12ish Days in Istanbul

After a weekend or so in Istanbul I was ready to see a bit more of Turkey and hit the road. My plan was to go to Cappadocia - what I had heard was a unreal experience. Turns out it wasn't in the cards for me. On the way to the train station I had a very strong feeling that I shouldn't head back into Asia and that moving West was the right choice. Since the last instinct about moving places was not to get on a boat in Thailand, I thought it was best to stay put in Istanbul. Plus, once I got to the train station it was completely full. Ha, decision made.

I had quite a week in Istanbul hanging out with Ethan's flatmates and managed to see a ton in the city. It was great to explore with other people since I found it really difficult to get around Istanbul by myself without getting stared at all the time. Not that being with other people stopped them, even when I was with another guy friend on the tram I still got my butt grabbed a few times. Oh well. Anyway, it would be impossible to sum it all up so I decided I'd just post some pictures.

Visit to the Dolmabahce Palace 

Cool castles!! 

A day trip to Prices Islands where we rode bikes to the top!

Me and Ethan post brunch therefore happy. That is the Black Sea behind us where we saw dolphins!

Ethan about to make a huge mistake by attempting to eat 14 of those burgers. I won the bet and got my money back pretty quick. He only made it to 7.

Miniaturk! Here lies Turkey, but mini. It was not a bad attraction so if you ever head to Istanbul check it out.

A view of the city from Galata Tower

So that is about it for my trip to Istanbul. Big shout out to my buddy Ethan who housed me for my time there he is one nice dude who dealt with me for far too long. My next stop is Croatia. Finally!

Istanbul, Turkey

Initially, Istanbul was not in the plan. I hadn't imaged being able to do it on my tight schedule but after a lot of thinking and strategizing I decided I could pull it off. I would just need to make decisions later on down the road on where to go and what stops are totally necessary.

Plus, my friend Ethan who is on his own crazy traveling journey was taking a course in Istanbul for 5 weeks and I really wanted to see him. I remember 3 years ago chatting with Ethan online and him telling me about his trip that would bring him all through Asia and Europe without taking one single flight (Impressed? Check out his blog v-w-x.blogspot.com) and thinking we could perhaps cross paths. Turns out we did! I've been crashing at his apartment for about a week and exploring Istanbul all day while the poor dude goes to class for 12 hours.

I hit the ground running in Istanbul as far as sight seeing goes. In the first day I knocked 4 attractions off my list. I know this may not seem impressive, but after traveling for this long and sightseeing being my full time job it gets hard to be so motivated to see everything a city has to offer. One great thing I found about Istanbul is that the major top 5 sights are within 5 minutes of each other making checking them all out a breeze.

Check out some of shots of beautiful Istanbul:

The Blue Mosque - amazingly impressive and free admission!

Ayasofya - one of my favorite attractions in Istanbul. I spent nearly 3 hours walking around and admiring the lighting and coloring of the building.

Those are just some of the highlights of Istanbul and the first couple of days of sight seeing. Next post will detail more sights, my failure to return back to Asia and a Istanbul debrief. 

Paros and Santorini, Greece

It's hard to imagine Paros and Santorini being enjoyable during the high tourist season. The streets are insanely tiny and painted all white (supposedly to confuse the pirates) so wandering around was very fun but unimaginable with more people around.

In Paros we spent a lot of time working out what we wanted to eat and where we'd go. My cousin Melissa gave us tons of tips of places to try. Thanks to her great advice we ate, and ate, and ate. As I've mentioned on the blog before, I'm not much of a foodie but Greece was a rare find and I couldn't seem to stop! I even tried squid and although I probably won't do it again, which wasn't half bad. 

After a couple nights in Paros we were off to Santorini. (Sidenote: thanks to all the friends who held back and didn't mention sisterhood of the traveling pants while we were on the islands). I was shocked when the boat docked and there wasn't a building or town in sight. Just massive cliffs and ocean. A short drive lead us to the Thira and then the landscape started to look familiar and what I'd recognize in movies. 

After Santorini we took a quick flight back to Athens and relaxed in the hotel for an afternoon. It's so nice to be able to stay in fancy hotels, go for a run on the treadmill and swim in an indoor pool. Much different from what I'm used to . . .

My mom's trip was awesome. I'm so happy she could come and see a new place and spend time with me and see some of my crazy travel lifestyle. I'm also incredibly proud of her for taking the long trip by herself. Now she has the full on travel bug!!

Next stop: Istanbul with my friend Ethan

With Mom in Mykonos!

Mom and I were excited to leave Athens and head toward the sunshine of Mykonos. We woke up crazy early to catch a four hour ferry ride to the island and the weather didn't seem to get any better. The worst part of the trip was that I finally gave into the fact that I was really sick. After being in denial for a few days I came to realize my sore throat was definitely strep and I needed to see a doctor pronto. I made it almost 6 months without a serious sickness but it was time and my body was finally giving up on being healthy. The good news? I was with my mom! At least I wasn't stuck in some cruddy hostel miserable and by myself. My mom took me to the emergency room and made me pose in front. I wasn't into the idea of posing, clearly:

The day was rainy and miserable anyways so I didn't ruin too much of the vacation. We still got to see a bunch in Mykonos despite the weather and my sickness.

Staying in a real hotel! No more crowded gross hostels, well, at least for a week. 

Mom waiting at our bus stop into Mykonos Town:

Mykonos was really really beautiful and mom and I were actually thankful that it was off season because the island seemed quiet. There were no crowds and it was easy to walk around and shop, eat, etc.

Next island: Paros!

Old Stuff in Athens with Mom!

Athens has a bunch of really really old stuff. After a while it doesn't even seem to make sense. When was this built again? I'm not sure if my brain can even comprehend something that was made in 447 BC? Anyway mom and I hit the tourist circuit in Athens and it was surprisingly fun and not so crowded! It could have been the cold weather but we didn't care.

Check out some pictures of the Acropolis and other cool old stuff:

Already I like Greece a lot. The food is amazing and there always seems to be something I can actually eat! (Usually I'm too picky and it's a pain to find something). The Greek people aren't as forthcoming with information but don't seem to mind when I ask them a trillion questions about how to get somewhere. Be prepared to ask tons of questions if you ever go to Greece, there are no signs here - not even in super touristy spots.

After a couple of cold and rainy days in Athens, Mom and I headed to the islands! First stop: Mykonos. 

Jeju Island, South Korea

I had plenty of time to explore South Korea and decided to hop on a quick (and cheap) flight to Jeju Island which is an island just south of the mainland. I thankfully arranged to stay at a hostel which provided a free airport pickup because the island is huge! It also seems that they aren't used to too many non Korean speakers because I couldn't seem to communicate with anyone outside my hostel. 

The island is absolutely beautiful. It's rocky and mountainous. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good enough for the 11 hour hike up Mount Halla but it was good enough to explore a bit. Check it out: 

 I have no idea who this lady is - she just jumped infront of the shot:

I had a great time in Jeju and if it were a little warmer I could have stayed for much longer. Jeju was also the spot of yet another small world story. While I was in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) about three months ago I randomly met 2 guys (traveling separately) from New Hampshire. One of them, Glenn, was on a short vacation but teaching English in South Korea on Jeju Island. I actually left Kuala Lumpur without exchanging information with Glenn and just figured our paths wouldn't cross again. Then, two months later I was sitting in an internet cafe in Thailand with my friend Adam when I saw a notification from facebook. I had written on a hostel wall (the hostel wanted the guests to write on the wall, no worries) and was unfortunately tagged because of a grammatical error. I started laughing hysterically - enough to grab Adam's attention. Eventually he made me tell him the story of why I was laughing so hard. I showed him the picture of my grammatical error and of Glenn's writing next to mine, clearly fixing the mistake. Adam then said, "Glenn? Glenn from New Hampshire? I know that dude. I met him in Seoul like 5 months ago!" Turns out, yes, it was the same Glenn. And, yes, they had met when Adam started his trip in South Korea. Adam was friends with Glenn on facebook so I immediately friended him myself. Fast forward a couple months and I caught up with Glenn in Jeju Island, South Korea. Even though I was over an hour late to meet Glenn because I got terribly lost he was still kind enough to take me for a ride on his motorcyle around the island a bit and take me out to dinner. Glenn is one great guy and incredibly nice to deal with my inability to navigate Jeju Island. Gotta love those New Hampshire dudes. Anyway, it's one hell of small world story and I hope to run into him again some time soon. 

It's about that time to move on again! South Korea was amazing and now I know why all my friends have taught English here and called it home for a couple of years. It's been real, Asia. Now time for Europe. 

I'm in South Korea!

I haven't posted in a while because a lot of my time in South Korea has been very chill. I arrived in Seoul and it was just as cold, if not colder than Hong Kong. Ouch. My first night I met a cool Australian girl and we headed out to eat in Hondae (fun, young, going out area in Seoul). I quickly realized it would be a challenge to get around without someone who could speak or read Korean. We ordered dinner correctly but seemed to have ordered the wrong size beer. I figured the largest size on the menu was a pitcher but boy, was I wrong. The waiter brought over the biggest pitcher I've seen which of course grabbed the attention of a group of men sitting near us. They asked if they could join us and we talked throughout dinner about the regular topics (Bush, politics, we do this here, do you do that there, etc). When we were ready to leave the guys paid for our dinner. Normally, I'd be opposed but since I'm a broke backpacker I gladly accepted.

After a quick few days in Seoul I headed south to Daegu (read previous post for train ride story) and met up with my friend Alex. We worked together for a couple years and she and her best friend decided to move to SK to teach English this past summer. Daegu was a very cool city, surrounded my mountains and was much warmer than Seoul. Alex seems settled and happy and I'm so proud of her for moving away from home to take on a year (or two) of teaching in another country. She showed me around and it was great to catch up with her and meet her friends in Daegu.

Check out the beautiful cherry blossoms!

After 10 days in Daegu it was time to move on to another city. Next stop: Jeju Island