Don Juan de Mike

Long time..no writey.

Turkey has been outstanding and tommorrow ıs our last day before we head over to Samos for our ferry to Athens and the next phase begıns. in the last weeks we have slept ın hostels made ın caves-climbed to fortressed ancient cıtıes-eaten wonderful falafel and shish kebabs- watched futbol games with locals-hiked valleys lacing the medıtteranean-witnessed the amassing of copious european tourısts holidaying wıth everything hanging out and ı mean EVERYTHiNG-taken long long night busses-eaten lots of turkish breakfasts-been accosted by a plethora of carpet and leather salesman-gotten used to the call to prayers in the night and found them quite encahnting-mıscommunicated wıth a host of lovely turkish people- listened to an old man jam on a citar while sıttıng on textiles and pillows drinkıng apple tea...oh apple tea is so ggod-seen many things i would love to own but will have to come back for. Turkey...we will return. it has been wonderful.

We are currently spending out last days ın Kuşadasi which ıs sort of a shameless tourist trap but Mike got the most incredıble man facial and shave. So now he looks like Don Juan and has been sufficiently exfoliated. Here...going to the Barber is takıng part in an artform.

So long until i can post along the Grecian journey.

Istanbul was Constantinople....

Istanbul is fantastic! We are staying in a little family run guesthouse in a very hip part of the city. In fact we can see Hagia Sophia from the rooftop. That mosque inspired me to study art history so it was cool to go there. Some funny things 1 Don't show any interest to a carpet salesman because they will NOT let you go and will put serious pressure on you to buy. We had a man named Hussein almost holding us hostage well not really hostage and we finally had to promise him we'd come back the next day and I mean shake on it and what not so that we could get out of there. It was hilarious. I would LOVE a carpet but and they are incredible but I just don't have 3000 extra dollars at the moment. Hussein didn't give rats hiney but working as a team we got out. We hadn't even been in the country an hour when we had that experience so we learned our lesson and know when to just walk away. Ahhh Hussein. 2 There are men on the streets with carts full of cucumbers that they peel and shake salt on and that seems to be the cool thing to get. Its just kind of funny seeing people wandering around munching on a cucumber. Again, cool Thats it for now. Time is up. Love CHRIS

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So the adventure has begun

Here we are in Dubai waiting for our connection to Istanbul. We've been here for a few hours now with a few more to go. Already I have noticed tha incredible jewelry that I've only ever seen in movies...you know that really rich and intricate gold work?? Well I'm not a gold girl but I want some. Here, Mickey Dees has a speciality called the McArabia....fast food version of a pita bread (kebab) and that was funny. I like hearing and seeing everything in Arabic because it's so different from what I'm used to and this time Mike doesn't even know what's going on sometimes as he could speak the Chinese in our travels in Asia...We flew on Emirates Airlines and it was fantastic. We each had our own lil screen and there were hundreds of movies (old and new) to choose from. With my 15hours I watched Shop girl (great), Rumour Has it (bad), The Weatherman(tepid), Proof (uh.....better than I thought it would be). They even had the best of Johnny Cash so I was very happy traveler. Mike watched 4 Brothers, The Cave, and a bunch of TV shows. Now that's the way to fly across the world. Okay, well that's about it for now. Mike is looking up ferries from Turkey to Athens and it's getting kind of stuffy in the internet cubicle here but I feel like I must use the free internet as much as possible while it exists...it's just too bad that I don't really have much to say. Stop now Chris. okay bye bye

Mack's gone and we'll be off soon

We just got home from taking Mack to airport where he left for his mission to Singapore. It was great that Mike and I could be up here in Christchurch with the family so Mike could be here for his lil bro although Mike is looking like the lil one here eh? He's a staunch looking dude but he'll be great. Now I have to go finish up a few things before Mike and I head to the airport for our flight to Dubai than Istanbul. Mike finished he's assignment for his class and now we are headed into holiday crash/relax zone for the next 6 weeks. We feel very grateful to have such supportive families in not one, but two countries. We'll try to keep in touch (maybe even post some pix) while we are on our journeyings. Talk to you all later.

The Cammock Boyz

These are the other Cammock boyz.
Joe, Pita, and Sam with Mike and Mack.

The farwell team

Here's some of the people that came to the airport this morning. Mack's mates, family friends, and the family.

T. T. Turkey

Turkey...here we come. 5 days down and counting!

The Cammock Family

Mike and I had our last night of work last night for 7 weeks!!! So we are up in Christchurch now for Mike's Uni course and to hang out with the family and Mack before he heads out on his mission on Friday. Here was the family picture from up in Hamilton. The sun was very bright so this is as good as it gets...just pretend our eyes are open.
Back: Pete, Mike, Rosie, Eve, Pita (cousins), Alice, Mack, Dean (married to Carly), and Sam (cousin)
Front: Me, Carly (cousin), Tasi and Robbie (Married to Pita), Liz, Auntie Viv and Uncle Rob

There you have it...the Cammock Family (MIA Joe and Chuck, 2 more cousins)