There was a lot that Georgia, Abe
and I wanted to see in Turkey, and we only had 11 days in which to do it
all! We were on a tight but well
planned schedule… let the Amazing Race of Turkey begin!
Bodrum
After passing through passport control
and buying some cheap duty free Absolut vodka, we set off to find our
accommodation, and did so with the help of numerous friendly locals along the
way. Our Pension was very cute,
with a nice courtyard, trees and seats which would be perfect for drinking beer
later on. We stayed only one night
in Bodrum as we were heading up to Kusadasi on an early bus the next day, which
is unfortunate as Bodrum seemed like a nice town. We had lunch at a restaurant on the water and an awesome
dinner at a place just opposite our accommodation. The theme in Turkey is definitely MEAT! And we discovered Turkish beer, Efes –
very nice!
Kusadasi/Selcuk/Ephesus
On our second day we caught a bus
to Soke and a minibus on to Kusadasi.
It was there that the mix-up started! Our hostel in Kusadasi had rung Georgia and said to make
sure we get dropped in Kusadasi central, not on the outskirts. Somehow there was a mix-up in communication
and we ended up on a minibus that took us to Selcuk (about 20km from our
accommodation but only 3km from Ephesus), which sounds very similar to central
when pronounced correctly! The
driver offered to take us back for free, but then a guy called Michael offered
to store our bags in his bus ticket shop while we went to Ephesus. That seemed like a much better
plan! As soon as all the guys at
the bus stop found out we were kiwis they fell over themselves trying to help
us, calling out “kia ora!” – it’s nice to know we are so well liked as a nation!
Michael gave us a driver, Enis,
who took us to Ephesus and lent us his book on the place while we walked
around, and then picked us up again when we were finished. Ephesus was AMAZING! It really is very well preserved, and
we wandered through for about 2 hours.
I think our favourite were the terraced houses, which had amazing
mosaics, wall paintings, etc. In
one area they were putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle of marble that had
lined the walls of the marble hall and broken off and buried during an
earthquake. Even the latrine
plumbing was still preserved! Of
course we also visited the public latrines and took photos while sitting on
them!
After Ephesus, Enis took us to
see his brothers Van cats (quite famous type of cat with different coloured
eyes that like swimming in water!) and carpet shop (we didn’t buy, but he was
fine with that which is a nice change from Asia!), and then pointed us towards
a good place for lunch. Finally we
picked up our bags from Michael, bought a bus ticket for the next day and got
on a minibus to Kusadasi. We
finally arrived at our accommodation around 6pm and got a free welcome drink
and the offer of a bbq dinner at the rooftop restaurant/bar. We shared excellent food with some
fellow kiwis and aussies, and then smoked apple water pipe and drank Raki (similar
to Ouzo, with a disgusting aniseed flavour). The guys at the hostel tried to convince us to go out
partying, but we had to get another bus the next morning out to Pamukkale so we
declined. All in all in was a
totally unplanned but awesome adventurous day! Turkish people are extremely friendly and only too happy to
help.
Pamukkale
And we’re off again… the bus to
Pamukkale took about 4 hours, we arrived just after midday. We dumped our bags in the room and
headed out for lunch, eating spinach and cheese Gozleme (like a pancake) and
Turkish coffee, yum! And then we
headed for Pamukkale’s main attraction, the Travertines, which are deposits of
calcium carbonate that have precipitated out of mineral water and formed in
terraces (similar to NZ’s pink and white terraces before they were destroyed by
the Tarawera eruption). We had
heard from numerous sources that the Travertines are not as spectacular as they
used to be (apparently they used to have lots of water cascading over them) as
much of the water has been diverted now.
What we found was better than expected, there is still a lot of water in
places, and they still look amazing!
We walked up, taking lots of photos, and then headed straight for the
thermal pool. The thermal pool is
pretty amazing, it is littered with old Roman columns that are thought to have
fallen into the pool during an earthquake in the 7th century
AD. The water is also full of
minerals and is supposed to have numerous medicinal benefits. At a comfortable 35-36°C we
stayed in for over an hour and were feeling very relaxed! Surrounding the Travertines is also the
ancient town of Hierapolis, but we didn’t really have much time to see these
ruins. We were happy to have just
seen the Travertines and swum in the thermal pool!
Olympos
The following day we headed off
on a bus to Olympos, a small town on the south coast well known for the Chimera
(eternal flame), beautiful beach and ancient ruins. After a 7 hour bus ride we checked into our accommodation in
treehouses! Kadir’s Treehouses are
pretty cool, each one has a theme (ours was The Simpsons, and there was even a
Jandal Whare!). The place is
backpacker heaven, with breakfast and dinner included (really good food!), a
bar/nightclub that is open til very late (or early depending on how you look at
it), and lots of activities available (sea kayaking, rock climbing, canyoning,
etc.).
That night we headed off to the
Chimera, which is not one but several flames that have been constantly burning
for thousands of years, fuelled by natural gas seeping out of the rock – very
cool indeed and an amazing sight to behold! The Olympic torch today is a symbol of Chimera’s eternal
flame.
The following day was mainly a
rest day, we just had to be in Antalya that evening to catch an overnight bus
to Cappadocia. We spent some time
at the beach and wandering through the ancient ruins of Olympos. Thinking we had plenty of time, we
caught the shuttle bus up to the main highway to get a bus to Antalya, only to
see several buses pass us by because they were full! We hadn’t counted on Friday evening being so popular… just when it seemed like we might not
make it, a bus pulled in with one seat left, so we begged and pleaded with the
driver to let us squeeze in (standing room only folks!), showing him our
overnight bus ticket. In the end
he agreed and we were off! We made
the overnight bus with only 15 minutes to spare, phew! It wouldn’t be an amazing race without
some tight travel connections!!
Cappadocia
On the overnight bus we awoke to
a completely different world. As
our bus descended into the town of Goreme we were amazed by the sight of huge
pinnacles and houses built into the cliff faces (including our hotel room!). We were booked on a tour that day,
where we found out that the area is all volcanic basalt, andesite and
tuff. We visited the Goreme Open
Air Museum, various other sights around the area, had an amazingly yummy buffet
lunch, visited a pottery place and finally a carpet shop where they showed us
the different types of Turkish carpet and how they are made. Georgia got talking to one of the
salesmen and found out his wife is from Perth! After he found out that we live there he invited us over for
dinner the following night – you can’t beat Turkish hospitality!
The following day we were on
another tour, which took us to an old monastery built into the hillside, a walk
through the Ilhara Valley (very pretty and green, with all the flowers in
bloom), and to a large underground city which was in use about 2000 years ago. The city was amazing, with narrow
tunnels leading to living areas, a school, church, stables, and ventilation
shafts! That night we had dinner
with Georgia’s new friend and his wife (from Perth) and their two children
(very cute!). It was awesome to be
welcomed into their home and have some ‘family time’ after staying in
guesthouses and backpackers for 3 months, we almost felt like we had come home!
Our last day in Cappadocia was a
rest day, where we spent some time on the net, ate food and played backgammon. Our only commitment that day was to
make it to the bus station in time to catch another overnight bus to Istanbul –
thankfully we made this one without any dramas!
Istanbul
We arrived in Istanbul around 7am
to the hugest bus station I have ever seen! A short minibus ride later we were in the tourist district
and trying to check in to our hotel which supposedly had 24 hour check-in but
the doors were locked and no one was there! Luckily someone with a mobile phone called them and they
opened up for us… obviously this is a night city! We dumped our bags and set off on a mission – Agia Sofia,
the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the hammam (Turkish baths), and booking a
trip to Gallipoli and Troy for the following day. Tick, tick, tick, tick and tick! What a day… the Blue Mosque and Agia Sofia were amazing; the
Grand Bazaar was HUGE and Georgia and I bought some funky hats for Glastonbury;
I got scrubbed from neck to toe by old Turkish ladies at the hammam (Abe opted
out of this experience, I’m not sure being in a room full of naked men appealed
much); and we found out that the only way we could do Gallipoli and Troy in the
same day was to take a midnight bus that arrives into Cannakale at 6am, do a
Troy tour in the morning and then Gallipoli in the afternoon, taking a bus back
to Istanbul arriving at midnight – it was the ultimate 24 hour mission… the
decision? Let’s do it!!
Troy and Gallipoli
One overnight bus later we met up
with our tour group in Cannakale to the west of Istanbul, and headed for the
ancient city of Troy. The main
initial attraction at Troy is a full sized fake Trojan horse that you can climb
up into – ah, the tourists were loving it! The city itself is not as well preserved as others we had
seen, but the most interesting thing was that it has up to 9 “layers”, each one
representing different stages of city construction between about 3000 BC and
500 AD!
After lunch we headed for
Gallipoli. In total we visited
about nine sites, the most memorable of which were Anzac Cove, Lone Pine (the
Australian memorial and cemetary) and Chunuk Bair (the NZ memorial). Being such a beautiful sunny day it was
at first hard to imagine what it would have been like for the soldiers fighting
here for nine months in 1915, and even harder to believe that so many people
lost their lives. But looking at
all the memorials and gravestones, museum artefacts (including letters that
soldiers wrote to home), wandering through old trenches, and hearing about the
stories from that time brought it all to life and the afternoon ended up being
quite a humbling and emotional experience. And a fitting end to the Amazing Race of Turkey.
Another
bus ride later we ended up in Istanbul shortly before midnight before
collapsing into bed. The following
day Abe and I headed for the airport to catch a flight to London and then on to
Croatia, while Georgia had another day in Turkey before she was due to fly to
Vienna. What an unforgettable
Amazing Race!!
