BootsnAll Travel Network



Malta (and We Are Healthy!) (Post #51)

September 21st, 2005

This is my second post today, September 21st. We have an entire day to kill before going to the airport tonight. And we have good news to report. We are both well! I admit that in order to get rid of the sinus infection that I had for more than 2 weeks I decided to a) do research on which antibiotics work best and then b) go buy them the last day in Turkey. You see, medicine that is prescription in the U.S., is not prescription in Turkey. In fact, you can buy any medicine at the Apotek (pharmacy/drug store) as long as it is not some type of narcotic. So, I did some research on Medline, went to the National Institutes of Health, and Center for Disease Control web sites and found out that amoxicilan is the number 1 choice for eliminating sinus infections. Plus, I looked at several guides to determine that yes, I actually had a sinus infection. I went to the apotek in Turkey and for about 2 US dollars, bought some amoxicilan. Now, 3.5 days after I started taking it, my nose is clear and I no longer feel pressure in the front of my face and in my teeth. It felt strange to do that but the people in Turkey think nothing of it. When you have a problem, you just go to the pharmacy and buy the medicine you need. If you don’t know what medicine you need, you go to the doctor and they will tell you (in Turkish of course!) Anyway, Mike and I are both healthy and we’re glad since we are venturing into Africa tonight.

O.k., so back to Malta… Read the rest of this entry »

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Goodbye Turkey, Hello Malta! (Post #50)

September 21st, 2005

Hi friends,

Mike and I are both using the computers right now here in one of the few shops open today in Valletta, Malta. Why are we in Malta? Why is this one of the few shops open today (Wednesday, September 21st)? All good questions that I will answer shortly. By the way, this is Michele writing.

We said goodbye to Turkey on Monday, September 19th. We got up at 2:00am to catch a taxi at 2:45 since our plane left at 5:00am (ouch!) A few interesting things we want to share about Turkey…. Read the rest of this entry »

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Istanbul, Turkey (Post #49)

September 18th, 2005

Today is Sunday, September 18th and we arrived in Turkey on the night of September 14th. We took a 12 hour bus ride that day from central Turkey to Istanbul and arrived at about 9:oopm at the huge otogar (bus station). We were told there would be a minibus to Sultanahmet, the area where we were staying in Istanbul. Well, turns out there was no minibus but there was a minibus to a tram/metro station near Sultanahmet. A nice guy who spoke some English told us when to get off the bus and there we stood with a metro and a tram station on either side of us and no idea what we were supposed to do from there. We looked around for a ticket booth but didn’t see one and of course no one spoke English so we got out our guide book and it was confusing as to what we were supposed to do to get to Sultanahmet. At this moment a man comes up to us and asks us if we need help (always a bad sign!) Read the rest of this entry »

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Central and Eastern Turkey (Post #48)

September 14th, 2005

Hi…this is Michele with Mike as the supervisor…today is Wednesday, September 14th. We just returned from three days in Eastern Turkey. We are currently in the central part of Turkey in the Cappadoccia region. This region has a variety of unusual geological features including the massive “fairy chimneys” which are shown below:
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A few Turkey photos (Post #47)

September 10th, 2005

This is Michele and today is Saturday, September 10th at about 8:00pm. We are now in Cappadocia, which is in central Turkey in a small town called Goreme. We took an overnight bus last night from Olympos and the ride was not very restful as you can imagine. When we got here we found a cave pension. So yes, we are in fact staying in a cave right now. I found a good place to upload photos so I’ll explain the photos below and write more of a blog later. (I apologize to those with a slow connection.) Each photo has a caption above it.
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my broken heart (no number)

September 8th, 2005

Mike writes…

Obviously travelling is hard on a person. The constant moving around, the often poor sleeping conditions and the difficulty in finding the proper nutrition can quickly wear a body down. I began feeling a bit of a sore throat the last night in Budapest, Aug 29th, and as we were deboarding the plane from Budapest, Hungary to Istanbul, Turkey, Aug 30th, i felt a little more than worn down. Read the rest of this entry »

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Pamukkale, Turkey (Post #46)

September 5th, 2005

Hi!

Michele here….Today is Monday, September 5th. After spending a few days in Selcuk, Turkey, we moved on to Pamukkale and today we took a bus from Pamukkale to Koycegiz…but I am getting ahead of myself.

So, what have we done since I last wrote? Well, we went to several ruins on our own (walked to them from Selcuk, which is why we chose to stay in Selcuk). The most famous one that some of you may have heard of is called Ephesus. Ephesus is mentioned multiple times in the bible. We walked Read the rest of this entry »

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Selcuk, Turkey (Post #45)

September 2nd, 2005

Hello vacationers!

This is Michele and today is Friday, September 2nd. I say “hello vacationers” because I imagine many people are traveling and vacationing in the states. I would guess that Labor Day is coming up and the end of summer is probably near. Turkey is quite warm. Unlike Eastern Europe, where it rained quite a bit, Turkey has been 90 degrees everyday.

Yesterday we took a tour of Troy, Read the rest of this entry »

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Canakkale, Turkey (Post #44)

August 31st, 2005

Hi World! Michele here…it is Wednesday night, August 31st at 10:25pm Turkey time, 3:25pm East Coast Time, and 12:25pm West Coast Time.

Yes, we are in Turkey! Read the rest of this entry »

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Eger, Hungary (Post #43)

August 29th, 2005

Hello…Michele here…just a quick blog…On Saturday, Aug 27th, we took a train from Budapest to Eger. Eger, Hungary is a small town that is famous for the wine produced there. In the early morning it was raining but we still went to the Eger castle. After this we walked around the town a bit before going to the wine cellars and enjoying the wine tastings. The wine cellars are literally wine cellars, meaning they are in cellars in the earth. There was a tremendous amount of mold growing in these cellars which is supposed to help the wine in some way. Here is a picture of Mike in one of the cellars. You can see the thick mold growing all over the ceilings and walls.

We went to about 4 or 5 different wine cellars and tasted wine for 40 to 50 (US) cents each time. A super bargain! One interesting but sad thing that happened while we were there was that one of the cute restaurants along a little row of eateries caught on fire which was quite a site! O.k., well, I said I would make this short. Mike and I are in Budapest right now. We looked for a laundry mat for 2.5 hours today with no success. So, we will be going to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow smelling like…well, like everyone else in Europe smells. 🙂
Bye!

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