Day 161: It's all over...well, not quite

Boarding our British Air flight to London, our main thoughts were "after all this awesome food will we have a British sandwich to 'look forward' to?" That and how weird it felt to be finally en route to London.

After five and a half months of travel we were still loving the adventure. So much so that we decided to keep up the travelling lifestyle for a little longer. We'll pause in London for several days before heading to the States for a month. We'll travel to Washington DC, New York, Boston, New England, Michigan and Chicago, spending time with US-based friends and attending a good friend's wedding.

Early June will see us back in London to resume life as normal, but until then we'll keep blogging about our extended travels. (And British Airways surprised us with a hot meal that didn't even need salt added - unfortunately they were out of Pimms so we couldn't celebrate!)

Day 159 to 160: Baklava and bazaars

Last days for all things Turkish....back in Istanbul we hit the shops - haggling in the bazaars, finding good deals on fresh Turkish delight and enjoying melt-in-your-mouth baklava. We visited the last of our 'must see' sights - the beautifully lit underground Basilica Cistern and the incredibly ornate Dolmabahçe Palace, the first Turkish palace built in a Western style, but still with the all important harem area. On this last stop in Istanbul we stayed near Istiklal Caddesi, the main shopping street where all the trendy people go. Being in the heart of the action was a fun way to farewell Istanbul and conclude our time in Turkey.

Day 156 to 158: Reclining in an Ottoman

Amasya was our 'off the beaten track' stop near the Black Sea, before returning to Istanbul. Restored Ottoman houses line Amasya's river, and rock mountains tower alongside with tombs carved into the rockfaces. The river is still dotted with a few old waterwheels, giving Amasya even more of a quaint feel. The city is popular with Turkish tourists, but most other travellers don't make it to Amasya, so it feels more local than Turkey's 'must see' destinations.

Staying in one of the Ottoman houses along the river was a fantastic way to appreciate Amasya's rich history. We enjoyed a friendly welcome and a delicious home-cooked dinner at our B&B. Our room had big wooden windows that opened onto the river and a retro-fitted bathroom tucked into a closet, as the rooms were not originally built with bathrooms. In Amasya we relaxed and wandered along the picturesque riverfront and climbed up to the tombs.

Leaving Amasya for Istanbul is an ~11 hour bus journey, so we found a cheap Turkish Air flight to save some time. We'd thought the airport was nearby, but in Amasya we learnt it was about 40km further than we thought and there wasn't a direct bus connection. So we caught a local 'leave when it's full' bus to Merzifon, the closest town to the airport, and had a great time enjoying incredibly cheap kebaps and cakes in a town completely untouched by tourism. We'd been advised by our bus driver to take a taxi to the airport and we amusingly arrived at the terminal at the same time as the local aiport bus from Merzifon and the Turkish Air shuttle from Amasya. Although those would have been easier options if we'd known about them, we were glad for our fun detour to Merzifon.

Day 151 to 155: Sugar plum fairy chimneys

We headed for the magical landscape of Cappadocia, with an overnight stay in Konya to break up the journey. We'd chosen what was supposed to be the express four hour bus to Konya, rather than the slower six hour services that travelled around a large lake. As our bus pulled into a rest stop near the four hour mark, still 90km from Konya, we realised we'd been duped! The awesome scenery compensated for the longer than expected journey time, with snowy Swiss-looking mountains and wintry trees growing from slate-grey hillsides. In Konya we visited the Mevlana Tomb, where Sufi dervishes once whirled, and a couple of small museums in beautiful old medrese buildings (Koranic seminaries).

Arriving in Cappodocia on an evening bus, we found that the hotel we'd booked was full for the last night of our stay, despite accepting our Hostelbookers reservation. Our stay fell over a Saturday and a national holiday, so a last minute search for accommodation wasn't the warmest welcome. After an increasingly frustrating discussion with the hotel owner, we eventually used their wifi to book another place for half the price and Michael walked to the new hotel to ensure this booking was reliable. We had a very friendly welcome to our new hotel and from this point our time in Cappadocia greatly improved. Our highlights include:

• Walking in the beautiful Red and Rose Valley, where we met only a handful of other walkers
• Appreciating the stunningly unusual surrounds - knobbly rock "fairy chimneys" spread as far as we could see, creating an almost lunar landscape
• Cafe Şafak, which quickly became our favourite spot to chill with a coffee or tasty Turkish food. We randomly met our English friends from Antalya (Matt and Lawrence) and enjoyed a couple of dinners together

Day 145 to 150: Coast to coast

From Çannakale, we made our way down the Aegean Coast to the Mediterranean in Antalya. We stayed three nights in the small town of Selçuk, where we walked out to the awesomely preserved ruins of Ephesus. We'd been warned that food onsite was very pricey, so we came armed with a picnic and enjoyed the novelty of laying out our lunch on the base of a Roman pillar in the midst of the ruins. From Selçuk we visited the ruined cities of Prienne, Miletus and Didyma, which were lovely to wander, but a little overshadowed by Ephesus from the day before.

Around Selçuk we walked to the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. These days just one huge pillar remains and ducks paddle in a pond that was once the temple floor. We enjoyed the slower pace of a small town and lovely hospitality from the family pension we stayed in. Four generations lived in the same house and we were

welcomed into their front room for breakfast by the stove on a particularly cold morning.

One of our favourite aspects of staying in Selçuk was experiencing the Saturday market. As we ate breakfast on the pension porch, crates of lettuce were piled high and the road was transformed into stall after stall of fresh produce. Despite the proximity of Ephesus, Selçuk's economy remains primarily agricultural, and Saturday was clearly a big day for local growers. I bought half a kilo of fresh peas for 50p and enjoyed munching my way through them - something that's far too expensive to do in London!

While in Selçuk, we succumbed to spring colds, so our pace since then became a little slower and snufflier. We next headed to Pammukale, where we climbed calcium-covered hillsides for views over the travertines: natural white pools layered onto hillsides, that were once filled with bright blue water but have now largely dried up. They still made a stunning landscape and we spent several hours admiring the views and wandering amongst hilltop Hierapolis ruins.

Our final coastal stop was Antalya on the turqouise coast. By this time our colds had well and truly settled in, so we took things easy and recuperated. We strolled around the quaint old town and chilled out with drinks and panoramic harbour vistas at a clifftop cafe. We went to the beach and stumbled upon a couple of friendly English guys who had been our seatmates on the bus journey to Antalya and spent a couple of hours appreciating Antalya's stunning museum, with statues laid out in elegant rooms, helping us to imagine them as they once were. On our departure day, heavy rain set in, further encuraging us to hibernate at our pension before making the uninviting journey to the Otogar (central bus station) for our onward journey towards Cappadocia.

Day 143 to 144: Grecian horses and royal tours

Public bus was our method for getting around Turkey; chosen more from necessity than preference. We'd originally planned to use the convenient 'hop on, hop off' Fez Bus, which friends and family had recommended. However, after a fair amount of research, we found that the long-established hop-on hop-off service had stopped operating as of 2011, so it was time for Plan B.

Getting to grips with Turkey's bus system initially seemed daunting - bus company websites were all in Turkish and online reservation systems sounded less than reliable. We wanted to travel from Istanbul to Çannakale to start with, so Mıchael phoned a bus company to make a reservatıon. The person he spoke with had limited English, and after receiving some confusing instructions on where and when to pick up our tickets, we decided to head to the bus station and hope it all worked out.

Arriving at the bus station, our overwhelming feeling was: "it's all going to be fine." There were tons of bus companies, with good prices and from that point we booked our onwards bus as we arrived in each new place. The Turkish bus network is extensive and our first bus ride was a treat - the most luxurious model of bus, with huge reclining seats, seatback TVs with English movies, free snacks and drinks and even free WiFi.

We had a pleasant stay in the harbour city of Çannakale, our base for visiting Troy and Gallipoli. We'd booked a hotel and arrived to find they'd upgraded us to their newer, fancier hotel nearby, which was a nice surprise. We spent a morning wandering the ruins of Troy and learning about its history, followed by an outstanding tour of Gallipoli. Rather than a standard tour guide, our guide happened to be Turkey's leading expert on Gallipoli, Kenan Çelik. The first in his family to go to school, he became a University lecturer in Literature and has led Gallipoli tours for over 25 years. In that time he has guided Prince Charles, Prime Ministers, Presidents, and anybody rich or famous who fancies a helicopter tour of Gallipoli with an expert guide. We were given a fantastic overview of the origins of WWI - we were essentially standing on the Gallipoli beaches receiving a University-quality lecture, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We found it particularly interesting hearing the Turkish perspective on Gallipoli - it was the Turkish Army's first victory in many years, though they incurred heavy losses, like the ANZAC forces. Striking it lucky with Kenan as our guide was a huge highlight of our time in Çannakale.

Day 141 to 142: Sunday scrabble - is üeek a word?

A couple of days hanging in Istanbul with Tom and Caitlin was excellent. We visited the huge Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia, a massive church-turned-mosque with impressive Byzantine mosaics. We'd planned to follow up these star attractions with Topkapi Palace, but rain drove us indoors for lahmuçan (Turkish pizza) and kebaps in warm, dry surrounds.

Keeping to indoor pursuits, we wandered the lively and colourful spice market, venturing out once the rain had cleared in time to see Sunday afternoon fishing in full swing on the city's Galata Bridge. Walking uphill towards Taksim Square, the smell of fresh coffee from a cosy cafe proved too tempting and we all decided it was time for a break. Great coffee and a creative game of English/Turkish scrabble was enjoyed, with lots of low scoring 'k' tiles and an abundance of 'i's making things challenging.

The next day we explored Topkapi Palace, admiring stunning tilework in the harem and one of the world's largest diamonds, among other ridiculously ornate royal items. That evening was our last night before leaving Istanbul, so we had a delicious fish meal with Tom and Caitlin before heading our separate ways.

Day 139 to 140: Safety first: Syria later

A news report on our final evening of our Egypt and Jordan tour brought a sudden change to our plans. The situation in Syria had become more violent after weeks of little change and we decided it would be prudent to give up our plans of overlanding through Syria and Lebanon on this trip. Although we'd probably be safe in Syria as tourists, the risk that we'd get stuck there wasn't a risk we wanted to gamble with.

So, after a delicious final dinner and farewells to our tour members, we headed to an internet cafe and found a flight to Istanbul for the following morning. As a nice silver lining, our new flight let us join Tom and Caitlin, who were already booked for Istanbul, and we were even seated together.

Most of the next day was spent travelling and waiting for ages in very slow queues at Istanbul airport. Riding the tram to central Istanbul, temperatures were noticeably chilly and the city streets felt more East than West. After months of unfamiliar surroundings, Istanbul was a little taste of everyday life, and with it the reminder that our trip was soon coming to an end.

Arriving at the tourist district of Sultanahmet, Tom and Caitlin's hostel had no double rooms available, so we went walking and found a hotel just down the hill from them. They had a massive pile of washing they'd been trying to get washed for a while, so we left them to it and had a fun evening wandering around Taksim Square and the lively Istiklal Caddesi, which was packed with locals. We dined at a bustling street lined with bars and eateries and enjoyed being in the thick of things.

Day 138 to 139: Stuffed lamb and half-built houses

We followed the King's Way from Petra to Madaba, stopping in at a Crusader castle and the Dead Sea along the way. We enjoyed feeling weightless as the Dead Sea water forced us to relentlessly float. Being able to stand up in the water when we were out of our depth felt bizarre.

In Amman, the capital of Jordan, we climbed a steep Roman ampitheatre for slightly dizzying views and explored the hilltop Citadel. In the Citadel Museum I found it interesting to see statues from Ammonite times, as it really brought the history of this people to life. From the Citadel we heard the city's mosques calling people to Friday prayers: an eerie sound that echoed around us. Once prayer had finished we saw protestors gathering to follow their usual Friday protest route. Ibrahim told us that most of the protests in Jordan are peaceful, with police handing out water to the protestors. The protests in Jordan are mainly against the government rather than the royal family - it seems that pretty much everyone is very fond of the King and likes to put his photo up in their establishment.

From Amman we drove to Jerash, the stunning ruins of a Roman town. Gates, facades, and pillars had been wonderfully preserved through being buried in sand for hundreds of years. We wandered pillared streets, checkout out underground shops and had Turkish coffee in the Temple of Diana. This was no tacky tourist coffee shop - rather a lone tea and coffee vendor with a couple of steel thermoses and his cat Artemis.

While in Jordan we've enjoyed trying delicious lamb specialities, like stuffed lamb and mansaf: a dish with hot yoghurt sauce and very tender lamb on rice. Prices in Jordan are a lot higher than in Egypt, so our 15p falafel sandwiches have been sorely missed.

Landscapes we've seen in Jordan are mostly stony desert and we've visited various supposed Biblical sites along the way. Some seem more probable than others - the pillar of salt that is said to be Lot's wife looking back means she'd have to be an enormous woman! We've seen a lot of flat-roofed houses with an unfinished floor on top, as we saw in Egypt. Jordanian parents often build pillars on the roof of their house so that their son can build his own house above theirs when he has the money.

Shopping and getting about in Jordan has been more peaceful than in Egypt, where we were continually hounded by anyone who could possibly sell us a service. We learnt to banter along and have fun with everyone, rather than trying to hide away, but even so it's good to no longer be such a target. Michael still gets told "You're a lucky man" at least once a day, which is rather nice for both of us!

Our next planned destination is Syria, so we've been keeping an eye on news reports and Foreign and Commonwealth travel warnings. A warning against 'all but essential travel' to a country means our travel insurance wouldn't cover us if we chose to head there. For the past few weeks, travel warnings for Syria have only applied to a coastal area and one border crossing with Jordan, both of which we can easily avoid. We plan to take a service taxi from Amman to Damascus, crossing the safe border. We can still follow our planned route in Syria, heading into Lebanon and up through Syria into Turkey. We only have three weeks left to visit these countries, so we're thinking of extending our trip by a few weeks so we can spend a good amount of time in each place, rather than rushing. We're looking forward to our time in Syria, as we've heard the people are extremely friendly and welcoming.

Day 135 to 137: Petra's rocky heights

Cleaner streets and more modern buildings gave Jordan a more Western feel than Egypt. Strolling along the Aqaba waterfront on a crisp spring morning, the water on Jordan's only beach was amazingly clear. As island-dwellers, we found it a novelty to see Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt from Jordanian sand.

Our Jordanian tour leader Ibrahim seemed nice, but less personable than our Egyptian leader Michael, so I think we all had a few days of missing Michael as we got to know Ibrahim. We spent an afternoon in Wadi Rum, a desert valley with rock pinnacles and mountains, where we drove around the desert on the back of pickup trucks and saw a fiery orange-red sunset. Goathair tents in a Bedouin camp were our rooms for the evening. The peace of the starry desert night was spoiled a little by the campowners insisting on playing music for us at an ear-piercing volume - that and the massive group of loud Dutch tourists who were also staying in the camp. Not quite the desert experience I'd envisaged!

Petra was a highlight of our time in Jordan. A narrow passage through towering rock led to the Treasury, just one of the stunning buildings carved into the cliffsides. We made the steep climb to a clifftop monastery, dodging tourist-carrying donkeys along the way. As we came back down, I twisted my ankle and was helped by a nearby stallholder who led me to a seat and kindly made me a cup of tea. We purchased some postcards from her daughter as a way of thanking her and I continued down the path a little slower than before, resting up while Michael, Tom and Caitlyn climbed fallen pillars in the beautiful Roman ruins.

Day 134 : "We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties "

Our laptop relaxed a little too much at the Red Sea and for unknown reasons the screen no longer functions. It's under warranty but the nearest Acer service centre is in Istanbul, our final destination. So for the last few weeks of our trip we'll just rely on web cafes and free WiFi on Michael's phone when available. This means our blog will be updated less often and we'll put up more photos once we're back in London. A bit of a pain, but our trip has largely been problem-free, so this isn't too much of a setback.

Day 131 to 134: Desert splendour and Red Sea relaxatıon

The comfortable nıght traın brought us back to Caıro for one more bıg cıty day. Our tour was scheduled to vısıt the Cıtadel and the bazaar, but as Mıchael and I had already been to the Cıtadel we headed straıght for the Khan al Khaleelı bazaar, arrıvıng ın tıme to see the bazaar wakıng for the day. Shopkeepers breakfasted on quıet streets as garage doors opened on stalls. We checked out tents and marquees on Tentmakers Street and sıpped delıcıous Turkısh coffees and sahlab (a tasty Egyptıan drınk made from lotus stem wıth nuts and sultanas) at a local coffeehouse. We rejoıned our group to learn about the archıtecture of the bazaar and clımbed an old mınaret for great vıews. Lunch was one of our usual Egyptıan favourıtes: shwarma (hot sandwıches wıth meat, tomatoes and onıons) and 15p falafel sandwıches.

We left Caıro at sıx the next mornıng, passıng through Tahrır Square where large peaceful protests agaınst the Muslım Brotherhood were planned for the day. We saw a handful of people already ın the square and orange juıce and tea sellers preparıng to serve the protestors. More omınously, we passed an entıre busload of polıce unloadıng near the square, but we later learned that the protests had been fıne. We drove through dramatıc desert landscapes to St Katherıne`s, near the supposed Mount Sınaı. Everyone headed off to clımb or camel rıde up the mountaın, but I decıded to gıve the 3750 steps a mıss and ınstead enjoyed relaxıng besıde the pool wıth surrounds of stunnıng mountaıns.

Our fınal days ın Egypt were spent ın Nuweiba chıllıng out on the beach and snorkellıng ın the Red Sea. Farwellıng Egypt and our fantastıc Egyptıan tour guıde Mıchael, we boarded a ferry to take us across to Jordan. Only the slow ferry was runnıng that day, so the trıp took about seven and a half hours. Most of that tıme was spent waıtıng for the boat to fıll so we could depart and crawlıng at a snaıl's pace once we got underway. However we dıd enjoy travelıng ın style - once we'd passed through onboard ımmıgratıon we blagged our way ınto fırst class. Our tıckets had been taken from us when we boarded and we dıdn't know whıch class we were booked ın - so we decıded to head ınto the fırst class restaurant untıl someone told us to leave. After a tasty lunch and several comfortable hours we were ınvıted to the empty fırst class lounge. We weren't sure ıf thıs was because we had been too noısy ın the restaurant or whether they thought we dıdn't know where the lounge was - but ıt was very pleasant ın any case! The rest of the boat was crowded wıth people sleepıng ın staırwells, but fırst class was a world apart that we were happy to enjoy for a tıme.