Olympos, Turkey

It's a long 15 hour bus drive to get from Istanbul to Olympos, but it was well worth the journey. Olympos is an old ancient city (now in ruins dated from around 7AD) on the Mediterranean Sea in the south of Turkey, which has become a getaway for Turkish tourists. There is maybe 20 wooden treehut style hostels set up just outside the ruins, an area which is very busy in summer, but beautiful and quiet at this time of the year. We had a relaxing 5 days climbing mountains, exploring the ruins, reading books, playing backgammon and even swam in the sea. It's a beautiful area with lots of natural delights. We visited Yanartaş, a natural phenomenon of flames burning out of gaps in the rocks, and were blessed to share a BBQ sausage with a Turkish family cooking lunch on the ancient eternal flames. Now we are back in Istanbul, and ready to explore the city side of Turkey.
-kim

Let it SNOW!!!

Yesterday we woke up to a winter wonderland and a village covered in white. Snow is such a thrill for us and we are loving all the excitement of this season. These next few days we plan on drinking red wine, walking in the snowing woods, listening to Christmas music and maybe a few films.
In other news, we are having some issues with our laptop so until we get that sorted our blog posts from now on might only be iPhone photos. We'll just have to see what happens.
This week we had a great 4 day trip, driving down to Austria and Italy with my parents. Hopefully we can share some of our photos from our other Cameras soon.
-kim

Bamberg, Germany

It has been so lovely chilling out and enjoying what Germany has to offer. My parents arrived on Monday and we have had a great time catching up on the last 10 months. Yesterday we went for a little drive out to Bamberg and on our way back popped in to see the Plassenburg Castle in Kulmbach. It is amazing to find the little differences in German culture after spending so many months exploring French cities.
-kim

Mont Blanc

The French/Italian alps are incredible. We had 4 days up in the mountains 1900m above sea level and they were great. One day we drove over the French/Italian boarder and went exploring near La Thuile. This walk had amazing views of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, which took our breath away (or maybe it was just the altitude). We finished the day with pizza in a great little Italian restaurant on the terrace overlooking the mountains. Our host was such an amazing guy, which made this trip all the more special.
-kim

the french alps

So on Thursday we made the 450Km journey to The Alpes! About one hour into our journey our battery died. We waited two hours until someone had jumper leads. A very long and amazing story short... We pushed started the car with the help of 5 people at different points in the journey, we bought jumper leads and got help from 10 people at different times and 13 hours later, 1900 meters above sea level, with no address of where we were sleeping that night saw some familiar faces waving from their chalet balcony. Needless to say we were so happy to be with people we know in such an amazing place. i'll let the photos do the talking.
-morgan

ps. Have you had a chance to enter our giveaway?

Lac d'Esparron

On Monday some friends invited us to join them Canoeing around Lac d'Esparron. This lake is absolutely incredible and the colour is the water is breathtaking. We didn't want to take our cameras out on the water, so just have a few phone snaps to share. It was lovely to canoe and swim in the fresh cold water after many hot summer days. We felt very relaxed to sit and have a picnic drinking rose, watching over the lake.
-kim

Arles

The other day we visited Arles, the city where Van Gogh lived and painted his surroundings (right before he went a little crazy.) Many other artists have rented a apartment in Arles in hope that inspiration would hit them. And how could it not? surrounded by sunflower fields, ancient roman ruins and a general smell of provence in the air, this small, walled city is as good as it gets when trying to fill a blank canvas. The day was extremely hot and the breeze off the river was stunning. Just the perfect way to end our time in the south of France.
-morgan

Lavender Hunting

Last week Morgan's grandma wanted to take us to see the Lavender fields around Sault. It was beautiful driving around and seeing all the flowers in straight lines and the contrasts of colours. We also decided to drive up Mont Ventoux, a frequent challenge on the Tour de France route. As we made our way up the mountain in the car it was incredible to see all the bicycle riders making the grueling ride. At the top, people were celebrating their achievements, so proud they had made it to the top. It was an inspiring sight indeed.
-kim

bon voyage farm

Our time is up on this amazing farm and we have truly enjoyed it. We may be a little sick of weeding, but our appreciation for where food comes from and the hard work farmers do has changed the way we look at eating. We have learnt so much about the land, organic living and sustainability. We hope to work on a few more farms in the future and are in the process of trying to find a cheese farm.
When in France!
-morgan

animal traction

Our time working on the farm has involved many new experience. Last week we got to try our hand at animal traction using 2 donkeys, Parpaillon and Pinocchio. Animal traction has been around for many years, but has faded out of farm life. There is an orginisation in France set out to make it popular again. There are 13 different tools you can set up behind a donkey for weeding, plowing, airing and more. It's low cost, good for the environment and makes for true organic farming considering we don't use a tractor. It's great working alongside the donkey, not as it's master, but as it's friend. We were told to keep in mind, without the donkey and you working together, you both will not eat tonight. After we formed the mounds, we then planted pumpkin seedlings over the whole field.
-morgan