A Couple of Bluddy Turkeys!

another tıme, another place

Moments after reuniting in Istanbul

I’ve hopped and I’ve trundled and in early morning bundled. Urban jungles and valleys I’ve dillied and dallied via Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia and Plovdiv then on to Shiroka Laka after that it was time to reunite with Jimi Baka.

I’ll do the jumbled tumble and peel the skin back off these untouched-on adventures soon, but for now…

A digital converstaion between thompsoninflıght and Jerry Jackson. Held while sitting next to each other within The Bıg Apple Hostel on a cold soppy Istanbul Sunday. Subject: Our rollickıng rendevouz in Turkey…

3:27 PM Jimmy: hope that drılliıng ın the walls dont go all nıght

3:34 PM Tommy: I thınk someones bangıng a hookah pıpe on the floor of the terrace. Bıt wet up there though.

3:37 PM Jimmy:when we get on the hookah later I want it to be outside so I don’t get the apple sweats again

3:39 PM Tommy: I couldnt tell whether ıt was all the molasses ın the tobacco or the barmy weather… Sure hope the roof dont cave ın tonıght. Speakıng of caves…

3:41 PM Jimmy: oh man

3:43 PM Cappadoccia. No Jawas but caverns and rocks riddled with tunnels and ancient mountainous castles and churches as far as the eye can see.

almost too much to comprehend with our mere human noggins

3:48 PM Tommy: If only my shell was more robust Id have curled up ınto a ball and rolled through those wıldlands lıke a marble of madness. I was surprısed not to see any gıant termıtes scurryıng around ın those magnıfıcently swıss-cheesed mounds.

3:49 PM I recall you askıng me several tımes worrıedly…´Tommy….where are we?´

3:52 PM Jimmy: rolling into Cappadoccia at 7am on Fri morn dislocated my cerebrum

3:53 PM WTF indeed

8 minutes

4:01 PM Tommy: Yes, and the dısjoınted and generally scatty ınformatıon gıven to us about our tour led to a few perıods of unneccesary anxıety. Next tıme I wont aır my reservatıons. But we made ıt eventually to Goreme where we could be hermıts wıthout the solıtude for a stınt. Troglodıtes we were (are?).

10 minutes

4:11 PM Jimmy: once onto the tour all exhaustion and panic was forgotten as we trekked through valleys and through passages lined with carvings and caves inhabited as recently as the 1960s. It was dang hot but totally mindblowing. A nagging Persian hag in our group almost required euthinasing but we spared her our wrath

4:14 PM Tommy: We agreed she resembled strıkıngly an old, sıck parrot.

9 minutes

4:24 PM Tommy: Lunch was almost too much to take as we were presented wıth a buffet of Turkısh cuısıne (the thırd largest ın the wrld apparently). Grılled meats, lentıl soups, stewed, spıced veggıes, bean salads, eggplant salads, pıckled salads, yoghurts, cheese spreads, baby jalepenos and everythıng kıtted up ın the most tantalısıng and entıcıng of spıces! Dessert was a sugary pıllow at the end of the rampagıng gorgefest. I could see the fear ın your eyes a few tımes JJ, as I went back for thırds. I was touched at your genuıne conern for the potentıal rupturıng of my stomach though.

4:27 PM Jimmy: lulz

4:28 PM it was a great feast

and the people of Turkey just do not seem able to do enough for you

4:29 PM all so nice and very funny. Have met some hilarious characters. The disjointed but earnest attempts at English has been a consistent source of entertainment

4:30 PM Tommy: Bewdıful Horshes actually….

4:33 PM Jimmy: the undergorund city was also great but perhaps more bearable for the less lanky Baker bro?

7 minutes

4:40 PM Tommy: Was ınterestıng to hear of the 10 000 Chrıstıans who would pıle ınto these gıant antnests to avoıd beıng skewered and splayed by the Arabs who marched through Cappadoccıa to try and capture Istanbul for the prophet Mohummad. If nothıng else theır back-breakıng, knee-scrapıng toıl provıded us wıth an hour of wonder and ıntrıgue. How long do you thınk you could spend baıled up ın a 50m deep hole, sardıned-tınned ´tween 10 000 chrıstıans wıth nothıng to eat but wıne and bread?

4:41 PM Jimmy: 15 mins with a tour group was enough

and we had electricity

4:42 PM we could talk about Cappadoccia forever

but perhaps we should touch on Istanbul?

I dig it

U?

4:46 PM Tommy: I dıg seacats down by the Marmara Sea. And they dıg us perhaps twıce as much when we Robın-Hood-on-down-there wıth a kılo of kıppers to feed theır frıendly lıttle faces. Mumma cat´s performance was movıng. She wouldn’t have a kıpper for herself. Let her lıttle crıtters eat the whole lot. But there were many more felıne companıons to save than just our famıly of choıce. Mum, famıly welfare ıs ın the blood.

4:47 PM Jimmy: we have indeed gained celebrity status amongst the many cats of Istanbul

4:48 PM outside of the animals, it has been stupendous to roam the city, meet locals and tourists alike, sift about in the Grand Bazaar and suck on sheeshas while gulping down Efes in the many, many bars and cafes.

4:49 PM the mosques are remarkable and the city is currently in Ramadaan mode. So there are a few tired folk about and at dusk the queues for food stretch for miles

4:50 PM (exagerration)

its hard to comprehend beign in a city of 15 million

perhaps that is the word for this adveture

uncomprehendable

4:51 PM is it a word?

Tommy: Incomprehensıble

Comprehend that

4:53 PM Jimmy: incomprehensible ya reckon?

ok

so be it

Our tribute to the felines of Istanbul

Today I Easyjet-it back to London! Oh the places we’ll go!

Thompson in Istanbul

Rainy Krumlov

Okay. If I don’t blog now I’m not going to at all. This is a rare opportunity to use a computer for a few hours and I’m not even sure it’ll be that. First things first. I just ate most of a jar of gherkins (self-prepared) and yesterday I ate a pig knuckle (dining in style). Quite important. I’m here in Cesky Krumlov its ten at night and I’m ready to move on out! Budapest is on its way in the morning and I don’t really know what the score is. I have accomodation booked for tomorrow night and I’m hoping to get a few nibbles in regard to some other possibilities soon. There is a guy on couchsurfing.com who wants people to work a few hours a day for accomodation at his hostel and that sounds like a good deal to me.

Alright.

Outside the Vatican

I’ve got a good few pages written blanketing my time in Italy and I’ll soon serve it up. Until then: It’s all about Milano for the Evolutionfest, glorious food in the wonderful Florence and simply breath taking experiences in Rome. I was expecting big things from Rome but the granduer and magnificence of that KINGDOM literally bought a tear to my eye.

Milano-Swiss-Indian, Aussie Crew

Preventing Inflames (headliner) from playing!

Roma!

Santa Maria del Fiore

Rome

Oslo Statue Park

Oslo in Norway swung around next where I spent my birthday with a friend Dina from Australia and we spent four days over the weekend at the Wings of Desire convention. Curious yes?

Being the ridiculously expensive country it is I camped out a bit and quickly made my way to Copenhagen, Denmark where prices were still insulting but not so much so.

Riding Free Bikes and Trains in Copenhagen

I chilled out quite alot in Copenhagen riding the free city-bikes around got to meet some cool characters and visited the free State of Kristiania while there. I caught the bus to Hamburg then with Cody, a Canadian guy who was staying at the same hostel as me and once there met up with some familiar friends from Canberra so that we could catch the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken! 70,000 people, 5 stages, 100 bands, four days. Yep. It was a stonker.

Somehow I made my train to Dresden by the end of it which after almost no (real) sleep for four days, left at 3:00am for an 8hour journey with two changes. A challenge indeed.

I really enjoyed Dresden as one of the most architechturally interesting and inspiring cities I’ve been to and was lucky to bag a really good hostel while there.

Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov

Me, Luka and Lorenzo Paddleboating on the Vltava river Prague

Awesome music outside Prague Castle

Magical Blind Muso

And in (far too) short I spent a magnificent week in Prague before bussing it to Cesky Krumlov.

I’m going to leave it there and load up this page with some photos. I hope to get a much more detailed account of whats been going on up soon because there is so so so so so much more! Or maybe I’ll just carry on with lots of random emails and scrappy blogs like this.

Thompsoninflighty-Krumlov

Bierex Farewells

The Way it is: Dwindling Weeks in The Rock

Though I won’t flip back through previous entries to examine similarities, I’m sensing a familiar mind-groove emerging from the cut of this escalator to exit.  

I find myself feeling more open to people that I meet, feeling more jovial and light-hearted and although I have truly known it was dormant, the firey excitement returns to me. These last three weeks are shaping up to be a very tasty and inevitably emotional ride. As the Edinburgh festival grows close, the attitude of guests staying here at The Rock changes. I’ve been meeting many more people who are here on three month personal journeys and whirlwind blitzkriegs of Europe ever inflaming the angst of my wings to bat. I’m learning once again ( and again and again and again) the importance and significance of the people I’ve met here and their lessons to me…… and what I’ll be leaving behind when I go. 

Tomorrow there is a staff party for Castle Rock because we’ve achieved number one status on www.hostelworld.com (main European hostelling site) and the boss is pushing £350 our way to fuel the event. I’m pretty stoked that while I’ve been here I’ve worked for the two leading hostels in Edinburgh and although I’ve not had the experience of living in a flat and supping on the lip of a more Scottish lifestyle its been ideal to be surrounded by people who are travelling all the time thus giving me a much more confident outlook to the looming months of adventure. I’m going to be able to travel more cost effectively than I did through Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Ireland and I have the added comfort of a tent for those precious unpredictabilities. Its also so exciting knowing that I’ll be meeting up with Aussie friends and blood through the trails that blaze.

JJ bring it on sah. May your plumage be rich and vast. 

Next weekend will be my last at Bierex as I’ll do only the weekdays for my last two weeks. Though I’ve deliberately not gone into the details of the politics of the joint and as much as I have honestly enjoyed my time there, gossipy, particularly petty shite will be refreshing to evade. That said, my farewell (shared with Marta one of the Polish managers) is much anticipated and will once again be one of those send offs where I cherish friendships that go ‘blip!’ and get much of retrospective and philosophical.

To sum up, the next leg begins now.

It won’t be like working for cash to travel anymore.

Once again I am diving/delving into the magnificent abyss.

Buzzing like the bumblebee. 

Thompson Pre-Post-Edinburgh

A Hastening Pace

Its been well over a month since I last stamped across this page. Partly due to some sort of bloggy apathy but also just to general inconsistency of life style and routine.

I’ll not go into to great depth about my firey 1 year overseas anniversary at Beltane Pagan Fire Festival ontop Calton Hill overlooking the whole city, which pelted down fat Scottish rain and soaked us with kerosene smoke. Nor will I divulge the details of rendezvous with old friends from faraway lands.

 

 

However these times and lands are a changing and I feel that this old wolf’s time in Edinburgh is sure on its last legs. Only adding to this tumbling twards more travelling is the insanely short evenings were having. The sky reachest its darkest around 23:30 at which point it expresses a celestial deep blue of sorts but then three hours later, if that, begins to brighten! And the days will continue to get shorter for three weeks to come. How strange it is to be walking home at 2:30 in the AM and observing all the nightime scraps and shameful boozey debaucheries usually softened by the dark, revealed by the unforgiving glory of the sun!!! 

Weird and wonderful.

 

The feel of Edinburgh has changed much as it now feels very much like my home  and the familiarity is comforting which is not exactly what I’m seeking but it makes working and planning a lot easier.  

I managed to procure a tent recently aswell which is going to make the adventure in adventuring a whole lot more. It also makes these three day long festivals more economical to navigate.

In five weeks I’ll be on a plane to Milan in Italy to catch some of the finest and my favourite metal and prog-rock bands of my youth…. of which I still most certainly am. I’ve got stops planned at Florence and Rome (ROMA!!!!!!) before flying north to Oslo in Norway where I’ll be meeting more pals and getting to know the city. From there I’m still planning the details of the journey but it takes me south into Slavic territories.  

 

Buts that all for now. May the story of the last month be further bled by photos, emails and raconteur by the fire. For even though we river flows still wildly and toward the sea, it slithers slowly now tween and silently o’er stepping stones till the valley widens.

Remember Me?

I had bestowed upon me a book of texts years ago. It played a major part in my enthusiasm and excitement for travel. It wags a tail in my minds from time to time only to hop away down the rabbit hole and be forgotten. I nabbed it today and I vow to re-enter its realms. The world opens up and our once narrow pathways become omindirectional cascading deltas of potential!!!

MAY THE ADVENTURE BEGIN AGAIN!!!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/experimentaltravel

Example:

4. Anachronistic Adventure DIFFICULTY

Hypothesis-Step back in time and experience travel from another era.

Apparatus-You will need to acquire the use of an outmoded form of transportation.

Note: while this form of travel may inspire the wearing of period costume, it is strictly optional. Method Travel by an outdated or obsolete form of transport. Suggestions include a hackney carriage, penny-farthing, galley, sedan chair or hot-air balloon.

Snow in Edinburgh?

Quite unexpectedly (which is how I like it and it often is) I received a text message from (an) Old Mate. ’Sir Tom, Snowy would like to meet up with you for a pint or two in sunny Edinburgh. Is tomorrow night good?’ A few Snowies I knew fluttered through my head, also some potential Snowies I may have forgotten or simply manifested. I eventually sussed out who it was and was excited at the prospect of a familiar face. 

Meeting at the Last Drop after work last night I came to share a few pints with Snowy and his fiancee’, Anna who were halfwayish through their round the world adventure. We shared a few stories and I was very interested to hear of their time in Africa and their future travells into UK, Europe and USA. I took them on a little private tour of a few spots in old town and we happened to stumble across a group playing traditional Scottish music in DropKick Murphy’s. As it turned out they were staying at BudgetBackpackers! Had I left a month later I’d have been checking and tucking them in!

Small bloody world.

………and a few pics of the my newest home, Castle Rock Hostel.  

Thompson in Edinburgh 

Pecking and Flapping From the Beak of Thompson Baker

 

T-So I hear your living digs and bread money flow have once again shifted Thompson?

 

T-We don’t tolerate conditions unappealing to us do we Thompson?

 

T-No Sir. But I don’t blame you at all. I mean we’re in this together and when the walls get sticky and the their calling your bluff you gotta give em aces and jokers.

 

T- Well put sir. Yes it is true that although the Budgetbackpackers reception job sure had its perks there were certain elements not to be over looked.

 

T- Indeed. Such as those walking tours, which by all means were good for the development of our understanding of Edinburgh but surely its by no means beneficial to the adventuring guinea pigs.

 

T- Agreed. I know I wouldn’t want two hours of my precious holiday spent with a tour guide who is still learning the ropes.

 

T- But let us not dismiss his charm and zest!

 

T- True, they should have made him managing director!

 

T- His time would have come had he not jumped ship.

 

T- Anyhow, the living conditions and general environment could be described as sterile and a little uninspiring, either too bleak and brown or too garishly colourful…

 

T-Let us not forget the rats sir.

 

T- We were lucky not to have them in our den sir.

 

T- I think it was mainly the bipolar nature of the boss who’s constant fluctuations between scorn and praise sent you a little west. True boss?

 

T- True that Thompson.

 

T- So what of your new living arrangements and income?

 

T- Well, upon my departure I was bestowed with holiday pay and a weeks wages I had not worked for which gave me a pocket of time to find a new jobby and to move into Castle Rock hostel which is conveniently located just under Edinburgh Castle.

 

T- Yes, I’ve heard of it. Stunning views, artful interior design and adornments, free pool, free tea and coffee, free laundry and I hear you’ve begun working there too sir.

 

T- The rumours are true Thompson! I did a week of cleaning there in exchange for free rent and they just upped and asked me to work reception!

 

T- Unbelievable!

 

T- I was aghast!

  T- Truly aghast?

 

T- No, mainly just pleased.

 

T- So you’re also working at a fancy little bar/restaurant for tuppence, ale and pudding?

 

T- I’m working at Bierex just outside the Oldtown, past the meadows and down the lane. Lovely bunch of folk there. Very welcoming and friendly. Scottish, Welsh and Polish peoples. Considering the tips and free food I’m making there plus my free rent at Castle Rock I’ve managed to land on my big toes so to speak with but a graze sir, but a graze.

 

T- Never dance by the fire without a backup plan sir.

 

T- True that Thompson. True that.

 

T- So what now with you adventures sir. What do you forsee.

 

T- Loosely, as my forecast often is involves meeting with some Aussie chumps at various points. A Kimberly Hawkins is in Scotland in the town of Largs with whom I would be delighted to rendezvous. Also Samantha Chapman is studying French in Montpellier, France and my dear friend Adina Levy is Studying in Denmark. Oslo in July you say?

 

T- Sounds like there are too many options Thompson. Would you then hint at when you might return to your homeland sir?

 

T- No I shan’t. I’m not telling.

 

T- Twatter and Blather! Why your nothing but a pack of cards.

 

Squawking and Feather Flutter with Thompson and Thompson

 -In Edinburgh.

A Highlands Adventure

I’m soaking up more and more of the Scottish history everyday and my recent day tour of the highlands certainly erected foundational pillars of my understanding of Scottish culture. 

Although a day is clearly not enough time to really appreciate what your seeing and learning, the twelve hour drive with a few photo opportunity stops definitely whets the appetite for future missions into the satisfyingly-snowy mountains, loch-scattered lands, stag-staggered expanses and antiquated villages.

The main destiantion of the tour was Loch Ness but  alas we caught no sight of Nessie. There is actually a one million pound reward for anyone with conclusive evidence of the creature. Strangley enough, high tech sonar equipment has revealed not one but seventeen large non-stationary objects in the loch!!! The majority of research into the anomaly actually points towards a strong likelyhood of a family of pleisiosaurs living in the loch though the loch at its deepest point is 230 meters and so murky and dark that the creatures eyes would be too light sensitive to even consider surfacing on anything less than a stormy midnight.

By the end of the day we’d clocked up over 520 km passing through the Trossachs made famous by Rob, the looming mountains of Rannock Moor, valleys and scenescapes of Glen Coe of the infamous Campbell massacres, past Fort William and Ben Nevis ( Britains highest mountain)  through Great Glen to Loch Ness.

After lunch we went past Fort Augustus through Monarch of the Glen, Loch Laggan in our peripherals and over the lonely doldrums of Drummochter Pass.

Lochness2Lochness3

 

On a more profound note, I made eggs and toast for brekky the other day and this is what I got!!!

 

Thompson at the Forest

The Forest Canopy

I’ve started volunteering at Forest Cafe which is a free space for artists to perform, congregate and share ideas. Its a wonderful place full of free spirits and amazing minds. In exchange for my work there I’m given free meals from a wholesome organic vegetarian menu. The Forest and Budgetbackpackers are only a few minutes from each other meaning I’ve got a very nice little triangle set up between, sleep, work and play. I feel so pleased and excited about my life at the moment. There is a constant flow of interesting people coming through the hostel that I get to meet. I have the privelege of hanging out with them and learning about their home countries and travel adventures. I almost feel spoiled, having this nourishing environment of travellers and artists around me all the time.
One of the other great advantages of meeting all these travellers is that because they feel I have accomodated them I’ve been getting invitations to stay with them in their countries. So far I have somewhere to stay in Poland and Germany. Although I’ve already been to Germany, the town is near the Austrian border so it might be worth making a stop over. The plan is to make it from the north of Poland to the South of Greece in a few months time making an effort to squeeze in France and Norway and/or Iceland on weekends in the meantime. 

Oh! I had a friend at my window the other morning!
 

Then I celebrated the lives of some of my deceased friends.

Through the precious minutes and years of life we run, stumble, stroll and stare.
At times the terrain neath us passes so swiftly we are paddling air.
As we sprint through the rich, dense, flowering jungle do we cover our eyes from the quills?
Do we rip off the creepers?
Do we hack at the undergrowth to clear a path?
Or do we flow like water through the capillaries of the trees with eyes, ears and mouth open wide?
As we clamber our way up the pyramid there are many comfortable places to rest along the way.
But we must continue towards the summit knowing that all we may reach is the sea.
We sail with nothing but the stars to guide us.
Boats pass us. Many as silhouettes in the distance who cannot hear us when we call.
Some of us with our sails billowing wide and proud, embracing the wind.
Or quietly respecting the current.
The swell of some rocks our skiff and washes away the salt crust from our bough.
And we can see their faces they are so close, but they continue to sail.
Often in the evening, when all we all we can see is the inky expanse, indiscriminate to the sky, worlds collide.
Keep the water out or return to the ocean.