I’m on my way to the promised land

thoughts from my time in turkey

people who know me know how much I love beer. and after a week of drinking wine in paris – and just so we’re clear, there’s no such thing as too much wine – beer was a welcome change. it seemed a sin to drink beer in paris. I’ve come to learn that I love turkish beer, called ‘efes pilsen’. so so good. one a day, kept my turkey belly away (well… so did gastro-stop, but drinking beer sounds better, so we’ll stick with that)

the view from our pension in ayvalik, I’d go back there in a heartbeat

speaking of turkey belly, what the phuck. that was a cruel 2 days. I don’t even know if turkey belly is a thing, but considering you can’t drink the water, I assume that when I got exactly the same symptoms as when I had bali belly, it was the same thing therefore must exist. I’m just lucky it didn’t last 2 weeks like the time I got bali belly. what a shitty tour it would have been. literally.

ruins in ephesus, seeing all the ruins in turkey was pretty amazing because it shows how vast their history is, but I won’t lie, in the end, when I saw ruins, I just thought it was another bunch of old stones… lucky I’m not a historian.

when I first got to turkey, hearing the ‘call to prayer’ every few hours was definitely a new thing, if not a little annoying. now I find it calming, a reminder that even in the busiest cities – like istanbul- everyone can stop and find the time to pray.

view from the boat one night, beautiful big expanses of turquoise blue water

kindness is a universal language.
shop keepers welcoming you into their shop, without the pretence of having to buy something, with offers of tea and coffee. this happened on my first day in istanbul, where I walked into a shop to look at their incredibly intricate hand painted ceramic bowls, and the shop owner offered me some apple tea while I was walking around. being a little dubious thinking that if I drink his tea, that means I also have to buy 100 bucks worth of stuff – and also worried he might try and ‘roofie’ me – I said thank you but no thank you. he then goes on to tell me that its just the way the turks show visitors hospitality and he wanted to make me feel at home. so I accept, he leaves the shop (with me still in it), goes next door to the cafe, and brings back 2 teas. talk about hospitality, I was totally shocked with his kindness. and I wasn’t roofied. what a gentleman.

the day we went to ölüdeniz, a lovely beach – shame about the stones where the sand was supposed to be.. I guess I’ll never properly fall in love with europe due to their lack of sand at their beaches

I saw the most attractive man I have ever seen in my life in turkey. I know I haven’t really lived that long, so I’m hardly in a position to say ‘ever’ but in my 22 years, it’s true. I’m not a shallow person, but this man was beautiful. tall, dark hair, slightly tanned, excellent muscly arms (which I am a sucker for) without looking like a creepy body builder on roids, and the most piercing green eyes I’ve ever seen. I was certain that people that pretty don’t exist in life, they only exist in magazines. well that’s what I thought before. I saw him the first time I went to see the protests in taksim square, he was selling paraphernalia, like turkish flags and headbands and whistles etc. at least I had my head screwed on enough not to spend a million just so I could look at him. I don’t mind an attractive man standing up for what he believes in. might be why I have such a strong attraction to john butler.

beautiful old tiles just randomly on the ground in antalya

so my tour group was fantastic, we were so diverse and different – 2 paramedics (not including me), a nurse (not including me), a vet, a mathematician, a physio, a bed and breakfast owner, an eternal student, a retiree & a (annalise I forgot what you do.. shit, sorry!) they were all doing a 15 day tour of turkey, while mine was only 11 days; and I won’t lie, I was actually a little sad when they all left me in the hostel on my last day before I was heading back to istanbul. my first ever tour and while at times it was tiring, exhausting and frustrating, it was amazing, informative and a fantastic way to make new friends. miss you lot already!

dinner on my last night with the tour group, overlooking the bay in antalya.. shame the food was shit. I guess you do pay for views at beachside/tourist towns

my last dinner in istanbul found me talking to a french canadian, arianne. I was doing my whole ‘sitting like nigel no mates in a restaurant’ act that I usually do, when someone came up to my table and asked if I was alone and could she sit with me. I wish I had balls like that! even though I’d only just finished my tour, my last day in istanbul was very much a solo day – so it was really nice to chat to someone for an hour. if you’re reading this arianne, thank you for your company!

there’s nothing a bit of fresh breeze won’t cure

fethiye fish market dinner

so I’ve kinda done this out of order, but who cares. this dinner is worthy of its own blog post, regardless of where it is date-wise.

so the night before we were due to get on the boat for the sailing experience, our tour guide wanted to take us to the local market for dinner. when asked what the fuss was, he basically said you choose your fish and then you cook it. the tour guide was turkish, and while his english was very good, we all had moments of “wait…. what?” so when he implied we were cooking our own dinner, I was a little excited. but that’s not what it was, and probably just as well.

so you go into this market, and in the centre there’s a huge square-ish type central market where all the days catch is, and each fishmonger has their own section. surrounding this central area of just general fish, were about 8-10 restaurants; all boasting specials like “your fish, plus salad and bread = 10 lira. which is approximately $5.50au. so after you spend maybe 18 lira on fish, the most incredible fresh dinner costs a grand total of maybe $20au, if you splurge on beer and cider. if you tried to eat a whole wild sea bass, some prawns, a really generous salad, delicious fresh cooked flat bread and a beer at home, say at st kilda… there’s no way it would only be 20 bucks.

just a little selection of the days catch

my choice

oh lordy, so good

I sailed the wild sea, climbed up a tall mountain

sailing the turquoise sea

living the dream is probably what you’d say when I tell you that I spent two days on a sail boat spending long leisurely days out in the crystal clearly turquoise waters of the mediterranean sea off turkey near a place called fethiye.
and it truly was.


a gorgeous street in fethiye

the ultimate postcard “wish you were here” photo

I spent two nights on this boat, with my tour group, had our meals cooked for us, went out during the day to ‘park’ at some picturesque location where the ultra blue water was an ultimate backdrop for the stunningly tall and almost out of place mountains in the distance, have a swim, eat lunch, have another swim, bathe in the sunshine like lizards coming out of hibernation, read, snooze, eat dinner, dance on the deck and then we’d dock at the marina of an evening to sleep on the top deck of the boat. talk about living the dream!

beautiful endless blue

view from half way up to simena castle

just after nearly having a coronary after walking up so many old rock steps in 37dg heat, only made it half way

only slightly ruined by the fact I managed to get swimmers ear a few days earlier after swimming at ölüdeniz – haven’t swam in such a long time and obviously did way too many duck dives. having been a big swimmer back in my hey day and having had swimmers ear more times than I can count, it was pretty obvious what it was. so I went to the pharmacist to ask for ear drops and, in his small amount of english, he asked me “for block or for pain?” for pain I answered, and he wrote the dose on the box… “3×3 drops”.

imagine if pharmacists at home actually did that. well, they probably do, but too many people go to hospital for stupid things like an ear ache or a tooth ache, when pharmacists go through as many years of training as I did (maybe more, I dunno), surely they can hand out medical advice for drugs… surely better than what some gp’s!

totally loved this experience. we didn’t shower for two and a half days but who needs showers when you can jump into the mediterranean to ‘bathe’? my idea of absolute bliss.. the sun, salt, sand, sweat and brown skin made for two very memorable days out at sea; even if I still had sea legs for two days afterwards!

they said you was high class, that was just a lie

I have to admit, I was pretty surprised with the whole ‘toilet’ scene in turkey. was not prepared to have to pay for using the toilet, and once you’ve paid, having to bring your own toilet paper and not even getting to sit on a toilet, but squat over a ceramic hole in the ground.

there should be a youtube how to for squatting over toilets. I mean, I don’t have a hanging appendage that makes things like that easy – I did hum beyoncé’s “if I were a boy” whenever I went to the toilet.
I can manage drop dunnies because there’s no real skill involved, but this whole squat thing has me at a loss. lucky there were usually western toilets I was able to wait for; probably to the disbelief of turkish women who couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting on a ceramic seat that a million other women sit on. actually, when you put it like that, I guess their way kind of makes sense. too bad I have horrible coordination.

I really thought I had longer to prepare for what I can only imagine will be holes in the dirt in kenya.

breathe, breathe in the air

pamukkale

note: pronounced pam-moo-kah-leh, not pamoo-kayle

this incredible world heritage listed place was amazing, or as mum would say, amaaaaayyzzzzing. a natural site of hot springs and travertines, this was a blindingly white monstrous looking hill that was actually very easy to climb as fresh spring water was running over your feet as you walked.

I didn’t take too many pictures because a) I forgot my camera & only had my phone, b) photos were hardly doing it justice & c) I forgot my sunglasses and temporarily burnt my retinas, but I did feel my newly tanned skin against the white rock was a pretty sick shot – even though people who take photos of their feet make me feel a little sick. note the awkward tan line across the top of my foot, that was from the day walking around the gallipoli peninsula. if only walking barefoot was accepted…

a couple of stray dogs, couldn’t resist this arty farty pic

walking back down at around 8:30pm, so still

so, considering my main calling to turkey was for gallipoli, this was a pretty sweet little place to visit. the town isn’t very exciting, but I could’ve spent at least another day or two just laying about in the pools. a must see in turkey.

cashing in my bad luck

lesson I learnt in avyalik

no matter where you are in the world, always quadruple check your hostel room before leaving. try not to leave important things in it – like your ipad with all your photos on it so far – otherwise you’ll hold up the bus of not just your tour group but locals as well for 20 minutes waiting for it to arrive via taxi and then when it doesn’t & the locals are getting shitty and get out of the bus and yell at you, your tour guide stays behind to wait for it, then has to get a taxi to meet up with the bus.

I obviously paid for the taxi trip for my tour guide, and it was the best bloody 50 turkish lira I’ve spent thus far.

my new mantra: re-check your room, re-check your room.

for we are young and free

gallipoli

I feel like anything I write about gallipoli will do no justice to it, or maybe it will take away from the sanctity of it. a truly humbling and very patriotic experience. if possible, every australian should go at one point in their lives; nothing makes you truly understand the impact of landing at the wrong beach until you see it for your own eyes.

I chose to come to turkey because of gallipoli, anything else was an added bonus. it couldn’t have been more incredible. to say I got emotional would be an understatement, I was definitely teary more than once or twice… particularly when visiting the cemeteries and seeing the most common ages of soldiers being my age, 22.

anzac cove, then and now

another thing that got to me was the speech given by the previous president of turkey, atatürk (the one who formed the republic of turkey) on one anzac day. it had been made into a huge plaque that overlooked anzac cove; it was beautiful.

“those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives,
you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country,
therefore rest in peace.
there is no difference between the johnnies and the mehmets
to us where they lie side by side here
in this country of ours.
you the mothers,
who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe away your tears.
your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are in peace.
after having lost their lives on this land,
they have become our sons as well.”

one of the cemeteries

the view from the above cemetery.. facing the sea

seeing poppies growing in the gardens around the anzac peninsula was another wonderful sight. after picking one and laying it on the memorial stone, I then read a sign that said not to; oh well. I was just paying my respects- too bad if the way I did it was frowned upon.

australian trenches still intact

lone pine

the memorial at lone pine

the best of friends

one of my greatest travelling experiences and I’ve never felt prouder to call myself an australian.

working hard to make a living

istanbul

what a hectic, busy, messy, crazy, dynamic, colourful, vibrant, intense, amazing city. an unbelievably insane few days where I was totally overwhelmed with all the food, tea, sweets, sights and smells.

a park close to the hotel

sultanahmet mosque/the blue mosque

the view after climbing onto the roof of what looked like an abandoned market

I don’t even know if I could say a highlight because I was only there for a day and a half, and the whole city that I saw left me speechless. crowded, hot, sweaty, but yet everyone is so friendly, especially when you say you’re from australia. I loved the spice markets, the vibrant colours and scents.

something that always makes me laugh is when you walk past restaurants and the staff really want to serve you, and they shout out “yes, yes lady”, “yes lady, you come in now!”
one guy who worked in a restaurant just outside of where I was staying, got my attention when he asked my name and if I like his home country. so I stood talking to him for a good ten minutes about how it was only my first day, but I really like it so far, especially the shops. then the next day, anytime I walked past him, he asked me “how your day is victoria?” I feel that the turks are so friendly.

view from atatürk bridge

of course there’s always the people that walk around with their little souvenirs that they shove in your face that aren’t as friendly, but you tend to not worry about those. what I don’t understand is why anyone would actually want to buy them, they’re actually not very nice. I find that about most knick-knacks around the world… unless they’re nice sterling silver bracelets or rings, your shitty brass key rings do not interest me. nor will they interest my friends and family when I get home. but thank you anyway.

the coolest shop full of beautifully hand painted ceramic bowls, hand stitched bags and jewellery. why is my pack so full already?

actually no, the highlight of istanbul for me was going to taksim square. it was unbelievably busy in the area of taksim, with people playing instruments and shouting in the streets, well into the wee hours of the morning. graffiti covered the street walls, rubbish littered the streets, people were marching and shouting and singing together… in all the chaos, it was obvious how much people come together in times like this. posters and flags of the old president atatürk were everywhere; the man responsible for creating the republic of turkey in the 1930’s, while their new president is attempting to change turkey back into the secular country it once was.

peacefully protesting in gezi park