Whereami

Two fiddy

That's (bout) how many photos I now have on-line...New additions include some pics from my recent side-trip to Alexandria (aka Alex). They've got a pretty sweet library in Alex...it's amazing on the outside and even cooler on the inside...I can prove it if you look here.

Also, please look for the new link that was added to the top right of this page (in place of the welcome message). You'll find a quick and easy way to make a donation to the American Red Cross with the credit card you already have on file at Amazon.com

Not so strangeland

Arrived safely in İstanbul (where apparently they dot their capital i's...and the i key is after the l key...and don't ask about the question mark). Off to go find a place to stay.

Also, if anyone knows a good (and cheap) way to get to Athens could you drop me a line...İ was planning on taking the train, but not after reading these two links...

Train to Athens, part 1
Train to Athens, part 2

ps: note to self, check out the turkish rap group 'ceza' upon return.

Brrr!!!

After 3 years of lıvıng ın Texas and 4 months of travellıng ın tropıcal clımates, it's official...ı can no longer stand the cold. Walkıng around a sunny (and non-wındy) Istanbul today ı was freezıng my ass off.

Escapıng to a convıenent store ı started talkıng about the weather wıth the manager...very cold we both agreed...and then ı told hım ı was from chıcago and hıs eyebrows jumped...Çhıçago! There ıt's REALLY çöld!  (note turkısh characters to ımply spoken accent :)

Upon further ınspectıon...ı aın't seen nothıng yet...can't waıt to get back home :(

If you build it, they will come

This is kinda cool...just checked out my website traffic monitor and found a pretty broad range of outside visitors (I'm huge in Australia! Who knew?).

And by huge, I mean 13 people. But hey, it's a start :)

Piece of cake

Taking good photos in Istanbul is pretty darn easy. Whether it's walking the street at night, checking out the mosaics inside Aya Sophia, or shopping in the Grand Bazaar there's always something interesting to see.

And those aren't even my favorites.

As usual, all the rest here.

Just say no

For more (non-travel) related cartoons, check out the other blog.

And to continue with this draw instead of write post, I came across some Moleskine pictures on Flickr. What's a Moleskine? Answer here.

Leaving Istanbul tomorrow and for the first time I'll have to deal with the all time low value (as compared to the Pound and the Euro) of the dollar. Looks like even drug dealers are dropping the dollar as their currency of choice.

Why bother?

A strange thing happened the other day when I was sitting in the lobby of my hostel checking email. A woman (I'm pretty sure she was American) stopped in to chat with some of the workers and then as she was leaving said "alright, off for a run!" in a typical high-energy kind of way.

Almost immediately, I laughed out loud at her comment (and I don't laugh out loud that often). A run?? It seemed like such a ridiculous idea when she said it. So unnecessary or unimportant. It was the first time I had a "what's the point of doing that" reaction to exercise.

I have all intentions of getting back in shape (and doing plenty of running) when I get back home, but the thing is while travelling it just didn't seem like a priority at all...not only just a non-priority, but an incorrect one at that.

Not sure why, just mentioning the observation.

No good answer

To everyone I haven't told yet (which is a lot) I made it back home safely. Surprised the parents by showing up unannounced from London. Meaning, I cut off two weeks and a few stops (Athens, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen) from the original itinerary.

Reasons why include:

• the dollar's weak value
• my bank account's weak balance
• didn't want to rush through the remaining cities
• flights in Istanbul were cheap!
• I might have run out of room in my passport for the remaining countries :)

And now comes one of the harder parts of the trips...answering all the questions, like: Where was your favorite place? Who had the best food? What are you going to do next, What did you miss most, etc...

And the problem with most of these questions is that there's no good quick answer. I  can't just say that the Pyramids were my favorite place or that the temples in Cambodia were better than the Taj Mahal.

It's not so much a favorite place, it's a favorite moment. It's not a favorite food, it's who you're having the meal with. And I'm still gathering the answers to those questions. For me, the trip was internal as much as it was external. I loved walking along the beach in Bali, but I got just as much enjoyment reading a good book inside when it was raining. The Taj was beautiful to look at, almost as much as some of the other tourists. Meeting all sorts of people was great, but so was talking with my parents at home.

For now, I don't have too much else to add...I'm going to try and keep a running tally in the 'continued' section so check back there every so often.