Turkey – I do you special price!
We arrived in Turkey ready for a new experience. Not the experience of visiting a country that spans two continents and two cultures, not the experience of visiting somewhere with over 3000 years of history, not even the experience of haggling for everything, including getting the laundry done. No, it was the experience of going on a tour. If you’ve read any of this blog, you’ll know that we don’t really do tours. Sure, we’ll latch on to a tour round a site or a museum, or even a town. But in terms of organised tours, where everything is done for you? Not really our cup of tea. Until now! Due to the distances, the language barrier, the challenges of driving and the way the tourist industry is set up here it is challenging to do it all on your own. Not impossible, just challenging. We were limited for time so we had booked a 10 day tour, with a few days at the end in Istanbul to recuperate. Our fear was that we would end up on a bus with 30 old people and spend all our time dealing with hip fractures and heart attacks. Luckily for us the group was half that size and mostly people our own age. In fact it was mostly Australians. I had never realised how many Australians come to Turkey. In fact, after the Germans and the Russians, we’re the third largest group of tourists. On reflection this is probably not surprising given the status that Gallipoli has in our national psyche, but I confess I was a little bit surprised that there are that many Australians who actually know what country Gallipoli is in. Especially considering that in Turkish it is actually called Gellibolu. So in summary, we come to a country we invaded when we thought we were all British, to celebrate a massive defeat where the English and French actually lost a lot more troops than the ANZACS, and we don’t even pronounce the name right. According to our tour guide, the Russians mostly come here to buy leather jackets and clothes. You tell me which is the better reason.
Cynicism aside Turkey is a great place to visit. The people are really friendly. Sometimes because they want you to buy stuff, sometime because they want to scam you, sometimes because they want to say the word ‘Kangaroo’. Which they do a lot. In fact I’ve heard the words ‘Kangaroo’ and ‘Ossie, ossie, ossie’ almost as much as the words ‘for you sir, special price’ and ‘you come into my shop my friend’.
Oh wait, I’m still being cynical aren’t I. OK, let’s talk about the country itself. It’s big. It’s old. It has Roman ruins, Greek Ruins, Genoese ruins, Seljuk ruins, Ottoman ruins and modern ruins. In fact you’d be forgiven for thinking the whole country is in ruins. Yet these are some of the most interesting bits. While Troy is mostly just a collection of wall fragments, Ephesus is truly amazing, easily as good as Pompeii, Rome or Athens. Pergamon is also quite impressive, but seeing as quite big chunks of it are in the museum in Berlin it has lost a bit of its former glory. Historical sites litter the country and cover such a long time period and are so well preserved that it’s worth coming here just for that.
It’s also interesting seeing the mosques that stand out in every village, town and city. Obviously the most impressive are in Istanbul and like all good tour groups we went to the Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque. You have to admit they are much more striking than most churches, which tend to blend into the background a bit. But the minarets and domes to me are just more aesthetically pleasing. I’m also a big fan of the absence of statues and paintings of various saints and martyrs that adorn most churches. The mosques are no less splendid, but much less ostentatious.
So apart from the history and the buildings, you’ve then got the landscape itself. While we didn’t go cruising the islands in the Aegean or Mediterranean, you’ve got parts of the country that are sun drenched paradises (as the tourist information video told me). Then you’ve got the other bits, where the wind and cold means you have to buy a beanie or crazy turban to keep warm. It’s amazing to see the flatness of the central Anatolian plain, with snow covered mountains rising above it in the distance. It’s just such a contrast. And there is nowhere like Cappadocia. Except possibly Tunisia, or at a pinch Central Australia. But if you like rock formations, underground cities and places that look like they could be (but actually aren’t) locations from Star Wars, then you should come here. Oh yes, and then you’ve got Pammukale. I don’t care that they touch up the natural calcium formations with whitewash and white concrete. It was impressive enough for the Romans to build a city there, and that’s good enough for me. Not to mention the heated springs. It’s like having a bath, but in a pool! So there were plenty of things to see and do. We visited carpet factories, pottery factories and leather factories (Tash got to be in the fashion show, but she obviously hasn’t watched Zoolander enough times) and had a Turkish bath (which was kind of like a regular bath except more soap, less water and usually when I have a bath I don’t get slapped around by a fat bloke wearing only a towel). We did lots of shopping, often against our will (if it’s such a special price, why don’t you just tell it to me rather than showing me your entire inventory???).
Actually to be deadly serious it really was a fun tour. Although we did all the standard tourist attractions like the historic sites, Gallipoli, the baths etc we went a bit off the beaten track, going to see the people who actually make the carpets and the pottery rather than to some crusty shop in the Grand Bazaar. It makes a difference. The group was great, the tour guide (Burhan) and driver (Awesome Asim) were also great and it was an action packed 10 days. We also got to go hot air ballooning which was spectacular. I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.
However, by the time we left Istanbul we’d had enough. Although it’s an interesting place, it’s not relaxing. You can’t walk down the street without the constant refrain of people trying to sell you something and my patience for this, especially when it gets intrusive, is limited. All in all definitely worth coming here though!
