We left Bulgaria and headed for the Turkish border crossing, the crossing point was huge with buildings and people everywhere, easily the biggest crossing we had been through and easily the worst. Turkey really needs to smarten their act up if this is their most major crossing, there is not enough room in this blog to tell you what went wrong, but it cost us three times more than it should have and it took us over two hours to get through, enough said! From the crossing we headed for the Gallipoli Peninsula and ANZAC Cove. Everyone says the Turks have done a great job of the area, and they have, the whole section on the peninsula is a park dedicated to those that lost their live in the wars. We visited the cove and Lone Pine and one of the Turkish memorials before heading down the coast towards Izmir. The weather was bloody hot and we had hoped that staying near the coast would be cooler, but it wasn't, most days we were seeing 30° by 9am and it was getting up to around 38° most days. In places we were contending with molten bitumen and we were starting our days earlier to try to avoid the heat. It didn't make site seeing very appealing. We stopped at Bergama to have a look at the Acropolis they have there and like most places we have visited there were ruins of a temple, theater and other buildings dating back to BC. We continued down the coast and skirted around Izmir and wondered how people can live in so many high rise apartments in so much smog, we were trying not to breath, it was disgusting. We then visited probably the most expensive ruins we have seen, Efes. Again the place dates back to BC and once had a population of 200,000. Efes was known to have played host to Cleopatra and and the Virgin Mary is said to have stayed there after the death of Jesus. It was an interesting place, but it cost us 25TL each to get in and another 15TL for an audio guide and they wanted another 15TL each to visit a special area. We stayed that night in a camp ground on the beach, which was quite nice, but while I was swimming I brought out two pieces of rubbish for the bin. We then visited Aphrodisias, more ruins that dated back to BC and in remarkable condition, there was a stadium that was very remarkable and the city was known for all its marble work. Then it was on to Pamukkala and finally the temperature was starting to drop a little. Pamukkala is well known for it ponds formed by calcium in the water that flows out of the mountains here. While the place was stunning, we were disappointed by what man has done to them over the centuries. Here we met some Greek bikers that were only on a short break, but still had interesting stories to tell us, they were great fun. From Pamukkala we kept heading east to an area we had been told not to miss, Cappodocia. Here we visited Goreme with all its Fairy Chimney rock formations and monk houses cut into the rocks, it is truly amazing. Here we were talked into taking one of the famous hot air balloon flights. It was brilliant and even Julie who doesn't like planes enjoyed it, even if she didn't enjoy the landing so much. The day we flew we were told there was around 60 balloons in the air, quite a site. We also took in a tour that took us to one of Turkey's 9 visitable underground cities where people once lived when the enemy where around. These cities had everything including a well, church, kitchens and a meeting hall, all down to a depth of 85metres! Then from Goreme we have headed east further still to see a mountain called Nemrut Dagi, it is just over 2100 metres high and has huge statues on it and it is thought that it is a royal tomb.
The drivers scare us a bit here, in the ten days we have been in Turkey we have seen five road crashes, one where the car was torn in half after hitting a truck and only one hasn't needed any assistance, they are shocking. Fortunately the roads a very good.