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Published: September 30th 2009
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So what’s the difference between the phrase “We’re going travelling for a year” and underpants?
Not a lot, in our opinion. Underpants are items of clothing worn under your pants, or also seen as pants you wear under. Therefore underpants are self describing in their function.
Now it just so happens that “We’re going travelling for a year” is also self describing. Unfortunately, it was this aspect of our plan that we didn’t fully appreciate... In fact Pat, Dee’s dad, often referred to our “year long holiday” and we liked to smile and agree with him. But we now appreciate the subtle difference between travelling and a holiday, namely all the bloody travelling!!
So, to start a couple of things travelers need when visiting Turkey:
i) A taste for tea. These guys are awesome tea drinkers, and from what we have seen completely out do the Irish in their thirst for the stuff.
ii) Ability to play Backgammon. Turkish people are born with this and google quickly supplied us with enough understanding to have the courage to ask for a board. In no time at all the locals were giving us some useful tips.
iii)
And finally, an awareness of Islam. The simple parts are that there is a prophet Mohammed who lived in the 7th century, and there are 5 daily prayer calls that are sounded out on loud speakers all across the city…we couldn’t help notice the coincidence when we skyped Dee’s family and they were just going to Saturday Night Mass as we heard the call across Istanbul for evening prayer.
Istanbul
So we arrived in Istanbul safe and sound. It is an amazing city and is just buzzing continuously. We were lucky to be there for the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr festival, a 3 day bank holiday to celebrate.
The sights we saw in Istanbul included the Aya Sofya (an ancient church built by Christians in 537AD but converted to Islam in the 1500s). It was the highlight of the sights we saw and has already been visited by Mr Obama earlier this year; the Topkapi Palace, where we were able to see a piece of the Prophet’s beard; the Blue Mosque, one of the larger mosques in town and the Grand Bazaar a maze of 400 souks (aka shops).
We left Istanbul early on Monday to catch a 7am ferry south across the Sea of Marmara to Bandirma. We were nervous on our walk to the port as it wasn’t the greatest part of town. Thankfully we were escorted there by 2 of the early morning Istanbul security - 2 stray dogs walked all the way with us for the 45 minutes it took to get there. So yes, 2 strays and 2 dogs turned up for the early morning ferry.
Once in Bandirma, we got the train south for 6 hours to Izmir, a large industrial town, and from there got a train to Selcuk, the town near the ancient sight of Ephesus. It was over 13 hours on the road, and confirmed the traits we share with underpants!
Ephesus
In Selcuk we transformed ourselves into Backpackers! Well all we did was book in for 2 nights in Attilas Getaway. Atilla is an Australian-Turk and has set up a corner of Oz in Turkey. It’s a hostel with hammocks, swimming pool, bar (alcohol!!), volley ball and pool (more on that later). Great place to chill out and we arrived just in
time for the evening’s barbeque. The place was swarming with other backpackers, loads or Ozzies, kiwis, a few americans and a couple from malta.
Next day we went into Ephesus, which is staggeringly old. We didn’t fully appreciate the level of ancient Roman ruins that were along this coast, or that as the Roman Empire fell, its centre diverted to Turkey. At its height the city had a population estimated at 200,000. The only downside to the day was that there are close on the same number of tourists there daily as there were when it was occupied in 200 AD. We spent the day trying to take a photo without everyone else in it with us.
Then back to Attila’s for an early night before a long bus ride south the next day. We had dinner there and said we would have one cheeky beer before bed - let’s really go mad!! Then Rosie, who runs most things there as far as we could see started to organise a pool tournament so we said sure why not. 20 enthusiastic people signed up and paid their lira including us 2 weary travelers. Two hours later, 19 people were
out and Niall was crowned pool champ (a name that stuck until we left…). Atilla himself even took up the challenge claiming he wouldn’t be beaten. 3 games later, 3-0 and another free beer for Mr McCarthy. We stumbled to bed at about 2, Niall still undefeated and with Dee wondering if there might be a new way to finance the trip.
Next morning over more Turkish tea at breakfast, we decided that a 5 hour bus trip south was just about manageable so we headed for Fethiye; further down the coast and half way from Ephesus to Olympus.
Fethiye
We should note that the buses vary between Dolmuses ( think hias van with 4 or 5 rows of seats and less suspension) and minibuses holding about 20 people or so but crucially with AC. The public buses don’t seem to get any bigger than that.
Anyways, 6 hours later, 2 packs of biscuits and a bag of nachos and we were in Fethiye. This part of Turkey is just stunning, the coast line is some of the most amazing we have ever seen. We piled out of our little bus and headed
for the nearest restaurant with stomachs rumbling. We had heard that you can buy your fish at the harbour and bring it to the restaurant where they will cook it for you with salad and rice, but couldn’t wait that long and at 13lira (about £6) for a full sea bass we weren’t that worried. Tasty. A few teas and some backgammon later and we were almost local.
Olympos
So having nicely rested in Fethiye we got back on the bus to head for our next destination - Olympos (not to be confused with the Greek Olympus). Similar to Ephesus it dates back to the early Roman Empire and there are ruins absolutely everywhere. However, they are far less well preserved than Ephesus so when you are wandering around on the way to the beach you almost feel like you have just discovered the tomb of Marcus Aurelius or a 2000 year old falling down church with mosaic on the floors. It's a really beautiful place and was nice to be able to have some time on the beach in between ruin discoveries.
Not only did we get to chill on the beach, we
especially enjoyed the treehouses we stayed in whilst there. That evening we headed to the local hotspot (literally!), the Chimaera Flames, with some of the treehouse gang. They are one of only two places in the world, the other somewhere in Chilli, where natural gas is released from the mountain and burns continuously and has done so for thousands of years. It is rumoured that this could be the first fire that was used during the ancient Olympic games.
Cappadocia
From Olympos, we took our first over night bus to a region called Cappadocia where we spent 3 days. If we are honest, the landscape here is awe inspiring. Millions of years ago three active volcanoes created a volcanic landscape that has eroded over time to leave a landscape of towers and pillars of rock. Then in the early Christian times, the area became a monastic site and the priests carved houses, churches and whole cities into the rock (one city is 8 floors, 55 metres deep and housed an estimated 3,000 people). So the landscape is incredible, but the people living in caves is also wicked. Of course we had to have a go
and booked ourselves in for 2 nights in our own cave hostel!
The final cool thing about the area are the hot air balloons. While we couldn't afford the experience on our limited travelers budget, we did get up early to see 50 or so of them all across the dawn sky.
So that's the trip to date, we leave here tonight for another night bus (all this bloody travelling!!) to Antakya just shy of the Syrian border. From there we hope to take on the border crossing on Thursday morning.
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Katie
non-member comment
Wow!!!
Hi guys (not sure if you get these msgs so will keep this brief!) wow your trip sounds amazing and I LOVE your photos one of you (or both) is a kick ass photographer!!! Your blog has inspired me to go to Turkey I have never been there but looks and sounds amazing. I know what you mean about all the travelling it does get tiring! Well not much happening here. Oh apart from last wknd I went back to Mansfield for a 10 year reunion - can u believe it 10 yrs since starting. It was so much fun, not many people went (well as it worked out just people I like so that was good, Cath, Alex, both Gemmas, Simon, Rhys, Cath A, Nick, Abby H and Stephen Davis) my sides were hurting from laughing so much and do you know what people/things don't change do they? Which of course is nice!!! I spilt loads of port and got pissed out of my head as usual, so as I say nothing changes. lol. I also started my masters at Manchester Uni, it is ace should of done it years ago, so things are good. Be safe and happy travels, love K