Terrific Turkey!

Istanbul... not Constantinople

Blue Mosque

After taking yet another flight we arrived in Istanbul.  After collecting our bags we were able to navigate our way onto the metro. This was trickier than usual. There is a token system but the token machines don't take large bills which of course is what the bank machine gives you, which we had just been to as we had just arrived into a new country. Then the token machine ate our money so eventually after pointing and counting with the security guard we were allowed to jump the gate at the metro stop and still have a few tokens in our hand for the rest of the journey to our hostel. We made it to our hostel in the neighborhood of Sultanamet, dumped our bags and went for a walk. We walked past the Aya Sophia (once a church, then a mosque, now a museum) and the Blue Mosque (fully functioning mosque built hundreds of years ago to out-do the Aya Sophia), we walked the tourist drag and was inundated with hockers and touts. "Yes please."  We continued our walk down to the Bosphorus River and found the spice market, the grand bazaar and some of the ferries and fishing boats. For those of you not familiar with Istanbul it is a huge city of 16 million people and the center of it is comprised of three peninsulas (2 Europe, 1 Asia), all amazing.  It is by far the most fascinating major city either of us have been to as of yet. The sky line is filled with mosques each one bigger and better up-lit than the next, ferry boats, palaces, grand ottoman style buildings with a bustling metropolis life in the foreground. The next day we took care of some Embassy business and then we got down to some sightseeing.

Aya Sophia

Almost three years ago, we took our first international trip together and spent a week in Morocco.  The old town in Istanbul had a similarity to Morocco with the many cat calls we'd get to look in a shop or stop in a restaurant.  The bazaars had many colors that were similar to the stalls we'd see in Africa, but while there were many similarities it felt safe, a feeling we didn't get in Morocco.  The fact that the country is 99% Muslim meant that there were a plethora of mosques throughout Istanbul and everywhere else in the country.  Therefore, five times a day a loud siren plays from every corner in the city as a call to prayer.  The Turkish call was melodic compared to the Moroccan, which for some reason didn't sound human (maybe it was the outdated loud speakers).

Smiling even though there's snow

When we set off to see some of the sights, we were naturally drawn to the Aya Sofia, which has an unspeakable presence, sitting in the center of this magnificent city, drawing people into worship whatever its builders wanted the public to worship.  Built at some point a long time ago, originally as a church, then burned down and rebuilt within a period of a few years, and subsequently converted to a mosque when the Ottoman Empire became Muslim, currently a museum.   The inside of the mosque is dark, like an ancient castle, with soft lighting and dull colors, it was cold and damp, still when you enter into the main hall the building opens up and your breath is taken away.

Later in the day, we visited the Blue Mosque.  Surrounded by several towering minarets, and wall carvings we knew we were in for a treat as we approached this building.  This, being a fully functioning mosque, but had to follow the rules of worship (no shoes, women cover their heads).  Pretty simple and standard, and yet it was amazing to watch the number of tourists who ignore the guards standing at the doors who say 'No shoes', and the many signs showing a shoe with a red X through it.  None the less, a visit to the building was nothing less than spectacular even following the Aya Sofia.  As you enter into this massive mosque, the inside draws your attention upward to captivating blue tiling which gives the mosque its name.  It is forbidden to worship images in Islam, so the artwork focused on intricate geometric patterns instead of the usual Jesus, or saint portraits in a church.  This building was built a few centuries after the Sofia, giving the interior a bit of an advantage over its neighbor.  Stained glass windows colored the sunlight that entered the room, and thick elephant feet columns decorated with painstaking detail reached for the ceiling.  As the light turned pink it was almost time for another call to prayer, and we were kindly asked to leave.

Not your typical abode

To keep on the tourist path the next day we headed to the Topkapi Palace, where the sultan's had lived during their rule before Turkey became a democratically run country.  Now a museum, for a fee you can see how the sultans and his harem of concubines used to live. The palace was quite interesting, and had great views of the surrounding city.  A visit to the harem was well worth it, although all the ladies were all gone before Will arrived.  It was a chance to see how family life of the Sultan occurred.  It turns out that there were very specific rules and regs to living in the palace. The sultan could have up to 4 wives and as many concubines as he could afford, however there was no clear pattern of succession for any heirs.  When a child was born it was at the will of the Sultan to choose who would be prince number one.  The wife who gave birth to the child chosen to be prince was afforded a good deal of power, land and money.  The woman who became head of the harem and had a great deal of say in both advising the Sultan and running the palace. The Palace also had several displays of clothing, weapons, and jewelery from the time of the Sultans. One of the most memorable displays was that of the "3 spoon diamond", the 5th largest diamond in the world.  It was apparently found in a garbage dump by an impoverished man who then traded what looked to be a dirty chunk of glass for three spoons. Later when the spoon seller discovered what is was a dispute occurred.  Luckily for both parties involved the Sultan stepped in, polished that rock up and bought it off the spoon seller. (Whether he wanted to sell it or not).  It now sparkles brilliantly... not a bad find out of a garbage heap.

Some things don't need a caption

We spent almost two weeks in Istanbul. We had to do some trip maintenance things, getting our Indian tourist visa, doing some Christmas shopping, and seeing as this was the first country we decided to send a package home it meant that we could do some souvenir shopping for ourselves. We spent quite a few days wandering through the bazaar, the markets, and the pedestrian shopping area. A few words to the wise, Turkey has one of the highest counterfeit goods market in the world-buyer beware.  If its worth less than $5 it is not cashmere despite what the label says, don't shop in the bazaar-shop 2 streets over from the bazaar. Apparently there is a big enough market to support not only one but six stores in a row that sell nothing but rivets and 4 stores of buttons. We had a good time buying our families gifts for Christmas and even managed to ship it home using the Turkish post. Surprisingly our 5.5kg package sent snail mail for approximately $30 arrived in 11 days and no worse for wear.

Valley of Cappadocia

Seeing as we were there for a longer period of time we moved accommodations a few times while in Istanbul. We got out of the tourist neighborhood and went over to the other Europe peninsula where there were no touts, or hockers, just regular folks going about their day- it was fantastic. The food was better, the prices improved and we were very easily able to get around thanks to the great public transit system.   We could walk most places, however there were numerous modes of public transit we used to sight-see. We had our option of the metro, tram, funicular, ferry, or bus.  All of which cost the same to use ($1).  Due to the geography of the city there are people that commute to work everyday via ferry. They cross the river from one continent to the other without even thinking about it and for the same cost as a public bus or metro ride.

Pummakale... its not ice

We eventually made it out of Istanbul through an incredibly uncomfortable overnight bus to a town Goreme in the region called Cappadocia.  We had been told this was the home of 'fairy chimneys' and terrain like that we'd never seen before, a destination not to be missed when in Turkey.  We showed up at dawn, shivering due to the cold and lack of sleep.  We walked through the town to our accommodations and walked in as the breakfast preparations were underway.  For a few hours we hung out with the staff (who didn't speak English) huddling by the coal burning furnace waiting for a tour of the region.   A group made up of a French Canadian couple with their son, a family living in Dubai, and an Ausi with his Moroccan boyfriend (who didn't speak much English, and the Ausi didn't speak French or Arabic-more on them later) greeted us, it was going to be a good day.  Our tour guide spat our some information to us in broken English as fast as she could and we were off to see the sights.  Cappadocia is a region of Turkey with some crazy geography, a combination of volcanic activity and natural erosion makes for unworldly hills and topography.  Throughout the years this part of the country had been inhabited, it was an area where Christians had made homes in caves, underground cities and paintings and carvings in the rocks due to the porous material.  Between the quick spouts from our tour guide (which we later researched or overheard from the more articulate guides) and the general banter within the group, we were able to piece together the general history of the area.  Several photo stops later we saw some incredible stuff that our photos won't due justice, and we were dropped off at home.

...still not ice

That night our accommodations were literally sleeping in a cave.  When the power went out, we met the new financial partner of the hotel, an Aussie wife of some finance diplomat who had met the Queen and Clintons a few times.  Our second night in the hotel she decided to decorate the Muslim-run hotel for Christmas, so we stayed up half through the night drinking, decorating and singing along to the single Christmas CD she had.

The couple that fakes a BM together... (in an ancient lavatory) 

Over the next few days we went through some more of the central parts of Turkey, stopping at small towns, meeting mostly locals and being greeted quite warmly.  Most every night families crowd around the coal / wood burning furnace and drink tea while the children do homework or play on the computer.  We gained a pretty good understanding of the income levels of the average family, which definitely doesn't compare with at home.  We stopped for a day in Pummakale. At the top of the hills were old ruins and down the side of the hill were natural pools of thermal waters which were white as snow due to the mineral content of the water. You can climb up the pools to the top through the warm water, but you have to take your shoes off to slow down the erosion of the place.  It was not a bad day for mid-December.  We then headed to Ephesus, one of the best preserved ruins in the world, which really up-ed everything we saw in Greece.  It was fantastic. Also due to the time of year we had almost the entire place to ourselves-one of the perks to traveling off-season.

Ephesus... really cool old rocks

After about a week of empty hotels and vacant tourist sights, we landed ourselves in the port town of Fethiye.  We were excited at the sight of two backpackers drinking tea outside on our approach, and bumped into a gigantic New Zealander we met earlier on the trip inside.  "Whatever you're looking for, you've found here" he said.  In the background backpackers were telling stories, and one of the hotels' employees was preparing the hookah, we appeared to be in for a treat.  Here we met some fantastic travelers, and got a better understanding of the work mentality of Turkey.  While not always working hard, people are married to their jobs.  The owner arrived at the hostel, 7 days a week, at 7am and retreated to his flat at about midnight.  The other workers were there around the clock, often sleeping in the hostel overnight if there were spare beds.  A few days into our comfortable visit, the owner took us out on a hike of the Lacian Way, a 400km trail connecting Fethiye to Antalya, created as a trade highway a long long time ago.  The owner took a group our once a week on a 16 km trek on Sunday's, this time we had a large enough group of interested tenants he took us mid-week (at no cost).  A fantastic trek through the mountains filled with goats, views of the sea and a lunch prepared in a rustic shack by two old ladies sitting by the fire.  Everything we ate came straight off the farm, unpasteurized and untainted (best honey we've ever had).  The day ended as we watched the sun set into the ocean.  It was just a few days before Christmas hit, and almost all of the tenants of the hostel packed up and moved to a new location for the holiday.  We did the same and headed to Antalya.

Views from the Lycian Way

In every country we had traveled through, we had been able to cook in our accommodations allowing us to save money and avoid eating out three meals a day.  While breakfast is provided in 99% of accommodations in Turkey, access to a kitchen is not.  For Christmas, we wanted a chance to do laundry, cook and have our own space, so we found an apartment for a week in 'downtown' Antalya.  When we got to Antalya we discovered that everything is considered to be 'downtown', even our apartment, which took a 30 minute bus ride to get to the center (and life) of town.

 Harbour of Fethiye

Determined not to have a turkey-free Christmas we hit the streets in search of a Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  What we found was that the only Christmas dinner in town was in fact on Christmas Eve.  We had to make a quick sprint back to our apartment and the mall to look somewhat descent for the event.  Our host, a British woman who married a Turk, had assembled a collection of Turks, Norwegians and one Brit and put on the full spread, improvising and importing what she couldn't find locally.  One of the other guests lived a fairly interesting life, he worked as a yacht engineer, overseeing the building of super-yachts, and had been stuck in Antalya for 8 months due to a legal battle between the owner and the builders.  This was the cheapest boat he'd ever worked on, to the bill of $12 million.  He explained the industry and that he had sailed with various celebrities and some scum like Quaddafi's son (the one who was killed recently).  At the end of the night when settling the tab, he took our bill and said we weren't paying, this would be taken care of by the Kuwait/ Lebanese oil barons he worked for at the moment.  The next morning Santa brought us a hangover.

Silly hats for Christmas... its Tradition

Antalya itself remained uneventful.  We went to visit some falls outside the city limits, got lost and took 3 buses to find our way home, and returned to the hotel we had Christmas dinner for New Year's Eve.  We were surprised our naval friend did not show, but in his place we were seated next to the Australian psychologist and his Moroccan boyfriend we met in Cappadocia.  The wine flowed, the band played, and Adile danced with an old British woman who kept grabbing his ass.  It was one of the best New Year's we've had.

We had become very comfortable in Turkey by the time we left, there for almost 6 weeks, we found the people to be incredibly welcoming and good people.  Throughout the entire country, there were cats galore, not taken in as pets, but fed and treated well by society at large.  Turkey.  Its probably a country you don't hear of or think of too often, but we think you should start paying a little attention to it. It is a great place to visit and is clearly a country on the move up.  Out of our travel so far this country has impressed us the most.  It has a lot to offer in terms of things to see and do, various climates, good prices, gracious people and the food is pretty good once you get to know your way around - not a bad place for us to spend the holiday season.