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Istanbul Dance Festival
The dance festival As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m going to Istanbul to attend the 10th annual Istanbul Dance Festival. It’s billed as the biggest afro-latin dance festival in the world! Salsa – Bachata – Kizomba and many related dance styles, 4000 dancers from all over the world attending, shows every night with the professionals performing, workshops led by the pros for all levels of dancers, vendors selling dance shoes and outfits. It’s a lot! Getting to the festival The dance festival is at the Pullman, a huge convention hotel located close to the Ataturk airport – which is now closed to international flights. (It was partially destroyed…
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What I needed to travel to Turkey
First let’s go with the boring but necessary stuff. To travel to Turkey, you must follow the rules of the Turkish government. To come home, you must follow the rules of the Canadian government. Do a little research before your trip to make sure you don’t have any issues. What you need to get to Turkey – or any country Turkey’s entry requirements must be followed. For other countries I have travelled to I have found the official government website with entry requirements. I cannot find such a thing for Turkey! However there are two good sources to follow – the Canadian government website https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/turkey, and the national airline Turkish…
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I’m going to Istanbul
I’m going to Istanbul soon! It’s one of the largest cities in the world, around 15 million people. It’s unique in that it straddles two continents, Europe and Asia. You can see highlights including the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar. Turkey is amazing I did a tour of some major sites in Turkey back in 2005. There are unique natural and historical attractions, and you can throw in some adventure – Cappadocia and Pamukkale Ephesus and Troy Turquoise Coast, the best paragliding in the world are just a few of the reasons to visit Turkey. Turkey has a feel of the Middle East. It has a westernized…
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Whale watching tour in Banderas Bay
On whale watching day, I got an early morning taxi to the main marina of Puerto Vallarta. It’s the same marina where cruise ships dock, along with many different private cruise operators with lots of tour options. I went with Beach Boys https://www.facebook.com/crucerosbeachboy, for 1000 pesos ($63) plus a 29 peso ($2) marina fee once I got there. I booked with my hotel front desk guy, who said all the tours were the same price, but I saw more expensive ones advertised. On board the catamaran were staff to feed us breakfast and drinks, the captain of course, and a marine biologist. Whales were tracked down right away, and we…
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Puerto Vallarta
I arrived! After unorganized lineups to get out of customs, there is a huge area inside the airport lined with time share salespeople. I was curious to know what they would offer, but I ran the gauntlet with my head down and came out untouched. At the airport exit, I made a hard left, taking me over a pedestrian bridge to the other side of the road. Here I knew I would be able to get a taxi or uber for about half the price you would pay for the taxis lined up outside the airport. I ended up in a taxi for 200 pesos to my downtown hotel ($13),…
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Flight to Puerto Vallarta
Flight day My flight day came and no cancellation! (Earlier this winter, flights had been cancelled or combined often). I set off for the airport 2 hours ahead, and had plenty of time. There was a very long line of people checking in, which I was able to skip since I didn’t have a bag to check, so I thought there would be a full plane. But I would say it was only about a third full! Why aren’t more people travelling? The last Canadian government advisory to avoid international travel was put into place last fall, to stop the spread of the omicron variant. That obviously did not work.…
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Mexico and covid January 2022
Why travel now? Well, here were are in a 5th wave of covid. The omicron variant is rampant, weather has been brutally cold, and Regina feels like it’s in lockdown. The government of Canada officially advises to avoid non-essential travel internationally. This was done due to the risk of the omicron variant entering the country. Well, that didn’t work, so I take that advisory with a grain of salt. We are not in any lockdown though, unlike all the other provinces right now. There are some serious restrictions across Canada in place, but they are not stopping omicron anyway, so in Saskatchewan are trying the opposite. We are only watching…
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Around Venice
Murano and Burano The next day we used the vaporetto (water bus, 20 euros for 24 hours) to go outside Venice’s historic center and go to the island of Murano. Murano is famous for glass blowing, a centuries old art form with artisans molding glass heated in furnaces. I carried on by vaporetto to the island of Burano, famous for its lace-making and its colorful buildings. Back in Venice The vaporetto took me back to San Marco square. Back in Venice’s center, I found a nice outdoor restaurant in a square, and had a seafood appetizer with white wine and impeccable service. Others in the group had asked me to…
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Venice
Getting to Venice From Como we took the train back to Milan. Even the dogs were fashionable there. We then took a fast train from Milan to Venice or Venezia in Italian. The fast trains here reach up to 300 km/hr. Covid testing Our train’s arrival time was 2:15 and it was a couple of minutes late. I needed to get a covid test at a walk-in clinic that was a 15 minute walk from the train station. That wouldn’t be a big deal but the clinic closed at 3:00. I would be out of luck If there was a lineup and I would have to make my way to…
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Lake Como
Milan From La Spezia, we went on by train to Milan. While on board, a pair of Polizia boarded twice, asking for passports. I was sitting with my travel friend Kiran, a young Indian/Canadian guy. The Polizia seemed to be targeting a guy sitting across from us, maybe they thought he was an illegal immigrant? To make it not look like they were picking on him, they also picked on us to do passport checks. They seemed shocked that we were travelling together so we may have been added to their list. Kiran thought we should have told them he was my sugar baby to see what they thought about…