Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The beginnings of the big trip....

Hi guys and welcome to my travel blog! I havent updated my regular blog for quite some time now, but you can expect to now receive regular updates from me as I begin this big trip.

As most of you would know by now my time as an au pair is finished.

This being said I have now began my two month adventure with my friend Lacey. Alot of preparation has gone into this trip and we have planned a few flights, etc but majority of the time we are just playing it by ear.

Let me fill you in on the first three days of the trip.

Leaving Zurich and sadly saying good bye to my swiss family, I got on the train to Zurich city at 10.30am Saturday morning. Lacey and I then caught the train to Suttgart Germany which took about 3 hours. Our plan was to spend a few hours in Stuttgart - which by the way is a really cute little city, see left - and then make our way over to the airport in time for our 10.50pm flight wth discount airline Germanwings.

I encountered a few problems within the first few hours of the trip. 1. Realised I could not breathe whilst carrying my backpack which was carrying the bare minimum for this giant trip 2. Fell down the stairs whilst carrying giant backpack and twisted my ankle (still swollen and bruised P.S) and then the best part of these problems was the fact that our flight was cancelled on Saturday night.

Aghhhhh. Could it really have gotten any worse.... No I dont think it would have been possible. Yet thankfully there is a silver lining on everything and the airline offered us a free night accomodation in Swiss 4 star Hotel Movenpick which included a beautiful buffet breakfast and 40 Euros credit in the restaurant.

As my ankle had reached the point of not being able to walk on it I was thankful for this small favour. It was a lovely night in the hotel and we got to sleep which originally wouldnt have happened due to the fact that our flight was due to arrive in Ankara airport Turkey at 3am.

After the great breakfast Sunday we spent the day planning a few extra things for the trip in the hotels "Business Centre" and we then slowly made our way over to the airport with our fingers crossed, hoping that our flight would be on for Sunday night.

Lacey and I had a long day today...

Thankfully it was and we arrived safely in Ankara International airport at 3am this morning. We got a bus to the Ankara bus staion and had to wait a very long and tiring 6 hours for our bus to the famous Cappadocia region in the heart of Turkey. We finally arrived in Goreme after the 4 hour bus trip and we are all settled into our hostel. Even though we are currently extremely tired we mustered up the energy to walk to the Open Air Museum. This area houses "fairy chimneys" whcih are rocks and caves formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. This area was absolutely amazing and I doubt that you couls see something like this anywhere else in the world. The site was infested with tourists but it was well worth the walk.

We just had a really nice traditional Turkish dinner and we are ready for a night of SLEEP with 20 other people in our mixed dorm tonight. Haha wish me luck!

Tomorrow we will head to an underground city and spend the day exploring!

Hope you dont mind receiving these mails, its just another way to stay informed of whats happening with me while I try my luck at being a backpacker!



My owie ankle all bandaged up!!!!!