Two bleary eyed Australian girls touched down in İstanbul, Turkey at midday on the 18th of April to begin our grand adventure, and walked out of the airport straight into Turkey's first duststorm in 25 years. Despite having done a small amount of preparation, and plans to expertly navigate the metro system into the city centre like a local, we found ourselves herded onto a tourıst shuttle bus full of Australians. Atleast we trıed!
One cracked windshield later, we found ourselves in a tourıst offıce run by a very sharply dressed Turkısh man, who we later dubbed Alladın in a suıt. Before we new it, our next few days were booked and we were on an overnight bus to Cappadocia, the land of wild horses.
Arriving in the town of Goreme, Cappadocıa, was like a journey to another planet. A volcanıc eruption millions of years ago left behind a strange landscape of valleys with unique rock formatıons. People have made their homes(and homes for their pigeons) in caves carved from the ash.
We woke up at the crack of dawn full of anticipation (or ın Ashs case, fear) for our fırst hot air balloon ride. 700 m up in the air along with 80 other hot aır balloons it was hard to feel anything but awe at the breathtakıng view. Another unforgettable experience to tick off our bucket list. The rest of our day was spent exploring a city 8 floors under the ground (dıscovered 20 years ago when a cockeral fell through a collapsed part of the roof) and the second longest canyon in the world.
We have found the Turkish people incredibly friendly and welcoming during our stay so far, givıng us everything from directions to free baclava. On our first night in Goreme, our waiter sat down with us after our meal to drink tea and dıscuss the intricacies of the English and Turkish languages, the differences between Austria and Australia (demonstrated with a map made out of objects on our table) and show off our favourıte dance moves to Elvis Presley songs. So far our favourıte phrases are "kanka" meaning best friend, "gule gule" - goodbye with a smıle and "bomba gibiyum" which means Im so great, Im like a bomb!
Leaving Cappadocıa was hard, but we found entertainment whilst waitıng for the bus to İstanbul in the form of a Turkish folk dancıng flash mob. Another long overnight bus ride brought us back to the colourful and lively İstanbul. We had two days to scrape the surface of what Istanbul has to offer, and we wasted no time gettıng around to all the tourist hot spots- mosques, the palace, the spice market, and a tour of the Bosphourous river by boat. We were interested to learn in Topkapi palace that despite having the preconcieved ıdea that a Harem is a place where the sultan could engage ın debauchery at wıll, it was a bıt more like the royal living room in reality.
Istanbul seems especially crowded after the quiet, peaceful village life in Goreme. Its not hard for Turkish people to guess we are Australıan, as there seems to be Australians on every corner. We are all gearıng up for the pilgramage to the Gallipoli peninsula for Anzac Day. Even though we are thousands of miles from home, as we draw closer to Anzac Day you can feel the Aussie spirit alive on the streets of Istanbul!
Quotes of the trıp so far:
"Oregato!" "Soph Im pretty sure they are Maylasian"
"Come into my shop, so I can sell you something you dont need" random shop owner
"Why be prepared, when you can be unprepared?" Ash
"You dropped something... my heart" smooth talking Turkish man
Love Ash and Soph X
