Oh My Gosh....How Am I Going to Decide????

How and where to spend the Turkey trip extension???

CL and I have been batting back and forth what we want to do for about a week after the Turkey tour ends next September. CL tossed out the island of Greek Island hopping and Santorini would be a must see for that since she has heard great things about Santorini and I have too through some brief research. But then I tossed in the idea of staying in Turkey and heading back to Istanbul and save the Greek Island for another trip.

Part of the reason for saving Santorini for another time is purely logistical. Because the Turkey tour ends in Kusadasi, which is a 90 minute ferry ride from the Greek Island of Samos, I originally thought "Greek Islands...great idea". However, Samos is in a different "island group" then Santorini and the options of getting from Samos to Santorini aren't ideal. The ferry would be long (7-9 hours from my estimations) and there is the option to fly from Samos to Santorini, but there are no inter-island direct flights, so we would have to connect through Athens, which is "do-able", but we also really want to consider staying the extra time in Turkey.

CL has a Turkish friend who lives here and we probably need to sit down with him and discuss options. As CL said he will probably say "Stay in Turkey"! :) And, actually I am leaning that way too. One reason and this is purely from a "tourist" standpoint. But if we start the tour in Istanbul and see something there we want to buy (such as a rug), I wouldn't want to buy it 2 days into the trip and then have to lug it around half of Turkey and parts of Greece with me! If we plan to stay in Turkey after the tour ends and work our way back to Istanbul, we can wait to make any purchases until we get back to Istanbul and not have to carry them with us for 2+ weeks!

Plus I am going on the thought that I am only going to take 3 weeks off from work for this Turkey trip, since this past September I took off 4 weeks, and I didn't want to give work a "heart attack" by asking for another month off next year...yes, I am the "ever considerate" co-worker, not that it would necessacerily matter as long as my work is done and/or covered by someone. Plus I may want to have some vacation time left over for another "little" trip maybe over the holiday season next year! Yes, I'm starting to plan for 2008 even though it may only me in my head at the moment! :)

So, now that I have rambled on, the ultimate conclusion is to do some research and find out how we could spend 5-7 extra days in Turkey. So I am sure there will be future blog entries as I think out the 2007 Turkey travel experience!

And now for my newest favorite travel related closing comment...

"I want to go everywhere I've never been"

Thank You!!!

I have to admit when I started this blog almost a year ago I didn't know if anyone would actually read what I wrote. I know some of my entries were just my ranting and raving on some topic that I may have been consumed with at the time.

But just this past weekend my nearest and dearest and oldest friend (not in age, but in length of time, and you know who you are!) told me that reading the blog with all the entries about my Central Europe trip really helped when looking at my trip pictures. Because as much as a "picture says a thousand words", sometimes it's nice having the words too! And reading about some of the places and experiences really makes the photos come alive and helps to explain why I took the picture in the first place! :)

So, I just want to send out a heart-felt Thank-you to all of you out there in cyberspace who are reading my blog and enjoying it (or not!) :) Maybe in some small way I am taking you on my travels with me, or create the feeling of sitting down and chatting with me for a bit!

Cheers...and Keep on Reading! :)

It's Turkey Time!!!!

And I don't mean the "Gobble Gobble" variety..although that is getting close too!

As I have professed extensively on this blog, I am a travel-aholic. So I think it only fitting that I've been home from my last trip for slightly over a month and have started to plan my next "big" adventure!

Yup, it's true...trip planning 2007 is starting to pick up steam....YIPEE!

As I mentioned back in July I had put a deposit down on a trip to Turkey for September of 2007. While on this last trip in Central Europe CL and I met a couple who had been to Turkey last year and said how great it was. On several occassions during the trip the topic of going to Turkey came up between CL and I and we both said that would be a place we would each want to see.

...Cut to being home for a few weeks...CL and I had another discussion about going to Turkey next year and I "confessed" to her that I had put a deposit down on a trip for next year. I hadn't mentioned it to her before because I honestly didnt' know if she would want to travel with me again...turns out she does! Another YIPPEE!! She was right "on board" and we signed her up for the same tour as I booked back in July.

I'm thrilled I will have a friend traveling with me in Turkey! Now the fun part starts for me...all the research and planning! I've already started "trolling" the Fodor's website to get as much information as I can as my "jumping off point", then in the next couple months it will be onto reading whatever books I can find to really see how we want to plan the trip.

It would be insane to start a trip count-down this far in advance, so let's just say in less than a year I will be "winging" off to Turkey!!!!! No pun intended....well, ok, maybe a little pun! :)