Mis-adventures...

...in kissing.
The other day Jeremy thought it would really funny to kiss and bite a gummy in half during the act. Well, it was pretty entertaining until my lip got in the way and I was left with a mouth full of blood. Ooops. Don't try this one at home, kids. After a few days it returned to normal color and the cut healed up but ouch! Jeremy's still a little sensitive when I tease him about it. :)

...in train travel.
Last night we took a train from Goreme to...? (can't remember where we are...) and curiously found ourselves surrounded by policemen (maybe 6 in total?) sometime around 5 AM with GIANT assault rifles and machine guns. Turns out they were transporting a prisoner who just happened to be sitting behind my seat. Oh joy! lol. At one point, the leader of the armed guard walked up the carriage and started yelling at one of his men for holding his loaded gun between his legs.

...in befriending the locals.
One day, while walking to lunch in Bishkek, Jeremy and I came across a rather foul looking old lady knitting on a chair just outside the entrance to a bank. Jeremy, being a little smart, waved and grinned like the Cheshire cat. The lady, in return, snarled, glared and shook her head in silent disapproval. That was more than enough to send us into heaves of laughter--almost to the ground!--and as I looked back, the old woman was mouthing foul things at us in Russian. Oh, those post Soviets... Gotta love them.

...in LOIs.
That means "letters of invitation." We're trying pretty hard to get letters of invitation so that we can visit Uzbekistan but have been met with road block after road block. Apparently the latest mishap is a mistake in the transfer of funds?? They want more money?? Argh. Annoying. Really.

...in using the Lonely Planet guide.
Let me just put it on record that the 2007 edition of Lonely Planet Turkey is crap. Let me explain. First, the authors do little more than advise you to take taxis and join tour groups when it comes to getting around. Second, none of the prices listed are accurate. Third, on more than one occasion, we've found the maps to be inaccurate--as in incorrectly named streets, incorrectly named sites, misleading distance keys, and mis-labled bus stations. Fourth, the book is pretty thin on descriptions of the sites and the authors actually suggest visiting certain towns "for their unique boutique hotels." Um, yeah, right. Last night we got off in Kayseri at the bus station and according to Lonely Planet, only had to walk a measly 400 meters to the train station. Not so. Instead, we got off at the NEW bus station (which the book makes no reference of) and the old bus station doesn't exist anymore. Turns out we were 4 km's from the train station and completely unsure if we were even walking in the right direction because our compass didn't match the street we were on (turns out the map had the street incorrectly named and we were going in the right direction after all). But it all worked out. We found some very nice people at a super market--a young woman about my age and her mother--who called their father and asked him to drive us to the train station. They were sooo sweet. The mother kept asking us (maybe 20 times or so) if we would come to her house so she could make us dinner but unfortunately we had to catch our train and had to decline. Boo. But the good news is that we made it and made some nice friends along the way. Love the Turks. :) Oh, and complaint number five: the book fails to list true budget options. Everything it lists for the city we're in is over $20 but we found a place today for $10 that wasn't listed in the book and just happens to be closer to the transport stations. Argh. Stupid book.