Photo's of Turkey

I realise it is sideways but it is difficult enough using a computer only in Turkish, I cannot figure out what the turkish for rotate image is! ny way this is me in Istanbul on the policemans sedgeway.

I have really enjoyed my time in Turkey. Afterleaving Ephesus we moved along the beautiful Turquiose coast to the resort of Olu Deniz. There I agreed to do a tandem paragliding jump. Paragliding is different from hangliding; handgliding you lay down in a sort of sleeping bag,paragliding you are sat up in a seat. I was taken up to the top of the mountain, 1700 metres high and had to run off the edge. It was so scary at first but luckily I adapted quite well and very soon I was loving every minute of it. We rose with the thermals and at one point I was at 2000m above the ground. I managed to take some pictures, those are my feet you can see at the bottom of the photo.

After the coast we moved inland towards the strange landscape of cappadocia. Here the wind and weather has eroded away at volcanic rock deposits to create very strange rock formations.

As well as walking away I was also able to go up in an hot air balloon. These go up at sunrise because of the weather conditions, so that meant having to get up at 3.45 in the morning. It was worth it though.

I have been dressed in traditional turkish clothing but today I have been measured up for my Iranian clothing. It is called a chadour and it is a headscarf and cloak that comes to my ankles. I need to wear it as we cross the border into Iran. I will be crossing the border tomorrow, it could take us over 8 hours simply to cross so it is going to be a long day. When I am in Iran I am not allowed to use facebook or any blog sites so it will be 3 weeks before I am able to update anything. I will post photos though at the earliest opportunity I get. This afternoon I have been invited to a Kurdish wedding ceremony, so I better go get my party clothes on!

Becoming famous

Life on the truck is rather strange at the moment. Everytime we have a conversation the film crew begin taping us, if I look out of the window then a tv camera is focused on me. Hannae is the young Japanese girl who the film crew is following. She is not famous but answered an advertisement in Japan for applicants to take part in the trip. The crew will be concentrating on Hannae as we journey along. I am in a cook group with Hannae so once a week will we be responsible for buying the food and cooking for everybody on that day. On our first cook day the film crew followed us through the local market, filming as we tried the food and attempted to buy half a kilo of tomatoes from non- English speaking old Turkish ladies. Having a film crew results in traders giving you a lot more free samples! Later on that evening we were filmed in close up as we cooked our ratatouille, trying to be Jamie Oliver is harder than it looks.

Moving Into Asia

After an uneventful flight I arrived in Istanbul at midnight on Sunday night. I spent a couple of days acclimatising, which is harder than it sounds, as Istanbul is currently experiencing an heatwave. Istanbul is currently 39 degrees! I visited the major attractions inclunding the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sophia. As I have been to Istanbul before I did not revisit everything. Once place I did visit for the first time was the cistern basillica. It is an underground cavern with hundreds of columns holding it up. Originally it was built to store water and it is a stunningly eerie place. I would recommend everybody to visit if possible.

Istanbul is full of friendly locals, even the policemen who are not usually known for their friendliness towards tourists were cool. Some of the police ride segways through the tourist pedestrian areas. A segway is a vertical shelf with two giant wheels and a handlebar. It is only slightly faster than walking. One policeman even let me have a go on his segway!

On Wednesday evening I was walking past the main square when I noticed a large crowd of people gathered outside the Aya Sophia. It turned out Madonna was inside! She was playing the Istanbul stadium the following night and fancied doing a spot of sight seing. They had closed off the place for here so she could admire the architecture in private. I got the tiniest glimpse of her head through the throngs of bodyguards she had before she was bundled into the waiting van which was surrounded by police vans. She does not travel light!

Thursday morning was time to depart Istanbul. I met the other 8 people who would be travelling with me, then we were introduced to the Japanese film crew. They will be following us all the way to Beijing. They are making a travel documentory for Japanese tv. It will be four episodes long. They set up their equipment and filmed us all leaving the hostel and climbing aboard the truck. It felt very strange. As the truck set off, the film crew continued filming us and we chatted and looked at maps. It is very difficult to act natural with a large camera and a sound boom pointed at you. I'm hoping as the journey continues I will get more used to them.

Our first stop was Gallipoli. This is were thousands of troops were killed in a pointless exercise during world war one. It is now a series of war memorials to the Turks, Austrailians and New Zealanders who died. On April 25th, Anzac Day, a dawn service is held and ten thousand people attend. I was there in 2007. April 25 1915 was the date when the Austrailian troops first landed on the shoreline. 2015 will be the 100th anniversary of the landing and already 30,000 people have booked to attend the dawn service. The Turkish government believe around 50,000 will attend. They are alreading planning the logistics of it all. From Gallipoli we boarded the small car ferry which took us over to the Asian side of Turkey. Everyone on the ferry thought we were famous as we were being followed by the film crew. We stopped at the site of the original city of Troy where this replicia wooden horse has been erected. You could even climb inside the horse! Outside of Troy we stopped and set up our first bush camp. What did we find but a wild tortoise! I was not expecting that. We were all introduced to our tents and then to the trovels that can be used to dig small holes! The tents are domed and have a mosquito netting all over, so it means as you lay down you can see the stars through the mesh. Its a lovely way to fall to sleep. I am now at the town of Selcuk, where the ruins of Ephesus can be found. This roman city is so well preserved. The picture above is of the library. The place is amazing. It has an amphitheatre, a marbled street, even some of the mosaics are still visible. It is the best Roman ruins I have seen. I must have been enthusiastic about it because the film crew asked if they could interview me on camera about the city! I may become famous in Japan! Its been a week since I left the UK and already I have seen so much. What will the next 15 weeks bring?

Endings or Beginnings?

In almost next to no time, it was time to say goodbye to everyone at school and to start packing. I have been very fortunate to have been working alongside some great people this past year and I am already missing everyone immensely especially those who were in my classes. (Mwahawah - I know who you are!) I had left myself with hardly any time to pack which was probably a blessing as it gave me less time to panic over my missing passport! All the countries I am visiting require a visa to enter, unfortunately the governments involved are not the speediest in the world. Each visa costs between £50-£100 pounds and each require, ideally, a couple of weeks after all the correct paperwork has been submitted to process the visa. To speed up the progress a company in London had been organising the whole thing since March. This meant they had my passport. I knew my passport wouldn't arrive until the week before I flew but as that date passed, I started to worry. I tried to carry on as normal - I went to buy some foreign currency, but this turned out to be very difficult without a passport. Even getting money out of my own account was problematic without photographic ID. As the days went by, I tried to call the visa company, but with no success. Finally with the help of the Oasis Office staff, I got through to the Visa company (who had been having faulty phone lines) and my passport arrived in my hands on Friday lunchtime... the day before I was due to fly! Relief was an understatement. I am now packed and waiting for the taxi to take me to Manchester Airport.

P.S. Did I mention that the truck I will be travelling on, is going to be followed by another truck full of Japanese TV people! The trip is going to be filmed and turned into a documentory to be shown on Japanese T.V. Alas it will be impossible to see the footage anywhere else in the world, so the world will not have to suffer footage of me after a week of bush camps and no showers!