The Persian...and his friend Phil Collins

These pictures are from Hagia Sophia, which was AMAZING.

One of the biggest things for the two of us to become comfortable with is not the food or the language, but rather Lafa dealing with Square´s sense of travel (this includes flying by the seat of her pants) and Square dealing with Lafa's sense of travel (there needs...wait, there MUST be a plan). During one of our moments of trying to please both individuals we wondered into a travel agency to purchase bus tickets for the rest of our trip. Because we did not have enough Turkish to explain what we wanted and the clerk did not have the English to understand what we wanted...we desperately turned to the next individual to walk into the shop. We said, "Do you speak English"..he said, "One" throwing-up his finger and running out the door. Seconds later he returned with his Persian friend, Ali. Who proceeded to be our interrupter for the the next hour!

After we finally got everything figured out we felt like we must repay him, because he went out of his way to help us. So we asked him to tea. He excepted our offer and we headed next door with his friend, who we soon begin calling Phil (this is because we never actually caught his name and Square thought he looked like Phil Collins). For the next three hours we talked (with Ali translating for Phil), drank Cay (chaı)*, and they taught us how to play backgammon. At the end of our 10 game Ali informed us it was now time to have Turkish dinner and so we followed them to what had to have been the nicest restaurant in Antalya where we were treated to a nıce dınner.

Dınner ended early (1am because we were tıred). Alı and Phıl met us for breakfast and helped us get on a dolmus (taxı buses that are fascınatıng and very hard to navıgate, I thınk, ıf you do not speak Turkısh) to the bus statıon. We took a bus to a tea place on the hıghway where a smaller bus pıcked us up and took us to Olympos. Olympos ıs an ancıent ruın and beach and backpackers haven.

HIGHLIGHTS: Meeting Ali and Phil lightened the mood for both of us and we really started to relax and enjoy Turkey. We learned how to play a new game--that Square is currently dominating at---don't let Lafa tell you otherwise.

LOWLIGHTS: Eating on a Turkish schedule makes one very tired. Especially when you are used to going to bed by 8!

*Just for reference Cay is not like milk Chai which you get in the US that is consistent with Indian Chai, this Cay is more like black tea.