Turkish Delights

Friday 23rd
Jared and I headed to Turkey, after a delayed flight and non English speaking, crazy shuttle bus driver, we eventually found our hostel – called the Harmony Hostel, located through a carpet shop and up a dark and dodgy flight of stairs.
We went out for our first Turkish kebab and got to view Istanbul in all its glory at night.

Ephesus Trooper 4 Day Tour
Day 1 - Sat
It was an early morning departure from Istanbul and a long day of driving to get to Gallipoli. We got into Anzac cove around 5pm and found a small area on the stands near the front stage. We met a couple from Australia who were on our tour so spent our time with them.
It was a long night of chatting, playing games and watching the interviews and bits and pieces they showed on the big screen.
It wasn’t as cold as I expected.

Day2 - Sunday
Dawn came around faster than I thought, and at 5.30am after NO sleep we were standing for the memorial service for the Anzac soldiers. It last about an hour.
We then made the walk up to the Australian Memorial at Lone Pine, where I got to meet the Australian Governor General and stretched out on the grass in the sunshine for about an hour.
We then made the hour and half uphill walk to the NZ site at Chunuk Bair, which was disappointing compared the Australian one, not enough room for all the kiwi’s and no space to sit or stand!
After the NZ service, Prime Minister John Key was wandering around greeting people, so I went over and introduced myself and said hello.
It was a really amazing experience!
We then had a 5 hour bus ride to the small town of Ayvalik where we got some much needed sleep.

Day 3 – Monday
We headed south along the Aegean Coast stopping at Pergamum, in the morning we went to a carpet/rug making museum, where we watched the women making the rugs, and then the guys showed us all the different sorts of rugs and we tried Rauki (Turkish alcohol- similar to Oozo) we then headed to acropolis and city centre and had a guided tour of the ancient city, the weather wasn’t too nice but was still a good afternoon. After lunch we went to an onyx jewellery making place, where we watched the guy make a red onyx egg, and then us girls browsed the jewellery.
I was very tempted to buy some but resisted!!
From here it was a 5 hour journey south to Kusadasi.
That night we headed out to the local pubs and bars, first heading as a group for some cocktails by the beach - Kusadasi is the town where all the cruises stop and from the beach you can see one of the islands of Greece!
After some cocktails it was onto a pretty trashy Irish bar to drink with more tour companies full of crazy Aussies and Kiwis. I think we crashed out at about 2am !!

Day 4- Tuesday
Today the tour ended, but we had took the optional excursion to Ephesus – an ancient city which was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BCE), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We spent most of the morning checking out the ancient city – which contains the largest collection of Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean. Only an estimated 15% has been excavated. It was amazing to see – such a huge city of ruins and still so much to be seen!!
After that we headed for a quick stop to see the Temple of Artemis before heading for lunch then onto the city centre for wine tasting.
We tried all different fruity flavoured wine; my favourite was probably the kiwifruit or quince flavour. Some/Most of them were sooooo sweet!
Tonight we had an overnight bus back to Istanbul, I had prepared myself for another sleepless night but to my surprise I got about 4 hours relatively good sleep between 2am and 6am.

Wednesday
Our last day in Turkey! We arrived at the hostel at 7am to find we couldn’t check in until 11am, so we showered and ventured out to the city. We went to the Topaki Palace – which for a palace didn’t impress me all that much – although the gardens had a good view across the Bosphourus River to the other area of Turkey.
We then headed up to see the Hagia Sophia, and old church built in 360AD which is now a museum, another 20Lira, ½ hour queue later and we were inside.
It was pretty impressive once inside, with huge mosaic walls and fascinating history!
The Blue Mosque was next – but upon arrival we were told it was closed until 2.30pm due to prayer time. So we wandered up the street to the Grand Baazar – one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1,200 shops. We spent about 2 hours here wandering around, haggling and browsing.
It was huge – and we got a little lost at times but all in good fun!
I managed to limit my spending (as I had already bought a pair of converse shoes the day before for 20Lira) and came out with only a couple of bracelets, Turkish Coffee, Apple Tea and Turkish Delight (chocolate flavoured)
We had some lunch at a little local stand and then headed back to check out the Blue Mosque.
This mosque was built in between 1609 and 1616 and is a huge tourist attraction as well as still a place of worship.
For dinner we went to a little place near our hostel where we had some Gozleme (Turkish pancake) and yummy hummos and breads.
It was an early night for me as we had another 5am start Thursday morning to get our flight back to London.

Highlights – Anzac day – was the best experience for an Australian or NZ, the atmosphere overnight was amazing and to see what the soldiers went through at Gallipoli was saddening but an incredible experience. Also the day spent at Ephesus – that ancient city was so huge!