Nearly, not quite

Hair Loss

I am officially mourning the loss of my hair. I have lost my "traveler growth" and are back to manageable office-like hair. Tragedy. As my friend Lucy says "Lucky you've got a good head", and I can pull this off. Ahhhhhh. I miss you hair...

When Ginger became cool

Shaun White: Saving the cred of Ginger's, one Olympic Gold Medal at a time.

The definition of Cool.

In his home-made hat and plastic bag backpack, "Su" was the epitome of cool.



We assumed he was a crazy Asian guy, until he handed over his business card. We nearly rolled around in the snow after finding out he was a Professor of Technology at a University in Taiwan. Never judge a book by it's cover my friends!

My Future: Wicked Witch and the Stussy S

Ok, so I just had my coffee cup "read". The Turks are mad for this kind of gear. Had it done once before with eerily true results. Here's what was available to be interpreted:



Now in a birthday-wish kind of way, I'm not allowed to tell you what was seen because CLEARLY this will change the outcome of predicted events...hmmm...

ANYWAY. My own interpretation is as follows:

The most significance rests with the prominence of the "Stussy S". You know the one. Draw six lines, get an S. All the cool kids were doing it in school.



This clearly indicates the very near prospect of a job in the design industry, specifically in the area of Branding.

Secondly is the whopping big letter "C". Obviously and conveniently the first letter of the name of my romantic love interest.

Finally, there is the faint but recognisable image of a witch (to the right of the C).



This is not unlike the witch from the famed "Wizard of Oz". The presence of such a symbol clearly indicates the likelihood of an up and coming performance in a musical.

Do you see it?!

A long time between roads.

The Camino June 2009

Cave Men: 2010

This is just the strangest thing.



Our travels have landed us in the obscure town of Göreme (pronounced gerr-reh-meh) in the Cappodocian region of Turkey. Hectic!!

I'm talking cave people, cave houses, cave churches, cave shops. All kinds of oddness.





Literally a town built completely out of excavation. There would have been no shortage of blisters during 200AD...I'm told it was all done with picks the size of modern day hammers...

"The Devil is Wearing Brands": Why Turkey will never be my home

Translated from Turkish, Şeytan Marka Giyer reads as "The Devil is Wearing Brands". Not Prada. Just Brands. All Brands.



As a Brand Strategist, this is more frightening than a Turkish Carpet salesman down a dark alley. Brands = Devil. And if you know any Turkish people, you'd realise that the devil is the worst of the worst. Of the worst.

There is no brand power here. Whatsoever. NOTHING matters except price. You look after me, I look after you, you give me good price, you drink my tea, I don't put a curse on you and call your daughter a sl*t.

It's pretty much what it comes down to. Price and personal reputation. Brands have no business in Turkey and neither do I.

Ruined. Part 1.

All kinds of historical gradual demolition were happening this day. It is concerning me that I am contributing to the slow decay of such historical sights...



Smack bang in the middle of Turkey you'll find the craziness of Pamukkale. In 200BC, Hierapolis (an ancient Greek city) was founded at Pamukkale, primarily because of the thermal baths.

Having so far avoided the whole Greek/Roman era tourist attractions, I'll admit that this was rather cool. Although I was quite convinced someone had played a cruel archaeological joke by simply placing the rocks there to look like ruins...

Ruined. Part 2.

Ok, so just over the way from the Ruining Greek Ruins we have the Calcified mountain edge of Pamukkale. Really a magnificent sight.









Once again, I was HELPING TO DESTROY IT!! This area is famous for being WRECKED by tourists (these pools heat up to 40 degrees) and still they let us literally WALK ALL OVER IT!



Seriously! There is no other way off the side of this mountain! You HAVE to walk all over it. Centuries of beautiful calcified pools being tourist-ly destroyed. There was nothing left to do but join them.

"Off" in context.

Flipping through a Turkish-English dictionary, a certain word with a certain context caught my eye.



All shades of "not right".

"You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country"

ANZAC COVE: January 2010.



I wrote a poem about the ANZAC's once. I had to read it in front of the whole school on ANZAC day. The only part I can remember was rhyming 1915 with young but extremely keen.

I honestly had no idea just how young.



As an Australian I knew that this ground was sacred, important and a place of learning. As opposed to the sickness I felt during my Concentration Camp tour of Europe, this trip to ANZAC Cove hit me quite unexpectedly.

These were my people.



The carnage and the sheer proximity of enemy battles was almost unimaginable. Trench distances were sometimes only eight metres apart. No wonder bullets were hitting bullets.





Something I didn't expect was to truly understand the meaning of "Rest In Peace".



There is a magnificent tribute to the ANZAC's which was said by Ataturk, which gives the area such peace. The very fact that two countries can gracefully accept that the battle is long over, restores my faith in humanity.

And what a peaceful place to finally lay.

Minus Three.

Operation "Escape to Istanbul" didn't exactly go according to plan.



The major CLIMATE oversight came as a rude shock to us both. Never and I mean NEVER IN THIS LIFETIME have I ever been so mind/bone/body/soul chillingly cold.

I'm talking: Singlet, long-sleeve thermal, long-sleeve thermal, woolen jumper, cotton jumper, SKI JACKET and STILL FREEZING!



You know those people who say "I'd much rather be cold because I can always put on layers"? I can guarantee that those narcissistic bastards would be stacking on thermal underwear and dreaming of the Caribbean in this weather. No fun at all.

I now understand the notion of "head south for the winter".

TROY horse - Not BrAD.

Istanbul smells like...

One Giant Kebab.

I miss you.

Besides the obvious "friends, family, pets and home cooked meals" I have found myself in a state of recent longing for my home country.

This probably has something to do with the fact I haven't been able to leave this Turkish hostel room for two days thanks to a certain dodgy kebab. No Vegemite on toast, no flat lemonade and no chocolate paddle pop's to cure me. INSTEAD these crazy Turkish women have been trying to force yogurt down my throat. I mean really??!! When did DAIRY become a good remedy for throwing up?!! Make me a tuna milkshake while you're at it.

I'll press on.

I miss:

Australian Milo.
Susan Kennedy.
NRL/AFL Tribunal reports.
Fairy Bread.
Cadbury.
Pittwater Road.
Tim Freedman.
Swanston Street.
Warringah Mall.
The heater in winter at the entrance of Myer, Bourke St.
Dodgy Chinese Food.
Fifi Box.
Havaianas.
Reports on Bec & Lleyton.
Two Dollar coins.
The RMIT building.
Fitness First.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
NZ Savignon Blanc.
Skin Cancer Clinic's.
Woolies.
The sound of an Aussie pedestrian crossing button.
Boost Juice.
Pauline Hanson impersonations.
Waves.
Paddle Pops/Golden Gaytime's.
Dick Smith Peanut Butter.
Thunderstorms.
E-Tag.
Bondi Burger's at Opporto.
Gigantic Roadkill.
60km/h signs.
Glad Wrap.
Iced Vo-Vo's/Mint Slice's.
Hotted-up ute's.



And women who look for certain that their name will be Sharon.

Lesson: Check weather report

The Birthday Knife.

Ok, I may be sharing a boat with a bunch of internationals here, but EVERYONE knows about the Birthday Knife, right?



You know - the one where you go to a Birthday Party and the mum puts aluminium foil around the handle of the cake-cutting knife to make it all "special". Everyone does that right?!!!

Apparently not.

Apparently only North Shore Sydney mum's do these kind of things for their kids. I was nearly laughed off the boat I tells ya.

A bit too Cool.

Snowboarding is cool, right?



You get to wear cool brands, do wicked "toe-side" tricks and generally look awesome going down the slopes.

Not in Europe.

If i had a dollar for every grin of satisfaction I had from passing French Skiers as I had to sit on the snow and do up my bindings, I could BUY the damn resort. For every snowboarder I'd say there were 300 skiers. We just didn't exist.

It seems the barometer of cool has literally surpassed the European slopes.



And look, after four days of sitting on my backside and bearing the lengthy chairlifts, I think I've changed. BRANDARA is DEFINITELY a skier from now on.

Who? Me?

The word ANONYMOUS for me falls roughly in the same basket as MISCELLANEOUS - both a real bitch to spell correctly.

Now, I love nothing better than the guts of an anonymous comment. It's the internet people! No one is going to come-a-knocking at your doghouse door for owning up to an opinion!

Now don't get me wrong, I've certainly caused my fair share of uproar in message boards in my younger days (there was a Michael Franti incident where I went on his fansite and said something along the lines of "this dude thinks he's Jesus or something" which caused INSTANT responses. I then decided to make up another profile to "agree" with my original statement, only to find that the administrator had tracked my IP and posted for everyone to see that these two anonymous people are in fact, the same person) firmly standing for what I believe in but firmly refusing to identify myself...but you know, that's not for here.

Thankyou Anonymous!!

I want to run through the halls of my high school

So I had a thought today. It was the "oh hell I've been out of school for ten years" crisis. Having "un-friended" anyone who was even remotely connected to the suburb I went to school in, I have successfully managed to stay out of the stalking/invite loop.

Conveniently, being out of the country gives me a viable and mysterious reason for being M.I.A. I plan to send some random, strategic emails just prior to the event so at least some conversation can be had.

After all, I was the School Captain.

Conversations may include:

"Dara?! Yeah I heard she was in Slovakia, hiking through mountain ranges to reach those communities who still hadn't converted to the Euro yet"

or

"Dara? Didn't you see her on Oprah?"

Suggestions welcome.

Like Tom Cruise on a talk show couch

Let me just say here, that I feel f**king fabulous right now. I am on the Day 9 Detox High, otherwise known as "the complete unachievable long terms state for your body so enjoy this amazing feeling while it lasts" state.

No really, I feel like a superior human.

I am cleansed, I am enjoying the taste of brown rice and have embraced the dullness that is Daily Porridge.

I look at the plates of my fellow crew members and think, "Fools! Pass on my regards to your intestines who are about to digest that animal fat and, starch and refined sugar! I'll have the soup!".

It can't last though, surely. I've been having chocolate dreams all week.

The vDara!

Look at this! A hotel with my name on it!



Nothing but Las Vagas, of course...

It could only be mum...

I logged onto ninemsn today to find this image:

I better ring mum! I thought, I wonder if she knows about this?!...Of course, upon further inspection it turns out that the article was actually all about her. Of course...

Detox to Retox.

It had to happen. I'm back on the detox bandwagon.



Turns out that endless supplies of whatever food Iwant, courtesy of the boat, has resulted in somewhat of a chocolate gut.

Currently on Day Two. This feeling is quite familiar. We are eating for nutrition only. Food is no fun anymore. Looking forward to Day Three which usually ends in tears and a mild tantrum, only needing a Freddo Frog to make it all go away...