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"
No comments:
Post a Comment