apple survey

Question: What one thing would you most like to see Apple improve upon, and why?

Answer:

iTunes. It's slow, the update process is terrible, it's huge, it erases content from my iPhones a ton, works terribly with multiple iOS devices, works terribly with multiple computers, installs crapware like Safari and Bonjour, causes problems when syncing libraries across devices. I mean, it's just an awful awful piece of shit... er.... software.

day 13 - end of days

We took our third overnight bus of the trip last night to return to
Istanbul. Let's just say that some overnight buses are ok while others
aren't after a good experience with Metro between Pamukkale and
Göreme, we had a terrible experience with them coming back to Istanbul.

So far I've been a bit disappointed with the Lonely Planet for this
trip. They were pretty inaccurate for accomodations in Göreme as well
as very incomplete/inaccurate with top sights, tours, food, etc. What
gives? The book is only two months old!

My take on Instanbul would include the following: best area to get
food is behind the New Mosque by the post office. The Grand Bazaar is
an overrated tourist trap. It lacks any authenticity anymore
(especially compared to the 15 year old LP we came across) and is way
overpriced. The merchants there aren't even willing to bargain to a
10% markup over normal prices outside the Bazaar on things like
magnets. Obviously we got our magnets somewhere else since no one
seemed interested in doing business at fair tourist prices.

Other random thoughts:
Favorite mosque is the Little Aya Sofya
Favorite site: The aquaduct and around, or the Bosphorus
Least favorite site: the Genoan Tower

day 12 - çay çay çay!

Spending the day writing postcards while drinking 45 Kr (30 cent) çay
with a bunch of old men. It's been a good trip. I'll have plenty of
retroactive blogging to do.

I just finished writing my 15 postcards. 5 to the DC area, 5 to the
Cleveland area, 3 to the northeast, and 2 to the great state of Texas.
There would have been more to Seattle, but I miscounted addresses by
forgetting to include the names of work friends from Progressive who
get postcards. Sorry. I'll get you other things!

Overall, Turkey has been great. Lots to see, friendly people, and
generally reasonable prices. Things may be different in peak season
though, so I'm glad I'm here in May and not June. I'll hear from the
parents what that's like, but I imagine a lot of sights may be
overcrowded and the locals may be lost in the sea of tourists, which
would be a damn shame, especially in Pumakkale, Marmaris, and Göreme.

Other brief descriptors:
Clean
Great roads
Smoking
Çay çay çay!

day 5 - rodos

day 4 - selçuk and efes(us)

Took an overnight bus from Istanbul to Selçuk, the town by Ephesus.
The bus ride kinda sucked. I'm pretty convinced by this point that
these fancy Mercedes buses have inadequate a/c. On the upside, we
got to take a ferry, plus we got to Selçuk a little past 6am and we
got to Efes about a half hour before it opened.

We started off at the lower entrance, where the tour buses pick people
up, so we were going in reverse of the typical order. The early
arrival and the reverse order meant that we had the entire place to
ourselves for the first half hour. It was pretty awesome running
around the coliseum like idiots. Since most of the most impressive
sights were down towards we were, we definitely made it out ahead.

After walking 3km back to Selçuk, which the LP wrongly advises
against, we got a super tasty lunch way behind the bus station. Great
food at 1/4 the price of the LP recommended places. Yummy.

After, we hopped on another bus to Aydin where we connected to a bus
to Marmaris.

Now, I am on a boat right now to Rodos. I am kinda waiting to see if
anyone is going to throw up. (-:

day 3 - istanbul

A park without benches is like a living room with no couch.