The Delights of Turkey

Turkey. Ah Turkey. I think everyone should go to Turkey. What a place, and what people. (And sorry for not doing my blog sooner!) Okay so a week before Anzac Day, after several hours sleep we hauled our tired bodies from our beds and made our way to Heathrow in the wee early hours of Saturday morning on the 18th of April. We were off on what some refer to as a pilgrimage to the place where kiwi’s and Australian’s alike etched into history what it is to be an Anzac. Brave. Determined. Enduring. Courageous. Ingenuious.

Anyway I digress. Back on our plane we were both out like lights before we’d even begun taxiing down the runway. The only part about the flight I remember is the hot breakfast. Its funny how ridiculously excited and surprised you can get on a non-budget airline about complimentary water (yes water!), beverages and food coming down the isle toward your seat when you’ve become accustomed to flying with Easy Jet and the likes. Its like all your Christmases have come at once. We arrived into Istanbul and the wonderful machine that is Travel Talk (can’t rate them highly enough after doing both Egypt and Turkey with them) picked us up and dropped us at our hotel smack bang in the midst of the old town. Before you could say Apple Tea we were out on the pavement exploring the city around us. We walked back the way our bus had bought us and came upon the beauty of the Blue Mosque. There were people, young and old, couples and families, Turkish and not, everywhere, soaking up the sun, lounging about on park benches or the lawn, amongst the many tulips and strolling through the paths in the grounds of the mosque. After taking some snaps in front of the Blue Mosque, and noting the ‘poor cousin’ on the opposite side of the street we made our way down to the waterfront of the Bosphous Strait and ambled along there for a bit taking in the happenings of the city. After getting a bit lost in a massive park, we found our way back to the streets of our hotel and have a dinner of kebab, the first of many. We noticed, to our surprise, that Istanbul is quite a clean city, with flowers and trees everywhere. The people are not as conservatory in their dress as in Egypt and I’m quite happy to be about the streets in only a top and skirt with Ryan and am not constantly being given the once-over by men and women alike. We can walk into a shop and walk out again without people chasing us down the street trying to sell us stuff (as in Istanbul they understand ‘just looking’). I think, naively we we’re expecting Istanbul to be similar to the Egyptian cities we visited. First impressions of Istanbul are right up there, love the vibe the city has! On our first proper day in Istanbul the tour heads out on a walking tour of the big sights of Istanbul. We start in the Hippodrome and see an obelisk from Egypt (fierce debate reigns over whether its was a gift or a ‘long term borrow’ as Ryan puts it, by Turkey). There’s also a rotunda given as a gift to Turkey in 1902 from Germany and in a nutshell was why Turkey ended up on Germany’s side in WWI. From there we head to St Sophia, which had its origins in 326AD as a basilica, before being used as a mosque and now is a living church. It has one of the most impressive domed ceilings, and was the inspiration for the Blue Mosque, which sought to surpass the size of the St Sophia dome, but failed. No other church has a wider dome, barring that in the Muhummad Ali mosque in Cairo. It says something about work ethic and skill of days long past to find that St Sophia was built from scratch in 4 years. Our visit saw scaffolding in the centre of the church to aid the painting of the ceiling of the dome. The scaffold has been there for … 10 years, 2 times longer than the entire construction period! We then head to Topkapi royal palace, which is impressive.

We break for lunch around 3pm though by now several of the group have had their tummies eat themselves and I’ve gnawed off my arm up to my elbow! A number of us opt for the speciality dish at a wee café opposite the Blue Mosque, a delicious tomato and meat based dish on bread. We finish up with the Blue Mosque, removing our shoes, but taking them inside with us, so no cheeky kids can nick off with a ‘new’ pair of shoes! The inside is beautiful, just beautiful with a plethora of blue tiles of varied designs forming the walls and ceilings. We finish off our day with a boat cruise on the Bosphous Strait. We sail along with Europe to one side and Asia to the other, admiring the grand old summerhouses and palaces of royalty gone by. After our boat cruise, we have dinner and finish off with a complimentary cup of apple tea which is delicious. We then proceed to shop up large at the sweet store down the street from our hotel and stuff ourselves with a variety of yum Turkish delight! Day two saw us up early and on the road for our mammoth drive to the Cappadocia region. Fair to say I slept most of the way, though did take in some of the countryside and towns passing us by. Early afternoon gave us a break for lunch where I sampled the Turkish pizza, which was delicious. It was like French bread cut into sections and halved through. Minced up meat of some sort and cheesiness was cooked on top with some herbs for good measure. A more than generous mound of these pizza pieces came towards me for just 4TL and I did my best, but only got through half at most!

We finally arrived into the Cappadocia region and our underground hotel under darkness. After dinner we headed over to the neighbouring town to partake in the relaxing goodness that is a Turkish bath. First they fry you (steam room), then they dunk you (freezing cold plunge pool!) and then you go back for a second dose of steam. Then it’s onto the good bit, after lying on a warm marble table you get a scrub down followed by a massage. Last but not least is a hair rinse and wash (with shocking cold water dunked over your head mind you!) and then under a hot shower to finish! Bliss. What a great way to unwind from a taxing 11-hour bus ride!

The next morning we were up early to see as much as we could of the Cappadocia region. We started with a sightseeing spot beside a cluster of fairy chimneys before heading to our next spot; where there was one shaped very much like a camel and another like a statue of the Virgin Mary. The chimneys are kind of like clouds, if you stare long enough you find a resemblance to all sorts of things. From there it was onto an area where the fairy chimneys all became rather phallic in appearance. Almost creepy! Climbed into a couple that had been carved into and used as churches, what a strange life it must have been to live in those amazing rock formations. Then we headed off to an open air museum where we saw some truly amazing fresco's painted on the ceilings of more churches in the fairy chimneys. Finally it was off to a small cliff top market with great views of the region where we were able to try Turkish ice-cream. Quite a different consistency to the old Tip Top from home, and no hokey pokey here folks! At another stop for the view, there was stall selling lots of delicious nuts, peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, etc etc and natural viagra. Yes that’s right viagra at a roadside stall. You don’t get that back home at the farmer’s market!

After our fairy chimney sightseeing, we headed to a carpet making family company to see the rugs of Turkey being made by hand. Ryan had a go, but lacked the needed nimble fingers! The carpet business owners feed us all more Turkish pizza and yum cheesy things and the local red wine which is really good. (Love red wine nowadays)! They roll out about a hundred carpets for us to peruse and we’re sorely tempted, but it’s a little too pricey given our upcoming Europe trip. If only we were here on ancestry visas! After another stop, this time at a ceramics factory, it’s back to the hotel for dinner before heading out for a boozy night. First up we get treated to a show by three whirling dervishes, which is quite magical. The rest of the night we drink the free alcohol, including the local tipple, Raki, aniseed tasting drink mixed with water and watch traditional dancing. After our last night in our underground hotel, we head off to Pamukkale. But before we leave Cappadocia we have a poke around the underground city, which is like 20 stories deep. People lived a completely normal, albeit, underground, life down there. There was a meeting room, church, morgue, winery, kitchens, etc. Totally kitted out! They’ve found hundreds of these underground cities and believe they were all linked to one another. We stop further along our way at a small village school to watch the games of the children. They play a fun looking game where they race to wrap their buddy like a mummy in toilet paper! Next stop is a caravanserai, a hotel for camels, the largest and best dating from 1229. We stop again for some yoghurt, honey and poppy in its legal form as poppy seeds. We reach our hotel in Pamukkale and whilst I would like to say I soaked in the hot mineral waters that came through a special tap into the bath, I was actually feeling a little bus sick after 12 hours or so in the bus so headed straight to bed! Up the next morning we bus up to the calcium terraces of Pamukkale and the ancient ruins of Herapolis. The terraces have been made a world heritage site and UNESCO is helping the local people restore the terraces to their natural state. At one stage there was a hotel built right on top of the terraces and people could walk willy nilly over the terraces and bath in them with their shampoo and products. Needless to say this has been banned and the hotel has been demolished. You can still walk over the terraces, but only a certain area. We look around the amazing intact remains of a theatre in Herapolis which dates from 300AD and seats 15,000 people and then have a wade through the warm pools. Back on the bus we drive through a small village where our guide points out some houses with bottles on their roofs. The bottles advertise a girl of an age suitable for marrying living in the house. A potential suitor need only shoot down the bottle. A fairly simply courtship it would appear! Our next stop is Ephesus, an ancient coastal city now in ruins, dating from 10BC. One of the most beautiful ancient cities, it was famous for having one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the Temple of Artemis (wikipedia it). The ruins are impressive and it would have been beautiful in its day. We see a theatre, main street, men’s public toilets (which were a place to hang out), many temples, churches, main square and hospital. We see a carving of the Goddess of Victory which inspired the designer of the Nike symbol. There is a beautiful and impressive Library, the third largest in the world and another theatre which with seating for 44,000 is the largest in the ancient world. At the bottom of the main street there are coded directions to the city’s brothel. And believe it or not there was a secret passageway from the library to the brothel, so men would go to the ‘library’. Leaving the ruins, there are stalls selling normal tourist guff, with one stall announcing its ‘genuine fake watches’. Honesty! The next day we’re up at the crack of dawn to fit in a stop at another ancient Greek city before driving to Cannukkale and crossing on the ferry to Gallipoli.