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Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 6
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January 10th 2013
Very cold again this morning for our visit to Ephesus, but with a clear blue sky and sunshine - fantastic. We left the hotel at 9.00am and we were being dropped off at the Eastern (uphill) side of Ephesus by about twenty past. What a difference from last year! We were very close to being the only tourists at the Eastern Gymnasium and Baths of the State Agora as Yalçin introduced us to the ancient city of Ephesus. Last year our guide stood with us under a lovely, leafy tree. It was strange to see that tree without its leaves today. While the ruins may endure the seasons with little visible change, the surroundings certainly reflect the passage of the year. We took our time strolling through the Upper (State) Agora (the city's centre of commerce ... read more
January 9th 2013
Even thought we just posted a blog we spent an amazing day at Ephesus and decided to post some pics from it. The weather has turned and we see on the TV, Istanbul has snow. Here, we are just very cold, but beautiful clear crisp air made for some nice photos. Ephesus was amazing! Originally an early Greek settlement in 1000 BC thru 6th century AD, with as many as 250,000 people. Lots of wars and a silting harbor contributed to its demise. There continues to be alot of excavation, with every dig they seem to find something! With the cold it was a very quiet day, and when we were touring the terraced houses we were the only ones there. Many times we would just sit and listen. It was very easy to envision it, ... read more
January 9th 2013
Well, some people who are following our blog have been kind enough to say that they are enjoying our photos of the amazing sites that we are seeing. On the other hand, some of our followers just want to see pictures of my hats!! I didn't realise that mentioning my hat purchase would create so much interest. We were on the road by 8.00am again this morning. Very cold again today, but clear and sunny here on the Aegean Coast. It only took us about 25 minutes to drive to our first stop today at the legendary City of Troy. Before exploring the city ruins we were able to see the Trojan horse. As with most other sites that we have visited there were lots of stray cats and dogs roaming about but, of course, these ... read more
January 8th 2013
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru.One chilly morning in September 2012, the Finance team arrived at Kayseri Airport. We were all excited to see the beautiful region of Cappadocia. On our way to our hotel, our eyes were glued on the picturesque scenery of the valleys, rock formations and cave houses. When we arrived at Lalesaray Hotel, we were more fascinated to see the surreal landscape of the region. We are so lucky because our hotel is perfectly located at the ... read more
Istanbul for the Umpteenth Time - Love it more each time I visit
Published: January 19th 2013Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul » Sultanahmet
January 8th 2013
I must admit that on this trip, probably my 6th or 7th to Istanbul, I didn't wander far from Sultanahmet. I stayed three days and there were a few sites I wanted to see in Sultanahmet, and a friend I wanted to visit, but mostly I just wanted to wander the streets a bit and relax and have some good food and drink. I accomplished all of this and then some. This trip to Turkey was bittersweet for me. There are many things I love about Turkey, and many things I don't. But after my experience of living in Selçuk for one year, in a relationship that was bad and ended badly, I wasn't sure I would ever want to come back. I have been to Turkey twice now since I moved from Selçuk, and both ... read more
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Istanbul to Canakkale via Gallipoli
Published: January 8th 2013Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Gallipoli
January 8th 2013
We left Istanbul at 8.00am this morning in the snow! The roads were pretty wet and icy, but we made it out of the city without incident heading for Gallipoli. Once we cleared Istanbul the weather actually improved a bit. We thought that it might be worse on the Gallipoli Peninsula, but the snow stopped and the sky cleared. We even had some sun. We had a comfort break after a couple of hours. I think the minibus appreciated the break the most - it had a complete wash down to clear all the snow sludge from the windscreen and windows. The bus has an electric door and side step mechanism, but the ice had fouled things up a bit and the step was stuck halfway out ... or was it halfway in? After another hour ... read more
And on the fourth day ... It snowed!! (Istanbul - Day 4)
Published: January 7th 2013Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul
January 7th 2013
Brrr, it is really, really, really cold today!! Saturday was positively mild by comparison. We met Yalcin and our driver in the foyer about 9.15am this morning and headed to Topkapi Palace. We had much better weather when we visited on Saturday morning, today it started to snow not long after we arrived! Although we had already seen the palace we were happy to go back for a return visit. We didn't hire audio guides on Saturday because we knew that we would be back on Monday with our tour guide. Sure enough, Yalcin was able to tell us about the history of the palace and we even saw some things that we missed on Saturday. At the weekend, when we went through the building housing the royal weapons and armour we didn't notice all of ... read more
January 6th 2013
Our first stop today was the Dolmabahçe Palace. We caught the tram to the Kabatas terminus and then walked from there to the palace entrance. We arrived just in time to slip on our plastic overshoes and join the 9.30am English speaking tour. In 1843, Sultan Abdül Mecit wanted to reinvent the Ottoman Empire in a European image. The luxurious and lavishly decorated Dolmabahçe Sarayi, completed in 1856, is the result of that ambition. The gold and crystal decorations rival those of the Palace of Versailles in France. The sheer extravagance of this palace hastened the end of the Empire and the last emperor fled from here into exile in 1922. In 1922 the sultanate was abolished and in 1923 a republic was declared. Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal Pasa (Atatürk - 'Father of the Turks') ... read more
January 5th 2013
We didn't sleep too badly overnight. We slept until about midnight/1.00am and then managed another stretch until about 4.30am. After than we only dozed until about 6.00am when we gave up on sleeping and decided to write some more of the travel diary and process some of yesterday's photos. About 7.00am we hit the shower before venturing down to the mezzanine level for breakfast. After a quick breakfast we headed back to our room to put on several layers of clothing to go out sightseeing for the day. The trouble is that it is so warm in the room we feel really uncomfortable layering up our clothes. Of course that only lasts until we step out the front door! In fact this morning, by the time we had topped up our travel card at a kiosk ... read more
January 4th 2013
With our boarding time approaching we started heading down to Gate 10. Fortunately, before we walked all the way there, we checked the departure board to discover that our gate had been changed to Gate 3!! So it was about turn and back to Gate 3 ... which wasn't open so we wandered around looking for some more seating. We were really struggling to stay awake by this stage. We nearly dozed off sitting in the seats arranged around the television screens so we thought we should head back to see if the Gate 3 lounge was open. Easier for them to find us asleep there than have to mount a search of Terminal 3 if we missed our boarding call. Finally, it was back onto the plane at 0050 for our 0150 departure to Istanbul. ... read more
