Pamukkale is amazing.

12/23 - 12/24

Inspired by Jami's remarks about Pamukkale we decided to visit it and we're very glad we did. A truly amazing place, one of the most beautiful, bizarre natural wonders we've ever seen. Walking up toward the big white fluffy mass on the horizon we had no idea what to expect. Passing through the ticket barrier we were confused by the order to remove our shoes 100m further down the path. The ground was freezing cold, with a thin layer of icy rainwater running across it, but as we progressed along the travertine the water warmed up to the point where we our feet weren't painfully numb any more and we could appreciate the vistas that opened up.

Kalkan, Kas tries and Fethiye isn't given a chance.

12/15 - 12/22

Having never travelled with a mobile phone before I was all excited at the prospect of the extra connectivity that the phone given to me by Simon in the UK would provide. After three messages sent over the course of a day failed to arrive at Altan's phone until an hour after we were meant to meet I was less excited, but resolved to buy local SIM cards everywhere we went. That's worked out OK for us so far, as some countries give them away and local numbers are much cheaper to use. In Turkey however, we got royally ripped off for the card, and two weeks later got disconnected for not registering our phone.

Turkish delight #1: Ayran is good for the gut.

12/12 - 12/14

Turkey was full of unexpected delights, though we didn't much care for the lokum. Before we even got there we had plenty of adventure, looking for a midnight tram that didn't exist in central Manchester, dozing until 4am in a quite corner of the airport until woken by some astoundingly noisy staff skiving off work and finally taking off in a broken plane that had to circle Manchester for 5 hours to burn off enough fuel to land, get fixed, refueled and take off again. During that last escapade the passenger next to us was utterly terrified and even cried "How can you sleep?" at us at one point, but we were both too shattered to worry.

Pirates and zombies

Reunions!

So many people to see, so much time to see them in. How did we manage to make it seem difficult? I don't seem to have a single picture with James, Jonny, Bano, Emma or Iain in it either, which sucks.

And then we spent 5 months in the UK.

I have no cultural commentary or observations to make here.

Tel Aviv and back, back in the U.K.K.K.

6/19/2011 - 6/23/2011

That title seems dated and implies the UK is horribly racist. Perhaps I should have thought of a better one, but it is kind of catchy.

Haifa, Hadas and Sruli

6/11/2011 - 6/19/2011

Our penultimate stop in Israel was an idyllic ten days at Hahotrim kibbutz with the wonderful Hadas and Sruli. The kibbutz isn't really a kibbutz so much any more, at least not in the traditional sense, with most of the people there working outside the kibbutz and just pooling some money for communal resources.

Yed Vashem

6/9/2011

The last place we visited before heading North was Yed Vashem, the holocaust memorial. Almost as powerful as the first time I visited, and like then there just wasn't enough time to take it all in.

Most of the information is housed in this weird triangular prism.

Jerusalem quartered and layered.

6/4 - 6/10

I tried to get a bunch of representative shots of the old city we spent so much time wandering around. The Jewish quarter seems to have more new buildings up and has the massive square by the wall as a focal point. The Muslim quarter is vibrant, noisy and full of activity, with the off-limits to us golden dome as it's focus. The Christian quarter is completely deserted as apparently lots of rich Christians around the world have bought property there but rarely visit.