July 2024 - Europe (Italy, Turkey and Croatia)

^ A photo taken by one of my Press Trip colleagues before dinner on "White Night." It radiates the "new me!" Thank you Tash!

It has been a busy month of catching up with emails and family in the morning (Europe morning and Australia later afternoon and evening), sightseeing most of the day, dinner and bed. The heat has been relentless. Every day 30 -35. Although we knew that’s what the weather would be, I often feel like a wilted lettuce!

We have now started our Croatia cruise with Azamara. This is a Press Trip and we are part of a group of 11. I was apprehensive coming in. Not only suffering “imposter syndrome” but worrying that the group would be cliquey and unfriendly. Nothing could be further from the truth – one pair is from London, the others a split of Melbourne and Sydney. Each person is lovely and interesting and friendly. We are fast friends already 😊

The cruise itinerary is busy plus there are shore excursions and group dinners and I am not sure I will have much time to write in the next few days. I’ll make up for it next month!

Back to where I left off in June – Puglia. We had a wonderful time. Fabulous house, fabulous weather, fabulous sightseeing and, best of all, fabulous family time.

We did a few return visits to towns, spent a day at a beach club – Lido Gandoli – plus visited nearby Martina Franca and faraway Lecce. We had intended to go further south than Lecce but the roads were just too poor. Andrew and I felt we were risking an accident every time we ventured out. He and our oldest son, M, who was the other driver did a fantastic job driving on the wrong side of the road with mad drivers and dreadful roads.

We had a cooking class on our villa and learnt to make orecchiette (Little ears) which is the local pasta. Unlike in the North where pasta is made with egg, the Southerners use semolina and water.

It was really fun to all be lined up around the big kitchen table shaping our little ears (or, in my case, little blobs!) We all sat outside and Chef Lucrezia served us up what we’d made plus an assortment of other delicious things to eat. It was a veritable feast under the stars.

Before the cooking class, we had a not fun experience which was 7 of the 9 of us coming down with a nasty strain of gastro! We had 4 bathrooms between 9 of us but this was a deadly strain. Each of the afflicted (including me) was bedridden for a day. Not funny at the time but will be an often-told story I think!!

I had another nasty experience. On the last night, I decided to finish off some washing. I had bought liquid detergent capsules. Somehow, I honestly don’t know how, one exploded into my right eye and a little flicked into my left eye. The pain was searing. Worse than anything else I have experienced other than childbirth. I immediately flooded both my eyes and the left one soon settled. The right one, though, was agony.

What to do? It was about 9 or 10pm, we were in the middle of nowhere and meant to meet the property manager at 8am the next morning before we checked out.

I packed the remaining things away with my right eye throbbing and shut, took some Panadol and went to bed. The next day we dropped daughter L off at the airport (all the others had left during the previous day) and continued on to an octagonal castle in Andria - Castel del Monte which was built in the 13th century! It looks like a stone crown on the top of the hill. Well, apparently it does anyway as, with my bung eye and the bright sunlight, I couldn’t see much.

I toyed with going to the hospital but the pain had improved so I thought I would fly to Turkey as planned the next day and see how my eye was then.

Returning to Puglia for a moment, I loved the towns we saw, I loved the neighbouring cheese farm where we bought fresh cheeses and I loved the meals we had out. What I loved most, though, was our nightly dinners where we sat under balmy skies and chatted. It was heavenly and worth every cent. I hope there will be many more family holidays all over the world in years to come.

Turkey was next. I looked like Kris Jenner hiding behind my big, black sunglasses. I even kept them on in flight as everything was just too bright.

We checked into our hotel and asked for a recommendation to a doctor. We were referred to a place called Medicana, not far away from where we were staying. WOW! It is a modern, tall building and schmicko inside. I was seen by a translator straight away who sorted all the forms and then I saw a wonderful opthamologist. All without any waiting! He diagnosed a corneal lesion and inserted a protective contact lense. He prescribed some drops and asked to see me again in two days.

Next day bright and early we were picked up in a mini van for a long day to Gallipoli. I knew I was improving as I did not need to wear my sunglasses on in the bus!! It was a wrenching day thinking of all the loves wasted and damaged but it was a place I had long wanted to visit. I felt like I was paying my respects. The least I can do.

We suspected that our few days in Bodrum was not going to happen because of my eye so we took our time in Istanbul and didn’t try to see all the main sights in one go.

We booked a tour via Get Your Guide to see The Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cisterns and Hagia Sophia. So glad we did as we learnt so much that we would have had no idea about otherwise.

Before I delve into any of that, it’s a good time to mention two “tourism tips.” We now book all our tours via Get Your Guide and all our free walking tours through GuruWalk. Both have apps where you can easily see forward and past bookings or cancel if you need to. There’s clear directions on both as to meeting points and links to Maps on your phone. I’m all for technology that makes life easier.

Free walking tours are actually free but the Guides are usually fabulous and conducting these tours is their livelihood so you are expected to tip them at the end. Some now even accept credit card payments.

Back to the tour, I’ll just single out a couple of things. Firstly, the Basilica Cisterns – formerly, an underground, fresh water storage area. I vaguely remembered these from Dan Browns’ “Inferno” (the film adaptation starred Tom Hanks). OMG – they were stunning! The combination of the vaulted ceilings with the rows of columns with the changing lights and the reflections on the water…it was gorgeous.

Something I learnt from the tour was that, in Islam, they do not have pictures of faces nor bodies in their Mosques. (Contrasted with Christian Churches which are full of artwork featuring Jesus, Mary, the Disciples, Saints…) Mosques, however, contain pictures of flowers or patterns. Sometimes, verses from the Qur’an. Without a guided tour, I would never have known that.

After the tour and lunch, we also went to a new, audio visual show in the Hippodrome (the main square where the Blue Mosque is). The show was about the 1700 odd years of the Hagia Sofia and was a great visual of the history of Istanbul.

Next stop – Cappadocia. We arrived on a Friday and found we had booked a hotel without air conditioning nor even a fan. Major fail. Luckily, the windows opened so we kept our time in our room to a minimum and slept with the windows open. We never slept in but there was another reason for that. I’ll get to that in a minute! Our hotel pool and lounges were full so we wandered through the town. Quickly realising the town consisted of bars, restaurants, tour offices and tourist shops, we had a late lunch at one place and drinks on a rooftop terrace. The buildings in Göreme where we stayed are made of honey-coloured stone. There are fairly lights everywhere and, once night falls, the combination of the lights and the honey-coloured stone is gorgeous.

4am wake up the next day and we were off to our Hot Air Balloon ride. I am scared of heights but I was determined to experience this and, to be honest, I wasn’t really that scared. I think excitement overtook fear! We saw the balloons being inflated and then we were off. It was the smoothest ascent and flight. I have been in helicopters and planes that are bumpy but the balloon just floated. It was serene. It was beautiful.

I counted about 50 balloons but quite a lot still on the ground. Once the sun rose, I counted again and stopped counting at 100! Each of the balloons is differently coloured and patterned so the sight of so many together was incredible. Not to mention that we floated atop Göreme and surrounds, skimming cave houses and fairy chimneys.

Apart from the balloons, the cave houses and fairy chimneys were the highlights of Capadoccia. Again, we booked tours. One on Saturday after our balloon flight and one on Sunday. We happened to have the same Guide both days, Bilal, which was a cute coincidence. Bilal was a fountain of information.

I mentioned not being able to sleep in. Yes, it was hot. Yes, the call to prayer at about 4.15am is very loud. But it was a different noise that woke us Sunday (and Monday) morning at about 5am. A series of loud whooshes. We both wondered if it was balloons and jumped up to look out our windows. Balloons were everywhere and the whooshing noises was the propane gas being pumped into the balloons.

We went to our hotel terrace (joined by other guests in their pjs!) and were treated to a balloon show. The balloons were right on top of us, some so close we could almost touch them! We waved and called out to the passengers and vice versa. It was beautiful.

We returned to Istanbul after three days of magic. We cancelled Bodrum so that I could return to the opthamologist. I ended up seeing him three times until he was happy with my eye. I don’t recommend having chemicals burn your eye but I cannot praise the health care I received highly enough.

We relished having air conditioning again and had a few quieter days. One day, we visited the impressive Topkapi Palace, one day we had a pool day at the hotel, another day we did some shopping (the Mall of Istanbul was just like a mall at home with some familiar brands and some different brands), we navigated the excellent Metro (underground train system) and we did a dinner cruise on the Bosphorous. Istanbul lived up to our expectations. There is a lot to see.

Originally, our epic trip was ending in Turkey but, a few months ago, I was offered a Press Trip with Azamara (including a Plus One) and who would knock that back??? Not me! That left us with a few days to fill and with daughter L still in Europe we decided to catch up with her and her friends. We also realised that we would be able to see Andrea Bocelli perform so we did that too!

After the magnificent Bocelli concert at Teatro del Silenzio (literally, a field in Tuscany), we had a day visiting the gorgeous San Gimignano and Volterra in Tuscany. We moved on to a town just outside La Spezia called Lerici. We stayed at a hotel at Fiascherino Beach and caught up with our daughter, L, and her two friends.

One night, we had dinner together in La Spezia and then we had a day at our hotel using the beach. We had intended to use the hotel pool too but they had a rule that you could not use the pool without wearing a swimming cap!! Never come across that one before!

We snuck in a day at Riomaggiore and Manarola (Cinque Terre) too. Stunning but the two most crowded places we have yet visited on our trip. We really wanted to do the walk between the two towns that has been closed for 10 years but we were a week too early.

We drove to Venice via Pisa and checked out the Leaning Tower.

And then the cruise started. But all the details about that next month!

Not so many “Writing Wins” this month in terms of published writing but quite a few stories in the publishing queue and a few more commissions too 😊😊

In a surprise twist, Andrew and I have been commissioned to write a monthly He Said/ She Said travel column! The first story (on Antarctica) has just been published.

Three travel articles were published this month:

• “Antarctica – Just a Pile of Ice and Birds?” in The Wise Traveller https://www.thewisetraveller.com/Articles/view/?permalink=antarctica---just-a-pile-of-ice-and-birds; and

• “Underrated Places in Italy – Bologna” in Mamamia - https://www.mamamia.com.au/underrated-places-in-italy-bologna/

• He Said/She Said – Antarctica - https://www.joincitro.com.au/news/he-said-she-said-antarctica

And two fiction stories were published this month:

• “I Don’t Need Love” - https://101words.org/i-dont-need-love/ in 101 Words; and

• “The Women Left Behind” in Café Lit https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2024/07/the-women-left-behind-by-leonie-jarrett.html

Soooo many photos this month. Impossible to choose only a few but here goes!: