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
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