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Published: September 1st 2012
Istanbul, August 9-12
Alexis and I arrived in Istanbul a day earlier than her boyfriend, Jaren, was scheduled to be meeting us. Jaren was missing Alexis so he had decided to tour around Turkey for two weeks before returning to his teaching job in the fall. Although I was invited along, I decided to once again venture on my own and give Alexis and Jaren a chance to spend some quality time together. In order to ensure an easy, stress free adventure around Turkey I decided to book a last minute 12 day tour with Topdeck tours. My tour was not scheduled to start until the evening of Saturday, August 11 so I got to spend nearly two days touring Istanbul with Alexis and Jaren. The three of us visited the Grand Bazaar, Taksim Street, and Jaren and I went to experience a traditional Turkish bath (don’t worry men and women bathe separately). Yes! I was bathed by a topless elderly woman in Istanbul, Turkey. I really had no idea what to expect but, for the sake of all of my readers, I felt it necessary to experience and share all aspects of Turkish culture. Upon arrival I was given
Alexis, Jaren and I
Alexis and Jaren were following a similar route as my tour group so we coincidentally bumped into eachother in Istanbul and again in Cappadocia. a pair of disposable black bathing bottoms, a towel, and a key to lock up my belongings. Once changed, I was escorted to a large room called a Hammam with a large marble slab in the middle of the room and small holes in the domed ceiling which created a sauna like effect. When I entered the room I was surprised to see several girls laid out topless on the marble. Suddenly, the Turkish woman grabbed the corner of my towel, ripped it off of my now topless body, and spread it out on the marble before gesturing for me to lie down. The woman grabbed a bowl of water and splashed it on me before leaving me to lay there, exposed, for nearly 15 minutes. As I laid there I was thinking how completely awkward and uncomfortable this whole situation should be. And yet it wasn’t, nobody was looking at me with awkwardness, embarrassment, or judgement…. in fact, no one was paying any attention to me at all. Weird! How is it that I am laying in front of other people with nothing more than bathing bottoms and I have no feelings of self-consciousness? In fact, I felt a
brief sense of liberation as if I could be one of the topless women walking confidently around the beaches of Spain. The woman returned and I felt anxious…. What’s next? The woman had a white cloth mitt on one hand and proceeded to rub it ALL over my body as she buffed away any dirt and dead skin. She took me over to the wash basin and dumped water all over, splashing it right in my face. Next she poured sudsy soap all over me and proceeded to wash me clean. Again, she rinsed me with buckets of water. Next, she shampooed my hair. Nothing about this bath was relaxing but it didn’t really feel as awkward as I had anticipated either. Quite honestly, I felt like a child being bathed by a grandmother. Nothing was sexy or sensual about it…. It was just a bath!
That evening, Alexis walked me to my new hotel where I would be meeting the other travellers on the Topdeck tour. We had a briefing from our tour leader, Tyrek, and then the 26 of us went out for a group dinner. The group was made of up a majority of Australians, several
Americans, a few New Zealanders and Canadians. Many people were tired and jetlagged from a long travel day so we all returned to the hotel early. I would be rooming with a fellow Canadian from Montreal named Lucie. She was really sweet and we got along well.
We woke up in the morning for our guided walking tour of the sites of Istanbul. Turkey is a country that is a part of two continents at the same time: Europe and Asia. The city of Istanbul is separated by the Bosphorus Strait- one side of the city is in Europe, the other is in Asia. Tyrek showed us the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace, and the Hippodrome.
Ankara, August 13
We arrived in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, late Saturday evening. In the morning we visited the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk mausoleum. Mustafa Kemal was a very important Turkish army officer and his influence gained Turkey’s independence during World War I. He was also the first President of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal is highly revered throughout Turkey.
Cappadocia, August 13- 15
Cappadocia has a very distinct and amazing landscape. The countryside is littered with unique rock
formations that resemble gigantic mushrooms. Apparently, the landscape began its formation following volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. The land was covered in volcanic ash and as the ash eroded from flood waters and wind over thousands of years the earth was shaped into the unique setting we see today. Many of these structures had been carved out to make homes and churches.
We arrive in Cappadocia in time to have a traditional meal with a Turkish family in a cave carved out of the rock. The meal was excellent. I must admit, the food in Turkey has been some of the best I have had in Europe. Dinner included breads and dips, soup, casseroles, dolmades, beef, rice and baklava. Finally, a country that believes in vegetables; tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, potatoes, cucumbers, olives, etc. It was delicious! Following dinner and drinks, the family turned on some Turkish music, pulled us into a circle, and taught us how to dance and play the wooden spoons. The family was so kind to invite the 26 of us into their home and our time spent with them was a highlight for sure.
Very early the next morning (4:00 a.m) we
were picked up from our hotel to witness the sunrise in a Hot Air Balloon. The unique Cappadocia landscape made this the greatest place for such an adventure. We were surrounded by hundreds of colorful balloons and as the sun was rising you could see more and more details of the intriguing geography below. It was a slow ascent and I was so focused on my surroundings that I didn’t realize how high we had gotten. When I looked down the vehicles below looked like Dinky Cars. The balloon ride felt safe and secure but, logically, floating through the air in a wicker basket attached to a huge flame, surrounded by a flammable fabric balloon could potentially be a recipe for disaster. Although we had a bit of a rough landing, we all returned in one piece and got to celebrate with an early morning glass of champagne. I would recommend this experience to anyone!
Not only did we get to admire this scenery from above in our hot air balloon but we got to wander through and climb on some of the caves that were inhabited up to a few decades ago. We visited the Zelve Open Air
Museum which included many Christian churches containing frescoes outlining some of Christian history.
Konya, August 15
On the way to Konya, we visited the ancient Kaymakli Underground City. This city is believed to be one of the largest underground cities that has been found in Cappadocia. These caves were dug out thousands of years ago as a means of protecting the community against enemy invasions. These cities were so large that they were able to accommodate up to 3500 people to live for months at a time. The city is eight floors deep, and expands for 9 km (only the first four floors are open to the public). The underground cities contained a very well thought out ventilation system, sewage/water system, and defence system. There were many residences, churches, kitchens, stables, storage rooms for food and wine. While exploring I started to worry that the soft volcanic rock that was so easily carved out could just as easily come crashing down on me. My heart was racing, I was getting warm. The underground city maintains a constant 18 degrees but it felt as though it was heating up fast. The corridors were narrow and the ceilings low making
The view of Fethiye while paragliding.
These are the waters we would be boating around for the remainder of the day. hunching over to mobilize a necessity. The rooms were so small, the air was stale. It was impossible to stand up straight in many of the rooms. I worried that the weight of 26 Topdeckers would cause the city to come crashing to a pile of ash. Needless to say, me and confined spaces do not get along. I would never have survived in the underground cities of Cappadocia.
We spent the evening in Konya with plans to continue to Fethiye in the morning.
Fethiye, August 16 & 17
Paragliding was offered as an additional entertainment option and initially I did not sign my name on the piece of paper. However, in the evening I was reminiscing about all the fun I had challenging myself to adventure activities while in New Zealand and decided if there was still space available I would like to join. I was so nervous! I was told that I would be the last to go as my tandem partner would be helping the rest of the groups get set up and take off. I thought, “Oh no! I won’t have a support system up here to encourage me?” Once the last tandem
paragliders had taken off, I was left at the top of a 1700 M mountain with my tandem partner. My partner asked me to help unwrap the parachute I thought, “Oh no! This could go downhill fast (no pun intended)!” Next thing I knew we were running down the sloped pavement towards the edge of the mountain. Before reaching the edge I could feel the pull of the parachute. I felt secure. There was no free fall… just a floating sensation. The view was incredible. As we descended I was asked if I wanted to spin around, which involves rollercoaster like twists and turns. Obviously I had to do it since this could be a once in a life time thing. As we picked up speed I thought my sunglasses were going to fly off my face. I could hardly catch my breath. Uh oh now I am suffering from some motion sickness. My stomach was in knots, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold down my breakfast until landing. Once back on solid ground I started to feel better. Next time I would definitely take a motion sickness pill in advance.
The rest
Happy Birthday Crystal and Kristin
Our tour guide, Tyrek, organized a birthday party complete with signs, balloons, hats, cake, and dancing. of the day was spent on a boat cruise. We stopped in several coves for a swim, had some drinks on the boat, and a delicious meal.
We departed from Fethiye and visited Pamukkale to witness some more fantastic geography. The water here has a high calcium mineral content which over centuries has deposited itself on the side of hills and left the landscape covered with hardened white rock formations that resemble a castle of clouds. The water in the pools is said to have healing properties. This location also had the roman ruins of the city, Hierapolis.
Kusadasi, August 18-20
Because I would be celebrating my birthday (August 20
th) while on tour, Tyrek arranged a birthday party for me and Kristin (August 17
th birthday) on Saturday, August 18. The entire group went out to an Irish pub and upon arrival there were signs that read “Happy Birthday”, balloons, cake and Tyrek even got some of his friends to do a sexy dance for us. It was great fun and we all had a lot of laughs. This was my first birthday away from Alexis but thanks to an awesome group of Topdeckers my birthday celebration was
Topdeckers at Pergamon.
Katie (USA) likely didn't make it into the group picture as she usually fell behind to take photos. Katie's brother, Shaun probably isn't in the photo either as he was probably looking for her! :) a huge success. (On the 20
th Tyrek had the bus sing Happy Birthday to me and brought me a coffee cake with candles during our lunch at a truck stop).
The next morning we visited the ruins of Ephesus and what is believed to be the home that the Virign Mary spent the last days of her life.
On our way to Canakkale we stopped to visit the ancient greek cities of Pergamon and Troy.
Canakkale, August 21
On our last day we visited the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) memorial site in Gallipoli. Many of the Topdeckers were Australian and New Zealanders so they had a very strong connection to the war site and elaborated further on the history provided by Tyrek. Australia and New Zealand have a national holiday ever year in rememberance of the many casualities (8,700 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders) during WWI in Gallipoli. To learn more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
Istanbul, August 22-30
I had several “good bye” dinners with the last remaining Topdeck group members once returning to Istanbul. The group size halved in size each night until, alas I was the only one left. I would like to
do a shout out to all my fellow Topdeckers! Thank you for making my adventure through Turkey so amazing! I really appreciated your company and kindness over the course of our twelve days together! Safe travels to those of you that are continuing your worldly explorations and to those of you returning to reality- best of luck in all you do! I truly hope to cross paths with you again- perhaps a reunion in Melbourne?
The morning after the last of my friends had left, Alexis and Jaren returned to Istanbul and I once again had my travel partner. Jaren flew home on August 26
th and Alexis and I took the rest of the week to do some shopping, laundry, resting and researching some tours for SE Asia. Now, off to the next adventure: Alexis and I will be meeting mom and our “Auntie” Alexis in Nairobi, Kenya where we will start our 22 day safari tour with Intrepid. I am soooo EXCITED! Stay tuned!!!
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Jens' Auntie Sue
non-member comment
Turkey
Sounds like you had a lot of fun in Turkey. More so than Ireland and that area. Sure glad to hear your Mom and "Auntie" made it to meet you. Have fun on Safari!