Oh The Places You'll Go by Lee

So were back in Istanbul.
It’s good to be home. I loved the road, but the road can be exhausting. We only once stayed in one hotel or hostel for more than one night and that was the first stop.
We traveled the country by bus (except we left Istanbul on a Ferry and arrive back in Istanbul on a train). The bus service is incredible. From any place you can get anywhere else in the country. Some buses have personal TVs (think JetBlue… yeah that good) at every seat. All the buses had attendants that serve Fanta and snacks. The roads in Turkey are rough at times, but the buses are comfortable and give you a great scenic trip of the Turkish Landscape.
Turkey’s Landscape is incredible. I never imagined how varied the geography would be. At our furtherest point East we were maybe a little further than halfway across the entire country. In that time we saw massive empty plains, pine forests, steep rock mountains both directly on the ocean and inland, deserts and dried up salt lakes and tropical palm tree filled areas. We traveled from sea level to 4,000ft elevation (Cappadocia).
The places and sites we saw were the reason we toured the country for two weeks, but for me the most enjoyable and unpredictable part of the trip was the people you meet along the way. Between both locals and fellow travelers we met some “characters.” And since you’re meeting and leaving people so fast (like my love life) its hard to keep track of names so everyone gets a nickname.
Canadian Jeff (did I mention he likes to party bro),
New York Mary (who we shared a room with in Cannkkale… separate beds of course… to start),
New Zealand couple (who we seemed to keep running into all over the country. Really cool story: they owned a restaurant on top of a mountain in N. Zealand and had one daughter who just married a dairy farmer. In an admitted joint middle aged crisis they sold their business and are now traveling the world until their money runs out and they need to get jobs. They say they’ll be out of Kiwi Land for 1-3 years (really specific).)
Baggy Pants Salesman (tried to sell us everything from morning disco cruises and sun glasses to hookers, but also tried to leave us with a lunch bill),
Crazy Lithuanians (Hardest drinking people in history.)
Erasmus girls 1, 2, 3, rice restaurant guys, Serbian you-bombed-our-country girl, etc. etc. etc
Russian Tourists: What happened behind the Iron Curtain? Russian tourists are noticeable from the rest of the world tourist in one distinct way, they are all amateur models. It doesn’t matter if they’re old, young, beautiful, ugly, thin, fat, short, tall, male, or female it is a never-fail sign of the Russian Tourista that they will pose in some manner for every photo. The candid photo is non-existent. Now this was exhibited chiefly in the southern regions of the country where Russian tourist make up a significant and growing number of the tourist in the area. But it was perhaps best displayed at the travertines of Pammakule. It was like a non-stop photo shoot, and the poses lets just say got ridiculous. For some of the girls it was great, for others (many others) it was just questionable if they should have been wearing that string bikini (and we’re talking about men now too). Would standing straight and smiling for a picture be too much to ask?
Pammakule is a small town at the base of ancient city of Hierapolis. The reason Hierapolis was built there and people continue to some is because of the travertine’s, mineral springs at the summit of the mountain that deposit white powder across the entire mountain making the whole thing look covered in snow. Pammakule in Turkish means “Cotton-Castle” and standing close to the white walls the name seems more than appropriate. We snuck into the travertines one night and got the chance to explore before the mob of visitors arrived. There were however some stray dogs that were pretty entertaining. It’s one of the incredible natural occurrences you can imagine. The whole thing looks like a big pile of sugar. At night when it’s all lit up with the water running down it is really awesome. You need to take your shoes off when walking up the hill, but the warm water rushing past your feet is a great feeling. Pools along the walkway on the way up are almost like hot tubs of mineral water. At the top is the ancient healing center of Hierapolis. Ironically one of the main and most celebrated features of the city is the massive necropolis or Roman graveyard. Hierapolis has a good amount to see including a great theater and the place that St. Phillip was killed. Also exploring the tombs and sarcophagi of the graveyard is a good time.
The bummer of the place is that the pool to end all pools is the “antiquity pool” at the center of the city. Here as advertised across Turkey’s vast tourist world you can swim with ancient buildings and destroyed columns. The pool is at the center of a club med like café plaza that is built directly in the middle of the ancient city next to the pool. To swim in the pool you need to pay 25tl on top of the 20tl you paid to enter the site at the base of the hill!!! So we took some pictures and our money and left. By the mid-day, Pammakule can feel like a classically-themed water park. That said it deserves the attention it gets as both a freakishly cool natural display, with the historical ruins, and its a lot of fun to play around in the pool and watch Russian Tourists.
My favorite place had to be Cappadocia. The mix of untouched and endless natural landscape and the most incredible manmade “cave” buildings and cities made the area an incredible combination. We spent three nights in the area, mostly around the town of Goreme. Most buildings are carved out of rock and the hotels feature cave rooms to stay in.
Cappadocia is an incredible place for anyone who likes to explore.
One night we wanted to save money and decided to stay in one of the numerous caves dotting the country side. We settled on staying in a tenth century church that we stumbled across earlier in our hikings. Just before sunset we set out into the wilderness. We packed all the essentials: booze, candles, tablecloth to lay on, and um yeah that’s it. Oh wait we brought chips as well. What we failed to account for is that at a high elevation in an arid climate that reminded one of a South Western united states, the 90 degree days become extremely cold nights. Although I would suggest to anyone who goes to Cappadocia to definitely go cave sleeping; please remember your warm cloths, sleep bags, blankets, thermoses, and wool caps, and a pillow wouldn’t hurt. If you forgot these “essential” items like we did don’t be surprised if you leave that cold, dark cave just little closer to your companion then when you entered. With the exception of our exceptionally poor supply planning, I must say that staying in the cave was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. And we had a jolly good time.

Traveling the country was the trip of a lifetime.

The beginning of our journey

After our short tatile (holiday), we have returned to lovely Istanbul. We have spent the last week registering for our upcoming classes and applying for our residency permits. Turkish bureaucracy is not something to be trifled with.

Firstly a small rundown of the trip: We started took a ferryboat from Istanbul to Bandirma and then a bus to Cannakkale. There we visited the WWI battle fields at Gallipolie as well as the ruins of Troy. From there we bussed it to Bergamon where we saw the Pergamon Akropolis as well as the Red Basilica, one of the seven churches of the apocalypse. From there it was on to Izmir the third largest city in Turkey. Afterwards we made our way further south to Selcuk and the ruins of Ephesus. Then it was on to Pammukale and the lovely travertines on which sat the ruins of Hierapolis. Antalya was our next destination where we spent some time relaxing on the Mediterranean beaches. The cave churches of Kapadokya were next on our trip. We made our last stop in Ankara to visit our dear friend Lukas and pay our respects at the Ataturk mausoleum. This is just a brief over view of the trip, we will be sure to go into more detail. More than you might ask for but hey it was a fun trip.

From there took a guided tour of the Gallipolie Peninsula. It was incredible beautiful. The peninsula is 33,000 hectares and has been a national park since 1918. It was a famous WWI battle field that involved the Turks, British, French, Australians, and New Zelanders. It was the place where Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, made a name for himself. It is somewhat of a pilgrimage site for the Australians and New Zelanders or the Aussies and Kiwis as they are known around those parts. The tour was 7 hours long and we only saw half of the park. It was really beautiful but also really sad. A lot of cemeteries and memorials. The youngest person to die for the Common Wealth was 14 years old! The guide said a lot of Aussies and Kiwis lied about their ages to fight in the war.

The next day we took a bus to Troia, Troy. There wasn't a lot to see there but it was really interesting to walk around the ruins. There are actually 9 different Troys all built one on top of another. The earliest one dates all the way back to 3000 BC, pretty much the dawn of civilization. The Troy from the Trojan war and Homers Illiad is Troy VI or VII they think. It was really beautiful there as well. There was a roped off path around the city with signs describing everything. It was incredible how old everything was yet there were still clear signs of roads and walls.

We arrived in Bergamon early early in the morning and started to make our way up to the Akroplis. The entire hill is covered by the ruins of an old city called Pergamon. It predates Alexander the Great by thousands of years and was an extremely popular place during Roman times as well. It was sooo unbelievably gorgeous! It took us almost 5 hours to walk from the bottom all the way to the top but the entire journey was filled with amazing ruins of the old city that used to be on the hill. We followed the original road that was used before the time of Alexander the Great. Every turn had something more amazing than the last! The path to the top is sporadically marked by blue spray painted dots that you are supposed to follow. We got turned around quite a few times but it was an amazing exploration. Nothing is roped off so you are free to explore where ever you want and climb all over the old walls and towers. Dont worry we were really safe. The hill was chock full of old temples and gymnasiums and mosaics and market ruins. Since we headed out so early we were the only ones on the entire hill, except for a few archaeological students sketching and counting bricks in the walls. At the very top of the hill there is a 10,000 seat amplitheater carved into the side of the mountain. The builders wanted to preserve the view, which is breathtaking, so they just chuncked out a huge side of the mountain. The acoustics in it where still quite amazing. Above all of this and the crown atop the mountain was an ancient temple. They had partially reconstructed it and it was huuuuuge. Beautiful white granite columns that seemed to touch the sky! The whole complex could rival that of the acropolis at Athens!!!

Since Turkey is still somewhat considered a middle eastern country there are tons of these ancient sites around that havent been plagued to much by tourists. Most of it is located in small towns that are still largely farming villages. Some of the best preserved Greek and Roman ruins are here in Turkey. Its so unbelievable to be around all this history.

Stay tuned for more updates!
In the mean time check out our flickr for pictures!
www.flickr.com/teamturkey

-The one and only William Bey