Only the Washing Up!

Well we have been at home for a week now so I guess this is goodbye to only the washing up.

What a fantastic year it has been.

We have seen so many fantastic sites, met such wonderful people, eaten all sorts of great food and even sampled the odd local beer. Swum in many seas and lakes and rivers, climbed a up few mountains, climbed down a few caves, wandered through fields and forests, and even seen the desert..

The memories of it will stay with us forever and it may even have changed the people that we were going to be into the people that we now will be.

This adventure is now over, but the adventure of everyday life is still there to be lived hour by hour and day by day. And it is up to us to make it into something interesting, extraordinary  and worthwhile.

view from the kitchen

These pictures are from our house last night, it’s not such a bad place to be is it….

Until the next time, much love, Ruth x

front garden at home

It may have appeared for some time that Tim is the only surviving member of the Lezard family which left Wanswell almost a year ago.  It would have been easy for him to have photoshopped the rest of us into his snaps to make it appear that we are still with him when in fact we had vanished – or more plausibly run away.  However the lack of blogging by the rest of us would have been more difficult to cover as he would be unable to reproduce our own unique writing styles even if he signed himself in as us.  He can’t capture Bills enthusiastic sports reporting style, he cannot paint word pictures as eloquently as Charlie and he under no circumstance could bring himself to write like me with my random and often totally erroneous use of grammar, punctuation and words which I only think I know the meaning of but can’t be 100% sure (see errnoneous).

So here I am writing as me and there is little else to say really.  The sun shines and we swim and walk and ride and eat and meet lovely people and bits of the van fall off and the sand accumulates in the sheets and the footwear is almost beyond redemption and I am throwing out all of our socks and the kids have outgrown everything including their bikes and Tim has shrunk so nothing fits him and I have shrunk so nothing fits me and I need new glasses as these ones are scratched to pieces and I need to see a doctor because my hip is totally ****ed and I need to see my friends because I miss them and I need the kids to see their friends because they really need some kids their own age to talk too and I need someone else to listen to Tims jokes or at least tell him some new ones and I would like to sleep in my own bedroom and I would like to use an oven and I think I have forgotten how to drive and I can’t remember the passwords for anything and the numbers on the bank statements are looking very small and I am having a fantastic time and I really want to come home……and I really don’t want to too. x

It was Easter and we had not really noticed – being in a Muslim country.  However we were reminded yesterday as me and the kids sat playing backgammon in the communal space of our pension and the Georgians arrived.

They were business men in this part of Turkey to buy next seasons apples.  Easter is apparently a big deal in Georgia – as is being Georgian.   First they brought out the food – cheese, fried sausage, fish, olives, salad and bread with lighted candles stuck in it.  Then they brought out the wine and the home made vodka. Then they invited us and the other people sitting around to join them.  They refused to take no for an answer and plied us all with food and drink which was all lovely, the wine was really nice until they added the vodka to it which gave it a serious kick and if you happened to put your glass down they just topped it up with more vodka.

Then they brought out hard boiled eggs, dyed purple and we had to play a game of holding them and then smashing them into each other,which was noisy and seemed to have no rules…well maybe it did but as they spoke only a tiny bit of English and a little Turkish the whole conversation was conducted in Georgian all evening and none of the rest of us could speak any Georgian.

After the egg game there was a round of drinking to the dead, and then to children and then to Georgia, and then to everyone in the world on behalf of Georgia, and then to the dead again and then just general drinking and shouting and saying how Georgia makes the best vodka, sausage, cheese, wine and everything else in the whole world, and a general invitation for everyone to visit Georgia where we will all be looked after as princes.

Then there was a most delicious cake moist and fruity and spicy which Charlie ate 5 slices of before I used the kids as an excuse to get up and go to bed before my glass got refilled again and I became incapable of making it up the stairs!

It was a nice change to celebrate Easter in a different way so next year rather than gorging on chocolate as usual maybe we will have our own Georgian Easter and just drink too much vodka instead!

I am beginning to lose track of the number of people in all the different countries that we have been to that tell us “it’s not usually like this at this time of year” I am also going to stop believing them when they say “but it will change tomorrow”.  The first statement is just the global collective amnesia that we have about what the weather is actually like in any given place at any given time, and the second is just rampant optimism with no basis in truth.

Remember that strong wind I mentioned in my last blog?  Well it is still with us, but now for an exciting twist it is full of white stuff, commonly referred to as snow. Yes lots and lots of whirling snowflakes coming to join their brothers and sisters lying a couple of centimetres deep on the ground.

I wouldn’t mind so much but the heater has broken and it is ****ing freezing………. I understand that it is a lovely spring in England – enjoy.

Okay, feeling better now several hours later.  No joy fixing heater but we are staying at a backpackers in Goreme in a fairy chimney, so a silver lining, hurrah!

Wow, it is about 35degrees today and the sky is blue and we are at the beach, the fact that the wind is about a force 7 is the only thing wrong with the weather.

It has been a fairly mental weather week starting with us being camped at Olympos (magnificent hippy hang out with ruined ancient city overgrown with forest lining a frog-filled river winding down to a beach) where after a perfect couple of days we were treated to a biblical storm that started with thunder and lightning, moved to a hailstorm which threw down 2 inches of hail in 10 minutes followed by torrential rain…this was exciting enough but to get to the place we were staying involved crossing a ford and the guy who owned the place recommended that we move on before the river had a flash flood which had happened the year before and carried 4 cars and a truck down to the sea. So we hastily said goodbye to our lovely new friend Rose, just about scraped across the river and parked upstream and inland where the danger was somewhat removed!

Then yesterday we met another incredible thunder storm, fortunately sat in a taverna halfway up the hill at Alanya, which gave us 45 mins of torrential rain that turned the cobbled 15% road into a river and left us very glad we weren’t driving in it. Whilst we waited the waiters entertained us by making napkins into hats and beautiful paper tulips for Charlie who was suitably embarrassed to be receiving so much attention.

Once the rain stopped we made our way down the road/river in ankle deep water and set off along the legendarily mental road from Alanya to Amnamur. The road is a legend because it is the twistiest hilliest road that you can possibly imagine, it is also the only road so it features lots of lorries driving in a very Turkish middle of the road way too fast kind of manner! To make it more interesting still they are at present building a new road which will be straighter and flatter with lots of tunnels, but it follows the path of the old road so in many places the road disappears completely and you drive through the road building process, no tarmac, lots of dumper trucks and enormous diggers and zero visibility thanks to all the dust. Fortunately the road was only 120km long and took us a mere 4 hours to navigate. The good news is that the road improves from here – for 60km – and then it goes back to mental wiggling and JCB filled workings for about 150km more – hurrah.

Turkey is still working its’ magic on us though and we are absolutely loving it! If the people were any more accommodating it would be embarrassing. We have been quite overwhelmed by hospitality and random acts of kindness. The other day we stopped at some ruins and had a wander about and when we got back to the van the driver of the bus parked next to us offered us a cup of tea which we sat in the boot of the bus and drank, he then gave Charlie a bunch of flowers, both kids a brooch to ward off evil eye and me a box of tea bags – sage, very tasty if not particularly thirst quenching. Totally and utterly outside his job description, completely unnecessary and just typically Turkish.

Travelling out of season has fantastic benefits (we do realise how lucky we are to be able to do it). So many of the Turkish people that we meet say that during the summer everything is so flat out that they don’t ever have time to chat and get to know any of the tourists, and they seem to really enjoy having the time to get to know us and find out what we are up to and just chat. They are of course all really pleased that we keep raving on about how wonderful Turkey is and what a fantastic time we are having.

An update on wild Turkey. We let Tommy go at Olympos which was sad but we felt he would be happy there and there would be other tortoises to chat to and life in a shoe box was probably boring for him even though he had regular walks when we stopped. We have seen loads more tortoises, including an amourous pair who attracted our attention with the noise of grunting and shells banging together.

Today there was a castle moat full of 4 different varieties of turtles and the obligatory frogs. We saw a huge black snake which was fortunately fast asleep in the sun, which has put Charlie and I off walking through long grass, and we had a smaller snake fall off a shoulder height ledge we were walking past and then rear up being very hissy and upset as if it was somehow our fault! We were completely inundated with dragonflies at Alanya yesterday, there were literally thousands flying around the castle, very spectacular. There have been more cows in the road and a lot of goats. One day we saw a large herd of large goats being shepherded into a field from one direction and from the other direction came a large herd of smaller goats who greeted each other with the loudest and most enthusiastic bleating and came together in a terrific melee of mums and kids all trying to find the right pairing in order to serve/suckle lunch.

Far too long this blog so shall stop now and continue to enjoy the sun if I can find a little spot out of this gale.

Every tree in every wood filled valley and on every pine clad peak is chock full of honey bees buzzing in a pollen fuelled frenzy loud and persistent enough to make you feel that you have tinnitus.

Each puddle and pond, marsh and bog, river and stream is alive with small green frogs copulating in an extravagant and vociferous manner as if they were drowning in liquid Viagra.

The goats bleat and their bells tinkle as they scramble through ruined ancient cities, along the sides of roads and along narrow coastal paths.

Chickens cluck and scratch and squabble in every patch of dirt and scarily un-tethered bulls and cows wander along central verges or pounce from behind trees in front of, fortunately, slow moving motorhomes.

Ants are scurrying, lizards lounging in the cracks of rocks.  The tail of a snake slithered across our path and the only scorpion we saw was large, but happily flat.

The sea is full of fish and the beaches have scuttling crabs patrolling the tide line.

Anenomes of every shade, asphodel tall and proud, daisies and dandelion in all different sizes cover everything.  Cherry blossom, Almond blossom, Apple blossom fill orchards. Egg-and-bacon flowers and sea pinks stud the cliffs.  New bright green leaves are bursting on the beech trees and hazels and figs.

Spring has certainly sprung and there is evidence of it everywhere.

The best thing that spring has brought us is in a shoe box on the dash board…it is a small tortoise maybe a year old and his name is Tommy and he is going to travel with us for a while – though as an endangered species we can’t bring him home so will have to leave him on a rocky hillside before we leave Turkey which will be a bit sad.  He is very inquisitive and likes a good explore, eats a variety of leaves and tiny bits of fruit and though he has only been with us a couple of days has made a big impression already.

Well our technical problems are now resolved and we can use electrical items again – hurrah.  We had one adapter that broke and then we left the other at a museum where they were kindly charging our phone whilst we looked ’round and so we couldn’t plug anything in and everything was flat but today we found a nice man in a shop a bit like Aldridges who had just what we needed for less than the price tag – also like Aldridges – so now we are back on track.

I just had to look at the blog to remember where I last was when I added something and it was on the ferry to Greece and we have driven all the way through and out the other side without me making any comment.  This is not a reflection on Greece as I could go on about it a lot even though we whizzed through in less than a fortnight, and we are going back through the southern parts though exactly which way may depend where the ferry goes on the day we reach port and be no more scientific than that. Okay so now I’ve stopped waffling on

Greece -the Northern roads – edited highlights

There is a new highway built all across Northern Greece from the ferry port of Ingoumenitsa to the Turkish border, it should be a toll road but the barriers and booths are still being constructed which always makes you feel cheerful, like blackberry picking – getting something for nothing.  So the road is good and fast and took us to Dodoni, where we slept in the shade of a snow topped mountain in a taverna carpark and woke in the morning to a blue sky and gorgeous valley views including a great big amphitheatre from the kitchen window.

Then Ioannina, an old twisty streeted town wrapped in a thick city wall sat watchful by  the lakeside wary of invaders that every now and then mauraud their way north to south or east to west.

Meteora where the monks sit just below the clouds contemplating life, formulating revolutionary plans and adorning their chapels with the most extraordinary depictions of the torture of martyrs from the not too distant past, they were imaginative people the persecutors of these poor christians.

Mount Olympus loomed large then over the ancient city of Dion and we scrambled about some ruins and then up some wooded slopes, but it kept its head hidden from us showing only snowy shoulders and maybe a little hint of neck…

Vergina once home to the Macedonians gave up some magnificent sights, the tomb of Phillip II – Alexanders dad – and the artefacts buried with him were a real surprise as the guide book made only passing reference to the site.  The golden wreaths made in the shapes of oak leaves studded with acorns and myrtle flowers were exquisitely detailed and amazingly well preserved, but it had all lain undiscovered until about 30 yrs ago and when they uncovered it the archeologists could hardly believe what they had found.

Pella, birthplace of Alexander, unfortunately mostly closed up due to lack of funding but then we followed his footsteps down to his tutor  Aristotle’s  home town near Olimpibada on the Halkidiki peninsular which is a great site but not mentioned anywhere.  Lots of lovely scrambling about over old walls by the sea, with a view like that I could probably come up with a few great thoughts myself if I could spend enough time in the warm sun just contemplating.

Phillippi came next where a nice pink floyd fan let us in for free and we climbed a big hill and looked down on the old town and the ruins of a very old Basillica.  We sat in the cell where St Paul (allegedly) had to spend some time when his letter writing had put some backs up and then there was the theatre and all the other bits in the museum and as Charlie says “I’m all historied out!’

So the last few days in Greece we spent in the forest of Dadia in Thrace so close to the border that every other car was a tank.  The forest was beautiful, unspoilt and springing into spring with crocus everywhere.  It is also the home to all but 2 of the european birds of prey so we saw lots of different eagles including golden ones which was magical.  The forest is also home to 3 types of vulture, great big black ones with a 3m wingspan, weird little egyptian ones with yellow faces and some long necked white ones with bald heads so they can get right inside a corpse without getting their plummage messed up – nice touch mother nature!  As the numbers have been declining the WWF now manage the forest and they have a program going locally where dead live stock get brought to the park and dumped up on a ridge so the vultures get real corpses and if you walk an hour or so to the hide you can watch….I wonder if Slimbridge might consider it?

The best thing about Dadia though was meeting some lovely people.  Kris kindly lent us his wife and daughter for the day to go for a long walk – where we only twice nearly got eaten by a pack of dogs, I wish that was a joke, all very scared – Assida and Angela were great company and the kids got to go and play at Angelas house and Assida even laundered all our jeans which at this point in our travels is above and beyond what you could expect from anyone!

We also met a lovely couple from Alexandropoulis at the bird centre with their 2 kids and Gran (visiting from Athens). Gran was called Maria and was quite cross with me about the Elgin marbles so I shall have to see what I can do about that when I get back…….

And so we left Greece, I am missing the people as they never ask why just shrug and say why not!  but I am not missing the dogs and still have my stick just in case.

We are on the Galipolli peninsular now, it is full of live soldiers (2 of them offered to let Billy have a go on their automatic weapons yesterday but the accident potential there does not bear thinking about) and police because it is independence day on Friday and the prime minister is coming so they are all going through their paces and filling the holes in the roads.

The king stalked us all over Morocco……….. the Turkish prime minister is coming here…………I wonder what Cameron is doing in July?

What a crazy few days in Italy!  The Cinque Terre was exceptionally beautiful, the foot paths clinging on to the side of the cliffs through terraced vineyards and the odd glimpse of a seaside village brightly painted, hanging on to a rocky outcrop over the blue blue water.

Lucca was a gorgeous Tuscan town with winding streets leading to open Piazzas and riding round the city walls the skyline studded with towers and spires and the snow capped Appenines in the distance.

Pisa full of scruffy backstreets and bags of character, then chilling out sitting in the sun in the plaza backs resting against a magnificent cathedral wall gazing up at the wonky tower watching people posing for photos with their hands held in the air at funny angles whilst their friends try to take the shot that shows them holding up or pushing over the tower.

The guard endlessly walking back and forth across the grass furiously blowing his whistle trying to keep people off his precious grass, Canute would have had an easier job!

Florence was way too busy for me so I sat at the Piazza Michelangelo at the top of the hill and watched the crowds scurrying up and down the river banks and enjoyed the light changing on the Duomo until the night fell and the lights came on and lit it up beautifully.

Venice, with all its hustle and bustle, getting caught in the crowd and swept along streets and over bridges.  Taking the Tracherro across the canal a great balancing act as we all stood in the middle of the gondola as it wove its way across the mental traffic of the grand canal, a bit like trying to ride a tricycle across the M4 during rush hour.  The costumes of carnival and the sounds of a city at play coming at you from every angle and then escaping to the quieter quarters in the north of the island where the streets and rivers are empty and the washing is hung out to dry across the water and it feels like a tranquil place where people live.

And now we are on a ferry again making our way east to Northern Greece across a lumpy and slate grey sea that seemed to want to throw us out of our bunks all night. This afternoon the amphitheatre at Dodoni and tonight we dine on cheese pies and Metaxa………