Blogs from Selçuk, Aegean, Turkey, Middle East - page 10

We have made it to turkey and have spent the last 5 days here. The flight from Helsinki to London went well, the night spent at Luton airport while waiting to check in at 4am was pretty painful. Even worse was the end of the flight when we arrived in Istanbul, a little boy on the plane appeared to develop chicken pox marks during the flight over. There was a mini quarantine scare as we all had to wait in the plane on the tarmac as the boy was checked out. We eventually made it and it was all worth it. Turkey is quite an interesting place to visit. The people are overly friendly and seem to love Aussie's and Kiwi's (especially in the cities around Gallipoli). The architecture of the buildings and mosques in the ... read more

I began the trip expecting major history lessons in Egypt, but not a great deal ın Turkey. My tours on the Aegean coast is correcting my ignorance. In the town of Selcuk (situated directly south of Istanbul), I planned to just visit Ephesus, the best preserved Greek city after Pompeii. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by the stunning architecture and city planning at Ephesus. However, I had no idea other important history lessons are in store for me. Randomly walking around town after taking a grueling 10 hour over night bus ride from İstanbul, I stumbled upon three ruins near the outskirts of town. I came across a lone pillar ın the fields, which turns out to be the only remain of Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the world. It ... read more

So after spending a few days with my cousin and her family in İstanbul, İ almost missed hooking up with the tour group! Thanks to the demonstrations that were going on in İstanbul at the time, traffıc was rıdıculous getting into town. Please excuse my typing if weırd alphabets are showing. İt took me a whole 5 minutes to figure out where most of the keys were on the keyboard. Things here are so different. İ mean people are still people but this is a culture that is so foreign to me. The sites are beautiful, the people are beautıful. İ mean...wow. After spending only 2 days here İ was already considering the possibility of coming to live in Istanbul at some point. Definitely have to come back. When you see the pics, you'll understand ... read more

On the Road I am sitting on a bus travelling btween Canakkale and Istanbul and marvelling at the incredibly beautiful scenery, the fast efficient bus service here and the friendly hospitable Turkish people who have really touched our hearts. It has been a great week, a mixture of the really budget backpacker-style life in Istanbul (even a local agreed that we had negotiated a very good price for our accomodation) and a package tour that we organised in Istanbul to take us to Ephesus, Troy and Gallipoli! Bus Travel Our bus is following the coast on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the sun is shining and at 15 degrees it is the warmest day we have had since leaving Australia. We were told that this time last year Canakkale had snow! The local bus service here in Turkey ... read more

Today we traveled from Selcuk on Turkey's western, Aegean shore to the ancient city of Pergamon, at one point THE major city in all of what is now western Turkey. I'm fuzzy on the details, but one of the Macedonian Alexander the Great's generals founded the city and the dynasty at a place that already had an acropolis, temple and town. One of the 7 classical wonders of the world, a colossal Greek temple was here. Seeing the layers of history was fascinating. There are 3 temples, to Zeus, Athena and a Roman diety, as well as a theatre. The Greek city was on the hill below the royal palace and temples, and the Roman city is largelly under modern Bergama. ... read more