Turkey

ISTANBUL

We got into Turkey late during the night after spending a day hopping from Dubai to Istanbul via Doha. Our first action was getting on the public transport system and trying to locate our hostel that was located somewhere in the suburb of Galata.

We enjoyed a metro train on a subway and then had to cram aboard a tram for roughly an hour before we got to our required stop. We had trouble finding the hostel as streets in Istanbul aren't clearly marked and for the most part they are like back alleys curving up steep hills. In the end we located the historic Galata Tower that dominates the area's skyline and started asking the locals if they could point us in the right direction.

We had luck after Scott managed to get a restaurant clerk to phone the hostel who then sent a young German traveller working there to come and meet us by the tower. The hostel was pretty average to be honest and we were put in a 4 bed dorm with a strange russian woman who had obviously not stayed in a hostel before. The window sill was littered with make up and mirrors and it looked like she had moved in. She was less than impressed with having three other dudes to share her room with and for the remainder of our stay had a bad attitude towards us. The girl was weird and never left the place as she was constantly lying on the bed on her computer. Oh and the room was 30 degrees 24/7 because she had the air-con heater constantly maxed out.

Our time spent in Istanbul was spent around the tourist section of the main strip near Hagia Sophia. We visited Hagia Sophia on our first full day in Istanbul and were blown away to say the least. The place is almost 1700 years old and oozes history. The building itself is massive and a testament to the construction that took place all those years ago.

Hagia Sophia is definitely rough around the edges though; the floor upstairs is uneven for the most part and some of the inner columns aren't standing straight, but they are still intact and completely original - It's hard to argue as the building is so old. We felt this added to the place and gave it special character because, in contrast, it was roughly two weeks since we saw the Taj in India and that is renowned for its almost perfect detail.

We grabbed lunch at a kiosk in the middle of the park near the blue mosque and watch a couple of tomcats face off in the grass as we ate. One thing about turkey is cats: they are everywhere. You'll be in bed at night and hear them fighting, it's crazy. Anyways, we visited the blue mosque, which shares a lot of design similarities to Hagia Sophia next up, however is it a much younger building and subsequently more intricately put together with a lot more marble.

The inside of the Blue mosque is quite impressive and is used throughout the day at certain time intervals for worship. So when you go in you have to take off your shoes etc and be quiet. Cool place nonetheless and free to get in.

The grand bazaar was pretty awesome. We actually visited the place a couple of times while in Istanbul and is constantly thriving with hoards of people. We grabbed our Turkey bracelets here and window shopped for hours. Shopkeepers here are very friendly yet aggressive, almost desperate for your business at times, so plenty of great deals can be had.

We got chauffeured into a leather jackets store by an old Turkish guy that was keen to sell us some top quality gear. What started out as an expression of interest turned into a two hour affair of trying on jackets and drinking apple tea which was constantly being refilled. Nick got two very nice jackets after trying pretty much everything on in the store and once he was done Scott caved in and got one for himself as well. The opportunity for leather jackets of this quality was too good to pass up.

Slight adjustments were made by tailors as we listened to the crazy Turkish shopkeeper talk - constantly referring to us as 'brothers'. Amongst the storekeepers in the bazaar there are quite a few crazy young guys trying to sell perfume at ridiculously low prices. One guy asked us where we were from, Ben told him NZ and he yelled out "sheep shagger" which was pretty funny. The thing which we later learned with these dudes is that they scam you by filling the bottles with only a small portion of the real perfume and then water it down so you only get a fraction of the scent. Kinda shady and none of us fell for it.

En route to Cannakale we bused using turkey's Metro bus company which offers services for the whole country. Compared to buses and transport we had been on since Japan we were more than impressed with the quality. They're just like aircraft, complete with an attendant serving drinks. Cannakale was the base for our Troy and Gallipoli day trips. We got dropped off at three in the morning in the middle of the town without a clue where to go. We managed to find a hostel nearby that had its lobby open and luckily in the back it's own tour company! We slept until the morning in the foyer when they opened and booked in for a tour that would knock them both over in the one day.

TROY

We first visited Troy which was a short half an hour drive and were greeted to rain and a lot of mud (it had been raining all night). We walked past the giant Trojan Horse (rebuilt replica) and tried to see what we could through the black curtain covering it - under repairs. Troy itself is mostly ruins but the main structures still stand and give you an idea of what the place was like. Our guide was very knowledgeable and was able to point out the different ages of Troy in the buildings and walls that remained.

We were really impressed with some of the bricklaying techniques and fortification designs used to keep the city a formidable base and defensive structure. However, it was no match for one of the German archaeologists that found Troy (more of a treasure hunter) who dug a huge trench in the middle of Troy causing one of the original walls from the first age to collapse. It's quite a shame because a lot of the pillaging caused by these treasure hunters looking for gold, arrogant enough to leave, destroyed a whole bunch of history in their wake.

GALLIPOLI

Later in the avo we ferried to Gallipoli and had lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront there. It was here we sat in a small group - we were paired with the same american girl that accompanied us to Troy and an man from Aus who had been the victim of frost bite in Nepal. Once we had some food and got to know each other a little better the bus took us off to Anzac cove and the memorials that surrounded the peninsula.

We had a few a few stops here, visiting the beach where the troops landed, Anzac Cove memorial site (Ari Burnu cemetery) and of course the hills looking out towards the constructed forts of Kalitbahir (kind of useless as the Anzacs never ended up landing there...)  We also went over to the new memorial site which is where you see the dawn service held each year on the TV, they were actually putting up the seating stands in preparation for this years services while we were there.

We were also taken to Lone Pine and it's memorial (it was pouring with rain at this time and got soaked) where the Aussie troops fought and were driven to some of the trenches that were still in tact close by. They were metres apart and our guide was telling us how the allied troops hurled grenades and stormed the trenches using bayonets during the battle.

We also visited the monument erected by Australian Governor General Lord Richard Casey symbolising the efforts of one Turkish soldier carrying a wounded British soldier back to the allied trenches before leaving to go back his. Our guide was telling us how this act (amongst others) has made the battle of Gallipoli known as the last gentlemen's war.

The last two stops were the Turkish memorial for the 57th regiment and Chunuk Bair. The 57th regiment memorial stands for the Turkish troops that got completely wiped out here; lots of Turks were here paying their respects and just as we left to move on about a dozen Turkish Army buses rolled in filled with troops to do the same.

Chunuk Bair was the only success that allied forces were able to get in their August offensive campaign. We arrived here to a very slippery/muddy hill littered with people from other tours. Chunuk Bair is especially important to the Kiwis as initially they took the summit and desperately tried to defend it, huge casualties ensued on both sides and was eventually regained by the Turks after a few days. Chunuk Bair provided a nice view of the Dardanelles and Aegean Sea, and we even managed to locate Ben's great relative on the memorial of the NZ soldiers who fought the summit.

Apart from the American girl face planting into a massive clay puddle we found Gallipoli quite a sombre experience. We always pay our respects but being at Gallipoli definitely makes you more aware and more appreciative of the sacrifice made.

EPHESUS

To get to Ephesus you had to bus to Izmir. We caught the night bus to arrive early in the morning, it was a few hours before our shuttle so we camped out on the comfortable, hard, steel benches in the train station.

After being woken up by a guard we got onto a shuttle that took us to a quaint town called Selcuk (Ephesus). Ben went on a scout to find us a hotel and came back with the goods, settling on a place called Wallabies Hotel. We were convinced the guy running it was from some mob/gang but he was nice enough and had a good sense of humour. 

The area near our hotel was reminiscent of Cannakale: small quiet alleys, slate roads littered with cafes and a large market nearby to grab your local fruit and veg. All 3 of us refueled at a local restaurant and taxied straight to Ephesus.

Ephesus is amazing. When you arrive you see a large formation of pillars and rubble scattered about the hillside near the entrance. There is a large mini theatre built into the hill and a courtyard adjacent that contained the freestanding pillars (what's left of them). The rubble scattered about had been well carved laden with numerous greek inscriptions.

The great thing about Ephesus is the more you enter the better it gets. To get to the large Celsus library you make your way down a large stone path that has large sections of mosaic art laid in small tiles and when you get there the large structure towers over the courtyard below. The masonry here is top notch, showcasing great workmanship and design.

Ephesus also houses another theatre near the library that is much larger than the one near the entrance; if we were to guess, we'd say it's probably 3 times the size. When you think of how many people used to sit in here (thousands) and going apeshit, you start to realise how important this ancient city would have been back in the day. We all enjoyed our step back through time at Ephesus and the scattered remnants of the city spread out across the surrounding hills.

With our time left in Selcuk we just trolled around the city exploring, going to cafes and buying more Turkish Delights (btw pomegranate & pistachio Turkish Delights are the best).

ANTALYA

Our last bus in Turkey and the longest one we'd take on the trip, we jumped on a Direct ride to Antalya which took us nine hours. Arriving at night and in search for a place to stay (hadn't booked any for the first night) we jumped on a public bus that stopped outside the old city entrance.

The entrance is called Hadrian's Gate and is impossible to miss so finding it was easy. Once in we found a nice hotel called Kaleici Hotel, where we haggled with the woman for a hundred Turkish Lira for B&B. The breakfast was the best part, we went down in the morning to the lady asking us to hurry for breakfast as we woke up pretty late, all the food was laid out on the table and enough bread/food fit for a king. Needless to say we sat in the sun sipping coffee for a decent amount of time before checking out (you can find our review on trip advisor ;) ). After checking out we walked a couple mins to our next hotel and checked in there - the remainder of our time on Turkey would be spent here.

Oh by the way: Kaleici Hotel, where we stayed for the first night is on the main street of the old town, so every time we walked by the old lady would give us filthy looks (obviously pissed we weren't staying there anymore).

We acquainted ourselves with the mediterranean sea on our first real day in Antalya and took in the awesome backdrop for a moment before heading into the centre of town. We found numerous kebab joints, sweet shops and a local bazaar as we explored the area and walked the coast to see what we could by foot.

Antalya is definitely the most laid black place to visit in Turkey, it honestly doesn't feel like you are in the middle east at all. We just walked around the place and tried to see as much as we could in our few days we had here. We found this awesome kebab shop up the road that we made our local pretty quickly, the owners gave us bigger portions each time we went there, the food was amazing.

Each night we would stop off at a cafe on the main road of the old town that was surrounded by bars and drank coffee as people walked by. 3 Lira for a decent Mocha - good stuff. 

The last thing to do in Turkey was to get a Turkish bath and we found one on one the back roads of the old town that had been established for a couple hundred years. We didn't know what to expect so got the regular package that included entry, dead skin rub and the bath itself. We went into the bath through a small tunnel that led to the main sauna/ bath area and in it contained a large marble like block in the middle of the room roughly 2mx2m in dimension. This is a large element and gets heated - hot enough that it hurts when you sit on it. 

We all sat around and doused ourselves in the water that continually ran into reservoirs where we sat, and each of us had a steel dish to use as a water scoop. After about 15 minutes a dude comes in and gives Ben a decent whack on the back to start the dead skin removal. You basically lie on the middle element while the guy scours your skin with an abrasive glove (think scotch brite sponge). Once this is done the guy sends you into the bathing room where this old man chucks soapy water on you and pretty much washes all the dead skin off; he then rinses you off by chucking water at you from one of the reservoirs in the rooms and then you're done. We sat in the main room again for another 30 mins before leaving and getting changed. They brought out a bowl of fruit and apple tea for us once we were done and then we paid and left.

Walking back to the hotel we all felt pretty relaxed - probably how you'd feel if you sat in a radox bath for 3 hours.

With our left over time in Antalya we just did more of the same: Walked around, relaxed and enjoyed the food while we could because Egypt was just around the corner. We definitely loved our time in Turkey and it is worth going back to - especially in the summer time. That way you could visit Lara beach and have a swim when the water isn't freezing. On our last day we organised a lift with our hotel owner to the airport and said adios to Antalya as we made our way to Egypt via Istanbul.

Kebab's smashed: 18 per day

Busses caught: 5

Wonder's of the World: 1