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Last Day in Pamukkale And The Wishlist Ticked
As we approached retirement in the pre-COVID days of 2019 and our dream of full time travel was becoming reality, we, like most travellers, drew up a lengthy wishlist of places to go and things to do. Pamukkale has delivered one of the latter for us, in the shape of a hot air balloon flight…. It’s 6.30am, just getting light, and half an hour past the first muezzin call of the day, when we are collected by minibus and taken to the launch field at the foot of the “cotton castle”. Five balloons are in the process of being inflated, bursts of flame roaring into each. Lift off is gentle,…
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Pamukkale: Ancient Cities In Modern Times
As September becomes October the mountain air develops a chill, there is noticeable change in the evening and morning temperatures which seem to be dropping a couple of degrees each day. The daytime sun is still hot though. Also changing is the UK’s view on Turkey, and news filters through whilst we’re in Pamukkale that, just like our Croatia trip, we will again face 14 days quarantine on our return. We’ll take it: the joy of these trips is well worth the pain of quarantine. Pamukkale itself is a slightly unusual town, catering for large numbers of visitors to the obvious major attraction. A high percentage of these visitors come,…
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The Cotton Castle Of Pamukkale
It’s actually quite hard to leave Selcuk, so we take one last stroll through town to bid farewell to Ali our new friend, Osman the guy at our favourite restaurant and finally Bora our host, and drive out of town with the unshakeable feeling that we have unfinished business here. The 3-hour-plus journey from Selcuk to our next destination Pamukkale turns out to be a rather uninspiring drive through mostly nondescript lands and industrial towns. A very decent kebab lunch stop at Burharkent is the only point of interest until the last few miles before Pamukkale itself, where at last there are cotton fields and fruit farms to decorate the landscape.…
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Leaving Izmir, Loving Selcuk
Usually, it goes like this: “Hello madam hello sir, where you from?” “England”. “Ooohhh, England! Where from? London? Manchester?” “In the south, about 100 kilometres from London” “OK, come look in my shop, I have best prices for leather, handbags, watches”. However in Izmir it goes more like this: “Hello madam hello sir where you from?” “England”. “Ooohhh, England! Are you here for the teeth?” “Errr…what? No!” “Many people come from England for teeth work. Izmir very good for dentist”. “Really?” “Yes. I am a dentist. I also have shop with best prices for leather. Come look in my shop”. Our time in Izmir is up, so it’s back to…
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Merchants, Mosques & Masks: 3 Days In Izmir
Mexico, Thailand and Turkey. Of all the countries we’ve visited so far, those are our top three on the international cuisine league table, and our first night in Izmir posts a huge reminder of why Turkey is up there. But first the day starts with a 2am alarm, a small hours taxi pick up and a red eye flight out of a very quiet Gatwick. Once in Izmir, it’s a train and a metro to Basmane station and a trudge with our backpacks to our next bed in the heart of the old town. We chose Hotel L’Agora for its unique location: a riad style building right in the middle…
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Next Stop Izmir
It’s been 26 days since we returned from Croatia, 14 of which were in quarantine and the other 12 catching up with friends and family, within the COVID rules set by the UK Government. Now it’s time for our next adventure. 2020 was meant to be the year we realised our dream of travelling the world pretty much full time, until the whole world changed, but we’re now trying to make the most of what limited travel opportunities are available and be as resourceful as possible. We may have lost our dream but the upside is that we’re finding ourselves in wonderful locations which weren’t even on this year’s agenda.…
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Escaping COVID: Our Next Move
Our regular readers will know that we retired at the end of 2019 to pursue our long held dream of full time travel. Unfortunately the obvious intervened and we were forced to abandon our trip after just 7 weeks of what should have been endless exploration. UK lockdown followed. As the slight easing of restrictions started, we took full advantage of the so called travel corridors and have just returned from 5 weeks touring Croatia, which was more than fabulous. We’re now nearing the end of the 14-day quarantine which was imposed just a few days before our return from that trip. These 14 days have naturally felt pretty dull…
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Last Days In Croatia: Back In Split
For the last time until we start the journey home, we don the backpacks and trudge through the streets, this time in the half light just before dawn. Korcula rubs its eyes and awakens, swifts and swallows start to swoop and call, the Adriatic is as calm as a lake as our catamaran pulls away from the quayside. Korcula Town looks beautiful as we wave goodbye to the islands, as alluring at dawn as it is as evening falls. Just under three hours later we are in Split ferry port, breakfasting alongside the ferries for the third time in these past five weeks. It feels good to be back here.…
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Split: The Role of Hajduk
Being a big football (soccer) fan, I’ve always been fascinated by the role of a football club in cultural history: there are great histories here which tend to pass unknown to non-football fans, stories which far transcend the game itself. The reason Barcelona became so big, and the part Espanyol played in that story, is a stirring tale on its own. The history of Hajduk Split tells a parallel tale to Barcelona, in as much as, during times of extreme political oppression, the football club became a critical point of identity when such individual nationalism was prohibited. During the long years of communist rule and the enforced unification of Yugoslavia,…
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Croatian Islands: Korčula
It’s only 6.20am in sleepy Stari Grad but there’s drama at the bus station as we await our early morning ride. An irate elderly couple pull up in their car and accost two females waiting for the same bus as us; a row ensues, money changes hands and the couple speed off. We can only conclude that the two females have exited their guest house without settling their debts: how incredibly rude, if we are right. Drama over, it’s breakfast at Hvar Town port and then the early catamaran to our next island destination, Korčula, where we are met by our next host Tonci and taken to our seventh home…
