Wednesday, 30 September 2015
capadoccia view
a panorama from our last evening in Capadoccia from a vantage point over the surrounding countryside:
Theatres and aqueducts
Presented with the chance of a 'lie in' with breakfast at 7.30am, I naturally awoke on the dot at 5.15am. I even beat the meuzzin to it - he tuned up at about 5.40am.
Our first stop was a set of charming waterfalls where we spent a good chunk of time fiddling with filters and polarisers and avoiding being dripped on by overhanging foliage.
Our first stop was a set of charming waterfalls where we spent a good chunk of time fiddling with filters and polarisers and avoiding being dripped on by overhanging foliage.
After misplacing my specs in the rush to sling my tripod over my head for carrying - thus requiring two ascents of the stairs to the top as I had reached our meeting point before realising they were missing - we set off again to the abandoned and ruined city of Aspendos, which includes an aqueduct in various sections, the remnants of an Acropolis, and a truly magnificent theatre with marvellous acoustics which won the architect Zenon the first prize in the competition to design public buildings when the city was founded, which prize included the daughter of the King as his wife.
And really, isn't it gorgeous? It's so well preserved, mainly because apparently it was used for multiple purposes over the ages since it was built in the second century BC. The restoration has been the subject of controversy as some parts are clearly not ancient BUT the effect overall is stunning, even if as at so many sites, the desire to shoot selfie takers is getting stronger. Those sticks!
Heat drove us to a riverside restaurant where I ate yoghurt, grilled aubergine and chopped salad for around £2.50. The breeze cooled us off. Other sights today included the bridge near Aspendos which has also been restored. It has a massive kink in it to help withstand the force of the water, the like of which I have never previously seen.
The journey back home was very slow avoiding roadworks and hitting the Antalya rushhour. Sound familiar? Just like the works at Wolvercote roundabout. A sweet reminder of home....
Off again in the morning, now to Pamukkale, in Denizli province.
On to the coast: Antalya
We flew out of Kayseri to Istanbul and caught a connecting flight which brought us to the shores of the Med and into Antalya by around 2pm. It's a popular city named after one of Alexander the Great's generals who was left behind to mind the shop when he pressed on to do more conquering. The old city is a rabbit warren of little streets happily with quite a number of surviving Anatolian style houses with a protruding upper storey that looks like a balcony, rather medieval in style. Some are fallen into ruin but can not be knocked down any more. Most of them are now in service as boutique hotels and restaurants, shops and cafes to service the tourist industry.
We set out almost at once to explore and after snaking around for a while dodging the mildly pestering salesmen (and our guide said nothing here is made in Turkey) we descended to the harbour which is deep below the cliffs. This makes it particularly good for defensive purposes and that is one reason it was chosen as a site, plus that the silt which comes down from the Taurus mountains behind the coastal plain and clogs up the rivers, would not harm their trade entry. Many other cities from antiquity (such as Aspendos which we visit tomorrow) had to be abandoned as the silt blocked up the river mouth and rendered defunct their role as a trading port.
That same silt makes the soil fabulously fertile and this area supplies much of the fruit and veg for the whole of Turkey. Also they grow cotton, produce apricots, pomegranates and other exportable items.
We are seeing through the ruins and pottery histories that being in the location at the connection of 3 continents is a bit of a curse as well as a blessing. The latter because constant flow of trade, ideas, peoples and languages enriched the place. The former because everyone wanted to control it. Assyrians and Egyptians, Hittites, Mesopotamians, Seljuks and the list goes on.
The existence of these sheer cliffs means that when the rivers reach the edge of the land they pour over the edge in beautiful waterfalls. Our boat motored along the coast for a good hour before we saw the waterfall and it was a very jolly outing, with good light and skies BUT rolling waters. We almost had to tie ourselves down and it was hard to move about and take photos. Happily I was not seasick.
More fun facts: Firoozan (this is for Grace and Soroosh) means turquoise apparently, which I'm sure they know, but I didn't. It's a popular colour for luck in this region.
We have all seen the blue 'eye' which is worn as jewellery around the middle east and countries from Morocco, Egypt, etc. It is commonly described as a symbol to ward off the evil eye.
In fact, it originates with the legend of Medusa. It represents her single eye, and its ability to absorb evil. The idea is that if you wear one or put one outside your home or business, that anyone with evil intentions or thoughts will not be able to inflict them on you, as the eye will 'take them in'. The blue also represents the sky. So there. Bet you didn't know that!
We set out almost at once to explore and after snaking around for a while dodging the mildly pestering salesmen (and our guide said nothing here is made in Turkey) we descended to the harbour which is deep below the cliffs. This makes it particularly good for defensive purposes and that is one reason it was chosen as a site, plus that the silt which comes down from the Taurus mountains behind the coastal plain and clogs up the rivers, would not harm their trade entry. Many other cities from antiquity (such as Aspendos which we visit tomorrow) had to be abandoned as the silt blocked up the river mouth and rendered defunct their role as a trading port.
That same silt makes the soil fabulously fertile and this area supplies much of the fruit and veg for the whole of Turkey. Also they grow cotton, produce apricots, pomegranates and other exportable items.
We are seeing through the ruins and pottery histories that being in the location at the connection of 3 continents is a bit of a curse as well as a blessing. The latter because constant flow of trade, ideas, peoples and languages enriched the place. The former because everyone wanted to control it. Assyrians and Egyptians, Hittites, Mesopotamians, Seljuks and the list goes on.
The existence of these sheer cliffs means that when the rivers reach the edge of the land they pour over the edge in beautiful waterfalls. Our boat motored along the coast for a good hour before we saw the waterfall and it was a very jolly outing, with good light and skies BUT rolling waters. We almost had to tie ourselves down and it was hard to move about and take photos. Happily I was not seasick.
More fun facts: Firoozan (this is for Grace and Soroosh) means turquoise apparently, which I'm sure they know, but I didn't. It's a popular colour for luck in this region.
We have all seen the blue 'eye' which is worn as jewellery around the middle east and countries from Morocco, Egypt, etc. It is commonly described as a symbol to ward off the evil eye.
In fact, it originates with the legend of Medusa. It represents her single eye, and its ability to absorb evil. The idea is that if you wear one or put one outside your home or business, that anyone with evil intentions or thoughts will not be able to inflict them on you, as the eye will 'take them in'. The blue also represents the sky. So there. Bet you didn't know that!
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
up before the birds...
If one must get up early, at least it's consistent - as yesterday, this morning saw our departure at 5.45am - and same tomorrow morning, although it will be for a flight to Antalya via Istanbul.
Dawn today was spent not flying but photographing the flying of others. My, but there are a lot of balloons up there...
This time we set up on the plateau with a great view across the Goreme Valley with its extraordinary penile structures (sorry, but this a blatantly obvious comparison) to where dozens of balloons prepared and then rose into the air, all at varying speeds, and floating up in the extremely still air. For over an hour we watched the firing, the patterns, the sillouettes and then the colours as they became visible in the encroaching rising sun, and then the descents in diverse places, some alarmingly close by. The pilots manage in many cases to land the baskets onto trailers, as they did ours, with great skill. There's a lot of muscle involved in setting up and packing down a balloon of such a size, and a big investment in equipment, but clearly from the proliferation of companies and the number of people employed in the ballooning business, it's a lucrative one. After that we made a viewing stop and on the spur of the moment were invited to taste a particularly good local Turkish coffee. This is the advantage of a good, experienced guide who knows such things. It was really good, not at all like my local Costa brew: strong but not bitter. They also pressed upon us roasted pumpkin seeds which are being gathered now and are in season.
By 8am we were back in our hotel enjoying the typical Turkish breakfast of assorted cheeses, varied jams and honeys and grape syrup, breads, tomatoes and olives....and my beloved peanut butter! All washed down with hot water.
A quick dash out to photograph a couple who are pumpkin farmers who obligingly drove their horse and cart around the place so that we could get appropriately photogenic shots. In the heat. Poor horse.
Next stop was a rest by the delightful pool whose attractive appearance belied its subzero temperature...still managed a swim...brave, brave girl! Time to dry off to the sounds of my ipod (mozart, keith jarrett, nick drake...etc).
And on to a family run pottery which initially inspired me to thoughts of sitting that one out in a nearby cafe BUT it was set (as many things hereabouts are) into a hillside underground and was made painstakingly over many years and generations of one family - now housing a very interesting museum of pottery artefacts dating from thousands of years BC to more modern pieces. There was a case labelled mercury jars - little innocuous looking clay pots with lids - and Amy who is a geo (as in geology) physicist, posited that they might have used mercury to smelt gold. But no. The Seljuks used to enjoy dipping their arrow-heads into it to poison their enemies. Nice.
Another interesting and probably useless fact: the Hittites of biblical and other fame worshipped the sun, amongst other things. They also had a gazelle as a symbol. They made a rather beautiful wine container shaped like an 'O' shape with a long spout at the top, as the air circulating around it kept the wine cool and was shaped like a sun in the middle. I didn't purchase one as only a large one would have impact and we don't have a suitable place to put such a thing. I did however buy a mug with an ottoman design to represent Istanbul. Very pretty and will do for my morning tea.
I did sit out the underground hiding places for times of invasion, layers of practical areas including animal housing and pipes for fresh air deep into the underground. There are also odd looking pipes which protrude on the tops of some hills, looking like mini stonehenges, which are to ventilate storehouses for lemons. I was not the only one and we settled for a bit of a drink and read in the cafe outside, where the owner gave us green grapes from his own yard to go with our apple tea.
Anatolia means (from Greek) far off shining land (or something like that).
Nahida is full of quirky facts. She also seems to know the best places to eat proper Turkish food made by locals and frequented by locals. An example is the co-operative set up by unemployed women in a local town where we had delicious soup and what they call pancake, made with filo pastry freshly made and stretched and rolled before our eyes, filled with salty local cheese and baked on a massive slightly convex hot plate, like an Aga hotplate on steroids with a bulge...served warm and so good.
We press on after that to our next appointment which is to find somewhere to view sunset. That turns out to be our local 'castle', another defensive spot which strikes me as very much like the famous painting of the tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel the elder. The shape is similar and the town below cleaves to the hill, full of vendors and cafes and a slightly chaotic feel. The stone is pocked with caves and hiding places and has a fabulous view of the countryside all around the area. Sunset was not particularly spectacular but the views were worth it. There was a shepherd with his flock on the hillside just below and a tourist camel outside a cave underneath the mosque across the gully.
Our last dinner at the Karlik Evi hotel was good, plenty of fresh veggies and soup for me.
Another excellent day, plenty of photos and the group is working very well. It's not competitive and everyone is very friendly, bright and mutually helpful. How refreshing!
Dawn today was spent not flying but photographing the flying of others. My, but there are a lot of balloons up there...
This time we set up on the plateau with a great view across the Goreme Valley with its extraordinary penile structures (sorry, but this a blatantly obvious comparison) to where dozens of balloons prepared and then rose into the air, all at varying speeds, and floating up in the extremely still air. For over an hour we watched the firing, the patterns, the sillouettes and then the colours as they became visible in the encroaching rising sun, and then the descents in diverse places, some alarmingly close by. The pilots manage in many cases to land the baskets onto trailers, as they did ours, with great skill. There's a lot of muscle involved in setting up and packing down a balloon of such a size, and a big investment in equipment, but clearly from the proliferation of companies and the number of people employed in the ballooning business, it's a lucrative one. After that we made a viewing stop and on the spur of the moment were invited to taste a particularly good local Turkish coffee. This is the advantage of a good, experienced guide who knows such things. It was really good, not at all like my local Costa brew: strong but not bitter. They also pressed upon us roasted pumpkin seeds which are being gathered now and are in season.
By 8am we were back in our hotel enjoying the typical Turkish breakfast of assorted cheeses, varied jams and honeys and grape syrup, breads, tomatoes and olives....and my beloved peanut butter! All washed down with hot water.
A quick dash out to photograph a couple who are pumpkin farmers who obligingly drove their horse and cart around the place so that we could get appropriately photogenic shots. In the heat. Poor horse.
Next stop was a rest by the delightful pool whose attractive appearance belied its subzero temperature...still managed a swim...brave, brave girl! Time to dry off to the sounds of my ipod (mozart, keith jarrett, nick drake...etc).
And on to a family run pottery which initially inspired me to thoughts of sitting that one out in a nearby cafe BUT it was set (as many things hereabouts are) into a hillside underground and was made painstakingly over many years and generations of one family - now housing a very interesting museum of pottery artefacts dating from thousands of years BC to more modern pieces. There was a case labelled mercury jars - little innocuous looking clay pots with lids - and Amy who is a geo (as in geology) physicist, posited that they might have used mercury to smelt gold. But no. The Seljuks used to enjoy dipping their arrow-heads into it to poison their enemies. Nice.
Another interesting and probably useless fact: the Hittites of biblical and other fame worshipped the sun, amongst other things. They also had a gazelle as a symbol. They made a rather beautiful wine container shaped like an 'O' shape with a long spout at the top, as the air circulating around it kept the wine cool and was shaped like a sun in the middle. I didn't purchase one as only a large one would have impact and we don't have a suitable place to put such a thing. I did however buy a mug with an ottoman design to represent Istanbul. Very pretty and will do for my morning tea.
I did sit out the underground hiding places for times of invasion, layers of practical areas including animal housing and pipes for fresh air deep into the underground. There are also odd looking pipes which protrude on the tops of some hills, looking like mini stonehenges, which are to ventilate storehouses for lemons. I was not the only one and we settled for a bit of a drink and read in the cafe outside, where the owner gave us green grapes from his own yard to go with our apple tea.
Anatolia means (from Greek) far off shining land (or something like that).
Nahida is full of quirky facts. She also seems to know the best places to eat proper Turkish food made by locals and frequented by locals. An example is the co-operative set up by unemployed women in a local town where we had delicious soup and what they call pancake, made with filo pastry freshly made and stretched and rolled before our eyes, filled with salty local cheese and baked on a massive slightly convex hot plate, like an Aga hotplate on steroids with a bulge...served warm and so good.
We press on after that to our next appointment which is to find somewhere to view sunset. That turns out to be our local 'castle', another defensive spot which strikes me as very much like the famous painting of the tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel the elder. The shape is similar and the town below cleaves to the hill, full of vendors and cafes and a slightly chaotic feel. The stone is pocked with caves and hiding places and has a fabulous view of the countryside all around the area. Sunset was not particularly spectacular but the views were worth it. There was a shepherd with his flock on the hillside just below and a tourist camel outside a cave underneath the mosque across the gully.
Our last dinner at the Karlik Evi hotel was good, plenty of fresh veggies and soup for me.
Another excellent day, plenty of photos and the group is working very well. It's not competitive and everyone is very friendly, bright and mutually helpful. How refreshing!
Sunday, 27 September 2015
Balloons! Another first...
Being in general not someone who runs towards the light, but rather sits by the fire - I wasn't at all certain about taking up the opportunity to go up in a hot air balloon.
However, prompted by 'if not now, when?', I opted in. I am SO glad that I did.
Up in the dark, trundling along dirt roads to the lift-off site, we saw the ghostly outlines of waiting balloons in the fields and spaces to the sides. Among the natural tufa and volcanic rock shapes their very roundness was strange.
Actually when it came to it I wasn't at all apprehensive, oddly...the atmosphere was strangely other-worldly, with the remarkable landscape of basalt and tufa eroded over millenia. Our basket was fairly small, so we had ten including the pilot and his 2 helpers. The rushing of the lit gas pushing hot air into the balloon is tremendously loud, and of course there are up to 100 of them all going up at dawn or thereabouts, so there's a real sense of excitement. Going up slowly there is no feeling of danger or alarm: it's so quiet without any engines. In the deep blue before sunrise the colour slowly seeps into the landscape and we floated up to 600 feet at the highest, if I remember correctly. All the pilots communicate with walkie talkie devices to ensure that everyone has a turn at different heights, and locations. We went over a village built after 1954 when there was a bad earthquake here, and cave dwellers were forced to leave. It was only in the 1970's that any tourists began to trickle in. Now there are more Koreans and Chinese than europeans, and there are restaurants serving Asian food to serve them. They are masters of the selfie.
Drifting over the village we passed over two minarets marking the mosques, and saw daily life from a bird's eye view. It was enchanting to see the miniature life below...and also the openings where doorways and windows to the ancient rock and cave dwellings were in the earth and rock.
A number have been taken over and made into hotels and the evidence of poor and hasty development from the early days is very obvious.
We were a bit over an hour in the air, and it was a really glorious, dreamlike experience. I hope to get some photos ready shortly but we are very busy getting up early to make use of the best light of the day.
After returning for breakfast we went out again to see a small, privately arranged demonstration of sufi dance. This was a far cry from the usual tourist performances and it was set up so that we could take photographs. As it was inside an old underground cave usually in service as the night club 'Yemeni', it was quite challenging. Dark and lit only by artificial lights, and of course, plenty of movement. No selfies, no flash. It was particularly interesting via our guide Nahida to hear the stories of the young men and how they came to get involved in this heritage activity.
Lunch was at Kevi by the river, with a pleasant breeze and again, only local diners. I had a dish in a cast iron pot, of mushrooms baked with a little cheese, and salad.
And so the food: especially good are the vegetables, raw and cooked, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines etc, and yoghorts with herbs eg Parslane, and several cheeses, some goats, some from sheep, and cow too. Plenty of fresh and delicious bread!
Afternoon was a bit of down time, and I finished my book by the pool which was absolutely freezing! The garden at the Karlik Evi is like that in a slightly arty, bohemian family. Odd art works lie randomly about, there is a vegetable garden, the pool, various seating areas and a couple of horses, all against the backdrop of a castle hewn from rock. Very charming.
Another excursion to catch late afternoon and dusk light, followed by supper and here I am, all tucked up. Bedtime!
However, prompted by 'if not now, when?', I opted in. I am SO glad that I did.
Up in the dark, trundling along dirt roads to the lift-off site, we saw the ghostly outlines of waiting balloons in the fields and spaces to the sides. Among the natural tufa and volcanic rock shapes their very roundness was strange.
Actually when it came to it I wasn't at all apprehensive, oddly...the atmosphere was strangely other-worldly, with the remarkable landscape of basalt and tufa eroded over millenia. Our basket was fairly small, so we had ten including the pilot and his 2 helpers. The rushing of the lit gas pushing hot air into the balloon is tremendously loud, and of course there are up to 100 of them all going up at dawn or thereabouts, so there's a real sense of excitement. Going up slowly there is no feeling of danger or alarm: it's so quiet without any engines. In the deep blue before sunrise the colour slowly seeps into the landscape and we floated up to 600 feet at the highest, if I remember correctly. All the pilots communicate with walkie talkie devices to ensure that everyone has a turn at different heights, and locations. We went over a village built after 1954 when there was a bad earthquake here, and cave dwellers were forced to leave. It was only in the 1970's that any tourists began to trickle in. Now there are more Koreans and Chinese than europeans, and there are restaurants serving Asian food to serve them. They are masters of the selfie.
Drifting over the village we passed over two minarets marking the mosques, and saw daily life from a bird's eye view. It was enchanting to see the miniature life below...and also the openings where doorways and windows to the ancient rock and cave dwellings were in the earth and rock.
A number have been taken over and made into hotels and the evidence of poor and hasty development from the early days is very obvious.
We were a bit over an hour in the air, and it was a really glorious, dreamlike experience. I hope to get some photos ready shortly but we are very busy getting up early to make use of the best light of the day.
After returning for breakfast we went out again to see a small, privately arranged demonstration of sufi dance. This was a far cry from the usual tourist performances and it was set up so that we could take photographs. As it was inside an old underground cave usually in service as the night club 'Yemeni', it was quite challenging. Dark and lit only by artificial lights, and of course, plenty of movement. No selfies, no flash. It was particularly interesting via our guide Nahida to hear the stories of the young men and how they came to get involved in this heritage activity.
Lunch was at Kevi by the river, with a pleasant breeze and again, only local diners. I had a dish in a cast iron pot, of mushrooms baked with a little cheese, and salad.
And so the food: especially good are the vegetables, raw and cooked, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines etc, and yoghorts with herbs eg Parslane, and several cheeses, some goats, some from sheep, and cow too. Plenty of fresh and delicious bread!
Afternoon was a bit of down time, and I finished my book by the pool which was absolutely freezing! The garden at the Karlik Evi is like that in a slightly arty, bohemian family. Odd art works lie randomly about, there is a vegetable garden, the pool, various seating areas and a couple of horses, all against the backdrop of a castle hewn from rock. Very charming.
Another excursion to catch late afternoon and dusk light, followed by supper and here I am, all tucked up. Bedtime!
Day two - meet the group!
Thank you for the pointer, Harriet! I am feeling extremely pleased with myself for actually navigating the steps required to change the template to include an email subscription option! Yay!
OK, so the coding was just a cut and paste - except for changing the url - but I did it!
Spent a bit of time cleaning up the cameras for action, and reading 'We had it so good' by Linda Grant. She does write well....
So the point of this trip is to join a photography trip run by Jon Greengo with Emily Wilson, both out of Seattle, Washington. Jon works for Creative Live, a highly successful and profitable web-based lesson hub.
OK, so the coding was just a cut and paste - except for changing the url - but I did it!
Spent a bit of time cleaning up the cameras for action, and reading 'We had it so good' by Linda Grant. She does write well....
So the point of this trip is to join a photography trip run by Jon Greengo with Emily Wilson, both out of Seattle, Washington. Jon works for Creative Live, a highly successful and profitable web-based lesson hub.
So it’s 21.45pm and we are installed in our
hotel Karlik Evi in Goreme. It’s far above what
is my usual experience on similar trips. My room is large and has a huge bed, and a mini sitting room, and most importantly, is quiet.
Very happy to report that all the people on
the group seem to be individuals who are not going to be tricky. Jon Greengo is photographer, very laid back
and disposed to be helpful, also very organized. Amyis a scarf/fabric artist new to
photography, her friend Wendy is a silk screen printer but I suspect has a lot
more behind her than that, keen shooter on canon. Bec joined us in the evening, shooting Sony,
has had an interesting life, been here two weeks already with her belly dancing
friends! Emily has been outstanding
already with her pretrip prep, and our in country guide Nahida speaks excellent
English and is a real fixer and fount of knowledge.
Flight from Istanbul to kayseri was
uneventful and under 1.5 hours, and
first surprise was the driver and his luxurious van. Bling!
Lots of info starting with the fact that
Kayseri is the Turkish version of Caesaria, after Caesar. Also this area is famous for being original
location of Semillon grapes which Armenians took to france. Also earliest evidence of settlement and
growing wheat and making beer originates hereabouts.
Early to bed as we have a 5.15am start.
Friday, 25 September 2015
still day one
Hi folks,
well I sincerely hope that the food I had in the hotel dining room was a low point from which all things will improve...! A few rolls, admittedly lots of salad but much of it seemed to have emerged from ancient tins (artichokes, slimy mushrooms, pickled peppers), and the hot food had a sign over it saying 'eat me if you want istanbul belly'. A high spot was the baklava and the melon pieces, but all in all a very disappointing start. Still, I was given a blue can of coke on signing in at the front desk. And I can have a cuppa in my room. So everything's all right.
well I sincerely hope that the food I had in the hotel dining room was a low point from which all things will improve...! A few rolls, admittedly lots of salad but much of it seemed to have emerged from ancient tins (artichokes, slimy mushrooms, pickled peppers), and the hot food had a sign over it saying 'eat me if you want istanbul belly'. A high spot was the baklava and the melon pieces, but all in all a very disappointing start. Still, I was given a blue can of coke on signing in at the front desk. And I can have a cuppa in my room. So everything's all right.
Day one - Destination Turkey
This trip came about by accident in the sense that the original plan was to visit Nepal. Naturally no sooner than I booked it, the area was struck by a devastating earthquake.
So here I am, safely arrived without incident to Istanbul via Terminal 5 Heathrow, which now has a new lounge open to holders of Priority Pass cards.
My plan was to stay overnight close to the airport in Istanbul and join my group Saturday.
My first inkling that this plan was not quite as I envisaged was when the taxi took not the expected five minutes to get to the hotel, but about 25 minutes at speed. Either he was going in circles to increase the price, or he was kidnapping me...
But no, this was the Ramada Encore, Bayrampasa district - as my voucher said. And I have a room on the 9th floor, overlooking the busy motorway and the sea in the distance.
This is an excellent example of why we should check carefully the vouchers for pre-booked accommodation etc. I didn't do it thoroughly enough evidently. Bad, bad Trailfinders. They booked a Ramada Encore about as far from the Airport as possible and still be in Istanbul.
So I am in a rather industrial district by a busy multi lane road. Lucky I'm deaf in one ear!
So rather than wandering around in the dusk/dark in this area which I think may not be the best idea, I'm using the time to set up this blog, have what I hope is a good night's sleep (didn't sleep much last night, and up very early to leave for airport), and use the wifi.
No harm done, but a lesson learned.
Even though I've only driven from airport to this hotel, the atmosphere is most definitely Istanbul, a country with quite different customs. The airport has been upgraded and since there is no purchase of visas, as they are now bought online in advance, it's much easier and less stressful to get through customs and passport control. The weather is fine and warm, there was an air of slight chaos at the airport taxi/minibus area with a lot of men shouting, smoking and standing about. A few women are wearing headscarves, but not so many. I don't think I need to worry about respectful dress except around religious sites, although the countryside may be more conservative.
The smells here are different too - the wafting tantalising scent of grilling meats and breads, the odour of many people packed together in a big city, and just now at twilight, the sound of the meuzzin calling the faithful to prayer. Many minarets in all directions....
So here I am, safely arrived without incident to Istanbul via Terminal 5 Heathrow, which now has a new lounge open to holders of Priority Pass cards.
My plan was to stay overnight close to the airport in Istanbul and join my group Saturday.
My first inkling that this plan was not quite as I envisaged was when the taxi took not the expected five minutes to get to the hotel, but about 25 minutes at speed. Either he was going in circles to increase the price, or he was kidnapping me...
But no, this was the Ramada Encore, Bayrampasa district - as my voucher said. And I have a room on the 9th floor, overlooking the busy motorway and the sea in the distance.
This is an excellent example of why we should check carefully the vouchers for pre-booked accommodation etc. I didn't do it thoroughly enough evidently. Bad, bad Trailfinders. They booked a Ramada Encore about as far from the Airport as possible and still be in Istanbul.
So I am in a rather industrial district by a busy multi lane road. Lucky I'm deaf in one ear!
So rather than wandering around in the dusk/dark in this area which I think may not be the best idea, I'm using the time to set up this blog, have what I hope is a good night's sleep (didn't sleep much last night, and up very early to leave for airport), and use the wifi.
No harm done, but a lesson learned.
Even though I've only driven from airport to this hotel, the atmosphere is most definitely Istanbul, a country with quite different customs. The airport has been upgraded and since there is no purchase of visas, as they are now bought online in advance, it's much easier and less stressful to get through customs and passport control. The weather is fine and warm, there was an air of slight chaos at the airport taxi/minibus area with a lot of men shouting, smoking and standing about. A few women are wearing headscarves, but not so many. I don't think I need to worry about respectful dress except around religious sites, although the countryside may be more conservative.
The smells here are different too - the wafting tantalising scent of grilling meats and breads, the odour of many people packed together in a big city, and just now at twilight, the sound of the meuzzin calling the faithful to prayer. Many minarets in all directions....
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