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We joined the tour company Fez Travel to see the sites of Turkey as we had limited time and wanted to see as much as possible….
It started out bad when we were stranded at Istanbul International terminal at 1am and had no idea where we were supposed to be staying! I came down with a gastro bug and spent the first two days in bed and missed the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market which was high on my lists of sites to see.
The tour improved greatly after the mishaps at the beginning and we can now say that is was a major highlight of our trip. Turkey is an amazing, beautiful country with so much history and I would urge anyone going to Europe to include it in their itinerary.
We started the tour with Istanbul and visited the Blue Mosque, The Hippodrome, Aya Sofia and Topoki Palace. The highlight was the interior of the Blue Mosque with all the tile work and stained glass windows. The next morning we were picked up by Borat our guide (formally known as Burhan) and Awesome (formally known as Asim) our funny bus driver and drove 4 hours to Gallipoli. It was an emotional to visit Anzac Cove and Lone Pine and to see where all the fighting took place. Some of the significant fighting trenches were so close at only 5 meters apart.
We visited the ancient cities of Troy and Ephesus, walked along the white calcium springs at Pammukale and then soaked in hot springs at our hotel.
Cappadocia was next on the itinerary (a 10 hour bus trip from Pammukale) and the highlight of the trip. We went hot air ballooning (a first for Kirb and I) over the Goreme Valley which was spectacular, truly amazing and freezing cold!!! Lucky for me Lynn loaned me one of her jackets!!! After champagne and brekkie we went to the Goreme open air museum, visited a local potter and I got dragged up to made a bowl, and finished the evening with a traditional dancing show. We saw the most talented belly dancer, got a bit drunk and had a great last night. We had a fantastic group of people (who were mostly Aussies living in the UK) and it was sad to have to leave………
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