Monthly Archives: May 2010
Finding my Knight in Shining Armour
I caught the bus from Damascus up to Krac de Chevaliers – a castle worthy of childhood dreams. T E Lawrence described it as “the finest castle in the world”. I spent a few hours climbing up and down and exploring this amazingly intact castle. It turns out my knight in shining armour was just an idiot [...]
Damascus
Damascus is the capital of Syria and is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. I have spent time delving into the ancient alleyways and bustling bazaars and admiring the bullet holes in the roof of the souk. I visited the Azem Palace and generally explored the bustling city. I visited the beautiful Umayyad [...]
Over the border into Syria
Today I walked across the Turkish/Syrian border. It was rather a lengthy process to cross over (I blame the Americans in the group) but we made it to Aleppo after cramming 13 people into a small van with the backpacks strapped up on top. Syria is completely different to Turkey and I quickly fell in love [...]
Sanliurfa
I spent an afternoon exploring the Prophets’ City. Legend has it that Biblical Abraham was born in a cave here. I admired the Throne of Nimrod fortress and feed the carp in the sacred pools. Apparently if you catch one of the carp, you’ll go blind. Hence there was masses of very well looked after carp [...]
Homestay in a Kurdish Village
I took a ferry across the Ataturk dam and then a trip to the small Kurdish village of Yuvacali, right in the middle of what used to be Mesopotamia. The village has been settled since the dawn of civilisation, over 6000 years. This is obvious when looking at the mound which towers over the current village and digging for [...]
Mount Nemrut
Yet another very long travel day through amazing scenery deep into the East of Turkey to Nemrut Dagi (Mount Nemrut). The bus winded up the mountain and I huffed and puffed my way up the last 500m to the top. It was freezing up there and I was glad to have some warm clothes. The sunset from the [...]
Cappadocia
Following a very long travel day (12 hours), we arrived in the fairy tale town of Goreme. The landscape was formed 30 million years ago when erupting volcanoes covered the region with volcanic ash. Volcanic rock covered the ash and it solidified into what is known as tuff (soft rock). Erosion from water, wind and temperature have worn [...]
Beach time
I stayed in Fethiye and caught a minivan to Karakoy, which is now a ghost town of 2000 stone houses. It was deserted by its Christian (Greek) inhabitants after WWI. The Greek and Turkish governments agreed a population swap to force the Greek Christians in Turkey to return to Greece and the Muslim Turks in Greece to [...]
Ephesus
Ephesus is known as the best preserved classical city in the Eastern Mediterranean. It’s history spans 1500 years and there is everything from a hospital to a brothel, to a library to an amphitheatre. The amphitheatre holds 25,000 people and is still used for concerts. Sting, Elton John and Tom Jones have all performed here. Thunder [...]
Pamukkale
It was a long overnight haul in what was unaffectionately named “the sauna bus”. It was an epic experience I won’t go into but let’s just say for someone who can normally sleep anywhere and anytime, even a sleeping pill didn’t help. As usual with long haul travel….it was totally worth it! I spent the morning [...]
