Chips ahoy!

Turkey (Istanbul) to Spain (Malaga)

A disappointing start to the day as there was no orange cake at breakfast this morning, K must have eaten it all over the last few days. No shortage of simit though (M's favourite) which is like a bagel with a dense covering of sesame seeds.

After breakfast we took a taxi to the airport, at least this time it had seat belts. The four hour flight to Malaga was easy, and getting to our apartment also wasn't too hard as the airport train took us close to the Malaga Centro where we picked up the keys to our apartment.

It had been a long day so we ate at a tapas bar close to our place, to begin our first two weeks in Malaga. M was tempted to have chips for dinner, given that we were staying next door to the most impressive chip display M had ever seen.

 

Books and towers

Istanbul

No cruise ships passed by our window this morning so we knew we were in for an easier day on the streets. K wanted to do a little shopping and we ended up having an interesting conversation with a shop assistant on our mutual thoughts about politicians and wars, confirming that people really are the same all over the world, and want the same things for themselves and their families.

We then caught the tram and a bus to Taksim to visit some book shops in the hunt for a children's book in English about Turkey. The long pedestrian street was a mix of western shops and Turkish shops, as were the people we saw. After a couple of book shops we bought a book, it was for an older age group than we were looking for but it was the best we were able to find. After walking up to Taksim Square we searched for the bus stop that Google Maps told us had to be there, we eventually found it down a long flight of stairs to an underground road, we thought it was the way to a train station so missed it originally.

That afternoon M walked across the bridge to Karakoy. This looked like a good area for bars and restaurants, so we think we'll try to stay in this area if we ever stop over in Istanbul again. Next it was up to the base of the Galata tower (which was closed), then back to the hotel via Gulhane Park. 

Crowds crowding us even though we are part of the crowd causing the problem

Istanbul

We watched two massive cruise ships pass by early in the morning from our view over the Bosphorus, so we expected that the historic centre would be flooded by all those passengers.

After our morning flat white we once again walked back past the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (definitely one of the most beautiful buildings in the world) and on to Gülhane Park. After walking through and out the other side we found ourselves at Sarayburnu on the point overlooking all the action on the Bosphorus. From there it was back to the historic area where it it was difficult to get around with the tour groups constantly pushing us off the footpath to walk on the roads. The queue outside the basilica cistern had to be seen to be believed.

At 2.30 we joined a so called "alternative" walking tour, the focus was less on history and more on modern living and society. We heard about the refugees from neighbouring Syria, but also that many of Turkey's societal issues were similar to ours. Things like the concern with personal safety in relation to different political and religious point of views, parents' concern about the level of education taught in state schools, and the "brain drain" in losing their brightest to other countries. Their public and private medical institutions and the need for insurance also sounded very similar to our situation, and also to that in other European countries, according to others on the tour. It seems a lot of societal issues are common across many different countries around the world. 

No thanks, my sandals are fine

Istanbul

Up early today, still trying to adapt to the new time zone. After a nice breakfast in the hotel we went in search of a flat white, and we found a coffee shop close by run by a man who had spent many years in Sydney. The coffee was fine, fortunately.

We continued walking up the hill past the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Egyptian Obelisk, all bringing back memories from our previous trip. K tried to access a public toilet but the entrance wouldn't take her credit card so she had to climb over the turnstiles, something she got pretty good at over the next couple of days.

We walked down to the water and joined a 90 minute cruise around the Bosphorus. It was a pleasant trip, Istanbul really is one of the grand cities of the world. 

 

We had a light lunch at a touristy place, the waiter at the café insisted on serving M's baklava to him directly from the spoon to his mouth, fortunately there are no photos of this so it didn't really happen. After that it was back up the hill to the Grand Bazaar where we were really surprised at the stall holder's lack of interest in making sales, noticeably different to our last visit when we were pretty sick of the hassle.

M went for a walk down by the water where a shoe shiner walking in front of him dropped one of his brushes, so M picked it up and caught up to him to return it. The man grabbed his hand firmly and thanked him profusely while attempting to shine his sandals. M suspected something wasn't right here so he pulled his hand away and made a quick getaway from an irritated looking man. Over dinner K googled "Istanbul shoe" and "shoe shine scam" was the first search result. Apparently the next step in the scam (that M didn't hang around for) is a sob story about his family with the aim of the victim handing over money out of sympathy.

When are they going to ban children on planes that we are flying on?

Singapore to Istanbul, Turkey

An 11 hour flight to Istanbul which was long and tedious, but as it was a day flight Netflix and reading helped pass the time. Our seats had been changed by the airline a couple of days earlier but K managed to convince the check in staff to move us back to our original seats. This was a good move, otherwise we would have been seated in the middle of a family with a couple of whiny kids - disaster averted!

Istanbul's new airport is about an hour's drive away from the city so we chose a yellow taxi from out the front. As the driver hurtled along the freeway at 140kmh overtaking every other car we realised the back seat belts had been disabled. 

We had chosen a hotel in the same tourist area we stayed at back in May 2011, a much nicer room this time though, as it was on the top floor of a small hotel with a panoramic of view over the Bosphorus where we could watch ships arriving and departing. 

Day 128 - Goodbye Turkey

Antalya (Turkey) to Bristol (England) - Anita's House

Time to move on to catch our flight to Bristol, bye Turkey, we had fun. It was interesting that so many of you were surprised that we spoke English so well in Australia though.

The flight to Bristol was interesting - you certainly get what you pay for when you go with a budget airline. There were a few problems, the main one being that about 20 minutes after takeoff we were told that only one of the four toilets was working, but we shouldn't queue in the aisle - this is a four hour flight we're talking about here!

When we arrived at Bristol they obviously weren't expecting any non-English people, they didn't have a passport stamp available and they had to hunt for one before we could get through passport control!

However we finally made it to the home of Kathryn's old friend Anita (who is getting married on July 9th), and went out for our first curry in England.

Day 124 to Day 127 – All we can say is sorry.....

Antalya - The Marmara Antalya Resort

Nobody wants to hear about our 4 day stay at a 5* resort in Turkey on the Mediterranean, with temperatures consistently above 30 degrees, when everyone back home is experiencing one of the worst winters in memory, but we’ll tell you anyway (though we will keep it short and only note the highlights).

Day 124 – The lounge/restaurant/coffee shop/library/computer station /bar are all in one large open area. We, along with a traditionally dressed Muslim couple were shocked and amused at the girl who was playing pool (complete with “lean over the pool cue poses”) in her g-string bikini – we all went back for a second look as it was too surprising to take in with one. If only we’d had our camera …….

Day 125 – Where else do you take a lift from a little building in the garden down 6 flights and then walk through a long tunnel to find a private beach with bar? This is no ordinary beach as the area has been built into the existing landscape of rocks with decking, paving, sun lounges as well as rocks in the sea with diving boards. No sand, but the position and setup certainly makes up for it.

Day 126 – It’s always a bonus when the buffet breakfast is so substantial that it tides you over until dinner time, thus saving on paying for lunch. We did find though that many of the nearby restaurants were incredibly expensive – even for a tourist area. We managed to find a nice place with very reasonable prices that is famous for its chicken wings (according to the waiter) – we ended up eating there twice. There was also a wedding party down in the garden today, with jumping castles for the kids, a big stage with dancers and singers – no expense spared!

Day 127 – Did we mention that we got a deal for our room for just AUD$116 per night? And that we were upgraded to the 20th floor sea view rooms when we arrived? Did we also mention how great our tans are looking (well, our arms, legs and faces anyway …..)

Day 123 – A practice day

Antalya - Sibel Pansiyon

After finding the weather impractical for doing too much sightseeing today, we got some practice in for doing nothing, which is our plan for the next few days.

With the help of an Expedia voucher and a special deal, tomorrow we are moving to what will hopefully be a nice 5 star resort by the sea with a large pool, which will be our last stop in Turkey before we head off  to the UK on the 28th.

Day 122 – Now it’s getting a little bit too hot…..

Antalya - Sibel Pansiyon

Our accommodation is in the delightful Old Town area of Antalya and the streets are beautiful clean cobblestone rabbit warrens with the sea surrounding the old town on two sides. The whole area is very pretty and the sea some of the clearest we have ever seen, but boy is that sun hot!

After visiting Hadrian’s Gate and deciding it was too hot to continue walking around in the open we caught a tram to the Antalya Museum. Once again beautiful exhibitions and statues but it seems such a shame that the statues are in the museums so close to each other, now we’re almost "statued out". They would look so fantastic in their original places where they were found amongst the amazing ruins – but of course it is not practical to leave them there, and they are kept inside instead.

What was interesting here is how many of the pieces had been smuggled out of Turkey and then recovered, and that there are still museums in the US and the UK holding on to these illegally acquired pieces instead of returning them.

Day 121 – Our last long bus ride for quite a while

Göreme to Antalya - Sibel Pansiyon

Little to say today as we caught the bus at 10am and arrived into Antalya at 8pm – an uneventful trip, and mildly disappointing as there was no wi fi and no free ice creams. On the upside though, nothing was stolen and there were no unforeseen delays!

Day 120 – We love being on organised tours

Göreme - Caravanserai Hotel

As the distances around the sights of Cappadocia are quite large, we decided to sign up for a tour – not our usual style but sometimes it’s the best option.

It wasn’t a good start however - first stop a photo opportunity at a panoramic spot - that just happened to have lots of souvenir shops – fancy that! Great view, but 3 minutes was enough, we didn’t need a whole 15 minutes.

Second stop was Derinkuyi Underground City, an amazing place built all underground on 8 levels, but for some reason we had to have a 10 minute “break” first. The city consisted of long steep narrow tunnels, an amazing way to live and hide from enemies, we found it very interesting. Being underground it was nice and cool – though one girl on our tour asked the guide if it was because of air conditioning! After this, another 10 minute “break” – by now we had worked out that the “breaks” were cigarette stops for our guide, who like most Turkish smoked incessantly.

Next stop was Ihlara Gorge, a lovely walk along a river between some sheer rock walls either side. We’d only been going about 10 minutes when we had to have another smoko break. We continued the walk, which was very pleasant with the running water, wildflowers and caves in the rocks, until we reached our lunch stop on the river, which although nice was way too long.

Next stop was Selime Monastery, a really interesting series of churches and caves. We were given a total of 30 minutes to climb up, look around, then climb back down – nowhere near enough time, and all our guide did was lead us up the path – it seemed every other tour group had a guide who explained what they were seeing – we always seem to get the dud guide.

Then off to a jewellery shop where we were shown expensive turquoise and other semi-precious stones in various designs. We’d had enough after about 5 minutes, but we ended up staying for ages. In fact, we spent more time here than at any of the other attractions. We exited the shop waited around outside for the rest of the group, and we finally headed to the last stop  - another panoramic view with of course another smoko break amongst the souvenir shops.

So we managed to fit about 2 hours of decent sightseeing into about  8+ hours of elapsed time ….. it might be a while before we decide to brave another organised tour!

On our return we headed to our favourite coffee/wine place for more backgammon. Backgammon is really big in Turkey - most bars and cafes have a backgammon set. This time the owner's father decided to "observe" our game. Initially he just gave us hints on where to move our pieces, but eventually he took to moving them for us - until it reached the point where he was pretty much playing against himself, we were just throwing the dice for him!

Day 119 – Fairy Chimneys and Churches

Göreme - Caravanserai Hotel

Our host at Caravanserai had lived in Sydney for 7 years after marrying an Aussie tourist he had met when he was a tour guide so his English was great and he was very helpful with info on how to spend our time in Cappadocia.

We had been given a cave room to stay in, quite similar to the underground hotel we stayed at in Coober Pedy. The hotel has a lovely restaurant/breakfast area with a great view of the city.

Our host drove us to a friend’s working pottery in Avanos as K was keen to see the potters at work. We were given a private tour and a demonstration of their incredible throwing and decorating skills before being taken to the amazing showroom with its different rooms for different qualities. K headed straight to the collectors room where she of course spent too much money (according to M).

The pottery staff then drove us to Pasabag (Monk’s Valley) where we walked around the rock formations (known as fairy chimneys) and also visited a small church in one of the caves. From there we walked to the village of Cavusin. First we visited the larger church of St. John the Baptist, then walked up to the old deserted village and wandered through the old homes built into the rock.

After getting a lift from a local back to Göreme we visited the Göreme Open Air Museum, to see many more rock-hewn churches and dwellings. As usual we tried to avoid tour groups where possible (not always easy!). We had been rather spoiled in Africa as it wasn’t high season and any groups we did see were small – here in Turkey though we are slowly getting used to what we’re expecting to see when we arrive in Europe in peak season.

From the museum we walked back to the town centre of Göreme and enjoyed the early evening with coffee (M), wine (K) and backgammon (M vs K).

Day 118 – Don’t leave anything on the bus!

Antalya to Goreme – Caravanserai Hotel

The bus for our trip to Goreme in the Cappadocia region left at 11am, with an expected arrival time around 8pm.At first the trip was uneventful, and quite enjoyable with the internet access and icecreams that were provided. There was a long break mid-afternoon at Konya, so we had some lunch while they moved the bus to a different bay.

A couple of hours after Konya there was another short break at Aksaray, which was where we witnessed one angry passenger remonstrating with one of the bus attendants outside. As it turned out, at some point during our break at Konya someone had stolen his laptop from the laptop bag which he had left on the bus, which he had only just discovered.

After some delay the bus headed off, then stopped about 10 minutes later at the Aksaray police station, where we waited for a further hour or so. At one point the police boarded the bus, made a cursory inspection of a couple of laptop bags near the back of the bus, but did little else.

The end result of this for us was about a two hour delay to our trip, which meant we didn’t get into Goreme until some time after 10pm. The owner of our hotel picked us up from the bus station, and once we’d settled in we changed into some warmer clothes (it was actually cold!) and headed out for a quick meal.

Day 117- Can Google Maps be trusted?

Fethiye to Antalya – White Garden Pansiyon

The bus to our next destination Antalya didn’t leave until 1pm, so we had a lazy morning just hanging around taking it easy, before having some lunch at the bus station before we departed. The bus left on time (which has been the case with all of the buses we've caught in Turkey). We arrived at the huge Antalya bus station around 6pm, and bought our tickets for tomorrow’s long trip to Cappadocia.

We then took the shuttle into town, and started the walk to our hotel. We thought we were on the right track, we were using Google Maps on our phone, and we were homing in on the exact location – however we had expected Google Maps to be correct ….. which it wasn’t! We then received conflicting directions from two locals which didn’t help …. but we made it in the end.

Day 116 – Rest day (sort of)

Fethiye - Hotel Oykun

We headed off after breakfast to get the refund for our trip to Rhodes, and were told that the hydrofoil had been cancelled due to expected high winds, but we have been wondering whether it was overbooked, as the weather didn’t seem that bad to us.

We didn’t mind so much however as it was an expensive day out at about $150 just for the ferry tickets, we’ll just have to visit Greece some other time. The guy that sold us the ticket was also a little disappointed, as he was hoping we were going to pick up some duty free Smirnoff for him!

As our hotel is at Calis Beach which is a little way out of Fethiye we caught the bus into town. There are some interesting Lycian sarcophaguses in the centre of town, just in amongst the normal buildings, and we also spent some time walking around the marina foreshore which is similar to Bodrum, though nowhere near as busy or exclusive looking. We then caught the water taxi back to Calis Beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sun lounges around the pool and soaking up the lovely sun – with our tops on of course!

Day 115 – Are we in Turkey or England?

Bodrum to Fethiye - Hotel Oykun

We were very impressed with the Pamukkale bus we took to get to Fethiye – wireless internet, usb point and ice cream – what more could you want!

Fethiye has been quite a surprise – it’s very similar to Goa, in that the place is full of English people, who have taken advantage of cheap air fares and direct flights, we’re pretty sure we’re the only non-UK people at our hotel. The pool area was a bit of a shock - some of the elderly, “plump” ladies are enjoying their topless sunbaking – as we said, Goa all over again!

The beachside has a huge promenade with lots of restaurants, hotels and travel agents. As the Greek island of Rhodes is quite close (about a 90 minute fast ferry ride), we booked a ferry trip for the next day. However when we arrived back from dinner a message had been left to say that the trip had been cancelled – apparently due to expected bad conditions.

Day 114 – Closed for lunch

Bodrum - Hotel Gulec

No chance of a sleep in with the roosters around here, its quite surprising considering how built up the area is.

Today the castle was open, which also contains an underwater archaeology museum. It was a very interesting place to visit, though when we arrived it was closed for lunch – well, for everyone but the person manning the ticket booth, selling tickets that couldn’t be used until 1pm..

In addition to the various museum exhibits (mainly of artifacts extracted from various shipwrecks), we were able to walk around the castle, up onto the castle walls and into the various towers. One of the towers was the dungeon and torture chamber, complete with the medieval torture equipment that was discovered on site.

We also visited the tomb of King Mausolus (which is the origin of the word “mausoleum”). It was once of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but now there’s very little to see.

Our original idea was to spend three nights in Bodrum, but we decided that it was too touristy and there wasn’t that much to see, so we booked some bus tickets for a trip to Fethiye the next day.

Day 113 – So many yachts

Pamukkale to Bodrum - Hotel Gulec

We bused to Bodrum, which is a resort town on the Aegean Sea. Bodrum is a very commercialized town – tourists everywhere and boats galore – we’ve never seen so many yachts in the one place, at one point we couldn't tell if there was any water there.

We walked along the foreshore, up to the marina and then back past Bodrum Castle (which we didn’t visit as it was closed). Past the castle we walked along “Bar Street” – lots of shops and restaurants, many of them opening onto the beach.

It was sunny and quite warm, and the water was very inviting - lovely and crystal clear – but the rocks and lack of sand meant we weren’t in a hurry to go for a swim, the closest we got was our nice dinner at one of the seaside restaurants!

Day 112 – Our favourite ruins yet?

Pamukkale – Venüs Hotel

We were picked up at 9:30am for our trip the ruins of Aphrodisias, about 90 minutes away from Pamukkale. When we arrived there were already tour buses there – was this going to be too crowded? On the advice of the Lonely Planet we headed along the path in the reverse order – which worked very well, as for most of the ruins there was almost noone to spoil the photos!

The first ruin we saw was the tetrapylon, or monumental gate, which although not intact, was still impressive standing on its own in the middle of a green lawn. After that was the stadium, which had a long oval shape, and was very big, with a capacity of about 30,000. The last building we saw, the Sebasteion, was still in the process of being restored, but would have been an amazing building, especially given the various reliefs exhibited in the nearby museum.

We'd almost say these ruins were our favourite so far. - the qualities of the marble used to build the city meant many of the buildings appeared well preserved, and as the site was quite compact we didn’t end up getting “ruined out”.

After we returned from Aphrodisias we had a relaxing afternoon and evening at the hotel – tomorrow we’re on the road again.

Day 111 – No, it’s not snow

Selçuk to Pamukkale – Venüs Hotel

This morning we bused to Pamukkale, a “tourist” town a few hours inland from Selçuk. The main attraction here are white terraces of travertine, which is calcium carbonate that is left from water flowing from a number of hot springs in the area. At the top of the terraces are the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis.

We didn’t want to go the the terraces until later, so we could avoid the tour groups there on day trips, so  after checking in to our hotel we headed to the village of Karahayit by local bus, having read of the red terraces there. It wasn’t really worth the effort, they were quite small, and inside a tourist park of some sort, with lots of shops selling tourist trinkets.

We headed back to Pamukkale and walked to the terraces, which can be seen from quite a distance, looking like a white mountain. Shortly after entering we had to remove our shoes, we then headed up along with hundreds of other visitors. The spring water flows down over the terraces (and your feet), and forms pools of pale blue water, quite a remarkable sight. Also at the top is the Antique Pool, where you can swim in the water which supposedly has therapeutic properties.

Once at the top, we put our shoes back on and wandered around the edges of the travertine and into the ruins of Hierapolis. The number of people in the ruins was very small, we didn’t see any more than about 20 or so – while there were hundreds on and around the terraces. We finally made it back down the terraces and into town by around 7:30pm, though we could have stayed much later, as the terraces and ruins are actually open 24 hours.