Turkey

Introduction

I spent a month in Turkey in September-October this year; here are a few pictures taken during the trip. Turkey is a large country, so I did not even try to see the east of Turkey; I stayed in the western half and did a big loop starting in Cappadocia and then following the Mediterranean coast to Istanbul.

I really liked Turkey. In fact, I think it became one of my personal favourite destinations in Europe, and I am already thinking about coming back to see the east of the country. It has a lot going for it: wide variety of landscapes, good climate (at least if you choose the right season for the visit), ease of travel, friendly and genuinely welcoming people, and very good value for money.

I'm not the "Lonely Planet", so I'm not going to write a coherent essay about Turkey. In fact, I'm not even sure I have a coherent picture of it in my own head. So I simply jotted down a couple of random notes - things that remained in my mind at the end of the trip (I'm writing this on the plane on the way home).

Turks are amazingly welcoming people. I know it is a cliche, but in this instance it is true. I was surprised by the constant willingness to help, explain, and communicate, even when language was a real barrier. Similarly, I was surprised by the absence of hassling, even in the tourist areas. Of course, one does come across people whose job is to get one in a shop or a restaurant, but they engage you in such a manner and with such eloquence that I cannot in good conscience call it hassling. If anyone is contemplating opening a restaurant, I recommend you to visit Turkey to see how professionals do it, or better import one of them - one of these guys at the door of any Melbourne restaurant will be worth his weight in gold.

There is a huge number stray dogs and cats in Turkey. They do not belong to anyone, but people take very care of them, putting out saucers with water and some food. It is good to see that people who are not that well-off themselves spend time and money to take care of the animals, but the whole situation seems to be a fairly big ecological problem in the making.

Once I figured out the basics of Turkish cuisine and eating in Turkish restaurants, I realised that Turkish restaurants exhibit a strange reverse relationship between price and quality. I had all my best meals in very cheap local places; and all pricier restaurants were uniformly forgettable. It happened so regularly that we started avoiding "presentably" looking places, knowing that much better food can be found in small eateries on back streets.


Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a semi-desert area stunning in a rather stern way. It has a great combination of very unusual nature, interesting human history, and ease of access; yet it is far enough from both coasts so it is not overrun with tourists. It made it into my personal "top 10 places in the world" on the very first day, and the following days only made this impression stronger. It is easy to spend several weeks here; I'd like to come back here in spring when the plains are green and in bloom.


Mediterranean Coast

I am not going to describe in detail the individual places I stopped at, so I left this section as a collection of assorted pictures taken along the coast. Generally speaking, it is a very pleasant and peaceful area. As usual, I enjoyed places further away from the tourist centres more, but even a British enclave Olideniz did not get too pushy and noisy. Pretty mountains covered by pine tree forests closely follow the coast and looked very tempting; unfortunately the weather was too hot for inland trips.


Pamukkale

Pamukkale is located around 250 kilometres east of the Aegean coast. It is famous for its thermal springs, which over the centuries covered huge area of rock with chalky-white coating and created a number of pools and terraces. It would have been a very special place even if it were just a natural curiosity. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that humans built a city in this area and channelled the activity of nature to create semi-natural swimming pools and to provide running water.


Gokceada

Gokceada is one of two inhabited Turkish islands in the Aegean Sea. It used to belong to Greece and called Imbros. In fact, Orange telecom sent me an SMS welcoming me to Greece on arrival to Gokceada. The company clearly has not realised that the island belong to Turkey since 1923 - I hope this diplomatic gaffe won't trigger a new Greco-Turkish war.

I wouldn't call Gokceada a beautiful island, but it is one of the most enjoyable places on the coast I visited. It has kind of raw ancient presence about it, and it has a slow-paced relaxed feel that somehow was missing in other places.


Istanbul

Istanbul made a rather mixed impression. I did not like it much while I stayed in the historical and very touristy centre of Saltanahmet and was seeing the sites. The centre does have the best mosques I have seen in Turkey, big bazaars and everything else Istanbul is famous for, but the general vibe of the big city and the herds of tourists did not sit right with me. Then I spent a day on the northern shore of Golden Horn, and it started to grow on me a bit. This area is where natives of Istanbul come to eat, drink, shop, and listen to music. It was fun to be there; it was also really interesting to be able to move from streets that had a very European feel to upmarket Asia to downright seedy alleys - all within one or two streets of each other. In the end, I am glad I saw Istanbul with my own eyes, but I doubt I will go back there.

I suspect that a part of the reason for not being impressed with Istanbul is its massive collection of mosques, which I find to be the least interesting of architectural artefacts in Turkey. To my eye, mosques lack the uniqueness of European cathedrals and all seem to be slight variations of the same design, which feels too heavy and leaves the impression of fighting the gravity rather than conquering it.