I'm coming up to the halfway point in my trip in the next couple of days, and predictably, I am sick of most of the music on my iPod, and want to burn most of the clothes in my backpack. More problematic is the fact that I have the exact same number of books in my bag now, as when I left Paris. When I started out five weeks ago, my bag was stupidly heavy because I was bringing along a dozen or so books that I had with me in Paris but hadn't had a chance to read yet, and couldn't bear to leave behind. For those of you who have been chez moi, you know that I have a SERIOUS problem when it comes to books, and owning them.

One of the bookcases at my old T.O. haunts.

The plan for the books in my bag was to read them, and leave them...so far this plan hasn't been terribly successful. While I've managed to unload copies of "The Outliers" (bequeathed to my cs host in Cologne), "The Satanic Verses" (a parting gift to My Radical Leftist in Berlin), and "The Emperor's Children" (left behind on the book exchange shelf at the hostel in Budapest), I've acquired copies of "The Communist Manifesto and Other Revolutionary Writing" (a gift from MRL), "Report to Greco" (picked up on the recommendation of G. in Crete), and a book of Greek poetry (a gift from G.)... Aside from the fact that I'm picking up titles as I go, the other problem I'm encountering is the fact that I'm not finding a lot of time to read, and that I've been rather stumped by my current read, "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk. It's a 500 page novel (not short, but not overwhelmingly long) that apparently made Pamuk an international literary star, but I'm really not feeling it at all. I started reading it back in Greece, but two weeks later I've only just cracked the first 150 pages. I'm contemplating shelving it for awhile, and quickly plowing through some of the other books I have in my bag, just so I can lighten my load a bit, but I have a feeling if I stop reading it now, I won't pick it up again. I suppose it wouldn't be a tragedy if I wind up bringing it home with me...it's not as though I have an aversion to having books around the house.

I'm now in Antalya. In the end, I took a pass on diving in Kas. I was originally pretty pumped up to get into the water, but once I arrived in Kas, my enthusiasm quickly dwindled...as much as I enjoy diving, it's not something that I'm super passionate about, and I decided that it wasn't worth the time and energy it takes to go for just one dive. I normally need at least one dive to remember how to move in the water and how to remain buoyant, before diving becomes enjoyable. Also, the more I read about diving in the Mediterranean, the less convinced I became that I would come away from the experience feeling fully satisfied...the Med isn't known so much for its marine life as much as it's a great place to go wreck diving and caving; I need diving to be a little like visiting Disneyland...colourful, full of Nemos, etc...Though it's probably not likely, I figure that if I really want to go diving before going home, I might try to swing down to the Sinai for a couple of days before heading back to Munich. In any case, although I only spent 24 hours in Kas, I really enjoyed my time there. I made the journey down to Kas with an Australian I met at the hostel in Fethiye (we bonded over stories of food poisoning, and bitching about our sleepless night), and we wound up exploring the town together. Kas is pretty quiet, with no real sites, but it's an ideal place to spend an afternoon/evening in a cafe on the water's edge, kick back with a couple of pints Efes (Turkey's national beer), a nargileh pipe, and just talk the night away.

The plan for the next couple of days is to hang around Antalya until tomorrow afternoon (I only stopped here in order to break up what would otherwise be a 16 hour bus ride), and then hop on an overnight bus to Cappadocia. Depending on how much time I wind up spending exploring the underground cities and fairy chimneys in Cappadocia, I'll either try to squeeze in a quick trip to Mt. Nemrut (further in the east), or will head straight for the Syrian border. I wish I had more time to spend in Turkey, as there are a bazillion places in the east that I'd love to visit, but I'm really beginning to feel the crunch of time, as I only have 28 days left to go through Syria, Lebanon and the Holy Land.