Sticky Apple Kisses

So as of tomorrow we should have the tire that we need for my bike, and we will be again underway with our trip. And may I say that the swimming pools in Iceland are just absolutely wonderful! Hot tubs and whirlpools are considered a given and a norm!

However as we would not be ourselves if we were not taking every waking moment to either plan a trip or participate in one, we used our hot tub and swimming time to talk about our next trip, and we got to talking about planning the next family motorcycle trip, in particular renting holiday cottages in devon and those who were not participating in the biking part of the tour could instead go horseback riding.

What brought the idea of renting cottages in devon on? Well first of all, as of this morning it was 3 degrees in Iceland, and although our holiday has been lovely so far, there is something about 3 degrees and a tent that makes you wonder if something a little more sheltered is called for. The thing is, we are not a hotel type of group. (Unless the hotel is on a beach in the Caribbean, then I am all over it), but if the hotel is somewhere in Europe I tend to feel that the whole experience is just a little stuffy. I would rather our own space, and two of our favorite vacation spots so far have been the house rental in Tuscany, and the wooden hut rental in Amsterdam.

So since we know that we want our own place, and preferably one that can hold the entire extended clan ( 12 people at the moment), we need a holiday cottage or home. Plus the German’s sister’s kids are of the age that they need entertainment as well. And since I have time to play on the internet now whiel the German cooks (he cooks on tour, I cook at home) I used it to check out the area and found a place online that not only accommodates all of us, but also offers horse riding lessons to children. Nothing short of perfect!

And this is what you do when you are dreaming of warmer weather and waiting for your replacement tire, you plan the next escape!

my poor mother! She has seen enough pictures from this trip to turn her hair gray (or so she keeps telling me ). And knowing that I am mostly camping wild does not help the fact that I am on a motorcycle trip. So the poor women turns on Dont Leave Home Without Your passport and there is a special on Mt. Nemrut, and how dangerous the area is, especially at night.

Now everyone needs to decide their own safety levels and act accordingly and within these limits. Your intuition is a great tool. Trust it. However when it comes to terrorism it really seems like everything is blown out of control. The episode said that one group was stopped 13 times on routine checks. we have never been stopped. ever. We have never felt in danger here. We are not going any further east because the night time security may change. That is our decision, others will go farther and have no problems. its all personal choice.

The nice thing is my mother does trust me, even when I left home for the first time to go to Russia and was in Moscow for the underground bombing. Ive put her through a lot, she has earned those hairs. Ahem, should they exist of course!

But I always want to be able to say I went out and lived life the way I wanted to live it, not the way others say I should, or even worse, listen to those who are afraid to take risks tell me mine are insane. I live life. I love every second. I only get one, and I want to live it to the best of my ability. Which means making me happy, and those who love me happy as best as I can within those limits. And I know my parents are secretly proud of my journeys, if not a little less stressed when I return. But I still say I can get hit by a bus in front of my house or riding down some crazy mountain in India. Given the choice Id like to try to make some headlines with it.

Just with really dodgey internet (if and when we get it) and 2 people for one computer. Yes I am a little behind in my computer stuff, including visiting my regular blogs. I still read you! I am just not commenting. But the big news here, well really there are two big pieces of news. The biggest is that we met it to our most Easterly destination! Mt Nemrut!!!

Us checking the final stretch of drive out:

And the Gods :

The other piece of cool news is that I am now not only comfortable off roading, I even like it, AND 2 mornings ago when Paricks bike went down, mine stayed up. Once we got here everyone had travel deals for getting up there, saying the road was too dangerous for ME! Apparnetly a man can drive up to Mt. Nemrut, but the litttle girl should take the bus. I did not drive my bike from Germany to here to take no bus. And neither did Patrick, he would have driven my bike up for me if he needed to I think. But 6000 kms on my bike and I didi. And I never dropped her to the very top when I went to ark. herrrrr

So our two days of having a dodgey internet connection are over (and dodgey is better than none!). We are now leaving Pammukcle and we are heading south. Although this first 29th birthday was good, I have to admit I was a little disapointed in Pammuckle. All the tourist shots show people in the springs, and once you arrive you are told you cant go in the springs. I do not know if this is new or not. The only ones you can enter are the ones that are made by the Turksih government. Once I got over that disapointment however I fell in love with the palce. But I would recomend it only if you really want to take the pictures, because this is the one natural site that I have ever been in that I actually think the pictures are nicer than the actual place! (So I will not be looking into a sales job search because I cant sell anything that I do not love.)

As always I never came close to getting everything done I wanted. I have uploaded a few pics,´no emails, and a couple of blog updates, I have not even finished my Journizer entries (where I am trying to write a more detailed day by day account of what has been happening). A few pictures uploaded, and not much else has been achieved! I have not even finished sharing the links like Slingbox, because that is one thing that I am really interested in. Samara has one back home, and I love that she can watch American TV in Germany. But alas I have let the boy sleep for over 2 hours, and much more and he wont sleep tonight. We were abducted last night, I will try to recreate what happened over on Journizer and then post the link over here for those who are interested!

So we have slowed down a lot since coming to Turkey. Not to the point where we spend the entire time at Internet cafes sorry. I wish we could steal wireless at night, but we tend to camp in the middle of no where.

So even stealing wireless from somewhere does not happen! But at the moment we have checked into a hostel in Paumuckle because tomorrow is my first 29th birthday (I have been led to believe that this one just keeps happening). And since Pamuckle is the place I really wish I had visited last time I was in Turkey, it was (and is my Bday) wish. So tomorrow we will spend a ridiculous amount of money to visit white springs. Hurray for birthdays!

And hurray for being clean. We have again spent the last 3 nights camping wild. This of course goes forever and a day in stretching our budget. Especially now that we are facing Turkey´s fuel prices. 2 Euro a liter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I was joking, I really do, but sadly I am not. really motorcycle or flying into one city and staying is the only way to travel this country at the moment. You do however develop a certain aroma about you. which is why we book every now and then into a hotel or hostel to get clean anyway.

But I would change it for any amount of cruises!

Sorry to all you working suckers out there. (You can call me on this when I am home again slaving again for the next trip. As South America to home is not out. Pollo is having a 2010 reunion at La Posta, and we have decided that is a good time to go and give me enough time to save for the trip. Sitting on the bike driving the other day I realised that buying the bike plus paying for the license was the same amount of money as a plane ticket to Argentina, WITH my bike, and with enough left over for 3 months of travel, the license alone was 3 months of travel or more in South America. Sigh.)

Anyway, as always I digress! But at this moment while Patrick is running errands I am sitting in the garden of this lovely little hotel we found to get clean at (I should state for the record we do not travel first class. 3 months off means a budget of 30 Euros each a day, and gas can eat 15 of that every day if we travel far, or every second day when we are riding relaxed like we are in Bulgaria. Which means as much wild camping as possible. Which is better than paid camping because you are alone, the views are always better and its free!) like so:

Ed setting up camp our first night in Bulgaria:

But it also means no showers sometimes. So we REALLY needed to come here yesterday. We are just sad we cant stay a second night, because the price is right and the food at the restuant here is AWESOME!!!

My only complaint is the coffee. Since leaving Austria we are almost always given INSTANT coffee. Yesterday I thought I hit gold, they had proper espresso machines! When I ordered my coffee it came from an instant pouch where she then used that pretty machine to shoot out hot water.

heart breaking I tell you! I dont care what anyone saysy, I am a Starbucks coffee girl, it is one of my vices, I love it, and its the only thing killing me on this trip, the lack of anything that is not instant!

So here we are in what is again suppose to be our last day in Bulgaria and we just cant seem to leave. We dont particulary want to in fact. it has been amazing here, all the more so because we did not even plan to stay here, it was always just a transit country. The only problem with staying any longer is that we will have to rush back on the way home, which niether of us really wants to do. We want to have time for Slovenia, Croatia and Albania, all places we have been told are fantstic for bikers, especially since Turkey is huge, and we could easily have spent the three months there alone. (Of course, we should also wait to see how the heat affects us in full gear).

my camera however is suffering, and getting worse. I knew it was a little on the skitz before we left, but I ignored it in favour of cash. Now it still takes good pictures, but only when the lighting is perfect. Plus my focus is completely out fo whack. But Patrick has a camera and Ive just been stealing his.

My camera:

Still very lovely,

but Patricks camera is so much nicer!:

So now I really must give in to my guilt and run away from this and let other people use the computer for a little bit just to be fair!, but first, some pictures, as I have shared links with you like pocket watch, so though this has been a written blog so far, I have not been fair or kind to my readers the past week and a half, nor with these updartes, so just until I have decent internet and I can write soemthing worth reading, ehre are some fo my fav pics so ar:

My first day off roading in Romania:

Me in Hungary:

Of course one thing that could be affecting our internet access is the fact that most of the time we are camping, and though I have a ton of stories to share, I just dont have the time to write them up at the moment properly. Which is sad, because I have so much I WANT to write. But this laptop is bieng shared between 3 people as we all hang out in our first hotel of the trip so far, and I am starting to feel bad for being so greedy with my internet time. (and I have not even shared the monk story yet!). However I am also slowly uploading some of the pics we have taken so far, and I have to say, If I KNEW this pic was being taken:

Patrick would have needed a truck accident lawyer when I ran him over with that tractor!