Day 3 – Day two of exploration and a flight to the coast

Feeling the head a little, Ellen and I sauntered down to the basement of the hostel for breakfast. As we were quickly learning this would consists of the same ingredients for the remainder of our time in Turkey. Triangles of cheese, feta and cheddar, olives, bread, a boiled egg, fresh tomato and all the coffee or Tay we could drink.

On the way to start a day of adventures we were drawn into a local art shop. The man working there allowed me to feed his fish as I obviously looked very interested in his boggle eyed gold and black fish. We spent a good hour in his shop talking about Turkey and the amazing artwork and jewelry he had on display. Each with it’s own story. I ended up purchasing a beautiful hand painted wooden bracelet which tells of the following story:


Maiden Tower

The Sultan had a beautiful daughter. A Fortune teller told him that she would be bitten by a poisonous snake, so he built a tower on a small island in the middle of the sea to protect her. One day the servants brought her a basket of fruit. She reached inside to take a piece and was bitten by a snake hiding in the basket. And MORTO!!
The moral of the story is that you cannot hide from your fate.


From there we meandered over to Saint Sophia for a tour. While in the queue we met Barish who was a tour guide. He took us on a 45 minute tour of the beautiful mosque.


Haghia Sophia
“The Church presents a most glorious spectacle, extraordinary to those who behold and altogether incredible to those who are told of it. In height it rises to the very heavens and overtops the neighbouring houses like a ship anchored among them, appearing above a city it adorns and forms a part of… It is distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size and in the harmony of its measures…”
Procopius – AD.537

It is a beautiful mosque. The marble that lines the doors of the entrance has been warn away from thousands of years of guards standing either side of the door, which only the Emperor can enter. There are 9 doors into the main building of the mosque, 1 in the middle for the Emperor 2 on each side of that one for the priests, 2 more outside those for the sinners, 4 for the general public and 2 for the officials and soldiers. There have been 3 churches built on the site where Sophia sits today. The first was a christen church, the largest in the world, built in 360 AD. This was burnt down by rebels. The 2nd was built in 400-415 AD and was burnt down by nephews of Emperor Justinous. The 3rd was built in 532-537 AD it took 5 years to build and was converted by the Turkish to a mosque in 1453. During its 5 year construction there were over 700 deaths. It is the only place in the world which had both Mohammed Mary and Jesus in the same place. It is amazing to see the both of these religions present in such a prestigious location. It is currently being re-constructed and will take 10-15 years to complete. Inside are the most beautiful mosaics and gold plated pictures of Mary and other christen images. Along side that you would find decorative Islamic passages from the Qur’an. It was awe inspiring. There is a golden plate in the wall with a hole in the centre. It is told that Mary cried a tear and caused the hole to appear in the gold. People place their thumb in this hole and turn it around while wishing and praying. It’s astounding to think of the number of people who have done this before me as the hole had been warn about an inch into the metal. It is supposed if you wish if going to come true that your thumb will be damp when you take it out.
From there we went to the city cisterns. This cistern is thought to have been built after the Nika revolt in 532 AD. It was known as the Basilica Cistern during the Roman period, as there was a Stoa Basilica above the pre-existing one at the time. After the conquest of the city by the Ottoman Turks, it was forgotten of and nobody knew that it existed. Re-discovered in 1545, it was used to water the gardens of Topkapi Palace. Today it has a rather eery and mystical ambiance. Clever spotlighting makes the water shimmer with coloured dancing lights and the water ripples from an occasional fish swishing its tail in exuberance.
We really should have done this first as it was no comparison to the awe-inspiring sites we witnessed at Sophia. It was still amazing however the gloomy dungeon-like building was damp and eerie and all together a little spooky. Ellen was wearing foamy flip flops and was having some trouble navigating the slippery walkways.

After a quick internet stop to get the name of a good local Turkish bath, we were on the road again in search of Cagaloglu Hamam, one of the more famous hammams in the city. It is nearly 270 years old and considered one of the best for a real Turkish massage, steam bath and for tea at the old marble café-bar. When we reached it we were pleasantly surprised it was not only over 200 years old but was also on the list of 1,000 things to do before you die.

This was an interesting experience to say the least. We walked into the old building and up to the counter to select the type of ‘wash’ we wanted. We opted for the works and were handed a ticket and a cotton sheet and ushered off to the ladies section were we were shown to a little room and told to take it all off. Ellen and I wrapped ourselves in the sheet and gingerly headed out into the marbled area in our 6 inch clogs. We clip clopped into the bath house area where we were greeted by a large number of….. large numbers and it was a small shock to the eyes. There was a whole lot of nothing on and we suddenly realized that our friendship was to be taken to a whole new level!!! A wale-like Turkish lady, with her swim suit only on to her waist, eeeekkk, told us to sit in a little area and pour water on ourselves with a bowl. She then motioned for us to remove our sheets and hang them on a peg. We sat there in the sweltering bath house surrounded by naked ladies, tipping cold water on ourselves and trying hard no to ‘look!’ We got a little bashful and decided that total nakedness was not for us so went back to the changing rooms to apply a lower half. Not long after we had returned it was our turn on the stone. The room is large and circular it had bays around the outside with cool running water. Ladies wait here for their massage or use this area to wash themselves. In the center is a large stage area which is elevated about 2 feet off the floor and this is where the massage takes place. It fits about 6 people lying head to toe around the stage. The whole place is made of marble and it’s pretty slippery when the bubbles come out.
The massage started with exfoliation, which was a different experience noting that we didn’t have any tops on. I have never had those areas, exfoliated before, especially by a large, flabby Turkish lady with no teeth!! Ha!!
Then it was on to the oil. I felt rather like a fish slipping around and if I started to slip away she would grab me and pull me back next to her to continue. We were instructed to wash off the old then it was onto the foam massage in which they use this octopus shaped loofer thing to scrub you down. I’m surprised I had any skin left by the end of all that. She then took us over to the fountain and proceeded to wash our hair. I felt like I had been chucked into one of those old washing tubs and was being grated along the scrubbing board! Such a funny experience.

Feeling clean and de scaled we set off in search of the Grand Bazaar. I asked two lovely Turkish ladies to point us in the right direction and they ended up personally escorting us the whole way. During the walk we asked them many questions about their country and the way they live as they did to us. The Bazaar was fascinating. A huge collection of jewelry, antiques, spices, clothing, rugs, brightly coloured crockery and nick knacks assembled along rows and rows of alley ways filled with tourist and locals. We lost ourselves in the shops surrounded by amazing pieces of artwork and cultural artifacts. We mainly took notes for our return to Istanbul as we were not able to carry much shopping with us.

From the Bazaar we wondered along the cobbled streets looking for a nice place to have dinner. We chose one and walked up 5 flights of tiny stairs to the terrace roof. The restaurant had a beautiful view of the Blue Mosque in the setting sun. We didn’t have much time to enjoy it however as it was back to the hotel to collect our bags, on the bus, to the airport, where we managed to pretty much walk from the entrance of the airport onto the plane, very smooth sailing. We had been told to get a bus called Hava’s once we arrived at the Dalaman Airport. When we got to Fetiye we got onto a shuttle bus on the runway and then saw a minivan with Hava’s on the side, so we jumped out of the shuttle and headed toward the mini van. Then realized the shuttle also had Hava’s on the side, as did all the ground staff and most of the other airport vehicles. Ummmmmm what the!

It was 12am and there was nothing open at the tiny airport. We collected our bags and luckily found a bus that was heading to Fetiye. It took about an hour to get there and we were dropped off at the end of the line at an intersection and told to go that way. The bus left us in a puff of exhaust fumes and we were not really sure which way ‘that’ way was… I thought asking a near buy security guard would help. Alas, 30 minutes later they had handed our one and only map between 4 different guards and walked off with it. Finally we got it back but with little help as to the direction of our travels.

Lugging our bags and starting to get very tied, we trudged up a reasonably steep hill. A dog started following us and I freaked out as it kept growling. Ellen got all mummy and was like oh my god come on then and took me behind a gate in someone’s garden to hide from it. It was the funniest thing ever. The two of us with all our gear hiding from a dog in some random garden in the dark at 2 in the morning in the middle of somewhere in turkey. Needless to say I was wetting my self and couldn’t stop laughing!!!! Thankfully the fearsome dog soon wondered off and we could come out from behind the gate and continue towards our hostel.