We landed in Istanbul in the evening, not quite sure how we were going to get to the city. Tom's plan to get the train didn't work as there wasn't one. Luckily a friendly local minibus driver offered to take us. Our apprehension kicked in and we didn't immediately trust him but when it became obvious there were no other options we jumped on board the bus and away we went. Turns out we were perhaps being too apprehensive as he got us safely to our destination without any hassle and at a reasonable price. We unloaded our stuff and then
we were ready for dinner. We asked the hostel guy where to go and he took us up the road to a restaurant owned by his friends. We got to sit outside, which is something we haven't been able to do for a while in cold London, and looked forward to tucking into a tasty Kebab. We quickly discovered something very cool about Turkish meals. You get bread with them, and plenty of it. Marcus was excited! However we managed to get past the bread and tuck into our main meal. Rather than a standard boring old kebab we went for one which was basically meat cooked with gravy in a clay pot in front of you in hot coals. They put on a bit of a show and then Marcus had the honour of being a "Pot Killer" and smashing the top off it so that they could serve you the food. A bit of fun and nice and tasty too. After dinner we had some tasty apple tea and then decided it was time to walk off a bit of that dinner. We went for a walk up the hill and quickly came at one of the biggest tourist sites in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia, a huge and very old mosque. We then turned around and were presented with the amazing Blue Mosque. Both of them were lit up and very impressive. Definitely something to come back to during the day. We picked up a Sahlep (Hot Orchid Milk drink) from one of the random street vendors. It was so hot that we couldn't even drink it and the skin on the top meant it never cooled down. At least we tried it...After a bit more of a walk (and hassles from many men trying to get us into their bars) we made our way back to the hostel for a well earned sleep.The next morning it was tourist extravaganza time. After a typical turkish breakfast (bread, cucumber, tomato, olives, cheese and a boiled egg) we made our way off to pick up our tickets for the night train that evening. Unfortunately things did not go quite as smoothly as planned, but after a trip to the train station (and the hostel owner on the phone translating for us) we were on track with tickets in hand, back up to the Hagia Sofia. After convincing the local tour guides we didn't need their personal guided tours we made our way inside. It is an interesting place. It was originally a huge cathedral built in 532AD but was converted into a mosque in the 1400s. Since 1935 it has been a museum. What that means is there is an assortment of both Christian and Muslim religious artwork and symbols throughout. You can certainly feel the age of the place. The stones are worn from people's feet and hands on them and the artwork is the sort of things you only see in a museum, although in this case the artwork was drawn on the museum itself. We then journeyed straight out of the Hagia Sofia and through the park to the Blue Mosque. Although similar buildings this was quite a different experience. The Blue Mosque was built in the 1600s and is still a fully functioning place of worship. They allow visitors but you have to respect their rules. That means no wearing shoes, women must have their heads and legs covered and no visitors while there is a ceremony in progress. We entered through the visitors entrance and made our way through amongst the throngs of tourists and worshippers. The mosque is named from the Blue Tiles which decorate its interior. They were certainly impressive and it was quite a surreal experience, quite different than visiting the churches that we normally see. We had ourselves a tasty lunch where we got another treat. Turns out the restaurant we ate at was built over the ruins of part of the old palace which had been excavated. It was cold and quite surreal but exciting to be down underground in those old rooms. Our first trip underground on this holiday. We then went for a wander up the Hippodrome (it took us a while to realise it was a place rather than a thing...) and visited the Basilica Cistern. Up until then Cisterns had only been the white box on the back of a toilet so we weren't quite sure what to expect. What we got turned out to be amazing. It is an underwater cavern full of beautiful columns, water and fish. Apparently it was discovered when peasants in the town were catching fish from under the floorboards in their homes but they didn't live next to the sea. They have done a really good job of lighting it up so that it looks like something out of
a fairy tale. It also has some other oddities such as the two Medusa Heads. One is upside down, one is on its side, nobody knows why...After our second trip underground on this holiday we made our way back to the hostel, picked up our bags and journeyed down to the waterfront to catch the ferry to the train. We weren't quite sure if we were on the right one but after all the hustle and bustle of the crowds we ended up on the ferry making our way from Europe, across the Bosphorous to Asia. After finding a place that didn't look too dodgy for dinner we piled into the train to our individual sleeper units. We were very impressed. Clean, spacious, why weren't we doing this more often? We settled in to the dining carriage for a few beers and rakis and then rolled into bed for our train trip through the night.We awoke quite early but the train was running late so we still had plenty of time to get some breakfast and meet a friendly Turkish man who lived in London who gave us loads of advice about getting to Cappadocia. On arriving to Ankara we cabbed it to the bus station where the agents fought over us to get their commision on our tickets and we eventually ended up on a bus with a steward serving tea, coffee, cakes and all. Four hours later we were at another bus station in the middle of nowhere with more agents pulling us off the bus. Turns out they wouldn't let us leave until we booked a tour with them. However we managed to find the proper bus company manager we got back onto the right bus and the guy who took us off the bus got a
kicking (literally!) half an hour later we were in the magical town of goreme and at our hotel. The whole place was like nothing else we had ever seen. We knew there were supposed to be some caves where people had lived but there were thousands of them including the ones housing our hotel. We got ourselves settled in and then went for a wander around town followed by a very tasty Turkish meze for dinner. We made our back to the hotel. Had a couple of rakis and Jess challenged Tom to some backgammon. The room was hot so we left the window open. This meant Marcus woke up in the night with a furry visitor asleep on his feet. One thing that we have noticed about countries around the Mediterranean is that there are cats everywhere! Turkey was no exception.We still managed to get up early the next day for a very special trip. We piled into a van with all the other tourists and made our way up to the plateau above town for a trip up in a hot air
balloon. After needing to change launch spots we finally made it up into the air. The view was amazing. It wad a really cool experience seeing all the caves and towns from above. We crash landed (don't worry, that's how you do it) had a glass of sparkling wine and made it back to the hotel in time to inhale breakfast before heading off on our next tour. We were off for a walk through the Ilhara canyon. It was good to get some time in nature as well as checking out some more caves, including churches built in the caves along with painted ceilings and Walls. Pretty impressive. Lots of christian things are underground here due to being persecuted by the muslims. And if one cave church wasn't enough we moved along to a whole monastery built out of caves. That was great fun running around all the hidden passages in the pitch black and then coming into a big hall all carved out of rock and with paintings on the Walls and ceilings there too. It really was like nothing we had ever seen and unreal to think people had lived there. We finished up there just in time as the clouds rolled in and along with it the rain. Luckily there wasn't much more exciting to see. We visited a church at the top of a tall hill and then came the obligatory visit to the jewellery shop. We didn't buy anything... We had trouble staying awake on the bus ride home so decided to stay in for the night and have dinner at the hotel. Before that we had to indulge in a Turkish Massage, which they offered in the basement of the hotel. It was hardly the giant turkish baths from Istanbul with people everywhere but we still kept our modesty and wore our togs as people scrubbed away our dirt and rubbed away our tension. The highlight was definitly the giant foam blanket which they coat you in. After our bath the place was packed but luckily there was another room where we could eat, drink and play cards. Not only was it a relaxing night but the clouds that had come in earlier brought snow and they chucked it down. Before we knew it there was inches of snow on the ground and the cats having a great time chasing the snowflakes.We awoke the next morning to an entirely changed landscape. You wouldn't think it was the same place we had been in just the day before. We didn't let the snow stop us though. We managed to navigate the local bus service (which was a bit like minivans that just pick you up and drop you off whereever) and made our way to the Underground City in Kaymakli. This place took the caves from the past few days and took it to a whole new level. Basically it was a whole network of underground caves which had been built by Christians escaping persecution. The c
aves and (narrow) connecting tunnels just went down and down and seemed to travel off for miles in every direction. Not a good place to get lost. Apparently thousands of people had lived down there. It must have been a very tough existence for them. I don't think we have ever spent more time poking around underground and in caves than we did on this trip. It wasn't all over yet though. We jumped on the buses back to Goreme for a quick look around the Open Air Museum. We didn't really know what it was but it turns out it was another collection of caves. These ones had been better preserved than some of the others, but again there were churches, houses where people had lived where you could even see that they had carved tables and chairs out of the stone. It was certainly impressive but after all the caves we had seen in the past few days it did seem a bit like more of the same. We then legged it down to the bus station and jumped on the bus where we were off back to Ankara. Luckily we managed to avoid any unplanned detours this time and made it back into Ankara with a few hours to spare before our train. We went for a walk around a newly developed park. The place was lit up like a Christmas tree. It was a pretty cool park and would be great in summer rather than the 1 degree temperature we were walking around in. We found somewhere for dinner and then wandered back to the train for another night of rocking to sleep.We arrived back in Istanbul again and jumped on the first ferry. It didn't quite take us to where we intended to be but it was only the other side of the bridge so not too far to travel on the tram system. It was a different hostel this time but still just as nice. We dropped our bags and then made our way up the road to the Topkapi Palace, this historical home of the Sultans. Topkapi was big and crawling with tourists. We spent a lot of time in queues but it was still pretty interesting. There were some amazing, HUGE, jewels encrusted crowns, swords, necklaces...anything you could cover in jewels, they had done it. There were also some very cool mozaics in some parts of the palace. We also had a look through the Sultan's Harem. The only ladies were the tourists but it certainly looked like it would have been luxurious in its day. It being New Years Eve we decided to have a bit of a rest before the evening's festivities. We went back to the hostel and had a few beers and just generally took it easy over the afternoon. After a quick shower and a change of clothes we made our way across the bridge and up the hill to the party side of town, Taksim. We met up with some friends of Tom and Gini who were over from London for New Years. The place was crawling with people but we got ourselves into a restaurant for some dinner. We put together a selection of dishes which we shared (which they bring out on massive platters to show you before choosing) and had some Cappadocian wine. The mood in the restaurant was a bit flat so we tried to find another bar in which to see in the New Year. The place we ended up in was a 6 storey bar. The bottom floor was busy and the top storey (which we made our way up to) was busy and every other floor was empty. Pretty weird...Anyway, we indulged ourselves in some giant beers and rakis and saw in the New Year in a relatively uneventful manner. We then journeyed on to the arty district where we found another bar where we could sit outside and enjoy a few more drinks. When we eventually made our way home there will still people everywhere, dressed in Santa hats, devils horns, all sorts of crazy get ups. It was almost entirely men. The only women you saw around were ones who seemed to be with a man. Interesting the way you learn things about a culture.
The next morning came and as usual we were feeling a bit jaded. As always though this wasn't going to shake our resolves and we set off to go to the Grand Bazaar for a bit of market bargaining. We were expecting to be hassled and have to do some serious bargaing, but it was actually all quite a civilised experience with some of the "stalls" really being minature shops. They sold everything from clothes, games, trinkets, jewellery and all sorts of other things. We wandered around a few times and then did a bit of (not particularly tough) bartering and ended up with a Backgammon set. After some lunch we went down to the waterfront to go the oldest Turkish Delight store in Turkey and allegedly the place where turkish delight was invented. It certainly tasted good so we stocked up on some turkish delight for back in London. It was then off to another bazaar, this time the Spice Bazaar. This is the place to get all your turkish culinary needs met. There was loads of turkish delight (and other random sweets) flours, teas, spices. The smell was great. We bought ourselves some
fruit teas and then made it back to the hostel before heading back out again for dinner. Tonight it wasn't just dinner but dinner and a show. All around we had seen adverts for the Twirling Dervishes. We didn't really know what they were but thought we should check it out. Turns out it is a muslim religious ceremony where specially trained men spin and boy do they spin. It goes on for a long time and how they don't end up falling over or throwing up is quite amazing. It is all quite intoxicating watching them spin and spin. We then finished off the evening with some traditional turkish music before a walk and then our last sleep in Istanbul.The next day was our last in Istanbul but still plenty to do. We travelled back across the bridge to do one of our favourite things climb a tall building. This time it was Galata tower. It wasn't exactly tough with a lift that takes you up to the top but we got a good 360 degree view around Istanbul. Good opportunity for some photos. We also used it as another (of many) opportunities to grab an apple tea. We then journeyed back down to the waterfront and across underneath the bridge where we were looking for something we had been waiting to try, a fish sandwich. There are hundreds of men standing up on the bridge with fishing rods all day catching fish. Some of them make their way down to the cafes below where they are filetted and put between bread for a surprisingly tasty sandwich. Back across the river we managed to find some shelter before the heavens opened and the torrential rain poured down. The streets were running like rivers. We quickly made our way back to the Grand Bazar. Tom and Gini wanted to do some more shopping. We had had enough so made our way back to Hagia Sophia to look at a part we hadn't seen before, the tombs of the Sultans. There are about five Sultans and their families buried there. Although they aren't really buried, their coffins sit inside temples above ground. Very beautiful buildings and quite a serene experience. We had enough time for a quick durum doner kebab (very greasy...) and then packed up our bags and jumped in a taxi to the airport for a flight back to London again.
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