Amazing Cappadocia - pics

Amazing Cappadocia

Whirling dervish

Traditional dancing

We've been fortunate enough to spend the last 5 days in Cappadocia - this treasure lies in the middle of Turkey and was shaped by large volcanic eruptions over 30 million years ago. The strange landscape of today is a direct result of a thick layer of ash, mud and basalt that the volcanoes deposited all over this area. Within this layer there are more than 28 underground cities - some reaching 8 floors underground. Here whole communities could hide from attackers. In other parts the famous fairy chimneys - not only beautiful at sunrise or sunset, but also home to many generations of people. Some say for close on 5000years!! During the early years of Christianity many came here to flee the persecution and they left hundreds of churches and monestaries carved into the volcanic soil. Add to this a healthy mix of Romans, Greeks, Turkish raiders and nomads plus a multitude of ruling parties and you begin to get a vague idea of the rich history of this remarkable place.

We met up with my family here and last night we all went to a "Turkish night" - a special evening of Turkish food (free booze) and spectacular traditional Turkish dancing - from the whirling dervishes, to belly dancing and folk dancing - mock sword-fights and great music. Just a lot of fun!

Unfortunately tomorrow's our last day here and then we'll head for the enormous city of Istanbul!

Egirdir to Cappadocia

Fairy Chimneys

Underground City

Jana's keen eye for people

Antioch

Last awesome breakfast in Egirdir

Our time at the tranquil, beautiful Ergirdir lake had run out and it was time to move on to Cappadocia. Yet, before we left that evening to Cappadocia we managed to fit in a visit to Yalvac (a city to the north of the lake) – this used to be the Roman city of Antioch, the capital of Galatia. Quite a remarkable place, but most of it is still unexcavated. We returned in time for our bus, and just before day-break arrived in the small town of Goreme, in the heart of Cappadocia. This amazing place is well known for it’s “fairy-chimneys” – volcanic rocks that have been eroded into these amazing shapes AND to top it, house cut into the rock!!
Here we met up with my father, mother and brother who’ve come to join us for 2 weeks of our travels.
Today we visited an ancient underground city and also just took in more of the breath-taking landscape.
PS!! I know this is a very short blog, but we’ll fill you in on the details in due time.

Egirdir Lake - Turkey

We’ve left Pamukkale looking for a place “off the beaten track” – initially we wanted to explore along the coast a bit more, but the idea of tourists was just too much. We heard about “this inland lake” and decided to head east.
3 hours on the bus later we arrived in the most beautiful setting. The turquoise waters of Egirdir lake lie 900m above sea level surrounded by the Taurus mountain range (2800m above sea level). It is beautiful…no other words.
In winter time there’s various ski slopes on the mountains, but now it’s pleasantly warm, cooler than the coast though.
The contrast between a gigantic lake and equally massive mountains is breathtaking and there is just no way to put it into words.

To add to the wonderful experience we’ve met an amazing French couple who’ve cycled 5000km across Europe. Probably motivated by the idea, we rented two bikes and headed into the hills surrounding the lake, towards a small village. We unfortunately arrived during prayers and not wanting to intrude we were about to turn around when a family spotted us. They showered us in kindness, bringing fruit – apples, peaches, nectarines and mini-plums (all grown locally) to eat (& take home) and Ayran (yoghurt-drink). Although we could barely understand one another, the interaction was amazing and touched us deeply. Jana’s mastered more Turkish and was a “hit” among the woman. Rachel your phrase book is worth its weight in gold (and more, because it’s so little)

The journey home took us through more orchards and our minds & hearts we’re filled with joys of a Turkish summer. So glad we came here!!

Hierapolis

Clockwise from top:


The ancient theatre of Hierapolis

Northern bath
Frontillis Street and the public latrines

The Demon Hole or Plutonium, now covered up so as not to hurt the tourism

The 2km long necropolis

This ancient city perched on top of Permukkale was built in honour of Apollo (Greek god) about 2500 years ago. The city became a place of healing due to the magical properties of the waters from Permukkale and 3 enormous baths were built in Hierapolis to serve this need. The thermal springs that exist here have varying degrees of temperature from 15 ۫ C to 100۫۫ C and some of the springs release pure carbon dioxide, thus suffocating anyone in too close a proximity. One of these springs is at the base of the Temple of Apollo and is called the Plutonium or Demon’s Hole.

Hierapolis is said to have the best preserved ancient theatre in the world, able to seat 10 000+ people… the orchestra pit was converted into a huge swimming pool type system to cater for the aquatic theatre somewhere AD.
The Agora of Hierapolis (market area) was a square of over 240m long and 100+ wide and the main buildings on the eastern side of the Agora were 20m in height, now little of it remains. The city (what remains) is far bigger and widespread than Ephesus and you are free to roam where you like in amongst the ruins and unearthed houses peering out the ground. The colonnaded street runs 1km north to south, parallel to the plateau’s edge and ends in monumental portals, which marked the end of the city boundaries. The street although a bit bumpy due to previous earthquakes is still beautifully intact and the comprehensive sewerage system that ran beneath the streets is also visible at places. The city’s necropolis, which is the largest in Asia Minor at 2km long, is what greeted any visitor to the city 2000 years ago. The over 1000 tombs (some containing over 30 people’s remains) and sarcophagi are incredible, it’s here that you really get an idea of how many people must have inhabited this area…and how many of them were wealthy enough to have afforded to be buried along the highway to the city. It was also here in Hierapolis that St Philip and his son came to spread Christianity, he was martyd there and they subsequently built a church named after him – it’s in ruin now, but a beautiful design. The church is a round domed building with an octagonal internal design surrounded by a square outside wall, which housed rooms for pilgrims.
Hierapolis is another not to be missed site perched where it is as the crown on the “cotton castle” and much of it is still being unearthed, which leaves so much to the imagination.

Pamukkale

Pamukkale

Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) lies at the start of a series of mountain ranges in a rural setting inland from Selcuk. The little village below this spectacular wonder is small and mainly tourist driven, but in a rural sort of light. We saw the pictures of Pamukkale in Piet and Wilhelma’s photo album and decided there was no missing this one. Pamukkale is a cascade of turquoise water collecting in lilly pad shaped baths naturally formed by the high calcium carbonate in the water which deposits to form these beautiful white terraces. It’s just spectacular and hence the name “Cotton Castle”. On top of these travertines is the ancient city of Hierapolis, with it’s awe-inspiring Necropolis…more on that next

just another blog

Today we have a change of plan and head off to Egidir, an inland lake on route to Cappadocia, we decide to avoid the touristy spots for a while and try and get to experience the local culture a bit more. We are loving turkey, especially the people - they really are friendly and helpful and if you don't want their help, they respect that. We have learnt a few very difficult Turkish words - like thank you :) (which took us three days) which makes a huge difference when it comes to them accepting you as something more than just pink fleshy tourists. They smile a lot more here than anywhere we've been.

We've just stayed at the most amazing backpackers/hotel at Pammukale close to Hierapolis, we will post a blog on that - another AWESOME ancient sight built ontop of these huge calcium carbonate springs (cotton castle), it's just mind blowing....there's a lot of mind blowing happening on this trip :)

Anyways - breakfasts here are amazing - i have to write about them....2 dishes of olives - black and stuffed green ones, yogurt, honey, delicious tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese and other cheese and meat slices with heaps of light bread...also watermellon and turkish tea and elma cay (apple tea). All this included in the room price for R 165 for both of us a night...it's just madness compared to greece - which was massively expensive in comparison.

Our budget is
R150/n/p/p accomodation
R100 transport/d/p/p
R60 food / d/p/p
so far so good, but greece gave us a bit of a knock with the price of accomodation and food/drink - interestingly enough Scottland was easy to stick within the budget, we even saved some on the outer hebrides- good place to backpack.

a few statistics, so we can remember when we're 80 and reading this to our grandkids, or grand puppies....
we have been to 14 islands,
been on 18 ferry transfers,
travelled by car, scooter, underground, fast train, slow train, local bus, fancy bus, ferries (big - ones with escalators and tiny - nauseating little ones), hitchhiking, taxi's, walked miles (luckily without our overweight backpacks - now filled with greek blankets, souveniers for you all, a hubbly with ingredients and the damn tent) and soon by bicycle and kayak.

We'll we miss you all and look forward to sharing our 1000 + photos with you (runnnnnnn now while you have the chance) when we're back.... just under a month to go :)
lots of love
J

Ephesus (hilgard's spelling = efeses ... sorry)

the great theatre

the celsus library

model of the Artemission, statue is about 2.5m high...now in ephesus museum

The fountain at the gate of Hercules close to the Domitian Temple, where a statue of the horrible man stood 5 m high - wow

Efeses is over 2000 years old, but it's still stands momentous in a valley just outside Selcuk. Efeses used to be the playground for the rich and educated with the focus being mainly on arts, culture and academia. Some 200 000 people used to live at this once harbour city, which is now deseted and in ruin. The coast has receded and all the poeple have moved to Selcuk. The buildings were once massive and the Celsus library still stands as it did all those years ago - quite an awe-inspiring site. The marble street (slabs of white marble) was 4km in its day and the great theatre used to seat 25 000 people!! It was here that St Paul challanged the followers of Artemis and was subsequently imprissoned on a hill just outside the city. Artemis was the Greek god of nature and the Artemision was a temple built in reverence of her. It was supported by over 200 pillars of which now only 20 or so are left standing. What amazed us was the rich mix of religion and politics in the history of Efeses. Christianity was declared the state religion in 431AD in the beautiful church dedicated to St Mary - now lies in ruin close to the Arcadian way. Efeses is truly awe inspiring and gave us insight into much of what we've read. It's a "have to visit" place!!

Yet, it is so difficult to put into words or pictures and these are but a poor reflection of the grandeur of this once bustling city. What a wonderful experience

Selcuk - Turkey

We were quite sad to leave the tranquil island of Patmos behind as our ferry sailed towards Samos. Samos is a big Greek island seprated by only 3km of sparkling blue water from Turkey. Despite it being a Sunday we managed to make the connections between all the ferries and busses and just after 17.00 our next ferry sailed from Samos to Turkey. (Up to now we've been aboard 18 ferries...). As a last little present form the Greeks we had to pay more for our ticket from Greece to Turkey than Turkey to Greece plus an extra 20 euros harbour tax... We arrived in the bustling harbour town of Kusadasi, eager to meet the driver from our pension in Selcuk who promised to come pick us up. We went to the pick-up point but no driver... After a phone call, it became clear that some time in the last 24hrs they'd sent me an e-mail and changed the venue!! Oh, well - in the end we met up with the guy and we were in Selcuk in 25min. Every plane, every bus and every ferry we've taken seem to take us further and further away into worlds unknown to us - Selcuk is beautiful - Roman ruins, early Christian churches, Ottoman mosques, but also so different - really a foreighn country with people who think differently. Today we briefly visited the Basilica of St. John and also the Effese museum - beautiful places - see pics. On our way back - tired, hot, hungry and thirsty we sat down in the shade of the old aquaduct for a break when 2 young girls ran up to us smiling - unable to communicate much we smiled back, waved a bit but did not think much of it. A few minutes later they came running down the street following us - very shyly both of them presented us with a little bottle of cooldrink - and unlike what we were expecting - they did not want anything in return. This afternoon, as it gets cooler we'll go and explore the ruins of old Efese.

J - Patmos Island

This is the longest we’ve stayed in one place since we left London, it’ll be 4 nights when we leave for Selcuk, Turkey tomorrow. Patmos has most definitely not dissapointed, the beaches are beautiful and there are only a handfull of tourists. It’s quiet and it’s musch cooler and greener here then the other islands we’ve been to.

Yesterday we kept the scooter (Pink Lady) and explored the north side of the island, she coped pretty well with the two of us, even with the new baklava food baby brewing in my tummy. Now and again hilgard had to add in some extra leg power up the hills, with both of us leaning as far forward as possible – we must be quite a sight, I’m sure this is the real reason greeks support tourism.

We went to the northern most beach, which is a pebble paradise. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s a long beach, sloping downward to the sea, which is surrounded by cliffs. Each and every stone is like an abstract art piece – it’s so beautiful. I could have spent hours there and if I didn’t have to carry the weight on my back for the next month I would have picked a few of them up too.

Today is a quiet catch up day (we promise), blogs, emails, photos, post cards, letters etc before we leave on another epic journey to ephesus. Hilgards lost his 10th card game and owes me coffee in bed J I’m loving it. And then tonight he owes me dessert out in town, because Germany didn’t get through to the final – today is a good day for me. Howevere sooner or later, because De Nederland didn’t win afterall, I owe him a turkish bath and if we are brave enough a turkish massage…ouch.

Anyways, I miss you all lots and lots, but we are well and happy sending lots of love from Greece for the last time.

Mom I hope that you are enjoying watching the flat final come to a finish, like all things it’s just a process and it’s worth waiting for, we really appreciate it.

Stoney thanks for your comment, I’ve missed you so much this trip and look forward to spending more time with you and becs – hope you’re both well and enjoying work.

Bug – some of my washing still smells of you!!!! arrrgggg miss you heaps friend, cannot wait to see you again – twice in one year!!!yippppeeee.

J…..any news on the job? my thumb is about falling off this side, miss you heaps and wonder everyday how you are doing through all of this? Miss you loads – huge telepathic hugs from the north

Syros Island

I feel compelled to share some pictures of Syros, because although it was a short rendezvous, it was so beautiful. We were only there for two ferry change overs and a delicious, “dream about” dinner on a terrace over looking the sea with John and Candy. The pictures are of St Nicholas Church (on whose steps we slept our first few hours in Syros), the restaurant where we had the fantastic farewell dinner before heading off to Patmos and a few pictures of the town. The feel of the town is so different, it feels a bit more local and unexplored, the buildings are a bit derelict here and there, but in a quiet interesting way. The light on the town is perfect, all the buildings are off white (pastel peach and cream) and divided by narrow cobbled, stone streets, bougainvilleas splash some colour here and there, with the early morning fruit markets taking care of the rest. It was awesome and there are a couple of places Hilgard was itching to buy and revamp while he learnt to speak and write Greek.

PATMOS

Hi everyone!! I realize our updates have been a bit irregular becuase our parents keep asking if we have enough money, sleeping warm enough and finding things to eat?

YES, we are doing well thank you... Greece is very hot so please don't worry about us sleeping cold :) But all jokes aside, we're still doing well and enjoying our time in Greece a lot. It is incredibly beautiful!

Since our last update we've had to say goodbye to John and Candy (quite sad!!) and have made our way to Patmos. We arrived here in the middle of the night and had prepared ourselves for a long walk to our campsite but the owner was there with his little van and picked us up!! (At 02:00) We just rolled out our little mats and slept under the stars last night.

This morning after we both turned out to still be a bit grumples we walked down to the beach for a nap next to the beautiful blue waters. We rented another scooter this afternoon - The Pink Lady and she took us up to the cave where John wrote revelations and also to the beautiful monestry in the hill - with incredible painted murals, some dating back to the 11th century!!

We've decided to stay on here in Patmos until Sunday - it is quiet and peaceful and we need a bit of rest.

Jana's just reminded me to pls send you all her love - the two of us are a bit home-sick today. We miss you guys!!

H

J-Romantic Mykonos

John and Candy at Caprice in Little Venice

Sunset tonight from the Hippie Fish Restaurant

Sunset at Little Venice

I cannot believe that here we are in Mykonos, not only that, but here we are with John and Candy after years of not having seen them. It been so special and we have been beyond spoilt - there is no word for this kind of spoiling....

We have seen, tasted and drank the best of the best here and that with fantastic company - it's really just been out of this world. Mykonos is all that it's made out to be and I don't blame all these people for being here and getting in our way on the narrow roads, beaches and cobbled walk ways. they have my permission this time, but just this once :)

We have been staying in a gorgeous hotel at Ornos beach and have been to little venice, driven around the island to "paradise" and ..yes... "super paradise" beach, we've eaten saganaki cheese, sea food, baklava, greek salad, calamari and pastries...i even had olives, feta and delicious whole tomotaoes for breakfast, tomatoes that actually taste red.

It's been amazing - thanks to uncle john john and aunty candy, let the pictures speak for themselves while we drift off to sleep with really deliciously full tummies.