Turkey: gobble gobble

Hello all

Once again, a long overdue blog, way past the point of the event, but a country worthy of a blog, so here goes!

Well last time we left the blog we had trampled across the great land of Britain, and were jetsetting of to the conutry of Turkey, to discover some culture, and with some luck have a kebab or three.

Our first stop on the trip was the famous city of Istanbul, a majestic Muslim city that i think has just about shot up to number one on the highlight reel so far. It is an amazing feeling to wander around a city so ancient that it has seen many different dynasties, many different conquerers and was back drop to the all-time best Bond film.

The old city is full of amazing sites and it is humbling to walk between the two great mosques sofya, and the blue mosque, 1500 and 1000 years old. Our first stop was the Blue Mosque pictures below, and we were able (minus shoes) to view the inside aswell. After our visit across the road to Sofya the other great mosque, we scored it at; Blue Mosque better exterior, Sofya much better interior, and eventually had Sofya declared the winner on a points decision. Each mosque, Istanbul must have over a thousand, has their own prayer callers who below prayers at all hours of the clock (the first ones kick off at 5am) and they are amplified around the city at great volume. Unless woken up by them they truly lend the city a majestic magical spirit that is hard to find anywhere else in the world.

Istanbul is full of ancient roman ruins as well, built underneath the city during Roman times was a massive underground cistern for the cities water supply. No gondalas, and no underground submarine spying stations, but amazing all the same.

One of the major reasons we had come to Turkey was to visit the battlefields of Gallipoli, so soon we were off on the bus. And on a tour early the next day.

Gallipoli was an amazing experience, and its difficult to describe the feelings when walking around the sites. The site is much smaller than i could have ever believed. From the high position you can see almost the entire battle fields, and it is impossible to belive in the now quiet spot that over a million people fought and half a million turks and allied troops died on the peninsula. You cant help but get the overwhelming feeling of loss and waste when you visit, but also a feeling that nations were born out of the fighting that took place there for 9 months. The respect and friendship that Turks had for Australians on the battlefields and vica versa is still strongly felt, in the monuments and the friendship of the Turkish people today.

Whilst visiting the lone pine monument to Australians our guide was able to find several pieces of shrapnel and many bullet casings still lying on the grounds, after any rain he still finds them washed up to the surface, it really is a place that denies description, the contradictions between stories of sadness and courage are hard to describe...

From Gallipoli it was off on our first night bus in Turkey to the town of Ephesus for some ancient ruins via a small stop in Troy. Along our journey we have taken our share of night buses, and at first glance Turkeys night buses was ticking all of the boxes to becoming one of the best yet. A recent law passed in Turkey has seen their chain smoking population (everyone smokes about a pack a day minimum) disallowed to smoke on buses. Great news for travellers on buses who are now trying to kick their passive smoking habit. (Of course the driver and bus workers are still allowed to smoke) Whilst celebrating this stroke of luck we realised that after another all too frequent bus stop that the bus was making extra stops for the nicotine addicted crowds on board. Its not great trying to get to sleep on a bus that stops once an hour for breaks, but at every stop the bus gets washed. A troop of men come running to the bus with brooms with hoses attached (they are ideas men) and proceed to wash down the bus... Little sleep was had on buses we took throughout Turkey.

Ephesus a small village once a famous biblical town still retains many ruins from the Roman occupation. A stunning amphitheatre and Library still remain, and the main street is rumoured to have felt the feet of Apostles, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, and where for only 50 cents you can feel the wonderful atmosphere (another vivid reminder of why Australia is great.... keep your change in your pockets!) .... Unfortunately the town now only feels the feet of hordes of cruise ship passengers out for the day. The American crowds were a little hard to bear, but still an amazing day was had.

From Ephesus it was another sleepless overnight bus to Pamukkale, famous for trabertine cliffs of white calcium and bathing pools. Whilst suffering from drought and water restrictions seeing the pools reduced to bear minimum water the pools were still beautiful and a quick dip (up to my ankles) in the rejuinating miracle water was had. To protect the calcium baths you are not allowed to wear shoes on the calcium so you are forced to shred your feet to get to the pools. I fear whatever positive effects the water may have were nullfied by the sharp rocks, and i think the walk home on bloody stumps was proof. Pamukkale also housed its fair share of ruins also, ruins enthusiasts please contact for further details.

From Pamukkale it was to Capadocia, a volcanic region of Turkey with towering spires of soft stone that the original inhabitants were able to carve into to make houses. They lived this way in underground and cave cities for thousands of years, only emerging some twenty years ago, i assume because of poor television reception.

It was in this region that some parts of star wars was filmed, i got pretty excited until i realisd it was only episode 1....
Capadocia is also famous for the suni religion where a religous cult began many centuries ago whereby the subjects express their devotion to god by spinning around in a circle with one hand facing god and one hand facing the earth, spinning until they form a connection between the two while at the same time transcending place and time. Turkish touts have shown their devotion to money by packaging this spectacle with an all night drink-athon food, belly dancing extravaganza.... but i guess when in Turkey.....

It is fair to say that what started out as innocent fun, all went a bit pear shaped when our hotel owner (a wannabe aussie turkish man) took us on further to a pub. It is fair to say that copius amounts of raki (local turkish firewater), beer and the sheesha pipe (apple tobaco only) do not mix. I paid the price with a rat arse day following.

From capadocia it was back to Istanbul for a traditional turksih bath (hammam), where its hard to believe that the hands of a middle aged fat hairy turkish man could ever have felt so good. With some last minute bazaar wanderings, and eating as much baklava and as many kebabs as humanly possible, it was onto the airport and on with our journey. Turkey was absolutely amazing, and the Turkish people are by far the friendliest people we have met on our journeys. Taking delight in having a tea (you are invited to share with them constantly) is truly a special thing, they are curious and polite and a pleasure to be around.

Anyways, thanks for reading, i hope you got here and you were not redirected to a bible workshop page, (not sure why that is happening, in response to some of your questions, no i have not become a religous fanatic). Hope you are all well and i will be home to see most of you very soon. Crows fans, keep the faith, making draft error after error doesnt mean that we will keep doing it does it??

Take care

Brett

Never Mind the Bollocks

Hello all

Well with news that the blog readership has spread outside of just mum and dad (to a very few bored others) the weight of expectation and a stint travelling thru the more expensive countries of england and turkey has seen me reluctant to get to the blog... but here goes another monster installment....

The last blog left us in London floating merrily on the thames in my brothers new adapted houseboat living quarters.

Time here has been spent like most Londoners do, walking around areas better known from the monopoly board, giggling at such place names as cockfosters, reading daily news updates about maddy, diana and kate moss and most importantly trying not to snigger at the recent results of english sporting teams. (they have just failed to qualify for the euro cup 2008).

London has been a great city to visit, once again its funny to walk around a city that you have seen so much of and feels so familiar. I will put photos up but you have seen them all before no doubt.....

A few of the major highlights though have been a walk around Kew Gardens, gardens of her maj, a wander down around the thames, portobello road markets, and a visit to the Tate Modern gallery, a long time pin-up building of mine by suisse architects Herzog & De Mueron, a great gallery with a great collection. Other essentialy listed sights of London that we have managed to see below!

We also attended a service at St Pauls Cathedral, not a bad place to attend my first communion, and whilst i still consider myself a non religious man there was definitely a spirituality about the place... lets just hope that the spirits were looking the other way (like the guards) when carrie and i snuck in without paying. Many men would pay any price to find god, but the im sure they are not paying pounds when they only have aussie dollars.

We also visited the Tower of London, unfortunately for us the Beefeaters payed much more attention to guarding the gates than their cross town counterparts at St Pauls. But the price of admission was well worth it, as we we visited the impressive crown jewels (hee hee) and the more impressive armoury. We had a cracking tour aswell which really brought the place alive.

One major accomplishment (i wont call it a highlight) has been obtaining our indian visas, here at the Indian embassy. A simple routine we thought of popping our head in, flashing some cash and our passport and leaving with criteria fulfilled... we were soon told that we would need to que early the next morning, the earlier the better. Arriving at 7am the next morning (consulate opening time of 8:30) we believed we would secure an early place in line and would be soon stamped and on our way. Upon arrival we saw a massive line that i believed could only be a line up for a Kylie concert or a football wife perfume launch, but soon we realised that this was the line for the consulate, begrudgingly we took our place at the end of the que and were eventually seen many hours later, number 692 and 693. We were then informed that as we are Australians there is a lengthier procedure to sticking the sticker on the page and would therefore be required to pay more money and return later in the week to pick up our passports. Upon arriving a week later after more hours of queues, a triumphant victory for the Aussies with our passports returned (we had sincere doubts they wouldn't be) and a visa sticker within (the same type as the brits mind you). Three full days spent and all we have to show are a few happy snaps of the embassy and a 90 day visa. We are glad that we got to see this great part of London though, museums and galleries can wait for other visits. Once again we hope this isnt a sign of things to come in India.

It was not long after as we trundled around Trafalger Square that Carrie was accostered by yet another old Indian fellow that generally abused my skills as a photographer and told me that Carrie was a beautiful girl and she should pose for a beautiful photo, after some manipulations to the model he had Carrie posed, please see below. I think the man has a certain career waiting at Vogue magazine and have told him that he is wasting his efforts there at Traflagar. Once again a little to much attention directed towards Carrie and after the hotel in Barcelona we hope it is not a sign of things to come in India.

Scotty and Lorraine with a spare weekend in hand suggested hiring a car and with a brilliant deal and with Scott at the helm (displaying a talent for kerb mounting and cornering seen often from finnish rally drivers) we set out for a road trip across country to Wales, not sure why Wales was selected, and after returning we are still not sure why but we had a fantastic time and it was great to get outside of the city and see some English (and Wales) countryside and small villages.

Our first day on the road was spent getting out of London, no small task, and finding our way across the sevens to Cardiff via a small stop at Windsor Castle. Unfortunately no Queen in residence, so on we went. We arrived in Cardiff to the news that Welsh boxing hero Joe Calzaghe was fighting Dane Michael Kessler and that more importantly everyplace in the town was booked solid, so after a brief drive around we were off again to the nearby town of 'the mumbles' (the Welsh have a very peculiar sense of humour, best expressed through their language) where we were able to find some digs for the night and even watch the fight.

Our road trip the next day saw us return to Cardiff to have a look at the castle, indulge in the traditional devonshire tea (incidently everyone laughed at us for that one, here its just called scones and tea.... what do they know) and then take us north to the small town of Abergevvney and to one of the funnier B&B's we have ever seen. Enquiring about the price for a couple of rooms we ran across the owner an all together sweet looking old lady who soon shattered that image by letting loose a barrage of swearing that even made us a little red in the face. When having breakfast the next morning we were informed that we could have our eggs any way we wanted, poached, boiled, scrambled, fried or jammed up our arses if we wanted. All of this within ear shot of a 97 year old dear eating breakfast at an adjacent table, we noted that she had taken the boiled option for her eggs. She was a great old bird, certainly lots of fun and a reminder that one day senility will hit us all. From Wales it was high speed, break neck (and fender) driving from scotty, with choruses of 'its a rental from the back'. Stopping along the way saw us pay a quick visit to the Roman baths of Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.

Being old pros in the way of breaking into cathedrals we spied a back entrance to the cathedral and crept in to find that we had crashed a funeral that was being attended by the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. An apology and chat to the redcoat had him showing us around by the end of the ceremony, where we saw a splendid church and even received a hearty grin from the arch bishop. All said and done, besite a scraped fender it was a terrific trip across some amazing countryside, i cant imagine a prettier country to be in with the falling autumn leaves.

Well with our time in London almost spent the last stop was to visit the Camden markets, home to a few interesting characters, it was here that i have learnt that you should never trust a polish man handing out £6 haircuts in a dodgy shop in Camden.... The lawsuit is progressing, and i will try and keep my face of the next few blogs although in fairness Michaelangelo didnt carve david out of concrete...

Despite all of the magnificent sites, museums and architecture the great thing about being here has been seeing friends and family over a pint or two of bad beer, and sad to say friends i have downed more fosters in the past month than the entire consumption within Australia for the last year... i guess it really does taste better over here, or maybe its just the best of a bad lot. But the pubs and pub culture here is fantastic. There is a pub on every corner, and lots in between for those that cant walk that far. So it is sad to leave but the show must go on....

Anyways.... take care, we are currently back in London after a 2 week stint in Turkey, which i hope to write about pretty soon! Send us an email if you get the chance. In the meantime please help us support the 'Name Your Child Bruce' campaign by emailing Craig Holly at onbigboost@hotmail.com to ask that he and Kate name their first child Bruce.

Cheers

Brett and Carrie

All Alrighty, Here in Ol' Blighty!

Hello all

Once again time for another blog, this one at superspeed, as we have now crossed the divide between cheap continents and expensive ones! Doing the conversion from pounds to aussie dollars brings tears to the eyes!

Well the last time we had left the blog had carrie and i preparing for our ferry journey around the bottom of Chile.... for someone with a susceptible tummy and a poor track on high oceans i was a little scepticle about the 4 day 'jaunt' in close proximity to the dreaded horn, so stocked up well with dramamine, and nearly enough booze to sink a ship carrie and i were off, with rachel our newly adopted mate in tow and clambered on board.

Its fair to say that the 280 berth converted cargo vessel felt a little empty with only 26 of us passengers onboard. And we have now discovered the easiest job in the world. Being a bartender on a ship that allows you to bring your own grog. The barman dutifully manned the bar from 10am until 12 midnight each day to sit back and watch all passengers get slaughtered on their own stocks. At final count we tallied that he had sold 5 beers for the trip, not bad for 4 days work.

The boat trip takes through the many 'squiggly' bits on the map down in southern chile, past some spectacular glacier country, and many more snow capped mountains. The journey is spectacular, and the weather we had was great too, so for four lazy days we sat back, sipped, quaffed and oggled at the beautiful mountains and just generally relaxed. Pleasing to say there was only one vomit on the trip, and im not even sure that it could be attributed to the rocky seas....

With massive hangovers and jelly-sea dog-legs we departed the boat at Puerto Montt, a small port village in Chile and headed straight back over the border back into Argentina to the ski town resort of Bariloche. Bariloche originally founded by a settlement of swiss migrants is now full of holiday makers, but the swiss were good enough to leave behind their chocolate shops and ski lifts. Carrie and i had not had the chance to do any skiing over here and jumped at the chance to get out on the second to last day of the season, it wasnt until we arrived at the slopes, skis at hand, did we realise that most stuff had been closed down. After a few runs down the begginer slopes we thought it was high time to get out onto the green runs (good for rookies on their first day of skiing) but were told that all of the green runs were closed and only blue and black were functioning, having not used any of our travel insurance up to date, we thought it was high time to risk the blues, thinking they wouldnt be too difficult .... well carrie swooshed off down the hill with no problems.... I made it down, eventually but long after they had closed the top ski lifts, so it was an angry man that followed me down enquiring in curt spanish if this was my first day, yep i replied, well maybe try your runs a bit earleir in the day was his retort, it didnt improve my mood much as i toboggoned down the hill on my arse, but anyways it was still a fun day in a beautiful setting, but i think earlier in the season might have been a better bet in the future for first time skiers...




From Bariloche we travelled to the wine town of Mendoza in Argentina where hiring a bike and riding to the various vineyards was definitely a great way to kill a day or two... Mendoza was also the scene of the only problems we have come close too in regards to personal security on our travels thus far... I had earlier been lamenting the fact that we hadnt had an authentic South American experience as no-one had kidnapped us, robbed us at gunpoint or even had the decency to give us a good pickpocketing. But whilst strolling through the markets in Mendoza and waiting for the lights to change i felt a slight tug on my bag, and noticed a shifty looking Argentine woman then walk past me, after a quick inspection of my bag found that it was half undone, and after finding no things missing i followed the woman down the street, and found her pulling off her best Maxwell Smart face pretending not to notice me while doing some window shopping, i noticed that she was both female and smaller than me, so my courage was high, and proceeded to give her a verbal barrage that crossed all language barriers, she fled the scene none the worse, and we both left the street with another story to tell.


From the crime ladden streets of Mendoza, our time in Argentina was up, and we travelled west back into Chile. The road across the Andes was spectacular, and dsespite the hours wasted at the border corssing it was an amzing journey. One part of the road cuts across a mountain so steep they decided the only way to get up was to add a number of switchbacks.... all up 23, a spectacular sight seeing trucks winding up this hill at around 10km/h past all of the hairpin bends.

Slightly dizzy, it was straight to Val Paraiso, yet another city i had dreamed of visiting since i was young. A world heritage listed city, built on steep hills around a busy beautiful harbour. To combat the steep hills at the turn of the century to the city built ascensors (cable cars on tracks) to lift you up the hill. The result is a stunning city, that is great to get around, filled with artists and some of the best street murals (graffitti) i have ever seen, and a new city to add to the list of (always growing) favourites.

From Val Paraiso it was off to Santiago for our final night in South America. Walking around the massive hostel we saw that behind the empty swimming pool there was a large cricket net, after a few questions to the staff we were provided with full equipment and carrie and i headed into the net to get my preseason training underway for season 2007/08. Carrie provided little competition with the bat as i ripped a few fast deliveries past her nose and then with memories of batting against dad in the back yard when i was a young tacker i belted carries bowling all around the nets and retired to the chairs to drink a well earned beer or three.

A little later in the night i noticed some activity in the nets and wandered over to have a look, and was informed that it was the official training session if the ICC (international cricket committee) Chilean Cricket Team. I asked to have a bowl and was soon steaming in to bowl at the leading lights of Chile cricket, ie expat Aussies who have lived the mandotary time in Chile to represent at international level. After a few overs (wearing jeans and dress shoes) i was asked to play on the upcoming Sunday in a local match, and that if i had a spare couple of years would i mind living in Chile so i could qualify for future tournaments. It was a tempting offer, i have always dreamed of representing a country in some sort of sporting event so it was with a bit of reluctance (but much patriotism) that i declined their offer. Playing for Chile just wouldn't be right, I am an Australian. And while my international cricket career for Australia is looking less and less likely i dont feel it is right to turn my back on it just yet. But it s good to know that should all else fail, the life of an international sporting superstar could still be on the cards.

Well from Chile it was off to London, for a catchup with friends and family, via a small detour in Barcelona for some Gaudi filled days of architecture, great food and wine. Barcelona is yet another great city, where Gaudi, an unconvential architect is held up as a national hero (as they all should be). First stop on the tourist circuit is his Casa Bastillo, a refurbishment of a traditional appartment building. I will stop boring the non archies out there and cut the blog short by saying that it was pretty speccy and will let the photos do the talking. Also visited were the church of Segrada Familia, still under construction after 130 years, reminds me of a few builders at home eh Paul?(again just check the photos), Richard Meir's Museum of Contemporary Art, The Barcelona Pavillion by Mies Van Der Rohe, Park Guiell and the 1992 Olympic Stadium. And despite a few unpleasant attempted 'massaging' incidents with Carrie and our Indian housekeepers (that we hope is not a sign of things to come in India) Barcelona was a great city and a great place to spend a couple of days!

Well the time has come, we have had enough of good food, sun and beautiful wine, that sort of lifestyle gets a bit tiresome, so we have headed here to London for grey murky drizzle, stodgy food, and warm foamy pints of brown ale. But already it has been great to catch up with Scotty and Lorraine who met us at the airport and have put us up in some cracking accomodation in a great area right on the river thames..... literally. So once again the susceptible seasickness will be tested again as we live on a converted boat floating on the thames, so far so good!

Well cheerio to all, good luck to the wineflies, my preseason has never looked better, ready to go early next year!

Take care all, drop us an email when you get the chance,

Brett and Carrie