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  • Are they there yet
  • India Curran
  • Dale Curran
  • Are they there yet
  • India Curran
  • Dale Curran
  • Robyn Ford

World tour

A 188-day adventure by Are they there yet, India, Dale & Robyn Read more
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    In the meantime...Dale nerd-ing out at the Blaherne Palace
    Next stop, whacky churrosFinishing with a pub meal11

    India’s Day

    August 6, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Author: India

    Today was my day! I got to choose a bunch of activities to do. Mum, ari and I got our nails done (all various shades of pink). Dad took the opportunity to check out some historical sites we running out of time to see (but missed out on a manicure - apparently history is more interesting). Afterwards we went to the Barbie movie, with our pink nails, it was good. We had churros as an afternoon snack, covered in m&ms and chocolate and carmel sauce. It was delicious, much better than the maccas ones we had the day before. We finished off the day with a pub crawl along the street with our hotel on it and had dinner at our final stop, an Irish pub. We got to see a few snippets of the FIFA World Cup replays. Very fun day!!Read more

  • World tour
    Egyptian Spice Bazaar
    Inside the Hagia SofiaThey cover any mosaics that have icons during prayer time

    Ticking off the big sights - Part 1

    August 7, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We did things a little backwards in Istanbul compared to usual and we went on a tour of the city today, just as we come to the end of our time here.

    This was probably pretty much Dale Day as other than going to the bazaars (🎵 how bazaar, how bazaar 🎶) this was a history tour hitting just about all the big sites around Istanbul all the way out to the Theodotian Walls and up the Golden Horn to see the Ottoman forts and get a seaside view of Galata Tower that held the one end of the chain that protected Constantinople from attack by sea for near 900 years.

    We did break the number one rule of tours though - “never buy from the first shop the guide takes you to”. Turns out we bought some very overpriced chocolates and nuts at the Egyptian Spice Bazaar…about four (identical) shops down they were a third of the price 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

    Dale thought the Hagia Sofia was absolutely breathtaking - so much history, so much engineering. The Blue Mosque was very pretty, and looked much more comfortable as a mosque than Hagia Sofia did, and it was pretty cool getting to see one of the obelisk’s from Karnak - that we only just visited less than 2 months earlier in Egypt.

    I think we all thought the boat ride was pretty cool though. It really brought home how big and actually quite pretty Istanbul is - and showed us where the richy smichies live whilst Taki bf a break from the heat 😜

    …to be continued in Part 2    Read more

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    Ticking off the big sights - Part 2

    August 7, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Where was I? Oh yes…the private fashion show…

    Yep, our tour guide took us to a leather goods outlet - nothing surprising there - but when the very small tour group were seat in a private room with a runway and the music started, we knew we were in for something special 👗🧥
    So we’re not really known for our regular attendance at Fashion Week so it took all out strength to avoid laughing as the poor models tried their very best to look professional and interested.

    After that, we did get to make up for our earlier shopping faux pas at the Grand Bazaar though with Ind picking up a lovely necklace for a steal with her well honed negotiating skills.

    By this time, Kylie’s ankle had hit its 10,000 step limit for the day so it was time to head home for a rest before heading out for one last dinner in Istanbul.

    Another great city visited and loved by the Curran’s ✅    Read more

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    Gallipoli

    August 8, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    We went to a lot of the key sites from the Gallipoli campaigns in WW1 today.
    After a 6am start and 5hr drive, it was a very long day but well worth it!
    We saw the first landing area, ANZAC cove, Lone Pine, The Nek, and Çaunak Bair.
    It was very interesting and eye opening after so many years of knowing the story through ANZAC Day celebrations and school.
    We saw Cape Helles, the place where the girls’ great great grandfather, James Edward Cassidy, landed in Gallipoli during WW1 and where he was injured. Our guide told us stories of the British ships coming down the Dardanelles and being attacked by sea mines.
    Ariah got to go into the actual trenches that the diggers built and we heard stories about the jokes and mateship between the Aussies and Turks on the frontline.    Read more

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    Sneaky horses and warrior tantrums

    August 9, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    Today we went to visit the (maybe!!) ancient city of Troy - yep, that one from the Homeric poems. The one where big tough warrior kings/princes steal each others girlfriends and thrown tantrums starting wars, pouting in their tents, and having their honours besmirched for 9 or so years whilst sending 1000’s of people to their death…standard standard ancient civilisation stuff…

    It was much more of an interesting site that I think any of us predicted.
    Our guide had actually been a member of the dig team that worked in there in the 90’s and was able to tell us quite about about the 9 (and maybe more) different cities that had been on the site over the last 3,500+ years.    Read more

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    Homeschooling and Laundry

    August 10, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We’ve been chilling in Fethiye for a few days catching up on some homeschooling and laundry. We’ve just jumped on a tour with a bunch of other lovely families. The kids are loving having someone other than Mum and Dad to talk to!Read more

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    Ghost town and gozleme

    August 13, 2023 in Turkey

    Today we took a trip out to Karakoy which was a little village on a hillside that has been left abandoned since the population swap between Greece and Türkiye in 1923.
    New houses and shops have sprung up around the town but no Turks ever moved in (some say because it’s haunted) 👻
    After we had a look around the town, we went to one of the restaurants and watch fresh gozleme being made. Ariah even jumped in and help make hers!!
    By the time we finished it was very hot so we went off to Ölüdeniz beach to cool off for the afternoon and watch the never ending stream of parasailers jumping from the cliffs next to the beach.
    First chance the teenagers (plus a 10 year old 😜) had they took off out to the marker rope in the water to get away from the stinky adults and start making new friends.    Read more

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    Gorge-ous day

    August 15, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    Another great day on tour. After a quick trip to the Fethiye markets to stock up on fresh fruit and slushies, we went for a hike in the Saklıkent gorge.

    The kids (and one brave adult) jumped on the whitewater rafting ride after walking the gorge.
    No wipeouts, and perhaps a more tame ride than expected in the end, but smiles all round after.

    Loving #türkiye 🇹🇷    Read more

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    Sights and songs

    August 16, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today we went to Patara, an ancient city. We went into the theatre and odeon (gov building) that had been well refurbished. We also saw an old boat. It was really hot but after the city we went to beach. It had waves! We hadn’t been to a beach with big waves like in Australia for ages, it was very fun. We were on a tour with a few families from England and we tried to watch the Matilda’s semi final game against England but the internet wasn’t great. Before dinner we went to another ancient theatre, this time to have drinks and watch the sunset. The began kids made pictures with pistachio shells and ended up making a banger about our pistachio person. Really fun day 👍Read more

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    #boatlife in Kas

    August 17, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Relaxing day on the boat today. We cove-hopped and snorkeled all day - when we weren’t sleeping in the sun of course. The people on the boat cooked us an amazing meal for lunch and we capped the day of with another great meal - with fun and eccentric restaurateur - before walking Kas until we weee just too tired to go on.Read more

  • World tour
    Yep...more rocks!
    The gangChecking out some pics from her mate ApolloLast pool swim 💦💦Hummum-mah, she said hummum-mah!Dodgy backseat brats 😝

    Farewell to new friends

    August 18, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Sometimes we think it’s easy to forget how important this part of the world has been to world history. However, there are remains - both physical and cultural - of so many civilisations throughout the last 3000 or so years here that really remind you though. Today we saw both a temple complex to Leto (Apollo’s mum) and an ancient capital city the Brutus (yep, that one) besieged and sacked once.
    The ruins might not be as big in some cases, and many need more work still, but they are still a wonder to see.

    However, that aside, today was our last full day on our Teenager Tour in this part of Türkiye. So we left the rocks and headed back for one last dip in the pool.
    Kylie stepped up and took on Tour Leader for the afternoon to and made arrangements for most of the group to head to a local hammam. Whilst not quite as flash as the one in Istanbul it was certainly and experience to remember - especially after they made it clear the last, despite being a mixed session, Dale wasn’t to wear swimmers when being washed!! 😳😳🫣😱

    In the end though, everyone had a great time and felt super clean and refreshed before heading to our farewell dinner…90 mins late 😳😝

    We’ve had a great time with the other families.
    Kas (said like cash) was very nice and Fethiye has some great beaches around it and a cool little old town.

    We are hoping our next family tour in Vietnam is as fun as this one (even though we are not sure if there’ll been teens on there just yet).    Read more

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    Down a Big Hole 🕳️

    August 20, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We’re taking the long way to Cappadocia via Istanbul today so we can tick off a few sights we missed first time around!

    Unfortunately a 3 hour delay on our flight meant we could only fit in one this time around. We took it much more casually than the locals 😳

    We made it in time to squeeze in Justinian’s Basilica Cistern though - tick to another Byzantine monument for Dale 🤓.
    It was much bigger than any of us expected and actually quite beautiful especially with the lighting and art installations in there.

    That done, we needed a coffee at a very cute, little, colourful cafe up the road before heading back to catch our transfer flight.

    Oh….and just in case we ever forget…here’s a memory that was burned into our brains at the airport:
    🎵🎶
    “I wonder how
    I wonder why
    Yesterday, you told me 'bout the blue, blue sky
    And all that I can see
    Is just a yellow lemon tree
    I'm turnin' my head
    Up and down
    I'm turnin', turnin', turnin', turnin', turnin' around
    And all that I can see
    Is iust another lemon tree”
    🎶🎵🤦‍♂️    Read more

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    Balloons and bikies

    August 22, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Today we did two really fun things. We woke up 5:00 am to go on a hot air balloon to see the sun rise, it was so beautiful. We were on the balloon for an hour. When we landed we had some a free “champagne”, so I got to have some. It tasted like creaming soda. We got participation certificates for going on the balloon ride. We got on a mini bus back to the and we rested. I got finely call Ava!

     We went to get döners for lunch. We went to the park to eat and play. When we got back to the hotel we went to get ready for a ATV sunset tour. It was so fun. I got to drive 🛞 for a bit of it. After looking at the sunset we went home for dinner.

    Mum and dad had a wine tasting and I had a really yummy hot chocolate and just an appetiser for dinner. When got home I fell straight asleep.    Read more

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    Kylie and Dale go exploring

    August 23, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today the girls needed some time for school work and really, parents just get in the way 😜😜

    So we decided we’d go explore the underground cities of Cappadocia.

    We grabbed a dolmas and were headed for Kaymakli but after missing that stop and talking to a local on the buses we “decided” to take her advice to go to Derinjuyu. And that turned out to be great advice.

    Derinkuyu is the biggest underground city in Türkiye. It is 6 levels and had sleeping quarters, animal pens, and churches, not to mention a hospital, school, “air conditioning”, “refrigeration”, and - crucially - wine presses and storage areas!

    However, whilst narrow, low ceiling corridors and uncomfortably spaced steps might have been a great defence in the ancient world, they do wear thin on us modern types so it was a bit of a relief to finish up and head for some gözleme before heading back to mark some school work 😜😜    Read more

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    Touring Goreme

    August 24, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We did a bus tour of Goreme today. We visited a park where the various people to inhabit the area over the millennia had dug out and used the “fairy chimneys” for houses and sometimes as a monastery complex for early Christian monks.
    We even got to see where St Simon, he apparently of “Simon says” fame, fasted and prayed when he lived there. Communities even lived in one of the other areas we visited right up until mid last century and one of the sites was so big it was a castle.
    Ariah got to try he hand at pottery and, with only a little guidance from one of the Master’s, she turned out a sugar bowl. The locals were pretty sure she had raw talent and that with a little practice she could be a master one day too!    Read more

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    Istanbul - Take 3

    August 25, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    It took three goes but today we finally ticked off the majority of the “big sights” in Istanbul with a visit to the Topkapi Palace.
    Home to the Ottoman rulers for around 400 years, it was amazing to the beautiful palace buildings and grounds, the harem quarters, and some amazing pieces of treasure and religious relics. Moses staff, a piece of St John the Baptist’s skull and his forearm arm, and the sword of King David were memorable for sure.
    Dale and India thought is was pretty cool to see the actual clothes worn by Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople.
    It was very hot though and it was a long day, so we were pretty tired as we caught the train(s) back to the airport and said good bye to Istanbul for the last time…this trip at least 😜    Read more

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    Road trip to Ephesus

    August 27, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We hired a car and headed out of Bodrum to the ancient city of Ephesus today. It was amazing how much of the old city has been uncovered and restored and equally amazing how much there was still to be found or restored.
    A very important city across empires through history until it was abandoned, there was lots to see - including ancient toilets!!
    We were glad that we headed there early though as the heat was brutal when it came through and the crowds just kept increasing as we looked around.
    As we headed off from Ephesus we got to stop and add our second Wonder of the Ancient World to our list for the trip when we stopped in at the ruins of the Temple of Artemis 🏛️✅
    Then it was off to check out where St Mary lived and died just up in the hills from the ancient city. It was a lovely little old chapel looked after by Fransician monks.
    Then it was time for Dale and Kylie’s fav part of any tour - a visit to a winery! The wine in that area was actually really good (at least to our, if not refined, well-practiced palettes).
    Another good day spent, but we definitely have the impression there’s only so much more old stuff the girls are willing to go see 😜😜    Read more

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    Beach days Bodrum

    August 29, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Today I went to the beach. The water was really nice. We went out to the rope and Dad spiked his bottom on the barnacles on the bottom of the floaty thing. Once we went back we saw a swing in the water. It didn’t swing very well because it was in the water but it was still fun. After we got back we laid down on the sun beds which weren’t in the sun. It wasn’t that relaxing because the music was blasting right next to us. We got some drinks. I got a virgin mojito. It was really good. It tasted like mint lemonade. After our drink we packed up and went shopping. I bought a dream catcher. Then we went back to the hotel and jumped into the pool. Then we had a shower and we went to dinner. After dinner we watched a couple of episodes of friends and the we went straight to sleep. It was a good day. By Ariah

    ⛱️Bodrum⛱️Blue skies☀️Blue seas. An insane number of beach clubs complete with on-beach jacuzzis, gogo dancers, hookah smoking and oiled men. It was intense but managed to chill for a few days before the next leg of our journey. By mum.    Read more

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    Thanks Türkiye, its been real

    August 30, 2023 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We’ve spent the days since our trip to Ephesus just chilling by the pool, having our ears blasted with Turkish EDM at the beach, and catching up on homework.

    We managed to sneak in a third Wonder of the World with the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus ✅🏛️ and a little shopping along the way as well.

    Turns out today is actually Victory Day for the Turkish people with a national holiday, tons of Turkish flags everywhere, and possibly celebrations in town (the tourism staff at the mausoleum weren’t sure… 😳). Lucky we had figured that out else we would have been even more surprised by the show that was put on at the hotel that night!

    Türkiye has been great. So much to see and really lovely people. Such a big country though - we really only seen a tiny bit despite the month here!

    Off to Dubai for tomorrow - time to practice saying hello and thank you on another language again!!    Read more

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    Dubai from on high

    September 1, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    Burj Khalifa - Tallest building in the world!!! Woohoo!!!

    At over 828 metres (2,716.5 feet) and more than 160 stories, Burj Khalifa holds the following records:

    Tallest building in the world
    Tallest free-standing structure in the world
    Highest number of stories in the world
    Highest occupied floor in the world
    Highest outdoor observation deck in the world
    Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world
    Tallest service elevator in the world    Read more

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    Best Dad’s Day

    September 3, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    It’s Father’s Day!! We treated dad to a nice breaky of pancakes, yum! I (India) went to get a coffee for dad from Starbucks, but I didn’t have data so it was a bit of an adventure to find it. I got back with the coffees to find mum and dad had been trying to contact me but when I could respond they decided to go get coffees themselves instead (assuming I’d find my way back eventually). So dad got coffee x2 for Father’s Day (how lucky!) Later we checked into our fancy hotel! There was complimentary lollies and bath salts and fancy bamboo complimentary toothbrushes (ooh ahh). We got to go to Wild Wadi Water Park, Home to the longest waterslide in the world! That was our first stop, we went on all the other super fun slides too. Ariah, dad and I even went on the drop (floor disappears) slide - very exciting. Mum’s fave slide was the lazy river. We got back to the hotel in time for sunset in the infinity pool. On the way back to the room we stopped for Happy Hour cocktails, at a restaurant we returned to after showers. We had Mexican for dinner, the food was a little spicy but I guess that was the only way they’d get you to buy their $20 water!!!! We finished the night with a boat ride around the resort seeing all the other shops, hotels and restaurants, a lovely end to the day. After returning to our room we discovered a turn down service had been by and we got FREE CHOCOLATES before bed.

    By India    Read more

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    Quick stop in Oman

    September 4, 2023 in Oman ⋅ 🌙 31 °C

    Who would have thought this morning that we’d end up in Oman. Oman airways has the best food we’ve ever had on an airline. Delicious pasta, good French red wine, chocolate coffee mousse.

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    Took a bit, but we got here

    September 5, 2023 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    It all started with a combination of realising in Dubai that Kylie’s passport had a small tear in the corner and the slow processing of our Vietnamese Visa requests.
    The only advice we could get was that we needed to head to the airport to see if the airline would take us but even then, we could have been sent back once in Vietnam.

    So, one torn passport,
    Four late Visa’s,
    Two day public holiday in Vietnam (so no consulate to talk to),
    An agenda change,
    One wrong button clicked on a webpage (don’t ask 😳), and
    Two stop overs later, we made it…eventually!

    It took some deft manoeuvring by Kylie on Booking.com and Gmail but we did manage to get around all this and make it to Cambodia.

    Yep, Cambodia not Vietnam…ya gotta role with the punches on the big jobs 😅🤣

    It did give us a great excuse to go back to the flash resort in Dubai to get more freebies while we waited for our replacement flight though 😝
    Dale was happy because he got to check out the gym there too 🙄

    What it did mean is that 14hrs later there were 4 very weary travellers that were great full for the really lovely hotel we walked into in Phnom Pehn.
    So we rested up that day and headed out at night for a look around and a bite to eat at little local noodle joint.
    After months of meat inspired Greek/Turkish food, it was good to be trying curries, rice, spring rolls, and noodles for change 😋🍜🍛
    …and of course $2 beers!    Read more

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    Cambodian Killing Fields

    September 6, 2023 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Today we visited the killing fields and genocide museum from the Khmer Rouge regime. India is meant to do a topic on it next term so, although it was a heavy topic, it was interesting to see. We first visited the camps where the people were killed, we saw the excavations from mass graves and the displayed skulls of the victims. Next we went to the museum, previously the place where prisoners were kept whilst a confession was forced from them. The images of the victim were displayed throughout the buildings, it was sad to see. We met a survivor from a camp (not the one we visited though) and bought a biography from him for India to share with her class. We returned to the hotel and had churros to end the night on a more positive note. It was an educational day.Read more

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