Turkey Blog

Once upon a time in Turkey  

10 November 2007 - A mere taste of Korea and intriguing Istanbul

I'm sitting here guiltily munching away at a box of Turkish delight having arrived back in Wellington a couple of days ago from one awesome trip to Turkey.

Turkey was the next destination that Danny and I decided to rendevous in after his stint in New Zealand six months ago. And what a trip we'd have!

It all started 5am on Saturday 20 October. I was flying Korean Air over the next two days with an overnight at Seoul's Icheon Airport. They kindly put me up in the Hyatt for the night while I waited for a connecting flight - assuming it would be a ghastly empty airport hotel I was rather pleasantly surprised. It was 5 star to the max and I was to have quite the time over the next 16 hours! The Hyatt was definitely the flashest place I've ever stayed in alone. There I got a somewhat patchy sleep but not all was lost - huge comfy bed, massive tv, green tea and the deepest bath I've ever seen. I woke up around 7am, went for a swim in their olympic sized swimming pool and whiled away the next 40 minutes working out and trying to keep my bikini top in the right place.

After getting ready and having breakfast from an enormous healthy breakfast buffet I decided to venture back to the pool/spa area. 10 minutes later I was in a sauna with 10 tiny Korean women feeling very conscious about the curves that the New Zealand diet has given me since my return... After apparently sweating out enough toxins in the hottest room ever I was pulled into a bare concrete room, made to lie down on a hard plastic bed and scrubbed down with one very harsh woven mit until there were no skin cells left on my jet lagged body. This woman scrubbing me down was having the time of her life making me red raw. I'm turned over several times and scrubbed even more - on the front, on the back, back to the front, front to the side, side to the back, back to the side and back to the front again. She even scrubbed my armpits - OUCH! Just when I think she's about to come back for one more round of torture I'm lying there on my front and out comes the cream - my reward for the torture was one awesome massage and by far the softest skin I've ever had in my life.

20 minutes later I'm showered and moisturised (thought I better put on one more coat for good luck!) and feel more than ready to get on another grueling 12 hour flight on Korean Air who had yet to install little personal entertainment systems so still made their customers stretch their neck into unimaginable positions in order to see some bad b-grade movie. Walking around duty free and being shoved by the crowds in Icheon Airport made me realise why I'm no longer desperate to get in even more of Asia - I was ready for something different with a few less people - Turkey could offer me that and more.

After a 12 hour flight struggling with a bitchy stewardess to keep my window open and check out Siberia below I made it to Istanbul's Hotel Nomade (www.hotelnomade.com) a small boutique hotel in Sultanahmet. While fairly chic, the hotel didn't have a huge amount to write home about except that it was expensive and had a roof terrace with one amazing view of the Blue Mosque who's call to prayer would wake us up at 5:15am every morning while we were there.

My first night in Istanbul was one of insomnia and being able to hear literally everything in the Hotel Nomade's reception below my room ranging from some Americans bitching that they'd asked for two single beds and no ta double, to the night receptionist turning his compter on and off, and finally to him snoring like he's never going to ge tthe chance to snore again so better have one final good blow-out.

At 8am I drag myself out of bed and ask reception to please let me move to a higher floor if they want me to retain my sanity and believe in world peace. Mr Snore-a-lot kindly ablidges and I'm moved up to room 302 at last to catch an hour of sleep before being woken up by the single bedded Americans making their way up to the roof terrace for breakfast. It really is incredible how four Americans in a room can sound like there's a good thirty or so having a loudspeaker competition inside.

If you can't beat em... join em. They weren't really so bad in the end. They were in Istanbul to attend an art festival, were all my Mum's age and all had children in ivy-league colleges. Breakfast was a buffet of bland tasting chese, spa, bologne, bread, tomatoes, olives and cucumbers. I settled for the dried fruit and bread option with a strong brew of Turkish tea to start the day with.

Danny's train was delayed by 6-7 hours in the end so I spent my day wandering around Sultanahmet and trying to avoid the cat-calling of Turkish men. Eventually I settled on checking out the Basilica Cistern, an ancient underground water-storage build ni AD532 by Justinian. It once held 80,000 cubic metres of water and supplied the local palace and surrounding buildings. For some reason it was forgotten about for nearly 1000 years and locals had just assumed there was an underground supply of water just below their houses. Some even used to catch fish from it. Quite a creepy place with rather moody lighting, I enjoyed my time checking it out and watching the ghost-like carp do their thing (weirding out tourists). It's a well constructed feature of Byzantine Istanbul with massive Roman columns inside, two baring the sideways and upside-down heads of Medusa.

After exploring as much as I could handle with my nasty case of jet-lag I decided to go to the Train Station and surprise Danny. Expecting to wait for a good hour or so  I sat down with my book in the Orient Express Bar only to find that he actually was due to arrive in ten minutes! Was a great reunion and Danny felt quite chuffed being able to have a drink in a bar called the Orient Express after his three day journey doing the actual Orient Express trip all the way from Manchester and London. That night we just ate and checked out Istanbul in the rain - it was actually quite pretty.

I woke up the next day to absolutely phenomenal jet-lag. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. It was a struggle to take in all the amazing stuff we were seeing. We first checked out the Grand Bazaar - it was enormous and we got very lost in it. Danny had a field-day in the book bazaar but I mostly found the stuff sold to be the same stuff found everywhere in Asian tourist markets.

We spent the afternoon in the Aya Sofya - one of the very first Christian cathedrals and certainly one of the biggest ever built. It was converted into a mosque over time and now it's a museum showing both the early Christian Byzantine artwork (mosaics and frescoes galore) and the Ottoman Muslim. It was outstanding and we were both blown way by it, so much so that we had to leave checking out the Topkapi Palace until the next morning.

That night we met up with Evin, one of my couch-surfing friends who took us out to eat in Kadikoy - one of Istanbul's residential areas, home to the Fenubache football team (I will elaborate more on that later!) and known for its good cheap and authentic Turkish cusine. To get there we took a packed commuter ferry and once in Kadiokoy had a blast hanging out with her for the evening. By the end of the evening we had learned heaps, made a wonderful new friend and were exhausted so made our way home by Dolmus (kind of like the Phillipine Jeepney but a big van instead).

On Wednesday I still hadn't shaken off my jet-lag and was kind of grumpy for most of the day. The big downpours of autumn rain didn't help either and left Danny and I soaked to the bone.

We started at the Topkapi Palace waiting for a ticket booth that seemed like it was never going to open. It didn't and we ended up spending forever in another line. The Palace didn't really blow either of us away so we walked around the spice market and onwards across the river tothe streets around Taxim Square. We checked out the Galata Tower which dates back to Roman times (as does everything else in Istanbul!) and almost got conned into buying fake tickets to a Besiktas vs Liverpool match that night - they blatantly had the wrong date on them so we watched the game in a pub in Sultanahmet.

Thursday we pottered around on the other side of the bridge and just wondered the streets of Istanbul. We went back to the area around Kadioky, caught a boat to a tiny little island which was just an old light-hourse with a cafe and restaurant inside. On the way back to the hotel we watchted the most beautiful sunset over Istanbul's mosque filled skyline. Wow.

We ran around like blue assed flies to get back ot the hotel, eat and pack our bags up. We thought we were running early so back-tracked a bit to find this restaurant highly recommended by the Lonely Planet. Could we find it? Nope. Again we set off like blue assed flies back to the hotel, pack our bags up, eat and go to the bus station. We ended up making it to the bus station with plenty of time to spare and grab a kebab for dinner.

Beautiful Cappadocia

After a long uncomfortable night sleeping on a bus we woke up in Nevicair sometime around 7am. We were then sent arount the bend looking for a connecting bus to Goreme and chagned bus in the same carpark no less than three times. We eventually got there and spent the next hour or so trying to sort out somewhere to stay for the next few nights.

After checking out two versions (the expensive one and the cheap one that had no rooms available) of Travellers Cave Pension and deciding no to both we settled into Kelebek Cave Hotel for the first night and the Kookaburra Lodge for the other two. While we liked the Kelebek and its super friendly owner, we were a bit concerned about the plaster that kept falling on us while we were sleeping.

Once we settled into Goreme - a town apparently frequented by Aussie backpackers if you judge it by all the signs around saying "Last Pub" or fosters hats - we spent the afternoon in the Goreme Open Air Museum. Having no idea what to expect we were completely blown away.

All over Cappadocia are rock formations created by massive erosion over-time. Many of these formations have caves built into them dating back to Byzantine times. At the Open Air Museum these caves have tiny chapels and montastries built into them - some being the earliest churches in Christian history. They are absolutely mind blowing. During various invasions some of the earliest Christians took refuge in them and this is evidenced from drawings, frescoes and mosaics dated up to amost 2000 years old.

After whittering away the afternoon at the Open Air Museum (apart from an annoying Taiwanese film crew doing a travel show we were the last to leave), we went for pide - a Turkish version of pizza that is awesome (and ever so fattening!). The Taiwanese film crew interupted our dinner decided to come in and film the presenter making her own pide - hilarious - her expressions were well worthy of an oscar.

Day two in Goreme would prove to be one of the most exciting days of the trip. We rented a scooter for the day! After my near disaster of almost driving one right into a bunch of stalls in an India market-place I wasn't so keen to be driver so Danny took over while I clung to him for dear life. It was freedom at its greatest and we saw heaps of Cappadocia by doing it this way.

Looking like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers we took in crops of strangely shaped rocks all over Cappadocia including the settlement of Zelve (a smaller version of Goreme's Open Air Museum), fairy chimneys galore, pigeon chimneys and other funny shaped rock/cave outcrops that would make Dr Seuss proud. We were having the time of our lives on our little blue Yamaha.

The scenery in Cappadocia is very dry and arid as a result of the way i thas formed over time. It's really quite striking. There are also random patches of gravel, dust and sand everywhere. We had to be careful.

Getting a bit wary and feeling a bit peckish, we stopped in a small village called Mustafapasa for lunch. It was a lovely place with a lot of old Greek architecture and some very nice cafes. We stopped at one in the town centre and had a good lunch. Danny had Gozlme - a savoury pancake with a lot of cheese in it, while I settled for boring but tasty lentil soup and salad. After charging our batteries we were ready to be on the road again. We set off for the Underground City in Kaymakli.

The underground city was great! The Byzantines used it to keep warm in winter, cool in summer, and to hide from invading enemies year-round. The one we went to was eight strories deep though only 5 were open to the public. It was surprisingly spacious and seemed perfect to accommodate to the many Japanese and German tour-groups inside. When we arrived were were shivering with cold - it might have been sunny but we were freezing. The ticket operator invited us in to warm up by his stove and made a brilliant cup of tea for us - the hospitality of the Turkish could well be unbeatable.

Warmed up enough we explored the underground city for a wee while and then set off back to Goreme. We briefly stopped for petrol at the local Shell station, saw that the sun was setting and decided to get back to Goreme as soon as possible - much to our detriment.

Within ten metres of the Shell station we were doing a u-turn on the highway, hit a mix of dust, gravel and sand and next thing, WHAM! The scooter was on top of us and we were surrounded by a crowd of Turkish men going "broken? ok? hello? you move?" - the one who spoke English asking if he needed us to call a hospital. In hindsight it might have been a good idea since we couldn't really walk, Danny had some of the nastiest scabs ever and my forearm had a bit sticking out shaped like a big egg... Apart from the fact that we were in a lot of pain we decided that the only fractures were probably to our egos, thanked these really nice people immensely, jumped back and cautiously drove very slowly for the next ninety minutes back to Goreme.

That night we were both limping something terrible. Danny decided to cure his pain with Effes, the local beer, while I fell asleep on the couch after a couple of sips of his. He went out with the owner of the Kookaburra after I woke up dribbling (very attractive image I know!), hobbled down to bed and went to sleep hoping that I'd magically wake up the next day feeling a million dollars.

I didn't. The next day we were knackered and literally did nothing except sleep until around 2pm. We made an attempt at walking/hobbling to Uchasair but got half-way and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on a large rock sipping apple tea and eating pistachios watching the sun set early over Cappadocia. Beautiful.

On Monday we had most of the day to kill until we could get on a bus to Sinop - up on the Black Sea coast. To pass the time we decided to properly walk back to Uchasair and spend the afternoon there. Before doing so we decided it would be worthwhile having one last stroll around Goreme as it was Turkish National Day.

There were some performances by local school kids but nothing overly exciting. We got invited into this old woman's house thinking it was a national day thing. We sat there making small talk with her - donkey braying outside - and then she starts trying to sell us some crocheted polyester shawl for some ridiculous price. Feeling quite awkward we tried to make more friendly small talk with her until we could find an excuse to leave... it seemed like an eternity.

Strange moment over we got on our way to Uchasair to finish off the walk we started the day before. It was lovely and we took our time enjoying the lunar-like landscape along the way.

Uchasair was brilliant. It's set on a hill that overlooks Cappadocia. At the very top is an ancient Roman castle almost as old as the Christian caves at the Open Air Museum down the road.

Meandering our way up through Uchasair's lanes and alleyways we got approached by two kids. Perfect photo opportunity for me, perfect chance for the girl to practice her English on me. She sang me a song called fat cats  - I was starting to wonder if this was a hint that I'd eaten too much baklava or Turkish delight along the way!

The caste was cool. Again, made out of the Cappadocian rocks that were literally everywhere, the view from the top was out of this world and we savoured in the view again munching on dried fruit and pistachios for the best part of a couple of hours.

We were accompanied back to Goreme by a random stray dog who seemed determined to see us home. It was oddly protective of us yet never begging for anything at all - even the dogs in Turkey were nice!

Cute kids in Uchisair

The Black Sea

After four days in Goreme we were starting to get a little too used to the village, learning its nuances and the peculiarities of the people so we deemed it time to go. Great place - magic scenery and some of the friendliest locals ever.

We woke up the next morning in Samsun and caught a connecting bus right away to Sinop - a small fishing town, formerly a Roman fortress on the Black Sea. While it was a nice place, the rain would hardly let up and we found the locals to be a bit less friendly there. Highlight was actually the food - Sinop can really do a good baklava!

We spent Wednesday trying to get to Amasra, another Roman fortress on the Black Sea and apparently only a six hour drive along the coast. Unfortunately we could only get half way on the coastal route. No bus would take us any further and we were forced to go in-land. As a result, our six hour journey along the coast turned into almost twelve hours in-land. We changed buses about six times, passed through Safranbolu with its famous Ottoman houses and made it to Amasra around 8pm. Though it took forever we actually really enjoyed thejourney there. We met some super friendly people along the way - the Turkish people are so unbelievably helpful and nice.

In Amasra we were met by the owners of Kale Pansion - a really old house built in the ruins of the former Roman citadel. The owner was a Turkish version of Basil Fawlty and though spoke no English managed to have quite the jolly sign language/broken Turkish conversation with us. His wife was tiny and just giggled and giggled. They were old but very cool. We had the downstairs of their house to ourselves which included a balcony with sweeping views of the town and twin harbours below us.

We went out for dinner at a place called the Hamam Cafe - an old Hamam converted into a cafe. Having left our phrase book at the Kele Pansion we somehow managed to order breakfast, pizza covered with spam and some nasty weird egg dish. Luckily every meal in Turkey comes with free bread!

After dinner we went and had icecream. The owner of the shop had the most full on handlebar moustache I've ever seen in my life. We then went back to bed and woke up on Thursday to a gorgeous view of Amasra.

We spent the day just walking around and taking our time exploring the old citadel. It was just one of those really nice places, relaxed and cool, and we really enjoyed our time there. Sadly we had to leave it on Friday morning to catch a bus to Istanbul.

 Danny and the owners of Kale Pension

One last fling in Istanbul

We spent the night in the Hotel Turkuaz (http://www.hotelturkuaz.com/index.htm). What a place! It's an old Ottoman house that looks like something out of the Adams Family with its ornate old furniture, curtains everywhere and lopsided spiral staircases. We loved it!

Saturday was our last day in Istanbul. I went to a Hamam while Danny went back to the Grand Bazaar to pick up some caligraphy. While I was rather disapointed with what I paid for at the Cagalogue Hamam (http://www.cagalogluhamami.com.tr/) - the scrub was nothing compared with what I got for my buck in Korea it was actually an amazing place to look at. Done in the style of the Roman baths it's stunning and has featured in films like Indiana Jones as well as in the book 1000 places to see before you die. The inside is beautiful with big Roman columns in a massive heated marble room. Along the sides are individual basins wher you bathe and in the middle is a large platform where the old ladies scrub you down. Like I said, I left feeling a bit short changed and probably wouldn't really recommend it except to see the interior.

That evening we went for dinner in Taksim and had a really really nice meal and then Danny took me to the madness of a Turkish Football game.

Evin had warned us to be careful as the fans are hooligans and wow, was she right or what! The fans of Fenerbache and Besiktas, two rival Istanbul teams, are acutally nuts. I barely saw the game as the fans were most definitely the entertainment. They all stand on their seats and roar and chant in a way I've never heard before. It was an awesome experience. At the end the losing fans started pulling off their seats and throwing them at the pitch - luckily their team was the away team and they were surrounded by policemen 5 people deep. It was insane. Never before have I seen a crowd as passionate as the 60,000 Fenerbache fans in attendance at the sold-out game.

We chose to wind down after the game at a local bar in Kadiokoy. To our pleasant surprise a Turkish band were playing live and the atmosphere was great!

It was a fantastic ending to a brilliant trip. Danny left first thing Sunday morning and I was to wait around for the rest of the day until my flight home at mid-night.

I had most of Sunday to kill so walked down through the Western Districts to check out the Kariye Muzesi, also known as the Chora Church. It was well worth the 2 hour walk there as it contains some of the best preserved Byzantine Mosaics around. I finished my time with a quick stop at TopShop to get a decent pair of jeans, filled up on one fantastic shish kebab and made my way to the airport.

Turning up almost four hours early I was looking forward to a good sleep on a flight home... but NO! That would not happen. My time in Istanbul was not to end that night. My flight had left without me due to a schedule change and no one informing me.

DRAMA.

So I had no choice but to buy myself a new flight out of Istanbul. My NZ credit card was maxed (hey, give me a break, it was the end of my holiday!) and I couldn't remember my emergency UK credit card pin-number for the life of me. They wouldn't accept my signature for it due to a pin being attached to it (?). I was well and truely screwed. They weren't even going to allow me to use someone else's credit card number - and I couldn't get hold of my parents to help me out. Finally in the end a friend came through for me and after a few tears in the middle of the night some kind man finally let me use that credit card and got me on an Emirates flight for the next night. By this point I was more than ready to leave Turkey. I spent the night in a hostel with a bar downstairs and spent the next day hidden away - I just wanted to get home and going outside would mean constant cat calling from the men around Sultanahmet (I didn't encounter any harrassment whatsoever outside of this touristy corner of Istanbul).

Apart from the dramas at the end (which by the way included a nasty cheap doner kebab on my way back to the airport the following day as well as a marriage proposal from the guy who made it for me...) I really loved my time in Turkey. It's a magic place and I really want to go back and explore more of it. There is so much history and culture on every corner and the people are incredible. We had the best adventure there.

Keep your eye out for more adventures! Fiji is coming up in 7 weeks and then I will reveal where I'm off to next!

Take care all,

Kat.