Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label turkey. Show all posts
Monday 15 February 2016

BW Film: Turkey

I always have these bouts every now and then where I feel that I should be out there doing something. It really comes down to my wanderlust flaring up and I am just itching to travel and explore the world.  But alas, practically I can't be jetting off to other countries all the time. And of course, between saving as much money as I can for a deposit for property and travelling the world, something has to give.

Some travel photos from Turkey. An incredible country and one I want to return to ... one day. Too many places to see, too little time.


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Love Valley.

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The clay was crazy. I actually forgot about it until I saw this photo.

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Thursday 21 May 2015

Final Days in Istanbul

The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) has an interesting history. It is the third church to be built on the site, having been used as a church originally and later as a mosque. It is currently a museum and at the time of my visit (Jan 2015) was undergoing restorations inside. From 537 to 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral however was also also a Roman Catholic cathedral between 1204 to 1261. The building was converted into a mosque from 1453 to 1931 after Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. It was opened as a museum in 1935. Consequently, there have been continual efforts to remove the plaster to reveal the original interior.

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Slow removal of the plaster that was placed after it was converted to a mosque.

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Very close to the Hagia Sofia, the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayı) is one of the largest cisterns that lie under Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century; it is incredible to think that it is that old! The cistern is 143m long and 65m wide with 336 marble columns, spaced at 4m intervals.

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There are two Medusa heads and it is a mystery as to why they are there. There is a rumor that they were moved from a building of the late Roman period. The cistern wasn't as cool as I thought it would be and was both a little underwhelming and a little creepy. But still worth a visit.

There are so many mosques in Istanbul and so many more than I had expected. I visited my second mosque - Rustem Pasha Mosque- (which was a little difficult to find) and unlike the Blue Mosque, it was blue-r and almost deserted.

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Not Turkish food but one of the best burgers I've had in my life was at Virginia Angus near the Grand Bazaar.

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Testi kebabs are a combination of meat and vegetables cooked in a claypot. It originated from the Cappadocia region and is an experience as it is sealed after filling it with the ingredients and breaking it is the only way it can be opened to be consumed. As it is an Anatolian specialty, naturally it was on every menu when I was in Göreme. However I didn't try it when I was there (rookie error) and searched high and low in Istanbul on my last night. As mentioned before, food in the old area was quite expensive and the testi kebab I had at the restaurant was significantly more expensive than what I would have paid for in Göreme. But nonetheless it was super tasty and interesting to watch how the claypot was cracked open. Plus I also got a free shot of amaretto from the bartender!

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Overall Thoughts
What was interesting was to compare and contrast the different areas in Istanbul. The old town, Sultanahmet, was so different to Beyoğlu and Beşiktaş which were a lot more modern and reminded me a little of the suburbs in the US. Actually, in the old town, it reminded me of Hong Kong with the sheer volume of people and the tight alleys. I also visited one of the largest shopping centres in the world (Şişli Kültür ve Ticaret Merkezi) which was insane.

Turkey was an incredible country with amazing people and food. Although I didn't enjoy Istanbul as much as I would have liked, I loved all the other cities/towns that I visited. Turkey was so different to every other place that I have visited and I really loved the country despite all the mishaps. I definitely want to return one day to explore more of the beautiful country, notably the south west region. 
Thursday 30 April 2015

Istanbul

Istanbul was one of my most anticipated cities. It is a city that is separated by the Bosphorus and it means that it is on the European and Asian continent. It is the most populous city in Turkey and is one of the largest cities in the world with a staggering 14.16 million. To put things into perspective, Australia's total population is 23.13 million.

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I stayed in a small hotel in the old district, Sultanhamet, which was very close to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) and the Hagia Sophia. This meant that every time I went out to explore, I needed to walk through the park which was a little uncomfortable. Safety is usually not something that is at the forefront of my mind but cutting across a park at night does heighten my sense of awareness. It was quite jarring to see the stray dogs in such a busy city like Istanbul and interestingly enough, the citizens do care about the animals. There were bowls of water and kibble left out and it seems that the locals do like the strays.

The first stop in Istanbul was the Blue Mosque. I had never been inside a mosque before and really didn't have any expectations. From people's comments, I knew that the Blue Mosque wasn't very blue. But it was still incredible to see the tiles inside.

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The Grand Bazaar is an indoors market selling a variety of goods such as: fake designer bags, trinkets, turkish towels, Turkish delight, tea and spices. It was definitely an experience. Even in Sydney, I have a problem with my sense of direction at Paddy's Market since the same store repeats on every corner. The Grand Bazaar is massive and the same few stalls repeated which made it very confusing. Haggling is not in my nature and it is definitely needed when shopping there since everything is overpriced. Even some stalls "final" prices were still overpriced. For example, there was a magnet being sold there for 3 lira (after haggling) and the exact item was sold in a shop nearby for 1 lira, no haggling required. The only purchase I made was for Turkish towels and in hindsight, I should have made a lower counter offer. The man's first price was 45 Lira, followed by 35 Lira when I ummed and ah-ed over the price. I made a counter offer at 25 Lira and he quickly accepted. In hindsight, I should have said 15 Lira. D'oh. I say that because I bought other better quality Turkish towels from a homeware store for 23 lira. Novice at haggling.

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'Hamal' or porter who carries all sorts of stock on their back with that presumably uncomfortable and dangerous posture. Every one of them that I saw were at least over 50 which made me a little sad about the long term impact of their profession on their body. An article here.

I absolutely loved the food in Turkey however Istanbul was a little disappointing (in the central area that I had stayed in). Like a lot of big cities, I found the food quite expensive (relatively of course) for the quantity and quality.

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Sunday 26 April 2015

The Tale of the Missing Train Engine


Getting to Istanbul from Izmir was a struggle. But I guess that is what makes travelling interesting. The plan was to catch the 6hr "fast" train to  Bandirma followed by a 2hr ferry ride across the Sea of Marmara. Things were going quite smoothly until it wasn't. The train stopped around 1.5hrs into the 6hr train journey for a total of 1.5hrs. At first I didn't really understand why we had stopped until I got off and looked down the carriages to realise that the engine carriage had disappeared. It was gone! No one seemed to know how long it would take, however not many people seemed too concerned either and were content sitting in the carriage. Though to be honest, even if they had made an announcement, I wouldn't have been able to understand. An old man started a conversation with me on the platform and despite not understanding him at all (spoke only Turkish), he was happy just having a one sided conservation. I still stand by the fact that Turkish people are super friendly.


A funny story was when I got off the train to buy some food from this small "convenience" store. I wasn't sure how much the total came to and handed him 10 lira note. He handed me 25c back in change (which meant that my purchase was ridiculously overpriced) and I walked away. I was halfway crossing the railway track before he ran after me with a 5 lira note. Whoops.

Finally, the train engine carriage was replaced and the journey resumed. It was very interesting seeing the landscape change. What was also quite odd was seeing quite poor residential areas and then having a brand new shopping mall/ outlet centre a mere 200m away. I had booked the ferry ticket in advance and due to the delayed train, I missed the ferry and had to pay for a brand new ticket. D'oh. It also meant that I had to wait for 2hrs for the next ferry.




Jaywalking is definitely a skill and I really felt like I was going to be run over on the streets. I also saw a small car with 5 adult passengers in the back seats. I find that when I am actively looking for food, I can never seem to find anything and that was precisely what happened. In the end, I settled for a börek store. The name escapes me, but it must be pretty popular/ famous since the wall had lots of photos with - presumably- celebrities. Once again, with my almost non existent knowledge of Turkish, I managed to order two meat böreks. I had a börek when I went to Melbourne but now in hindsight, I'm not really sure what I was eating in Melbourne. In Melbourne, the dough was similar to pide however at the store, it was more like puff pastry. It was very cool watching her make the börek fresh and the total came to a bargain of 4 lira ($2 AUD).



The ferry ride was interesting. I've never been on a long ferry ride before and it felt like being on an airplane. What was even more interesting was the manner of boarding. There wasn't a ramp or anything like that. Nope. Rather, you walked onto the ferry the same way that cars were being boarded. When it came to disembarking, a crowd of people were waiting for the ramp to open. It was kind of funny. I never thought that I would board and disembark from a ferry in that manner and standing in a crowd of 80 people waiting for the ramp to open was just so odd. What was even weirder was that people were in the cars ready to disembark too. Not entirely sure how since there was the crowd of people.

Turkey is one of my favourite countries that I have visited, but there were many instances where things didn't go according to plan. I don't write about these stories to complain, but simply to have a more complete and true story about travelling. because things don't always go according to plan and that is where interesting stories come from.

* Quality of the photos are not my usual as they were all taken on my phone.
Tuesday 21 April 2015

Pamukkale


In hindsight, I should have allocated more time for Turkey because there was a lot of back-to-back travel across great distances. After a full day in Göreme, I headed for an overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. It is 616km from Göreme to Pamukkale equating to an 11 hour bus journey. Yikes. After my very uncomfortable 9 hour journey I had in the USA, I am generally very hesitant about long distance bus travel. Although it is convenient and cheap, being unable to sleep and then having a full day ahead is a horrible experience. However, there weren't any other options and I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be too bad.

As mentioned previously, travel between cities in Turkey is predominately served by coaches. From memory, although it was possible to purchase tickets online from some of the bus companies, simply turning up at the counter would usually suffice. That being said, it is best to buy the tickets as soon as possible. The first two bus companies that I went to were sold out of the tickets to Pamukkale. There was a brief moment of panic at the prospect of being stranded in Göreme however luckily the third counter had tickets to sell. In fact, they were reselling tickets from the second company I had tried to buy a ticket from originally.

My seat was in the very back row which wasn't too bad except for the fact that the ground was soaked. This resulted in my socks to be wet and I curled up in foetal position for the entire journey. Thankfully, I slept for almost the entire bus journey and it was a lot more comfortable than my experience on Megabus! The only thing that is somewhat annoying with bus travel in Turkey is that the toilet breaks are quite long - 30 minutes - and is more of a smoke break than anything, and there are toilet breaks every 2.5 hours. Close to Pamukkale, the coach stopped and the people heading there got into a small van. Luckily I had a travelling partner with me otherwise I would have missed that stop since I was fast asleep. In my stupor, I almost tripped on the way off the coach and left my hair clip on the handrest. It was a little dodgy if I have to admit. The coach had stopped at the side of a highway and half a dozen people got off the coach and into a small van. The van took us to the bus company's main office (this was around 7-something am) and we all awkwardly sat inside. No one said anything so I wasn't really sure what was happening and ended up grabbing some things to freshen up. As confirmed from my previous research, the bus company was more than happy to let us leave our bags there. However, the bags left unattended in the front of the store and not locked in a room or even behind a counter. The weather was quite dreary and was drizzling, however it was slowly clearing up.

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Pamukkale is a UNESCO site and it means "cotton castle" in Turkish. It was absolutely stunning to see the contrast of the white travertines against the flat fields and snow capped mountains in the distance. To protect the travertines, you have to remove your shoes and walk barefoot up to the top. Before my trip, I was worried that since it was winter it would be quite cold. That was partially correct. Although the water from the hotsprings which run down the travertines are quite warm (naturally), by the time they reach the bottom the water is quite cold. For 1/2 of the ascent, my poor poor feet were in pain. The ground was so cold that my feet became slightly numb. However as they were slightly numb, it meant that I began to feel every single ridge on the ground and excentuated the pain. Every now and then, I would intentionally walk into the cold water to soothe the prickling sensation. It was a little overcast so the true whiteness of Pamukkale wasn't completely evident. The further up I walked, the warmer the water became (which my aching feet were grateful for). Since I had entered the travertines shortly after opening, there were only 2 other people and it was very peaceful.

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The painful ridges.

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At the top of the travertines is the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire and was originally a spa town but later became important for the healing properties from the thermal springs. By the time I reached the top, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day. I enjoyed walking through the ruins of Hierapolis a lot more than I thought and I would definitely recommend that people allocate enough time to walk through some areas. The area is massive and the view is also stunning. I can't really imagine how incredible it would have been back in Hierapolis' prime. There were a lot of strays on the path up (they didn't have to pay an entrance fee!) and I gained three new buddies who didn't leave me alone for most of the time that I was exploring Hierapolis.

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By the time I headed back to walk down, the tour buses had arrived and the top of the travertines was filled with tourists. As the tour buses dropped them off at the top, everyone was within 100m from the top of the pools. It was a little jarring as I had walked up with hardly anyone around to seeing so many people being ... frankly stupid. A major gripe of mine is when people don't listen to rules and have no respect for the site that they are visiting. Some people blatantly ignored the path just so they could take their photo. The path is there for a) safety and b) preservation of the natural site. As the skies had cleared, the white travertines were blinding. I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses much to my dismay.

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Pamukkale and Hierapolis were amazing and I would highly recommend. It is incredible to think that the travertines are a natural phenomenon.

Now in hindsight, I realise that every time I travelled within Turkey, it was fraught with transportation issues. The ticket that I had purchased to Izmir was problematic as the bus company's internet was down and therefore for some reason our tickets had to be refunded. What happened was that I caught a small van to Denizli (the closest big city) which was an experience in itself. From Denizili, there was the option of catching the train to Izmir which at the time I thought would be a nice experience. Boy was I wrong. What people said was correct; buses are the way to go. The train was so slow and it took 5 hours to reach Izmir (bus would have been 3.5 hours). The following day was the journey to Istanbul and once again, the day was rife with transport issues. Oh Turkey.