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Published: April 27th 2007
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St Sophia Istanbul
Located near Blue Mosque St Sophia was far more beautiful inside and nearly as nice exterior alongside Sultan Ahmet Park. Turkey
The amount of flying I do you would think that I am a good flier. But I watch air crash investigations and I realize that my chances of having an aircraft accident are probably less than winning the lottery but I don’t think I will ever win the lottery, however I do always think something will go wrong on my flight, so, when I look out the window and can see another plane within a few kms that unnerves me. But we made it into Istanbul, raining and 13 degrees. Few days later got crook and was up all night before traveling from Istanbul to Bursa - what a day!
Istanbul - nice cosmopolitan place. Alfresco dining in the cold. Guys only ask you for dates here not to marry you. Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque is beautiful from outside but St Sophia was nice with colourful Sultan Ahmet gardens in front.
St Sophia was beautiful inside, once church converted to mosque now museum.
Blue Mosque is beautiful inside, was apparently nicer only before 1999 when last earthquake did some damage and they have repainted it.
Hippodrome - most spectacular was the Egyptian Obelisk, only top third was transported
Cappadoccia
Cappadocia in snow. We missed out on balloon flight but had snow so I suppose we can't complain. which still was about 25m high and weighed 200 tonnes. And the fact it is a grave to 10,000 men as well, who revolted against the royals when their team was losing at the hippodrome.
Suleyman Mosque was nice, still an active mosque so was cool to see inside that.
Bospherous Cruise - nice, housing on Europe side starting at US$110m, go to cheap Asian Side and starts at only US$50m.
Topkapi Palace - very big. 10,000 guards to protect him plus his harem of 350 girls lived there, huge kitchens (apparently 1 decent food to 4 desserts).
Basilica Cistern - very cool, huge underground water storage to supply all of old city.
Bursa - home of the Green Mosque. Was nice, but maybe I am getting ‘mosqued out’ or because I was crook or so cold wasn’t a great day. Was snow on Mt Olympus when we left the next day and cold to match it.
Ankara - beautiful place, not sure whether it is the greenery or because it is a planned city but is very nice. Ataturk Mausoleum and Museum was great too.
Cappadocia region - stands for running horses. Underground city reminds me of Cooper Pedy.
We got snow which is not common in April but was still cool - especially the snow fights. Landforms are absolutely stunning and fun to climb around although some are quite slippery
Pamukkale - well actually the area is called Hieropolis or Cotton Castle the Turks call it. Another place of stunning beauty. Calcium formed cliffs with snow capped mountains around.
Ephesus - another nice ancient Roman City which is best preserved as well apparently. Was very nice though and has Celcus Library which was awesome and 2nd largest ancient theatre 25000 seats. Also visited house where Mary lived in 1st century after leaving Jerusalem.
Pergamon - another cool ancient ruin. Getting over them though. Asklepion, hospital was pretty cool.
Kusadasi - nice beachside resort town - could handle this.
Canakkale - another nice beachside town, beautiful beachfront and nice weather - our base for Gallipoli.
Gallipoli peninsula - what can I say. Was awesome to have some time to check out the place whilst not full of tourist, but still extra structures around in preparation for Anzac Day. Was amazing to see some of the places where our guys unbelievably made it up cliffs. Saw lots of cemeteries
Pergamon Theatre
I don't know how anyone concentrated on the act with a view like this! and strategic points around Anzac Cove.
Anzac Day - was a bit less emotional than I was expecting - maybe because I was emotioned out from couple of days on peninsula. Maybe because I was still defrosting from sitting there from 10pm on 24th and still nearly missing a seat - don’t know how boys jumped into water and survived first night of cold let alone war. Lone Pine service was really good though. 150 buses in queue over 4km long which ended long day.
Troy - well after reports it is quite boring because we have seen ancient ruins - it was awesome. Foundations from around 3000bc was pretty cool to see and you could see some of the 9 layers built on top of each other - and then you get to climb into the Trojan Horse for a photo!
Different things - they have ‘jumbo buses’ at the airport - they were about 10 seats wide. Bus drivers that are magic! I have learnt that for about a 20m bus you can pull out from a park between buses with less than a metre on each side and only 6m in front of you with no
reversing.
Well different to Arab countries, they have traffic lights and use them.
Thank god for our smoking laws in Queensland. We have been stuck in a few hotels where you can hardly sleep from smell of smoke.
Having to pack and move rooms at 10.30pm at night because I saw an ants nest near my pillow - was about the only day we had shit scattered everywhere because we were changing from thermals to shorts.
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