r ellenberger

Ahh what a bad nights sleep we both had. We were tossing and turning in perpetration for our balloon flight which left at 4.30am. It also didn't help that our hotel room windows face directly onto a busy and noisy little road. At 4.30am we woke up and got changed, then waited in the hotel lobby with 3 other guests for it pickup to arrive. It did so on time, driving us about 10 minutes out of town to the office of the hot air balloon company. There were about 40 other people there already grabbing a light breakfast. After waiting around for longer than expected, about 40 minutes, we were hustled into another van and driven to our launch sight. There were about 30 balloons in the sky already and about 20 still on the ground. The weather was perfect with very little breeze and a clear blue sky. We jumped into the basket of one of the balloons that was already inflated with around 16 other people and took off. Over the flight we climbed to a max height of about 600 metres, but we als...

We woke up to a grey sky and knew there was no chance of the air balloon or ATV tour happening, so we had a lazy breakfast before heading out in the rain. The weather was miserable and no less than a kilometre walk we decided we were better off hiring a car and exploring further than getting soaked to look at nothing. We shopped around for a rental, but finally saw our hostel was the cheapest for 100TL a day, so they helped us organise a Ford focus and we were on our way. There wasn't much to see driving out of Goreme. Sure, there were amazing views at certain parts but the wind and chill made it hard to enjoy. So we kept going til we reached Urgup, to find it was a huge town with shopping malls and fancy clothing stores - none of which we were interested in - so literally did a drive by and hit the next town called Mustafapasa. It was a tiny town, with nothing much so did a drive by again and headed to the Damsa Dam a bit further down south. The dam was huge and we think would h...

It was our last day in Istanbul so we decided to take it easy. We woke up early to have brekky, pack our things and check out, and decided to visit Yildilz Palace as it was included on the Museum Pass we bought. So we jumped in a cab and got there around 11am, quickly realising the Presidential cycling race was right outside it as the roads had been blocked off and there were police everywhere. As we walked up to the palace we were greeted by three guards and police cars and even a guy holding a big Uzi machine gun. They promptly took our things from us without asking and rifled through them, before giving it back to us and letting us in. Turns out we were the only ones there, and we found out why - the Palace was super boring! The palace was only recently built in the late 1800s, so there wasn't a huge amount of history and they just had a bunch of "old" things that the Sultan used, such as his thrones, carriage, etc. Ryan and I quickly finished the museum part and wal...

As we arrived last night at about 8:30 p.m. we didn't have a chance to check out prices for the  around Cappadocia as well as hot air balloon flights. We Simply accepted the package that the hotel offered. This was a package costing 145 euros, and included what's called The Green tour which takes you to a number of different sites which are quite far from Cappadocia, as well as a two-hour ATV ride, and finally the balloon flight itself. We organized to have the green tour today. We had breakfast at 8 a.m. at the hotel and then a bus came to pick us up. After a number of different changes of buses were finally on our way to the first site, Derinkuyu, which is an underground city.  Our guide wasn't particularly good, he didn't really know exactly the history, or at least he didn't seem to know the history surrounding the underground city, but from what I gathered it was basically a refuge for early peoples from around the 10C BC. The caves pretty narrow with low ceili...

It was our first night's sleep without an interruption from Jimmy so we woke up feeling much better than the last week. We cooked some breakfast (eggs, oats, toast) at the apartment so that we could save a bit more, as we've been rather extravagant with our meals so far. Finished breakfast and dressed, we headed out and reached the Topkapi Palace at 10am, ready to did soak up the sights. The palace is absolutely huge and at one time housed 10,000 people who all served the Sultan, so you can imagine how much space you'd need. The kitchens alone were massive, with a separate kitchen for their confectioners, as the sultan loved sherbet, baklava and lokum (Turkish delight). Of course the architecture was grand, with every corner bursting with detail. Turns out the sultan was a bit of a pimp, with his own library, toilet room, sporting/entertainment room and even a Harem where he kept his many concubines. We also saw some questionable holy relics such as Mose's staff? Mo...

We have a fairly leisurely morning. We woke up around 8 a.m. and had breakfast. I saw that they were some recent messages on WhatsApp so I called Katy. We spent half an hour talking to her and Samantha and Ouma. Realtor needed to check on a money situation as we realize that we've been spending quite a bit more than we'd hoped given we travel to Israel which we had experienced Lots as well as generally just being a very expensive country to travel around. It also didn't help that Jamie likes to dine and wine at the other expensive places.  We logged on to net banking, and after tallying all the withdrawals, found that we spent nearly $1,000 more over the 11 days than we had planned.  This obviously means that we have to try and  claw that money back from somewhere else . So our budget per day has now being  cut down substantially. At least we are in turkey where things aren't as expensive as in other countries in Europe. After that we left our apartment and caught the m...

Jimmy had arrived at our place at 1am last night for his 12 hour stopover in Istanbul. We went out for a traditional turkish breakfast which is cheeses, bread, dips, coffee, some pastries and meats - it was quite delicious. We wandered around for a little bit then went back to the apartment and said our goodbyes. Jackie and I then caught the tram over the Sultankamet which is the historical area on the Golden Horn side of Istanbul. The tram ride is very nice as it goes along the foreshore and crosses over the waterways. That day we aimed to see the Imperial Palace but needed to buy entry tickets first... For some reason our credit cards wouldn't work. We didn't have any cash so we had to go find an ATM. We also needed lunch by this point so we found a random cafe, but it was now 2pm and we were worried we wouldn't have much time in the palace so called it a day for sightseeing. We wandered down to the waterfront and had a coffee, then wandered north, back across the Gala...

Jimmy didn't get home til 5am from his wedding and there was construction outside all night, so we all didn't get a great nights sleep. Still, we woke up around 7.30am, ate brekky and headed for the beach for a quick dip. The water was soooo nice, at first a little chilly but then Ryan and I were happily floating around in it. Afterwards Jimmy wanted a pair of sunnies so we walked over to the Flea Markets and he bargained terribly for a pair of sunnies. The guy said 50, Jimmy said 30, and immediately the guy is like OK. Haha so Jim knew he got ripped off. We then headed home to pack and Jimmy left first to transfer his stuff to Phil's. Ryan and I stayed back a bit before going to find lunch at McDonald's (so expensive - $15aud for a meal) and shwarma at the Express place. It was time to leave for the airport around midday so went back for our bags and caught the bus and train to the airport, before finding out how crazy Israel is with their airport security. First we ...

Not much to report from today. We woke up and went to breakfast with Jimmy - a hip bakery on his recommendation. Pastries with coffee was delicious but not very filling and expensive. From there Jimmy headed off and we caught the bus to the train station, then an hour train to Haifa. We walked out from the train station and were greeted with the view of the Baha'i garden - quite breath taking. We walked towards the garden through some lovely wide streets, and on our way found a tourist information centre. The dude manning it was completely lost and had no idea about anything, but luckily Jackie had read in lonely planet that the tour of the garden was at midday, so we jumped in a taxi which took us to the top of the hill where the tour started from. It's a beautiful garden but the tour was boring, and we weren't allowed to leave it to explore ourselves. It was also stinking hot with no shade. We finished the tour and walked to the student area on Masada St for lunch, th...

Following on from yesterdays drive we woke up at 5.30 for our trip to Masada and the dead sea. We had parked the car in a nearby car park (there is no free parking overnight in tel Aviv unless you are a local), and after waiting for Jimmy to run back to the apartment for the car park ticket, we were on our way. Our route went through Jerusalem so it was the same drive as yesterday. The traffic wasn't too bad, less of a crazy drive than the day before (or maybe I was just more used to the crazy Israeli drivers, who are in my opinion just bad drivers). After Jerusalem we entered Palestine (or as Israelis call it, the West Bank), complete with shanties, the dividing wall, army patrols, border crossings etc. Hard to get around how divided the two peoples are :( . We passed the sea level marker and continued to descend down into the dead sea, arriving at Masada at 8.30. After grabbing some water and breakfast for Jimmy (3 Ferrero Roche's and a packet of chips) we headed up the mount...

Day 5 Jimmy got in late last night. So we had a prior catch up when we all woke up. First stop we walked over to the beach for breakfast at a restaurant called Manta Ray. It was a pretty classy place, and we could see it was only a hangout for rich Jewish people. It was great food though and we ordered a traditional Israeli breakfast dish, which was eggs in tomato sauce in a pan, kind of like the Spanish one. Also got French toast, roasted peppers with feta, and ceviche.  Afterwards we walked around the Old Jaffa part of town and then 30 minutes to another area which was a hip and expensive suburb. Sat down for a drink as it was really hot, and chilled out for a while. We decided we should probably do something so we walked a long way to the Tel Aviv Museum that's located in the city centre. We didn't realise there was a contemporary part and a classical part, so spent much of our time being bored in the contemporary exhibits, before getting to the Monet's, Picasso...

We were super exhausted from our 'Amazing Race' ordeal last night so didn't get out of bed until 10am. Our Airbnb host made us a tea and then took us up to the rooftop to have a look at the city and get our bearings. Turns out Tel Aviv is very small. The beach is only a 20 minute walk from the city centre, and just a stone's throw away is a completely different city. We then packed our bags and took the 18 bus to our next Airbnb. We met our host and he gave us a quick overview of the area which is very hipster and cool. We were starving at that point so we quickly changed then found a nice cafe round the corner for lunch. Funnily the area feels just like Sydney, and sitting in that cafe made us feel like we were in Surry Hills - even the prices were the same! We were also told afterwards we had to give a 10% gratuity. Afterwards we walked to Old Jaffa where  there is the famous flea markets, and lots of outdoor cafes. The atmosphere was electric - there were pe...

Well that day ended a bit more frantically than it began... We started the day with the call to prayer at what seemed like 4am, but maybe that was just the jetlag talking. We were out of bed by 7.30 and had another nice breakfast up on the rooftop. By 9 we were in the Basilica Cistern which is really very cool. The $10 audio headset guide was a bit rubbish as it just repeated what was written on the signboards around the place, but the sight itself made up for it. Next on the list was catching a tram to the university area and wandering around for a bit, slowly making our way back towards our starting point. We crossed through the Grand Bazaar which was really beautiful and full of lovely textiles, wares and jewellery. After a quick lunch of durum we wandered around a bit more, ending up back at near our hotel for more turkish coffee. As we had a shuttle taking us to the airport we were back at our hotel with plenty if time to spare. It arrived early, which was better than late,...

After hopping off the plane at 8am to a lot of fog (so much the plane had to abort its first attempt at landing), we got our bags and headed to the train station. We were told to get an IstanbulKart which would allow us to top up and travel the trains and trams. Caught the train & tram to Sultanahmet and got asked if we needed help with directions. Ended up chatting to this guy who sold carpets and he gave us some tea and directions. We finally found our hotel and were given free breakfast on their rooftop, it was so nice after 24 hours on a plane. Then we went out for a walk. Turns out our hotel is very central to all the top attractions as it's in the old city. So we walked through Gulhane Park which was absolutely beautiful. It's currently the tulip festival so the park is filled with tulips everywhere. We walked back along the tram line to try and get out of the tourist area and found a random place for lunch, then just burnt some time wandering around. We were quite je...

Had an uneventful flight to Singapore, only complaint was how slow dinner was in coming out. Considering you need to be at the airport at 3, and they only served dinner at 8.30, we were pretty hungry. Quick stopover in SGP, then on to Istanbul. Maybe the only good thing about the terrorist attacks in Turkey, the plane was EMPTY. Every person had three seats to themselves. We had not slept at all on the first leg, and by the time we took off from Singapore it was nearly 4am Sydney time. As soon as we each spread out on our three seats we passed out. Managed a solid 7 hours. We are landing in Istanbul as I write this, after our first landing was aborted due to heavy fog. Cross fingers these are not the last words written...