Turkey Trekkin’, Part 3
Thursday, June 21st, 2007I better finish this now before i forget everything…
5. Kit and Sofiane
Kit is a great travel companion because we’re very in sync with what we wanna do when we travel. We don’t like going to museums that much, we both love walking around, enjoying both nature and architecture. We also both love taking pictures, so she takes pictures of me with her camera and I take hers with mine. She’s open to most things and not afraid to get down and dirty. It’s also a bonus that she doesn’t eat all that much, so I always get leftovers. :P
Sofiane joined us on the last leg in Istanbul. By then we were already a bit tired and Kit also got sick one day so we weren’t that keen on sightseeing so much, but we still managed to have enough energy to party hard one night. :)
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4. Leaving my passport behind
OK, this is one awful thing that happened at the very end of the trip. At around 12 midnight, 6 hours before we were supposed to fly out, I realized I didn’t have my passport with me — I had left it in the last city we were in which was 12 hours away! It was still with the quad bike and scooter rental agency in Goreme, and Faruk, our contact there, had tried to find me in Istanbul to return the passport, but couldn’t find us. So Kit and Sofiane had to leave me behind, I had to arrange to have my passport sent to me. It was a good thing we had applied for extra days on our visa! I stayed another night in the hostel, booked an expensive one-way flight to Copenhagen, picked up my passport at the main bus station two days later before flying back home. Really really really annoying time, I even refused to go out of the hostel because I didn’t want to spend any more money, and I lived off water and Turkish delight that extra day. At least it didn’t sour the whole trip for me.
3. Blue Cruise
From Fethiye we boarded a gulet for a 4-day, 3-night sailing along the Turkish riviera to Olimpos. Along the way we went swimming, kayaking, paragliding and cliff-jumping. We stopped over at different coastal towns, visited Butterfly Valley, saw ruins of an old Christian settlement and a sunken city, went drinkin g at night on deck while trading stories and opinions and eventually falling asleep under a clear, starlit sky. But mostly it was just relaxing — reading a book, playing cards, listening to music, taking naps in between sumptuous, mostly vegetarian meals. Highly recommended, and I wouldn’t mind going on the same cruise again.
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2. Quad Biking around Cappadocia
Out of impulse Kit and I decided to rent a quad bike / atv for a 4-hour guided tour around Cappadocia. We saw spectacular views of Love Valley, Pigeon Valley and Rose Valley, among others, and took turns driving around hills, dirt roads, grassy and rocky terrains. Slightly expensive but definitely worth it! Ended the trip watching the sunset on a hill overlooking Goreme.
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1. Paragliding!
By far the number 1 highlight of our trip was paragliding. Being fairly scared of heights it’s a considerable achievement, and it took a lot of willpower at some parts of the trip not to be overwhelmed by how high up we were. We jumped (or more like ran down the hill and let the wind and wing lift us up) with a tandem master atop Baba Dagi, about 2000m above sea level, and soared even higher surrounded by clouds, soaking in a magnificent view of mountains, Oludeniz beach, the Mediterranean and the Blue Lagoon. Apparently it’s the 2nd best recreational paragliding spot in the world, behind one in Switzerland, and we could understand why. We were joking that since we had done 2nd best, we can only paraglide again in Switzerland otherwise it won’t get any better. Assured that it was perfectly safe, I even brought my big camera with me, which allowed me to take all these wonderful pictures!
Skydiving is now next on my list.
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Again I apologize for the layout, it must appear wrecked on some computers!
More photos are on my multiply site: http://johnrae.multiply.com/photos/album/3
