and Costa Rica, all to great sucess. Having a car gives so much flexiblity and freedom, making it possible to really cram in a ton of things into a very short amount of time. It is a travel tool that we are well versed and will be using more in our trip. We had a car for a week in Isreal and will have one again for 6 days in Italy, then again with friends in Sardina. It can add stress to our life, when we argue about directions and the like, but again on balance the advantages vastly exceed the disadvantages. In my 20's i would never have contemplated renting a car, for one i think it was more expensive before these aggregator sites existed and two, it was intimidating.

- Time: in our past travels, there would be dead time where things went a little sideways or otherwise led to gaps between an arrival and departure. Here we are almost 3 weeks into the trip and this has occured exactly once thus far, a rate far lower than in the past. Some of this results from better technology and information, and some just comes from being better able to navigate the journey. This seems unambigously good. However, some of the best times and experiences come from the unexpected. I wonder if by having a tighter and more succesful schedule, we will end up missing some of those wondrous and spontaneous momments.

Where does this leave me/us? I find that we should endeavor to keep the best of our past experiences with extended travel while leveraging the new knowledge and tech that we have at our fingertips. By being mindful about the potential downfalls of these new tools, i feel confident that this intersection will be additive and a catalyst for amazing experiences.

What about you, anyone else thought and dealt with this dynamic? Any recs for how to keep the best attributes of youth while taking advantage of the wisdom, and knowledge we gain as we make our way through life?

 

Climbing: An explanation and recounting of a kind-of bad day

My capris are covered with chalk and my hands are raw so it should have been a great day. The climbing day started out well. We hiked up a beautiful river canyon to the cliff area , the "crag" as it is called climbing lingo. The crag that we hiked to is named Trebenna after some ancient greek and roman ruins of the same name.

Day 16 at the Trebenna Crag

Lately, climbing has been a little more difficult for me. After my ski accident last April Fools day, I have been much more skittish about any sort of danger. In fact, Wilson had a few good laughs at my street crossing technique in Amman, Jordan. To cross the street in Amman, we usually had to cross 3 ambiguous lanes of traffic with no stop lights to assist. Thus in order to accomplish this feat, we' d find a break in traffic and Wilson would speedily but coolly saunter across. I, on the other hand, would either sprint across or start to cross and then run back -- only to wait for the next break in traffic. Needless to stay, skittishness has not helped my climbing. And the skittishness made a full appearance today.

Today was our fourth day of climbing during our foreign travels. Three days here in the Geyabayiri climbing area of Turkey and one day in an Israeli portion of the West Bank. That day in Israel, Wilson "led" all the routes and I followed on "top rope" or "TR". TRing is considerably less stressful than leading because the leader has already put the rope at the top of the cliff and in a fall, you can swing but you generally will not fall very far or hurt yourself. Leading, on the other hand, is scarier. .. but the way that we lead ...it is not too scary, usually.

The way that we climb is called sport climbing. With sport climbing, someone has already cemented a "bolt" into the wall.

Bolt in the wall

The bolts are frequently placed at 5-10 feet increments until you reach the top of the climb where "anchors" are screwed/cemented into the cliff. The bolts stay in the rock year round but as a climber, your bring gear called "quick draws" to clip into the bolts.

To lead, a leader ties into a rope and clips the quick draw into the bolt and then clips the rope through the quick draw.

Tanya tying in -- the first bolt has been clipped but she will lead the rest of the route

This way if the leader falls, then the belayer can catch him because the rope is through the quick draws. In the picture above Nick is Tanya's belayer and Fletcher their dog is her cheerleader.

When you lead, you can fall much further because you are often above the bolt that you have clipped in to and thus you can swing down pretty far or even into the rock. Amazingly, that swing down (or even into the rock) is not likely to hurt you. The reason why is that you often fall into the air or, if hitting the rock, can break the impact with your feet. Thus, most of the time even when leading, if you are practicing safely, there is either an extremely small or no chance of major injury.


Today, I attempted to lead a climb that was 75 feet tall. After I had climbed 40 feet, I had to climb inside a "tufa". A tufa is when a stalagtite forms down and outside of the cliff. This tufa created a vertical 5 meter tunnel up the cliff. You can see the tufa that I was climbing in to the right of the woman climbing.

While leading through a tufa, I not only had to deal with the normal psychological fear of falling into the air, or worse the cliff wall, I also risked hitting the side of the tufa. Despite these worries, I shouldn't have been nervous because there were good holds and the climb, rated 10a, is not too hard of a climb. But I found myself paralyzed and unable to make the good moves with the good holds. This happens sometimes in climbing because despite the low likelihood of injury, climbing intuitively feels irrational.

Climbing, when practiced safely, is a rational safe sport. You rationally know that when you fall five or ten or even fifteen feet while leading, the majority of the time, you will not hurt yourself. The odds of not hurting myself on my tufa climb today were in my favor (especially because I knew the holds were good) but my basic instincts overrode my rational calculation of risk. Because I became paralyzed by mind, I had to ask Wilson to lower me to the ground and lead the climb again. He was very understanding. We talked about how climbing at its nadir is complete frustration/fear or both and climbing at its peak is a wonderful combination of meditation, exertion, and achievement.

Tomorrow is a rest day where we will swim in the Mediterranean Sea and see Antalya (another ancient town). Tomorrow, I will not worry about the battle between the instinctual and the rational. But I hope that on Monday, when we climb again, the rational will win. Meditation on the 10a instead of paralysis!

 

Antiquities and Hospitality: travels in Jordan

Even though it has been a few days since we left Jordan, Mu and i have been talking often about the people and things we encountered in the country. Our time there was on the brief side, but it was lovely throughout.


Antiquities

The time in the middle east was anchored and driven by one place - Petra. However, these ruins are far from the only impressive ruins/sites throughout Jordan. The geography of the country lends itself to trading between the East and West and as a result, it has been inhabited and important for quite a long time. This is a real treat to the visitor, since you are able to see many historical periods via impressive ruins, all in a country that is highly accessible and not all that large.

Petra

As noted, Petra was the reason we came to the middle east, and our high expectations were exceeded. Petra is the result of the trading culture of the Nabataeans, who controlled the camel trains throughout the region for about 9 centuries. Their peak as a society was in the 2-3rd century AD, and they had a peculiar habit of carving massive tombs in the red rock cliffs of Petra, all while living in quite modest buildings while they were alive.

The red rock cliffs alone are spellbinding, a mix of the Zion cliffs in Southern Utah and the Red Rocks above Vegas. Add in the multitude of 150 foot tall cliff carvings that are persevered for over 2 millenniums and you are spell bound much of the time.

Mu and i did several really fun things, including a night tour that meanders via candlelight a couple of kilometers down to the best persevered site, called theTreasury, where there is a musical performance of Bedouin instruments. We also did the slot canyon in the kaleidoscope of rock, which was really fun . Lastly, we spent a robust day doing the 'Petra traverse' which took us to the 3 different high points overlooking the large valley and probably had us hiking between 18-20 miles.

Sunset @ Petra

Beyond Petra

Petra alone would have been worth coming to Jordan, but we also got to see an amazing 5/6th century map mosaic, the massive Roman ruins of Jerash and the impressive Citadel that guards the old city of Amman. All of these, and the many ancient sites we did not get to see, are a testament to the important role that this land has played in human history, as well a proof of the preservative effect the desert possess. I could fill pages with the history of each, but instead have a couple of pics that hopefully showcase the wonder we felt at each.

Mosaic from 560 AD in Madaba

The Citadel in Amman

Mu enjoying the view across Jerash

Hospitality

Before we got to Jordan, we kept hearing about the friendlessness of everyone there. So, it did not come as a total shock that literally everyone we met along the way was nice. This friendliness extended to fellow travelers, as we made friends with people from Germany, Israel, Mexico, and Belgium. Not bad for 5 or so days!

Beyond the friendliness that people we interacted with throughout jordan, even the taxi cab drivers were nice, which was amazing and greatly appreciated considering the tensions that were playing out against the West and specifically the U.S. during our time in the country, which continue.

In most places we have traveled, the taxi driver is your enemy. They are trying to deceive you, screw you and take more of your money than they deserve. As a result, it is very hard to trust them. But in Jordan, even this subset of the population was really nice. First, our driver from the border to Petra (2 hours) was super friendly, even though he spoke next to no english. He stopped several times so we could take in huge desert vistas, take pictures of camels and generally enjoy our first hours in the country.

Then, a few days later we shared a ride up to Amman with Sien and Arne, which is generally another 2 or so hour trip. However, we had a cool driver, Aman, and he took the very scenic route via the mountainous King's highway, along the Dead sea and to a very impressive Byzantine mosaic from 560 AD in Madaba. Here, he was going sit outside in the car, but we talked him to entering the Christian church, which might have been a first. Aman was really taken by the biblical mosaic, just as we all were. We all tried to figure out how current places matched up, including Jericho, Jerusalem, the Jordan river, Bethlehem and the Nile. In the end, Aman was the last to leave the church. Even though our journey to the capital took WAY longer than we had anticipated, he did not ask for any extra $ and hopefully connects with me via facebook.

Finally, we were at the impressive Jerash ruins from the Roman empire north of Amman. We left he ruins and were heading to an Ottoman castle 10k or so away in Ajiloun. A taxi driver was quite insistent but we wanted to take the bus and save some cash. Finally, once he realized we were not going to go with the taxi, he pointed up the street and told us detailed instructions on where to catch a bus. Trust me, that is quite abnormal and i think these three examples of uber nice taxi drivers give a little microcosm of the friendliness we enjoyed thoruhgout Jordan.

Lastly, if you want to check out all our pics from Jordan, here is the url: https://picasaweb.google.com/107842809281323581448/TheDreamJordan

 

Women: separate does not seem to be equal

Before we left the U.S., we attended the wedding of some dear friends and had an amazing time.

In addition to the joy of celebrating with the bride and groom, I also got to see some of the many great friends that I made at Duke (I would go again simply to meet these women and other friends from there). Pictured below, these women are self-actualized, strong, and have maximized their opportunities to choose their lives.

From my minimal time here in the Middle East, it seems like treatment of women here could be limiting women's choice. I am not saying that women here are not self-actualized nor do I think a woman's choice is limited when she chooses to wear the hijab (the cloth covering the women's hair in the picture below).

I am also not saying that a woman who choose to wear the habib (the fabric that covers the woman's face and hair) has necessarily limited her choices. Although, I do find it is easier to talk to (and understand) a woman wearing a hijab than to converse with a woman wearing a habib.

What disturbs me here is the formal and informal statements that appear to give women inferior status. Below is the women's worship area at the holiest Jewish place, the Western Wall. It is small, in the sun, crowded and lacks the nice furniture found in the men's worship area.

The men's worship area is dramatically larger and has an inside space for the men to pray and read the Torah in comfort.

Again contrast the women's worship space in the Blue Mosque, Istanbul against the men's.

Men's worship area




Women's worship area




Informally, I experienced my on "inferior" status as a woman on our EgyptAir flight from Jordan to Istanbul. On the flight, I received my airplane meal (with a middle-eastern twist). To eat my meal, I unwrapped my plastic cutlery and didn't think anything of my plastic fork and spoon until I realized that the man on the window seat to my side and Wilson in the aisle seat on my other side, had metal cutlery. I looked around and realized that all the female passengers had plastic cutlery while the male passengers had metal cutlery. In the abstract, I wouldn't have minded eating my meal with plastic cutlery -- it was the fact that someone had decided that the woman passengers on that plane did not deserve the same treatment as the men passengers.

Treatment of women in the U.S. is not perfect and women have yet to receive equal wages for equal work but these observations remind me how important it is that women globally retain the rights that women before us have fought so hard to secure. I am grateful for my female-rights predecessors and I hope that the 2012 election is a move forward for women's rights in the U.S. rather than a move backward.

 

Itinerary: through day 20 in Israel, Jordan and Turkey

Because we don't yet have pics up for some of the days -- here's a little recap: Day 6 -- get lost multiple times and the climb outside of Jerusalem. This pic is of Wilson on Day 6 while we were lost.

Day 7: Take pictures of camels on the road to Petra. We had just crossed the Israel - Jordan border and we were on our way to trail run Petra and eventually get lost trying to find a closed slot canyon. We found it, hiked it, and got out of Petra before too late.

Day 8: fully enjoy the wonders of Petra. Such an incredible place of massive, beautiful red cliffs and thousand year old carved rock.

Day 9: Travel from Petra to Amman with a 30 something man from Wadi -Musa named Aman and a late twenty -something couple from Ghent, Belgium -- Sien and Arne. We checked out the ruins in Amman with Sien and Arne, where we met up another man (Amer). Amer taught us many great things about Jordan -- including the joys of falafel and accoutrements at the Hamesh restaurant and the joys of a proper and traditional Turkish coffee house.

Day 10: Check out Jerash, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash#History. Amazing the amount of antiquities and how well preserved the ruins are after the centuries.

Day 11: Fly from Amman to Istanbul after we have bartered for a ride to the airport in Amman. An airport transfer from our hostel should usually cost 25 Jordanian Dinar (around $40). While trying to find a tax to get to the north bus station (Mu'jama Al'shamal) to get the shuttle to the airport, a 20 year old young man in a van stopped. He didn't speak much English and we don't speak much but Arabic but we convinced him that our 10 Jordanian Dinar (with 70 cents change) was sufficient for an airport ride. Hot deal!

Day 12: Istanbul -- see previous post.

Day 13: More Istanbul and overnight bus to Gomere, Cappadocia region of Turkey.

Day 14: Gomere -- where I am blogging from now. Then, night bus to Antalya.

Days 15-20: Rockclimb in Antalya, Turkey.

 

A couple of Days in the Life: Istanbul

Sitting on the patio of the Istanbul modern museum, with expansive views over the confluence the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. To one direction, the picturesque bridge that connects Asia and Europe, while to the other a veritable sea of minarets guard the old city, with various architectural gems from different periods of Byzantine and Ottoman rule. Just about perfect.

Old city of Istanbul, seen from Galata tower

Mu enjoying topkapi palace

What a stunning city, a great mix of cultures, eras and people. We havegreatly enjoyed Istanbul Modern (http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en), with excellent photography, a huge exhibit of street influenced art and some cool multimedia works and will be heading out here in a bit to a few more cool spots.

Sums up the city well, old and new all in a bunch

We arrived here 2 nights ago, after a couple of flights that took us from Amman to Istanbul, via a stop over in Cairo. Even though we never left the airport, nor would have if our layover was much longer, it still was a bit unsettling to look out across the edge of the city and think about the last week and the violence within the region that had its initial flashpoint a few miles form where i surfed the net and waited for our plane. I was not sad to have our plane take flight out of Cairo.


When we got to Turkey and navigated the lines in immigration and collected our bags to head to the light rail that capably connects the city. Our destination was the top of the 2nd oldest underground trolley in the world, in the Galata neighborhood. We had sorted out an apartment via Arbnb and are so happy we did, it was cozy, very nice and in the coolest part of the city that we have seen yet. Little cobblestone streets, tucked with markets and galleries and bars/cafes. Very charming, be it midnight or 9 am.

Galata neighborhood

In a very happy coincidence, Mu's colleague/boss from Dechert was in the city as well traveling with his girlfriend, so we huffed it over to meet Matt and Kathy on a rooftop bar. They are doing great, really enjoying Turkey as well, and we had a perfect evening with the city glittering below us. It was great to see friends from back home, always a nice reference point to our adventuress. Hoping to see them one more time in the next day or two in Cappadoccia.

Then, we had an action packed day of site seeing, my personal favorite was a massive underground cistern. The Byzantine water system brought water from 19k away, and the space was 70m by 140m. The marble columns are in basically the same pristine shape as they were 1500 years ago.

Basilica cistern

Beyond that, the Ottomans' palace was cool, the Blue Mosque stunning and the Grand Bazar a fun time (i even picked up a knockoff Barca jersey for a less than $2.50). Then we headed back to our hood to walk around, stopping for a beer at one spot and then holing up in a cute cafe on our street. All in all, a pretty much perfect day (minus that one argument we had, of course).

 

Topkapi palace

Blue mosque as seen from Hagia Sophia (both are amazing and enormous)

Now, our lunch is here and we have to run. Lots of love!

Note: we have been traveling and going quite steadily for the last several days, hence the delay in posting. We have ones in the works for Jordan proper and Petra, so bear with us. With a couple very long bus rides upcoming, i have a feeling that these will get written in short order. Thanks for all the positive feedback on the blog, by the way, it really helps us write and feel connected to all of you.

 

Update from the Road: Pictures from Israel

Before we move the blog on to Jordan proper, i thought it would be a good idea to share a few more pics with people from the past week in Israel.


Before the photos, want to add that we have been monitoring the political climate across the Arab world quite closely. Impossible not when the places where protests are happening are so close and the tension is increasing so quickly. Thankfully, all still appears well here in Jordan, an oasis of calm in this fast moving and seemingly out of control regional instability. Since we know that these thigns can move very, very fast and the flash point can come from seemingly nothing, we are keeping our heads low and doing what we can to avoid attention. Honestly, there is no palpable sense of tension on the streets here, at least in the downtown area of Amman where we are staying and spent the evening eating yummy and cheap falafel on the street and drinking refreshing iced lemonades in a cafe.

It is scary to see the violence and anger multiple across the region so quickly (and beyond to Europe) and we can only hope that tension eases soon before something as bad, or worse, than what has already happen takes place. Truthfully, even though everything is calm here I am somewhat relieved that our itinerary takes us out of Jordan to more secular locales in less than 48 hours.

 

Now, on to happier subjects; here are the pics.

Swimming in Med - Tel Aviv at sunset. The med feels absolutely perfect, incredibly refreshing.

 

Yummy spices in the market, i am really loving the Shawarma

 

The super impressive and tranquil Baha'i Gardens from the top of Mt Carmel

 

The Med from the ramparts of 5000 year old Akko

 

View across ancient Nazareth

 

Mu @ a roughly 5th century Mosque near the Isreal/Jordan border around Jericho

 

The dead sea, salt flats stretching out to the dying/drying sea. We actually drove the length of the Dead Sea on the Jordanian side of the sea this afternoon. Amazing to think that this massive body of water is over 400m below sea level.

 

The Negev desert, about 100k north of border crossing in eliat on our last monring in Isreal

 

Lastly, i am taking a bunch more pics on our travels that i can share on the blog. As a result, i wanted to share the urls for the entire albums. If you want to see more pics, check them out.

Full album from the John Muir Trail: https://picasaweb.google.com/107842809281323581448/JohnMuirTrail

Full album from first 5 days on the road: https://picasaweb.google.com/107842809281323581448/TheDreamDays15