Christmas in Turkey - Week 28

Monday 24th December 2018

We woke on Christmas Eve to blue skies and sunshine. We decided we wanted to visit the Sultans Summer Palace. So hopped on the metro to Marmaray station and went to find it. The entrance is through a photography exhibition. It’s only small but beautiful all the same. It was free to enter and well worth seeing. 

We walked across the Galata Bridge, another thing on our list of things to see. What a place! Full of men standing against the railings, fishing. How they didn’t get all their lines tangled with each other, I’ll never know. It was a fascinating place to just stand there and people watch.

Tourists were taking photos and selfies. A guy was selling the fishermen tea out of a portable urn and another guy was carrying a tray of sesame seed pretzels on his head.

The Golden Horn was busy too with boats going back and forth on the water, car ferries, pleasure boats full of people and some smaller ones just bobbing up and down.

We could see the Galata Tower but we were hungry.

On the lower part of the bridge there were lots of restaurants so we chose one for dinner. It turned out to be a fish restaurant and when we asked for the menu, this is what they bought to the table.

After some deliberation and the waiter coming up with tempting suggestions, we ordered King prawns, lobster & Calamari. It was a feast fit for a Sultan and was absolutely delicious. When we got the bill though, Andy nearly jumped off the bridge with the shock lol. Two days budget in one hit!! Oh well, It was Christmas. 

Leaving the restaurant with full tummies and an empty wallet we walked up the very steep road to the Galata Tower. We read that it was one of the oldest towers in the world and a trip up to the top would afford us magnificent views of the city.

When we got there however, the queue of people was so long, we couldn’t actually find the end. Not wanting to stand in line for ages we found a coffee shop instead.

We wandered back down the street. Again, I’d say footpath, but even the police don’t give a monkeys where they park let alone anyone else.

We didn't realise until we saw the information obelisk that the street was famous!

We caught the tram back to Harriet, and through austerity measures, we ended up with poached eggs on toast for tea.

Christmas Day was just like any other day. People were going about their business as usual.

The muezzins were singing out the call to prayer from their minarets and even the bakers were baking their fresh bread. I asked Andy what he fancied for Christmas Day lunch and he said a chicken dinner. So aiming to please as always, took him to McDonalds in the ferry terminal across the road lol.

The highlight of the day was FaceTiming my eldest daughter to see how the grandchildren had gone on after Santa had been to visit them.

We’d decided that Christmas Day night was our last night in Istanbul. For 9 of the 11 nights there’d just been 4 vans. Us, a guy on his own who we think was full timing on the site, a couple from South Korea and either a French family of 4 or a German couple and their friend.

Both the French & Germans had come to Turkey via Russia, Georgia and Iran. Flippin heck, and I thought we were being brave. Then Christmas Eve we were invaded by 10 Italian vans.

We’d had an absolutely amazing time in Istanbul. The Turkish people had been lovely, friendly & helpful and there was so much to see.

The original plan was to see Istanbul for a couple of days and then carry on to Greece. As always, nothing goes to plan, but that really is the best thing about taking your home with you. If you like somewhere you stay, if you don’t, you just move on. So, after speaking to so many of the local people, we decided to explore more of this fascinating country. We hope to go as far South as Antalya stopping at Pamukkale on the way, then make our way up the west coast. The Turkish people celebrate New Year rather than Christmas, so hopefully we’ll be somewhere lovely to celebrate with them. We’ll see how it all pans out.

Boxing Day, we got up ready to start truckin’n’lookin again. Never expected it to be snowing!! It didn’t last long though and after emptying the waste and filling up with water, we were on our way.

First up, the Shell fuel station. We treated Harriet to Shell VPower, at 85p a litre it wouldn’t break the bank. Filling up with fuel and LPG is different in Turkey. The pump attendants do it for you, then hand you a printed ticket which you take to the sales office. Once you’ve paid, the sales assistant hands you another ticket which you give to the pump attendant to prove you’ve paid and then you’re free to go. Sometime, you even get a free cup of Turkish tea :0)

Next stop, an MMM supermarket to stock up with supplies. Shopping done, we were on our way over the Bosphorus and into Asia. The clouds had cleared and we were greeted by blue skies and sunshine.

We were heading for the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi. We thought it would be a great place to stop and break up the journey to Antalya and the Turkish Riviera.

Although Sally sat nav (aka Google Maps) showed us the quickest route, she didn’t warn us how high up into the mountains we had to climb to get there. The higher we went the colder it got and the thicker the snow became. At one point we thought we were going to get stuck. Andy stopped, turned the traction control off and tried again. With everything crossed, we inched our way to the top and slowly made our way down the other side.

The journey had taken a lot longer than we had anticipated and by this time it had gone dark. Not only that, the temperature was dropping rapidly. So the next town we came to, we parked up down a side road and hunkered down for the night.

The next morning, the temperature was still -8oC and the snow and ice around the wheel arches and the bottom of Harriet was stuck like concrete.

We carried on to the Temple but when we got there, even though the place was open for business, everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. Neither of us wanted to end up slipping and breaking something so we took a couple of photos, had lunch and left. 

A bit of a shame really as we’d read this article about it and thought it sounded fascinating. It was built by Hadrian of Hadrian’s Wall fame!! ...

Archaeological sites in Turkey are frequently 'decorated' with the reconstructions of ancient structures that often simultaneously delight tourists and outrage historians. The Zeus Temple in Aizanoi is a rare example of an excellently preserved original ancient building. With an exception of three columns that were re-erected after the earthquake from 1970, this temple has remained in its splendid glory since the ancient times, untouched by modern construction teams.

The Zeus Temple is also noteworthy as one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the area of Turkey and even world-wide. This is the main historical attraction of Aizanoi, standing on a low hill, surrounded by the fence.

Our next destination was Pamukkale. The journey there was uneventful and by the time we arrived, it was dark and getting late. We parked at the side of the road opposite a Chinese restaurant. Treated ourselves to a lovely tea and came away with the code for the WiFi. Everything was going ok until the music started. Music is a loose term, it was just an annoying noise really, but luckily it was all quiet by midnight.

When we woke up the next morning, we thought we could hear the burners of a hot air balloon. When we looked out the window, there were loads of them hovering above us. The sight of them all definitely made up for the racket the night before.

We’d come to see the Travertines, so after paying the entrance fee (50tl each) we walked up the hill until we reached them. It wasn’t snow we were looking at, it was calcium formations made by the thermal waters. They are rich in minerals and when the hot air evaporates, it leaves deposits behind. 

At one point we had to take off our shoes and paddle the rest of the way through the pools of water. In some places it was icy cold and slippery where the shallow water had frozen. In others, the water was lovely and warm. It was definitely a strange surface to walk on as well as look at. It would have been more comfortable if we’d taken our wet suit shoes and a small towel with us, but we managed all the same.

Heirapolis is all part of the entrance fee and is a fascinating place. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and their website says ...

Hierapolis-Pamukkale

Deriving from springs in a cliff almost 200 m high overlooking the plain, calcite-laden waters have created at Pamukkale (Cotton Palace) an unreal landscape, made up of mineral forests, petrified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins. At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the dynasty of the Attalids, the kings of Pergamon, established the thermal spa of Hierapolis. The ruins of the baths, temples and other Greek monuments can be seen at the site ... amazing.

The problem with parking down at the bottom instead of using the main car park at the top, is, it’s hard to find a way back out of the place. If we’d known this, we would definitely have used the main car park. The upside though, was after getting a taxi back, Andy noticed a couple of people in a pickup used by one of the balloon companies. He went over to ask them how we could book a flight and the guy said to go over to the restaurant where we’d eaten the previous night. There was a man there taking bookings. For £170 we could both have a hot air balloon ride the following morning so we jumped at the chance. They would even pick us up from our hotel. He laughed when we pointed across the road to where we were staying at “Harriet’s Hotel”.

The alarm went off at 6:30am and by 7:30am we were layered up and stood outside the restaurant waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the balloon site. When we got there, some were already being inflated by huge noisy fans and then one by one, the burners were turned on and the balloons were upright. People were loaded into the baskets and they set off. The views were amazing and experience surreal. The only noise you could here were the pilots talking on their walkie talkies and the odd roar of the burner. At one point we were 900m high which is taller than the tallest building on earth. A highly recommended experience.

As we came down to land 45 minutes later, the guys and pilot skillfully lowered the basket with us in it, onto a trailer pulled by a tractor.

After climbing out, the pilot sprayed us all with champagne lol and gave us a glass each to drink. Once back in the Shuttle Bus we were given a certificate and taken back to Harriet.

Smiling, we set off to the coast. What a morning!! 

The road down to Antalya was great, wide open vistas, towns with their candy coloured high rise apartments and as we got nearer, huge snow capped mountains covered in pine trees. Some of the scenery was stunning. The drive along the coast to our camping spot at Kemer was dotted with orange groves and people selling fruit at the side of the road. We got to our parking spot just before the sun started setting.

Sunday morning, the weather was gorgeous. Blue skies and warm sunshine. The beach was half sand and half pebbles and Fisherman were dotted along the shoreline. Behind the beach was just scrub land but it was somewhere to chill out for a day and we were warm and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. What could anyone else wish for.