Day 3 Fethiye and Calis Beach

The trip keeps getting better and better! After dragging ourselves out of bed, we finally made it to breakfast. The offerings was the usual Turkish fare, hard boiled eggs, cheese, fruits, vegetables, olives and bread.

Doner Kebabs in Istanbul and fresh seafood in Fethiye fish market

The first night in the hostel was ok, the bed and pillow was comfortable but it was hot.  Our German roommates were afraid of the misting fan and thought it was smoke and asked us to open the window instead.

Although it was cool outside, the noise from the large trucks kept waking me up.  I was also awoken by the morning  prayer service blaring from the Blue Mosque nearby.  We woke up and went upstairs to the roof deck to take advantage of the free breakfast.  It was just ok, the usual Turkish breakfast consisting of an assortment of breads, tomatoes, eggs, olives, cucumber and watermelon.  It did the trick and got us through the morning.

After breakfast, we had an hour to kill before our airport shuttle to Fethiye, a beach resort town in Southern Turkey.  Helen and I decided to take a morning stroll in the neighborhood and grabbed  a chicken doner  “to go” for lunch since we wouldn’t be at our hotel for another 6 hours.  

Finally Arrived in Istanbul!

After about 24 hours of travel from our house in Lowell to our hostel in Istanbul, we were exhausted, mainly from the lack of sleep on the flight and the alcohol in my system that my liver was still trying to process.

Immigration at the Istanbul was a breeze and customs was a joke, we pretty much walked right by without declaring anything, not that we had anything to declare.

And we're off! Boston to JFK

It’s another year and another backpacking trip! For those of you that don’t know us by now, the Mo and I like to save all our vacation days and go on a 2-3 weeks backpacking expedition each year and explore the world on a college kid’s budget.  We indulge in the local street foods, share dorm rooms with other interesting foreigners (except in the case of Costa Rica, where it seemed like everyone was from Massachusetts or the States.)

This year it was the Mo’s pick and he chose Turkey and I persuaded him to add in Greece since the countries are so close to each other and we would be able to kill two birds with one stone.  He actually got the idea from a cool Turkish-American chick, Sila who we dormed with in Costa Rica and she convinced us it was definitely a “must-visit” country.