Hotel Dedeman Rize

... that we were poor youths on a transworld trip, he hooked us up with free, but unusually doughy, ice cream. As the sun set, and old man appeared and gestured that it was a further 5 lira to stay the night. As we'd spent everything we had left, we started to pack up reluctantly, but he kindly gestured that we could stay and sleep.

... joining two islands, so we had
a lovely view of Lake Egirdir from our Lale Pension window. After
arriving, we walked up the peninsula, where most hotels are situated,
and stopped for Turkish tea in the garden of Canada! It is the name
given to the former Soul Island, so we felt quite at home!

The next day, Matt, Gail and David rented mountain bikes from the pension
and spent the day peddling a 55 km return bike trip to Lake Kovada
Bursa, Turkey noalarmclocks

... Metro station but I had to pay an extra 4TL for the bike. I boarded and sat next to a guy from Greece who was travelling to Bursa with his uncle. Family connections already. 90 minutes later we arrived in Mudanya and immediately after leaving the car park I started my first arduous climb for a long time. It took me about an hour up and 5 minutes to fly down the other side. BURSA!! Rakim 155m :) Onto Bursa and I met up with some old ...

... before we saw them in action - well impressive. Hopefully the photos reflect some of what we saw. Observation: Turk men seem very secure in masculine role, potentially reinforced by the occassional segregagtion (ie single women don't sit next to single men on buses). Not unusual to see two turkish guys walking arm in arm, and no, they weren't camp. We saw police officers doing this, but I wasn't quick enough (and slighlty scared) to catch this on camera.

... without stopping! And they had the most serene expressions on their faces...

At the end, the prayer started. Immediately, every one of the 200 or so people watching started praying. I realized that again, we were probably the only western tourists there! I felt like an intruder. But it was incredibly moving. I had to thank Murat personally for it afterwards, as I really liked that we got to go to something that was not ...

... as seems to be the usual course. (The article just read stated that the main street now contains several art galleries). There was an "open light museum," as I believe they are called in Europe. It is a park wherein architectural samples of country homes and other structures are assembled as museum pieces of folk art. One of them in the park in Tbilisi was a restaurant. I had a meal there. Though I didn't know what I was ordering, and because ...

... that we were not going to make it. Half the town was out for a cable car ride! We took a trail to go for a little hike on our own when live music and laughters caught our attention. We invited ourselves over to this "festival". The party was going on at a cafe in the middle of the woods. Many people of all ages filled the seats and tables on the elevated part of the yard while others were in the middle dancing to fun traditional Turkish music. They had ...

... br>
The use in India and China, far larg** markets, has been rising as much as 35 p**cent a year lately, with specialists predicting that similar growth could last through 2016.

New York TimesSelect: "Our Crumbling Foundation"

By BOB HERBERT
Published: April 5, 2007

Fifty-nine years ago this week - on April 3, 1948 - President Truman signed the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now ...

... the view and breeze. A fellow joined me and just started to share in the nuts. Fine. I was amused at the company, even though our conversational limits were of the very narrowest. When the nuts were finished I invited him for tea. He accepted, making that the first time I could treat a Turk to something.

I wanted to go back toward Mudanya to another, smaller village I had seen, Kumyaka. Walking out to the edge of town the guy at the ...

... ancient Greek columns and stones were rebuild. Bursa was the last city before travelling back to Istanbul and back to Holland. We stayed here only one day. The city Bursa is the last city of the silkroad. Lots of stores sold silk clothes and scarfs.