Kims blog

Kim started a blog today as well, documenting the nutritional value of our local cafes and restaurants.  You can see the early stages of her blog at explorenutrition@blogspot.com.au

I remember the millenium bug...

Wow so it is 2010.... ten years ago I was 16 and the world was in fear of a computer meltdown. Obviously nothing happened and life went on as it always did.

One month ago I finished my first year of university. First semester I achieved two HD's and two Credits. This past semester I got three Distinctions and one Credit which I am really proud of. Kim and Kate have now both finished university and have both landed excellent jobs in their field. I am so excited for them and cant wait till I am a qualified teacher and can get out there and make some money.

Still living the dream of meeting my husband soon and settling down and having the kids and the puppy in the nice house.... actually thought I had met Mr Right by the end of last year but he too turned out to be a toad after we kissed. Not actually sure why I am documenting this but a friend once said to me you have to meet a few bad ones before the good one arrives.... still waiting but it sure is an adventure on the way.

Too keep me busy through this massive three month holiday we have between semesters one of my best Switzerland buddies has come to Australia for two weeks. Camey arrived in Australia on New Years Eve day and the following day Abbey came too. We have enjoyed fireworks on the harbour, rainy weather in Sydney, a Manly night-out, a windy trip down the Great Ocean Rd with countless other tourists, an adventure filled few days in Becs hometown of Mount Gambier and finally a beautiful night in Melbourne thanks to my dear Uncle.

Now back in Sydney, Camey and I are catching up on much needed rest after a 5am arrival at the airport this morning and a few more touristy days planned before Cameys departure back to America. It makes me so grateful yet again for my time in Switzerland because I have been blessed with meeting these additional beautiful people in my life. I think in all honesty I will be friends forever with Bec and Camey as we reminise about the 'places we will go.... and will go'. Bec is having a baby in July and I cannot wait to see her again as a mother, she will be perfect and her path is now paved for her to lead a fantastic life - Bec everything is going to be fine x x x

Another perfect supplement to my 2010 was the arrival of my Swiss babies for a stint in Sydney. The twins, once up to my belly button are now well up to my chest and Noel has lost seven teeth. Once more I wont forget seeing Nicolas after 12 months and how is face lit up when he saw me and the way he dived over chairs to embrace me after all this time... how stupid I was to think he may have forgtotten me. Just like I will never forget them.... One day I will be back there with them... even if the feeling isnt the same, some of the people I love will be in the place I love, a few of my favourites such as Lacey, Bec and Camey will be missing however.

So thats my story so far for this new year, full of new beginnings and new respect for myself. I am tired of trying to please and be something I am not, so as of 13th of January, the official date for this revolution, life will be better and my smile will be bigger.

Wow... haven't been on here for soooo long and now really isn't even a good time to be blogging as I have alot of work to get through for uni... yes uni!  I started at the beginning of the year at CSU in Bathurst (yes I moved to the country) and am 3 weeks away from completing my first year.  Can't believe it.... having a blast doing my course and making beautiful friends along the way.  

So thats the end of this post.... I actually just wanted to write something and get back into some sort of habit with blogging. Lame.  But its got to be done.... who else is going to document my life if I don't?

Write back soon....

Megz x x 

My quest to marry someone who works in border control...

So much for being consistent and blogging regularly! How are you all? Sorry I haven't written for so long.

You last heard from me right before I left Krakow - wow, that was so long ago. The last day in Poland was a sad one. Lacey and I really loved where we were staying in the city and we really enjoyed the town. It was getting a bit depressing by the time we left though... the fog was at head level and the sky was dark by about 4pm. It was also very wet and cold. Sadly, we knew that it wouldn't get much better as we headed further north.

Tuesday night (4th Nov.) we boarded the Eurolines bus to Vilnius, Lithuania. The bus had already been travelling for the last 24 hours by the time we got on it as the route started in Rome. You could smell it also, not really a great start. What made the trip even more crazy though was the man sitting behind Lacey.

One hour into the trip while Lacey and I were snoozing, I wake to yelling and the people behind us jumping around. Now I am not sure if all of you, keep up to date on CNN but recently in Canada, on a greyhound bus, a man who was also sleeping started to get stabbed by the man sitting beside him FOR NO REASON. Obviously the guy died and the sicko beside him then CUT OFF his HEAD! True story. So you can imagine my fright when I was half asleep and I awoke to this commotion.

The guy wasn't getting his head cut off but he appeared to be having some sort of seizure. It was really scary and we didn't know what was happening, until the bus pulled over and an ambulance pulled up and took him away. It turns out that the man had been drinking the entire trip and was suffering from alcohol poisoning. Foaming at the mouth, convulsing and making really weird sounds.... Lacey and I didn't feel so sorry for him anymore...

Back on the road we only had another 13 hours till we reached our destination and it wasn't so bad. Vilnius was the first stop on our Baltic leg of the trip and it was a really beautiful city. More churches down one street than I have ever seen in my life, even one that looks like a bridge, as it goes over the road.

We spent the first day with a super nice Aussie guy from Newtown and we whizzed through the sites seeing as we changed our plans around a bit and decided to take another night bus on Thursday (6th Nov.) up to Tallinn. So we only spent one night in the little city but it was plenty of time to get a feel for it and also get confused by LITAS, the Lithuanian currency! Thursday was Noels 7th birthday so I got a quick chance to speak to him while he opened some of his present and also to Nicolas who was full of joy.

In 1991 the Estonians, Lativans and Lithuanians formed a human chain called the Baltic Way It was originally organised to remind the world of the historical fate that these three countries had suffered for the last 50 years at the hands of the Soviets. It was reported that about 700,000 Estonians, 500,000 Latvians, and 1,000,000 Lithuanians joined the peaceful protest. Lacey and I went to the spot in Vilnius where the protest began in Lithuania. A stone marks the spot and says MIRACLE in Lithuanian. I think it is a really significant place, click on the link above and watch the movie!

Arriving in Tallinn at 6.30 in the morning wasn't the best moment of my life, but I blame that on the gazillion noisy spanish people who boarded our bus at midnight. It wasn't so bad though once we found our hostel (in the pitch black dark) and fell into bed until midday. Not much of the day left on Friday we headed to a chocolate shop my mum had recommended as I was in serious need of a pick-me-up. Lacey and I both ate far too much chocolate in one sitting, and left feeling more sad and sorry for ourselves than when we had walked in...

Saturday was destined to be the day for sightseeing, but it didn't really turn out like that seeing as it was freezing and miserable outside so we sat around with our fellow hostelling people and watched movies. Dark Knight with Heath Ledger, is a must see if you get a chance :-)

By the time dusk had fallen we went out and explored a bit, mainly the mall for groceries but we did go to the Port and book our ferry tickets for the following day. We decided that while we were so close to Scandanavia we may as well jump on the ship for 2 hours and head to Helsinki, Finland for the day.

It was an early start, which we are getting used to, but we arrived at the port at 7.15am only to find that our ship was like a moving hotel with a casino, bars, restaurants, shops, you name it. So we had a pleasant journey and enjoyed looking around Helsinki for the day. Another cold and wet place, we spent the day shivering. Not much was open in Helsinki seeing as it was a Sunday, we did get to go to the Protestant Church and the Orthodox Church though which were both very impressive.

In the afternoon we caught a boat out to the UNESCO world heritage listed site Suomenllina which is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands. It was interesting to see here, including the church pictured left which also doubled as a light house. Here it looked to me like what the 'olden days' may have been like!!!

Back to Tallinn that evening, it was into the nice warm beds for us. Sadly I feel like in Tallinn and Vilnius we didnt do as much sightseeing as we should have. Both towns were so beautiful with so much to see but with the combination of sleep deprivation and coldness we weren't as motivated as in previous cities. That is perhaps why we really made an effort to get out and see the next city we visited.

Monday was the day I realised my potential as an Olympic sprint star and Lacey's definite talent as a psychic.

We walked through the old town to get our bus tickets to head to Riga, Latvia Tuesday morning. We knew our bus was around 2 pm so we were in no rush. Tickets bought, we decided to board at the port as it is was closer to our hostel, meaning that I wouldn't have to carry my giant bag any further than necessary.

The lady told us that our bus would pick us up at 1.55pm. We made sure we got there super early, allowing us heaps of time. Lacey kept stressing and saying the bus isn't going to come, something is wrong with the bus. I was trying to be positive and saying ''Dont worry, it will come!!!'' It wasn't until Lacey decided to go into INFORMATION that the lady said (at about 1.50pm) ''Oh, the Ecolines bus comes at 1.25'' It was then we threw our bags onto our backs and raced for a taxi. There was no way that we could miss the bus; as we had paid for it, we had accommodation booked and we needed to be in Riga!!

Thankfully our taxi driver spoke a little bit of english and I think he saw our frantic faces. We had no Estonians Eeeks (as we came to call the currency) on us, but the man took our Euros and raced through red lights, drove down the wrong side of the road and PRAYED as we dashed through the city.

Across the road from the bus terminal he told me to get out and find the bus as we were standing still at a busy intersection. This is when my 3 minute sprint came into action. Racing across the road, dodging traffic I zoomed into the terminal only to find that the bus at platform 12 had already left. Nooooooooo. Then to my surprise Lacey is yelling at me from the bus terminal entrance and the kind taxi driver is hauling my bag into a bus. Haha! He had flagged the bus down as it left and saved us from missing our bus! We gave him big hug and climbed aboard. We both fell asleep (even though it was 2pm) and didn't wake up until an hour later after our blood had stopped pumping so rapidly.

So it is now, that I truely believe that Lacey has super powers.... how would she have known that the bus wasn't coming???? The lady at the bus company spoke perfect english and specifically told us 1.55 at the port and 2.00pm at the bus terminal. Psychic - Lacey is magic!!!! Thank you also Mr Taxi Driver!

Sooo now arriving at Riga. Cold, dark, lost. After a few minutes glance at our trusty city spy map we found our hostel and walked the few kilometres to our destination. Turned out our hostel was an apartment and Lacey and I pretty much had it to ourselves the whole time, so we played 'house' and cooked, watched tv and spent a long time relaxing in between seeing the sights of Riga. We went to St Peters Church where we went to the top and nearly got

blown right off. We wandered through the old town and successfully managed not to break our ankles on the streets of cobble stones. We also went down to the river, went into Riga Cathedral and spent alot of time drinking hot chocolate!

We even got to see the guards do their little walk at the ''Riga Statue of Liberty'' (the freedom monument)

Thursday afternoon we went to see the new BOND movie, Quantum of Solace which cost us a huge 2.45Ls ... about $5 so we were cheering and it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

After another near missed bus to the airport late Thursday afternoon, we then caught a sleek Air Baltic flight to Berlin.

On the topic of airports, I have a bone to pick with whoever invented the Schengen Agreement
While I know the purpose of the agreement is to open up borders and allow easier travelling through the European countries, it has caused me much heart ache and distress whn crossing through the borders of amazing countries and not getting a stamp in my passport. Luckily in a few countries that arent part of the agreement such as Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania we got a little stamp but the rest of these great places dont get marked in my passport and it makes me sad. Hahaha!

Arriving in the much anticipated capital city of Germany. We both felt at ease in the familiar territory of Deutsch speakers! Our hostel turned out to be like a hotel. Beautiful and clean, in a great area and with really nice staff.

Now less than a week to go before we head back to Zurich. At times on this trip I was ready to finish travelling and be back home, yet as the trip comes to an end I am sad that I will have to go back to Switzerland because that means that I only have 10 more days till that lovely 24 hour flight home to Sydney.

Don't get me wrong I am excited to go home and be with all my family and friends, I will just miss my life here. Going home means getting a job and paying bills... real life I guess, which will be hard because my life in Zurich felt like a holiday since I loved everything about it so much.

Right: Me with my new brown hair getting ready to go downstairs and cook dinner with Lacey.

Dear Snow... please don't come yet!!!

Last Saturday being the 25th October we had a flight to Budapest from a little town in Romania called Tigu Mures.

Our booking said we had to be at the airport 3 hours early in case of a change of departure so good little me and sick little Lacey got up early and caught a dodgy bus to Tigu Mures only to find the bus stopped at the bus station and that was it. . . So we then had to catch a taxi (I probably could have walked faster than this guy) to the airport.

Not a problem initially. Only thing was that the airport had like two flights a day and we were the only ones who seemed to have followed this "three hour early rule". Finally people started to drift in, yet there was no rush as our flight eventually left about 1 hour late.

So that was Saturday - spent in a tiny airport.

Once in Budapest we felt at home as we had both already been here previously. This time was a bit different though as Lacey was still as sick as a dog and the city was a heap colder than last time. We had a hostel that we wanted to stay in so we went there only to find they were booked out so the guy took us to his "other" hostel, which turned out to be the biggest cave/dive/mess that I have ever stepped foot in. Only good thing about it was that we got to spend our evenings at the Suite Hostel which was like a cool apartment with 16 beds and a bunch of really friendly people.

Originally the idea was to spend two nights in Budapest and then head to Krakow Poland on Monday but there turned out to be no buses that day and with Lacey still being quite ill we decided to stay in the city until the next scheduled bus on Wednesday.

This time around in Budapest was spent wandering and relaxing. We did do a city tour on a bus one afternoon which was nice but the lady giving the tour was kind of hard to understand. I did a bit of shopping one afternoon and also called the kids back in Zurich. They sounded so grown up! Funnily enough we also saw our friends from Brasov a few times in Budapest which was nice.

After waking up at the nice and early time of 4.15AM Wednesday morning we jumped on a metro in time for our 6am bus ride to Poland. The ride took about 7 hours and was quite comfortable as we got to watch 3 movies and we also got the yummiest hot chocolate ever served to us.

Once in Krakow we fell in love!! We had heard so many nice things about this city and we weren't disappointed. The bus terminal is right by a mall so we had lunch there and then we waited in the main square for our host for the next two nights Ewa (pronounced Eva, we're in Poland)

It was our first try at the famous couchsurfing. Basically the idea is that you advertise yourself (and your couch) on a website and people find you and ask to stay with you. Our friend had already stayed with Ewa before so Lacey and I went to stay with her for two nights to give it a go and save a few Zlotys (Polish money) on accommodation.

Not really for us I found I like the hostel atomosphere better as you get to come and go as you please and meet lots of people, Ewa was really nice to open up her home for us and it was really friendly of her to let us know a few things about the city, but I still prefer hostels. . . especially the one we are in now called Crackow Hostel.

So on Thursday, our first full day in Krakow, we headed out to Wieliczka. About a 20 minute bus ride from Krakow this is where 700 year old salt mines are. Not only did we get to venture 130 metres underground to view the salt mines, people (with a lot of time and patience) have carved statues, chanderliers and entire rooms out of salt. We saw a chapel that was entirely made from salt, even the floor.

We had lunch at the underground restaurant and when it was all over we caught a lift 130m to the top in about 40 seconds!!

That evening we had an early night in at Ewa's as we were still recovering from our early start on Wednesday, I think. We also had another early start the following morning as this was the day that we planned to go to the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

** "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" Work makes you free" **

A 1.5 hour bus ride from Krakow we arrived at Auschwitz at about 10.30am to watch a movie about the story of Auschwitz and to re-cap on history.

The movie was bad enough to visually recall what happened over 60 years ago but then we walked through Auschwitz I and saw the gas chamber, torture rooms and such things as masses of glasses, kilos of hair and all the shoes the children were wearing before being sent to their death.

The Nazis and the SS left nothing to be wasted. To be honest I was actually quite blown away by it all. It really seemed unbelievable that such a thing could have happened so recently ... yet it did.

After a quick dash to the food shop for lunch we jumped on a bus to Auschwitz Bireknau which is 1.5km away. This is the biggest camp. A one way train heads into the camp and it is there, that the SS decide if you will live or die. Most Jews were sent to the right for instant death and the rest were sent to be prisoners. Slaves who eventually would die from torture, starvation or supposed laziness.

By the time the tour was over, I really was ready to leave. Being at Auschwitz really was a depressing day. Our guide while at times got quite emotional really knew alot about Auschwitz and even had relatives who were murdered by the SS.

That night we went to our new hostel where we had left our bags earlier that morning. In an 18 bed dorm we were in heaven with clean bathrooms and a well-equipped kitchen where we have been cooking our meals for the past few nights.

Saturday in Poland was a public holiday called All Saints Day so we had a sleep-in and really took it easy for the day. Everything was shut anyway so we had a bit of a look in the St Marys Church, which was stunning, and walked down to the river, and even saw the legendary Krakow dragon breathing fire...

Sunday, we went SHOPPING (for groceries) and walked around the Jewish Quarter. Now it seems only about 100 pracitising Jews live here.

Today we organised our bus to Vilnius. Tuesday night we will jump on the bus for 14 hours and hopefully not cross into Belarus (where we will 100% get thrown out because we dont have a transit Visa) and then arrive in the capital of Lithuania.

We went to Nova Huta today for a bit of a walk around but the weather today was freezing and the clouds were seriously at my head level.

I would have to say that Krakow is one of my most favourite European cities now. I think it has something to do with the fact that we stayed on the Main Market Square, the largest plaza of Medieval Europe. On every hour, a trumpet signal is played from the top of the taller of St Marys two towers. The tune breaks off in mid-stream to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. It was really beautiful to listen from our room every evening.
The city itself is so picturesque and there is lots to do, even just wandering is nice because even doing that you will see people singing on the street or some other novel thing will be happening.

Our last day here, being Tuesday will be spent at the Wawel Royal Castle which will be good and then at 7pm we will head over to the bus station to begin 14 hours of fun. I really hate buses, because my giant legs dont fit and it is always so hot but hopefully it will be ok tomorrow and we will make it without too many hassles ;-)

I also hope it wont be too cold as we head furthur north. In Zurich it already snowed last week being 3 degrees when it was 11 degrees here but Lacey thinks it could quite possibly snow here soon because the air was so cold - - I would have to agree.

One month today and I will land at Sydney Airport. That leaves 2.5 weeks left of travelling and then a mere 10 days with my beautiful little Swiss kids before I leave for good...

Leaving them and my friends will break my heart.

When in Rom-ania!

Monday was pretty much the same as Sunday. We fluffed around for majority of the morning, organising accommodations, looking into things to do, etc.

We went to the Post Office first off to send home more random things. Our bags keep getting heavier even though we keep sending stuff back. Thankfully though the Bulgarian post was cheap (fingers crossed it makes it) and our load was 2kg lighter... for now.

After that we went down to the bus station to organise our ride across the Bularian/ Romanian border. Things dont run as nicely here on this side of the world, unlike Switzerland, so we had to spend a night at a border town (being Ruse) and then cross the border the next day.

With the tickets sorted we got to squeeze in a bit of tourist stuff. Basically the only thing I really wanted to do whilst on the coast of Bulgaria was go down and at least touch the Black Sea... so thats what we did. We also saw a naked man, but thats another story.

Once back at the hostel we made our first attempt at cooking in a hostel kitchen. Blehhhh. Maybe thats what made us sick....

That evening we then took the bus to Ruse. We arrived late and had no clue how to get to our hotel but once we did, we were so glad. The only "cheap" place in the town we got to stay at an english guesthouse. The host a loopy english men kept us up for half the night being a bit weird, but we were grateful for the cleanliness and native english speaking.

We had a look around the 5th largest city in Bulgaria the next day but neither of us were very interested. Not that we knew yet but we were both on the verge of getting "sehr" sick. That morning I saw a little boy that looked exactly like Nicolas. I had a huge cry in the middle of the street. I think Lacey was ready to chuck me in the looney bin. 21st October was Diana's b-day also... Happy Birthday Deee!

At 2pm we were in our bus which turned out to be a van. Crossing the border. I am proud to say that, yes, I now have a Romanian stamp! Yay!

BUCHAREST! Has to be the dodgiest city on the face of the earth. We arrived and half the drivers looked like they were on a suicide mission. We were holding onto our stuff for dear life because we had heard a few too many bad things about the people there.

Luckily we made it out of the city unharmed and caught a train to Brasov that evening. Both sick and tired by this stage Lacey had a hold of her stomach like she was ready to curl up and die and my glands are so swollen like I have golf balls in my throat.

Our hostel Kismet Dao was reccomended to us and it was ok if you like brown water running from the taps....Welcome to Romania ;-)

We met some nice people though and got a good chance to relax, watch movies and eat proper food. Romania is so cheap! So Wednesday was spent wandering around the city and taking in the sights. The sight of the first school in Romania was right next to our hostel and we got to see the Black Church which was built in the 1400's and survived the great fire that burnt down majority of Brasov.

On Thursday we did an organised tour of the castles,etc in the area. We paid some guy 70RON to drive us around for the day which turned out to be a huge rip off as we had to listen to rap music the whole time and hold onto our seats like it was our last car ride on earth but lots of people had told us that it was not possible to see all the sights in a day on public transport so we did the tour and we easily got to see all that we wanted to see. Firstly we went to a fortress in Rasnov and then we went to Bran Castle which is advertised as Draculas' castle but once inside there is no mention of Vlad Tepe or any blood sucking vampires.

It wasnt until we went to Sinaia that we really got a chance to see something special. The palace was really beautiful and we were lucky enough to have a guided tour. It was really informative and the palace was absolutely beautiful. The australian couple that we did the tour with were really good company also. They will be in Budapest when we are there so perhaps we will get to meet them again soon.

Once back at the hostel we made our way to the train station and then caught a train to Sighisoara. Lacey was pretty sick by this stage so she has spent the day in bed today whilst I went sightseeing with a few of the guys from the hostel.

After breakfast we headed to the History Museum. What a great place!

After climbing levels and levels of stairs once at the top we got a great view of the little town. Did you know that right now I am 15 478km away from home?

We also went to the Arms Museum, saw Draculas house and walked up a million stairs to the citadel and graveyard

... kinda scary!

This afternoon I was uber-productive doing a pharmacy-run for Lacey and I, doing a bit of shopping and posting more postcards.

I even tried to speak Romanian (which is alot like French) but the people only laugh at me and answer in English! Oh well!!

Tomorrow hopefully Lacey and I are well again and then we catch a flight to Budapest. We have both been there before but we love the city and look forward to seeing a few things that we missed last time.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Love you all.

Love Megan

So I thought saying goodbye to "Jack and Rose" real names Reg and Eva was the saddest thing about last Monday.... I was wrong!

We departed the cruise ship at 11am on Monday back in Bodrum. It was a beautiful day and Lacey and I were happy to be back in Turkey. We love it here!


In Bodrum we only had a few things to do and that included going to Migros (a swiss supermarket chain) and heading to an internet cafe. We had a flight at 8am Tuesday morning so we had all day to kill. It was nice walking around the city. I discovered that the Turkish Post system is uber-expensive and also that the Bodrum airport is open 24 hours a day.

This is where I spent the evening on Monday - sleeping on a bench. You can imagine how impressed I was.

So after the traumatic ordeal we arrived in Istanbul at about 10am. We flew into the asian side and had to catch a ferry to the european side where we were staying in an area called Sultanahmet. This is major tourist town and we easily found a hostel.

Tuesday was spent dragging ourselves through the city in search of food. That evening after a mid-afternoon sleep we headed back out for a treat and watched a free show in an out door cafe. We watched a "sufi whirling show" which is a twirling meditation that originated among Sufis, which is still practiced by the Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a symbolic ritual through which dervishes aim to reach the "perfect" kemal. They try to desert their nafs, egos or personal bad desires by listening to their master and sufi music, thinking about God and whirling (from wikipedia)

On Wednesday after much needed rest we set out to explore the city. We wandered down to the "grand bazaar" and were amazed at how big it was. We found that street vendors were also a lot cheaper than in the bazaar. The turkish people really know how to hassle you and try every way possible to get you in their stores. For example: "Hello Lady, do you come from heaven!" Hahaha it is funny at first but after a while it is really tiring when men are asking you to come into their shop and have tea, etc!

We went through the "Blue Mosque" which is the national mosque of Turkey and was built between 1609 - 1616 under the rule of Ahmed1.
The mosque gets its name from all the blue tiles in the interior walls.

Unsure of how many days we were to spend in Istanbul, I didnt want to miss the chance to go to Gallipoli. I planed to go on a tour organised through my hostel, so this was how I spent my Thursday. My dads birthday.

I had to wake up at 5.30am to be ready to be picked up by a shuttle to take me to the "otogar" (bus terminal). No one else from my hostel was going on the tour but thankfully when I got on the shuttle an aussie girl from Melbourne was also doing the tour so we spent the day together.

This tour was fantastic. Of course I knew of the battle of gallipoli but the information that I found out from the tour really made me appreciate what the australian army men went through. This picture to right is the view from Anzac Cove known as the "sphinx"

The terrain here is crazy and there are winds 75 percent of the year at over 60km per hour. We got to go in trenchs and also visit the largest australian memorial site called "lone pine" Lots of Australian families paid for grave stones but the rest of the peoples names are here. You could spend hours going through the people and seeing if there are long lost relatives on the lists.

Supposedly if you search hard enough you can find bones on the land. But my tour group and I did find a few things including shrapnel, bullets and a piece from a hand grenade.

I spent 10 hours on the bus on Thursday and didnt arrive home till midnight but it was well worth it and I would recommend anyone going to Turkey to take the time to visit here.

The turkish people really respect australians and I wasnt really sure as to why seeing as a war with our men took place on their land, with thousands of people killed but through it all there is a great respect between the two countries. Here is an extract from a speech given by an Australian ambassador at the commoration of Lone Pine.

"A unique relationship was forged between Australians and Turks on the battlefields of this peninsula. During the suffering and destruction of the war our soldiers developed a respect for their Turkish adversaries as soldiers and as men. The Australians appreciated the Turks’ courage, fighting ability and sense of honour. For example, J J Ryan of the 4th Battalion, who fought at Lone Pine, referred to the Turks as “good honest soldiers – brave”, who were “not afraid to die”. E W Bartlett of the 11th Light Horse said the Turks “fought very fairly and like us were honest troops”. One final example from Allan Salveson, who landed soon after the Battle of Lone Pine and was sent to hold the line here: “they were very good fighters and very fair people"

As I mentioned in an earlier post. The people in Secluk showed such hospitality to us and now I can really understand why.

So back to Istanbul on Friday we planned to meet Lauren (the aussie girl from Thursday) and go to the Princes Islands, aout a 90 minute boat ride from the golden horn of Istanbul. James a NZ guy from our hostel also came.

It was quite a long way to the islands and sadly not really worth it. I did see some massive jellyfish though! We still had a nice day and then once we arrived back to Istanbul Lacey and I made the trek to the Tasim area and found a really great street full of shops and nice restaurants. There was even a gloria jeans coffee shop! After dinner we headed to the metro station and caught the oldest subway in the world down the hill.

I went a bit crazy later on a had some CHOCOLATE baklava and also bought lots of handmade turkish jewellery... so pretty!

Our last night in the hostel was a bit of a blur as the guy behind the hostel bar decided it was a good idea to give us free shots and beer, but we had fun hanging out with all our fellow travellers!

Rush, rush, rush on Saturday we had alot to do in our last day in Turkey. First things first we went and bought our ticket to Varna, Bulgaria. We then went to the "spice bazaar" and had a look around.

Funnily enough, whilst having lunch we met a girl who we had met whilst in Selcuk, 2 weeks ago so we spent some time with her which was really nice and then after we went to the Aya Sofia. Originally a christian church it was then converted into a Mosque. One of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Sometimes to me churches all look the same but this one was GINORMOUS and had lots of character.

In the 1930's Turkish president Ataturk, turned the mosque into a museum and made sure that the original mosaic tiled pictures of the church are also shown, though once covered up. The detail and contrast within this place was amazing.

So back to the hostel to pack up our things we stayed there for a little while and then made our way to the bus station ready to begin the 11 hour bus ride to Varna. I hate buses but I was also a bit nervous about crossing the border.

Thankfully we made it and I now have a Bulgarian stamp. We jumped into bed in our cute little hostel at 5am this morning and spent the day relaxing and having a wander around the city. A bit dreary, tomorrow we will explore more.

I just wanted to mention also, if you get my blog sent to you in an email, if you reply to my emailed blog it also gets sent to everyone in my contact list. If you would like to write me you can hit FORWARD and write to my email address or you can go to my blog link and at the bottom click on COMMENT.

Speak to you soon,
Love Megan