Managed to survive the 17 hour bus ride and fınd a hostel (Sultan Hostel) near the Blue Mosque. Once again, such a small world as ended up at same hostel as a guy who I worked with back in London (Chin). Spent the afternoon having a look around the Blue Mosque then had a few beers down on the waterfront and then back to the hostel rooftop for a few more and a late dinner. Spent the next day checking out the Grand Bazzar, Spice Market, and crossed the bridge to...

After hike had a day back in Trabzon for a shower and a good night sleep before we had to catch our massive (17hour) bus ride to Istanbul. Made good use of the day and went and visited the Sumela Monstary, which is a must see if you make it out to Trabzon. The view of the Monstary is very impressive set in the cliffs in a huge valley, and the church inside has some amazing ancient paintings on the roof. Then it was back to Trabzon for a kebab dinner (loving th...

Wıth the Canadians Pete and Emıly, we headed up towards the Kackhar mountains from Trabzon. We reached Ayder after about 3hours on local buses. Wıcked little mountaın village that when we arrıved was havıng a anual nature day festival so was pretty busy. Heaps of bbq's cranking and lots of people commıng up to us askıng where we from. Cool local people and we must have stuck out wıth hardly any other tourısts up there. We eventually made ıt out of the...

Feeling very exhausted and in need of a shower after our massive bus ride we found a hotel in the city center for 10 euros each, which included breakfast. Freshened up then went walking round the city to try and find information about the Krachar Mountains where we wanted to go for some hiking. Straight away you could feel the difference being off the tourist track, and it felt good. Not so many people speak english and tourists are rare so you get alot of curio...

Survived our first night bus from Olympos to Goreme (Cappadocia), not too bad as bus wasn't too busy so got to spread out a bit. And found a hostel in a cave(called Shoestring) with the other Kiwis (Nick & Amee) and the Canadians (Peter & Emily). Had a wee kip then rented Mountain Bikes for the afternoon to explore some of the rock valleys. Probably the crapiest bikes we've ever ridden with brakes and gears that didn't really work and my bike was a road ...