July 1 - I left Istanbul and the bird who has been nesting outside my bathroom came to say goodbye.
It is a wrench to leave Istanbul - I really enjoyed living there.
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September 21, 2008
Efes One Love
The last weekend in Istanbul was taken up with the Efes OneLove festival in central Istanbul. On the line up were Gogol Bordello, the famous Turkish psychobelly amenuensis Baba Zula and Shantel - a real Gypsy Punk feast. I have pictures - click on the thumbnail - and videos.(hint -to see the videos in larger format double click on the name or the video)
Sorry about the sound quality!
Bozcaada
A farewell visit to Bozcaada (Tenedos) before I leave. It actually made an easier weekend trip than I expected - I should have done it more. I mainly spent my time enjoying and buying the wine and eating at the restaurants. There were a lot of cats! Click on the thumbnail below for the pictures.
Hasan Keyf and Diyarbakir
The way home from Mardin was down to the Syrian border in the valley - along the border almost as far as Iraq and then up through the hills to the Tigris valley at Hasankeyf.
Hasankeyf is an ancient fort, religous place and crossing point. It seems that you were not anybody in the ancient world unless you built a crossing at Hasankeyf. After lunch on a chaibench in the river, I went on to Diyarbakr - the Kurdish "capital" for a quick look at the walls and to buy a carpet before catching the plane home.
This area is "open to tourists" despite the ongoing "difficulties" in Iraq. However - there were three army road blocks on the roads and a lot of serious looking people with sub-machne guns!
Mardin
Another trip - this time to the Southeast of Turkey around Mardin and Diyarbakr (the second part is in a seperate post).
Mardin is an ancient silk road city (ninevah is just across the Iraq border - which is only about 20 miles away). It is a stone built gem in the hills overlooking the arid plains of Syria and Iraq. Full of old mosques and madrassas although it does get a high number of turkish tourists. One feature is that the old fort at the top of the hill cannot be visited - it is also a current Turkish army fort full (one assumes) of high tech monitoring gear. This is Kurdish and Arabic country - and my minimal Turkish was of no use (no-one would admit to speaking Turkish :). Lots of piccies if you click on the thumbnail below
Team Building
There was a team building event at Abant Lakes in Anatolia. This is a beautiful part of Turkey - although it is cold at night because of the altitude (and no-one told me :). There was the usual gungho team building - in this case the build a raft version. Luckily for our team - no-one in Turkey has heard of punting and that gave us a real advantage:)
Hattusa
June 2008 - One of a series of weekend trips around Turkey before I left so me driving to Bogazkale in Anatolia - the site of the Hittite Capital Hattusa.
There are some amazing remains- a whole city of temples and palaces spread out across a hill and some nearby stone figures. The village is also a nice place to spend a weekend - quiet, rural and very Anatolian. I also took the Long Way Home and explored some of the countryside around Ankara - thanks in part to a loan of a GPS from Marco. Turkish maps have some peculiarities and the GPS does not know the difference between a motorway and a goat track (yes - it did tell me with increasing urgency that I should turn right on that goat track!).There are whole ranges of hills gleaming red in the sunset that you only ever see if with the help and support of GPS.
As usual - click on the picture below and you will oodles more.
International Skydiving
March 08 was a good skydiving month. Some fortunate timings meant that I had the opportunity to join a jump from a Mil 08 helicopter in Segamat Malaysia. Then I joined the Georgia Skydivers in Skydive the Farm, Atlanta for their 4-way event.
Click the thumbnail for a few pictures - but even better (for me :) there are four videos of me skydiving. We were pretty bad - even for a scratch team. To see me - watch for the yellow arms and blue body. I have linked to three of the vidoes (click on the text) and embedded the best.
First Video - I was not so good
Second Video - we got it together towards the end
Jump 4 was a mess
The best was jump 3
Click the thumbnail for a few pictures - but even better (for me :) there are four videos of me skydiving. We were pretty bad - even for a scratch team. To see me - watch for the yellow arms and blue body. I have linked to three of the vidoes (click on the text) and embedded the best.
First Video - I was not so good
Second Video - we got it together towards the end
Jump 4 was a mess
The best was jump 3
Jackson Hole
Feb 2008 - A second trip to Jackson Hole. This time there was more and better snow than I have ever seen - meters and meters of white powder :)
This picture is the top of the Corbet's Couloir. I did not have the nerve to do this one - although I did do Alta chute :)
Pictures if you click on the thumbnail below - including the tracks of some of the most impressive wipeouts I have ever done.
On The Silk Road
- The trip has been divided up into the following albums (click on the text - not the pictures). Back to Travelling Runes
Malaca with Mark
- A weekend with Mark and Al on their way back from the wilds of the Australian outback to the UK. Eating and drinking were the main activities - but there was time for some shopping and a beach. Back to Travelling Runes
