After a whirlwind few weeks cruising around Eastern Europe, the time came for us to explore somewhere a little more exotic so we caught a delightful 12 hour bus ride (which included 6 different stops and a 1 hour border crossing) to Istanbul, Turkey!
Istanbul is truly an amazing city, completely different to anything we have experienced during our jaunt through Eastern Europe. The people are very friendly and the food is absolutely insane! By far the best cuisine we have come across so far. A lot happened in our 8 days in Turkey so strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a journey of the senses!
Our first stop in Turkey was Istanbul. A magical place full of amazing food and exotic local delicacies the mind can barely imagine - and the buildings are pretty amazing as well. Turkey was the first country we have visited where Islam is the main faith and we can comfortably say that mosques in Istanbul are visually much more impressive than your run of the mill cathedral - the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia definitely getting the 3 and 2 votes for that round!
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| The Hagia Sofia - the Turks built this in 450AD in 7 years - the Adelaide City Council couldn't build a car park in that amount of time |
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| Tom in front of the Blue Mosque scaring some local children |
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| Tom blending in with the locals again... or as KG calls it 'Spot The Ranga' |
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| The spice bazaar - home to all things delicious, we didn't see any Cyril Rioli on sale though... |
By far one of the main draw-cards to Turkey is the food, home of the kebab and Turkish delight. We certainly immersed ourselves in the local food scene. Real Turkish delight (made from honey) is ludicrously tasty and Tom has had to become celibate from all kebabs after tasting the best kebab on earth - the Ҫag kebab (that is pronounced char kebab for all you amateurs.)
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| The Ҫag kebab master preparing the feast |
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| Tom preparing his kebab with their signature sauce called Crushing Pain |
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| Tom reflecting on the meal that was |
During our stay in Istanbul we went on a mammoth day trip to Canakkale, better known for being the closest town to the Gallipoli beaches where the ANZACs landed during WWI. After a grueling bus ride we arrived, yet the bus trip was not without its highlights though: restaurant and hotel names included AYDICK restaurant (yep, that's a penis joke), KUM Hotel and a suburb called Kumburgaz - hilarious! Now back to business, the actual tour of Gallipoli was an amazing experience! We had a Turkish tour guide that ensured it wasn't just an Aussie wank-fest and dispelled pretty much everything we learned in school about the landing.
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| The Lone Pine memorial at Gallipolli |
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| North Beach - the site where the bulk of the ANZAC troops landed |
Our next stop in Turkey took us to the tiny town of Goreme. It was here that we went hot air ballooning, which is by far one of the most amazing things we have ever done (Katherine accidentally leaving her alarm on resulting in a German tourist being awake between 5 and 6 AM really added to the occasion.) Words can't really do the experience justice and neither can the photos but we have added some anyway, enjoy!
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| Katherine with a homeless man she found sleeping in a bin |
Our time in Goreme also took us to a Turkish bath, where we received a traditional massage and scrub, oh, and Katherine saw heaps of vagina. Tom managed to get out of the experience without seeing a single phallus - massive win! Goreme is also the home to some amazing landscapes, particularly the rock formations that resemble a certain part of the male anatomy, we'll let you piece the rest together...
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| Katherine checking out the local product |
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| Katherine with her new boyfriend - Simon |
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| Tom, Katherine and our travel buddy Hana looking for bears at Pigeon Valley |
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| Odd looking rock formations at the aptly named Love Valley |
After our magnificent time in Turkey we are now in Cairo where Tom is being objectified for being a 6 foot 4 white man with flaming red hair and a shitty beard - the ladies are falling over each other trying to get a piece of the Temple! Love it!
