Well, the trip is over. It seems somewhat surreal to be sitting in the basement of my parents house, when just the other day I was falling asleep listening to the call to prayer. Nice to be home in some ways (funds were starting to run out), but missing the freedom and adventure that comes with travelling.
At least I still get to hang out on the beach and enjoy the sun.

Any future comments or questions can be forwarded to
laurarees@hotmail.com

From one beach to another. Hanging out at my parents beach (Trying to maintain my tan)

My dog Forrest and I the day after I returned home.

Well, our hopes for Ephesus and minimal tourist encouters were dashed! Even on a Monday morning there were bus loads of people walking almost shoulder to shoulder amoung the ruins. As beautiful as Ephesus was, it was still hard not to compare it to the silent and untouched Teremessos, or the ever astounding Petra. We were told that once you had seen Petra you would compare all other ruins to the great city. Well, in Turkey once we had seen Teremessos we couldn't help but compare it to the smaller and somewhat less magical Ephesus.

Selcuk at night, view from the Homerus pension with the great owner Dervish! The standing column in the foreground is the last columnt from the Temple of Artemis. It is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

It seems that every time we pay our 2 lira to enter a new beach, the locals claim that it is the best beach in the world. I think they have some strong competition, as all the Aussies we meet claim they have the best beaches in the world. Either way we have had a great time lazying about on the Meditterean and Agean seas.

Hanging out at OluDeniz Beach near Fethiye

So we decided to rent a little gold car and drive up the coast of Turkey in search of sun, sand and relaxation. Shawn agreed to drive from Istanbul to Antalya (12 hours for 700km due to the roads) where we would meet up with our travel friend Erfan and his friend Kyra for a week.

In front of the ancient amplitheatre of Termessos

An overnight train with an animated train conductor, 6am Coca Cola, some strange stuffed pastry and second hand smoke escorted us on our journey to Istanbul.

Fırst views of Istanbul as we took the ferry across from the train station.

We are now in the final country of our Middle Eastern Adventure, but somehow Turkey no longer feels like the Middle East. In fact, Turkey feels extremely European, especially compared to Syria and Jordan (I think it is hard to compare anything to the wonderful maddness of Egypt).

Top of the Citadel in Cappadocia

As per some requests, here is a sample of what we are spending and eating on our trip.

View of Palmyra entrance gate

Well it has been somewhat more difficult to access the internet in Syria, so we apologize for the lack of entries. The government only allowed internet starting in 2000, so the whole country has some catching up to do. Technically hotmail and yahoo are still banned, but internet cafes seem to have a way of getting around the ban.
We had heard many tales of the difficulties travellers have crossing into Syria. If you have visited occupied Palestine/ Israel you cannot enter, and occasionally they have problems with peoples visa's as you are attempting to cross the border. We were expecting some difficulty, but fortunately it was "smooth sailing" at the border.

Our intrepid group covered in mud from the dea sea

So our Jordanian adventures have taken us to Karak (an ancient fortress), the Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo, Madaba and finally Amman. We leave this afternoon for Damascus in Syria, and our intrepid group of 11 has been reduced to a group of 4. We pick up a new traveller in Damascus. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, we had a fantastic group, but our adventure continues as we travel north.

Shawn jumping down a sand dune in Wadi Rum

After two days at the Sawa Camp in Egypt, we boarded a ferry to take us the 1.5 hour trip across the Red Sea to Aqaba in Jordan. The ferry travels along the coast of Saudi Arabia up until it reaches a small piece of Jordanian land. This was origionally Saudi land, but Jordan traded a piece of land to acquire a port. Turns out the land they traded was the only piece of land in Jordan that had oil in it. Although Jordan is a very poor country, immediately there was a huge difference in the atmosphere and the overall feeling of the place. The country is beautiful, and incredibly clean compared to Egypt. Even the air smells cleaner and tastes cleaner. The other great thing, was that no one came up to us trying to sell us anything. It was a huge sigh of relief, we felt way more relaxed then in Egypt and I think we are better able to enjoy the sights here (You aren't in such a hurry to walk away from people as in Egypt)