Cappadocia

Cappadocia is awesome. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip around Turkey.

We were based in a town called Goreme which was smack bang in the middle of the region. The whole area was covered in ash by a volcanic explosion about 2 million years ago (if I remember the guidebook correctly), and as a result of erosion by rain and rivers, has created some of the most stunning, yet bizarre, landscape you'll ever see. 

Day one saw us visit the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's a series of churches and rooms cut into the rock in the 15th or so century, complete with incredible frescoes. It's crazy when the temperature is soaring outside and inside the caves is cool as. We can completely understand why they built underground instead of above ground! That day we also walked the Zemi Valley which had a very cool cave system cut into the cliffs above it, and then met up with 6 other people from our Blue Cruise to test out Cappadocia's Kebab Centre. Nice one. 

After the night bus the previous night, it was absolute bliss to sleep in our cave room at the pension (we got a good deal, other places only had 'cave-like' rooms, ahaha). The next day was full on. We visited an underground city which blew the mind (60m underground and they still had fresh air and water), walked the length of the famous Ilhara Valley (including seeing a snake being attacked by a bird, crazy), visited Selime monastary which apparently was used as a set for Star Wars, and checked out the castle overlooking Goreme. 

That night six of us had the flashest dinner we've had so far on this trip. One of the specialities of the region are 'testi kebaps' or pottery kebabs. They slow cook (5 hours) meat and veges together in a pottery amphora and then break it open at your table. Oh my goodness - absolutely delicious. 

Our final day in Cappadocia saw us doing a whole bunch of walking - the Snake Valley, the Rose Valley, the Devrent Valley (as well as many kms in between them all!). The tramping boots got a good workout that's for sure. The Rose Valley was Amelia's favourite (I have never taken so many pictures of just rocks), and the fact we had a random dog walk with us for the entire length definitely increased the amusement value. 

Next stop, Bulgaria!

Blue Cruise

Cruising around the eastern Mediterranean for four nights, being fed three massive meals per day, swimming in crystal clear, blue, blue water, sunbathing on deck, and partying at night. A 'Blue Cruise' is definitely the best way to see the Turkish coast!

Our cruise started in Fethiye and went all the way to Kale (near to Olympus). The bathroom in our cabin was the largest bathroom that we have had to date, but you had to time your shower to get any hot water - it took us about a day to realise that the engine had to be running! Along the way we saw some amazing sights including Butterfly Valley, St Nicolas Island, the town of Kas, the Sunken city, and some of the best coastline and coves we have seen.

The real bonus of the trip was the people that were on the cruise with us. There were 10 people in total, 2 NZers (us), 7 Australians and the token Pom. We all got on like a house on fire and we have been travelling with most of them in one way or another since. (And we're not only saying that because we've given them all this blog address...).

The crew was another story. They were well weird (hanging round with a Pom means we picked up some English slang). The captain took delight in stroking all the boys faces and telling them their beards were beautiful, tickling our feet (not in a nice way), and getting the two girls working on the boat to give his disgusting feet a pedicure - ew gross. I guess it was a trade-off for having good guests!

On our last night we were supposed to head to 'Smuggler's Inn' (a so-called 'pirate disco') for a big party. It was not to be (apparently it had been closed for about a year we found out later), so we made our own fun on the boat. Lots of raki (Turkish spirit), beer and vodka created a giant karaoke fest which culminated in a midnight swim organised by Adrian. While the Antipodeans jumped in with glee, it took a lot of convincing to get Wayne, our Englishman, to join in. He spent the next day telling us we were all crazy...

The photos tell the real story so as soon as we'll get them uploaded as soon as poss.

We were off the boat and onto a cramped minibus for 2 hours through to Olympus, not the stle that one had become accustomed to on the boat. We arrived Olympus in the middle of a long weekend and a rock festival, to say it was a bit of a shock to the system to see so many people after having only seen 15 people for five days would be an understatment.

We found the pension we had decided to stay at and booked into a 'treehouse' (in the loosest sense of the word, it was a house and there were trees about). We had a look about and lay on the beach and organised a tour to see the Chimera.

The Chimera is a natural phenomenon that just doesn't seem like it could be natural at all - flames bursting out of pure rock. There was a bit of a shambles over the tour as the one we booked with was cancelled at the last minute, leaving us scrambling to find another way there. Trying to organise transport at 10pm after having had about four hours sleep the night before was challenging to say the least. It all worked out in the end, thank goodness, as it was just awesome to see. Next time I will take marshmallows.

The following day was spent exploring Olympus. It has a stunning beach (unfortunately a bit ruined by the amount of rubbish about), some Roman ruins set in amongst the undergrowth, and a hippy vibe that threatens to suck you in and spit you out about 5 years, a giant beard, and several brain cells less later. We got out while we still could.

Next stop, Cappadocia.

Bodrum to Fethiye (Turkey)

Turkey eh. Can't really believe that that part of our trip is over - Turkey is fantastic and we would definitely go back in a flash.

Our triumphant return to Turkey started with a boat trip over to Bodrum and a tour of the Underwater Archaeology Museum - which has signs everywhere saying that despite the fact that most of the exhibits came from underwater, the museum itself is not actually under the sea. You don't say...

We saw more amphoras (terracotta pots) than you could shake a stick at, as well as a quite stupid peacock which had got stuck on a roof and couldn't get down. Maybe he thought the rest of the museum was under the sea so he didn't want to get wet...The museum was housed in an old castle, complete with lion heads on the wall, suits of armour, and a dungeon down a million steps. The lurid lights and figurines in the dungeon didn't really serve their intended purpose of freaking us out unfortunately. Spent the rest of the time before our night bus down to Fethiye checking out the tacky tourist area, replete with loads of pubs and very determined salesmen (no I don't need a 'genuine fake watch' thank you very much).

Arriving in Fethiye at 1am with no accommodation organised tested a few politeness and tolerance muscles, but thank goodness for Olsun pension where we woke the guy up to give us a room. After our previous night's accommodation in the abandoned washhouse, an actual bed and running water was a godsend.The next morning we headed into Fethiye proper which is a really pretty town on the Mediterranean coast. Yet another breakfast of ekmek (white Turkish bread) later, we found a hostel and commenced searching for our blue cruise. A few hours of negotiation, shopping around, and (occasionally heated) discussion later we booked ourselves in for one leaving a few days later. Which left us with a whole day on our hands - bring on a '12 Islands Cruise' - a whole day of lazing around on a boat cruising the Fethiye harbour, swimming, and tucking into a great lunch. All for only 20 lira! (About NZ$20) Brilliant.

That night we went to the Fish Market for dinner. The deal is that you buy whatever you want and take it to one of the restaurants surrounding the market where they'll cook it up for you, as well as salad, garlic bread, and fish sauces for only 5 lira! (Well, 5 lira plus however much your fish costs...). Amelia got a tuna steak the size of her head (500g, of which a third ended up on Adrian's plate, and another few mouthfuls went to the stray kittens roaming the courtyard) and Adrian got a delicious red snapper - the meal was great.

Next stop: Blue Cruise from Fethiye to Olympus!

The Greek Islands

Well, we've done it. Survived the absolute hardship of two weeks lying around in the sun on the Greek Islands. And we've done it for you, people, so that you can live vicariously through our suntans and stunning scenery wearied eyes...

It wasn't all easy I tell you. We had to face the naked men (and women) of Mykonos, the stomach churning, 'low-squat' creating unripe loquats of Samos and Paros, the warm retsina and strong ouzo of Paros, and a night's free camping in Kos.

But, back to the beginning.

Arriving in Samos from Kusadasi in Turkey we were told that there was only one ferry out that day and none the next due to Orthodox Easter. So onto Syros at 11pm that night it was! Samos was relatively pretty, but nothing majorly exciting (sorry Samos). What was exciting (briefly) was the discovery of a loquat tree, something that I (Amelia) hadn't seen for years and years (there was one in Granny's garden you see). I convinced everyone (Adrian, Wayne, and Katie) that they should all chow down, and like any true blooded NZers and Australians in sight of a free meal, so we did. Unfortunately, later that night, and for the next few nights, that decision to have that one unripe-ish one came back to haunt Adrian badly. Again, unfortunately, this was not a lesson that Amelia took due note of, doing exactly the same thing on Paros. D'oh! (Note: here is the lesson, an unripe loquat will definitely give you the low-squats!!)

We only stayed in Syros for a couple of hours before boarding an early ferry for Paros where we discovered the campsite and the locals. George was an emaciated, wizened, tanned as leather Englishman living in exile in Switzerland who came out to Paros for 11 weeks a year to basically write crosswords and read during the day, and get rip roaring drunk on ouzo and retsina every night. The following day Adrian was recovered enough for us to go on a road trip around Paros and a neighbouring island (Anti Paros) with George and another English guy who came out there regularly, Steve. It was our first experience of the temperature of the Aegean Sea. It was not warm! Hopefully by the time we get to the Mediterranean Sea off Turkey it should have improved by a couple of degrees...

Amelia got the low-squats that night, but a ferry ticket had been bought and it was onwards and upwards to Naxos. We lucked in and got a pension for a mere 7.50 euro each/night for the three nights we were on Naxos - absolute luxury! On Naxos we hired a scooter to explore the island, for both of us the highlight of our stay in the islands for sure. It revealed some dramatic landscape, almost like a moonscape, as well as some completely hidden away coves and beaches. It was Amelia's first time on a scooter and apart from Adrian grabbing the handle bars to 'prevent a crash' (apparently), it was a pretty successful day! We had lunch in Halki, a village in the middle of the island, where they make kitron (a liqueur made from the leaves of the citron tree). It's about 40% alcohol so even a sip made the driving a bit treacherous! Amelia ordered the calamari and it came out practically intact (complete with pockets of white stuff that exploded when cut into) in a bed of hot stewed spinach. It's pretty authentic when the cafe doesn't even have a menu! That went down a bit strangely after a dodgy tum the day before, but the freshly squeezed OJ made up for it.

Naxos also has the temple of Apollon on the foreshore, the photos are pretty dramatic. The island's 'labyrinth' was cool as well, they were designed to foil pirates who came on raids and we managed to get pretty lost too!

After Naxos we headed south to Santorini (also known as Thira). We went out to stay at Perissa, on the other side of the island from the caldera cliffs. After a night in the youth hostel with what must be one of Australia's loudest snorers, we transferred to a great pension a few doors down - Katrina and John's if anyone's planning on heading that way! We met a few other people there (Danny from the US, Ian and Dale from Coff's Harbour, and Emma from Brisbane) and hung out with them for a few days. We all went out on a boat cruise from the port out to the active volcano in the middle of the caldera, then onto a swim in the hot mud springs - which are actually only 'luke warm' hot springs at this time of the year - before a donkey ride up the steps to Ia to watch the sunset. 500ml Mythos beer was only 0.80 euro at the minimart so a fun evening was had by all!

On Santorini we also walked up to see the ruins of Ancient Thira. It was a 550m (approx) climb up over pumice caves (legacy of the explosion) and miscellaneous tundra-esque landscape (complete with tiny church built into the cliffs about a third of the way up). Finally the tramping boots got a good work out!

From Santorini we had initially planned on heading south to Crete and Rhodes before heading back to Turkey at Marmaris, but ferry timetables and time constrictions meant this wasn't to be. So we got a fast ferry up to Mykonos for two nights of unadulterated sun worshipping at Paradise Beach. Alas, the water was still freezing, but the sun was doing it's best and we're now golden like toffee apples at a fairground. Mykonos afforded several interesting views, not least the various nekked men and women lolling around the beach. While most were relatively discreet, a few full frontals meant we didn't have to spend much on food while we were there!

We did make friends with some geckos though that were hanging around the edge of the beach and weren't shy about running all over your towel and through your stuff! 'Gammy leg' couldn't climb up the wall, but had it all over 'Glue Fingers' whenever they had a tussle on the sand. Much more interesting viewing than the other people on the beach!

From Mykonos we got an overnight ferry up here to Kos. We've got a ferry tomorrow morning to Bodrum - you can't buy a one way ticket bizarrely, so hopefully we can sell it off to some other people when we get back into Turkey! We intended to spend our only night here at the campsite and saw a sign for it near the port, so duly trekked the 3km eastwards with our heavy packs. Imagine our joy when we got there to find it abandoned and up for sale!! So, being as budget conscious as we have to be on a long trip, we decided for forgo paying 30 euro for the night and go free camping. Adrian was stoked, Amelia decidedly less so, but it all went fine in the end and it's off to Turkey we go this morning!

Anyway, here are the photos we've uploaded.

Epheristo (thanks) Greece, it's been a blast.

Photos from Turkey

Here are the links for our photos from Istanbul (here and here), ANZAC day at Gallipoli (here) and the north-western coast of Turkey from Cannakale down to Kusadasi (here).

Enjoy! (And please email one of us if these links don't work)