Izmir and Cappadocia Turkey Pictures.

Having a wonderful time in Turkey. Man the scenery here is spectacular. I was able to visit with Melanie Paton from Peterborough for 5 days and will see her again in a couple of weeks. She has lived in Turkey for close to 10 years and is teaching English at a private Turkish school to grade one kids. There are two english teachers for each grade and four sections of each grade. She was awesome to stay with and took me in on little notice. I have to say thanks and then I wasn’t feeling the best so I was able to recoup a bit there. She is a fantastic person with tons of energy and life. Her apt inspired me to buy some Turkish items, it was so homey.

One day I went to a village where Paula, Melanie’s friend lives by bus, 20 minutes and spent the day with her. She is from Calgary and lives here with her husband. They built a stone house in the village and nieither of them speaks Turkish and the builder no English. A big accomplishment. Paula has a friend in Cappadocia, which is in the center of Turkey and she set me up with him so now I am here. You know, his uncle has a hotel and his cousin is a hot air balloon pilot, he is a guide and his friend will pick you up at the airport using the sign with your name on it! So lots of connections. Now I know how those people in Peterborough without my connections feel when we drive down the road and wave at everyone. It is the same here for Yasur. Even got to drive a moped through the scenery.

Oh the call to pray is currently on and it is so cool to hear billowing through the village.

Cappadocia is beautiful and not too be missed. I am so happy I made the effort to get here. It was created by volcanic ash and for my Egypt friends it reminds me of the Valley of Kings. There are huge, tall outcropings called Fairy Chimneys everywhere and people lived in the caves. Some still do and my hotel is in one of them. The town is not very busy and it is little so it is nice to walk around and the hiking in the valleys and craitors is spectacular. The colours of the rock are continually changing with the sunlight.

I went for a runrise hot air balloon ride this morning. The views were spectacular. I don’t know where all the people came from to fill the many balloons that were out, as I mentioned the town is not too busy. But I guess they must have come from the other three villages in the area. The ride was awesome and long. It was an hour and a half long and finished with champaigne. My body wasn’t right so I passed on that drink before 8am. I will tell you as you may have heard on the news, who knows? There was a balloon accident two days ago here and a man from England died and three others are in the hospital. I guess the balloons were too close and hit each other causing a problem. I still went, you know me if I die doing something I want to do I know I have had a good life.

I should be able to meet up with Glenn, Shelley, Max and Madison next Sunday as their cruise ship comes into port in Turkey and I will make the effort to get to there by then. So that will be neat to see them. For those that don’t know that is my brother, sister inlaw and nephew and niece.

Turkey is spectacular and there is so much to see. Click on the following two links for pictures.

Click on this link for Izmir Turkey pictures

Click on this link for Cappadocia Turkey pictures.

Istanbul and pictures.

Having a good time walking around Istanbul. It is a huge city and there are tons of things to check out. The food is fantastic. However I was sick last night. Not fun.

We went for a cruise on the Bosphorus yesterday. It is the waterway linking Europe with Asia. Turkey is the only country on two continents and the town of Istanbul is on both parts. We went to the Spice Bazaar too.

Click on the link for more Istanbul pictures

Istanbul, pictures

Erin and I are having a great time in Istanbul Turkey. There are lots of sites to check out, mosques to see, good food to eat and people to watch. I love hearing the call to prayer come over the loud speakers spreading over the whole city.

Click on this link to see the fire drink I had in Santiago de Compestela and Istanbul pictures

The image shown is of Erin and I with our head scarves on at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Spain, pictures

Barcelona won the Spanish Cup while I was here and I was at the celebrations and the "riot." As the picture indicates flares were going off, fireworks, horns, people yelling, screaming, hanging off of street lights, drinking on monuments and marching through the streets all night long. There were riot police everywhere and finally at 3:20 am I said we should get out of here and back to our hostel as the riot police were marching through the streets with their tear gas canisters in plain view ready to set them off. It was something to see, they sure love their soccer, sorry, football. The night I was flying out of Barcelona they won the league, which was an even bigger deal so that caused the streets to be closed again and taxis were hard to find and then I some how missed the bus to the airport which I was an hour early for. So I ended up paying a small fortune to get to the airport by cab at 4am. Luckly I was safe as it was a sketchy evening to be out, but it was a 6am flight from an airport 100km´s outside of Barcelona, getting the picture of the small fortune paid to get to the airport...

Barcelona was great. Gaudi was an amazing architech and his work in Barcelona is worth checking out. I learned where the phase "that´s so Gaudi" must have come from, but the man was a genious. I am not sure why they don´t use his techniques and ways of building now, oh yes, money and time. Only one of his projects was finished in his lifetime, but his ideas were really cool.

I flew to the west of Spain to Santiago de Compestela and was at mass and the church where all the pilgrams come to. That too was neat to experience. The church was packed and packed with backpacks, hippies, people in hiking and rain gear, not their Sunday best for sure, but I bet they were feeling their Sunday best. Two people at my hostel hiked 700 km´s to get there over 32 days. It was neat to see the pilgrams.

Checked out the beach in Barcelona for a couple of days with Alina from Romania. I could write a book about what we saw those two days at the beach, crazy people and their choices of what to wear or not wear at the beach. There was this one women on Friday afternoon who showed up in her work cloths and this is me saying what I think is going on in her head. "I worked hard today. I think I will go to the beach on my way home. What undergarments did I wear today? Oh it doesn´t matter." So she strips down to her thong see through lace underwear, no bra and proceeds to lay on the beach and get a message from one of the ladies offering this 5 Euro service on the beach. All day we heard "Coka, Fanta, Cerveza, massagi." I did get the 5 Euro massage on the beach and it was good, bathing suit stayed on for those wondering.

Click on the following link for pictures from Barcelona and Santiago de Compestela Spain

Off to Turkey tomorrow.

Nice France and Monte Carlo Monaco, pictures

Have spent the last couple of days exploring Nice France and today went to Monte Carlo Monaco where they are having the formula one race in 10 days. We walked the track and saw the set up. Man there is a lot of money in Monaco. The houses and cars there, holy smokes. It is a crazy city to walk, up and down, tons of stairs, lots of exercise.

Monaco is the second smallest county in the world after the Vatican for your info. I am off to Barcelona tomorrow by train.

Nice France and Monte Carlo Monaco photos, click here

Canada Quarter Final Game; Pictures

Went to the quarter final game and saw Canada win 4 – 2 against Lativja. This is such a hard keyboard to use. It did not know the French have a different layout. The a, ., z, q, etc are all in different places. It is hard to type. I am currently in Nice, France. I took a 10 hour train ride yesterday from Switzerland via Italy. I had to change trains four times. I met two guys from Saskatoon doing the same route so we stayed together and we will go on to Barcelona together in a few days. They are good fun. We got a bottle of wine each last night, once we got in and walked the city, got to love being able to have a beverage in public.

Click on the link for pictures of the quarter final game Canada vs Latvija

Paragliding in Switzerland, Pictures

It is a beautiful day here, 24 degrees and I am just back from paragliding. I went to the top of a mountain and ran off of it. I was soaring through the air like a bird. It was awesome and such a smooth peaceful ride. The panoramic view was spectacular.

Click on this link to see my paragliding photos.

This hostel has great internet access and uploading capabilites unlike a lot of places I have visited, hence the photos being added so often and it is free. This is my last day here though. Off to the hockey game now. A great day. Paragliding and I get to go to the Canada Latvija game.

Boat ride and hike Switzerland, Pictures

Today started out with no plan and was a full day that just kept getting topped. The woman at the hostel suggested a boat ride and walk along the lake. It was awesome. The colour of the glacial water is spectacular. The boat ride was an hour long with mountains on both sides and then we hiked about 8km along the water and through the woods always with the mountains in view. There were a pair of fighter jets that flew over at least four times during the walk.

It was funny before catching the boat we debated going to the grocery store and buying a sandwich as yesterday each village we visited was a ghost town and nothing was open and it was really hard to find food. So we thought we wouldn't get our selves into the same trouble as yesterday but it happened again. Looking on the map it looked like the town we were going to by boat would have shops and restaurants. No such luck. So we walked and ended up in a little town where again nothing was open. It is low season and the villages and cities are ghost towns. We found a restaurant with a sign saying open. We went in, greeted the guy, sat down and then 10minutes later he says oh you want food? Kitchen is closed. Even though the sign said open. So we walked on and found another one. At that place the guy was so rude that we left. We found a hotel and they said they would make us a sandwich. One piece of meat between two pieces of bread and nothing else, $7.50. Food just the same and really we should have learned from yesterday and we had bread and food at the hostel we didn't take.

After we got the sandwich we asked this guy at the information booth which I was suprized it was open, which way to walk to Interlaken? He laughed in a big berly laugh and checked our shoes, ok and pointed us on our way. We laughed too once we climbed the hill and realized the rest of the walk was up hill and just along the highway. So we caught the bus. Local busses are free in this town with our hostel voucher.

Once back in Interlaken we went to a chocolate show and we got to make chocolates and eat more than our fair share. For $14.80 we went to the show and with that price you get an $8 voucher for products. It was awesome chocolate. He said a Swiss eats 25pounds of chocolate a year. I wonder what a Moloney eats a year?

After the chocolate eating we went for dinner and ended up at this great restaurant with jovial guys working there trying to drum up business. I had a pork roast and mash potatoe dinner for $17.50 which is a really good price for here. We were given free salad and ice cream which was an added bonus. While we were eating the ice cream I heard this noise and then music. It was one of those big horns. The waiter said would you like to try it? I will bring it out. We were eating on the patio. So we got to play the horn too.

Then it turns out that the hockey game I bought tickets for the other day will be the Canada vs Latvija game. Which is another added bonus to get to see Canada play and Latvija has crazy fun fans. So watch for me on tv.

Click on this link for more photos of Switzerland

Hiking in Switzerland, pictures

Click on this link for pictures from my hike in Switzerland.

Loving Switzerland. I went for a hike today through the mountains outside of Interlaken. Ben is also in this town and hostel so we went together. (He was the guy that went to his first hockey game the other day.) It was an awesome day with beautiful mountains, snow, waterfalls, trees, valleys, rivers, cows and few people. It is low season so many of the villages we went through were all closed up. We took the train out of town, then a gondola up, hiked, took another gondola, hiked again and then a bus and train back. The views were spectacular, the pictures don't do it justice. We circled up and down and around a mountain valley I tried to show you the route in one of the photos.

Will do a hike again tomorrow and then Thursday watch for me at the quarter final World Hockey Champhionship game as I will be there.

Germany vs Austria

Click on this link for more photos
Made it to my second game of the World Hockey Championships. This game was Germany against Austria, Austria won, one nothing. I met a guy at the hostel from London England who had never been to an ice hockey game so we went together. He had lots of questions throughout the game that I explained for him.

This game was much cheaper. It was only 19 dollars for the same area I was in last time and not many people were at the game so we got to go right up to the front of the section. With your ticket there is free transportation in Switzerland until 12pm the next day. That works out for me as I was going to go to Interlocken tomorrow and the ticket itself to there was 26 dollars and I paid 19 for the game and it included the tram there and back today and the trip to Interlocken tomorrow.

Went to some great markets yesterday and have just been taking in the sites, flowers and smells of spring here. The lilacs are in bloom and smell awesome. The flowers at the market were breath taking too. They make great flower arrangements in Europe. I am getting a good work out from all the steep inclines too. I can feel it in my thighs and butt.

I am writing this blog post from a free internet bus out front of the arena. We have an hour or so until Switzerland plays Sweeden at the arena and we will watch the game in the tent on site.

Switzerland World Hockey Championships, pictures

Well I made it to Switzerland yesterday at about 2:30 in the afternoon and found out the World Hockey Championships are on in Bern and Zurich. I am staying in Bern, the capital. I went to the tourist office and found a hostel and while there I was able to buy a ticket to the 4:15 game with Russia against Sweeden. When in Rome, why not. Oh yeah, I am not there anymore. The ticket was about 59 dollars. So I rushed to the hostel, down and up these huge inclines, dropped off my backpack, changed rushed back to the center caught the street car and went to the arena. It was an awesome game and I made it on time. I was in the standing area. Most people stand to watch the games here. They actually had to install seats especially for the tournament. The Russians won in overtime. It was a fantastic game and I met some extream Swiss fans while I was there. They dressed me up in their flag and sunglasses and bought me beers. There was a double header last night and they were staying for the Swiss game as well, so were in their Swiss gear. That game was sold out so I stayed at the arena and watched it and the Canada game going on in Zurich on the big screens in a tent/bar out front of the arena. After there was a band that played in the tent. It was such a cool experience. There were fans everywhere with flags, drums and anything that would make noise.

Switzerland is beautiful and the people are lovely. I think I will stay here for a few days, who knows I may make it back to the arena. My hostel has kept me with the fact that they serve a free breakfast complete with a machine that dispenses hot milk and they have awesome Swiss hot chocolate mix to put in it. Little things please me and especially chocolate.

Click on the link for the Switzerland pictures