I've been considering trips to Turkey with my family also with my travel pal for some years but never got it sorted. A perfect window of opportunity opened for me to get country #79 in presented itself so I booked 3 nights Antalya in the south and 3 nights Istanbul in the north for my first solo trip in 18 months.
Budget airlines are great until you find out some of the things that make them budget. Corendon Airlines (I'd not heard of them either) and Pegasus Airlines were my carriers of choice (based on price).
I'd done my research, getting from the airport in Antalya there were buses and metro that took you to just outside the old town where my hotel was. When I arrived I found I was in terminal 2, a much smaller, much further away, and much less connected airport.
Taxis wanted €40 (pre barter), everything was geared up for transfers to the many resorts outside the city, which is where the vast majority of my flight were heading. They all informed me it was not possible to walk to terminal 1 as it was very far. I found a local guy who also wanted to get into the city, he showed me where the local bus went from.
45 minutes of waiting, he declared that buses are not running today. He said follow him, and I did, along with 5 or 6 others. We walked and we walked and we walked, as time went by others from our group dropped away and it was left me and my new mate. I was never certain this guy knew the way, especially as he appeared to be asking directions frequently, but he said in broken German/English he was a local.
What felt an hour of walking we finally saw the metro he tapped his local card for me to pass the barrier as the machine wasn't working to issue me a ticket - yay a freebie.
All this messing around meant it was late when checking in 11pm. I literally threw down my bag, messaged home I'd arrived and headed out. First impression of Antalya nightlife was I was amazed it was so lively so deep into the night. Most places were open to 4am.
I met a lot of other solo travellers, most of whom were dental tourists. Who knew 'Turkey Teeth' was a thing?
That night was a the start of a common theme, a few pints of Efes and a Kebab.
Temperatures had hit 50°C the previous week and were forecast to be mid 40's when I was there. I surprisingly woke early after a few hours sleep and hit the city at dawn. I just followed my nose wandering the quiet streets of the old town, went back for breakfast and followed the lonely planet walking tour which was pretty much the same as initiative tour.
I was flagging in the heat after lunch so went for a Turkish Hamam, read about that here:
Last night one guy I'd met told me about the Old Bazaar which were selling exact replica (fake) England shirts for dirt price deals. He had bought loads and had planned to sell them back home. I was going to get one for me and one for Sienna (my 3 year old daughter) to wear whilst watching the Euros.
I saw the shirts in the bazaar and they were far from the near replicas he had told me. They were well snide and he would never be able to sell on his purchases to anyone.
Stone Island seemed to be the big copy name those guys seem to keep up with the times and 'fashions'.
All I purchased was a hat as it was absolutely roasting and forecast to get even hotter.
I did a boat trip which was OK, again great for meeting other tourists. The next day I had a full on day tour to Pammukale, in preparation I also bought myself some sunglasses, 'Mont Blanc' no less for £15.
Having seen photos on the internet of Pammukale, I really wanted to tick this place of despite it been 250 km away. I'd booked a very reasonably priced tour via getyourguide app. Never used them before but it was good. £30 for full day trip with breakfast and lunch included, bargain.
Pammukale is an area of white Calcium Carbonate rock with pools of turquoise water forming a terrace. I'd spoken to people who had been the day before and they said all the pools were empty it was overcrowded and it was really disappointing.
The unsocial pick up time of 04:45 for a 13 hour day plus the review is received previously, I wasnt really expecting much.
It was a great group of 15 from France, Iran, Iraq, Australia, India and the UK. Everyone was sound, and I enjoyed many interesting conversations with them all.
The early start meant we got there before the hoards. We had a quick OK breakfast stop and a stop at a local vineyard.
I don't know if the pools at Pammukale had been artificially filled overnight or if it has rained but they were beautiful. Such a contrast in colours. You had to go in barefooted and the rocks underneath were incredibly slippy, I nearly went a couple of times before working out a way to navigate of the rocks.
We had 3 hours at the place on the tour (ticket €30) which I initially thought would be too long. There was an option to swim in the Cleopatra pool which was a thermal pool which was supposed to have great healing powers. The water was crystal clear and you could clearly see columns which had fallen into the pool following an earthquake. Cleopatra had supposedly swam in this pool, if it was good enough for her it was good enough for me.
If truth be told I spent too long in the pool, discussing life in Iraq with my new found mate. Had I known I'd have skipped the swim (and the €8 charge) and spent longer at the white rocks.
There is also a Museum (which I only had time for a quick glance at) and a collusium which was brilliant, but time was getting short and I didn't do it justice.
After a late lunch stop on the way back it was gone 6pm when we returned. Was it worth it, absolutely but I can't say it wasn't tiring.
That was it for Antalya, I loved it there, probably the place where I met more other travellers than anywhere in my solo travel history.
So that was leg one complete, up to Istanbul. Pegasus airlines flew out of the main terminal in Antalya, but flew to an airport very far from Istanbul (a metro, train, metro or Metro, ferry, metro, or bus, metro). All of them were about 2 hours. I knew this beforehand, so I had booked just 2 nights in the heart of istanbul and one night more conveniently located for the airport for my last night as I had an early flight back to the UK.
Public transport is great in Istanbul with a chargeable Istanbul card. Travel was very cheap. On checking in I found that tomorrow for 4 days was a Muslim festival of Eid and everything was going to be closed for 4 days.
I had to 'do' istanbul in half a day. I started in the Spice Market, where all stalls were selling the same products, Turkish tea, Turkish delight (of varying quality), Baclava (of various quality), and Helluva (cotton candy, you've guessed it, of various quality). With everything closing and running out of time I ordered a miriad of products and headed to the Grand Bazaar.
The road from the Spice Bazaar to the Grand Bazaar was an openair Bazaar. I'd read most tourists spend between 4 hours and 4 days in the Grand Bazaar. I managed to tick most of it in an hour. Just enough time for a street kebab and it was back to the hotel to prepare for Saturday night in Istanbul.
I'm not sure if it was increased security because of Eid but everywhere had riot police in huge numbers.
I chose where I was staying based on where I was going to be eating and drinking on the evening, so I chose the Beyoglu district. Found plenty of bars, but was a little unlucky on chasing happy hours.
A great night and definitely somewhere to go the following night to watch England v Serbia.
Part of my Booking.com hotel deal gave me travel experience vouchers, with which I bagged a Bosphorus cruise (boat trip). I only had to contribute a £1 of my hard earned money for it.
So a Sunday in Eid in Istanbul, what else could I do. Transport was working so I went down to the Mosque area, Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. It was prayer time at the Blue Mosque so could only do the highly impressive courtyard. Very nice it was to.
Then onto the Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. These were open, tickets were pricey but it was then I decided I'll do these from outside only. I'll save them for another trip. Most of my European travel has been with two other guys, more recently just one, Istanbul is a place we've been talking about for years. It felt wrong to do it without my mates. So here is hoping for a return visit.
After a long day of pounding the streets, it was the England game that night. I headed to the same street as the previous night, I wasn't feeling it, too many tourists. So I took a walk down the main shopping street to see what I could find.
The street was jam packed with locals above flying overhwad were literally millions of galatasary flags. Doing this walk was a thing in itself.
I happened to hear a bit of noise from down a side street and had stumbled on Nevizade Street which was wall to wall restaurants and bars with mainly locals singing and dancing in the street. All pubs had the football on. This was the perfect spot for both people and TV watching. What a night.
With the airport being so inaccessible and an early flight home. The final night I moved to the Asian part of Istanbul. Galatasary flags were replaced by Fenerbahce flags (although not as many)
The first thing that was noticeable was how much cheaper than the European side everything was. The same Turkish sweets I'd bartered down in the Spice Market had a starting price of half what I'd paid.
After almost a week of street Kebabs only I went to a local instruction selling Kofkas, lovely and very good value. That night I ate at a restaurant again, my new found wealth allowed me to spoil myself.
One last treat for myself was to jump on a ferry from Asia to Europe. It rocked up near the Beskitas ground which I had a look around and got the ferry back.
Last bit of advice, never relay on Google for travel plans, I had to get the stupid o'clock metro back to the airport, however the metro was closed so I had to jump on a bus.
Post script: I enjoyed turkey so much I took my family back a few months later taking in Istanbul, Pamukelle and Antalya again along with the mightily impressive Cappadocia.
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