We had promised G that we would wake her to say goodbye so on our way out the door at dawn, I tapped on her door and bade her farewell. We wandered around the corner to the taksi rank and for the first time since our arrival we found it devoid of taksis. A press of the call button brought us a ride in no time and as we were waiting, we were joyfully farewelled by our hostess with the most(est) from the balcony. A short ride later and we were at Ankara Gar, the main train station in Ankara. Swiftly through the security screening (as heavy here as it is in Spain  due to the PKK) , we found our platform and got on the fast train that goes halfway between Ankara and Istanbul.

The train was comfortable enough and travelled pretty fast. We changed trains at Iskedir which was really well marked and were on our way in the normal speed train. It was a pretty long journey but was broken up when the train steward came around with a cart full of treats- we grabbed a packet of chips, some biscuits that tasted like Nice biscuits and a cake which turned out to be an inside out lamington. It was a coconut cake with chocolate in the middle. When we stopped at one of the towns along the way, a simit salesman boarded the train with a basket of fresh, warm simit bread. And tea. Turkey pretty much runs on tea. Like most trains around the world, the tea here comes in a paper cup instead of the tulip glasses offered by carpet salesman (and pretty much every café.)

The landscape changed quite dramatically throughout our journey from the barren mountains around Ankara to lush valleys growing nuts and olives. We also saw a lot of building work – not the organized building we have in Australia but the building of dwellings without proper scaffolding or any safety equipment. One of the things you see a lot is what looks like half finished houses with the reinforcing steel jutting out of the bottom storey. This is actually how houses are built here – you build the first story and leave it set up for the second so you can easily add it later when you have money. The other thing you notice is that the sleekest, cleanest and obviously most expensive buildings are the mosques and all have at least one elaborate minaret (with loudspeakers of course, as no one actually climbs them for the call to prayer these days).

It was on the train that we got our first experience of Turkish toilets, in particular the squat toilets. These traditional toilets get even less appealing than western style toilets after a long train journey. Add to this Turkey’s wholly inadequate plumbing system and the requirement not to put toilet paper through the sewers but rather to place it in a bin next to the toilet. A lot of private toilets are heavy on the air freshener to combat this problem and some
of the posher public toilets are cleaned more regularly. Given the fact that you have to pay to use most of them, a certain level of cleanliness should be expected. The toilets on the train were what you’d expect – filthy and with
water on the floor by the end of the journey.

We will get to know the trip between Istanbul and Ankara quite well by the time we leave Turkey. The plane flew over it from Abu Dhabi to Istanbul, and then we flew from Istanbul to Ankara. After today’s trip o Istanbul we will return to Ankara on the overnight train as part of our tour and then fly over it again as we leave Istanbul in a few weeks time. [Solarburn – Alchemist – one of my fave songs from one of Australia’s premier
metal bands and some of the nicest chaps you’ll ever meet. They also do a marvelous War of the Worlds cover]

Our first stop after leaving the platform at Haydarpasa station on the Asian side of the Bosphorus (the sea channel that runs between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and splits Istanbul in two) was to find a toilet. TC had suggested I hang on if possible and that’s exactly what I did. From there we caught a ferry across the Bosphorus. Like everywhere else in Turkey, there was no recognisable queue to board the ferry. Everyone
just kind of clambered on board. We sat near the front and warded off another round of men selling tea and snacks. The trip across the water gave us a good opportunity to see Istanbul from a different viewpoint but took only about 10 or 15 minutes.

We arrived at the wharf near the infamous Galata Bridge to a busy tourist hotspot – our first but probably not our last experience of Turkey’s growing popularity as a tourist destination for Eastern Europeans as well as Germans and sun loving Brits. The Turks have a close relationship with the Germans after they sided with them in World War I. And there seem to be quite a few who choose Turkey as a holiday destination. There were people everywhere and spruikers announcing the virtues of their Bosphorus cruise over the 57 others offered along the docks. We rushed past them to find a taksi – we gave the driver our hotel’s address and instructions and he assured us he could get us there. Rule no.1 of taksis in Turkey, particularly in Istanbul – when the driver says he can get you there, it doesn’t mean he knows where there is, it just means he is sure he can get you there… eventually. Our driver circumnavigated what seemed like the same series of streets several times, stopping to ask everyone he saw whether they had heard of our hotel – the Newport Hotel. By now I was getting worried the hotel didn’t exist or was so bad, nobody ever stayed there. Eventually after about four or five sets of directions and a lot of laps of what seemed like the same narrow streets, we arrived at our destination. The hotel looked like it was either a cheap hotel trying to look more impressive with the use of gilt and mirrors or a hotel that saw its heyday in the ‘80s. Probably a little of column a and b. We checked in and headed up to our room which while not extravagant was comfortable enough. From there it was off to explore Istanbul.

Our tour includes a full day of exploring Istanbul but notes that the Ayasofya, the church turned mosque turned museum that issaid to be one of Istanbul’s great highlights, would be closed as tomorrow is Monday. Of course we set out to find the Ayasofya. Armed with a map (although not sure where we were on it), we looked for the infamous building. We wandered through the back streets of Sultanahmet until we came across an impressive looking domed church which was being renovated on the outside. It turned out not to be the Ayasofya, which was much grander in scale, beauty and tourist activity. So when we finally arrived we queued, which is not one of TC’s favourite pastimes. It was interesting watching the tour groups of mainly older people weaving past the crowds, with ever observant tour group leaders rounding them up like sheep just like you see in the movies. And yes more of them than I care to remember were wearing white spray jackets and sunvisors. I hoped to myself that our tour would be quite different to this.

Everyone who has been to Istanbul has told me that I simply must visit the Ayasofya. Now I’m not prone to agreeing with popular opinion but in this case I bow and scrape to it. The Ayasofya is a magnificent building that is just simply overwhelming. As you wander through it, in awe of the 1500 year old church and its magnificent frescos, you wonder what life must have been like here during Istanbul’s tumultuous history. And whatever you do, when you walk into the main body of the Ayasofya, tilt your head back and just look up for about 15 minutes. No photos I have seen come close to capturing the magnificence within those walls. You simply have to stand in the middle and look up. And as the Ayasofya was used as a model for many churches and mosques in Istanbul (and indeed throughout Turkey) I imagine one of the most common travel insurance payouts for travelers to Turkey is for neck injuries from looking at so many ornate ceilings.

By now it was mid afternoon and we were hungry. We found the Sultanahmet (blue) mosque and the Basilica Cistern which we resolved to visit in our free time and headed to one of the touristy restaurants near Sultanahmet Square for a late lunch. We ordered a plate of hummus to share and I tried the kofte (local meatballs) which came with a Turkish salad of tomato, feta and cucumber – like a Greek salad without the onion. One thing you notice quite quickly is that bread in served everywhere, is complementary, plentiful and refilled quickly. Water is not, although a bottle of water is between a half and one Turkish Lira (25-50c) and even at it it’s most expensive  2TL ($1). After our late lunch, we wandered back to the hotel for our tour group meeting and introduction. [All she could ask for – The Creatures – Siouxsie Sioux re-imagined as friendly arthouse electro fare. One of my favourite promoters brought The Creatures to Australia some years ago and gave me complimentary tix (even though there was absolutely no prospect of me reviewing the show). Now that’s a true gentleman.

My main concern about a tour was winding up with a group of 18 year olds who saw the tour as a way to check out Turkish nightlife, get drunk every night and travel with hangovers. I secretly held out hope that as Turkey wasn’t the Amalfi coast and excessive drinking was frowned upon in Muslim countries, we might have a slightly older demographic. As it turns out, the age range on our tour was between 24 and 65 with more than half our fellow travelers older than both TC and I. But they definitely weren’t the white shoe brigade tour group we had seen the previous day. And most of them were Canadian. There were Ken and Rae, a retired teacher and nurse from Stratford, Canada, Bill, an architect, and his wife Jane who run their own business in Canada (I think in Toronto), Christina, a nurse from (I think) a community just outside Vancouver, Christine, from Toronto, Canada, who is involved in sustainability programs, a US couple from Cincinnati – Gerry and Sheila, the third of our three nurses and the extremely fit wilderness fanatics on our tour who had hiked in places I would be scared to go, kiwis Rob, an engineer and his wife Pam  who had just spent some weeks on a cruise through Russia, a brand management specialist from London taking a year out to travel (yes, I was very jealous she could do that) and of course two other Australians – Annie and Fiona from Melbourne, who were taking a break between their masters degrees and teaching science, maths and health to teenagers. Our Turkish guide Mutlu was from Antakya in Turkey’s east, better known to westerners as Antioch, close to the border with Syria. It is not common to find Turkish people who speak English fluently and Mutlu’s English was by far the best we had encountered in Turkey – and I am sure much better than my few words of badly pronounced Turkish. The first word I sensibly learnt was teşekkürler (thank you), the second inshallah (an Arabic word that means god willing).

After our quick introduction and the filling out of paperwork (always tedious) we arranged to meet for dinner and TC and I returned to our room for a quick freshen up. When we arrived downstairs, one of our tour members had collapsed and was being taken to hospital by our guide. The rest of us went out to eat – I had doner kebab which came with salad, pickled veges and rice (not bread). There was, however, a plentiful supply of puffed bread which is best described as the Turkish bread we know puffed full of air and then baked to be slightly crispy. It was a favourite in Istanbul restaurants. There was Efes beer flowing aplenty but it’s not really a topple I enjoy so I abstained in favour of a plentiful supply of bottled water. After dinner it was off to bed with a 7.30am wakeup call to prepare us for breakfast and our tour of Istanbul. [Sister Havana – Urge Overkill – these guys remind me of my first Big Day Out in ’94, part of a massive lineup – I went to see The Ramones before they split and came home with a mammoth new playlist. I saw their latest incarnation a few years ago and they had lost nothing.]

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