Home Sweet Home

Entrance to Oktoberfest. Welcome back to the cold and rain!We love this food. What could be better than a foot long brat and a big beer?

One of the many beer halls at Oktoberfest. This one hold around 8,500 people.

Don't be fooled. Aubree is drinking Coke, not a dark beer. She didn't get THAT adventurous.

This is how we saw London. By the time we arrived it was almost dark and we were leaving the next morning. This was the only tourist bus we took on the whole trip.

One of the only pictures that turned out in London. Pictures don't work so well in the dark and when you are moving.

Aubree's parents, sisters, and one of her sister's boyfriends met us at the airport in Seattle. Heather is the creative one that made the sign.

Hazen didn't even have to wait until the next morning for his Mountain Dew. We found one in the airport.

We finally got haircuts! It sure is good to be home.

Well, the end of our trip turned out pretty well. We fly from Turkey to Munich for Oktoberfest but Hazen still wasn't feeling that great. We dropped our bags at the hostel and immediately headed for the festival. It was actually sunny the first day we got there and people were everywhere. Quite the busy place. It has to be the biggest fair we have ever seen. Huge rides for kids and adults. Hazen's favorite was the beer carousel. There was a whole row of beer halls that hold anywhere from 5,000 to 10,900 people. After one beer and brat we had to head back to our room as Hazen started feeling sick again. Needless to say, Oktoberfest wasn't as crazy for us as it could have been. We did have a great time though. We especially enjoyed getting back to the Bavarian food. We stayed three nights in Munich before flying to London.

We arrived in London and got to our hostel around 6pm. We decided to take a night bus sight-seeing tour. We wanted to see some of the major sights even though we would be leaving the next morning. London is a beautiful city at night. Everything is lit up and the bus ride was excellent. The only down side was that it was absolutely freezing cold. We had to finish up in the bottom part of the bus that isn't open-air. We were up early the next morning and headed for a long day of flights.

When we bought our flight tickets online, we didn't add up how long it was actually going to take us to get home. We left London at 10am local time and got to Seattle at 11:45pm local time (which was about 7:45am in London). If you don't want to figure all that out, it was about 22 hours and 4 different planes. We were able to sleep a couple hours on the last flight from Atlanta to Seattle as the plane was very empty and everyone had a whole row to themselves to stretch out on. When we got to the baggage claim, Aubree's parents, sisters, and one of her sister's boyfriends were there waiting for us. Sure was good to see some familiar faces.

We didn't sleep much that night as we were still on Europe time. We have been doing well with the jet lag and trying not to take too many naps throughout the day so we can get back on track. One of our big adventures since we returned was tackling the storage unit. All of our clothes were in boxes in the very back and on the bottom of the unit. We didn't really think that one through before we left. We are leaving tomorrow to make our way to Boise, Idaho to find a place to live and hand out some resumes. We will be there for about a week before flying to California to visit Hazen's brother, sister-in-law, and niece. We will then fly to Seattle and drive up to Bellingham to visit some friends before heading back to Boise for good.

We have had a great trip and appreciate everyones support and emails throughout our travels. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip and can't wait to see and talk to all of you. The holiday season is coming up soon and we hope you all enjoy it and stay happy and healthy. Thanks again for following us and take care.

1 More Week!

In Cappadocia, we stayed in the town of Göreme and this is the cave that we slept in.

We woke up to the sounds of hot air balloons every morning. Though it would have been fun to take a ride, this was far out of our price range.Hazen with the town of Göreme in the distance.

So this is Cappadocia. Land of some very strange rock formations.

These rock formations are called fairy chimneys and many of them have homes carved into them.

We decided to go to an underground city that was full of tourists. For some reason, these small spaces didnt scare anyone away.Playing in the fairy chimneys during a day trip around Cappadocia with a moped.

Our friend Mustafa. We stumbled upon an underground city and he was our guide, though he spoke no english.

Things are definately winding down. With only 1 week until we land in Seattle there is still lots to do. Today is the first day since our last post that neither of us was "actively" getting sick. That might hint that we have been hanging low most of the time. We spent five nights in the town of Goreme. On the last day we were able to rent a moped and tour the area. It was a great day as we hit the four lane highway with our moped. Definately hit some out of the way areas that people were very surprised to see us. In the village of Mazi, Mustafa (pictured above) came running into the street waving his arms and signaling for us to park. When we headed his demands he ran to his garage and grabbed his trusty propane lantern and motioned for us to follow. Didn't really know what to expect but were surpised when he led us through a door that led to a giant underground city. Mustafa proceeded to give us a detailed tour, in Turkish of course. He even sat down at one point in the city and broke into a long and elaborate story in which he was yelling, laughing, and carrying on. Have absolutely no idea what he was talking about but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Much better than our previous underground city visit that was overflowing with tourists. On the way out we slipped him a 10 YTL and were rewarded with kisses on both cheeks. Little more Authentic Turkish than we needed but oh well. Today we spent backtracking to the town of Konya, which is where we became ill in the first place. Turns out we have the same beds and are hoping for different results. After we got into town, Hazen headed to the Hamami for his traditional Turkish bath. He wasn't disappointed. Luckily the place wasn't that busy as it is risky to go on Friday which is the religious day of the week. If he were to splash someone who was finishing up their pre-prayer wash they would have to start all over again because they had been splashed by a non-muslim. After a bath and sauna he was ready for a scrub and massage. The scrub removed all sorts of unsightly things and the Turkish soap massage was really a treat. Hazen is probably the cleanest he has been since birth. In the morning we are going to continue back to Antalya for a relaxing two nights before jumping a plane to Munich on the 24th. We are praying to Allah that our appetites will be back to their usual state for the Brats and Sauerkraut. We would like to apoligize in advance to those picking us up from the airport in Seattle. No matter how hard we try, we have had a funk following us around for about the last 2 months. Probably because we have been wearing the same group of clothes the entire trip. Might want to throw up a new pine tree on the mirror. Probably won't get another post up before we get back but will be sure to get one more up when we get home that will include some Oktoberfest and a bit of London.

To summarize the trip would be impossible. It is a safe bet to say we have seen & learned some things. We think our friend Miguel, from Alicante, said it best. After a long night of sharing local wine, passing around the sheesha filled with flavoured tobacco, and chatting as if a language barrier never existed. He leaned back in his half-broken white plastic lawn chair, folded his fingers around the back of his head, looked up to the starry sky and proclaimed "Perfecto!".

Gobble, gobble, gobble

The ghost town of Kayakoy near Fethiye. Around 200 houses that were abandoned after WWI.

View of Kayakoy from the top of the hill.

Interior of one of the churches in Kayakoy. Dates from 1888.

View through the port hole in our cabin on the boat

A little sea sick? Possibly hungover?

One of the most amazing sunsets we witness on this trip.

Romantic sunset! Doesn't get much better than this.

One of the many amazing views we had during our cruise

This would be scary if they actually let Hazen drive.

One of the greatest benefits of the cruise was diving in the water whenever you felt like it.

Amazing clear, blue water. Aubree enjoying the sea and the sun.

Group photo! All 18 of us on the last night of the trip.Chimera flames near Olympos. There are gases located beneath the rocks that once they reach the air they ignite. There are several of these flames in a small area.

Merhaba again from Turkey,

Have had some unfrogettable experiences in the last week and can't wait to share them with you. When we left you last we were in the town of Fethiye until our Blue Cruise departed. From Fethiye we took a day trip to a ghost town called Kayakoy. It is a very old town that was deserted after WWI. After the war was over many Greeks were living in Turkey and vise versa. As part of the repatriation the two countries switched their populations and there were far more Greeks living in Turkey than Turks in Greece so a few cities were left uninhabited. We spent half a day walking around the eery town. Not quite like walking around the ghost towns of the old west in the US. The town is completely off limits and has been since it was deserted so everthing is eroding and falling down at its own pace.

The next morning we woke up and were so excited to be starting our 4-day gulet cruise. Had breakfast at the Hotel and a shuttle bus came to pick us up and take us to the harbor. We headed for the boat with our swimmers on and snorkeling gear at the ready. We were a little baffled when the shuttle bus went past the harbor and thought we might be picking up more people before heading out. Really confused when we arrived at the main bus station and told we had to get on a bus to Demre which was 3hrs down the coast. Hazen went a little psychotic trying to get some answers as to why we would have do take a bus. We had just talked to the owner of the boat some 10 mins ago and he said nothing about this. Really worried that we were getting ripped off. When we got on the bus some other people that were taking the cruise said they were told the boat could not start from Fethiye because of bad weather and we would be doing the cruise in reverse. It turns out that everyone on the boat was told about this except us and a group of 3 girls. A slight oversight on the part of the cruise owner. When we finally arrived at the new harbor we were shuttled to the boat by dingie. However, it was so windy that we were completely soaked including our backpacks. The boat headed for a protected cove a short distance away and that is where we spent the evening. The passengers on the boat included a group of 10 people living in London but mostly of South African decent, 3 belgiums, and 3 Australians. The first night was great as everyone was getting to know each other and having a few drinks in the process. The night swim was amazing as phosphorecent fish glowed all around. Things were finally looking up.

The next morning we woke up pretty early and headed on deck as the boat departed. The wind was in our hair and life was good. About 20 mins later we hit the open sea and the open WAVES. Hazen's hangover just multiplied exponentially. Hazen spent the next 6 hours below deck vomitting into a Nalgene bottle. The crew decided it was far to windy to continue and parked in the harbor of Kas. With the promise of solid ground Hazen emerged and comtemplated whether he could get himself back on the boat. Aubree has been quick to point out she had no problems with seasickness or hangovers. The whole group went to a disco in the harbor and had a great time. Hazen however was not drinking anything besides water at this point. He did not want a repeat of the hangover/sea sickness.

We left the harbor around 4am since that was when the waters were suppose to be more calm. Somehow we managed to still get a little sleep through it all. We ended up at Butterfly Valley. There is suppose to be a nice waterfall you can hike to and butterflies everywhere that can only be found in this area. We decided to stay on the boat and do some swimming while the others went in search of the butterflies. Turns out they only saw 3 so we really didn't miss out on much. We heard the waterfall was dried up as well. The water is an amazing shade of blue and so crystal clear that you can see the bottom in very deep water. After leaving there we headed to Oludeniz. The first thing the guys on the boat did when we got there was find the tallest rock to jump off. Only one belly flop in the group. Hazen did complain later that his shoulders and upper arms were pretty sore from the jump. 13 of the people on the boat left to do some paragliding. Hazen decided against it (pretty spendy) and Aubree wouldn't have dont it if her life depended on it. Most seemed to have a good time though and we saw some pretty cool photos from those who went. The last day on the boat we had to re-fuel and get the dingy fixed. After that was about 7 hours straight sailing back to Demre. Hazen finally got his sea legs about 1 hour before we got off the boat. We were then bussed to get some food and off to Olympos.

Olympos is a crazy place made up of bungalows and tree houses. There is only one road through town that leads to some ancient ruins. We walked through them a little and got lost so decided to stick to the main path. Headed for the beach which wasn't near as nice as any of the places we swam while on the boat but it cooled us off and that's what we were after. Mostly did a lot of relaxing, napping and trying to stop the feeling that we were still on the boat.

We sat on a bus for about 7 hours yesterday to get to Konya, the bible belt of Turkey, and it was the first day of Ramadan. We had shorts on when we arrived and got a lot of looks. We put our pant legs on immediately as we were quite uncomfortable. Trying to avoid eating and drinking in public since everyone is fasting for Ramadan. We haven't seen much and not sure that we will get to. Hazen has become pretty sick. Possibly severe dehydration. He has been trying to keep liquids down but he has been running to the bathroom every 20 minutes for about 8 hours straight. Finally got some meds from the pharmacy and he hasn't had anything come up for about 2 hours now. Hopefully that's a good sign becuase I didn't want to have to figure out the Turkish medical system. If he is feeling better by tomorrow we will be heading to the town of Nigde which is on the edge of a national forest. Plan to spend a couple days there before going north to see the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.

We can't believe that we only have about 2 weeks left. It's really starting to hit us that we will be home soon and have to face the challenge of of normal every-day life like moving to a new city and finding new jobs. We are very ready to come home though and see everyone.

A few highlights

Probably most people can relate to these but it is just interesting how many mistakes a person makes when traveling. It is really a daily occurance. If we could only count; here are a few estimates:

Number of times we have bought nasty sparkling water instead of mineral water: 25

Number of different beds we have slept in on this trip: 80 (Fold down train bed)

Number of bodies of water Aubree has peed in while swimming: 8

Number of times Hazen has stubbed his toe while walking on cobble streets and sidewalks: 1,501
Number of times train employees have been really pissed off at us: 28

Number of times we have left the umbrellas at home only to get rained on later in the day: 10

Number of times we have stupidly ordered nachos thinking they would be like Azteca nachos: 7

Number of times Aubree tried getting a bloody mary only to get tomato paste: 6

Number of countries Hazen has enjoyed their domestic beer: How many countries have we been in?

Number of countries we have had to go to the pharmacy for cough drops: 6

Number of times Aubree has complained about her rat tail: 75

Number of times we have taken a cold shower: 30

Number of times we have laughed or made fun of tourists with Canadian flags on their packs: 300

Number of times we have been hassled for being American: 0 times
This has become a big issue for Hazen as he is sick of Americans thinking they live in the center of the world. Nobody really cares if you are American. A tourist is a tourist no matter where you are from. One hope that we have is that our travels will get more people excited about traveling and apart from all the joking about mistakes it is really fun and accessible.

Thanks to everyone for all your kind words of support and encouragement. It really meant a lot to us and we can't wait to see you all in a couple weeks.

BITTER SWEET TRAVELS!

The Blue Mosque at night. Finally bought a tripod. Stupid to wait this long as it is very handy for night photos.

Two of the brothers from Yoti Bar in Istanbul. Had a great time visiting them. The middle brother is playing an "old Turkish joke" on Hazen.

The Galata Bridge over the Bosphorus was packed with fisherman catching tiny little fish. Many were sent down the street to street vendors where they fried them up for the rush hour crowd. Sea to mouth in about 30 minutes.

Pieces of Byzantine aquaducts and a Minaret in the background. In the foreground many old Turkish men (only men) are playing backgammon and Turkish dominoes. This seems like it is an all day activity for many men.

The citadel above Selcuk. This is the view we had from our hotel terrace. The picture is of the new prime minister.

Ephesus ruins

The great theatre at Ephesus. Capacity 25,000

Again the Great Theatre shown as it was built into the hillside 1,700 years ago.

70 miles to the gallon on this hog!

We are a little lost but found some great valleys with tiny "towns". In one valley we arrived when the call to prayer was being played from the Mosque. It was amazing listening to it as it bounced around the valley. We continue to be mesmerized every time we hear it.

Views of the rugged coastline from our Moped trip.

Another Roman theatre being excavated in Fethiye. This one has no entrance fees, no tourists, and not even a fence. We climbed up and sat in the shade as it overlooks the bay.
Hazen decided to teach a few Turkish kids how to play soccer. A lot of fun as they toyed with him. They were playing on the theatre floor of the 3rd century roman theatre. Hazen stubbed his toe on some ancient stones.

Merhaba Friends and Family,

A lot has changed since our last post. Mainly our dream of finishing our trip in Egypt will not be realized. We are very sad but we were not able to find a reasonable means of traveling there from Turkey. I know that seems hard to believe as it is just a hop over the Med but we are stumped. Have pulled out all the travel tricks we know and still the best we can do is a $550/person flight from southern turkey to Egypt. At this point in our trip that is a bit steep. So...we will be staying in Turkey until the 24th (sweet part of "bitter sweet"). We were able to change our Cairo to Munich flight to Antalya to Munich with minimal penalty. It has taken a few days for the sting to wear off but now that it has we are back to business and having a great time in Turkey. Here is what we have been up to:

From Izmir we had a short journey to a small town called Selçuk. This is the homebase for exploring Ephesus. Ephesus was a remarkable place that has history dating back to 6000 BC. The ruins that remain are Roman and date to the 3rd century AD. It was another example of architectural perfection. Basically the entire city still remains and at one point it had 200,000 occupiers. The great theatre was incredible as it seated 25000 people and had unbeatable acoustics. We headed straight for the top row and were able to clearly hear converstations from anywhere in the theatre. Really a marvel. Spent a while longer in Selçuk and befriended a restaurant owner. He was from eastern Turkey and loved teaching us about why the eastern food is so much better than the western Turkey food.

On to Marmaris. A small resorty type town on the aegean coast. Were in need of a good beach because the weather has been very warm. About 108 F one day. Rented a moped a couple days ago and explored the peninsula just outside of town. It was illegal for us to rent it as we lied and said Hazen's license was motorcycle endorsed. Oh well, we were quite the sight as we were the only people in the town riding a moped that actually wore their helmets. Quickly got out of town and found some great beaches that we had all to ourselves. On one beach when we stopped swimming the small fish would swarm around your feet and bite your ankles. Our thinking was that where there are little fish that want to bite you, there are probably bigger fish nearby that also have the same idea. We headed to a new beach.

Just got to a new town called Fethiye. Just a little bit further down the coast. After three days here we will be boarding a 15 person sailboat to travel for 4 days along the southern coast. We will be stopping in all of the secluded coves and such. Aubree is really excited and Hazen just hopes he doesn't get seasick. After the boat trip we will try to visit Cyprus which is a small island just off the southern coast that is half Turkey and half Greece. From there we will hopefully have enough time to visit Cappadochia before flying to Munich. Even though we now have an entire month here it feels like we don't have nearly enough time. So many great things to explore in this country.

Chuck Norris and Aubreel writing you from Turkey!

Aub searching for the loggerhead turtles as we rented a paddleboat. Didn't see any but had a great time.

Smoke blocking the sun in Olympia.

If you look closely you can see large sprinklers spraying the forest above the ruins in Olympia. While in Athens we saw that this hill had burnt the night we left Olympia. Luckily, it sounds like the ruins were saved with only one piece being burnt.

More smoke in Olympia.

The Parthenon. What a place. Unfortunately it has been covered in scaffolding since 1984 but guess it is a neccessary evil.

The city of Athens sprawling in all directions around the acropolis.

Erecthion cathedral in the Acropolis. Doesn't look like much in the picture but take our word it is very amazing.

First modern day Olympic stadium from 1896. I think you get the idea.

Temple of Zeus. Absolutely massive columns are all that are left.

View of the Acropolis from our private rooftop terrace.

Hazen enjoying a water pipe while taking in a whirling dervish performance and trying Turkish pancakes.

Aformentioned whirling dervish. Only knew a little bit of what was going on and would be interested to find out more.
The blue mosque. The open area is the prayer area. Hard to see the millions of beautiful blue tiles that give the mosque its nickname.

Aubree taking it all in on the floor of the Blue Mosque.
View from outside the Blue Mosque
Next door is the Aya Sofia which preceeds the Blue mosque by 1000 years. (600's ad)
Interior of Aya Sofia. Try to imagine the size using the people in the bottom as reference.

Hope all is well with everyone. I guess we start this post in Greece. We left the island of Zakynthos after three wonderful days of laying on the beach and trying all kinds of Greek goodies. We celebrated St. Dionysios day with lots of crazy Greeks and were a little overwhelmed. On our way off the island many people were crowded around the TV on the ferry. There were very bad fires burning in the area we were headed. We were trying to go to Olympia to see the original Olympic ruins. After a lot of turmoil (Hazen had a bad day) we were able to get to Olympia. The ashes were falling down on us and we were right in the middle of many bad fires. Didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into. Still headed down to the ruins but were turned away by the military as the fires were too close to the area. We walked around for a while, headed back to the hotel and watched the local news. Because there were so many fires going on at one time many people were left to fend for themselves. We watched as people fought massive fires with branches, garden hoses, and five gallon buckets. Consequently, we also watched the death toll rise. We lost our power late in the night and woke up to a lot of smoke in town. Decided it was best to catch the first bus out of Olympia to Pyrgos. On the way we saw many fires very close to the road. There were a lot of people standing in the road watching it approach. The look of shock and worry was on every face as they waited. One house had all the trees in the back yard on fire and the house was soon to go. Everyone was just watching from the street. Very hard and sad to see. Once we got to Pyrgos we had to fight tooth and nail to get a bus to Athens as it seems everyone wanted out of town. Somehow being the only non-greek speaking person in the bunch we were able to get two seats.

When we arrived in Athens we headed straight for the most important sight in the western world! The Acropolis. It was well deserving of its reputation. Perched so high above the city it seems to scream power and fame. The parthenon was obviously the highlight with its towering columns and ornate designs. It was interesting to learn of the very complex architecture that was used to make it appear perfect. We spent the rest of the evening admiring the sight from the roof of our hotel. The next day in Athens we spent wandering around town. We zigged this way and that to see the parliament, hadrians arch, the temple of Zeus, and the first modern day Olympic stadium. Half the day was spent trying to figure out how to get to Istanbul as we received a different answer from all of the "experts" we asked.

Finally settled in on a night train. It was the best night train we have taken as we had a private two bed compartment. However, we had a few interuptions. At 2am we were awoke by the Greeks wanting to take our passports. Then at 4.30am they came back with our passports as we were leaving Greece. Then at 5am we were awoke by the Turks to get off the train and go to the police station to purchase our visa. All this really entails is giving some guy 15 euro each and he replies "passport on train". This was probably good as we were not really in the mood to chat. However, a simple welcome to Turkey my American friends and allies would have been nice. Just kidding. As we boarded the train again we heard the first call to prayer. It was a weird sensation because it was still dark out and we hadn't slept much. We had two more greetings before we could finally get a couple minutes of sleep before Istanbul.

Welcome to Istanbul! oh man. We are in Turkey. Doing some travel now! Made it to our hotel and were greeted by our friend Iyat. He was not a shy person and when he wasn't calling Hazen "Neil Armstrong" he was making karate noises because he thought Hazen looked like Chuck Norris. After four days in Turkey it is apparent that these people know how to have a good time. Great sense of humor and incredibly helpful. Our sense is that the people of Europe always talk about how laid back and relaxed they are but they really aren't. They seem very uptight and quick to show their temper. While the Turks also say they are relaxed and friendly they are exactly right. We have had more people in Turkey help us find our way or chat just to practice English than the rest of our trip combined. Our first stop was the Blue Mosque which was only 1.5 blocks from our hotel. This place was breathtaking. We covered ourselves, took off our shoes and headed in. The first thing we noticed was the elaborate tile mosaics lining the multiple domes. We had a seat on the carpet (the softest ever) and watched the afternoon prayer. Needless to say this was far different from any other religious experience we have ever had. Next we took a look at an older version of Mosque called Aya Sofia. It was built in the 5th century AD and is now a museum. It was completely massive and undescribable. No pictures will ever do it justice. The rest of the time in Istanbul was spent in the Grand Bazaar and wandering the streets. We took a ferry across the Bosphorus to get to a less touristed area for dinner last night. We got more than we bargained for as absolutely no one spoke english and had a hard time ordering. It all worked out though and it was a great experience. Travis (Hazen's brother) got his wish as the restaurant owner gave us each a Turkish coffee to thank us. Lets just say the Turks get right to the point when drinking coffee. It is small but action packed. We each choked it down with smiles on our faces as we are by no means coffee drinkers.

Headed to another part of town to try the Turkish liquour. It is called Raki and it packs a punch. We were approached by a young man to enter his bar and took him up on his offer. The next 3.5 hrs were spent in him and his three brothers bar enjoying great conversation. Not only did we try Raki we also shared a Nargile (water-pipe) and a couple other drinks. The raki has to be mixed with water and when you do it turns white. The water is suppose to help with the hangover but not sure if it really worked. Had a very unusual flavor that Aubree says tastes like grey Necco Wafers. Man, she is weird. Being the only patrons we got tons of attention. The oldest brother is going to start a bar in another town in Turkey and says he plans to call it "Hazen". Basically it was a perfect last night in an amazing town. In Hazen's opinion it is the first big city we have visited that a person could spend weeks in and be amazed every day.

Today we took a torturous 10hr bus ride to Izmir. This should be our last long day of travel for a while. We plan on visiting Ephesus tomorrow with many more coastal towns to follow.

Still trying to figure out how to get to Egypt as this is proving the hardest obstacle of our trip. The land route was blocked as we were not able to get visas from the Syrian embassy in Istanbul. Now we try ferries and if that doesn't work we will be stuck with an expensive plane ride. Well, wish us luck because we really need it. Travel here is a big challenge. Now we understand why most people travel to Turkey in tour groups. However, we despise tour groups and would rather suffer on a mildly air conditioned public bus for ten hours. Hope to hear from you all soon. Only 27 days to go!