Monday, 26 December 2011
We left the hotel at 7.15 am (had to wait for the family of four, didn’t we. And this became a ritual. They were always fifteen minutes late. ALWAYS) and drove to Bursa. Bursa is about 80 km south of Istanbul and is the fourth largest city in Turkey. We boarded a ferry (vehicles too) to cross the Sea of Marmara to Yalova where we continued on by road. At Bursa, we stopped for a while to change money before heading for the cable-car station for the cable-car ride up to Uludağ National Park. El niño was so excited to see snow and I was so glad that he had the three older boys to play with because I’m not fond of the snow. I don’t hate it; I’m just indifferent to it. I do hate it when the snow melts into sludge and especially hate walking on ice because I’m bound to fall like a sack of potatoes. Which I did. %#*)_~!!
We walked a bit to the restaurant and while waiting for our BBQ lunch, went to perform prayers. After lunch, we left and took the cable-car down. El niño was disappointed that he couldn’t go skiing but we were nowhere near the ski centre. We drove on to Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey, and checked into Blanca Hotel. It was a very nice hotel but there was no kettle/tea-making facility provided in the room. Dinner was had at the hotel restaurant.
We left the hotel at 7.15 am (had to wait for the family of four, didn’t we. And this became a ritual. They were always fifteen minutes late. ALWAYS) and drove to Bursa. Bursa is about 80 km south of Istanbul and is the fourth largest city in Turkey. We boarded a ferry (vehicles too) to cross the Sea of Marmara to Yalova where we continued on by road. At Bursa, we stopped for a while to change money before heading for the cable-car station for the cable-car ride up to Uludağ National Park. El niño was so excited to see snow and I was so glad that he had the three older boys to play with because I’m not fond of the snow. I don’t hate it; I’m just indifferent to it. I do hate it when the snow melts into sludge and especially hate walking on ice because I’m bound to fall like a sack of potatoes. Which I did. %#*)_~!!
We walked a bit to the restaurant and while waiting for our BBQ lunch, went to perform prayers. After lunch, we left and took the cable-car down. El niño was disappointed that he couldn’t go skiing but we were nowhere near the ski centre. We drove on to Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey, and checked into Blanca Hotel. It was a very nice hotel but there was no kettle/tea-making facility provided in the room. Dinner was had at the hotel restaurant.
Not us. We took the cable car both ways...We left 15 minutes later than scheduled (guess why) and made our way to nearby Selçuk, about 80 km away from Izmir. It was a cold, frigid, freezing morning and Erkan decided to bring us to Elegant Deri Leather House, a leather outlet first. There was a brief ‘fashion show’ where the shop staff modelled various pieces of the store’s latest collection of leather jackets. (They also asked me and the elder son of the other family to model some leather jacket/outfit too. I LOVED red leather jacket that I was asked to model; so soft to the touch *sigh*). We were given some time to shop but I wasn’t looking for a leather jacket even those soft lovely jackets which the staff claimed could be worn in all seasons.
Then we drove on to Meryemana (House of the Virgin Mary) which is claimed to have been resided by Mary. While there has been doubt expressed about the site, the house has received visits from various Popes.
We left shortly after and made our way to Ephesus, an ancient Greek city which later became a Roman city. I fell in love with the ruins and had a marvellous time exploring the place.
We spent close to 1.5 hours there. All that exploring had left me feeling very hungry and it was aptly lunch time too. We had lunch buffet at Hitit Restaurant, Selçuk. Buffet it may sound but the spread was pitiful (read: too little) ;’(
After lunch, we set off for Pamukkale. Pamukkale means ‘cotton castle’ in Turkish and the city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left in the water. The ancient Greco-Roman and Byzantine city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white ‘castle’ and the ruins are still there (not as many as at Ephesus). We arrived at Pamukkale just as the sun was setting (in the itinerary, we were supposed to do the site the following morning) so we enjoyed sunset there. Then, el niño and I went to walk at the terraces. The sun had set by then, the temperature was plunging, it was getting dark very fast (and not enough lights around the area too so we had to stumble in the dark) and we had to remove our shoes (wearing shoes in the water is prohibited to protect the deposits). So it was a funny thing (not in a ha-ha way) to be groping our way in the dark, feeling our feet slowly turning numb while stumbling over the uneven surface (it wasn’t smooth for sure. I felt like walking on reflexology pebble-walk). Still we continued. We finally reached some pools but it took some time before we reached warmer water. We spent about 30 minutes there before turning back.
We left after 7 pm and checked into Lycus River Hotel. Dinner was had at the hotel restaurant. The hotel has thermal pool and Jacuzzi but we were too knackered to check them out.
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Another early start for us today as we had a long drive ahead of us (more than six hours). We left the hotel at 7.45 am and went to the base of the ‘cotton castle’ for some Kodak moments. Then we drove on to Konya, the old capital of the Selçuk Turks. It was another cold, cold day.
We were kept occupied by DVD movies on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in our various legs of this trip and that is one of the things I like about the tour guide: he’s informative and knows how to keep us entertained. We stopped along the way to take some pictures at some marble blocks – yet another of Erkan’s way to help us understand the geology of the country. We also stopped every couple of hours for washroom break and he and the driver, Murat, would have a cup of Turkish tea (or coffee?) and cigarettes. Murat seemed to live on that diet alone.
We stopped at Sultanhanı Caranvanserai in Aksaray, a 13th century hotel for ancient traders and travellers for close to an hour before continuing on to our hotel in Nevşehir, Cappadocia, where we would stay for two nights. Dinner was had at the hotel restaurant. Our room was cosily warm, so warm we ended up switching on the air-conditioner!
To be continued
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