Marrakech, the red city. Finally we could say that we had been to Africa! It’s blisteringly hot, and with the Muslim suppression of alcohol in the town, it was going to be a nice break from exorbitant food and drink.
For more pictures depress your left mouse button here.
We hadn’t really made any major plans for Marrakech and figured that there would be enough to do in the city that would fill our days, which it did, but we probably should have booked a day tour out of town into the desert. It was nice to slow down our frantic sightseeing pace however, and we enjoyed the relaxed pace that helped us deal with the intense heat. Our Airbnb was also pretty great, so that made the stay more comfortable. It was a riad, traditional style Moroccan house with a central courtyard and tiled walls which was quite cool in comparison to outside.
Day 1
Flying in to Marrakech, the first thing that hits you is the heat. It was such a massive shift from continental Europe. Bringing our bodies back to normal super hot heat was a welcome change for us sunny Queenslanders.
Everyone stays near the huge square. It’s the mad centre of this insane town and you will struggle everyday to survive it. Walking to and from the Jemaa el-Fnaa square at peak hour is an adventure in itself, and coming from the bus station to the square, you also have to brave the gauntlet of the horse carriage depot smells.
Every day the square plays host to an array of old-timey ‘marvels’: amateur boxing; people with vultures, monkeys, and other random animals; snake charmers; musicians; refreshment stalls; and trinket vendors.
You can pay for the privilege of taking a photo or have the animal put on your shoulders, or you can take a sneaky photo from a distance; but if you are caught, it will be demanded that you pay for the experience. The boxing is just the local street rats, enlisted to punch each other a few times until a tourist pulls a camera. Timothy tried to sneak a photo to show how ridiculous it was and got caught. He paid for this photo so insists that it goes in the blog...
The snake charmers were not the mystical wonder that we had once dreamed them to be. The snakes are so doped out that they just sit there wobbling while the man plays his pipe. He has to hit it periodically to keep it awake. The vultures are huge, and monkeys are cool, but we didn’t want to support the abuse of these poor animals, and had no desire for the token photo.
Nearly every night tents are set up in the square to serve a range of delicious authentic Moroccan dishes. We did some research and specifically chose which tent to go to on the first night, but you really don’t have to, you can tell which ones have what you want and most are of a similar quality. Dinner was tagine of course, with some spicy sausages, bread and a plate of fresh tomato puree for some reason?!
The Moroccan mint tea that is served everywhere is so sweet that it feels like you are going to lose your teeth right then and there.
After dinner we ventured into the Souks, the bazaar maze. Here you will find everything from spices to silks. You will soon be bartering with people for things that you don’t really even want. It’s an intense experience, and you need to be ready for the onslaught. It is also certain that you will get lost. You will buy leather goods at super cheap prices, and then the man will thank you and commend your tough bargaining, give you an extra present and you will leave wondering what just happened. You will get lost again. Then when you think that you are going the right way back to your apartment, you will discover that you are not (see lost again).
We only did a light foray on the first night, and had an early night to be well rested for our first full day.
Day 2
Timothy started the day with a cut price cut throat shave. We then ran into our hotel manager, who we enlisted to take us to an actual authentic local food place. We were led through the maze of streets for what seemed like forever until we found a hole in the wall lentil place and were luckily ordered on behalf of. The regulars looked on with bemused interest as we struggled to fit in the corner on tiny plastic chairs.
It was a hearty mix with a delicious blend of spices, lentils and oil, served in tin dishes with bread, and it set us back about 10c. We count ourselves very lucky to have been guided out to an authentic Marrakech eatery.
First stop, of course, was a castle, the Fortified El Badi Palace. An abandoned 16th century ruin, it was stripped in the 17th century and then forgotten.
Yep, it is claimed that everyone just forgot about this massive complex with towering walls in the centre of one of the largest cities.
Having been stripped, there is not much inside the walls. However there is some renovations beginning to take place. The exhibits inside are merely items from other places / period pieces which is a bit disappointing, but overall the complex was pretty awesome and well worth the visit.
They are doing some restoration works, but the walls and the view over the souk and of the nesting storks was our highlight.
We then went to the small but intricately carved Saadian tombs and cat sanctuary.
The outside tombs are for the guards and servants, and the inside ones for the royal family. The tomb, although well preserved, was apparently only rediscovered in 1917.
To finish the day we visited the Bahia Palace. It was absolutely amazing.
The time taken to decorate the 19th century palace with such intricate detail was just mind-blowing.
The courtyard gardens, always a breath of fresh air.
Day 3
We kicked off day 3 with the ‘Museum’ of Marrakech.
It’s just another palatial building that is magnificently decorated, with not much in the way of exhibits. The chandelier was pretty epic and the ancient ferris wheel was cool though.
Timothy decided to try a pigeon pastille. It was a very strange mix of sweet and savoury that was not good. No.
The Ben Youssef Madrasa was an Islamic University and was one of the highlights of our visit because of its size, beauty and the vast array of interesting architecture to be discovered.
Centred around a large courtyard, the students rooms are fun to explore over two levels.
We were super excited to try out a Hammam, as we didn’t find time in Turkey and our travel-ravaged bodies were begging for some attention.
The building was beautiful and the whole process was like nothing that we had done before. It was a wonderful experience and we highly recommend it.
That evening as with all, we spent some more time in the bazaar. True to the Aladdin story, Timothy purchased a (magical) antique lamp from a strange stall for a crazy low price. When we came back to the mini square five minutes later the mysterious vendor had disappeared! No Genie has been forthcoming as yet unfortunately.
In addition to the lamp, we also purchased a handbag and sandals for Miranda, a display serving dish, wallet, and a lavishly embroidered shirt for Timothy. Timothy was also awarded a leather gift from the handbag vendor for driving a hard bargain. We were unsure if this was some kind of joke or whether we had actually succeeded in the bargaining experience. It was a hard-struck deal that took a long time to negotiate, so we feel it was genuine.
We got very lost in the dark back alleys this night.
Day 4
For our last day we made a rookie error and walked to the Jardin Majorelle (Yves Saint Laurent Garden) in the scorching heat. By the time that we arrived, the cool oasis was a godsend.
The gardens, being designed with free use of Marjorelle blue, are striking. Yvesy purchased the gardens the 80s and added his own little touches to it.
The gardens are beautiful, and well worth the taxi price to travel there from the Jemaa el-Fnaa and entrance. We spent the afternoon there relaxing in the tranquil atmosphere.
While we tried many, many interesting dishes and delicacies when in Marrakech, the camel spleen was probably the most adventurous. Miranda did not enjoy it. Timothy says give it a go, he would eat another.
After running the stink gauntlet out of the square, and getting to the air-conditioned airport, we were very excited to be returning to Spain.
Segovia, originally a Celtic settlement, means ‘city of victory’. The Romans left a lasting impact on the area, building an awe-inspiring massive aqueduct bridge across the valley to the walled town. The Spanish have since upped the ante with a huge cathedral and a fairytale castle. It may be a short ride from Madrid, but it takes your imagination a long way.
You really should check out our extra photos here.
It’s a cheap high speed train that spirits you from Madrid to Segovia in about two hours. From the train station there is a shuttle bus that drops you right at the aqueduct.
Nothing had prepared us for how big this thing was going to be. It is gigantic.
It blew Timothy’s socks off. He went a little crazy for a bit before settling into quiet awe. Built somewhere in the first century AD, it still carries water today.
Being an unseasonably cold day, we quickly ducked into a shop to grab Miranda some tights before climbing the steps into the old town.
It’s a quick stroll that is easy to navigate to the 16th century late gothic style cathedral which looms over the centre of town like a behemoth, demanding attention.
Inside is a vast area, sectioned off into separate chapels.
It takes a while to walk from one section to another, and whilst it is bigger than yo momma, it is not really ornate or anything special to behold inside.
Walking along the main path to the Castle, it’s pretty much a straight route surrounded by lovely old buildings. We had to stop in for a snack at the flat pig place. I mean, where else would you go?
The castle is unbelievably beautiful and juts out on the cliff over some pretty countryside.
Its first inception is thought to have been a Roman fort, upon which stone foundations an Arabian wooden fort was built.
After the Reconquista it was converted into a fortified palace by the Castillians, the forefathers of Spain.
It eventually ended up becoming a prison for 200 years, before also being used as an artillery academy which of course caused a fire that destroyed much of the buildings.
Eventually it was restored based upon drawings of the interior. It must have been wondrous in its original form and is said to be one of the inspirations of Disney’s castle in Cinderella.
There are still exhibits from the Artillery Academy to see, and it is definitely worth a look in.
Also you can also go up onto the roof for some fantastic views of the surrounding area, and a great overview looking back at the walled oldtown.
On the way back from the castle, we took the long way, enjoying the beautiful town with so many varying influences from its long sordid history.
Of course also filling up on ridiculously delicious snacks.
That night back in Madrid, we were able to stop in once more at the National Museum during free time, before getting the last red wines and delicious tapas of our Madrid adventure.
Madrid, capital of España. A big modern city that has kept its historic charm. It’s a cultural centre with so many beautiful and delicious attractions that will win your heart and make you want to stay.
See more photos here.
We were so surprised by how wonderful Madrid was; we didn’t expect it to be quite so great and had only set 3 days there. Rookie error. When we were planning our trip, we had to decide between Madrid and Barcelona, and went with Madrid because Barcelona was described, amongst other things, as being for ‘young people’ and a party town. Madrid was more an old people destination of history and culture. Pfft.. young people.
Arriving in Madrid, our Airbnb had a cute dog called Gizmo (Githmo). Gizmo kept us company at the gate because both his owners had decided that even though we had shown up at the agreed time, they were not so keen on the idea. Such a nice dog and so many great pats were had.
As it was already dusk, we went to the corner bar for some tapas and Patatas Bravas. Being out in the burbs, they didn't speak any English. Timothy hadn't brushed up on his Spanish yet, so what followed was some awkward and confusing conversations. One could be translated as:
Barkeep: Ok, so do you want normal sauce or spicy sauce with your Patatas Bravas?
We found that for the most part, Spain wasn't as spicy as we thought that it would be, Chorizo is a pretty middle of the road snag, and diablo salsa a quite agreeable devil sauce.
Day 1
We kicked off the day with the amazing Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. We highly recommend it, there are so many good pieces.
It’s tucked away in a lovely little garden just off the main drag.
We spent a lot of time just walking around on the first day enjoying the beautiful city.
It’s really lovely!
We bar hopped as we walked, trying our luck with the free tapas that comes with drinks, discovering a lot of lovely little cafes and bars. Mostly, your first plate of tapas is olives. Never in our lives have we eaten so many olives.
One thing that you should be wary of as well is the pastries. You don’t know what you will be getting. We quite often found little fish surprises. Not in a delicious way…
One of our favourite places was the Cervecería 100 Montaditos chain that served Tinto de Verano (red wine and soft drink), cold from the tap. It sounds stupid and not at all delicious, but it is really great light drink that keeps you refreshed in the warm weather.
A bunch of museums are free entry in Madrid from 6pm-8pm. So, you can head to these at the end of the day for a sweet time. Be aware that everyone else knows this as well and you will line up for around 20-30 minutes to get in. For the first day we chose Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
It’s a repurposed hospital and a treat in itself, but also a little hard to navigate at times because it is an old hospital. It’s the National Gallery for 20th century art and has sweet Dali and Picasso pieces amongst the other magnificent displays. Under two hours is not enough time to give this place justice, but you know... free.
Day 2
We started off the second day early as we had a big one planned. A few fish pastries got us on the move...
We kicked it off at the Museum Cerralbo, an old noble palace that was converted into a museum to house the family's amazing belongings.
Every room was exorbitant and filled with fascinating items.
Beautiful furniture was littered throughout the manse, and each room was a new treat.
Out of control.
We love old libraries. A lot.
The ballroom was INSANE.
And just around the corner is the Temple of Debod.
An actual Egyptian temple, dismantled and shipped piece-by-piece to Spain, as a gift from the Egyptian government. Just sitting in a park in Madrid.
The Spanish government helped Egypt save a whole heap of ancient temples back in dickety-two. The temples were painstakingly mapped and taken apart to be stored in warehouses. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of temples just sitting as piles of stones with instructions on how to reassemble them in Egypt. Crazy! Having not been to Egypt, we found that it was a really cool and weird part of the city. I want one.
And just around the corner from that is the Royal Palace of Madrid. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos in the palace.
But, take it from us, it is unbelievably extravagant.
Entry is expensive but definitely worth it. Extremely ornate rooms that are lavishly decorated. It's an awe inspiring experience.
For a break from the intense palaces, Miranda had churros from Chocolateria San Gines.
You get liquid chocolate in a tea cup and churros to dip it in. Super lecker.
La Latina neighbourhood is one of the oldest in Madrid. Narrow alleys, large squares and tons of lovely little bars. The Bava Caja street came up as a recommended area and it didn't disappoint.
We bar hopped through a few cute places, drinking a bunch of great wines and eating tons of tapas.
Timothy finally got to try one of those giant legs of jambon (ham) that are hanging up in every eatery around town. He got the small (huge) plate. It was some damn delicious meat.
And also there were the amazing churches and cathedrals.
We had a quick peek in at Iglesia San Andres, which was in baroque style and gaudy as shit but cool. Apparently a lot of the decorations were destroyed during the civil war, we were unsure where they fit them.
From there, it was a short stroll down to San Francisco el Grande Basilica. As we were going in, we met an old couple, who said it probably wasn’t worth the €3. We figured that we would check it out anyway and sent them up the road to the free San Andres…
Well.
If they weren’t impressed by San Francisco, they’d probably hate us for sending them to San Andres.
It’s massive and lavishly decorated.
The €3 goes to the tour operator, and we were able to join a tour just after it had started. This took us out the back into the cloisters and abbey but most of the tour info is just religious nonsense.
Timothy, full of wine, was up to a fair bit of mischief.
After that we were on our our way to this evening’s free museum and stopped in at the Museo Del Jamon (museum of ham).
So naturally had more wine and meats and tapas and fun. Miranda had more hot chocolate of course.
The Museo Nacional del Prado was packed. The line stretched around the massive building in the rain, but moved fast, so we were in pretty quickly. It’s Madrid’s main gallery and is spectacular. We only went in the free times this and the next day, but if you have time, it is well worth a full day itself. To be honest all of the museums blew us away, it was beyond compare to anything that we had seen before. I guess we found out why they are known as the Golden Triangle of Art.
To end the day we went to this cool bar with tartan walls and lion statues. Cheap scotch, great tapas, fantastic red wine. Drunk.
Our third and final day in Madrid was spent out in Segovia, which is a short train ride from Madrid, but that gets its own post because it was so damn good.
Marseille, main trading port of the French Empire, now France’s second largest city. The area has been inhabited for over 32,000 years and was a Greek settlement from the 6th century BC, so it has a lot of history to go along with it. The internet has plenty of traveller warnings about Marseille, and up until recently it was considered not worth the risk of visiting. We loved it.
There are more photos here.
Arriving at dusk, we once again had issues with getting into our Airbnb, but once inside, the flat was really lovely and had a wonderful bathroom full of plants.
Day 1
The first thing that you will notice about Marseille is that it is a big, dirty, stinky shithole. But once you scratch the surface, you find that it is a wonderful city, with many beautiful avenues, parks, palaces, churches, museums, islands, calanques… and the list goes on. Do yourself a favour and go to Marseille.
With so much to see and do, we decided to start with the left bank of the port and see how much we could pack into a day. Walking from the dirty streets around our apartment, very soon we found ourselves on wide, tree-lined avenues, going past massive beautiful buildings. We strolled through Jardin Pierre Puget and had a break to catch the city views (and our breath) before continuing up the hill to Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde.
We recommend getting the bus to the Notre Dame...
The fortified church was an amazing sight.
It’s an awe-inspiring multi-levelled experience, with plenty of areas around the building to explore.
It also has the best views in Marseille.
Coming back down the hill we stopped in at the super old, 5th century Abbaye Saint Victor.
Continuing along the coast, we were a bit devo to find the old Fort Saint Nicholas mostly inaccessible.
Still, it has some great views of the harbour, and this awesome WWII memorial made from the old windmill.
From this fort to Fort Saint-Jean, the city defence chain once stretched across the water. The first time it was put to the test, it failed to be effective. The Aragonese carried it home as a trophy after sacking the city for three days.
Walking from the fort, it wasn’t long before we made it to the Palais du Congres la Pharo which has a lovely garden and a nice area to hang out.
It is also positioned in a lovely spot to enjoy even better views of the bay, the MuCEM museum, Fort Saint-Jean, and the old port area across the water.
We continued along the scenic waters edge around the peninsula on La Cornische du Kennedy, enjoying the beautiful seaside until we reached The Monument aux Morts de l'Armée d'Orient.
We went under the pretty bridge into the Vallon des Auffes inlet and had delicious wine and cheese for lunch looking at the water.
Tired as all buggery, and maybe a little lazy from the wine, we took the bus all the way back to the centre of the port.
We finished the afternoon by visiting the very interesting Fort Saint-Jean.
The audio guide was fascinating, the fort has a ton of history, plenty to see and experience, including art exhibitions.
Unfortunately we were a bit late in the day, so had to rush through the fort to be able to fit in the connected museum (MuCem) as well.
The Museum has a collection of ancient artifacts from the area and also while we were there, had several interesting exhibitions including one on parades from around the world with some awesomely disturbing costumes.
Both the fort and Museum are well worth half a day.
Day 2
One of the best day trips that you can do is head out to one of the Calanques. We went with Calanque de Sugiton.
We took the bus to Luminy, and from there you can just follow 80% of the other bus travellers who are heading out there, but there is a pretty large path to follow.
One thing we really noticed about the landscape is that there is a vastly different palette of colours than we are used to.
It seemed to have this blue/lavender hue that was stunningly beautiful.
Before heading down to the inlets, we walked up to the lookout to the right of where the paths split.
There are some really fantastic views, and it made us really excited to get down there.
But it does take about 45 mins to get to the bottom. And there is no shade so wear a hat. Or your scarf wrapped around your head if you aren’t smart enough to take a hat when travelling.
It’s a long walk down, but you are kept excited by the wonderful scenery and little teasing glimpses of the Calanque.
After a long, hot walk down, we were rewarded with a beautiful little inlet with wonderfully clear blue water.
Clear, blue, freezing water. So cold that we could only bear to have our feet in for less than a minute.
Everyone else didn’t seem to mind.
We spent an hour or two down there enjoying a picnic in the shade, and soaking up the beauty. It was quite a popular day there, and it would only be worse on a weekend in summer.
Day 3
The weather swung from a beautiful the day before, to unbelievably terrible. We maybe only spent an hour out of the apartment walking around Le Cours Julien, an old dodgy part that you wouldn’t recommend. Being Sunday, everything was shut anyway. But we enjoyed snacks and wine, ate ice cream, and went to a French restaurant where Timothy got duck (of course) and Miranda a camembert salad that included a whole wheel of cheese. A whole damn wheel.
Sometimes it’s nice to have the day off, relaxing, drinking French wine and watching movies.
Day 4
We took a bus to Aix-en-Provence where we discovered that everything is also shut on Mondays. EVERYTHING.
It was still a cute little village though.
We had a nice walk around, enjoying the buildings and parks.
Making doggy friends.
Actually there was one manor open, which we were able to check out, but it was small and we were only inside for about 15 minutes.
Back in Marseille, we went to Palais de Longchamp.
But unfortunately we were too late in the day for entry to the museum, so we decided to take a stroll along the right side of the port.
We used the rest of the afternoon to check out the old part of the port. We walked to Cathedral de la Major, and searched the narrow old streets for a reasonably priced restaurant. Unsuccessfully.
Timothy was rewarded with a consolation Marseille beer though.
Day 5
To the detriment of Miranda’s anxiety, we had just enough time before our flight to Madrid to look at the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Palais de Longchamp, which we had missed out on the day before.
It was a fantastic gallery, and lovely morning followed by a mad rush to make our flights.
Nice. It’s Nice. Officially titled Nice la Belle, which means Nice the Beautiful, the original Roman name was Nike, after the victory here against the Ligurians. A really lovely beach town that, like all French cities, has an overpowering stench of piss.
See more photos here.
The Italian riviera and the French riviera have a plethora of little gorgeous spots you will never want to leave. After the Italian train kerfuffle, and a very quick stop in Monaco, we didn’t arrive in Nice until the evening, so it was early to bed to make an early start the next day!
Day 1
Nice was an 18th to 19th century favourite holiday spot for the British aristocracy, so there are some damn fancy estates to be seen.
In the morning, we took a short bus ride to the district of Cimiez in Nice, to see the Roman ruins.
Under Nice are the ruins of a bath town the size of Pompeii.
What they have excavated is located within a lovely set of gardens that also have an olive grove.
On one side of the gardens there is also a Franciscan Monastery.
On the other is the fantastic Matisse museum. We are both big fans of his work. Matisse spent most of his later life in Nice, nearly 40 years, and the museum has one of the largest collections of his work, although a large proportion is unfinished works (which Timothy strangely loves).
The Notre-Dame de Nice is the biggest church in Nice. Frenchify!
We had a lovely time walking around the new town. Nice is damn pretty.
But it wasn’t long before we headed into the narrow alleys of the old town, nearest to the water. Nice gets crazy windy and was a bit cold for us.
Winding our way through the beautiful old buildings, we eventually made it out to the lovely Promenade on the Bay of Angels. Named after sharks, not biblical angels of course… The ocean looked really nice and blue, but there was no chance of swimming!
The Museum of Contemporary Art (Musee d’art Modern et d’art Contemporaire) was phenomenal.
On top of all the fantastic exhibitions, you can also go on the roof for an amazing view of Nice. The gallery is in the middle of Nice, so it’s got some fantastic views.
Previously unaware of his existence, Nice was where Timothy first discovered the ‘art’ of Marc Chagall. He now hates it with a passion. The Museum is quite expensive for the amount of exhibits (and the quality, according to Timothy).
Expensive, but very delicious and really pretty, it was a really great day in Nice.
Day 2
Because we were leaving that afternoon, we caught a very early bus to nearby Èze to make the most of the day.
A mountaintop medieval village famous for its beautiful cliff top views of the ocean. Getting there so early was a great idea as we had the village to ourselves. It is magical (without other tourists) but not the BEST THING EVERRRR.
We were too early to enter the stupidly expensive garden to enjoy the best views, so we just explored the town for half an hour.
The tight, winding streets and enchanting courtyards transfix your imagination. You could get lost in the atmosphere created by the old town.
Before long, we were beginning the long walk down the mountain on the Nietzsche Trail.
Remember to stretch kids!
Nietzsche was in Eze in the late 19th century, and in summer enjoyed daily hikes down the mountain to the water.
It is rumoured that the hike back up in the heat gave him hallucinations that inspired some of his writing.
Some guides recommend walking up the path for this reason. Don’t. Down is fine!
With our limited time, we really wanted to go to Vence to see Matisse’s Rosary Chapel, but would only have time to get off the bus, have a quick squiz, then jump back on. Of course the next bus wasn’t for an hour as well, but we were lucky enough to fill it by accidentally stumbling into a 17th century noble manse in the old town. With an inconspicuous front, we were lucky to notice that you could even go inside The Palais Lascaris.
Today it’s a musical instrument museum housing a collection of over 500 antique instruments, which makes it France’s second most important collection and a lovely experience.
There are some beautiful rooms to check out, and it was well worth the entry price.
After the Palais, we jumped the bus to Vence at which point it started raining heavily. Drenched in seconds, we ran to the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence only to find it closed. Disappointed and thoroughly soaked, we sprinted back and only just made the next bus.
If we had more time, it would have been amazing to see the old town of Vence and spend a lot more time out there. There is also Saint Paul de Vence which is the last stop before Vence and looks amazing as well, perched atop its hilltop. Most of the other tourists got off there, and the walled medieval town looks like a sweet rad time.
We also wish that we had time to go up to the Fort de la Revere which you can see on the hill overlooking Nice. But we will just have to go back some other time!
Loving French train travel, it was next stop Marseille!
Cinque Terre. ‘The 5 Lands’. 5 beautiful villages on and between cliffs on the Italian Riviera, famous for the winding hiking trail between them and its stunning views.
Have a look at more lovely photos here.
Day One
Taking an express train from Milan to La Spezia, you whizz pass all of the stations for the villages that you want to get off at to arrive at the La Spezia main station. As soon as the train (that was late) stopped, 80% of the passengers ran like madmen. We followed them to a waiting train, where there was no indication of a destination and we hadn’t purchased tickets, but somehow Miranda agreed to just board the train anyway. Very unnatural for her. Within the next minute we were underway and arrived in Riomaggiore before finishing setting our bags down.
The town of Riomaggiore is cute as a button. Expensive as a solid gold one, but still very pretty.
We enjoyed a cone of fried ‘sea food’ while we waited for the shuttle to our accommodation, which is in Biassa, the next town inland (because all accommodation in Riomaggiore is super expensive). It’s a surprisingly long trip over the mountain to Biassa, but the shuttle bus is free or €1, so it is worth it. The one restaurant there is really good and half the price of those on the coast, and all the wine is top notch of course.
The Azure (blue) trail had been closed since a cyclone a few years ago. Luckily they had just re-opened a section for summer, which made our trip worthwhile.
Day Two
In the morning, we caught the train to Monterosso to begin our hike along the cliffs, as we read that this direction has less inclines and more declines. The town is also very, very beautiful.
After a hefty hill to start, it becomes easier going, with constant stunning views keeping you going.
Miranda quickly discovered how unfit she is.
Really though, it’s not a tough walk. Old people do it. Lots of them. The trail could be named Retirement Village Italy because there are more old people than you can shake a hiking stick at.
We found an old farmer along the way selling fruit, wine and Limoncello from his farm. Miranda thought that it was just lemon juice, so was rather perplexed at Timothy’s purchase of the expensive vial. It tasted amazing.
The views just kept coming.
This was probably our favourite section of the two paths that were open.
Vernazza.
Absolutely gorgeous.
The story goes that the fishermen painted their houses different colours so that they could tell which house was theirs from the sea and keep an eye on their wives.
Limoncello time! All the time!
We stopped here for an expensive tourist lunch and wine. It took us quite a while to find anything approaching a reasonable price. The wine was fantastic.
After lunch we hit the trail again. Climbing out of the valley, we came across a fantastic restaurant on the cliff that is surprisingly priced to match those in town, but with views to kill. If only we’d known!
Have I mentioned that the walks are loaded with constant breathtaking views?
They are pretty great.
We arrived in Corniglia and got some delicious and surprisingly cheap gelato.
Miranda got dark chocolate and hazelnut, and Timothy got pistachio and mint, both were great choices. The shop is the first one you come across on the alleyway to the centre of town. It’s on the right and has a cute little garden with seats. With the final legs of the trail closed, we had some time to kill before our shuttle bus arrived in Riomaggiore, so we explored the beautiful cliff-top town.
We also had some more delicious wine.
Back in Riomaggiore we were still too early, so we got a huge, delicious pizza with a free bottle of wine for less than €10. Surprisingly we were still able to eat dinner at the restaurant in Biassa, even after eating half a giant pizza each! Plus more wine!
That night, we met our dorm room friend and talked about where we were going next. It turned out that he had just come from that way and he explained that the Nietzsche walk in Eze near Nice is THE BEST THING THAT HE HAD EVER DONE IN HIS LIFE. We quickly discounted this man as a boob.
We struggled for over an hour with the Italian train website; eventually it allowed us to book our tickets for the next day to Ventimiglia, the last town in Italia before France.
Day Three
Once we were on the train, we realised the website booked the tickets for an incorrect date. Whoopee. We were promptly ejected from the train at the first station where we bought tickets for the next train. We got more pasta (with baby octopi!) and booze and didn’t really feel set back.
When we arrived in Ventimiglia, near the border of France, Timothy lined up for 20 minutes in the 27 minute gap between trains while Miranda tried ticket machines and other customer service desks for tickets to Monaco/Nice. She eventually found the right ticket desk that we assume ¾ of the original line needed. We got our tickets and boarded the train to Monaco just in time.
Milan. It’s a big dirty business centre, but we didn’t care, we were finally in Italy. Ciao Ciao, Bella!
Have a look at more photos (mostly of the Duomo) here.
We arrived, bleary eyed as usual, and caught the super expensive bus from the airport to get to the central train station. All the main attractions are a walk from there, so we put our luggage in at the train station for a hefty fee and were served by impressively jerky men. They weren’t so bad with us, but dropping off and collecting our bags, we got to witness some amazing customer service.
We had already made an executive decision not to see the dilapidated Last Supper. We hadn’t booked months ahead to secure a ticket and couldn’t be assed with the hassle/cost of the alternative ways to see it.
Walking through the city, it didn’t have such an ancient city feel to it. Being the second most populous city in Italy, it’s all business on the streets. That being said, it is still a pretty stylin place, a centre for fashion, the houses are beautiful, and there are lots of fancy sports cars buzzing around. Plus we were on a countdown until lunchtime and our first taste of Italian food and wine!
The Duomo is the main attraction for Milan tourists.
It’s the fifth largest cathedral in the world, has the most statues and is an awe-inspiring sight to behold.
When we arrived, it had a big line stretching out into the Piazza del Duomo, but it moved fast and was definitely worth the wait.
There are of course enough creepy old dead dudes kept in glass coffins to scare small children. Stop it, it’s just weird!
The silly buggers even let you go on the roof!
It took over 600 years to complete, with Napoleon, who was then the King of Italy, finally ordering the completion of the façade. It was at this point that it was deemed completed, although work continued and kind of never really stopped!
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is right beside the Duomo and is impressive in its own right.
One of the world’s oldest shopping malls, it’s magnificent.
After a glorious air conditioned stroll through the galleria, we headed to Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, part of a 9th century convent and rumoured to have stunning frescoes/paintings hiding behind an inconspicuous exterior. There was a service on when we went, so we couldn’t see much.
So we ate some pasta, and had some delicious wine and visited the spectacular Pinacoteca di Brera art gallery.
Before long we said ciao to Milano as we jumped the next train to Cinque Terre!
Athens. The birthplace of western civilisation. One of the most important cities in history. It is rich in culture, history and beauty, but is now one of the poorest in Europe. Excitement does not begin to describe our emotions heading into this part of our journey.
You should look at more of the photos here.
Day One
We arrived at the ancient port of Piraeus early in the morning. The area is so large that you catch a bus from where you dock to the exit. It is then quite a long train trip into Athens. What is amazing is that there were originally ancient city walls stretching all the way out to the port, around a long narrow road.
We couldn’t check into our Airbnb until the afternoon, so we attempted to store our bags at the bag storage at a city train station. They were all full at more than one station, so we ended up paying far too much to put them in a travel office.
When built, the metro stations all unearthed ruins and a lot of money went into working around them, preserving what was found and displaying what was left. Even the train stations here are cool!!
Here you can see the tracks running right by the Stoa of Attalos and the Ancient Agora. Not much room left in Athens!
We were very excited that this day had finally come, so we figured that we would get the big stuff out of the way first.
The Acropolis. It's one of the most famous and easily identifiable monuments to Ancient Greece.
It has been used as a fortified hill since 2000 BC.
From 480 BC it began to receive the monuments that made it famous, after the old buildings were destroyed by the Persians.
Since the decline of the ancient Greek state, the monuments have suffered greatly, with the buildings being converted to everything from Harems to churches and palaces.
The worst damage came to the Parthenon when the Ottomans, in 1466, were besieged by the Venetians in the Acropolis fortress. They were using the Parthenon as a gunpowder store. Which then exploded. Great work guys.
A symbol of the great achievements of Greek Democracy, The Parthenon is the main attraction in Athens and so, of course, it is very busy with other tourists jostling for position.
On top of the crowds it was hot and sunny without shade, while a strong wind also harried the hill, keeping Miranda in a constant battle with her skirt. That and a lack of normal sleep detracted from the experience for her a little.
The Erechtheion, the site of the legendary contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of the city. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, creating a spring of salt water. Athena planted an olive tree, which provided food, oil, and wood. Athena won (obviously).
The olive tree from Athena (replaced by Princess Sophie). There is also a hole in the roof of the temple and the floor to the rock, where Poseidon’s trident passed.
The whole Acropolis area is really amazing. It is filled with humongous ancient structures, and surrounding the fortress hill are loads of sites to explore.
We found some of the old holy caves in the sides of the Acropolis.
Walking through the old town, it is a wonderful day of exploration of a magical city.
Making many stops on the way, our next location was the Roman Agora.
We were having a pretty good time.
Stumbling across places like the ruins of Hadrian’s Library without even knowing that they were there.
We continued walking on to the Ancient Agora, a very large area that is very impressive. There are many things to see in this area, with some pretty decent descriptions provided.
The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos and the museum of Agora artefacts housed within were great. Here is Timothy appearing to be sucked into it.
Once again, having a completely restored building to see how it could have looked is an awesome idea, albeit controversial and sad that the original wasn’t preserved well enough. The issue lies in that too many times people have gotten the reconstruction wrong…
The entrance to the Odeon of Agrippa.
And the Temple of Hephaestus. The place is just so good!
We also stopped in at some markets and tourist shops (because Timothy was over-excited) and picked up some perfectly ripe strawberries. We didn’t stay out late and see any of the sights at night because we were dead tired.
Just like all these dogs.
Day Two
The apartment that we had was pretty great and it was nice to have a view of the Acropolis from the balcony, even if we did stay out of the touristy zone.
The second day, we went to the Athens Archaeological Museum which was unbelievable.
We didn’t even realise that they had the famous Agamemnon exhibition there. We were leaving when we stumbled into it!
The Antikythera mechanism!! omgomgomgomgomg
Either Zeus or Poseidon, throwing a lightning bolt or a trident.
Really, really cool stuff. The Museum is a must see.
Everywhere we walked in Athens was filled with amazing sights. The weather was good, we were always full of delicious Greek food, it was just a ridiculously great time.
Pictures really don’t do the Temple of Zeus justice, it’s massive. Like a towering gargantuan of ancient awesomeness.
Really, really big. Much bigger than the Parthenon.
The Byzantine museum was a bit lack lustre (in comparison to everything else!) and was mostly religious artefacts from the period.
Doing a lot of walking around Athens, you can really see the effects that the financial crisis has had on the city. The ‘real’ city is dirty, with a lot of displaced people and abandoned shopfronts.
Day Three
Our last day was spent mostly in museums; there are, as you can imagine, a lot to choose from. The Acropolis Museum was amazing. It is new, and very fancy, housing artefacts from the Acropolis area. So many statues! The real Caryatids from the Erechtheion (replaced with reconstructions) are in the museum which are awesome, minus one that is in Britain (goddammit Britain!).
It also has a great view of the Acropolis!
Being a new building, of course it was discovered that it was to be built on top of ruins (as everything must be), so you can see right into them from the ground floor!
The war museum would have been cool if there was any information. So many conflicts to explore with great exhibits, and a great afternoon could be had if only there was some English explanation.
Probably the best discovery was this cool Dalek looking British sentry box thing.
We also ran into these duders.
Our flight was at stupid AM, so we decided to spend the night from 11pm at the airport instead of having to get up at 2.30am to get there in time. There were no seats without armrests, so we couldn’t lie down anywhere; classic airport jerkiness. There were even signs saying that you can’t lie on the floor.
We ended up going to a café where Miranda slept while Tim drank beer so that we were allowed to stay.
Thera, the location of the volcano that devastated the ancient Minoan population. It is a stunningly scenic volcanic crater rim in the middle of the beautiful Aegean ocean with plenty to see, eat and drink.
Check out more photos here and videos here.
Day One
The cheapest accommodation that we found was 2km from the centre of Fira, but it was well-positioned and pretty nice. Our first day saw us taste the salty-as-all-buggery water from the tap and then walk to the bakery 500m up the road. That is exactly how it sounds; you walk up the road, as there are no paths out from Fira, the island’s main town. Clearly, no locals walk anywhere. Anyway, Greek bakeries are tops and the traditional spinach pies are the best. Miranda reckoned her cheese pastries that she had every morning were fantastic, but really it was just flaky pastry and not even very good cheese - each to their own.
Buses run to almost all of the island, however they are infrequent, and walking between some of the places can get quite tedious and tiresome. The whole island is basically on a slope. Plus if you have a packed day, you almost use as much money in bus services as hiring a scooter, and the scooter means that you can do more (and get to all the inaccessible wineries). Also the roads are scenic and winding, so it is a great ride. We definitely recommend hiring a motorbike for your entire time. The scooters at our hostel were not the cheapest. It is best to head up to Fira and bargain hard. Because Timothy was doubling Miranda and also just because of all the hills, we got a 150cc over a 125. The 125 will not cut it for some of the longer journeys or the steeper hills. Most shops will cut a decent deal for more than one day hire. Because we left it until we only had one day of hire left, Timothy had to do some sweet talking to get the 150cc for €15. Once we got going, we felt like fools for not having it for the other days.
We decided to spend our first day seeing the main sights of the archaeological site of Akrotiri and the pre-historic museum.
Akrotiri is the ruins of the pre-historic, likely Minoan, settlement that was destroyed by the eruption of the volcano around 1600BC. The man who started the archaeological site sadly died there, falling down one of the excavation shafts.
The ash and mud preserved the town pretty well and it is definitely worth checking out. The site is well complemented by the historical museum, with your understanding of how it all originally stood.
They have the frescoes from the town which were all stunning. Miranda was really excited because she studied Thera in high school, so recognised most of them.
You can imagine that they weren’t the classiest interior decorators.
There was also this fossilised olive tree from the Caldera cliff face that is 60,000 years old!!
While out at Akrotiri we also stopped in at the red sand beach which is only a short walk from the site. Not really that impressive, it was also windy and uninviting. At the Caldera it is interesting to see all the different rock layers on the cliff side from the different eruptions; the red one is also evident even there.
We had to wait quite a while for our return bus, but heading up to Fira, we had our first taste of Lucky’s Giros. Lucky is a batshit crazy local who owns the best souvlaki hut in the world. He is super friendly and his Giros is superb. If you can, try to avoid sitting in the restaurant or risk having your ear talked off by someone who is completely nuts. He makes the meat stacks himself, and I cannot recommend going there enough. Every day. As many times as you can. Get the Giros pita, Lucky even says himself how much better the Giros is than the souvlaki.
Santorini is stunningly beautiful.
In some sections you can see the ocean on both sides of the island from where you stand.
Staring off into the Caldera should be a daily ritual for all visitors, it is breathtakingly beautiful and you can spend ages enjoying it. We went up every afternoon, and wish we could continue to do so. That is without even mentioning the sunsets.
Oh my.
It is unbelievably marvellous, you are so high with such magnificent views of the crater and cliff, and the colours just after the sun sets are wonderful. You can apparently see Crete from Santorini but we didn’t have a clear enough day. The days were all a bit hazy off in the distance over the ocean.
Day Two
The next day, we got a bus to Koutsoyannopoulos Wine Museum, which was such a short ride that the driver didn’t even manage to collect our money until we arrived. Santorini is famous for its white wines, however the reds are also pretty impressive.
The visit to the museum, which was in a long underground cave, was €7 each, which included an audio guide and 4 tastings.
The museum was super, dooper, zooper lame.
Every now and then there was some interesting information, but it was mainly full of creepy mannequins that looked like they’d been made by 7 year olds in the 70s. It’s a bit of a laugh, but not worth the entrance and the wines weren’t great. The dessert wine was the best, and dessert wines are terrible.
We asked an employee if we could walk to the next winery on our list, Gaia (pronounced Yaya), to which she said no. But, being stubborn, cheap and also confident in our walking ability, we decided to walk anyway, following the road signs…
Over an hour later in intense heat, walking along a narrow road with cars zooming past, we reached Gaia. It was worth the effort.
The winery is really lovely, as it’s right on the water.
We sat outside to do our tasting, just metres from the ocean, with no one else around and a beautiful Greek lady hosting us. For €5 we got to taste an Assyrtiko (really really good; our guide said the winemaker described it as “a white for red drinkers”), a red from Santorini (delicious but unfortunately €22 per bottle), a Vin Santo (dessert wine), plus a red from their Nimean winery, which we ended up buying as it was only €9 and delicious. And we also had some of their tasty balsamic vinegar on rock bread (barley... and possibly stone).
The older woman working there wrote down some good names for red wines from Santorini for us, and directed us to one of the places on the list, about 25 minutes away. Unfortunately it was Sunday, and after we finally arrived (after more walking in the heat) we found it was closed on Sundays. At this point we decided to give up on wineries and wait for the bus back.
Fira is the main town, and we found ourselves there a couple of times each day.
For the evening, we chucked some nicer clothes on and headed up to Fira for our anniversary, having a really delicious Greek dinner at a restaurant up on the Caldera and then some sweet romantic timez watching the sun go down.
Day Three
We had booked in a tour for the next day of the volcano and the hot springs. However in the morning as we walked up to Fira, we were cold, it was windy, and the looming ominous clouds suggested it was not the optimal day.
We returned to our hostel, noting the roof guard dog of a neighbouring mechanic’s. No one is getting on our roof! We asked if we could change our volcano tour tickets to the next day, which we could. We went up for another awe inspiring view of the Caldera, even with the horrible clouds, before being blown by the cold winds back to our apartment. It was a great choice and we had a lovely day off out of the bad weather.
Day Four
The next day also looked bad, but we didn’t want to rebook again and so opted to go out on the boat trip regardless.
The walk down the Caldera steps at Fira is something you defs should do. The walk down. The walk back up is not recommended, it is a very long and steep path.
Timothy was adamant that he would do it, up until he had finished the walk down, then he decided that he could, but wouldn’t.
The view is lovely and you feel a part of the island. Apparently the building blocks of the city were carted up these steps (on the back of a donkey of course). The smell of donkey and horse manure is quite unbearable. It’s a shitty walk.
The boat ride we were lucky enough to share with a noisy school group from the US, but it was still enjoyable regardless.
At least it wasn’t an effing Rihanna party boat. That thing is miles away and the music was loud from where we were.
You pull up into a pretty port area of the volcano island Thirassia, and clamber over the other moored boats to get to shore.
The trek up to the top of the volcano sees you go through different sections of rock types from the different eruptions that have built it up over time.
There is a surprisingly large amount of vegetation that grows up there.
The walk up is about 1km of incline, but they have these strange shade stops which are completely out of place. Like something from a tropical island, but in the middle of a sulphuric active volcano wasteland.
At the top, there are about 7 different peaks to capture shots from.
There were a couple of little areas where smoke was curling out, releasing sulphur. It’s not captured so well by the camera.
The panoramic views of the island, Santorini and other islands are breathtaking.
It’s funny but all the bad weather and clouds were centred overtop Fira, it was a clear and lovely day away from the main island!
It was pretty amazing being on a real, actual volcano (especially such a famous one, with the capacity to destroy entire civilisations!).
After the easy stroll down, we went over to the hot springs, or rather ‘the lukewarm springs’.
The boat parks a bit out and you dive off the side and swim out to the volcanic jet area with red water that gradually went from freezing cold to not as cold and then finally something approaching near warm. There are goats, a chapel, and a toilet on the island. You will probably get to watch the other tourists keenly slopping the iron rich red mud from the volcano floor all over themselves. Be aware that this mud stains and also will stay in your hair for a day or two, so apply it to yourself at your own risk.
To top off the day, we grabbed a Giros, hired a scooter and went to sample some delicious wines at Santo Wines.
They are a bigger company that allows you to try wines from a variety of local growers. Not usually our way of going about it, but...honestly.
It’s a pretty great place.
That evening we headed out to Oia for the famous sunset. The ride was absolutely stunning, along winding cliff roads, above the ocean and farmland. Really enjoyable. Tips about the going to Oia for the sunset: find out what time the sun sets and don’t be early.
Or, after getting your spot and waiting for hours after when the sun should have set, wait a little longer.
The sun disappeared and after a couple of minutes, we left, eager to beat the rush back to Fira, only to have the beautiful hues of colour cascade across the Caldera as we were walking out.
We still got a couple of really fantastic shots, but not from our great spot that we had set up. Dinner in the warmth of the apartment with some wine that night was a well-deserved reward.
Day Five
Having the bike from the morning, we were able to scoot up to our breakfast bakery and then to Ancient Thira earlier than all the tourist buses.
Ancient Thira is some amazing ruins set in an amazing position atop the mountain.
The city hasn’t had newer settlements built atop it, so it is still set out the way that it was.
It’s a really good reflection of how a town would have been, with real issues like the windy side of the mountain that are well described.
It was a fantastic experience.
At the foot of the mountain on one side is the Kamari beach. You can see Ancient Thira on the left mountain and the winding road up between it and the other peak.
The water was a bit too cold for us, so we jumped back on the bike and went to some more of the island’s wineries!
Later we visited the beach at Perissa, on the other side of the Ancient Thira mountain, where Timothy braved the freezing waters and found that under the water were massive slabs of smooth volcanic rock. They were slippery to try to move on! It’s so weird how cold it was when the pebbles on the beach were crazy hot!
We decided to visit Santo Winery one last time before we had to leave.
We returned the bike that afternoon and spent our last afternoon in Fira at the Archaeological Museum for the Thira site. It was a poor showing so we settled for one last view of the Caldera before getting ready for our 1am ferry to Athens.
Rodos: famed port of the Colossus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It’s now known more as the Island of the Knights, because of the walled medieval town and castles built in medieval European style by the crusading Knights Hospitaller, who took ownership of the island in 1309. Windy, beautiful and delicious, Rodos was a welcome change of style in our travel adventure.
Click here for more photos.
Day One - Rhodes
We arrived in Rhodes at the port and walked to our accommodation. Being Airbnb, it meant that the owner had been difficult to contact in the lead up to our arrival, and of course it was the wrong address (but, if we had walked another 5 metres down the street, we would have seen it!). We stopped in at a restaurant and used the wifi to contact the host, who luckily replied within the hour, and we were finally able to check in and relax. The Airbnb was actually a family run hotel made up of single bedroom apartments. We felt that we lucked out as the room was quite nice with a fantastic 70s style green and brown decor. Timothy loved it.
The shower set up was… interesting. We inferred that it was to make people save water by making showering less pleasant? Anyway, good, normal showers from here on in were few and far between.
As we had used up all the remaining hours of daylight, we headed down to a local restaurant and experienced our first magnificent Greek meal. The Chef took you in the kitchen to show you your options for dinner (most options are partially pre-cooked), but it was actually a great way to choose.
The guy was really nice, and after a brief chat we were sitting down with a terracotta carafe of fan-bloody-tastic wine and some dolmades and olives, relishing in our ascension to food heaven. Miranda ordered a moussaka for a solid start to her Greek culinary adventure. Timothy chose something that sounded like ‘goatsee’ (we later discovered it was ‘kotsi’), because he thought it was pork knuckle. It was crispy and porky and roasty greatness that went down wonderfully.
Day Two - Lindos
We opted to hit Lindos on our first real day. With the good weather we could potentially use the beach, and being an hour and a half away, we wanted to make sure that our departure the next day was not affected by anything. We set off to the bus stop, dropping into a bakery for breakfast. Great bakery gods of the Aegean! Breakfast was a delicious range of pastries which locked in our solid return to the food travelling that we are used to. The buses out to Lindos were a €5 ride that made a lot of stops on the way, so it was a very full, loud, bus by arrival.
The ruins on Lindos are a fortified acropolis, surrounded by the town overlooking the harbour.
Lindos has been inhabited since the Dorians from Greece founded it around the 10th century BC, but the Greek acropolis was later fortified by the Romans, and re-enforced by the Knights who built a castle on it.
What you see now are a few remains and a lot of reconstructions.
It’s sad that the ruins aren't in their original condition; however, the location on the hill and the reconstructed monuments of the acropolis are impressive.
Sometimes you would just like to see it all reconstructed and walk around as the Greeks did, through the gaudily painted pillars of marble.
You can rent donkeys if you are lazy, but we weren’t keen on supporting the mistreatment of the poor animals. The paths up stank to high heaven.
The Roman walls built into the cliff are spectacular as you climb the steps following the same path that has been used for over 3,000 years.
You can see an awesome trireme carved into the cliff wall on the way up to the entrance.
We walked down into the narrow streets of the old town and checked out the tiny Panagia church. You can’t take photographs inside, but it is damn impressive and undeniably worth a look in. Do not miss this church if you go to Lindos!!
There are lots of beautiful mosaics around the old town to randomly discover, and the town itself was really exciting to get around for us, as it was our first old style Greek town. After all the hiking up and down paths, we were pretty sweaty, so headed down to the beach.
It was a pretty hot day, right up until you reached a metre from the shore. A cold wind whipped in, and as you stepped into the icy waters and the heat dropped away, all desire for a refreshing dip dissipated. A few steps back onto the beach and there it was again, the sweaty heat suggesting that you should go for a swim. We diddled around on the beach for a bit longer before deciding to trek up and see when the next bus came.
On the walk up, a couple ran past us up the steep slope. After a bit of convincing, Miranda agreed to hurry up the slope as fast as she could (it was very steep and very long). We arrived to see a bus driving away up the hill in the direction of Rhodes. The other couple that arrived just before us were at the ticket office and asked for one of the stops on the way to Rhodes, to which they received a negative response. They then specifically asked for the Rhodes 2pm bus, and were told that it was the one that just left. We then found out that the next bus back wasn’t for two hours, and so resignedly headed over to a café, when we noticed another bus pulling up facing the direction of Rhodes.
We rushed back to the ticket box, he kind of shrugged and reluctantly admitted that it will take us to Rhodes. However, it was the local bus. It took an even greater set of detours than the first bus, but we still arrived before we would have left Lindos. So make sure that you are aware of the time and the bus schedule!
We eventually got back to Rhodes and headed into the walled Old Town to finish off the day. As well some quality old town wandering, we went to Yiannis’ Taverna for some delicious moussaka and sousakakia. Well-priced, delicious food inside the walled city! After filling up we decided that lying down and digesting was probably the best thing anyone could do ever, and headed back to the apartment.
Day Three - Rhodes
We started off a bit late, and after grabbing some amazing bakery treats, we battled the freezing gale force winds and walked to most of the touristy sights outside the old town in Rhodes, also collecting our ferry tickets to Santorini on the roundabout journey.
We visited the rumoured site of the Colossus and the port that some tales describe it straddling. It’s just another of the many stories of later conquerors carrying off what was left of history that break our hearts time and time again.
Just inside the walls we were lucky enough to stumble into in a fully guided (inescapable) tour of the Rhodes stamp collection exhibition by a very enthusiastic local. After a little while he asked if we were even interested in stamps. We let him down easy... Maybe too easy, because the tour must go on! Please note that reservations for this tour are not required; merely walk into the building by accident and look at some of the vintage pictures of Rhodes beside the stamp exhibition.
The highlight of our day was seeing The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, a medieval castle built in the 14th century.
There were lots of exhibits, artefacts, mosaics, and a large castle to enjoy exploring.
We exited into the Road of the Knights that once led from the port to the Palace only to find that we didn’t have a sufficient amount of time to see the highly regarded Archaeological museum. Timothy was devastated but Miranda was the time master.
We lunched at Yiannis’ again, before getting our bags and walking down to the other port to get the ferry to Santorini.
The ferry to Santorini was truly gigantic; the size of an ocean liner cruise ship. The trip was pleasant, and we managed to get some sleep before arriving at 1am.
Marmaris is a small tourist town with a cruise ship terminal. It’s full of gaudy shops, expensive food, and half naked tourists. There is a pretty cool little Ottoman fort and a few streets of old town to have a quick look at before catching a ferry to Rhodes or taking a day trip out of town to something more exciting.
We decided to attempt to get the 9am ferry from Marmaris to Rhodes. This meant a 7am dolmus from Dalyan, which of course drove painfully slowly as the time ticked away for our departing boat. We pulled into the Ortaca bus depot before 7:30am still feeling optimistic. Timothy was out of the van and had located the stop for our next dolmus before the dust had even settled; however, there was no dolmus to Marmaris in its stop. Without any information available, we waited nervously for the next dolmus. It arrived, and we hastily boarded, only to remain at the station for nearly another half an hour. When it finally left, it was another painfully slow dolmus, which meant that we arrived 15 minutes too late for the ferry. We also had no indication of how to get there, so we trekked in what we thought was its general direction (Timothy’s favourite game) in the hope that it was running late as well. Definitely spend a few minutes searching for the bus. It’s not far, but the worst walks are when you don’t know the distance or exact location, and you are carrying all your belongings.
Since we arrived late for the ferry (it was actually still in port but was about to leave, which was very frustrating), we bought our tickets for the next ferry at 5pm. The kind ticket girl took us around to the staff room to let us store our bags. For a one hour journey, the tickets were stupidly expensive at €43.
It’s a short walk from the ferry port, through the marina district, to the bazaar and the castle of Marmaris. It’s a cruise ship terminal so the whole area is very touristy and everything caters to cashed up holiday makers. There were so many English people wearing beach gear... while not actually on the beach.
The castle is more of a small fort, and there is not much in the museum areas or much to see at all, the ramparts with the water views are pretty much it. The old town immediately surrounding the castle is also worth checking out with some cool building and old timey narrow alleys.
The bazaar is much like the Istanbul bazaar in that it is just a collection of shops in a different format to what you are used to. We travelled into the backstreets of the marina, away from the tourist prices and advertisements for standard English fare, to find a really good durum döner before having a chilled out afternoon in the park, reading on the grass. But don’t lie down! Lounging is ok, but if you lie down, the long arm of the law flexes its Marmaris muscle. Some types of sitting are also planned on being outlawed, and kneeling has just got to go!
We headed back to port early to use the free wifi for the last hour before boarding the ferry full of enthusiasm for Greece.
Dalyan is one of the less popular villages on the Turquoise Coast because it is not right on the beach. It is, however, close to some more cliff rock tombs, the ancient ruins of Kaunos, a lovely river, and a turtle sanctuary!
You know the drill, satisfy your craving for more pics here and videos here.
Day One
We arrived in rain that afternoon, and it continued storming right through until the next day. We ventured out the next afternoon when we thought that it was over, but it turned out it wasn’t.
This is where you cross the river, the larger boats are for the trip down to the beach.
We had just paid the rowboat operator to cross the river and he had run off to get change from his mother when it started to rain again. He was devastated that we didn’t want to go (he was noticeably handicapped) and only wanted us to take the change, which was fine. Timothy tried to tell him that we would be back tomorrow. We figured that he understood.
Timothy utilised our day off to be sick and tried to cure his sickness by drinking Raki. We later found out that you are meant to mix it with water.
Day Two
We got the first dolmus down to the beach in the morning. It was still a little overcast, but we wore our swimmers under our clothes in the vain hope that the sun would heat us and the sea up. We were surprised that it was a solid 15 minute ride to the beach on uncovered roads, so the dolmus fee is definitely worth it.
First stop was the turtle sanctuary for injured sea turtles. If you come at the right time of year, they also do night and morning tours to see the turtles in their natural habitat. Contact the sanctuary if you’d like to do a turtle tour, as theirs are designed to not interfere with the turtles, unlike the ones from the town, which can even be the culprits of the turtles’ injuries. We headed up to the main building to have a look at the poor sods that had been rescued by the sanctuary.
Most were Loggerheads (Caretta Caretta), all were beautiful. There were some serious heartstrings being pulled that day. There is a volunteer on site who will give you a very detailed explanation, and it was a really valuable experience, albeit quite a sad one.
A few were not doing too well, floating and not moving, or sitting on the bottom. But there was one who was on the mend - the little fella was coming up to say hello to everyone personally.
It was amazing being so close to these wonderful creatures.
Every fibre of our beings was required to restrain ourselves from patting this intelligent, majestic creature. We will live every day in regret of not doing so.
The beach was quite nice but the water was too cold for us.
Timothy had a quick dip, and then spent some time defrosting before taking the boat back to Dalyan along the river.
The river cruise is a lovely trip back through the reeds.
Miranda claimed that she saw a turtle. Timothy was just jealous and refused to believe it.
The Rowboat of Eternal Sacrifice
Arriving back in Dalyan, we headed over to the rowboat crossing where old mate was stoked to see us again. He gave us a wave and yelled something unintelligible. While we were waiting for him to finish unloading customers, a young red-haired man wearing the over-prepared-traveller-gear of a gent well past his years approached us. His name badge screamed ‘run!’ well before he introduced himself. He smiled, an awkward attempt at being human, and tried to give Timothy a pamphlet. Alarm bells sounded; flags waved; lights flashed; a crow cawed an ominous warning in the distance. ABORT! ABORT!
Timothy recoiled from the religious propaganda with the inbuilt genetic defence-mechanism of a titmouse caught in the shadow of a swooping hawk. He politely declined with a “no thanks”, to which the missionary responded, “I am an American”. How unfortunate for you. Did he think that it was going to change anything? Sure, in that case, I will have three…
Timothy replied that it was ok, he didn’t want “whatever it is”, knowing full well it was about Jesus. We boarded the boat with the missionary, his mother, and another passenger, but the ferryman was so happy to see us again that we were distracted from our fellow passengers as we attempted communication. The bloke could not contain himself, he was ecstatic. It was surprising that he didn’t hug Timothy. He feverishly tried to make conversation, about blimey knows what, Timothy was putting his limited Turkish to the test. After a short time, it became an awkward stalemate. They both didn’t understand the Turkish that the other was trying to say.
Ginger Jehovah took this as his opportunity to try and give Timothy his gospel again. Playing pretend interpreter, he utilised old mate’s enthusiasm and a line like “He is saying that he thinks you should take this”. That’s low. Old mate was confused as well. Timothy attempted to give him a stern look that conveyed the graveness of his error. Nothing. The guy was still holding it out, so Timothy stated that “It isn’t cool. You shouldn’t force your religion on others. Stop.” It worked. For a second. But it worked a little too well!
They began a hymn. Yes. Singing a hymn! We were trapped AND WERE ONLY HALF WAY ACROSS THE RIVER!! Old mate realised what was going on, stopped smiling, and put his crooked back into getting us across the river. Ain’t nobody got time for this! Good missionary number three in front of us didn’t know the words so just hummed along. Yes, we were sitting in a tiny row boat with two people singing, one person humming and a very confused Turkish man. Reaching the other bank, Timothy leapt from the boat with the agility of a well weathered seafaring cabin boy, secured the boat to the dock mooring, grabbed Miranda and turned to go. She was completely on board, without even the need of a ‘let’s gtfo of here’ look.
We put some mean distance between us and our new friends, before finally relaxing and enjoying the walk along the country road past rural shacks to Kaunos.
Kaunos (Caunos) was a kingdom that later became a fairly independent part of the Carian Kingdom, then the Lycian, and then Persian, Greek, Roman, and finally the Ottoman Turk empire.
Inhabited from before the 9th century BC, the area of the city and port was continually inhabited until the 15th century AD.
What you see is the remnants of the town built up in Roman fashion from after Alexander the Great had swept through the area, taking everything.
It was a fairly big city and was an imPORTant town with all the bells and whistles.
There are a few good examples that are well preserved and restored. The theatre, the baths (closed to us), the stoa, and Apollo Square were pretty speccy.
What made this experience one of the best ruins of our whole trip, however, was the wildlife.
It is teeming with animals.
After saying hello to the first three families of goats, we realised that there are so many other animals that you actually have to be very careful not to stand on them.
As Miranda looked down and noticed that a rock was moving, we discovered our first tortoise with its baby in tow.
We spent hours exploring the area, seeing tons of tortoises, spiders, birds, impressive looking lizards, goats, and donkeys running around. At one point we had a fright as what turned out to be a legless lizard popped out of a rock in front of Timothy.
It looked a bit funny, Timothy had to spend the next half an hour assuring Miranda that it didn’t look like a poisonous snake, and they probably didn’t have any poisonous animals in the area, as we climbed through brush that would undoubtedly be filled with animals that would kill you in Australia.
Definitely pack a picnic lunch to have in there.
It was one of the highlights of an already impressive Turkish vacation.
Timothy found an old mandarin tree. The area being unavailable for farming due to the ruins meant it was surely a pretty old variety. The sour, heavily seeded fruit indicated a lack of genetic modification in comparison to the sweet, edible, varieties we know these days.
As we walked back from the ruins, nearing the boat, we heard the distant but still excessively loud and obnoxious sounds of what could only be the American crusaders. The next corner revealed our worst fears: they were heading back from the rock tombs and they had seen us. Ginger Joe reacted with an unholy joy. He exclaimed loudly, waved at us, to which Timothy politely responded with a shy hand gesture. We passed the next corner and stepped it into high gear. Jesus himself would have to ride down on the back of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse neighing like a crazed pony for us to ride the rowboat of eternal sacrifice again. We knew that they were also powering to try and realise this eventuality; we could hear their excited chatter as the chase began. We reached the shore as the other rowboat operator was about to pull away. Timothy motioned in a pleading manner only seen in the eyes of one truly desperate. We succeeded in saving our cursed, blasphemous, souls from redemption.
Dalyan is well set up for the English summer holiday market, having several Western-style restaurants at English holidaymaker prices. We searched the backstreets off the main strip and discovered a nice little Turkish canteen with the loveliest old married couple, who came out for tea and a convo (we were the only customers) after our meal. They didn’t really speak English though, so we were home early, which allowed Timothy to get some rest for his sick and tired body.
The kingdom of Lycia, from before the 5th century BC, had its most important city in the area that is now known as Fethiye, a tourist destination and party town. The amazing cliff face tombs can be seen from the city of shitty bars, horrible tans and dodgy tour vendors.
Go here for more photos, and here for videos.
Day One
Our bus from Pamukkale to Fethiye arrived over an hour late (a four to five hour trip!); it was late afternoon with no time to do anything. We got off, walked out on to the main street and took the dolmus with the orange stripe into the tourist part of Fethiye. You ride it through to the other side of the city. It's pretty obvious you're in the right spot when you see the marina and the clean tourist areas. We had a bit of a relax after the huge bus ride, and did some internet investigating before heading down to the docks to compare boat tour options and have dinner. Our friend, the internet, had advised us that the cheapest tour options were to be found by directly approaching the boats moored in the marina, and cut out the tourist office middle man.
The companies all have a sales desks with brochures at moorings of the boat, and we quickly decided that the Ölüdeniz option was better than the popular 12 islands option. It looked infinitely prettier, and included the famous Blue Lagoon, Butterfly Valley, a waterfall, and Saint-Nicholas Island. Also, as we didn’t expect to swim much, it would be a better choice than spending most of the time at one beach, as in the 12 islands option. None of the options offered a change in the English fare for lunch. The 12 islands boats, however, did have a buffet style lunch, whereas ours was you get what you're given and that’s it. Fish or chicken. Or terrible looking spaghetti. Or a weird salad. Sigh. Since we'd managed to haggle down the price to 15TL each though, we didn't mind so much. We paid our deposit, got a receipt, and headed back to the hostel.
Second day
The next morning we were picked up from our hostel to be taken to Ölüdeniz for our boat trip. The drive seemed to take ages, with us going over and around big mountains such as the paragliding jump point on Babadag. When we arrived at the beach about an hour later, we were immediately struck by how blue the water was. It was really spectacular.
Getting on the boat was fun; it's a ramp from the back of the boat onto the shore, but of course as waves roll in, the boat moves, so you had to time it well because the ramp would fling up to head-height and fall back down into the waves, soaking you. We both scrambled on without incident, and then enjoyed the show, watching everyone else's attempts.
It felt like we sat around for ages on the boat, probably around an hour, watching the paragliders landing on the beach, but eventually we were on our way. If we had only known that we could have paraglided down and then hopped straight on the boat!
Come on, it seems legit, best restaurant fo sho.
After probably half an hour, the boat came to its first stop. It was in a pretty cove, but there wasn’t really much action to be had.
It was basically a small pile of rocks with plants on, but there was a high point that looked like it would have a good view.
Despite wearing thongs (a.k.a. flip flops, before any non-Australians get bad mental images), we climbed up the sharp rocks pretty easily, and were rewarded with a lovely view of the incredibly blue water and other islands.
There was also a Russian girl recruiting random people to take glamour shots of her on the rocks. We overheard a man offer a ‘special private tour’ with him and his friend in their dinghy, yeah riiiiight.
Timothy dived off the top of the boat into the water, but didn’t stay in long due to the cold. However, after returning his body heat to a normal temperature from laying in the sun, he professed that it was really good and that Miranda simply had to do it.
The Turquoise Coast really is a lovely area. The journeys to and from each island brought spectacular views.
The beautiful water and mountainous shoreline are fantastic, with plenty of little islands begging to be explored.
The next island didn’t have much to look at or explore either, other than the ruins of one little hut. But it was really pretty.
Each island got its own special photoshoot.
Timothy started finding ‘treasure’ in the pebbles, keeping a bit of marble that he claimed was from an ancient statue lost on a sea voyage from Atlantis.
One of Tim's many treasures
Miranda finally worked up the courage and jumped off the top deck (it took about 10 minutes of sitting on the edge of the boat) but the water was just too cold for her so she was out in a jiffy.
Lunch was woeful. They go around before lunch to find out what you want so that they can cook the exact amount. They ask whether you want fish or chicken, with spaghetti or salad, and if you want potato chips or fresh potato. Miranda ordered the tiny, dirty-tasting fish, with horrible spaghetti.
What the Efes?!
Timothy opted for the tiny chicken, salad and whatever fresh potato would bring as it couldn’t be worse than the Turkish versions of fries that we had already been experiencing. Apparently he was the first person to ever choose this option, as we then had a confusing discussion about how it is actually the same thing as the fried potatoes and you will get fried potatoes.
Next was Saint Nicholas Island, which had an 8TL entrance fee, but we had heard that there wasn’t much there to see anyway so didn’t bother, just spending the time relaxing in the sun in between diving off the boat.
Luckily they were also selling books about the island at the entrance, which confirmed that there was nothing of any real worth to see.
It’s a pretty cool little island with low walls (what was left of them) surrounding some parts of the island.
We then went to a little pebble beach where we remained for quite some time. We guessed that it was the swimming beach of the trip.
We enjoyed the lovely weather, skimming rocks and enjoying a bit of a relax.
The pebble beaches made some pretty cool sounds with each wave.
After leaving the island, it came time to clear up our tab. We now discovered that the chips in the lunch were actually not included, it was an extra. There was no point in arguing, Timothy just waggled a finger at him and called him cheeky. After paying, we realised that we shouldn’t be clearing up the bill until the end of the trip. But wait, what about the main attractions, the reasons that we booked this trip?
Timothy discovered that they had cancelled them due to the rough seas. It was an open-sided boat. Timothy pointed out at the flat water and told him that was not the case, he apologised again and tried ‘we don’t have time… and the rough seas’. Having vented, Timothy was content.
As we walked back to the street, we had a chat with some guys from another company who asked us how our trip was, and told us that our boat says it’s “too choppy” every time and never actually goes to the Blue Lagoon or Butterfly Valley. They had a good laugh and told Timothy to ‘lay into the fat bastard’ that was driving us back as he was the owner. As we waited for the bus, we went to book paragliding for the next morning, which Miranda was desperate to do.
The Gravity Centre company was pretty schmick, and they had really good prices. We had read all the questions to ask – what height you jump from, how long will it last, is the park entry included, costs of video/pictures, pick up etc. In this conversation (he had good English as well) he responded once with a laugh and said ‘This is Gravity’. We booked with them.
Our ride home took a little detour, where Timothy got the chance to pit himself against a wily chicken in a contest of cunning and wits. Needless to say the chicken escaped, easily outsmarting him.
Third day
We woke up to storm clouds and our hostel advised us that the paragliding flights were cancelled, so we got a refund back through them. This gave Timothy the chance to find out that the Brisbane Roar (Brisbane's soccer team) grand final was on at 9am, for which he was wished luck at finding a pub open that had Fox Sports 2. We wandered around for about 45 minutes, and found a few cafes open, but none with Fox2. He ended up just reading the score updates online. So much entertainment!
Storm clouds also meant that we wouldn’t be able to walk the Lycian way and see any of the ancient ruins. Dejected, we filled the day with a good traditional meal, getting supplies, wet strolls around Fethiye and opting for an early-ish dolmus to Dalyan. It was pretty easy to organise, just a dolmus to the main bus stop in Fethiye, and then another dolmus with Ortaca on the front (which also can be hailed at any stop on its route).
Right across from the Fethiye bus stop we discovered a place with 1.5m pide! It was pretty tops for 8TL.
From Ortaca to Dalyan, you get another dolmus. Exhausted, cold and wet, we arrived in Dalyan. We explored a bit of the town and river and opted for an early night.
Wow, is that snow? Why are there tons of Russians posing seductively in bikinis?! Ruins of Hierapolis, a large Roman bath settlement from the 2nd century BC? What is this madness? It is Pamukkale, the cotton castle.
Click here to see more photos and here for videos.
This will be of no surprise to seasoned travellers, but overnight buses are terrible. It always sounds like a great idea to combine accommodation and travel time, but the next day is always a bleary-eyed, tired mess, spent complaining about your back and your neck. Our bus to Denizli was the usual hell of constantly waking up and never being comfortable. Every bus company provides a free shuttle to Pamukkale from Denizli, so if you ever travel there just let them know that is what you will be doing.
We arrived earlier than scheduled in Pamukkale, which is usually a welcome surprise, except that it was 5am and the only thing open at that point was the bus office, plus one enterprising man trying to convince people to go with him to his 'hotel' where you can freshen up and have breakfast, all for a reasonable price of course. He announced that Pamukkale wouldn't open until 9am, and none of the other food places would either. How convenient. We opted out of his attractive and likely costly option, instead choosing to chill out, play Rummikub and read for a few hours within the shelter of the building. The bus company also lets you store your bags in a big room for the day with everyone else’s bags which is nice, but far from secure.
To kill time, we booked our bus to Fethiye through the bus stop. The clerk told us that the bus left at 4:30pm. This seemed ridiculous at 5:30am. After further enquiries, he admitted that there was another bus at 1:30pm, but he was adamant that it wouldn't give us enough time. We booked the 1:30pm bus, which actually meant that we would need to be back at the office at 12:30 to get a public bus (dolmus) back to Denizli (ten minutes by dolmus in the morning).
8am quickly arrived, at which point we decided to go early and be the first in. On our way, we discovered that on the street by the entrance, there was, of course, an open eatery. It was here we finally had breakfast, during which we noticed that tons of people were already inside Pamukkale. We finished up quickly and got into it. The excitement was palpable; we ate much too fast, risking indigestion, but spurred on by the amazing view that confronted us.
You are not allowed to wear shoes in Pamukkale. We completely forgot, and also, because of the brisk morning air, we were still wearing jeans. However, it seemed that we didn't make too much of a mistake, as the water was way too chilly for us cold-blooded Australians to even consider taking a dip in.
The calcified ground is very strange to walk on. It is rock hard and can be a little sharp in places, with ribbing from the water flows. A thin sheet of water runs over the walkways and collects in little pools everywhere.
The collection pools fill with the calcium-rich water which overflows, taking with it some of the calcium. This leads to the overflow on the rim that creates a beautiful effect.
There is a thick layer of soft chalky residue in the bottom of most collection pools, and you have plenty of opportunities to squish it between your toes, pick it up and touch it, or, like many people, just go ahead and smear it all over yourself.
Pamukkale was the location of the Roman settlement Hierapolis. The history of the hot springs and calcified pools stretch back further than the founding of Hieropolis in the 2nd century BC. The Romans believed the calcium-rich waters had healing, restorative powers. Now, let's not let science get in the way; if the Romans believed it, surely that means that you should smear it all over yourself as well, right?
In the 1960s there were hotels built on the site, and a lot of damage was done to the natural pools through redirecting the water flows to the hotel pools. They've put in some concrete pools, as you can see by the unnaturally smooth edges.
Currently you can't swim in the famous travertine pools, and a lot of redirecting work is going on, as you can hear in the video, to keep enough tourist pools open and the famous pools looking good.
Even so, there are a lot of areas now with empty calcium pools and a lot of not-so-flash-looking bits.
But all the real action is at the top! And we mean action. We were there when a busload of Russians arrived, and all of them were dressed for the beach in DTs (a.k.a. Speedos, a.k.a. men’s always-too-small swimmers/bathers) and bikinis. They seem to consider this place the ideal location to take sexy pics of their girlfriends/wives/mothers. And they really get into it.
The most picturesque pools are actually off to the side, so as you reach the top, take a left and follow the cliff around to get to the famous view of the best travertine pools.
But nearly as good as the water and the white calcium ground, are the ancient roman ruins.
Perfect for your photo shoot. It’s ridiculous and quite funny to witness. I would say that about 5% of the people walking around in swimsuits could actually have these photos taken and not scare small children.
Front Gates
It's well signed with excellent descriptions of what you are looking at, and a little bit of history.
Public latrines
The gardens are well-tended throughout the whole area.
There are GIANT snails and dandelions the size of your hand!
The settlement is quite large with plenty of things to see, but the theatre is the main attraction, with a lot of work going into restoring it.
It's Anatolia’s best preserved theatre, with some really good decorations still intact. It is very impressive.
The museum is worth the entry price, with some good pieces from the site and surrounding area, the best being the sarcophagi.
We made it down into the town with about 40 minutes to spare. We probably could have spent more time up there, but opted for caution. Since we had time, Miranda got a traditional pistachio ice cream, and Timothy decided to stop in at a barber.
Miranda put a lot of effort into her argument for why the moustache should come off. Her best point was for the prevention of a horrible moustache tan.
You can see the pain in his eyes.
And now you can see the pain on his face. His smooth, un-moustachioed face.
For 5TL Timothy got the best straight razor he ever had. Burning ear hair (see photo) and waxing cheeks turned it into a full blown makeover. He ended up paying 10TL because it was completely worth it and 5TL didn't seem enough.
After that we ran for the bus to Fethiye, only to have to wait 10 minutes or so. We'd heard Fethiye was heaps of fun, so couldn't wait to arrive.
Cappadocia is now one of my favourite places in the world. Awe-inspiring cave houses and churches, beautiful valleys, and amazing underground cities are abundant in this region rich in history. The story of Cappadocia will take you on a journey that will capture your imagination. Our picks of the area were Ihlara Valley, Derinkuyu Underground City, and getting lost in Red/Rose Valley.
For more photos, click here. You can also click on each photo to see a larger version.
For videos, click here.
Day 1
5am. Our plan was to wait in the Kayseri train station, which was dirty and full of smelly, snoring men, but out of the freezing cold, until the first bus to Goreme left (the internet said 8:30am). This plan didn't last long. When the sun rose, we decided to see if we could find the bus for something to do. There was a sign for "Otogar", which Miranda worked out probably meant bus station, being a similar to Otopark (autopark/carpark) and 'gari' for train station, so we headed in that direction.
As we walked, we checked at a hotel's concierge desk where the Otogar was. The guy pointed to a bus stop across the road; as all roads lead to Rome, do all buses on this road go to the bus terminal? We had time to burn and keeping moving keeps you warm, so we decided to keep walking, provided that the signs were clear. All the bus stops were frequent so far, so we could stop anytime, and it couldn't be far, right?
30-45 minutes and a few kilometres later, carrying our bags the whole time, with no Otogar in sight, we finally gave in and hailed a local bus. This bus was free, warm, and took us to the Otogar in less than 10 minutes, which still would have been a considerable walk, even after our initial efforts. So, when someone tells you to get the local bus to the Otogar, take their damn advice! (Miranda just checked how far it actually was, and it was 8km between train and bus stations!!). We took a Suha bus to Avanos, where we had to transfer to a dolmus (local bus), which took us to Goreme for a few Lira.
Welcome to Goreme. Brutal.
At the dolmus stop in Goreme, there was a tourist information/accommodation office with lots of confused tourists standing around it. Timothy went in for directions but instead, they called our accommodation for us, who came and picked us up, even though it turned out to only be a very short walk away.
The town of Goreme is a mix of modern touristy buildings surrounded by sandstone hills and pointed spires. It is a pretty cool looking place.
One street back from the main drag, you begin passing the fairy spires and caves in the town.
The view from the balcony of our super cheap cave house room was pretty nice.
After settling in and looking up some walks that you can take from Goreme, it was time to go out and have a look around. Miranda was optimistic that the weather would warm up, especially after a little walking. It’s the desert right?! So she put on some shorts. That lasted less than 2 minutes out the door, before she needed to go back and put jeans on. Armed with our free trails guide, we checked out some scooter prices, stocked up with hiking snacks at the market (corner shop) and headed off for our first taste of Cappadocia.
We took Kiliçlar Vadisi (valley), which begins close to Goreme and takes you to the Rose/Red Valley walks.
There are lots of different paths, as well as cave houses to explore, so it took us quite a while to go about 2km as we took lots of detours and photos.
By this point the sun was coming out and Miranda was now regretting the change into jeans.
There were a few spray painted signs pointing to Rose/Red Valley every now and then, and finally we came out at the top of what we assumed was Rose Valley. Or Red Valley. It was probably one of them.
The next two to three hours we spent exploring (read: getting lost in) the valley.
Tim's headlamp got all the cave-babes
Miranda was adamant that we weren't in the right valley, regardless of the numerous signs that we encountered. The first thing that you will realise is that the signs and arrows actually point directly at things that they shouldn’t. So, be wary of the pathside maps, because even when there are two right beside each other, they will tell you that you are currently located in different places. The basic map that you can get for free of the trails also is completely worthless.
Note the orange 'You are here' stickers. Helpful!
Either way we eventually emerged from the valley on to a hill-top road in the middle of nowhere, between Urgup and Nevsehir. It was kind of close to Ortahisar, one of the main cave castles. Miranda was tired, hungry and sore by that point, which led to an official sook, so we sat at a bus shelter (with no info signs), and hoped that a bus would come along and take us back to Goreme. The first bus was going to the city of Nevsehir, which we took to get a non-tourist priced dinner of delicious kebabs (finally), and bought some more nuts and Turkish treats.
We then headed to Çavusin, a small village with one of the larger cave settlements, instead of Goreme because Miranda was feeling better after snacks.
In Çavusin there is a 6th century cave church atop the ancient city-cave hill, with a fantastic view of Goreme and surrounds.
After exploring the Cavusin cave-town, there are some sweet views from the top.
The local markets at its base are pretty decent. We tried local wine and purchased marble dice and a tile.
Then it was time to walk back to Goreme. Hooray for more walking! That night we splurged out on dinner at the fancy Seten restaurant, which was of course atop a hill in the now freezing cold Goreme. Seten looked damn fancy, and the waiters were perfect; we even got a free wine while we were waiting for a table. The food was well presented, but the taste wasn’t as good as it sounded or looked. Turkey strikes again!
Day 2
Queensland's bikies viciously lawlessly associating all over the world.
On the second morning we hired a bike to visit the Ihlara valley, and the underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli. Unfortunately we didn't really think about the 100kms each way, for which we should have hired a bigger bike, as the 125cc scooter didn’t really cut it once we hit the open road. We didn’t get away until a bit late in the morning, which was a grave error. Uçhisar castle, in the next town over, probably could have been saved for another time, too.
Most of the cave systems at Uçhisar are closed and it is basically just the view from the top, which is admittedly fantastic. Most of the above ground citadels also had escape tunnels dug out below them.
Uçhisar was the highest point of the region and once was the largest settlement. It was deserted by its inhabitants after it became too unstable. Most of the cave rooms that you can see into from outside the cave have been revealed by the walls of the cave collapsing.
Next stop was the first underground city, Kaymakli, which, at 25TL for a 25 minute completely-packed-with-tourists experience, didn’t really seem worth it. We looked at the queue to get in and decided to keep rolling. It was the smaller city anyway. We hopped back on the bike and headed to the next, bigger, underground city, Derinkuyu, which in hindsight was the right choice.
We cannot begin to describe how immensely awesome it was exploring the ancient multi-level city.
Up to 20,000 people once lived inside and each room has different interesting characteristics.
You unfortunately get stuck behind other people in the confined spaces.
The long, narrow tunnel staircases are the only entrance and exit, so you sometimes just have to hide in a little nook in the wall while seemingly never-ending groups of people file out.
The stone wheels were a defense mechanism. From the other side it sealed to a flat surface with no purchase open the doorway. These tunnels usually also had murder holes.
Ventilation holes were apparently very well hidden on the surface and did not prove to be a weakness to attack.
The experience is supposed to only be 45 minutes, but we would have more than doubled that exploring all the sections, and we even squeezed past guided tours that were moving very slowly. Apparently, they are always opening up more sections as they slowly go through mapping it. We found a fair few that had been blocked off for unknown reasons.
Some tunnels get pretty low, almost crawling height. Definitely do not go in if you are claustrophobic. Or really fat. No fatties.
Ihlara Valley is 50km or so from Derinkuyu and the surrounds are quite flat, so it got pretty windy on the little scooter. Riding with a head wind was slow going and absolutely chewed fuel. We could see massive snowy mountains in the distances, which is probably where the arctic winds came from.
Ihlara Valley is pretty impressive looking in. The valley has a small entrance fee, but straight away this pays off as they have good signs with the valley well mapped out. We did the "3.5km" walk, which is only one way, so it's actually 7km if you need to return to your vehicle.
The lush green of the valley is a stark contrast to the sandy desert areas that we were trekking in the day before, and it is clear why it was the first settlement site of the fleeing Christians.
The bubbling brook is the lifeblood of the valley, supporting human settlement since around the 4th century AD.
The valley is peaceful and pretty. It is very lovely and quiet, with a cooler climate.
Walking the paths is relaxing, as the sounds of the water travelling over the rocks and the birds and insects force a calmness upon you.
There are quite a lot of churches carved into the valley walls.
Some of them are quite high, requiring a long trek up steps. Others require ladders to access.
The frescoes in the valley are the most impressive in the Cappadocia area. They were made by the Greeks in the Byzantine period.
We seriously could have spent all day in the valley.
The St George Church was our favourite.
Lots of jerks have scratched graffiti into everything. It is interesting that they are sometimes over 100 years old themselves. Then there is the usual religious defacement by scratching out the eyes. So silly.
We finished up in the valley a bit later than we wanted, there was just so much to see and so much more that we could have done!
There are cafes and restaurants to take your money, but we would definitely recommend packing lots of water and some snacks, and taking some time to relax and really enjoy the valley. There are plenty of beautiful spots for a picnic.
Next we scooted down to Selime to see the end of the Ihlara valley, rather than walking the whole way and then walking back.
What we thought was Selime was pretty cool.
But then we realised it wasn't Selime at all. We weren't able to discover its name.
The burnt-out church made for some fun exploring.
After we got back on the bike, only 50m up the road, we discovered the main attraction.
Selime was a massive monastery complex.
It has many great rooms with different purpose built styles
At this point we were starting to sense the afternoon drawing to a close, a feeling of uneasiness, foreboding even, of what was to come crept in. It was getting cooler in the shadows.
Some more information on Selime would be great. We would even recommend a tour (and we hate tours), because there is so much to see that would be very interesting to hear about.
We went through Selime as quick as we could. It was very hard to tear ourselves away, but we knew that we had to.
Riding back, we hoped that the wind would still be blowing the same direction to give us a tailwind boost. Silly, I know. But at least it wasn’t hitting us directly head on or pushing us sideways all the time. What little wind was present was, however, freezing. We were racing the sunset, holding the little lawnmower engine flat-tac across the plains. It felt like it took more than an hour to complete the first 50km back to Derinkuyu. Timothy's gloveless hands were getting killed. When we stopped for fuel and to get the blood moving in our bodies again, it was fully dark. We discussed whether we would stop at the next town for çay (tea) and food, or keep motoring before it got even colder, but we couldn't decide.
20km on, we were back at Kaymakli. Spotting a durum place, quickly followed by a strong gust of icy wind made the choice for Timothy. He steered the bike to a parking position. Once inside, he warmed himself standing by the kebab cooker, defrosting his hands. Soon we were sharing a durum kebab, and clutching our teas close. There wasn’t much talk, there wasn’t anything to say. We knew that this was the night we would die.
The rest of the ride home wasn’t too bad.
Back in Goreme, we took a moment to recover and layer up, but soon we were back out in the cold searching for more dinner. We decided to go with the dodgy looking Saray Local food 'restaurant' advertising mum-cooked meals. Ordering from a hotbox is usually unadvisable, but the dishes all looked like good mixes of meat and vegetables. We ended up with a killer Turkish take on a moussaka. We made friends with the fantastic Iranian waiter Imar, who said “The best Testi Kebab is at my mother's!” "Yeah, sweet dude", we thought, "are you inviting us to your mum's for dinner?" Turns out that it is a restaurant. Also, fun fact: he had just gotten his refugee visa approved, and will now be (hopefully) happily living in Melbourne!
Day 3
We woke to a miserable day in Goreme; overcast, wet and cold. Still, it was our last day and we were determined to see as much as possible. Before we dropped the bike back, we decided to get a little more use out of it. But at our first stop, about 2kms down the road at Ortahisar Castle, it started raining and the temperature dropped even further.
Painful flashbacks surfaced. We decided to just drop the bike back. The rain hit, the wind cut, bones shook and blood froze. It seemed harder, colder than the night before. Jumping across the cobblestones, our scooter zoomed back to drop Miranda off in town.
There are no fuel stations actually in or anywhere near Goreme; the nearest is Ortahisar (of course) or Çavusin. The guy that Timothy asked for directions looked at the gauge while chatting, and reassured him that "It's full, no problem". Yeah, they charged us for another two litres. The bloody bike didn’t take much more than two litres!
Shortly after sorting out the bike return, the rain stopped. We set our hearts on finding Love Valley (aptly named). We were informed that there are two Love Valleys, the ‘tourist one’ which is near Uçhisar, and one closer, in Zemi Valley.
First, however, we booked our bus tickets for the afternoon to Pamukkale. Suha, our first choice, was booked out, so we ended up with Metro at 55TL each.
We hurried to the Zemi Valley as Timothy wa gagging for some enormous rock-hard peens. We were teased by the sight of the heads of some tantalisingly close man-meat stone formations as we arrived at a fork in the road. The sign for Zemi Valley points to the the left and we decided not to take a 'quick' detour into Gorkundere on the right, sticking with the original plan.
First we came across the Nazgul church, right near the fork. They charged us entry, but no one else apparently. It appears to be curated by a man lucky enough to have it in his backyard.
It's only 5TL and has some pretty good frescoes and graves.
Zemi Valley is described as being 7km with the original ‘Love valley’ view of the giant stone wangs and two churches around half way. Walking along it, it seems to be just a road with nothing on it for nearly a kilometre. There are, of course, plenty of pathside distractions in the cliffs.
We found a neat church with a dodgy metal ladder you can climb up to have a look inside. We definitely recommend one person at a time, because there are two joins in this ladder and it really doesn’t feel strong!
Continuing along the road, it finally turned into a confusing series of small paths going off in different directions. We came across two Americans who told us the path that they are returning from just peters out. After a fair amount of investigating and searching, we started to make some headway along the path, and were joined by an also-lost young Polish woman, glad to have help finding the way. We spent about an hour trying to find ‘the path’.
We were walking through caverns, crossing creek beds and mud traps on fallen trees, and accidentally wandering into people’s properties, but eventually we seemed to be following a more definitive path. After a little while we came across an old Irish couple travelling the other way. We stopped for a chat to get information and the lady absolutely loved Timothy’s Descendents shirt with the phrase ‘I don’t want to grow up’ on it. She was unable to talk about anything else so we tried get info from the man.
He informed us that we were already in the valley and that there was now only one way to go because valley = walls, and that it was like this the whole way (another 6km or so). There was really not much to see except the erosion on the walls, a lot of trees, and some rock formations on the valley walls. They didn’t have any idea about stone boners or churches, so it was at that point we said goodbye to Polish girl and headed back, disheartened, with our dreams of mammoth throbbing members reaching to the heavens seemingly dashed, and our time in Cappadocia running out.
It was a lot faster on the way back, and in a short while we were back at the fork, with signs for entrance to the Zemi Valley and Gorkundere. We took the earlier-spurned detour into Gorkundere and immediately had all our manaconda dreams brought into reality. Within a minute we were in a much more touristy spot, with old friendly Turkish people selling all variety of things, from fresh pomegranate juice to carvings of rock formations.
That, along with the first couple of manaconda towers, assure us that our wet dreams had come true.
The area was pretty good and if you can find it straight away, fast and easily accessible on foot from Goreme.
On the way back we stopped in near the Open Air Museum and tasted some wines, purchasing a bottle for 25TL. It was already pretty late, so we had a light lunch at our favourite place, Saray, before picking up some cheap swill for Timothy to knock back over the afternoon. It felt a bit like a waste sitting around, but there wasn’t really enough time to get anywhere and back in time for dinner and the bus, and Miranda was really tired of walking by this point.
Dinner was Miranda’s last chance to finally try the famous Testi kebab at Imar’s mother’s place.
The Testi Kebab is a fairly plain stew cooked in a clay jar that is sealed and thrown in some coals. The novelty is that the clay container needs to be cracked open to access the food inside. It’s a pricey dish and it’s not really worth the money, even with the show.
Dinner quickly became a little strange when the waiter decided to spoon feed a bit of Timothy's dinner to him before leaving. Awkward. I bet the pan-pipe covers of classic hits, such as 'Colours of the Wind' from Pocahontas, were his idea.
<The service was a bit slow, so of course, we had to run to the hostel to grab our bags, and then run to the bus stop to make sure we made it in time for our overnight bus to Pamukkale.
Timothy enjoying the Turkish landscape. This is the momentary calm before another 'Look! A castle! Do you think that was ruins of a castle?! That was a castle, I reckon.'
Get photos in ya by clicking here.
It was a short walk to the train station in Kars for our 9am train to Kayseri.
Miranda was ecstatic, she felt like she was in Harry Potter, travelling in our own compartment with the tea cart bringing around enchanted chocolate frogs. Wait, no, there were no enchanted frogs... but it was an enlivening experience.
Everyone talks about how magical long distance train rides are and we both have always wanted to do one - the only problem is that they cost more than an overseas holiday for 1/10th the amount of time. That, however, all changes in Turkey. The overnight trip is cheap and it has everything that you need for a wonderful authentic train experience.
The views were magnificent.
We had a four seater compartment all to ourselves, with beds that fold down on the walls and power outlets to keep us charged. We spent most of the time reading, snacking or staring out of the window. We had packed simple snacks, all local: bread, cheese, cucumbers, nuts, chocolates, tomatoes, and giant apples. But we also wanted the dining cart experience. Half way through the trip, Miranda had been asleep for a while and Timothy needed more hearty sustenance, so headed up to the dining cart for adventure.
The dining cart had well priced food and drinks, which is a strange phenomenon in Turkey where they don't overcharge you simply because they are the only service provider. Timothy had a pint of Efes then ordered another when the meal came. At this point an army-looking guy walked in followed by some friends. It's hard to explain what I mean, but his hair was short back and sides, meticulously groomed to end on sharp angles, he had modern glasses, was fit, and wearing clean and new (but defs uncool) clothes. This combined in my mind with who I then saw following him: basically an exact copy of the first guy but with a camo vest with utility pockets (probably not military issue) over the civilian jumper and jeans, and BIG guns being carried like toys one handed. No one bats an eyelid. Sweet. Seems legit.
Ever-changing scenery whizzed past.
After finishing the meal and getting halfway through the second Efes Timothy decided to try a Raki, while there was still something to chase it with. The young trolley boy who was collecting the dishes asked again to be sure of the order. Timothy nodded, repeated 'raki' and signalled a small amount. He asked again, Timothy repeated and signalled again, and the trolley boy got the menu to be sure. He smiled like it was a thing. Apparently it is a thing, because the older dining cart attendant brought it out and gave Timothy a cheesy smile. The militia dudes start talking about Raki. Timothy thought he was probably going to get shot later.
The food was simple. Meat, rice (fried-ish), a chilli, pickle slices, tomato, and some bloody Deb mash (fuuuuuuu). The shish chicken wasn't bad though. After an hour, Miranda was ready for her lunch and ordered meatballs. This was a bad decision, as was Timothy's decision to get a snack plate of fried çig kofte, the Turkish tasteless version of spinach and ricotta.
Turkey is pretty radical.
The views from the train were phenomenal. It was fun taking shots from the back of the train. As we pulled away from one station, there was a dog chasing the train! Everyone waved at the train as it went by, especially the kids. It was a pretty happy afternoon.
The views can be a little distracting.
How are you supposed to read with this out there?!
Our ETA was 3:45am. We were up before the alarm and 3:45 fast approached, with us unsure of how we'd be able to identify the station. It's hard to keep your attention on your book when your gf is having irrational thoughts of being left in a place like one of the tiny villages we have passed, as 3:45 comes and goes, and the train doesn't stop. Some professional boyfriending got us through the next hour until we actually arrived in Kayseri (Caeseria!) just a tad behind schedule. The conductor came to notify us that we were approaching the station, which was a welcome relief from some very tense times. The late arrival worked in our favour however, as we were very early for the first bus to Cappadocia!
Kars: a quiet country town in the far east of Turkey. Famous for its honey, being close to the ruins of Ani, and genocide.
You really should check out these photos, here.
For some sweet videos, click here.
Timothy was still having the worst jet lag out of both of us. Waking at 4:30am in Istanbul, his morning highlight was listening to a dog singing along to the call to prayer.
It was a hard decision whether to pay ten euros each to get to the airport in no time at all; or to pay less than two euros and take just over an hour and a half to get there… Being up and ready so early meant that we went with the cheaper option. Our flight wasn’t until 11.40am, but, as we were flying from the remote Sabiha Gokçen airport this time, we left around 8am. We walked down to the dock, caught a ferry to Kadikoy (3TL each), and from there got a Havatas bus (8TL each) to the airport.
If you intend to visit Ani, as is the main reason for a tourist to travel to Kars, plan well first. Foreigners are not common in Kars; as there are not many visitors to Ani or people wishing to cross the border to Armenia, this means that there is not much English spoken or infrastructure in place to get you Ani-where. But that also means that anyone else travelling to Kars is going for the same reason.
At the airport our plan was to approach any touristy-looking people to try to arrange a joint trip out to Ani, so that everyone could save money. We overheard an English accent, so we approached the group, only to be advised by their Turkish tour guide that they were a tour and already had booked the shuttle. We weren't invited. The group turned out to include Australians of course, who tried to reason with their tour guide, and in the end just ended up chatting with us with about their Turkish adventures.
The domestic plane from Istanbul was a lot older than any we have ever been in. You could tell because the chairs were wide enough to fit you in. That didn't stop the guy next to Timothy from trying to lean into his seat for most of the journey, but after the low oxygen snooze that you fall into upon take off, Timothy was able to reclaim some lost ground as the man marginally straightened in his sleep. The flight was with Anadoulu, a subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, and we got a decent free lunch on this flight as well. Once again, another pretty good service for a really cheap price.
From our internet research, we knew the options were: a shuttle van out to Ani that is quite pricey and depends on if the guy can get enough seats filled as to whether he will drive out there; hire a car; or, you can take one of the few taxis in Kars. Upon arrival at the Kars airport, we attempted to hire a car. The going rate for the only company at the airport was 120TL for a day, however due to the language barrier we weren't able to organise the details comfortably, and with the internet saying that we could get a trip out to Ani in a cab for cheaper, especially if we shared the ride, we decided to try our luck at the hotel.
No luck. So, our hotel receptionist called his mate Gerihr, who drove us out there for 120TL in his taxi.
Farm houses in town
On the drive out of town, it is maybe 5 minutes of town streets before you hit farms. On the trip out, Gerihr was a great guide, talking about the history of Kars, and he pointed out the sights such as the UN base, the Turkish military bases, and the snow capped Caucaus mountain ranges that were circling the area. In the distance we could just see the outline of the famed Mount Ararat (Uratu), from the collection of stories known as ‘The Bible’. Lots of the small hills around the area had patches of snow on them because of the elevation of the area, even though it is really flat. From the roadside you can reach snow after 10 minutes of walking. For insulation, the old stone farmhouses have flat roofs with a layer of dirt on top, and subsequently grass and small plants. It sets a vivid scene, and a view into how little things have changed here over time.
The Caucaus mountain ranges
It takes about 40 minutes to get out there. Let's just start by saying that Ani was really, really amazing. Aside from the magnificent old churches and massive city walls surrounding ruins of one of the largest cities of its age, the views and a ravine surrounding you on three sides are breathtaking and add an amazing dimension to your visit.
The city walls stretch further than you can capture; they herald your entry into what can only be an awesome site.
A map of Ani to give you some perspective.
You enter the ruins via the front gate. The towering double walled entrance is fairly well preserved, there is the attack-resistant double corner to get to the final portcullis, and as you step through the entrance you look out upon a massive area that must have been a spectacular city to have visited. Looking out, you see the remains of the place know as the 'City of 1001 Churches'.
Ani was the capital of the ancient Armenian kingdom, which was on one of the spice trade routes from the east. The multicultural society flourished due to the money brought in from the trade, eventually spilling outside of the city walls, with the peasants being forced into the caves in the surrounding hills.
Caves surrounding the city that supported the peasant population, which included dwellings, stores and churches.
As you walk through the rubble strewn grounds, you can see that each mound was once a building, with its own history and its own set of stories.
The rubble is everywhere; you step on 1000+ year old bits of ceramics and bricks and no one cares.
There are only a few major buildings still standing in Ani, and it is easy to navigate through the flattened city from building to building.
The Church of the Redeemer was cleaved in half by lightning in 1955.
You can pick your own path through the remains, walking along the cleared tracks, looking at the constant sea of broken remains surrounding you, or walking through them.
Ani's cathedral is massive. Timothy is pretty tall and the chapel dwarfs him.
Ani has been frequented by archaeologists since its re-discovery. There is a lot of discussion surrounding its poor state and whether the Turkish government has put any effort towards preserving the site. There's a story that the government at one point ordered the site to be levelled by the army, to wipe the memory of the Armenian kingdom from the landscape and history. It was used as target practice and there are visible signs of bullet holes in the remaining buildings. The information posts at the site follow this theme of not acknowledging the existence of the once marvellous Armenian kingdom.
The church of Saint Gregory of Tigran Honentz
The ravine is absolutely astounding. It provides an insurmountable barrier for two thirds of the city. We traced our way along it towards the next church, taking photos with the cattle grazing in the ruins and giving a local Turkish cowboy the time when he asked. We both were very keen to reach the pinnacle as we slowly worked our way there, the anticipation growing with the sustained excitement of discovering the site.
The ravine, with the castle and citadel hill at the highest point, which extends out and descends to the Kizkale Monastery on its precarious precipice (just left of centre, in the background you will notice a sandy looking part on a hill; the monastery is directly below the left side of this).
You are not, however, allowed to venture anywhere near the hilltop castle or citadel, which means no exploration of the mysterious Kirzkale Monastery and its amazing position. A sign with a picture of a Turkish military man with a gun deters you from ignoring the warning and climbing the barbed wire topped fence. It is declared a 'military zone', most likely due to the proximity to the Armenian border, set by the ravine.
We read reports that you should spend 3-4 hours to a whole day here, and it is true. Because we went so late in the afternoon, and with ominous clouds looming, we rushed and kept it at 2.5 hours. If you go, pack a lunch or eat at the restaurant and stay and soak up the beauty, watch the cows being herded, and spend some time wandering the less monumental remains. Clay, bricks, stones and other artifacts from the buildings can be found on the ground. We loved it. You have the feeling that there is still so much to be done and you can be a part of it (please note: you cannot). Timothy's eyes glazed over and he started fantasizing about wanting to spend a couple of months excavating there. It is disappointing how it currently lies compared to other sites around the world, but in a way, that's part of its charm.
View from the ramparts at the main gate. Those bumps on the ground are un-excavated buildings! Treasure!
Climbing the ramparts on our way out was an exciting way to finish off the afternoon, before scurrying back because of the failing light and drizzle, to get the last snap of the front wall. It started raining almost instantaneously once we got back in the car, perfect timing!
On the ride back Timothy asked what a small roadside monument was in memorium for. Girihr explained that it was to remember the 350,000 Turkish people massacred in the villages in the area by the Armenians. Prior to arriving in the area everything that we had read was about the horrible ethnic cleansing performed by Turkey, and the land grab from the Soviets and Armenia. This blog is not going to get into that argument, I will leave you to do your own research on the conflicting information around who performed the genocide on whom. It's very likely both sides killed each other a fair bit; either way, war and genocide are disgusting and entirely avoidable.
The Kars castle, well maintained due to its continued use well into the 19th century.
Back in Kars, we walked up the hill to the defensible position of the Kars Castle, which has been there since around the 12th century. Actually, there were conflicting signs within 50m of each other giving different dates, but either way, it's well preserved due to renovations in the 16th century. Being in such a good position, it continued to be used in all of the sieges of Kars (there have been many), and so the walls and stone ground have been kept in good condition. There is a pretty sweet view, and once again it is bordered by a ravine on one side, which looks totally wicked.
The view from Kars castle: ravine to the left, slope down to the township to right.
The Kars region has a wide variety of wild flowers, which make for great cheese and honey. When the Russians came here they brought many nationalities, including the Swiss, who instigated the Gruyere making. They apparently have a lot of different types, but to us it was all basically different types of sweet Swiss cheese, which was nothing special to our palate. We tried two different shop's cheeses and weren't impressed, but bought some for tomorrow's train trip anyway. The honey was pretty darn good, but unfortunately only came in jars much too large to travel with. Their regional special food is a kind of tandoori goose, but we were too cheap to try it, for which Timothy is still kicking himself. We were recommended a restaurant for dinner, which like every meal so far in Turkey was ok, but nothing special.
Raki (pronounced 'raka' in Kars) is the local liquor, but it's basically just a variation on the aniseed traditional drinks of half of Europe.
Our accommodation at Bizim Hotel was the cheapest in town and was fine; from memory it was 50TL for a private double room with bathroom and balcony. We had a bit of a shock at about 9.30pm when all this shouting, whistle blowing, and beeping started up and didn't stop for over an hour. Timothy peeked outside and saw a surprisingly small group of people standing on the corner waving flags, with cars driving past beeping (with them, not at them). They were just soccer fans celebrating! Miranda thought it was some kind of protest... but they were just really excited!
