the turquoise trail

Ask me what I thought of Arizona a month ago, and I would have said ‘Grand Canyon & Desert'... I recently spent a week RVing around Arizona and I was amazed by the variety of landscape and natural attractions worth checking out!  Some of the information might be irrelevant if you don’t have an RV, but the route and attractions could remain the same if you have about a week to spend. I saw the Grand Canyon a couple years ago, so we didn’t make time to go there again, and there was no shortage of other things to see. If you haven’t seen the Grand Canyon, I would suggest juggling things around to make sure you get to see it. I flew in and out of Phoenix, which was convenient and fairly central for what I was hoping to see. The attractions I’ve listed below were the highlights for me. There is plenty to see and do in between, but if you take it at a leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery along the way, you can plan to spend about a week going from point to point. {South M...

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...

{Sunday November 3} We got up at 5:30 this morning so that we would have time for breakfast before we leave at 6:30. The guy at the restaurant told me I can't take anything out of the restaurant when I tried to fill my water bottle with tea, but then he said that he just has to say that because there are cameras and he let me take it.  We left the hotel at on time at 6:30. Some of the others put their luggage on the bus too so that they wouldn't have to carry it on their flight. We have 830km to go today; Dr. T says it's 12 hours but I don't think it will take that long, especially since half of it is on a main highway.  Landscape en route to Istanbul We stopped around 8 for a quick bathroom break, and then stopped again shortly after 10 for a snack and a little longer break.  We stopped at a bakery where they were making all kinds of fresh breads, and got a plate of assorted bagels and buns. And of course.. cucumber, tomato and olives. Our driver needs...

{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...