Kos, Greece

By day three of our Turkish adventure, Jen and I were itching for some proper culture or at least a greek salad. Thankfully this was not hard to come by and we hopped on the hour-long, thirty euro ferry to Greece for the day.

We only had six hours on the island and actually did have to remind each other that we needed to go back to turkey, if only for our suitcases full of hats and shoes. Keep in mind that Kos is not known as a hub of culture and fine art. In fact, it's quite the opposite. but in comparison, well, we were in feta cheese heaven.


getting off the ferry...


stop number one. i think we were so adamant on finding a good greek salad because all across Bodrum, restaurants advertised them. then we ordered them. and just because the greek islands are an hour away doesn't mean that you know how to make a greek salad.


minus the greek salad though, there is a lot of shared culture and religion


ancient ruins very close to Kos Town


The Central market


Frappes at this wonderful coffee shop/bar/restaurant hidden in the back of a little jewelry shop


beach bar




just lovely, lovely, lovely.

Bodrum, Turkey

end of July and early August 2009

Jen and I researched and then ventured to Bodrum, Turkey shortly after my return from the Isle of Skye. Our expectations were high, as we'd spent the previous summer holiday in stunning Santorini, which was actually only a stone's throw away from the south coast of Turkey.

we wanted: sun, culture, good greek/turkish food.
we got: a loud, stinky, hotel, trashy british holiday makers, emaciated, dirty stretches of sand disguised as beaches and english breakfasts abound. and now that i'm looking through my pictures i'm realising i've taken very, very few in bodrum itself. kind of my rage against my own expectations. but on the upside there was sun.

By day three, enough ridiculous things had happened so we just laughed and laughed and laughed. in the end though, we had a fun, though not classy week, and got ourselves turkish massaged, excursioned to the inner, ancient bits of turkey, found potential husbands in a turkish rug factory, got zodiaked to our 'party gullet boat' and learned that two people with the same name are of good luck to others.

we very much used Bodrum as a base for bigger excursions and spent roughly three days there. more photos of Ephesus, Pammukale and Kos, Greece to come.

the highlights:


the road to Gumbet beach, a 3K trek from our hotel


Bodrum Harbour


gathering twilight near the harbour and one major plus to meditteranean life: shops and sidewalk stands stayed open until very, very late


Bodrum centre itself is known as the Turkish riviera, and the colours in combination with much of the architechture, the friendliness of its people and the weather makes that understandbly so. then again...Halikarnas, Europe's biggest nightclub is also located here, so who knows?


the harbour by daylight


the dolmus. a not entirely safe experience


in the grand bazaar


small delight of a beach bar that we managed to stumble on


despite my vegetarianness, i couldn't help but be fascinated by this kebabby wonder of meat and veg spun into one


a good place to buy tea trays, lanterns and hookahs

so i guess overall, i would say if you want cheap full english breakfasts, music in your hotel until 4am, burping contests in the lobby, tacky, neon signs and very little turkish culture, bodrum's your destination!

Skye Part Deux

Here's the end of the trip to Skye. Days four, five and six involved more of the same: walking, drinking, wandering PLUS hiring a car and driving around only non-single track roads on the island. this proved to be a rather large task.

We spent day four in the rockin' village of Portree, the largest 'settlement' on the island. As my memory recalls, we had a forty minute wander around every single shop in town, followed by pizza, a boat trip with a grumpy scottish man and then copious amounts of very cheap whisky.


much of the central part of Portree


don't be a div?


on our way to the boat trip


my first time driving in the UK! slightly scary for the first two hours...


the road up to fairy glen. also an example of a road i definitely would not drive up. if you look off far into the distance where the land juts out into the sea, that's where we parked. and then hauled our bums up four hours of hills


near the tiny town of Uig




near the top


last day of walking...the weather got nasty as we headed for Broadford. We had brilliant cake at a beautiful tea house cum hotel, saw seals from afar and nearly hit a sheep crossing the road through the mist of the Cuillin Hills. v scary.




the view from Dawn's parents' window and a lovely way to end the trip...notice the weather starting to turn

The Isle of Skye

It's a beautiful day here in London so naturally I am indoors, in bed, recovering from a rather late night out and waiting for the internet man to fix our system.

Thus, I blog.

I've got Summer 2009 highlights coming up: a week in Scotland with Dawn, a week in Turkey with Jen followed by another week with Jen, this time traipsing around Croatia and Italy. Going from sublimely beautiful place to amazingly architectured place meant I I took roughly 700 photos over the course of the summer. sifting through all of them is proving rather difficult.

So here's Isle of Skye in July 2009. I always meant to make it there when I was studying abroad, but time and weather permitted me not. I finally got there in the end with my friend/coworker, Dawn. We took a twelve hour train journey, from London to Edinburgh to Inverness to the ends of the earth at Kyle of Lochalsh and got picked up by Dawn's parents who retired on the island. We then got in a car, went over a bridge and, for an hour, drove past various hills, mountains, sheep, chickens and nearly inhabited 'villages'.

welcome to the isle of skye: population 500,000 sheep, 40,000 mountains and 2,500 winter residents. ish.

it's safe to say that i've never felt so far away from civilisation. And in a series of mega understatements Skye was one of the most beautiful, desolate, lonely, stunning, mountainous places i've ever seen. Our week involved a lot of not too much including: hiking, being a geeky geology nerd, getting slightly turned around in a dense fog, swimming at the community rec centre, beer drinking, eating scones with jam and cream, whipping around roads in a camper van, and, AND my debut of driving on the wrong side of the road. It only took me three years to work up the courage. and even then, i refused to drive down single track roads. and i almost hit a sheep crossing the road.

We got really lucky with the weather. No rain until the last day, mediumish winds, and temperatures around the 15c mark.

so here's a start of the photos from places dotted across the isle. days 1-3


The Woodcock family camper van whips around hairpin bends on single track roads at high speeds


Walk Number 1: The Old Man of Storr


View from the top of something


old mill by the waterfall. good luck finding it, based on my ace description



geeky anglophile thing i would miss if i one day leave this land--phone boxes in the middle of nowhere


Dunvegan Castle, which looks a lot like an old block of really ugly council flats


Coral Beach


supposedly the water is geothermally heated and delightfully warm for swimming. and maybe it is, if you're crazy, scottish or suicidal


Walk Number 2: Sligachan


really in the middle of nowhere


no marked paths, just a lovely stream that turns into a roaring river in the winter


see the fog creeping its way towards me?

final verdict: 1000/1000 on the beautiful scale, but i was ready to go back to the world as the week waned on. lovely to visit, just not to live.