Istanbul

It's only been nine months since the last trip update. We've put up some photos of the places we've been, but I haven't put up any stories since St. Petersburg. Millions of people conceived and bore a children in that time, and I couldn't get around to putting together a blog post. Life is so hard in the industrialized world sometimes.

Perhaps it is my Irish roots and the beers I've had, that this *finally* seems like the most appropriate time to work on these travelogues. I think mostly, that it has to do with callouses. After all the travel, I couldn't get it together to write up the fascinating events we'd lived through every day. Half-way through the trip, I could go 10-12 hours in museum and never get bored. But I couldn't get it together for a blog post. It was too hard.

We got back to the States, and I could do a 14-hour stint in an art museum with no problem. Getting a job though... 4 hours in, and I'm like, "Where do you people take naps?! People can't be forced to work like this! I need a hammock and two hour nap. NOW." The structure of work and having to get things done (GTD) all the time provides the scaffolding for writing up some memoirs. I'm born again hard.

The best story of our time in Istanbul is about Perin's best friend's dad's girlfriend and tour guide: Sevin. We needed to catch a taxi to get the Galata Tower above the city to see the beautiful sunset. The guy in shop we ate at said we needed to walk down the hill, take the subway one stop, then walk up some other hill. Sevin called bullshit on him, called a taxi and told the driver where we needed to be.

He hauled ass down the hill, going around corners with a high velocity. Sevin didn't put her seatbelt on, leaned forward and started yelling at the driver. He started yelling back and pointing and yelling vociferously at his meter. Back and forth they yelled as we sped through twisty cut-backs in heavily populated areas, honking and pushing pedestrians out of our way. We swiftly arrived at the tower, paid the driver, and Perin and I were sure that we had barely escaped death. Sevin then says to us, "That driver told me the funniest story! Some tourist couldn't find some address and spent hundreds of lira on taxis driving around looking for it. Then she found me (the taxi driver), and I used to live on that street with three houses, so I knew where it was! Even though the meter read four lira, she tipped me 200!"

Sevin took us to some amazing food places, shopping, and spice bazaars. It was some of the best food we ate the whole trip.

Ancient History

This weeks installment follows our journey through Egypt.

I thoroughly enjoy ancient history and was very excited to see the sights and history of Egypt, but many times during our planning and even while we were on our journey we had to contemplate if it was the safest place for us to visit considering the recent uprising and overthrowing of Mubarak.

In the end our timing couldn't have been more perfect. We were able to enjoy all the splendors, sights and culture that Egypt has to offer without any tourist lines. The protests that were going on while we were there were peaceful and the people we met where incredibly optimistic about the changes to come.

One of our longest albums, I just couldn't help but share so much of what we saw. Here are our photos!

Egypt

Jordan Rocks (pun intended)

Happy New Year everyone! Hope your holiday's were fabulous and filled with family and fun!

This week's pictures are from our death-defying day trip to Jordan. The ruins of Petra were spectacular but it was the drive to and from the Israeli border that made it feel like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. Our driver was a bit crazy, taking turns at sensationally high speeds, weaving around buses through fog on mountain cliffs, all-in-all it was a white knuckle experience!

The album of photo's is short and sweet, giving you a glimpse at the amazing architecture built into stone walls.

Enjoy!

Jordan