 We are with Zio Flavio in front of his home. ___We have arrived in Slovenia to my great-Uncle's house near Koper. Uncle Flavio and his girlfriend, Mary, set us up in a spare bedroom which was heavenly and far better than the sleeper-cars we'd slept in for the last two days while traveling all the way from Turkey (with a pit stop in Bulgaria) by train. The only problem with staying there was that they didn't speak english, only slovenska (the language belonging to Slovenia) and italian... So Mom and Dad could communicate by italian, but Birch and I were left stranded, waiting for translations. That was the only downside to our stay, and the rest was very enjoyable. We liked to take short walks through . . .
 _Well, it's the first day on continental Europe and Mom got pick-pocketed. We really have let our guard down, thinking we were safe in Europe. But every place has it's ups and downs, even home-sweet-home. In India and Africa, we were always on the look out, and I guess Mom's small, loose purse was just too tempting. Mom's perscription sunglasses were stolen along with her wallet - the thing is, both were useless to the person who took them. First of all, Mom's sunglasses have special lenses for people who need glasses. Odds are, whoever stole them doesn't. And the wallet didn't have any money, only personal stuff like post addresses and e-mailing IDs, plus a bunch of brochours and buisness cards. Besides that, Sofia is . . .
 Cappadocia! Wow! Sabia, a volunteer in Uganda, had told us to go specifically to Cappadocia, where the 'fairy chimneys' are. Cappadocia is another ancient town, this time not with ruins, but with caves, carved into volcanic rock! The towers are all tall, some with hats on top of them, which are the ideal chimneys. This time a guy named Effe was our guide. Not only were there dwellings above ground, but our first stop was . . .
 Wow! I'd seen the Pamukkale calcium pools and geo thermals in pictures, but - Wow! We had Gul as our tour guide again, and she showed us some other Greek ruins, like one of Apollo's temples. Gul told us how a hole in the ground released a toxic gas if you got too close you'd get intoxicated. The oracles used to do that for only a few seconds, and they pretty much got so high they lost consciousness and then told a prophecy. Interesting. Mom, Birch and I went. . .
 Ephesus! At last, Ephesus! Ephesus, glorious Ephesus! Glorious Greek ruins, glorious underground city. The remains of the Greek Empire, who once ruled over Turkey!
Our tour bus pulled up in the parking lot. Boy, did I feel like a full-on tourist! Our guide, Gul (pronounced Gool) already had our tickets. We went through, and she started telling stories about the Greek Gods and Goddesses. Thanks to the Percy Jackson series (by Rick Riordan), I knew most of their names!
The ruins were gorgeous, and Gul explained how the archeologists had to dig down, trusting only a few columns sticking out of the ground! 250,000 people lived there! Wow! They knew the size of the population because. . .
 In front of the Blue Mosque at night wearing warm jackets that Sibel had generously given to us During our stay in Istanbul we visited the Topkapi Palace and The Blue Mosque. Also, in my Uganda blogs, I forgot to mention going to the Kadafi Mosque and Baha'i Temple.
Blue Mosque:
The Blue Mosque is beautiful, especially the outside, in my opinion. It has three blue domes on two sides of the big top one, and none on the other sides. It has a courtyard and six towers, which is considered an insult to Islam, because that makes it more important than Mecca.
The inside is nicely hand-painted with tiny floral designs and has good arches (Dad's noticing arches all over now). The floor is carpeted with soft red carpets and there were many tourists milling around.
In a way it reminded m of a zoo. A rope . . .
 The famous Blue Mosque We arrived in Turkey! It was pretty much the opposite of the picture I'd seen on a guide book... The picture had blue sparkling water, a sailboat, and a rocky cliff. Other than that image, I had no expectations. When the pick-up guy drove us to our hotel from the airport, it reminded me of arriving in Ontario for summer vacation, and either being picked up by my Auntie Margo or getting a taxi to drive us to my Nono and Nona's house. Those nights had always been dark and stormy, yet everyone was happy on our arrival.
That's what the night was like; dark, windy, rainy, but not what . . .
 _We went on a game drive! A game drive is a safari for only half a day.
We woke up at six and caught the 7:00am ferry, which is a mini platform that carries eight cars. We had hired a guide and a safari vehicle for the trip since it is better to have a guide. Our guide's name was Emma, don't laugh . . . it is a popular name in these parts . . . for boys. On the ferry, while docking after two minutes of travelling across the Nile, we spotted hippos in the waer! EEk! All you could see was their ears! They are so cute and fat! We drove a little and soon I was sitting on the roof of the SUV, enjoying the breeze. There were so . . .
 We stopped at Rhino Sanctuary on the way to Murchinson Falls. We booked two rooms and a rhino guided tour! At 4:00pm we started out . . .
We saw seven rhinos, two of them babies! One of the teenagers was named Obama, because his mother was American (from an American zoo) and his father Kenyan! Dad (MY Dad) thought that was very funny.
We had top stay thirty metres away from the rhinos, because . . .
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