Hey friends and fam...
AND WE'RE BACK. (Turkey, Part II)
After Istanbul we headed south on our first poorly-timed bus ride to Çanakkale to see Gallipoli. (If you ever get to Turkey and fancy busing around the country, plan on adding two hours to the ETA.) We got into Çanakkale (which, by the way, included an unexpected ferry ride) at 2am, and our couch-surfing host was there to meet us at the "bus station." "Bus Station" is a loosely used term because it was really just a dark, scary road where the bus stopped. (This, too, became a theme of my Turkish bus experience.) I really wish we could have spent more time with our host because he was SO cool and hospitable...I got to sleep in a great bed! He played the Balama, a 9 stringed Turkish instrument, and since Jason is a music teacher, we stayed up until 4am while the two of them played music. It was so relaxing. Unfortunately, we were only in Çanakkale to see Gallipoli, so we did not have time to stay another night.
Gallipoli. Well, we really only went there because Jason wanted to go. I had no desire to see a war sight, to be honest. However, as an Australian, it was really important for Jason to go...and I'm really glad that we went. I didn't know anything in detail about Gallipoli before we went, but it is such an important part of Aussie/Kiwi/Turkish history. The abridged version is this: During WWI the Allies sent a predominately Aussie/Kiwi force to Turkey to fight. It was supposed to be a quick victory, but after 8 months of brutal trench warfare, there were nearly 11,000 dead ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps), they admitted defeat, and retreated. The reason this battle is particularly noted is for the "gentlemanly acts" on both sides of the war. Ataturk (father of Turkey) said that any ANZAC soldier that died at Gallipoli will have an honorable burial, and that in death the soldiers of both sides will sleep arm in arm and comfort each other. Thousands of people gather on April 25th on ANZAC day to commemorate the deaths of the soldiers and to celebrate the friendship between Turkey and Australia/New Zealand. When we were there, there were many new Turkish soldiers there as well, as a kind of military history lesson in compassion. The sight itself is a gorgeous plot of land by the sea, about 35km in total. It is covered with grave stones with the names of all of the dead, including the names of the people whose bodies were never found. Jason and I walked about 10km through the territory and it was eerily peaceful. It is hard to imagine that so many people died on that land of such immense beauty.
This is a photo of Ephesus, specifically the library. We didn't make it to Troy (of Helen and the Trojan horse fame) but we went straight on to
Selçuk, where we stayed in order to see the ruins of Ephesus. Troy will have to wait for my next Turkey trip (and there WILL be one. Turkey has SO much more to experience)! I don't even think I can properly describe Ephesus because I was so caught off guard by it. It is one of the most well preserved Ancient Greek ruins in existence. And honestly, upon my entrance to Ephesus through the top gate, I actually welled up with tears due to it's overwhelming beauty. Maybe it has something to do with being an English Major dork or something, but it was just better than anything I had imagined. I was telling Jason that I've seen plenty of breathtaking Mayan/Aztec ruins, but I'd never seen Greek/Roman ruins before, and it was just so spectacular. Everything that is still standing shows how well planned and technologically advanced the empire was. It was so powerful to see that the most impressive buildings still standing are the library and the theatre. I hope when there is nothing left of our society that what we have left are libraries and theatres, not banks and prisons. I guess I don't really have that much faith in us.
I think this is where I should mention that it is still fairly cold in Turkey, and thus it is the off-season. I cannot IMAGINE, nor do I want to, what Ephesus must look like during high season, because everywhere we went in Turkey the towns and cities were empty, but Ephesus was teeming with people.
After running too fast through many towns and historical "must sees" we headed to the idyllic town of Fethiye, where we spent the last three days of our trip. It is a beach town, and I DID get a tan, but it was really still too cold to lay on the beach.
Our first day in Fethiye we hiked from the old ghost town of Kayakoy (in the picture!) to Oludeniz (otherwise known as "The Blue Lagoon"). Kayakoy is an ancient town that was inhabited until the 1923, but the town was forced to evacuate all of the Greeks back to Greece, and the town was abandoned, never to be reinhabited. The town also happens to be at the beginning of the 250km Lycian way, of which Jason and i hiked a small part. Unfortunately, we followed the wrong trail markers and ended up at the locked gate to someones farm. (I seem to end up at locked gates to people's farms often when I'm hiking, right Caufield?) Anyway, we had to go back to the beginning of the hike and start again.
But, we finally made it...(here it is!) and we got about 20 minutes on the beach before it started to rain. I did not attempt the winter water.
On our 2nd day in Fethiye, we spent a
perfect, relaxing day (look, I'm relaxed!) on a boat around twelve of the islands off of Fethiye. This is the only place where we met any traveller...and we picked up a few for me "going away party" my last night in Turkey. The sun was out and I finally got to wear the bathing suit that had been begging to come out of my backpack for the entire trip. Needless to say, I am ever so slightly pink-hued. I went in the water, and my fellow American teacher traveler, Eric, and I agree that the water was "Vermonty." (The few travellers we met were 99% teacher on their April breaks.) I jumped off the top deck of the boat at one of our island stops, and was reminded that the best way to get into icy cold water is to just jump in straight away--none of that pathetic slow-motion easing your way in stuff.
This is Nick, Eric, and Jason White Boy Dancing. After the day in the sun, the lot of us on the boat, headed up by John, our Australian-Turkish friend, went out for a "night on the tiles/my going away party." It was our only night going out with other travelers, and it was a blast. (I have to admit that because I don't really have any American friends in London, it was "awesome" hanging out with a couple of Americans!)
My last day in Turkey we went paragliding. That's the sport where you have a kind of giant parachute and you run off a high cliff and then float your way down to sea-level. I never saw myself doing it, but apparently we were in the place where the international championships are held every year and it seemed silly to pass up such an opportunity. I wasn't a bit nervous until one of the guys with us, Luke, couldn't get any air and landed on his face at the point before you leave the cliff...the point where you are supposed to fly. Apparently, this face-digging is pretty common. Luckily, I didn't have any bad luck, and is was smooth [air] sailing for me. My instructor forgot his Fish-eye Camera so I didn't have the opportunity to buy an overpriced DVD of me flying, but I think I got some pretty good self-photos. My instructor felt bad for forgetting the camera, so he let me steer us in the air for awhile. (SO COOL!!) We also did some spins which
kind of made me feel sick to my stomach.
Finally, I boarded a bus for a 15 hour bus ride back to Istanbul (yes folks, it was only suppose to be 13 hours...or 10, depending on who you talked to). The trip to Turkey was a great balance of information, culture, and fun. It is one of the countries I've been to where I REALLY feel like I didn't get ample time to enjoy the country and will most certainly return. Luckily, I am heading to Greece with Julie next month, so I don't have much time to lament my lack of time while traveling ;)
Love you all,
Sarah
PS: You know the drill about commenting.
