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How It All Began The Seduction Out of the blue, one Friday afternoon after work, Anne suggested we go out to dinner. To Stella Blu along Dee Why Beach. This is a nice restaurant with the most fantastic food. But I was immediately suspicious. I know Anne. She wanted something. We don't normally go out to dinner any night of the week, unless it's a special occasion, or unless something bad has happened and she needs to break the news to me, or unless she wants something. I like this approach as I get a nice meal out of it. Usually the venue is the Black Stump restaurant around the corner, but when it's Stella Blu, I knew there was a big ask coming up. I had the lamb and spinach again, which I absolutely loved. And then Anne sprang the big question on me. Can we go to Turkey? I played it for all it was worth. Anne even roped in the waitress to try and persuade me. Even when she first asked me, in my mind I said Yes, exultantly. But what's the point in giving in so easily? I played the scene out to the bitter end, with dessert and coffee, and Anne paying the bill. And then I said yes. This was going to be my second trip out of Australia. I had gone to Korea in 1989 for work, with a stopover in Singapore, and that was the extent of my travels. A trip to Turkey was a brilliant idea. I already knew a bit about Turkey, and what I wanted to see there. Anne had a photocopy of the itinerary for this trip, and when I read it, it was as if the organiser had read my mind. All the old names that I had read about were on the list. Istanbul, Cappadocia, Konya, Pamukkale, Kusadasi, Ephesus. And best of all, Troy. This looked to be a great tour. It was being organised by Jenny Lawless, President of the History Teachers Association of NSW. It was a tour for lovers of ancient history, by lovers of ancient history. The itinerary was superb. I said yes, and we were going to Turkey. The Pre-Trip Meeting A month before we left, Jenny Lawless organised a get-together so we could meet each other and get final information. So 17 strangers met in a hall in a Leichardt school. Not all of us were there. Lindy and Esther don't live in the Sydney region, so they didn't attend. Jenny and Sedat were there, Jenny as lively as ever, and Sedat very shy. We already knew Elizabeth and Erika, but the rest were strangers. My memory plays funny tricks on me when I think back to that meeting. Most of the people at the meeting were strangers and remained strangers. My memory says that they even looked different to the familiar and friendly people who completed the tour with us. It doesn't take long for a group of people to change from strangers to friends. I used to wonder about Anne's attachments to friends she had met while travelling, but having done it myself now, I can understand it. At the meeting, we discussed where we would be going, and what we would see, and what we needed to take and what we should wear. A lot of what was suggested we take, Anne and I forgot. We forgot the clothesline and the plug and photocopies of the wedding certificate and passports. I heard what they were saying about light, easily washed clothing, but it didn't sink in. I ended up taking half suitable and half unsuitable clothes. By the time the trip was over, I knew more than I wanted to know about hand-washing clothes. The last time I had to hand-wash clothes was when I turned 17, and had my birthday in a small village on the coast of Papua New Guinea, and I washed my clothes in the nearby stream. 25 years had dimmed the memory. Frank certainly took on board what Jenny said about wearing T-shirts. He wore nothing but T-shirts the whole trip. And not just any old T-shirts, but stylish ones with exciting designs, all Australian. Aboriginal motifs, cultural events, anything Australian appeared on Frank's shirts. I would never have believed that sartorial elegance could have been achieved with just T-shirts, but Frank did it. The blue Akubra helped too. To whet our appetites, Jenny and Sedat had laid on some Turkish food for us. Breads, dips, olives and pickles, and Turkish pizza. For some reason, most of the people at the meeting weren't eating. Such a shame. So not wishing to let Jenny and Sedat down by letting the food go to waste, I valiantly tried to eat everything. I didn't manage it, but I certainly had a good go at it. At the end of the evening, there was pizza and bread left over, and it didn't take much pursuading for us to take some of it home. Yum. We ate Turkish for the whole weekend. Final Preparations The last few weeks went very quickly. We didn't buy much to take away with us. We didn't get backpacks because we couldn't find any new ones better than the ones we already had. And all the new travel gadgetry didn't seem appropriate to a comfortable trip through Turkey, staying at nice hotels all the way. The only thing that I really splurged on was the Lonely Planet Guide to Turkey, which proved absolutely invaluable, some maps, and two language books.