amsterDAMN it's good to be here! (and Berlin)

Peace, Love, and Happiness to all!

Yay Amsterdam! It is tuesday and we were supposed to leave today, then we pushed it to Wednesday, and now it's FOR SURE Thursday we leave for Berlin... haha So, we got here Friday and haven't been to the famous Red Light District yet and I'm not sure we will even go for a number of reasons, one being that it's supposedly not like it used to be and is therefor dangerous. Another being I'm not sure how I feel about going to a place where I see mostly foreign women, mostly young, mostly pushed into that business, their choice having been removed from them, if they ever really had it. On the other hand, it is a safe place to do it, why? Cuz the government's the pimp? Like murder isn't so bad when it's done by a government?

Wo. Sorry folks. It's been a while since you've had any Jacquie rant! But really, did I make you think about it at least a little? If so, then you know, as long as you can reach ONE person... ;-)

So ya, Amsterdam! Beautiful!! Awesome! I'm lovin it! Staying with my friend Tirza, a local, and we've been out every night since we got here, with the exception of tonight cuz we were pooped so we've indugled ourselves in other activities... Her friends are amazing people who have done amazing things and have hooked me up with some amazing connections not only here with them, but with the organizations they've worked with in S.E. Asia - where I'll be for Christmas and beyond. So who knows what Jacquie's futur holds, but be sure you tune in for the updates! haha But ya, I've been introduced to some incredible music as well... I can't wait to share! And some great books I have to read!

Ya. We went out to the city of Utrecht to meet up with Vilaka - one of the sweetest people I've ever met - for lentil soup, what turned into 5 bottles of wine, and... Picture it: 4 extremely intelligent and beautiful women bonding and sharing some of the most deepest thoughts I've ever had, around a dining room table in a sweet pad that was built in the 60s as a hippy commune (so any architects out there would totally appreciate the character of this place), with awesome music playing, talking about changing the world and passions*. It was really great. The next day we slept in, ate breakies, took old cruisers out to see the dutch countryside! It
was like a chinook, so warm and automn everywhere. Saw a castle, some windmills, a beautiful old town, and lots of sheep.

Went back to Amsterdam and cleaned up for the pot luck Tirza had organised, which turned into a Wine and Cheese rendez-vous, perfect! Met more of her friends and a couple we had already met, took some
funny party pictures too. Crashed out and woke up early and went to see the Van Gogh museum! That was pretty neat. The hotdog I ate before entering was discusting. It was cool getting to know the artist was a struggling one and died relatively unknown. Funny how many only become worth anything AFTER they die and therefor don't need the money. So, ya. That was cool, I have my favs, especially The Walnut Tree (er something). Sat around and took in the city a bit at the park behind the museum and some professor dude from the University of Whales came along... strange experience... wanted us to solve a riddle he and his collegue had brought here a week earlier, their students had come up with the riddle... which wasn't all that much of a riddle... I thought it sucked. But that's not to say we didn't have to think about it! We had 6 guesses, mine was wrong - and obviously WAY too deep for these english dudes. Monique's was right and he gave us 10€ just like he said we would. No one else guessed it! It was stupid. I told him so. haha Maybe I'll tell you about it some day... ;-p

So we met up with Tirza and she took us to our first Coffee Shop experience!! You didn't think I'd pass THAT up, now did you?? I know this is going to family and such, but I refuse to write 2 seperate accounts of what happened. This is ME. Love me for who I am! I am in Amsterdam afterall!! But, if you want the full story on that experience, you can either email me OR wait for the full feature film coming to a theatre near YOU! haha

So dinner was good. Indonesian. Loved it. Met another friend who worked as an english teacher in Cambodia, helped set up like 4 schools. She gave me some contacts for when I'm there and I'm really excited about that prospect. We later went to a really cool jazz club where Monique proceeded take the photography world by surprise when she captured some of that amazing vibe. "Brilliant and REAL" - The New york Times. This was an awesome night cuz that was the best jazz place in the city and we were front and centre, just groovin. We caught the midnight train to the East end where we are staying and popped in a certain series II, episodes 1 through 3 and passed out nicely at about 4am. I woke up at 9 for no real reason, just to
email and stuff, and since we decided to stay yet another night, Monique and I decided to go off on our own and check out the Red Light District by day and the sex museum as well... only we didn't
make it to the museum... and that's all I'd like to say about that. ;-P If you'd like to know how this day/night went, email me and ask... wowzers. A lot of ha ha ho ho and hee hee's... let me tell YOU! Wild!!

So today, we're in Berlin! (In case you're wondering, I saved this email the other day and started writing it again today...) We took a train to Berlin and it only took 6 hours with a gazillion stops so not too shabby! We got here kind of later so we just checked into our rip-off hostel, showered, and grabbed some grub... Tomorrow I'm definitly having sausage and sour craut! And of course see the sites! I'll let you know of course.

We've decided to break up the next 12 days as follows: 3 nights here, 3 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Vienna (hopefully), 2 nights in Munich, and 1 night in Frankfurt which happens to be Holloween night! We were thinking about dressing up as canadians pretending to be americans pretending to be canadians... What do you think? haha We leave the next evening quite late for Dublin... Crazy! To think of all the places we're going to visit within the next couple weeks before we leave for cold - but gorgeous - Ireland for about 5
weeks or so of work. December 20th I'm officially flying to Bangkok from London!!! I'm meeting Carly there and it looks like we'll be heading up to Chiang Mai for Christmas and not sure what we'll be doing for New Year's yet... It's all a surprise for me since I don't know much about S.E. Asia and she works in Cambodia. She has the reigns and I don't mind. I'll be staying in the area for an indefinite amount of time, maybe even work at one of the schools I mentioned earlier... I love not having a plan. I will of course be
keeping you all updated on the turn of events. Questions? Write me! Leave me a voice mail!! Send me party pictures (or whatever) to: orneryhipster@gmail.com

I love you all and I hope everyone had a yummy Thanks Giving... I want to here Halloween stories! Babies? Marriages? I feel so out of touch. Until next time...

Turkish Coasts to Cavernis Caves

GREETINGS ALL!

How is North America treatin' ya? Well let me tell YOUS that Turkey is treating me oh so right! It just keeps getting better and better! Wow. So where did I end off last time? Hmmmm... Let me check the ol' parietal filing cabinet...

So my last entry was about Ephesus, the formidable Roman empire unearthed. We didn't spend too much time in Selçuk cuz we were primarily there to see the old city. There wasn't much to do there anyhow.

We wanted to move on to other sites such as Pamucale (pa-moo-ka-lai): home of the CRAZY CALCIUM DEPOSITS!!! So we spent one more night there and left the next early afternoon for Selçuk. Awesome pics dudes! Awesome scenary! Awesome feeling being there... Imagine a place you had only seen in pictures and had dreamed of seeing with your own eyes someday, and then imagine opening your eyes and BEING there! Looking out onto the deposits, warm spring mountain water flowing, tiny rivulets in the calcium creating a sort of grippy effect... The backdrop to this place was absolutely gorgeous! Mountains and farm fields and a quaint little town, imagine the panoramic view... I hope to help you out a bit with pics... patience
is a virtue. We climbed up to the top and you'd think it was so slippery cuz the calcium resembles ice but no way José! I am experiencing things I never thought I'd ever come close to... Turkey was never a place I thought I'd go but I have been witness to some amazing views and the people are so friggen NICE! It's awesome. Pamucale was probably one the highlights of my trips and I will be seriously dissapointed in anyone who comes to Turkey and DOESN'T visit that place. Be warned. ;-)

So, one night in Pamukale and we moved on to Fethiye (feh-ti-yeh) where we took a minibus to a town called Ölüdeniz (o-lu-de-naiz). WOW! The mountains are so lush and green and the beach at the bottom with waters so clear you can see bottom from 20m out from the shore!! Yet another paradise I've experienced!! Our hostel was called Öba and we lived in a little hut called The Moon House. The restaurant was so cool cuz there were pillows and small tables laid out in one corner and so you had to take your shoes off before mounting onto the carpeted platform. I spent much time there reading, especially the first day cuz we arrived during a TERRENTIAL DOWNPOOR! They had only had rain 1 other day that year and this one was the worst! You should have seen the streets were like rivers, the seweres were spewing and the people were huddled in the tiny shops trying to wait it out. We of course got soaking wet and so to hang out in that restaurant was so perfect, just relaxing... The next day we went to the beach and took a boat taxi out to a place called Butterfly Valley. Pulling up to shore you can see tents everywhere along the beach, a small café, vegetable and druit gardens in the back at the bottom of what was the most picturesque scene I've seen yet: the valley came to a V and you could see so far beyond, all the moutains forming various Vs so you could walk down through the valley and follow along the crevace for a long time. It was like the movie The Beach cuz there were people who actually lived there for free as long as they helped out in the garden and caught fish for everyone to eat that night... I'm totally coming back here and living here for a few months... I felt the vibe for sure. That night we went out drinkin and got pretty wasted. Paul puked. haha

The next day we of course went back to the Valley and spent the entire day there. I finished my book The Da Vinci Code while Monique and Paul went exploring the valley. It was another perfect day. Swimming was so much fun! Upon arriving this day, Monique and I decided to just jump off the side of the boat and swim to shore. Very cool! I was so sad to be leaving... They played St. Germaine on the boat and you should seriously check out that music! Totally groovin!

From Fethiye we moved on to Olympos and stayed in the famous treehouses!! Well, they were more like houses made of trees on stilts rather than actual treehouses, although there were a few genuine treehouses I will admit. haha 15 YTL gets you accommodation, turkish breakfast (which I am so comepltely SICK of)
and an AWESOME warm supper. The hostel is called The Turkman Pension. Awesome music at night!! It was pretty cool and the walk to the beach was very unique: old roman ruins! We spent only 2 nights there cuz we had to move on to where we are currently...

Capadocia!! Home of the cave and underground cities!! Our hostel is in a cave! It's called Shoestring Pension and it's so neat to be actually sleeping in friggen CAVE! haha We crashed out for a fewhours upon arriving since we took an overnight bus and didn't get that much sleep. We woke up and walked the long walk to the open-air museum of the 11th Century cave cities... We have some HILARIOUS pictures and I just can't wait for y'all to see them!! Trust me: you will not only sigh from the crazy beauty but you will cry from laughing. Well... maybe not CRY, but they are pretty funny. I don't even think I can describe what we saw -and what we are living in- because my words won't do it justice. But here's something that maybe you can picture: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope. Luc, as a young child, living with adoptive parents in that cave city place. If you can picture that then you can picture what we will be seeing for the next 2 days.

Tomorrow we're taking a 6.5 hour hike to see more ruins and an underground city. Tonight we are going out for Paul's 25th birthday, seeing The Whirling Dirvishes, belly dancers, fire dancers, and most importantly: all you can drink drinks!! heehee I'll write my final Turkish entry from Istanbul on the 13th or so before we head off to AMSTERDAM!! moi ah ah ahhhh! It's been quite the trip and like I said, it's only getting better. It looks like I'll be changing my plans after Ireland and won't be touring Europe but S.E. Asia instead... So after Holland, it's Germany, and then finally Ireland. I'll be leaving Ireland at Christmas time and most-likely flying to Bangkok, Thailand where I will be meeting up with my new and awesome friend Carly who'll be in the area since she's working in Cambodia. Maybe New Year's in Laos? So excited!! I'll explain once I know more details of course. The way I see it is if I'm flying there anyhow it makes no sense to fly all the way back to Europe and then go back to Thailand before I go home. This way the money I'll have will go a lot farther then if I stayed in Europe cuz it is FRIGGEN EXPENSIVE! Monique will be going back to Canada for Christmas and it is still unsure as to whether she will be meeting me in Asia. It's all good! Plans change and we are following our hearts. Like I said, I'll keep you posted on all the latest developments. Until next time, keep the emails coming and the voicemails too!! I love hearºng familiar voices and learning that everyone's still alive and well back home. You are all in my heart. I miss you very much. I hope you're enjoying my detailed accounts and I will soon have a website for viewing photos... just keep checking the yahoo photo album! A la prochaine!!

Turkey lurkey do

Yo yo yo!

It's September 30th today and I am in Turkey in a city called Selçuk (sell-chook). I'll start from today how bout? Work backwards? You know... change it up a little? heehee I'm so crazy, I know.

SO TODAY:
We got to this city and our hostel at about 12:30am and crashed out til about 10 this morning but didn't actually leave the place til about 1:30 pm. At which point we went to visit one of the Womders of the World: Ephesus, a once formidable Roman Empire constructed of mostly marble. AMAZING experience dudes. Truly. We got to walk around amongst the ruins, touched them and tried to imagine what life was like back then. So cool!!! I can't wait to upload these pictures cuz you will never see anything like this in your lives! It was an ENTIRE CITY unearthed and we were walking around in it! The Theatre was gigantic and the acoustics were so clear... It seated 25,000 people! HUGE! Oh man it was the coolest site I've seen (except for the Basilica in Istanbul but I'll get to that later). After that, we walked the 30kms back to town and ate some grub at this cute little restaurant where we were served by some roid-infused waiter. Seriously. He was huge and so was the other
waiter. heehee Now we're at an internet cafe and I'm doing this. ;-)

YESTURDAY:
I SAW THE RUINS OF TROY!! WOWZERS! We took a tour and left from the city of Çanakalle (cha-na-ka-lai) to the ancient city of Troy. We took pictures from inside the replica of the Trojan Horse: hilarious. (btw, the Trojan Horse built for the Hollywood film Troy resides in Çanakalle. I'll post a pic of that for sure.) It was so funny cuz that's pretty much the only thing you're goin up in there
to do and it doesn't look anything like what the actual horse would have looked like since this one had holes for people to look out of AND an upper deck. heehee You'll see what I mean. It was so funny. So ya. TROY! There were 9 cities built on top of the one before it after the previous one was wrecked from fire or destroyed by an invading land. So you can see the different crafts made and
the different techniques used to build the walls and the homes and such. Alexander came in, demolished the old Temple of Aphrodite and built another - more beautiful - of marble and so you can see the awesome detail work on the marble as compared to the older ruins. It was pretty neat. Our tour guide had us all sit on the steps of
the theatre while he told us of the ancient legend of how Paris took Hellen from her home and brought her to Troy which started the war of Homer's The Odyssey that lasted for 10 years. He had us sit there and the girls sat on the marble steps at the top where King Priam and his Queen Hecuba once sat to watch the theatre... It was surreal. A great tour.

The day before yesturday:
We left for Çanakalle from Istanbul on a morning bus ride so this
day wasn't that interesting.

3 days ago:
We - Monique, her bro Jean-Paul, and I - visited the BLUE MOSQUE, Ayasofya (a famed Christian church), and the Basilica Cisterns. So. The Blue Mosque was so friggen cool that I don't even know how to explain it. It was HUGE and MAGESTIC and BEAUTIFUL. The outside is one thing - 6 minerttes instead of the standard 2, blue (duh!), and much bigger than all the other mosques and not to mention the
oldest - but the inside is beyond words. I wish I had my notebook here with me so I could share with you my initial thoughts. I just remember walking in and my eyes welling up with tears. Such a crazy feeling upon entering such a sacred place!! I just sat down on the lustrious carpets and took it in. If you could have seen the detail work on every single area of the place!! The ceiling, the blue-
tiled walls, the curves of the walls, the columns, the stained glass windows... every single part had something written on it or some sort of beautiful design painted there. AMAZING. We got to stay during the afternoon closing and watch the prayer!! Monique and I had to cover our heads and necks with a sheet... I can't explain how I felt at that time... watching these people pray and sing and stand up and then kneal right down to the ground, placing their foreheads there. Pretty neat. Not something I'd ever done before nor had ever thought I'd do.

The Ayasofya was built in the 4th or 5th Century A.D. and so that was something pretty cool to see considering it's catholic and stands directly across from the Mosque. The inside was under construction right down the middle so we didn't get the full effect, but trust me: we got a pretty vivid idea since everything was so imaculately preserved or restored. There's this one mosaic above the alter I was truly impressed with since because of the rounded area of the ceiling on which it was located, you can see it perfectly from all angles no matter where you are in the church! So neat!

The Basilica Cisterns was a place I never thought would be cool since what it was essentially was a sewage area with aqueducts and such. Not something you would imagine would be beautiful... but 'au contraire mes amis'! It was THE COOLEST place I've ever seen and I will venture to say, I have EVER seen. The way they have it set up is so eery and dark, but the lighting just makes you feel like you
are there in ancient times with the candles as your lights... I can't wait to show you all the pictures so you can see what I'm not explaining very well... Nothing I can say here will do it justice so I whole-heartedly reccomend that if you ever go to Istanbul, this place should be at the TOP of your list of places to go. AMAZING.

THE FOOD
YUMMY. We are definitly not on our starvation diet anymore. heehee But, a donaýre here isn't a donaire back home... for all you fort mac folks: It ain't no Jomaa's. But it's still really tasty and we've been making the effort to try some of what the locals eat and it has been paying off. Be prepared to eat A LOT of bread in not only Turkey but Greece as well.

Ahhh... what else can I tell you? I think that's it so far. We are on our way to Pamucalla to visit the famous Calcium Deposits I've been dreaming of visiting for so long now!! And from there we're headed to Butterfly Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth. Next we plan to hýt up a place called Olympos and stay in a treehouse for a few nights! Apparently it's a backpacker's favorite
place to go and I am so friggen excited for that! We'll move on to Cappadocia from there where we'll visit an ancient city built on the face of a mountain... literally! This will take us to the end of our Turkish tour and we'll be heading back to Istanbul where we'll have a couple days to visit the Grand Bizarre, the Spice Bizarre and the Asian side of the city. We then leave for Amsterdam on Friday, October 14th!! Crazy and wonderful stories are coming up next so be sure to check your emails regularily!!! YAY!!

I'm loving this travelling thing... who knew? ;-)

Santorini

So today we're leaving the lsland of Santorini for another island
called Naxos which isn't too far away. We've spent 4 nights here on
Santorini and we have seen the most beautiful cities, beaches, and
towns! I don't even know where to begin! Hmmm...

DAY 1
We got here at about 3:30 in the afternoon, after a
pretty long ferry ride from Athens (which we came SO CLOSE to
missing after running through the rain from our hostel to the metro
with our friggen packs on!). We got off the boat and there were
hundreds of locals trying to convince us to stay at their hotel or
hostel, holding signs, yelling. It was kind of intimidating since
I've never experienced that before. We knew where we wanted to go
though and so we ended up choosing to go with this old man and his
wife to their villa-style hotels for 10 euro/night. It was so
cute! Only 3 mins walk from the Perisa Beach which is the most
famous beach on the island because the sand is not sand at all but
tiny little black (mostly) rocks from the volcano erruption
thousands from about 1650 BC!! You can actually SEE the hardened
lava underneath! The water was so clear and blue and not even that
cold! So when we arrived at our little villa (we have pictures) we
got our bathing suits on and went to the beach! haha It was so
great playing in the water! Oh ya, the drive up the side of the
island to get to the town of Perisa was the freakist thing ever cuz
you're zig-zagging all the way up on these tiny streets with 2-way
traffic and sharp turns that make you feel like you're gonna drive
right off the side! CRAZY! We pretty much just chilled out our
first night.

DAY 2
We woke up early and went back to the beach at
about 10am til about 3:30ish pm, Monique got burnt BAD. We
showered, got dressed and took the bus into Fira, the main city on
the island and whitnessed the most beautiful event I'd ever seen: the Sunset. Here's my journal entry from that:

"I'm in Fira looking...well gazing at paradise. The sun is close to
setting behind the volcano, calling an end to another beautiful day
in Greece, island of Santorini. It's truly amazing. I could die
now having seent he most incredible paradise. My eyes are moist.
There's classical music playing in the background. So many people
gathered to experience the beauty for themselves. I wish I could
give this gift to those I love."

The city is amazing, just a bunch of white villas, shops, and
restaurants perched one on top of the other with tiny pedestrian
streets manouevering in between them ascending and descending every
which way, all this on the side of the cliff. Magnificent.

DAY 3
We went to the Red Beach and rented an ATV to get there. It
was awesome! haha That beach wasn't the greatest cuz there was so
much sea stuff washing in on the shore, but the red cliffs were
something to see and so it made it worth it. We had to pretty much
hike into the beach area! We stayed from about 1 til about 5:30,
rode back, showered, dressed and went for dinner at this cute little restaurant where we shared some fantastic tzatziki, pitta with an olive pate, greek salad, and THE most succulent tortellini with mushrooms and pruscuto (ham) in a yummy white sauce! All for about 5 euro each!!

DAY 4
We did the Volcano Tour!! That was cool. We took a sail boat
out to the volcano, hiked up the friggen thing in the scorching
heat, got a little speal on the history of the volcano, learned that it's still active although it'll be many many years (like thousands) before a catastrophic eruption occurs, although the last time some it blew was in 1950 and only a bit of magma oozed out and a couple more craters were created. Pretty neat though. It blew up and created Santorini as we know it today in 1650 BC. Then we hiked
back down, sailed out to the hot springs which weren't all that hot
at all, and we had to jump off the boat into the sea and then swim
out to the springs. That was awesome. We then sailed out to the
island of Thirisia, had some lunch, lied out on the rocks before we
got back onthe boat to sail to Oia to watch the famous sunset.
There was no sunset though cuz it was cloudy by then. haha But the
city was amazing! We have pics I can't wait for y'all to see!!!

THE PLAN
So now we're getting stuff booked for our travels after Greece for
getting into Turkey to meet up with Monique's bro Paul. We'll be
spending 2 nights on Naxos and one night on Mykonos (the gay island
of Greece) and we leave the second night at like 1:20am for the
ferry to Samos, arriving at 7:20am, taking the international ferry
from Samos to Kussedesy Turkey and then from there a bus to
Istanbul. So we'll be in Turkey by September 26 and we'll have 3
weeks there!! I hope to write more on the other two islands before
we leave them. Until then, keep the emails coming cuz I do read
them I just don't always have time to write everyone back cuz it is
DAMN expensive for internet here!!

I wish you could all be here cuz
this is just friggen cool!!!

I'm havin the time of my life.