Ramadan in Istanbul

The start to Istanbul was always going to be interesting. We got up at 2:00 am in Gocek in order to make our 4:00 am flight to Istanbul. Mixing the effects of 10 days of bliss on the Mediterranean & little sleep, made for a great challenge, especially when trying to negotiate taxi fares and hotel directions in Turkish. Fighting through the maelstrom of chaos, speaking to a taxi driver who could barely understand Turkish, let alone English, pointing at iPhones and maps in our lonely planet…

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Where’s our boat?

Having survived our budget flights and arrived in one piece in Southern Turkey, we soon settled into the relaxed pace of Gocek. We met up with Agatha & Julien in the afternoon & night one had us chowing down on local specialties under a balmy starry night at the seaside “Kebab Hospital”. Washing down the tasty fresh food with cold Efes (the local beer) and Raki. The girls took a few notes off the menu and it was decided that we would stock the boat with Turkish…

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8 days, 5 flights and the tour is well underway!

It so surreal to be sitting in an Istanbul airport writing this, having been in London for the past 2 days, Sydney, 4 days ago, New Zealand 8 days ago and sailing around Vanuatu for the month prior to that – but we wouldn’t have it any other way! Our goodbye party at the Opera bar couldn’t have been better. Winter disappeared for a day as Sydney put on a show with 29 degrees and sunny blue skies all around. Thanks to all of our friends (and…

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