El Elin Eşeğini Türkü Çağırarak Arar - A stranger searches for the donkey of another while singing…? (Turkish proverb)

 

Türkiye'den selamlar (greetings from Turkey), well Istanbul to be more precise. We’re almost at the end of the first leg of our Turkey trip and until today the weather gods had not been very nice – requiring a search to the depths of the case to find our ‘more wintery’ clothes!

 

But I’ll get back to that shortly. Picking up where I finished the last blog: after a quick stop in Heraklion on Crete, we jumped on the boat to Naxos – about 3 and a half hours away. It was a fairly calm crossing stopping at Santorini on the way to drop off and pick up passengers. Coming into Naxos was magical – just like you imagine a Greek Island to be. White washed buildings climbing up the hills, waterfront cafes/bars/restaurants, outdoor dining, shops with brightly coloured clothes and cobbled roads.

We stayed at the Naxos Beach Resort about 100m from a very nice beach and although the temps had dropped, we were still able to enjoy a stroll along it and a couple of hours lying in the sun! I braved the water at both the beach and pool (freezing but refreshing!!!). The peak season was definitely winding down, with some shops already closed for the season and the weather definitely chillier than we were expecting. There were a lot less tourists than we were expecting, however there were lots of nice restaurants near us and it was awesome wandering the streets down to the port and through the old town and palace. I would recommend coming a few weeks earlier than we did (end September – you’ll still get less tourists but better weather). With 5 days here, we were able to leisurely wander the streets.

 

We also did a day trip visiting the Temple of Demeter, the inland village of Damalas, the island’s old capital, Halki, the marble village of Apeiranthos, Apollonas Beach (northern most beach/village) and the ancient kouros statue just outside Apollonas. Would recommend a trip like this – an easy way to see some more of the island with gorgeous villages and some spectacular scenery/views. No idea how the bus driver got through some of the streets but guess they’re used to it!!

We would highly recommend visiting this island and are now keen to come back and visit some of the smaller ones too. However, time is marching on, so after a quick overnight near Athens airport, it was off to Turkey, arriving in Istanbul after a quick 1 hour flight – which left on time &, arrived early – which may sound weird to mention but the previous three flights we’ve taken have all left late.

There are two airports in Istanbul, both of which are about an hour from the centre, so it’s a bit of a hike – we organised a transfer through the hotel. We’re staying in a budget hotel in the Sultanhamet area – a fairly basic hotel (but good price), but a fantastic location. Five-10 mins walk from the Grand Bazaar and about 10 min walk down to the Aya Sofia/Blue Mosque etc. We had six nights here, so again we were able to wander the streets leisurely as well as do the tourist things. We were only given one card and asked for another so we could go out separately, to which the reception guy, with a perplexed look on his face, said “you are married, no”. He clearly didn’t understand why we might not be attached at the hip and that women go out by themselves all the time where we come from. Was a little reminder of the differences in cultures.

 

The first place we hit up was the Grand Bazaar – if you haven’t been, it's a huge indoor market and if you’re after scarves, lamps, gold/jewellery, leather jackets and spices – you’ve come to the right place. Although there were a lot less spices/food than I remember from my last visit (1997/8 – can’t quite remember)! We have room in our bags but are at our weight allowance for flights, so can’t buy anything else at the mo. Again we’re outside peak tourist times, so the bazaar wasn’t as busy as it could have been.

 

The next day we headed off down to the Basilica Cistern – which is underground and really cool to visit – would recommend a trip – we didn’t pre-buy tickets but got there reasonably early, so not too much queue – would definitely buy in advance during peak season.

We then crossed the road heading to Aya Sofia. We decided not to visit as it was quite a hefty entrance fee (used to be free to visit), I have been before and Trap didn’t feel the need, you can only go in the upper floor now, visit is about 45 mins (you spend longer in the ticket and security queues) and are restricted around prayer times. However, lots of others went in based on the queues for tickets and security. There was construction going on, so some of the façade was covered in scaffolding.

 

We wandered across to the Blue Mosque which was beautiful inside. Trap had to don a skirt as he’d worn shorts and we joined the hordes wandering around and marvelling at the glass windows and lights. It’s still free to visit, but there is talk about charging for it as well. We weren’t there too long, as prayer time arrived so they shuffled everyone out about half an hour before so they could prepare. Definitely worth visiting. Finishing today's wander back through the streets to our hotel for a wee afternoon nap 😊.

 

Yesterday, we caught the tram to Kabatas then the funicular up to Taksim Square which is where all the foreign shops are – Gap, Nike, H&M, M&S etc. Today was our last day here, so we went for another wander around the neighbourhood. Enjoying the food which is pretty reasonably priced, alcohol on the other hand is pretty expensive and a lot of restaurants don’t serve any – hardly surprising for an Islamic country!

 

We’re heading off to Canakkale tomorrow – we’ve rented a car for a few days so we can visit Gallipoli and Troy over the next few days before heading to Cappadocia.

 

So until next time, I’ll leave you with the popular Turkish proverb: Komşunun Tavuğu Komşuya Kaz Görünür - the neighbor’s chicken appears as a goose to the neighbor.

J&T xx