The April Holiday.....merhaba!
Trip Start
Sep 27, 2007
1
8
Trip End
Ongoing
Bergerac, Aquitaine, France
Friday, May 16, 2008
- visited the prehistoric cave paintings one wednesday afternoon at Font-de-Gaume.
- visited the Chateau de Beynac near Sarlat...loved that it used to fight its enemy castle on the other side of the river except in winter cos it was too cold
- went to Brive....mostly helens fault at reading timetables, but it turned out that just catching the next available train was a great plan!
- spent easter in Pgx
- spent another weekend in Pgx for the Eikiden team race, and to see the Carnivale.... of course this lead to helen taking the aptly named 'pendulum of death'.....
Back to the holiday....
Friday 18th April. Managed to swing the last day of term off so i could catch the cheap flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Luckily Lynn came with me, and it turned out that when we were met off the flight and taken on a crazy high-speed weaving ride thru to the city, we didn't bat an eyelid... so blaze to crazy forms of travel now...
The next morning Lynn and I woke to warm sunshine, and the inevitable bastards who pack up all their stuff in the hostel bedroom rather than taking it outside into the corridor... We had breakfast upstairs with the ocean view, and wandered up the road past the palace to the Aya Sofia and The Blue Mosque and the tulip gardens between them. It felt good to be back in a country with an Arabian Nights feel... and luckily this time, Lynn and I felt like experts on the culture. Spent the morning wandering the Grand Bazaar, sourced out the cheap deal on where to buy scarves, and started learning our basic turkish. We also met a good proportion of the male population of Istanbul, always ready to introduce themselves, ask 'where do you come from?', direct you when your lost, and sell you something. Damn, they even knew NZers were kiwis and Australians were Aussies.
Sarah arrived early that afternoon (obviously had had the same driver from the airport) and we wandered the aromatic and turkish streets that afternoon, relaxing in the city and enjoying the sun and culture. Went into The Blue Mosque that evening, and went out to dinner to test out the cuisine.
Sunday morning, despite Sarah's jet-lag, we saw into the Aya Sofia (enormous, 1400years old?...definately old!), caught a ferry to a nearby island (were never guna make it out to Prince's Island... it turned out Istanbul was enormous!) and returned in time to see the Whirling Dervish display at the train station that evening.
On monday, we wandered thru the gardens next to the palace, also filled with perfect tulips in bloom, wandered across the bridge where Sarah managed to pick up a stalker, and up to the Tower of Galata. It was another lazy day wandering, but the city was so different to everything else i'd seen i got a lot out of it. That evening we caught a flight to Cappodocia (well should say we almost missed our flight to cappodocia...there was a fair bit of stress in that minivan) and then had a one hour drive to Kose Pension in Goreme. Wandering out for food that night, Sarah managed to make friends with the locals who pulled up beside her on a motorbike, and within the hour we had dinner, our tour sorted for the next day and were drinking beer with the turkish guys at the local bar 'Pasha' (what would we do without connections?!) ....real turkish people, another chance to practise learning!
Cappodocia aka Bedrock.
Tuesday Denis guided us through the underground cities... apparently 40 cities exist but the caves connecting them all haven't been found. They were definately built for 'shelter and storage' ....and my memories for the day guide me to believe mostly storage of wine. The kapi christians made their mark too. You can last 3 days in the underground caves before you run out of air, and they were pretty cold, hence you live above land unless you're under attack. Good rule. Easy. And where Morocco treasured its dolphins, Turkey valued its pigeons.... 'for communication and building'.... just to clarify - they're homing pigeons, rather than my immediate 'how did they tell the pigeons where to fly?' idea... no surprises that day that Denis kept writing my stupidity off due to the fact i was a 'kiwi....sleepy kiwi...only make very slow small movements then have to sleep again'. And that evening we met up with Andy who had been on the tour with us that day, a Tasmanian travel agent. Not surprisingly we ended up meeting up with the turkish guys again and dancing in the bar, im thinking they drive round town keeping everyone up-to-date with who is where...
Wednesday we dragged ourselves round the open-air museum under the scorching sun, and rewarded ourselves with a swim that afternoon before we left Lynn and took a 14 hour bus ride to Fethiye. So not fun.
In Fethiye, we swam in the pool, became regulars at a restaurant by the harbour, took a 12 island cruise with a stop-off on yassica island (lunch, swimming, jumping off the boat, sunbathing, taking in the amazing view and the turquoise colour of the water...not a bad way to spend anzac day), and made it along to the Blue Lagoon for a final swim and sunbathe.
Saturday afternoon was spent on another bus to Kusadasi, beautiful landscape and value for money, but im pretty over long bus rides.Spent the night in the hostel, caught a ferry to Samos the next morning and ran straight into disaster: Greek orthodox easter... wtf, who knew Greece had easter a month late?! So, of course no ferries running, and i had 2 days to get out to Santorini, for a ferry to Crete and flight to Brussels. Shit. And so we learned the wise lesson:
the credit card will buy you out of disaster.
And quick as a flash (2hrs later) we flew into Athens, put the bags in storage at the airport, bused into the city, i gave sarah a guided tour of the sights, thru the closed gates, and next thing i know i hear 'Helen' from a cafe.... LYNN?!?!?! ... turns out also hit by the disaster that is greek orthodox easter, and ended up in Athens. Laughter was the only answer.
That evening sarah and i set up camp on the floor in the airport, me without sleeping bag... that polished concrete floor was comfy, and the stench from the nearby rubbish bin was a real treat. And at 5am we flew out to Santorini where we slept the morning away and hired quad bikes for the next 24 hours to explore the island. Fira and Ia were picture perfect, the island was covered in vineyards of little grape vine bushes, the buildings were on the cliff sides, all white with blue domes, and the black volcanic powdery and grainy cliff rock contrasted strikingly with the deep blue of the water and white of the builidings. No surprise to say we stayed on the cheaper side of the island, at Perissa beach!
Tuesday the 29th, I bid Sarah farewell and bonne voyage, and caught a ferry to Crete. (business class doesn't save u from 2 hours of babies crying and everyone around you vomiting...just slightly bigger seats) and the next morning i flew to Brussels.
Brussels: obviously the hostel was unbelievably tricky to find, the street name didn't correspond with that on my directions, and it was raining. However, it was clear i was back in Europe. Wandered the city centre that afternoon/evening, got myself a scary tunisian stalker at the hostel, and met a girl (spanish assistant from near paris) who I spent the next day with, visiting the Centre Belge de Bande Desinee (go the smurfs!) and eating what we assumed was totally Belgium-ish. Of course, being the 1st of may, half the city was closed for jour ferie.
Friday morning i caught a train to Luxembourg, met up with Michelle (it had been ages!) and explored the most beautiful little city in Europe.... the sun was shining, the streets were clean, the park in the valley was unmanicured but beautiful, the blossoms were out, and the people were clean and so nicely dressed! We picked up our race packs and had our free pasta too.... I know how to work the system....
Saturday we walked thru the park and shopped and wore ourselves out, so that saturday evening we had to drug up with panadol to get rid of the aching legs and headaches, in order to run the half-marathon... what a crazy event!
- more people watching than running.... many of whom were beautifully dressed and sipping champagne on the sidelines
- samba bands dotted along the course
- ran thru a tent of people eating dinner... hello, dont they think that was rather cruel on the 8000 runners?!
- finished in the arena with smoke machines and torches of fire, and a medal...my first!
michelle and i then went home, tried to settle our stomachs that were close to vomiting, and headed back to the after-party, .... of course our bodies lasted about 20mins before we had to go back home to bed. next time i plan not to run, but just turn up for the party after..
Sunday morning was lazy, saw the palace, and then i caught a train home for work the next morning.
Definately a whirlwind holiday. Did the washing at home, worked two days, then the following weekend was a long weekend so i went to Perpignan and Collioure with Molly and Lucy. Saw the spanish castle at Perpignan, caught a bus to the beach 'Canet plage' and spend a day in the beautiful seaside town of collioure where the fauvist painters like Matisse and Derain painted. Beautiful!
This week, Sarah came by to stay for a few days, and her having left a few hours ago, ive got 2 hours to get ready for my weekend away in ile de Re, near la Rochelle.
Having a wicked time... thank god Europe woke up out of its sleepy winter!!!!!!!!!!
