Last week: "Yeah, sure, let's maybe try Ireland."
Tuesday: "Okay, no worries, I'll find something to do."
Friday 3:30pm: "Uh oh... I have a three-day weekend coming up with no travel booked. Where can I go, cheap?"
Friday 4:00pm: "Hrm... Krakow or Barcelona?"
Friday 4:30pm: "Ooh, I can get direct flights to Warsaw, cheap!"
Saturday 10am: I leave Heathrow for two nights in Warsaw. Should be fun!
Friday, 22 May 2009
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Selcuk, Ephesus and Izmir
We had originally booked Thursday through Saturday nights in Izmir, the town from which we were flying home on Sunday. Alex, the guy who helped us reunite with our tour group in Eceabat, had recommended that instead of staying in Izmir and doing day trips from there, we instead stay at a place called Atilla's Getaway that was about 60k further south in Selcuk. After looking up the place online, we decided to change our reservations to spend Thursday and Friday nights there, then just Saturday night in Izmir.
On Friday, we walked up the mountains behind his place to the Virgin Mary House, where she spent her last days. From there, we walked down to Ephesus. The ruins of a 250,000 person city, millennia later, can be phenomenal to walk through! We spent some time on the common walkways and around the major reconstructed sites, but then walked off on some trails into less-crowded areas where it was much less well-trodden. Somehow, over the course of that afternoon, I took more than 200 photos. A selection of them are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/turkey.
In all, this was a phenomenal trip! I was able to disconnect from work and mostly from technology overall. Meandering for hours on end through ruins, losing myself in my thoughts while on a long bus trip, seeing ridiculously grandiose mosques next to abject poverty... no regrets whatsoever about taking the trip!
On Friday, we walked up the mountains behind his place to the Virgin Mary House, where she spent her last days. From there, we walked down to Ephesus. The ruins of a 250,000 person city, millennia later, can be phenomenal to walk through! We spent some time on the common walkways and around the major reconstructed sites, but then walked off on some trails into less-crowded areas where it was much less well-trodden. Somehow, over the course of that afternoon, I took more than 200 photos. A selection of them are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/turkey.
In all, this was a phenomenal trip! I was able to disconnect from work and mostly from technology overall. Meandering for hours on end through ruins, losing myself in my thoughts while on a long bus trip, seeing ridiculously grandiose mosques next to abject poverty... no regrets whatsoever about taking the trip!
Gallopoli and Troy
On the Tuesday of our trip, we met the tour group outside at 7am. We had a 20-person bus with only six of us on it... it was great to be able to breathe, have plenty of space and meet a few others doing similar travels!
We went first to ANZAC beach. Now, I'd heard of ANZAC Day and the battles that took place in Gallopoli during the Great War, from having lived in Sydney during ANZAC Day several years ago. This was a nation-defining moment for Australia and for New Zealand, yet we do not hear much of it in the States. Chris and I got quite the history lesson from one of the Aussie guys on the trip... he was infinitely more knowledgable of the events than was our tour guide.
That night, the tour guide dropped us at our hotel in Eceabat, a small town across the water from Canakkale. She told us that another tour bus would pick us up outside at 7:30am the next day. Knowing that, we checked in, looked around town, and promptly decided to take the ferry across to Canakkale to have dinner over there where there looked to be a bit more activity.
We sat on the second level of the ferry, looking out over the bow toward the approaching city. While we were sitting there, a group of kids about 12 years old came over and sat next to us. They started talking amongst themselves in Turkish, laughing a bit, pointing at us, giggling and just generally seemed amused by two tall English speaking guys. After a few minutes of this, the group pushed one kid forward who stuttered nervously, "Where are you from?" in English. Chris and I both responded. He clearly understood, but the others started laughing at him and whispering other questions they wanted him to ask us. He ended up translating between the group and us for a while, until we got close to the shore and the group had to go back to get on their bus to continue its trip.
The next morning, Chris and I went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel lobby. We were two of four people staying in the entire place... the other two were a mother and daughter from Australia who were also in the breakfast area. We talked a bit then, before checking out. The hotel owner walked them over to the ferry right after we went outside to wait for the bus to pick us up. Like throughout the rest of the trip, there were stray cats and dogs just about everywhere. This is a shot from where we were standing on the street corner. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot with the roosters who were also in the street.
At 7:45 or so, when we still hadn't seen the bus, we decided it'd be a good idea to try to get ourselves across to Canakkale on the 8am ferry. I wrote a note and was about to leave it with the hotel proprietor in case the tour group showed up. As I turned to go back into the hotel, though, the ferry left. Apparently that one is at 7:45 instead of 8, so locals can get to work in town by 8am. Oops. We tried calling the tour company office in Istanbul, to no response. I then emailed them with our situation and our mobile numbers, and then we sat down at a coffeeshop nearby, figuring we'd get on the 9am ferry if we didn't get a response or see them before that.
Now, throughout this, the hotel proprietor wasn't particularly useful, as he had very limited English fluency and we had absolutely no ability to speak Turkish. One of his friends walked over and found us at the coffeeshop a few minutes after we sat down. We chatted for a bit, then he told us that we'd been supposed to be on the ferry and that the tour guide had been calling the hotel asking where we were. Um, oops! It would have been great if we'd actually been told that...
This guy went back into the hotel, called the tour guide, then drove us down to a faster ferry that left at the same time as the 9am we'd been waiting for. By the time we got across the water, the tour group had been waiting there for more than an hour for us. Oops...
Later that day, we went up to Troy to see the ruins, then walked around town in Canakkale. We had (another) phenomenal kebab for lunch. Now, kebab (kebap, sometimes) in London is usually from a dense conical thing that you might guess was meat several years and processing steps ago. It's one of those things that sounds like a good idea only at 3am while waiting for a night bus home. In all of Turkey, though, you could actually tell what the meat was, and it tasted amazing!
We went first to ANZAC beach. Now, I'd heard of ANZAC Day and the battles that took place in Gallopoli during the Great War, from having lived in Sydney during ANZAC Day several years ago. This was a nation-defining moment for Australia and for New Zealand, yet we do not hear much of it in the States. Chris and I got quite the history lesson from one of the Aussie guys on the trip... he was infinitely more knowledgable of the events than was our tour guide.
That night, the tour guide dropped us at our hotel in Eceabat, a small town across the water from Canakkale. She told us that another tour bus would pick us up outside at 7:30am the next day. Knowing that, we checked in, looked around town, and promptly decided to take the ferry across to Canakkale to have dinner over there where there looked to be a bit more activity.
We sat on the second level of the ferry, looking out over the bow toward the approaching city. While we were sitting there, a group of kids about 12 years old came over and sat next to us. They started talking amongst themselves in Turkish, laughing a bit, pointing at us, giggling and just generally seemed amused by two tall English speaking guys. After a few minutes of this, the group pushed one kid forward who stuttered nervously, "Where are you from?" in English. Chris and I both responded. He clearly understood, but the others started laughing at him and whispering other questions they wanted him to ask us. He ended up translating between the group and us for a while, until we got close to the shore and the group had to go back to get on their bus to continue its trip.
The next morning, Chris and I went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel lobby. We were two of four people staying in the entire place... the other two were a mother and daughter from Australia who were also in the breakfast area. We talked a bit then, before checking out. The hotel owner walked them over to the ferry right after we went outside to wait for the bus to pick us up. Like throughout the rest of the trip, there were stray cats and dogs just about everywhere. This is a shot from where we were standing on the street corner. Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot with the roosters who were also in the street.
At 7:45 or so, when we still hadn't seen the bus, we decided it'd be a good idea to try to get ourselves across to Canakkale on the 8am ferry. I wrote a note and was about to leave it with the hotel proprietor in case the tour group showed up. As I turned to go back into the hotel, though, the ferry left. Apparently that one is at 7:45 instead of 8, so locals can get to work in town by 8am. Oops. We tried calling the tour company office in Istanbul, to no response. I then emailed them with our situation and our mobile numbers, and then we sat down at a coffeeshop nearby, figuring we'd get on the 9am ferry if we didn't get a response or see them before that.
Now, throughout this, the hotel proprietor wasn't particularly useful, as he had very limited English fluency and we had absolutely no ability to speak Turkish. One of his friends walked over and found us at the coffeeshop a few minutes after we sat down. We chatted for a bit, then he told us that we'd been supposed to be on the ferry and that the tour guide had been calling the hotel asking where we were. Um, oops! It would have been great if we'd actually been told that...
This guy went back into the hotel, called the tour guide, then drove us down to a faster ferry that left at the same time as the 9am we'd been waiting for. By the time we got across the water, the tour group had been waiting there for more than an hour for us. Oops...
Later that day, we went up to Troy to see the ruins, then walked around town in Canakkale. We had (another) phenomenal kebab for lunch. Now, kebab (kebap, sometimes) in London is usually from a dense conical thing that you might guess was meat several years and processing steps ago. It's one of those things that sounds like a good idea only at 3am while waiting for a night bus home. In all of Turkey, though, you could actually tell what the meat was, and it tasted amazing!
Istanbul
As I mentioned in my previous post, Chris and I booked a trip through Turkey during the first full week of May. Prior to leaving for this trip, we had booked only our flights and lodging, with little planning for what we'd actually be doing on the trip. I bought a tour book in Heathrow on the way out of town on Saturday morning, knowing Chris also had the Lonely Planet Turkey book. Between those books, we figured we'd have everything we needed to make the trip happen.
The H1N1 flu scare began about a week before we left for this trip. As of when we began our travels, there had been several confirmed cases in Western Europe, including the UK, but none in Turkey. All of the ground crew at IST had masks. Granted, as you can see in the photo, not many of them were using these masks particularly carefully.
Shortly after taking this photo, I got a text message from Chris. I'd booked us into a two-single bed ensuite room at a hostel in Sultanahmet, but they didn't have a room available. He was at a hostel down the street, where he'd been able to find us a place for the night. As we found out later, the hostel's reservations system was, um, lacking. I'd initially made a reservation online for four nights. However, when I realized we only wanted to be there for three nights, I tried to modify the reservation. The only way I could do so online was to cancel the existing one and create a new one. I'd done this several weeks before the trip and thought nothing of it. Apparently their reservation system was keyed off of arrival date and last name, not a unique reservation, so they ended up cancelling both of my reservations for arrival (the three-night and the four-night ones). Oops.
We ended up spending that first night in a 30-person dorm at the other hostel... not quite what we'd expected or hoped for, but I at least got a few hours of sleep. The following two nights in a two-bed, two-person room were MUCH better, though!
During our three days we spent in Istanbul, we walked all through the touristy areas, saw the Blue Mosque, Ayasofya and the other normally crowded tourist destinations.
Ayasofya Cami
Blue Mosque
The night before I left London, a friend here had told me "I know some guys who were in Istanbul earlier this spring. They said you absolutely HAVE to go to the Roman Sewers... they're unbelievable!" As I'd done little substantial research of the sites to see in Istanbul, I took the pointer and figured I'd look them up online at the airport or when we got to Istanbul. Needless to say, I couldn't find anything about them, anywhere. However, on our second day there, we did go into the Roman Cisterns. These were absolutely huge underground structures used to store drinking water for the city millennia ago. Slightly different term than originally expected, but definitely a good recommendation!
On our last full day there, we started thinking about logistics for getting ourselves to Canakkale, our next destination. According to Lonely Planet, the best bet was to just go to the bus station outside of Istanbul and find one of the bus companies that has multiple trips per hour. Before doing this, we decided to stop by a travel agency next to our hostel and see what they recommended. After a few minutes of discussion, we signed up for a two-day trip that included the bus to Canakkale, tours of ANZAC beach and other sites in Gallopoli, then also a tour of Troy.
These photos and a few others I'd taken on the trip are posted to http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/turkey/. If you want full-res copies of any of these or want to see the full set of 600 or so photos from the trip, email me!
The H1N1 flu scare began about a week before we left for this trip. As of when we began our travels, there had been several confirmed cases in Western Europe, including the UK, but none in Turkey. All of the ground crew at IST had masks. Granted, as you can see in the photo, not many of them were using these masks particularly carefully.
Shortly after taking this photo, I got a text message from Chris. I'd booked us into a two-single bed ensuite room at a hostel in Sultanahmet, but they didn't have a room available. He was at a hostel down the street, where he'd been able to find us a place for the night. As we found out later, the hostel's reservations system was, um, lacking. I'd initially made a reservation online for four nights. However, when I realized we only wanted to be there for three nights, I tried to modify the reservation. The only way I could do so online was to cancel the existing one and create a new one. I'd done this several weeks before the trip and thought nothing of it. Apparently their reservation system was keyed off of arrival date and last name, not a unique reservation, so they ended up cancelling both of my reservations for arrival (the three-night and the four-night ones). Oops.
We ended up spending that first night in a 30-person dorm at the other hostel... not quite what we'd expected or hoped for, but I at least got a few hours of sleep. The following two nights in a two-bed, two-person room were MUCH better, though!
During our three days we spent in Istanbul, we walked all through the touristy areas, saw the Blue Mosque, Ayasofya and the other normally crowded tourist destinations.
Ayasofya Cami
Blue Mosque
The night before I left London, a friend here had told me "I know some guys who were in Istanbul earlier this spring. They said you absolutely HAVE to go to the Roman Sewers... they're unbelievable!" As I'd done little substantial research of the sites to see in Istanbul, I took the pointer and figured I'd look them up online at the airport or when we got to Istanbul. Needless to say, I couldn't find anything about them, anywhere. However, on our second day there, we did go into the Roman Cisterns. These were absolutely huge underground structures used to store drinking water for the city millennia ago. Slightly different term than originally expected, but definitely a good recommendation!
On our last full day there, we started thinking about logistics for getting ourselves to Canakkale, our next destination. According to Lonely Planet, the best bet was to just go to the bus station outside of Istanbul and find one of the bus companies that has multiple trips per hour. Before doing this, we decided to stop by a travel agency next to our hostel and see what they recommended. After a few minutes of discussion, we signed up for a two-day trip that included the bus to Canakkale, tours of ANZAC beach and other sites in Gallopoli, then also a tour of Troy.
These photos and a few others I'd taken on the trip are posted to http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/turkey/. If you want full-res copies of any of these or want to see the full set of 600 or so photos from the trip, email me!
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