May 10, 2013

Turkish Food Is Sexy

Turkish food has popped up on the blog a couple of times before, with the likes of baklava and Ayvalik toast taking centre stage among delectable bites from the country that straddles two continents.    This week, Maryanne, the brains between Ephemera and Demetrius, Wok With Me Baby and Awesome Mops of China… (phew, she’s a busy lady!) gives us the low-down on what she considers to be the sexiest Turkish food. And believe me, Turkish food is pretty

November 18, 2012

Four Fab Photos of Turkey

  In July 2010, I spent a month travelling around Turkey, which has a firm place in my heart as one of my favourite countries in the world. In fact, I’ll be heading back there on my round-the-world trip next year and, after another stint in Istanbul, be going along the country’s Black Sea coast, an area I didn’t visit last time.   Turkey is full of memories for me, from giggling with glee at willy-shaped rock formations… in Cappadocia,

September 12, 2012

Gaziantep, I’m Sorry But I Despise You

Not every city bowls you over with its beauty, seduces your stomach with its food or makes you forgive the morning after hangover. Some destinations just don’t have that wow factor, and I’ve come across a few in my travels (can Vilnius, Sunderland and Busan… step forward, please?) Few places have the power to truly offend me though. I can only think of two that I’ve thoroughly loathed. One is Waegwan, a small town close to Daegu in South

September 7, 2012

Ayvalik Toast

Turkish food contains all the right components to make people go misty-eyed. During my month in Turkey two years ago, I dined on fried mussel sandwiches, famous Turkish ice cream, creamy Iskender kebab, and bags of the most amazing sour cherries in Istanbul. I ate Gozleme in between exploring phallic shaped rocks in Cappadocia, with this post… taking me back to the delight my taste buds encountered in the sweltering July heat. Perhaps the nearest and dearest to my heart

March 9, 2012

Indiana Jones in Ephesus

  While I was updating a post about Ayvalik… that I posted long, long ago, I read something that I’d written. It was a promise to write about Ephesus. Well, it’s only sixteen months late, but here it is! Come to think of it, I have absolutely no idea why I didn’t write about it sooner but hey, better late than never, right? I’ve just realised that you may be reading this, thinking “what the hell is Ephesus”? Ephesus is

January 27, 2012

5 Ideas for Istanbul

Hello my wonderful readers! As you read this, I’ll hopefully be enjoying myself in Prague, and it’s hopefully not-too-freezing weather and it’s hopefully cheap, cheap beer – in moderation of course. Fear ye not, there shall be posts to come on that soon-ish, hangover(s?) not withstanding. Due to the general iciness of January (well, in the northern hemisphere at least), I’ve decided to write about somewhere a little bit warmer, and a place that’s very dear to my heart –…

August 8, 2011

5 in Fethiye: Gorges & Ghost Towns

Welcome to the final part of my three-part 5 in Fethiye series. You can read part 1 here and part 2 right here…. I learned a lot of lessons in Fethiye. Hostel jerks aren’t always hostel jerks. They may not have even done anything jerky. No matter how hairy your legs are, if you’re on the top deck of a Turkish boat in summer, you need to use an entire tube of sun cream to make sure they don’t resemble

August 1, 2011

5 in Fethiye: Feeling the Burn

Welcome to part two of the three-part five-in-Fethiye….   Why’s it called 5 in Fethiye then? Because I spent five days in Fethiye. Plus, it sounds better than 3 in Fethiye.   Even though that kinda rhymes. Sort of not very much not really.   Now let me take you to a mystical place called Butterfly Valley…   Well, I would take you there, if I actually knew where the hell it was.   But, apparently I saw it

July 25, 2011

5 in Fethiye: Hostel Jerks

Ahh, reminiscence is a wonderful thing. Donning rose-tinted glasses, it has the power to make the mundane magical, or to take those moments of frustration and somehow turn them into an adventure that Steven Spielberg and his army of writers would be proud of.   One thing that the rose-tinted glasses don’t have any affect on, however, is hostel jerks.   The hostel jerk. They come in many guises, and these total strangers have the power to turn us into…

May 2, 2011

I Quit.

No, not blogging. This is what I told myself whilst travelling Turkey… last summer. It was on my first independent, solo trip. I bailed out four weeks earlier than planned. Was it a weak decision on my part? Perhaps. Sprawled on the bathroom floor at the Hotel Yunus in Malatya, I didn’t want to move. It was comfier there than on my bed, and I knew the second I moved back to the main bedroom, I’d need to haul ass