Turkey! Land of the wolf!!

Its August 2013 we are here in Turkey, the first country outside of Europe!! Just...  Landing at Bodrum Milas airport we were met by 37ºC so pretty warm...  The girls (French) walked straight through customs no problem, me being a British passport holder had to buy a Visa 15€!!! Shocking!!

We were met by a driver to take us to our apartment which was in the direction of Bodrum, Ali Baba he said was his name, he spoke a little French and so we got in the car and conversed a little...

The apartment was on top of a hill leading down to a bay overlooking the Adriatic, great little spot  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1103776

We had our own private beach and bar/restaurant and a beautiful bay with clear warm water to swim... perfect!!  So our driver from the airport turned out to be  our neighbour and the father of our host...  He and his wife invited us for dinner, which consisted of olives, cheese, yoghurt and bread, all a staple part of Turkish cosine.  Turkish people up till now have been super friendly and welcoming, I have spent the last week listening to Turkish courses trying to learn a little... at first listening the words are very different from any Latin based language but with a bit of perseverance i have learnt a few words and phrases and the locals really appreciate it, most speak some English but not all, in fact we have found many people speak French rather than English...

The apartment had beautiful sunsets every night accompanied by a strong wind as the sunset and the land started to cool.

After four days we are on to our next destination  Bodrum Eco Farm, where we will stay and volunteer, lets see what this new challenge and adventure holds in store for us...

France and Paris

Funny faces "Paris"

Most of  July and August was spent in France a time to reflect and plan the next part of the journey...

Sandrine lost her two front teeth and had to get new temporary ones from the dentist, hopefully we can buy some permanent ones in Asia for a lower price than in Europe.

We were not sure where to go next, finances, timing of weather etc were all on the menu, at one moment we said ok lets go to Thailand and from there to India but in the end we settled on Turkey which was the original plan...  Looking at www.skyscanner.net we found the best priced tickets from Paris Orly to Bodrum flying on the 20th of August..  It gave us a few weeks to kill and the need to go to Paris which had also been on the wishlist.

I decided to go back to Barcelona for a week to catch up with some jobs that needed doing...  I travelled by covoiturage which is car sharing, 5 hours in a tiny car with 4 other passengers all speaking French... well you get what you pay for!  Then a couple of night with my friends Andy and Patty and their three kids Leo, Bella. and Gabriel (thanks!!) Sandrine, Lili and Prunelle left to go to Paris and arrived to find the flat that we had booked through http://www.airbnb.com was not going to be suitable as it was very small and dirty!!  Fortunately I managed to get back on the site find an alternative host and book with the lovely Annabelle in Pl Italia Paris...  The girls had an extra 2 nights there before I would join them...

 Again I was travelling by car sharing from Barcelona to Paris a journey of 12 hours.  I left in the morning to go to the pickup point of my suposed driver, but nobody was there! The drivers telephone number strangely did not exist... I waited, I looked around, and in the end, I went to MacDonald´s to use their WiFi and book another car for later that day, I looked at the account and saw that the driver had said that I did not show up, he was still trying to claim that it was my fault and that I would have to pay!! Clearly a scam, and still waiting for the out come of it from http://www.covoiturage.fr  I did finally leave Barcelona at 4 o´clock that afternoon and shared a car with some great people, although we were rather squashed and my ass was painful the next day for having sat in the same place for 12 hours!  I arrived into Paris at 4am found a taxi and went to the address where the girls were staying, one Rue Arnold however it did not look exactly as Sandrine had described it, a quick phone call to her, and confirmation I was in the wrong place!!  Fortunately another Rue Arnold was just 10 minutes walk away and quickly I was able to get to my destination take a shower and get to bed!!  What a day!!

Paris was a nice day spent seeing some typical tourist sites and mixing with the locals

Family shot in front of Sacra Coeur Paris

Visit to Paris red light district!

“The "Love Lock" bridge in Paris”

Our final day was to the airport, would we get through with our luggage, looked a little on the heavy side!! You know how budget airlines can be with excess weight etc.... It was fine the flight was half full and three hours later we landed in Turkey Bodrum airport.