Göreme, Cappadocia
We flew from Istanbul to Kayserin (RM650 return) and arranged a shuttle bus (10TL) to the place we stayed, Göreme, part of the huge Cappadocia which covers 4 other towns. The entire place is made up of many tiny mountains and valleys, and SAND! so it's quite dry there and cooling as well during the night.
Plenty of sand castles, something that are very unique and I guess you can't find it at other part of the world. Hot air balloon is not the only attraction, in fact the history of the activity is not very long. Other things like the Uchisar Castle and Open Musuems carry more history than others.
It's a place where Christianity was spread back in the 5th century; many drawings are still kept in good condition.
Btw, the hot air balloon, it's actually quite scary when it reached 980m, the highest it can go. The view is magnificent though! Of course me Tai Hau being Tai Hau did not forget to take selfie!
Order pottery kebab, awesome food! About our stay: We stayed in a cave! How awesome it was! the breakfast was good as well :)
Istanbul
Flying form Kayserin to Istanbul can be quite annoying in the summer because of the frequent changing weather condition in Istanbul. Our flight was delayed for 3 hours but anyway, we reached there safely. Took a bus Havatas to Taksim from airport (15TL) and a cab to Sishane, the place we stayed.
Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque are some places must go! Very majestic and jaw dropping building. And it reflects how open-minded and liberal it was during the Ottoman Empire where Muslims and Christians could live together.
The journey to Princess Islands takes 1.5 hours, if you're alighting at the last stop, which is the best I think. So please go there earlier, if possible try to catch the 8:30am ferry. You may need a full day there, not forgetting the boat ride takes 3 hours!
I rented a bicycle there for 10TL for an hour. Frankly speaking I did not enjoy the rushing
ride, so I recommend a longer day there.
Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar are so crowded and too many things to buy. It's very happening. Remember to bargain every time you buy things. Slash the price, like
SLASHHHHH, but be polite at the same time, Turks are nice people :)
I don't fancy food but Hamdi Restaurant at Karakoy is a must go! The kebabs are affordable (30TL) and authentic! The desserts are good too, like Baklava but a little bit too sweet. Order starter too because the main course is really very small portion. Unless you like bread then I think they have unlimited supply of bread. The view from the restaurant is nice too!
Some other interesting things:
I went for movie, it's cheap (10TL) but this is not the point. The interesting part is that they have movie break!! like 10 minutes break! The movie just paused suddenly and continued 10 minutes later.
Crossing the Greece-Turkey boarder is very unique too. I boarded a night bus (130TL) to Thessaloniki (Selanik) where I planned to save on hostel but it turned out that the night was quite hectic. They did not switch off the light until very late. And soon after they switched it off, they stopped for toilet break. Then not long after that, we reached the
boarder, it was around 3:00am, bus departed at 10:00pm btw from Otogari bus station.
The passport control/immigration is really not that strict. The officer collected all our passports and took roughly 30 minutes before gave them to the assistant bus driver to return to us while the bus left the office.
So we were all worried that we did not get our passport back and the bus had already left the boarder!
Next post will be on Greece and Macedonia!
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