Finally...My Account of Norway

More or less, I became lazy on writing while in Norway, and I've postponed this entirely too long. The lapse in time I'm certain will sadly cause a good story or two to be omitted. Our itinerary was as follows, and allowed for spectacular views along the Western coast, crossing more fjords via ferries than I could count:
Oslo -> Stavanger -> Bergen -> Førde -> Stryn/Olden -> Aalesund -> Molde -> Førde -> Bergen

Ingebjørg and I spent a day in Oslo before catching a train to Stavanger where she lives. She sublet her room while she was traveling, and so we stayed with her friend Tove. It's amazing how great it was to spend time in a house instead of just hostels or camping. Most of our days in Norway were spent climbing when the weather allowed. The other days we generally hiked.  One hike outside of Stavanger was to Preikestolen, a sheer-faced cliff with a 604 meter drop to the fjord below. The weather decided to cooperate for about 30 minutes once we arrived at the top for a nice photo shoot before the clouds rolled in.  The clouds and misty weather of course required us to make coffee at the top to warm up (my new addiction...but hey, there could be worse ones!) and eat a little before heading down.

Sunset in Stavanger

As the clouds rolled in over Preikestolen

Photo shoot on the edge

Just having a peak over the edge :-)...talk about a drop off.

We arrived in Bergen a few days before their national holiday, the 17th of May. We couch surfed Ingebjørg's friends' apartments, so I met lots of amazing, welcoming locals. We hiked two of the mountains and climbed on weather-permitting days. I was informed it was a must to be in Bergen during the 17th of May for the morning parade and celebrations. It was well worth it to see the abundance of traditional Norwegian attire, including Ingebjørg's. After the parade, we headed to her parents' house in Førde. We both indulged in baths, clean clothes, home cooked food, and comfortable beds. Her mom cooked an interesting traditional Norwegian dish that I believe was sour cream porridge, or at least that's how it was described to me. We added cinnamon and sugar to it. It was rich and delicious. We hiked two mountains during our time in Førde to attempt to make up for that porridge too ;).

Hiking in Bergen

 A little girl enjoying the parade and Ingebejorg with her parents.

Parade in Bergen for the 17th of May

Hiking in Førde

Next on the list was Stryn and Olden. We were meeting a group of climbers from Bergen to climb near Stryn at a crag called Beachen, of which I'm probably butchering the spelling. It was an extremely warm and sunny day, leading to a dip in the ocean afterwards. You can't get more refreshing than running into a fjord where the glacier water merges. I oddly didn't mind it, probably due to the fact that I was immediately numbed by the water. We drove to Olden afterwards to the cabins where we were staying at the base of Briksdalbreen (Briksdal Glacier). This was all in a day's work...in the daylight (with quite a bit of road time), including a cookout at the end of the day with some bouldering around the camp. The sun was rising around 5am and setting at about 10:15pm. That's not including the residual daylight that last a lot longer. It was incredible and exhausting all at the same time! I was running on little sleep and coffee. I was up early the next day though to read in the morning sun outside before taking off with a couple of the girls to hike to the glacier and attempt another mountain. I say attempt because we weren't prepared with crampons, and the snow covered areas were too big to maneuver around without risking sliding down the mountain for a sled-less, high speed ride that I didn't care to take. We aborted and headed back towards Stryn to go swimming.

The drive from Førde to Stryn

 

Bouldering near the cabin by the glaciers

 
The next morning we continued our journey North to Aalesund for some kayaking and more local food at another friend's family's cabin.  Last we headed to Molde before heading back South.

View from a hilltop in Aalesund

Here are some random shots from the drive back South too.  We stopped at her parents' house again on the way home.  When we got back to Bergen, we met up with her Stavanger friends for a climbing festival.

Climbing near Bergen

Norway is extremely breathtaking and it was getting even better the further North we went. It reminded me a little of New Zealand, especially Milford Sound in New Zealand. I don't know much about Norway's government or politics, besides the briefing I received from Ingebjørg. I was astounded by the cleanliness of the country as a whole. It seemed to be relatively void of extreme wealth or poverty. Apparently this is government controlled. Since Ingebjørg is a doctor there, we had numerous discussions about the health care system too which is not unexpectedly wayyy better than in the US from my perspective. To reiterate this point to all Americans, including my dad who questioned my access to health care while climbing abroad, the US is ranked number 37 according to the World Health Organization in 2000 (I could only speculate that we wouldn't be any higher on that list if WHO were to do an updated ranking). Seven of the eleven countries I visited are ranked higher than the US and two weren't far behind.

About two weeks into my Norwegian extravaganza, my prior boss in Phoenix sent me a text asking if I would be interested in an overnight position at the hospital that had just opened up. I already knew about the position. I was also considering returning to the US to find work for a few months in July. I was uncertain if I wanted the position, but when he texted I decided it would be the easiest short term job option, since I could stipulate a time frame in which he had to hire and train someone new. I decided to take it and booked a flight back to the US for five days later, hence aborting a flight I had already bought to Croatia. I think there is a fine line between work and play and having too much of either.  I felt like traveling was getting a little too comfortable for me and some work would put things back into perspective :-).

As I write this, I am six weeks back into work.  My perspective has been renewed, and I am even more eager for my next adventure!

Culture Shock

As I set on the beach near Mastichari, Greece, I reorganized my bags thinking I had entirely too many clothes. I thought to myself, "A dress? Do I really need a dress? I haven't warn it once in over four months." And then I left the dress behind.

I stepped off the plane in Norway, zipping my coat up and keeping my eye out for some Norwegian climbers that I knew would be getting on the same bus as me into Oslo from the outlying airport. Everything was as expected so far, albeit dark and I couldn't actually see anything besides the people. Ingebjørg and three of her friends met me at the main bus station. Four nicely dressed, pretty girls. We decided to go for a drink. I sucked it up and didn't think about the fact that my last "shower" was a dip in the ocean (actually, my last two). Or the fact that I was carrying a huge backpack. We walked into a bar that could have been straight from Phoenix...a trendy, microbrewery. I looked around, staring at all these strange people in jeans and normal clothes. I noted there were numerous good looking guys too.

It was at that moment that I realized a) I haven't been in any cities in quite some time (albeit Oslo is not a huge one); b) I haven't needed non climbing clothes for an equal amount of time; c) men in "normal" clothes are quite attractive and d) I was back to Western Civilization. It felt really strange.

I was pleased though by the fact that I hadn't started tossing out any of my non-climbing/outdoors clothes just yet!

Kalymnos, Greece

While sitting at the Mastichari Port at a restaurant on Kos, I was talking to the owner and found out they had "pirate" boats that would still be running to Kalymnos regardless of the high winds and rough water. Since the ferries weren't running again, it was my only option. It did get us safely there. I can't however say it was a smooth ride. The waves were intense, throwing the small, maybe 35-40ft boat around. You couldn't see out the front windows so I sat closest to the back of the cabin where the doors were so I could see the horizon and hopefully prevent nausea. The exhaust fumes were right there though, probably making it worse for me. I was drenched in sea water from head to toe. My head was starting to hurt, my stomach felt a little queazy, and my breathing was getting shallow. We finally arrived in about 30 minutes and it took a good few hours for me to feel normal again. Hopefully no more rough water and pirate boats for me!

Kalymnos is absolutely gorgeous though! I shared a cab with an Italian family to get to the other side of the island to a town called Massouri. I asked the cab driver to drop me off at the cafe where all the climbers go. He knew what I meant and asked where I was staying. When I told him I needed to figure that out he took me to the next cafe and spoke with the owner, Artemis, who made me a deal of €15 a night since I was one person. I was too excited to start climbing to want to look elsewhere. She showed me the studio, I said sure, set my stuff down, and packed my climbing bag.

In Turkey one day I met two Americans (Colin and Jim) who I gave my email and phone number to because they were headed to Kalymnos for the month of April. I had been texting with Jim and headed to meet up with him. An English and a Scottish guy who live on the island picked me up. I said I was going to the sector called Arginonta and read the description of where it was located from the guide book. They knew exactly where it was, pulled over, and pointed to the cairn that I needed to follow to get there. I won't bore you with the other stories, but my first few days here all of my hitch hiking experiences were similarly great. One local owned a restaurant which led to multiple free drinks there over the course of my time on the island.

The locals here are fabulous...some of the nicest I have met so far on my travels. I feel like I have a second mom at the little convenient store next to my studio. The first day I walked in she introduced herself and has been so sweet my entire time here. I get lots of hugs, she makes sure everything is okay with me daily, and slips in some free food here and there.

After a couple of days on the island, I finally ran back into Addy and Dan (the Romanian couple I rode with from Turkey). We shared many climbing days, beach days, beers, and stories about life. I'm confident I will see them again someday in the future :). Some people you meet traveling and you have a good time with them and that is that, then there are others you are confident you will see again. It's part of what I love about traveling. Cultural stories about how other people grew up and live are always my favorite. I think my chin was dropped every time I heard Addy and Dan's childhood stories growing up in Communist Romania and waiting in bread lines with their ration cards.

An Austrian friend, Moritz, who I also met in Turkey, came to the island too. Five of us took a boat to a secluded part of the island so the boys could deep water solo for Moritz's birthday. A couple days later I took him up a multipitch route on the neighboring island of Telhendos. It was nine pitches and about 250 meters high. It was his first multipitch climb, and I was so excited to know enough about climbing from all of my great teachers (Nick, Dustin, and Jon) to be able to share the experience with a newbie! It's quite hot (hotter than normal for the time of year according to the locals) and we had a two hour hike down. Towards the end, we were all practically running to get to the ocean as we felt like we were overheating. We threw our bags down and hightailed it to cool waters!

My time on Kalymnos is now coming to an end and I have met so many amazing people here, quite a few more I haven't mentioned. It's hard leaving somewhere with so many great memories that have been made here. I'm actually sad that this chapter of my travels is ending for a number of reasons.

On Saturday though a new chapter will begin in Norway. A Norwegian friend I met in Turkey, and who was also in Kalymnos while I was here (Ingebjørg), has invited me to travel Norway with her for three weeks. (The flight was only $60...and Greece and Norway are not close!) I'm not excited about the extremely high prices of absolutely everything there, but I'm definitely excited for everything else! I've yet to really consider where I will be going after that though (which is how I prefer it). I have to be out of the Schengen Area (most of Europe) by May 25th and can't re-enter until my Visa resets on June 28th. I have about three weeks to decide my next stop. Scotland for trekking? Croatia for climbing or better yet to find a sailboat to work on? Asia? Finally get to Australia since I do have a Visa there? Who knows! Only my next whimsical thought (maybe combined with flight prices) will be able to tell! ;-)



Joe at Grande Grotta with Telendos in the background.



Fish and beer at a restaurant in Arginonta. I had hitched a ride from the owner earlier in the week.  He gave me a free beer every time I visited.

Edward on a 7c at Sikati Cave.

Adi on the multipitch route on Telendos.

Moritz on the multipitch on Telendos Island...his first multipitch and his birthday present from me. :-P

Marooned on an Island

Okay, maybe marooned is a bit dramatic. I have however been stuck on the island of Kos for 24 hours now.

The ride from Antalya to Bodrum with the Romanian couple went smooth. We arrived to the ferry dock in the early hours on Monday, I think about 4am. I however didn't know because I was so exhausted that I was oblivious to our arrival and woke up to the others also asleep in the front seat at about 6:30am. At 8am the ticket office opened and we purchased passenger tickets and one for their car. We went through customs. Their car set outside of the customs gate with our bags. We stood clueless. One security guard asked if we had a car. We said yes. He walked away talking to others. Another security guard asked if we had a car. We said yes. He walked away rambling to everyone and still nothing. Another security guard told us to go to the car. We walked back across the customs gate and got in. Another security guard told us to get out and go through customs...again. Confused, we obeyed. Then Adriana and I went to board the boat while Dan waited behind. Finally at the last minute they opened the gates so Dan could drive the car on board. We all slept for the hour ride.


Bodrum Port



Arriving in Kos, Greece, we had to go through customs again. Being another small port, it was equally chaotic. They stamped my passport and we walked out, wondering again how to get the car. I randomly flipped through my passport to see where the stamp was located. It said 15-4-14. I paused, looked at Adriana, and confirmed that it indeed is 2013 and not 2014. I grabbed the lady that stamped it as she walked out of the office and showed her. She turned to another Greek guard, and I can imagine some swear words slipped as they realized they just stamped the non EU citizens with stamps that said 2014. They rather unofficially struck two lines through the stamp and stamped it again with the correct date while they joked that I was here in the future. Luckily my passport expires in May 2014 so I will need a new one sometime before December so I hopefully won't run into any issues due to it.

After the stamp was corrected they sent us back to the car. A guy checked underneath and in the trunk and directed us to an office. For the Reece's reading this, this is the best way I can describe this office. We walk in and the phone rings; an old phone with a certain, loud shrill to it. For some reason it IMMEDIATELY took me back to the Brazil Reece Oil Bulk Plant days with Charlotte. There was a handwritten book opened where they were logging license plate numbers and other relevant information to the car which reminded me of Charlotte's accounting book. The only difference was a little less clutter.

After getting the car cleared, we drove the 30 minutes to Mastichari where we were to catch the second shuttle to the island of Kalymnos. Winds were high and we found out that the ferries can't run in the winds but it could change if we waited 5 hours when the next ferry was scheduled to arrive. We waited. We drove back to the town of Kos. We ate a pita gyro. We drove back to Mastichari. Nothing. No boats coming or going. They tell us about the big ferry that goes all the way to Athens but makes a stop in Kalymnos. We used my phone to call, and the Greek guy at the restaurant who had been helping us gets the information for us. It was to arrive at the Kos port at 9:50pm. We drove back to Kos. We bought tickets. We ate another pita gyro at the same restaurant (they were really delicious...the best ones I've ever had). We drove up to the large boat to board. It was chaos. There were people yelling and running around. One guy approached our car. The winds were bad. He says there's a "1%" chance that they will stop on the island of Kalymnos; otherwise, we will be stuck on the boat for about seven more hours to Athens. Three guys proceed to chaotically repeat this to us. Then a fourth starts yelling, "you go or you stay, you go or you stay, which is it, you go or you stay". Alright....statistically speaking that would be REALLY stupid to go. We stayed. We got our money back and succumbed to the fact that we needed a hotel for the night.

I can't say I wasn't pleased to sleep in a bed though. In fact it was an extremely solid night's rest. There is a website called Marine Traffic that we had been using to monitor the last ferry we were attempting to board, and we got the idea to watch it to see what our 1% chance would have been. Well it turns out that the 1% chance that the guards probably incorrectly stated was all they needed and the boat made it to Kalymnos. But at the least I had a bed to sleep in and I would be in it at a decent hour.

We came to the conclusion that the chaos among the workers at the ferry was due to the strike that was to occur the next day. They must have just wanted to create additional chaos just a few hours early.

So...I have now been "marooned" on Kos for 24 hours and am crossing my fingers that it won't be more than 28 hours. I have had two cups of coffee this morning to kill time while waiting. Have I mentioned I don't typically drink coffee? And that when I do I typically have a lot of energy that needs expended? Lucky for the Romanians, we have just split ways so they can try to get their car across from the Kos port while I take a smaller boat from the Mastichari port.

And my adventures continue... ;)



Yummy Gyro Wrap



Turkey Part 5

After arriving back at JoSiTo camp on about March 23rd, I decided to ask about a job in exchange for free food and accommodation. This decision was not based on the fact that I was low on money. I have never worked in a kitchen/restaurant, and I have never worked in exchange for something besides money, so I decided to give it a shot. The biggest drawback for me was that I would be committed to a location for the next three weeks. Three weeks may not seem like long to many of you, but travel time can be precious time, and I had already been in Turkey for a little over a month. After talking with Tobias, the owner, I decided I would help out since Easter holiday was approaching and the camp census would be up for a couple weeks.

My job would be a little of everything...preparing food and drinks, serving, collecting dirty dishes, washing the dishes when the permanent hire was off work on Thursday's, and taking orders from the front bar where the food and drinks were ordered. Also worth noting was that I made my first ever cappuccino as well as cup of coffee! It took all of one shift to get everything down. (If I learn something that quick, there's a decent chance I will get bored with it that quick as well.) The first day was quite entertaining and consisted of a soap fight and dancing in the kitchen...no complaints at that point! My shifts are every other day, and on working days the hours are 7am-11am and 6:15pm-11pm usually, leaving plenty of time for climbing during the day...which is generally what I did unless it was a rest day.



With Berger and Thiebout in the kitchet at JoSiTo.



I realized a week into work that I left my scuba diving certification card in the US and decided to have Mom mail it to me. The expected arrival time was five days...except it had to go through customs which wasn't always time sensitive, and the mail man only comes to camp once a week on Wednesday's. Approximately seven days after it left the US, it was Wednesday, and there was no package for me. And as predicted...at that point I was starting to go just a bit stir crazy at JoSiTo. It was a little over two weeks since I started and I had the rest of the week to go.

I usually thought of JoSiTo as "JoSiTo Island" because that is exactly what it felt like after being there off and on for nearly two months. Everyone knew everyone's business. In fact, we joked about starting a JoSiTo Gossip Column to print once a week...to be written by Tenzin since he was worse than any girl about knowing everyone's business. Saturday nights there was always a party at one of the other climbing camps that is just a short walk through the woods. (These usually produced a source of gossip for Tenzin to feed over on Sunday's.) The owner of this camp broke his leg two months ago due to his girlfriend forgetting to tie a knot in the end of the rope and the route being too long for his rope. I'm not sure how far he fell, maybe 15 feet, but it landed him a broken leg and some interesting new dance moves (all one-legged). Also worth noting for any climber reading, a week after having his cast was removed, he climbed an 8a+ (5.13a) in his running shoes...incredibly impressive in my book considering I can't climb anywhere near this...anytime.

My second to last Sunday we had a group beach day. Five of us took a car, Nasim (who has been at JoSiTo three years but doesn't always give the best directions) in shotgun telling Thiebout to go right or left at the last minute, and Edward (the American who is also always right) contradicting her directions from the back seat. I had a tiny hangover and it was about more than I could manage. When we arrived at the beach I took the antisocial route and listened to my headphones and napped part of the day. With a group of nine, decision making is impossible. Finally around 6pm of no one coming to agreement on a movie or tea somewhere, I notified everyone I was getting on the bus and anyone could come that wanted to join me. :-) It was a good decision...I was in dire need of some alone time and the group that stayed with the car didn't arrive home until at least 9pm. I had officially reached a point of needing to steer clear of the island life. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday being anti-social and reading in the woods and heading to town to the beach. I offloaded a box snowboarding clothes to the post office to be mailed home too. It's amazing though that my pack doesn't seem to get any lighter or smaller. My packing skills must have just been extremely efficient when I packed in the US due to the thought that I needed as much as possible.

My last days of work passed quickly. I regained my social abilities and went climbing the last few days there. Nasim and I had some much needed girl chat at the crag on my first day back at climbing and it gave me extra travel and climbing motivation. And it was a good decision to climb those days because I surprised myself with some extra power that was gained after two months of off and on climbing. This is only going to make sense to climbers, but I have managed to onsite three 7a's which is quite ironic because I've only sent three 7a's in my life. I decided I should jump on an over hanging 7b that was recommended called Greek Gift. It was an incredibly pumpy line for me with pre-hung draws and a bolted line perfect for taking whippers...of which I took a huge one while pulling rope up to clip a draw and slipping off of the subpar tufa horn I was hanging onto. It was a long, adrenalin spiking route and I worked up most of it but was pumped and came down right before the last roof I needed to pull. When I got to the bottom and was changing shoes, I kid you not, I was almost in tears from the adrenalin and excitement of climbing. :-) It was a great feeling.

My last day in JoSiTo, I rounded up some Turkish assistance and booked a bus to Bodrum using Mustafa's credit card and Mumtaz's Turkish to English translating. Then Thiebout and I hitch hiked into town to the market. A truck stopped to pick us up with a Romanian climbing couple driving. We chit chatted on the drive down. They were from Brasov, in Transylvania, where I just was two months before. I told them I was headed to Kalymnos that night. They proceeded to inform me that they had friends at JoSiTo, also Romanian, who were leaving for Kalymnos that night and had a VW with Romanian plates and I should find them and see about a ride. When I got back to camp I immediately ran into them as they were about to get in their car. They offered for me to ride with them to Bodrum and then we could catch the ferry together to the island of Kos and then Kalymnos. It sounded like a brilliant plan so I jumped in the shower and packed my bags in preparation for about a 10pm departure. I enlisted the help of another Turkish guy at camp and he called and cancelled my bus ticket for me.

It was sad to say good-bye to all the friends I made but I am certain I will see quite a few of them again in the future!

With Nasim and a random pup on the porch at JoSiTo

Edward and his snake skin pants.

I usually have a serious face when I'm climbing...except as I am falling.  I am falling here.  Giggling usually precedes the fall too.

My camping spot at JoSiTo.

A Forgotten Moment in Istanbul

I can't believe this completely slipped my mind when mentioning Istanbul. I guess this is what I get for postponing documentation of moments while traveling. On Saturday night, after the Turkish baths, Can and I were walking along the pedestrian street. I mentioned I was hungry and wouldn't last through a beer celebrating St. Patrick's Day if I didn't get food in me first. It was pretty damn cold out that night, windy, and sprinkling a little. Pedestrian streets in those weather conditions lead to umbrellas everywhere, begging to poke your eyeballs out. Can and I were dodging people and umbrellas so it was a few minutes before he said, "would you try something if you didn't know what it was until afterwards?" If I were in the US, I would probably cringe and potentially say no...but I'm traveling so the answer was of course "yes!"...but none the less with a bit of a cringe on my face. We approached this really busy restaurant that looked like a bit of a fast food type place. Actually, it reminded me of Steak and Shake for some reason. As per usual protocol with Can, he ordered my food for me with the only request from day one meeting him that I always get local, Turkish food. I drank some ayran (a yogurt drink) while we waited on our food.

Our food arrived which turned out to be sandwiches. They were approximately eight inches long by four inches wide at the thick end. It was probably half a loaf of the fluffy white bread, grilled. I took a bite. Spicy. I thought for a moment and took another bite. My first reaction was "hmm...yum, yeah...I think it's yum." My next thought was whether to savor it in my mouth to attempt to determine exactly what I was eating. I ate a couple more bites, half wanting to devour it, half wondering if I should be repulsed. I went with the first thought and continued to devour it. With about a quarter of it left and absolutely no clue what it was, I slowly looked inside the sandwich for any clues. It appeared to be meat of some sort, maybe some onions, and a red tomato based sauce. Nope, there was no way I could tell what it was. I opened the sandwich a little more...still nothing.

Okay, I thought, I guess I will go ahead and just devour the rest of it. Once Can and I both finished, he gave me one of his typical, in-quizzical expressions. I had no guesses. Drum roll please......

Lamb intestines. Yes, it was lamb intestines I just ate. And I enjoyed it?! Then my US "societal norm" thinking kicked in. Was I repulsed? Should I gag now? Would I really want to puke this back up if I did get myself repulsed enough? That seemed to be the only certain thing I could answer. It was good going down but I sure as hell didn't want to experience it a second time. So was I actually repulsed? Would I eat it again? Then Can broke my thought process. Would you like another one? Hmm...I wasn't sure I could even come up with an answer for that. He broke in with, let's return after the Irish Pub if we are still hungry. I agreed...and figured with a drink or two in my system then I might even welcome a second one, but I still wasn't too sure about before that.

These are the experiences in travel that you embrace. The moments of being "lost" in another culture...be it on their streets, attempting to communicate with no common language while on their public transportation, trying their food, eating a termite off the tree because the local guy in front of you just did it, and so on. New experiences and situations and people are what drive me. Being out of my comfort zone, taking a deep breath, and realizing it is my inner self and thoughts that make moments and experiences what they are, and then embracing them.

Turkey Part 4 - Istanbul and Cappadocia

Due to a lack of skin on my fingertips from climbing, on the 13th of March I decided to book a flight to Istanbul on the 14th for all of US$44. Uncertain of my plans and whether I would return to Josito, I took everything along with me. I arrived and checked into Bada Bing Hostel and called it a lazy, relaxing day. Early on Friday I headed out for some tourist destinations. I visited the Cistern Basilica, Topkepa Palace, the Blue Mosque, had fish from a boat on the river, and then walked towards Taksim on the popular pedestrian street. Next to the Blue Mosque was the Hagia Sophia which would have been convenient except I was on tourist overload and couldn't bring myself to go. All the babbling in different languages, people bumping into you, and big cameras flying everywhere can start to drive you a little nuts. The next day was a rainy one, so Can (Jarrod's friend) and I went to the Turkish Baths and then headed to an Irish pub to meet up with his friends for St. Patrick's Day.

View of Istanbul from the Bosphorus

Me inside the Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul actually sits on two continents, Asia and Europe, so of course I took a ferry across the Bosphorus to Asia for lunch and then had a beer from a rooftop restaurant with a great view. The Hagia Sophia was next on my list of things to see and another American from the hostel who was studying architecture in Paris joined me. It was a breathtaking and phenomenal building, originally built as a mosque but also was under Christian control for some time, meaning it had an interesting twist of Muslim architecture with Christian paintings. Afterwards I headed on what ended up being a really long walk to find the original Walls of Constantinople which originally surrounded the city limits. Today half of the wall has been reconstructed and locals can be found gardening along the outside of the walls.



Asia side of Istanbul



 

Sunset in Istanbul.

 

Walls of Constantinople



On Tuesday night I took an overnight bus to Cappadocia which is a popular tourist destination firstly due to it's very interesting rock formations but also because of the massive underground cities in the area. My friend Johs from Josito met me in Cappadocia. We decided to jump on a tour bus to see some of the outlying attractions from Göreme where we were staying. We visited one of the underground cities (Derinkuyu), Ihlara Valley, Beliserma Village, and Selime Monastery. Ihlara Vally was a a canyon with nice cliffs (that appeared to have great potential for crack climbing if only it wasn't a protected area) that had churches built into the rock walls. Star Wars IV apparently has a scene that is based off of the Selime Monastery although after torturing myself through Star Wars IV (yes, I said torturing myself) I couldn't find it.

Since I climb better than Johs, he apparently decided renting bikes would be a great way to show me how out of shape I am. In my defense, he is from Denmark and they ride their bikes practically everywhere. We rode to Love Valley (I will let you determine which pictures are from here) and then I attempted to follow him up this massive hill for a good ten miles to get to the rock castle. It was a pretty epic failure on my part and he was kind enough to walk with me part of the way up because there was no way my thighs were going to make it.

That night we caught the overnight bus back to Antalya. We arrived at about 7am and decided to go to the beach for a nap since the bus wasn't the best night's sleep. Afterwards we headed to the grocery store and caught the bus back into Josito for some continued rock climbing. A good portion of my stuff is at Can's and he had to fly to Istanbul for a few weeks for work so Josito sounded like the best option until he returned to Antalya from his work trip. So now it is back to climbing time...but now with healed fingers!