Tour of the Turks
TURKEY | Monday, 25 May 2015 | Views [179] | Scholarship Entry
My then girlfriend and I were in Turkey on a photography tour of Istanbul and Cappadocia. We had a great sense of adventure and we tried to get lost as much as possible and see the other side of the cities that is rarely seen. As we meandered within the alleys of Istanbul, I happen to witness several ladies peeking out of windows. Little did I know until it was too late that we had stumbled on the Red Light District but my girlfriend still unaware aws clicking away. This resorted to us being chased by the prostitutes who threw water and water bottles at us. We took off but in the huff my mate had damaged one of her shoes. She had to walk without shoes to the nearest store to buy new ones. It was quite a moment for my greatest fear was that it was acid instead of water being poured on us. I highly suspect my girlfriend was being targeted because she was really pretty and looks Russian for most of the projectiles and water landed near her.
Onward we left for Cappadocia, which is nearly 2 hours away by flight from Istanbul. We avoided using organised shuttles from Kayseri Airport to Goreme in Cappadocia which was our destination. Our intention was to use public transport and see the area more as we interacted with the people. It was interesting being an African traveller how locals are more fascinated by you than you being amongst them. As much as we did not understand the local language, we used Google translate to understand each other. They were quite intrigued by someone from Africa is travelling so many miles to visit their area. One bus driver went out of his way to show us the city and even stopped the bus for a while, went and bought us a local meal called "doner" and he carried us for free. As amazed as we were it took us quite a while to reach our final destination after switching several buses . We had booked to stay in a cave dwelling chiselled out from “fairy chimneys” which are tall, cone-shaped rock formations. These dwellings are ideal for both cold and warm seasons. We spent the next days touring the town on All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), cruising amongst the fairy chimney and beautiful landscape, which was more beautiful than we expected. We also went on a balloon ride on a cold -5°C morning which was quite the perfect way to top the photography trip. To end the trip,we woke very early the next morning to take pictures and timelapse images of over 100 hot air balloons being prepared and rising up in the sky as the sun rose in the background.
Tags: 2015 Writing Scholarship
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