Turkey: Istanbul to Lake Van
Istanbul
Monday
So I arrived in Istanbul just as the Muezzin were call for the 5:30 am prayer. I arrived in the largest bus station I have ever encountered, a huge semi-circular arena with the bus signs and destinations marked. My first impression of Turkey was clean, modern, efficient. Luckily I found the Metro station and the kind ticket officer, who had spent time in Ramsgate, Kent, who helped me with the impenetrable machine. And so I whizzed my way to Taksim square. I asked a taxi driver to take me to my apartment, but he waived me away saying it was just 2 minutes away. I bought an Americano coffee in Starbucks (sorry, don’t normally like American chains, there was even one of these at the Great Wall of China(!!)), knowing they have free Wifi. Outside Starbucks were huge, lumbering, homeless, humanless dogs, with tags in their ears. They obviously hang outside there, knowing they will be fed. They are harmless. I found my way to the apartment, found the hidden key, logged onto the Wifi, and let my host know I had arrived. I napped for a couple of hours, and woken by hunger, I got up at around 11 am, and went downstairs , and found Servis, a Turkish buffet restaurant, with a selection of freshly cooked vegetables, beans, rice, bulgar, salads, bread and even a free tea or Çay (pronounced chai) all for TRL70 (or €7) which turned out to be the most expensive Bufe (buffet meal) I ate in Istanbul. I then set out to explore Taksim, which is in the trendy Beyogul area of Istanbul, and the main shopping thoroughfare called Siraselviler street. I walked down the steep narrow streets towards the Bosphorous river, and used my IstanbulKart to go as far as I could on the tram through the Eminonu district and up to the Grand Bazaar on the hill opposite (european side, but actually more ancient & Muslim). The Grand Bazaar was built by Suleiman to fund the building of the Mosque of same name in 15th C.
Tuesday
The next day, after a few cups of
Nescafe in the apartment I set off out to explore the Grand Bazaar
again. I chose SimitPalace bakery (because we have a branch
in Brighton) to sketch the Grand
Mosque on Taksim, but was disappointed by the number of Turkish women
who now smoke, and left with my clothes & jacket smelling of smoke. I walked down to the Tram, and took it up to Topkapi hill, which
is a park and memorial to the 1999 earthquake which destroyed Istanbul, and woke folks up to the fact
that we humans need to work together
(socialism!) rather than the detrimental
Individual freedom ideology of Ayn Rand et al, which the UK & US have
chosen to follow (or have unsuspectingly thrust upon them) . I was then hungry, so walked back to the
Grand Bazaar area , where I was invited to view the city’s Cistern tunnel
system. I was too hungry at that point and never found that cistern again. I
ate in Bazaar worker’s buffet: borlotti
beans stew, bulgar, spinach and vegetables, bread water and chai for just TRL30 (€3).
I was just in time
for ‘blue hour’ as
photographers call it, and I sat down on a bench to sketch the
beautiful Haggia Sofia mosque just before sunset. I got talking to an Indian man who lives in AbuDhabi,
commissioning tankers to transport fossil fuels around the World. Needless to say he /they are looking to make this work more green. A group of young
Chinese came and spent half an hour posing in various poses right in front of me. They take their posing in front of a mosque
very seriously!
I walked back over the bridge at sunset, where hundreds of
fishermen are gathered to catch the
little fish. Its smells as such.
Weds
I set off from the apartment looking for breakfast in the Beyogul area, but somehow managed to take a wrong(!) turning on one of the steep hills, and ended up walking though an area with every kind of mechanical engineering nut and bolt, axe, knife, screw you could ever want to fix your machinery. I walked across Bosphorous on the new architectural Hacis bridge which carries the Metro trains across. I ended up in another working class area at the bottom of the souk, where I had a bufe (pronounced Buffet) lunch for just TRL30 (€3). It was delicious. I got talking to a young show jumper from Iran, who made sure I got my free chai. I shared my satsumas, and he gave me some fresh hazelnuts. The dried fruit and nut stalls here and in Greece are full of tasty healthy snacks, unlike our addiction for unhealthy snacks in UK! I walked through the sunglasses , costume jewellery and accessory part of the Souk. This is now my favourite part. It is fabulous. It's wonderful to hear all the languages and see the people come to trade here: French, German, Arabic.
I had seen Gar Marmaray from the tram on the way up, so I
went to the station to inquire and buy my onward ticket to Ankara, as RomeToRio is saying I’d
have to travel to Halkali 28km away to pick up a train to Ankara. Obviously Istanbul’s geography is difficult, clinging
onto the side sides of steep hills, divided into three parts by the Bosphorous river, and it’s tributary.
Thurs
Next day I got up and
explored the Beyoglu area, an area full of artists studios , I popped into see a few . I had a breakfast of borek (pastry filled
with spinach) and Turkish coffee, and then sat and sketched the
Galatas tower from a little café .
The name gives its name to the Galatasaray football club, who were playing that night. The café
owner was an architect, and took a
picture of my wobbly drawing. I took the tram as far as it went and explored the newly renovated Port area, which was
nice and clean and modern, if a little
soulless compared with the Bazaar. I
also then explored the Keykoro area with its
myriad of bars , all inviting you in, despite the fact that you may just
have eaten or are not hungry. I worked
out that the Fish restaurants are the expensive
restaurants for a blow out meal.
I walked back as far
as Beyogul area and went to an art shop
to arm myself with a larger sketch pad, and some really
hard pencils.
I showed my (paper) Covid pass to get into a shopping centre with a (very expensive) M&S; a lovely homeware shop called “English home” and the French chain Decathlon, where I tried a 70L pack green for €100. Thing is, much as I have come to detest my Berghaus pack, I don’t think the lovely green Decathlon one will survive the battering it is going to get in India.
Friday
I head to Beyogul area and get my best Turkish breakfast yet in Istanbul. I'm sitting sketching the supermarket opposite and happen to get talking to handsome guy next to me, who loves this place. He admires my sketch, and my Rebel jacket with "People" on the back. He takes a pic of me. I make him follow me on Insta. I check him out later. He's only one of Kuwait biggest influencer in Kuwait. I have my first Blue tick follower! (You can follow Talal's travels on Insta at @talal.alrashed)
And so my time in Istanbul comes to an end , and tomorrow Saturday I catch the train to Ankara. My host in Istanbul sends her friend at 8:45 to pick up the keys, and I set off to Taksim to get the Metro to Marmary and Segotul station. My cards are out of credit, I have one TRL 20 note , the right to change to load up a card , but the machine is not working properly. You select English (or German or French or Korean or Chinese) but it pops back to Turkish immediately ! I wave to the three security men at the gate, but they don't finish their chat to come and help me, so I got to them. They point me in the direction of another row of three or four machines, where there's an Italian , with big money and a card , and a phone equally flabbergasted at these frustrating machines. I put my twenty in and get a red plastic (rechargeable card out), but no change. I go over to the gate , but its not loaded with any credit either, and barrier doesn't open! I cry out, and try to tell the guards what has happened. They ask to check my passport (!! presumably to check I am not Kurdish - more on this later !) and my Covid pass, and let me through the barrier. However, I have to change at Yenikapi, luckily the lovely Turkish people who speak English, explain to the barrier man my plight, and I glide through the barrier, well not exactly with my 25kg backpack, more like pack donkey! I have a passport check, and I'm onto the clean , modern Turkish train. Sadly there is no Wifi for the whole journey, as non Turkish mobile phones are barred from connecting, down to the Security risk again. It's actually getting very boring now Vodafone having the spending limit, and not being able to lift it, my account being blocked, due to my Vodafone account having been hacked in 2019. So I write my blog on my laptop.
Ankara
My friend in Ankara texts me , but I cannot text back. She's there to meet me at the super modern new Railway station, and we jump in a waiting taxi to her house, where we have 30Y+ of catching up to do. That evening we go out to meet her friends at a local restaurant , three of whom work at the Irish Consulate. They ask why I don't drink, and about veganism, and I get lots of salads, dolmades, beans, fried samphire (seaweed), fresh sesame bread. It's all delicious. They are drinking Raki, which smells awful. At the end when the bill comes, they won't let me pay, due to Turkish etiquette around hosting, feeding and inviting travellers. I love this!
Next morning Susie & I have a lovely breakfast of brown bread, she's found Vegan Feta (sheep's) cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, before we set off in the taxi to the archeological museum. I learn loads about the history of Anatolia, which really *was * cradle of civilisation, and had "advanced" societies living in multi-purpose homes as far back as 3000BC, which is at least as ancient as the Pyramid builders, south from here in Egypt. They were artisans. blowing glass, crafting beautiful jewellery , mining and casting gold, carving and sculpting statues, and worship both male and female gods. After the museum, we take a Ḉay in the sun, whilst we wait for a contact of Susie's, a PhD candidate in Archeology to take us around the Citadel. The Citadel was built in haste by the Ottomans to protect them from invasion, and in their haste they even re-used some of the ancient stone from the Roman baths and temples.
On Monday morning after breakfast of bread, houmous, Feta cheese (vegan), olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, Susie and I set off to visit the Iranian embassy. The helpful staff explain that I should transfer my application for the London consulate to the Ankara one, and return in a few days to pay the fee, which will be around €100. We visit her offices, which haven't been used since the start of the Pandemic. We then get a taxi to the Ankmall, where her friend Burak organises my trip to Cappadocia. Susie explains about my Overland trip to India, and the travel agents jaws drop. Burak looks up the Eastern express train which will carry me from Ankara to Teheran, if I wish to go there (I do not), if I can get the elusive Iranian visa. We have lunch of Lentil soup, frites, pickles and salads in the mall. It comes to less than €3 each. We get a taxi to visit Ataturk's mausoleum. Erdogan's former economic minister is visiting also, so we are not allowed into the museum. He has set up new Progressive party, and might be economic minister after new elections in 2023. The Mausoleum is spectacular in late afternoon sun.
Susie has taken Tuesday off from her high-pressure job, and we head out to the Hammam in the Old part of Ankara. I ask for the full works: soap scrub, coffee grounds, scrub and massage. Susie is more cautious. I have ten years of dead skin scrubbed away. I feel ten years younger afterward. We snack on fruit, date leather , boiled potatoes, cay, before getting a taxi back home. Later that evening Susie comes out in the most horrendous heat rash, and so we decide to walk to her local, private hospital. She's whisked straight into a treatment bay, and given a steroid injection. This is the service you get if you have private health insurance in Turkey. I tell her she'd wait 3-4 hours in an NHS hospital in UK. We go home again and watch the Keira Knightly film "Official secrets" about the illegal war on Iraq. We discuss who has the more corrupt government , she is shocked by the new lows that the UK government have dropped to: allowing raw sewage to be pumped into our rivers and seas; voting to change the law around lobbying to protect one of their own. Let's call it what it is: bribery! or corruption.
Susie has to go back to work on Weds so I take myself of to CerModern , the modern art gallery housed in a old railway depot.
On Thursday , I get a taxi to Panora, a smart new shopping Mall on the outskirts of Ankara to meet a new friend Elif for coffee and catch up. Elif studied Law & International relations. She talks of problems of being a woman and over educated and trying to get a job in Turkey. We talk about the problems of rapid development of Ankara. She tells me about the wild dogs which roam free everywhere, which no one will take responsibility for. I suggest a job in local government. She laughs, not until Erdogan is gone. We say our goodbyes, and I shop for some small items for my upcoming trip to Cappadocia.
Cappadocia
The alarm goes off at 7am, I make instant coffee in a flask, and Susie calls a taxi for me. He races through the early morning commuter traffic to get me to the huge modern bus station, more like an airport terminal. I buy a 'simit' , tasty circle if bread encrusted with sesame. The service onboard the Koç (coach) is very attentive: free water & no end of sugary snacks, which I decline, fearing Type 1 diabetes.
We stop for a twenty minute break at the very Salt lakes above Ankara, but the feral dogs put paid to walking down to the water's edge. The dogs here are more hungry than in Istanbul or Ankara.
We arrive in Nevšahir the Cappadoccian regional hub in time for the midday Muezzin. The coach attendant tells me I am very beautiful. We arrive in my home for the next 3 days, Goreme half an hour later. It's very dusty as they are currently digging up the roads to lay the electricity cables under them in low season. I get a chai at Lalinda cafe , and use their WiFi to locate my hotel, Safran cave hotel. I take a wrong turning and end up at Cappadoccia cave hotel which has a terrace with a spectacular view of Goreme and its sandstone fairy chimneys, which were cosy homes to locals until 1980s or so. I find my hotel, and check in to my underground cave room, laboriously chiselled out if the local rock by hand.
That afternoon I explore the caves in the Gorëme Open air museum. Entrance to the 14 caves costs around €10, which I think is a bargain for this UNESCO World heritage site. The original occupants were Christians, and they carved tiny chapels, and refectories our of the sand stone, and decorated them beautifully. Sadly most of the pictures of Jesus and the Saints have been defaced over the years. I'll be writing to UNESCO about employing more guards to better preserve Cappadocia & Turkey's invaluable heritage site better.
I sit down to sketch one of the fairy chimneys in a particularly nice spot in the late afternoon sun. I am soon surrounded by a group of students from Samsun on the Black sea coast, who admire my work, and ask loads of questions, practising their English. They are no fans of Erdogan, the dictator who has been "in charge" of Turkey for 20 years now. Though not on charge of the economy, as unofficial estimates put inflation at a whopping 49% pa. If these young people vote in 2023, Erdogan will no longer be in charge for much longer.
I return to my hotel to pick up woolly hat and scarf, and head out to eat at a local terrace restaurant, where I have the delicious Aubergine stew cooked on charcoal. I sketch the restaurants opposite with their kebap being cooked on open fires. Goreme is charming. That night it is -3⁰. I sleep fitfully in my overheated cave.
Next morning after a delicious, healthy breakfast from the terrace restaurant, I set off hiking. One of the guides has told me about a regional market in Ūrgūp, 11km away, no distance, as I regularly walk from Brighton to Lewes in East Sussex. I climb the hill out of Goreme, along the edge of the road. At the junction of the new D302 highway , the local Ramada hotel lets me use their WiFi to get my bearings. I find a lovely sandy track away from the high road, which takes me past stunning views of local sandstone mountain. It's scary sharing the road with the trucks that are carrying the stone to build Goreme's new roads. I descend into the market town Ūrgūp. I get a lovely lunch of shorba (lentil soup) and a toasted vegetable sandwich at a female run café. It contains a fried egg, but I haven't the heart to return it, so I eat my first egg in many years. I find the market, but sadly it not full of local artisans, but sells oversized women's clothing, and amazing oversized veg also.
I can't find a chai spot to sketch in the sun, so here's a pic of the beautiful fruit on display instead.
I head back out of town, to find a terrace spot to sketch Ūrgūp's caves. I find a lovely spot, and spend a happy hour sketching. The owner charges me TRL 20 for chai, 4 times the going rate!
I walk out of the town and catch a dolmus bus back to Göreme. We're back in minutes. That night I eat spicy Sichuan fried tofu at the local Chinese, and read my book "I am Malala" in the warmth of the restaurant. I have turned the radiator down in my room, and it's much more comfortable, and I sleep much better on my last two nights in my cave room.
On my last full day in Cappadocia, after delicious healthy breakfast of olives, tomatoes, cucumber, rocket leaves and olive oil on French bread, I set off on my hike through the National park. I spend an hour looking at carpets with my friend in the carpet shop. I never did buy, deciding I don't need to carry a yoga mat to India, no matter how beautiful.
The National park with it's stunning sandstone fairy castles is ruined by plastic pollution and the hum of hundreds of quad bikes. I make it to Cavasin village, where I find a lovely hotel terrace to sketch the castle caves. They bring me chai and borek, and I spend a lovely couple of hours sketching what is now my favourite village in the area. If you come to Cappadocia I highly recommend staying in Cavasin. I can barely feel my feet, as I get up to walk the few kilometres back to Göreme, ruined by constant hum of quad bikes. I stop outside Goreme village to talk to some of the horse owners, who offer me beer. I decline, but they agree that I should complain about quad bikes, as Cappadocia is traditionally the home of horses. Back at my hotel, they echo the same sentiment. Turkey is currently in love with eating meat and burning fossil fuels. Wait until they get their Greta Thunberg! Which reminds me I need to get in touch with Fridays for Future here, or start it!
On my last evening, I walk up to the fairy chimney side if Goreme and eat in the lovely 'Sisters' restaurant, in the Artemis hotel, a wholly vegan affair. I can eat anything on the menu. I plump for Pumpkin soup , and a delicious bean and bulgur stew with sour cherry sauce. Yum.
The next day in Ankara, I have to track down some contact lenses . The optician won't sell me some without a prescription, a document I forgot to scan before leaving UK. I end finding a UK company that will ship to Turkey. Some companies won't, and some drugs are not available in Turkey, because Erdogan's government have ordered them, and not paid the inflated (monopolistic) prices that Western drugs manufacturers demand.
My last little trip out of Ankara is to Konya and Side, near Antalya. I catch the super modern, fast and cheap train from Ankara Gare, where I arrived and arrive in Konya at afternoon tea Muezzin call. I take a taxi straight to Rumi' s mosque, the Mevlana museum. I pay TRL30 €3 for the audio guide, and spend an hour or so exploring the rose garden and mosque where Rumi, the most famous Turkish poet and most famous Sufi. My hotel, Hotel Ney is just a stone's throw from the mosque, and the concierge is very friendly, learning English. My room is nice, but overheated, so I turn the heating off, and open the window. I head out to look for food. I'm so ravenous, it's more of a hunt. I wander past all the usual Pide and Kebap restaurants until I find a terrace restaurant near the Mevlava museum. The waiter doesn't speak English, and calls over a young lady who understands English, and I explain I'm not a vegetable, but vegetarian. She says I can have the aubergine stew. I ask for a tomato salad too. They bring me chai. The food is delicious, and is soon gone. The muezzin calls for evening prayer, and I sketch the mosque by night.
I sleep okay, and wake the next morning and go off hunting for breakfast. I find a local restaurant nearby, I am ushered in. The lady suggests french fries for breakfast, and I cannot think of anything finer for a Vegan to eat for breakfast. The bring me the platter of olives, cucumbers , tomatoes, all of which I scoff. I save the salami for the local cats. They bring me at least 3 Çay! I head back to the hotel where the concierge invites me to the Terrace for their breakfast! I didn't think it was included in my package with Hotels.com ! He calls a taxi (taksi, in Turkish) and off we go to the OtoGar (literally Car station!) which is surprisingly far out of this large City. I check in, get a Nescafe, get on my Kamil Koç , I'm a regular traveller now. We set out from Konya on the well surfaced highways, and after an hour or so and a stop for refreshments, we start to climb up the Geyik mountains which are beautiful, remote, sparsely populated. I feel slightly sick.
We are in the local capital Mangavat punctually, and I ignore the local taksi drivers, touting for business. I head for the supermarket and buy sparkling mineral water and chips for a late lunch. I jump on a minibus, headed for Side, and the young driver asks me if I want to pay in Euro or Lira. Two he signals, and I give him two lira. No! 6 Lira if you're paying in Turkish currency. I hand over 6 Lira. He drives half a kilometer, and signals for me to get down at the highway. This is not Side. Take another bus, he says. I am furious, but I get down, and wait for another minibus. You can show or tell This driver your hotel, and he will take you all around the houses to drop you close to your destination. I arrive at Sun City apartments, and am allocated a lovely little apartment with bougainvillea draping over the balcony and a pool view. I head out to the supermarket to buy supplies. I leave my shopping with a friendly local shop owner, and head down the steep hill to catch the sunset at 5:45 pm or so, but I've just missed it. I head home and fry aubergine & courgettes to a make a Vegan Orzo pasta dish, the tiny little pasta that look like grains of rice. Yum. I message my friends, and fall asleep by 9 pm.
Next morning I have lazy morning, drinking coffee and eating muesli, before heading off into Side. I walk to the Amphitheatre and pay 80TRL entry, which will be way below 8Euro now, as Erdogan has successfully trashed the economy by *lowering interest rates* despite rampant inflation: official rate 20%, but unofficial rate of inflation here is 49%. The cost of living crisis here is very real. I spend a couple of hours sketching the intact Amphitheatre. It gets noisy here when a school group come in, and I imagine how exciting and noisy it would have been when the Romans hosted lion baiting here. I am then hungry and I head to a local cafe restaurant where I eat mushrooms in sauce, frites, washed down with Efes beer for €7. Bargain. I head back to the Side museum but it's not nearly as interesting despite being housed in the intact old Roman baths. I head home along the Side beach front.
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