Pamukkale

In hindsight, I should have allocated more time for Turkey because there was a lot of back-to-back travel across great distances. After a full day in Göreme, I headed for an overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. It is 616km from Göreme to Pamukkale equating to an 11 hour bus journey. Yikes. After my very uncomfortable 9 hour journey I had in the USA, I am generally very hesitant about long distance bus travel. Although it is convenient and cheap, being unable to sleep and then having a full day ahead is a horrible experience. However, there weren't any other options and I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be too bad.

As mentioned previously, travel between cities in Turkey is predominately served by coaches. From memory, although it was possible to purchase tickets online from some of the bus companies, simply turning up at the counter would usually suffice. That being said, it is best to buy the tickets as soon as possible. The first two bus companies that I went to were sold out of the tickets to Pamukkale. There was a brief moment of panic at the prospect of being stranded in Göreme however luckily the third counter had tickets to sell. In fact, they were reselling tickets from the second company I had tried to buy a ticket from originally.

My seat was in the very back row which wasn't too bad except for the fact that the ground was soaked. This resulted in my socks to be wet and I curled up in foetal position for the entire journey. Thankfully, I slept for almost the entire bus journey and it was a lot more comfortable than my experience on Megabus! The only thing that is somewhat annoying with bus travel in Turkey is that the toilet breaks are quite long - 30 minutes - and is more of a smoke break than anything, and there are toilet breaks every 2.5 hours. Close to Pamukkale, the coach stopped and the people heading there got into a small van. Luckily I had a travelling partner with me otherwise I would have missed that stop since I was fast asleep. In my stupor, I almost tripped on the way off the coach and left my hair clip on the handrest. It was a little dodgy if I have to admit. The coach had stopped at the side of a highway and half a dozen people got off the coach and into a small van. The van took us to the bus company's main office (this was around 7-something am) and we all awkwardly sat inside. No one said anything so I wasn't really sure what was happening and ended up grabbing some things to freshen up. As confirmed from my previous research, the bus company was more than happy to let us leave our bags there. However, the bags left unattended in the front of the store and not locked in a room or even behind a counter. The weather was quite dreary and was drizzling, however it was slowly clearing up.





Pamukkale is a UNESCO site and it means "cotton castle" in Turkish. It was absolutely stunning to see the contrast of the white travertines against the flat fields and snow capped mountains in the distance. To protect the travertines, you have to remove your shoes and walk barefoot up to the top. Before my trip, I was worried that since it was winter it would be quite cold. That was partially correct. Although the water from the hotsprings which run down the travertines are quite warm (naturally), by the time they reach the bottom the water is quite cold. For 1/2 of the ascent, my poor poor feet were in pain. The ground was so cold that my feet became slightly numb. However as they were slightly numb, it meant that I began to feel every single ridge on the ground and excentuated the pain. Every now and then, I would intentionally walk into the cold water to soothe the prickling sensation. It was a little overcast so the true whiteness of Pamukkale wasn't completely evident. The further up I walked, the warmer the water became (which my aching feet were grateful for). Since I had entered the travertines shortly after opening, there were only 2 other people and it was very peaceful.


The painful ridges.





At the top of the travertines is the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire and was originally a spa town but later became important for the healing properties from the thermal springs. By the time I reached the top, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day. I enjoyed walking through the ruins of Hierapolis a lot more than I thought and I would definitely recommend that people allocate enough time to walk through some areas. The area is massive and the view is also stunning. I can't really imagine how incredible it would have been back in Hierapolis' prime. There were a lot of strays on the path up (they didn't have to pay an entrance fee!) and I gained three new buddies who didn't leave me alone for most of the time that I was exploring Hierapolis.













By the time I headed back to walk down, the tour buses had arrived and the top of the travertines was filled with tourists. As the tour buses dropped them off at the top, everyone was within 100m from the top of the pools. It was a little jarring as I had walked up with hardly anyone around to seeing so many people being ... frankly stupid. A major gripe of mine is when people don't listen to rules and have no respect for the site that they are visiting. Some people blatantly ignored the path just so they could take their photo. The path is there for a) safety and b) preservation of the natural site. As the skies had cleared, the white travertines were blinding. I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses much to my dismay.





Pamukkale and Hierapolis were amazing and I would highly recommend. It is incredible to think that the travertines are a natural phenomenon.

Now in hindsight, I realise that every time I travelled within Turkey, it was fraught with transportation issues. The ticket that I had purchased to Izmir was problematic as the bus company's internet was down and therefore for some reason our tickets had to be refunded. What happened was that I caught a small van to Denizli (the closest big city) which was an experience in itself. From Denizili, there was the option of catching the train to Izmir which at the time I thought would be a nice experience. Boy was I wrong. What people said was correct; buses are the way to go. The train was so slow and it took 5 hours to reach Izmir (bus would have been 3.5 hours). The following day was the journey to Istanbul and once again, the day was rife with transport issues. Oh Turkey.

Narrabeen Lagoon Trail

Over the Easter long weekend, I went to Narrabeen Lagoon to walk the newly completed Narrabeen Lagoon Trail. It is a 8.4km walk around the lagoon and is a very easy walk.









Around halfway around the lagoon, I saw a crowd underneath a tree. I thought it was a possum or something furry but nope, it was a snake! It was a diamond python and apparently had been there for quite a while.



My favourite part of the walk was the second half where it felt like I was walking in a rainforest.











In other news, I finally have my own domain dignifiable.com! I also think I have finalised my new layout and would like to thank the lovely Clara at WanderandMake for the header.

Fika Swedish Kitchen

I have this tendency to whine a little too much about the weather. When it is sunny and tolerably warm, I curse at the sun. When it is gloomy, I curse at the clouds for making it so dreary. And yet, when I was overseas in Europe and saw the sun/ clear skies for the first time in a very long time, I was just so happy. The grass is always greener on the other side. I have been feeling a little "stuck" lately and I believe it is attributable to the fact that I am constantly indoors. So what did I do? I decided to head to Manly for brunch after running some errands.

 

Fika Swedish Kitchen has been on my radar for a little while now and I have been putting it off due to lack of interest from people I know. But what the heck. Why not go by myself?

Copied from their website:

Fika is a Swedish word that translates as ‘taking a break for coffee and a bite to eat’. But really it’s much more than that. It’s a moment to relax, to catch up with your family and to laugh with your friends. It’s making up for lost time, or part of your daily ritual. A cosy escape, or a refreshing pause. It’s the time between meals, the place between destinations. There’s always time for Fika.

I ordered the 'Salmon Lover' which consisted of pumpernickel bread topped with smashed avocado, smoked salmon and a poached egg. A funny story: I used to like smoked salmon until one fateful yacht trip where I ended up puking it back up, right along with my chocolate drink. Needless to say, I was a little scarred by the experience and didn't eat it for over 7 years until last year.

I love pumpernickel bread especially as it has fond memories attached to it.

It was nice just doing something for myself. I'm not 100% comfortable with eating by myself (apart from at sushi train and ramen places) but I definitely do want to get over this discomfort. I was also too awkward to take out my camera so I just resorted to using my phone only. One step at a time. 

Göreme

I am sure that a lot of people are familiar with the iconic photos in Cappadocia with the hot air balloons at sunrise. Cappadocia is the region in central Turkey and Göreme is one of the main towns in the area for tourists. Göreme is pronounced as gu-ro-meh and is pretty much a tourist town. Back when I was in Sydney, I was convinced that I wanted to ride the hot air balloons at sunrise no matter the cost. Well, I knew the cost to be $150 for a 40 minute ride and I thought it was reasonable. However, halfway through my trip I didn't really think it was worth it anymore and in the end I didn't end up riding in the hot air balloon.

Turkey doesn't really have much of an internet/ online purchase presence as of yet and when I was doing research, there was only one company that allowed for booking in advance. The interesting thing I found was that the prices for hot air balloons are calculated in Euros as opposed to Turkish Lira.

Tip: Book through your hotel. The receptionist was endorsing this one company - I assume they receive a commission - and when I declined, they then offered a second company which was smaller but also cheaper. I think the cheapest one was €120 with discount.

Nonetheless, I still went to catch the sunrise at Sunset Rock. Now, this was very difficult for me to find information online. But pretty much from the bus station, you head East, and then head up behind the hotels and other lodgings. There are only a few paths, but they all eventually lead to the top, even if they don't really look like the right path. And more likely than not, there will also be people heading in the same direction.





I went in low season and there were around 40 hot air balloons in the air. Apparently in peak season it can increase to around 100! That is insane since they are all somewhat close together.

Another thing I was to discover about Turkey was the amount of stray dogs and cats. Apparently this Shepherd mix is always at Sunset Point and is very mild and really likes humans/ attention. Anytime someone pet would her, she would just sit incredibly still.




Watching the sunrise and the balloons too.

At one point the "pack leader" started to bark and eventually three other dogs joined her at Sunset Point.








This is one of my favourite shots of all time.

After I took the photo above, something somewhat scary happened. As I was walking to head back to the hotel, one of the dogs (not pictured) was walking very close to my feet on the left and started to snap at my legs. Not biting but just snapping very close, too close for comfort. I kept walking as I didn't want to let it know that I was bothered by it. Almost immediately after, the pack leader (well I called her that) walked in front of me, the other dog flanked my side and the dog in the photo above was behind me. In essence I was boxed in. For a brief moment I was a little scared that I would get mauled. Which was "annoying" since I had pet two of the dogs (the one in front and on my right) and I thought: gee, thanks Karma. Oddly enough, the dog on the left (the annoying one) stopped snapping and my newly acquired body guards walked ahead and left me alone with my annoying friend. Cue snapping. At that point I just yelled, "go away". Not because I thought it would understand me but because it was the second loudest/ aggressive sounding thing I could think of that was appropriate. The first would be "shut up" but I didn't think it was appropriate to yell that out at sunrise with all the tourists. Luckily the dog walked off and I was left alone.

Moral of the story: Don't be scared of the dogs in Turkey. They really just do their own thing. But I have no idea what was wrong with that annoying dog. Nonetheless, don't be scared.

For the rest of the day, I took some trails in the area. My intention was the walk for Pigeon Valley (Güvercin Vadisi) and Love Valley (Bağlıdere). Well, in the end it was actually Red Valley (Kızıl Vadis) and Love Valley.




Church which was unfortunately closed.



The landscape was just incredible and so different to anything that I had seen. It was weird seeing the dry landscape and then snow (well it was ice by that stage since snowfall was a few days ago) and also icicles hanging from the side ledges. A very surreal place.

The walk through Love Valley was very long and difficult. It had rained (I believe) previously so the ground was incredibly muddy. I only had joggers (well a casual shoe that bore some similarities to joggers) which was not great for walking on such terrain. In hindsight it was funny. Sometimes the ground looked deceptively dry until you took a step and then proceeded to sink 5cm into the mud. It got to the point where I just picked up a stick to test the ground before walking. The most difficult part was walking down this quite steep incline on a super muddy path.


This photo doesn't quite show how steep and muddy it was though. There was also ice which made things even easier. Not.


A little hard to see, but that is Love Valley.


Do you see why?

It was decided that it was better to walk along the side of the road back to Göreme rather than tackle the walk again. On the way back, I met another stray. This one was so fluffy. It actually went into this little hole in the rock, interestingly. Though what was even sadder was seeing all the paw prints on the side of the road as I walked back into town. I love dogs and seeing the old dogs just walking along the side of the road just made me sad.




Sunset at Sunset Point

Food in Göreme was quite reasonable despite being a tourist town (I expected crazy markups) and they were all very tasty. Lunch was so good (not pictured) and dinner was equally amazing I really love Turkish food and definitely am missing it now that I am back in Sydney. I also like how there is really good quality complimentary bread (unlike Spain).


Köfte.


Turkish tea. Yummy.

... but wait, this wasn't the end of the day. After dinner, we collected our bags from the hotel and headed to the bus station for an 11hr bus journey. But that is for another post.

Merhaba Turkey!

Turkey was not originally on my countries that I would have considered for my grad trip. However I am very happy that it was suggested as it is probably one of my favourite countries that I visited. As expected, Turkey was very different to all the other countries that I had visited. The smog/ pollution was something that I didn't quite expect from Istanbul, although it makes sense naturally. First night was at an airport hotel in Istanbul since the plan was to catch a high speed train to Ankara before heading by bus to Göreme.

The highspeed railway line between Ankara and Istanbul is incomplete and the closest station is currently at Pendik, on the Asian side and closer to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Once complete it will be a 3.5hr train journey, covering 553km. Until then a cab ride is the only way to get to Pendik, especially at 6am. The one thing that was interesting / annoying were the constant bag scanners at train stations, bus stations, shopping centres and even simply entering the airport (I don't mean to get through security for the gates. This made me cringe since I also shoot in film and each pass through x-ray damages the film. The train journey was quite pleasant, and there was free wifi (although BBC was blocked, odd). I also witnessed one of my most memorable and beautiful sunrises. The journey went through quite a few different landscapes. Initially through residential and populated areas, to in between the mountains and also landscapes which were very desolate. Around halfway through the journey, there was a crazy amount of dust/ cloud/ mist which made visibility very very low. It was quite scary sitting in a carriage that was going at 150kmph and not being able to see anything in the distance.

Ankara took me by surprise. I really didn't expect it to look like what it did (it didn't look like the images on Google). What did it look like? Very dusty, beige and smoggy. This was when I also realised that people didn't follow road rules and cars are king on the road. In fact, it was even scarier than Rome since the roads I crossed in Ankara were usually 4 lanes wide in total! I originally had plans to leave our bags in the lockers at the station (which I did) and to wander and explore around Ankara briefly before heading to the bus station to travel to Göreme. Sadly what happened was a brief stop in a cafe for lunch before attempting to find the bus station.

Simit. It is a "Turkish bagel", although I feel that it is better than a bagel (I'm not a fan of bagels). It has a texture more akin to bread than a bagel. These are actually sold on the streets for 1 Lira (roughly, $0.50 AUD). Plain of course..

The trip to the bus station was a lot more difficult than what I had envisaged. The metro to the bus station was on the other side of the tracks of the main train station. Google maps didn't quite show how to cross the tracks. Twenty minutes later, and after much frustration from my travelling partner, finally made it to the metro station. I feel that I am less frustrated when travelling (in terms of unexpected problems) than when I am back home. Perhaps it is because I expect that there will be difficulties. The ticket machine wasn't very helpful, especially since I had been spoilt with choice in all my other countries with the option of selecting the "English" button. After some hand signing with the man behind the ticket window and butchering the name of the bus station (AŞTİ), I finally boarded the train.

The bus station was also completely different to what I had expected. I expected something similar to the ones where I've caught Megabus and other companies like that. It reminded me of the Amazing Race when the constestants are running to the whole row of airline counters. In short, there were a lot of people at the station and this is because buses are the main form of transportation between cities and towns since the trains leave a lot to be desired (from personal experience)/ are non existent. Sadly, the next bus due out to Göreme was in 4 hours. Four hours spent at the bus station where I caught up on my travel journal.

One thing I also didn't expect in Turkey were squat toilets. If you are unsure what they are, here it is. I originally included my own image that I took from the delightfully clean (sarcasm) squat toilet at the bus station. But I decided against it. I'm not a fan of paying to use toilets generally, but especially when I paid 1 Lira to use a horribly dirty toilet too. I hate squat toilets with a passion. When I was a kid, they used to be everywhere in Hong Kong and I always had a fear that I would topple backwards and into the ... mess.

The bus journey between Ankara and Göreme is 5 hours. The great thing about bus rides in Turkey is that they offer refreshments: water, tea, instant coffee, and a small snack. In addition to the man driving the bus, there is also a bus attendant who acts very similar to a flight attendant. The bus is also quite comfortable and there are tv screens at the back of the chair which played Turkish shows.

The thing I noticed is that English doesn't really get you by (which isn't a problem) unless you are in a super touristy area. The coach stopped at Nevşehir which was the nearest big city. It seemed that everyone was leaving so I also got off the bus and asked, "Göreme?" to the driver of the mini buses. The driver said yes, so I boarded. Luckily, the bus attendant ran out after us and took us back to the coach (btw, with 0 English spoken between the two of us aside from ""Göreme?") and the coach continued with the 5 passengers inside. I am very thankful and grateful that the bus attendant was so observant that we had left (at the beginning of the ride he asked us our final destination). Very happy. Moral of the story and advice to anyone going on bus journeys in Turkey: check with the bus attendant and not the drivers as they seem to just say "yes" even if it isn't true.

This is a very text heavy post since I don't feel inclined to take out my camera when I am carrying all my luggage. But it is a necessary introduction to my Turkey portion of the trip. In some ways, Turkey was the hardest country for me since quite a few problems popped up, but it was still an incredible experience.