Magic Carpet through Turkey

Well we managed to escape the lovely English springtime for the nice warmer weathers of Istanbul. Early start to catch the plane at Heathrow. Then a casual flight via Frankfurt to Istanbul.

Got off the plane and we were faced with several challenges - as Dorothy says we ain’t in Kansas anymore. I’d forgotten how different it can be in the middle east and how the people are super friendly and super forceful.

After changing some money over into their ridiculously odd currency I had a lovely local show me and sort out the currency (too many zeros). Then bargaining with the taxi driver to take us to our hostel. I kept trying to read the map while he was driving to see we weren’t getting ripped off. No dramas there.

Nice room they gave us a little strange having your ensuite bathroom sitting in the room only separated by a few plastic curtains. We had to take turns using the loo (I mean we are a close couple but sometimes you do need a little alone time). Still lovely people at the hostel heaps of Japanese tourists there everything also written in Japanese. Settled in well and rested after being on the go for the past 2 weeks.

Next day we ventured out into Istanbul - nice sunny foggy day but really warm weather. It has that old city smell and feel about it. Something you really lack living in Perth. Still I do miss some of our cleaner habits back home (no smoking in public places, litter, lack of pubic defecation).

Of course we looked like tourists ,actually Greg looks more like the tourist lots of people thought I was Turkish or from the area. Every local seems to know have or been to Australia. Seems lots of Aussie women have long term relationships with Turkish men. So that was their approach at getting us to come and see there wares.

Even though we have the bible (lonely planet) we didn’t use it much in the first day and seem to have stumble onto some unusual shopping districts (shoes, tv repairs, fish mongers) all those things don’t seem to be part of the guide books recommendations.

Still we did get dragged into some guys carpet shop he had married an aussie girl even made me speak to her so I would believe him. i kept telling him we didn’t want or need a carpet and that I couldn’t let poor Greg carry it around turkey for us. So now I’ve devised a new ploy - I will only buy a carpet if is has a miniature schnauzer on it in black & white . I figure that this is a pretty tall order for them to try and fulfil.

Also getting use to the food - seems a little scarce on the fruit and veggies stuff and lots of oily bread meals.. Still you do have to taste the local produce - doing heaps of walking and tried to see some of the mosques but there is only so many you can view before you start to get tired of it.

We moved on from busting Istanbul to Safranbulo {north region close to the black sea} and stayed in an Ottoman style house. The whole town is heritage listed to preserve the actual homes for future years. Sleeping in these large ornate wooden ceilings with panelling cut out in small pigeon holes for items. The TV was possibly the only thing that didn’t seem to fit with the period. They also have those great recliner lounges that are everywhere in turkey and can keep you trapped there for ages. The toilet/bathroom was set up in a closet that you had to step up into = poor Greg kept bumping his head on the low ceilings. We spent the day wandering around the town it’s kind of a quaint New Norcia concept. It is a very popular destination with Turks and not so many western tourists make it there so we had a few attempts at communication with very good sign language.

Another great discovering in this east meets west place is the famous Asian squat toilet. I am sooooo lucky my mother always taught me to be prepared with Toilet paper or tissues. A flush has never sounded as good = Greg has nothing to complain about.

So the next day we took a very long bus journey to the Cappadocia region and have this excellent hostel which is us sleeping in a cave {absolutely cool!!!}. The hostel staff speak great English and there is retired brit there also. The place here is phenomenal. Those who don’t know about this area it was created after volcanic eruptions resulting in sort of large mounds that turks/ hittites built homes in and hidden underground cities that run for miles similar to the Chi Tunnels in Vietnam. Some people still live in them today. There is a real mix between the tourist town and ancient culture set up there with people ridding in small horse drawn buggies and women in the valleys picking the greens and stuff. The locals are really friendly and not at all pushy.

We went on some spectacular walks through the ‘star wars’ like setting where people had carved heaps of cave dwellings. There is heaps of mini chaples and monasteries from a range of time periods all with frescos and painting which help to identify which time period. Nearby there a lots of little towns with craft based industry in flow. I even had a chance on the pottery wheel in this factory in Avanos, where a small family business makes all their own items by hand each piece takes about 3 weeks to complete. They also replicate some of the Iznik style painting which was quite lovely. I did get shadowed by a rather persistent salesmen, I tried to tell him that it wasn’t exactly conducive to carry a fragile pottery item in a backpack.

We also went to a beautiful canyon/valley Ilahara, which you can walk the entire distance but we only did a small section. Lots of travelling. After this it rained so we had a couple of half days spent wandering in the nearby valleys which have sculpted landscapes from the volcanoes.

We took the overnight bus to Olympus, which is named after the Greek mythological place associated with the gods. We wandered around the ruins and saw some lovely ruined buildings (it was to be the first of many). There also exists an unusual phenomena in Olympus - there is a place nearby called Chimeria which has a lovely legend and attached, but out of these rocks on the mountain come flames they can self light also. They don’t know what it is the gas or how it happens. In the past sailors could see it from the sea it worked as a distance light house. No disasters befell us on this part of the trip....

The Boat Trip - so we decided and had heard that this was a thing to do very cheaply in Turkey is take a Gulut for 4 days around the coast. If only someone had warned us against it. We started the trip with a 3 hour drive to Demre (famous for St Nicholas tomb being there). Two companies had decided to combine the boats and the others weren’t to happy at having to pay £20 more than the others. Next the question arose about byo, people didn’t want to pay up others only ad credit cards. So after spending another 2 hrs in the harbour we set sail - or rather we motored off because these bosts don’t actually sail. Later we find out that we were meant to go on another boat but they decided to give that to the staff for a mini holiday (unhappy campers on our boat). Still, we have to admit sailing on the boat and sitting on deck was lovely. The captain seemed intent on bypassing all the designated spots we had planned to stop. It was only after a mild mutiny that he agreed to stop at the beautiful Blue Lagoon in Oludinez and butterfly valley. He moored some 3oom away form shore so it was swimming to the destination. They arranged to being our stuff in the little dingy which nearly capsized and lots of stuff ended up in the water and myself nearly under the boat.

Still in hindsight this was all a picnic in light of what was due to happen in Fethieye. We arrived on dry land and went out through the town and had a few drinks to help us all recover from the experience. We went out to see a gorge which formed when 2 mountains split but they had some flash floods there also so you couldn’t walk along it . Then we got caught in this huge thunderstorm with this small mini bus driving along on mini rivers which were formerly roads.

We attempted to go out to see hot springs and mud pools and turtle beach, but got waylaid by a stupid dolmus (buses) guy who had us sitting there for an hour before telling us to go to the main station. This led up to the first actual fight we’ve had since being on holiday. This resulted in the famous accident that we are still dealing with today.

So Greg and I had a little fight and he came to make up and resulted in him dislocating his shoulder (it was weak from a surfing accident years before). So I race downstairs to ask them to call a dr and 10 mins later she arrives bandages his shoulder and rushed us off to hospital. Luckily they took us private hospital and they had some great staff, English speaking people and liaison officers there to deal with tourists - aptly named tourism nurse.

He was seen by an orthopod in minutes and they tried to put the shoulder in but it wasn’t happening. He was so brave no tears, complaint nothing. The doctor even tried to wedge his foot in the armpit and twist it in - dodgy brother. Eventually they took him off to theatre under GA and it was all ok. Now he’s in a sling for 3 weeks. Making me a donkey !!. I even made him a shower sling and have used some of my one armed training skills to keep him functionally independent.

We then headed up north to Pummukale which is world famous for these pure white travertine pools. Apparently the hot springs found in the area produce these calcified water that pours onto the hill tops and settle with this snow like appearance.

In this area they also had another Unesco preserved site of a ruined city Heiroplois, which has traces of several eras (as they always do). They have this huge Necropolis a rather nice name for a grave yard. We walked through to the theatres and Agora (large market place) they even had a roman bath, some basilicas and even an ancient toilet. They also have converted a Roman bath into a museum with some restored pieces located in the area and its interesting to imagine how they relaxed here in these rooms many years ago. We had some time at the hot springs where the local women use to maintain health and beauty (I’m not to sure if it’s really working for them). Still it was a merry occasion at the local pool. Lots of bright pink Englishman swimming in thermal pool with some ruins below.

Next stop was Selcuk which is a gate way to some of Turkey’s prized ruins Ephesus, Priene, Melitus, Didyaim, Pergamon. So we descended into Ephesus and stayed at a great hostel and headed out the next day to see Ephesus with guide in tow (and another 150 other visitors to the site, we head Korean, German, French and even Hebrew). They have done wonders at this place in recreating what the land looked like. They have restored the facade of several buildings - library is up to 4 stories high including friezes and statues, lots of original marble pathways are there and even the first toilet. They have unveiled some beautiful mosaics, statues and even a strange hieroglyph that the archaeologists speculate was a message to visiting sailors that if they were seeking the pleasures of a woman to turn R up the road. The oldest profession in the world seems to have left its mark permanently.

We also visited some other interesting sights less reconstructed than Ephesus and a lot quieter. Our poor guide had had a big night with Turkey vs Slovkia in soccer and he had only made it to bed at 3am to get up for our tour at 6 he took some time to get started and then he was having trouble remembering what he had and hadn’t said.

We also popped up to Gallipoli where we had a tour of the site - a pilgrimage for some people. We had a local give us the tour and he provided us with some insight into the Turkish perspective on the war fought in this lands. It’s amazing to think they even managed to survive.

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