Three Cheers for Turkey!!!

Most people say Canadians are “nice”, but the Turks blow us outta the water! They are really nice. We encountered people willing to assist us without ulterior motives. Any time we were looking lost with our map in hand, someone came to our side. Our time in Cannakale was short but enjoyable. The town is right on the water. We wanted to see Troy with out paying for a pricey tour, so we found the local dolmus bus stop- conveniently located under a bridge and beside a market. The bus was hourly so we wandered the turkish market which was selling mostly clothes, shoes, and vegetables. We went back under the bridge and sat like trolls until the bus came. We finally got the dolmus and it took us through some villages on the way to Troy. I like seeing the villages and trying to catch a glimpse of how people live...anyways I was a little bummed out with Troy. There wasn’t much left of the great city and I wasn’t in the mood to imagine what it once was- I think the heat impedes my imaginative abilities and my patience isn’t that great when I’m sweating profusely- hahaha. I’m finding that some places just don’t tickle me...and thats ok! Steve did remind me that the ruins were from before Christ even walked the Earth and that is pretty cool...  

The next bus ride was to Selcuk- a great little town full of locals and cafe’s. We got off the bus and were met with people trying to get customers into their hostels. We already had a reservation at a place but we didn’t know how to get to it, one of the other hostel workers lead us all the way to the front door. We offered him a small tip and he completely refused...We just so happened to arrive in Selcuk on the day of the weekly market- and the market was on the same street as our hotel- weeee! We bought a kg of the most red, plump, delicious cherries for 3 lira- approx. $2. A kg is a heck of alot of cherries- its half a grocery bag full! We saw the guy who led us to our hostel and gave him a bunch and shared the rest with others at the hostel. One of the main sites near Selcuk is Ephesus- and what a sight!!! Its an ancient city but much of it is excavated. Marble columns, roads, statues and walls. There were ancient toilets which- like every other tourist- we found amusing. There is also a massive theatre in Ephesus. In this place, St. Paul preached to the people in his effort to convert them from pagans to Christians. The crowd got mad and chanted for three hours for him to leave. He left. On our lastnight in Selcuk we ate at a restaurant and asked about a glass circular blue symbol we had been seeing everywhere- its called an evil eye...the waiter instructed us to return to the restaurant the next day and his dad would have one for me. Hmm...seriously? We went back, the restaurant wasn’t open yet but the servers dad was there with a package for me! We chatted with him for a bit and left with the gift. It was wrapped in shiny pink paper with silver stars. It was a terra-cotta pot with an evil eye on it! It was also cracked...but the thought was sooooo nice!!! I took the evil eye off and got rid of the broken part. As we were boarding the bus to leave Selcuk, I realized I didn’t have the travel pillow! I forgot it at the hotel! Ah!!! Steve said “oh well- too bad” and I thought NO! NO NO! I asked the ticket agent how much time we had, he said three minutes...I told him I forgot something at the hotel- he said to run and get it- I was giving Steve my purse to hold and the ticket agent said “no, he run”- obviously selecting the faster one for the mission ( good idea). So Steve ran back to the hotel, saw the pillow on the maids cart, snatched it, and double timed it back to the bus! He was my hero...so now we have the “4 P’s” check which includes: Purse, Pillow, Pack, Passports.

Next stop Pammukale to check out the calcium travertines- which were the most fantastic formations!! We walked up to them in the morning before the bus loads of Russian tourists showed up. We spent the day at the top where there are ruins of an ancient city called Hieropolis. We found shade and played chess. We also “people watched”...Neither of us could get over the posing. The russian girls were in ity bity bikini’s and copying sports illustrated models. Quite the site! No smiles, just serious model poses- very serious. I was in the minority of one piece suits....I felt awkward wandering around the travertines in a bathing suit- it was like hiking in my undies- and everyone else hiking in their undies. By the afternoon the place was Packed! The clear crisp pools of water from the morning hike had turned into sludge holes and we even saw blood on some rocks...so Steve got all freaky about getting hepatitis or athletes foot from the water (you must go barefoot), and at the end of the day he tried very hard to avoid all still water- I was a little sketched out too, but was amused by Steves antics.

We get to another bus station and while waiting we spot a couple we once saw in Selcuk. We chat with them and have a good laugh at the fact that they saw the russian posers in Pamukkale too...we are all catching overnight bus to Goerme in the Capadocia region. Capadocia means “the land of beautiful horses” but we weren’t there for the horses. We were there for the land. This place has to be one of the most amazing places in the world! Its unreal! The scenery is like nothing we have ever seen before. I won’t try to explain how this place got like this (involving volcanoes and wind and certain plants...) because I know I’ll mess it up. Basically, there are valleys with “fairy chimneys” - which look like chimeny’s. People created cave dwellings by carving their homes into the chimneys. There were also monestaries and churches carved into the stone by early Christians. We rented bikes for a day and explored a nearby village and some valley’s. It was fun and we were satisfied with the amount of ground we covered on bikes... on another day we took a tour. The tour involved a visit to an underground city that was dug out so people of Capadocia (a highly sought after region) could hide when under attack. This city was eleven stories deep and could house between 5 and 8 thousand people! They had water and 30 thousand tonnes of food stashed in it. In later years, christians used the underground cities to hide from persecution while preaching and worshiping. We ate lunch in a little hut on a river and then went for a 6km hike through a beautiful valley, we visited some more sites and finished the tour at the mandatory jewelry and quartz shop...it was a good day. The tour guide was pretty funny- he cracked a few islamic jokes involving 40 virgins and even had a blonde joke.

Before our overnight bus to Istanbul, we treated ourselves to a hamam. I loooooved it! Here is the lowdown:

-We enter and put on our bathing suits and are given sarongs. Steve is convinced he should go naked, but I insist he wears the trunks.

-we go into a steam room that smells like lavender and steam for a while

we are taken to a room with a large marble slab in the middle and sinks all along the walls

we lay on the stone which is nice and warm

we each have a hamam girl, they take our sarongs and I wonder if Steve is thinking “glad I listened to Beej and wore the trunks”

they start pouring water over us and it feel so neat!

we are scrubbed down with a glove that feels like sandpaper on the skin- front and back

I see grey balls of dead skin all over me. ew.

another rinse

the girls get large pillow cases and dip them in some sudsy stuff, then they fill the case with air, as they squeeze the air out thick bubbles form

we get covered in a layer of bubbles

I look over at steve and all I see are his feet and head- he is in a bubble sleeping bag!

we are rubbed down- front and back

one last rinse!

The hamam was glorious! Like a pedicure for your enitre body...

Our final days in Turkey were spent in Istanbul where we visited the blue mosque, aya sofia, the crazy bazaar, spice market, and underground cistern. Istanbul is a huge city- and soon it was simply just another massive city. We preferred the smaller places around Turkey....what an amazing country!!!