After a long 10 hour bus ride from Sophia, Bulgaria we found ourselves in the middle of Istanbul. We arrived at the hostel and found we were the only guests in the place, which was a bit of a surprise to see just how bad tourism industry had taken a hit in Turkey.

We spent 4 days wandering the streets of Istanbul visiting some of the famous sites such as, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. As we were wondering around Pete was often spoken to in Turkish as his new beard tint and haircut made him blend in with the locals, they all assumed he was my tour guide as there was no blending in for a red head in Turkey.

We worked our way through the Turkish menu at different restaurants, even trying some traditional Ottoman cuisine, which is a casserole cooked in a clay pot, but mostly we ate a lot of Kebabs.

The Blue Mosque cannot be missed when in Istanbul it really is an amazing building, the interior is where the magic is, the walls and roof are lined with mosaics of course in shades of blue. The neighbouring building the Hagia Sofia was also worth a visit with the unique history of being both a Christian and Muslim place of worship.

As we wondered around Istanbul we were constantly asked to come into shops to the point where some of the locals were saying “Come and spend your money in my shop”. There were barely any tourists present in the city and it was becoming quite annoying just walking down the street and always been asked to come and buy something. We braved the Grand Bazaar which is basically a massive market place with shops that sell just about anything and everything. The spice bazaar was our favourite as we were able to try so many different types of Turkish delight and teas, some of which we purchased. One evening we jumped on a boat that takes you along the Bosphorus Strait which was really nice as the sun was setting over Istanbul. We really enjoyed our time in the city but were glad to be heading out after a few days.

We jumped on a tour with a few others to Gallipoli and Troy from Istanbul where we were taken to Gallipoli where we met our tour guide who took us around the site. Our first stop was Anzac Cove, in my head I imagined the beach to be much bigger and the cliffs to be might taller than they were in real life. We then moved onto the Australian war memorial at the site of the battle of Lone pine, the Turkish memorial and the Kiwi memorial atop Chunuk Bair. We saw the old trenches and it was interesting to see just how close both sides were to each other for months at a time, their trenches were sometimes within 10-20m of each other. The Turkish have really done a great job with preserving the memorials and it’s a really emotional experience to visit the graves and the endless lists of names that line the memorials.

After Gallipoli we went back to town where we spent the night before heading off to Troy the following morning. We took the ferry across the Dardanelles and met our next tour guide to talk us through the ancient city of Troy. The site is where the story of the Trojan horse derives and whether true or not it’s still a great story. The site itself has a huge history dating back to around 5000 years ago where the place had been a prosperous city for many different empires throughout the ages. We were able to see the different layers of the city as different empires added to the city. It was a great few hours on the archaeological site. From troy we jumped on a bus and made our way to Ephesus.

We arrived late in the evening at Ephesus where we met some fellow travellers at the hostel. Ephesus was pretty impressive being the old Roman capital of Asia Minor the ruins are incredible. We spent the day wandering around the archaeological site before finishing up at St John Basilica, dedicated to John the Baptist as he spent his last years living in the area and was believed to be buried in the Basilica, although not standing today, they believe it would have been the 6th largest in the world if still standing today.

The hostel we were staying in was run by a Turkish and Chinese husband and wife team who had lived in Australia for over 15 years before recently moving to Turkey. We were treated with some home comforts such as Marmite for the Kiwi and Vegemite for the Aussie, also on our last night we had an amazing stir-fry something we had both really missed while travelling.

We spent a day riding the bus before we reached our next destination in the southwest of Turkey, Pamukkale. This small town contains hot springs and travertines (terraces of carbonated minerals), left by the flowing water. This has produced a huge white hillside in the middle of a desert which is quite the contrast. We also explored the old ancient Roman city that surrounds the travertines. We spent the afternoon taking photos and exploring before heading back to the hotel.  

The next morning we took yet another bus to Fethiye, where we stayed a few days to explore the Turkish coast. This town was also extremely quiet but we managed to find a few things to entertain us such as hiring a scooter and exploring the coast. This was a great day and ended with a swim in the ocean which was still so nice and warm. We visited the blue lagoon and toured the peninsula of Fethiye.

From Fethiye we took our final EVER 12hr overnight bus ride to Cappadocia in central Turkey. This is home to the first Christian society in which they built their houses into the crazy rock formations known as Fairy Chimneys. There were many monasteries and churches to explore as well as the old houses lived in by people for thousands of years. We took a day tour that showed us an underground city protected from invaders and which went on for 8 storeys below. The small tunnel size was a hazard for some. Our biggest highlight for Cappadocia and Turkey would have to be our hot air balloon ride, this was amazing, with perfect conditions watching the sunrise from 800m up in our balloon was pretty incredible. It was a great way to end our time in Turkey, we were glad to be on our way out as it wasn’t always the easiest travelling in Turkey, so next stop Vienna, Austria.