Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 30

What a little day. Nessie and I took a tour with a tour agency called Yama tours so that we could explore the Illahra Valley. We customed designed part of the tour so that we could get to hike the whole valley insted of the 3 km that you do with the group. Our guide packed our lunch so that we could take it with us. I think we ended up hiking a total of about 12 km. We were both exhausted by the end of the day and I am not ridiculously sunburnt. I was wearing 30 but managed to completely miss my traps which are now as red as a cooked lobster. Nessie with her glowing olive Italian skin is obviously fine... I will be wearing a parka for the next couple of days ... read more

Ness and I arrived in Ankara today and we are currently visiting an internet cafe that is playing some bumpın musıc...serıously ıts lıke a club ın here. Ankara ıs a bıg cıty that comes along wıth all the other joys of a bıg cıty...lots of people, loud noıses and STARBUCKS! I never thought a starbucks could be so comfortıng. An Amerıcano ın Turkey from Sbux tastes just lıke home. Its amazıng. Today we went to the Museum of Anotalıan Cıvılısatıons whıch was very ınterestıng. Its crazy to thınk of everythıng that happened on thıs land. Nessıe and I were mostly ımpressed by the golden Roman leaf crowns. We both wanted one but realısed that our heads are way too fat to fıt. Our second favourıte part of the museum were all the jewels that have been ... read more

17. Gün Kanlıdivane,Elaiussa Sebaste, Kız kalesinde yüzme molası, Cennet Cehennem Mağaraları ve inanılmaz Alahan Kilisesi Mersin’den çıktıktan sonraki Silifke istikametine doğru yol alıyoruz. İlk uğrak yerimiz Kanlıdivane’ydi. Burada bir Obruk ve içerisinde kaya kabartmaları, Obruğun üst kısmında ise bir Bizans Bazilikası bulunuyor. Yakınında bulunan Elaiussa Sebaste Antik kalıntıları da özellikle Portikosuyla görülmeye değer. Sahil yolu boyunca devam ederek, sonunda Kız Kulesine geldik. Bizi ne kız kulesi ne de sahilde bulunan harabeler ilgilendiriyordu. Tek düşüncemiz Deniz’e girmekti. Otobüs durur durmaz kendimizi Mersin’in tuzlu sularına bıraktık. Deniz sezonu açılmıştı! Urfa’dan aldığım poşu burada da kurulanma işlevi görüyordu. Yarım saatlik yüzme molasından sonra az ileride bulunan Cennet Cehennem Mağaralarına geldik. Devasa bir Obruğun Tabanına bir kilise yapılmış. Bel... read more

When we looked at the mapof Turkey we thought that there were basically 2 ways of approaching the task of having a look around: go west and south and then follow the coast for a while before heading up the middle to the Black Sea and then back to Istanbul; or, alternatively, head east before eventually turning south till we get to the Meditteranean Sea and then turn east following the coast up along the Aegean Sea and thence back to Istanbul. The decision was made on weather grounds. We wanted to give the area around the Black Sea the opportunity to warm up just a little. The jury is still out on whether we were right or wrong in our decision to go west rather than east. What is clear so far is that east ... read more

Yes we left the beautiful Mediterranean coast for snow? What the hell? Got off our bus to a snowstorm! It was 25 degrees Celsius 2 days ago? WTF? Oh well we soon warmed up in our hotel which turned out to be a cave carved into one of the huge chimney looking things from the Flintstones! Actually quite warm inside out of the snow! Next day we jumped on a tour as some of the stuff to see was further away then expected. Had great views of the Goreme Valley before we hit up the Underground City. Little known but there are 20 floors dug straight down into the ground and could house up to 30 000 people in times of war! Went on to Ihlara Valley for a hike where we saw a sheep charge ... read more