a Taste of Turkey

Pun fully intended. And it's a whole lot more appropriate that my friend shouting "Cranberries!" after I said I was in Turkey.
Anyway, I'm back, and I've posted about half of my photos to my Flickr account. Only half? Yah, half. That's still 111 photos, so there's quite a bit to look at.

If you haven't jumped to that gallery already, then I'll explain these three photos a little. But just a little.
The first one is from an abandoned Greek village, uninhabited since the first world war. Except for the sheep. And the goats in another series of photos. And the tourist trap restaurants and such. Otherwise, totally uninhabited. The second photo is just a piece of street art from Istanbul. I like it. That's all.

Finally, the photo on the left is of the library at Ephesus, one of the biggest (the biggest?) tourist attractions in all of Turkey. Ancient city, Biblical importance, yadda yadda. Pretty cool stuff.
For the rest, hit up my gallery. Go!

all photos (c) me

Too tired to think of a proper title for this post. Zzz.

Not sure if I can write complete sentences right now. Or coherent thoughts. So here's the jumble.

Left Istanbul at 4am, or 6pm at home. Arrived home at 7pm the following day. Movie overdose. Mind wants to sleep, body doesn't.

Toronto forgot to load my bag. If it isn't on my doorstep tomorrow, I will be one sad panda. I will also have to go on a small shopping spree, as all my shorts are in that bag and I am moving to Singapore in two months. Problem? Maybe.

It feels weird not eating Turkish food. Or listening to an Iman singing a prayer at various intervals. Craving Chinese food, though.

Starting to ramble. Real posts (and pictures) will come soon enough.

Ciao. Or whatever it is in Turkish. Yes please.

Still Alive, I Swear, pt. 2

It's been well over a month, almost two, since I last updated this. I'd say my life hasn't been eventful enough to talk about, but that would be a big lie. I just got lazy, as I'm prone to do.

Over the next few days I'm going to be re-vamping this space, changing the background and header, renaming it, and potentially switching the layout a little. Why? Because I'm (rather prematurely) getting ready to convert this into my travel blog.

As the previous post mentions, I'm off to Turkey in a week and a half. Then I'll be travelling within Western Canada for a while, maybe I'll get down to Seattle. Finally, there's the move to Singapore and all the Southeast Asian travel I'll get up to while in that part of the world, which will make up the bulk of my entries. After that I miiiiiight retire the blog for a while. We'll see what happens when I get back in, oh, December.

So that's the plan. The next post you see from me will probably be for pre-departure. I won't be updating from Turkey on the blog (but if I make it to an internet cafe I'll update my Twitter now and again), so expect some larger posts in June complete with photos and, quite possible, embarrassing anecdotes of cultural faux pas.

Until next time!

Oh Summer, where art Thou?

The end of term can't come fast enough. I already know that I'm going to come out of the summer broke, but it will be entirely worth it with what I have planned. And just what do I have planned, you ask? Travel. Lots and lots of travel. Here's quick peek at what's to come.

Moving back to Victoria, for a couple months at least. I can't wait to get back home, because Vic is such a great place to be in the summer. Depending on my job situation, I could have a tonne of free time on my hands, so island exploration could happen in bulk. I'll only have about two months there, though!

Shortly after moving back to Vic I'll be jet setting to Turkey with my family on a two week vacation. I've never been to this part of the world before, so I'm using Greece as my most approximate measuring stick. The last family trip we took was to the Czech Republic, and it was a blast. Hoping this will be even better!

Only a few days after I return to Vic from Turkey I'll be hitting Vancouver for the double-header Janelle Monae and Bruno Mars concert. So much anxious anticipation! That said, my summer will likely be peppered with visits to Vancouver and Richmond. That's the joy of living on an island with amazing transportation service.

Summer Seattle Trip will be happening again this year hopefully. We didn't get much of a chance to explore downtown Seattle on the last excursion (someone took a few hours too many in Nordstrom Rack), so that will be top priority this time around. Besides, I'll be trying to keep my wallet tightly closed at this point because of what happens next.

In July I'll be moving to Singapore for at least four months. While there I can assure you that I'll be making trips to the surrounding area. High on the list? Thailand, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, and Borneo. I'm hoping that NUS and UBC will throw some more funding my way to make all this indulgence possible, hah.


Victoria photo by CodyMaH, Turkey photo by kanikey, Vancouver photo by ericr33914, Seattle photo by photoboy1002001, Singapore photo by superdupersumo

Cut for the Cure, 2011

As promised, here are the before & after photos from yesterday's Cut for the Cure fundraising event. The last number I heard was $11,395 but that will be climbing upward still. We've got a truck full of bottles that still need to be cashed in and some cash donations to count up. You can also still donate online here. So, here they are:

Not as long as it would have been, because I trimmed it up before going to Mexico. Didn't want to have a tan line across my right eye, y'know?

At this point my boss was yelling at me to get up and run so that I could save what remained of my fauxhawk. This was my reaction face.

C'est fini! And terribly cold. Threw on a toque almost immediately after this photo and didn't take it off for most of the day. Wind chill is killer without hair, y'know?