Off Adventuring!

Kai's first castle

We are currently in the middle of a 3 week trip in Europe introducing Kai to several sets of good friends and meeting their new children. We had hoped to be posting as we went along, but our time has been filled with actual doing things and we haven't been able to download many pics.

So when we get home we'll put up pics and stories from each of the countries Kai has gotten to experience for the first time. It's been fun to watch.

More soon.

Becca

Lookout World....

.....she's ready to come get you. :-)

Ruins for everyone!

While Ephesus (which will get its own detailed post sometime soon), Pergamum and a few others are the best preserved and get all the press, it seems like you could toss a stick randomly along the central Mediterranean coast and hit a Greek or/(and) Roman ruin.

A sampling of our finds:

Atlantis-like feel at the watery ruins of Miletus

The 15,000 seat Great Theater at Miletus

Remains of the Temple of Athena, Priene (beneath Mt. Mykale)

Column graveyard, Priene

Remains of Greek Theater, Priene

Enjoying the power seat, Priene

Imposing steps into the city, Labranda

2,000+ year old wine casks, Labranda


becca

Assorted Turkish Wildflowers

A little color for your Thursday morning...

After the rains in the ruins of Labranda

The ancient town of Priene scattered amongst the poppies

Scary-ass flower in Herakeleia/Kapikiri. Don’t know what it is but it sure has a “don’t mess with me” vibe to it

The Zen of Turkish Breakfasts

On the patio of Kilise Alti, Sirince

One of the many cool things about traveling in Turkey is that breakfast is included in almost all but the cheapest and (strangely) most expensive of lodging. And breakfast in Turkey is a cultural experience all of its own.

The food at breakfast, not surprisingly, has a very Mediterranean influence and we found fairly consistent offerings at all the different places we stayed. There was usually some combination of green and black olives, olive oil, fruit jams and compotes, a variety of cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, nuts, dried fruits, and an egg of some sort (hard/soft boiled, fried, etc.). These were served with bread, not the pita or flatbread that we had been expecting to find. There was also the ubiquitous tea, cay (pronouced 'chai'), in the distinctive tulip-shaped glasses that we grew to really love.

While some hotels and pensions just had buffets where you could go up and help yourself (and we noticed that those tended to have a few more ‘familiar’ or ‘western’ options) more than half of the places we stayed provided individual ‘spreads’ in lovely dishes.

Breakfast at the Agora Pension, Herakleia/Kapikiri

In the two smallest villages we stayed in the food was all totally fresh and most of it came from in town. It was beyond delicious.

Fresh, homemade breakfast at Kilise Alti, Sirince

Even when the food was much more processed and packaged (such as what we found when we were the first guests of the season at our hotel in a small Mediterranean town), it still was beautifully presented and satisfying to eat.

Breakfast at Beyaz Guvercin, Selimiye

It was a wonderful way to start the day and really got you into the mood of a place in touch with its land and enjoying its bounty. I'm looking forward to making more meals like this for our own breakfasts or brunches.

Becca

Tesekkür ederim, Turkey!

Home again and trying to remember what work and real life is like. Though it took 4-5 days into the trip to do so, we were able to shed the stress of work and everyday life and get our minds right back in the traveling mode. It was a great chance to hit the "reset" button and remind ourselves about what we're all about. Now we'll see how well we keep that in mind as we dive back into work, school, and other life.

We have all kinds of stories and pictures to share so expect to see a whole rash of new entries over the next few days/weeks. The high level summary though is that Turkey was a great country to visit. The people were overwhelmingly friendly and kind, the culture was interesting, the food was tasty, and there was tons of history to explore and experience. We especially enjoyed the mix of east and west and had fun hopping back and forth between Asia and Europe. And while we were glad to come home and not be on a year-long jaunt again, we also realized that traveling and exploring new places will always be a part of our lives.

B&B

On the Road Again!!

Finals are done, work projects are on hold, and we're off!

We'll be in Turkey through May 3rd, checking out a country that we were disappointed to miss on our RTW trip and also trying to rest and rejuvenate after a pretty intense last three months. Our hope is to have a chance to reintroduce ourselves to each other, reach out and experience a new place a little, remember the things we had liked about living that 15 months outside of the traditional work life and rededicate ourselves to finding ways to keep that balance and happiness now that we're back plugged into the day-to-day economy. (Easier said than done when you're balancing full time work with graduate studies....)

Wish us luck!!

B&B

We'll be posting stories and pictures about the trip, though most likely we'll wait until we get home instead of using up vacation time in the internet cafes...