More from Turkey

After spending a week in Istanbul we decided we would spend 3 more weeks in Turkey and so we headed south to the coast. We headed to Selcuk to see the ruins of Ephesus (Efes in Turkish) which dates back to 10th century BC. It has some of the best preserved Ancient Greek and Roman buildings and houses, and includes the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), a large gladiator graveyard, a massive theatre that can seat 24,000 people, and a church that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation and were the Gospel of John was written. Although we are not religious, it is really interesting to see all this history.

Library at Ephesus.

Theatre at Ephesus.

From there we went to travelled to Pamukkale. This is a small town with it's crowning glory being the calcium terraces known as travertine. Over many many years water rich in calcium carbonate has flowed out of springs and deposited calcium to form large terraces. You can walk on it, as long as you take your shoes off. For some reason I expected the travertines to be soft to walk on like snow, but of course it is not as it is actually rock. It is just very bright and white like snow. Above the travertines there is a another large city of Greek/Roman/Byzantine ruins named Hierapolis.  This was a large city of about 100,000 people in its prime and was often (and still is) visited for its hot springs.

The travetine at Pamukkale.

Look how big it is!

Next we travelled south to Fethiye, a small town by the sea. During summer it is packed with British tourists who come to sail and lie in the sun, but as it was heading into winter when we were there, there weren't many people around. The town is on the Mediterranean coast and is surrounded by beautiful clear blue water. This town, like all towns in Turkey, has a long ancient history, and has rock tombs carved into the sides of the surrounding hill made by the people of Lycia.

Rock tombs above Fethiye.

Fethiye is also the start of a hiking trail called the Lycian Way. It is a 510km walkway that ends in Antalya. We were tired of always travelling by vehicle and wanted to get out of towns so we decided to hike some of it. We walked for seven days through amazing coastal villages and cliffs and hardly saw anyone. It was great! At night we stayed in guest houses in the villages and got to eat traditional local food. Most of it is vegetarian and the area specialises in honey and cheese. There are very few roads and shops in the area and in one village we came across the vege truck that visits the villages selling the fruit and vegetables as there was no shop in the village. All the people we met along the way were very friendly and we got by with sign language and smiles as not many people spoke English and we only spoke a few words of Turkish.

Village kids along the Lycian Way.

A great view from the Lycian Way.

After a quick trip back to Fethiye, we spent a few days in Antalya (nice old town, full of tourists) before heading to Cappadocia. This is one of the most famous places in Turkey and is known for hot air ballooning and its fairy chimneys formed from soft volcanic rock and eroded by wind and snow (this region gets very little rain). Over thousands of years, people have carved houses in to the rocks and towers and these are now tourist attractions and places to stay. Our room in a hostel was actually carved into the rock under a fairy chimney. We also got up very early one morning and went hot air ballooning. Our pilot was amazing, and managed to drop us down into the narrow valleys without hitting the walls. We got an amazing view of the sunrise and the area.

Hot air ballooning, Cappadoccia. 

After that we headed north to the Black Sea and into Georgia...which will be my next post. The only other thing I need to tell you is that we have booked our flights home. We will be arriving in Auckland on the 15th January, just in time for summer.

Sorry for the long post, but here are some more photos.

Ruins at Ephesus.

Calcium deposites at Pamukkale.

Large theatre at Hierapolis.

The rock tombs in Fethiye.

Some of the many boats at Fethiye.

Justin walking the Lycian Way, just before we were attacked by 3 very large goat herding dogs.

View from the Lycian Way.

Night in Antalya

About to go up, Cappadocia.

Rock valleys, Cappadoccia.

Dawn from a hot air balloon, Cappadoccia.

We Love Istanbul!

We arrived in Istanbul after taking a 14 hour night train from Sophia. One of the biggest problems with night trains is that you always cross the borders at about 1 am. It usually takes about an hour to get stamped out of one country, a 30 min-1 hour train trip to the other border, and another hour to get stamped into the new country. All of this happens between 1 and 4 am. We have become used to waking up to loud knocks on the doors and bright lights being turned on by guards.

Skyline of Istanbul.

Anyway, we arrived on a grey, rainy morning and were blown away by the city (not literally as there was not much wind). There were minaret spires and huge domed mosques in almost every direction we looked. The city was fully of people and busy, and after a walk over a bridge that gave us great views of the city , we were already half in love with the place. It has a great atmosphere, a cosmopolitan feeling, everyone is friendly, the food is to unbelievably good and cheap, and there is so much history everywhere you look, dating back to the the Ancient Greeks, Ancient Romans and the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. There is a massive wall that was built to protect the city that was once Constantinople. Some of it is still standing and some of it has been reconstructed so that it is one of the most impressive things you see as you enter the city centre. You can climb to the top if it in some sections and the huge city is spread out below you.

A busy Saturday market.

Istanbul at night.

There are soooo many things I want to tell you about in this city. One of the best things is the Turkish Delight. It is a mouthful of Oh-my-God-deliciousness. Especially the pomegranate and pistachio ones. They also have really good baklava and kebabs, which we have been living on. And I have finally learnt the difference between a shish kebab which is on a stick and donar kebab which is in a roll or bread. I have decided I'm addicted to apple tea which is full of sugar. When we leave Turkey I think I will have sugar withdrawals! But I really don't like pomegranate juice, which Justin thinks is blasphemy as it is only 60 cents to a dollar for a cup.

Mmmmm turkish delight.

We have been doing the tourist thing here and visited several important places. These include the Blue Mosque, were you visit between prayer times and have a strict dress standard to enter. Women have to cover their heads, upper arms and legs, while men have to do the same except their heads. The mosque is one of the biggest mosques in the city and is beautiful with paintings and mosaics everywhere. One of the interesting things about mosques are that there are no pictures of any people in them, unlike in christian churches.

The Blue Mosque.

Inside the Blue Mosque. The lines through the photo are actually the wires holding up the chandeliers.

We also visited the Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, the Basilica Cistern and the Spice Market. The Hagia Sophia is a huge Byzantine church, that is a mix of christian and Islamic design. It even has carved graffiti from Norse mercenaries on the marble. The Topkapi Palace is the huge palace complex of the Ottoman rulers and includes the harem and many, many rooms with beautiful paintings done to look like mosaics. The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Markets are huge shopping areas that sell almost everything you could want. We didn't manage to see all of the areas as they were too big. The Basilica Cistern is basically a huge underground water tank. It was built during Justinian's reign and holds up to 80,000 cubic meters of water, which was bought from 19km away. The roof is held up by 336 marble columns and the whole thing was built by slaves, with hundreds of them dying in the process.

Topkapi Palace.

Ceiling and walls of a bedroom in Topkapi Palace.

The Basilica Cistern. 

If you ever want a recommendation on where to travel, I would definitely say come here for a visit.

Istanbul at night.

Musician playing a 12-string baglama (lute). 

Mosaic at Chora Monastery.

Mother-of-pearl doors, Topkapi Palace.

Living room in the harem, Topkapi Palcae.

Hagia Sophia. This building has been a Christian church and a Muslim mosque. Now it is a museum.

Daggers at the Grand Bazaar.

People at the Blue Mosque.

Fishermen.

A busker. 

Jazz Buskers

Jazz seems to be a favourite of buskers all over the world. We saw these guys having fun playing in a park on a beautiful autumn saturday morning in Sophia, Bulgaria.

Bulgaria

The further south we have headed, the poorer the areas have become. The more south we go, the more we see abandoned factories, old and falling down houses, more people living on the streets, more beggars, and the more manly the haircuts on the girls.

Old house, Rila Mountains.

We took another overnight train from Bucharest to Sophia. The had originated in Moscow 2 days earlier. All the train staff only spoke Russian and the signs where in the cyrilic alphabet which was a bit confusing. It was my first taste of these letters, but luckily Justin knows the sounds of the letters which helped while we were in Bulgaria.

Saturday in Sophia.

Arriving in Sophia, Bulgaria was a beautiful change. The bus station itself was horribly run down and stinky, but once we left that area it was great. Sophia is amazing place with a huge mix of ancient ruins and new modern city. The central subway station is built over an ancient Roman city, and they are excavating parts of it, which you can see.

Old and new, Sophia.

Bulgaria was also a nice change from being surrounded by smokers. There are smokers here too, but most people smoke outside. And the food is better than other Eastern European countries.

Saturday buskers in Sophia.

We hired a car (it was so cheap!) for a week, and went exploring the countryside. We have been getting tired of big cities and lots of people. We visited a couple of touristy places, including Rile Monastery, Devin and Veliko Tarnovo. The monastery was founded by a hermit in the 10th century and is the most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. Devin is famous for its mineral waters and has a massive gorge cutting through the mountains. The Trigrad Gorge is beautiful. It has a very narrow road, sometimes down to one lane, that runs the length of the gorge and has massive rock walls either side of a narrow river way below the road. Veliko Tarnovo is a small town that is famous for its ruined city and castle. It is where some of the Bulgarian Emperors lived. It has some of the oldest history in Europe dating back to 3BC.

Rila Monastery.

Monks Quarters, Rila Monastery.

We also went hiking, which turned into a death march. We had planned to get a chairlift to the top of a hill then hike around the lakes there, but the lift was not working so we decided to walk up (and down) the very steep hill. The views at the tops were beautiful but our knees were very sore the next day. The best part of the hike was that a very friendly dog followed us all the way up the hill.

A friendly dog, Rila Mountains.

Sorry this is such a short, brief post, I will do better when I start to talk about Turkey. Actually you will have trouble keeping me quiet....!

Rila Monastery.

Devin.

Autumn in Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo.