Turkey!!!
Firstly; I am starting a "Rouge Dragon Travel Awards 2005". Please
nominate categories for me much as "best men", "sleaziest men", "best
sunset", "craziest traffic" "most exciting" etc. Thanks!
Turkey is a fantastic country and Istanbul is an amazing city! So much to
see and do and an atmosphere that is never boring! (well, except at 2am on
a Tuesday night...)
I caught the overnight train from Bucharest to Istanbul with Matt and Sean
on the 18th of March for spring holidays. Our intention was to see how
Turkey treated us and to maybe move on to Greece for the second week. I
was sceptical at first, even thinking about changing destination, but
after only a day in Istanbul, I knew I could spend 2 weeks in Turkey
easily!
We had the three of us in a sleeping compartment on the train which was
supposed to take 18 hours, but in reality took 20. A tiny little
compartment that was such a funky little novelty at first, but after 20
hours it was torture! We managed to open the door into the compartment
next door to give us some more room and Matt and Sean were kicking a footy
between them...but then the cranky conductor came and got really pissed
with us! So there went our entertainent! But it was all ok because some
new entertainment came - in the form of border guards!
Oh the delight of being woken up at 3am by some big Bulgarian border
guards to stamp passports! Then to have to actually get off the train at
about 4:30 am to get VISAs for Turkey (one must love Turkey. The Gallipoli
war memorial saying that Turks and Aussies are now brothers...BUT YOU
STILL NEED A VISA TO ENTER THE COUNTRY!). And getting these VISAs are not
all that simple! You have to work your way past the massive booth where
you get your passport stamped, past the duty free booths full of
cigarettes (don't know why you bother buying cigarettes duty free, they
are piss-cheap anyway!) and to this dodgy little one where we bought a
sticker for US$20, had the train blow its whistle to tell us to hurry up
and in the process scare the crap out of us. So the boys bolted, leaving
me behind the little bastards! Had to go back to the first big booth to
get the sticker stamped THEN back on the train some border guards came
around and made sure everything was in order. Why the hell Turkey couln't
just be like Bulgaria with the border guards coming onto the train in the
first place I have no bloody idea! Oh, and all this happened without the
help of people telling us!
While trying to find the little dodgy VISA booth, we met a Scottish
backpacker called Tam who joined us in finding a hostel in Istanbul
(contrary to what he said, Sean had not booked us a hostel and we couldn't
find the one we were recomended; the Orient). This particular Scot
happened to be a little wiz in Byzantium history so for the afternoon,
wandering around Istanbul, we basically had our own private guide! Without
him, I never would have realised the significance of the Ayasofya in being
practically the centre of the world, and how, if you know to look, the
people who converted it into a mosque did a pretty dodgy job because there
are still Orthodox crosses that can be seen underneath the new paint job!
But even so, the artwork is gorgeous! You would never realise it from the
outside where it looks so dodgy and patched together (thanks to the
conversion)! But being in such an old building had a strange feel of
stillness to it (or was that just the cold air?) and I had trouble
comprehending how old the building was. Being from such a "new" country
made it almost impossible to believe that I was standing inside a building
almost a thousand years old!
Istanbul is such a great city to just walk around! Got ripped off buying a
kebab at the Grand Bazarre...we hadn't been therelong enough to realise
that $4 for a kebab is disgustingly expensive. $1 will get you a nice one
if you just walk a bit! We checked out the place where the apparently
raced chariots round; complete with a statue of 3 snakes that until the
19th century had three heads...until a drunk Polish guy came along and
tore them off somehow! The random things you learn from a Scot!
We went for a wander and found the backpacker hostel we had been recomended.
The local Turkish brew is quite nice.
The next morning, we picked up Dave and Kelly from the train station,
which, with Tam, gave us a full dorm room - but the people at the hostel
weren't going to give us a mixed dorm! I finally put my gift of the gab to
good use and got us one even though it is "normally impossible" didn't see
what the problem was, the bloody prudes! After the gorgeous day the day
before, Sunday was absolutely freezing! Dave and Kelly went to the
Ayasofya, while I chilled at the hostel and Matt and Sean went
shopping...now there is a reason men should not be left to shop
themselves...because they came back with these tracksuits, so disgusting,
they were awesome! Matt had a navy and white one and Sean had black red
and yellow one; "adidas" matching tracksuits. It was so embarrassing
walking around with them! they looked like the biggest tossers, but so
funny! life is never dull with those two around, even though sometimes you
want to strangle them! We had a look at the Blue Mosque from the inside
(absolutely gorgeous but smelling like feet due to everyone having to take
their shoes off!). it was freezing cold so we went and found a dodgy
little cafe where we smoked "nagile" which is that Turkish water pipe. or
"giant turkish bong" as comes to mind when you see one. Think the
caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. After smoking the nagile, we headed
to the Orient.
Which now brings me to Monday, when Emily and Sally arrived and we hit the
Grand Bazarre! An amazing place! I could spend hours in there without
actually spending money, just enjoying the atmosphere! In fact, the first
hour I was in there I was doing just that. oh, and having a carpet seller
try and pick me up! But it was a nice chat. He didnt try to sell me a
carpet at all! just tried to get me to come with him to another suburb to
look at something (i don't know what; ruins or something!). When I told
the others, they were quite disgusted. They hated the way Turkish men
always looked at us and how they were always trying to intice us into
shops. I got over the perving very quickly, and i actually liked the
atmosphere of trying to get customers to come into shops! offers of apple
tea on every corner and a "no thanks, mate" shut them up most of the time
(unlike ignoring them which is less likely to work!). the other girls
bought "wedding rings" to throw the Turkish guys off the scent...but it
really wasn't necessary! but i bought some things; shoes, jewelery, beads,
hair clip. haggled. best price i got was $10 down from $24.
And that night we went to...you guessed it....(after smoking some nagile!)
to the Orient! They had a belly dancing show on, so we chilled upstairs
for a while before going downstairs for the show. The girl danced on her
own for a while before inviting other people up one by one to join her.
nearly all of us GAPpers went up to dance! it was a heap of fun! and i
apparently wasnt half bad at it either! But the boys were hilarious!
Pissed Aussie boys trying to dance while they have a gorgeous girl wearing
hardly anything infront of them? Entertainment in itself!
So since we had spent all of our nights at the Orient, we decided to check
out of our other hostel and actually go and stay at the Orient. Seemed the
logical thing to do! Especially when at 7am Wednesday morning from outside
that hostel, we embarked on a tour of Turkey! For me and Kelly (another
Melbourne GAPper) it was the start of a fascinating 7-day tour of the
country (for the others it ranged from 2-4 days).
Day 1:
Gallipoli. I have officially made the pilgrimage! And incredibly poignant
day seeing gravesites of Aussies and Turks alike, as well as ANZAC Cove
itself. Felt a bit sorry for Dave (the Brit) who had no idea what-so-ever
as to the significance of the place for us Aussies, yet had us paying him
out the whole time - all in ANZAC spirit, of course! It was lovely to see
the gravesites of the ANZACs so carefully looked after with flowers being
planted (probably in time for ANZAC Day).
Something I didn't realise was that the battle at Gallipoli had pretty
much the same outcome for the Turks as it did for Australia; unity of a
nation. The guide was telling us, seemily unaware of the whole "battle
that created a nation" for Australia, and it was kind of pleasant to know
that Turkey found itself when Australia did
We took a ferry across the Dardenells to Canakkale. No-body stay at the
"Yellow Rose". It is a bloody dive with no heaters.
Day 2:
Troy. The first nomination for "tackiest attraction". Yep, you guessed it.
A giant wooden horse. Oh. Wow. So. Exciting. I. Nearly. Peed. My. Pants.
Cough. Although it was quite funny that this horse was hung like
a...ladder that you could climb up and wander around inside??? But the
ruins were interesting enough. My first of many ancient ruins. I wish I
knew more about the actual legend. All I know of it involves Brad Pitt
half naked which I suspect isn't quite accurate! But for my first ancient
ruins, it didn't disappoint (ok, so perhaps the absence of Brad Pitt
did...) - I had now been to Ancient Greece without stepping foot in
Greece! We did our best Achilles Vs Whatsisname and Paris and Helen
impressions - We had lost our shame long ago!
The it was hop on a bus, followed by another bus to Selcuk. It was in
Selcuk we realised that we had been living in Romania for too long. At the
bus station, we were met by a tour guide. But not OUR tour guide. So when
he offered to take us to the hostel where we were booked, we were
incredibly sceptical and asked him how much it was going to cost us to be
shown. He said it wouldn't but like we were going to believe him! In the
end, we decided that we would just have to pay it; we were in a town in
Turkey with no clue about our hotel. But when we got there, all he said
was "here is is. Have a nice stay, and I have a BBQ dinner on at the hotel
I run. If you are interested, come and find me at the train station" and
that was that! We all felt really bad for being so untrusting! And after a
week of staying in youth hostels, this 3 star hotel (the dodgy end of
3-star at that!) was like paradise!
Day 3:
I have now seen one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World...or at least, a
column from said wonder! A column which showed that those Greek Gods have
really moved on - a stork had built its nest there and was perched up
there oblivious to all the tourists taking photos of what was once
Artemis' Temple. Artemis; the Goddess of hunting (among other things).
Incredibly amusing, I thought!
However Ephesus was fantastic! Apparently 70% still original and not
reconstructions! This huge expanse of "ruins" (I say "ruins" because ruins
without inverted commas implies a whole lot of rubble on the ground which
Ephesus certainly wasn't!). We saw the 3rd biggest Greek ampithetre in the
world (did our best dramatic impressions on the stage!) as well as one of
the biggest libraries (complete with a tunnel to the brothel over the
road, but we didn't get to see the tunnel!) and even did the tacky shot of
us all sitting on the toilet (unfortunately, no-one had a newspaper, but
we did do our best thoughtful looks!) And at Ephesus we actually got
sunburnt! Shock horror!
From there we went to a pottery gallery where I had a go at making a pot.
Turned out really well! (all my own work! Had nothing to do with the
professional sitting behind me prodding and poking every now and again, i
swear!). But the highlight (?) of the day was the leather fashion show!
Yep, went to Turkey and got to see a leather fashion show! Why they think
a fashion show is what visitors to Turkey want to see is anybody's guess!
But we had a ball trying on coats that cost anywhere from a few hundred to
a few thousand Euro and taking photos of ourselves!
And then on to an old village where every house was about 200 hundred
years old and wine was nice! I had one of the wine sellers tell me he was
going to get me drunk testing his fruit wine. I told him goodluck because
I was an Aussie (although I didn't mind him trying at all - it was really
nice wine!) But the highlight of the village was getting an old lady
pissed off with me! I was taking a photo of an old street when I thought
this lady offered to show me up the street to a better photo location or
something. But no. She invited me to her house, gave me an apple tea (can
you say grimy glass and dodgy tea?), closed the door, and then proceeded
to try and sell me some socks and slippers for 5 euro each! I was polite
and said how lovely they were (they weren't!) and got up to leave as soon
as my tea was finished. But she didn't want to me leave! She kept trying
to sell me the socks! I didn't want her bloody socks or slippers! I had a
pair sitting at my host family in Romania made by my own grandmother that
were a lot bloody nicer than the ones she was selling me for 5 euro! So I
was trying to get out the door when she asked for money for the apple tea!
"No! It was a gift!" I said firmly as I walked out the door and got the
hell away from there! Dodgy, rip-off old lady whose apple tea was probably
going to make me sick anyway!
Day 4:
The day me and Kelly started on our own! The others had all nicked off
back to Istanbul, and Turkey was OUR oyster!
We took a bus to Pamukkale where we saw some more ruins and one of the
biggest ancient cemetaries in the world. Unfortunately, after Ephesus, the
Heirapolis at Pamukkale was a bit of a let-down. Most of it had been
reconstructed and even then, it was nowhere near as spectacular. But the
iron and calcium springs were lovely and warm and the sunset over them all
was divine. We met an American couple; one was a lecturer in linguistics -
and knew a man who will probably be one of my lecturers at Monash next
year! How small does this world want to get?
Introduction to night buses...
Day 5:
Arrived in Goreme at 6:30am. "do clocks change for summer time today?"
"what? No." But clocks did change for summer time, and therefore, as we
were sitting down for a cup of tea, we had the tour guide rush in and tell
us we had to be going on our tour. Bugger. It was really nice tea as well!
(so we took it on the bus with us and I spilt mine everywhere!) Not to
mention a GREAT host who ran the pension where we stayed! Mrs. Mac; "Keles
Cave Pension" in Goreme (the place to see Cappadocia from). Honestly, the
place wasn't the fanciest, but considering we were staying in a house
built into the side of a cave in a tiny village - how 5-star do you expect
it? But the service was definately 5-star! When we arrived, we were
invited for coffee with the owner overlooking the sun creep up over the
little town full of rock formations. Then, when we declared that we were
taking the 5 minute walk to the village to get some bread for breakfast,
he drove us (in the car he bought the day before which was the biggest
bomb, but his love for it was adorable!) and even bought us Turkish
pasteries for breakfast! AND gave us more tea when we came back. AND
invited us to sit with him and his Turkish friends that night as we drank
MORE TEA. AND when we left the next morning and I was trying to learn how
to use the Turkish stress-bead thingos, HE GAVE ME HIS!
On our first day of our Cappadocia tour we were introduced to the amazing
landscape. Bizarre rock formations created from when the (two?) volcanos
in the area errupted, and the earth cooled, and the continental climate,
and the water, and the wind, and the pidgeons...yes. pidgeons. At least,
it seemed like that sometimes! The original inhabitants of Cappadocia
("Land of Beautiful Horses") loved their bloody pidgeons! Every site we
went to, we were shown the houses for the homing pidgeons. By the end of
it, I wanted to shoot every pidgeon I saw! But the rock formations were
really interesting. Cone-shaped, and dotted all over the place in a canyon
that had wavy cliff-sides.
Cappadocia was one of the first lands of Christianity (and it was there I
spent Easter Sunday - makes me sound incredibly spiritual, does it not?)
and those early Christians were incredibly smart as well as rather nutty.
Underground city, anyone? 8 levels (suspected 12) build all underground
from the Roman times until the Byzantium Era. Complete with everything! It
was their refuge in case of attack and it was amazing how intricate it all
was! But must have been hell to live in. Oh, and why were they nutty? Have
a guess...it's to do with more bloody pidgeons!!!
We then visited a canoyn that is apparently the 3rd or 5th (no, i don't
rememebr which! There were so many "Nth in the world" attrations I can't
remember!) longest in the world, full of old churches carved into the
walls, some which still had their frescos intact! And guess how the
frescos were made! Yep! PIDGEON EGGS! And guess what all the little holes
dotted along the canyon were...don't even say it!
Our last stop for day 1 was a building were the caravan people used to
stop for the night. I didn't really understand the history of the people
that well (they might have been the Anatolians) but the building was
interesting.
Day 6:
Day 2 began with a turquise workshop where I put my smart-arsness to good
use and won myself an egg made out of some semi-precious stone whose name
I have forgotten.
We saw the Goreme Open Air Museum. Lots and lots of churches! Apparently,
every wealthy family built their own church, and were also slightly morbid
because they buried their dead at the doorway...Gorgeous frescos however.
Before lunch we went inside one of the strange rock formations and enjoyed
a cup of tea. I could so have set up a little room in that thing; carpets
and cusions everywhere! Too bad there were PIDGEON HOLES in the side!
Lunch took about 2 hours. Yep, 2 hours. Thats what happens when 6 people
want their fortunes told. The fortune teller was of mixed accuracy. For
some of the others he was scarily accurate about things he could not have
told just from looking at them, but for me he was a bit obvious; "You are
a radical person who does crazy things with no regrets." Nice job, mate.
Cos a girl a million miles from home wearing a rainbow hat and scarf does
not have "radical" or "crazy" written all over her!
After lunch we saw the "Valley of Dreams" that had a whole lot of rock
formations that apparently looked like things. The Camel was obvious. So
was the Snake, the Hand and the Virgin Mary. But some others were
clutching at straws. And I'm surprised there wasn't a pidgeon...
From there we visited another pottery factory. This one was nowhere near
as interesting as the other one, and nowhere near as traditional in their
workshop. So me and Kelly went for a walk and made the observation that
Turkey is such a mixed country. We had spend the first few days of our
tour along the coast where it was very green and sometimes almost Greek in
places - definately Europe - yet where we were that day it was easy to see
why Turkey is also classed as the Middle East; (looking a lot like Dad's
photos of the UAE) Dry, dusty and sandy - And Istanbul is Istanbul!
Our tour had ended and that night we boarded overnight bus number 2 to
Istanbul.
I hate overnight buses.
So it was Tuesday morning and we were back in my favourite city; Istanbul.
By now I was running on adrenalin and bouncing off walls despite my lack
of sleep (you all know how I can be!) and me and Kelly went to see the
Underground Basillica Cistern, thingo. Forked out another over-priced
entry fee, to see an absolutely gorgeous
Roman/Byzantium/getting-confused-about-w
hat-was-what-by-now underground
water storage . Finally discovered the "night flash" on my camera and
subsequently actually managed some (blurry but) awesome photos!
After a tiring week (who knew sightseeing could be such exhausting work?)
me and Kelly decided to check out the Turkish Baths...after-all, we WERE
in Turkey! Now you will all be glad to know that Bethany has overcome her
problems with her body. It was happening gradually as she had to shower in
backpacker hostels where there was no room in the shower cubicle for a
towl or clothes...but she lost it all in one big second as she had a 70
year old lady with saggy boobs and a pot belly pull her towel off her then
exfoliate, wash and massage her. Which, by the way, is not all that
simple. Ever tried lying on marble, covered in soap suds and try to remain
still? It can't be done! But so very, very nice and relaxing!
Now rememeber how I said that there is nothing to do in Istanbul on a
Tuesday night (Sultahnamet at any point. Maybe there is in Taksim)? That's
because there isn't. We were sharing a dorm with an American who had
bought some interesting stuff at the Grand Bazarre that day; a jar of
Turkish "aphrodisiac" (seeming suspiciously like a jam of various
spices..who's the sceptic?). So what did we do on a boring Tuesday night
when the bar next door advertised Belly Dancing but only delivered local
morons trying to breakdance? We hit the streets and tried to feed the
contents of the little jar to stray cats and dogs. But even the they
didn't like it! And we ended up leaving the jar on a street corner with a
mangy looking cat. In hindsight, that might have been a bad idea; stray
cute kittens are far better off than stray mangy kittens!
So that was our last night in Istanbul. Our last day we went shopping
again and caught another bloody night bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. This was by
far the worst of the night buses. I have got to stop being so nice and
thinking that people are just trying to be friendly; cos cranky old
Bulgarian women are just that - cranky. And selfish too. Kelly and I were
practically the only people on the bus who didn't have a double seat to
themselves, let alone the entire row. So when the man infront of us got
off, I took his double seat (which also meant the whole row of 4 because
the guy on the other side had also gotten off) in the hope that me and
Kelly could get some sleep. But this cranky bitch who already had 4 seats
to herself in the front row, decided to sit in the seats across the aisle
from me. That was fine. I didn't mind. 2 seats was enough for me anyway;
I'm not that big, I can sleep with 2 seats only. I might have been able to
- but she couldn't! She started telling me some stuff in Bulgarian while I
stood there obviously having no clue what the hell she was saying. I
thought she was telling me that there was the 5-seats up the back of the
bus free (which it wasn't) so I tried to show that I was happy with the
seats I was in. Kelly was more clued up. While I said that the lady was
trying to be nice and helpful, Kelly said that she was being a bitch. And,
in short, she was! Mrs. Cranky, finally realising that talking to me in
Bulgarian was of no use (gee, I wonder what gave her that idea) grabbed me
by the arm, dragged me down the end of the bus, pointed to a seat and told
me to sit there while she took the seat I was originally in to stretch out
her feet. Cranky bitch.
Bulgaria
We arrived in Bulagira at 5:30am. What a lovely time to arrive in a
foreign country where all the signs are written in Cyrillic of which I
knew no characters (despite being taught about 3 of them last year..cos
three characters would have helped immensly, anyway!). But fortunately we
were recomended a hostel where they picked up people from the bus stop. On
the way in the car, after telling the man we were English teachers in
Romania, we were informed that there were two other Aussie girls who were
teachers staying in that hostel. How many Aussie girls in Romania can
there be? And sure enough, it was Sophie and Bekkie who had spent the
holidays in Hungary and Germany! What were the chances!
Thursday was spent having fun with the Embassy. Because how were me and
Kelly to know that a sign saying "opening hours 9-12" means "the consulate
will piss off whenever he wants to and even thought it is only 11; that's
too bad, come back at 3". So in our swearing and plotting againt
bureaucracy, we missed the turn to the centre of Sofia, got lost, laughed
(or rather, swore) are the wonderful map of Sofia we were given, which
would have been excellent except that the map was written in English
characters and the street signs were in Cyrillic. We went back to the
embassy at 3 o'clock, fearing the worst. We had been told by GAP that only
if you are lucky, can you get your VISAs on the same day, if you arrived
in the morning. And here we were in the afternoon. But we worked a
miracle. I would like to say by our sheer charms, but I think it was more
to do with us putting our foot down and letting the guy know just how
pissed off we were "you should have been here this morning" "WE were here
this morning - YOU weren't!" And we managed to get our VISAs in a record
half an hour! But the cranky bastard refused to give me a multiple entry
VISA, claiming some load of crap. Not that I really needed one anyway, but
it would have been nice to at least have the freedom! (since writing the
above sentence, I have been invited to go on a school trip to a city near
the Hungarian border...damn that multiple entry is looking good right
now!!)
The next day, we went on a trip to the Rila Monastary. The monastary was
lovely! The trip was not! I got a delayed case of "Sultan's Revenge" at
the start of a 2 hour drive. NOT FUN! Fortunately, we have opted for
paying slightly more and getting a guy arranged by the hostel to drive us
and not taken the public bus.
But the monsatery was gorgeous! Not exactly sure how old it was (too busy
feeling icky) but it was at least 500. Spent a few hours there before
going back to Sofia where we met some Irish guys and hitting the town.
Although "hitting the town" in Sofia isn't all that easy! Finding a club
that is open and not full proved to be a problem! We found a nice bar, but
moved on for some reason. Then found a nice little jazz club where we
would have stayed except they had a surcharge of 3 Euro on every order! By
now, a group that had started out as 18 - Aussies, a Kiwi, Americans,
Irish and Bulgarians - was now minus the Americans, a few Bulgarians, and
down to about 7.
We tried to find the rest of the group. First stop; the Jazz club. "Sweet
Jesus - RUN!" I'm still not exactly sure why one of the Irish guys yelled
this as he bolted from the club. Something to do with huge Bulgarian
bouncers.
Then they thought that the others might be in the strip club. Any excuse
for you Irish boys, eh? And fortunately, they weren't. They were in the
exclusive club where entry cost $10. Remember that this is Bulgaria - $10
is incredibly exclusive! And incredibly annoying considering that in
Romania even the best clubs let women in for free!
And we stayed at said club (don't ask the name - it was in bloody
Cyrillic!) until about 5:15 when we headed back to the hostel having lost
another couple of our number. Sophie and Bekki left at 6:30 to go back to
Bucharest and when the other went to bed, I stayed up the entire night. So
you'd better bloody enjoy the photos I put up because that's when I did
it!
Kelly slept the entire next day, and that night we said goodbye to the
Easter Holidays and headed back to Romania. It was nice to have transport
in a sleeping compartment even if my nights sleep was interrupted for an
hour and a half with the bloody border guards! Apparently, the distance
between Sofia and Bucharest is only 4 hours' worth...but for some reason
they train trip takes 12. I suspect it's because they get sadistical
pleasure from waking up poor unsuspecting (ok, suspecting by now!) victims
at 3am to stamp passports!
And thus ends my awesome holiday! Someone tell me why I am teaching in
Romania and not Turkey - Romania is fun but Turkey kicks arse!
http://www.bugbitten.com/rougedragonfor all the photos! Well, not all the photos. I put them up when I can. So
just check it every now and again and if you are lucky, I have found an
internet cafe and uploaded more!
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