more turkey :o)

sunrise was totally worth it this morning :oD

then breakfast and packed up all our stuff . . . went to a travel agency to figure out how to get out of turkey - we are going to ephesus (lots of ruins including temple of artemis) via overnight bus tonight, then to kusadasi for one night (in a hotel!) and then to pamukkale to see some cool thermal pools, and then from there to marmaris for a night (in a dorm) and then the morning ferry to rhodes! from there we will catch another ferry to santorini (like, an 18 hour ferry!!)where we will spend a few days and then to athens.

we have planned (and paid) everything up to and including the ferry to rhodes. with much difficulty i might add. apparently, many travel agencies dont believe that any ferries are running right now, despite the fact that the internet and our travel agency guy says they are. so. we will see :o) we figure if all fails, we can take a bus back to istanbul, and then another bus to athens.

had a good day today. went to the grand bazaar and spent probably too much money, but i got some earings and jake got a really nice shirt. then went to suleyman's mosque, went inside and walked around, and then sat and had turkish tea while we listened to a call to prayer. then saw suleyman's tomb - which was freaky and cool all at the same time.

we just walked a lot today, which was great - i feel like i saw some of the real istanbul. i think that when you walk down a street and are the only tourists, then its the 'real' city or place. that happened to us today, a couple of times. scary because anything could happen, but exhilarating because its the real mccoy ;o)

so :o) we are tired today, a full day of walking, coupled with the threat that we may not be able to get out of turkey :oP, waking up at 5:40 to the first call to prayer, watching the sun rise, and being on uber-alert in the bazaar makes for a tiring day. but, bus tonight, which we will have hours to sleep. and then ruins tomorrow, in asia minor!

its so hard to describe what we are seeing here, its so different from home, and so incredible at the same time. as we were walking back to the hostel this afternoon, i was remarking on how old things are here, and how there are ruins everywhere, and how you never know how old things really are. like, those crumbling walls over there - are they seriously old (ancient times) old (15-16th century) or old'ish (18-19th century)??? even our building here: old, or oldish?? who knows? its cool to be surrounded by so much antiquity.

jake is sad at leaving the blue mosque behind. it *is* really amazing. i am sad at leaving it too. but i know that there are more things to come, and not to get too attached to one place, because, our time here is short :o) but will be good. we are on day 4 of our holiday today, 64 days to go. strange indeed. already we have been in three cities (vancouver, london, istanbul) and two continents (north america, europe) tomorrow we will add another two cities and another continent to our journey. when we found out yesterday before lunch that we might not be able to get out of turkey the way we wanted, we were a little shocked (we had thought our plan was foolproof), but then realized how lucky we were. i mean really, we could be stuck in turkey - poor us :oP kinda like when we were flying to london, some of the business class seats weren't working and they had to make us late - poor business class people :oP lol, haha.

i realize that this post may be (probably is) really jumpy, but thoughts just keep popping into my head, and i cant really stop them. im too tired to go back and read through and edit and move stuff, so you'll just have to deal :o)

ok, thanks for posting back, hope you are all well :o)

hope to get some pics on here soon!

-michelle :o)