Living in memory of Turkey
Thursday, July 6th, 2006It has been a month since we returned from Turkey, and each day, I have been ‘living in memory’ of our wonderful trip. This was really one of the best trip I’ve had with a perfect combination of sightseeing, relaxing, great food and of course great company!!
Top reasons why this trip was AMAZING:
- The people that we met along the way were so nice and helpful, and our hosts in Istanbul was awesome.
- We never had to worry about the weather (unlike Belgium), and we basically took the sun for granted.
- Food was sooo GOOD and cheap!! This is definately my favorite activity while travelling, and Turkey has both combination of GREAT food & good price.
Beautiful sunset of Istanbul
Our trip started in Istanbul, with 11 adventerous trainees from all over the globe. In the evening of our arrival, Bora, our Turkish friend, had organized a very nice dinner for all of us at Taksim, which had taken him and his buddies a total of 76 e-mails exchanges to organize. Turkish people were really the BEST host I’ve met, and they were soo nice beyond words! After dinner, we continued to go out at Taksim Square, where it was unbelivably busy.
If Seattle can be "sleepless", I wouldn’t know what to call Istanbul. Never in my life saw so many people on the street, plus a bad traffic jam at 2:00 am.
The Istanbul Group - L-R: (top): Leon, Erik, Julian, Nicole & (bottom): Ewa, Vladan, Maria, Olivier, Julie, Dy, and me.
The second and third day we stayed in Istanbul, with visits to Hagia Sofia, Blue Masque, Boat Trip, Topkapi Palace, Harem, Grand Bazzar. Istanbul is indeed a beautiful place, with mixture of fun, and fascinating culture.
Day 4 - Istanbul - Izmir - Kusadasi
On the forth day, we had to wave Istanbul good-bye, and flied down to Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey to continue our our road trip to the Aagean and Mediteranean Coast of Turkey. We rented a 9 seater "Mini-Bus", and Julian from Colombia was the closest candidate in our group to be eligible to share the road with the Turkish Drivers. Gracias, Julian!! =)
Our road trip for the day ended in Kusadasi, a beautiful resort town in the West coast of Turkey. Here we stayed in a cute litle hostel run by an Australian lady and her Turkish husband. That night, we had one of the best dinner in a local restaurant called "Holiday Inn" (Highly recommended), and followed by my favorite and funniest memories of the trip….the "Turkish wanna-be" moments.
Introducting the 7 survivors : From L-R: Erik (Canada), Leon (HK/Aussie), Julian (Colombia), Nicole (Canada), me (Indonesia), Julie (Brazil), and Ewa (Poland). Seeing everyone dressed up was super hillarious and we can’t stop laughing. Definately a nice and cheap entertainment.
Day 5 - Ephesus - Bodrum
We left Kusadasi in the morning, and visited Ephesus, the best preserved classical city in the Mediteraneean, and possibly in the world.
It was an amazing place, and I felt like I was brougth back to the Roman time.
I highly recommend you to hire a tour guide who can tell you the history behind the ruins of Ephesus. It was much more interesting than walking through big ruins/rocks.
Virgin Mary’s House - Virgin Mary was believed to have spent the last days off her lives in Ephesus.
Day 6 - Bodrum Boat Trip
Perfect day for a boat trip!! We spent a day in a boat where we sailed away the Bodrum Peninsula…The water was clear blue, and the sun was perfect for sun-bathing.
We ended our evening by going to the Turkish Bath, where they exfoliate your body. It was a super interesting experience, and we all came out feeling like a new polished coins (as it claimed in the guide book).
Day 7 - Bodrum - Daylan - Olu Deniz - Antalya
On Day 7, we had to say good bye to Julie as she had to go back to Barcelona. The six of us continued our road trip to reach end destination - Antalya.
On the way, we stopped at a couple places:
Daylan, where we took at a boat trip to visit the Ancient tomb. It was prohibitted to hike up to the tomb as there was people who felt down the clift…pretty creepy
2nd stop: Olu Deniz, an amazingly beautiful beach with clear blue water. The beach was very rocky, but we managed to swim and played freesbie for a couple hours.
We arrived in Antalya quite late in the evening, and I didn’t have a very good first impression. We were welcome by a big thunderstrom (so big that it caused power outage for the shops next to the highway). When we arrived at the hotel, we then have a reservation problem, and we had to argue with clueless receiptionist/night manager for total of about 5 hours.
Day 8 - Antalya
The next morning, the problem was solved, and they gave us the internet rate €25 per person per night as agreed. Since this was a 5 stars resort, it was indeed a pretty good price. Customer Service wasn’t that great, but we managed to spent the day enjoying the nice facilities the hotel offes:
Free Waterpark from the Hotel
Private Beach at Dedeman Resort
GET….SET…GO!!
Last evening in Turkey… :( Considering this was our last evening, we insisted to went out and experienced the night life in Antalya. We first had a very delicious meal for dinner and at around midnight, we went out to this open beach club by our hotel. It was really the best club I’ve been to, with big flatscreen, open air, and the moonlight reflecting down the sea was picture-perfect.
The next day, sadly, we had to return to Brussels. I want to thank you for all of our host in Istanbul, Sai, Ozler, Bora and friends, and of course Julian for driving all the way solo (while most of us are falling asleep… :).
