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Enron Mail |
Well, my holiday has almost ended and it has been both enjoyable and
memorable. I have met so many cool people over here, and seen so many awesome places. Since the time of my last writing, I spent five days sailing around the Mediterranean with six other auzzies and kiwis. The boat wasn't very full, and we had four crew members to ensure the seven of us were adequately fed and rested. Morning started with breakfast, and was followed by long spells of sleeping, reading and swimming. It reminded me alot of Torys cabin, except I didn't have to cook or clean the dishes (Tory, work on it...). It was difficult to get off the boat, and the group spent several days afterwards laying around and doing next to nothing to ease ourselves back into the real world. After the sailing, we spent four days in this awesome little town called Fethiye, and visited places such as the blue lagoon and hiked up to a waterfall in the Valley of the Butterflys. We also went to a hike in this gorge, that was completely incredible. At this point in the holiday, I was quite happy for the lax safety standards over here, because we climbed up many places in the gorge using nothing but the old ropes that someone had conveniently tied in place. In one spot, we even had to climb vertically up a rope through a small waterfall! I was quite pumped to head to this place called Olympos, where they have these treehouses to sleep in, but let the others go a day ahead while I finished my stuff in Fethiye. When I got to Olympos, there wasn't much to do and one of the guys was pretty sick, so I only stayed the evening, and we carried on to the next place. In hindsight, my decision to arrive late and leave early was a good one, because I was the only one of the seven who didn't end up getting really ill, whew! We spent several days in this quant little village in the middle of the country, waiting for everyone to get better to travel, then headed to this place called Cappadocia, where they have these awesome hoodoo type rocks everywhere. After arriving, I went exploring some really old churches carved into these rocks with a couple of girls from the hostel. On the way home, we decided that hitchin would be easier than waiting for the bus, and met some really nice turkish men who were looking for a couple of nice women. After several detours and a long journey, we were able to talk them into taking us back into town! Last time I hitchhike in Turkey. The next day, I headed off to explore the valley with the group of people from the sailboat. We got lost for a while, and found an awesome house carved into this rock (kinda like a cavehouse). It was many stories high, and we went exploring and ended up on the roof of the house, which was at the top of the valley. I also got to sleep in one of these caves at the pansion where I was staying, which was quite a treat considering the caves are quite cool, and it was smoking hot outside! The next day, we went to take a tour that we had arranged through another hotel, and ended up getting pulled over by the Jandarma (Turkeys version of the special police force). Turns out that our guide wasn't certified, and that we weren't supposed to be with him. After a while of waiting, and some discussion, we were driven back to town and refunded our money. We ended up finding another guide, and toured an underground city, saw some thousand year old churches, and saw where they filmed some scenes of the first starwars. Our final day in Cappadocia, and one I will never forget, was quite scary. After a long hard night of partying in the Flintstones Cave Bar for my sendoff party (the others were going another direction and I was heading to Istanbul), we got up and decided to go for a hike down this place called the pigeon valley. There were five of us, including two other auzzies that we had met the day before (four girls and one guy). We hiked down this valley, and ended up coming to a very steep section that we had to climb down. It wasn't very safe, and we were all pretty worried, but figured it was the only way down. The girl was crouching on this thin trail, and slipped. She ended up sliding down this rocky/sandy slope about twenty five feet on her belly, and managed to stop herself on the edge of a thirty foot cliff, all while the rest of us watched in horror. A turkish guide had just shown up before she slipped, and he helped to get her back up an to safety. Myself and another guy ended up climbing back up the rest of the cliff (we were only partway down), and found another turkish guide who led us down an easier way. She was pretty shaken up, and had taken all of the skin off her elbows, knees, and finger tips (trying to gain a hold). We got her back to town and spent several hours cleaning her up. The two of them then came with me to Istanbul, and hopped on a plane back to London. Very crazy! The last couple of days I have been in Istanbul, and have seen the Royal palace, several really old mosques, and some amazing jewels (if you like 86 carat diamonds), and the bones of St. John the Baptiste. I am going to tour again tomorrow, and maybe shop a little, then head back home to Calgary. Will see you all then! Take Care! Jeff _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
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