Amanda and Lachlan's Lame Travel Blog

A round of kebabs closed the evening.

Later on Saturday we decided to have a casual stroll around the Basilica Cistern. After admiring the amazing architecture of the cistern and it's beautiful columns we spotted these two gents (read: dickheads) climbing on the ancient roman Medusa stone pillars. These pillars are priceless and their exact origin is unknown. Amanda "snappy" Dixon quickly captured the offenders and showed the Cistern security. Lachlan waited around to watch the perpetrators get a stern talk from the security. Some may call it being a dobber, others call it protecting Ancient Artefacts from small minded juvenile delinquents. CISTERN JUSTICE LEAGUE!!!!!!

Lach's Birthday Morning! This dashing gent is now 25 and winking at 30. To celebrate Amanda did a truck load of sneaky shopping and wrapped it all up in Turkey's finest read. Lach went bananas for a scarf he had been eyeing off for ages in the carpet shop. The evil eye earrings also got the guy pretty excited. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LACH!!!!

WE'RE BACK IN ISTANBUL!! After a mammoth 12 hours on the night bus from Nevsevhir to Istanbul we were pretty tired. We adjusted to our new apartment near the Galata Tower in Beyoglu then decided to climb the tower. The view was incredible. The Galata tower was originally built around 500AD as a lighthouse. Now it has a fancy restaurant and about 50 bazillion tourists climbing it.

Mehmet's guide to saying "teşekkür ederim" or "thank you" in Turkish.

This is the most delicious meal. On Friday Çati cooked us lunch at the carpet shop. This is a special fish that you can only get at this time of year and is from the Gallipoli area. How to prepare fish like Çati: 1 - Get little fish and coat in cornflower 2 - Cook in oil in little pan in your carpet shop 3 - Serve with lots of leafy greens (rocket, cut up radish, dill and other unidentified green things) and lemon 4 - Pour the raki

Q: Who smokes more than a Turk? A: Two Turks!

Friday morning we said goodbye to the amazing cave that we had been staying in whilst in Göreme as well as our new friend Çiçek the dog. (Çiçek means flower). She was very cute and incredibly playful. Bye Çiçek we won't miss you biting our shoes, but we will miss your company on our walks.

Meet the Carpet Crew from "Village Dowry" Göreme. (Left to right: Mustafa aka."Çati", Mustfa, Fatih "the Carpet Doctor". These guys took us in off the streets with the intention of selling us carpet. We at first resisted but over many glasses of Apple Tea became friends. We may or may not have also purchased copious amounts of textile goods from them. But we also drank a lot of their Raki - so it all came out even.

Thursday we decided to hire motorbikes!!! Lach was stoked, Amanda was nervous, but after an hour on the Honda scooter she was calm and confident. We took to the roads out of Göreme towards the nearby town of Ürgüp where Amanda got a little carried away with some shopping and was then faced with the dilemma of attaching said shopping to her scooter. After leaving Ürgüp we took in the amazing scenery from the heights above Göreme. Lach did wheelies.

Thursday we decided to hire motorbikes!!! Lach was stoked, Amanda was nervous, but after an hour on the Honda scooter she was calm and confident. We took to the roads out of Göreme towards the nearby town of Ürgüp where Amanda got a little carried away with some shopping and was then faced with the dilemma of attaching said shopping to her scooter. After leaving Ürgüp we took in the amazing scenery from the heights above Göreme. Lach did wheelies.

Lach held a duck. The tree in the picture is not actually significant but Erbil joked it was for a bit and Amanda believed him.

Leonardo da Vinci

Afterwards Lachlan found a pile of ice or snow (the verdict is still out on that) and smashed Amanda with some perfectly crafted snowballs. It was great!

Ballooning - the must do experience in Göreme. Ballooning is like a wonderful combination of sailing and being under water (because everything happens so gracefully and slowly). Seeing the balloons billow to life on the ground of the launch site, and eventually fill out and rise into a gigantic dome of fabric was magical. The preparations and take off all happened pre-dawn, so it was while we were 400 metres in the air and gliding over the valley that we saw the sunrise and light up a neighbouring snow-capped mountain. After landing we had a champagne toast with the balloon crew and other guests. This is a ballooning landing tradition. The Montgolfiere brothers were the first first human balloon flight passengers in 1783. The brothers took off from the centre of Paris but had to land in the fields and vineyards of local peasants who were really annoyed that a fiery object had descended from the sky onto their land. To appease the peasants (and celebrate!) they cracked open a bottle of champagne and shared it around. The stuff we had was little more than bubbly fruit juice but it was delicious!

Turkish highway driving is like 4 year old colouring in - staying between the lines is optional.

THE LACHLAN SLIPPING NEAR CLIFF EDGE SERIES - PULITZER PRIZE ENTRY BY AMANDA DIXON 2014 This series catches Mr Dolbel first being silly, then proceeding to walk close to the travertine cliff edge. A moment of frictionless poetry is captured as arms fling in the air in an attempt to regain his centre of gravity. Shoes in hand, balance is restored, a travel insurance claim is narrowly avoided, and a joyful laugh is released in the face of death.