It's a new decade

Izmir, Turkey



New Years in Istanbul....

I have to admit, there wasn't much too it! A group of five of us headed into Taksim where we went to a restaurant, had a pretty good meal along with free (bad) alcohol. Unfortunately, the place Sedef's friend had picked was more or less empty. There wasn't much of a party or anything like that, we just hung out at a table and talked and drank. That said though, the company was good, the temperature was in the teens and I had a great night. Just lower key than Sedef and I had expected.


As far as other matters are concerened, this is likely to be my last post from Izmir. Well, for a number of months anyway. As usual, I don't know what the future holds, but I do know this:

Within the next week or so, I will catch a plan to Riyadh, the capital of Saudia Arabia where I will teach english for a while. I say "for a while" because I don't know how long. I'm excited to see the true middle east and finally get a true perception for what it is. Everyone I tell I am going there seems to think I am some brave fool or something but that's not the case at all, and bravery has nothing to do with it (although foolishness.....). I'm not worried for my safety or anything like that. People are people are people, no matter what country you are in. They change a bit with religious and culture differences but in the end they generally want to help you and not the opposite. I don't see any reason why Saudi Arabia should be any different.

Still, I will be away from Sedef for a number of months and that will be hard. I'm really not sure about how I plan to end my trip at this point. I will think heavily about it when I'm ready to leave Saudi and know more about my money situation and what kind of a plan Sedef and I come up with. In the mean time, things will continue their freeze as my bank accounts return to the black again :) i only have a one time entry visa for Saudi so unlike my hopes I won't be able to explore a lot of it's neighbours while I'm there. But I am thinking afterwards I will take the long route back to Turkey by ground and check out some of the neighbourhood.

Anyway, will write again soon. For now it's just a short one.

First Quarter Numbers

Izmir, Turkey

I was originally going to call this post "half-time numbers" seeing as how it's been six months of a one year trip. However it looks more like this trip will be 2 years so instead it's going to be first quarter. Here I will post some numbers about my journey thus far. I have kept track of these things in my journal so they should all be acurate.

From June 25/09 - December 25/09:


Intercity Flights Taken: 7
Intercity Busses Taken: 32
Intercity Trains Taken: 12
Intercity Ferries Taken: 6
Cities Cycled Between: 7
Missed Busses/Trains: 2
Taxi's Taken: 9


Times hit on by girls: 7 (subjective :)
Times hit on by guys: 1 (not subjective)
Times fallen in love: 1


Times Couch Surfed: 10
Panic Attacks Had: 2
Times Lost Something: 1
Times I've Been Lost: ??
Times Robbed: 0
Injuries Received: 12
Times Watched TV: 9
Streetshows Watched: 23


Caves Visited: 4 (I'm counting Cappadocia as one so it doesn't skew the numbers)
Castles Visited: 7
Religious Buildings Visited: 25
Cities Visited: 42
Countries Visited: 14

The next step.

Izmir, Turkey



Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a great holiday season! Thank you all for all the donations to my travelling cause. They really came as a surprise! They have alleviated things quite a bit here and my stress levels have dropped back down!

Also with Christmas comes my 6 month travelling anniversery. I've been gone half a year now. With this day comes two firsts: It's my first Christmas spent away from family, and it's the longest I've ever been outside of Calgary (Well, since I was 3 years old anyway). I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure if I'd be sad, crushed or quite content. As it turns out, I'm somewhere inbetween. I miss all of you people back home, especially over the last few days. But I have some great friends here that have made things much easier. I guess it just goes to show, no matter where you go, you'll always have friends and family, even if not connected by blood.



Anyway, I realize I haven't been writing on here regularly but as I'm sure you have figured, things have more or less been in a holding pattern the last few months. Now things are starting to get moving again.

Since my money has been running so low lately I have finally accepted a teaching position, although not in China as I first expected. No, I will be teaching in Saudia Arabia. I'm not sure which city yet, as I understand it, it will be one of four. Should be a pretty amazing experience! The pay is good (about 3000 USD/month) and everything but food is paid for. Free accomodations, insurance, travel stipend, etc etc. It means I should be able to bank all of it and have enough money for the rest of this trip!

On a writing front things are going well there too. I have a few more papers interested in looking at my work and they are going over it now. I hope to have another publication or two to announce after the holidays. I will keep you all posted!

I will be spending New Years in Istanbul with Sadife. After that I'm coming back to Izmir for a week or so and then off to Saudi. I plan to post from Istanbul. I'll let you know what New Years is like in Turkey!

Later, all!