4am. That’s a bit early. Especially when you have been packing in stacks of things each day. But we had to get up nice and early this morning for the main thing that Kate wanted to do this entire trip… float high above the Cappadocian valleys in a hot air balloon.

 

It seems hot air ballooning is the thing to do when visiting Cappadocia, as the many many balloons we saw when arriving attested. There were easily over a hundred balloons either ready to fly off or already in the air. And as the sun was coming up, our balloon was being filled with hot air and getting ready for lift off.

What followed was an incredible hour floating over Cappadocia. Not only was the sight of the valley, mountain houses and volcanoes breath taking, but having over 100 balloons flying around you just added to the experience.

It was my first hot air ballooon, and it was much smoother and gentler than I thought. I expected it to be gentle, but it hardly felt as if we were moving, even when ascending fairly rapidly. Our pilot even did a bit of fancy flying, coming close to some of the rock formations (and other balloons).

 

 

 

 

There is not much else to say really. I took A LOT of photos, that obviously will never really capture it all. But here is a bunch more anyway.

An hour flew by (ha ha) and next thing we knew we were back on solid ground. Minds blown by 7am.

Back we went to the hotel for a couple of hours rest before heading out to explore Cappadocia some more. Next stop was the Goreme Open Air Museum. As I have already mentioned, this region is well known for the many houses and buildings inside the sides of the rock formations. The Open Air Museum focuses on the church buildings that were made 1000 years ago. So we spent the next hour or so exploring them

They were a real mixed bag. Some were sparse, others ornately painted, one incredibly so. So it was fun to wander about for an hour, even if the crowds were a bit crazy (everyone must leave their balloon ride and come to the museum).

The rest of the afternoon was visiting some different spots around the local region. There were may great places to explore and climb, and we would drive around and jump out at different spots. This spot was another collection of stone houses we could freely climb.

Tour mate Ryan and I got to the top of one and couldn’t resist snapping Grand Canyon-esque pictures.

It was then time for lunch! We visited a restaurant that specialised in claypot stew. Most of indulged in a multi-course lunch, filled with breads and mezzes and salads and beers. But the main thing was the claypot, which we each got to open up ourselves. Given everyone was having a little trouble opening theirs, I thought I would give it a bit more of a whack. A bit much it seemed, as the evidence above suggests.

With a delicious lunch under our belt, it was some more valley exploring. Above is the Mushroom Valley, named for fairly obvious reasons.

Kate also thought she had found the famous “Fonzie” monument.

And we also came across the stone camel, the result of a legend that resulted in the camel being turned into stone. Hmm… not sure about that one.

The last stop for the day was to a local company specialising in carpet weaving. A common G Adventures thing is to visit local, traditional, businesses. And since Turkey is known for its rugs, this was a pretty impressive place to come.

We got shown the fundamentals of rug making but the highlight was seeing the rugs. I laid eyes on a huge silk carpet that took 2+ years to make. It was one of the most amazing things my eyes had ever laid eyes on. Kate and I both wished we had a spare $50K (at least) to buy it. Oh well, maybe next time.

And with that our day was formally done! An afternoon by the pool awaited to chill out, and then a casual dinner with some of the group. We needed some rest and sleep by this point, both because of the early morning, and the hike that awaited us for the next day.

 

We woke in Ankara, and finally able to see it in the day time. We didn’t have plans to stay in Ankara, only the morning, as there was not too much to see.

Ankara seems to be Turkey’s Canberra… the city most people don’t realise is the capital, and full of government workers. But it is also home to an amazing museum dedicated to the famous Turkish leader Ataturk, as well as his final resting place.

 

So off we all went to check that out before leaving town. The site of the museum was truly incredible… perched up on a hill in the middle of Ankara. We could see the city 360 degrees about us. Just as impressive was the whole grounds. First we were greeted by some small exhibits describing the site. It was flanked by statues representing the Turkish people and their independence in the 1920’s.

 

We then walked the path up to the amazing main building, containing the resting place of Mustafa Ataturk. As well as the tomb, it is also a fairly impressive museum, containing many works of art and artefacts about the man.

Ataturk was responsible for turning Turkey into the country it is today, bringing some peace after WW1 as well as democracy. As such he is revered in the country, and his presence is ubiquitous.

The museum filled in quite a lot of gaps I had about Turkish history and some things began to make a bit more sense. Australia was represented a little in the museum, with references to Gallipoli, however that will no doubt be a more extensive blog entry in a couple of weeks.

With that done it was time to leave Ankara, to head toward Cappadocia. About an hour and a half out of the city we came to an immense dry salt lake. We had a quick chance to walk out into it, having the salt crunch beneath our feet.

 

Of course it was an excuse for sun photos, with every second person jumping around like a loon. So it wasn’t just me for a change. The dry lake looked incredible, and the whole group was in awe of it. Funny how a 15 minute stop at the side of the freeway can capture everyone’s imagination like that.

From then on it was another few hours to finally reach the valleys of Cappadocia in central Turkey. Cappadocia is known for a number of things, the two main ones being the amazing valleys, volcanoes, and formations that surround, and also what is hidden underneath. Underneath are many forgotten cities that were used for centuries, especially during times of invasion. The largest is >Derinkuyu and we visited it for an hour on the way to our hotel.

What lie below the surface was 8 levels of rooms and passage ways that were pretty incredible. Much was still to be uncovered, including tunnels assumed to lead to more underground city. Apparently this city could house around 3000 people. Given we only saw part I don’t doubt… even though it would be a little cosy.

We made our way through, with Ibo giving us the run down of the history and living conditions. Many passages were one way only leading to jams of people. Thankfully I’m not claustrophobic!

With that, it was time to arrive in the nearby town of Goreme, where we would be based for the next 3 nights. A quick bit of rest, and it was off to what is a bit of a G Adventures tradition, visiting a local family for hospitality and food.

 

They used to live in one of the near by stone houses, but when everybody got moved out, they at least kept some amazing views of their old place. Our hosts (whos names escape me badly) made us a great feast of borek, salad, lentil soup, stuffed eggplant, and most importantly baclava. Oh man, it was so delicious! Everyone ate every little bit.

With full bellies, I decided to call it a night rather than go out for drinks. We had a VERY early morning ahead of us…

 

Hello avid readers! Apologies for the updates being so sporadic and weirdly timed. Our schedule is meaning that doing them each night is increasingly difficult, and I am actually typing this story up while in our mini bus heading towards our next stop.

But first I have to go back a day or two. When I left you Kate and I had just started our tour of Turkey by meeting the group and having a dinner together in Istanbul. Well, our first day proper was all about getting to know Istanbul more with an orientation walk by our tour leader Ibo.

While we covered a bit of the same ground as Kate and I had explored ourselves, we visited completely new areas of the city, all within a short distance of our hotel. I was completely disoriented… I felt like we walked for hours and hours (which we did) only to end up pretty much back where our hotel was. I thought I was on the other side of the city!

Anyway, we were very fortunate, as today Ibo took our group inside the Blue Mosque, which as you will recall we didn’t end up doing ourselves. Score! While there was still quite a big line, it moved quickly, and in no time at all we were inside.

It was quite spectacular, in many respects much more so than Aya Sophya, although it is not really fair to compare them too much. Again, like some places we had seen, the mosaic work was incredible, and captured the light amazingly. The blue of the tiles (hence the name) was stunning and it was quite the sight.

There was also A LOT of tourists. But that is to be expected when visiting one of the most stunning mosques on the planet I imagine.

We then wandered through a bit of the same town as we had seen, on the Hippodrome, past Aya Sofya, through the Grand Bazaar. It was like we were in a different Grand Bazaar, such was that we saw hundreds of different shops. Given there is about 4000 sellers in there, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

We stopped for lunch just near what is actually the largest mosque in Istanbul, Süleymaniye. In many respects liked this more than the Blue Mosque. It was just as picturesque, however very few people which made the experience much more pleasant, and gave time to soak it in a bit more.

While it was of a very similar style, the inside was again just as incredible.

Some delicious kebab later, we were off again, heading towards our bus to head out of town. Before doing so though we headed through the Spice Market (Misir Carsisi), a much smaller market, with a focus on tasty treats, such as exotic spices, teas, and best of all sweets.

We visited one of the vendors to get a run through of his amazing Turkish Delight. Oh man, it was incredible. I could not leave without grabbing some Pomegranate Turkish Delight for our travels.

 

I could have spent all my money on the delicious sweets, but decided I would have plenty of time to eat all the sweets the country has to offer, so left it at that.

And with that, it was onto our small tour bus and time to head out of Istanbul. We jumped aboard at the waters edge, which we planned to come back to on our return at the end of the tour. A ferry on the Bosphorous would have to wait.

There is not much to add for the rest of the day, as a 5 hour drive took us to the Turkish capital of Ankara. As we left Istanbul, we crossed over a bridge where we officially went from Europe into Asia, where we would be spending the rest of our trip. It is a bit of a spin out as I always associate Turkey with Europe, when the vast majority is in Asia. This sure was both a long way to get to Asia, and also a rather quick one.

It was quite late when we arrived, so there was not much to see, rather only time for some drinks with the crew and then bed time.

Today was our second main day in Istanbul, and we had another bit of a plan of attack. Since our G Adventures tour was to start tonight, and we would not really have any time to ourselves in Istanbul until the end, we decided to check a few things off that were on our must do list. So after some brekky, it was out into the very warm Istanbul day.

Our first port of call was to be the Blue Mosque. Again, the surrounding grounds gave us amazing views of both the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya. It is hard not to snap more pics (or dolphin photos as they are known in my family). We headed straight back here this morning, as since there are only certain times you can visit each day (outside of normal prayer time is the only time to head in as a tourist), we thought we had best go when we had a decent window of opportunity.

Sadly, so did half the people in Istanbul it seemed, as were greeted with a MASSIVE queue to get in. Even with a bit of time up our sleeve, there was no way we were getting inside with enough time to do it justice. It would have to wait for a couple of weeks for our return. It was about now though that my first Disneyland quip emerged. To me, the queue to get in to the Blue Mosque looked just like a queue in Disneyland… long and winding, some families trying to push their way in, others just ignoring queue etiquette all together. Kate corrected me though… “Paris Disneyland you mean”. I guess she was right there (apologies to my European readers).

So rather than wait in a line we knew would be pointless, we headed to our next planned stop, Topkapi Palace. Between this and Aya Sofya, you are visiting the main two landmarks of Istanbul (and that is saying something as there is plenty to see). Topkapi Palace is now a museum, but was the main residence for the Ottoman sultans back a few centuries ago. The palace is huge and houses many buildings, garden areas, and amazing views of the Bosphorous.

We started in the other main part of the palace… the Harem. Here we wandered through some of the many chambers and areas where the sultan’s ladies lived.

 

What I found amazing all through it was the incredible tile work. We found that the types of tiling changed a bit as we went through, and as it turned out our (not so) helpful audio guide let us know that we were indeed right, and that with a different ruler came some different outfitting of the rooms.

 

I got transfixed by the tiling and the domed roofs and all the archways, and so I found I was trying to snap pictures from all angles. I don’t really have the eye for great pics, but was happy just to try and see what tiles caught the light in particular ways, or what angles looked interesting.

Getting out of the Harem, we then explored more of the palace grounds. There was much to see around the place. There was ancient Islamic art, which we joined yet another queue to see, and again, many people just pushing in. Inside were many religious artefacts (including bits of the prophet Mohammed’s beard!), and things that were millennia old. Most of which photos were off limits, but that didn’t seem to stop many people.

In fact, today was a day where I found a lot of people just did what they wanted, whether it be pushing in line, taking photos, barging through places, and even disrespecting the religious custom. Now I may not be a religious person, but I am all about respect, and if they ask for long pants or whatever, then I will oblige 100%. But sadly, it seemed not everyone was interested in that. I guess that is the price of increased tourism.

We took a time out to sit in the super overpriced cafe for a bit of lunch. It may have been overpriced, but the view was spectacular, looking out over the Bosphorous, into the asian side of town. I can’t begrudge a $7 can of coke when you have those views I guess.

About 4 hours disappeared in the palace grounds. We were hot and exhausted (it was much hotter than yesterday, and in all honesty, more like what I was expecting) but didn’t stop our day there. Instead, we popped into the nearby Istanbul Archeological Museums. Although much smaller than the palace, there was some good stuff in there.

 

In particular, the Ancient Orient Museum was filled with lots of great stuff. Of course we took some time to get some cheesy pics with the priceless antiquities.

The Tiled Kiosk Museum was also pretty great. Like my fascination inside the palace, there was lots of amazing tilework to behold.

Not as good was the main building which was filled with archeological treasures. In fact both of us thought it was just a bit so-so, and we sped through it quite quickly. I imagine 5+ hours of checking out ancient pieces dulls the senses a little. In fact, the pieces in the garden outside were more interesting. Medusa even made a reappearance, turning passersby into stone. Maybe that is why there was so many stone figures in the garden? Have they not seen Clash of the Titans?

By this time it was about time to head back to the hotel. For technically today we start our G Adventures tour around Turkey! At 6:30pm we got to meet our group for the first time, including our tour guide Ibrahim, or Ibo as he was happy to be called. Our ragtag bunch consists of 8 Aussies, 5 US folk, a Canadian, and a Dutch lass. In the end quite an eclectic bunch of all ages.

A nice dinner got us all chatting and breaking the ice. Most of us were happy to start talking rubbish early, indicating that we were all at ease and that the next 2 weeks travelling together would be a bit of fun.

Hello from Istanbul!

Well, you knew we were there didn’t you, because my last action packed post left us with full bellies for our first night. Today was our first day of exploring, so we were super excited. We did have a slightly lazy start though as we were both pretty tired from our travels so far, and besides, it was pouring rain during the morning… so waiting until midday was not a bad move.

When we ventured out the last of the rain was pattering and in no time at all clear blue skies were the order of the day. We had a bit of a plan, mainly because of when things were open and closed. With Aya Sofya closed Monday, and the Grand Bazaar closed Sunday, we decided to check them out on our first day of wandering.

A quite long, but fast moving queue greeted us at Aya Sofya, but in no time at all we were inside. Aya Sofya is a fascinating one. First it was a church, then it was a mosque, and now it is a museum. Originally built in the 500’s, it is only in the last century that it lost its religion (so to speak) to greet everyone.

It was quite an interesting experience heading in. First of all, unfortunately a giant array of scaffolding hid the view of one side of the main room. I guess these things have to stay in order, so we can’t complain. Besides, the rest of the interior was quite spectacular.

In some respects it was probably a bit rougher round the edges than either of us expected. It seemed there was quite a lot that was fading, parts where it looked like things had been torn off the walls. But our place gets messy in weeks, let alone millennia, so who am I to judge?

We did find the Wishing Column in our wanders. This was a column with a thumb sized hole in it, that, if your thumb comes out wet, grants you your wish. Both Kate and I tried and at best our thumbs were a little moist, but I’ll take that. Infinite wishes please!

So we just wandered around the main room with the masses, soaking it all up. We also went upstairs for some cool views of down below. Up top were a number of old mosaics in various states of disrepair. Given that many other centuries old pieces down below were just open for everyone to touch I wonder how long before they really try to keep most things off limits?

The good part of a couple of hours went by with our wandering and we were getting a bit peckish. Bt before we decided to eat, we decided to pop in and check out the Basilica Cistern. A huge underground chamber, this was built in the 6th century, where it was then used for centuries to provide water to the nearby palace. But we all know that the most famous use for the cistern was in From Russia With Love don’t we Bond fanatics?

Inside the cistern (for whatever reason) was a corner set up for tourists to get dressed up in traditional garb and have their photos taken. How cheesy huh? Of course we did it! Check us out…

Awesome huh?! We thought it was hilarious! And now we have a cool photo for our house to remember dressing up in traditional Turkish costume in an underground cistern. Of course we do.

Most the columns are identical with a handful of exceptions. One is the Weeping Column, which is not hard to guess why from the dozens of eyes adorning the column.

The main things people love to see in the cistern though are the Medusa heads that hold up two columns. It seems that no one really knows why they are there and why one is upside down and the other on its side, but apparently it was deliberate. They look cool as heck though.

With the dim lighting and the water, you can get some really cool and creepy photos of them!

By this time we needed some sunlight and food, so grabbed a bite to eat at the cafe nearby. Mmm… meat and spinach pide. Yum. Sorry, no pic of this food. Sure there will be more soon.

The day was creeping away, so we decided to head to the Grand Bazaar for a look. We weren’t intending to buy much, as we didn’t want to spend our money early and lug things all around Turkey. But we just wanted to soak up the experience.

Inside it was a weird mix of shop shops, antique shops, cheap knock off shops, and high end jewellery shops. There seemed to be something for everyone (well, except me… I tried hard to find LP’s but alas no luck). The place was a huge rabbit warren, and getting lost in there was easy. So we just cut some laps around and around. We engaged in some haggling and Turkish tea, and did what everyone does.

 

Many of the shopkeepers don’t like you taking photos of their shops, but pictures can’t capture the bustle of everything going on. In the end, we got some small bits and pieces, but the main shopping would have to wait for our return to Istanbul in a few weeks.

With our heads overloaded with shops and shopkeepers hassling us every 5 steps, we were about done. We decided to casually stroll via some parks back to the area of Aya Sofya, and also the Blue Mosque. It was prayer time, so we could not look inside the Blue Mosque. That would have to wait until tomorrow. But we just sat in the grounds, eating some corn on the cob, and soaking up Istanbul.

As the sun started to set and the moon appeared, the full moon became visible in the skyline. Things are pretty sweet here in Istanbul.