Trying to post

So we left the Hostel in Istanbul just about on time at 8am. We are now two people down from the original 27 as Debbie went home yesterday and this morning, her hubby, Jim, has also decided to leave. It was a shame as they are both really nice – So if you two are reading this – Keep in touch and good luck on your future travels!! Keep in touch, with your bus family!!!

As we left Europe and headed across the Bosphorus bridge into Asia we were all really excited to be entering a new continent. We took some last pictures of Istanbul from the bridge and cheered as Dannis beeped his horn for the change of continents.

About a minute later Dannis followed the directions on his satnav and drove off the motorway down into a small thin backstreet! He decided this was a wrong turn, so not for the first time we reversed back the way we had come – Once back on the motorway it was all back on track. I sat chatting with Laura and Becky about photos and Istanbul itself, when we looked around and saw Matt (Hicky) asleep on the back seat of the bus – It was exactly like a scene from 'weekend at bernies'. He is wearing a baseball cap, dark glasses and a neck pillow, but his head is lolling around as we move. If you haven’t seen the film, google it and compare to the photo I will post and you will see what I mean – That’s going to be entertainment for today’s long journey!

Ok, Its now a few hours later. We have had one stop so far – It was only a short one (THATS WHAT SHE SAID) but there was still enough time for everyone to be confused by a coffee machine, I saw a dog with more nipples than I have ever seen before and worse of all – There were these tdssy bear dolls in ths shape of bears and chickens with faces like babies!! They were just fookin weird. Me and Becky spent the last 2 hours watching Cemetery Junction and Celebrity Juice – Perfect timing cos we are now stopping for lunch!! Cool.

It was a nice break from the bus – Everyone sat round chatting – Mostly about different positions for the ladies to assume when using the now regular squat toilets. There were many varied positions such as standing up and putting your feet as wide as you can. Leaning right back on your heels and the favourite which was nicknamed 'The diaper position'. Basically you, pull the legs of your hareem pants (The new bus fashion for the girls – A direct quote – 'Its like going commando, its so cool 'down there''!!) Back to the diaper position:- Pull your hareem pants legs to one side, reach backwards through your legs and grab the elasticated waist -Then pull this back through your legs and forward away from ground zero – Stay like this while you water the plants, then carefully return to normal after stamping your feet!! I was going to take photos for demonstration purposes but there were no volunteers! ;-(

Back on the bus, the bussers were fairly quiet for the next couple of hours. I sat at the front and chatted with Lana – then she fell asleep and I played a few games on her Ipod. Suddenly I saw something weird out of the front window – A dried up lake bed! It turned out that this was our break stop, so everyone wandered out to the salty earth to take pics. It was gone 4pm, but with the reflection off the salt, it was roast tins out there! Becky and Frankie, ever the adventurers decided to take off their shoes, to get the exfoliating effect from the dry salt. However, this was a mistake because the rock hard salt was like 'being stabbed by a million pin pricks'!! Shoes went straight back on after dusting their feet!After a few photos we were on our way back to the bus, but stopped to try on a few hats -They were either too expensive for Becky or didn’t suit me (I will get my self a straw hat, even though I look like a knob!) Then Lana pointed out two ostriches lying under a tarpaulin, so we had a look at them before piling back into the biscuit tin again – Next stop Goreme and what we believe will be an unusual hotel!! On the way I received a text from my brother Gareth and nephew Mikie, who are at the Man Utd v Liverpool game, they sent me a photo of them in the Stretford end, but nothing about the score, so I sent them a photo back of me at the Salt lake and asked for updates on the game – Nothing yet though – Come on Man U!!

A packet of negros was passed around by Bev! They are lovely sweet dark biscuits and we all like them – Nom nom nom!!! Give me another negro (Biscuit!) :-) Bev is happy to be mentioned in the blog, so she just passed me another negro!! Nom nom nom – Cheers Bev!!