hey,
So the day after I arrived in Istanbul I walked through the Topkapi palace. It was pretty amazing. Very, very beautiful. And the Treasury was incredible! there were sooo many pieces of intricate and elaborate Jewelery and thrones and stuff. Oh and swords and guns! I wish I could have taken photos, but of course I wasn't able to, but I got some postcards which show some of the pretty cool stuff.
That day I also met up with Molly, Chris and Bahaa. It was great to see some friends again, because being alone I was starting to get a little bit bored. They were leaving the next day for London.
The next day I caught a ferry for 17.5 lira up the Bosphorous. The weather had cleared up by this stage, so it was a great day to do the cruise. When I got on, some young Turkish man realized pretty quickly that I was alone, and so he sat next to me and asked all the usual questions. 'Where are you from?' etc. When he started taking photos of me, i started getting a little creeped out. So I was a bit rude and just got up and walked away from him and found two english speaking ladies and asked them if I could stand with them because I had a unwanted suitor who wouldn't leave me alone. They were great and let me hang around them. We ended up spending the whole day together and had lunch. The cruise was great. Got to see lots of beautiful palaces and houses and eventually we got up to where the bosphorous meets the Black sea.
On wednesday I went to the Archeological museum, which was a little bit boring. I thought the Museum in Syria was much more interesting. Then I ended up in Taksim.
The next day I went for a walk to the Dolmache palace (ok the spelling is way off, but it's something like that). And i walked for a long time! and when I got there, it was closed. So that sucked. Then I tried to find some iron church place, but I couldn't find that and ended up in some suburb called Ortokoy, and that was lovely. Found a nice little cafe for lunch and found a super cheap designer store warehouse, so bought some more pressies for ppl.
The next day was Friday and that was the day I had to catch a flight to Beirut. I went to get money out, and all of a sudden realise my debit card is not in my pouch. So I raced back to my hostel to search my bags, and still no sign of my debit card. So that caused me a lot of stress. But i still have a credit card, so now i'm living off of cash advances, which isn't what i want to be doing, but I don't really have a choice.
That night I caught a flight from istanbul to Beirut. It was painful! To start off with, my flight was delayed by 2 hours. then the kid in front of me was terrified of flying and screamed the WHOLE way!!!!! So once I got through customs, and passport and visa stuff, i met my taxi driver at like 3am! Luckily he was still there waiting for me! even though I had booked him, I didn't think he would still be there.
So I arrived at 3:30am to my hostel, and woke the poor girl up sleeping in the dorm room with me, and then I finally got to bed and crashed.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
back to istanbul
so the last two days I just lazed around Selcuk. On Friday I went to have a traditional Turkish hamam (turkish bath). It was good. a little weird, but good. Because this town I was in is a small town, the hamam isn't a touristy thing, it's the real deal. These women spend ALL of Friday afternoon at the hamam. It's like the local gossip place...ok so I don't speak Turkish, but I can tell the tone that is used when women gossip... (and on this particular day I'm pretty sure I was the topic of gossip! i don't think they get a lot of tourists at this hamam. and i realized pretty quickly that this was the place you came to be seen... haha that sentence works literally as well... It's so weird to be in a world where it is the norm to be covered up, and expected to be covered, but as soon as ur inside the hamam, it's NOT normal if you are covered up. so strange for me...
i wanted to go out yesterday to see a little beachside town called Kucadasi, but it was thunderstorms and rain and hail all day... so i had to entertain myself until 10pm when i had to catch my bus. so i got very bored. but then i caught my bus. good bus company. they served good cake...the marble kind! (we judge the quality of the bus company on the type of cake they give you!) nah it was a very comfy ride... until I got woken up and booted off at 7am, 2 hours before we were meant to get to istanbul. I got directed in my bleary eyed, semi-conscious state to a servees, and tried to communicate in them with a mix of broken english and arabic (because of course that's what Turks can understand!) that i needed to go to Sultanahmet, not some other suburb, all the while trying to count my bags (suddenly realising I had left one on the bus with mum and dad;s awesome and slightly expensive wine jug in it!) don't fret though! I got it... im just so used to counting three bags... not four. this extra luggage thing is gonna take some adjusting to.
so once all my bags were accounted for, I got onto this servees, slightly fuming because I was told that i would have to catch the metro at Aksaray, and catching the metro with 4 bags was going to be a real pain in the ass. and then they don't even drop me off at aksaray!!! they drop me off way earlier thinking i'm a stupid tourist, i won't know where I am. So i got more annoyed, but the guy had already pulled my bags off before i could argue with him, so i just got off...
and then had to haul my luggage down the stupid stairs to buy the stupid ticket, and then haul them all back up to the top to get on the tram... only to then realize that i am on the wrong side of the tracks... (i'll never get used to this right hand road driving thing!) and so i crossed the tracks, with my four bags, only to THEN be questioned by the officer dude where my ticket was coz he thought i had come in from the road, but hadn't seen me come across the tracks. So i rambled in really fast english, in a really annoyed voice what I had just gone thru, and you know how there is a gossiping tone...well there is an annoyed tone too, and it's the same in every language... well at least in turkish, and he got the idea and left me alone.
and THEN... i had to find my hostel. well. Turks love to be helpful... and i got about 5 people telling me where my hostel was... all pointing in different directions of course. After about half and hour, and 2 litres of sweat drenching my clothes, i stumbled across the Antique HOTEl.. not hostel. hotel. i needed hostel. So because I'm super prepared and all, I didn't have the addy of my hostel on a piece of paper, but i had it on my laptop. So i put all 4 bags down, sat on them, got my macbook out, got the addy. then got a taxi driver to take me there. to then find out they were all booked out.
but the good news is they have a sister hostel. just as nice. around the corner. adn i had a room all to myself! for a few hours anyway, and now I'm sharing with a japanese guy, but he's really nice, so it's cool.
and today i did a bit of shopping. went for a big walk. found out about an awesome topkapi palace tour which is cheap! and then had dinner. and now i'm looking at going to bed real soon, coz I'm stuffed.
love me
i wanted to go out yesterday to see a little beachside town called Kucadasi, but it was thunderstorms and rain and hail all day... so i had to entertain myself until 10pm when i had to catch my bus. so i got very bored. but then i caught my bus. good bus company. they served good cake...the marble kind! (we judge the quality of the bus company on the type of cake they give you!) nah it was a very comfy ride... until I got woken up and booted off at 7am, 2 hours before we were meant to get to istanbul. I got directed in my bleary eyed, semi-conscious state to a servees, and tried to communicate in them with a mix of broken english and arabic (because of course that's what Turks can understand!) that i needed to go to Sultanahmet, not some other suburb, all the while trying to count my bags (suddenly realising I had left one on the bus with mum and dad;s awesome and slightly expensive wine jug in it!) don't fret though! I got it... im just so used to counting three bags... not four. this extra luggage thing is gonna take some adjusting to.
so once all my bags were accounted for, I got onto this servees, slightly fuming because I was told that i would have to catch the metro at Aksaray, and catching the metro with 4 bags was going to be a real pain in the ass. and then they don't even drop me off at aksaray!!! they drop me off way earlier thinking i'm a stupid tourist, i won't know where I am. So i got more annoyed, but the guy had already pulled my bags off before i could argue with him, so i just got off...
and then had to haul my luggage down the stupid stairs to buy the stupid ticket, and then haul them all back up to the top to get on the tram... only to then realize that i am on the wrong side of the tracks... (i'll never get used to this right hand road driving thing!) and so i crossed the tracks, with my four bags, only to THEN be questioned by the officer dude where my ticket was coz he thought i had come in from the road, but hadn't seen me come across the tracks. So i rambled in really fast english, in a really annoyed voice what I had just gone thru, and you know how there is a gossiping tone...well there is an annoyed tone too, and it's the same in every language... well at least in turkish, and he got the idea and left me alone.
and THEN... i had to find my hostel. well. Turks love to be helpful... and i got about 5 people telling me where my hostel was... all pointing in different directions of course. After about half and hour, and 2 litres of sweat drenching my clothes, i stumbled across the Antique HOTEl.. not hostel. hotel. i needed hostel. So because I'm super prepared and all, I didn't have the addy of my hostel on a piece of paper, but i had it on my laptop. So i put all 4 bags down, sat on them, got my macbook out, got the addy. then got a taxi driver to take me there. to then find out they were all booked out.
but the good news is they have a sister hostel. just as nice. around the corner. adn i had a room all to myself! for a few hours anyway, and now I'm sharing with a japanese guy, but he's really nice, so it's cool.
and today i did a bit of shopping. went for a big walk. found out about an awesome topkapi palace tour which is cheap! and then had dinner. and now i'm looking at going to bed real soon, coz I'm stuffed.
love me
pammukkale and heliopolis. or heriopolis.
So the next day another Canadian guy rocked up to my hostel (oh yeah, i had the whole place to myself that night! it was great!) and he came with us on the three hour trip to Pammukkale. sucked for him, coz he just got off an 11 hour bus trip to get to Selcuk, only to get back on another bus! but he wanted to.
Pammukkale was sweet. It looks like snow, but it's calcium formations and there are hot springs nearby so there are pretty little pools around. We had three hours to explore the place, and the ruins of Heriopolis/Heliopolis can't remember which city it was, are directly behind the calcium stuff. So we wandered around the ruins for a few hours. This city was HUGE! way bigger than Ephesus. Maybe not as well preserved as Ephesus or Jerash, but it was sooooooooooo big. We found the place where Phillip was martyred too, so that was cool.
Then we headed back home on the bus, although this time it was 3.5 hours... and all went out for dinner, and got some tasty mini kepaps (they spell funny here in turkey!) oh yeah and before we left pammukkale steph and josh found Magnum icecreams, which they thought was great coz they don't get them in Canada.
Pammukkale was sweet. It looks like snow, but it's calcium formations and there are hot springs nearby so there are pretty little pools around. We had three hours to explore the place, and the ruins of Heriopolis/Heliopolis can't remember which city it was, are directly behind the calcium stuff. So we wandered around the ruins for a few hours. This city was HUGE! way bigger than Ephesus. Maybe not as well preserved as Ephesus or Jerash, but it was sooooooooooo big. We found the place where Phillip was martyred too, so that was cool.
Then we headed back home on the bus, although this time it was 3.5 hours... and all went out for dinner, and got some tasty mini kepaps (they spell funny here in turkey!) oh yeah and before we left pammukkale steph and josh found Magnum icecreams, which they thought was great coz they don't get them in Canada.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
mary's house, jo leaving, and getting sick. again.
Yesterday we met up with Steph and Josh and got a lift with Harry to Mary's House. this house is supposedly the house that she ended up in because Jesus told John to look after his mother, and this is the area that John ended up in. Also some Catholic nun who was invalid and had never left Germany had a vision of where her house was and the description was exactly like the house found outside of Ephesus. The place was a little overrated and way too expensive. But I think Granny Flo will appreciate the photos. And I bought her some Holy Water.
After Mary's house, Harry took us to his brother's ex-wife's ceramic workshop. This was one of the best places we've seen for pottery so far, and his ex-sister in law was really lovely too. They gave the four of us the huge demonstration on the pottery wheel, and the ladies who hand paint ALL their ceramics. No design is the same, which is pretty cool. And then we were shown the way they were coated and fired again. Then of course after that we were shown the gallery and "please don't feel you have to buy anything, but it is low season, so everything is half price". haha
So of course, we found many things we loved! The really great thing about the clay from this area is that it has a quartz mix and its very strong and very light. Great for a backpacker. I found mum and dad a Hitite wine jug and bargained it down to less than 100 lira! And then the special creation of this particular ceramics place is their lanterns. No where in Turkey or the Middle East have I seen these, and they were just soooooo beautiful. I had to get one. It cost a bit. But i just had to. And so did Jo... We all bought stuff that day, the canadians and us, so the shop people were happy. we were happy. even if someone was getting a commission.
Next we headed to the bus station to send Jo off on her way to Greece. That was a bit sad for me, 'coz I was now by myself, and I'd been with Jo all since Jordan. But I'll see her again when I get back to Aus.
Once she left, Josh, Steph and I, caught a bus up to a town in the mountains called Sirence. It was a beautiful little village and the name means 'lovely' or 'beautiful' or something. This never used to be it's name. According to the LP, the people who founded it actually name it 'Ugly' so that no one would come to their little piece of paradise that they had found. But the Turkish government changed it's name a while ago.
The town specializes in fruit wines. So we tried cherry, melon, strawberry, blackberry, tangerine, quince and something else. It was all pretty awful, as you could imagine. BUt I guess some people might like it. Then we headed up to a little jewelery store which turned out to be the jeweler who made all the jewelery for the movie Troy, as well as some for Lord of the Rings for Aragon. neways, i have been looking at buying a ring over here, ones with ruby, emerald and sapphire stones in them. Good ones are really expensive, and I found one in this shop, but wasn't being serious when I asked to look at it. Well the price started off at $100... and in the end he dropped it to $35... so I bought it! i spent way too much money that day!
we headed back to Selcuk and got dinner... and as soon as we had ordered and the bread was served, a wave of nausea hit me, and I had to race to the bathroom. After about 10 minutes in the bathroom I realised I wasn't going to be able to eat my meal that had just been served to my table, and left some money with the Canadians, and walked as quickly as possible back to the hostel. and i was violently ill for a good hour or so. too bad if anyone needed to use the one share bathroom we had. A Brazillian guy was lovely though, and got me water and helped me to my bed. and i slept, and when i woke, i was hungry, so Mehmet, the owner, made me vegemite toast.
so it was some form of food poisoning i imagine. But i hurled my stomach up so good that I got it completely out of my system and I have been fine since! which was great because the next day we decided to head to Pammukkale, and I really wanted to see that place.
After Mary's house, Harry took us to his brother's ex-wife's ceramic workshop. This was one of the best places we've seen for pottery so far, and his ex-sister in law was really lovely too. They gave the four of us the huge demonstration on the pottery wheel, and the ladies who hand paint ALL their ceramics. No design is the same, which is pretty cool. And then we were shown the way they were coated and fired again. Then of course after that we were shown the gallery and "please don't feel you have to buy anything, but it is low season, so everything is half price". haha
So of course, we found many things we loved! The really great thing about the clay from this area is that it has a quartz mix and its very strong and very light. Great for a backpacker. I found mum and dad a Hitite wine jug and bargained it down to less than 100 lira! And then the special creation of this particular ceramics place is their lanterns. No where in Turkey or the Middle East have I seen these, and they were just soooooo beautiful. I had to get one. It cost a bit. But i just had to. And so did Jo... We all bought stuff that day, the canadians and us, so the shop people were happy. we were happy. even if someone was getting a commission.
Next we headed to the bus station to send Jo off on her way to Greece. That was a bit sad for me, 'coz I was now by myself, and I'd been with Jo all since Jordan. But I'll see her again when I get back to Aus.
Once she left, Josh, Steph and I, caught a bus up to a town in the mountains called Sirence. It was a beautiful little village and the name means 'lovely' or 'beautiful' or something. This never used to be it's name. According to the LP, the people who founded it actually name it 'Ugly' so that no one would come to their little piece of paradise that they had found. But the Turkish government changed it's name a while ago.
The town specializes in fruit wines. So we tried cherry, melon, strawberry, blackberry, tangerine, quince and something else. It was all pretty awful, as you could imagine. BUt I guess some people might like it. Then we headed up to a little jewelery store which turned out to be the jeweler who made all the jewelery for the movie Troy, as well as some for Lord of the Rings for Aragon. neways, i have been looking at buying a ring over here, ones with ruby, emerald and sapphire stones in them. Good ones are really expensive, and I found one in this shop, but wasn't being serious when I asked to look at it. Well the price started off at $100... and in the end he dropped it to $35... so I bought it! i spent way too much money that day!
we headed back to Selcuk and got dinner... and as soon as we had ordered and the bread was served, a wave of nausea hit me, and I had to race to the bathroom. After about 10 minutes in the bathroom I realised I wasn't going to be able to eat my meal that had just been served to my table, and left some money with the Canadians, and walked as quickly as possible back to the hostel. and i was violently ill for a good hour or so. too bad if anyone needed to use the one share bathroom we had. A Brazillian guy was lovely though, and got me water and helped me to my bed. and i slept, and when i woke, i was hungry, so Mehmet, the owner, made me vegemite toast.
so it was some form of food poisoning i imagine. But i hurled my stomach up so good that I got it completely out of my system and I have been fine since! which was great because the next day we decided to head to Pammukkale, and I really wanted to see that place.
Troy and Ephesus.
The next morning it was raining. Like always. We had packed up all our stuff, and I was trying to decide if I should leave my boots behind because they were falling apart, but I love them so much and they help keep me jeans dry(mostly) and I had remembered seeing a shoe repairer around the corner. So in the end I decided to get them fixed, and it only cost 5 lira and he did a great job of replacing the sole. I’m not sure if they’ll make it home to Australia, but hopefully they’ll last ‘til the end of my trip.
We ate a traditional turkish brekky at out hotel. Boiled egg, bread, cucumber, tomato, cheese etc. Then we headed for the mini bus that would take us to Troy. It took about 40 mins to get there, and cost 15 lira to get in. We met some Canadian folk on our way there. Steph and Josh. (At least I think that’s what there names are, I’m not entirely sure coz even though I have now travelled with them for the past few days, we never actually introduced ourselves, but she calls him Josh, and I’m pretty sure he called her Steph today! Haha. I was gonna get around it by asking what their full names were so I could add them on facebook.)
We took photos on the big replica of the horse from the legends...which to be honest, was the most exciting thing there. But we knew there wasn’t a lot to see there... Well nothing amazing. You kind of go to Troy just to say that you’ve been there. It was still worth doing. It was very pretty all around it. And green. I’m so used to seeing ruins in the desert.
After Troy, the Canadians and Jo and I all caught a bus to Izmir together, ‘coz we were all headed to Ephesus next. And it was an AWFUL bus ride. Ok it wasn’t that bad, but it was meant to be a 5 hour trip, and it became a 6.5 hour trip because they stuffed around and let people off at their houses and the driver was slow, and they didn’t give is the free cake until right at the end, and I sat next to the door so it was always cold, and always got the cigarette smoke from out bus steward who opened up the middle door every 5 minutes to have a fag, We were so mad by the end.
But we eventually got there, and then caught another mini bus to Selcuk, the town where Epehsus is and where we were staying that night. We parted ways with the Canadians, whose names we still didn’t know, and we headed to the ANZ Guest house. We were the only ones for our first night here, so we had the whole place to ourselves. The owners have been fantastic. So helpful and kind and friendly! They ordered us dinner ‘coz we arrived so late at night and then Mehmet gave us a full on orientation of Selcuk and Ephesus and all the thinngs to do around here. After a couple of cups of apple tea, we went to sleep.
Next morning was Ephesus. I was pretty excited ‘coz so much stuff in the Bible happens here, and it was really cool to be in such a historic place. I still think that Jerash was more spectacular, however I knew more about this place, so it was rather special going here. We bumped into the Canadians again, and grabbed some lunch with them after we left Ephesus.
We ate a traditional turkish brekky at out hotel. Boiled egg, bread, cucumber, tomato, cheese etc. Then we headed for the mini bus that would take us to Troy. It took about 40 mins to get there, and cost 15 lira to get in. We met some Canadian folk on our way there. Steph and Josh. (At least I think that’s what there names are, I’m not entirely sure coz even though I have now travelled with them for the past few days, we never actually introduced ourselves, but she calls him Josh, and I’m pretty sure he called her Steph today! Haha. I was gonna get around it by asking what their full names were so I could add them on facebook.)
We took photos on the big replica of the horse from the legends...which to be honest, was the most exciting thing there. But we knew there wasn’t a lot to see there... Well nothing amazing. You kind of go to Troy just to say that you’ve been there. It was still worth doing. It was very pretty all around it. And green. I’m so used to seeing ruins in the desert.
After Troy, the Canadians and Jo and I all caught a bus to Izmir together, ‘coz we were all headed to Ephesus next. And it was an AWFUL bus ride. Ok it wasn’t that bad, but it was meant to be a 5 hour trip, and it became a 6.5 hour trip because they stuffed around and let people off at their houses and the driver was slow, and they didn’t give is the free cake until right at the end, and I sat next to the door so it was always cold, and always got the cigarette smoke from out bus steward who opened up the middle door every 5 minutes to have a fag, We were so mad by the end.
But we eventually got there, and then caught another mini bus to Selcuk, the town where Epehsus is and where we were staying that night. We parted ways with the Canadians, whose names we still didn’t know, and we headed to the ANZ Guest house. We were the only ones for our first night here, so we had the whole place to ourselves. The owners have been fantastic. So helpful and kind and friendly! They ordered us dinner ‘coz we arrived so late at night and then Mehmet gave us a full on orientation of Selcuk and Ephesus and all the thinngs to do around here. After a couple of cups of apple tea, we went to sleep.
Next morning was Ephesus. I was pretty excited ‘coz so much stuff in the Bible happens here, and it was really cool to be in such a historic place. I still think that Jerash was more spectacular, however I knew more about this place, so it was rather special going here. We bumped into the Canadians again, and grabbed some lunch with them after we left Ephesus.
Gallipoli and the Boomerang Bar,
Hey hey,
So a few days ago we got to Gallipoli. After I wrote last, we got on the ferry and crossed the Dardanelle channel to a town on the other side called Ecabat. When we got there, a man from the Crowded House Hotel met us and told us to wait in the lobby until our guide arrived. If you’re ever going to visit Gallipoli, you have to stay at this place! It’s brand new, comfortable, modern, and has Australiana stuff all over it! The guys there were really helpful and while were waiting gave us heaps of info on places we could stay in the next couple of towns we were going to. Their names were Paully and Simon. And they’ve hung around Aussies a LOT.
Anyway then we got told that we were having a private tour because we were the only ones to come on the tour that day, so we had our guide and a little taxi all to ourselves. It was fantastic, and our driver knew so much about the Gallipoli campaign and told the stories so well. I wish he could’ve been my history teacher in high school... I probably would have remembered stuff a lot better. Because it’s winter here too, it’s dead quiet so we saw all the sites by ourselves, which was great.
It was a pretty somber experience being there. I didn’t have any family in that battle or anything, but it was still really emotional to look at graves of 20 year old men, and go, ‘that could have been my brother or my friend’. It’s hard to describe. But what is really amazing is the friendship the Turks and Australians have now, even though all that time ago they fought and killed one another. Turks love Australians here. Well in this area anyway. The words of Attaturk were pretty amazing too...
So after Gallipoli we headed back to the Crowded House Hotel to wait for the next ferry. The guys there ended up giving us a beer and chatting to us and asked if we’d like some dinner. So we walked up to the Boomerang Bar and they made a salad and cooked fresh fish on the open fire, which was soooooooo yummy, and we tried Rake, a Turkish drink kind of like Absynth, and tastes just as awful. We both had one sip each and handed back our glasses. These guys were great and they had so much helpful advice for us!
After that we headed back to Cannakkale on the ferry and had an early night.
So a few days ago we got to Gallipoli. After I wrote last, we got on the ferry and crossed the Dardanelle channel to a town on the other side called Ecabat. When we got there, a man from the Crowded House Hotel met us and told us to wait in the lobby until our guide arrived. If you’re ever going to visit Gallipoli, you have to stay at this place! It’s brand new, comfortable, modern, and has Australiana stuff all over it! The guys there were really helpful and while were waiting gave us heaps of info on places we could stay in the next couple of towns we were going to. Their names were Paully and Simon. And they’ve hung around Aussies a LOT.
Anyway then we got told that we were having a private tour because we were the only ones to come on the tour that day, so we had our guide and a little taxi all to ourselves. It was fantastic, and our driver knew so much about the Gallipoli campaign and told the stories so well. I wish he could’ve been my history teacher in high school... I probably would have remembered stuff a lot better. Because it’s winter here too, it’s dead quiet so we saw all the sites by ourselves, which was great.
It was a pretty somber experience being there. I didn’t have any family in that battle or anything, but it was still really emotional to look at graves of 20 year old men, and go, ‘that could have been my brother or my friend’. It’s hard to describe. But what is really amazing is the friendship the Turks and Australians have now, even though all that time ago they fought and killed one another. Turks love Australians here. Well in this area anyway. The words of Attaturk were pretty amazing too...
So after Gallipoli we headed back to the Crowded House Hotel to wait for the next ferry. The guys there ended up giving us a beer and chatting to us and asked if we’d like some dinner. So we walked up to the Boomerang Bar and they made a salad and cooked fresh fish on the open fire, which was soooooooo yummy, and we tried Rake, a Turkish drink kind of like Absynth, and tastes just as awful. We both had one sip each and handed back our glasses. These guys were great and they had so much helpful advice for us!
After that we headed back to Cannakkale on the ferry and had an early night.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
road to Gallipoli
Last night Jo and I left our hostel at around 9:15pm to head to the bus station. We said goodbye to Belinda, she is flying out of Istanbul on Monday. She would have liked to come to Gallipoli with us but she didn’t want to risk not getting back in time for her flight to Amman.
Before we left we had asked the Tourist Info guy at our hostel how, where and when we could get a bus to Canakkale. He was extremely unhelpful and was more interested in making a commission out of us than helping us, so much so that he even booked us on a tour even when we just asked about prices and hadn’t decided! That is one thing that we haven’t liked about Turkey. No one helps you unless there is something in it for them. So once we cleared up that we DIDN’T want to spend $200 on a day trip to Troy and Gallipoli (That price doesn’t even include accommodation!) we decided that we would have to do this by ourselves. The Lonely Planet said that we could find cheaper tours in the town, so we trusted that information.
To get to the bus station we had to catch the tram all the way to a stop which connected with the Metro line, which then took us to the bus station. It was pretty easy, however lots of steps to carry luggage up ad down on, which kinda sucked, but each time I had to haul my luggage up a massive flight of stairs there were (in both cases) men aged over the age of 40, picking up my bag and carrying it for me. So I have decided that I like all turkish men over the age of 40. The rest have to prove themselves.
When we got to the bus station at around 10pm, we found out that the bus left at 12:45, so we had to wait a couple if hours, but that was fine. Once on the bus we tried to get some sleep, but the ride was very, very bumpy, and I’m not one for getting car sick, but when I woke up at 2:30 am, I was suddenly feeling very unwell. At first I thought that maybe it was food poisoning, but my tummy didn’t hurt like food poisoning, but nonetheless I grabbed the nearest bag, which unfortunately was the same bag had all my nuts and dried fruit in from the spice market, and was sick. I was so annoyed, not that I was sick, but coz all that food went to waste!!!! And it wasn’t cheap either... And it was meant to last me the next few days for snacks. But anyway. I felt fine after I threw up, so I guess that’s good.
So we got here this morning and headed to the Yellow Rose Pension, however no one answered, so we went a got breakfast (at this bakery and I was eating bread with vegemite and the baker thought it was chocolate spread and asked if he could try some, haha, he didn’t like it very much, but it was funny) and tried an hour later, but still no answer, and after peeping inside the place looked like it was in the middle or renovations. So We walked down the road to a place called Anzac Hotel...but that was 155 a night for a double. So then we walked around the corner to Anzac House Youth Hostel, which is the place I originally booked before coming. Anyway they were extremely unhelpful saying the hostel was closed, they were only running tours, but I argued that I had a booking with them, so how could they be closed? And he was totally useless, and pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. Anyway so we walked up the road and checked out this place called Konak Hotel and it was only $50 for a double. A little more than we wanted, but we had no hostel to go to.
After we checked in, we went out in the pouring rain to get some info from the tourist office... But of course, with the luck we were already having, it was closed! So we went back to the Anzac Hotel and asked them about tours and they were really really helpful! It’s only 50 lira for a tour of Gallipoli, which we will go on at 12pm today, and we will have to go to Troy tomorrow morning.
Before we left we had asked the Tourist Info guy at our hostel how, where and when we could get a bus to Canakkale. He was extremely unhelpful and was more interested in making a commission out of us than helping us, so much so that he even booked us on a tour even when we just asked about prices and hadn’t decided! That is one thing that we haven’t liked about Turkey. No one helps you unless there is something in it for them. So once we cleared up that we DIDN’T want to spend $200 on a day trip to Troy and Gallipoli (That price doesn’t even include accommodation!) we decided that we would have to do this by ourselves. The Lonely Planet said that we could find cheaper tours in the town, so we trusted that information.
To get to the bus station we had to catch the tram all the way to a stop which connected with the Metro line, which then took us to the bus station. It was pretty easy, however lots of steps to carry luggage up ad down on, which kinda sucked, but each time I had to haul my luggage up a massive flight of stairs there were (in both cases) men aged over the age of 40, picking up my bag and carrying it for me. So I have decided that I like all turkish men over the age of 40. The rest have to prove themselves.
When we got to the bus station at around 10pm, we found out that the bus left at 12:45, so we had to wait a couple if hours, but that was fine. Once on the bus we tried to get some sleep, but the ride was very, very bumpy, and I’m not one for getting car sick, but when I woke up at 2:30 am, I was suddenly feeling very unwell. At first I thought that maybe it was food poisoning, but my tummy didn’t hurt like food poisoning, but nonetheless I grabbed the nearest bag, which unfortunately was the same bag had all my nuts and dried fruit in from the spice market, and was sick. I was so annoyed, not that I was sick, but coz all that food went to waste!!!! And it wasn’t cheap either... And it was meant to last me the next few days for snacks. But anyway. I felt fine after I threw up, so I guess that’s good.
So we got here this morning and headed to the Yellow Rose Pension, however no one answered, so we went a got breakfast (at this bakery and I was eating bread with vegemite and the baker thought it was chocolate spread and asked if he could try some, haha, he didn’t like it very much, but it was funny) and tried an hour later, but still no answer, and after peeping inside the place looked like it was in the middle or renovations. So We walked down the road to a place called Anzac Hotel...but that was 155 a night for a double. So then we walked around the corner to Anzac House Youth Hostel, which is the place I originally booked before coming. Anyway they were extremely unhelpful saying the hostel was closed, they were only running tours, but I argued that I had a booking with them, so how could they be closed? And he was totally useless, and pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. Anyway so we walked up the road and checked out this place called Konak Hotel and it was only $50 for a double. A little more than we wanted, but we had no hostel to go to.
After we checked in, we went out in the pouring rain to get some info from the tourist office... But of course, with the luck we were already having, it was closed! So we went back to the Anzac Hotel and asked them about tours and they were really really helpful! It’s only 50 lira for a tour of Gallipoli, which we will go on at 12pm today, and we will have to go to Troy tomorrow morning.
istanbul
Hey,
So we have just spent the last 5 days in Istanbul. It was pretty cool. We stayed at a hostel called Cordial House. For $12 a night it was fine, nothing as good as the place in Goreme though. Goreme had a great atmosphere about it, and the staff were so friendly and helpful.
The first day we went to the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya. The Blue Mosque was beautiful, but I still think the best mosque I have seen so far is the Ummayed Mosque in Damascus. The Blue mosque is amazing architectually (yes that’s a word) but the Ummayed mosque had the most stunning courtyard.
But by far, the best building I have seen is the Aya Sofya. That was indescribable. Not as beautiful as the blue mosque on the outside, but the inside was just so awesome. Note: Both the Ummayed and the Aya Sofya were churches before they became mosques... Interesting that they are the best I have seen so far :). Anyway, The Aya Sofya still had some Christian paintings and designs and mosaics even though it is now a mosque.
Our hostel was in Sultanahmet, which is a really touristy area. We were about 400 metres from the Aya Sofya and I would not recommend staying in this area. The prices were triple in terms of food etc! Not good for students on a tight budget. But by the 3rd day we took a tram to Beyoglu and that was a much nicer place. No hassling from restauranteurs or shop keepers wanting you to come into their business. I though Amman was bad with men, but here...unbelievable!
We went to the Grand Bazaar a few times, and we got lines like “sweetie, kiss my lips”, “lady, lady, you dropped something!” I made the mistake of turning around... “My heart!” they would reply. And I also got...” I saw you yesterday!” I just kept walking this time... Another man asks him “when, when did you see her?”... “in my dreams!” the other would say. Arghhhh it was awful! We got followed once to by the worst stalker in the world. He was so bad and so not subtle about it. In the end I think we scared him more than he scared us. I just turned around and stopped and glared at him as if to say “I know what your doing...and you suck at it” and when he realised we knew he was following us, he got scared and left us alone.
The Grand Bazaar really was crap compared to the souqs in Syria, both Damascus and Halab. I guess we are so used to bargaining and getting things dirt cheap, but here they won’t have any of it. I asked one guy how much the price of these copper painted plates were and he said 35 lira!!! In Jordan you could get them for 5JD, so 10 lira, (10AU), so I told him that, and he said to me rather rudely “well go back to Jordan and get it then!”, and I replied, “Well I am going back there, so I will!” and stormed out. The Turks are way more ruder in the souqs than in Syria and Jordan. They hassle you, especially ‘coz we’re girls, and when we ignore them they follow us and insult us. So I didn’t really like the Grand Bazaar that much. The Spice Bazaar was nice, lots of turkish delight and dried fruit, but ridiculously expensive. It’s one of the big tourist hot spots, so the prices are crazy.
So all in all, Istanbul was ok, I’m going back there for a few days after this trip to Gallipoli, Tory and Ephesus. I still want to see a few more things there like the Topkapi Palace, and take a boat up the Bosphorus. Jo and I have just arrived in Canakkale (pronounced with a Ch)
So we have just spent the last 5 days in Istanbul. It was pretty cool. We stayed at a hostel called Cordial House. For $12 a night it was fine, nothing as good as the place in Goreme though. Goreme had a great atmosphere about it, and the staff were so friendly and helpful.
The first day we went to the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya. The Blue Mosque was beautiful, but I still think the best mosque I have seen so far is the Ummayed Mosque in Damascus. The Blue mosque is amazing architectually (yes that’s a word) but the Ummayed mosque had the most stunning courtyard.
But by far, the best building I have seen is the Aya Sofya. That was indescribable. Not as beautiful as the blue mosque on the outside, but the inside was just so awesome. Note: Both the Ummayed and the Aya Sofya were churches before they became mosques... Interesting that they are the best I have seen so far :). Anyway, The Aya Sofya still had some Christian paintings and designs and mosaics even though it is now a mosque.
Our hostel was in Sultanahmet, which is a really touristy area. We were about 400 metres from the Aya Sofya and I would not recommend staying in this area. The prices were triple in terms of food etc! Not good for students on a tight budget. But by the 3rd day we took a tram to Beyoglu and that was a much nicer place. No hassling from restauranteurs or shop keepers wanting you to come into their business. I though Amman was bad with men, but here...unbelievable!
We went to the Grand Bazaar a few times, and we got lines like “sweetie, kiss my lips”, “lady, lady, you dropped something!” I made the mistake of turning around... “My heart!” they would reply. And I also got...” I saw you yesterday!” I just kept walking this time... Another man asks him “when, when did you see her?”... “in my dreams!” the other would say. Arghhhh it was awful! We got followed once to by the worst stalker in the world. He was so bad and so not subtle about it. In the end I think we scared him more than he scared us. I just turned around and stopped and glared at him as if to say “I know what your doing...and you suck at it” and when he realised we knew he was following us, he got scared and left us alone.
The Grand Bazaar really was crap compared to the souqs in Syria, both Damascus and Halab. I guess we are so used to bargaining and getting things dirt cheap, but here they won’t have any of it. I asked one guy how much the price of these copper painted plates were and he said 35 lira!!! In Jordan you could get them for 5JD, so 10 lira, (10AU), so I told him that, and he said to me rather rudely “well go back to Jordan and get it then!”, and I replied, “Well I am going back there, so I will!” and stormed out. The Turks are way more ruder in the souqs than in Syria and Jordan. They hassle you, especially ‘coz we’re girls, and when we ignore them they follow us and insult us. So I didn’t really like the Grand Bazaar that much. The Spice Bazaar was nice, lots of turkish delight and dried fruit, but ridiculously expensive. It’s one of the big tourist hot spots, so the prices are crazy.
So all in all, Istanbul was ok, I’m going back there for a few days after this trip to Gallipoli, Tory and Ephesus. I still want to see a few more things there like the Topkapi Palace, and take a boat up the Bosphorus. Jo and I have just arrived in Canakkale (pronounced with a Ch)
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
cappodocia
We just spent the last few days in a town called Goreme in Cappodocia. It was so amazing. You have to check out my facebook photos to see what the landscape is like there, because it's way too hard to explain.
The first day after we arrived we went to the open air museum and looked at all these churches and caves which had been carved into the rock. It was so incredible.
After that we headed back into town and bought some lunch at this little cafe. The food was great! Jo and I had these turkish crepe things with spinach and a really yummy salad. In syria they are similar to saj's but i can't remember the turkish name for them atm.
In that cafe we got talking to the owner about what were the best things to see, and he offered us one of his employees to drive us around for the day, which was really nice. It;s winter here, so business is sooo slow for these guys, so they kinda pick up whatver work they can. So this guy took us around to all these places and was really helpful, getting us in an out of the fairy chimneys, and when he couldn't understand us, he rang the guy back at the shop to translate. At the end of our tour, we gave him $20, he didn't want to take it, but we made him.
The next day we went on a tour of an underground city and for a hike through the ilhara valley. It was a fantastic tour, and was worth the fifty lira we paid for it. Again, you have to see the photos to see what I mean. But we had to share a bus with these whining brits. We knew them already becuase back at the hostel they complain about EVERYTHING!!!!! "my foods not hot enough... fix it" nah it wasn't that bad... we just had to put up with it for a good 8 hours.
That night we caught a 7pm bus for istanbul. 11 hour trip... it wasn't too much fun at the start. we got the back row seats, and it took us about three hours to work out that our seats do in fact lean back... we just couldn't find the buttons... our bad. after that it was easier to try and sleep. i've had worse bus rides, but it proabably wasn't the best. but i did get to sleep most of the way.
So this morning we arrived in Istanbul. Took an hour to find a hostel, with thanks to the helpful locals who had conflicting directions :) but eventually we found it. it's quite nice. and only $12 aussie a night, so no complaining there. We couldn't check in until 12pm so we went to get a coffee and went for a walk around the Sultanahmet part of the city where we are staying.
One thing that sucks about Istanbul is that it's expensive. Especially compared to Jordan. Food prices are still better than Australia, but it kinda sucks when you have to eat out for every meal. So we've already sussed out some of the cheaper options.
Not sure if I'm gonna stay here for a full week and then head onto troy, ephesus and gallipoli once Belinda and Jo leave, or if I do it with them in the next few days and then head back to Istanbul. I leave here on the 20th for Beirut, so I've got plenty of time.
Ok keep you all posted
lots of love
carly
The first day after we arrived we went to the open air museum and looked at all these churches and caves which had been carved into the rock. It was so incredible.
After that we headed back into town and bought some lunch at this little cafe. The food was great! Jo and I had these turkish crepe things with spinach and a really yummy salad. In syria they are similar to saj's but i can't remember the turkish name for them atm.
In that cafe we got talking to the owner about what were the best things to see, and he offered us one of his employees to drive us around for the day, which was really nice. It;s winter here, so business is sooo slow for these guys, so they kinda pick up whatver work they can. So this guy took us around to all these places and was really helpful, getting us in an out of the fairy chimneys, and when he couldn't understand us, he rang the guy back at the shop to translate. At the end of our tour, we gave him $20, he didn't want to take it, but we made him.
The next day we went on a tour of an underground city and for a hike through the ilhara valley. It was a fantastic tour, and was worth the fifty lira we paid for it. Again, you have to see the photos to see what I mean. But we had to share a bus with these whining brits. We knew them already becuase back at the hostel they complain about EVERYTHING!!!!! "my foods not hot enough... fix it" nah it wasn't that bad... we just had to put up with it for a good 8 hours.
That night we caught a 7pm bus for istanbul. 11 hour trip... it wasn't too much fun at the start. we got the back row seats, and it took us about three hours to work out that our seats do in fact lean back... we just couldn't find the buttons... our bad. after that it was easier to try and sleep. i've had worse bus rides, but it proabably wasn't the best. but i did get to sleep most of the way.
So this morning we arrived in Istanbul. Took an hour to find a hostel, with thanks to the helpful locals who had conflicting directions :) but eventually we found it. it's quite nice. and only $12 aussie a night, so no complaining there. We couldn't check in until 12pm so we went to get a coffee and went for a walk around the Sultanahmet part of the city where we are staying.
One thing that sucks about Istanbul is that it's expensive. Especially compared to Jordan. Food prices are still better than Australia, but it kinda sucks when you have to eat out for every meal. So we've already sussed out some of the cheaper options.
Not sure if I'm gonna stay here for a full week and then head onto troy, ephesus and gallipoli once Belinda and Jo leave, or if I do it with them in the next few days and then head back to Istanbul. I leave here on the 20th for Beirut, so I've got plenty of time.
Ok keep you all posted
lots of love
carly
Sunday, February 1, 2009
turkey!
oday we woke up at 5:30 to a call to prayer gone wrong! It kept making feedback screeches and then would cut out, and then the imams voice would start again. I couldn’t help but laugh...but it was quite an annoying way to wake up.
We grabbed breakfast at the bakery, some cheese bread thing, and then grabbed a taxi to the bus station. Turkey is definitely going to take some getting used to because we had to pay 12.50 for a trip to the bus station, and in Amman that would have cost us 3.00 aussie dollars. But food is relatively cheap here When we got to the bus station we tried to find a bus directly to Goreme in Cappodocia, but none went there direct, so we caught a JET bus for 7 hours to a town called Aksaray, which was an hour away from Goreme. When we got to the outskirts of Aksaray the bus stopped at a rest station and we got a bit worried because normally when buses stop, they stop at a bus station, so we tried asking if we were going to be going to the bus station, or if the bus was just going to continue onto Ankara. Well... Let’s just say Turkey is not a country that you can get by in easily with no language skills. We were lucky that another man walking past overheard us and came up saying in English “I think I can help you”.
So it turns out that the bus wasn’t going to go to the bus station but they arranged a Servees to take us there instead. So we got in the servees and didn’t really know what was happening. He rambled something off in Turkish and the only words we recognised were ‘Bus’ and ‘Goreme’. So that was fine until he drove straight past the otogar (bus station). And we’re like “we wanna go there”... And he rambled off again...and we didn’t understand...again... But we knew he could understand a little Arabic, so we just spoke in Arabic to him. Anyway, so he took us to some bus company office, but they didn’t have a direct bus to Goreme, only to a nearby town, and we didn’t wanna stuff around and be waiting for buses in the dark, so we said to our servees driver “no, take us to the otogar!” But he wouldn’t listen and tried spinning some bull dust story that the otogar closed at 4pm and continued to take us somewhere else. By this stage we were pretty pissed off ‘coz we were in some strange town with a taxi driver who was more concerned about getting a commission than getting us to Goreme. At the second place he took us to Jo lost it at him and in really forceful, slow arabic, shouted... “NURIIDO AN NATHABA ILA OTOGAR” which means ‘We. Want. To Go to. The. Otogar!!” and he let off what must of been a few swear words in turkish and finally drove us there. We were then worried what he was going to charge us, because he’d been driving us around for half an hour! But he charged us nothing, so that was good.
At the otogar we found a direct bus at 6:30pm to Goreme, accept coz the guy knew it was the only bus he charged us a mint, and even the student line and the begging didn’t help us. Not to worry, because we finally got here and the hostel picked us up from the bus station. The place we’re staying in tonight is soooo cool. It’s in caves kinda like cooper peedy and its sooooo beautiful. We have only seen the surroundings at night, but we can’t wait to see everything tomorrow morning! The hostel does food here too, which was great coz we were starving when we arrived. So we all got a lovely home cooked stirfry and it was so yummy! And this place has internet access thank goodness coz I don’t have a phone and I hadn’t been able to contact home for 2 days.
So tomorrow we might do a tour around the place on foot. Maybe by bus... You can do balloon flights over Cappodocia, but its like 140 euros... So not gonna happen...
Oh yeah we drove through snow today on the way here!!!! It was so awesome. My first time seeing snow... Yeah I know, call me a hillbilly from sunny Australia, but it was soooo coool. I took lots of photos!
Well I’m off to bed... It’s amazing how tired you get from sitting on a bus for 9 hours all day!
Love carly
We grabbed breakfast at the bakery, some cheese bread thing, and then grabbed a taxi to the bus station. Turkey is definitely going to take some getting used to because we had to pay 12.50 for a trip to the bus station, and in Amman that would have cost us 3.00 aussie dollars. But food is relatively cheap here When we got to the bus station we tried to find a bus directly to Goreme in Cappodocia, but none went there direct, so we caught a JET bus for 7 hours to a town called Aksaray, which was an hour away from Goreme. When we got to the outskirts of Aksaray the bus stopped at a rest station and we got a bit worried because normally when buses stop, they stop at a bus station, so we tried asking if we were going to be going to the bus station, or if the bus was just going to continue onto Ankara. Well... Let’s just say Turkey is not a country that you can get by in easily with no language skills. We were lucky that another man walking past overheard us and came up saying in English “I think I can help you”.
So it turns out that the bus wasn’t going to go to the bus station but they arranged a Servees to take us there instead. So we got in the servees and didn’t really know what was happening. He rambled something off in Turkish and the only words we recognised were ‘Bus’ and ‘Goreme’. So that was fine until he drove straight past the otogar (bus station). And we’re like “we wanna go there”... And he rambled off again...and we didn’t understand...again... But we knew he could understand a little Arabic, so we just spoke in Arabic to him. Anyway, so he took us to some bus company office, but they didn’t have a direct bus to Goreme, only to a nearby town, and we didn’t wanna stuff around and be waiting for buses in the dark, so we said to our servees driver “no, take us to the otogar!” But he wouldn’t listen and tried spinning some bull dust story that the otogar closed at 4pm and continued to take us somewhere else. By this stage we were pretty pissed off ‘coz we were in some strange town with a taxi driver who was more concerned about getting a commission than getting us to Goreme. At the second place he took us to Jo lost it at him and in really forceful, slow arabic, shouted... “NURIIDO AN NATHABA ILA OTOGAR” which means ‘We. Want. To Go to. The. Otogar!!” and he let off what must of been a few swear words in turkish and finally drove us there. We were then worried what he was going to charge us, because he’d been driving us around for half an hour! But he charged us nothing, so that was good.
At the otogar we found a direct bus at 6:30pm to Goreme, accept coz the guy knew it was the only bus he charged us a mint, and even the student line and the begging didn’t help us. Not to worry, because we finally got here and the hostel picked us up from the bus station. The place we’re staying in tonight is soooo cool. It’s in caves kinda like cooper peedy and its sooooo beautiful. We have only seen the surroundings at night, but we can’t wait to see everything tomorrow morning! The hostel does food here too, which was great coz we were starving when we arrived. So we all got a lovely home cooked stirfry and it was so yummy! And this place has internet access thank goodness coz I don’t have a phone and I hadn’t been able to contact home for 2 days.
So tomorrow we might do a tour around the place on foot. Maybe by bus... You can do balloon flights over Cappodocia, but its like 140 euros... So not gonna happen...
Oh yeah we drove through snow today on the way here!!!! It was so awesome. My first time seeing snow... Yeah I know, call me a hillbilly from sunny Australia, but it was soooo coool. I took lots of photos!
Well I’m off to bed... It’s amazing how tired you get from sitting on a bus for 9 hours all day!
Love carly
on the road
So my travelling has begun! The last week in Amman was pretty full on and unfortunately had a bit of an incident with some people living in our apartments, so for safety myself and my roommate moved in with Rohan and Sandi and Amelia for the last few days. Rohan and Sandi are the lovely, amazing people who took all of us in for Christmas. It was so nice of them to have Alyson and I for the last few days. I have learnt so much from this family over the past 2 months, which I am so grateful for.
So Belinda, Jo and I left at about 9am on Thursday morning. We headed to Abdali bus station in downtown amman, but we missed all the buses to Damascus by about half an hour. It was pretty funny actually. We got taxis right down to the bottom of the station and ended up hiking, with ALL our luggage to the top of the hill for a couple of kilometres... In the end we got a service taxi which only cost 10JD each and took about 2 hours off the time it would’ve taken if we had caught the bus.
Once in Damascus we stayed in the Sultan hotel near the Hijaz Station. Some of the guys stayed in this hotel last time we were in Syria. It’s was a nice, clean hotel and had hot water, so we decided to go there again. After ditching our bags we took Belinda to the main Souq’s and places we visited when we were there after Christmas. We had dinner at Jabri House again as well. It’s a really beautiful restaurant that has fairly cheap food.
This morning we woke up early at 6am, woke up the poor hotel staff sleeping on the couch in the foyer to get breakfast. Surely they could have scored themselves a room, but I guess they need someone maning the desk 24/7. Breakfast was included and they gave us enough bread so that we could made ourselves Vegemite rolls for lunch. Then we headed to the bus station and hunted for a bus to Turkey, but soon found out that there were no buses direct to Turkey until 10pm! So we got on a bus to Aleppo for 4.5 hours. My seat was wet and we couldn’t work out why until it really started bucketing down with rain and it started pouring through a crack above my head! So I moved seats. Once in Aleppo we searched fr a bus to Turkey and this time there were none until 5am the next morning! We really didn’t want to stay the night in Aleppo, so we found a service taxi that would take us across the border.
And it was the best decision we made! It was a nice, new car, and our Turkish driver was so lovely! When we got to the border crossing it was chaos! The border crossings I’ve been through so far have separate lanes for buses and trucks and cars and taxis...well this was insane, it was everyone on a two way road... So one lane in one direction and it was hell!!! Our taxi driver was awesome though and managed to weave in and out of all the buses and trucks... And pissed a few people off in the process as we skipped about 2km of line up! Haha... And the Syrian guards found our Arabic hilarious, but they didn’t make us open up all our bags, which is good, ‘coz it’s such a pain. One guard asked us “Do you have anything not good?” And we are all like “la, la (no no)” and laughed.
I can really tell that my Arabic has improved since I’ve travelled through Jordan and Syria. Most of the time when we travel, everything has been organised for us through Hakeem, so we don’t get to do any kind of bargaining. This has been so much fun so far. As soon as we speak Arabic they’re taken by surprise, and usually lower the cost. Then we pull the ‘taalibaat!!!’ (students!) in a whiny voice and plead with them, and we get the price we want. One guy asked us what we were studying and when we said Arabic, he dropped the price instantly. I think they seem to have a lot more respect for us when we use arabic.
So yeah, then we got through the turkish border and by the way it has been pouring down with rain non-stop since we entered Aleppo. So our bags were drenched...shoes drenched... Our taxi driver took us to the hotel I’m writing from right now called Divan Oteli. This was the hotel recommended in the lonely planet(LP) guide, and we are really impressed so far. Clean, hot water and heating (which we need tonight because some of our clothes got drenched in our bags, still trying to work out how...). So yeah. After we got here we chilled for a bit ‘coz we’d been on the road since 8:30am until 6pm. Then we ventured out for some food. There was a nice restaurant (again LP reco) and it was cheap too. I had lentil soup and some spinach and tomato spiced bread thing. Then on the way home we went to the supermarket to grab some things, and they had turkish delight, and we though it was kind of fitting to eat turkish delight on our first night in Turkey, so we got some and it was delicious!!! Best I’ve ever had... You’d wanna hope so too seeing as I’m in Turkey and all.
But so far Turkey has been very very pretty! Reminds me a lot of the Adelaide Hills. It’s so green! And the houses are very European style. It’s hard to think that we only just left the desert and Arab speaking world. We keep talking in Arabic here! They actually understand us! Which is great, coz no one here speaks English. It was funny even with our taxi driver, whose first language is Turkish, and our first language is English, but yet the only way we could communicate was in Arabic! The same thing happened again in the restaurant tonight. But the further west we travel the less we will be able to use Arabic unfortunately.
Well tomorrow we leave for Cappodocia, so we will probably be travelling again for another 8 hours. So I’d better get some sleep!
Love carly
So Belinda, Jo and I left at about 9am on Thursday morning. We headed to Abdali bus station in downtown amman, but we missed all the buses to Damascus by about half an hour. It was pretty funny actually. We got taxis right down to the bottom of the station and ended up hiking, with ALL our luggage to the top of the hill for a couple of kilometres... In the end we got a service taxi which only cost 10JD each and took about 2 hours off the time it would’ve taken if we had caught the bus.
Once in Damascus we stayed in the Sultan hotel near the Hijaz Station. Some of the guys stayed in this hotel last time we were in Syria. It’s was a nice, clean hotel and had hot water, so we decided to go there again. After ditching our bags we took Belinda to the main Souq’s and places we visited when we were there after Christmas. We had dinner at Jabri House again as well. It’s a really beautiful restaurant that has fairly cheap food.
This morning we woke up early at 6am, woke up the poor hotel staff sleeping on the couch in the foyer to get breakfast. Surely they could have scored themselves a room, but I guess they need someone maning the desk 24/7. Breakfast was included and they gave us enough bread so that we could made ourselves Vegemite rolls for lunch. Then we headed to the bus station and hunted for a bus to Turkey, but soon found out that there were no buses direct to Turkey until 10pm! So we got on a bus to Aleppo for 4.5 hours. My seat was wet and we couldn’t work out why until it really started bucketing down with rain and it started pouring through a crack above my head! So I moved seats. Once in Aleppo we searched fr a bus to Turkey and this time there were none until 5am the next morning! We really didn’t want to stay the night in Aleppo, so we found a service taxi that would take us across the border.
And it was the best decision we made! It was a nice, new car, and our Turkish driver was so lovely! When we got to the border crossing it was chaos! The border crossings I’ve been through so far have separate lanes for buses and trucks and cars and taxis...well this was insane, it was everyone on a two way road... So one lane in one direction and it was hell!!! Our taxi driver was awesome though and managed to weave in and out of all the buses and trucks... And pissed a few people off in the process as we skipped about 2km of line up! Haha... And the Syrian guards found our Arabic hilarious, but they didn’t make us open up all our bags, which is good, ‘coz it’s such a pain. One guard asked us “Do you have anything not good?” And we are all like “la, la (no no)” and laughed.
I can really tell that my Arabic has improved since I’ve travelled through Jordan and Syria. Most of the time when we travel, everything has been organised for us through Hakeem, so we don’t get to do any kind of bargaining. This has been so much fun so far. As soon as we speak Arabic they’re taken by surprise, and usually lower the cost. Then we pull the ‘taalibaat!!!’ (students!) in a whiny voice and plead with them, and we get the price we want. One guy asked us what we were studying and when we said Arabic, he dropped the price instantly. I think they seem to have a lot more respect for us when we use arabic.
So yeah, then we got through the turkish border and by the way it has been pouring down with rain non-stop since we entered Aleppo. So our bags were drenched...shoes drenched... Our taxi driver took us to the hotel I’m writing from right now called Divan Oteli. This was the hotel recommended in the lonely planet(LP) guide, and we are really impressed so far. Clean, hot water and heating (which we need tonight because some of our clothes got drenched in our bags, still trying to work out how...). So yeah. After we got here we chilled for a bit ‘coz we’d been on the road since 8:30am until 6pm. Then we ventured out for some food. There was a nice restaurant (again LP reco) and it was cheap too. I had lentil soup and some spinach and tomato spiced bread thing. Then on the way home we went to the supermarket to grab some things, and they had turkish delight, and we though it was kind of fitting to eat turkish delight on our first night in Turkey, so we got some and it was delicious!!! Best I’ve ever had... You’d wanna hope so too seeing as I’m in Turkey and all.
But so far Turkey has been very very pretty! Reminds me a lot of the Adelaide Hills. It’s so green! And the houses are very European style. It’s hard to think that we only just left the desert and Arab speaking world. We keep talking in Arabic here! They actually understand us! Which is great, coz no one here speaks English. It was funny even with our taxi driver, whose first language is Turkish, and our first language is English, but yet the only way we could communicate was in Arabic! The same thing happened again in the restaurant tonight. But the further west we travel the less we will be able to use Arabic unfortunately.
Well tomorrow we leave for Cappodocia, so we will probably be travelling again for another 8 hours. So I’d better get some sleep!
Love carly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
