Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 367

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We woke this morning and seeing that it was a sunny day we hastily got ready and headed for the ferry port at the front. Yesterday we asked the hostel owner where we could go to see a more local part of Turkey and he told us about a fishing village we could visit. Diane had recommended a trip down the river so the two recommendations fitted together nicely. Anaddukovegl was the last stop on a ferry that took two and a half hours down the Bosphorus. There was nowhere left to sit as the ferry was full to the brim of that annoying type of tourist. Down the side of the ferry we found a place to stand where we could watch the sights of Istanbul go by. It really is in the most beautiful ... read more

(not D) The 30-hour train ride from Aleppo clearly did save us time as biking would have taken slightly longer, but it was a bit of a long long long haul. We had a sleeper cabin to ourselves which was pretty good and the scenery of northwest Syria and southern Turkey was pretty amazing. We had a few complications with the Syrian train staff concerning food and money but we got there in the end. What started off as a single-carriage machine from Aleppo (which looked pretty odd) soon turned into a 15 carriage-thing as we cruised through Turkey into Constantinople. Istanbul was all pretty good fun. We decided to opt for the party hostel of the city- which proved to be pretty dead but by the end of it the place had lightened up a ... read more

Less than a two hour boat ride from Samos, we arrived in Kusadasi--a cute town full of knockoff shops and affordable restaurants. The meager number of tourists offered us great shopping deals but we used some restraint knowing that istanbul was the true mecca of merchandise. A 2 hour ride to the small town of selcuk sits less than 10 minutes away from the ancient city of ephesus ruled by the romans among other civilizations roughly 2000 years ago. The ruins here paint a vivid picture of what it must have looked like. The massive stone streets and pillars still remain and much more access is available than many sites of ruins we have visited. When we asked why this is..the response was simply "this is turkey, not greece." The Celsus library was impressive along with ... read more

Turkey - a long necked, wıde backsıded, ugly bırd wıth a small head that goes 'gobble gobble'. The natıon of the same name ıs gratefully a heck of a lot more exotıc. Istanbul was for us, lıke most people, our entry poınt and an ıdeal place to be weened onto the Mıddle East and off the West. It ıs festooned wıth: . cats, zıllıons of them, but at least they appear well treated and healthy. . natıonal flags. The Turks are a patrıotıc bunch. . posters of ımages of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - hero of the natıon. . natıonal flags emblazoned wıth ımages of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - why not kıll two bırds wıth one stone. Thıs guy ıs revered. 5 mınutes sılence wıll be observed on the 10th of November at 9.05am, as ıt ıs ... read more