"What's that smell?...Oh wait, it's me."

Getting to Dubrovnik from Istanbul is a pain in the butt. I read some advice on a travel site saying the journey might last 3 or 4 days - it wasn't until we got off the bus in Dubrovnik three and a half days after leaving Istanbul that I realized it wasn't a complete exaggeration. I won't bore you with all the details of this long journey, but here are some "highlights."

During an unexpected 10 hour train stop in Sofia, Bulgaria, we got followed by some gypsies who ended up opening Jess's bag and stealing our wallet. NOT TO WORRY, as she realized her bag was open just in time - when I turned to see what all the fuss was about, all I saw was Jess running as fast as lightening after these losers. She caught them, took back the wallet, laughed (not a joke) and they told her to screw off... in not so many nice words (also not a joke).

After spending the night in the Nis train station in Serbia, we went for a stroll to find something to look at. What better than a food store? Anyhow, as we were eating on the sidewalk, a friendly man and woman invited us into their eyeglass shop to "eat like clean people." There was no looking back - for the rest of the day (until our train at 9pm) we were entertained endlessly by the man, Micko. He ended up driving us around and feeding us an ungodly amount of watermelon. There are so many nice, generous people in the world... special thanks to Micko for helping us pass the time quickly!

And that's about it for the "highlights." The time went surprisingly fast. But, after so many days without a shower we noticed people shying away and we were ready to be in Dubrovnik. We have been here for the past 5 days, taking a look around and biding our time until we take a ferry to Italy. Dubrovnik is a beautiful, old city with gorgeous surrounding islands. But, it is a bit too touristy and expensive, making us a little restless. Not to worry - we start our long pilgrimage to Rome tonight. In case you didn't get the picture in the last couple entries, we are VERY EXCITED to see my family.

Sorry for the lack of excitement this time around... we'll try harder next time!

Ta Ta Turkey

If you think the 'Flintstones' are just cartoons, you are sorely mistaken. Cappadocia, Turkey brings animation to life; people live, work, and own caves and houses in rocks. İt sort of boggles your mind to think about and when you see it before your very eyes, it is still difficult to work out how this natural wonder came to be. Though we didn't do as much hiking or exploring as a good tourist would, we still saw a decent amount... thanks to our local friend, Hassan. He wouldn't take no for an answer and we spent a whole day being chauffeured from churches to sunset points to castles, stopping along the way for ice cream, fruit & cheese, wine, and tea (of course) with various cousins and uncles. The whole experience was unreal and we lived it up. I will put up pictures soon, but they don't do this place justice...so you might be better off looking some up on the internet. On our last day in Goreme, we caught up with a friend from Olympos, Colin, and left the following day for İstanbul.

Since returning to İstanbul we have been having a great time. One day we took a cruise down the Bosporus to the Black Sea with Colin and Mario (another friend from Olympos...check out the link to his website). We spent another day wondering through the Grand Bazaar, making some last minute purchases in Turkey. Despite being treated like queens and served an amazing fish barbecue on the river, we still bought our train tickets onward towards Croatia. İt is for this reason that today is a monumental day in our travels.

We are leaving Turkey, the land of kebabs and tea. Turkey has proven to be yet another gem of a place that we never intended on visiting before we left home. This is where mosques blare prayers 5 times and day and women walk the streets in head scarves; where my name has changed (yet again) to 'Amandica' and where Jess and İ have played hours upon hours of their national sport...backgammon. Speaking of sports, Turkey has been the location of my first ever successful betting experience - İ risked 500 Russian Rubles and won 20 TYL (15 dollars) picking Spain in the European Cup. We couldn't have been here at a better time for football (soccer) - Turkey had one of their best showings ever, reaching the semi-finals. All in all, we couldn't have had a more authentic visit and İ am sure that Turkey will be in our future travels. However, when we return, we will be sure to make Olympos our last stop so we can actually see a couple more sites before we are made captives at Saban Pension.

Now we are off to Croatia and then to İtaly to see the Schenck's...we have lots of long train, bus, and boat rides in our immediate future. Not excited about that, but İ think it will all be worth it once we reach Rome! If anyone would like to send small (or large) gifts, please contact my mother at jaeee@aol.com. Thank you and have a nice day.

Sucked in at Saban...

İ'm sorry for being a horribly pathetic "blogger." Sometimes there is just too much fun going on to stop and inform you of our activities. Actually....you caught me in a lie, İ haven't written much lately because we have been doing a whole lot of nothing.

As planned, we visited Pumakkale after Ephesus. The place throws your senses a bit; although the rocks are white like solid ice, the sun is shinning down, the temperature is blazing hot, and the water lukewarm. Here is a picture of the main part of the place:

The best part of the whole attraction was watching Turkish girls trying to take model pictures in the hot springs. I did manage to be mildly creepy and steal a few shots of this ridiculousness on the camera...some of those are up for those interested. Better yet, we got Jess to pose a little bit and those are definitely worth a look...

After Pumakkale we headed to Fethiye. Fethiye is mostly a port city with some great views and a beautiful beach just outside the town. After a couple days here, Rory and Maura decided to take a boat trip to our next destination, Olympos. We never managed to cross paths after this separation, but I think we all ended up having a great time regardless.

As for Olympos, Jess and I got sucked into the chill atmosphere. We meant to stay 3 nights and ended up staying for over 2 weeks. We blame this mostly on the crew at Saban Pension (shout out to Mike, Meral and Hüseyin), who serve up some great food, provide lots of laughs, and generally make it very difficult to leave. For those of you wondering, we were there for the 4th of July and we did celebrate American style. Jess and I got tons of red, white, and blue accessories for the whole pension and forced them all to endure numerous renditions of the national anthem. If that wasn't enough, we then made them partake in some American games (America vs. "the rest of the world," of course). What can I say, we are true Americans. God Bless America! Besides all this fun, Olympos has some ruins that we admired from a distance, a great jumping rock, and lots of places to lounge around. So, lounge is what we did for the majority of our time.

Promptly after departing Saban Pension in Olympos, both Jess and I got really ill. Maybe that was a sign that we never should have left? We will never know. Anyhow, at the moment we are in Cappadocia and have yet to see a thing. I think tomorrow will be our day to see the site. Our next stop will be Istanbul to pick up our things, reconnect with friends we made the last time, and then head off toward Italy to meet up with my family. There will be lots of buses and trains in the next couple of weeks...but I can't wait to see my family!