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| Outside my bus window |
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| The ferry I took |
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| Grand Bazaar |
Three weeks in Turkey you get to see a lot. In this blog, I will give you an overview of what my friend Viv and I did. Getting to my hotel in Istanbul was no easy task. I took a marshurtka to Tbilisi and then spent 12 hours in the airport to catch a 4:10AM flight to Istanbul which took 2 hours. When I got off the plane, I bought my visa, changed money (dollars, would not change manates) and when to information hotel counter. The guy told me that I can't take public transportation as it would take me hours to get to Sultanahet (Old Town), but I said I have hours (it was 6:30 am) and Viv would not arrive until 4:00 PM!! And a bus he suggested was only 50 Euros! I told him I am a Peace Corps volunteer and I do not have that kind of money to spend. So I went outside and saw the public bus to the city and got on. When I try to pay him, he told me I need a bus card and pointed me to the kiosk to buy one, I asked him to wait and he said yes. Well, it only took 45 minutes for the bus to make it to the ferry (maybe because it was so early in the morning and no traffic!!). My next task is the ferry across, the bus driver took me right to the ferry, but there were two, made the right decision and took the Bloupsous one and across I went (each ride cost me 2 lire), now I am on the other side another 30 minutes, so far one hour 15 minutes, not bad but I still have a tram ride and one was no where in sight. I kept asking and finally someone who spoke English walked me to it. Now the web said I would be in Sultanhet and there was a stop right in that area but when I got off, I asked a policeman where this hotel was and it was two stops further ahead. I got back on and found the hotel, whew, another 30 minutes!! I immediately e-mailed my friend and told her which stop to get off of and then checked in, took a shower ate breakfast and crash for 4 hours. When I got up, I walked around and checked out the Grand Bazaar until it was time to meet with Viv. We met and went back to the hotel, she checked in and we went out to dinner.
We spent a few days in Istanbul, we went to the Blue Mosque, the Christan Church Sofia that was changed into a Mosque and the archaeological museum which is one of the largest in the world, truly amazing!!
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| Viv and I outside the Blue Mosque |
After, we took a 9 hour bus to Izmir, where we changed to a mini bus and another hour bus to Selchuk which is next to Ephesus. We spent 3 days there and visited John's Basilica and where he was buried, we saw another mosque and of course the ruins of Ephesus, absolutely AWESOME.
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| Sign outside of John site |
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| Ruins of John's site |
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| Ephesus |
After Ephesus, we took another bus to Bodrum on the coast (a 3 hour ride) and got on the "Blue Cruise" to see 5 Greek Islands. The largest being Kos and of course Patmos where John wrote the book of Revelations. The islands were beautiful and the Greek people were warm and very hospitable.
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| Our boat |
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| Patmos, view from the church |
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| Me outside the church
From Bodrum, we went to Cappadocia where we stayed in a Cave hotel and visited fairy chimney's and took a Balloon ride (awesome!!).
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Okay, then after three weeks, and loads of fun, we both took shuttles to the airport Keysera to get back to Istanbul to fly to Tbilisi to take a Marshurtka to Zaqatala, but what great memories!!
Life Challenge: When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me God"!!! Erma Bombeck
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