Plane trams and buses

For some reason, our tour dictated us to move from the Q Hotel in Instanbul to the Wyndham Hotel also in Instanbul. Turns out, they are about 500 metres apart on the same street! But we dutifully packed up and moved. When I say 'we moved' what I meant is we packed. The staff carried our bags out of our room and down the stairs. We took one look at the hill, the staff got us a taxi and loaded the bags. At the the Wyndham, the staff unloaded the bags and carried them upstairs. I did pay the five dollar cab fare!  Anyway, the Wyndham is beautiful. Very modern with all the bells and whistles. Including a Balanese masseuse! Yes!! Just what I needed was another massage...truly, it was magic.

As I write, we are presently on a mini coach trip south from Cappadocia. It is the same road that was once famously known as the 'Silk Road', effectively forged by Marco Polo from China (that area of China apparently is now Korea?). The history here is amazing. People like Ghengis Khan have been here, the Romans, the Greeks, the Holy Wars it just goes on and on. But, Back to Instanbul....

Although we have been to Instanbul before, the city is enormous and full of fascinating things. We walked from our hotel down into the old city, looking at the massive numbers of clothing shops, all oozing with product. How do they sell all of this? But everything you can think of is here. We again made our way to the Spice Market, which still astounds me. Imagine every colour you can think of, either flowing down from the ceiling or piled high from the floor, yet each divided neatly next to one another. There's barely room for the shopkeeper inside his four meter by four meter shop. But then multiply that one shop by a thousand! One after the other.  The aromas of spices, coffee, sweets, oils, pastries and flowers. Just amazing.  We want to take one of each shop home!! 

We then wandered some more and into the Grand Bizzare. Again, amazing even though we have been here before. The place has been here for a thousand years. They have tried to add some airconditioning in some of the tiny shops, but still the same structures. And let me tell you, Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves? ..well, we couldn't find Ali, but his mates appear to have multiplied. They will sell you anything for whatever prices comes into their heads. And if they haven't got it, one of their 'Cousins' have! All part of the fun. Time to find a drink! 

We made it to the Roof Top bar, just across from the Orient Express Hotel. There, as we sipped on a couple of ice cold EFFS (beer), we watched down on the unsuspecting tourists as they wandered the streets bewildered by the enormity of what was in front of them. We sat on the edge of the balcony railing, and every now and then, a tram would go by within inches of our elbows. We were also entertained by the waiter, who was actually from Kazakstan, and was studying Engineering at a University in Instanbul. He attempted to educate us with some Turkish terminology. Although I have been practicing, judging by the mirth of the locals, I obviously have not mastered any of my teachings. 

We did master catching a tram through the middle of Instanbul and have used the service quite a bit. For four Turkish lira (about two Australian dollars) you can go anywhere the tram goes. As soon as you get off, to get back on costs another four lira. But we have gone all over the city now.  We also did the Big Red bus tour, which is a favourite of ours whenever we go. There are two Big Red bus routes, and we did both proud. And both took us to parts of the city we would never have thought of going to. Definitely recommend the Big Red bus tour...again!

One morning we did catch the tram into town and then walked across the Gallata Bridge, firstly to watch the three hundred men fishing for sardines from it, but also with the intention of finding a bar in a sunny place for a well earned beer (I know, there is a bit of a theme isn't there?). But we walked for ages along the Asian side of the river, and not one place served beer. So, we had an icecream, and caught our four lira tram back to the old city and a cold beer.

Lunch was had on another roof top bar, this time overlooking the thingy palace and the whatsoever mosque. They said it was happy hour, so the beers were a little cheaper, but the meat platter we had was sixty bucks! It was a very nice meat platter, but a little surprising. (The thingy palace to which Greg refers is Topkapi Palace and the whatsoever mosque is Aya Sophia)

Our time was now up in Instanbul, and we were whisked away to the airport for a flight to Kayseri for the beginning of our next adventure. At the airport we were met by a very grumpy driver. Then we found out why. He had two big busses that seated about twenty passengers in each. But he had over fifty people to pick up. Somehow, as is the way in Turkey, he jammed everyone in, and their luggage. Two young Chinese girls were sitting on luggage near the side door, which opened whilst on the expressway!  Thankfully, nobody was lost and we were first out at our hotel in Cappadocia. Actually, there is no town named Cappadocia, it is a region. The town of Avanos was our host village.

Our hotel was sensational, and we wasted no time in hitting the pool in bright sunshine. Clearly, we have to teach the waiters about getting a beer to the poolside, as we could only get service for one during the afternoon.  It took two days, but they have now learnt, and dutifully return to us like clockwork, with drinks in hand!

Balloons over Cappadocia

We booked an early morning wake up call for 3.30am for a 4.00am pick up. We had seen photographs of the balloon flying over the rock formations of Cappadocia, and were quite excited for what was in store. The area is an amazing looking place with large rock formations left from millions of years erosion from volcanic eruptions. From around 400AD, people have chiselled out dwellings inside these formations, and even under them, to either live or hide.  Apparently mostly monks and religious orders who were trying to escape persecution. 

Once we were out at the cleared fields, dozens of the large balloons were strewn about being readied for flight. Each basket held twenty people, plus the pilot, and the massive gas cylinders.  The safety lecture took exactly forty seconds. "When landing, hold on tight and crouch. Maybe we don't crash". Sounded pretty easy, but crouching is something I was good at when I was seven. Anyway, he was right, we didn't crash.  So all was good.

The flight was absolutely amazing. We lifted just before sunrise and drifted quietly over a land that I imagine Mars might look like. Our pilot steered us down into the valleys of breathtaking stone formations, so close and so slowly that we could have hopped out of the basket and stepped onto them. He turned the basket around so several people had a great photo opportunity of each superb sight. Two young Chinese men, who were outrageously obliging, had brought their Chinese flag along and made sure nearly every photo they took included their flag.  They even took a photo of Cath and I...yes, holding the Chinese flag.  I think we are now Chinese citizens?? It was money well spent. Amazing!!

Back to the hotel for brekky, then picked up again and on our way with the tour proper. We are on the tour with only one other couple from Pensilvania USA, our driver Ali and our tour guide, Omer in a very comfy tour bus that could hold 14 people. So the tour is very personal. We toured all of the sights we had seen from the balloons, and got to see what these people had done some 1700 years ago. It really does look like something out of the Flintstones! But, of course, with a very religious feel to it all. Then back to our hotel, on what was quite a long and hot day, to a beautiful hotel pool and some now well trained staff....

That leads me to today, and our travels down the 'Silk Road'. In parts, the area can be very barren, flat and dry. But spots exist where the Sultan, at that time, had built huge, almost fortresses, to house the camel traders (and their camels) so that trading of spices, silks, gold, precious stones and livestock could take place in safety within his location. Such trading of course increased his wealth and influence. These places still exist today, and to think how busy they must have been back then is amazing.  Having said that, the places still smell of camels!

Istanbul not Constantinople

Wow! An epic day of travel over and done with.

Very early up on Wednesday morning for the beginning of our travels to Istanbul. Flying from Helsinki to London (3 hrs 10) to Athens (3 hrs 30) to Istanbul (1 hr 10) and also the transiting in between made for a very long, tiring and irritable day, very proud of Greg though he handled it quite well. I almost lost it in Athens when we were told we didn't have seats on the plane to Istanbul! All sorted in the end and we arrived at our hotel around 1am.

We had booked one hotel and it got changed because of some renovations to their other hotel. Therefore they upgraded us, so we are currently in the Royal Suite, best room in the hotel, great view and heaps of space. 

We managed a few hours sleep and some breakfast then headed out for a walk around this fabulous city of 23 million.

One of the things on Gregs bucket list is to have a 'Hamam'. We stumbled across one of the more famous ones, Cagaloglu, built in 1741 as a gift to the city. All sorts of famous people have been here before us including Russian tsars, Sheiks, Royalty and movie stars. The only famous Australian we could see was Steve Irwin? It has separate male and female sides and is enormous. Marble everywhere.  We decided to do the whole thing and had a 2 hour session each.

Females, you start off sitting in a large room with a giant vented dome above you, the room is huge and completely marble, with a large marble stage in the middle, this 'stage' can fit10 people laying head to toe around the edges, so there could be10 people at once being 'hamamed'. Fortunately for my nakedness it was just 3 of us to start with and eventually I was on my own. So you sit on this marble stage with a Turkish wrap on and steam. The marble floor is very hot and all the water creates a humid environment. After around 15 mins, a lady came in with her equipment and tells me to follow her. We move over to a marble basin, one of about 8 that come from the marble walls. She turns on the tap and allows the basin to fill, says to me sit here next to the basin and proceeds to douse me with warm water by the bucket full for about 5 mins. We move back to the stage and she lays out my wrap, 'lay on back!' With an exfoliating glove she scrubs my body all over, back, front,  top, bottom, everywhere. This is called peeling and that is exactly what it does, you can see the skin peeling off, it doesn't hurt at all, it's back to the basin for another rinse, then back on the marble stage for the soaping! Same thing as the scrubbing but this time with soap. This soap/rinse process is repeated and then she starts to massage all over, with another soap product finally finishing by washing my hair and more dousing of warm water. I was then towelled and moved to another room for an aromatherapy oil massage! Given a plate full of fresh strawberries, Apple and banana with a hot black Turkish tea and I was done!

I got dressed and went out to wait for Greg, who I could hear yelling while he was being pummelled by his attendant!

If you have been to Bali and had a body scrub and massage, it is much the same, but a bit more tribal or violent, and you feel really good after.

Males,

Well, things were a little different in my world. I was approached by a middle aged, bald Turkish man who looked fit and strong enough to to snap me in half. Whilst he smiled a lot, he was very imposing. Not a word of English was spoken, but getstures indicated he wanted me to strip. His manner was such that I was too frightened not to. I was given a tiny sarong that looked like a handkerchief to put on. 

Firstly, he sent me into a room with lots of little cubicles. I dutifully waited for my next instruction. After waiting for some time with no further direction I became curious. And checked out what was inside the cubicles. Oh, I see....they were toilets! Oh my god! I had been in there for ten minutes already! So I quickly did my number one and flushed. Well, tried to. The toilet didn't flush, no water. So I reached over and turned on one of the water taps on the wall. Of course, it was the bidet....water squirted all over me and my little sarong! I emerged from the toilet, no doubt to the mirth of my minder, late and soggy.

I was then subjected to sweating within an inch of my life, before my minder laid me on the hot marble bench where he proceeded to massage me.....again within an inch of my life. Every now and then, he would giggle as he dug his knuckles into a muscle I never knew I had. He showed me how to slap my hand on the marble when I was in pain. I soon found out this didn't deter him or stop him, he just thought it might help me get through the experience. He giggled louder when I furiously slapped my hand! The fellow finally eased up on the massage and took another weapon from his arsenal. A skin scrubber!! He proceeded to scrub my entire body. He scrubbed hard and had to hold on to my ankle to stop me from sliding off the marble bench.....or running away?

He then got a large bucket, and from two huge marble water fonts, proceeded to smash me with bloody cold water. Each time I managed to stay upright, he yelled "gooooooood". He then led me, beaten, but thankful to be alive, to another room and yet another Turkish man who looked like he ate bricks for breakfast. This man laid me on a table, completely naked, and covered me with oil.....thoughts of Midnight Express ran through my mind.  Those thoughts soon left as this guy proved to be much more gentle than the last.  A completely relaxing massage almost put me to sleep....that is until he discovered that my calves were still a bit tight. So he dug deep, deep, deep.  I tried the old hand slap, but that had the same affect on him as his mate. He giggled and continued. I wondered how many other men had cried in this very same spot? Possibly none that had also wet themselves in the toilet before the whole process had even got under way? Oh dear!

From there I was lead back to the water fountains and to my old mate. I was no longer thinking about my vulnerability, or being naked in the company of two sadistic muscle bound Turks who were clearly competing as to who would snap me half first. I was now thinking "I can do this, I have survived"?  Anyway, first mate mixed up a hot soapy concoction, sat me down, and bathed me from head to foot. Washed my hair, massaged my head and washed all my bits. The same way it has been done there for three hundred years. He then got those big buckets of water and smashed me over and over and over.  I thought I would drown sitting down! Finally he dried me off, and wrapped me up and sent me on my way to a hot Turkish tea and fresh fruit.  It was only then that I realised how good the whole experience was.  Let's go back tomorrow Cath???

We had a stroll through part of the spice market, there are police everywhere due to the last few months of bombings by extremists the latest being Tuesday morning, the day before we arrived. So don't particularly want to hang the tourist areas for any great lengths of time. Although it appears that the police are the main targets. 

We have been here before, if you remember and have seen all the major sites. So we found a bar that we had been to 4 years ago and had a couple of beers and a snack. Tried to book into a restaurant that we were unsuccessful with last time and again were thwarted this time due to Ramadan, so we went back to an old favourite with what has arguably the best view in a well known hotel. The restaurant Imbat, the hotel the Orient Express and it is where your journey from Paris would end, perhaps with the likes of  Hercule Poirot, and maybe, just maybe, next time we come to Istanbul it will be on this particular train! 

Stay tuned for more adventures from the very clean intrepid explorers?

Helsinki

Arrived in Helsinki, great flight but feeling a bit cabin feverish, so after checking in to our hotel, The Hilton Strand, we went for a bit of a walk. 

Got to admit, I was a bit concerned. Our first impressions were average, so we went a bit farther afield and things got a little better. I was thinking what are we going to do for 4 days! Then we saw a red bus! So there must be more to this town... but that will have to wait till tomorrow, we were absolutely buggered and headed back to the hotel, which is quite impressive by the way. Cath sat In the hotel restaurant and enjoyed a lovely dinner of medium rare reindeer.....yes, she ate Rudolf...or Blitzen, or Comet....I had the fish!

After a good nights sleep and a great breakfast, we headed out to locate the red bus and find out what this city has to offer.

Red bus hop on hop off was €26 each for 24hr pass, the city trip averages 1 1/2 hrs. Great value and we always get great use out of the big red bus! Did a fair bit of walking around as well, 12 kms all up but the place is dead flat, so it's not hard getting around on foot. It is a very interesting place. Push bikes everywhere and push bike lanes, as it is very flat. You do have to be careful not to wander into those lanes, as the bikes are very quiet as they scoot along! 

Helsinki has five large harbours and way too many little islands to count. But all are very green and every chance the Finns get, they are out bush walking, boating or hunting.  This is the land of the mink, moose, reindeer, silver fox, goats, brown bear, ermine etc etc. You can buy some lovely furs at any of the markets about.

Temps range from the mid 20s in summer to minus 30 in winter. All the harbours, bays and rivers freeze during the winter and sometimes you can drive on them the ice is that thick, but everyone definitely walks on it and of course skate. The bathroom floor of the hotel is constantly heated to stop excess water forming into ice and causing accidents!! The winter days are VERY short, with only about two hours of 'foggy daylight', whilst in summer there is only a couple of hours of 'dusk' kind of darkness.  Quite weird?  Met an Aussie girl working in a brewery living here for 7 years and now married with a child, she's from Adelaide and loving it here.

So have learnt some history about Finland, (remembering who I'm away with). They have a chequered past, due, for the most part I think, by its vulnerable position on the Baltic, and it's history with Russia and Germany made it a strategic chess piece, particularly in WWII. Think knight moves! However, in the 1500s, Finland was a Swedish province. The Swedish language is still recognised as one of their languages. In the 1800s, the Russians belted the Swedes, and Finland became Russian. The city of Helsinki looks very similar in architecture to St Petersburgh apparently? Anyway, in 1917' Finland gained its independence from Russia. However, the two countries poked and prodded each other to 1939 when full out war developed between Russia and Finland. They fought a war in minus 25 degree temperatures!! Then Nazi Germany stepped in, and Finland kind of sided with them, against the Russians. Some 19,000 Russian prisoners of war died inside Finland's concentration camps. But then Finland fought to get the Germans out of their country too!! After the war, Finland maintained their independence and democracy, in a time when a lot of other countries were swallowed up by the USSR.

Apparently the Finns go to Tallin in Estonia to shop! It's much cheaper for them and is 2hrs by boat. Thinking we might do this if we have time? 

Monday

Jumped back on the bus and went back to the rock church as we couldn't get in yesterday due to a concert. Helsinki is built on a granite base, and every building and road is made out of the pretty pink granite. But the stuff is so incredibly hard. This church was carved out of one huge lump of the stuff. You go to church inside a boulder!

Sat in market square and had a coffee and jam donut, nothing like it at home. Lovely.  Then off on a cruise around the islands and canals, while we learnt more about the place AND listened to the Sharks Bulldogs game. So excited they won! But the tour guides think we are crazy?

We keep seeing fur stoles and scarves and fur edged capes that are so soft and luxiourious, and being sold at the markets and souvenir shops but really expensive. Found out they are fox and get this, mink!

Sold at the markets!

Back to the hotel for a sauna and ice cold swim just what you do on a 13 degree day! (Whilst in Finland....) Then it was off to dinner at a very nice fine dining restaurant called Nokka.

Home to bed!

Tuesday

Soumanlinna

A later start to the day today. A lazy breakfast at the hotel (which are sensational by the way...porridge, fresh forest fruits, omelettes, yoghurts, more forest fruits yum) the a nice walk in the sunshine to the main city wharf for a boat trip to the harbour islands now called Soumanlina (pronounced Swom-a-Lena). We got the public ferry tickets and the obligatory jam donut thingy (forget what they call them, but they are sensational! - they are like a donut sandwich with jam in the middle) and headed across the harbour for a 15 minute ferry ride to grab a real coffee to go with the donut in the sunshine by the water.

Soumanlina was built as a fortress for the city by the Swedes in 1740. Then, the Russians bolstered it after taking control when they belted the Swedes after sneaking up on them by land instead of sea, and during the winter instead of the summer (don't think the Swedes made very good tacticians?). Then the British belted The Russians there during the Crimean War. It looks very secure, but seemingly has never been able to actually defend anything successfully.  But it is a lovely place, and the structures have been protected by UNESCO because of historical significance.  I think as an example as what not to build if you think about having a war!  

Looking at the place, I really don't know how people live here. The island is frozen solid during winter. And, today with the sun shining, the wind was blowing in your face or in your ear and was freezing. It gave me a headache! Regardless, the place was very interesting and we enjoyed the day there. On our way back, the wind continued. We made a joint decision to find a place out of the wind and in the sun. As luck would have it, we found a bar that had two plush seats, in the sun, and NO wind....and they had beer!! So that's where we sat for a couple, before we moved on to a local steak house for dinner.  The place was called 'Stefans Steakhouse'...and their specialty was Australian black Angus beef. Just what we wanted. 

 

So farewell from Helsinki and we will catch up with you from Turkey in a few days!

Your intrepid adventurers

Cath n Greg 

Flying high - Bangkok

Day 1 was an early start with taxi pick up at 6.15am. Uneventful checkin and security check, duty free shopping done and we were able to sweet talk the Mulallys into Qantas business lounge. We had a lovely relaxing morning catching up over breakfast champagnes (never did take that photo) and a random Bloody Mary??

The flight was pretty easy, 10 hrs of being spoilt with too much food and drink, a couple of hours sleep and for me 2 1/2 movies and 3 episodes of a tv series, it was comfortable and realatively relaxing for a plane flight.

We arrived in Bangkok to 100% humidity, but we were thoroughly entertained by our enormously amusing cab driver, who appears to work 16 hour days, seven days a week, 365 days a year and couldn't be happier?? We hit the hotel shower on arrival (Siam @ Siam) a quirky, eclectic hotel in the centre of town and headed up to the roof for a few drinks. Try the Siam martini-'it has chocolate syrup in it!

Great views from the roof top bar and we probably would of been better off staying there for dinner, however we weren't overly hungry after the flight and thought we'd head out on foot for a look around.

With a walk down to MPK and the market next door we found some unusual fare on offer!

We wandered aimlessly and found a local restaurant to have a small dinner, not your usual Thai meal and I don't think any of us were feeling particularly brave after seeing the crunchy cockroaches, fried cicadas and sautéed mealy worms at the markets, but it was enjoyable. We were all feeling pretty wrecked and head back to bed, with an early wake up call booked for 5-30 and our taxi driver from the airport set to pick us up at 6am we all fell into bed.

The run back to the airport was great as there was no traffic to speak of, no problems at the airport and we easily located the business class lounge, and after a long lazy breakfast we said our goodbyes and Greg and I headed off to our gate for our first experience of Finnair Business Class.

So here I am sitting on the plane somewhere over Kazakstan writing to you, our readers! Watching my husband across the aisle slowly consume his body weight in Finlands finest Koff beer (which he has just spilt, my fault cause I asked him the brand name) and Finnish delicacies.,I myself have had a few wines, French Chardonnay and a Sangiovese, a desert wine, 3 Cointreaus and a specialty of the house a blueberry cocktail, yum! Well, really what else is there to do, I ask you?

We have about 2 hours to go with 8 behind us and it has been very comfortable, and I would highly recommend Finnair bus class, the staff are excellent and so very lovely.

Cheers!

p.s. Sitting on the plane watching Night at the Museum 3. Dick van Dyke, I had a crush on you when I was 10, man , you still have it?

Almost there 2016 Turkey and Greece

I'm sitting in bed next to a gently snoring husband, running everything over in my mind for the two thousand five hundred and ninety sixth time and thought, I'll put it in the blog so it's written and can't change.....right?

We are off on another adventure!

Tomorrow morning, early, we head off to Turkey and the Greek Islands via Bangkok and Helsinki. I am excited to be going away, but it is with a measure of trepidation due to all the issues and heartache inflicted by our former tour company.

This trip has been fraught with stress and anxiety in its planning, due for the most part to a company called G Adventures. Their non existent service and condescending, arrogant staff have made our journey so far, nothing short of a nightmare and we haven't left the country yet. In the end we were forced to make expensive changes to the Turkey leg of our tour because they cancelled the one we were booked on. No suitable assistance was offered and the response of "not our problem" sort of sums up the company's attitude.

No doubt more of that later, my jaw again is starting to clench again.......shhh happy thoughts we're on holidays (growl).

So, the first leg of our trip will be in the company of friends, Steve and Karen Mulally. Steve our friendly travel agent has been suffering through our woes with us and offering heaps of assistance and solutions. Whilst we did not plan to travel together it has worked out that we are on the same flight to Bangkok. Therefore we are sharing a cab to the airport staying at the same hotel and going out for dinner all together. We part ways at the airport in Bangkok, they head to France and we head to Helsinki.

Greg and I spend a few days and nights exploring the 1952 Olympic city, Before continuing our journey to Turkey, where we will spend around 3 weeks doing a variety of things. Due to the change in our plans we may not see quite so much of the countryside but an unexpected addition will be a gulet trip on the Turkish riviera for a week. Looking forward to that one!

Then it's off to the ever popular Greek Isles, Sifnos, Naxos, Santorini and Crete. For just on a month.

The plan here is to relax and recharge after a hectic, trying and occasionally emotional 12 months.

Our accommodations, transfers and ferry tickets are all taken care of by the wonderful Litsa at Fantasy Travel ( a Greek travel agency). And our plan is .......no plan! We intend to see some stuff, lay on lots of beaches, hire a car here and there, eat lots of local food and drink lots of local beer and wine. Do our bit to help the Greek economy. Have lots of fun and make some great memories.

So dear reader, will you come along with us again?

Your (trying to be) perpetual travellers

Cath n Greg