Crete, Greece

Smiling upon the ruins a former civilization's crowning achievement - the Minoan's Knossos.

I could have sat there all day.

From the port of Iraklio, Crete.

In the town of Hania.

Hurry! I liked Crete too but we've got to get to Santorini! I want to know if it really looks like the postcards!

Crete was a refreshing stop after the very mellow islands before ( Kos, Rhodes, Karpathos) and landed us in the largest urban center we'd been in since Istanbul - Iraklio. But Iraklio wasn't that
big, just big enough to feel like a city. We explored the ruins of Knossos - The Minoan civilazation's greatest city. Unfortunately it was destroyed and little more than rubble and intrigue was found when excavated. We'll be visiting the source of it's demise next - The volcano that is known as the Island of Santorini.
We would have loved to spend more time exploring this famous and exciting island but we are at the mercy of off-season ferry schedules and had to depart to another lovely destination.

Karpathos, Greece

The views were...

beautiful.

This guy turned 32 on Karpathos.

We encountered shadow monsters!

The ferry rides were refreshing, inspiring and generally life affirming.

We ended up on this little island more or less because we had to, and it ended up to be a nice place to come and do nothing - save for drink coffee, skip stones and stroll on empty beaches.
Oh, and have a birthday! - we had a pizza party and stayed up until midnight!

Rhodes,Greece

The mighty wall surrounding the "old town" of Rhodes Town.

Ashlei amongst evidence of history.

And we will rebuild, exceededing it's former glory tenfold! All hail, uh, Brian...?

And the Queen!

Our friends Luisa and Guido and their lovely hotel in the center of Rhodes Old Town.

Rhodes was a wonderful few days spent in an ancient city of winding roads and beautiful architecture. It was a place to relax and get lost : walking streets built long before the motor was a consideration and moats were a reality. Again we were in an area that once was the home of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world but sadly this one too is no more - the Collosus of Rhodes: a 30 + meter high statue. Alas, the fragility of human achievement made evident yet again...
We rented a car one day and drove down the eastern coast to visit the ruins of the Temple of Lindos, that you see above. The ruins were great but even if they weren't the views from on high were majestic and inspiring.
From here we took another boat to the sleepy island of Karpathos. More adventure on the high seas await!

Kos,Greece

If they hadn't been so sneaky....

they never would have gotten away with it!

Incognito and scott-free in Europe at last!


We spent one fine, though uninspiring, afternoon on the island of Kos, our first stop in Greece - As well as Europe. We said goodbye to Turkey ( we promise we'll come back someday!) and looked west. After a layover for a few hours we boarded another boat and headed to the island of Rhodes. On the boats we were memorizing our seventh set of hello's, thank-you's, please's, goddbye's, etc... Greece here we come.

Bodrum, Turkey

Yay! We can fly!

Bodrum, Turkey. Our last destination in Turkey and home to the remnants of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world ( Carl if your'e reading this we'll show you pictures when we come home). We had no idea what to expect when we arrived two weeks earlier, jet-lagged from Asia and we're still not certain how it's best to sum up Turkey in a few words so we'll just use one - amazing. It's a place that keeps you guessing and will drop your jaw and lend you a hand and startle you and make you smile and frusterate you all at the same time. We can't wait to come back someday. But for now, Greece awaits...

Olympos, Turkey

The rocky beach at the ancient city of Olympos.
Ruins everywhere, and a pretty girl too.
What a happy couple! (marriage material?)
Just your average, gigantic, ancient gateway in the woods...
Our view from our bungalow...

We planned on staying for a few hours to see the ruins of the ancient city and stayed for four days. It was a beautiful valley filled with the ruins of an ancient city at every turn. Tombs, castles, walls, theaters, archways, more castles - everywhere you turned, down every wooded path. It felt like you were the first person to discover it all. We met great people from all over the world and ate amazing home-cooked food in a setting that we would have stayed in for a week more if we didn't want to move on and see Greece. Each day we were there we said was our last. On our third day we even packed our bags and carried then out, only to return them to our room after deciding over breakfast to stay one more day. What a surprise this place was. We got to swim in the clear blue, very cold waters of the Agean Sea and it felt great - not quite in the same way as the warm oceans of South East Asia, rather in a more, ah, refreshing way. Finally, with many good-byes we hopped on a bus and headed to Bodrum for our final stop in Turkey.

Antalya, Turkey

On a boat on the Agean Sea.
Puffing on a traditional Turkish water-pipe.
Sunset with great food, company and a view.
Ashlei headed onward - I followed.
Antalya.

We were only here for a day but it turned out to be a lovely stop. We wouldn't have wanted to spend any more than a day here, as it was more of a high end resort town but we made a nice day of it. We took a boat out into the sea, had a dinner of traditional meze dishes, took in a sunset with a view of the mountains and the sea and ended the night with a turkish water-pipe (cherry flavored!) It was a nice quick stop on our way to Olympos, which would end up to be the surprise stop in all of Turkey.

Cappadocia, Turkey

Brian in front of some big, uh, rocks...
Above the Rose Valley.
A very weird, wonderful landscape.
Ashlei, on top of the Cappadocian world.
Catherdrals carved from stone...

Cappadocia is one of the weirdest and coolest places that we have ever seen and been able to spend a few days wandering through. The landscape is dotted with formations that locally are referred to as "fairy chimnies". They're products of ancient vocanic eruptions that formed thousands of cones and cliffs that the poeple of the regions were able to carve out into homes. Later in history huge multi-leveled churches and cathedrals were carrved out as well. We were able to wander through many of them and it was, for a lack of a better phrase, really cool. Also in the region were carved underground cities - up to 30 stories deep! and we took a tour through one of those too. Our guesthouse was carved out of a "fairy chimney", so we got to sleep in one. That was pretty unique.

Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey

Spices at the Grand Bizzare.
A beautiful mosque near the Galata Bridge.
The Blue Mosque. Also amazing.
In front of the University. I got smarter just sitting there.
A peek inside the Aya Sofya, but just a peek (you have to visit to see the rest).

Well, we had no idea what to expect from Istanbul but we were happy with what we found. After two months in South East Asia it was strange to be somewhere that was so, uh, orderly but we soon remembered what that was like to follow street signals again. Istanbul is a big beautiful city that we could have spent another week in just wandering about taking in the city that bridges the East with the West - literally split with one half in Europe and the other half in Asia. It was fascinating to be in a city so rich with history and surrounded by so many reminders of it. A we left we were imagining what we could do the next time we visited...

Bali, Indonesia - Ubud and the Bukit Penninsula

yummy fresh coconut from a man who appeared from the grases of ubud behind ashlei!
brian's new friend in the monkey forest of ubud, bali.



just your everyday amazing meal in bali.


ashlei in the famous surf spot of ulu watu.





our final sunset in asia in seminyak, bali.





So this was the end aof our tour through Southeast Asia as well as the halfway marker of our entire trip. We only had a week to spend in Bali but it was well worth getting down there for it.

In Ubud we were able to watch some traditional Balinese dance as well as a shadow puppet performance. We walked through endless fields of rice paddies, ate incredible food, a massage on the beach, rode from beach to beach on a motorbike and watched monkeys harrass tourists.

For an island so small it feels like it would take a long time to feel as though you've really seen and experienced all that it has to offer.

And so we leave Asia and head to Istanbul (where we are right now - a very cool city), and begin the European part of our abridged world tour. It's great hearing from you all, and thanks for all the comments. Take care, we're off to Cappadocia on an all night bus tonight.