Blanca Hotel Izmir

... days were Brian's turn and today it's mine. Best guess is that he picked up something in Athens or on the boat over to Turkey.

So we've been in Urla. Not a tourist town in the least. I did a little internet search that came up with nothing. Asking the guy at the hotel what there was to see in town came out with blank stares. But just watching the day to day workings of this little quarter of the city are interesting enough for me.
Urla, İzmir, Turkey 2totango

... get into the sun as it was a bit chilly on our weary bones in the shade. (The sun did finally reach us, just in time for the final whistle!) We were also graced with the scoreboard being turned on, although it took a minute or two for it show the right time - it started off with the clock at zero, and eventually decided to add on the 45 minutes already played. The girls started off as the they left off at the end of the second half, but the Turkish team were finding their confidence ...

... better than the rest of the crew) say something about a different airport - I heard nothing as I had decided that the only way to compete with Mr Noisy next door was to turn my iPod up as loud as possible to drown him out.
We reached Turkey at 5.15am (Turkish time), got off the plane and felt a little pleased with ourselves that we didn't have to join the queue at the transfer desk as there were lots of angry and shouty Turkish men crowding round a member of ...

I felt asleep before 630 last evening, and got up at 5 this morning. What a sound sleep! And an amazing new noon arose outside my window. The prayer sound made the context really turkish.

Our lunch was at a resort with a lake. There were no other customers but us, the participants at the conference. It cost 20 lira, so maybe too expensive for local people.

Dinner was lighter, but i still couldn't finish it.

... away as I found out after inquiry at the campus near the hotel. Surprisingly the university security staffs do not speak English. They're nervous talking to me! Haha, being a total foreigner in a distant country surely is an interesting experience. Youngsters should all try to do this. Anyway I decided to just walk around the downtown, Alcanti area to learn about local life. I assume once i start my conference tomorrow I'd have no time to do that. (It turned out ...

... deep fried mussels which were good and chatted about atheism. Michael is intelligent and doesn't have a problem talking about topics like aethesim; its really nice to sensible serious chats about meaty topics. Later we wander along to the bar at the end of town because the overlanders are still there. We get talking to them and it develops into a nice evening. The truck is actually quite spacious and has storage for things like a ...

... which is surprising since gas here costs $9+ per gallon (!!!!) - the highest price we've seen to date. The terrain for the first few days reminded me a lot of the Southern California area around Vandenburg AFB (north of Santa Barbara), rolling agricultural hills, semi-arid, lots of olive trees, dusty blue sky, and whenever high enough for a good view, there's the ocean. Turkey is hilly - check the Google map and it's delightfully crinkly to look at. As far as we have ...

... the road I'd forgotten this idiosyncrasy and took the hump when a car behind sounded his horn. I'd slowed down as I approached a car pulling out of a tight parking spot ahead. I turned round and stared at the driver who blew his horn and then caught my front right pannier on the parked cars bumper sending me slowly over the handlebars. Wake up call. I only made it 20km that day cycling along the path, avoiding the busy main road and tunnels. Started at 6am the following day with ...

... was planning to go from Izmir to Bursa and then onto Istanbul. I hadn't had any accomodation booked in Bursa so I decided for a change and booked a ferry from Izmir to Istanbul instead. The ferry left at 4:30pm and arrived in Istanbul at 10:am. I had firstly booked just a seat but upgraded it later to a cabin. This was definately the better option as you could have a ...

Our cruise stopped off in Turkey for a day. We toured a bazar/casbah and drank some tea.
I remember on our land approach, being surprised at how deep green colour the hills were, popluated with so many trees. The city buildings were a beautiful cream white colour - sublime beauty.