Video: Cinque Terre

I had heard nothing but great things about Cinque Terre (the sun, beaches, food, hiking) and was really looking forward to doing some good hiking, getting the heart rate up and a good sweat going after so much flat city walking. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed and of all the places that have been so abundantly praised Cinque Terre lived up.

I was very surprised to have met more Americans in my first 12hrs in Cinque Terre than I had in the rest of the previous 2 1/2 months combined. Not surprisingly most of them were study abroad students on a short trip from Florence before the year got started. I made the aquaintance of Anna and Claire and spent the next two days hiking around and exploring the area with them.

Cinque Terra consists of five small towns along the cost with houses built into the sheer cliff sides, and connected by great hiking trails as well as railroad. The hike from the first to last town was great and took just over 4 1/2hrs, the last section definately got the heart pumping and made me realize how much stamina I've lost since leaving CO. At the last town, Monterosso, we were greeted by a small but sandy (finally!) beach and wrapped up with some splashing in the cool water, before heading back to the hostel with pesto pasta in tow. Apparently Cinque Terre was the place that pesto was 'invented' and it's everywhere. I had the chance to try some strange, but tastey, pancake looking pasta with an amazing pesto sauce.

Photos: Cinque Terre

Video: Florence

I have to admit that leaving Venice after several days of rest, to get back on the road of travel was a bit more difficult than I had expected and I wasn't really in the mood to do much touristing/walking once I got there. As a result I spent a fair amount of time drinking coffee, catching up on journal writing, and finishing off another book.

Stepping off the train I was fortunate to meet a trio from Hong Kong traveling around europe, and I tagged along with them to their hostel and was able to snag a bed. This is the first time I've ever really traveled without making any hostel reservations, planning what I'm going to see, etc. While being somewhat nerve-racking at times, mostly it's been very liberating.

Florence is definately American tourist central. I heard far more American accents there than in Venice (which surprised me), I think in part because it is a very popular 'study abroad' destination. In fact I met a young American from NYU, in an internet cafe, who was fresh off plane to spend a year studying in Florence. We spent the day chatting and walking around, which I would have done otherwise, and I used the opportunity to snag a few obligitory photos.

Photos: Florence

Video: Verona

One of the touristy things that I manage to get to during my second stop in Venice was an Opera in Verona. I really knew nothing about Verona but Emilie had mentioned that there was an old arena there where they still performed Operas, so we decided to go check it out. The old arena is an old colloseum-esque place, built roughly 1000 years ago (I think), that is still largely intact/restored and can still hold roughly 20,000 people.

We showed up a couple of hours before showtime and were able to get tickets to 'Carmen', that nights opera, for about $20 up high on the old stone, unnumbered bleacher seats which provided a great view. Waiting for the opera to start the atmosphere was similar to that of a baseball game, with the sun setting, people talking, and young men and women walking around selling drinks and food from coolers slung over their shoulders. Once the sun went down and the lights extinguished, everyone lit the small candles that were handed to them upon entry, as part of the tradition of lighting the stage with candles (something started during the fist re-inaugural opera in ~1913).

The opera was amazing, with over a hundred people in each scene, live horses and carts on stage, and an incredible sound from the orchestra and singers alike, despite no microphones. Unfortunately, Emilie and I neglected to check the times for the trains returning to Venice and missed the last one by over an hour. As a result we passed the time in the 'Green Bar' until 3am, listening to dated techno music and munching on flat bread sandwiches to keep us going and prep us for the remaining 2 1/2hrs in the train station on hard stone benches until we could catch the next train at 5:30am. Despite the night in the train station it was a great nite.

Photos: Verona

Video: Return to Venice

Venice was even better the second time around. Not having to stay in a hostel was a very nice change, I could sleep late, cook my own food, lounge around all day reading without being kicked out, and other simple pleasures that hostel life doesn't really allow for. It was also nice to be shown around town by a fluent Italian speaker that knew Venice considerably better than I did.

For the most part my time was spent sleeping, reading and writing, doing a bit of cooking and cleaning (to make sure I don't lose those all important domestic skills), lots of aimless back street wandering, and generally taking it easy. In my wandering I did come across the Mask shop that provided the masks for the movie 'Eyes Wide Shut':

Photos: Venice

Media Overload

It took me a while but I finally managed to get all of the photos and videos from the last month uploaded. For those just interested in the pretty pictures and videos here they are for your enjoyment (in chronological order from oldest to newest):

Photos:

• Sarajevo
• Mostar
• Dubrovnik
• Mljet
• Korcula
• Split
• Zadar
• Plitvice Lakes
• Rijeka
• Ljubljana
• Bled
• Venice
• Burano
• Geneva

Videos:

• Sarajevo Panorama
• Mostar at Night
• Inside Dubrovnik
• Sobra Beach on Mljet
• Live Music on Korcula
• View from my window in Split
• Plitvice Lakes 1
• Plitvice Lakes 2
• Plitvice Lakes 3
• Plitvice Lakes 4
• Ljubljana Hostel
• Rowing Bled Lake 1
• Rowing Bled Lake 2
• Panorama from Venice train station
• Live Music in Venice
• San Marco Panorama 1
• San Marco Panorama 2
• Burano Panorama
• Glass Blowing 1
• Glass Blowing 2
• Glass Blowing 3
• Giant chess in Geneva

Video: Open Air Museum

After a late night last night, and a sluggish start this morning we managed to drag ourselves to the Open Air Museum in Goreme as our last tourist stop before leaving. The Open Air Museum is a large collection of churches, chapels, monastery, convent built just outside of Goreme over the 11-13th centuries. Several of the churches contained incredible, bright frescos very well preserved due to the lack of light entering the church. Unfortunately many of the frescos have been damaged by vandals, and the eyes/mouth/faces scratched off by non-christians that settled in the area a a later date.

Photos: Open Air Museum

Video: Ihlara Valley, Selime Monastery and the Camel Palace

From the Underground City we headed to the Ihlara Valley, which houses more than 200 churches built into the rock walls. We hiked down into and through the valley for an hour to a spot where lunch was provided.

After lunch we had a quick ride over to the Selime Monastery, a huge monastery built into the side of a hill which was used as Theological college. The monastery housed a couple thousand monks, hospital, stables, kitchens, library, etc.

From Selime we headed to a Camel Palace on the old Silk Route through Turkey. It was a place where traders could get free room and board for upto 3 days while traveling through turkey.

Photos: Goreme

• Ihlara Valley
• Camel Palace

Video: Underground City

Yesterday was a whirlwind 10hr tour around Cappadocia. We started at 9am and headed to one of the many underground cities in this area that were built by the Hitties as places to hide during attacks from invaders. Of the hundred or so cities in this area we visited the largest one which is 8 stories deep and could house 2000 people for upto 6 months. It was amazing to see what they were able to construct with probably little more than hammer and chisel: winery, chapel, school, defense systems, places for animals, kitchens, wells, etc...they thought of everything.

Video: Walk Through the Valley

Several folks from the Blue Cruise (Andrew, Fernando, Kristen, and Kayley) and I all left Olympos at the same time and headed to Goreme. We arrived in Goreme in central turkey a few days ago after a long, mostly sleepless overnight bus ride from Olympos. After deciding to stay at the 'Shoestring Cave Pension' (We are actually sleeping in a cave), we did some walking around town and then went for a 3+hr guided hike through the Pigeon Valley, Honey Valley, White Valley and Love Valley.

It was nice to get out and do some hiking after a few lethargic days. The rock formations were amazing, and a lot of the landscape reminded me of Utah/Arizona. Some of the unique formations are the fairy chimneys, and giant love sticks.

Video: Flames at Chimaera

• Take 1
• David Brent on the Flames of Chimaera

Video: View from the Boat

• Swimming
• Another View

Video: Ephesus

I arrived in the small town of Selcuk after a quick three hours on the bus, and spent the evening wandering, reading, writing and making the aquaintance of two canadians (on a whirlwind tour through turkey and greece) and an american from california (taking the summer off from traveling and currently working at Jimmy's Hostel, the place I'm staying).

This morning I caught a free ride over to the ruins of Ephesus and met two more fellow travellors from canada doing a three week tour of Turkey. The ruins at Ephesus make up one of, if not the, best preserved/reconstructed representation of an old roman/greek city, with the best ruins at Ephesus being the temple and a theatre that seats twenty-five thousand.

According to the guide book, Ephesus was primarly made up of the temple, baths, fountains, theatres, and a big market...not a bad life for the Ephesians. Additionally, we came across the public toilets...you had to be pretty friendly wıth your neighbor. Unlike Bergama, Ephesus is very popular with the tourists which packed the place.

Photos: Ephesus

• Market at Ephesus
• Theatre at Ephesus

Video: The Road to Bergama

After Troy turned out to be a bit of a bust, I decided to hot stop out of there and head to Bergama, a place recommended for its ruins, by the hostel folks in Canakkale. I caught an early morning bus and 5 hours later was in Bergama. The buses here are incredibly comfortable and make long trips a piece of kosher cake. What I didn't realize is that the bus I got on didn't actually stop in the city, so when it came time to get off I was rather unceremoniously dumped on the side of a dirt road about 5 miles out of town! After failing to wave down a few Mini-buses, I started trekking. Luckily about 1 1/2 miles into my walk a kind Turkish man on a scooter took pity on me, pulled over 15 feet ahead and waved for me to hop on. He took me to the edge of the city, about 2 miles closer, and with a shake of my hand and a hearty smile told me to have a 'fine day' and was on his way.

I spent another 2 hours walking into the city center and stumbling around in search of a reasonably priced hostel, finally succumbing to solicitation by a taxi cab which took me to the Athena Pension. The Athena Pension turned out to be a really quaint restored Ottoman house with a great open court yard kinda place, a mother bird and four babies living in the raftors, and a great sign.

Having walked around all day, I decided the ruins would have to wait til morning. Instead, I took a stroll around downtown. I stumbled across a dirt street with a tea house that is apparently the place to be in Bergama, especially if you're a retired man. I met a retired biology teacher who now owns a carpet shop and spent a couple of hours chatting with him and watching some hearty turkish retirees drink tea and play of Dama (turkish checkers). I finished the evening off with some turkish meatballs and an amazing glass of 'mountain tea', before making it a fairly early night.

• The Place to be in Bergama

Video: Protest

Another one of Istanbul's regular cultural experiences is the protest. In the 10 days I have been here I've seen at least 5 protests. What's interesting, as you can sorta pick out in the video, is that a 'protest' may consist of 5-10 individuals, but the police sent to 'keep order' and what not usually outnumbers the protestors 10 to 1...

Video: Istanbul, a tourists perspective

Adam and I finally had the chance to do some site-seeing at the end of the week and made the rounds to a few of Istanbul's primary tourist attractions. We walked through the Blue Mosque, an enormous mosque with an amazing inside and ceiling. We also spent some time in Aya Sophia, originally a church built by Justinian which was later converted into a mosque and is now a museum and in the process of restoration. While the outside leaves a bit to be desired, the inside contains several amazing Christian mosaics (1, 2, 3, 4).

The most enjoyable part of the tourist trip was the Grand Bazaar: a huge indoor/outdoor market with everything you can imagine, from nuts, dried fruits, and mounds of turkish delight, to shoes, leather goods and electronics. It was fun to banter with the vendors as we fended them off...Adam has a hard time saying no.

• Outside the Grand Bazaar
• Gold Trading in the Grand Bazaar
• Belly Dancing Babies

Video: Cruising the Bosphorous

Yesterday brought some perfect weather for a nice cruise along the Bosphorous.

• More of the Bosphorous

Video: Istanbul

I made it to Turkey without too much ado.

Before getting here, I really hadn't done any research on what Turkey would be like. Outside of a vague knowledge that they were trying to get into the EU, my understanding of Turkey was pretty ignorant. One of the things that came as a big shock is the sheer size of Istanbul: apparently there are around 20 million people that live in the city. 20 million! As you can imagine that makes pollution fairly bad and traffic is just crazy (it took Adam and I 2 1/2hrs to get back to his place from the airport). One surprise, despite all of the people, is the lack of garbage/sewage smell that seems to permeate a fair number of European cities. I was wondering what happens to all of the garbage (having not seen any garbage trucks), and found out last night that it gets picked up at 2am apparently.

I'm staying with my buddy Adam, who has most generously allowed me to crash at his apartment while in Istanbul. He lives with a Kiwi, and two Turkish students in a fairly small place that is, unfortunately, somewhat consumed with mold in places, primarily the bathroom.

My second night in Istanbul Adam took me to a traditional Turkish 'Meyhanes' (tavern). We spent about 4hrs hanging out with some friends of Adam, eating various dishes of eggplant, yogurt, cheese, and deep fried battery goodness, along with some 'Rakı' (aka "lion's milk"): a very strong, licorice tasting alcohol that starts out clear and turns white/cloudy when mixed with 3 parts water.

According to Adam the Meyhanes is the quintessential Turkish experience and I certainly got a feel for the locals when the band started walking around playing round after round of traditional Turkish love songs, some of which are apparently about eggplant (the Turks love their eggplant!). The mixture of Rakı and traditional songs led to a lot of great table dancing (see video below).

Aside from the revelry of late Turkish nights, the days have been busy with lots of walking and relaxing. I have managed to make it to a mosque (and inside) or two but site seeing is later this week. We did manage to while away a few hours sitting and watching soccer around a hukah. I've also started to plan the rest of my Turkey trip and plan to head south next weekend for about 3 weeks, down through Troy and Ephesus along the Aegean sea coast.

Photos: Istanbul

• Meyhanes 2: The Dancing Begins


• Meyhanes 3: Things are Heating Up


• Meyhanes 4: Full Swing

Video: Ducklings

While 'punting', a group of ducklings and their mother came begging at the side of our boat.

Video: Punting

Rikki, Greg, and I doing a bit of 'punting' along the Thames in Oxford. Punting => using a giant pole to propel a flat bottomed boat.