Greece march 28

our many thanks to Baki for hosting us and Ozlem for showing us around and making her famous turkish coffees. and to emre and his wife for hanging out with us -- lovely people all! and an amazing reflection of the hospitality of turkey.




if anyone was wondering about the overland part of this trip, it began on the overnight bus from istanbul and is continuing on the ferries.

3/28 monday

arrived in gorgeous rhodes in fine fashion on a crappy boat filled with mattresses at 11am. still very happy with the med. weather. only stayed one night in the famous medieval city, old town with psycho mike at mike and mama's pension. mama divorced mike but he still rambles on about anything and everything.

3/29 tuesday

took ferry (10 hours) next morning to Crete (via Halki, Karpathos, and Kasos) but not before seeing the eclipse on open water -- brilliant! - thought of our neighbor just to the south -- oriol and george in libya!!

Arrived in Sitia, Crete, found a nice pension w/living room and kitchen right on the bay. Ate snails at fab restaurant, as well as fresh grilled octopus and cuttlefish.

wed - sunday

few days later we took the bus across the island, stopping in iraklio, the capital for a night then finally making it to stavros, just north of hania (xania or chania). amazing small, remote, random village which we were greeted by godsend, freind spencer who is hosting us for a few nights in this spectacularly beautiful place. started on just a leisurely day hike, but ended up on a 6-hour mountain climb through stunningly unique terrain with no one around except braying mountain goats and sheep. incline was about 40 degrees throughout. swam in the cooling waters of the town beach after.

more to come - sarah and andy

Istanbul

Beyoglu...Besiktas...Asia

thursday 3/23

Grand Bazaar

Were offered an apple tea in the square - felt dizzy after

Were lucky enough to have Isin invite us to visit her, a friend in Istanbul in the outskirts called Besiktas. She is in marketing there for a beauty / fashion line across Turkey.

had fresh fish sandwich at the foot of the galata bridge at midnight. lighted mosques and beyoglu in the background. one of the best things ever in the city.

friday 3/24

Back to bazaar. windy blustery cold day so we had a few teas at the fast food simit chain.

checked out of hotel/pension.

Baki was generous enough to meet us and host us on the eastern side of istanbul. met us at 8 with Ozlem at taksim square and went across the bosphorous bridge for our first time in asia.

He was gracious enough to take us to his motorcycle garage and we met his friends working on bikes there.

Andy drove his car back as we followed him to drop off a bike, then visited USKADAR and kiz kulesi -- ozlem was nice enought to take us to the palace on the eastern side and lunch with a dessert with pureed chicken breast inside.

ozlem also made great turkish coffees and read the grounds after.

went to bus station and caught the all nighter to marmaris.

sunday 3/25

arrived sunday am at 11 to sunny skies on the turkish southern coast. -- a nice change from the wintery weather north.

were lucky enough to meet friend of baki's, emre and his wife and had a nice evening visiting with them in beautiful marmaris.


moped through bozburn and sogut along the turkish coastline - stunning!




last night in turkey was spent in a cafe by the big, gorgeous bay with mild mediterranean breeze. Nice to be in the south for a change. Tomorrow we catch a ferry to greece (isle of Rhodes) at 9am. setting our clocks for 6:45. Stay tuned, - our best-- Andy and Sarah