Thursday, May 12, 2011

A few surprises...

Ugh-we got soaked today...but it was worth it. We saw two spectacular Roman ruins, Hierapolis and Aphrodisias which were surprises to me. I was most interested in seeing the travertines at Pamakkule. I'm a big fan of Mother Nature's work. She didn't disappoint, except for the rain. But it was the Roman ruins that were really a pleasant surprise.

I can't name all the places we saw but there were graveyards, such as Necropolis, amphitheaters, stadiums, and ruins from ancient civilizations with a few spring flowers thrown into the mix. I expect I got a few great shots to blow up.

One of the things I'm noticing about the people on the trip is that they all appear to have read the itinerary! I knew I wanted to see Cappadocia and Pamakkule and everything else was bonus. Some has been so-so, like the museum of Anatolia in Anarak but others like the underground city or the ruins today have been wonderful surprises. I know I'm missing out on a lot of the knowledge I could have on the area but...well...in one ear and out the other. There's so much to know anyway. I'm honestly just enjoying the here and now.

There have been 13 of us together on the tour for several days now. A Japanese and Chinese couple, an older American couple and then 7 interesting, talented and successful single ladies of whom I am the youngest.

The other six ladies are all childless and seem to be okay about that. Some have commented that kids, and men, would be a compromise they're not sure they want. I know there are all kinds of women and different fates for each of us. I don't want their fate.

It was a late lunch which meant all the crowds has disappeared. It was a cute spot with several wood burning stoves that we all huddled around after getting so wet visiting Aphrodisias. It was a tasty spread.

Our afternoon stop was a leather factory where we were treated (subject) to a leather fashion show and a tour of the showroom. It seemed so odd, so out of place, and yet there they were, pouty, pretty Turks wearing the latest leather goods on the catwalk. Amazingly 3 ladies bought coats! I was tempted by one but was turned off by the price tag, forgetting I could barter. Ah well, I should dig out the old one I bought in Montreal and try to make it cool again!

My first: Turkish Bath.

The one nice, sunny day and we spend 13 hours working our way from Cappadocia to Pammakule! 

6:30 pick up. A stop at a lookout point for a group shot, a nap en-route, a stop at a really cool 'caravan park' (=lodgings and baths and a market area within a walled complex) used by ancient nomads, an apple tea (SO good), followed by a drive to a horrible place for lunch. It was a huge hall with a buffet and dozens of big white tour busses out front. We sat a bit after we were done eating and were shooed away because they needed the table. They feed over 1000 people every day! Not my kind of travel spot.

In fact, I'm thinking that I really do need to plan a RELAXING holiday. A smallish boutique hotel that doesn't cater to seniors nor busloads of Japanese tour groups.  A place with a beach or pool that I don't stray too far from. There is so much in the world, and as I'm learning, Turkey, that I want to see and experience but I need to balance that with some downtime to recharge my batteries. Well, at least I'm not in the office.

After lunch we drove some more, stopped off at the Mausoleum of Mevlana, the founder of the Whirling dervishes, and then Hafiz turned on a documentary on the battle of Gallipoli in WWI. I'm not a war story kind of girl so it didn't really interest me.

We pulled up to the 'mini-Vegas' type hotel around 19h30 and I checked in, booked my spa treatments, had a quick dinner and was in the pools at the Turkish bath shortly after 8. I signed up for the Turkish bath foam cleaning, an oil massage and a face treatment.

The foam bath was the most unique experience. I was summoned to join my guy after soaking in the pool for ten minutes or so. I followed him to a tiled room with a large, flat platform in the middle of the room. There was a row of faucets and sinks on the side where he filled up buckets with warm water. I was to lie face up and he started by scrubbing me with an industrial loofah! It didn't hurt as much as the 'gommage' in Morocco, in fact it was really nice. What a great was to get clean. He cleaned front and back and then after a rinse came the bubbles. I watched what he was doing once I flipped back on to my back. It looked like a big pillowcase that he soaked in soap, and filled with air to make it like a big, inflated sponge. Once he was done going over my legs, belly and arms, he pulled the pillowcasey thing through his fingers, effectively deflating it and squeezing all the residual bubbles on to me. It smelled like roses and the sensation of all those bubbles was great.

It was all quite an experience and while I had my bikini on and was perfectly comfortable, I found it quite amazing that I had a male 'bather'.  In a culture where women have to cover up and there are strict rules about keeping them apart in mosques, for example, I find it interesting that they don't insist in same-sex pairings at Turkish baths.

Up, up and away...

The alarm went off way too early this morning. I knew it would be worth it but waking up any time before 5 AM when you're on holiday just seems wrong.

We were shuttled to the hot-air balloon headquarters for breakfast while they filled the balloons. We couldn't help but notice the poster of Martha Stewart who flew with them last year.  I think they were proud of their claim to fame!

I was less apprehensive on this balloon ride than the last one and before I knew it, we were up in the air joining the 70-odd other parts of the colour parade in the sky.

It really looked like Bedrock. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Fred Flintstone there! The area is known to be one of the premiere ballooning sites in the world and I can see why.

We celebrated the flight with mimosas at the landing site which was a nice touch.

Back at the hotel we had just over an hour to chill, eat, shower and, in my case, work on switching my hotel. If you use the word 'disappointed' to a tour operator, which I did in the email I sent the night prior, they usually take action. With a little doing and an extra $125US, they got me in to the same cave hotel that Eileen and Debbie were staying in. But I didn't check in until many hours later since we still had a full day ahead of us.

Everything kind of blended together but before lunch we hit the Kaymakli Underground city, a jewellery factory (read: gift store), and stopped to take pictures of fairy chimneys near the Red River.

Lunch was in a cool cave-like building with a great atmosphere but it wasn't a tasty as our road-side lunch the day prior.

After lunch we hit a ceramic factory where they showed us the spinning and painting of some gorgeous but sadly out-of-my-league pricing. It would have been nice to buy something at the source but anything I liked was hundreds of dollars!

The Goreme Open Air Museum was a pretty cool stop. It's not surprising that it (and the underground city) is a UNESCO world heritage site. It's the site of a series of Christian churches built into the caves. They were quite interesting but we were all getting tired and fighting with other tourists and the weather.

After a few more photo stops I finally got to see my beautiful and luxurious cave hotel room. I did good. Sometimes when I splurge it really isn't worth it. This was. It was a unique experience and SOOOO gezellig!

But I didn't stay long before I met 'Team California' for dinner. Debbie and Eileen are two very fascinating ladies whose company I really enjoy. We have a lot in common, especially in how we travel, and their stories are making my travel bug itchy! :o)

After dinner I got picked up
And went to see a performance of the famous Whirling Dervishes. I was tempted to bail but it seemed like a good insight into the culture and it was dance related which I like. 

Unfortunately, as soon as the lights went down, my 4:40 wake up call caught up with me! I remember most of it but I also remember the deep desire for my bed! You couldn't take photos during the show but they came out again afterwards and I got a video and a few photos to remind me what I slept through!

Once I got back to my little cave palace I was so happy! It didn't take long for that comfy bed to lull me into a deep sleep prior to the next morning's 5:45 wake-up call! Wah!

Welcome to Istanbul...

Well, I underpacked. I didn't believe the forecast. 13C in Istanbul when it was 23C in Holland? That can't be right. Sigh, I've been on the hunt for a sweater or hoodie ever since.

Istanbul seems a lot nicer than Cairo. The two cities have the same population of ~16M people but Istanbul doesn't have the same dirty, grimey feeling. It was sunny so that helped showcase the turquoise waters, blue skies, and flowers galore! There are about as many tulips here than in Holland! There appears to be some civic pride in making the place look nice.

All that said, it's still a busy city where you get hassled all the time, though nowhere nearly as bad as Egypt! The food choices I've encountered so far as less than inspiring and it appears that traffic is a bad problem all the time. The city streets are one big parking lot.

Perhaps it's the perfect storm though. Easter weekend, ANZAC day (so thousands of Aussies and Kiwis are here to remember some battle in WW1) and the beginning of spring. The place is packed and the schedule had me at all the key city landmarks on the busiest day! It was an exercise in patience. I think I have more pictures of the crowds than the buildings!

I was excited to meet the people on my tour. I figured I wasn't the only one who'd signed up for the 8 day tour leaving on Good Friday. I was wrong. Each day will apparently be a different crew. Well crap-that's not what I had in mind when I signed up for this tour.

I hit the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, Sultanahmet Palace, the Grand Bazaar, another big mosque and a carpet wholesaler with Suban and Zenith, two lovely South Africans on the ten day tour. I won't see them again.

It's a bit more lonely than I expected. After leaving them I spent an hour and a half fighting traffic to get to the airport (on the Asian side) and then the whole flight and the rest of the night by myself.

Years ago I was eager to travel on my own to prove that I could. Now it's just getting old. There's nothing better than sharing the experience with someone who's company you enjoy, who makes the experience richer and who you can say "remember when..." to.
Hmmmm...a bus full of people this morning. Average age is about 45. What the heck is my demographic doing right now other than procreating? But, I can't complain, at least I have some people to hang out with.

We started the morning tour at 10 and went straight to museum of the Anatolian civilizations. Anatolia is apparently the Asian region of Turkey. It was okay but busy, I couldn't hear the guide and well, the dates and facts go in one ear and out the other. This was also true at the mausoleum of Anaturk - the first president of the new state of Turkey...in 1923ish. It was an amazing monument though and the museum in it was well done, if not a little heavy on war exhibits.

We had a delicious lunch before a long road journey from Ankara to the town of Urgip in the Cappadocia region. We stopped at the salt lake which was pretty interesting. Apparently it's a tectonic lake and is only 2m deep so in the summer it dries out except for a small area in the centre. Lots of salt evaporates leaving a cool scene for Google Earth to capture. The water was high today though... as was the wind! I caved and bought a warm wooly wrap at the gift shop. I didn't care about the price of about 45 TL or around 20euros. Tomorrow morning is the balloon ride and it's going to be freezing.

Our first view of Cappadocia was met with an 'oooh' from everyone on the bus. What a special part of the world. I can't wait to see it tomorrow morning at sunrise from way up high.

I'm disappointed about my hotel here though. I feel like a whiner saying 'I don't like this 5-star hotel' but it's just a big, overcrowded box in a small town. Our group is spread out over 4 hotels and the other three are ADORABLE little spots built into the hills. I chose Turkey partly because of the Cappadocia region and its balloon rides and cave hotels.  I've asked to switch, let's see what happens tomorrow.

4:40 wake up call tomorrow. Oh boy!

Goodbye to Constantinople...

Didn't sleep well and woke to the alarm at 7:30. While I wanted to sleep in, I needed to seize the carp on this, my last day in Istanbul. As suggested by the girl at guest services, I took the tram over to Taksim Square and then wandered back to our hotel.

Along the way I popped into a few shops, it's their High Street, passed by a parade, people watched, went up Galata tower, crossed the Galata bridge, wandered through the spice bazaar, had apple tea in the courtyard of a mosque and got some sunshine!

The next thing I knew, I was back at the hotel and the shuttle bus was waiting for me. Trip's over!

Turkey has been a pleasant surprise. I think this is partly because the bar was so low after Egypt and partly because I didn't know what to expect and there were a few gems! I' come back here to visit at some point...although there are still plenty of undiscovered corners of the world left to explore...

The Royal Wedding?!

Couldn't wait to check in to Sultania but really needed to sleep in a bit. Was not sad to miss breakfast - all these buffets have been taking their toll. My 'half-marathon' fitness level is officially a memory!

I could not believe the traffic going from hotel A to hotel B. I officially couldn't live here. My blood pressure couldn't take it...and I wasn't even in a hurry.

Hotel Sultania is a gorgeous boutique hotel with lots of nice touches. I was happy the moment I walked in. While I waited for my room to be ready and the car that the guest services lady arranged for me from the Antique Carpets store, I grabbed a coffee. It just so happened that the royal wedding was being broadcast on BBC in the restaurant and I totally got sucked in! A city to explore and I'm getting weepy when I see how nervous and excited Prince William is?!?! Oh dear!

The driver finally arrived to save me from my folly and off I was to spend thousands of Euros on a carpet! I've always wanted a proper Turkish/oriental rug. Part of the reason I chose to visit Turkey was to look for one and spend my 2010 bonus on.

I told the guy I'd had the schpeel on how they're made a couple of times this trip so we could skip that part. I told him I was after something medium to large sized with blues, so I thought, and not for 10's of thousands. He brought me some apple tea and they began showing me their wares.

It's an expensive purchase so I wanted to take my time. I went back and forth feeling badly that it was taking so long though. I must have looked at about 50-75 carpets.  Some were obvious no's. Some were gorgeous but too expensive. I learned that I consistently preferred cotton on wool. I discovered that the silk carpets and actually cold to walk on in bare feet...in case the price alone wasn't enough to close the door!

In the end I settled for a 3m x 2m natural colour one for the living room and a 1.9m x 1.2m funky coloured one for the guest bedroom. I think I got a good price; they were just slightly above my budget but they're being shipped to my house and the price includes the rugs, taxes, duty and shipping. And it was quite the experience!

Having already bought a carpet made walking through the Grand Bazaar a lot easier! I could easily pass those shops and instead I mainly just wandered, ignored the vendors and bought a pair of earrings and my Christmas ornament souvenir.

Next stop was the hotel spa! I arranged for a 45min massage. While the spa facilities were gorgeous the massage itself is memorable in the 'one of the worst' category. Ah well, I've been pretty lucky so far-I guess I was due for a dud!

I chilled in the room before prettying up for dinner for one in the hotel's rooftop restaurant. It had lovely views of the city which was nice. I ate way too much and went on a short walk afterwards. My plan was to walk off dinner and explore a big but all the restaurants had guys out front trying to get you to eat at their restaurants and that got old really fast.