Turkey

First things first:

Turkey was great! I am sad that I didn’t get a chance to update while I was there, but I will hit on some highlights.

After a 13-hour overnight bus ride from Georgia, I arrived in Trabzon, which is in the Northeast corner of Turkey. Like in Georgia, it was cold. Also like in Georgia, I didn’t know what the hell was happening half the time. But, my friend Kristy – after much delay thanks to strange Turkish domestic flight policies (i.e. the ability to cancel flights without notice) – met me, and we began our adventure.

In Trabzon we walked uphill to the Sumela Monastary in the snow, went to the Black Sea shore and we found some of the best baklava in Turkey. Then we took an overnight bus to Ankara and saw nothing but the bus station. Really great experience with the capital of the country, but even our Turkish friends – even the ones who are from Ankara – said there was nothing there worth seeing. So within three hours, we were off for another 6-hour ride to Capadoccia.

Capadoccia, and our town Göreme, were amazing, amazing places. It’s a region formed all by volcanoes, and the shapes in the land are wonderful. We went to an underground city where marginalized groups would hide out during wars, we walked through a valley and saw cave houses, we saw the sunrise in a hot air balloon, we rented scooters for an afternoon and rode around town in style, and Kristy went to an underwhelming UFO museum. We ate goat’s milk ice cream (awesome) and had our first great pita pizza. Oh, and we slept in a cave hotel.

After Cappadoccia, we headed to the east coast. We went to Selçuk and the Agean Sea. We saw Ephesus, which is an area with some pretty old and surprisingly well-maintained ruins. We had our first meal with hummus. Surprisingly (at least to us) it’s not a big dish in Turkey… they much prefer meat to vegetarian fare. We went to a nearby town for some outdoor shopping, and we left with helva, borek, cheese bread with spinach, honey, and some fruit. I’m pretty sure Kristy still has helva left over. We went to the beach for half a day, and an old man who was working on the beach area gave us a ride up a long hill to the main road to catch a bus, and though we didn’t speak a similar language, we were able to figure out some basic stuff about each other (families, home towns, phone numbers… the essentials).

After Selçuk we headed north on another overnight bus to Bursa, which is a big, non-touristy city below Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara. We went to a Turkish bath, which was amazing and wonderful. It was an all-female Turkish bath with a lot of old ladies gesturing about what we should do. I didn’t know what was happening most of the time, but I went with it and it felt great after our overnight bus ride. I found a great new backpack for cheap. We went to a beautiful mosque and tried to go to a tomb, but it was being renovated. We went to an amusement park near Ataturk’s house and played some air hockey, and I kind of ruled Kristy.

Then it was up again in the morning to go to Istanbul. We took a bus to the bus station, another bus to a ferry, and then we were supposed to go straight to the European side of the city. But alas, the ferry was full. So we went to the Asian side and befriended some people from Bursa, and that’s when I figured out that I had left my phone in Bursa at the hotel. Awesome. So after the first ferry, we got another ferry across the straight and then a taxi to the most touristy part of Turkey we’d seen yet – the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. I mean, it was like frat row – kegs out at noon, hookahs everywhere, crazy Australians without shirts or shoes on, people sleeping on roofs. Party 24/7, and of course Kristy and I were in no mood. So we would leave the oversized frat house each day (after much rousing to get our breakfast from the guy who managed the hostel, who was usually asleep on the roof where we were supposed to eat) to go out and see the city. And see the city we did. We went to Taxim the day of the protests and thought it was a soccer game. We went to the big 3 near our place – Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque and Basilica Scisterna. We went twice to the Grand Bazaar where we both got overwhelmed with its sheer size. We went to the Spice Bazaar where we ate fresh honeycomb and sampled far too many Turkish Delights. We saw the Süleymaniye Mosque and went to a fish market. It was pretty neat.

A short story that I like: Our first day at the Grand Bazaar I decided I wanted a purse, and after not finding one that I like a guy from one of the stalls started telling me about how they can make one for me. The perfect one. So after much joshing back and forth, with me gesturing exactly what I want and them saying of course they could do it (with me thinking it would not actually happen), they said “come on.” So we went with the tailor out of the Bazaar up about four flights of rickety stairs to a small room full of fabric and a single old sewing machine. Another guy was working, and my tailor friend told him to move because he was going to make me a purse. Neither of the men knew any English, so conversation was interesting. After about an hour with me watching and them laughing, my bag was made. I chose a patchwork pashmina for the fabric, and I was super excited about the results. I mean, talk about fare trade. We were leaving after I got the bag, and a lady in one of the stalls did a double take and said, “Oh, I like your bag. Pashmina? Cool!” Kristy said that nothing could have made me happier at that moment than that compliment, and she was so right.

Ok, so. I would say, if you’re going to Turkey, don’t just go to Istanbul. Of course, if you can, go to Trabazon. Learn a little Turkish, it’s a fun language. The word for raspberry is ahududu, how much better can it be than that? I had a really great time, and we were already concocting plans while we were there about how to move back….