The real X-Factor visits London

We had the pleaseure of partially returning the hospitality of Josh for a week of London's late summer in which we visited the Oval to see Mark Ramprakash score a fine hundred and the Rosebowl in Shouthhampton to see Shane Warne slog out for four. Also managed some fine cricket of our own in Wandsworth Common criket Oval as well as some good bbbq's, pizza's and dark and stormy's at our local nightclub on Salcott Rd. Thanks for a great week X.

Turkey Part 4: Back to Istanbul

We saved most of our sightseeing in Istanbul for our return - especially as we wanted the opportunity to fully stock up on goodies at the Grand Bazaar without having the burden of carrying them around for two weeks!

Dried peppers at the Spice Markets

Mmmm :)

Drinking apple tea, and a very nuclear looking kiwifruit tea, at the Spice Markets after buying 1kg of turkish delight for Hamish. He demolished it within about 48 hours.

Spent nearly an entire day in the Grand Bazaar bargaining for turqouise jewellery, backgammon sets and other trinkets.

Lanterns in the Grand Bazaar:

Sharife, a friend of Steph's, who we spent an evening with. She lives on the Asian side of Istanbul and these photos are taken on the ferry crossing from the European side.

Steph having her fortune told by rabbits:

My rabbit 'told' me that I was going to meet a powerful person in an unexpected circumstance and that the meeting would change my life. Apparently all my life's dreams would come true because of this person. I'm still waiting.......

We also spent our last day looking around Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque:

The most spectacular scaffolding I've ever seen!

Needless to say, I wasn't going to pay this man to find out how much weight I had put on during my time in Turkey. Damn that baklava!

And to top off our last hour or two in Turkey we also managed to bump into the Prime Minister. He was entertaining another big wig at this meatball joint:

Turkey Part 3: Cappadocia

After taking an overnight bus from Olympos we arrived in Goreme at about 6am to find about 30 hot air balloons floating above us. We had been looking forward to this the whole trip and could hardly wait for our turn the next day.


We only had two days in this area but managed to cram in so much. Unfortunately that also means a lot of photos, but I have tried to cut it down as much as poss!


Cappadocia really is a hard place to explain, but if you can imagine a lunar landscape with rocks which look like asparagus spears or giant penises (depending on your perspective) then you're probably starting to get the right idea.



On our first day we wandered around the Goreme Open Air Museum. The entire area is covered with these rocks where people burrowed their houses and churches into stone cliffs and also created underground cities.

Looking down over Goreme. We were staying in one of the 'fairy chimneys' below:

Overlooking Goreme at sunset:

We met some random carpet guys who took us into their very posh showroom. I never thought I could be interested in rugs, but when they change colour as you walk over them, and are worth about $30,000 USD it was easy to be impressed! I think in this photo I am wrapped in about $50,000 USD worth of carpet:

The very posh carpet shop people were also associated with a very posh luxury boutique hotel and they gave us a tour. It was ridiculous just how 'swish' it was, but I'll leave you to judge for yourselves: http://www.anatolianhouses.com/

Our hot air balloon flight was fantastic and something that I would recommend to anyone. I was expecting to be a little scared, but it was so gentle that often we would have risen a few hundred metres in the air without me even realising it.

Getting started:

The way they could control the direction and height of the balloon was amazing, mostly demonstrated by being able to land our basket on the back of a trailer which probably had about 30 cms of space on each side!

Deflating the balloon - although I wish they had told us how dirty you get doing this!

And a glass of champagne to celebrate our return to solid ground:

Turkey Part 2: Fethiye to Olympos

Fethiye to Olympos

This part of the holiday was possibly the most relaxed I have ever felt in my life. We spent our four days swimming in the Aegean/Med, snorkelling, eating delicious turkish food, playing backgammon, and occasionally venturing on to dry land. Apart from a very annoying old American couple, we met some great people and had a fantastic time.

Our gulet boat looked exactly like this, but we had blue accessories instead:

Steph, Boo and Cade

The captain put in a call for some icecream, and about ten minutes later our delivery arrived! Such fantastic service that we all ordered at least two!

We slept on deck every night....

and woke up at sunrise to views like this:

At the end of the cruise a few of us were heading in the same direction, so we shared a van and ended up passing through the town of Kale where apparently St Nicholas of Santa Claus fame preached:

Our fantastic accommodation in Olympos: Kadir's Tree Houses

Steph in front of our tree house: Butterfly Passion

Boo and Cade

The beach at Olympos is a national park and it's a ten minute walk through lots of ruins to get to it. I have a feeling that we probably shouldn't have been posing on them!