No, you can't go back to Constantinople

As I sit here typing out this blog entry, I am legitimately on a ferry from the Asian side back to Istanbul. No, really. I’m on a double-decker bus aboard a giant ferry across. It’s kind of trippy being inside a bus, on the second floor (first class is below-with a kitchen and a bathroom), and on a ferry going from one continent to another. This will hopefully conclude a very successful weekend with newfound international friends (okay, so we’re all Americans) and a very enlightening journey throughout a large part of Turkey.

We left Thursday night at around 6 from our dorm. I decided around 5pm to go ahead and attend the trip, thinking it’d be a great way to see a huge part of Turkey and also meet new people who would also want to travel in the future. We caught the bus from around our dorm to the tram that I had previously taken to visit Sultanahmet. From there, we took the metro to the otogar (bus station) in which we were shepherded around by several men who essentially stole our planned itinerary and made us chase after them until they eventually booked us (all 13 of us) on a bus to Denizli. The men left us alone after they got their cut of our ticket sales under the table but did not actually receive payment from us. They enjoyed calling the girls “baby baby baby” on a repeated basis, making me question the reverberating presence of Justin Bieber worldwide. All in all, the men were actually helpful in securing such a large group a spot on the bus.

Friday began after a ten hour long bus ride from Istanbul to Denizli, where one of my compadres made a Turkish sister on the bus, as they exchanged multi-language conversation over the duration of the ten hour bus ride. The majority of us attempted sleep in cramped spaces that could have been much worse. A cart with juice, tea, coffee, soda, and small snacks was brought around to everyone twice on the ride and I have definitely found a new favorite in a Turkish peach juice. After getting off the bus, our Turkish sister helped us find a bus to Pamukkale, a nearby town famous for its deposits (travertines) with hot springs as well as neighboring Roman ruins of Hieropolis. We took many a picture in the ruins of the ancient Roman city as there were no guide rails or signs to indicate that this was bad behavior. I did not participate in the antics as the majority of Hieropolis was centered on death and burial. Many Romans thought that the hot springs of Pamukkale had healing powers and came to Hieropolis for treatment but based on the number of graves, this whole “healing” thing didn’t work so well. The ruins were surprisingly well preserved and the amphitheater was one of the largest in the ancient Roman world. We ventured over to the travertines, which also contained hot springs (I have no idea how that is actually possible, but oh well). We had to take off our shoes and socks in order to walk on the travertines which was somewhat painful, but the majority of it felt like cool, wet sand (but even softer than that-it’s like walking on one of those memory foam beds). There was a small waterfall over the deposits, which was absolutely gorgeous but hard to capture by picture because of the reflection of sun on the white travertines. The amount of walking by around 3pm that day was somewhat ridiculous but I find the walking to allow more baklava than my normal quota. We eventually made our way down the side of the limestone deposits and into the town of Pamukkale where we began our journey of odd Turkish interconnection. We were directed to a bus company that then took us to Selçuk and pointed us to a hotel that they promised had central heating (a very important asset of sleeping). At the bus station in Selçuk, a man from the hotel met us and fed us a schpiel about how amazing the hotel is (Hotel Artemis…if you have the name of a deity, your hotel really should be divine). He said he would give us a group rate with breakfast and transportation to Ephesus, which, after a very long day and with very hungry people, sounded great. We then took a tour of the hotel, sat and had some tea (apple tea…mmmm) and then dropped our stuff and semi-sprinted to dinner. We had Turkish pizza, which is a lot like the lahmacun I’ve previously described, but is more oval-shaped with different dough. It was a pleasant meal completed with baklava and a cake bought for a group-member’s birthday. We went back to the hotel where a Canadian, a Belgian, and a Slovene had already checked in and were included in our birthday festivities for said comrade. Though the hotel advertised a central heating system, I do not believe I have ever woken up (violently shaking) in the fetal position like this before. Providing us with two scratchy blankets and non-working heating was really a downer. We were also situated right next to a mosque, so hearing the call to prayer at 5am was rather unpleasant.

Saturday began in shivers and curses at false promises of central heating. I think over the course of the night, myself and my roommates got up several handfuls of times to put more clothing on (more than the pants and long sleeved shirts we already had on) to attempt some legitimate sleep. We went downstairs and had breakfast in front of a roaring fire (…why couldn’t that have been in my room?) which consisted of bread, jam, butter, cucumber (uh), hard boiled eggs, and more apple tea. My bread intake for the weekend really has been rather phenomenal. This really is Turkey in the off season. We decided to check out and depart for Ephesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus). What we thought was going to be a bus ride to Ephesus turned out to be a 10 person group (not including myself) piled into a large pick up truck and myself and two other girls in a small sedan. I must say that I am quite glad that I was not in said pick up truck. Ephesus was only about 2km away from the hotel so the ride wasn’t very long. We started at the top of Ephesus where we haggled with a tour guide to get the price to be about 5 lira for all of us. His name was Nail (nah-eel) and he had been giving tours for the last 40 years (apparently). He was very informative about all the different parts of the ruins and even told us where to stand to get the best pictures. At the end, we went in another giant amphitheater, which seems to be our trend). After Ephesus, we walked back towards Selcuk and stopped at the Temptle of Artemis, one of the 7 wonder’s of the ancient world but all that was really standing was one very long pillar. Kind of sad how much everything has been destroyed over time by the elements and the non-Greeks. Still, I suppose I can now claim to have seen one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 6 more to go..! After returning from the Temple of Artemis, the group decided to find a place to eat in Selçuk, and our guide from earlier (who met us at the bus station and took us to the hotel) magically appeared and found us a nice place to eat. We all had a variety of things but splurged on some wonderful çips (French fries) to quench of American hunger pangs. Selçuk was in full market swing so we took advantage of the multitude of fresh fruit, veggies, nuts, cheeses, etc that were offered and scored some sweet snacks for the road. We then trekked back to the main area of town and then basically walked up a mountain to a castle that once guarded the city and the mosque next to it. We strolled around the courtyard of the mosque and then watched the sunset near the mosque and then headed back into town. We stopped for wondrous baklava (you don’t even want to know how many pieces of baklava I had on this trip) and then made our merry way to the bus station. We took about an hour long bus ride into Izmir (one of the largest cities in Turkey behind Istanbul) and then proceeded to find dinner (I had a lamb, lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, and pita wrap) and some çay. We waited until about 12:30 to get on our bus to Cannakkale which is near the ancient city of Troy.

Sunday began with a jolt, as our supposed 7 hour bus ride arrived at an astounding 5:15am into the bus station at Cannakkale. I was violently awoken by the bus…steward. I’m not quite sure what to call him, but he brought drinks and such on a little trolley like on a flight so…steward for now. I do believe I was slapped (or love-tapped as I like to call it) in the face in order to wake me up from my deep sleep in order to alert the group that we were indeed in Cannakkale. We rushed off the bus and into the warm bus depo where several of the group members fell asleep again but being the protective soul I am, I couldn’t allow my group-members’ baggage to go unlooked after. After watching the sunrise, team bonding via card games, and wondrous pastries, we walked towards the water to see where the horse used in the movie Troy was located. It’s huge and it’s hard to think about the amount of work that went into making it. We then took a smaller bus to the actual ruins of Troy, where we all climbed up into the wooden horse there and took photos as well as walked around the ruins. It is very interesting to think about the Homeric epic and how that translates to actual history for the city of Troy. After Troy we headed out towards the bus station again where we took the bus that I am now sitting on.

I think a lot of the time it sounds like I’ve been complaining about things that have happened on this trip, but I legitimately cannot express the wonderful things I have seen or people I met. People here in Turkey are so friendly and willing to help at the drop of a hat and legitimately never ask for anything in return. Hospitality and kindness are the norm here, not the exception. You could never just walk up to random strangers on the street in the US and ask for directions or help like you do here. People here can sense that you are lost or need help and really go out of their way to help you. Travel in Turkey is extremely inexpensive as well, as the buses we took were very high class and no more than $20 for a very nice ride. The things we saw differ so much from what we have seen in Istanbul. Turkey is an amazingly diverse country with so many different attractions for people of all different preferences. Even just being in smaller towns and villages was an experience, with the stories from these experiences definitely something for another time.

A lot of people tend to lump Turkey into one general category under the umbrella of Istanbul, but it’s really not. Turkey cannot really be defined by one city, albeit a large one as my many adventures throughout Turkey have proved this to be false. More adventures to come after this upcoming weekend in Turkey before classes start. Hopefully I will be heading off to Ankara and Cappadocia this weekend for more adventures.

Pictures from this weekend can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034746&id=1391040260&l=0e11adc407


Hope everyone is well!