Hong Kong, China Wed 4th July We arrived into Hong Kong mid afternoon on a beautiful, hot and sunny day. We have all long forgotten what ‘cold’ feels like but I am sure we will remember soon enough when we get home in a few days. Hong Kong is a territory full of contrasts which… More

London, United Kingdom Sunday 1st July Flight from Istanbul to London. Only note worthy point on this flight was that the plane was half full with 11 yr old Turkish school children who cheered and clapped with great vigour when we finally lifted off and did the same when we touched down. The mind boggles… More

Istanbul, Turkey Friday 29th June The first half of our day was spent with Cengiz Alatli who guided us for four hours through Topkapi Palace, Aya Sophia and The Archeological Museum. Topkapi Palace was built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453 and was home to all of the subsequent Sultans. The place has a colourful… More

Istanbul, Turkey Tuesday 26th June You see some funny things in Turkey. For example, pink is a nice colour in all its variations; pink, puce, purple, violet and so on. That is, until you paint it on a 3 storey building which is quite common practice here. Also, they love washing bus windows with an… More

Canakkale, Turkey Sunday 24th June Bodrum Backpackers – Ataturk Cad. 37, Bodrum, Turkey Today was dedicated to travel for the 6 hour drive north from Selcuk up to Canakkale. We travelled by mini-bus with 3 other Aussie couples. This journey was punctuated midway with a stop at the ancient site of Pergamum, now Bergama, a… More

Selcuk, Turkey Friday 22nd June Jimmy’s Place – Ataturk Mah., 1016 Sok., No. 19, Selcuk, Turkey We left Bodrum for Selcuk on the 11am bus after having a leisurely morning including a walk through the Old Town and harbour area and a swim. Our trip was not without incident though. We were the only people… More

Bodrum, Turkey Thursday 21st June It is 8.30pm, we are in Bodrum, Turkey and it is stinking hot! Mark, Tom and I have just returned from dinner whereas Annabelle stayed in the apartment as she wasn’t feeling well. We left Rodos early this morning, another hot and sunny one. The ferry left at 8am and… More

Rhodes, Greece Tuesday 19th June This note is being scribed from the balcony of our hotel in Rhodes whilst I sit here on a magnificent (Mark’s favourite word) afternoon and look out over the sprawling beach with turquoise blue water below. The coastline of Turkey looms just a short distance out on the horizon and… More

Santorini, Greece Sunday 17th June I am writing this note from the balcony of our villa in Oia, the northern most point of Santorini, perched high on the edge of the caldera overlooking the beautiful Aegean Sea. It is 8.30pm and we have just watched a spectacular sunset, something Oia is famed for, yet it… More

Athens, Greece Friday 15th June We took a really good walking tour of Ancient Greece with Maria from ‘Athens Walking Tours”. She put about 3 ~6,000 years of Greek history, religion, culture, myths and legends into a clear, succinct and intelligible perspective for us and the other family who joined us. We spent most of… More