After most of the day spent travelling, I am finally back in Munich, and boy am I glad! Take my word for it and never go to Turkey in August. It is soooo hot and humid it is torture.We spent a week in Istanbul first and I have to admit that most of the time I just did not want to leave our room with the lovely air-con. Istanbul was loud and super crowded. I suppose a city of 15 million people is bound to be pretty busy though. Also, I must complain that the food in Turkey was not the same as I was led to believe it would be like after visiting numerous Turkish restaurants back in Sydney. Everywhere we went there was lots of cafes etc selling the exact same food - lamb shish kebabs. I didn't feel like eating kebabs for every meal, but there wasn't much choice.
Above is the view of Istanbul, you can see the Aya Sofia (right) and the Blue Mosque (left).
This is the inside of the Aya Sofia. They are in the process of restoring it now. I struggled to be excited about it though, as now I am really feeling like I am sick of looking at churches and museums and palaces, that all try to out do each other. I had to constantly remind myself that the Aya Sofia is 1500 years old all the time we were there, it was just too easy to think of other places we have been that seem that much more amazing and dismiss this.
Opposite the Aya Sofia is the Blue Mosque, so called because of the abundance of blue mosaics inside. Our hotel was just behind this and we could hear the call the prayer throughout the day. 
One day we went on the (extremely crowded) tram and trains to this shopping mall, which would be a fantastic place for anyone interested in architechture to visit. So much better than Westfield!
A light shop at the Grand Bizaare. The bizaare was great to walk around looking at all the carpet and lights etc to buy, although we didn't get anything except a lemonade.
That was it for Istanbul! We flew to Kayseri and spent the next 2 days in Cappadocia. This was BY FAR the best part of our trip and if you ever go spend longer than 2 days here. We got to our hotel at about 11pm and we had to get up again at 4am for the balloon flight we had booked. Everywhere we looked people recommended doing this, and now I can really see why.
Watching the balloons heat up. The baskets are tipped over when the balloon is fully inflated.
Our balloon went first and you can see the 2 others below. Our company was great and we had only 9 people in our basket. Other companies packed about 30 in! You can see the Fairy Chimneys at the top of the picture.
The Fairy Chimneys up close.
Our balloon pilot took us down and around all over the place within a few meters of the rocks and the fairy chimneys. It was amazing. Our flight lasted almost 2 hours and we went all over the Cappadocia region (there are lots of other rock formations besides the fairy chimneys).
When we got out of the balloon I saw this old farmer coming down the road with his donkey. The donkey was really cute and I patted him and gave him a flower to eat. The old man told me to send him this picture. I am going to send it to the balloon company and they will give it to him.
When we got out of the balloon I saw this old farmer coming down the road with his donkey. The donkey was really cute and I patted him and gave him a flower to eat. The old man told me to send him this picture. I am going to send it to the balloon company and they will give it to him. The soil is very fertile in this region and there are grapes and lots of other crops growing everywhere.
We got taken back home by 9am, but at 9.30 we were picked up again for the tour we had booked. We booked 2 tours, one for the south of Cappadocia and one for the north. Both lasted the entire day until 6pm. We were absolutely exhausted after this first day.
Above and below are pictures of a sort of town that was built into the rock by the first Christians in the 3rd century. Below the outside wall has fallen away and you can see how a room (a church) looks inside. 
All over Cappadocia there are churches and schools and houses cut into the rock (that used to be very soft, but is now hard apparently). The churches were not just square rooms though, columns and arches, domes and alters were also cut and the churches were painted. Below is a church that has been preserved. You would never suspect that such a church could be inside what appears to be a big rocky hill. 
There are also underground citys also cut into the rock. This one went down 8 levels and had a school and winery. It was lovely and cool inside. Cappadocia was hot, but not humid, it was very dry.
Different rock formations on day 2.
After Cappadocia we caught another plane to Antalya. Numerous travel agents told us that the only way here from C was via a 9 hour overnight bus trip but being the sneaky people we are, we found an ellusive flight with Turkish airlines! 9 hours turned into 1 and the price was about $10 more. Great!
We got taken back home by 9am, but at 9.30 we were picked up again for the tour we had booked. We booked 2 tours, one for the south of Cappadocia and one for the north. Both lasted the entire day until 6pm. We were absolutely exhausted after this first day.
Above and below are pictures of a sort of town that was built into the rock by the first Christians in the 3rd century. Below the outside wall has fallen away and you can see how a room (a church) looks inside. 
All over Cappadocia there are churches and schools and houses cut into the rock (that used to be very soft, but is now hard apparently). The churches were not just square rooms though, columns and arches, domes and alters were also cut and the churches were painted. Below is a church that has been preserved. You would never suspect that such a church could be inside what appears to be a big rocky hill. There are also underground citys also cut into the rock. This one went down 8 levels and had a school and winery. It was lovely and cool inside. Cappadocia was hot, but not humid, it was very dry.
Different rock formations on day 2.
After Cappadocia we caught another plane to Antalya. Numerous travel agents told us that the only way here from C was via a 9 hour overnight bus trip but being the sneaky people we are, we found an ellusive flight with Turkish airlines! 9 hours turned into 1 and the price was about $10 more. Great!We stayed out of Antalya at Olympos. Right now little baby turtles are hatching out of nests that were all over the beach. We got up at 6am one morning and found 2 baby turtles were making there journey to the water. They are not as speedy as they seem to be on TV, it took these 2 about 1 1/2 hours to trek from their nest to the water (about 5 meters). There are also not swarms of them. The owner of the place we were staying at was really surprised we saw these 2 since most of the time the turtles hatch at night and most of the time his guests don't find any turtles at all. We only got up this once and we were very lucky.
Almost there! This turtle flipped over going down a little hill and couldn't up for ages. It was so tempting to just pick him up and help him, but we knew that was not on. He made it eventually, poor little guy.
The nests are in the sand, but then the sand turns into rocks like this (like Nice), and then smaller pebbles at the water. It was another painful swim for me I'm afraid.
Finally there!!!
This is the beach. It looks great, but I don't think I'd come here again. It was stinking hot here (42/3 every day with high humidity) and on our last 2 days our aircon broke down. The water was also about 30C so it was far from refreshing. The owner gave us a room in his house to sleep the last 2 nights because it was just to hot to stay in our room.
There were lots of chickens around though who became my friends. There were pomegranets growning all around and I was picking them and sharing them with the chickens. They loved them!
Almost there! This turtle flipped over going down a little hill and couldn't up for ages. It was so tempting to just pick him up and help him, but we knew that was not on. He made it eventually, poor little guy.
The nests are in the sand, but then the sand turns into rocks like this (like Nice), and then smaller pebbles at the water. It was another painful swim for me I'm afraid.
Finally there!!!
This is the beach. It looks great, but I don't think I'd come here again. It was stinking hot here (42/3 every day with high humidity) and on our last 2 days our aircon broke down. The water was also about 30C so it was far from refreshing. The owner gave us a room in his house to sleep the last 2 nights because it was just to hot to stay in our room.
There were lots of chickens around though who became my friends. There were pomegranets growning all around and I was picking them and sharing them with the chickens. They loved them!
I am really glad to be back in Munich, and we are now staying in a lttle apartment (up 6 flights of stairs, but at least it is cooler!) for the next 6 weeks. No more hotels for a while!
I hope this post makes sense, sorry if there are lots of typos, I am pretty tired now and I'm glad to be staying put for a while. I'll be coming back for more updates soon though, with things I have missed and life in Munich.
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