Turkey With Travel Talk Tours
Let me take you back to my old travel blogging days when I went by the name Travel Matters. I created my website as a travel journal of sorts, eagerly hoping to inspire others to set off on adventures too. I lugged around a heavy Canon DSLR everywhere I ventured and spent far too much time teaching myself the ins and outs of Wordpress. It was purely for fun, really. After a few years of sharing my travels, I was equally astonished and stoked that it had grown to the extent that I was sent on a photography and writing job for a group travel company! Travel Talk Tours had me off bussing around Turkey for ten days with many, (and I mean many) other travellers in their early twenties from Australia and New Zealand. It was my first taste of real group travel and while it wasn’t for me per se, I sure was grateful for the opportunity to be traversing such a disparate land unlike any other my young soul had explored before.
Cappadocia
I’m sure what draws many travellers into Turkey these days are the ‘insta-famous’ hot air balloons floating above the otherworldly land of Cappadocia at sunrise. As you can see by my photos, we got unlucky with two gusty mornings and not a floating giant balloon in sight. However, exploring this land on ground level, you’ll find it’s just as whimsical and peculiar. It almost feels like another world within the Star Wars galaxy; with mysterious creatures roaming the lands in secret, hiding away inside little hollowed out caves. Sadly, a lightsaber or Jawa were not spotted. But, I was absolutely bemused in the best way possible by the fairy chimney pinnacles, knobbly valleys and evil eyes and pottery dangling from trees.
Pamukkale
Pamukkale’s Cotton Castle... Porcelain white pools formed by calcium cascade down a mountainside, almost blinding to look at directly in the sunshine! You can really get earthed here - scaling down the pools barefoot and soaking your trotters in the sulphur-rich waters. The wind even redeemed itself this day and we admired hot air balloons levitating above us, even paragliders too. Aside from the natural beauty, the human-made ancient town of Hieropolis is just nearby, with its grand Roman theatre amongst other ruins and fields of poppies in the spring.
Ephesus & Troy
It’s quite remarkable how much ancient history is still alive today in Turkey. Ephesus is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. The Library of Celsius was particularly exceptional and once stored thousands of scrolls and books! If those stone pillars could talk… Plus, we discovered my first of the official Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Temple of Artemis. I was just as amused by the colony of cats that had overrun the city; clearly still worshipped today as they were in Ottoman times!
Onto the next ancient site - Troy. Maybe I knew the story best from that Simpsons episode or the movie Troy with Brad Pitt… but seriously, the Trojan Horse is quite an infamous figure! Long story short, Homer first wrote about the story of Troy in the Iliad back in 750 BC (I can’t even comprehend how long ago this was!) During the long-winded war between the Greeks and Trojans, the Greeks pulled a nifty manoeuvre and offered this humongous wooden horse as a ‘peace offering’. Little did the Trojans know that this was an elaborate ruse and the Greeks were hiding inside. They ultimately gained access to the city and left it in ruins. I’m not sure it’s ever been confirmed that Homer’s recount was completely true, but it’s a captivating story nonetheless!
ANZAC Day in Gallipoli
What was extra special about this trip was that I was visiting in April, which coincided with ANZAC Day (circa 2018). As us Aussies and Kiwis know, the 25th of April is an important time to reflect, sit in gratitude and pay tribute to victims of war. It sure was a unique experience to literally sleep amongst hundreds of others on the shores of ANZAC Cove in a sleeping bag and wake to the sounds of the Last Post filling the air at the dawn service. Australians and New Zealanders each had a separate memorial service afterwards, complete with ANZAC biscuits; a notorious (and delicious) symbol of this day. We meandered over the trenches, spent time in reflection at grave sites and admired every scarlett red poppy in the fields.
Istanbul
Istanbul is one of the only cities in the world that spans across two continents, cut in two by the Bosphorus Strait (I love this fact!) There’s no shortage of impressive sights to be seen: majestic mosques and palaces amongst the bustling bazaars with their psychedelic lamps and mounds of spices. What I find really gratifying though is wandering the streets as life goes by; my most treasured activity in any city. I met a tour guide and friend via Instagram, and he selflessly offered to show us around the less touristy areas of Istanbul. Since I was there years ago, I sadly no longer can recall the precise locations. We stopped by quirky cafes, admired the scenes of children frolicking in the streets and cats diving in dumpsters, ferried from the popular European side across to Asia, ate simit (round, crunchy bread) and sipped tea by the water.
I was quite fond of the food of course. You’ve got plenty of classics, like pide, a ‘pizza’ of sorts and gozleme, a thin flatbread stuffed with cheese and sometimes meat (what’s not to love!) The Turkish sure do like to put on a show for you when serving up their food. The testi kebabs consist of meat and vegetables cooked inside clay pots and are dramatically cracked open right before you eat. When it comes to dondurma, a chewy ice-cream, you really have to work for your scoop. The server's love to toy with you before finally letting you grab the cone for yourself - if you know, you know. Honourable mentions to the piles of iokum (Turkish delight - or just delight in Turkey) and the street stalls pumping out fresh pomegranate juice. Now I’m beginning to feel as though I must head back to here purely for food purposes!
