No real updates yet, but got some photos up from Istanbul and south. Nice Mike just left us today, after a lovely 8 day stint in the country, but sister Julie and Juliana are still with us going strong on the way to Olympos. Will try and recap Turkey (and maybe even finish up on India) when they leave and we get back to Istanbul.

That whole writing when we returned to Istanbul didn't work out so much. But in our defense, we had some good books to read, some things to try to learn on the computer, and a general apathy towards writing. But now that we're done with the books and stuck without Internet, writing becomes a great option. So to try and recap Turkey: I was at first taken aback, then thoroughly impressed with the hospitality and friendliness of the people there, and especially in their attitudes towards tourists. Coming from where we had been, this couldn't have been more of the opposite of what we were used to. Even in places like Istanbul where cruise ships line the port or in the south where Europeans fly into gated communities the same attitude is found. Combine that with the beauty of the land and sea and the fact that you can dig almost anywhere and find 2000 year old ruins and Turkey becomes a pretty nice place to visit. Hmm, lack of power outlets at the aiport w ill cut this short for the time being... more to come.

Really getting behind now, especially with countries flying by now that we're in Europe. Lets see if we can get through Turkey. So, I started off talking about Turkish hospitality, so it would only be fair to first give a shout out to the places that took care of us. In Bergama, we had a nice room and great tips for shortcuts to the major sites from Mustafa at the Gobi Pension; - they also had a number of kitties running around. In Fethiye, we had some real cheap laundry, a nice clean room and a whole list of options presented at Yildirm Pension by Ali. Olympos is supposed to be backpacker party central in Turkey, but we had a brand new room and (relative) peace and quiet at Bayram's Guesthouse. And finally, probably the best place we stayed at was the White Garden Pension probably because of their breakfast, which was much more than the standard Turkish breakfast fare of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, bread and cheese, but their service was great too.

I received the following from the White Garden this year:

We want to thank you for coming to the WHiTE GARDEN
We hope you Enjoyed your stay with us. we wish a
merry xmas and a happy new year.we would love to see
you again in the future
Metin & Esra Bozada

And from the Gobi Pension:

As The New Year downs...may it bring for you the beginnig of...
new hopes,
higher aspirations,
greater possibilities,

Happy New Year

Mustafa
Bergama/TURKEY

Seriously, people in Turkey are tops in the world when it comes to hospitality.