Spot me in the background

Enjoying my loot. The grapes were really sweet.

Amsterdam and Turkey

Alright.. I must admit that the words I used in my last entry was crude and unacceptable. Apologies for that. Need someone to teach me to edit my previous blog. Hee...

K.. Lets move on. Just a quick summary of my trip so far, besides the now notorious incident in Amsterdam, I feel that I enjoyed the city quite a bit. The visit to van Gogh and Reich.... (can rem how to spell) was very inspiring. As you all know, Im not arty-farty but Im trying to learn to appreciate art. Rembrandt and a few other artist who specialise in painting materials was certainly very impressive.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera (the nikon film one that Michael gave me) at the airport. There were some shots which I really wanted to took but was handicapped without the camera. What a waste.

Today is my last day in Istanbul. Overall, Turkey has been a good experience but it is certainly not as exotic as I thought it would be. I wanted to see the Muslim architecture and was reasonably satisfied. The blue mosque is quite majestic, both the interior and the exterior. I think I spent about 3 hours (on and off) just gazing at this excellent piece of art. My biggest complain must be the price. I was referring to a 2003 guidebook and prices of long distance buses have easily gone up by 50%. Duh...

Cappadocia was rather nice as well. Its a natural landscape that was formed after vlcanic soil were eroded. Pretty impressive sight but not as majestic as the Grand Canyon. The trek was really nice.. besides the view there were plenty of fruits along the way, grapes, apples and peaches. All very sweet.

The Turkish people are really friendly. I made quite a few friends and normal people on the streets are pretty nice to me. Was treated to drinks and dinner. Its their culture. However, this does not apply to the 'overfriendly' people who work in the tourism sector. Turkish men are certainly the most Buaya (skirt-chasing) ones that I have seen so far. It is ot uncommon for men to brag to me that they have a few girlfriends, all in different countries. I also met a single mother from England who got cheated by Turkish men. She told me that her case is by no means an isolated incident. Quite an amazing woman, will blog more about her in next time. Some Turkish woman that i met swear that they do not want to marry the locals. I also hitched a few short rides in Cappadocia. Quite a nice experience. I have more to write about Turkey but I will save it for next time. Need to prepare to catch my night flight to Berlin.