the turquoise trail

Full of quaint homes, stone walls & history.. I recently had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Quebec City with a good friend of mine and her family.  It's a gorgeous city to explore, a perfect size to walk around with lots of great views to take in along the way.  It was a pretty laid-back getaway weekend, so i'll just show you a couple of my highlights.. {Montmorency Falls} {Old Quebec City} {Chateau Frontenac} I hope this inspires you to enjoy a trip to Old Quebec City! J.  Design Life. Create Originality. Inspire Wonder. 

Turquoise trail represents the path taken; stars represent the attractions mentioned in my previous post. {budget} This trip is a bit difficult to give a total value to, as my parent's were already in Arizona, with an RV, and a fully-stocked fridge.  However, I'll do my best.  The flight from Buffalo to Phoenix was roughly $340, round trip.  Dining is pretty typical of any North American pricing, more expensive in the cities, but it depends on where you are wanting to eat.  We mostly bought groceries and cooked our own meals, which is very cost-effective.  As for attractions, it depends on your interests, but I would plan on spending approx. $150; more if you plan to attend a professional sporting event.   All in all, this trip cost me approx. $600 for the 9 days, but I didn't do a lot of shopping or other extras.  {nutrition} Probably not much different than other North American places.  If you have dietary restrictions then ...

Turquoise trail represents the path taken; stars represent towns where we stayed.  {budget} I purchased this trip as a bus tour on teambuy.ca for $2298.  This included the flight, all breakfasts, all dinners, and all of the mentioned attractions with the exception of the turkish bath.  It also included the tour bus and all our hotels.  In my opinion it was an extremely fair price for what we received and I don't believe that I could have done it for less myself.  The tour company recommended tipping our guide a couple dollars more /day than google seemed to suggest was standard; so I would suggest doing your own research to find what you are comfortable with; plan at least $7/day total.  If you are interested in a hot air balloon ride, you can plan to spend approximately $200.  If you are hoping to find a rug while in turkey, you should budget accordingly.  There is a huge range in prices depending on where you buy it, size of rug, quality, ...

{Monday November 4} Our last day has come :( ..I woke up with an upset stomach this morning so I curled up for a little longer. We went for breakfast around 7:30, but I just had a slice of cucumber, a bite of plum and half of a tea. After breakfast I laid down for a while, but then decided to go for one last walk..  Old Aqueduct We walked towards the aqueduct, but we couldn't see much more walking than by driving by. After that, we stubbled across a three storey plaza with several home decor fabric stores. I was quite excited to find this and was really hoping there would be some leather there as well, but unfortunately it was all home decor.  From there we walked back towards our hotel and stopped a a shoe store and a couple other shops. There was a pair of boots that I really liked but they didn't fit. I did get myself a new cardigan tho, it's a nice navy knit with chiffon in the back for $15 USD.  We got back to the hotel around 9:40 and finished p...

{Saturday November 2} I got up around 7 this morning, had a shower and then we went to the dining room for breakfast. I was quite excited to see French toast this morning. After breakfast we went for a little walk out to the back of the hotel, where there is a really nice pool area.  We met our group at 8:15 to get our day started. We will have a very full day today so hopefully we can keep on schedule.  Fairy Chimneys of Goreme Our first stop this morning will be at the fairy chimneys of Goreme. The chimneys were formed by a volcano (2005m high) that erupted basalt stones and volcanic ash thousands of years ago.  The elements consumed the ash, but basalt is very hard so it remained.  The Christians carved out the rocks, forming churches and living in the rocks between the 4th and 14th century.  It is extremely unique landscape and really quite stunning. I feel like we barely had enough time to take it in, but most of the stops have been a whirl...

{Friday November 1st}  We had an early start this morning with breakfast at 5:30. Dr. T has told us all that we need to be punctual today so hopefully that goes well. We did got on the bus at 6am this morning; we have about 700km of driving to do today so it will be a long day.  Around 8 we stopped for a quick bathroom break.   Around 10 we stopped for another quick bathroom break; w e had a couple more hours of driving until we arrived in Konya around noon. The residents of the province of Konya are very traditionally Islam in comparison to where we have been. Our first stop today will be to see a mausoleum (originally a monastery for the whirling dervishes).  There are several tombs inside a mosque like structure, with concrete hats sitting on them to represent the hats of the whirling dervishes, and that it's a man buried there.  After we'd seen that, we went around the corner to a restaurant for lunch. It was quite good, mom and I shared a ...

{Thursday October 31st}  We got up around 7:30 again this morning and got ready for the day. We had a slightly different breakfast this morning.. Same basics but we also had an egg and vegetable casserole. We left our hotel around 9 and headed towards Pamukkale.  This morning we started with a Turkish language lesson. The English language belongs to the Europe-indo language group. The Turkish language belongs to the Altaic group of languages.  English is an inflectional language meaning we have root words, with exceptions (for example stood; root word stand is not found within stood).  Turkish is an aglotinitive language meaning you have a root word and then many suffixes (for example root word eye, plus one suffix is glasses, plus two suffixes is optometrist - no exceptions) After about an hour and a half, we stopped at a gas station with a store for a bathroom break. I bought some really nice lotion with olive oil in it (smells amazing!) and got some...

{Wednesday October 30th} We got up at 7:30 this morning and went for breakfast in the dinning room around 8. It was fairly similar with lots of cheese, olives, cucumbers and tomatoes, and honey.  We left the hotel at 9 this morning to head towards our first stop at the temple of Artemis.  Temple of Artemis We stopped for a 'quick' stop at a coffee shop that happened to have wifi so that was a bonus!  There is no such thing at take-out or coffee to-go here.  Around 10 we then stopped at the temple of Artemis; one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was destroyed by a crazy man who wanted to make history, but the Ephesians had it rebuilt.  Kybele, the goddess of fertility, later transformed into the goddess Artemis. To the Romans, she was Diana.  The ruins of the city of Ephesus that we will be visiting is the third city. It was built in the beginning of the 4th century bc. It is said that Ephesus was either named after an amazon q...

{Tuesday October 29th} October 29th is Republican Day in Turkey; 90 years since the Republic of Turkey was formed!  We got up this morning around 6:30 to get ready for the day and went to the dinning room for a buffet breakfast at 7am. There was a very nice variety of foods this morning, including pizza, helva, and lots of cheeses. After breakfast we gathered our things and met at the bus at 8am. Before we boarded the bus, there was a lady selling knit socks and mom bought a pair.  Once we were all on the bus, we travelled 35km out of the town of çanakkale towards Troia (Troy). Along the way we got some mythological and historical information.  Trojan horse used in the movie 'Troy' The inhabitants of Troy are referred to as Trojans, and the Greeks are referred to as Acheans.  The wife of the Priam, king of Troy, had a fire in her stomach, so she sought the advice of the oracle. The oracle advised her that the son she would bear would cause trouble, so...

Hello all & thank you for reading my blog.  This is my first posting & my first blog, so I will begin by telling you a little about myself and my reasons for starting a blog.   I recently turned 25, and decided that for my birthday I would like to travel to a country that I had not been to before.  I ended up taking a 10 day trip to Turkey (an amazing country!) and along the way I kept a journal of my adventure.  Upon my return, I shared this with some family and close friends.  (I also realized that Turkey had been my 25th country I've travelled to!) My Great Aunt has always been a huge supporter of mine, and since reading my journal she has encouraged me to pursue photo-journalism.  I decided that a blog would be the easiest way to share my adventures and see if it really is for me...  So here it goes!   I am very excited to be starting a blog, however one of my biggest reservations has been the critical comments I see on the ...