Travel

our top 10 for turkey captured in photos

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So we’ve been back from our trip for 6 days now and we have been back at work for the past week. Our body clocks are probably just about adjusted now despite having daylight savings to contend with too.

Now that we’ve kind of regained consciousness from the holiday coma, we are beginning to relive our Turkish adventure with our family and friends. Looking at photos also helps us with reminiscing about our trip. People always want to know what we thought of a place and would we go back again. They ask whether we had a good time or what was our favourite. In the past, wherever we’ve been we’ve generally got positive things to say and this time is really no different.

We’ve been rattling off the following phrases quite easily: “Turkey was brilliant”, “Loved Turkey! We had an amazing time.” “We saw so many things and learnt so much in Turkey that we hadn’t expected. And that’s probably because we didn’t really know what to expect”.

About Dubai on the other hand, well “Dubai isn’t our cuppa tea.” But more about that in another post as this is a Turkey post 🙂

Now to kick start our holiday debrief for Turkey we have a photo essay of our favourite & top 10 pictures/moments/experiences. These are in no particular order. Hope you enjoy the photos to start with and sit tight as there will be more stories and experiences in our subsequent posts.

1) Turkish Delights

Turkish Delights - the taste and texture is simply divine
The taste and texture – simply divine

2) Gallipoli

Visiting ANZAC Cover and reading this sign was very moving
Visiting ANZAC Cove and reading this sign was very moving

3) Pergamum

The amphitheatre at Pergamum was a real treat
Trying not to take a tumble down the stairs of the amphitheatre

4) Ephesus

The Ephesus library
The Ephesus library

5) Virgin Mary’s House

Visiting the Virgin Mary's House was a very peaceful and spiritual experience
What an extremely peaceful and spiritual experience

6) A sunset in Kusadasi

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So spectacular watching the horizon gulp up the sun

7) Amphitheatre in Aphrodisias

Amphitheatre at Aphrodisias - insanely long
Long and well preserved

8) Pamukkale

Being able to wade through the water in Pamukkale was definitely an adventure
Being able to wade through the water of a UNESCO Heritage site 🙂

9) Hagia Sophia

Inside Hagia Sophia - shame for the reconstruction scaffolding around the insider but still a magnificent ancient sturdy structure
Inside Hagia Sophia – shame for the reconstruction scaffolding around the inside but still a magnificent ancient sturdy structure

10) Kayakoy

Careful not to get lost in Kayakoy, the ancient deserted Greek town
Careful not to get lost in the ancient deserted Greek town

This entry was posted in Turkey and tagged , , , .

could we travel full-time?

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This post comes because one wisemonkey has just celebrated a birthday and we’ve celebrated Father’s Day with our dads on Sunday. The days around the events were spent with both our families (at different times) and it has given us perspective on our lives; about what makes us happy and what we want out of our lives… for now at least.

Recently joining the travel blogosphere and connecting with so many people all across the globe who love travel as much as we do, we have experienced a massive wave of emotions. Thinking that we have found our true calling to be full-time travellers and then feeling even more confused about what we want to do! We’ve gone from wanting to sell up everything to travel permanently and then within moments think: could we really give up everything? There is no denying that there are moments in our lives where we wish we could just escape: that we resent being stuck in a rut and that we are our own destinies. Yes, that is all true! It is so very true that financial security isn’t everything and that we should all live how we want to live and we have!

We fantasise that the world should be our home, that we have the freedom to see the world and cultures, that we are no longer in the daily grind of work, that we wake up every day doing what we want. We have NO doubt that we could make it happen if we wanted to. There is so much PROOF out there that shows it can happen.

VFT_187But the reality is that Sydney is our home. This is where our families are. Could we be happy travelling the world knowing that we would miss birthdays of all the people we love? Could we be happy knowing that our parents are getting older and every moment spent with them is worth so much more than any holiday because we just don’t know when their time will be up? Could we travel happy knowing that our nieces and nephews only know us through Skype and photos and we miss all their milestones in life? Could we be happy travelling knowing that one day we might want to settle down and actually have nowhere we could really truly call home?

We have had a mortgage for the last 4 years but that hasn’t stopped us, if anything we have travelled more. We have proved that no one has to be bound by a mortgage. Life goes on with or without mortgage but the comfort in knowing we have a home to come back to suits us for now. We have done small trips, we have done big trips, we have worked and saved in between. We have made our dreams happen. What we are doing now is the balance that makes us happy. We need to be honest with ourselves… travelling is OUR passion but that doesn’t mean that we should give up everything else we love too.

We don’t know if we have the answers now! But we do know what we want to do in the short-term. Home is home and the world remains our playground. And now its time to declutter, save and plan our big trip for next year which already includes the World Cup in Brazil! Who knows what will happen or what we will feel in the future? We might revisit this question next month or next year and will have a different answer. But what we know for now is that we have our cake (or macaron) and eat it too 🙂

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This entry was posted in General Travel Musings, Wise Monkey Musings and tagged , , , , .

acknowledging awesome blogs: an award or a chain letter?

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This is all relatively foreign to us as we are still learning the ropes about the blogging community and twitter. So it’s very exciting to be nominated for “The Versatile Blogger Award”. A big thank you to our extremely friendly nominator: Turquoise Compass.

We confess that we did trawl through a few websites on Google to understand what this was all about and discovered that this is a “chain letter” type award. However, in the spirit of “winning” this award, we shall make sure we stick to the rules. We have also read that we need to display this image:

versatile-blogger-award

We can completely understand if the blogs that we nominate choose to not keep this going… but this is our way of saying that we think you have an awesome travel blog! 

The Versatile Blogger Award

RULES:

  • Thank the blogger that nominated you for this great award.
  • Tell 7 things about yourself.
  • Name the 15 blogs you think are the most versatile.
  • Comment on their blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

7 THINGS TO SHARE ABOUT US

  1. We each have two siblings that are older than us, making us the “babies” of our families.
  2. He is a Virgo and She is a Scorpio.
  3. We are very interested in astronomy.
  4. We love mangoes, chips (hot chips, crisps etc) and kurtosh (Hungarian pastry/sweet bread).
  5. We prefer to be on land than in water.
  6. On countless occasions, we have mentally re-arranged our apartment so we can fit a table tennis inside our living room.
  7. We currently have over 100 books on our bookshelves that we have not read yet.

15 AWESOME blogs: 

  1. Helen in Wonderlust
  2. Along for the Ride
  3. Travel? Yes Please!
  4. A Crafty Traveler
  5. Mapping Megan
  6. Alive on the Road
  7. Peanuts or Pretzels
  8. A Boundless Voyage
  9. Our World Heritage
  10. The Carpe Diem Couple
  11. Travel with Bender
  12. Travel Motivation
  13. Jacomijn’s Travel Blog
  14. Chronicles of Wanderlust
  15. Travel for Wildlife

This entry was posted in General Travel Musings and tagged , , , , .

carefree, relaxing french riviera

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So Day 72 of our European adventure and we have spent the last 3 days in sunny Cannes, in the French Riviera. Here we rubbed shoulders with the rich, walked the red carpet and soaked up the sun! Southern France is amazing!! We recall being advised that the French can be a little on the unfriendly side, which may have been true in certain parts of Paris but down south, there is no unfriendliness anywhere. The place has a great feel to it – we love it here.

Opportunity to walk the red carpet in Cannes
Opportunity to walk the red carpet in Cannes
Monaco
Monaco

Yesterday on a day trip to Monaco, we visited the palace and watched the changing of the guards. We visited the Cathedral where Princess Grace Kelly was laid to rest. The Aquarium and the Casino – this place simply blows us away. The people in this part of the world really are living the high life! Seeing the boats docked at the pier, these people here are in a league of their own yet never did we feel out of place or uncomfortable or unwelcome. One private boat even had a helicopter on board! As we walked along the main shopping stretch, we walked passed the Chanel store which had been closed for clearly someone important because there was a black car out front and there were black suited men standing outside. So we felt like we fit in when we got to walk the red carpet in our sneakers 🙂

Today we sailed over to St Marguerite island to visit the Royal Fort which was once a royal prison. We stood in the prison cell of the Man in the Iron Mask and looked out to sea; blue water, blue sky, gorgeous horizon. But standing in there, it reminded us of the movie and what that poor man must’ve gone through.

In the short time, we have grown fond of the French Riviera, but its back to Paris before we continue our journey to Germany.

This entry was posted in France and tagged , , , , .