Day 34 Napoli, Italy

Ok, we left Athens the day after arriving, but we still had time to see the Acropolis and the other olden day stuff. It was neato. If you like ruins and you like the Romans and/or the ancient Greeks, then this is the place for you. It seems that Turkey wins for sheer numbers of ruins. Anyway, we took a train to Patra and then caught yet another overnight ferry to Bari (Italy). Then we took a train from Bari to Naples. Then we stopped. But not before we had the best pizza in Naples just around the corner from the hostel. It cost around 4 Euro and was as big as Micks head (ie very large indeed). It was so large that it actually lay on the table more than the plate. We were going to go the worlds best pizza place, but this was a parodoxical juxtaposition with regards to the irony of the previous statement (i dont know what it means either, but i heard it from a guy sitting next to us at a cafe, and he looked clever).

Anyway, after a good nights rest in the worlds creepiest hostel, in regards to the personel, we managed to get over to Pompeii. This was full of, you guessed it, ruins. Roman ruins, which seem to be the best, to be precise. The story goes, if youve been living under a ruin rock, was that Mt Vesuvious spewed lava and the like all over the Pompeii geezers. The end. Cue people looking at the ruins 2000 years later. The we went home.

Today we went to Capri (not the car silly, the island). Pretty good if you like islands and swimming and that. Most overpriced place ever. Saw some caves. They were different colours

Note about Italian driving: Drive as fast as possible, ignore traffic lights (they are a suggestion only), and pack as many people as possible on aforementioned speeding scooter. Anyone who has been to Italy will know how insane they drive. Tommorow we go the Amalfi coast.

Right, again, this computer is running a DEC 11 assembler instead of an operating system, so i wont be able to put pictures up, maybe next time. Thats all for today.

Day...err...lots

Got into Athens at 6am this morning. We have already been to see the Acropolis in the heat of the afternoon and it almost killed us. Anyway it had to be done as we're on another overnight ferry to Italy tomorrow. I am starting to get used to intermmitent (sp) sleep now anyway, so i wouldn't know what to do if i had a bed (settle down...saucy)!

If i ever get time i will actually put some more pics up as well.

Santorini still

Tried to put some pics on today, but this Amstrad is rooted. Try again later. Anyway, down to the beach to get some rays etc.

Fairys and Ferrys

Got the ferry to Mykonos today. It turned up around 2 hours late which is apparently normal, and then took around 5 hours. Mykonos is the gay capital of Europe, not that i would know, and not that there's anything wrong with that. We have decided not to stay in Mykonos so we're getting an overnight ferry to Santorini (yes, we're getting used to the overnighters...sort of)

Day 24 Samos Greece

Hired a scooter today and took a jaunt around the island. Off to Mykonos tomorrow and then onto Paros and then Santorini. The end.

We're alright in Greece

We just heard that a bomb went off in Kusadasi about a hour after we left on the ferry. We're currently in Samos (Greece) so we're alright. Apparently it was a Kurdish seperatist suicide bomber. They seem to be a fairly regular occurence in Turkey.

This whole 'escaping the bomb thing' is getting boring...

More about our actual trip later.

Ballooning in Goreme

We got back from the Mt Nemret tour yesterday and went to a Turkish night which included much dancing and the like. We got home at about 12am and had about 4 hours sleep before we jumped into a balloon for an early morning jaunt over Goreme and Cappadocia.

Hey is that bags under your eyes? No its the balloons ahahahahahahahaha...

Anyway, we're off on another overnight bus to Kusadasi tonight. Ultimate fun.

Goreme onwards

Ok, everything went alright with the overnighter to Goreme (Cappadocia) if you call getting no sleep for a million hours alright. Anyway after arriving at 7am we decided to continue our punishing schedule by going on a all day tour of the area. First stop, the underground city where olden day dudes lived to escape from other olden day dudes, when those olden day dudes tried to give the other olden day dudes wedgeys...understand? Good.


Here is Indiana Bacchus discovering that the olden day dudes had light bulbs waaaay before that geezer Edison.

Anyway we saw some other stuff including a place which supposedly resembles star wars...NOT where they actually filmed it. I quizzed the guide who informed me that he had not seen star wars, but was pretty sure it was episode 4. Presumably its supposed to be Tattooine...you be the judge.

The next day, to continue the punishment we started a 3 day tour of Mt Nemret.

Here is a picture of some of the local serfs working hard for their lord and master, Batman. The End.

Our driver, Smokin Joe, was born on the streets, went to the school of hard knocks and continued to the University of Life. Needless to say, driving on the wrong side of the road most of the the 3 days was a challenge Joe needed to pursue...in his own time would have been nice, as i only had 1 pair of brown trousers on the journey.

This is the hunk-o-man that is Smokin Joe (left) and his bitch (tour guide).

To get to Mt Nemret for dawn (apparently this is the thing to do) we had to get up at 2.30am, i am not joking. I'm still deciding if it was worth it. There were some statues and stuff which appear to look at the rising sun. Quite good. It was bloody freezing as well.

We went to a place where you could dress up a starving local peasant...hilarious

Here is Tham, a spanish girl i can't remember, and our friend Leanne... all having a whale of a time.

Out of here

Well we did canyoning today, slightly dodgy in a turkish kind of way, but great anyway. No broken bones reported so i suppose we can be thank islamic Fonzie for something...

We are leaving Olympos tonight on an overnight bus to Cappadocia...wicked!

Just a bit more info on the Gulet before we get on the hell bus from hell. Captain Snooze was called that because basically he slept all the time that he wasn't actually driving the boat. This amounted to around 20 hours. I asked a doctor on board, (orthapedic surgeon) if this was physically possible...he said no and that he should be dead. I suggested that he may be a zombie. He said yes, possibly. The Apprentice actually did all the work, and Jenks took all the credit.

Thats all for now

Survival of the fittest in Olympos

Ok, got off the gulet 2 days ago, and only managed to get on to the super-hi web now via a 2400 baud commodore 64 modem. Needless to say that there won't be any uploading of pics today.

Anyway, the trip aboard the goodship SS StraightToTheBottom, was relatively uneventful except for the first 24 hours when hurricane Mustafa hit the Med and we experienced 3-4 metre swells. Much spewing was done by most, except me and crew (Captain Snooze, Jenks and the Apprentice). We survived to continue lots of lazing around on the bost, and jumping off large sharp rocks.

First night back on shore was spent at Kadirs Treehouse hostel in Olympos (not Olympus in Greece...der)...sounds intriguing but in fact is the most expensive overpriced, crappy hostels we've stayed in todate. If you find sleeping in a boiling hot cubby built by 5 year olds, whilst listening to hardcore trance music til 4.30am fantastic then this is the place for you. Bad. We are now staying at Bayams just up the road. Good.

Heard about the London bombings, we have BBC World here. Pretty scary considering 3 weeks ago i would have been changing lines at Kings Cross myself...
We were on the beach yesterday and a Turkish news crew came up to us for an interview because we lived in London. We didn't manage to catch it on the news last night, but i'm sure we were fantastic.

Today i went down the beach, and i jumped off a big rock and cut my foot. This will bring to mind the infamous incident of '99 where i jumped a couple of metres off a cliff onto oysters requiring an emergency dash to the hospital and several stitches (video available on request). Oh the hilarity. Anyway this is no where near as bad but it definately stings...a lot.

Tomorrow we're off for a spot of cayoning...hopefully there will more rocks to jump off, but less oysters.

Keep the comments coming i enjoy reading them.

as you were

Out of touch, you're out of touch etc

Tomorrow we'll be getting on a gulet, which is a fancy turkish way of saying boat, for 4 days so there will be no updates til we get to Olympos...lucky you.

ps can someone please write some comments, it feels like no one ıs reading this crap...

Just another day in Turkey...

Today, we went on a bus from Fethiye to Oludeniz, home of the British masses...apparently. Anyway, Tham took a little trip off a cliff via a paraglide parachute. She was about to die but was saved when she landed on a group of lobster red sunburnt Brits eating egg and chips...yayyyy the day was saved

Here she is waiting to go to the mountain...what you can't see is that she is wearing brown trousers...

Like kangaroos on George St Sydney, so too, goats on main street Turkey

This is Mr 'Yes Please'...currently listed in the guiness book of records for the 'most number of yes please's said ın 1 hour without dying of an embolism'



Here is the food that Mr YesPlease sold us...

Update of pic

'Do you like, my friend? Real copy magic carpet...for you, 1 trillion Lira only'


Practising my 'Dutch' look from 'Predator'.....arrrrrghhh, take that alien predator guy, now i'm the predator, muhahaha (actual photo: mud bath in Sultaniye hot springs)

A turtle at Turtle Island...there's an interesting story about how this island got its name...not!
Anyway, this turtle, like all Turks, loves a crafty puff every now and then...


Sampling the delights of the calcium terraces at Pamukkale...it is said that drinkıng the water here will gıve you the smile of 1000 Donny Osmonds...whatever

The lovely couple enjoyıng a timeout in front of the ampitheatre in ephesus...Celine Dion has sung here...wicked!

Celsus library in Ephesus, 3rd largest at the time, Alexandria was the biggest.

Ye olde dunny can, complete with ye olde dumper (location Ephesus)...i'm reliably informed that this toilet dates from Roman times (what did the Romans ever do for us, i hear you cry...well, dunnys for one)


The ancient wooden horse from Troy...complete with warrior tourists

Fethiye

Currently in Fethiye, will update more when i have tıme...

Pics of previous days

From Day 1: İnside the Blue Mosque ın Istanbul.

The beach and the cliff the Anzacs had to clımb at Galıpolli