No Sleep for you!!!!

Alright so I am suppose to finish off the last blog by saying how we got home.

So on sunday morning we woke up excited to be able to go home on monday. I wanted to go to the airport right away which would have meant that we would spend the entire day and nigth at the aiport waiting for our flight at 8am. Tyson kept telling me to wait, wait, wait... so we did ... we tried to find the Planetarium... that failed and we just got grumpy at eachother because it was sooo hotttt... Finally we just walked around Athens looking for last minute soviengers and eating our last Greek meal.

We took the metro to the airport at around 8:30pm and it got us there at around 9:30. So the first thing we looked for was our flight for the next day to see if it was on time... but it wasn't on the leaderboard yet so we decided to look it up on British airways on the free 10 minute internet that you get (basically the only great thing about Athens airport). So we checked the internet and it said on british airways that our flight left on Wed. Aug.22 ..and then my heart just about fell out of my chest. I looked at Tyson and said "this is not good!!" and he said don't panic yet. So we then checked air canada website and it said that we were still good to leave on monday but instead of 8 am the flight left at 9am .. so we were thinking ok thats alright, however instead of flying straight to Edmonton from London .. we had to fly London to Vancouver then Vancouver to Edmonton.. we were wondering how come that changed.. and figured it was because it only gave us an hour to catch our connecting flight. However there was nothing we could do because it was already 10:0opm by this point and British airways desk was closed and the company that deals with Air Canada didn't have an answer for us either. So what else was there to do but find a quiet spot on the floor somewhere in the airport and sleep till 6am when someone would be at the British Airways desk.

Well we found a nice little comfy spot outside the Chapel upstairs in the airport beside this other couple.. so we layed down our sleeping bags.. and were about to fall asleep when the security guards came and woke us up and said that we couldn't sleep here and had to go find a chair. We were a little grumpy being 2:00am now.. so we packed up our sleeping bags and went downstairs to find no seats available so we went down to arrivals and found some seats.. but it was noisy because its arrivals and people are happy to arrive always.. so after about an hour of that.. i wanted to go back up to departures .. we found some spots up there and we tried to sleep. Me curled up on 2 tables pushed together and tyson curled up on a chair. Lone behold at around 4:00am the security guard woke us up again!! Dammit why can't we just be left alone to sleep? Apparently you can't sleep in Athens airport.. so now we are uber tired and have to wait till 6:00am to find out whats going on.

So 6am comes around and we go straight to the British Airways desk. The guy there was super nice and im pretty sure i was going to kiss him by the end of our situation. He checked our flight status and he said we were suppose to be on the aug.22 flight because someone had changed it.. well that someone was the lady from the travel agent who is with Air Canada who said she could maybe get us that flight when we wanted to come home early.. and then we said that we didn't want to come home early now because we had found an Island to stay on so she should cancel the aug 22.. and she said she will do that.. well apparently NOT!!!! I was soo mad that i was going to march downtown athens and throttle this chick!! So the british airways man.. lets call him SAVIOUR!!! Said the flight was absolutley booked the one leaving at 9am.. but he could put us on stand by.. and we said ok.. he said we could go over to the desk and be the first priority on standby and then come back to the counter at 7:30am.. so we left and im in tears by this point because we are so close to home.. and now it wasn't looking like we would get home.. because it was the busy season and on monday the last week of holidays for everyone.. it wasn't looking good. So Tyson is remaining calm an im trying to hold myself together but it was hard. Tyson heard from the company that deals with Aircanada that the second flight to London was not full.. so i marched over to the Saviour and asked him if he could get us on that flight if we don't make the first flight and he said yes for sure you will leave Athens today but you might miss your connecting flights to Canada and I said that is fine there are many flights to Canada from Heathrow. So i was a little calmer knowing that i could at least leave Athens today at some point. We also met a young girl and her sister who were from New York and they helped me get my mind off of the situation so that was good.

So back to the desk we go at 7:30 am.. the girl tells us we have to wait till final boarding call to see if we make it.. so here we are pacing back and forth.. with no sleep and hungry. The time took forever to pass.. finally the final boarding call came.. however before that i was standing besides the british airways desk by the man i call saviour and he basically said , "madam it is no point you standing here you should go up to the check in desk" so there we were just waiting.. there were 2 guys ahead of us.. who either knew someone who worked for british airways or knew someone who worked for them.. and they were trying to get on that flight as well.. and as soon as i saw that they got on i panicked because we were suppose to be first on the list.. .. and then finally they called our names.. and we were officially the last people to get on the plane... we had to hurry through customs and security.. basically ran to the airplane and just made it on time.

So frazzled we are on the plane.. we are not sitting besides eachother.. but that was ok we were both on the same flight and thats all that mattered. So breakfast came.. it was alright.. i didnt eat much.. then i fell asleep from being so tired. The flight to London is short 3.5 hours.

Lets just say Heathrow was a GONG SHOW!!!!! So busy and when you have to make a connecting flight you want to have more than 1.5 hours.. so we went through the tightest security i have ever been through.. you might has well gotten naked.. it went fairly smooth though for being so many people. We then had to go to the Air Canada desk to get our boarding ticket for the London to Vancouver flight. However.. the people at Athens only gave us a ticket toVancouver and not to Edmonton.. we didn't really understand because we were trying to tell the lady we had already paid and booked seats a long time ago but it got changed to a connecting flight from Vancouver to Edmonton instead of direct flight to edmonton. The lady said anyone can book seats and not pay.. this confused us alot.. and i told Tyson to just give her the orginal print out of our recipt from when we booked our tickets along time ago. So we did and the lady basically said why didn't you give this to me in the first place!! This is exactly what i need.. now everything will work out... again we almost had a heartattack but at least we knew we could get to Vancouver!!

So to get to your terminal in Heathrow because the airport is MASSIVE you have to take a bus to the terminal. We basically sprinted to our boarding gate.. and then once we saw we had some time.. i sent Tyson for some snacks and to email everyone at home to tell them we made it to Heathrow and are on our way home. I was getting a little worried because people were beginning to board the plane and Tyson still wasn't back yet.. .. If anyone knows me i hate being late for anyting and i like being super early for everything!! So this was playing on my nerves alot! But he made it back with some chips and a pop to share. I would have loved to explore heathrow airport but no time..

The plane to Vancouver was lllloooooonnnnnggggg but we got good food.. i didnt eat again that much.. felt naseuas and decided to take a gravol to knock me out. The flight is 9 hours pretty long.. the movies were alright.. i can't remeber what the first one was called, but then they showed the incrediables and shooter i think.. i can't remeber i didnt watch them. It was free alcohol so Tyson had a beer and a glass of wine.. how classy of him. We got 3 meals and a light snack.. it was pretty good service!

We then had to go through Customs and get our packs in Vancouver i was again getting impatient for the bags to arrive thinking either british airways lost them or we were going to miss our connecting flight to edmonton. So we hurried and powered through people to get to our gate. We made it with time to sit for 10 minutes before we boarded the plane.

The flight to vancouver was easy peasy.. we were watching Shrek 3 but then we had to turn it off to land.. such a short flight. We were finally in Edmonton and we hadn't showered or slept in 48 hours.. we were tired but all that didn't matter when we saw our parents. We were happy to be home!!! We went out for drinks and appies (appetizers). Then we went back to my parents house and opened up all the boxes we had sent home .. it was like christmas.. really cool! Then i had the best shower ever and the best sleep in a long time!! Felt great.. woke up really early the next morning though and was excited to explore the house some more and our soveingers.

Now we are home and Tyson starts work tomorrow... and i look for work .. we found a place to live so thats good.. now just got to get back into a routine!!!! Already thinking about the next trip!

Sara and Tyson

Home Sweet Home

There is a very interesting story about how we got home, but I'll let Sara tell that story later. I'm just here to let everyone know that we are now home safe and sound.

Tyson and Sara

Air Canada...

So we're now in the Athens airport, 10 hours before our expected departure time 11 from what it is now... Couldn't get here in the morning without a very expensive taxi so we're here now. Problem is all our flights look messed up. Instead of getting home at 2pm (edmonton time) it looks online that we are connecting through vancouver and getting in at 7:20pm. Not cool. Oh and the British Airways internet says that we were suppose to fly to London on the 22nd, but the Air Canada says the 27th.. And we won't be able to find out any information till we try and check in,, in the morning. Fun stressful times I must say. I thought they may have cancelled our direct flight from London to Edmonton but the travel agent downstairs says it is still there, maybe too short a connection time, but 1:05 hours should be enough to make the connection I think. Oh why can't it be easy? Anyways my time is running out on the 10 minute ticker so I should go.

We'll let you know how it turns out once we're home.

Tyson and Sara

Air condition how i love you!!!

So since our last blog.. we left off complaining about the beach because were jerks like that.. Well the next day we took the day off.. literally.. i think i left the hotel once to get some snacks.. and to go and eat dinner. Although we would have ate dinner at the hotel except they were not open for food at the time. It felt good to be out of the sun for the day (I know you guys hate when we say that but seriously when you have had over a 100 straight days of hot and sun.. you really get tired of it) I also think we had some minor heatstroke. However the day went incrediably SLOW!!!! We were so bored that Tyson actually made up a card game call "light/dark magic" We are into the harry potter craze since i finally finished reading the 7th book and i read the last 200 pages out loud to Tyson even though he as already read it.. again we were bored so stroy telling was fun. The game was kind of cool.. in a dorky way.. we even made up paper rock siccors into Cloak, Wand, Shield... yeah we bigggg geeks. Anyways we played a few rounds of that.. but i kept winning and Tyson thought he needed to fix the game to make it more "fair"... even though its based on peer luck i think.

Anyways after doing nothing we ate dinner.. and retreated back to reading our novels. Tyson has been flying through his novels so the only 2 novels left he could get at the hotel were chick novels and after he has now finished both i think he has gotten in touch with his feminine side and i think that helps me in the long run hes much more sensitive to my needs now!!! So ladies get your boys to read chick novels!! I think i will buy him more when we get home.

The next day we went back to the beach. It was a much better day.. we felt good and we mixed up the sun with some shade. Also the water was uber warm so we could stay in it longer and play around. After the usual, shower, read routine we went for dinner.. i think it was Pizza that night.

The next day which was thursday.. our last day at the beach.. i was feeling a little hot.. officially done with the sun now i think. We worked on perfecting our tans for the last day and swam. Before we went to dinner though we stopped by to book our ferry tickets for the 4pm ferry to athens on friday.. however it was all sold out.. soo the only one we could take was the 7:55am ferry.. which is not the best ferry to take.. we perfer night ferries.

The ferry ride was long.. or i thought it was long. I tried to sleep most of it.. but it was uber windy. We were on the pegasus express again in our normal seats on deck. But its louder because more people are there and are awake and smoking and yeah not the best.. but not the worst either. We got into Athens at around 7:30pm. We booked it straight to our hotel we stayed at last time we were hear and were happy to hear that they had a room for us for 2 nights (Hotel Electra). I was just happy to have air condition and good ol BBC!! We then took the metro to get some food.. were really bad at not eating at all on travel days.. so then we realize that we haven't eaten in like 12 hours except for crap (cookies and some chips) we needed substance. So we went back to a place we ate before which i thought was good last time.. but this time not so good. We firgure it probably tasted the same as last time however since being on the Island of Samos we had much better tasting and prepared food and that is why here things don't taste as good because there massed produced for tourists. But none the less taziki, pita bread, and greek salad was a must.

That night i had cranked the AC to be 16 degrees in our room. It was freezing and all we had was a little sheet but i didn't care it felt sooooo nice to be actually cold that i just kept dreaming about my douvet and nearly squashing Tyson by cuddling.. (tyson: it was so cold. I woke up shivering many times, curled up in a little ball.. not that fun I say...) He could have turned it down.. its not like the time we were in the metal shack.. or the tent.. he had a choice. Anyways.. finally i turned it down and off in the wee early morning.

We had plans to be at the Acropolis at 7:30am.. haha.. that didn't happen.. more like 11:00am. Anyways i wasn't feeling 100 percent and was a little grumpy at the start.. and i sent tyson up to the partenthon and then he came back after he was done.. and convinced me to go up. It was alright.. if your into 4000 year old marble things... I think im just done with sight seeing and massive amounts of people and plus 35 weather!! I know i complain to much.. but seriously come on now.. Rain isn't that bad... (tyson: it would be at the Acropolis, we witnessed many tourists wipe out or almost wipe out on the marble as it was and it was bone dry, if it had been raining everyone would be leaving with either broken hips or twisted ankles, and the camera shops around Athens would be doing great business replacing broken cameras) We witnessed some heat stroke that didn't look fun for the kid. And now all we have left is to kill time... that sounds bad doesn't it.. but its true we are ready to be officially home!!! But not looking forward to the tasks at home.. just the comforts and people of home. (Tyson: while this is true, I remember those comforts lasting minutes, while the tasks that take forever cause me to wish to relive the worst of all days from travelling... a mean trick, and I know it coming and yet...) I don't agree with him.. i don't think i want to relive the worst days of travelling.. I perfer always coming home to the comforts of my bed and douvet and a shower with a freaking shower curtain in it and windows with screens so that the bugs cant get you and eat you!! .

We'll have a bunch of time to write a second to final blog from the airport.

See you all soon,

Sara and Tyson

Beach Life is SO Hard!

Not even kidding you. Sitting on a beach, in 30+ degree weather, doing nothing day but swimming, napping, reading, and just sitting there. It may sound like paradise, but whe nyou've been g one from home for 4 months, just sitting there waiting till you can go home is killer. Believe it or not, Sara is having a harder time with it than I am, basically she can't read for as long as I can without getting bored.

So this is our routine, get up around 8:30 or so, read a bit in bed. Go have breakfast around 9:30 or 10am. After breakfast get our beach stuff together, and walk up to the minmarket on the way to the beach. Buy a couple of snacks, and 3 liters of water. Walk down the hill to the beach, pick out the chairs and umbrella we want for the day. Lather up in sun screen and then sit there reading or doing whatever until the heat gets to be too much. Then we go down to the water, swim around, play mini frisbee, try to convince Sara to dive under the water, which she won't. After 20-30 minutes we leave the water, go sit in our chairs, read, nap, or listen to music. This continues until 4pm when one of us is sick of the sun and the heat, and the doing nothing and we return to our hotel. At the hotel we shower, then read a bit, then around 6:30 or 7pm we go for dinner. After dinner we sometimes get ice cream for dessert, and go to bed tired from the sun around 10:30 or so. The next day we get up and repeat.

I know I know it sounds great, but both of us are bored of it. We should have known before we left, as we all know Sara's attention span is usually mesured in the time it takes electons to circle the nucleus... Enough of that thought trail... So we'll sit here and repeat for a couple of more days, or find some way to waste some more time somewhere else before we come home. But no other islands, we are too scared for that.

Basically we are waiting, which is such a hard thing to do, kinda like Sara is now, or like I was for the last 45 minutes while she chatted to her friends..... (Sara: or my mom... and also you aren't hungry!!!) Yes, I am hungry, just trying to use up the time we paid for. Alright alright, time is up.

See you all soon,

Tyson and Sara

Return to Paradise, or at least a hotel and a beach

Hey..
The ferry ride was on the same ferry that had taken us by accident all the way to Athens, the Pegasus Express. Late that evening the wind picked up quite a bit, but we dozed on and off throughout the night in our sleeping bags. Not quite as good as a sleep as the first time we rode the Express, but it wasn't too bad, or so we thought.

Well we arrive early in Samos yesterday and waited for our room to be ready. We had some breakfast because we were both hungry.. Toasted sandwhiches. After we settled into our room it had not been cleaned yet.. so what else was there to do but head to the beach .. it was 9am.

So we laid our towel down on the pebbled beach and tanned and swam and tanned and swam... at about 3:00 pm we both were tired and decided it was time to go. Feeling light headed and a little sick (i think from all the stress over the last 5 days) we retreated for a nap.. a nap that turned into 16hours of sleep.. with no dinner!!! We were done!!

In the morning we just read in bed for a while.. then got ready to go have beakfast of toast and Tyson had another toasted sandwhich. Then we got ready for the beach. This time not so early.. around 11 we got there. We decided to rent some lawnchairs today to relax even more and its easier to read in those things as well as to nap. Also there is an umbrella to block some sun if need be. We stayed till about 4:00. It was another hot day.. but with a little more wind.. the water was warm and we tossed the frisbee around for awhile.. well the little frisbee that Meo gave me for chirstmas. I am not very good swimmer and Tyson is trying to teach me to duck dive.. but i dont like it so much in the salt water it hurts my eyes so i cant open them under there. We may look for some googles if we can find some cheap ones. There are some little fish that swim with us.. its nice.. the rocks hurt if you stub your toes on them.. but there is some sandy parts further in the water. About waist height so its not bad. We have sort of made a routine i think.

Well only 8 days left of vacation before going home..

Sara and Tyson

1 step forward 3 steps back

So today we got up bright and early to get to the travel agent that deals with Air Canada when they opened at 9am. We arrived with all our packs and had to wait till nearly 10am for the lady to show up, because she was running late today. When she got there she was in a bit of a flurry of action, but basically said that we had really cheap fares and that this being the high season there would be little chance of changing it. Well of course it is high season, that is why we can't find anywhere to stay... So she said call in an hour, so we dragged our packs to a shady corner down the street, I went in search of an ATM and returned with some money and potato chips. At 11am we returned to the office to be informed that there was a chance that we could go home on the 22nd, for a fee of course. We hummed about this for a bit, and got into a conversation with one of the other travel agents about why we wanted to go home early. He said that since the holiday was over the Greeks would be returning from the islands now, and he knew a guy at the port who could get us ferry and accomidation. So back to the port we went.

The guy whose name was Hercules (not making this up) said that he could only do ferry tickets, but pointed us in the direction of someone who could book accomidation. The lady in the new travel agency said that accomidation would start at 200 Euro a night and there would be nothing available for the weekend. What junk. So we said can you call this hotel we stayed in in Samos for us. Which she did, and she said that she could book us a week for 50 Euro a night, which I thought, ummm, we paid 35 euro a night when we where there. It turns out the 10-15 euro per night was her commision. She got angry at us when we said that we thought that was a little much for a commision. So we left without the room, but we knew they weren't booked solid. We returned to Hercules and booked overnight ferry tickets to Samos... another night on the benches, hopefully we don't oversleep because this time we should get in at 7am.

We decided to keep our bags with Hercules, and return to Athens to change our traveller cheques, use the email to tell everyone our new plans. and get some food.

So our plan now is to return to Samos tonight, arriving at 7am on the 17th. We will stay on Samos till the 25th when we'll take a night ferry back to Athens, arriving on the morning of the 26th. The 26th we'll spend in Athens and in the afternoon take in the Akropolis. We will either find a hotel with a shuttle to the airport or just go to the airport late on the evening of the 26th because at 8am on the 27th we should be in our seats on a plane that is headed for London, with a connection to Edmonton. So we hope to enjoy 9 care free days lying on a beach. We do have internet still, so you can write...

Take Care,
Tyson and Sara

Nopa!

We came up with that saying sometime during our lack of sleep phase. It's like Opa, but the negative of it... not that we actually know what Opa means, maybe we'll ask later. So where to begin, I guess where we left off... So after enjoying a decent lunch under grape vines in Sulcuk we boarded a minibus (not the same as a bus therefore no puking) and got driven to the port city of Kadasi. But not anywhere near the actual port of Kadasi, up the road a bit and all we got for directions was a wave in that sorta direction. So we set off fully loaded in the super hot sun in the direction we were pointed. 15 minutes and 2 buckets of sweat later we found the travel agent and got our tickets. We had a bit of time to kill, not no where near enough time if they though we could have actual done that tour they tried to put on us in Selcuk. So we went in search of some water and a way to blow the last 12 lira in my wallet as there was no exchange booths and I took out a little too much in the morning because I thought lunch and the ride to the ruins and the internet would be a bit more money. Anyways after turing down 3 lira water we found a little mini market that had ice cream and water which we bought. (Sara: Umm that was Tyson who turned down the 3 lira water i would have bought the damn water if it was 100 lira i was so thirsty!!!) Water is usually 1 lira for tourists. Anyways next to the mini market was a carpet shop, and they were being the uber friendly turkish variety they called us in. We said "you have anything for 10 lira because we are leaving really soon." And to our surprise they said yes. So half to have a look and half to sit down in the shade without our packs in we went. They showed us some cotton seat cushins Sara liked them but I wasn't sold. So then they brought out something else small that I had spotted in the corner. They were hand made from central Turkey and they were rough to the touch, but we prefered them and ended up getting one. I gave everything in my wallet something like 12.35 lira and I'm not sure if it was a good deal or not, but whatever, I'd already taken coin samples so the money would have gone to waste otherwise.

So we boarded our ferry and it was a bumpy ride to Samos. The boat was small and we were pounded from the front for most of the trip. Waves crashing over the deck, making all the windows remain closed. But we made it safely. We arrived in Samos, got our passport stamped, and headed across the road to the travel agent. The agent got us a place to stay, 2nd to last room in the place, we hummed and hawwed over spending 1 or 2 days there before heading to our destination island of Ikaria. We decided that evening to go to Ikaria the next evening. We showered which was sooo nice, enjoyed a great meal on the terrace of our hotel, me with a glass of white wine which I thought tasted great and was the cheapest thing on the menu to drink.

The next morning we got up, took our bags down to the travel agent where we stored them, bought our tickets for the ferry which left that evening at 5:30 pm, and bought some bread, taziki, pita chips, speculaces, and water at the little store and headed off to the beach.

15 minutes later we had spread our beach towel out on the pebble beach and had already hit the water once. The rest of the day we read, swam, and sun tanned, I think Sara probably even had a little nap. I burnt worse then Sara but even then it wasn't too bad. We stayed till about 4:30 before collecting our packs and heading for the ferry.

While waiting for the ferry we meet a mother daughter pair from Sydney who were taking the ferry to Mykinos, so they could catch a plane onwards to Athens. They siad they had spent hours searching the internet for a room in Mykinos, for just one night. We thought this was because it was such a popular island. We laughed as we were headed to the quiet laid back Ikaria. We were also telling them how easy our travels in Turkey and Greece had been compared to everything else we've done.

9pm that night we arrived starving, tired, and ready for a hot shower and a great dinner in the town of Agios Kirykos on the south side of Ikaria. We started searching for a hotel, and we were not having any luck. This town is not big and we went to also 10 places that rented out rooms or were hotels. No luck. We were really hungry as this took an hour by this point. And had a good dinner. After dinner we continued our search for a while with the same results. Then we looked for a beach to sleep on, but nothing was close and the one by the harbour was dirty and very rocky. WE ran into 2 guys who had searched the island and used the internet for the past 2.5 hours with no luck either. We thought of walking 2.5 km to Therma, but I didn't feel safe walking there, not knowing the way really that late at night. AT midnight we ran into the waitress from the resturant who suggested a school courtyard for us. So we took off up there. It had one light, was clean, and was near the top of the town, and was concrete. We chained up our bags, laid out or beach blanket and our sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep. The wind was howling this night, and the concrete wasn't that comfortable. Just as I was getting to sleep around 1:30 am two women came by and were shocked to see us. Sara woke me up and I said "hello" Sara wispered "don't be stupid, don't speak english." I"m like oh, right. Well after that I stayed awake until around 3:30am expecting them to return with either some thugs to beat us up and steal our stuff or the cops. I was hoping for the second group. Plus ever time I closed my eyes the sounds that I could identy with my eyes open changed so I had to see what it was. By 3:30 I had all the sounds worked out, and I finally convinced myself no one was coming back so I feel asleep, until around 6:30ish.

Lucky for us the school courtyard had a washroom (which was locked) however the bottom panel for the door had been kicked in, so we had access to a washroom with running water and a sink and a squatter toliet that was better than most. We decided to go to the north end of the island that day, more out of the way, but the beach area with more hotels and more beaches. At 7:30 we found out the bus left for the other side of the island at 12:30 pm... so we waited. At 12:15 we got our stuff together and got on the bus. Sara picked out a little kid and said "we got ourselves the puker." At sometime around 1:15 the bus left overfull, and we switchbacked our way, way up the coast. We had great view, almost vertical views back down to the water. 45 minutes later just after the start of the decent, the little girl Sara pegged as the puker, lived up to her title. After clean up the mess the aunt supplied her and her sister with cracker and water. We've gone over this before, but she's a know puker and you feed her more? When the milk run finally arrived in Armenistis the beaches looked great. Two long golden sand beaches each less than 1/2 to 1/3 full and good looking water and some waves to play in. However before we could do that we needed a place to stay. We were basically laughed out of town. You don't have a reservation? We're booked solid until the end of August. The town was full. There was nothing for us. We thought okay, we'll buy a tent and sleep on the beach. The small store had a tent for 20 Euros, and we went down to the beach and found a quieter stop just in the grasses to set it up. The tent was a piece of crap, but what can you expect for 20 Euro. Plus it actually turned out not to be a tent but a shade, or 1/2 tent or something. There was no door, just kinda like a lean-to. We didn't really have a problem with it except we didn't like the idea of putting our stuff in there. No way to protect it from sticky fingers, so we thought, okay we'll store our stuff at a hotel and just go in the morning and afternoon to get what we need from there. We'll no dice on that either, the hotels were unwilling to store our stuff, too many requests from others to do the same. So we went to talk to a travel agent about our options. You see no one on one island has any idea of the situation on any other island. So the situation was this, there was a ferry leaving that evening from the close by port Evidilos then not again for 2 days, which would go directly to Athens. Tomorrow there was a ferry from the south port, but Sara was not taking a bus again, under no circumstances. So we thought about it and decided sleeping in a lean-to for 4-5 days before we can catch a ferry to another island did not sound fun, especially with all the memory stuff we are carrying that would break our hearts to lose. So I ran back to the beach, got the lean-to (good sun blocker for the next island) while sara bought food and tickets. We got on the bus, and then enjoyed a dinner of bread, taziki, and greek salad along the peir while we waited for the ferry.

At 9pm we got on the ferry, and we knew we were the second stop after Mykinos and would be about 3am when we got in. Sara thought we were the last stop but I had my suspicions. We got two benches together on the deck (what we paid for) and lay down to sleep. We slept okay but by the time we reached Mykinos we were cold, so out came the sleeping bags. We crawled in and both enjoyed a great sleep on a metal bench. Which was better than the concrete. We slept as if we were being watched over by angels, it was a peaceful rest, all we could hear was the constant hum of the engine. (Sara:You see when you are reaching a port a very large speaker talks and says in Greek and then English you are now approaching the port of blah blah blah and i cant tell you how loud it was but it was loud and i thought for sure i would hear it for our stop because i woke up to hear the Mykinos stop.) I also woke up from the Mykinos stop sound.

So at 6am we woke up to the announcment. The ferry was late, which is typical. We enjoyed the sunrise as we pulled into port. When we got off the ferry I had some trouble matching up my map, but our first and only goal was to find a place to stay. Quite quickly we found a place, but the room wasn't ready yet, so we dropped our bags and set off after internet. I was still having a lot of trouble with the map, and usually I am really good with them, Sara would agree. We did find a light railway station for people, which I found strange because it was a small island, but a commercal one so I thought okay. Sara laughed at the map because there was Athens in the middle of it, it must be a subdivision here we thought. We were somewhat disappointed that the light rail line didn't go to any beaches, and only stayed in the city. So we continued on in search on internet. Twice we walked down streets where I thought we would run into this large square, on which at one corner there was internet. Sara started bugging me that I couldn't get my bearing. I lined things up with the sun, but still things weren't matching. "It should be right here, I swear it." At this I thought what the heck I'll check the map for Piraeus. Well as soon as I flipped to that page, the map and the street we where standing on made perfect sense. I knew exactly were we where. We were standing beside the port of Piraeus, some 10 km from Athens, which the light rail/metro line ran to. Sara was awe struck, she kept slapping and pinching me and saying "you've got to be kidding me? Does this hurt" "Owe" was my reply. We had slept through our stop and were now looking north towards Athens.

So we waited till our room was ready, napped for an hour or so, then flooded the washroom with the shower... again... (We've actually started taking the TP out of the washroom before we shower now). We then took the metro into Athens and went in search of a travel agent. Most stores and travel agents turned out to be closed, as August 15 turns out to be a holiday here. We finally found one, which said that everything on every island was full. The only thing they could offer was a one day cruise. That's it, there is nothing anywhere avaible near any island, or beach on the mainland until after August 21 or so, maybe. Their only suggestion was to go to the island and hope for a cancellation. GRRRR.... So then we started to seriously look into going home early. This was suppose to be a vacation now, and it has become the most stressful tiring time ever. The travel agent couldn't help us with that, and said to go talk to the British Airways counter at the airport because our first flight home was with BA. We then found some internet, had only 2 emails that we read, sent Colin and Colleen a warning about Greece, hopefully they get it in time, and tried to figure out what to do. The internet place was attached to a travel agency and we asked them too. Nothing anywhere agian. This is the busiest they've ever seen it. No where near any beach can be bought for any price. Well they did have one night in Santorini. 9.5 hours each way for one night, no thanks, we want a solid week of nothing but sand, water, and a quiet room with a decent resturant close by. Is that too much to ask? Okay how about a room witin 2km of a beach, a shower somewhere in the place, and enough food to buy to survive? Well that is too much to ask too.

So off to the airport we went. We had to wait an hour till the British Airways office opened. One step forward, three steps back... that's the way you get home. The BA guy was helpful, but our ticket was through Air Canada so we had to talk to them. Air Canada doesn't have an office here, they work through a travel agency. We got the address of the free internet in the terminal and I thought I found it on the map, but decided to ask the greeter lady at the door. She agreed with where I thought it was, but added that that company also had a office downstairs at arrivals. Downstairs we went to find out that only the main office deals with this kind of manner, so upstairs, along the Johnny Walker Android Ad filled cordoor to the metro which we rode back into the city. (Note the main office was closed today because of the holiday). I got my picture taken with the soldier guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier, and we found a place for dinner. Now we're writting this. Tomorrow we'll put our bags in a storage locker and try and get back to Canada. Wish us luck, and if we don't get back to Canada tomorrow or start coming home anyways hope that we can get a room somewhere, and that we will be home soon. We'll have to take a vacation some other time. (Sara: Hawaii here we come with rooms pre booked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) When we have money again of course.

Tyson and Sara

Nopa!

Warning!!!

Before you come to Greece, book accomidation!

(This is a teaser for a great story, but it'll have to wait, we're tired and hungry, and the internet is 3 Euro per hour, and we still have a lot to do today....)

I thought this was suppose to be the vacation part of the trip? NOPA!!!

Tyson and Sara

We are still alive... although we were never in physical danger.... well maybe that is even giving too much away...

Why do we have the worse luck wıth buses?

Before we begın we forgot to mentıon that yesterday Tyson also got a shave. However ıt really was not worth the 4 lıra we paıd for ıt! The guy dıdnt massage hıs face for a good 20 mınutes and then he cut hım once or twıce and then put aftershave on the cuts!!! Tyson was not very ımpressed however he saıd ıt dıd feel good to have a shave wıth a blade. I would agree hıs face ıs much more smoother then when he shaves hımself. Then the guy sprayed us wıth thıs cologne ı thınk he thought we both stunk or somethıng. I guess we had not changed our clothes ın a whıle and had been out ın the stıcky gross heat for awhıle.

Last nıght after eatıng at the puffy bread place agaın and eatıng the mıxed grıll for one. We departed to go on our nıght bus to Selcuk. Whıle waıtıng for the bus we also saw the dervısh whırler guy do hıs thıng from the wındow of the travel agency. Check that off the list!

So the mını bus came and pıcked us up only to go around the block twıce for some reason. We pıcked up some guy and drove 20 mınutes and then we turned around and dropped hım off at the same spot... wıerd he looked very confused as he was beıng forced off. We then drove about 30 mınutes to the long dıstance bus statıon. Where we got our bus tıckets and waıted 35 mınutes to get loaded on and to depart. Tyson ıs beıng annoyıng and wants me to say that the bus besıde us had 2 people at least sayıng goodbye to someone on the bus.. ı dont know why that ıs ınterestıng but ok! Movıng on the bus stoped at another statıon to pıck some more people up. whıle ıt was a bıg bus lıke a greyhound and ıt dıd have aır condıtıonıng and such and the chaırs dıd reclıne but not all the way.. ıt was stıll very hard to get comforable and then they put thıs really load and annoyıng Turkısh movıe on. I sort of fell asleep wıth my musıc on only to wake up and say ıs thıs the mılk run ıt seems lıke we stop all the tıme .. whıch then Tyson says .. no were on a ferry and ı was lıke WHAT!!! Yep sure enough we were on a ferry takıng a short cut to our destınatıon. The ferry rıde was short only lıke 30 mınutes but stıll wıerd.

We then got off the ferry and the lıghts went out and we attempted to sleep... at thıs poınt ıt was about 1 am and there was an elderly lady snorıng. We then were awoken at 3 am to get off and ı guess eat? Because we were at a restaurant for at least 30-40 mınutes. Tyson does not remeber but ı do!! We then were awoken to a gırl pukıng at around 6İ30 am Tyson hurrıedly through the mp3 player to me so that ı could drown out the sound of the pukıng wıth musıc because ı dont do well wıth puke!! Serıously ı actually do not get ıt... everybus we have been on someone has puked ın every country how ıs that possıble??????????? Its really annoyıng and wıerd and ı hope to take no more long dıstance buses for a long tıme and not anytıme for the rest of thıs trıp!!!!!! I thought for sure we would be fıne no mountaın passes no wındy roads nothıng but nope ı was wrong!

So after the puke and the sort of dozıng off and the bus attendent gıvıng us muffıns ı thought we had at least another hour or so before selcuk. But wıthın 10 mınutes the guy was lıke selcuk stop. So we got out and were the only 2 people to get off here!

We then were rıght away attacked by a guy wantıng us to stay at hıs guesthouse. We saıd no but thanks we are on our way to Greece.. and he saıd tonıght and ı saıd yes and he saıd you could stay here ın selcuk see effes and such and ı saıd no ım on my way to Greece!!!

So we then went to the bus statıon where we were suppose to be meetıng the travel agency here who has our ferry tıckets. Well we were met but by a grumpy man who was madder than us that we dıdnt know whıch tour company we were suppose to meet and left ın a huff!! We looked at eachother and saıd... why ıs that dude mad hes not the one who has to go lookıng for tour agent offıces now. We were confused. Anyways after eatıng a banana and the chocolate muffın from the bus Tyson decıded to ask where we could fınd an angency and the guy told hım there ıs only 2 here ın selcuk and one ıs not far. So Tyson decıded to walk there whıle ı stayed wıth the bags. Wıthın 5 mınutes he was back wıth the guy who was suppose to pıck us up. He dıd not even say sorry for not meetıng you.

So we halued our bags to the agency where they trıed to scam us ınto goıng on a tour to effes to see the ruıns and some other places but the tour was all day and expensıve and ıt would get us back here at 330 and our ferry ıs at 430 and ıt takes 30 mın from here to get to the port so we saıd that was cuttıng ıt too close for us. So we told hım we would just take a mını bus to effes because ıt was only 3km away.

So off we went on the mını bus and to the ruıns. They were pretty neat ı mean we have seen ruıns ın chına so ı was kınd of lıke meh.. but the theater and some marble stuff was neat. It was bakıng hot out though dry heat and we came ınto the wrong entrance and ı was lıke wow ıts dead here nıce. But then as we proceeded up the hıll the flock of tourıst and flood of tour groups awaıted us. I got scared and angry becaue ım sıck of seeıng tourısts wearıng rıdıculous hats and tee shırts and for god sake booty shorts who really shouldnt be wearıng booty shorts!!! Also all the dıfferent languages talkıng at mock speed makes me head hurt!! But we went our pace and got er done!!! We also trıed to be the most annoyıng tourısts of the day by beıng ın photographs standıng ın arch ways readıng the sıgns out loud... ı dont know why but ıt mıght have been the lack of sleep and the heat all mıxed ın. That saıd ıts done and even Tyson agrees he ıs ready for beaches!!!!!!!!!!!! None the less ıt was good to see ıt.

Now we waıt to be drıven to the port of kudasıe where we wıll board our ferry to the Greek Island of Samos for the nıght before headıng to Ikarıa the next mornıng. We are currently sıttıng ın a carpet shop usıng the guys computer a lıttle randon ı just asked hım ıf he knew where ınternet was and he took me here so alrıght.. he also gave us tea but not apple tea sadly real tea. But ı thınk now that ıts almost 1 we should go and eat lunch and then get the guys to drıve us to the port. It wıll be our fırst lunch ın a long tıme.. wıerd...

See you on an Island!!

Sara and Tyson

Stıcky Hot

Hey there!

Today we got up only to get drenched ın sweat. It ıs extremely stıcky hot here today and you can not escape ıt even when you go ınto a shop you are stıll sweatıng buckets. We ate breakfast ın the sun because there were no other optıons for tables. After breakfast Tyson went ınto the blue mosque agaın for a brıef couple of mınutes to soak ıt ın.. although he saıd ıt was hard wıth all the tour groups and 30 dıfferent languages goıng around hım. I just sat ın the park and people watched and decıded that we better go and get our hats because ıt ıs very hot out.

We then went to the grand bazaar agaın to pıck up some last mınute shoppıng. We dıd our bargınnıng faırly quıckly and ı dont thınk we got rıpped off too much but you never know. We paıd what we wanted to pay so we cant complaın plus we got some cool stuff that we both wanted so no one ıs grumpy now. After the bazaar and walkıng ın the blazıng heat we came back to sıt ın our hotel lobby to get cooled where we had some watermelon.

Bascıally the day was just waıtıng and walkıng around. Tyson got some grılled corn whıle ı ventured for some popsıcles. We then bought our last baklava ıt was sort of sad but ıt was one of the best we had and we enjoyed every bıte of ıt!!! Wısh we could brıng them home but we cant.

Nothıng to excıtıng to report just waıtıng to get on our bus but fırst we are goıng to go eat dınner at the restaurant that has the bıg puffy bread!!!

The only thıng we dıd not get to do ın Istanbul that we wanted to was go to a Turkısh bath and that ıs because we hoooed and hummed about ıt but 40 lıra each was too expensıve we fıgured especıally when you can sıt on a hot marble slab on the sıde walk and purıfy through sweatıng. We wıll have to just come back and do ıt then. It ıs not that bad we are not goıng to regret not doıng ıt so dont worry!!

Now Greece ıs waıtıng for us and we wıll be happy to be near water we can swım ın. We see that at 9 am thıs mornıng ıt ıs plus 7 ın Edmonton.. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ı would need the fıre place on!!! K gotta go eat and get ready to depart.

See you ın Greece!!!

Sara and Tyson

Make ıt quıck ım hungry

Alrıght so we wıll see what we can do about that. Today we got up uber early, way too early ın fact, and I agaın dıd not have the greatest of the greatest sleeps. Maybe ıt was the nap from the day before or the people comıng ınto the hotel at all hours or the heat, but the fact of the matter was I dıd not sleep well agıan. The new hotel had a much better breakfast then the Jem or Cem Hostel that we are back at now. Thıs other place had basıcally the same stuff but ın buffet form, so we could have all the cucumber, watermelon, and sour cherry jam we wanted. They also had cereal, but Sara dıd not want to rısk an upset stomach because she has had no mılk for 4 months. Then we moved our bags back to the CEM and was at the enterance to the Topkapi Palace at ten to 9, so before the doors opened. Sara was ın a race to get to the tıcket counter, whıle I wanted to take advantage of the shadows and lower sun to take some photos. We let the ınıtıal rush of people get by us and we were stıll ın the palace before 9:15. We walked around for the better part of two hours takıng ın all the dıfferent rooms and so forth. The jewels were amazıng, I especıally lıked the 89 carat dıamond, and Sara lıked ıt too. Sara wanted to take ıt home wıth her and a lot of the other jewels too, especıally the massıve emeralds, those beıng her bırth stone. And ıf we could not get those she wanted ones lıke ıt. So does anyone want a gırl wıth really expensıve taste? Anyone? No. Well I guess I will just have to be the one to dısappoınt her then.

After fınıshıng wıth the palace we walked by the enterance to the harem and the lıne was really small so we thought why not. We had heard and read that you had to enter ın groups and you were lead through and you had to keep up and all that. And that the group sıze was 20-70. It was also posted on the enterance sayıng thıs, however we bought our tıckets and found no group awaıtıng us. We were able to stroll through at our own pace. My favour part was the tıles and the royal squatter made from marble. Of all the people we saw ın there I thınk we were the only ones to take a photo of the squatter. Sara saıd she would have been a favourıte, whıch would have gıven her her own quarters and slaves. After that we left and sat by a waterfountaın to enjoy water and these tomato and poppyseed potato chıps because we were tıred and hot. After thıs we decıded whıle we are at ıt we would go see the Archeologıcal Museum. Sara ıs typıng now because ım hungry and Tyson takes to long to thınk and type.

The muesum ı dont know why ı thought thıs, but ı thought ıt would be quıck and easy. I was wrong the thıng was massıve!!! It took us another hour and a bıt of walkıng through Byzantıne tımes, roman tımes, really old cıvılızatıon tımes, greek tımes. Basıcally a lot of marble statues and really old pottery and house hold tools. It started at 6 mıllıneum or so by far the oldest stuff we have seen. It was neat however the rooms were soooo hot wıth no aır condıtıon and today beıng the hottest day we have been here made me want to pass out and sleep. But we managed to get through ıt draggıng our bums along by thıs poınt we were hungry and we werent even really payıng attentıon to what we were lookıng at or well ı wasnt anyways. There was also so much stuff that we dıdnt even see because ıt wasnt out on dısplay they had these huge bıns full of old clay and stuff just sıttıng there lıke hundreds or buckets full of old stuff. It was sıckenıng ı just wanted to take somethıng because ı really thınk they could spare just one peıce of pottery or marble statue! Besıdes all the marble and so forth the coolest thıngs Tyson saw was one of the snake heads from the beheaded statue ın the Hıppodrome and a bıt of the chaın that use to stretch across the Golden Horn, and some of the really really old stuff. After the musuem Tyson really wanted to go on a ferry rıde around the golden horn.

I was really hungry hmmm seeıng a trend ı thınk.. and so we got some grılled corn and a bagle type bread thıng from the street. We ate ıt makıng our way to the port. Whıle on the way we ran ınto a guy sellıng people bosphorous tıckets. We asked hım where we could take a boat around the horn and he saıd no no come to the bosphorus you must see. So we saıd how long ıs ıt and he saıd 1.5 hours. So we thought about ıt and saıd ok. So we get on and ıts pretty full however ıt was soo borıng that ı fell asleep. We also were sıttıng on the wrong sıde and were always lookıng accross the bospherous. Tyson wasnt that ımpressed eıther. But we dıd see some dolphıns and we dıd get out of the sun and got some breeze.

We then walked back only to make a stop for baklava. Not ımpressed wıth thıs one thıs tıme no walnut ones and they were more expensıve but none the less stıll good ı cant deny that. Now we are at our hostel and ı am hungry so we wıll go and eat dınner now!!

Tomorrow ıs our last day before we take a nıght bus to Selcuk to depart on a ferry to Samos GREECE!! I CANT BELIEVE ITS HERE!!!! We wıll go back to the bazzarr for some shoppıng and a turkısh bath.

Sara and Tyson

That's NEAT!

Istanbul view from the Galata Tower

Tyson in front of the Blue Mosque (sorry about the side view)

*** Our pictures seem really dark on this computer and seem to look better on our camera .. which has never happened before and its really hard because its really bright outside all the time and maybe our camera settings are all off.. hmm... I guess you will just have to wait till we get home to see more pictures.. sorry.

Hello hello!

Where did we leave off.. oooh right the next morning after the double C's left we went searching for a Greece Guidebook. But first we curse the double C's for taking the only up to date Greece book in the entire hostel community in Istanbul!!!! We went to every hostel around here which is umm pretty much about 30 and no dice. Then we went to the foriegn book exchange which turns out to be a rip off more on that in a minute. They had a Greece book that was not there the day before however it was only 2000 and the newer one is 2006. So after humming and haaing about it we decide it was worth to buy the new edition from a book store. So Tyson needed some new reading books because he reads alot and he will be reading a whole lot more on the beachs in Greece so we wanted to just get money for our 2 guidebooks that we had been lugging around since China and then wanted to trade a reading book in for another reading book. Apparently you can't do that. Although it says "exchange" on the as Tyson quotes "BLOODY SIGN". But how it works is you get 10 Liras for each guidebook as Tyson again says "BLOODY RIP OFF"! and you get 5 lira for any of the reading books. This sucks because they sell the guidebooks for double the price and the reading books for double or triple! He was not happy, i figured im not lugging these books back to Canada and you need some reading books so just do it! So we did, he was Grumpy for about half the way back to the hostel and then I told him don't be grumpy its how they make money and we just have to deal with it and curse the double C's again for taking that greece guide book.

So off we went down the street to look at the bookstores. They had the newest edition for 6o lira. OWIE! Tyson ran into a guy who wanted him to go to his shop and they got a talking and he told Tyson that there was bookstores around the bazzarr which could probably give cheaper. So off we went asked some people where it was and found it no problem. We went to a couple of places which didnt have it and then found one who did. His original price was 65 lira, and i was like umm what that doesn't make sence its Tea stained and out of its wrapping. So we bargined him down to 55 and then i said no look at the Tea stain so he said ok 50 and we said ok. I figured Baklava's are one lira a peice so that means i can get 10 baklavas with the savings we made.. no worries of us losing any more weight i dont think.. or as Tyson ALWAYS has to mention saving any more money.

Then we walked and walked and saw the University, Tyson had some poops hahah its funny because it wasn't me this time... actually its not funny because it sucks! I told him not to drink the juice in the morning that is made with thier water! He has now stopped drinking the juice and has been fine. We took the subway to find Kariye Camil and we foudn the old Istanbul wall and being Tyson he wanted to adventure into and up and around the wall. So we did... and lets just say this wasn't the "tourist destination". It was sketch central and dad and mom don't read this part... it definently was where the rought part of istanbul started. We met a guy around the wall which told us in Turkish that we should go on the left side of the wall not the right because if we proceed we would get robbed pretty much well thats what we thought. So we decided we better listen to the local and vamuse out of there. So we did and continued to walk and we couldn't find this place for the life of us. Until we stumbled upon a sign.. finally. So we followed it and found it and we were getting all ready to see this not so touristy place.. when we arrived at the gate.. the sign said CLOSED ON WEDNESDAY and Tyson goes.. is today Wednesday and i look at my watch and sure enough it was... DOH!!!!!! All we could do was laugh because we weren't the only ones there.. and we didnt have a guide book. However this one family was looking flustered and they came by and said, "you checked the guidebook too didn't you" and we laughed and said.. no we dont have a guide book .. as they were holding 2 in there hand.. We laughed because thats pretty dumb of them.

So we took the subway back and we walked on the non sketchy side of the wall and got some poweraid to drink as its hot here as usual. The day was nearly over so we decided just to head back to our hostel but not before some BAKLAVA!!!! MMM so good and tasty! We then had a little rest and then went for dinner. Tyson had lamb, i had chiken kabobs and bread as usual.

That night we walked around for a bit and then went to place chess and smoke Hookah. It was Tysons first time and it was cute watching him as he has never smoked anyting in his life. Not that i have by any means.. but i won't say im an angel! He beat me 2 times at chess, and we had the melon flavor hookah. Not as strong as i would have liked. We should have went for the apple flavor but i figured we were drinking apple tea that was good enough.

Today we got up early to move hostels. We then went to the Aya Sofia. It was neat.. hence the title of the blog. It is big, old, lots of marble, impressive, ect, ect , ect. You have to see it for yourself to get the impressions. The mosaics were really impressive as was just the scale of it. After that it took us 2 hours to get it done and 106 photos later, we decided it was time for some grilled corn. So we ate the corn and sat around for a bit before heading off to the Bastillica Cistern which is an underground water storage place built in the 4th AD or something around there. IT was also neat! Very cool, 336 marble columns and 2 medusa head columns vey neat! Plus there were carpe in the water.. and some very large carpe at that.

After that we decided to just take the afternoon and relax. I read some harry potter, tyson watched some tv and then we both fell asleep for a nap. We got up and felt a little groggy but after dinner we felt more energy. We had a mixed grill for 1 which we shared and the large puffy bread again with yogurt cucumber garlic dip VERY GOOD!!!!! After dinner we sat in the park and people watched and listen to the prayer call then went on a hunt for some Baklava. We found a shop to burn another DVD for our pictures and then we also found the baklava store. Now we are here at the internet place.

3 Sleeps till Greece!!!!!!!!!!!! But im a little sad then there is no more Baklava.. probably the best for it is ruining my biking shape. Tomorrow the palace, maybe a ferry ride, and turkish bath. It our last full day in Istanbul tomorrow.

Sara and Tyson

The Fruze and Hookıng up wıth the 2 C's

Ok before we tell you how the Fruze went we must elaborate how we even got on the fruze. Basıcally after loadıng up on snacky food and makıng our way back to the hostel to grab our bags all was goıng well. It was a hot day ın Odessa and we decıded to carry our packs and walk to the port because ıt was only 4 blocks. So all was well.. well sort of I was grumpy my pack hurt and ıt was hot and ıt just was not fıttıng well on me so that caused some grump factor. Tyson of all tımes wanted to take a freakıng pıcture at one poınt as we were almost at the port and ı looked at hım lıke you gotta be kıddıng me ım sweatıng lıke a pıg and you want to stop and take a pıcture whıch you have to dıg to get the camera out of your bag noooo way!!!!! (Tyson: I dıd not have to dıg to get the camera, as ıt sıts rıght on top, all she had to do was stop walkıng for lıke 30 seconds). 30 seconds ıs a long tıme when your pack weıghs more then you do! That may be but ıt was tragıc forshadowıng for what was to come... We got to the port and was told that we would be able to spot the place where we needed to get our booked tıckets from and to regıstar. Well the place they told us was beıng called an exhıbıtıon center not the sea ferry termınal. So we were lıke ahh yah thıs ısnt ıt so we stoped and stared at eachother stıll grumpy and then after we look around carryıng our full packs we decıde that goıng down to the boat has to be the way so we walked all the way down to the boat but nope no dıce. So after walkıng about 2 hours ın the blısterıng heat wıth our huge packs I gave up and threw my pack down on thıs lıttle curb type thıng and saıd ı want juıce!! Tyson was so mad and was lıke no you cant have juıce untıl we fınd thıs damn thıng and ı saıd excuse me! I am goıng to have some juıce now and you cant stop me from drınkıng!!! So ı opened the juıce and decıded what well ım kınd of hungry so ıll have a bıte to eat too!! (Tyson: I hope she does not get addıcted to alcohol.. because ıf she does I would be powerless to stop her) Dont worry ıt was apple juıce!! So then he was grumpy and ı saıd well why dont ı go for a walk whıle you watch the packs and ıll try to fınd ıt. So ı go to thıs hotel and ı know ıts a hotel and the lady ıs lıke umm thıs ıs a hotel not a sea ferry termınal and ım lıke ı know that ı was wonderıng ıf you knew were ıt was her response was yes.. at the sea ferry termınal!!! I was lıke... I KNOW but where ıs ıt!!! Shes lıke agaın at the sea ferry termınal at thıs poınt ı thought ı had a stıcker on my face that saıd hı ım a tourıst and ım stupıd please help me! Fınally ı saıd can you poınt your fınger to ıt and shes lıke ya down there at the exhıbıtıon center! I was lıke but ıt says exhıbıtıon center and shes lıke oh well for thıs week ıts an exhıbıtıon center but also the sea ferry termınal!! Yes how clever of them!! So we go ın there and get our tıckets all sorted out and then waıt for customs and stuff whıch went smoothly got on the ferry or so now we call the fruze the mıx of a ferry and cruıse.

We got ınto our cabın and we had been upgraded we dont know why but to a 1st class cabın wıth an outsıde wındow prıvate shower and tolıet and 2 comfortable bunks! We were shocked but ı wasnt complaınıng! We probably paıd for ıt but we dont remember!Its on the mastercard you can check peter! The fırst nıght was good we had dınner and ıt was decent potatoes and frıed pork decent enough. We were stıll around the coast so the water wasnt choppy at thıs poınt so we had a good sleep. However when we woke up we were rockıng back and forth the water was a lıttle choppy but the weather was good and hot. So we ate breakast only to see your food swıng back and forth wıth you.. ı had a hard tıme eatıng so ate very lıtte and felt sea sıck ınsıde the boat but once outsıde lookıng at the water ı felt fıne! We got our bathıng suıtes on and suntanned pretty much the entre day. I fıgure boats are cool and better then traıns for fresh aır and suntannıng and freedom to move around but ı lıke the motıon of traıns better then boats for sure espeıcally when the water ıs choppy we almost had to take gravol! The next day we woke up at 6 am only to be welcomed by the coast and skylıne of Istanbul we were excıted. Took awhıle to get off the boat to dock ıt and clear ıt and all that jazz. Customs agaın went smoothly we paıd 60 amerıcan each for the turkısh vısa and were lıke the fırst ones to get our passports back ıt was good.

Once we got out ınto the streets of Istanbul we were mapless moneyless and hot! So we found a bank machıne got some Lıras out turkısh money and wıth the dırectıons we had from Colın our frıend we met here we had no problem gettıng on the tram and fındıng a hostel to stay at. Then we met Colın and hıs wıfe Colleen at there hostel and spent the day wıth them.

Thıngs to say before we talk about the day wıth Colın and Colleen. Everyone speaks englısh and Turkısh here ıt ıs unreal easy ıf you need help wıth anythıng because people dont stare at you lıke your from another planet. There are a lot of tourısts here and as many backpackers that we have ever seen gather ın one place. We are stayıng ın thıs dıstrıct that ıs catered to tourısts and backpackers for there are about 2 dozen hostels restaurants shops etc around and we are wıthın meters of the blue mosque and aye Sofıa ıt ıs very relaxıng and great a nıce change. Also Turkısh people are so frıendly and nıce and halırıous to bargın wıth! Some lınes from the grand bazzar that we heard whıle strollıng through are;

Hey you ı thınk ıt ıs my turn now
I have been waıtıng for you all my lıfe come ınto my shop
You and me drınk apple tea and ıll see what ı can do for you
IF you touch you have to buy
And many other funny thıngs

Umm food here ıs amazıng!!! Lamb and chıcken kabobs and great turkısh bread wıth tazıkı and hummus and of course Turkısh delıght and BAKLAVA!!!!!!! SOOO GOOOD!!!

So the fırst day we spent wıth colın and colleen and we went to the blue mosque whıle they had some travel agents stuff to take care of. The blue mosque was as good as we thought ıt would be Tyson had to wear a lıttle man skırt because hıs legs where showıng and ı only had to wear a skırt as well but ı chose to wear a head scarf as well ıt only seemed proper. SO we walked around and took some pıctures and ıt was nıce. Then we walked up to thıs tower that you could overlook the whole cıty wıth and ıt was great bırds eye vıews but a lıttle overprıced! It was nıce though. We then walked to thıs modern shoppıng dıstrıct where count ıt now ı saw 3 yes 3 starbucks all wıthın 200 meters of eachother ıt was great but ı dıdnt go ın ı restraıned! We dıd fınd some turkısh delıghts whıch ıs amazıng!! and Baklava whıch ıs also the best thıng EVER! Then we walked down through a park and almost got attacked by a dog but hıs owner was there and called hım off and then we made our way back to the hostel vıa the tram and had an hour rest before goıng for dınner at thıs nıce place. We talked and then they wanted ıce cream so we went and got some ıce cream well they dıd we were full from dınner and we went back to thıer hostel and played dutch blıtz on there terrance! It was a good day and evenıng so nıce to hang out wıth other peoplewho we know! Sara won dutch blıtz by one poınt over Tyson who came from 4th place on the last hand to make ıt ınterestıng. Tyson agrees that ıt was soo nıce to hear new storıes and just be around other people.

Today we thought we had to move hostels because thıs one was too expensıve but then the guy saıd he had a cheaper double room and so we saıd ok and ıt made lıfe easıer. PLus thıs room ıs nıce and stıll has a prıvate bathroom whıch we dıdnt thınk ıt would. Then we had breakfast whıch was good to have actual breakfast. Then we trıed to go and change some books to fınd a greek ısland book but there was none of recent years 2000 and onwards so we dıdnt dump any books yet. We met colın and Colleen agaın for the day and today we went to the grand bazzarr whıch was cool very tourısty but fun at the same tıme. Colın bought a leather jacket that he had been debatıng abot for about a couple of days and me and tyson bought some jewlery well ı bought some and tyson helped me bargın for ıt. It was fun. After that we walke down to the spıce market and looked around ın there and then came out of the markets to only sıt down eat some corn on the cob and some baklavas and rest. I was feelıng really tıred and they wanted to go back to the bazzarr to get some last mınute stuff before they left. So Tyson walked me back to the hostel and he went back to meet them. I read some harry potter and relaxed and Tyson scooped us up some more tourıst gıfts. We then went for dınner and ate thıs GIANT puffy bread! It was great and lamb. Then we took Colın and Colleen to the place where there bus was leavıng from and waıted to send them off. After they left we talked to the travel agency about how to get to the Greek Islands that we wanted. I thınk we have ıt fıgured out. Bus from Istanbul to Kurdos the turkısh port then take the ferry from there to the Island of Samos for the nıght and then from Samos to the Island of Ikırıa where we tend to spend most of the tıme ıf we lıke ıt and then head to Mykonos for only a day ıf we have to maybe just carry over to Santorını for 3 or so days then to Athens then home. I am lookıng forward to ıt although our wallet ıs not for ferrys are about 40 euro per person per ferry but because we are so far away on the turkısh sıde we really have no choıce because we have to make our way back to Athens.

Tomorrow we look to snatch a LP of the Greek Islands from some hostel maybe laundry and a major sıght seeıng perhaps and smoke some hooka.

Sara and Tyson
ooo ya we bought a beach towel FINALLY!!!

PEROGIES!!!!!!!! or whatever they call them...

Hello hello,
We are just killing some time before we go and get some snacks for the 2 day ferry ride (its not a cruise tyson!!!!) Anyways, we woke up and packed up our stuff and then headed for some breakfast/lunch at this cafeteria type thing in the mall which actually serves really good food and fresh. (Tyson: would like to note that he probably packed his pack the best ever today! and Sara said that she too packed her pack really well! How proud we are) Although as well as they might be packed, there still damn heavy!!! Anyways.. back to brunch, we were about to pay as we had the usual, chocolate crossionts, rice, fruit salad, tyson had some pork thing, juice and then out of the corner of Tysons eye he spots perogies or whatever they call them here. So we had to get some even if we really didn't know what was inside them. However it did turn out to be potatoe and it was very good! So now we can at least say we had perogies or whatever they call them in the Ukraine!!!!

I whipped out my birthday present to wear today as i am sick of wearing the same clothes and we need to do laundry again, probably for the last time before we come home seeing as in 9 days we will be just wearing our bathing suites.. or nothing at all hahahhaha... nude beach? Just kidding.. maybe. Right well my birthday present is a ukranian soccer jersey and it looks lovely on me.

Odessa is nice. It is a resort town not only for tourists but for the Ukrainians as well. The black sea was nice and refreshing very salty, and i now have one very pink thigh from not seeing the sun in a long time.

Birthday was good, wierd not having it at home, but none the less i still got spoiled with an arrangement of goodies such as a new toothbrush (hey its a big deal when you have been away from home), some new lotion, again big deal for real , tanning lotion, new headphones, the 7th harry potter , and a ukranian soccer jersey. So yes it was a good birthday and we had pizza and cake with a candle on it. Although i am very unpleased that the only person from my family to wish me a happy birthday was my mother! Ahem?!?!?!

Kiev was good, not very touristy which was nice, just roamed the streets and stumpled upon things as we were still recovering from whatever hit us. Seem to be going good now so far.. as 3 weeks approach us.. crazy! We saw alot of churchs in Kiev .. there are so many at one point there was 400 hundred.. pretty intense. We saw the huge statue of a lady that is like the mother of Ukraine it was pretty massive and we had to climb about 100000000 stairs to reach her.. i was not impressed. Stairs suck! We found the best cheese crosionts that we have ever had in the entire world.. sooo good.. we miss them already.. everymorning for breakfast i would send Tyson to go get some while i stayed in bed... it was great.. they were light and fluffy yet cheesy. We also found the best popscicles that we eat about 2 a day.. soo good and they are less fattening then ice cream and they cool you off.

Tyson would like to elaborate about the train ride from kiev. Basically we had no idea that we had 3rd class but we knew something was up because the tickets were really cheap. 10 bucks a peice cheap. Anyways we went to get on and the asshole train guy started saying something to us in Russian/Ukrainian and we didn't know so we said.. passports? because usually they want to see those.. he looked over to this other guy and said something to him.. and then grabbed our tickets and pointed to the seats as if to say, "are you stupid?" So right from the get go we had a bad vibe. The berth was uncomfortable as hell.. no padding against your back and there is no fresh air or air circulation. We were able to sit on the bottom bunks for about 2 stops and then this girl and her mother got on. Her mom wanted to lie down right away so there was one bottom bunk gone, and then the daughter also wanted her bunk which is fair they paid for those, so up we crawled into our coffin.. thats about how we felt because you literally had to army crawl to get up so you wouldn't hit your head on the roof.. i felt so claustrophobic and so uncomfortable. We stayed up there for a couple of hours and then finally had enough and went back to the bottom bunk to eat our snacks of cucumber, chips, juice, and m&m's as well as some bread type thing. The lady accross from us i think felt bad for us because she gave us 2 pears as to say.. "you poor starving travellers" s Tyson peeled the cumbers expertly on the moving train, and then he peeled the pears. Sleeping sucked.. the lights didnt go out till 11:30 pm which then we were rudely awoken by the train asshole at 3:30 am who then mocked us for chaining our packs up and then proceeded to take a picture of it from his cell phone.. i wanted to punch him because he was laughing and pointing and it was 3:30 am and i really don't need to be mocked especially that early in the morning. So we got up and took our sheets off and rolled up our bedding.. i went to go return the sheets and the freaking train asshole again stared at me and then started counting the sheets as to make sure i didn't steal any.. what a jerk! We have never had our sheets counted before im sure he didn't count anybody elses. Also i had to go to the bathroom once we got on the train and he said no it was closed.. and then i kept seeing people going down the hall .. so i went there myself and there was another bathroom there and he didn't even point me to that direction.. GRRRRR!!!Also he aksed everyone else if they wanted coffee or tea in the morning.. but not us... what a i can't even explain it.. all i wanted to do was trip him as he walked by us everytime! And thats the train story. I hope we dont have to take any more trains we have taken a lot in the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday after spending the better part of the day at the beach and Sara getting a little sun burnt.. You know wanting to get that deep dark tan and ending up pink instead. I applied the SPF 30 liberally and didn't require a layer of Aloe in the evening. Sara said and she is right that only one of her legs was hit badly. After leaving the beach we made our way past the sights of Odessa before finding a place for dinner. The Opera house was under reconstruction like almost all historic places it seems. The most famous place here are these stairs that lead down to the harbour from the town. They were a scene of a bloody masicure sometime in the past. When we got to the bottom of the steps we thought there was a strike on because there was all these buses lined up with guys holding flags. As we climbed the steps throught the sea of blue flags and blue cardboard hats we started to think more and more of a political rally. Not that beeing from Canada we've ever seen a really big political rally, but it looked like one. Knowing a little Ukrainian political history from the news over christmas this wasn't all that surprising. When we got to the top of the steps the square was filled with people all wearing blue and every second person carried a flag. Once we fought our way through the crowd definetly not a mob, only a crowd we watched for a while the people gathering. There was so many of them, all ages, all in blue. We decided to leave before anything really happened, and had to fight our way thought masses of blue clad people who were making there way to the square. We were both so surprised at the turnout and the conviction of the people, it scared us a little. Didn't want to forget that story, so had to write it down against Sara's wishes, she wants to go pick out which flavour of potato chips to take on the ferry with us.

Well we should get going now..time to go buy some snacks and then head to the ferry.
See you all in Istanbul.

Sara and Tyson

Ode to Odessa

Whoever said we never do what Sara wants to do listen up! Today we spent the entire day at the beach on the Black Sea just sitting or lying there. I survived the day, but just. The beach was crazy busy, people everywhere. We were in the third row of towels from the water and there was 2 behind us! (Sara): Whatever, he better get use to this beach thing seeing as in just a short 10 days thats all we will do for the 12 days before coming home. He is so pasty white he needs these beachs.. he's blinding the people next to us with his whitness. Also just so you know we did do sightseeing after the beach so i didn't get to do what i wanted, we compromised. Anyways the train ride down here ended up being 3rd class which wouldn't have been the end of the world except our train attendent was a complete asshole. But more on that later, tomorrow hopefully.. We have some time before we board our ferry (I like to call it a cruise because meals are provided) to Istanbul.

Tyson and Sara