Istanbul, here we come!

Scarves, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Holiday time!

Just over a year after we left for Istanbul on our first stop on our six month trip, we are flying out there again tonight. The trip this time is for just over three weeks which we intend to spend in Turkey.

We will be flying back, inshallah, from Antalya on 18th August, having spent a few days relaxing by the sea there.

In the meantime, we intend to travel east by train, to Ankara (maybe) to see the ethnographic museum there, then onto Konya, centre of the Sufi sect, before going down for a few days in Cappadoccia, land of the troglodytes.

Further, we will see if we can make it further east to the cities of Gaziantep, Diyarbakir, Urfa, Mardin and Hasankeyf, up to Nemrut Dag and even maybe to Lake Van, before returning to Mediterranean beach life, loud music, cheap beer and late nights.... sounds like a good way to relax.

I'll be taking with me Betrand Russel's History of Western Civilisation, Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker and Jared Diamond's Collapse, for some light reading. We also hope to contine in the tracks of William Dalrymple in From the Holy Mountain, which we found such an excellent accompaniment to Syria adnd Lebanon. For guide, we have the Rough Guide to Turkey, which is a good read. Let's hope it comes up with some good tips and excellent places to stay.

We will do our best to stay in touch through this blog and with photos on the flickr site.

I should mention that one week on from my summary of the first year on flickr, we have had over 12,000 views! This, no doubt, due to the photos I put up on beach life at Blijburg, including two photos of topless women (without heads), both of whom have been viewed 2,500 times... showing very clearly what so many people do when they come onto the internet!

Also hoping to persuade Fred to write on this blog!