"I'm in a place where I don't know where I am." June.b's Profile

Home is where your heart is.

Thanks for dropping by.

You'll find my personal travel experiences here - some stories, tips, warnings and a lot of photos. I'm most of the time a budget traveler - a bit of a splurge here and there but mostly on a budget. I tried to put up as much tips gathered during trips, so checkout my Travel Pages.

Enjoy browsing...and enjoy your trips.*

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A personal thought

Flying...

JUST A PERSONAL THOUGHT..... The whole course of flying is one thing I don't really enjoy - from taking taxi to the airport, the airport hassles, luggage check-in, strict immigration and the worst part is the flight itself -- but I like the whole traveling idea. I don't like window seats. Looking down at plane windows makes me aware that there's more than 30,000 feet bet. me & the ground below, then goes the turbulence, big shakes, makes me shiver on the thought of crashing, morbid thoughts, I know. Then there's always at least one rude flight attendant, just as there are annoying passengers. There maybe people on board who shares my sentiments? Always wishing the plane would land immediately. Yet, right before the landing I would eventually feel fine, that's the joy of flying I guess, it scares you, annoys you and then anticipating the thrill of your destination, you'll realize - the flight scare is indeed worth it after all.

I may hate flying... but I enjoy travelling... I don't know if that makes sense?
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All photographs on the pages are taken by me & no copyright infringement shall be imposed upon anyone who wish to utilize any of it for decent, moral, respectable, and legal purpose - w/in VT's rules and regs. of course. Exclude those that have me, friends or family on the photos. And, I would certainly appreciate your mentioning the source or quote VT or URL where you've taken the photo/s. Thanks.*
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"I LIKE THESE PLACES"**

Amasra

Traveling style.

Dig deeper, at Olympos - Turkey.

I usually travel alone, at least starting in 2005. But before that I have at least one or 2 friends traveling with me but never a group. Until I saw the difficulties and hassles traveling with friends who have different style and biased opinions on a lot of subjects. So I decided to travel alone.

Then I gave it a second go traveling with companions again, and the same hassles, and even more. So I decided not to travel with anyone again -- at least not from home.

I like traveling alone. Easier for me, I don't have to worry about my companion's preferences, timings, and I get impatient from waiting and arguing on various subjects and places to go.

I wake up at my own timing, go to places I'd like to see, stay at destinations of my own choice and time. Move on my own schedule in general. I like moving from place to place at least 3 to 4 cities or towns on each travel period before retiring to just relax at one place for the rest of the time.

One of my favorite city - Prague

Musicians at Charles Bridge

One of the places that I really really like, Prague a mix-match of europe, medieval history and a slice of struggle. Nice old buildings, vintage cars, phaetons, scenic river, gothic architectures, nicely painted trams, and magnificent palaces and churches.

It's europe with a soviet feel to it. Whatever that means.

I love walking along the Charles Bridge which I did several times visiting both the ends of the bridge - the Old town (Stare Mesto) located at the right bank of the river, and the Lesser town (Mala Strana) on the other end of the bridge. Charles Bridge is lively during the day with street musicians performing and artists doing sketches and paintings, several sculptures lining both sides of the pedestrian bridge. While it's romantic during the evenings.

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Latest Trip Report :

Breath-taking town of Hasankeyf

* 2013 March : Gaziantep, Mardin, Midyat, Hasankeyf, Istanbul

No definite plans yet I flew into Gaziantep as I really wanted to see the awesome Mosaic Museumand the castle . From Gaziantep, I bus it to Midyat where I stayed longer, I like the calmness of a small old town. I did a day trip to the enchanting historical town of Mardin which is an hour away only from Midyat. I run out of public transport here that scared the hell out of me, prompting me to take a taxi to Midyat.

From Midyat, I took a dolmush to the breath-taking town of Hasankeyf where I wished I could have stayed longer. It's a sleepy, serene town full of history and amazing sights to see, that won my heart.

From Hasankeyf I bus it to Diyarbakir to catch a flight to Istanbul I thought I've seen all of Istanbul, I'm wrong (again).

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** 2012 October - November: Dalyan, Faralya, Kabak Valley and Istanbul

October 25 - I flew into Istanbul with a connecting flight to Dalaman as I'm heading for Dalyan, when Im supposed to come to Hasankeyf and Mt. Nemrut. I suddenly decided to take it easy on this holiday but in reality I lost a lot of weight from walking around Kaunos and the long river promenade of Dalyan.

Then after Dalyan, I bus it to the beautiful butterfly valley of Faralya and the laid-back and peaceful Kabak Valley before heading back to Istanbul. People normally take boat trips to see the butterfly valley but staying there for days is quite a different experience than just seeing it. During the time I was there, there are very few people as the winter is starting to arrive. I stayed at the George House which is situated smack-bang right at the edge of the cliff overlooking the beach down below. The view is marvelous, postcard-perfect, it s like a dream - to think that I was just looking at those pictures on the internet few days before I flew into Turkey.

Same goes with Kabak Valley where most of the accommodations (camps) are overlooking the beach down below the valley. The small cove is surrounded by lush green mountains and truly a breath-taking place.

Well, I ve used those superfluous adjectives like amazing, breath-taking, spectacular, etc, a countless times, but this one defeats all the previous places I have seen in Turkey, not that they're no longer spectacular but maybe this one's recent, and yes, I think I mean it when I say that Faralya and Kabak Valley - or Uzunyurt as they're collectively called - are two of those truly spectacular locations.

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