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Turkey is in Asia.

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Our unfortunate arthropod incident behind us, we boarded an afternoon bus for the town of Afyonkarahisar (which translates, rather dramatically, to Black Opium Castle) or, as its friends call it, Afyon.

It was a lengthy bus trip, which started rather unpleasantly: stuck in the back row of a full bus, bouncing up and down, sun beating on us through the windows and A/C non-functional. I only mention this because bus travel iun Turkey is generally so pleasant and comfortable that this portion of the trip seemed especially miserable by comparison. Normally the buses are beautiful new models, with drinks snacks and water served regularly, refreshing lemony-alcohol based stuff splashed on your hands a few times thorugh a trip, and movies shown (true, they are dubbed into Turkish, but at least the bus companies are considerate enough to pick titles that don’t require dialogue to be comprehensible [e.g. Pirates of the Carribean: The World’s End.])

Anyhow, the unpleasantness of the bus trip behind us, we arrived in Afyon late in the evening and with the help of one of only two English speakers we met during our stay there, found a Dolmus (collective minibus) into town.

The Afyon Castle

Afyon Castle [read on]

Turkey is in Europe.

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

After a last coffee and last goodbyes with Michael (and Carmen’s brother Henry who had driven us to the airport) Sarah and I were off to Istanbul for the first solo portion of our trip.

We arrived at Ataturk airport and after obtaining my visa (Canadians have the most expensive visas for Turkey [double the price for Moldovans, who are next on the list] and Kiwis don’t need one at all) we climbed on the Istanbul Metro, and after a quick train trip and a tram ride we were in the tourist centre of Sultanahmet.   (As a side note, I am NEVER AGAIN flying into Istanbul’s other airport, Sabhia Goecken.  I like the idea of its being named after the first female combat pilot, but it’s about 40km from the centre of town with very limited public transport.)

I had an astonishingly good memory of where everything was, and we quickly found the same hostel I’d stayed at last time.  Even more surprising than my recollection of the geography was the fact that I remembered a couple of the guys who worked at the Paris Hotel!

We got ourselves comfortable in our room, went up to the rooftop terrace to watch the lovely sunset and were thus well prepared to properly begin our visit to Istanbul.

 Sunset over the Sea of Marmara

The sun setting over the Sea of Marmara.  Just about the only sunshine we saw during our stay in Istanbul.

[read on]

Istanbul (or, as I kept thinking of it, Constantinople)

Sunday, August 14th, 2005
I arrived in Istanbul tired on a dreary grey morning. And while this made my first day there a bit blah, the remainder of my stay was anything but. The bus from Gallipoli arrived at 05:30 and despite the fact ... [Continue reading this entry]

5000 Years of History: The Aegean Coast

Wednesday, July 6th, 2005
With more known Greek ruins than Greece and more Roman ruins than Italy, it’s unsurprising that Turkey’s Aegean coast is a history buff’s dream come true. And the region’s history isn’t all just ancient, having played host to significant ... [Continue reading this entry]

Heading for the Hills: Cappadocia and Turkey’s Lake District

Tuesday, July 5th, 2005
Despite the very comfortable Turkish night bus, the trip from Ankara to Cappadocia wasn't everything I'd dreamt of in the rest department, mostly because I arrived in the town of Neveshehir at 05:45 after a 0:00 departure. Upon arriving I was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Touching Down In Turkey: Istanbul and Ankara

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005
I'd had some difficult with my flight to Istanbul on the Bruxelles end, and unfortunately it didn't end there. The flight touched down not at Istanbul's main, Ataturk airport, but at Sabhia Gocken, a different one some 50km east ... [Continue reading this entry]