Tuscany!!!!!

This place is awesome!!!!! Siena has the most amazing duamo (cathedral) that is so overwhelming I don't really know how to describe it! Amazing! And wandering the old streets ..... seeing the churches, seeing il campo (big shell shaped central plaza), watching the Itailians ...... I can't believe that I am lucky enough to be here!!! I think that if anyone is coming to Italy I am going to tell them that this is a must must must see :) We took bikes out over the hills and were surrounded by Tuscan country side! Lying in the hay at the top of a hill watching the lightening in the distance, picture perfect scenary in every direction! Wow, wow, wow .......

ITALIA!

Ciao Italia! Ti amo!

Back in the land of food, vino and the most wonderful friendly people! Started off with an awesome night on the ferry with a group of Italian families that had been touring around Greece on motorcycles :) We had some brilliant broken Italian / broken English conversations and heaps of fun and laughs :)


Pompei was the first point of call. The wild dogs were still there and waiting to follow us all the way from the train station to the hotel. I was sure that I could remember where the hostel was from last time and given it was 10pm and dark I was hoping that I really could! Turns out that I was walking up and down the right street but the hostel closed 2 years ago! Opps :)

After Pompei the south called, so off to Sorento ...... Ravioli della Sorrenttina, the local specialty, is soooooo delicious!!!! Sorento is very lively, a bit touristy, but Italian tourists, and it is so good to be back in this country! It has an awesome night swimming beach, impressive views and a wicked Italian night atmosphere :)

One of the days down south we headed to Capri ...... it was my birthday so we splashed out and hired a wee motor boat for the day and cruised around the grottos. Exploring the island from the water was an amazing adventure! Boating followed by an amazing meal overlooking an amazing view, lemoncello tasting and another scrumcious dinner made it a birthday to remember!!!!

The Amalfi coast is stunning, Mt Vesuvius was a climb and a view and Roma was as grand as ever :)

Greece :)

Greece is just an hour from Turkey and wow back into the Western world! My first impression was that no one wears many clothes here (coming from a couple of months in Musilum countries it was a shock!) but then the lifestyle sunk in and it is a wicked country! Athens was extremely overcrowded, hot but impressive. When I woke up on the overnight ferry, got off and asked for directions to the city centre I was told that I wasn't in Athens by a port worker who dared to joke with an extremely overtired, smelly and hungry kiwi! It was a laugh after I got over the initial shock and realised he was joking!

Santorini is one of the most amazing places that I have been to. The views are stunning, the people are friendly, lifestyle relaxed, temperature hot but lots of beaches and pools! Stayed at a cute wee hotel with a swimming pool and a very friendly old man who was so nice and helpful even though he only spoke a handful of english words. We hired a car and drove around the island exploring all the beaches and points before heading up to the top point to watch the sunset. Included in the explorations of Oia a meal that easily makes my top 5 meals ever. We sat on a balcony overhanging Santorini with all the white buildings surrounding us and the most amazing food!

The second magical day in Santorini involved running - first run since London - perfect temp in the early morning (well at least under 30), walking up the volcano (and starting to think that the run would have been better if I hadn't got lost and run an extra couple of k's!) and a swim in the hot sulphur water from the volcano. Perfect day :)

I am looking forward to getting back to a kitchen and trying some of the food that we have eaten over here! The greek salads are devine and they make these amazing coffee frappe which are very addictive and scrumcious!

Bye Bye Greece ............. Ciao Italia!

Bye Bye Turkey

Bits and Bobs of Turkey:

Turkish Delight - yum yum especailly the stuff from the place that won second best in Turkey!!!! so yummy! Thanks for helping me eat it on the beach guys!

No headscarfs - They are banned in Turkey but there are still a few people in them. It was so strange seeing ladies with hair exposed!

Bus Boys - They walk up and down the bus and give you free food and drink during the trip ..... I like them except when they wake you up on an overnight bus about 3am and ask if you would like a coffee ..... ok I am having trouble staying away but that is probably because I am sleeping!

Bread - bread and more bread! So good! and free with every meal. What you don't want bread, there must be something wrong with you .... how do these people not gain tonnes and tonnes of weight?

Tourists - Ah who let the tourists in? Istanbul was full of them, had to head south to escape :) Much better away from the crowds ..... plus some of them haven't seen the tip top undies/togs ad :)

Big - it's huge, ah the overnight buses .......

Treehouses - oh yeah, these rock! The south of Turkey on the mediterrain is gorgeous, add some tree houses and it's an experience not to be forgotten!

Eyes - the evil eye watches you from everywhere warding off any evil or bad doing ...... don't worry I bought a supply to bring back to NZ :)

Apple Tea - yum yum yum and a bottle of rum

Kebabs - hmmm there seems to be a lot of food talk going on ..... yum!

Oi Oi Olympos

I made it down the Turkish coast and back! Olympos is a hidden little place about 1 hour from Antalya at the bottom of Turkey :) The last few days have been full of treehouses, beaches, bars, swimming, fun and wicked evenings with amazing people! Was great to chill out a bit and stay in one place for awhile. The beach was idyllic and full of ancient town ruins. I learnt how to play Makyla (sp?) (the one with all the piles of stones) on the beach, jumped off rocks and swam swam swam :) Didn't want to leave!

Plus I learnt how to rock climb! It was awesome, totally hooked in now .... I think that the first climbs were grade 5A climbs (doesn't mean that much to me yet) which was a bit of a challenge but overall pretty straight forward. The second lot was a grade 6A (I think) and it was more challenging and heaps of fun :)

It was so good to be doing active stuff again! We did a big sea swim that had us searching for caves [maybe just around the next rock] for a couple of hours and didn't come across any! But wicked swim and awesome scenery, really clear water - didn't see many fish but there were a couple of schools of small fish. Am looking forward to being able to wear shorts and tshirts and run in Greece (although with the current temperatures it looks like I will be doing some early morning starts!)

Can't believe it is snowing so much in Christchurch! Wrap up warm! I miss everyone in NZ! Lots and lots of hugs coming your way! ooxx

Gallipoli and Ephesus

It's hot! I think it gets hotter everyday but not sure, maybe my body is just getting sick of being so hot all the time! :)

[you have to excuse if this post goes all over the show..... way too hot to think!]

We've been making our way down the west coast. It's great to be away from the main tourist crowds though and back into the real Turkey :) Gallipoli was as moving as last time, seeing the coast and hearing the history. It's hard to imagine now that there was a war there but the place does have a somber vibe to it. It's impossible to describe the emotions that you feel when visiting here.

We wandered around Ephesus today and marvelled at the marble streets, theatres and the impressive remains of the library. Strangely enough we ran into the Canadian guy who we travelled part of Syria with and a South African couple who we met in Cappadocia, it's a small country of travellers :)

We've been trying a lot of the Turkish ice cream in attempt to keep our body temperatures down ... very important! It's a cross between Gelato and NZ ice cream and very yummy. We also had to go through a very trying experience of sampling Turkish delight from the shop that won the second best Turkish delight shop in Turkey! Such hardship .... although I have to admit that the novelty of so much bread and sweet food is beginning to wear off! I can't wait to Greece to dig into salads!! And I'd give anything for some fresh sushi! Hmmm I think I'm getting hungry again, must be nearly dinner time :)

It's my last day with Beth today. She's heading across to Greece early in the morning and I'm going to continue exploring down the Turkish coast this evening. Have had a great trip travelling with her, not sure what's going to happen at meal times now because she's been a very efficient rubbish bin :) Might bump into her again in Greece in a week or so but otherwise best of luck with the rest of your trip Bethie!! Have fun, watch out for those steps and try and wake up if someone comes into the room!

Istanbul

Istanbul has way too many tourists!!!! I've been so spoilt on the rest of the trip so far to have hardly any tourists around. In Syria it was quite exciting to spot another tourist! Istanbul is chocker block with tourists dressed inappropriately, someone should explain to them that this is a Muslim country and the reason that they are getting hassled so much is because you can see their knees and down their tops :) But on the bright side it attracts the attention away from us for once which is a nice relief!

The blue mosque was amazing (I didn't get to see inside last time) it had thousands and thousands of blue tiles on the walls in the inside and was the biggest mosque that we have seen so far. Aya Sofya was also really impressive (they making a striking pair side by side) and it's fascinating that it used to be a church which they converted into a mosque. There are still golden mosaics of Jesus and his disciples inside which are in good condition and although it's a mosque, they don't look out of place :)

The grand bizarre was like a cleaner/modern version of the Seouqs in Syria. Wandering the alleyways is a bit like something out of a comic, we are getting the classic "hello, would you like to spend some money in my shop?" and "where are you from? ah, kiwis" :) I picked up a belly dancer costume for fancy dress ..... lol, can someone please have a "B" party? and some new tshirts so that I'm a bit more presentable now that I might be heading back into the Western world soon!

The Turkish spirit is alive over here! The semi final of the Euro cup was shown on every tv screen possible and everyone donned Turkey tops (me included) and settled in to watch the match. There were fireworks on the street, tables pulled out to the street, big screens set up. The Turks were still celebrating their goal when the Germans scored theirs and you could have heard a pin drop in the stunned silence! It's a pity that they didn't win because it would have been an experience to be in the country if they were in the final!

We spent a day wondering the Tapkapi palace and marveling at the views over the Bosphorus, the luxurious surroundings and the amazing jewel collections. I'm a fan of the spoon makers diamond which is a 86 carrot diamond which rumour has it was recovered from the rubbish heap and sold for three spoons :) I'd be more than willing to buy three spoons to swap for it :)

We ventured underground to the cistern in search of cooler temperatures and impressive architecture. It's amazing that the Romans could construct something that big underground and it's still standing and holding a lot (!) of buildings on top of it now.

The Grand Bizarre was once again calling for our presence in the evening and we wandering the alleyways before heading across to Beyoğlu for dinner. Beyoğlu is the hip area for younger Turkish people to hang out. We went to a restaurant that we had been told about that was not signed and was on the 6th floor overlooking the street. The place was packed with Turkish people and no tourists (yay) and had the most amazing meals. We headed back again for dinner the next night too!

Our last day in Istanbul consisted of a trip to a traditional Hamam (Turkish bath). We were given little towels told to strip and then taken into the steam room. First we bathed in the water and then were lead into another room with marble slab tables where we were scrubbed clean (including hair wash) and covered in bubbles and given a massage! Bliss! Was a definite must do and great to feel totally clean again! Am looking forward to the next one :) We were so relaxed after the bath that we just wandered the back streets and visited the Spice Bizarre before grabbing an early dinner and calling it a day :)

We jumped on the bus and heading South down the coast to Çanakkale and the Gallipoli Peninsular ............. TBC :)

Cappadocıa ........ and star wars :)

Back in Cappadocia :) This place is just as impressive as last time! We have spent the last few days exploring the amazing rock formations and valleys surrounding Goreme. It's magical to wake up and look out over the rock caves and be able to wander in any direction and see so many different types. We've seen caves, fairy chimneys, honeycomb cliffs, Rose valley, Pigeon valley........ so much to see and explore :) Just like a scene out of star wars, the rumour around here is that they did film some of it here but no one really knows!


We spent a day at the Goreme open air museum which was full of churches, chapels and monasteries with amazing frescoes in some of them. You could almost visualise what some of the churches would have been like and the main chapel was pretty impressive in terms of the size (dug into the rock) and frescoes.

We did a hot air balloon ride early one morning and saw amazing views of Cappadocia from above. Not to forget the crash landing at the end when the wind picked up and we ended up landing on the side of the basket and dragging along in the dust for a good 500m or so! Added to the adventure :)


Yesterday I hired a scooter with two guys from the hostel and we cruised around the valleys on them. All good considering that I'd never been on a scooter before and the guy who hired them to us showed me how to start it and then said you'll be fine :) Was so much fun though and we went up into a valley that we thought was the love valley (lol, great navigation skills!), the love valley, an ancient city on the end of a cliff and just enjoying the scenery as we cruised around. In the afternoon we hung out with a really cool bunch of people at the hostel before grabbing some food and jumping on the overnight bus to Istanbul ...... back to the big city looking forward to seeing how much it has changed :)

Ready set Turkey!

We made it to Turkey! It was again another huge change in surroundings when we crossed from the Syrian border into Turkey, plus we ended up smuggling cigarettes in for the Turkısh driver :) Straight away there was so much (compared to nothing!) green and everything is so modern (comparatively), organised, tidy and different, I miss the vibrant Syria!


We spent the first morning here in Antakya - it was so hot (hottest so far!) so we camped out in the mosaics museum for awhile and then cafe hopped while we waited for the bus. We caught an overnight bus to Malatya where we managed to work out how to get to Mt Nemrut. And then we were off. We had a trip up the mountain to a very small hotel to drop off our bags and then onto the summit.

On the summit of Mt Nemrut is a memorial sanctuary of a Commangene King. There were amazing gigantic statues of gods and kings! All of the heads had fallen off the statues during earthquakes over the years but they were all sitting in front of the bases :) Pretty impressive and we watched a gorgeous sunrise over the statues before heading down to the hotel.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and trekked back up the mountain to watch the sunrise. The mountains over here are really pretty and even impressive at that time of the morning (the sun rises here about 5am) after 40 hours of no sleep the day before (ıt has to be pretty impressive to achieve that!) :)

After a very long bus ride through hours and hours of wheat flields (they like their bread over here) we made it into the wonderful world of Cappadocia. So after a whirlwind trip up from Syria we are in the middle of another world ....... yay, now to explore :)

Farewell Syria :)

The wonderful world of Syrian phases that we have heard over and over ......

"Welcome" ....... thousands of times!
"You have beautiful eyes" .......... um, thanks, and no I don't want to buy another headscarf, sorry!
"Where are you from, ah Kiwis, Kiwis are very beautiful" ......... they must be referring to the country :P
"Tea?" ......... thank you but no, I am already rather warm :)

"Come into my shop" ....... I would but you only sell sweets, but OK, if you want me too :)

"Smoke? No?! You don't smoke?!" ......... shock horror, how could one not want to smoke when everyone else does continuously.

Exploring Syria ....

Wow wow wow :) Syria is such a fascinating country. I think that it's taken awhile to get past the images that the media puts out about countries like this but it's definitely nothing like the way we see it at all. Everyone is so friendly, welcoming and accepting and it's a great country to travel around :) We've been out exploring away from the main cities for the last few days and it's been an adventure .....

We starting off making our way by bus up to Palmyra which has a whole city of rose rock ruins of an old roman/greek civilization and a big castle on the hill top overlooking the ruins and the town. We explored the main ruins in the afternoon sun and then went up to the castle (I wouldn't mind having one like this) to watch the sun set which was beautiful and it must be one of the better places in the world to watch the sunset from :)

We were up early the next morning (we were going to watch the sunrise but slept through it, opps!!) and went out into the desert surrounding the ruins to poke around the tomb towers. They are the only tombs in the world that are marked by towers and two of them were in pretty good condition so we got a feel for what they were like. It was an impressive backdrop with the barren hill covered with remains of towers. We trekked back into town and after falafels and hummus ...... yep still eating them, although I've now discovered the traditional sandwiches (which Beth unfortunately can't eat) so there's always a toss up at dinner time now .... jumped on the bus to Homs and then onto Hamas.

The next day we were up early again and backtracked a little to Crac des Chevaliers which is an impressive crusaders castle. Bruno (a French guy that we met in Palmyra) knew the history of the castle and took us around it. Brilliant engineering in the fact that a lot of it is underground so it's relatively cool too! Always good when you almost cook every time you step outside over here!

We caught the train to Allepo the next morning with Miles and Jamal who've been traveling with us since Palmyra. At the train station a lady and her litter(brood? collection? there's so many kids over here, apparently 50% of the population is under 20 years old!) of children came and sat on the bench with us. She didn't speak English but she was really friendly and we communicated with her through gestures and Jamal (who can speak Arabic). She had 7 children! and wanted to know how many Beth and I had, she looked quite shocked when we both said 0 ..... we must look like we are child bearing age! lol. oh well :)

We've been in Aleppo now for the last couple of days and have spent the time wandering the old city and looking through the souqs (very narrow alley ways full of market stalls that go for km's). We were all excited about having a traditional bath (massage, exfoliate, sauna) yesterday on womens day but the place was closed, something to add to the list of things to do in Turkey!

This morning we ventured out to Qala'at Samaan which is where the remains of a huge church are located around the tower that St Simeon sat on for his last 36 years. It was an impressive site and it gave us another look at the rural Syrian countryside. There seems to be km's without anything and then all of a sudden some crops and a wee town and then nothing (read absolutely nothing but rock and a sprinkling of very small shrubs every now and then!) again.

Aleppo is more conservative than the other cities that we have been to here, a lot more ladies in the full face scarfs and not many at all with no scarfs. We sat in the mosque (in the ladies room) and watched the world go by yesterday afternoon and there was such a range of different levels of covering. Apparently the full coverage is because they believe that showing the ladies face would be distracting to single males :) Imagine that :) There was a beautiful lady that came into the mosque all covered up and then took off her scarf inside (they are allowed to remove the face bit around other women) and she was all made up and really pretty, she chatted with her friends for a bit, prayed and then covered up completely again and left ...... some of them cover absolutely everything - so gloves, socks, long jacket, head and face scarf ..... they must get so hot! It's almost unbearable sometimes in a t-shirt and light trousers!

We are going to make our way into Turkey sometime in the next few days and see what we can discover there :)

Hi to everyone back home! miss you all heaps! lots of love xxxoooo

Farewell Damascus ......

It's time to move on and explore the rest of Syria :) I'm very excited about what adventures lie ahead. Damascus has such a rich culture I'm sure that the rest of the country will be just as enticing :)



We had a note from the older guy from our first day here who showed us how to get to the hotel yesterday saying that he hoped we were having a good time. We gave him a ring to say thanks for the note and he offered to take us on a tour of the city ...... 6 hours later we had seen the old gate ways into the city, the palace, christian quater, bronze making, had bitter Arabic coffee (which I thought tasted like dish washing detergent but Beth liked), had a tradional lunch, wandered through numerous markets and learnt more history about the city than I can ever hope to remember! :)

Life in Damascus

Damascus is an amazing city! It has a very unique blend of modern and traditional culture and surroundings :) We have spent the last two days wandering around the old and new parts of town taking in the people, sights and food. I was trying to avoid the salads but the sandwich yesterday came with everything in it and it looked and tasted so good I decided it was worth the risk! So far so good!

We spent some time in the main mosque in the old town yesterday watching the people come and go. It's a very spiritual place and is so peaceful even though there are people streaming in and out all the time. The inside was so simple yet really powerful and the range of people in there and different prayer types was intriguing.

Last night we met up with the guy that we met in Petra and went around to his friends (a fellow American) place which is in the old city. The houses look so drab and uninviting on the outside and when you go into them there is a beautiful open courtyard with the living area off to one side and the rooms all around it. All the windows open inward in the building so none of it can be seen from the outside. We met a number of people from around the world and chatted into the small hours of the night. There were fascinating stories from all directions and we left our kiwi mark by leaving the cute wee kitten that they had just got with the name Scroggin :)

Today we spent the hottest part of the day wandering the old streets so wore ourselves out a bit and recovered this afternoon by sitting in a traditional cafe and watching the city buzz by. The cafe was full of men smoking water pipes and when Beth commented that she was feeling much better now and very relaxed we thought that it was probably time to move on!

It's amazing how quickly you adjust to your environment. I was feeling cold before and looked across to see if I could turn up the aircon and realised that it was set at 28 degrees ...... hmmm it's going to be an extra cold winter when I get back!

We've been learning so much about the history of the Middle East as we explore. It's fascinating to see the way the past has shaped what is around today. I wish I'd taken history at school! I brushed up on my uni chem knowledge on the bus to Irbid :) The girl one row up and across was reading through her study notes (in English - my Arabic isn't that good!) was surprised how much I remember - looks like all those hours of study actually taught me something :)

We're in Syria!

Marhaba from Syria!

We had a big day yesterday travelling by local bus from Amman to Jerash, they have a system here where you get on the bus going to the right destination ..... although since all the local bus station signs are in Arabic it usually involves asking people and pointing at the map to get the correct bus! ... and then you wait. When enough people are on the bus that it's full up then the bus leaves :) Kind of handy because it means you don't need to work out the bus schedule and luckily so far we haven't had to wait too long for the bus to fill up :)

In Jerash we explored the ancient Roman city which was only 90 percent excavated but the 10 percent that we saw was still very large. It was a hugely contrasting view when you looked out over the ruins and onto the city of Jerash today.

We managed to work out what bus to get on and travelled as far as Irbid where we were going to swap for another bus to get across the border. When we arrived we found out .... through a lot of back and forward conversation in very broken english, lots of hand motion and map pointing, that we couldn't get a bus across the border. We were also told that we wouldn't be able to get a visa either because they had changed the rules 2 months ago! We decided to give it a go anyway .... we figured we could always trek back to Amman and get a visa there if necessary. So was got in a taxi with the same waiting system as the bus and were joined by a Syrian medical student and an Arabic woman and her son who didn't speak English but were very friendly :)

The border was a series of checkpoints with soldiers lazying around at each one who looked at our passports, commented that New Zealand people are very beautiful and then waved us through :) We went through about 4 of these before crossing into the Syrian side and then were asked to pay and given our passports back ... and then we were in :) No probs mate :)

Syria is very different to Jordan. The people here and still very friendly but they look different to the Jordanian people who have a very distinctive look. A number of Syrians have paler skin and lighter eyes. Also the country side changed straight away as we entered Syria. There is a lot more green here - I mean you see a patch of dried grass every now and then and some trees ..... Chch is going to be like coming back to a jungle! lol :)

We got dropped off at the outskirts of Damascus and caught a taxi into the city. We were dropped off by the driver (who didn't speak english but waved down the street that you couldn't drive down) so out we hoped and wandered into a very busy food market! It all looked so good but also didn't look anything like a backpacker hostel! We managed to find some ladies that could read our map who told us we were actually quite a way from where we wanted to go. As we were talking to them an older man came past and joined in the conversation. He was Syrian but spoke with an Australian accent (turned out he had lived there for 15 years) and told us he was heading in the same direction so he would walk us to the hotel :) He told us all about the city as we wandered along and had some very interesting stories about his life :) There are amazing friendly people all over the world :)

Off to explore Damascus this afternoon. The food here is amazing and we understand now why everyone we meet raves about it! Beth is extra excited because she's trying to put on all the weight that she lost in India so she has become my walking waste disposal :) The only trouble is that it's too hot to eat most of the day!

Wadi Rum and adventures

We had another amazing morning at Petra yesterday and finished off the sights that we didn't manage to pack into our previous 12 hour marathon! It was a lot hotter though and we were glad that we didn't have to stay for more than a couple of hours. Being the adventurous kiwis that we are we decided to scramble into Petra through the maze of Wadis (riverbeds - but they are all dry because there has been no rain!) over and under the boulders along the way. Was definitely an adventure and impressive scenery the whole way in. There are some really cool geckos and lizards that shoot across your path ... although I think Beth probably has had enough of me pointing out all the cool geckos, beetles and lizards as they scurry past :P

We met a Jordanian guy the night before who had been living in America for the last two years and after a cup of tea (they drink it constantly - I still don't quite understand the reason for drinking hot drinks in hot weather) he told us about his company that does tours into the desert and Wadi Rum for an overnight trip. We checked with the guy at our hotel about our other options but he was one of those people that come across as down right seedy and both of us were very wary of his tips so decided that we'd go with the other guy :) lol .....

Lesson of the day: I trust other people too much! But what fun would the world be if we could work out what was going to happen all the time :P

Anyway it was a really interesting trip out into the desert and Wadi Rum was spectacular, there was a small sand storm going on but it calmed down a bit and we took the jeep across the flat and over the sand hills to the rocks :) Beth had a go at driving in the sand and we found out the true meaning of "Crazy Arab" when the driver put the car in gear and got out and started walking beside the car before jumping up on the roof .... so we did the only logical thing and joined him up on the roof to take in the scenery :) Auto pilot desert style!

We camped up for the night in a large gap in the rocks and collected firewood, started a fire and had a bbq under the stars :) It was such an amazing nighttime sky because there were no clouds (we haven't seen any yet!) and no lights so just a sky full of stars :) Saw a couple of shooting stars and galaxies clearer than I ever have before! I wish I knew some of the northern hemisphere constalations!

[Jane skip this paragraph - you're still reading!] All was well till one of the guys (the other one was a genuine nice guy who told us all about the history and was respectful - very unusual over here!) had a bit too much to drink and the Jordanian side of him came out ..... we're getting used to it so it was just a matter of saying no, no, no, no, no, no and just in case he miss understood the first 100 times, no :) But we both had a bit of a restless night because we were wary of him being there! Big sleep tonight :)

We woke up this morning in the middle of the desert which was so peaceful, still and beautiful :) Beth and I went for a wander and came across a local Bedouin woman and her goats and managed to communicate to a small extent with her. As far as we could work out she was around about 40 years old and came from a big family. She said she wasn't married and had no children and she was fascinated by our cameras, although she didn't want to be in any photos :) She'd never heard of NZ before and kept saying America ... I attempted a world map in the sand (very poorly!) and showed her where NZ is but we're not sure if she's ever seen a world map before and if it meant anything to her! We wandered and sat with her for about 1/2 hour ... it's such a peaceful life :)

We caught the bus back up to Amman this afternoon through the middle of the country (rather than past the dead sea) and the entire three hours was filled with barren country side and dust, it's amazing that the animals and people survive so well with so little water and crops.

Tomorrow we're planning on heading north again and hopefully will make it through the border into Syria, fingers crossed!

We saw pics of the snow in Chch today and were so jealous!! Although we'd only want a couple of minutes of it every now and then :P Keep warm!

Dead Sea and Petra

I need to learn more words! I don't know enough to describe this place! Walking down the narrow siq which was 80m high on each side and coming out in front of a 30m Treasury at 7am as the sun was coming up was an unbelievable experience. Pictures of Petra are pretty impressive but seeing it in real life is so amazing. It's so hard to imagine how people could construct something like that so long ago and that they would do it on such an impressive large scale! There were points where I wished it was possible to go back to the days of Petra, if even for 5 minutes and see exactly what it was like, the buzz of everyday life and the customs of the people.

After the amazing entrance into Petra we walked up the mountain to the 'High Place' which was a sacrificial alter and had amazing views around the Wadi. The journey down the other side took us past numerous tombs all decorated in the carved rock and back out into the main streets of Petra. It was great to get off the main route because we hardly saw any other people and were able to enjoy it at our own place and let our imaginations run wild :)

We met a really friendly American guy who is living in Syria as we were recovering from the 6 hour walk in the sun. He was studying Arabic and able to surprise the Jordanian people by talking to them in Arabic. He joined us on the way up to the Monastery ... over 900 steps up a steep hill but worth every second of the walk up as it was as impressive as the Treasury and was over 40m high. People standing in front of it looked like ants!

After 12 hours of walking we made it back into the town. Beth came up with an out of the blue comment as we were walking back after a couple of minutes of silence "wow I haven't peed all day and we have drunk over 3 litres of water" which was true - so hot but it's a very dry heat so you dry off very quickly! Julian (and me!) was a bit shocked! We then collapsed at a local restaurant for felafels and hummus ... yum :) and then were invited to have tea with a local who had studied in America (you come and drink tea with me dude, yeah). The people here are always so friendly and welcoming and always offering to sit down for a drink of tea and a chat :)

Yesterday we travelled down from Amman to Petra with a driver via the Dead Sea. It was incredible swimming in the sea because you literally did not need to move and muscle and you floated. You could easily read a book and only move to turn the pages. It was very strange as you sat a long way out of the water and the hardest thing to do was to put your legs down under the water! Although that had to be done occasionally to get some relief in the deeper, colder water :) The driver was very helpful and informative and answered all our questions on Jordan customs and the sites we were seeing.

There were heaps of shepherds looking after herds, it's such a different way of life. I wonder what they think about all day while they are out in the sun, they are not exposed to the rest of the world in the way that we are and live very simple lives. They also have a number of different customs as there are Jordanian people, Palestinian people and Egyptian people as well as a number of other nationalities all living in Jordan. The main thing that they agree on is that 'he is not a good/honest person because he is Egyptian' :) There was a lot of check points around the Dead Sea as it is so close to Israel. The guards all had big machine guns and a couple of them asked for our passports, although the driver said that they don't usually check tourist passports and that they just wanted to look at our photos! But the number of check points was impressive and they are not allowed any type of boat on the Dead Sea (except a few coastal resort ones for tourists) because of the link between the two countries.

We also stopped at a number of places on the way down yesterday. Jordan is a pretty small country and very easy to get around. The castle of Karak between the Dead Sea and Petra was impressive as most of it was built into the rock with the walls and a number of rooms built up on top of the hill. It was one of the early crusader castles and is still in pretty good condition. We also saw Mt Nebo, the Dana Wadi and Matebuda which were all very interesting and full of Middle Eastern history. Although as our driver put it "for an engineer and doctor who are well studied you two do not know much about the Middle Eastern history" which was probably fair enough since we only know all the common history and what we read in the guide book! We were very fortunate to have such a passionate driver who was willing to fill in the rest of the gaps :)

Jordan ......

First word to describe Jordan: Wow! Second word: Hot! Third word: Wow!

We arrived at 2am in the morning and the ride to the hotel was an experience in itself with the driver driving all over the road ... no lanes (no other cars thankfully!) and a number of people around even at that time of the night. The city looked pretty deserted at night with everything shut up (with the exception of the food places which were full of people) but it was a very different and vibrant world we woke up to this morning!

This morning we strolled through the streets to the Amman Citadel which was pretty spectacular with modern Amman as the backdrop! The prayer call gave the place a very eerie feeling and just added to the atmosphere here. Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming, we get a couple of dodge looks every now and then but nothing bad! The life is so different, run down places, hardly any women on the streets, boys out flying kites, no clouds, heaps of people and so much colour with the shops open, so little colour variation in the buildings :)

We walked down from the Citadel to the Roman amphitheatre via a pastry shop which much to Beth's delight had Arabic ice cream :) We did some bargaining this afternoon with a real Middle Eastern shopping trip to try and buy a long sleeved top to wear when we get to Syria. Took us a lot of 'no thank yous' and colourful shops to find something that wont stand out too much! There are heaps and heaps of shops selling belly dancer costumes ... we're thinking that maybe we need to pick up one to take home to play dress ups with and also wondering who buys them and wears them! Beth reckons that maybe the woman wear them under their dresses! There's definitely not enough tourists here for them to be aimed at tourists so who knows!

We had a very very very nice dinner of hummus and felafels and I even had a go at making them :) We will sleep very very well tonight after wandering all day in the heat, I don't know how hot it is here but guessing somewhere in the 30s. Tomorrows plan is to head down the Dead Sea Highway and visit the Dead Sea on route to Petra ...... can't wait!

Time, Stars and Fun :)

Yesterdays explorations saw Mary, Mikey, Jane and I take the boat from the London Eye down to Greenwich. There were so many iconic London sites on the way down and it was a nice change to see them from a boat rather than standing on a crowded street! I'm slowly getting used to the no personal space aspect but it's still a bit overwhelming sometimes :)

Greenwich was really interesting, we learnt all about GMT, telescopes, stars and star navigating:) Very geeky but really interesting :) Will have to try and spot some of the northern hemisphere constalations when we are in the Middle East (definately something that you can't do from London given that I haven't even seen the sun since I've been here! very grey).

Last night I met up with Candice, Sarah and Sarah for dinner. Was great catching up with everyone again and we had a very authentic Italian dinner and then headed across to the pub for a drink. We went via Harry Potter's house and Kings Cross to see Platform 9 3/4 :) We're all young at heart :)

I had a genuine late night London experience on the way home with Kings Cross closed due to a person under the train (the British are very direct with their info!) which meant that I couldn't get on the tube I needed to be on and the line that I wanted to take was closed! Lots of back and forwards between stops later, a bus and another tube line finally got me back. So glad that I had the A to Z with me!

Today Julie and I went around the Campden Markets. It had absolutely everything you could imagine or want :) I made a bit of an impression with the guy selling the fairy lights that Julie bought by asking if they were in series or parallel .... apparently it's not normal for a girl to ask that kind of question! Guess the occupation :)

Off to Jordan tomorrow, yay can't wait to experience the Middle East :)

Hope everyone is having a great Queens Birthday weekend :) Enjoy your short week :)

London :)

Yay I made it ... after loads and loads of movies and family guy! Plus I was lucky enough to have some really lovely and interesting people sitting beside me on the planes!

I spent the first day with Ainslee and we had a real english pub lunch :) lol, straight into the english way of life :) I somehow managed to avoid getting jet lagged which was awesome ... my movie and coffee method seemed to work!!

The last couple of days have been full of catching up with people, going to the V&A, Natural History and Science museums and yesterday to a roller coaster park (0 - 80 mph in 2.3 seconds! awesome).... I was planning on renting a car and exploring around London but the weather didn't play along with that plan!

It's brilliant catching up with Jane and Mary again :) Loads of stories, laughs and we're off to explore London today :)

I remember why I'm not the biggest big city fan ... people everywhere, no one smiles, homeless people (who i just want to take home and help them - if they wanted it) but it is a different vibe and I can see how it would be exciting to live someplace big for a wee while :)

I miss everyone back home :) Hi :) Have a great day :) Lots of love xxoo

This one's for Jane :)

Ok so I don't have anything to update! But Jane's standing here tickling me and saying that if I really loved my mother I'd show her how the blog thing works!? So here we go, just like magic! And to think that I'll just be able to pop into internet cafes and upload a blog while I'm away :) Ow. lol :) Oh look you can put pictures on too :)

Thought of the day :)

Ok so running before 8am on a Sunday morning isn't the norm but it was such a gorgeous day today, I was awake, energetic and it was the perfect time to run and ponder the world :) Although I didn't see any other runners in the whole hour I was out!

Not working is such a different existance to what I imagined ..... it's been a big journey of self awareness :) It has meant that I've had to stop and look at my life and work out what is important and what I want to do .... I think that I've worked it out now and am looking forward to heading off and travelling through the Middle East but I'm also looking forward to coming back to NZ :)

The big question of the weekend is why we all find it so hard to tell everyone our honest feelings about situations, especially when we can see that we really should :) lol, just a thought of the day :)

Aloha :)

Hi and welcome to my blog :)
The idea is that I can update as I travel and then I wont get too many emails from Jane wanting to know what I'm up too :) lol ..... Jane/Steve remember just cause I haven't posted for a few days that doesn't mean that I'm not ok :)
Anyway seems to be set up here so enjoy and if you wish you were here then send me an email and come and join in the fun :)
Exciting times ahead :)