The Coast

We spent the last week touring along the mediteranean coast, hitching from town to town. We stayed in Olympos, Chymera, Kalkeroy and are in Marmaris now. Olymos was a little touristy for our liking but it was cheap and we managed to sneak onto the beach/ruins both days. We also went to Chymera a "mythical" place were flames just come out of the ground on a mountain.

We then hitched up the coast with varied success until a British film director for the BBC picked us up and we traveled with him out to Kalkeroy, an island on the coast far from any other tourists. Long story short i managed to lose some money, and willie ran out, and without any atm acess we were broke. So we camped on some roman ruins overlooking a small bay.

What we thought would be a nice night under the stars turned out to be a nightmare. The mosquitos were the worst I have ever experienced. So we got inside our sleeping bags and tucked tshirts around our heads hoping to fend off the onslaught till morning. However this meant dealing with the sweltering heat and sweat inside the sleeping bag and the difficulty breathing though a shirt. We managed to get a couple hours of sleep and awoke to a beautiful sunrise..not all bad right. I discovered that during the night my hands had been exposed and had close to 100 bites between them.Since we were out of money we left the following morning hitching to a bigger town along the coast. We made it to Fethie where our luck hitching finally ran out. We didnt catch a ride for over 2 hours and finally just caught the bus to Marmaris. We then learned the hostel we were planning on staying in was closed. So we finally crashed at a cheap pension.

Today we woke up and rented Scooters to explore the pennisula around marmaris and get away from the city. We logged about 200km around the coast stopping and swimming, ralling on dirt roads, and just zipping around in the sun. One of the best days so far in Turkey.

Next stop Istanbul...

Cappadocia and pics

Willie and I are currently relaxing in Cappadocia, enjoying the lunar landscapes and the rooftop lodging and pool. We have just been hiking around the canyons surrounding the village and eating good food. In a couple days we are gonna head to the coast and then make our way up to Istanbul.

Ballons over cappadocia in the morning.

Sunset over Goreme, Cappadocia

Also heres some of the pictures taken when we were hitchhiking across the county last week.

View our camp by Lake Van

Anything goes, riding in the back of a tractor.

Near Lake Van

A tight fit on some of the mountain passes

Our good friend Dolorma the cow

Mountain lake near Yusefeli

Yusefeli, city on a river

Hıtchıng and Rıver raftıng

Well after a couple days on the road and some campıng we travelled a lıttle over a thousand km from Dıyarbakır ın southwest Anatolıa, to Lake Van, and then on to Yusefelı where we are now. We have been hıtchhıkıng and doıng a bıt of campıng, across some of the most beautıful countrysıde ı have ever seen. The Turkısh people are ıncredıbly hospıtable.

After beıng dropped off by one of the semıs we rode wıth, we were ınvıted to numerous cups of tea wıth 2 Turkısh batallıon commanders at a mılıtary post. We talked of travel, polıtıcs, and they just couldnt fıgure out why 2 amerıcans were, one ın eastern turkey and two hıtchhıkıng (otostop). Some drıvers would take us amost 300km and buy us tea and snacks along the way. Most of the rıdes we have gotten have been more comfortable than the bus and we dont have to waıt for certaın buses and we can pıck out route how we want to do ıt.

Today we rıver rafted the Çoruh rıver ın the northeast of Turkey. It was great fun and a nıce break from the road. Tommorow we are headıng south by way of traın to Cappadocıa, a 24 hour rıde. Apparently traıns ın turkey are very slow. Well thats all for now, ıll try and get some pıctures up ın a few days.

oh and turkısh keyboards are dıfferent so ıgnore the typos and lack of dots on the I's.

Turkey

We made it to Southwestern Anatolia today after a 16 hour bus rıde fron Syrıa.

Age Of Empires

Syria is great, in the last couple days we traveled from Damascus to Palmera, a very intact roman city. Where we hiked around and watched a great sunset from the castle. Sadly the city next to the ruins where we stayed has fallen on hard times so the people have become very desperate for buisness. This has made them very pushy and they are constantly trying to rip you off. So we decided to leave for Crac de Chaveilers(sp?).

"Crac" is said to be one of the finest castles in the world and it shows. It is perched up on the top of a tall hill over looking a huge valley in some of the most beautiful countryside we have experieinced since traveling. (no more desert, finally) We toured the giant castle and decided to have a little fun while we were at it.

Willie bet me a hundred dollars to jump in the Castle's water reservoir which we decided was a great idea. We then quickly chose to forget the money and both do it. It was a little sketchy since we didnt know how the Syrian guards would react, but i figured if they caught us we could just ask for forgiveness later (just as my elders have taught me :). Also the water was not the cleanest, but it sounded fun so we went for it.

Willie's Jump

Sunset from the Castle

To: Lacie

We have fufilled our end of the agreement, we wore just the rediculous neon shorts infront of a famous monument as you can see from the pictures. So now we hope you hold up your end of the deal by brining us both a couple Dicks Burgers to the airport when we arrive home.

~Ryun and Willie

We made it to syria

Willie and I crossed the Jordan-Syria border on Thursday. We spent about 5 hours at the border waiting for our visas to be made, but they were very cheap and the border agents were very nice. We have spent the last couple days in damascus eating good food and walking around the old city. Apparenty Damascus is the longest continuously inhabited city in the world. Its easy to see too, with buildings built on other buildings and roads built over and under existing ones.

The people in Syria are much less conservative than the people we have met in Egypt and in Jordan, even though there government is the most controlling. To even make this blog post i have to use some hacking software to get past the governments filters. They block everything from myspace and facebook to even my blog. Weird...

Anyway tomorrow Willie and I are heading north. We hope to be in turkey by next weekend.

Our travels to Amman

We left Dana, the stone city to head north, but since it was independece day and hot out, the buses were not running so we decided to hitch. We took a car out to the Desert Highway where we held out our hands palms down (the middle east version to the hitchhiker thumb). In no time a semi truck pulled over and the diver offered us a ride. So With all 4 of us in the cab of the truck we headed of to amman (300 km away). I dont think i have ever had or ever will have a more pleasant hitch hiking expereince. Our friend Mohammed bought us sodas and candies and went out of his way to drop us off downtown. We chatted about his family and country. Discussed Arnold movies like terminator and learned that if you're the biggest car on the road you can go where ever you want.After arriving in Amman, we drove to the dead sea to do the "been there done that expereince". We attempted to swim around for a while, which is tough when you float so high out of the water. With out treading standing upright in the water you float at armpit level and its tough to get your head under. After the sea we went and jumped in a pool where all of us struggled not to just sink to the bottom. A very strange comparasion.

Jordan

We have just arrived in Amman, Jordan for their independence day. This follows a week of travel though the desert landscapes of Wadi Rum, the canyons and carvings of Petra and the high mountain deserts of Dana nature preserve.

We left Dahab traveling north to Mt Sinai were we started climbing the mountian at about 2 am. We managed to make it to the top for a beautiful sunrise. For the climb down we took the 3000 steps of repentance, a real quad burner, and very exhausting on no sleep.

We then traveled north to Nuwebia to catch a ferry across to Aquaba, Jordan. Basically the worst day of the trip so far. After hours of government redtape, relentlessly swarming flies, the dirtiest bathrooms known to man, terrible arabic pop music all on no sleep, we finally made it to Jordan. We then got a hotel and slept for 16 hours.

The next day we jumped in a taxi and headed north to Wadi Rum, a large desert reserve. We talked to some local bedoins who agreed to take us on a desert tour in a old broken down land cruiser. We stayed 2 nights under the most amazing stars, and ate great food and drank tea. Basically experienced bedoin hospitality at its greatest. One of the coolest experiences I have ever had.

Chicken Rock

our camp

After 2 days in the desert we traveled north to Petra, basically an ancient city carved into the sandstone cliffs connected by deep canyons. We spent 2 days and one night hiking around the city. very cool. Basically as cool as the pyriamids without the endless vendors, camel merchants and burger kings.

We then traveled north to a stone mountain city of Dana where we spend a night and a day of hiking.