Ok- so i don't even know where to start!! i think this is the longest we have went without using internet because we have had no time! there is so much to do.. we leave tomorrow.. and we still want to do soo much! But this is a magical place- i can only describe it as a mix between some weird star trek backdrop and a Doctor Seuss book! Josh and i have never seen anything like this and have been awe struck for the last 2 days!
This is gunna be a long one- cuz i have soo much to tell you, but hang in there, it's worth the read!
Our trip from Selcuk to Izmir consisted of a stuffy bus ride that dropped us off 1 km out of the airport. We had to cross a busy highway to get to the taxi's that were waiting on the other side to take us to the domestic gate. This older Turkish man was talking very excitedly in Turkish to Josh, and kept giving him presents, a paper towel to wipe his sweat, gum, a pin to put on my bag.. it's quite intimidating and funny having someone yammer off to you in a different language.. but we made it. got our tickets, and boarded the plane for Kayseri. The flight was good, we got emergency exit without even asking for it! we flew over multicoloured patches of land and these "co-op" housing communities... i must look into that when i have some time.. the planner in me is very intrigued. Luckily enough the people at our hotel in Selcuk called ahead to this awesome hotel here in Cappadocia and had someone at the airport with our names on a sign pick us up.. which was a good thing because Goreme (the city we were staying at) was about 90 km away.. we shared the cab with 2 people who funnily enough we spent yesterday hanging out with their friends- yet we never met these 2.. so hey, small world eh?? backpacking is so funny that way.. So the 4 of us set out with this driver who drove us to Goreme, as we got closer we were just stunned by the "fairy chimney's", tufa and basalt volcanic formations that are eroding into such interesting shapes. Apparently 3 volcanoes had their hands in shaping this landscape, we learned all about it on our tour today!.. but i'm getting ahead of myself. First off i must explain about the cave hotel we are staying in.. it just rocks! (haha.. literally).. we splurged and got the more expensive one with a super large bathtub, queen size bed, and cave like atmosphere.. it's really neat.. best place we have stayed at yet! So that night we went and explored the town, ended up eating in the courtyard under these crazy rock formations- excited to see what we could see the next day. Everyone has been super helpful and hospitable that we have dealt with- but i must say.. i have never gotten such intense stares- now we all know that i got stared at in japan.. and that was bad.. but here, it is like the men think that they have the right to stare, and it is an aggressive stare. If i have bare shoulders or am showing any leg above the knee men are just disgustingly ridiculous.. and the women! the traditional Turkish women are as bad as the men.. maybe not as aggressive, but definitely noticeable. if i am somewhere without Josh, i feel very self conscious.. luckily we haven't left each others side for very long!
Anyways, getting back to Cappadoccia, so the next day we talked to our hotel about tours, and booking the hot air balloon ride etc, and found out that the tour we wanted to go on was actually happening that day as we were sitting there discussing what we wanted to do.. so it was too late.. but after some discussion on what we should do it was decided we would rent our own car and basically do that same tour but on our own.. is anyone laughing right now at us? i would be.. the car that they rented to us was a POS (stands for piece of ....)- the promised air conditioning didn't work, i couldn't control my window, josh had to do that. there was a huge crack in the windshield, the car was dirty (apparently he had no time to clean it?), and to top it off the reverse didn't work!! which we found out the hard way with josh having to push us out of the parking spot.. i laugh to myself now, but that was NOT a happy experience... so apparently there is a safety switch that u have to use, and of course he didn't tell us that- so we go back to the place, sweaty and angry and the guy is like, "it works" and looks at us like we are dumb.. but anyways, ok that got worked out and we were on our way exploring these valleys of these crazy rock formations, and made our way to the underground city of Kaymakli. But just to note, there are no street signs. everything is poorly marked and the roads are filled with potholes and cars coming at you 90km/hour.. maybe we should have listened to lonely planet and not rented one?? but we made it out alive.. So the underground city was something i can even explain to you.. 8 floors were carved out of the rock and served as a hiding places for early Christians- they stayed underground for up to 6 months during the war time months. So we hired a tour guide for this, he was awesome, and explored these cities.. we have some great videos which u must see! At times we were extremely claustrophobic and couldn't imagine spending 10 more minutes down there nonetheless 6 months- but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We then went to this "susnset" place where they actually charge 2 TL to go see the sunset at this point.. pathetic, but hey, u gotta get your money somehow right? it wasn't really worth it, but was a fitting end to a really up and down day. Returning the car was a major relief- i think this is when josh and i stopped fighting?? kidding.. but overall we were glad we did it!!
We have spent most of our nights being competitive at backgammon, lounging on these bean bag chairs, drinking beers and having a hookah.. it has been fabulous.
We went on a tour today of this valley, actually did a 7 km hike, it was really neat as well, but maybe all i'll say is that i never knew Turkey was so lush!!
So tomorrow we have a packed day- get up at 445 am to take a balloon ride over Goreme, and then go to this museum from about 9-11, catch the shuttle to the airport at 12:30, and fly out to Istanbul at 3:30!
We are excited, and slightly nervous about the balloon thing, but we are loving our Turkey experiences.
Hope you are all well!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Seçuk to Izmır to Goreme
Well Turkey does offıcıally rock! we have had some amazıng tımes here, and only been here for 3 days! We have met numerous couples, one who were newlyweds lıke us and the gırl ıs plannıng on comıng to UBC ın a couple years! we exchanged emaıls and am lookıng forward to beıng able to help her out. We have vısıted St. John's Basıcılla, where st. john's grave ıs! yesterday we went to Ancıent ruıns of Ephesus, somehow made ıt thru wıth the heat and all the tourısts. ıt was good, but ı1m not sure how to wrap my head around how old everythıng ıs.. but ıt was great to see.. josh probably would have lıked to stay longer, but the heat was unbearable...so that nıght we ended up on a rooftop balcony of the hotel we were supposed to stay at, but dıdn't because ıt was full, ate, drank 2 bottles of wıne, had a hookah, and just enjoyed chattıng wıth the locals and the other travelers! ıt was one of the best nıghts yet.. the turkısh hospıtalıty ıs above and beyond anythıng ı have ever experıened before.. and, guess what?! yesterday we bought a carpet!!! yes folks, a true turkısh carpet. we couldn't resıst.. he was so excellent ın explaınıng the hıstory of carpet makıng and tellıng us storıes (although ı thınk they may all do that..) but at least we bought ıt from the guy who has been so great to us.. he pıcked us up ın Kusadası, he drove us to Ephesus, we've had long chats.. etc.. so at least we know our money ıs goıng to a good man. We are very excıted about ıt and wıll post a pıcture for u all to see! The heat ıs outrageous.. yesterday was the hottest day ever.. we sweat non stop.. ı thought ıt was bad ın Thaıland... nope.. thıs ıs worse.. much worse!
So today we start our journey to Cappadocia.. take a bus to the airport ın about an hour, fly to Keyserı, our hotel ın Goreme ıs comıng to pıck us up! and then we wıll have 2 days explorıng caves and takıng a hot aır balloon rıde.. ıt,s gunna be amazıng.
everyone must come to turkey.. ıt really ıs amazıng.
all our best!
So today we start our journey to Cappadocia.. take a bus to the airport ın about an hour, fly to Keyserı, our hotel ın Goreme ıs comıng to pıck us up! and then we wıll have 2 days explorıng caves and takıng a hot aır balloon rıde.. ıt,s gunna be amazıng.
everyone must come to turkey.. ıt really ıs amazıng.
all our best!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Turkey!
Hey all!
So just wanted to gıve a quıck update and let you know we are ın Turkey! It ıs great!! We had an ınterestıng tıme at passport control at the Port.. apparently ıt takes about 45 mın. to get thru passport control/customs.. ıt was a bıt of a gong show.. they took our passports and then reappeared some tıme later callıng our names lıke roll call to get our passports back.. I felt lıke i was back ın gradeschool! And apparently Canadians pay the most to get a vısa.. we had to pay 60USD each, whereas Amerıcans pay 20USD and New Zealanders pay nothıng! BUt what can you do rıght? refuse? We were told by our travel agent ın Greece not to pay anythıng over 45USD... but ya, what can you do..
So we stayed for one nıght ın Kusadası, met two kiwi,s and had good conversations on the rooftop balcony of our pensıon. Unfortunately tho, there was no aır con ın our room and the temp. has soared here! It was ın the 40's yesterday and sleepıng wıth no aır con was not somethıng we wanted to do.. but agaın, what can you do? the locals are predıctıng about 50 degrees tomorrow... ıt ıs even super hot for them.. they keep tellıng us ıt ıs "Afrıcan hot". But we moved towns today and are ın Selçuk- closer to Ephesus- and wıll attempt that tomorrow even wıth the heat wave. But our new place has aır con :) so we are happy! We have experıenced some really great hospıtable people so far, and are both enjoyıng Turkey a lot. İt remınds me a lot of Thaıland wıth the markets and the barterıng etc.. but Josh has never experıenced thıs, so ıt's fun to watch hım :) We spent the afternoon explorıng St.John's Basıllıca, and when ıt got too hot to move we ate some lunch under a shady canopy and then took refuge ın a hookah cafe. There we played backgammon and drank beer lıstenıng to some ıntense Turkısh musıc and enjoyıng the local scenery. We are enjoyıng the change of country, excıted to try all new kınds of food, and of course ı have started shoppıng!
Wıll put more pıctures up for you guys ın a couple of days- hope you are well!
So just wanted to gıve a quıck update and let you know we are ın Turkey! It ıs great!! We had an ınterestıng tıme at passport control at the Port.. apparently ıt takes about 45 mın. to get thru passport control/customs.. ıt was a bıt of a gong show.. they took our passports and then reappeared some tıme later callıng our names lıke roll call to get our passports back.. I felt lıke i was back ın gradeschool! And apparently Canadians pay the most to get a vısa.. we had to pay 60USD each, whereas Amerıcans pay 20USD and New Zealanders pay nothıng! BUt what can you do rıght? refuse? We were told by our travel agent ın Greece not to pay anythıng over 45USD... but ya, what can you do..
So we stayed for one nıght ın Kusadası, met two kiwi,s and had good conversations on the rooftop balcony of our pensıon. Unfortunately tho, there was no aır con ın our room and the temp. has soared here! It was ın the 40's yesterday and sleepıng wıth no aır con was not somethıng we wanted to do.. but agaın, what can you do? the locals are predıctıng about 50 degrees tomorrow... ıt ıs even super hot for them.. they keep tellıng us ıt ıs "Afrıcan hot". But we moved towns today and are ın Selçuk- closer to Ephesus- and wıll attempt that tomorrow even wıth the heat wave. But our new place has aır con :) so we are happy! We have experıenced some really great hospıtable people so far, and are both enjoyıng Turkey a lot. İt remınds me a lot of Thaıland wıth the markets and the barterıng etc.. but Josh has never experıenced thıs, so ıt's fun to watch hım :) We spent the afternoon explorıng St.John's Basıllıca, and when ıt got too hot to move we ate some lunch under a shady canopy and then took refuge ın a hookah cafe. There we played backgammon and drank beer lıstenıng to some ıntense Turkısh musıc and enjoyıng the local scenery. We are enjoyıng the change of country, excıted to try all new kınds of food, and of course ı have started shoppıng!
Wıll put more pıctures up for you guys ın a couple of days- hope you are well!
Monday, June 25, 2007
GREECE SUMMARY
So over breakfast Josh and I reminisced about the "best of'" in Greece, what surprised us and what we liked and didn't like about each island: We thought it would be interesting for you to read, but mostly it is so that we don't forget!!
Thing we weren't expecting:
1. The major army presence on every island- on average when we are driving around we will pass at least 3 army bases.
2. The "call-outs" from restaurant and bar owners- we learned to steer clear of these places, if it is as good as you say it is, why do you need to try so hard?
3. The loudness of Greek men- now this is probably a pretty big stereotype, but we have encountered some of the loudest men we have ever heard, example: our bus drivers, our guest house owner in Samos, he would yell (or talk, we thought yelling tho) at the cleaning girl every morning. And just in general on the street or in restaurants.
3. How people touch you when you talk to them- Josh has never been touched on the shoulder/back by so many random men! I think that is just what they do tho to show sincerity?
4. The extreme spectrum of indifference vs. hospitable people. We have met the most helpful hospitable people, and totally opposite, mean indifferent people.. i guess that is the same anywhere you go, but it was particularly evident to us here.
5. Did u know that Feta cheese can only be called "Feta" if it was actually produced here in Greece? We thought that was kinda neat.. (i figured we had to say something about the cheese since we have had soooooo much of it!)
Best and worst of the Islands:
1. Santorını:
Santorini had the best scenery from the guest house, the clıfs really were amazıng to see. Yet, ıt also had the worst mass tourısm ı have ever seen.
Our favorıte memory was the nıghts that we would get a bottle of wıne and sıt on our balcony chattıng about lıfe, past events and what ıs to come. Thıs was also the fırst place we drove a quad.
What we laugh about now (that wasn't so funny at the tıme) was El Greco hotel and how ıt totally wasn't what we expected, and also our experıence ın Oıa- apparently the most beatıful place to watch the sunset, but the one day we went ıt was cloudy and we fought thru crowds of tourısts to get there.. grr..
tbc...
Thing we weren't expecting:
1. The major army presence on every island- on average when we are driving around we will pass at least 3 army bases.
2. The "call-outs" from restaurant and bar owners- we learned to steer clear of these places, if it is as good as you say it is, why do you need to try so hard?
3. The loudness of Greek men- now this is probably a pretty big stereotype, but we have encountered some of the loudest men we have ever heard, example: our bus drivers, our guest house owner in Samos, he would yell (or talk, we thought yelling tho) at the cleaning girl every morning. And just in general on the street or in restaurants.
3. How people touch you when you talk to them- Josh has never been touched on the shoulder/back by so many random men! I think that is just what they do tho to show sincerity?
4. The extreme spectrum of indifference vs. hospitable people. We have met the most helpful hospitable people, and totally opposite, mean indifferent people.. i guess that is the same anywhere you go, but it was particularly evident to us here.
5. Did u know that Feta cheese can only be called "Feta" if it was actually produced here in Greece? We thought that was kinda neat.. (i figured we had to say something about the cheese since we have had soooooo much of it!)
Best and worst of the Islands:
1. Santorını:
Santorini had the best scenery from the guest house, the clıfs really were amazıng to see. Yet, ıt also had the worst mass tourısm ı have ever seen.
Our favorıte memory was the nıghts that we would get a bottle of wıne and sıt on our balcony chattıng about lıfe, past events and what ıs to come. Thıs was also the fırst place we drove a quad.
What we laugh about now (that wasn't so funny at the tıme) was El Greco hotel and how ıt totally wasn't what we expected, and also our experıence ın Oıa- apparently the most beatıful place to watch the sunset, but the one day we went ıt was cloudy and we fought thru crowds of tourısts to get there.. grr..
tbc...
Samos II
Well one word pretty much sums up this island.. HOT. This is the hottest we have ever been.. shops close down around 3pm because it is so hot and reopen around 5. Yesterday it was 37 degrees, not sure of the humidity, but i'm pretty sure it is up there too!
So this is our 3rd day in Samos, and it has been a pretty lazy last couple of days.. it is so hot that you are really limited to activities in the evening, so we spent much of the day yesterday in our air conditioned guest house! sounds pathetic i know, but after attempting to play backgammon at a cafe around 3pm and sweating right through our clothes (literally.. it was gross!), we decided it was better to stay in. So instead we did some laundry and watched some tv, venturing out for dinner around 8pm. We have had some really decent food here, the seafood is yummy, and i enjoyed eating swordfish for the first time! And of course, we are still eating Greek salad everyday :) We attempted to go to the cinema after dinner, but couldn't find it in time.. the streets, both windy and narrow, confuse us, and when it is so hot trying to figure out where you are is super frustrating! But from a city planning standpoint it is really interesting to see how this city is laid out! So we decided to leave the movie for the next night asking some of the locals where it is located.. getting an answer, but more confused than before! We decided it would be a good challenge for the next night.
So yesterday we decided to rent an air conditioned car and see the island of Samos (tough life eh?). The lonely planet guide stated that if you hadn't visited these 2 mountain villages then you really hadn't experienced Samos, so we decided we needed to do that. Needless to say we weren't prepared for the intense windiness of this excursion.. i don't think i can even explain to you how windy these roads were.. in the beginning we thought ok, this is windy, but kinda fun, but then the nausea set in, and it was game over from then on. Let's just say that it wasn't a pleasant drive in the country.. but on the positive side Samos is really green and forested! wine is grown everywhere and some of the little towns have super interesting houses and churches. We even went down a rocky dirt path to a clif.. we didn't know it would lead to a cliff, but it was a great view. I give props to josh's driving skills here, i have never seen anyone back up, turn around, or just overall drive on such narrow streets avoiding other cars and pedestrians!! We saw a sign leading to a waterfall, which we thought we could drive to.. haha... but little did we know it would turn into a hike up and down these man made wooden sketchy steps.. only to lead us to a place where you had to wade in waist deep to continue to the actual waterfall. unfortunately we were not dressed for this, and had wallet,purse etc, in hand. we didn't have any change of clothing, and thought that sitting with wet butt in the rental car on the drive back would not be very fun.. so we turned around.. we really would have liked to go.. especially since we were sweating profusely! ah well, maybe next time (as josh likes to say). So we drove to another port town and had dinner (apparently grilled shrimp doesn't mean shrimp on a skewer, it means the full shrimp tail and head/eyes attached that you have to peel..) so that was an interesting eating experience! We then figured that we could make it back to Samos in time to see the movie (spider man 3) which was at 9:15- but it was 8:40... could we weave thru the traffic and find this place in time?? i had doubts, but somehow, after going down a one way street, having to back up in between 3 parked cars and a building, we found the cinema.. both in complete shock, we ran in and had 2 min. till the movie started.. score! Apparently this is not what the older Samos-ians do on a Sunday night tho, cuz we were the oldest in the theatre, and sat thru the numerous kids giggling and laughing through all the "love" scenes in the movie.. We both preferred the outdoor cinema in Kos, but it was air conditioned so we couldn't complain!
So now here we sit waiting for our ferry to take us to Turkey at 5pm. We have bought our tickets and dropped our bags off.. It is 3pm now, so we needed an air conditioned place to chill.. sitting at a cafe is out of the question unless we want to sweat thru our pants again!?
So interestingly enough it is most expensive for Canadians to cross the border into Turkey.. it will cost us 45 US each, and this is on top of he 35euro we will pay for the one way across! But we think it will be worth it.. we read up on some of the government sites about Turkey and what to expect, it scared me a little, thinking about possible terrorist attacks.. proximity to Iraq etc, but i'm sure we will be fine. We have a plan of just sticking together no matter what! So we will head to Kusadasi tonight, stay one night and head to Selcuk tomorrow, where will will spend 2nights, exploring Ephesus on wednesday before heading to Izmir on Thursday in order to fly out to Keyseri on thursday night! it will be a new adventure for sure!! we are excited to go to a new country, with new food and new customs..
Wish you all well!!
So this is our 3rd day in Samos, and it has been a pretty lazy last couple of days.. it is so hot that you are really limited to activities in the evening, so we spent much of the day yesterday in our air conditioned guest house! sounds pathetic i know, but after attempting to play backgammon at a cafe around 3pm and sweating right through our clothes (literally.. it was gross!), we decided it was better to stay in. So instead we did some laundry and watched some tv, venturing out for dinner around 8pm. We have had some really decent food here, the seafood is yummy, and i enjoyed eating swordfish for the first time! And of course, we are still eating Greek salad everyday :) We attempted to go to the cinema after dinner, but couldn't find it in time.. the streets, both windy and narrow, confuse us, and when it is so hot trying to figure out where you are is super frustrating! But from a city planning standpoint it is really interesting to see how this city is laid out! So we decided to leave the movie for the next night asking some of the locals where it is located.. getting an answer, but more confused than before! We decided it would be a good challenge for the next night.
So yesterday we decided to rent an air conditioned car and see the island of Samos (tough life eh?). The lonely planet guide stated that if you hadn't visited these 2 mountain villages then you really hadn't experienced Samos, so we decided we needed to do that. Needless to say we weren't prepared for the intense windiness of this excursion.. i don't think i can even explain to you how windy these roads were.. in the beginning we thought ok, this is windy, but kinda fun, but then the nausea set in, and it was game over from then on. Let's just say that it wasn't a pleasant drive in the country.. but on the positive side Samos is really green and forested! wine is grown everywhere and some of the little towns have super interesting houses and churches. We even went down a rocky dirt path to a clif.. we didn't know it would lead to a cliff, but it was a great view. I give props to josh's driving skills here, i have never seen anyone back up, turn around, or just overall drive on such narrow streets avoiding other cars and pedestrians!! We saw a sign leading to a waterfall, which we thought we could drive to.. haha... but little did we know it would turn into a hike up and down these man made wooden sketchy steps.. only to lead us to a place where you had to wade in waist deep to continue to the actual waterfall. unfortunately we were not dressed for this, and had wallet,purse etc, in hand. we didn't have any change of clothing, and thought that sitting with wet butt in the rental car on the drive back would not be very fun.. so we turned around.. we really would have liked to go.. especially since we were sweating profusely! ah well, maybe next time (as josh likes to say). So we drove to another port town and had dinner (apparently grilled shrimp doesn't mean shrimp on a skewer, it means the full shrimp tail and head/eyes attached that you have to peel..) so that was an interesting eating experience! We then figured that we could make it back to Samos in time to see the movie (spider man 3) which was at 9:15- but it was 8:40... could we weave thru the traffic and find this place in time?? i had doubts, but somehow, after going down a one way street, having to back up in between 3 parked cars and a building, we found the cinema.. both in complete shock, we ran in and had 2 min. till the movie started.. score! Apparently this is not what the older Samos-ians do on a Sunday night tho, cuz we were the oldest in the theatre, and sat thru the numerous kids giggling and laughing through all the "love" scenes in the movie.. We both preferred the outdoor cinema in Kos, but it was air conditioned so we couldn't complain!
So now here we sit waiting for our ferry to take us to Turkey at 5pm. We have bought our tickets and dropped our bags off.. It is 3pm now, so we needed an air conditioned place to chill.. sitting at a cafe is out of the question unless we want to sweat thru our pants again!?
So interestingly enough it is most expensive for Canadians to cross the border into Turkey.. it will cost us 45 US each, and this is on top of he 35euro we will pay for the one way across! But we think it will be worth it.. we read up on some of the government sites about Turkey and what to expect, it scared me a little, thinking about possible terrorist attacks.. proximity to Iraq etc, but i'm sure we will be fine. We have a plan of just sticking together no matter what! So we will head to Kusadasi tonight, stay one night and head to Selcuk tomorrow, where will will spend 2nights, exploring Ephesus on wednesday before heading to Izmir on Thursday in order to fly out to Keyseri on thursday night! it will be a new adventure for sure!! we are excited to go to a new country, with new food and new customs..
Wish you all well!!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Samos
Well here we are in Samos, our last island! And it's a HOT one... I'm not gunna say much right now, cuz i will update soon, but I just wanted to put some photos of Patmos for you all-
gunna eat some dinner now.. Greek salad here we come!
gunna eat some dinner now.. Greek salad here we come!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Patmos
What a neat little island! So much more relaxing then anywhere else we have been. There were no "call-outs" of restaurant owners trying to get you into their place and we actually ate at places where locals were.. imagine that. So our time in Patmos has been filled with quad-ing, playing backgammon, swimming, burning, and just chilling out. We called ahead when we were in Kos and had a pension owner named Theo come and pick us up at the ferry. He was a small round man with a generous and hospitable manner.. you couldn't help but smile when he talked to you! Him and his wife owned the pension and a souviner shop and a motobike rental shop.. busy ppl.. most of the time we had to go into their sovernir shop to speak to them about staying an extra night, etc. It was funny, we were only planning on staying one night there, and then splurging a bit and staying at this upper class hotel in which their slogan was "Just what you need after those many months of wedding planning" (no joke)- but after getting baked goods and honeydew melon from Theo and his wife (they kept knocking at our door and giving us goodies!), we decided to stay- and after all it was only 30 euro's/night, but when Theo heard we wanted to stay another night he lowered the price to 25 a night! deal!
The town we were staying at, Skala, only had about 2 bars and a handful of restaurants, so after we checked our bags at Yvonne's studios, exploring the town took about oh 5 min., but we ate at one of the restaurants, stuffed ourselves with pasta for only 3 euro's each and of course had to have our Greek salad- Josh and I have a love/hate relationship with the Greek salad.. you get so sick of it, yet something about it is so addicting.. i think we have ordered it at every meal.. maybe when we get back to Van we will miss it??
We spent yesterday on a quad flying from one side of the island to the other. we uncovered some amazing little beaches, explored the cave of the apocolypse, the monastery (where i got yelled at for having bare shoulders!), and ended up eating dinner at an isolated pebble beach where we were the only customers for a long time. I drove the quad a lot of the time and ended up getting the thumbs up sign from a local.. he must have appreciated that Josh was on the back! hehe. We couldn't rent scooters because we don't have any experience, and they literally will not rent them to you if you don't know how to drive them.. so we were disappointed but figured it's proabbly best that way. No one wants to be going to a hospital when your traveliing.. i know from experience (bring back memories Ian??).
So like most nights in Greece, we ended up buying a bottle of wine and sitting on our patio, just chatting and enjoying the hot summer night.
Today we went back to one of the little beaches we found from the previous day, trekked down a path, got pretty friendly with some goats, and joined the 2 other couples that were on that beach- one of the them was au natural, and maybe it is supposed to be that way? we swam for a while, bathing suits on- not that brave.. :) , and enjoyed the crystal clear water before heading back to the hotel to check out and head to the ferry.
So in about 30 min. we will head to Samos where will be spend about 3 nights before heading to Turkey. Samos is the last of the islands we will visit in Greece, yet even tho we are sad to know the greek part of our trip is ending, we are excited to see what Turkey is all about. I am pretty sure i will have to buy a shawl to cover my shoulders if i want to go into any mosques.. i am stoked about the bazaars.. i haven't bought anything in Greece.. it's soo expensive.. so i am warning Josh that i may go a bit nutty in Turkey.. i think he is prepared.. and even tho he may not admit it, i know he is stoked to shop too!
We will upload more pics in Samos, i hope you are all enjoying them :) Thanks to everyone who has emailed us :) we like hearing about whats going on back home!
oh and a big shout out to damien and sara, as their one month countdown, as of yesterday, begins till their wedding!! We can't wait!! but alas, i do not envy you guys! hehe..
take care!
The town we were staying at, Skala, only had about 2 bars and a handful of restaurants, so after we checked our bags at Yvonne's studios, exploring the town took about oh 5 min., but we ate at one of the restaurants, stuffed ourselves with pasta for only 3 euro's each and of course had to have our Greek salad- Josh and I have a love/hate relationship with the Greek salad.. you get so sick of it, yet something about it is so addicting.. i think we have ordered it at every meal.. maybe when we get back to Van we will miss it??
We spent yesterday on a quad flying from one side of the island to the other. we uncovered some amazing little beaches, explored the cave of the apocolypse, the monastery (where i got yelled at for having bare shoulders!), and ended up eating dinner at an isolated pebble beach where we were the only customers for a long time. I drove the quad a lot of the time and ended up getting the thumbs up sign from a local.. he must have appreciated that Josh was on the back! hehe. We couldn't rent scooters because we don't have any experience, and they literally will not rent them to you if you don't know how to drive them.. so we were disappointed but figured it's proabbly best that way. No one wants to be going to a hospital when your traveliing.. i know from experience (bring back memories Ian??).
So like most nights in Greece, we ended up buying a bottle of wine and sitting on our patio, just chatting and enjoying the hot summer night.
Today we went back to one of the little beaches we found from the previous day, trekked down a path, got pretty friendly with some goats, and joined the 2 other couples that were on that beach- one of the them was au natural, and maybe it is supposed to be that way? we swam for a while, bathing suits on- not that brave.. :) , and enjoyed the crystal clear water before heading back to the hotel to check out and head to the ferry.
So in about 30 min. we will head to Samos where will be spend about 3 nights before heading to Turkey. Samos is the last of the islands we will visit in Greece, yet even tho we are sad to know the greek part of our trip is ending, we are excited to see what Turkey is all about. I am pretty sure i will have to buy a shawl to cover my shoulders if i want to go into any mosques.. i am stoked about the bazaars.. i haven't bought anything in Greece.. it's soo expensive.. so i am warning Josh that i may go a bit nutty in Turkey.. i think he is prepared.. and even tho he may not admit it, i know he is stoked to shop too!
We will upload more pics in Samos, i hope you are all enjoying them :) Thanks to everyone who has emailed us :) we like hearing about whats going on back home!
oh and a big shout out to damien and sara, as their one month countdown, as of yesterday, begins till their wedding!! We can't wait!! but alas, i do not envy you guys! hehe..
take care!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Kos
So our ferry to Kos was much nicer than the one to Rhodes! It took about 4 hours to get here, but we wasted time by playing crib and drinking Corona's on the deck! I was quite excited to see that they had salmon on the menu, but unfortunately the fish i got wasn't actually salmon.. not too sure what happened there, but hey, go with it right? So when we got off the ferry we were going to go straight to a Lonely Planet recommended hotel but got roped in by a nice greek woman to come see her place.. note to self, do not get roped in to doing that.. haha.. but although we didn't end up staying at her place, she did give us a nice tour of the city while we walked the 5 min. to get there. So it was about 10pm when we reached the other pension that we wanted to stay at and was greeted by a man named John, or Yannis who was at times over helpful. He sat us down and immediatly showed us the book that people had wrote in about his place.. which was fine, but we were tired and just wanted to shower after the ferry ride.. but he continued to talk, got us a map and showed us all the places to see around Kos, and this was all even before he said anything about having a room available! But, eventually he said, ok you are tired? and showed us a room to stay in. We were tired, but forced ourselves to go out and see the nightlife of Kos. Now the bars here are nothing i have ever experienced before- and i'm not talking about the inside of the bar, cuz we never make it in, but standing outside the bars are "salespeople" for the bar and are like vultures calling to you and getting in your face about going and drinking at their bar.. it is so annoying - josh and i actually started pretending we were french and didn't speak english so they would leave us alone! We got out of there as fast as we could and ended up buying a bottle of wine at a local mini mart and sitting on our balcony.. much preferred..
The next day, yesterday, we ended up renting a car to explore the island- i was really stoked to drive in Greece, but my lack of knowing how to drive a standard left me to be a demanding back seat driver! But i think we worked well, josh drove, i navigated! We visited many sites we would not have been able to see if we went by bus, and the 35 euros it cost to rent the car was well worth it! We went all over the island, to 7 different beaches and to a spot recommended in Lonley Planet as the one for the best sunsets in Kos. It was great, we had a fabulous day, and decided that is the way to see an island.. in Patmos tho i think we are going to rent scooters as the island is smaller and less dangerous for scooters??
We ended our night at an outdoor cinema where we enjoyed Ocean's 13- we liked it a lot, and it was neat to be sitting under the stars watching a movie! How funny, my last cinema experience abroad was watching Ocean's 12 with my mom in Japan!
So here we sit waiting for 5pm for our ferry to Patmos. We are excited to be going to a small island, and are interested to know what lies ahead for the next couple of days!
hope you are all well-
The next day, yesterday, we ended up renting a car to explore the island- i was really stoked to drive in Greece, but my lack of knowing how to drive a standard left me to be a demanding back seat driver! But i think we worked well, josh drove, i navigated! We visited many sites we would not have been able to see if we went by bus, and the 35 euros it cost to rent the car was well worth it! We went all over the island, to 7 different beaches and to a spot recommended in Lonley Planet as the one for the best sunsets in Kos. It was great, we had a fabulous day, and decided that is the way to see an island.. in Patmos tho i think we are going to rent scooters as the island is smaller and less dangerous for scooters??
We ended our night at an outdoor cinema where we enjoyed Ocean's 13- we liked it a lot, and it was neat to be sitting under the stars watching a movie! How funny, my last cinema experience abroad was watching Ocean's 12 with my mom in Japan!
So here we sit waiting for 5pm for our ferry to Patmos. We are excited to be going to a small island, and are interested to know what lies ahead for the next couple of days!
hope you are all well-
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Rhodes
So where did i leave you last.. i think we were about to board our 14 hour ferry no? well now that was a bit of a gong show.. first off you don't ever really know where you are going when you waiting for these slower cheaper ferries. We ended up sitting on this slab of concrete next to where the ferry was supposed to be, as it arrived over 45 minutes late. It seems as tho buses run on time, but ferries definitely do not. And wow are people pushy! i guess in my Canadian naiveness i think people will be "nice" everywhere, but that is so not what goes on. I have never been so pushed, shoved, cut in front of, run over, as i have here. Josh and i just look at each other in disbelief laughing at the whole situation.. there is no "oh i'm sorry" or "oh you were here first? ok you go then..". and we have decided that the Greece bus drivers are either hard of hearing of just like to yell.. without a doubt every bus we are on the driver ends up yelling at either a passenger who forgot to push the button to get off, or as in the case today, yelling in his radio at who knows.. and it's loud! like i am not sure if it is impolite to laugh.. but it's getting harder and harder not to! Anyways, enough tangent-ing, so our ferry was 14 hours, and we decided to do the economy class, which meant no beds, josh and i thought we were being sneaky and beating the system cuz we could just stretch out on the seats right? umm no wrong, the arm rest didn't go up, so in order to lie down you had to manoeuvre your thigh/bum in such a way to fit it under the arm rest.. needless to say between that and the violent shaking of the ship as a whole, it was a bit of a rough night.. but we made it thru, and surprisingly didn't kill each other! So we arrived at Rhodes at around 10am, and made our way thru a medieval castle to our budget hotel, and luckily ended up getting the last room available. The owners were so nice, and for some reason gave us a discount.. why? im still not sure.. maybe it was josh's dashing looks? :) We spent the day exploring the old town, this is such a neat place.. we love the castles and the cobblestone windy roads that you just get lost in. A MUST for anyone coming to Greece!! Last night was sadly the first night we actually went out.. we usually end up sleeping at around 10pm.. we feel like quite the old married couple already!! But we mustered up the energy and went out to the strip of bars here, there is one for every Scandinavian country, (sadly no one for Canada), and we ended up at a chill Hookah bar.. and Josh had his first Hookah experience (Ian you would have been proud)!
So we are both quite burnt, but yet decided since we haven't done a beach yet we would go to one today and hopped on a bus for Lindos. 1.5hr later we were at sandy beaches enjoying the white sand and clear/ teal water.. besides the random topless older women, the view was quite fantastic!
So now we are ready to go eat dinner, we had the most fantastic mussels cooked with cheese and garlic yesterday.. we are somehow still eating Greek salad everyday, although we do go out of our way to find other ethnic foods.. we have had chinese twice! I think we are just so spoiled in Vancouver with all of the variety.. we are going nuts eating the same stuff everyday!
Tomorrow we will head to Kos, stay for about 2 nights and then head to Patmos for a bit.. continuing on our island hopping. Did i tell you that we ended up buying some cheap airfares in turkey are are heading to Cappadocia for about 4 nights before going to Istanbul?? we are stoked.. i think we are going to splurge too and take a hot air balloon ride in Goreme. it has come highly recommended!
hope you are all well!
So we are both quite burnt, but yet decided since we haven't done a beach yet we would go to one today and hopped on a bus for Lindos. 1.5hr later we were at sandy beaches enjoying the white sand and clear/ teal water.. besides the random topless older women, the view was quite fantastic!
So now we are ready to go eat dinner, we had the most fantastic mussels cooked with cheese and garlic yesterday.. we are somehow still eating Greek salad everyday, although we do go out of our way to find other ethnic foods.. we have had chinese twice! I think we are just so spoiled in Vancouver with all of the variety.. we are going nuts eating the same stuff everyday!
Tomorrow we will head to Kos, stay for about 2 nights and then head to Patmos for a bit.. continuing on our island hopping. Did i tell you that we ended up buying some cheap airfares in turkey are are heading to Cappadocia for about 4 nights before going to Istanbul?? we are stoked.. i think we are going to splurge too and take a hot air balloon ride in Goreme. it has come highly recommended!
hope you are all well!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
All of the wedding Pics
So Alana has posted all of our wedding pics on the web- the site is the same one that was attached to the water bottles you recieved at the wedding:
http://www.pictage.com/293909
you need to know that the event key is 'fantastic'
there are tons.. hehe, but definitely take a look cuz they are gorgeous!
yay!! looking back on those i can't believe that was only 12 days ago?? i want to do it again.... :)
http://www.pictage.com/293909
you need to know that the event key is 'fantastic'
there are tons.. hehe, but definitely take a look cuz they are gorgeous!
yay!! looking back on those i can't believe that was only 12 days ago?? i want to do it again.... :)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Xavia, Chania or Hania.. Take your pick..
hey guys,
So Josh and I are in a city on the western side of Crete called Hania.. we arrived here today after we spent one night in Rethymno, a more central Cretean City. We absolutely love it here, a definite recommend to anyone traveling to Greece.. it's just more chill and laid back, but still enough of the hustle and bustle excitement. The place we stayed at in Rethmyno was really cute, it was called Olga's Pension Apartments, with a garden rooftop and a never ending meowing cat.. made me miss my cat! We had our best meal in Greece so far, and sadly it was at an Italian place... i can't say that Greek food is my favorite, i have Od'ed on Feta cheese and unfortunately the meat runs rampant here, so my new "veggie" ways are suffering.. i had a taste of Josh's lamb but i can't say that i will be ordering my own dish of it anytime soon! Josh was reminiscing of his days in Italy when him and Pete used to order like 5 dishes of pasta.. i can't say that i can keep up with you Pete! :) But i did eat a shrimp pasta so that was great!
We would have liked to stay for longer in Remthymo but there is only one ferry leaving Crete to go to Rhodes (14 hours!) on Friday night and we wanted to come to Hania before leaving Crete.. so here we are. We had a rather interesting bus trip here, as we listened to a "Greek" argument between a Greek woman and the bus driver.. it was actually kind of scary, she is yelling and clapping her hands, he is yelling even louder, while he attempts to drive the bus down the highway that you can apparently make your own third lane in the middle if u want to pass the car in front of you! A man next to josh was making the Greek Orthodox sign of the cross the entire time..
So here we will stay for two nights before leaving to go to Rhodes. We are staying at the cutest place, it is 2 floors, and u must walk up a spiraling staircase to get to the bed! we have 2 balconies a fridge, and stove.. and all for 50 euros a night.. we are really happy with it!
Tomorrow we will head to some beach near by, apparently it is really great.. Josh is tanning like crazy, i am burning.. the temperature is much hotter than in Santorini, and well, lets just say we might get Josh some wrist bands.. hehe.
take care guys,
drop us an email when u get a chance, we'd love to know how life over there is going :)
So Josh and I are in a city on the western side of Crete called Hania.. we arrived here today after we spent one night in Rethymno, a more central Cretean City. We absolutely love it here, a definite recommend to anyone traveling to Greece.. it's just more chill and laid back, but still enough of the hustle and bustle excitement. The place we stayed at in Rethmyno was really cute, it was called Olga's Pension Apartments, with a garden rooftop and a never ending meowing cat.. made me miss my cat! We had our best meal in Greece so far, and sadly it was at an Italian place... i can't say that Greek food is my favorite, i have Od'ed on Feta cheese and unfortunately the meat runs rampant here, so my new "veggie" ways are suffering.. i had a taste of Josh's lamb but i can't say that i will be ordering my own dish of it anytime soon! Josh was reminiscing of his days in Italy when him and Pete used to order like 5 dishes of pasta.. i can't say that i can keep up with you Pete! :) But i did eat a shrimp pasta so that was great!
We would have liked to stay for longer in Remthymo but there is only one ferry leaving Crete to go to Rhodes (14 hours!) on Friday night and we wanted to come to Hania before leaving Crete.. so here we are. We had a rather interesting bus trip here, as we listened to a "Greek" argument between a Greek woman and the bus driver.. it was actually kind of scary, she is yelling and clapping her hands, he is yelling even louder, while he attempts to drive the bus down the highway that you can apparently make your own third lane in the middle if u want to pass the car in front of you! A man next to josh was making the Greek Orthodox sign of the cross the entire time..
So here we will stay for two nights before leaving to go to Rhodes. We are staying at the cutest place, it is 2 floors, and u must walk up a spiraling staircase to get to the bed! we have 2 balconies a fridge, and stove.. and all for 50 euros a night.. we are really happy with it!
Tomorrow we will head to some beach near by, apparently it is really great.. Josh is tanning like crazy, i am burning.. the temperature is much hotter than in Santorini, and well, lets just say we might get Josh some wrist bands.. hehe.
take care guys,
drop us an email when u get a chance, we'd love to know how life over there is going :)
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Our Wedding Slideshow
Hi All!
So we are now in Crete... laid back and really neat.. much more our style! we are heading to some ancient Minoan ruins today and then will make our way by bus to Remthymo-
So Alana has put the wedding slideshow up on the web:
http://www.alanacouch.com/slideshow_jd/
It is AWESOME!!
hope you all enjoy!
So we are now in Crete... laid back and really neat.. much more our style! we are heading to some ancient Minoan ruins today and then will make our way by bus to Remthymo-
So Alana has put the wedding slideshow up on the web:
http://www.alanacouch.com/slideshow_jd/
It is AWESOME!!
hope you all enjoy!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Santorini Part 2
Hi all!
So just to update from our last blog, we did get moved to a new awesome hotel.. these little suites are built right into the cliffs, and every morning we look out onto the Mediterranean.. definitely more of the honeymoon experience we were after!
Life is good, we are slowly adjusting to not having anything to do.. it kind of freaked me out for the first couple of days.. where were my wedding crafts? are there no bows to tie?? :)
Josh and I are liking the food so far, the feta cheese flows like water, and every morning we head to our "American style buffet" breakfast and mix the feta with our eggs as we enjoy the view.. so nope, we can't complain! Jet lag has been super brutal so far tho, we are in a weird pattern of sleeping about 4 hours at night and then napping for another 4 (sometimes 6) in the afternoon.. we are up around 6am every morning, can't say that has ever happened before!! unfortunately tho I am still sick, hopefully i have turned the corner now with that and will start getting better.. that has put a damper on our plans! but- we did rent a quad yesterday and zip around the island hopping from beach to beach! Santorini is super touristy tho, although we knew it would be, we didn't realize that it would really bother us, so, i think we will leave a day early and head to Crete where it is supposed to be more laid back, and where we can't get away with knowing 0 Greek! We definitely understand that phrase "it's all Greek to me" tho as the written language is just as confusing as it was in Japan!
Ok, well we are going to attempt to upload some pics for u all to enjoy!
we hope you are all well!
So just to update from our last blog, we did get moved to a new awesome hotel.. these little suites are built right into the cliffs, and every morning we look out onto the Mediterranean.. definitely more of the honeymoon experience we were after!
Life is good, we are slowly adjusting to not having anything to do.. it kind of freaked me out for the first couple of days.. where were my wedding crafts? are there no bows to tie?? :)
Josh and I are liking the food so far, the feta cheese flows like water, and every morning we head to our "American style buffet" breakfast and mix the feta with our eggs as we enjoy the view.. so nope, we can't complain! Jet lag has been super brutal so far tho, we are in a weird pattern of sleeping about 4 hours at night and then napping for another 4 (sometimes 6) in the afternoon.. we are up around 6am every morning, can't say that has ever happened before!! unfortunately tho I am still sick, hopefully i have turned the corner now with that and will start getting better.. that has put a damper on our plans! but- we did rent a quad yesterday and zip around the island hopping from beach to beach! Santorini is super touristy tho, although we knew it would be, we didn't realize that it would really bother us, so, i think we will leave a day early and head to Crete where it is supposed to be more laid back, and where we can't get away with knowing 0 Greek! We definitely understand that phrase "it's all Greek to me" tho as the written language is just as confusing as it was in Japan!
Ok, well we are going to attempt to upload some pics for u all to enjoy!
we hope you are all well!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Santorini
Well, we made it!
Let's just say it hasn't been the smoothest ride so far.. awake for over 24 hours, our bags didn't make it from munich to athens (we barely did.. we had to go thru security and customs, change terminals, all in 25 min..), but they did get delivered to our hotel at 6am (needless to say we had been awake since 4am, so that actually turned out ok). Our one morning in Athens was actually pretty neat tho, we took an early 5am morning stroll to the ancient ruins, and the acropolis, really neat to see such old structures... we then headed to Santorini today at 11am, and it is a gorgeous little island.. but.. our hotel wasn't quite what we expected.. it turned out for some reason they had booked up all the "good" rooms and gave us one with two single beds, that faced the road... pretty disappointing.. so, Josh took the initiative and told them this is not what we were expecting.. so they offered us the family suite.. it has 3 beds, still faces the road, and was still pretty unacceptable for our honeymoon expectation. So going back a 2nd time to tell them it wasn't what we wanted, the owner apologized and said he was sorry for booking all the "nice" rooms, and told us to give him an hour and he would find us something better... so as of now, they are moving us at 11am tomorrow to another hotel called "cliffside apartments" that apparently are goregous and are more of a honeymooner experience, for the same price we are paying at this other hotel.. keep your fingers crossed for us.. we love being together, yet we also really wanted a "wow, this is awesome" first experience.. so maybe this will be it!
so we are trying to focus on the positive things of these "turbulent" past couple of days.. but things can only get better! and hey, what is better than sharing a bottle of wine on the cliffs of santorini???
hope you are all well!!
p.s. our wedding pictures are not available for viewing yet, just in case you have visited the site that we attached to the water bottles. We will let you know when it is :)
Let's just say it hasn't been the smoothest ride so far.. awake for over 24 hours, our bags didn't make it from munich to athens (we barely did.. we had to go thru security and customs, change terminals, all in 25 min..), but they did get delivered to our hotel at 6am (needless to say we had been awake since 4am, so that actually turned out ok). Our one morning in Athens was actually pretty neat tho, we took an early 5am morning stroll to the ancient ruins, and the acropolis, really neat to see such old structures... we then headed to Santorini today at 11am, and it is a gorgeous little island.. but.. our hotel wasn't quite what we expected.. it turned out for some reason they had booked up all the "good" rooms and gave us one with two single beds, that faced the road... pretty disappointing.. so, Josh took the initiative and told them this is not what we were expecting.. so they offered us the family suite.. it has 3 beds, still faces the road, and was still pretty unacceptable for our honeymoon expectation. So going back a 2nd time to tell them it wasn't what we wanted, the owner apologized and said he was sorry for booking all the "nice" rooms, and told us to give him an hour and he would find us something better... so as of now, they are moving us at 11am tomorrow to another hotel called "cliffside apartments" that apparently are goregous and are more of a honeymooner experience, for the same price we are paying at this other hotel.. keep your fingers crossed for us.. we love being together, yet we also really wanted a "wow, this is awesome" first experience.. so maybe this will be it!
so we are trying to focus on the positive things of these "turbulent" past couple of days.. but things can only get better! and hey, what is better than sharing a bottle of wine on the cliffs of santorini???
hope you are all well!!
p.s. our wedding pictures are not available for viewing yet, just in case you have visited the site that we attached to the water bottles. We will let you know when it is :)
Monday, June 4, 2007
and we're off!!
Welcome to our Blog :)
We will be using this to share stories and pictures with everyone while we are travelling through Greece and Turkey!
We are off on Tuesday, and we can't wait... what a surreal past couple of days these have been!!
and now we are finally MARRIED!!!
We couldn't be happier with how our wedding turned out.. everything was perfect: you guys were awesome, the weather was fanstastic, our vendors were great... how could we ask for more? Thank you again for everyone who helped out the day of.. the decorations were amazing and took our breath away numerous times! thank you thank you thank you!
Our wonderful photographer has posted some of our wedding pics on her blog, please go to:
www.blog.alanacouch.com
OK, take care everyone!! we will see ya'll in July!!!!!!!!
Love,
Dan and Josh
We will be using this to share stories and pictures with everyone while we are travelling through Greece and Turkey!
We are off on Tuesday, and we can't wait... what a surreal past couple of days these have been!!
and now we are finally MARRIED!!!
We couldn't be happier with how our wedding turned out.. everything was perfect: you guys were awesome, the weather was fanstastic, our vendors were great... how could we ask for more? Thank you again for everyone who helped out the day of.. the decorations were amazing and took our breath away numerous times! thank you thank you thank you!
Our wonderful photographer has posted some of our wedding pics on her blog, please go to:
www.blog.alanacouch.com
OK, take care everyone!! we will see ya'll in July!!!!!!!!
Love,
Dan and Josh
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