Istanbul Featuring Matt [Part 2]

Istanbul was our last stop before we headed back to London.

Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of energy left and I was getting sick (again) but we managed to get out and see some pretty cool stuff and were also lucky enough to get a friendly visitor ;-)

Walking along the streets of Istanbul is pretty crazy, it's a huge croweded city and their are people everywhere, as well as so much to look at! My favourite part was the yummy smell of all the street food, there were corn stalls and pretzels everywhere!

We visited two bazaars (ie. marketplaces) while in Istanbul; the Eqyptian and the Grand Bazaar. The Egyptian bazaar is well known for selling spices and as you can see from the photo below there are no shortage of them!

These bazaars are just as crazy as the rest of istanbul, full of people buying sweets and spices and bartering over the prices (which is something that actually terrifies me). They also smell amazing because the spices are so fresh (and oh so illegal to bring back into Australia).

In the above picture, top left, is authentic Turkish Delight - it looks and tastes nothing like what we have back home! Often there are nuts running though it and they are never coated in chocolate! It is so strange that we have changed something so much. Top right is Turkish Baclava, which is just as amazing as the Greek version.

They also have many stores selling beautiful lights! I really love the look of these stores, they are so decorated and ornate - no chance of me getting one of them back home in one piece though!

 We wandered through both bazaars and it kept us occupied for a few hours, the Grand Bazaar is HUGE - there is something like 4000 stores in this place, mostly undercover but they also spill out into the street selling everything from spices and Baklava, to pottery, ceramic goods and lighting, carpets and rugs and of course the token fake sunglasses, hoodies, bags etc. - If you want a good quality 'authentic fake' as they call them, this is the place to look!

Later in our Istanbul trip my friend Matt (who also joined us in Morocco) came and stayed with us for a few days - it was so nice to see a friendly Aussie face!

Once he arrived we headed out to check out the Blue Mosuqe - probably one of the most famous mosques in the world. Below is Michael outside of it and on the right a picture of the courtyard type of area that is outside the main prayer entrance.

Unfortunately we were too late to actually go inside and visit but there are really nice gardens in this area and we wandered around and got ourselves a good view from the outside. 

The Hagia Sophia (bottom left) is another old mosque that is in this same area - it was also closed so we just pretty much wandered around the outside. You can see Matt not so much featuring in the top right picture haha!

The Blue Mosque is actually pretty stunning, it looks huge and overpowers everything else around it. 

The next day, we were actually up and about at a time when everything was open! We headed to the Agia Sophia first. As you can see Matt and Michael have very cool matching 3/4 pants happening. 

The Agia Sophia is no longer an active place of prayer but is now a museum - it is a really cool place because it used to be a Christian Church but was taken over by muslims and converted into a mosque, as a result it is decorated with artefacts from both religions and a real mixture of designs. 

As you can see behind Matt and I and below there is Arabic scripture but also (bottom picture, top right) Christian paintings - this church/mosque is also incredibly old, around 1,500 years!

We spent some time wandering around inside the Agia Sophia, it's really quite pretty, although they were doing a fair amount of construction work at the time.

Next stop: the Blue Mosque. 

As you can see there are really strict dress requirements for entry, fortunately Michael looked identical to the man in the picture haha! Men have to wear pants and women have to cover up everything but their face (pretty extreme and very hot!)

The inside of the Blue Mosque is absolutely stunning, it's a really amazing place. The middle section was filled with peoeple praying underneath hundreds of candles - quite a nice ambience!

Yep, I did not rock the headscarf look at all!

The roof of the Blue Mosque is the best part - its absoutely amazing and casts a blue glow throughout the entire building, giving a really calm and serene vibe. It was the first mosque I have ever visited and it was a really worthwhile experience. 

Well, that about sums up our not so active time in Istanbul. 

We have flow back to London and are settling into our new house - more updates soon to come!

Cave Town Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a region in almost the dead centre of Turkey. It is a compeltely unique place that is known for its unique moon like landscape, underground cities, rock formations called Fairy Chimneys and cave churches. We headed from one amazing destination in Pamukkale to another on an overnight bus (what a horrible way to travel).

We stayed at a really cool hostel in called Valley Rock in the town of Goreme, we were lucky enough to be allowed to check in and have a sleep even though our night bus arrived at 7am in the morning! 

After we slept for another few hours to semi-recover from the overnight bus we spent the day exploring our surrounding area. We kind of just started walking and the first place we explored was Honey Valley. It actually felt like a whole other planet, there are so many crazy rock formations and the landscape is just so unique.

The above formation is of a rock formation that the locals refer to as Fairy Chimneys - there are literally hundreds of them everywhere (as you can see in the photo behind me)!

We took plenty of photos of the cool moon-like rock formations in the valley, there are literally hundreds of valleys to explore in this region and the hiking is supposed to be world class which is usually something I'd be right into, except that is was 38 degrees!!!

Another awesome panorama, fairy chimneys for miles!

Our next stop was the Goreme Open Air Museum, definitely one of the better museums we have been too, lots of exploring and you were allowed to touch everything haha! The museum of mostly made up of cave churches and buildings dating back to the stone age.

As you can see Michael is too big for the cave houses in Goreme.

There are heaps of rock formations with cave houses built into them - I have no idea how they all climbed up so high but they are really amazing!

We got a pretty good view over the valleys of Goreme from the Open Air Museum.

In the below picture (top left) are a series of cave houses that are really high up in the rock formations, these are called pidgeon holes.

In the above pic (bottom right) is a table that was in one of the stone houses, most of the houses had these long tables and benches for people to sit - according to a tour guide I overhead they usually ate in big groups sitting around these tables. 

From the Open Air Museum we headed through one of the other Valley (I want to say Red Valley) but only briefly because 38 degrees isn't the ideal weather to be walking around a desert like area!

There are lots of paths so this is obviously something people come here to do. There were also plenty of varied rock formations, fairy chimneys and cave houses - this region is seriously like a place from another planet!

Now for the absolute highlight of our trip to Turkey and possible the whole of Europe: hot air ballooning!

Warning: brace youselves for a lot of photos of hot air balloons.

We were picked up from our hostel at the lovely time of 4:10am, fortunately I was buzzing with excitement and not too worried but it was definitely weird being up at that time of day. We were driven out to Rainbow Ballons head office and given coffee (YAY), tea and some biscuits while they got everything sorted. We were then driven out to their take off site, aka the middle of nowhere. When we arrived they had already started blowing up our balloon

We got to watch the balloon being completely blown up, it was actually really hot and really loud when they were pumping the hot air into the balloon. I thought I would be terrified on take off (I hate heights) but it actually wasn't scary at all. 

Our first picutre together in the hot air balloon not long after take off, we both look pretty tired but hopefully it's not too obvious (I don't actually think I'm that tanned but the light seemed to be amplifying it). There were about 20 other people in the balloon and not a lot of space but it was still an amazing view!

THE VIEW WAS AMAZING.

INDESCRIBABLE.

It was still pretty dark when the balloon first went up but we had the view of our lifetimes as we got to watch the sun slowly rise amongst a sea of hot air balloons. 

My favourite photo.

There are roughly 200 hot air balloon flights each morning in Cappadocia, that is more than anywhere else in the world and it makes for an amazing spectacle, we felt like we were floating through the clouds and surrounded by hot air balloons.

Our pilot was a really funny guy, playing music the whole time and makin jokes! It really added to the fun atmosphere! He also seemed to enjoy playing songs with the hot air that was keeping up afloat which was interesting. He later told us he has traveled to seven other countries to fly balloons in hot air balloon festivals, what an awesome job!

 The colours of the sky as the sun started rising amongst all the hot air balloons were amazing! I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect morning!

Michael and I had such a great experience!

Apologises for the abundance of photos, they all look so good that I couldn't choose between them!

Fortunately our flight lasted for exactly an hour, it was the perfect length of time for us to take in the atmosphere and beautiful view and really enjoy this incredible once in a life time opportunity. 

I think it's safe to say that this is one of the best things I have ever done in my life, I am unbelievably greatful we were able to travel all the way out to isolated Cappadocia to experience something so amazing. Being in one of hundreds of hot air balloons flying over the Cappadocia landscape as the run rose would have to rate as one of the happiest moments of my life.

The sun finally rose towards the end of our flight! Then it was time for a champagne breakfast (minus the breakfast). 

After our flight we were all treated to champagne (mixed with some kind of super sweet syrup), which we were happy with since we didn't realise that was gonna happen!

Michael and I at our landing site somewhere in Cappadocia after what was one of the most enjoyable and memborable experiences of my entire life. We also got flight certificates, well Megan Warling and Michael Herrin did (they corrected our names afterwards haha).

A few random photos of Cappadocia, the hostel we stayed at had a lovely cool pool in the backyard, which happened to be surrounded by rock formations and cave houses - it was pretty surreal. Also some amazing Turkish food that I had, it was kinda like lamb sausage rolls with mint yoghurt dipping sauce - delicious! The middle photo is of a typical Turkish shop selling souvenirs and rugs.

We spent another day lazing by the pool then heading to Uschir Castle. It's pictured on the right and is a cave castle! We had to walk up a lot of stairs to get to the top!

This small town (Uschir) is the highest point of the Cappadocia region and from the top of this old castle you have a 360 degree view that streches for miles!

The amazing landscape of Cappadocia!

Some pics of Michael and I enjoying the amazing view over Cappadocia, the entire landscape is filled with crazy rock formations and fairy chimneys - it was pretty awesome, unfortunately it doesn't turn out great in photos.

Note: the not so stable fence preventing us from falling to our deaths haha!

Well, Cappadocia is by far one of the most beautiful and unique places I have ever visited and I am so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to experience it's charms! Turkey has certainly delivered!

Pamukkale - the Cotton Castle of Turkey

Pamukkale translates literally to ‘cotton castle’ and was our next stop in our Turkey travels. We jumped on a bus and it took us about three long hours to get there. Pamukkale is a natural site in Turkey that is full of hot springs and travertines, which are basically beautiful naturally created terraces that form the basis for hot water springs. The mountain area is covered in white carbonate minerals, which look like clouds or cotton!

When we first entered the area we could see Pamukkale spread out before us – it actually looked like a snowy mountain! When you get to the section where the travertines have begun to form you have to take your shoes off and there is water flowing the whole way down the side of the mountain slope! It was really cool and looks really slippery but was actually really grippy. The whole side of the mountain is bright white and looks like you’re walking through solid clouds = amazing!

Playing amongst the cotton castle!

We felt like we were on another planet, I have never experienced anything like this in my life – the beautiful blue hot springs were just gorgeous! The whole bottom of the pools is actually clay like, it’s supposed to be good for your skin and lots of people were covering themselves in it!

We took our time making our way up to the top of Pamukkale, I pretty much walked through every small pool I could – the water was pretty warm! As you can see Michael wasted no time in getting his gear off and attempting to cool off in the water. 

We got to the top which was almost empty, there were some big parks so we walked around them and lay down in the shade of a while because the heat was pretty unbearable! We had an amazing view of the travertines and the surrounding towns; there were also lots of paragliders passing above us!

Next it was time for a swim! We walked about half way down the mountain (for some reason the top half was packed) and found an almost empty pool, which we ended up having all to ourselves. It was a really weird swimming in the warm pools while sitting in white clay!

This might look refreshing but the water in these springs ranges from 35 – 100 degrees!

Pamukkale is a World Heritage site and really popular place to visit in Turkey, when we were there, despite it being 38 degrees it was packed with people, although you can't really tell from our photos as everyone seemed to run away from our pool once we got in (fine by me!)

We spent about an hour just chilling in the hot springs before it got unbearable hot! Hot water on a 38 degree day doesn't do much for cooling you down!

Once again we headed to top the and to a different side of the park - again there was barely anybody here but the view was amazing so I can't really understand why nobody chooses to ventre like 200m out of the way to check it out!

If anyone in interested in how the travertines of Pamukkale are actually formed I managed to paraphrase this information from the brochure: the water coming out of the ground at this site includes calcium hydrocarbonate, which mixes with the oxygen in the air the carbon dioxide and carbonmonoxide escape and the remaining calcium carbonate settles and forms the travertine! That’s about as simple as it can get and I still don’t fully understand it haha!

We had an amazing day in Pamukkale, it is an unique and amazing place that is like nowhere else on earth!