My new wheels. It's tiny, but fun... and definitely beats walking.

The apartment I've applied for is 2nd from the right, top floor.

The scrappy lounge room of the apartment I'm hoping for... tonnes of room for guest.

The view from the apartment I'm hoping to get. The mountains are actually closer then they appear due to the wide angle lense. I should mention this apartment is across the road from the public library (perfect for rainy days), half a block from a Safeway supermarket, a block from Corrina's fetish... the firemen, and a block and a half from a hospital. Location, location, location.

A view from Burnaby on a clear day.

Looking south along the Burnaby/Vancouver border

Looking towards Vancouver from some big bridge just before it got really cold and rained a little while riding home.

A beautiful clean stream winding towards the sea through an industrialish estate.

Some more of the mountains revealed

Looking towards a cloud covered North Vancouver from the Seabus. Non-cloudy days reveal big snow capped peaks.

Corrina's dog Sassy (aka White Dog)

Somewhere, over the rainbow...

An amazingly yummy pizza. This is something we knocked up, but it's worth mentioning Gramma cooks some amazingly yummy meals. Tonights was bellisimo... I'll be going undercover to photograph her recipe book.

Zeroth Avenue. We're in Canada, the white US Boarder Control Truck is in the US making sure none of the Americans escape.

We spent Friday exploring. First stop was White Rock... I have no idea why they call the place White Rock

Corrina modelling a Turkish skarf... how to tie it eludes us.

A place I want to call home (at least for a bit)

I'm falling in love with this city... as much as you can fall in love with a city. Today was the first completely clear, not a cloud in the sky day, and boy oh boy was it beautiful. The big clean blue rivers that wind and invade the city, the snow caped (and also capped) mountains, big open streets along with the nice trees, along with pretty good public transport, cute girls riding downhill bikes around town, cheap food and bikes mixed with a lot of immigrants (emigrants... I'm not real sure of the difference- can someone tell me)..... so nice. It's funny asking directions here. For every second person I ask I have to revert to Turkish communication skills. Not what I expected but I like it.
I've fallen in love with North Van. From where I'm staying at Corrina's grammas in Burnaby, I head west on the skytrain for about half an hour before catching the sea bus across the river from Vancouver to North Vancouver. The sky trains are cool. As far as I can tell, there's no driver on them. During the day they might be 4 carriages long and then peak hour they get longer, but the best bit is, they're about 2 to 4 minutes apart so you hardly have to wait. The line stops at the sea bus, a big catamaran that seems to go both backwards and forwards equally well so they never turn around.
Back to North Van though, it is spreads across the base of three mountains, Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour and Cedar Mountain. Grouse mountain has a visible ski slope at the top with chairlifts and I'm not sure about the others but they are all big and amazing and the lower parts are covered in amazing free riding and downhill mountain bike tracks. Typical runs are about 25 - 30 mins with difficulties ranging from gravel roads through to narrows (trails consisting of 4 inch wide bits of wood a couple of metres off the ground) with everything in between, so I'll be kept amused. The suburb is quite ... quite... not sure what the right words are. There's a bunch of coffee shops and restaurants from the Quay and then up Lonsdale Street, art shops and small theatres. Pretty relaxed feel. Loads of snow boarding and mountain bike shops (I think 9 mountain bike shops in the one suburb). It's cool. There's an amazing second hand shop full of cool gear for everything ice, snow, biking related at really cheap prices compared to Australia. I wandered a fair way yesterday looking at apartments and I stumbled on this shop. I came away with a really good little hardtail, helmet, and lock for about $350 (pre stupid tax which I always forget about) and then rode an hour and a half home. I'm getting used to riding right hand side of the road.
I went back to North Van this arvo and was shown through about 7 different apartments. I'm looking for a 1 bedroomer. They were consistantly all bigger and dodgier than I expected. Not real dodgy, just weary carpets, 70's kitchens with old school ovens and fridges. I eventually found one that I think is just right. Slightly dodgier but the most amazing view of the mountains from both the bedroom and lounge. Also the cheapest, AND the managers are about to retire and were going to ditch some of there furniture, so if I get the place I'll be along way towards being setup (there's at least a TV and video already in there). They are lovely and I'm bit sad they won't be there as my neighbours. The other thing is it's leased by the month, so I'm not locked in, even though by law they're not allowed to raise the rent for a year, which is fantastic. If I get the place I'll see if they're willing to donate paint and I'll do some fixing up.
It is big, so everybodies invited to come and visit. Fingers crossed.

A house hunting I go

I'm so excited about being able to get my last post to work just then. The website had issues last time... so I thought it had been eaten.
Anyway, it's been a few days since then. I'm liking Vancouver despite the continuously overcast weather so far. I don't mind it, but can't wait for an unhindered view of the mountains. The cities nice, belts of woodlands following the meandering streams and the beautiful trees eveywhere. Lots and lots of trees with cherry blossoms (I guess they're cherry trees), trees with light yellow cover of leaves, mauve leaves, bare trees, trees just budding new leaves, and everything in between. Amazing, and to think they'll continue to change throughout the year.
Today I start looking actively for somewhere to live. It's a little crazy trying to decide where you want to live in a big city when you don't really know the city at all. Picking Corrina's brains has been useful though, and I'm going to checkout North Vancouver and North Burnaby. They have riding distance access to the hills, nicer part of town (with lots of bikeshops), and is reasonably central. Hopefully I can find something nice at a good price.
I got to church yesterday, and it was so nice after a month or more away. So refreshing. It's good.
Anyway, I better get into the day. Hopefully the right place pops up today... I can't wait to have a place of my own and have some independence and stability again.

Vancouver!!

Well, I've landed in Vancouver and I like. Coming in on the plane looking out the window was rather exciting, looking about knowing this would be my home for at least the next few months. Completely different to what I imagined (well what I've seen thus far) but cool. No snow here now and reasonale warm. Can't wait to explore some more today. In a lot of ways it seems like Australia, but I can't help but wonder how much my perceptions have changed in the past month seeing Turkey and Sweden. Some things are different though.
It's great to see Corrina again. Her and her mum picked me up from the airport and I'm staying at Corrina's grammas, sleeping in the basement. This morning I woke about 5am and tried to sleep some more, unsuccessfully. I went through my stuff getting it organised, read some, and finally thought I'd have a shower.
But I couldn't figure out how to turn the shower on. There's a shower and bath tap yet only one knob. Crazy! I spent a few minutes trying to figure it out and eventually gave into just having a bath. I was a bit slimey from the soap after the bath and really wanted to wash off. After another few minutes I finally had it sussed. Turning the tap handle alters heat, lifting the tap handle alters pressure, and to get the shower to go you have to pull the pipe on the tap where the water comes out down.
My shoulders feeling pretty good. I haven't had to have any pain killers at all since hospital and can do most things no worry's. The shoulder is a mobile/unstable joint at the best of times so I think the muscles do a good job. It'll just be a worry if I shock it when I'm relaxed. Hopefully I can behave myself.
Anyway, I've spent too long on this computer. There's exploring to be done and maybe a trip on Mike's boat this arvo. Goodie!

My brother Boyd and his family

Boyd, Me and Eric

Despite being a secular nation by and large, they still make decorations for different Christian seasons. We went along one evening to a decoration making session and came away with some unorthodox creations.

I made a not so traditional Easter Creature... Jake was so impressed he made his own.

My chook

My humerus on a day trip... well for an agonising hour. The worst thing with dislocations is the doctor has to pull hard enough to pop it back... ie - dislocation and relocation. I noticed that with my elbow bent about 90 degrees I had multiple folds of skin while my good arm had none. Obviously a little shorter.

My humerus back where it should be.... oh the relief and joy and big happy smiles that came with it.

My hero!!! Dr Callie Bengtson.

We let Nanel do a few runs on his own despite the fact he had absolutely on control. We just made sure he was pointed away from the tree when we pushed him started. He loved it.

Mad mayhem with kids being kids (kids ages 2 - 40 inclusive). Theres a few little jumps set up to make life interesting and not obviously visible (as you can tell). Tanya doubled Nanel down on the bobsled and hit the big one perfectly without realising until it was too late. They landed well before hitting the log.

A pretty picture

A well cleared Swedish main road. Typically (from the short time I was there) there is usually more stray snow heaped about the wheel tracks, and when warmer lots of slush.

Jordyn after one of her daring downhill runs

Nanel asleep in his pusher after a walk in falling snow. Note the snow caught in his eyelashes

Nanel... he's only a touch over 2 and he can already help translate his Swedish nursery rhymes to English. Cute!

A school yard Aussie kids can only dream of

Drugs are good!

Well, today was extra special. I managed to fit in Boyd's ski boots and went to the park to try cross country skiing. It's pretty good though not quite as stable as downhill ski's.... so I found. I skied up and down the little hill, a bit wonky but successfully, and then headed straight for the big hill. My herring bone hill climbing technique worked surprisingly well. Turned around at the top and admired the view, wondering whether I should go straight down or the slower route. The fast route won out and I lost. I pointed straight down with some snow plough action happening and then lost control, hitting the ground and dislocating my shoulder. Ouchy!!
I couldn't move my right arm, it was sort of stuck forward on a bit of a funny angle, so I thought I should probably go to hospital and trundled home to Tanya.
Swedish hospitals are a lot like Australian hospitals... you can be in loads of pain, quite pale, and still be put in a room to sit by yourself for at least half an hour. Well actually a student nurse came and hung out for a little bit just to chat cos he didn't have anything else to do. But that was it.
I don't recommend moving joints from their designated sockets... hurties. I kept myself amused and slightly sane singing 'I wish I hadn't done that' courtesy of Lano and Woodley. Dumb head. Anyway drugs helped a little. Usually I don't like having drugs pumped into me... today was a little different. Between grimaces, I pleaded 'Can I please have more drugs?' several times. I'm not real sure how much they helped cos it still sucked getting it back in. I'm not sure if the doctor was kidding, but he said he was surprised it only took two and a half minutes getting it back in rather than the usual three. Oh the relief when he punched it back in... it was quite possibly one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. Virtually instantaneous relief. I had the biggest smile, and despite the doctor inflicting some of the worst pain in my life, he instantly became my hero... Dr Callie Bengtson. And all up, with my Medicare card, it only cost 40 Aus dollars + the CD with XRays for 20 bucks. They'll be added to the post soon.
The sad thing is, despite being able to play the piano, chop veges, type and use my arm with a little pain this arvo, tomorrow will probably be a different story. And I'm not to ski, mountain bike, or anything strenuous in the near future. BUM :(

Cruising along

Sweden is putting on its best behaviour. This morning was yet another amazingly beautiful day with sun shining and snow glinting as if there were a million diamonds tossed everywhere. Absolutely beautiful, if not a little bright on the eyes.

I'm starting to get used to the snow everywhere... and having to pile the clothes on before heading out the door. The amount of clothing was highlighted when we went to the swimming pool. Pull of the gloves, beanie, skarf, outer coat, jumper 1, jumper 2, shirt, thermal top, pants, thermal pants, etc. A little more than my usually pair of shorts and shirt. Maybe -9 had me a little scared and overly cautious, but I didn't find I was too warm with it all. We'd been out walking for an 'Exterminate Hunger' walk with snow blowing in the face. Despite snows softness, snow in the eyes stings quite a bit. Snow, snow everywhere. I should mention the pool is part of a heated indoor complex with water slides, diving pool, spa, and sauna. The Swede's probably get to spend more time of the year in the water than the average Aussie.

Yesterday arvo we went to the park and played on toboggans. What I would class a winter wonderland is literally across the road. Powdery, fluffy snow up to the ankles in a reasonable park with nice little hills. I'm not sure if the kids realise how lucky they are with it right there. I had a bit of a play on the toboggan and then the kids pulled out the ski's. Apparently they hadn'd been skiing yet this season, if at all (with the amount of time required and noise generated getting them ready, I can understand why this was the first for the season). I didn't have any skis that would fit, but i had fun watching the kids.

Jordyn is crazy. She has no fear and is so determined. She's naturally very agile and was the first one up the first small hill, and then pointed straight down. She held it most the way and then spiralled into a crumpled heap, then straight back up the hill for another go. After the second go she headed off for a bigger hill. Surprisingly she zoomed up the hill with fantastic herring bone ski technique, turned around and zoomed down... crashing out of control. She is cute cos she just lies for a bit in a heap and then fights her way back up for another go. The second time getting up wasn't so easy. Herring bone technique didn't work and she kept sliding down and falling over, and then she'd get up for another go and fall over, on and on. After about 10 minutes of attacking the hill conventionally but unsuccessfully, she basically clawwed her way up in an undignified fashion on hands and knees in angry frustration, for another downhill attempt. This is one girl who would love a ski lift for Christmas.

Anyway, this is taking way too long to write. Nothing too amazing happening compared to Turkey... quite a lot like Australia except for the snow, lakes and people speaking a different language. But still very cool and nice hanging out.

Snow flakes keep falling on my head....

I saw my first snow falling this morning and I was quite excited. My brother Boyd picked me up from the airport around midnight with my nephew and niece, Eric and Jordyn. After a long drive home through snow I got to sleep in bed at around 3am. Not surprisingly, at 7 when the kids got up for school I didnät really want to know about it, but the mention of falling snow woke me instantly to stand at the window before passing out on my bed again a minute later. SO exciting!!
It's heaps nice to be in Sweden with my brother and his family. Way different to Australia... snowed roads and gardens, spikey tyres, houses that stay a nice constantly warm 20 degrees no matter how chilly outside is (hopefully).
I hadn't seen my youngest nephew Nathaniel (or Nanel) since October and he's just turned 2 so I wasn't sure if he'd know who I was. I thought it might be weird for him, I mean, he goes to bed one night and then wakes up with this big bloke in his house. Anyway, at 7 this morning he comes in, looking at me saying 'lum, lum, lum' Jordyns saying ,'It's uncle Ben, it's uncle Ben' and finally he runs off to my sister-in-law Tanya saying 'It's Uncle Ben, it's uncle Ben, uncle Ben!!' Cute.... he's the man, sporting a Maggie Simpson style jumpsuit when we go out, and eating tea with knife and fork (not in the right hands but I was impressed), he is the man!!
Scarily enough I see slight similarities between myself and Eric who is about to turn 9. At about 8:30 this egg timer goes off next to my head. In a tired stupor I tried to pull the thing apart so it would shut up. It eventually stops and I put it down and drop off again. This is the same kid who has scared me more than anybody, and taken years off my life with a rubber spider when they visited in October. I feel like kicking him into next week yet I'm so proud of him :) Keep up the good work... just don't practise on me. What will he do tomorrow?
Not surprisingly he couldn't help but ask if I heard the egg timer when we dropped in at their school, ggrrr! Tanya drops in each week to Eric and Jordyns classes to help/lead the English lesson. I was the well advertised visitor for Eric's class today. It's surprisingly funny being this big Australian in a class full of little Swedish kids. They went around the class introducing themselves, and I couldn't pronounce half there names even after a few attempts. They roll their 'R's' and no matter how hard I try I just can't do it. It was fun. We played Simon says and surprisingly I was the worst person at it. I'm glad I passed grade 3 first time around. I'm rather envious of all the school kids. When we rocked up they were runnning around flat out in the school yard in falling snow making snow men, having snow fights, this one little kid was carrying a snow ball that was wider than his shoulders, rolling big snow balls like you see in the cartoons, sliding around and taking each other out. Such fun, I can't believe I missed out as a kid :( ! Fortunately, lots more snow is predicted, and dry snow at that. None of this 1 degree slightly slushy snow (I never new there was a difference), the weather man predicts in the minus's down to -15 on Tuesday. Brrrrr!! Can't wait.

Flying to Sweden

A quick note as I should be on my plane in 3.5 hours....
I've added a bunch of pics from our trekking adventure and sight seeing around Efes. I'll try and get some more up soon. From Efes I went to Eceabat (the nearest town to Gallipoli) and spent a freezing day seeing the landscape and learning a lot about the battle for the Dardenelles during WW1. Since then I've been in Istanbul for two nights prepping to leave. The best experiences have been meeting interesting people. Last night I was talking to a young Serbian medical student who has been working for the UN and WHO, chosen and trained to help bring reform and stability to her country. It is amazing how different the life of a person the same age as myself can be in a different country. If you feel like you are poor... her 34 year old boy friend is a fully fledged engineer (earning about 3 times normal Serbian wage) has to live at home with his folks because his wage of $5000/year is not enough to live out. It seemed a bit ridiculous telling her an unemployed person or student recieving Austudy in Australia earns more than that. Crazy.

The Castle above Selcuk. An irate taksi driver just couldn't understand or believe that I would contemplate walking the picturesque 3km from Efes ruins back to Selcuk. 'What part of NO don't you understand?'

The toilet block. These were surprisingly comfortable and would have been the socially happening place to share the latest goss. Winter mornings might be a different matter...

Ephesus

Celcus library. He's buried out the back. The achitects designed the building to have smaller outer supports and a convex roof line. This screws with your perspective and gives the allusion of a much bigger building than actually exists. It was still pretty big without the sleight of hand.

Back in Antalya... this is the street of Sabah Pensiyan (where I stayed) next door to Abad Pensiyan (a poor naming choice for conveying quality)

A few blisters to aid walking. Blisters are good actually... I'd hate to think of the pain I'd experienced without them.

Back to civilisation and dolmuses

A good example of the typical Turkish house being constructed in Karaoz.

Modelling my invaluable $7 beanie

After 6 hours and a claimed 15km of walking, we reach the lighthouse for a late lunch (5:15pm). This is located 15km south Adrasan, and 8km south of Karaoz. A large mountain range separates these two towns, forming the peninsula.

Looking north along the uninhabited Mediterranian Peninsula where we've walked... only a few more km's to the lighthouse

Yet more confused limestone with scattered apple

More confused limestone with apple trees

Climbing the valley above Adrasan with Mt Olympus in the background (I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't Mt Olympus)

Yet another scenic detour as we left Adrasan. Kate describes one of the first landscapes we'd encounter as 'confused limestone with scattered wild apple'. To me the whole day could have been described as confused limestone and apple.

The beach of Adrasan.... to the locals disgust, Kate Clow the walks originator describes Adrasan as a blight to an otherwise beautiful cove. The B&B and surrounds where we stayed on the river was beautiful, but the rest of the sea side town was... well.... interesting.

One of many night navigation photos.

The Saddle before dropping down to Adrasan. (we did a bit of a scenic tour before finding the track down)