r ellenberger

After two days we finally made it to Theth! We stayed the night in Boge last night. In the morning our alarm didn't go off at 7 but luckily the owner of the guesthouse woke us up and gave us brekky. The local jeep came at 8.30 so we waited by the cafe. When it came it was like a circus show where they fit 50 clowns in a mini cooper! About 15 people piled out of this jeep defender and Ryan and my mouth just dropped. How were they going to fit the two of us in there?! They told us to hop in and turns out one guy had to sit on the roof where all the bags were. Pretty dangerous given we were about to go up into the mountains where the roads are crazy. But the locals didn't seem to care so we trundled along for 2 hours up the mountain all the way to Theth, the whole time squished in with a dude with a wooden leg, bad body odour from the other 14 people, raucous chatter between the passengers, and a big rocky drop off just a few centimetres to the right. Upon arrival we walked ...

Quite a hectic day. After brekky we checked out of our hotel and walked to the bus area. We were after a bus to Theth, but according to the local touts there was no such thing. What the taxi drives assured us is that we could take a taxi from Schroder to Koplik, a town about 20 minutes away, and then catch a bus. They assured us there would be multiple buses through the day. 8 euro later we arrive in Koplik to be told by the locals there is not a bus to Theth. What we do is take a taxi from Koplik to a town called Boge, then take a bus from Boge to Theth. So another 15 euro later and we arrive in Boge - obviously there aren't any buses. So we are stranded in this small mountain town until tomorrow when a bus should roll through in the morning. We ask one of the three guesthouses for a room and it's exorbitant - 20 euro per person and the room is very average. So I set off and walk through the village to see what else is in offer, and it's the same price wherever we go. S...

Catching the bus to Shkoder today, so after brekky we took a taxi to the bus terminal and hopped on the first bus. The drive wasn't long, only 2 hours. When we got there we were bombarded by taxis trying to sell us transport to Montenegro. Good to know it will be easy to get there later. Anyway checked in at our hotel and walked around for a bit. The town is really cute and from what we can tell has a big Italian population so even the buildings are very European. It was so hot and Ryan and I couldn't take the heat so we got some ice cream and asked a local where we could get delicious Italian food. We went to where he suggested and it was soooooooooooo yummy. They make fresh pasta so we asked the waiter to choose for us and he gave us the most amazing pasta parcels filled with ricotta and spinach and I don't know what else, just something so tasty Ryan and I were in heaven. Also ordered bruschetta, drinks and coffee to finish, and the total bill was only $17! It was ...

A good night's sleep but a pretty average breakfast, but nevermind that, as we were outside the National Museum at 10am to join the free Tirana walking tour. Our guide was a middle aged local guy who had spent six years in the US, so his English was excellent. He walked us around for two hours explaining life under communism, how isolated Albania was from the world (he likened it to North Korea), his experience growing up, and Albania's turbulent history. He also took us to many of the main monuments in Tirana, but his stories of communism were what really interested Jackie and I. After two hours the tour ended and we went off to find some lunch, which is actually surprisingly hard in Tirana. There are soooo many bars and coffee shops, but much fewer restaurants, which Jackie thinks is due to the fact Albanian were deprived of good food during communism, so they don't have the food appreciation side of society yet. I think it's more because they drink and smoke so much...

Today was pretty busy. We got up at 8 to check out and move to another hotel, because when we'd arrived yesterday we frantically found this place and it turned out to be cheap but horrible. Anyway we dropped our bags off at the new place (which is wayyyy nicer & only 3€ more than the last craphole) and sat down at a cafe for brekky. The owner of the café was an athlete in his previous life and wasted no time in showing us photos of him in his heyday, shaking hands with presidents and winning gold. He was a very nice man. It was just weird because they forced us to sit in the backroom, which in the end we realised it was because it was air-conditioned and I think they wanted to impress us foreigners. Had omelette as we have concluded local Albanians have no such thing as buying breakfast. They either eat at home or just eat a cheese pastry. Next we went to the national museum where there was the history of Albanian from Illyrian times through to communism. Very interesting a...

So we were meant to go rafting this morning but it didn't end up happening. We met the guy who organised the booking and he took us down the road to wait for the minibus that was meant to pick us up. No bus at the designated time so he called the rafting people, and they said we didn't have a spot on the boat? Obviously there was some miscommunication yesterday when it was being organised. A bit disappointing. So without much else to do in Berat we decided to make a move on towards Tirana, the capital of Albania. We caught the local bus to the bus terminal (it was packed with people and was really hot so wasn't much fun), then waited 15 minutes for the bus to Tirana to depart. It took around 3 hours to arrive, again not a fun ride as it was stinking hot. Once in Tirana we banded up with two other backpackers to share a taxi into town. They were heading to a hostel so we went with them, but unfortunately the private rooms were all booked out. We did some googling and then ...

The day started off with a hearty breakfast. I always enjoy seeing what they give us for brekky at a new hotel and this one didn't disappoint with eggs, cheeses, bread, fruit, jam, cookies and coffee/tea. We had to catch the morning bus to Bogove so we got to the bus stop around 9.15am, but alas I'd misread the timetable (the bus left at 9am eeeek) and we missed the bus. Ryan was not impressed. Anyway, there was another bus which left at 11am so we hopped on the local bus to go to the terminal to make sure we wouldn't miss the next one. Well what do you know, turns out there's 2 bus terminals and we went to the wrong one. Luckily we were 1.5hr early, so we went back on the local bus to the right one. A quick coffee and we were on our way to Bogove. The roads there were crazy, winding left and right, following the curves of the mountains, and with only a tiny space between the car and the huge drop off (ok maybe I'm exaggerating - but it was all Ryan and I coul...

We were woken by the morning light streaming in through the arch windows. Finally a sunny day! We had an interesting breakfast prepared by the Nana of the house, dough balls dipped in honey, pork sausages, bread, boiled eggs and cheese filled pastry. We weren't sure where we would head for our next destination, but we are cognisant that we only have about 5 more weeks before we need to be in the UK. We decided on Berat which is a few hours north - at least we are heading north towards Montenegro. We walked down the mountain to the main road and asked around for a bus. Turns out there is a bus stop only a few hundred metres down the road. We walked down and again asked around for a bus to Berat, but it turned out we had just missed the only one for the day. Damn. But before we knew it phone calls were being made and we were hustled into a taxi, and sped for 5minutes along the highway to the bus pulled over by the side of the road. Only cost a few dollars more and we were on our wa...

A dog barked all night so we woke up pretty grumpy. Also because last night the shower was pretty much just a dribble so didn't exactly feel nice and refreshed. Had an OK breakfast (eggs, bread, jam) and the owner lady is kind of rude, she wouldn't let us go back up the stairs we came down from our room, made us go outside then back in, and also when Ryan asked for a hairdryer she just said outright no. So we decided to move to another place up the road. Turned out to be a great decision because we were the first guests ever to stay and the family running the hotel were so excited and happy to have us. They even called their relative in the UK to tell him to talk to us. There was also a 16ish boy and his brother (9?) who stayed there the whole day to see if we needed anything. The room was super nice too, with an amazingly hot shower and stunning view of the village below and mountains. So we dropped our bags in the room, and set off for the famous Gjirokaster Castle, hop...

We caught the bus to Gjirokaster from Dhermi, via Sarende. It's raining.

Woke up to overcast sky and a chilly 13 degrees. Luckily we're not commuting today so we slept in and went for our omelette brekky with real cappuccinos (win) at 9. We set off around 10 to explore Dhermi village and walked all the way back up the mountain to the highway. We stopped for a cold drink at a local 'old men' hangout and then continued up to the Church of Saint Maria where there was a beautiful view of the village, mountains and sea. Albania looks a lot like turkey, but it's slightly greener and is abundant with wildflowers growing between steps and walls and along paths which gives the place a charming and romantic kind of peace. We were very lucky with the weather as it wasn't raining, even as we walked back down to the beach. But as soon as we sat down for lunch in a restaurant it started raining and getting even chillier - so good timing! After a yummo meal of traditional saqanaki (prawn capsicum stew), shrimp salad and woodfired margherita pizza...

I had already written today post but didn't publish it as Jackie is behind on her days... Then my phone battery died and the post disappeared, so here is an abridged version. We woke and went down to breakfast which wasn't ready even though it was almost 9am? Turns out Albania is an hour behind Greece which we hadn't even realised the whole of yesterday. After brekky we walked to the bus stop and bought tickets to our next destination, Dhermi http://maps.google.com/?cid=8366293367525183850&hl=en&gl=au While Jackie grabbed a seat on the bus I went in search of real coffee. So far whenever I have asked for a cappuccino I get nescafe with steamed milk; weird considering they have giant espresso machines with grinders sitting right there? I went into a local coffee place and asked for espresso, with some milk, which the chick behind the counter seemed to indicate she understood. Out came espresso with a bottle of water... still at least the espresso was good. We ...

Today was the day for the commute to Albania so it was an early start for us. Out the door by 7am, we walked 2km with all our backpacks to the cruise office. Bought our tickets and walked another 1km to the port where we went through passport control before boarding the hydrofoil. It only took 30 minutes and by 9.30am we were in Sarande. We dropped our bags off at the hotel which had an amazing view of the sea and Corfu right across it, then went in search of lunch. Along the way we passed by the local markets and bought some cherries and bread from the bakery. A woman tried to convince Ryan to buy a huge bottle of natural honey, luckily I stepped in and shut that shit down. Numerous restaurants line the public beach and after looking at a few menus we settled on one. Unfortunately it was a bad choice as the food was horrible and we ordered cappuccinos which came out and were just made from instant coffee. Pretty sad for Ryan as he's been hunting for a good cup of coffee for ...

We woke up to one of our first mornings without an included breakfast! Whatever shall we do? Jackie was feeling a bit sleepy so I headed out and found a supermarket for some cereal and milk, and a bakery for some croissants. After brekky we walked down to the port of Corfu along some horrible roads. I don't know if there are just less cars in Turkey, or if it's because the roads in Corfu are so narrow without footpaths, but it felt like there were hundreds of cars zooming by. Once at the port we went to the offices of Ionion cruises to book a ferry to Albania. Unfortunately we didn't bring our passports so we couldn't by tickets. The ferry leaves at 9 tomorrow morning so cross fingers we can buy tickets tomorrow morning without any dramas. We spent the rest of the day walking around the Corfu old town which is quite beautiful. Very touristy, with a lot more tourists than we are used to, but still plenty of charming buildings and shops. We did manage to get ripped of...

We'd booked a 7.30pm flight to Corfu so we had a day to burn, which meant sleeping in, having a nice lazy breakfast and checking out at midday. There is a huge outlet mall that's close to the airport and we thought that's probably a good place to spend the rest of the day until we need to leave, so we caught the metro to Hilal station. And then we had to change to the Izban but we didn't have enough small change! I waited with the bags while Ryan walked back out to try and break the notes - ended up almost walking back to the hotel because the first water vendor wouldn't give change. After about 30 minutes, Ryan returned with a bag of water and food and the change, but then went to the machine for the tickets and the ticket machine wouldn't print the tickets!!!!! So the station staff ended up escorting us to the platform. It took about 15 minutes to get to the station where the outlet is, and as we walked out we saw a humongous orange building with the name ...

Not much to report today. We walked to the Clock Tower in the morning, which was a fairly disappointing site. From there we walked through the Kemeralti markets, then passed the Agora Open Air Museum (40tl for more rubble so didn't go in), then caught the metro to a shopping area. We spent around 2 hrs there, me sitting on a bench while Jackie browsed. In the end we didn't buy anything but at least we were out of the hotel room which we spent too much time in. We caught the tube back to the hotel station but decided to stay on it till it terminated to see where it wound up. Unfortunately it just stayed underground so we didn't even see anything. We went back to the hotel and had a nap, then went out for a walk through the park and some dinner. To give you an idea of how relaxed our days are, we are only eating two meals a day. Usually breakfast and lunch, then we skip dinner. Today Jackie had lunch but no dinner, while I had no lunch but dinner. While at the park we vis...

We had a lazy breakfast and got to the Selcuk train station around 11am. Its so cheap, only 6.50tl to go to Izmir, and 4tl if we were to go to the airport. We met a nice Canadian elderly couple at the train station, who we'd seen at Pammukale. They were very impressed by Turkey too, but we soon found out they were super religious because the lady started saying how God put the gift of Pammukale there, and then she was excited about all the Virgin Mary Church and St John resting places etc. Ryan and I didn't really know how to respond except nod our heads. Train pulled in at 12 and we quickly realised how packed it was, and that maybe a bus would have been a more comfortable choice. Also the train is non smoking, but many commuters would go into the bathroom to smoke, so there was heavy cigarette smoke when they came out. Ryan and I didn't get a seat, so we stood for the 1.5hr journey. When we arrived, we walked about 1km with our packs to our hotel which is ar...

A pretty shit nights sleep for both of us due to road noise and the call to prayer. Unfortunately our hotel room faces the highway and the mosque - double whammy. We knew it was going to be a hot day so we made sure we were up early for breakfast and out the door by 8.30. We walked the three kms to Ephesus through some backroads, surrounded by peach orchards, olive trees and occasionally ripe mulberry trees. At 9 we arrived at ephesus and bought entry tickets. It was already warming up with lots of tourists milling around so we entered without further adieu. For us it was a bit hard to really grasp how amazing the sights were that we were seeing. I say that because most of the time you are seeing ruins; an amazing carving here, some pillars or a gate here, so it's hard to grasp just how amazing the temples and buildings would have been. Some of the sights were breathtaking even though only parts remained. The mosaic stone floors, the Celsus library, the Arcadian street; these ...

Our bus leaving for Ephesus was at 9.15am, so we got up early to fit in a yummy breakfast before packing up and leaving. The bus ride was uneventful and we arrived in Selcuk around 1pm. We found a hotel room, which we're not too happy about as it smells like cigarettes but it's fine for the short time we'll be here. I wasn't feeling well so we decided to leave the ruins to tomorrow. Instead we went to get lunch at a restaurant which was actually owned by an Australian family.  Then we walked to the Wednesday markets where the villagers sell fruit and vegetables from their farms and we bought the most delicious strawberries we've ever tasted for only 5tl for 1kg! We also bought 1kg of mulberries for 5tl and Ryan ate half the box before we'd even walked the whole market. After we caught a dolmus to the little town of Sirenci and realised it was not so quaint as the cobbled streets were filled with tourist shops selling wine, olive soap, magnets and jewellery. N...

On the agenda for today was a visit to the calcium rich springs of Pamukkale and the ruins of the city of Hierapolis ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis ). After breakfast at our hotel, we made our way to the south, bottom entrance of the Pamukkale calcium terraces. We had arrived early so had the pleasure of walking up the calcium deposits largely alone. The springs that emerge at the top have a supersaturate of calcium carbonate; once it meets air the carbonate leaks off and the calcium is carried off down the hill. The hot springs vary in temperature and have been used for centuries as medicinal baths. The site is a UNESCO world heritage site but unfortunately, and this is all over Turkey, the Turkish approach is to impose man's tastes on what is meant to be natural. In Pamukkale this means creating fake pools for the water to gather in, cutting ducts for the water to flow and generally redirecting things. We walked our way to the top of the deposits, then continued...

We're on a motherf**king boat yo! Its finally the day of our Blue Cruise, so we got up, had breakfast and packed our bags and set off in a minibus to Demre. Upon arrival at the otogari, a random guy on a scooter showed us where the tour office was (by kidnapping Ryan) and then we walked over and waited for the rest of the cruise people. Our 4 other boat companions arrived after 15 minutes, and then we were off to the harbour. Our traditional gulet is called Alaturk 2 and we have a crew of three, captain, deckhand, and other captain. They all also work as expert chefs. As it is early in the season two of the crew are on their way to other boats, hence having two captains onboard. The deckhand is also about to become a captain, so we are in capable hands. First stop was the Sunken city, which was a little disappointing as it was cloudy so we couldn't see that clearly through the water. Could really only make out some crumbled walls and general shapes. What was exciting is whe...

We didn't do much today. It was raining the first half of the day and we had nothing planned so nothing was done. It was cold as well so we didn't even go for a swim. Basically we ate, read, tapped and did nothing. We did Skype the Ellenbergers for a quick catch-up at midday. We are back at the hotel after dinner, where we got ripped off - 63tl at a "local" place where you pick dishes from behind a glass display window...we didn't see the menu so I think they just made shit up prices wise. Afterwards Jackie got a waffle with strawberries and nutella, because we haven't been eating enough :/ But this is a holiday so it's allowed.

It was the day of our hike so we woke up at 7am to get ready and have breakfast. It was pissing down with rain so we were a little worried about it being cancelled, but when we got to the tour office at 8.30am (very carefully so as not to slip on the pavement, but our shoes got pretty wet) the guys said it was still on as the rain was looking like it would pass by 9am. We met our guide Maho, did a short walk to grab our packed lunches, then hit the road to go to our starting point in Akbel. The first part of the walk was pretty wet and spiky, as the path was barely 30cm wide. It was more like a narrow meander through the bushes and on each side there were spiky branches and shrubs scratching and tugging at you as you walked past. I was wearing a poncho and by the time the rain passed it was pretty much shredded on both sides. As we walked our guide pointed out the Roman aqueduct and after about 4.5km we saw a huge stone wall which was part of the aqueduct piping. It used some kind ...

As we have a few more days to burn is Kas we are looking for things to do. It was suggested to us by a tour company to do a 12km hike, one small part of the Lycian way ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycian_Way ). We booked this in for tomorrow, but needed something to keep us busy today. The tour people suggested doing a short 5km track to a beach called Limanagzi; this was also part of the Lycian way. We left around 10am, heading almost due south. The road  goes through a small town before entering scrub for about an hour. After the scrub you come out at the top of a hill overlooking the bay/beach of Limanagzi. They have a fairly liberal definition of beach here, basically any place which isn't just rocks leading into the water is called a beach. Nevertheless, it was quite beautiful. After making our way down to the water we went for a swim, then grabbed lunch at one of the two restaurants ( http://maps.google.com/?cid=13415639495027489114&hl=en&gl=au ). There are onl...

It was our first full day in Kas and we were hoping we could hop on a boat to Kekova for a full day of swimming and snorkelling. So after a quick breakfast we headed down to the wharf at 9.30am and asked if any boats were going. Unfortunately we're here at the start of the season so there's very few tourists, meaning no boats were going out to Kekova as they need minimum of 8 people. > So after chatting to a few tour agencies about other possible things to do, we decided to hire a scooter for the day I stead and go exploring. > It only cost us 50TL to hire a scooter for the whole day, and after Ryan had a quick practice at the front of the rental shop, we were off. > Of course, I was scared out of my mind as I've never been on one and the streets around Kas are extremely steep, so every time we went downhill I was worried we'd go skidding down. And every time we went uphill I would we worried about the inevitable downhill that would come soon enough!...

We had another day of commute (roughly) organised. We had breakfast seated outside underneath the trees,  then packed our bags and caught a dolmos (bus) up the hill out of the valley, costing 20 lira for the both of us. We then waited by the roadside for a local bus. These buses service the local towns on kind of intericty routes, so for example one will go from Antalya to all the towns along a certain direction. They don't actually go into town unless it's a major one, just stopping at the turn off. There are no set pickup points, so you can get on and off where you please. If you are traveling to somewhere that's a bit further away than on the local bus route, you need to somehow cobble together the next leg of the journey so that it starts where your first leg ends. We waited by the highway hoping for a bus going to Kas, our next destination, but they didn't seem to be going that far. We asked one of the ones that stopped for us for Kas, and they said something in Tu...

We weren't sure what time breakfast was so we rocked up to the hotel restaurant around 9am and luckily the owners were already up and waiting. We met one of the other guests at breakfast, and found out we weren't allowed to swim in the pool because its not been maintained, so that was a little annoying. > Afterwards we walked up the road and along the beach to reach the Olympos ruins. The guy at breakfast had told us there wasn't much to see so we decided we'd skip the 20 lira entrance fee and just hit the beach. > We pretty much stayed at the beach all day and even went back to the same place as the day before for lunch. > It got to around 5pm and we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel to clean up before dinner. > We tried a different restaurant for dinner and as I've been searching for creamy pasta for ages I asked the waiter to whip me up a chicken mushroom pasta with cream sauce. The restaurant turned out to be pretty damn d...

Although we had only spent a few hours in Kemer last night we decided it wasn't our kind of place, what with the handbag shops, bars and expensive restaurants. We decided instead to make a move on to another town called Cirali, which from Google maps didn't look as developed. It's considered part of Kemer, but is a bit further south. Before we left Kemer proper we wanted to at least see a tiny bit of it, so we walked over to the famous moonlight beach. On our walk over we found a go kart circuit in a parking lot, so in order to settle once and for all who is the better driver, I challenged Jackie to 10 laps. Let's just say the better man won. We made it to Moonlight beach which is beautiful, but also horribly touristic with hundreds of deck chairs crowding the beach. We spotted some people drinking beers already at 11am, confirming that Kemer was not to be. We went back to the hotel and picked up our bags and tried to find a bus to Cirlali. Turns out this was no mea...

I was glad we weren't staying any longer in the cave hotel as it was freaking me out with all the weird ornaments and dampness. So after a hearty buffet breakfast, where a cat stole my boiled egg while I wasn't looking (and I'd carefully peeled the shell off too!), we packed and left. The cave hotel is run by 3 brothers and they are not so keen on managing it, so when we left no one was at reception so we just walked out, and told the breakfast dude we were leaving. We waited at the bus stop for our bus to Antalya and when it came we were so surprised by how pimped out it was. Both Ryan and I had never been on such a nice bus. It was a Mercedes and each seat had it's own personal TV screen/tablet so you could play games, watch movies, listen to music or plug in your own things to watch. There was also a bus host who poured us coffee or tea every few hours. We thought the bus was a direct bus, but turns out in Turkey that just means you don't need to change buses...