As-salaam 'alykumWell you know you’re back in Africa when the taxi looks like it’s held together by sellotape, road rules are really just suggestions and taxi’s plus people follow you along the road trying to give you a lift/sell you something! I had kinda forgotten about the constant harassment you get here! But more about that later.
Our taxi from the airport
When I last wrote, we were picking up a car to head to Canakkale for a few days to visit Gallipoli and Troy. It was a bit of a haul getting down, half of which seemed to be going round the outskirts of Istanbul!! But we arrived to our apartment, which was in a great location, had cheap parking round the corner and a lift. In keeping with our budget, like the hotel in Istanbul, it was fairly basic, but serviceable and we found a small grocer round the corner to grab some essentials. Canakkale has, I think, the most coffee shop/bakeries I’ve ever seen and they’re open till midnight and packed with locals. The bars on the other hand (there were two lanes of them that we found), were pretty empty. Everyone here drinks copious amounts of Turkish coffee and tea. You could also count the tourists on one hand, so the complete opposite of Istanbul.
We headed off early the next day on the ferry across the Dardanelles to the Gallipoli peninsula. As soon as you enter the Canakkale region, there are tributes everywhere to the war. They have embraced their responsibility to all who died there – Turks and allied forces alike with well maintained and cared for memorials and tributes to all who fought there. Heading up the road to the top of Chunuk Bear to see the NZ memorial, you pass statues, memorials, graveyards continuously – all dedicated to different troops that died here. When you reach the top and look down to Anzac Cove where the Anzacs landed on April 25, 1915, you feel a grief for the lives wasted on the steep, rugged and unforgiving terrain. How anyone thought climbing up there under enemy fire from the top was a good idea, is a mystery. With nearly 3000 NZers killed and almost 7,500 wounded, Gallipoli holds a special place in kiwi hearts.
We then headed off to Anzac cove and all along the road there are memorials to different kiwi troops which are beautifully kept. We met some Aussies as well as Turkish groups but no kiwis 🙁. Looking up to the peak of Chunk Bear from below, once again reminds you of the incredible sacrifice the allied forces made and what an impossible task they had. Unfortunately the national park & museum wasn’t open, so we weren’t able to head there.
The next day we headed off to Troy – I am sure it was bigger the last time I visited – I was in my late 20’s but still the same height, so can’t be because I was smaller!!! 😂. We decided not to go into the Troy archaeological site as there wasn’t a huge amount in there (the wooden horse, an amphitheatre, some statues), it was NZ$60 each and we’ve been to a few archeological sites over the last four months. Plus, could see the horse from the road, so…. We did find some statues of all the famous people from the Troy story – Helen, Achilles, Agamemnon, Ajax etc, so popped a few pics of them. As someone said to us in Athens: stories become myths, myths become legends, legends become gods, so take it all with a grain of salt!!
From Canakkale, we headed back to Istanbul, dropped off the car, and jumped on a flight to Cappadocia to see the fairy chimneys and underground cities. Staying in Goreme is awesome and we highly recommend basing yourself there. It is full of restaurants, bars, shops all interspersed among these incredible rock formations. And there is cave hotel after cave hotel pretty much all within walking distance, so there’s lots of choice. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t play ball so the balloon rides were cancelled while we were there, but if you google Cappadocia balloons, you see what they look like. There are heaps of them and they all have to take off at the same time, doing a sunrise float over the valleys. Quite spectacular.
We did a tour of the valleys, viewpoints and the underground city of Kaymakli. Last time I was here I did Derinkuyu, so now I’ve seen both! Trap managed the first couple of floors, but it was too narrow and low for him. There was a 6ft fella on the tour who had to crawl through the tunnels. There’s a definite benefit to being vertically challenged in these sorts of environments. It was very cool but the old Cappadocian’s must have been tiny to live down there for any length of time. If you have a bucket list, put this on it!
From there we flew back to Istanbul and on to Alexandria, where we’ve been having some RnR at a gorgeous hotel. Lying in the sun, doing lazy laps in the heated pool, it’s been a great recharge of the batteries.
We’re off to Giza next to see the Pyramids. However as luck would have it, there are now two museums – the new Great Egyptian Museum (GEM) out by the pyramids and the original Egyptian museum, downtown Cairo. They have moved all of the Tutankhamen exhibition out to GEM and while it has been open to the public, it is closed for the few days before we get there for it’s official grand opening on Nov 1, a day after we’ll be there – grrrr. So, Trap won’t get to see the famous mask and sarcophagus. The original museum has been downsized and the galleries redeveloped. Eventually the entire collection will be split between the two museums. We’re then heading to Luxor to start our Nile trip including 🤞 a balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings.And back to knowing you’re in Africa - it’s unbelievable - all we did was walk to the ATM and we had taxi vans following us, taxi’s stopping in the middle of the road, holding up traffic and despite saying ‘no’, they just continued. I’ve also seldom seen such a sorry looking bunch of taxis - there’s no way they'd pass any kind of warrant. Men surrounding us talking over each other trying to get us to either come with them or buy something. However, our nearest ATM was at the hospital and a lovely security guard escorted us through the halls. A lot of the women in there smiled at us - several coming up to touch me, chattering excitedly in Arabic and I was hugged and my hair stroked a few times - so pretty friendly 🤣.
So till next time, عَلى قَدْ لِحافَك مدّ رجليك madad saqayk ealaa amtidad sajadtika - Stretch your legs to the extent of your carpet.
J&T xx
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