At last, after almost two weeks in Greece, we headed for Turkey (the sign was clearly designed by a northsider)! At the border, everything went fine; we had our log book, we got our Green Card (international insurance for the jeep) and were on our way. Before we left the checkpoint, we got an unexpected hitchhiker...
We were given the pleasure of having an armed police escort with us in the jeep as far as Kesan. Nice guy, but spoke very little English. According to Podge and Janer, I was 'supposedly' swerving all over the road when I was looking at the ipod. I'm not sure if that's true; I wasn't paying attention. At one point I noticed I was doing about 80 km/h in a 50km/h zone, so I sort of looked at him and looked at the speed sign, back at him, back at the speed sign... and being the sound guy he was, he just waved his hands upwards and said "no no ok, go faster faster". We dropped him off about an hour later at the Kesan police station and headed on down towards the famous city of Gallipoloi. Not that impressive a place, but we did accidentally miss all the big monuments and sites!
We took the boat (half hour trip) from Gallipoli to Lapeski to avoid the long drive around the water. The boat had the biggest messers ever working behind the bar. As soon as they found out we were Irish they all came over, sat down beside us and started getting us to take photos with them. One lad put on Janer's sunglasses and hat. Then he says… “Irish… aaah, Robbie Keane, ahahahahaaaa, I liiike”!
TROY...
After that we drove to Troy (or Troia as they call it in Turkey)... I hadn’t got a clue it was in Turkey! It was a big change from Popmpei, which is so touristy. It’s pretty cool, with a massive Trojan horse outside.
After walking about the ruins for a couple of hours, we camped on the front lawn of a campsite down the road. Myself and Janer had a great chat with the owner's dad who was the first ever tour-guide in Troy. We had a traditional Turkish dinner cooked by his lovely mammy… Salad (with tomatoes grown right across the road) followed by Turkish meat balls and a yellow traditional Turkish rice, all washed down with Efes Turkish beer. Class!!!
Myself, Janer, Uran, Uran's dad, Podge, Uran's mum.After dinner, we had a few drinks with Uran. Great end to a great day. The 5.30 am call to prayer from the local mosque... not so great!
FOCA/IZMIR...
The next day we had a long enough drive south to Izmir. While traveling along, we were coming up to traffic lights, and saw two lads in the grass verge having a full on scrap over what looked like a fender bender. I guess you don't mess with the Turks. From what we've seen driving around, they're very proud of their country 'cause there's Turkish flags everywhere!
In the evening, we were still a good bit from Izmir, so we decided to head for a seaside town called Foca and camped in a site by the sea which was full of complete Pikeys, still beggars can’t be choosers! On our way there we passed through a small village with a massive figure of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (the first president of Turkey in 1923) on top of a hill. His statues are everywhere in Turkey, especially like the one on the left <---.
Anyway, after seeing what we thought were roads up to the figure, we thought; why not, lets go check it out. Thank God for 4WD. The only tracks up there were left by diggers with caterpillar tracks. Going up was tough, and going down even tougher. The last slope we descended was about 45 degrees and got a hell of a lot steeper near the bottom, but we made it as you can see.
We went to Izmir to following day to see the markets and bazzars. and perhaps haggle for a few rugs and pots. While driving through the city we passed a huge carving of the famous Mustafa in the side of a mountain; looked a bit like Mount Rushmore, not that I've ever been to Mount Rushmore, but you get the idea.
He must have been some man for one man!
After many unsuccessful attempts in Izmir to get a respectable photo of myself and Podge, this is what we settled for. Notice he has his guard up after carrying out a sneaky sack tap on yours truly. <----
I had pictured an Izmir market to be like something out of Indianna Jones And The Last Cruisade, but it turned out to be more like a cross between Henry Street and Moore Street. There were some very persistent salesmen who follow you down the street trying to get you into their shops. When one guy heard we were from Ireland, he said... “Aaah Jaayssus, I luuve Ireland I do”. Even though his Bill Cullen impersonation wasn't half bad, we still didn’t buy anything from him!
This is the best photo I could get of Podge and Janer; she must have had a huge mosquito on her face and Podge was just swatting it off...
Later on we headed across the peninsulla to the town of Cesme to meet up with Flinner and Rootster. After about two and a half hours of searching campsites and asking people if they’d ever heard of ‘Adrenaline Camping & Cafe’ where Flinner said they were, we finally found it (another Pikeyesque campsite) ...and there they were, in the flesh, after driving all the way from China...
Finally we’d met up, and it was big hugs all round!!!!!!
EPHESOS...
We set off in convoy the next day heading to the ruins at Efes/Ephesos (which the lovely Efes beer is named after) and had a good auld wander. It's a big ruin with a huge old amphitheater and old buildings...
After Podge completed his little bit of business, we went to a little campsite up the road where Chef Janer cooked up an awesome chicken and cashew nut surprise. The five of us finished off the evening with a few cans and some Scotch courtesy of Flinner (which was in turn courtesy of his friend Scanlan) Thank you Scanlan!
The next morning myself, Podge, Janer and a bang on Italian guy from the campsite called Julio drove up a mountain to the house where Mother Mary lived before she died and is thought to be buried.
PAMUKALE...
We then drove about 4 hours south to Pamukale and didn’t arrive until about midnight. Pamukale (meaning ‘cotton castle’) is a massive hill with hot limestone springs that deposited minerals over the rock giving it the white look. Up top is a large ancient city’s ruins and a club med type limestone pool. It's unbelievable to see, it's like you're on another planet while walking up it.
A couple of days before hand (in the campsite where we met Flinner and Rootster), an old lady told us there was a campsite right outside the entrance to Pamukale, so when we arrived there late the night before, we were beckoned into a campsite by a guy on the side of the road and assumed it was it... Brilliant! Our suspicions that we might be in the wrong place started to set in almost immediately. We were the only people there and there was a massive camel sitting in the corner who we named ‘Kelly’. Needless to say, there was a strong smell of camel poo poo/pee pee in the air, nice! There was a swimming pool about 2 feet deep with a thick layer of slime across the top, even though there was a constant flow of water into it. There were about 6 rooms beside our tents and we were shown into one of them to use the toilet and shower. The room had a filthy mattress and a few rags thrown on it, and the bathroom wasn’t much better.
Anyway, we set up our tents and sat down for a few cans before bed. After a few minutes, Flinner caught a flash of boob through one of the bedroom windows, and then we started to notice some strange behaviour. There were women coming from the bar area into the rooms with young lads for very short periods of time... Yes, we were camping right beside ... a whore house!
Either that, or they were running a party shop because there were a few funny looking old balloons on the floor in the toilets... I know, I'm confused too!
Still, it wasn't all that bad. Kelly agreed to pose for a few photos, but after a while, she turned nasty and tried to bite me. Hence the speedy retreat and the fear of God in my eyes.
Eventually, Flinner had a word with her, and sorted things out. It's all good now. We forgive you Kelly!
CAPPADOCIA/GEROME...
After our Pamukale experience, we parted ways with Flinner and Rootster for a few days. They headed south to a house on the coast and we headed over to Gerome in Cappadocia (11 hour drive) where there are houses carved inside the chimney rocks.
These formed after a volcanic rock was eroded over tens of thousands of years. The landscape here is unreal. Here's me standing on a rock beside Podge. I'm bleedin' tiny...
Nice to finish off the day with a tiny cup of Turkish coffee. Check out the pinkey action. One can tell one wasn't dragged up. I say old boy, jolly nice stuff this...
Anyway, another few days left hanging out in Turkey, then it's on to Syria and Jordan.
lovely holiday ^_^
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