'Turkish Delight' - Small, cube-like sweet jelly candy, found in a variety of colours and flavours...or, the lesser known term for a delightful aqua-spray bidet found in every toilet in the country-ahhhh, saves on the TP too!

Best Discovery - Turkish Delight

Worst Discovery - Yoghurt Water

Least Favourite Animals - Mangey Kitties

Favourite Animal - Puppy named 'Puppy' in Cannakale

Best Food - Baklava

Worst Food - 'Meatball Special' in Bursa

Best Jam-Side-Up - Gang on the Blue Cruise

Worst Jam-Side-Down - Waste of Time trying to choose our Blue Cruise! (it chooses you)... ----------------------------------------------------------

After an all nighter pack-session followed by three flights and 25 hours of travel time (16 flying) we finally arrived in Istanbul airport around 4pm May 13. The first of our surprises was that contrary to our belief, Turkey is not in fact on the Euro and the Turkish Lira is still very much in use! One Million Turkish Lira is equivalent to $1 Canadian - finally, we were millionaires!!!!

Not surprisingly, we pretty well slept through our three days in Istanbul, with the odd wake-up call of the prayers from every mosque within 10 miles (which are plenty!) - Actually, Istanbul was a pleasant introduction to Turkey for us with the stark contrast of traditional vs. modern and East vs. West...

We did manage to take in a few of the highlights and were pleasantly surprised at the total lack of tourists and almost total lack of English around town. We fully enjoyed a trip to the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. We had a near miss on poisoning ourselves with a fresh fish sandwich from the Bosphorous River (forbidden in our guidebook) which we happened to glance at, when about to order two!

Day 4 was time for our first Turkish bus ride experience which was punctuated by Neil bolting for the WC (apparently the Turks can hold their tea) and for a brief, highly comical (in retrospect) 20 minute search for a bus full of Turks and distraught wife that had seemingly vanished without a trace...

Our first stop was Bursa where we discovered the famous Iskender Kebap and our staple food, BAKLAVA!! Bursa was completely off the tourist track and Uludag Mountain was a refreshing afternoon trip where we were befriended by the first of many extremely friendly Turks...

Cannakale, which is best known for its proximity to the famous Gallipoli WWI battlefields and the mythological Trojan Horse of Troy. Our guide, Kenan's enthusiasm and depth of knowledge made us more excited about history than either of us ever thought we could be, and the stunning landscape won't soon be forgotten...

We detoured to a gem of an Island off the west coast, Bozcaada (its neighbouring island is infamous for the prison that temporarily held the protagonist from Midnight Express!). It was here we coined the phrase over a pleasant dinner by the sea 'ooh kitty you are a site!!' inspired by the mangiest of kitties who we nicknamed 'junkie kitty' for obvious reasons.

Selcuk, which is home to the sacred cow of ancient ruins, Ephesus (and lesser known site of Virgin Mary's home in her final years). We were introduced to the Turkish pancake 'not like the pancake you are thinking', and the famous Turkish carpets and Kilims here by a local character named Lily - whose charm and English slang have become a part of our trip lingo ever since...

Bodrum, a hotel with a pool...we milked that novelty!!

It was time for the 'Blue Cruise', whose Raki-induced antics and dramas have inspired a local soap opera in Turkey. Ours had its own dramas, but our cruise and gang aboard, was a Turkish highlight.

Naked, soaped down, and beaten up - that was our authentic Hamam (Turkish Bath) experience in a 800 year old bath house in Egirdir - we wanted to do it all again the next day!

Olympos and its famous eternal flame...have you ever been to a campfire that never went out? Mt. Olympos is one of nature's true oddities, with flames lighting up the side of the mountain from an never ending natural underground source of methane. Bring the marshmellows and prepare to be amazed.

In Cappadocia (Goreme), we lived in a cave-hotel, ate & drank in a cave bar and visited numerous shapes and sizes of cave dwellings. It was a different spectacle every day. Selime was incredible, and if Star Wars wasn't shot there, it should have been!! This is where Robin and I officially hopped on the Turkey World Cup band-wagon, and remained loyal fans until Turkey was finally defeated by Brazil in the semi's.

We then had our very own Mountain hotel to ourselves on our overnight trip up to Mt Nemrut, home of Nemrut Dagi - Ancient Gods carved out of Rock. The God's heads now eerily lie on the mountain-side, fallen victim to an earthquake. After an intimate sunset and sunrise together, we really felt like we got to know Zeus!

Following the worst bus-ride of the trip yet 'bus ride from hell' (which would be rivalled much later, in Egypt) - we arrived in Antakya, on the Syrian Border. The region has traded hands a number of times, and it definitely felt like "we ain't in Turkey anymore"...