2009

Dec. 14 — 31:   Packed up our lives in Calgary, Alberta to start our life trav­el­ing with one bag each.

Dec. 31: Drove to Sorrento B.C. to drop off all worldly pos­ses­sions and our beloved cat with Chris’ family

2010

Jan. 1: Drove back through blind­ing snow and darkness

Jan. 2:   Red Arrow bus to Edmonton, Alberta to see friends and Laura’s grandma

Jan. 6:   Greyhound bus to Grande Prairie, Alberta to see Chris’ sister and family (nieces and nephews!)

Jan. 14:   Greyhound bus to Kamploops, B.C. to see Chris’ parents and family.

Jan. 20:   Greyhound bus to Kelowna, B.C. to see friend

Jan. 21:   Greyhound bus to Vancouver to see friends. Visited the Vancouver Aquarium (highly recom­men­ded).

Jan. 28:   Flew to London, UK. We saw the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Tate Modern, National Art and Portrait Gallery, St. Peters Cathedral, London Tower, Big Ben,  Tower Bridge, Covent Garden Market, the outside of the Globe Theatre and the inside of several pubs.

Feb. 3:   Flew to Istanbul, Turkey.

Feb 4: Visited Aya Sophia.

Feb 5: Visited the Basilica Cistern, the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum and Galata Tower.

Feb 6: Saw the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul University, the Spice Bazaar and the Roman aquaeduct.

Feb 7: Visited a Turkish bath and relaxed.

Feb 8: Visited Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque (Mosque of Sultanahmet).

Feb. 9: Visited the Archaeology Museum, Yedikule Hisan (Fortress of the Seven Towers) and the old city walls.

Feb. 10:  Took a ferry from Istanbul to Yalova, then a bus to Bursa and another bus to Canakkale one of the main cities close to both Gallipoli and Troy.

Feb. 11: Through a tour company, we visited the bat­tle­fields of Gallipoli.

Feb. 12: On our own, we visited the archae­olo­gical site of Troy and left Canakkale for Pergamum. The bus only took us as far as Dikili. Tomorrow we will find a small shuttle to take us the rest of the way.

Feb. 13: Shuttle, known as a dolmus, to Bergama and the ancient site of Pergamum.

Feb. 14: Valentine’s Day, we had break­fast in bed and Starbucks coffee that Chris sur­prised Laura with. Visited the ancient site of Asklepion and the Bergama Archaeology Museum.

Feb. 15: Walked five kilo­met­ers up the moun­tain to the acro­polis of the ancient city of Pergamum.

Feb. 16: Traveled from Bergama to Denizli.

Feb. 17: Traveled from Denizili to Pamukkale. Visited the Travertines and the Acropolis. Swam in the Antique Roman Pool.

Feb. 18: Walked through the hills and farmers fields sur­round­ing Pamukkale.

Feb. 19: Visited the ancient site of Afrodisias.

Feb. 20: Traveled from Pamukkale to Selcuk.

Feb. 21: Borrowed bicycles from the hotel and road three kilo­met­ers to the ancient site of Ephesus. In the after­noon we visited the sea side town of Kusadasi and enjoyed some beers by the water.

Feb. 22: Traveled from Selcuk to Guselcamli, a town near Dilek National Park. Our two new friends, Petrit and Gloria, we met in the hotel at Selcuk, joined us in Guselcamli.

Feb. 23: Chris, Laura, Petrit and Gloria started the day with a swim in a natural cave. We con­tin­ued with a hike into Dilek National Park, where unfor­tu­nately we got lost and ended up 50 kilo­met­ers from our hotel. We paid a local to drive us the one-hour back to our hotel. Our feet were soar — to say the least.

Feb 24: Traveled from Guzelcamli to the ancient site of Priene. We visited Priene with Petrit and Gloria, then we all took a dolmus back to Soke where we went our sep­ar­ate ways. Chris and I traveled to Bodrum.

Feb. 25: We explored the Bodrum Castle Museum and walked around the very North American like tourist town.

Feb 26: Traveled from Bodrum to Fethiye. Chris got his head shaved and beard trimmed at the barber. We visited 1 of the 7 wonders of the world, the Mausoleum of Helicarnassus.

Feb. 27: Enjoyed Turkish coffee by the water. Rented a sooter for three days. Drove around the hill sides and saw an old Turkish ghost town, the town of Oludeniz and a gor­geous lagoon.

Feb. 28: Drove on our scooter to the ancient site of Tlos, then to the natural Gorge within the moun­tains. Had lunch at an amazing authen­tic Turkish house/restaurant near the Gorge.

Mar. 1: Drove for 1.5 hours on the scooter to get to the World Heritage Site of Xanthos, the ancient Lycian capital. We also took a side road to gaze at the amazing site of Pinara, which is a moun­tain covered with hun­dreds of Lycian tombs. Applied with an agency for our Iran Visas.

Mar. 2: Enjoyed a Turkish break­fast and Turkish coffee along the water in Fethiye. Bought some donars for lunch and took the bus from Fethiye to Olympos. We were suprised to find Ben and Pen at the same pansion in Olympos. At night with Ben, Pen and another couple, we walked 1.5 hours across the beach, a river and along streets to Chimaera, the moun­tain with flames coming out of it.

Mar. 3: Breakfast in Turkey is some­thing else, espe­cially eating it on a cush­ioned wooden plat­form near a river. We sat around all day on the cush­ioned plat­form at the Saban Pansion in Olympos. Spent the evening chat­ting with Ben, Pen and another lady at the pansion named, Hannaka.

Mar. 4: Again, we sat around all day and watched a doc­u­ment­ary on Iran.

Mar. 5: Sat around all day reading, blog­ging and Laura worked on her cross-stitch. Researched prices of flights to Italy.

Mar. 6: Sat around on the cush­ioned plat­form, read, and walked around the ancient ruins and the nature of Olympos for 2.5 hours.

Mar. 7: Big sur­prise, we sat around again, reading, blog­ging, and editing photographs.

Mar. 8: Signed up and created a CouchSurfing account. Crossed the river and explored more of the ancient ruins of Olympos. Enjoyed a walk down the beach.

Mar. 9: Sat around the won­der­ful cus­tioned plat­form reading, writing, blog­ging and editing pho­to­graphs. Enjoyed some shisha at night.

Mar. 10: Left Olympos! Travelled to Antalya. Enjoyed beers at a res­taur­ant with a mag­ni­fic­ant ocean view in Antalya. Saw Ben and Pan again!

Mar. 11: Visited the Antalya Museum with Ben and Pen.

Mar. 12: Went shop­ping! Laura bough new shoes, a skirt, scarf and two shirts. Woo-hoo!

Mar. 13: Brainstormed ideas for enter­ing a film contest about our blog website for a CIRA contest. Met Turker, a very friendly man from CouchSurfing. He showed us around Antalya. We visited a water­fall and the nightly light and water show.  We atten­ded the monthly CouchSurfing meeting with Turker and his sister.

Mar. 14: Laura was hit with food pois­on­ing. In between bath­room visits, Laura and Chris shot footage for the contest entry. Chris worked for nearly 18 hours straight to com­plete the film.

Mar. 15: Took it easy before making our way to the night bus to Cappadocia, a 9-hour bus ride from Antalya.

Mar. 16: Walked around the town of Goreme in the area of Turkey known as Cappadocia. Visited 1001 Books, the English second-hand book­store in Goreme where we found a Lonely Planet travel guide for Iran and a Farsi (Persian) phrase book for only $20 CAN. Enjoyed dinner with Ben and Pen.

Mar. 17: Switched hotels to get a better deal on the price. Bought pro­vi­sions for a picnic lunch. Hiked through the Red and Rose Valley. Saw many carved pigeon holes, tunnels and churches. Cooked dinner with Ben and Pen in the hotel kitchen.

Mar. 18: It snowed last night! It’s magical to see the Cappadocia land­scape covered in a thin layer of snow. We rented a car, split­ting the cost with Ben and Pen and all four of us headed out to explore the famous land­scape of the Ihlara Valley. Laura dropped here 50-milimeter lens down the valley! For dinner Chris and Laura enjoyed their first “Testi”, a tra­di­tional meal cooked in a wood oven in pottery. The ceramic jar is broken open at the table. Yummy.

Mar. 19: We drove to many dif­fer­ent sites include­ing Imagination Valley, Pigeon Valley  and the other small valleys and cities sur­round­ing Goreme. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and our last dinner with Ben and Pen.

Mar. 20: Bought ourselves a table­cloth as a souvenir of Turkey. Had a lazy day writing post cards and watch­ing a doc­u­ment­ary about Ataturk.

Mar. 21: Visited the Open Air Museum just 1.5 kilo­met­ers out of Goreme. We were not entirely con­vinced the stone-carved churches were any better than the ones we found while hiking through the Red and Rose Valley in Cappadocia. Caught a bus from Goreme to Ankara (12:00 noon –5:45 pm) for 50.00 Tukish Lira.

Mar. 22: Got photos and pass­port pho­to­cop­ies  before walking to the Iranian Embassy to apply for Visas.  The embassy was not open because it’s a holiday. Did some shop­ping in the very, very cheap local market.

Mar. 23: Went back to the Iranian Embassy. Paid 90 Euro’s (180 Turkish Lira) for two Iran visas for Canadians. At first we were told it’d be 10-days until the visas were ready. After telling them we had a flight in 4-days, they told us to come back to the embassy tomor­row. ha,ha.

Mar. 24:  We headed to the Iran Embassy first thing in the morning. Not 10 minutes after arriv­ing we were leaving with big smiles on our faces and Iran Visas in our pass­ports.  Immediately we headed to Starbucks to spoil ourselves. For lunch we ate at Burger King across the street. What can I say, we were sick of Turkish food after 7 weeks.  Took the overnight train from Ankara to Istanbul (50.00 Turkish Lira for 2 adults in 2^nd class).  While waiting for the train we visited the railway train station museum which is housed in the build­ing Atatürk lived in during the War of Independence.

Mar. 25: In Istanbul (again), we walked about Taksim Square and popular ped­es­trian shop­ping street. We sat and enjoyed coffee in Starbucks (again....)

Mar. 26: Before leaving Istanbul we enjoyed fish sand­wiches in Sultanahmet. In the after­noon we flew from Istanbul to Rome.

Mar. 27: Walked around the many sites of Rome. Enjoyed our first gelato in Piazza Novona and our first Italian pizza near the Trevi Fountain. Bought and started writing postcards.

Mar. 28: Didn’t know it was day-light savings day so we missed our bus from Rome to Lanciano. After sitting around for 5 hours waiting for that bus, we had to sit around for 6 more until the next, and last bus of the day depar­ted to Lanciano. We didn’t arrive to Lanciano until mid-night.

Mar. 29:  Walked to the old city wall of Lanciano with Chris, a place my friends and I use to go daily while in high school.  Walked around the city a bit before eating lunch with the teach­ers and Laura’s good girl­friend Cristina D’Alessandro.

Mar. 30 — April 26: We hung out in Lanciano. Helped out at the market making flower arrange­ments, stock­ing shelves and serving cus­tom­ers. Worked on blog posts. Researched and bought tickets for the next lag our trip. Hung out with Cris and Dave (her boyfriend/the science teacher). Went to the beach once and visited Ortona and the Moro River Commonwealth War Cemetery.

April 26 — May 4: Hung out

with Christine in Piacenza, Italy. We made fab­ulous Italian food with fresh Italian ingredi­ents from the market. We roamed the streets of Piacenza. We helped Christine make a video for her boy­freind. We had a day trip to Parma the home­land of Parmigiano cheese. And thanks to Christine’s fab­ulous class­mates we had an amazing 30^th Birthday Party for Chris!

May 5: We flew from Italy to Morocco. We landed in Casablance but decide to jump onto a train and head for the small city of El Jadida. We walked around the Portegese city a bit. We bought two potato pan­cakes for a snack for 2 Dhirham ($0.20 CAN).