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August 23, 2004

Turkish Delights

We are back in Istanbul after a few nights in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. Antalya was beautiful, but hot with an impressive old town of winding cobblestone streets and endless little guest houses. We succeeded in getting a boat on to the turquise waters, but it didn't happen exactly as we had planned.

What a surprise.

If there is a theme to this crazy trip of ours, it is that none of our plans ever last more than a few days before we completely change them. I guess that keeps things exciting, but it can also be a stress. In some ways there is a sense of failure when you change plans and don't see something you had intended. It's such an alien feeling to have total freedom like this. We're used to schedules, demands, rules and regulations. For us to realize that there is nothing wrong with just sitting in a park all day or going to Turkey instead of Vietnam is difficult to accept. I think this has been one of the hardest aspects of our trip.

In the few days we were in Antalya our plans must have changed about half a dozen times. The area is filled with some spectacular ruins, but all require transportation to get to them and none of that is cheap. Boats leave from the area on trips along the Mediterranean coast, but they only leave on certain days from certain cities for costs that were often quite high. Coming to Turkey from the cheap lands of Southeast Asia it has been hard to accept spending $10 to enter a museum when in Laos we spent $4 a night for a room.

In the end we decided to spend our time in Antalya exploring the charming old streets and relaxing in the nice city park. We enjoyed pleasent evenings in the center garden court of our wonderful guest house. We did manage to get out on the water though. Instead of the multi-day boat excursions we had planned, we opted for a six hour day trip. Along with a few Belgian women, a Turkish couple and pair of French women we spent a relaxing afternoon plying the too blue waters along the coast and taking occasional breaks to swim in the salty sea water. It was a good taste of boat life and now we definitely want to return someday and charter one of the smaller yachts for a week tour. If you get a group of six to eight people its amazingly affordable. Any takers to come along?

In the end we decided not to go to any of the ruins. Perhaps on our return trip to Turkey when we plan to come as simple vacationers and not long term backpackers. Instead we returned to the city we fell in love with -- Istanbul.

We're once again enjoying this remarkable city. We took in another free concert outside the Aya Sophia mosque. We explored the grounds of Topkapi Palace today, but decided not to pay the rather exorbitant entry fee to go inside. We've befriended a local restaurant worker who insists on using his American English on us. (Hey dude! What's up?) We spend our evenings watching the Olympics in our hotel lobby. The other night it was us, a few Germans, a Japanese woman, a French family, the Turkish workers and running commentary from a talkative Aussie.

Our energies have dwindled to a lowpoint. Anyone who ever tries to tell you that this sort of travel is easy is lying to you. It's terribly rewarding and often exciting, but never easy. We have great stories and experiences to share, but we've worked our butts off for them. In fact, we've decided that we have just about worked long enough.

That's right. We're just about done. We've been to three continents and six countries so far and although our naive pre-trip plans may have included much grander statistics, we're very happy with what we've accomplished. I hope that our loyal readers have enjoyed traveling in spirit with us.

Don't worry...I said just about done. We have come up with a grand end to our current travels. It's an end that we never could have envisioned as we planned this trip a year ago. Something so under our noses that we overlooked it.

As most of you know we don't really have a home to return to. We sold off most of our possessions and left our cat in the care of the family. We always knew we'd go back and pick a new city to live in, much as we picked Portland at random four years ago. What better way to pick a place to live than to just go looking?

The international phase of our trip ends tomorrow as we board a plane at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul. Our destination? America.

Now we embark on The Great American Road Trip.

Posted by kobb on August 23, 2004 04:45 AM
Category: Turkey
Comments

Fantstic...fabulous...wonderful!!! Inspiring and exciting. (I feel like just writing the explatives that somehow end up on the back of everything from DVDs to Best Selling travel diaries). Hope the trip has a Portland stop in it, and glad to hear you will be returning home safe and sound.

-Gus

Posted by: Gus Baum on August 23, 2004 05:52 PM

Good for you and congratulations! I had wondered a while back about travel fatigue....I was exhausted just reading about how you were bouncing about (but then I'm much older than you). Good for you for having the maturity to recognize it's "your" trip and you get to have it be whatever you want it to be. F expectations.

Look forward to hearing about the next leg of your trip....in your own HUGE backyard.

Brilliant.

Cheers and thanks,

Travis

Posted by: Travis on August 24, 2004 01:14 PM

Hey Shawn and Jennifer,

I hope you are both well - and whatever you decide to do, as you already know, is totally fine. It is your trip and I am happy to see you do just that.

Maybe c u soon :) ,

Posted by: Sean [BootsnAll] on August 25, 2004 09:24 AM

I've got chills. I love it. I am proud to know you both. I look forward to reading about your next adventures.
--Becky

Posted by: Becky Jones on August 26, 2004 09:10 AM
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