Göreme bikers

Exiting Göreme, Turkey.

For those who might have a little hunger before we step into more adventures, Göreme has two advantages for greedy people : the best baklavas in the world... and almost all-you-can-drink tea.

The best baklavas I ate came from Oze Café. There was also a ton of brands of tea. And the owners were very nice.

Talking about tea, it is almost always free, after a meal, in small restaurants. It's not as true in the big expensive and elegant establishments.

That said, our second day in Cappadocia was so full. At the hostel, they recommended a touristic tour in a bus that would show us most of the attractions in the area. Smart as we are, we thought it would be easier to explore at our own rhythm by renting mopeds.

First statement : on dirt, mopeds are not stable. Second statement which would came way later : our map wasn't on scale.

Nevertheless, getting lost at our own rhythm was incomparable. At the very top of the hill we would climb to exit the village, we stopped to watch the view. To take some apricots from the trees too, like we can do everywhere around there. And to blend in the crowd of tourists in a small souvenir shop where they were trying to sell us crap at a high price.

On the uneven paving stones climbing all the way to the castle, we drove to Uçhisar. We were taking our time, since we were only leaving for Istanbul at 8 PM. We were still in the morning.

Some will say Pigeon Valley is a must. Even if there are a lot of birds there, we were not that impressed. It is more my friend's controlled loss of control we will remember. No injury here. Not even a scratch on the bike.

For at least 45 minutes after that, we rode in the back-country waiting for a place to eat. The small deserted roads, the fields, the impression to be alone in the middle of nowhere... and Turkish people looking at us weirdly like motorcycles don't get on these roads often.

In the end, we found food in Kaymakli. That small village was typically asian with its small shops all next to the others. It is apparently known for its underground city. Between the noise in the street and the calmness of the terrace where we ate, there was a complete different world. In the back of the court, old people were playing cards or chess. We were the odd ones in the landscape there.

We then left towards Derinkuyu to visit another underground city protected by the Unesco. There, with all those locals trying to talk to us in their language, we know some probably told us some bad things. But in Derinkuyu, they know what tourists want. On the road, they always point the direction of the underground city to us.

That is where stress came in. The next city on the map was Ihlara, about 50 km away. On a motorcycle... And time was flying.

We took the chance.

On our map, there was no city between Derinkuyu and Ihlara. That wasn't a mistake. While our tank was getting empty, fields kept on coming. More fields. Always fields. And mount Hasan on the horizon.

When we saw a gas station, we gladly stopped. A young boy got out of the building and screamed "No!", adding a sign with his head that left us no doubt. Our motorcycles were thirsty. The arrows were pointing towards the empty sign. Between "nowhere" and "nowhere", our best bet was to keep on driving forward. Too late to go back anyway.

When the engine started coughing, a gas station appeared like an oasis. My friend, usually very calm, just sighted of relief. No breakdown!

From there : no time to lose. At 60 km an hour, we were rushing towards Göreme.

After at least one hour on the highway, unpleasant hour I must say, hour in which my friend received a plastic bottle on his helmet, thanks to a car passenger passing him, we finally came back to our starting point.

We were one hour late from our anticipated return time. 30 minutes to get our luggage, eat, and hop on the bus that would bring us back to Istanbul. Yes, we were able to sleep after that.

Lessons here : 1) exploring by ourselves was more fun 2) mistakes and problems make better stories 3) always make sure the maps are on scale. And you should study the road you plan on taking to avoid highways on mopeds...

Radio interview

I'm very late, but here is a link to a radio interview I gave in February about this blog. It is in French, if you can understand the language...

http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/estrie_express/2012-2013/chronique.asp?idChronique=272764

Pictures of Göreme

A Long Walk in Gorëme

Pasabagi, Turkey

For those who wonder, there are several bus companies linking Istanbul and Göreme. All of them stop in Nevsehir, from where you need to transfer to another bus.

In some cases, it is possible to book online. We chose Nevsehir company to get there and Suha to come back. I personnaly liked the second one better. In both cases, schedules are about the same, departures being around 7 PM or 8 PM. Destination is reached about 12 hours later.

That said, when we got to Nevsehir, we were told we needed to change buses. We reunited with travelers who left 30 minutes before us the night before... In the end, they had no advantage on taking an earlier departure.

At Göreme information desk, right in the center of the village, they are used to see tourists coming. As soon as you get there, they ask for the name of your hotel so they can call them to pick you up. On our side, we chose a room at Guven Cave Hotel, where service was very good. They gave us a very good apple tea before showing us our room. Even if it was before 8 AM. Elsewhere, they probably would have asked us to wait until 11 AM or noon.

Sorry we didn't take a picture of the room... even if we let another guest get in so he could take one. We forgot to do the same.

From there, the hostel crew recommended a walk around the villages nearby. Considering it was windy and cloudy, I put jeans on. An error I would have to tolerate all day under a very bright sun.

First stop was the Göreme Open Air Museum. Most of it is churches carved in the rock, with paintings on the walls. After a while, they all looked the same.

As most tourists were going back the way they came, we kept on walking on the road to go down in Rose Valley, a walk of approximately 6 km, in a canyon, in total calmness. Bring water. Orange juice stands are spaced out. Same for the food.

At the very end of the road, we got in, Çavusin, a place I liked a lot. It feels like the middle of nowhere, in a village where a moutain where houses we carved is looming. Those were abandonned a long time ago. There is a path, from behind, to get to the very top. We didn't know! We became acrobats and climbed, floor by floor, to visit it from inside. The feeling of being somewhere else!

On our way down, we wanted to go to Pasabagi, known for its giant rock mushrooms. As the sky was getting covered again, we finally got some directions with the universal hands language. 'Cause the road wasn't well signposted.

After thinking of going back to the hotel, we finally found it. There, restaurants, souvenir shops... only things put up for strangers.

Our biggest problem was to find out transportation to go back to Göreme. If it seems like buses are going around, they stop early. We needed to negociate with a local so he would bring us back in town... Because after walking all day long, we didn't want to go all the way back on foot.

Between the mosque and the palace

The Blue mosque

The first night was short. Hard to sleep with the heath (found the clim only when I woke up in the morning) and the prayer call at 4 AM, but I managed to get a little bit of sleep.

When you visit Paris, you should see the Eiffel Tower first, right? In Istanbul, the Blue mosque is THE place to go.

In front, street vendors are waiting for tourists to sell them useless stuff or to try to get them to buy a cruise on the Bosphorus. Can't avoid it.

Inside the inner courtyard is the muslims entrance. Behind is the one for tourists. To visit, women must cover their head, shoulders, arms and legs. Men should at least cover their knees. A woman stands at the entrance to give away clothes to those who need to cover up. So there is no need to wear warm pants all day long in fear of missing out on the mosque.

From there, we went to the Cistern. Very cool (temperature wise) place under the city. Ideal for warm days.

But because the sun was still shining really hard, we went for a turkish ice cream. The real one, sour and kind of elastic. The one for which you have to go through a real show to be able to eat it. The ice cream man just tosses everything around for a while before giving the cone away.

We kept on moving to visit Topkapi palace. The harem is interesting there. Because it had many functions. And even if the view on the city is nice inside, it didn't look fun to be kept inside. At the entrance, our new travel partner found out her camera's battery was dying. But she forgot her charger at home. One less amateur photographer.

The death of cameras wouldn't stop there. Less than one hour later, while I was trying to hurry so a tourist wouldn't get in my picture, I fell and dropped my brand new camera on hard stones. Less than 24 hours after starting to use it, it was already dead. You know, when you stop smiling...

In the end, we went back to the hostel to get our luggage and got into a shuttle, which would take one hour, getting lost in the city, to reach the bus station. That place is pure chaos, with more buses than gates. People are pushing to get their tickets, they won't move to let you walk by them... Tastes like Asia.

We had just enough time to eat at the cafeteria, where the waiter might have never been tipped before... and we left for 12 hours on the bus to Göreme. That's exactly when I started feeling I might have a cold. Like everytime I travel.

In the bus, which would stop every three hours, service was included. But the smile was extra. And it seems like we didn't pay for it. One hour or two after we left, sitting at the back of the bus, we were getting to know the people behind us when we were told to keep quiet. We were disturbing apparently. Probably not as much as the baby who cried half of the night, though. There was an entertainment system too, like in planes. But with turkish movies only. Long road ahead.

Rain and Heat in Istanbul

The view on the Golden Horn, from my hostel in Istanbul

The heat is hard to handle in Istanbul, especially when you have a ton of luggage to carry on your back.

I already had enough because of the delay in the airport when I started my adventure for a one-hour metro-tram ride.

At the very end of the metro line, I had to transfer to the tram. Unlike in most big cities, the transfers won't happen at the stop itself. You have to walk around and find your way to make it to the tram. Ask for the way, it'll save you some time.

Then, a coincidence struck when I met a Kazakh girl in the tram. She lives in Vienna, where my travel partner is from.

We were getting out at the same stop and we realized we booked hostels that are a couple of meters apart. So we agreed to explore together.

For our first night, we walked in a beautiful market, saw a dancing dervish and we tried a restaurant where we had a view on the Blue Mosque. The restaurant was in an old destroyed stable and the tables placed outside were in the ruins. The rain, which brought down the heat a little, forced us to eat inside though.

We tried the testi kebab, that meat stew cooked in a clay pot. The waiter brought the pot on a little table lit on fire. And with a machete, he broke the pot before pouring the stew into a bowl. Tasty!

On our way back to the hostel, in total darkness, we saw a big group of birds turning around the minarets of the blue mosque. We didn't get to see that again the other days. It was interesting but I still wonder what happened exactly.

And while we were about to go back to bed, we decided to stop in a bar, where we literally closed the bar down. It was their last night ever. So we started the action on the dance floor. And for those who think you can't drink alochol in a country where most people are muslims... think again. Unless you're facing the mosque, there is no problem at all. But we were tired and I was jet lagged, so I stayed really calm.

Schipol and Ataturk

Gilly is sitting on the floor in Schipol Airport.

Fort the first day of a trip, is there anything better than spending hours after hours in some airports?

Technically, I spent quite some time in PET in Montréal, waiting for KLM flight to take off to the Netherlands. There, a three hours stopover awaited.

I knew Schipol for spending a short time there on my way to South Africa. But this time, I had to wait longer. And I can't say I appreciated it that much.

Of course, I applaud the fast passport control, if you consider staying in Europe. But for the rest...

First, the wi-fi, free for two 30 minutes sessions, can help kill some time. But when you have three hours to kill, it's not as useful. In the transit section where I was, it was hard to find a free seat to sit. Waiting rooms are locked behind some glass walls, at the gates themselves. So I did like so many others and I sat on the floor.

On the other hand, the marketing thing is pretty good. If you walk around looking for a chair, you might end up sitting in a restaurant, where you'll buy some food...

There is also security, very strict, which you have to go throught at the gate. Problem is they grab you everywhere, more than they need to, even if it is obvious the metal detector rang because you forgot some coins in your pockets.

Nothing to reassure the security guards, or maybe they did know they would be tested, false "terrorists" were standing just in front of me. They had forbidden objects in their luggage but seemed to be working as "mystery clients". They were spotted pretty fast.

Got to Ataturk Airport in Istanbul after that. Got there a little late, and once we walked off the plane, it was total confusion. The queue was very long.

Note that you might need a visa to visit Turkey. You can get it online, on the gouvernement website, or directly at the airport. There, all you need to do is pay the entrance fees to get a sticker. For Canadians, fees are high... 60 $ US.

After, everybody had to wait for passport control. The queue exceeded the gates made for that. It took two hours, after 10 hours on the plane, to get the stamp.

From there, we had to search for our luggage on the conveyor belt because the screens were not showing our flight anymore. By looking around, trying to spot other people from our flight, we finally found them.

After that long day, all that was left to do was to take the metro and the tram to the hostel. Useful and giving you discounts, the Istanbul Card, identical to the Octopus Card in Hong Kong or the Oyster Card in London, is a magnetic card you can charge and use in public transport. Only problem, the vending machine doesn't take the 50 turkish liras bills you get in the ATM's.