Turkiyeh!

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Its kinda funny that straight from Greece I went to Turkey.. :p but what an experience!!!! Turkey has been one of my fave countries so far (along w Japan and now - in hindsight - Morocco, in terms of surprising me with how much I like them, how friendly the people are, how good the food is and how beautiful they are as countries). They are definitely all places I would go back to and strongly recommend to everyone!!

Turkey is the hub of world history (or at least one of them) … Any Greek reading this may resent such a statement, since Greek history is so influential on the modern Western World... this Greek history, along with other histories (most fascinating of which is the Persian Empire) can be found in modern-day Turkey... or as one of our tour guides nicely put it - it's the history of Anatolia) 😉

Istanbul is a perfect blend of East meets West (I always thought Beirut was, but Istanbul is more so...or is in a different way) and quite special for being part of Europe (3%) and Asia (97%). The Turks seem to have come a long way from the supressive Ottoman period and the wars that followed it. They have developed a fantastic tourism industry, very professional and well organized - though I'm told by those who travelled there before me that these changes are very recent and have come about in the past four years or so. Turkey is also doing a lot to improve its tourism and welcome its nearby neighbours. One thing people raved on to me about in Turkey (and later in Lebanon) is the fact that Turkey had just opened its doors to Lebanese tourists to enter without a Visa (this really made me wish I had created a Leb passport since I had to buy a Visa on my Australian one)... hehe... politics!

back to being in Turkey...

... As you may have read in my last blog, Ola and I had split up again in Athens and I left a day before her with the plan of meeting her in Istanbul the following day. It's really quite funny how we keep doing that in our travels ... splitting up to go to the same place! anyway...

I was happy to get another dose of "alone-time" (for a day), but also really looking fwd to spending some time w Ola in Turkey. Spent the whole day in Istanbul trying very hard not to be a tourist - just because after almost 7mths of travel I was really sick of feeling like a tourist all the time... like a stranger to the place... the newcomer who knew nothing and wanted to see everything in a short period of time. I found myself not wanting to go anywhere or see anything (touristy).

I had found a great hostel online - if i remember its name i'll definitely add it, coz i do recommend it (Ola... help!!) - and went straight there without getting too ripped off by the taxi, dumped my stuff, etc and took tram up to main area. I Kind of saw the blue mosque, didn’t see Agia Sofia, saw the underground citadel thingy (forgot what it was / tho i loved it!) and walked all over the streets in the main part of town.

I also remember meeting a guy at my hostel called Oscar, a Spaniard... Anyway, at some point in my time there, I think the 2nd morning there while waiting for Ola to arrive, he & I walked around the Grand Bazzare. That was nice dear =) hehe

Feeling like I needed a great coffee and some "watch people go by" time, I found a nice little cafe and sat down to have my first ever Turkish coffee! It wasn't long before Abdulla was sitting at the table with me and we were having a great conversation (which sometimes also involved the cafe staff). Abdulla stands outside a carpet store pretty much hassling tourists that walk by. I was watching him and laughing (I thought he was witty and charming) as he hassled an Australian woman that was walking by. What made me laugh most was his attempt at the Australian accent as a way to try to convince this woman that he too was Australian! hahaha... she didnt believe him (surprise surprise!), got really annoyed and stormed off... so Abdulla amused by my appreciation of his efforts sat with me and started talking to me. Naturally it came up in conversation that I was interested in doing a tour of some of the key Turkish places (mostly suggested by Ola since I never know anything about a place before I visit it). It turns out (rather conveniently) that Abdulla has a friend who owns a travel agency and he organised for me to go see her =)

Her name is Derya and she runs Pride Travel (named for its expertise in organising gay tours)! hehe... Derya was wonderful! We got along so well and I spent 2hrs in her office talking to her and her staff about everything and anything. She was also so helpful about tours info and gave me a really good price... she even let me call Greece from her office to confirm w Ola that she wants the tour!!! Now that's service w a smile! =) I booked a 10day tour for me & oolalah which included 2 days of rest and a visit to some of the main destinations like Ephesus, Pamukkale, Kusadasi beach and Capadokia.

I never regretted booking a tour in Turkey. Ola and I had both travelled heaps by this stage and were sick of planning everything... we were both more than happy to have an entire trip booked including all transport, hotels etc.. & Turkey is definitely a great place to do that... in fact I think they're trying to encourage it so much that it works out cheaper and a lot easier to do it thru a tour rather than solo.

Our 10days in Turkey were amazing & so memorable. Every place we went to was stunning, historically and/or physically fascinating, hotels were super nice and the tours were so well done! Probably the best tour I’ve ever experienced. The guides were well educated (they study 5yrs to be a guide!!!), very informative, friendly, helpful… buses were new, comfy, driving was excellent.. the Turkish hammam was great! and in Capadokia we ended up with the same small group of 6, who we got along with so well and one of whom (Yau - who I later went to Morocco with) has become a good friend =) It was also really good to time the trip with some breaks in the middle to just lie on the beach or walk around a city aimlessly (trying to catch up on sleep from an overnite bus ride).

In Kusadasi beach we met so many boys, mostly kurds (as they and others pointed out to us), who actually fought over me on the beach haha!! as sleezy as they were... it was quite amuzing having a bunch of guys fight over me! One would fix my beach lounge, whilst the other would bring me pepsi, then the other would bring me ice for my pepsi and glow as he realises this was a great move! then I would receive peanuts as an offer, followed by french fries from another, only to be rivalled by watermelon from another guy! hahaha....
The fight was "won" (and this is the point i realised it how serious the competition was) when one of the guys picked me up off my lounge, carried me into the water (at this point I was kicking and screaming like a real girl) and tried to kiss me. He thought he was sooo romantic until I yelled at him, pretended to choke on the waves and stormed out of the water! erhm.... very lady-like... anyway, the others saw this (the first part only) and assumed that I had "chosen" him... so they came sulking to me telling me how sad they were about my choice and went away in a deeper sulk... molto interessante indeed! hahahaha....

Meanwhile, Ola had quietly found a very nice looking boy and had quietly sat with him watching the kafussle over me and the drama that was unfolding in front of her... she was very bemused by the whole thing ;p
Tnx sis!!! Ola's guy came in handy when he gave us a lift back to our hotel after the beach... my guys came in handy again that nite when we went to the bar they promoted and they gave us free drinks, Turkish / Kurdish dance lessons and free music downloads from the resident DJ =) hihi

After our tour we had one final day in Istanbul. At this point I was well in the spirit of tourism and had realised that I HAD to see Agia Sofia! It cost $20 entry but was so beautiful and fascinating and well worth the visit! Ola and I also walked around the city, I showed her two cute cafés that I had come to like from my one day solo there. We stayed at one of the cafes for a drink and found the most peculiar cats - there were two of them who spent the entire time (more than one hour) following each other around, sleeping while hugging and seriously embracing each other - I asked the owner (a funny man himself) what their names were. I was expecting a lame but suitable answer like 'Romeo & Juliette', but instead he bemusingly answered "communism and feminism" ... hahaha... best cat names ever!!!

To keep up with our tradition, I left Ola at "my" hostel that nite and flew off to Beirut – Ola met me there the next day.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP AND LIFE LONG DREAM #483 ACHIEVED!

i went hot air ballooning in Capadokia!!!!
was awesome!!!
had to wake up at some ungodly hour.... was packed into the balloon with a group of korean tourists who i competed with over who can take more photos of the trip... had a great chat with our super cool and hot female pilot who was a gun at flying the thing... got a certificate with my name spelt Hara Abdelnour on it.... those who know what hara means in arabic will see how funny that is! had some champange at the end of it to celebrate and went on to explore capadokia by foot for the rest of the day =)

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