IveBeenThere

Monday 26th Sept - Olympos to Saklikent Gorge We took our bags down to breakfast and after we had eaten our fill advised Meral (the owner) that we were leaving today. When she asked where we were heading and I said Saklikent Gorge she said we would have to go to Fethiye and then go back to Saklikent. This seemed like a silly idea to me as we would almost pass the gorge to go to Fethiye and then to go back seemed like a waste of time and travel. Meral said it was not possible, but I had a look at the map and as we had all day decided to take the chance and get out of the bus at a place called Kinik and hope there was a dolmus from there to Saklikent. ... read more

Thursday 22nd September - long day travel Goreme to Egirdir An early start today as we had a long, long way to travel. We did not have time for breakfast at the hotel as last night we purchased tickets for the 8.30 bus to Konya. We had bit our farewell to our host Cemil last night also as we left the hotel before he had arrived for work. The bus station in Goreme is just in the center car park where there are a few outdoor benches and a row of ticket offices for the different bus companies. I went and bought some bread and we had a makeshift breakfast on a bench with butter and jam we had collected from previous breakfasts. The local dog population decided we were interesting enough to sit and watch ... read more

Tuesday 20th Sept - Green Tour Today we decided to join the masses and go on a organized tour - called the Green Tour (70try = $39.20each) which we booked with Cemil, as we were sure he would get some kind of commission from our booking. We were escorted to Hard Rock Tours just a block away at about 10 am and managed to get the front seat in one of the two mini buses that were running this tour today. Site we saw today included: - Goreme panorama (birds eye view of town) - Selime Monastery (carved in the rock) - Ihlara Valley (3km walk through the valley) - Lunch by the river (2 course meal) - Derinkuyu Underground City (8 stories, 85m underground) - Visit to Onyx showroom (very expensive, hard to get ... read more

Thursday, 15th Sept - early morning flight Istanbul to Ankara Due to the fact that Istanbul is very expensive and the fact we are flying out of here and will have to come back here, I made the executive decision to spend the night at the airport after our midnight arrival flight and catch a 7.30am flight from Istanbul to Ankara. Also the fact that this airport is so far out of Istanbul that it would have cost us more to catch a taxi to the city at this time of night, than waiting and flying out in the morning. This of course all went bum up when Air Arabia cancelled and changed our flight date which meant we lost the original internal flight I booked and had to rebook one for the changed date. But ... read more

Sunday 11th Sept - at the flat Zak's parents came over tonight to say goodbye. Mother is so sweet she cried like a baby when the final goodbye was said. Not happy that her number one son is leaving the neighborhood, not to mention the country. Before goodbye's were said there were instructions given that Zak has to preform before traveling on any kind of transport. Talk about superstitious! There seems to be a Muslim prayer for everything. She also wrote something on two tiny pieces of paper and gave one to Zak and one to Father. When I asked what it was, Zak just said a religious thing - yeah well I kinda guessed that, but he does not really like to 'share' information like this with me. They both proceeded to stash these small ... read more