It was nice to be moving again. I took an overnight flight from Bangkok to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines, great food, the service not so much. I sat in the 2nd to last seat on the plan which the last 3 seat row the flight attendant took her obvious frustrations out on the back of my seat. Hey, whatever I can do to help make the flight easier or better for everyone, I'm up for.
I arrived in Istanbul about 5:30am with no plans, guide books or reservations. I surfed the internet for a while, had a coffee, and tried to buy a Lonely Plant Guide of the Middle East but it was about $50 US and my frugal nature wouldn't allow me to buy it. So I skimmed it and then blindly headed to the Sultanahmet area. I eventually found a hotel with a room about the size of its bed. Whatever the room lacked, it's breakfast made up for. The typical Turkish breakfast is delicious. It consists of bread, olives, tomatos, cucumbers, feta cheese, a yellow cheese, green olives, black olives, yougurt, museuli, bread, jam, honey, butter, and nescafe instant coffee (probably the only bad part of the meal). I stayed there for a couple of nights while I explored the city's main tourist sites before moving into a hostel.
Istanbul is an amazing city. Walking the cobble stone streets you can feel the history of the Romans, Byzantines, Early Christians, Muslims, and many other peoples that were making their way from Asia to Europe or vise-versa. The skylines are filled with beautifully aged minerts and domes. The two highlights that everyone who comes to Istanbul pays homage to are the Aya Sophia, which was the first basilica ever built (later it was turned into a mosque and then a museum by Ataturk's government), and the Blue Mosque. They face one another and are separated by beautiful fountains and park. The Aya Sophia is magnificent but my experience there was a little tainted by their confusing audio tour. However, once I stopped the tour and started exploring on my own I was enamored with the beautiful mosaics and fresco, and just the sheer magnitude of the building. However, I believe that the Blue Mosque was even more impressive. All non-Muslims have to go through a side courtyard and enter from the back of the building. Everyone takes there shoes off before they enter and once inside again all non-muslims have to stay in a roped area. Despite these rules the building and dome within are magnificient.
One of the things that immediately catches every westerner first time visitor's attention is the call to prayer which comes from the tall towers known as minarets 5 times a day (at dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, sunset and nightfall). It is a very enchanting and soothing sound. The city's hustle and bustle seems slow during these times and pick right up where they left of after they're finished. On the surface Istanbul seems like a modern European city, which it is, but the calls to prayer, headscarfs (only some where them), and many mosques are a helpful reminder of it's rich and diverse culture. Much of my first few days were spent exploring the random streets and alleys, drinking turkish coffee and tea (chai), and trying to fully recover.
Kappa, what?:
After about 3 days of wandering the streets of Istanbul, its bizarre (which is it suggests) and seeing its many historical sites I was feeling well and ready to see more of the country. Additionally the weather there had been rainy and cold, so something sunny or warmer sounded appealing. I explored a few options and unfortunately much of the Turkish Mediterranean coast was a little too cool for beach life, so I ended up booking a "tour" of Cappadochia (pronounced Kappa- Doke-E-Ah) which is smack in the middle of Turkey. It's known for its usually rock formations (see below) that early Christians built cities and churches inside of and underneath.
I have never been on a travel tour where almost everything is included before, so I was a little uncertain what to expect. Would it be a bus full of gray-hairs, Japanese picture takers, or hedonistic backpackers. It turned out that mine was closer to the former but not quite what you'd expect and much more intimate. There were two other travelers who joined me on the flight from Istanbul to Cappadochia (for some reason a 12 hour bus ride didn't sound appealing when cheap airfare was available). They were an quirky-Australian couple from Melbourne probably in their 50s or 60s. Margaret was a quite and kind nurse who worked with drug addicts, Murray was an artist and real estate mogul who was essentially a male version of the the character Maud from Harold and Maud. Over the next several days these 2 became my buds/surrogate parents. Their passion and exuberance for life was contagious and fit well with our mystical geological surroundings.
We stayed in a beautiful hotel half of which was in the Cappadochian cave style, meaning many of the buildings and rooms were actually in caves. When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by the owner, Herot, who told of us how he had started his first business with three dollars in his pocket and had built it into a little tourist empire. We also talked politics in which I got my first dose of strong Anti-American Middle Eastern policies over Turkish tea, which they drink at least 20 cups of a day, as CCR played in the background.
The next few days I toured caves, valleys and underground cities of ancient civilizations, while endulging in the wonderful turkish cousine.
Round 2:
My third day in Cappadochia was a free day to explore neighboring towns before my evening flight back to Istanbul. But instead of enjoying the beautiful crisp mountain air I spent the day reliving my Bangkok experience. Although not quite as bad as Thailand it was debilitating. I had checked out of my room that morning and wasn't headed to the airport until late evening, but the staff at the hotel let me lay in a few rooms (they had to shuffle me around as people arrived) and even let me crash in their living quarters. This was a real low point in my trip. I hated being sick again, stuck in some faraway land, and wanted badly to go home. But with time, some antibiotics and a little love from the hotel dogs, I was able to make it back to Istanbul without vomitting on the talkitive Amerian couple I sat next to for during my travels back.
In Istanbul, I stayed in a hostel met lots of great people, explored some of the islands in the Sea of Marmada and nursed myself back to health. Ready to make a move and escape stomach bugs, I headed to Tel-Aviv.
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