Turkey
Turkey happened back in 2010. My memory
about the trip isn’t so fresh anymore, but scrolling down through hundreds of
pictures from that time, made me smile.
The trip started and finished in Istanbul. We
have arranged sleep over at our Couch Surfing friend’s apartment. First thing
we noticed in Turkey was the kindness of Turkish people. I wouldn’t say that’s
a general observation, but it definitely goes for the people we had a chance to
meet.
 |
| Hagia Sophia, Istanbul |
 |
| Inside Blue Mosque, Istanbul |
The second thing was the heat....it’s
unbelievably hot in Turkey during the summer. So one thing I learned from this trip
was, don’t go to Turkey during the summer if you don't want be connected to air
conditioner all the time. The other reason is also that Turkish sea isn’t the
cleanest and I think you get much more from their history and culture than any
beach in Antalya or Alanya.
 |
| Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul |
Pulse of Istanbul is great…nightlife is
like in any other European city or better, there are a lot of sights to see and
if that’s not enough you can spend a day in one of their markets. They are colorful,
loud and crowded, but full of culture.
Apart from fake bags and clothes that every
market has to have, you can get nice Turkish water pipe – shisha or some other
souvenir for your mom there.
As they thought
us in school, boarder between Europe and Asia goes through Bosphorus and Dardanelles.
We had a chance to see Bosphorus boarder in Istanbul.
 |
| Bosphorus strait with a Bosphorus bridge in the back |
After Istanbul we traveled south towards Canakkale. To come there from
Istanbul you have to cross Dardanelles…the other part of boarder that separates
Turkey on European and Asian part.
 |
| Dardanelles strait |
People of Canakkale
are very proud of their Troyan horse and if you still remember the movie
called Troy, starring Brad Pitt you also remember this horse that was used on the set…so yes Brad Pitt touched that horse which is now the main attraction in Canakkale.
Apart from
that you can find ancient ruins of the Troy city just a little outside Canakkale.
 |
| Troy |
The next
stop was beautiful Izmir. I really liked Izmir and it was the only city in
Turkey that I could live in.
We also made a quick
stop in Emhesus an ancient Greek city with a famous library and Theater.
 |
| Library of Celsus |
 |
| Theater |
The thing I remember the most form
that part of the trip was when Turkish friends took us to Izmir’s most famous
beach or something like that. It wasn’t what we expected at all…the water was
dirty and there were too many people in the water to swim or move for that matter. Just before we wanted to go home we got a
nice surprise. A hoard of wild
boars came from woods and start mingling with people and eating their remains, it was some kind of symbiosis between them. It was hard to decide at that moment if you should run
for your life or just go with it and smile…we choose the second options after Turkish friends
convinced us it is safe.
 |
| Wild boars in action |
After spending
a couple of days in Izmir we went south towards Pamukkale. We found really
nice and cheap hotel, with a pool and in the walking distance to the famous “cotton
castle” . This so called “cotton castle” is a work of nature and its carbonate
minerals.
We also visited
Hierapolis which is close by the beautiful “cotton castle”. Again you can see
the Greek seal there, with Theatre and ruins of Temples.
Hierapolis is the most famous for their
antique pools which were some kind of ancient spa and it’s really important to
mention that Cleopatra was bathing in them, because of their healing power.
The last point of ourt trip was Olympos and their famous tree houses.
That part
of the trip was reserved for bathing and enjoying the summer. But it was impossible
to sleep because of the heat and wooden houses just made it worse…you are cooking
inside of this wooden “oven”, drinking water all night and hoping for the best in the morning.
 |
| View from our tree house...turkey checking if the laundry is done |
The other
thing was dirty sea. Oil stains were all over the sea and coming out of the sea
you got a share of that on your body. On the plus site food in the tree houses
village was great and the atmosphere was amazing as well.
 |
| Kumpir |
To come
back to Istanbul we had to take a minivan to Antalya, stay there for couple of hours and then take really nice, comfortable and long bus ride back to the north…perfect time
to think about the trip.
