I am completely taken with Turkey - impressed and mesmerised by the rich history, some of the best cuisine I've tasted, locals with endless hospitality and insightful philosophies, and some of the world's greatest scenery - from the minaret-laiden skyline of Istanbul to the strange and soaring mountains of the capadoccia region. I had this burning question... Is turkey part of the Asian or European continent?! Well in case you also weren't sure - the answer is both!! Turkey is on the Mediterranean, in the Anatolian region of West Asia, with a very small section in Southeastern Europe separated by the Turkish Straits. It has a huge variety of terrain and diverse plant life, and it can exhibit all four seasons at the one time in different parts of the country. This unique mix of East and West has given Turkey a profound depth of culture and I made every effort to immerse myself in it - ate kebaps daily, bought a 40 year old carpet, visited ancient ruins and caves in mountains and meditated to the Whirling Dervishes.
I had a week or so spare between Tunisia and California... So naturally I spent most of my days in Tunisia sitting in a cafe by the sea madly googling top travel destinations, skyscanner-ing every possible flight out of Tunis... and I always seemed to come back to Turkey! Few reasons... Istanbul was actually top of my list for Europe originally, but I had never made it there; workaway.com had a volunteering opportunity I liked the sound of - a family in the centre of turkey - Konya who wanted someone to help out in the house and speak English with the kids for a few hours a day; and this seemed perfect because Konya is the place to see the most authentic presentation of the Whirling Dervishes in Turkey. It has always been one of my dreams to see these ethereal performers after studying them extensively at school in order to base my character and costume for the year 12 drama production on them!! Also, I recently came across one of those "places to visit before you die" websites which included the region of Cappadocia - near Konya!! So, clearly it was meant to be- Turkey here I come! After having planned to volunteer for the week, turns out I just like being a tourist too much!! I packed in a whirlwind tour of Turkey in 7 days... Flew into Antalya (south), 8 hour bus to Konya (centre), 4 hour bus to Capadoccia, flew from Capadoccia to istanbul, flew Istanbul to Konya, flew Konya to Istanbul and finally flew Istanbul to London!!
Kooky Konya
The Turkish Whirling dervishes have become a tourist attraction despite not being intended for entertainment. Sufi whirling is a form of physically active meditation (Sufism being a branch of the Islam religion) and the ceremony is performed to try to reach religious ecstasy. This is sought through abandoning your ego or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning your body in repetitive circles - a symbolic imitation of the planets orbiting the sun.
I thoroughly enjoyed the pre-ceremony talk presented on the ideals and basics of Islam, getting an insight into the religion and the meaning behind the Sufi ceremony. While whirling, the dervishes' arms are open - right arm directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence, and left hand turned toward the earth to convey God's spiritual gift to the people. Revolving from right to left around the heart, they embrace all humanity with love. Humans has been created with love in order to love eachother. Rumi (the first Dervish) says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!" And with all of this love in mind, I indulged in the meditative sublimeness of the whirling dervishes who spun almost continuously for an hour, so graceful, so entrancing, so surreal.
In Konya I was lucky enough to have been invited to tour the city and a gorgeous waterfall with some photographers from Istanbul and a beautiful local girl, Emine, who spoke no English yet managed to create a special friendship with me! We had a wonderful time sharing delicious meals and raucous laughter when Ati decided that I look like the French actor, Gérard Depardieu, and was determined that I was his daughter!
Captivating Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a hidden treasure in central Turkey with a unique moon-like landscape, underground cities, cave churches and houses carved into rocks. The valley, canyon, and unusual rock formations were formed due to eroding rains, thousands of years of winds and volcanic ash. The end result is what took my breath away - bizzare mushroom shaped, pinnacled, capped and conic shaped formations called fairy chimneys. I went for 3 long hikes - through Pigeon Valley, Love Valley, Red Valley and Rose Valley... each valley more impressive than the one before! Sometimes I thought I was on the moon, other times in the desert or even on another planet, and some views had me so dumbstruck and speechless I found myself audibly gasping at the strange and beautiful landscape surrounding me. These hikes were even more special for me because there was noone else around - seriously one day I went for about 5 or 6 hours before I saw another person! For me this was perfect - just me and stunning nature, having a romantic date and loving it! There were two distinct moments of bliss for me - when I first reached Love Valley, stood on the edge of a steep descent looking along the stretch of mushroom fairy chimneys and realised I had never seen anything like this before and I was definitely not in Kansas anymore; the second was sitting in a little cubby hole I found right on the edge of a mountain face, eating a mandarin and a bar of chocolate (or 4) overlooking a sprawling ancient city on one side, green hills in front of me, deep red mountains on the other side and a myriad of colours of flora and rock formations in between. Heaven. Hiking through the Cappadocia valleys added to the list of pinch-myself moments I seem to be collecting; yet again, astounded by the scenery the world has to offer and forever grateful that I managed to make a decision to come here - and boy, was it a good decision!!!
**stupid traveller mistake no.5**
I got a bit cocky with my hiking skills after a few days and attempted to climb up a very steep soft rock mountain. After getting up about 4 or 5 metres, with a few little slips and poor foot holds along the way, I looked below and realised I was stuffed for getting back down again. The rock was extremely crumbly and useless for gripping on to. But this excited and thrilled me a little bit. Maybe I was just looking for an adrenaline rush, maybe I wanted to prove to myself how daring I could be, or maybe I had migrated into fantasy land (i.e. I was Bella in Twilight) and thought I'd see flashes of sexy Robin Pattinson if I put myself in a dangerous situation. I reached a spot with a 2-3m almost-vertical drop and my heart started racing - when you know that what you’re about to do is not going to end well. I’m not sure how I thought it was going to work...needless to say I landed at the bottom with my leggings completely hacked and ripped open around the bum area, a huge gash in my right butt cheek and grazes on both palms!!
Cappadocia had plenty of other hidden secrets to offer - there are several underground cities that were used by early Christians as hideouts. It is believed that the tunnels were first dug out in the 7th and 8th centuries B.C, and then refined in 5-10th centuries AD. Wandering around inside one of them, I imagined how the people used to live in there for up to 2 months at a time, in the dark, having created the usual types of rooms including a kitchen, storage area, stables for animals, and even a church! The director of Star Wars Episode 1 was apparently so inspired by the otherwordliness of the scenery in this area that he planned to shoot the film here (it didn't end up happening due to political reasons but provided a basis for the set built in the Tunisian desert - which I happened to see a few weeks ago!!!). On a food note, Turkey seems to offer some really nice and cheap chocolate bars... And with prices like that, I just couldn't help myself. So I returned to my usual solo traveller habit of devouring multiple (yes I'm talking 5-8 on average) chocolate bars a day, a large bag of Doritos (they're just so good!), and in between I would always make room for meals... I became a regular at the local kebap place - always getting the same chicken wrap thing (about $2.20), and I was always the only customer :)
Impressive Istanbul
I actually didn't think I had time for Istanbul, so it was a last minute decision when I realised I couldn't possibly leave Turkey without at least setting my eyes upon this vibrant city - even if it was only for one day!! Luckily, Ati (who I met in Konya) is a couchsurfer host and drew me a fabulous map of the most important sites, exactly how I would get from A to B to be as efficient as possible in my mammoth one day tour of Istanbul. Turks take breakfast very seriously, so I started the day in Ati's restaurant, 'Kristal' with a standard selection of hot fries, bread rolls, cheese, salad, spreads and a delicious egg-tomato-herby mixture. After a bus ride to Karakoy, I caught the ferry across to Eminonu freezing my butt off in a severely under-prepared outfit for the crisp late November weather. There I indulged in a delicious piece of baklava (or 4) and headed to the Blue Mosque. It was my lucky day because I arrived just in time for prayer... Told the security guards that I wanted to pray too and next thing I was in a shawl, a wrap around skirt and shoes off. I went upstairs and joined the other women, feeling intrigued and a little out of place. I tried to emulate their actions - stand up, kneel down, head to floor - which meant that I didn't really get a chance to become very spiritually moved in the process. I also noticed there were a few people with iPads and iPhones out, filming the ceremony so I didn't feel too touristy or nervous being there.
I stayed long enough to marvel at the stunning interior of the mosque and enjoy being immersed in a different culture before quietly slipping out and making it just in time for a free lecture on the Muslim culture and the Islam religion. I found this presentation extremely insightful, learnt a lot about the similarities between Islam and Christianity and even scored myself a free gift bag with a stack of books I'm keen to read and discover more about this interesting religion which seems to resonate well with my values! Oh, and that reminds me, I've now spent almost a month Muslim countries- where I've been treated to a call to prayer 5 times a day every day. The 'adhan' can be heard everywhere as it is projected on a loudspeaker by a 'muezzin' from every mosque in the city and lasts about a minute (I even heard it hiking deep in the Cappadocian mountains!!) The call summons Muslims for worship and just means that they need to pray in a mosque at some point in time before the next call. The same words are sung every time - relating to Allah being the greatest *except for in the morning...the first call of the day at dawn has the added line "Prayer is better than sleep" haha :) Actually I just remembered that Ahmed had an app on his iPhone with the Muslim call to prayer that goes off 5 times a day!! (... Not that he paid any attention to it!) After my spiritual morning, I turned to the glitz and glamour of the opulent Topkapi Palace- the residence of various Ottomon sultans between 1453 and 1839. The palace is quite spectacular from the outside - a collection of domes and minarets commandeering the city skyline. The complex is actually made up of lovely grassed areas, courtyards and buildings filled with brilliantly coloured thrones, diamonds, and clothing worn in that era. I marvelled at the opulence of the imperial treasury - ruby studded mirrors, swords encrusted with jewels, gold water jugs, jade bowls, a huge striking diamond, and the gold and emerald Topkapi Dagger (made famous by the movie Topkapi).
**stupid traveller mistake no. 6 - the winner!! **
So I was already running late getting back to Kristal, Ati’s restaurant, which is near Starbucks on Ataturk street. I was lucky to meet two lovely guys on the way to the ferry, and Adnan came with me all the way to Karakoy. There he helped me get on the bus, talked to the driver in Turkish, and I heard “Ataturk street, Starbucks". They chatted a bit more (my internal made up translation was something like "that's where she wants to get off" "ok I'll tell her" "great thanks") but the driver took off in a hurry so I never got to clarify with Adnan. Never mind, I was pretty sure I'd remember where to get off anyway. Well, think again Kish! 45 mins later (now about 11pm) I reached the end of the bus route, in woop woop near a university, with only one other passenger on board - a physics student - who luckily spoke English and came to my rescue when I asked the driver why he didn't tell me where to get off?! (the driver spoke to English). Turns out that initial chat with Adnan was more like "I don't know where Starbucks on Ataturk street is" "oh, well don't worry she knows" "ok". So Mr Physics discussed with the driver, at length, what I should do and then he kindly took me through the deserted Uni to another bus stop where we spoke to people who suggested I get on a bus all the way back to Karakoy and start again!! Ugh. Eventually a bus came and Mr Physics asked New Helpful Guy to take over looking after me. We made a plan for me to get off somewhere close to Kristal, which was tricky enough in itself - phones were passed around with Ati on one end and the driver, me or New Helpful Guy on the other and we finally came to an arrangement that New Helpful Guy would tell me where to get off (he called his English speaking friend to tell me this). The last thing Ati said on the phone was "they will tell you where to get off and I will meet you". By this stage the whole front of the bus was involved in my dramas, sympathetic smiles were exchanged frequently and they all waved goodbye when I got off. It was now about 1130pm and I was on a paved/grass patch in the middle of a busy highway intersection with no other people in sight! I wondered for a minute what I should do, but then a motorbike pulled up about 50m away. I remembered that Ati had a delivery boy and I saw him with a motorbike helmet in the morning. Maybe Ati had sent Delivery Boy on motorbike for me? I slowly wandered over to get a closer look to see if I recognised him. Motorbike Guy just sat there patiently and didn't try and call me over or beckon me onto the bike... which made me think he was Ati's delivery guy, just being polite and waiting for me to come over. When I got closer, I realised he wasn't the same Delivery Boy but when I looked at him, he just shuffled forward on the bike, expecting me to get on. No English meant I couldn't do a whole lot more checking, but I said "Ati"? questioningly, and he said "yes yes" and ushered me onto the bike. I hesitated for a moment, but then made a split second decision that he was legit. Off we drove at a nice slow pace - I felt quite safe with him, but still ever so slightly skeptical. I froze during the ride due to insufficient warm clothing. Suddenly we passed Kristal. I pointed back at the restaurant and Motorbike Guy said "yes yes kebab, eat, restaurant". Aah, so maybe Ati had asked him to take me somewhere for food first (since the kitchen had closed at Kristal). About 5 mins later, we stopped at Dominos Pizza. We got off and he told me to pick a pizza and paid for it. Casually we sat down and exchanged lots of smiles (the usual form of communication with a language barrier) but then my brain actually started to function and I asked Motorbike Guy to call Ati. He seemed lost and confused but willingly offered me the phone. I said, "no, you call Ati'. But it didn't happen. Oh God, maybe he didn't know Ati after all! Trust decreasing. So I dialled Ati's number, only to get a Turkish automated message, argh ... (Imaginary translation = "you have insufficient credit", or "the person you are calling is on another line"). Damn it. I asked the Dominos people to call and they said they had no phone. Back to Motorbike Guy, I pulled out Ati's business card, pointed to it and gestured to call, and he said "no no restaurant closed. Sleeping". Freaking out now. Trust dwindling. Motorbike Guy just kept saying "no problem! food, eat, restaurant" and I kept repeating that I wanted to speak to Ati. Then, I don't know if I was dreaming, or if there's a word in Turkish that sounds like this but I swear he slipped in the word "hotel” ... Arghhhh ok. Not cool Kish. Not cool. So I swiftly went outside and stopped a random guy on the street to borrow his phone... Got the same Turkish message... Shit Ati!!! Ok last check, I showed Ati's business card for Motorbike Guy to look at closely and I observed his reaction… He didn’t try to hide anything - he studied it like he'd never seen it before and again said, "no answer. Sleeping. Restaurant closed". Heart racing, adrenalin pumping to the max, how could I have been so stupid? Shit. Lucky I was near Dominos, sort of safe, but noone else was around. Shit. Shit. Shit. I tried to run around him. He stopped me, grabbed me, but not forcefully, and I said, "please let me go, I'm walking to the restaurant". He said over and over, a bit confused and disappointed, "but eat then restaurant, eat then restaurant!" When I pulled away and started to run he yelled "food! Money! Pay!" Until then I still wasn't 100% sure, but finally then I knew and I just ran and ran. He didn't follow thank God, and I bombarded the guys closing up a nice looking cafe with my story and with super shaky hands tried to show them Ati's number to call! Finally he answered, and to my surprise, Ati said "yes! I sent my Delivery Boy to meet you! Why did you run away!!??" Arghhhhh I explained where I was and 20 mins later, Delivery Boy who I had seen in the morning, came to get me - with a phone call check to Ati first this time :) In the debrief we realised that, no, the initial Motorbike Guy was a weirdo and nothing to do with Ati at all. The real Delivery Boy had in fact come to get me, but was perhaps just a few minutes behind Motorbike Guy. I still cannot believe so many aspects of this story. The fact that Motorbike Guy just happened to be in the right place at the right time to have a stupid, naive far-too-trusting tourist get on his bike!!; The fact that I didn't think to get him to call Ati before getting on (this comes from having met so many genuinely nice and helpful people all day in Istanbul so lowering my skeptical threshold); The fact that he was actually not toooo crazy and let me get off to get some food; The fact that we happened to pass Kristal so I knew we weren't too far away; The fact that I got away alive and unharmed!!...Thank you Allah!! As shaken up as I was after this experience, it certainly didn’t taint my overall awe for this vibrant, treasure of a city in one of the most varied, stunning and exciting countries in the world!
