Monthly Archives: July 2006

Wonderful Cappadocia

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At 6AM, the first things you notice when you arrive in Goreme (in the heart of the Cappadocia region) are the tens of balloons hoovering over the city and the valley. It is so much magical that I have decided to follow the advice of many people I have met on my trip and go for a ride before leaving from here.

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The second thing you notice, and you cannot really miss it, are the hundreds of houses carved in rock mushrooms spotted with doors and windows around which the town has developed, albeit in a more traditional architectural style.

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And as Petra should not be reduced to the Treasury (what you saw in Indiana Jones), Cappadocia is not just Goreme but a very large region with great landscape, interesting architecture and a very interesting history. Cool rock formations, fairy chimneys, cave houses, churches and even whole villages carved in the mountain, underground cities, valleys and canyons are scattered over the region and offer countless hours of exploration for hikers and sightseers.

Some tourists think it can be visited in one day. That is true you can see a lot in a day but you are merely brushing the surface if you do so. This place definitely deserves more time.

But as a start, the day tour providing an overview of the region is perfect and it is what I did today with Stewart that I had joined as planned this morning at the hotel. He had booked the tour yesterday evening and I just tagged along ;).

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The most interesting part of the tour was definitely when we explored the largest underground city. It is eight floor deep! It has very narrow passageways equipped with large rolling stones that were used to shut close the city in time of raid.

It is quite mind boggling to learn that the two first floors were dug by the Hittites around the XIIth century BC and that the city was extended by the Christians that used it to protect themselves against the Romans and then against the Army of Islam. There were up to 30 of these underground cities! And the one we visited was linked to another main one by a 9kms tunnel!

An added value to keep in mind is that joining an organized tour is always a good way to meet other backpackers that just arrived in town too. I have kicked myself for not doing it more often earlier in my trip – especially in Egypt but I guess I was also more courageous then 8). Of course, it sometimes does not work out and you do not meet anybody you get along with.

This time though, it worked out quite well and we met a bunch of nice people: Jess and Hana (Aussies), Sandy (Kiwi) and Sivan (Israeli). Jess and Hana are leaving tomorrow so we just hung out tonight. We had dinner and found a cool pub called Flintstones Cave. Like most, make it all, of the Aussies I have met on this trip, they worked in England for a while as part of a long trip.

Cappadocia seems like a wonderful place to linger and explore, I plan on staying for several days.

NYAFRC

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First, I would like to point out that I think I reached a stage where I cannot take in very much history and monuments anymore so my reactions to them might clearly not be representative of how other people in a different mood would react.

After visiting Galipoli, Stewart, Charlie and I, we took a night bus to Selcuk where we arrived Saturday very early in the morning. We checked in at a cool place a bit out of town called Attila’s Gateway. It is a very relaxed place run by a mix of Turkish and Australian people. And the best part is definitely the swimming pool that I missed so much not having while I was in Istanbul.

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The ancient roman city of Ephesus is the main reason people stop in Selcuk. It is considered one of the best site in Turkey and hence is part of every organized tour of the country. And as such, it was very crowded when we visited it on Saturday morning. It is a nice place with some impressive monuments like the library of Celsus and the temple of Hadrian. But to tell the truth, I was not as impressed by Ephesus than by my all time favorite Jerash ;).

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Ephesus was actually very famous in ancient time because it is where the temple of Artemis or Artemision, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, was located. But sadly, as it is the case for all these wonders except the pyramids, there is not much left of the impressive temple so I did not bother going onsite.

IMG_4123.JPGIMG_4131.JPGIn place, on Sunday morning, I visited the Ephesus museum in Selcuk. It is a nice little museum with some great finds from the region like two statues of Artemis and a statue of the phallic god Priapus that used to be inside the brothel in Ephesus. Quite a sight!

Because of the very hot weather and my current lack of interest in exploring, I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday as well as the 2 last days enjoying the pool and the company of some travelers I met here. I especially hung out a lot with Stewart, Charlie, Eloise (Swiss), Arthur (French), Steve (Ausie), Ben (Ausie) and Carie (Ausie).

On Sunday night, we managed to get in a Turkish wedding :). I would love to tell you a great story ala “Wedding Crashers” movie but sadly it will not be the case. We only got in by the end of the dinner and so had a chance to join for onlye one dance. Everybody looked at us like we were from another planet and everybody had left very soon after. Nothing exciting after all so we got back fast to the bar for some more beers!

I felt so well in this little hotel that I decided to stay one more day as Stewart was leaving for Goreme (Cappadocia) and Charlie for Antalya. I will join Stewart tomorrow in Goreme.

I spent the whole day laying down on a long chair or a cushion around the pool, reading a book or playing a game of chess, napping or just day dreaming. This little hotel that reminded me so much of Dahab definitely fit my fancy.

Arc-En-Ciel

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Today was a strange day. A day where you see things that are all related to the point where you start to wonder if something is going on. Of course, it could only be a coincidence. Or maybe worse, a worldwide machination in which you are only a puppet! Or if you think like me, you decide it is a simple case of subconscious selectivity in which your subconsciousness starts bringing up to your consciousness, everything it catches along a main theme.

And for today, the theme was War!

It actually kind of started yesterday when I arrived in Camakkale from Istanbul with Stewart (Ausie) and Charlie (American) (We met in Istanbul and are going the same way for a while so we decided to travel together).

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In the evening, as we were walking along the shore, we ended in front of a replica of the Trojan Horse that was used for the movie Troy released last year. While known universally as a symbol of treachery and/or ingenuity, the first goal of the Trojan Horse was still to facilitate invasion and the killing of people.

The horse is here because Camakkale is an important tourist base to visit the old site of Troy. There is actually not much to see on the site so I decided to pass and concentrate on the other important tourist site located close to Camakkale: the Galipoli battlefields.

This morning, as I was coming down to the breakfast area, I got stopped by the TV showing images of Beirut airport on fire after Israeli planes had bombed it the night before. Israel has decided to extend the war with Hezbollah on the whole Lebanese territory. I really felt sad as I was watching, because I got quite attached to Beirut and the Lebanese people during my stay there earlier in my trip. I don’t want to get political and the situation is very complex but I do not get the global punishment here or how we went from 3 kidnappings to a full scale army engagement!

My sincere sympathies to all Lebanese and Israeli people that are trapped in this situation.

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To tell the truth, I did not feel like doing anything after that. But for today we had planned a tour of the battlefields and memorials of Galipoli. I got interested in this event of WWI after I read the book “Bird Without Wings” that Luc gave me as a gift me before I left for my trip. Thanks Luc! The book gives a full overview of WWI in Turkey including the battles in Galipoli, so I wanted to learn more about it and also why this event is so important to the Ausies and Kiwis.

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The tour went very well and was very informative with the guide (TJ, seemingly an expert on the matter) giving us a lot of information about the events in question. The tour is mostly about visiting cemeteries and memorials as well as restored trenches. It turns out the book is very well documented as it accurately covers a large part of what TJ said.

I think it was too much for me and I felt quite saddened by it the whole day.

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But as we were crossing the Dardanelles on a ferry back to Camakkale, an apparition really cheered me up. A one in a million chance for it to happen. Crossing in front of the ferry, I noticed a green boat with a rainbow on its side. After a closer look, I was sure it was the Rainbow Warrior.

As the saying goes: After the rain, the rainbow. And what a rainbow it was!

[*Arc-En-Ciel means Rainbow in French]

Istanbul Wrap-Up

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I have been in Istanbul for 5 days now. Time has gone fast as I was trying to get a feel for the city, its history and its people. It is now clear why there are guide books dedicated only to Istanbul as one could stay here for weeks without seeing the same place twice.

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On Tuesday, I visited the archaeological museum. As it is expected, it has some great artifacts collected from all the corners of the empire during the Ottoman era. The most impressive certainly are the sarcophagus of the necropolis in Sidon (Lebanon) that is so well preserved. I stayed a long time contemplating the so-called sarcophagus of Alexander that I had wanted to see since I had heard about it in Lebanon.

IMG_3890.JPGYesterday, I visited the Dolmabahce Palace. It is the last palace used by the Sultans which replaced the Topkapi Palace as the Sultan’s residence. It is an impressive place and is definitely worth a visit. Too bad I had to get on guided tours. I ended up being rushed around without much time to admire and contemplate what I wanted to see. With more than 2000 paintings and more than 200 rooms, it was surely worth more than my 1h45 visit. But unfortunately that is how long I was allowed to stay in the palace. At the end, it all blurred together as the guides were pushing us around from one amazing room to the next.

I also met with Taylan and some other friends of Elif for two evenings. Since she was not able to be here when I was visiting her country, she had given me the contact info of her family and one of her friends. Thanks so much Elif. Not wanting to bother her family I decided to contact Taylan instead. It was very nice as many of the guys speak very good English.

The first evening, I met Taylan and his friends in Taksim, the most bustling part of the European side. I found them quite easily and we went around to some cool bars drinking “Efes” beers. At the end of the night, I was offered a very good small hamburger that Taylan presented as a staple of late night eating in Taksim. I do not remember the name though!

The second evening, I accepted to join them on the Anatolian side (as they call the Asian side) so I had to find my way to the bustling street called Bagdat street. To tell the truth, it took me some time to get there as I did not have a map of that side (the Asian side is not documented in the guide book!) and I did not know how to get there either. Well, I went to the ferry dock and started asking around which ferry to take. First window, the guy tells me to go to the next on the left. I go there and the guy tells me to go to the left… hum, maybe he meant the next peer. Next peer, first window, the guy tells me to go to the next on the left again! I assume he means next peer so I go there and the guy at the window tells me to go to the next on the left again! Fortunately, it was the right peer as there was no other on the left! 🙂 Well, I managed to get to the other side and a taxi whisked me away to the right place. Taylan had invited some other friends of Elif this time. I had a good time but frankly, I did not notice much difference between Taksim and Bagdat. They kind of looked the same with clothing stores, cafes, restaurants and plenty of Starbucks!

IMG_4024.JPGTonight was a mellow evening as I went to the Turkish bath for a complete cleaning. It was very similar to the one I had last time albeit more expensive but less dangerous :). I also splurged myself and got a 30 minutes oil massage for that much more. I can tell you I was feeling great and was radiating peace as I was walking out of there. When I arrived at the hotel cafe, I was welcomed by a belly dancer who took me on the dance floor for some dancing. It was a great way to finish my stay here :).

That’s it for Istanbul. Tomorrow I am going South along the Aegean Sea :).

At the Crossing of Two Continents

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Today is Monday and as I have mentioned before, in Turkey all the public monuments are closed.

This time I was prepared and I had planned things that did not depend on public service :).

I spent my day going back and forth between Europe and Asia on board of a ferry that took me along Bosphorus from Eminönü (close to Sultanahmet) to Anadolu Kavagi (North of Istanbul).

I arrived early in order to find a ferry that did this trip. I decided to go with the TDI ferry that is highly recommended by the guide book. I bought a round trip ticket for 7.5YTL and boarded the boat.

I looked for a good spot on the open deck. As soon as the boat departed, it seemed like a hoard of Korean, Japanese and Chinese tourists got released as they all flocked to the side of the boat to take thousands of pictures of everything and nothing. Not wanting to be left aside, I joined the frenzy and played with my elbows to save my 50 centimeters of rail and my seat. OK OK, it was not exactly that bad. Well, at least not anymore after I had knocked down that 60 years old Korean lady that was trying to sneak in between me and the rail! If Zidane can do it, so do I 😉

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Anyway, the cruise is very nice and I spent most of the way up admiring the city’s beautiful landscape and the important monuments like the Dolmabahce palace and the fortresses of Europe and Asia. Actually, I did not see the fortress of Asia as I was awed by a bridge suspended over the Bosphorus linking Europe to Asia (or Anatolia if you are Turk) and did not think about looking for the small fortress.

The weather was not very good though and I started to feel cold because of the wind passing through the deck. As most of the good sights were passed, I retreated to the inside deck and started reading my book.

We arrived in Anadolu Kavagi after 1h45. I was thinking of just staying on the boat and do the trip back right away as I was not feeling like visiting anything there but it turned out the boat was not leaving for two and an half hours so I was kind of stranded there on the Asian side.

I strolled around town for a bit and finally settled on a rooftop cafe to have a drink while waiting for the boat. It was good because I wanted to catch with my thinking and managed to put some of it down on paper. The trip back went well but I was not that interested by the landscape anymore so I just read more of my book.

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The view you get from the boat is great nonetheless and it would have been a mistake to miss it. I have always loved city landscapes and have great memories of Manhattan and the Hong-Kong harbor. Definitely a thing to do.

Actually, I did not really feel like doing much today so the ferry ride was not bad. Taking a long round trip with a 2 hour stop all by myself, was not that great of an idea though.