Last night in Istanbul and Turkey tonight... just to confirm, Turkey has taken the lead as best country so far and lock in as the winner already!
Cappadocia was the next stop after the treehouses and wow what scenery huh! Weird rock formations have created a totally unique atmosphere there, and it really is like a sci-fi set.... the hostel was in a cave and monasteries and so on have been carved out of the rocks in spectacular fashion. A big highlight involved jumping on the camel outside one of these rock villages; camels are quite clearly awesome animals if prone to a little grumpiness...
Decided to make it to the mountain as you might have seen on the photo section... and so glad I did. Eastern Turkey is really different to the western side, English gets pretty rare, people are even more friendly and excited to see you (on the first night, after about 5 hours, I wrote a list entitled 'random acts of kindness during first night in Malatya' in my notebook, this included my hotel owner buying me dinner, the internet guy giving me a coffee and not charging for anything, so on and so forth!). The mountain and the crazy stone heads were really great and there was a bit of a sense of achievement having reached it (and almost Syria). The early bird gets the worm, I've missed a few in my time (hey Mum!) but getting up at 5am for sunrise at the stone heads I made up for lost time...
Made a trip to Safranbolu a really pretty little town not a lot make it to, I think we were the first Aussies ever at our hotel actually! It is a historical town with pretty buildings with a totally chilled out vibe. We have a new MSN buddy, Hakan, a great guy who drove us around with not much english but so friendly and enthustiastic! I don't think I'll be stuck for an internet backgammon opponent on return to Australia either...
This was the kind of place where you visit a museum house then your hotel looks exactly the same! As you might have seen in the photo, met some excitable schoolkids there too! Fantastic.
Up to Istanbul following and the sprawling city of 12 million understandably overwhelmed my chilled out backpacking mind for the first few days but the place really grew on me after that. Spectacular buildings and bazaars, clash of East and West (sorry to sound like a guidebook here), the city really is unique. Really busy each night right now due to Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting broken each night with a big festival here... man dinner must taste good each night to everyone, I did one day of (enforced due to bustrip) Ramadan on the way to the mountain and that night's meal was gold!
Anyway really sad to leave Turkey, what a great month, but the Baltic states and London are calling and looking forward to it! Bought a couple of new jumpers at the Grand Bazaar today so all set for the chill and should be great.
MM
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