Almost Paradise

We took our last overnight bus from Cappadocia to Cirali last night. We will be here for three nights, then have decided to forego the 14-hour-overnight-ride back to Istanbul for a one hour plane ride instead. For around $30, we think it will make a world of difference on our last couple of days.

The place we are staying here in Cirali (pronounced chi-RAH-lih) is GORGEOUS. I just finished reading my third book of the trip in a hammock outside our room, surrounded by bushes of geraniums, pink and white oleander, lemon trees, abundant bougainvilla (sp?), and a troop of hens pecking in the grass near the pool. We've opted to have dinner at the hotel during our stay here-- four-course meals with fresh seafood every night (good thing we did so much hiking in Cappadocia to make room for all this lushness).

We went out on the beach for a while this afternoon. The water is turquoise and emerald green, and the mountains literally reach all the way to the coast. It is cool and beautiful (though I was feeling a little overindulgent on sun and pide, so we called it an early afternoon).

Turkey is SO wonderful, as are the Turkish people. We noticed yesterday that we're really the only Americans we've encountered on our journies so far, though we have met a great number of smashing Brits.

Alright, I think I see them setting the tables for dinner... tomorrow we're doing a day boat cruise around the area. Should be lovedly (as long as I remember my long sleeved shirt! Unlike Anissa, my lilly-whiteness can't take the sun for hours and hours on end). Photos will be there when they get there. :)

Oh, and for some reason, Mom, youtube seems to be blocked by the entire country of Turkey. Weird. Kiss Murph for me!

Istanbul/Cappadocia pics are up and available!

New pics have been uploaded to my Picasa site. Check them out!

Thanks for the many comments/e-mails I received lately. I love hearing from you all, even if it seems like not much is going on there.

Love, love, love,
m

Turkish Delight

We are safely and gladly in Istanbul (although there was one point this morning at which I did not think I'd make it safely to Istanbul... that is another story, entirely).

Our hotel is lovely with a most beautiful view of the city, including the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia, the Bosphorus Strait, and the Marmaris Sea from the rooftop terrace.

I got TOTALLY lost on the way to the hotel, but made some excellent friends who were very helpful to me who (a) called the hotel, (b) served me tea, (c) sat and visited about life, travelling, the world in general, and the benefit of having a postive outlook, (d) sent his nephew with me to walk me to the hotel and carry my heavier bag. I love Turkey.

We are going to find dinner now, then going back to meet up with my new friends at the carpet shop. Tomorrow we are touring Istanbul and will be on an overnight bus tomorrow evening.

More soon...

Back in Cairo, exhausted

So, since we woke up Wednesday morning at 7:00am, we've slept about 10 hours. Now it's Friday evening at 11:00pm, just to give you an idea.

It's a little hard to pinpoint where all we've been in the past almost 72 hours. We spent Wednesday in Aswan off the cruise boat. Though we didn't really spend much of a night, as construction started on a building across from our hotel at about 10:00pm and continued into the night. Then we had to wake up at 2:45am to head to Abu Simbel (which was awesome, though getting there was not).

The ride to Abu Simbel was about 3 hours... we got trapped in the back of a FULL mini-bus on the wheel well--Anissa sat with her legs propped up on the way there and we switched on the way back. Although having the non-wheel-well seat didn't turn out to be much of a walk in the park, as there was a rotund stinky European man with no concept of "personal space" on the other side. Needless to say, it was a long trip.

The temple of Abu Simbel was pretty amazing--one of my favorite things I've seen here so far. What's really astounding about it is that the whole temple was moved to avoid it being covered by Lake Nasser when the Egyptians built the High Dam in Aswan in the early 60's.

So after we got back from our day trip ordeal, we were pretty heat exhausted. We napped briefly, found some delicious dinner (at a tiny hole-in-the-wall place recommended by the folks from Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and the front desk). We were to fly to Cairo at 1:00am, arriving at 2:25, so we took it easy most of the day.

Around 10:30, we hopped in a taxi toward the airport. The sky had gotten really hazy and was highly reminiscent of Lubbock. On the way out to the airport, sand started pouring in through the slightly-rolled-down-windows and pelting us in the face. Apparently, the Sahara was on the move.

This did nothing to facilitate our easy return to Cairo. On the contrary, we were told our flight would be slightly delayed "due to bad weather in Cairo and we will have news in 30 minutes." About an hour later, when A & I approached the desk to find out what was going on, we again got the unhelpful, "There is delay. Due to weather."

Very long story (and very long night) condensed to be very short, we spent 7+ hours in the Aswan airport, as our original flight was cancelled due to the sandstorm. It was a very VERY long night. We ate Arabic Sbarro Pizza (no lie), saw what's underneath a gallabeya (a sight that burns the eyes), and were basically delirious for hours. I yelled at the airline man twice (after being sweet and reasonable wasn't working, of couse), stormed past a security guard at one point (who was mostly sleeping all night), and felt general rage toward several eye-gropers.

Finally we boarded a plane at 6:30, and got back to Alice's around 10:00am. It's good to be back here... we slept for a long time, did laundry, made chicken enchilada bake for dinner, and just hung out with Alice and Anthony. So, it turned out to be pretty cool.

Don't know that I'll be posting new pics in the next couple of days, as we're going to try to recuperate a little before heading to Turkey on Sunday. Thanks to all who've sent messages of love or just what's going on. I miss being able to talk to you all easily! More updates will be forthcoming.

With love and sand...

Trip Photos and where are you people?

So, the photos have been interesting to deal with. As you may have noticed, they're currently posted in three different places: Flickr, Kodak Gallery, and now Picasa. I think the Picasa format may work the best for me personally, and I'll let you see them, but only if you leave me comments. It's a lot of work to travel, blog, and post photos at regular intervals and even my own mother isn't e-mailing me.

So, enough preaching... photos from the cruise up to now are available at Picasa. You'd best comment or otherwise send me messages of love. :)

Back to Cairo tonight... on to Turkey Sunday! Home in 2 weeks.

Luxor Temple/Call to Prayer

So, this is the road of sphinxes (or "Sphinxy" as I like to call him/her/it... a subtle tribute to When Harry Met Sally) in front of the Luxor Temple. In the background, you can hear the call to prayer resonating from the surrounding mosques... I think this was the fifth call of the day. It usually starts around 5:00am and there are 5 at varying times throughout the day.

Guess who's back

Hello all! Greetings from Aswan! Our cruise has been MARVELOUS (and I'm back to health now, so mostly all is well with the world).

This is going to be a quick and dirty post, as we've got to get back over to the boat very soon... I have a whole slew of photos that are being uploaded to Kodak. I should be able to get online aghain this evening to continue that upload and update you on all that.

Our tour group is a lovely bunch of folks--there are 7 of us (4 from the US and 3 from The Netherlands) and our less-than-lovely tour guide. I mean, he's fine, but he's sort of annoying and sexist (like most all Egyptian men). We've had such a great time on the boat and are looking forward to our last few days in Egypt before heading to Turkey on Sunday.

OK, so I'm going to run back to the boat and post more this evening before dinner. Much love and big hugs to you all!!!!!