Shivering in Stockholm

Some sleek Swedish design

Clockwise from top left: View of the Old Town; The Town Hall; The charming streets of the Old Town

We were very fortunate to reunite with Andrew and Rachel for a long weekend in Stockholm. We had the trip booked in for some time, and Andrew and Rachel were having so much fun on their travels that they decided to nip up to Sweden and join us. It was a win win all round.

We had a fairly low key and chilled out (pun intended) few days of…
> Exploring the beautiful old town and browsing through the classically Swedish shops

> Sipping mulled wine at the Christmas market

> Strolling through the Skansen Open Air museum. Skansen is basically a recreated town that illustrates the different social conditions in which people lived in Sweden between the 16th century and the first half of the 20th century.

> Touring the City Hall – the site of the Nobel Prize banquet and after party

> Checking out the Royal Palace – Europe’s largest with over 600 rooms

Throughout all of this, there were two recurring themes that ran through the whole weekend…

1) It was flipping cold…sight seeing in 0 degrees Celsius is pretty hard work. There were many times that the cumulative warmth of beanies, scalves, thermal tops, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, heavy winter jackets, thermal bottoms, thick jeans, thick socks and gloves just didn’t cut it.

2) It was flipping expensive…we were well prepared and forewarned of this fact, but it is still a shock to see that a meal out is literally twice the price of eating in London (which in itself isn’t cheap). Not to worry....pancakes cooked at the hostel using ingredients found in the kitchen were a good way around this!

Tripple treat...The food, the people and the company

 The people

The company 

The food

Without a doubt, Turkey was one of our funnest adventures yet. Aside from being a really beautiful country full of amazing sights and experiences, three other key variables all fell into place to make it a truly sensational 10 days…

The food…

If we were lacking in protein before this trip, we are now overflowing with the stuff. We may have set a new world record for the number of kebabs consumed in a 10 day period. The food really was a highlight…always fresh, always tasty, and always cheap. The kebabs, the salads, the koftas, and the mezze were a sensation…and the authentic Turkish Delight was revelation

The People

Our experience of Turkey was undoubtedly enhanced by the people. The Turkish were always friendly, welcoming, incredibly good humored, and loved having a chat. It was so refreshing to be able to walk through a town or a market and have a chat or a laugh without being pressured in anyway to make a purchase.   

The Company

It was a real Turkish delight (did you see what we did there?) to share in the experience with Andrew and Rachel. They were wonderful travel buddies, and it was a special opportunity to create memories that we will share for a lifetime. 

Experiencing Paul's Ephesus

Clockwise from top left: The Library of Celsus; Another view of the Library; The Baths

Clockwise from top left: The Amphitheatre where Paul preached; A sculpture outside the Library; Daniel and Monique

Clockwise from top left: Preparing to feast in Sirince; The view of Sirince; A market stall; The beach near Selcuk

The last stop on our Turkey adventure was Selçuk, better known as the town adjoining Ephesus.

We were all feeling a tad worse for wear as we arrived in Selçuk having set a cracking and exhausting pace up until this point. Rather than getting up early and launching into another full day of exploring Ephesus in the baking sun, we decided to take it easy and sample wine and feast at nearby Sirince, have a snooze on the beach, and get an authentic Turkish hammam.

The hammam in particular was quite an experience, featuring full body scrub, bathing and massage in a room full of men, performed solely by hairy and mustachioed Turkish men wearing nothing but a towel. Monique and Rachel may never be the same again.

It was just was just what the doctor ordered and left us feeling fresh and rejuvenated to smash Ephesus and our last day in Turkey.

Exploring Ephesus was remarkable. It was basically just another ancient ruined Roman city, which in and of itself is quite incredible – the theatre, library, shop fronts, streets, amphitheatre, temple and churches were all incredible ancient sights.

But what really sets Ephesus apart is the fact that you are literally walking through streets that Paul would have walked through, seeing houses he would have lived in and visited, stood in the amphitheatre where he preached, and saw a prison where he was held.

Intellectually, spiritually, and visually, it was truly and incredible experience and a real high point on which to finish our Turkish adventure.  

The ancient paths of Hierapolis

Salt travertines overlooking the valley

Clockwise from top left: the theatre; a temple; the Agora (market place) 

We trekked to the top of the salt travertine mountain and gleefully set about exploring the ancient ruined Roman city of Hierapolis that was awaiting our arrival….what could be better?

It was quite quickly evident that those ancient Romans sure had a sense of style (as if there was any doubt). Hierapolis was basically perched on top of a large hill with a glorious view out over a valley below, with the hot springs just a short walk away.  

As far as ruined Roman cities goes, this one was certainly up there with some of the most interesting that we’ve seen. Evidence of the grid-like town layout was still plain to see, with wide and sprawling boulevards giving a real sense of scale as to how big and bustling the city would have once been.

Beyond that, we were literally walking through the pages of the Bible, with a church having been established at Hierapolis during the time that Paul was hanging out up the road at Ephesus, and Philip spending the last years of his life there.

It really was quite a spine tingling experience. Even small things like reflecting on the washing of feet became so much more real through actually walking down a dusty Roman road on a scorching hot day.

By the end of the day, us Londoners were well and truly spent having not seen so much sun for quite some time. Luckily for us we were able to go for a dip in the thermal pools on our way back to the car which was a lovely way to finish off our adventures in Pamukkale.  

Glamour in Pamukkale

The salt travertines and cascading terraces 

The curious pursuits of tourists

It was with a twinge of sadness that we packed our bags and headed on from Cappadocia. Our two-and-a-half days there (significantly more than most tourists) had been amazing and jam packed, but we honestly felt like another week would have been ideal to continue exploring the vast and beautiful region.

But alas, time waits for no traveler.

Not to worry though, we had another exciting destination to head to…Pamukkale.

Pamukkale is best known for its hot springs and salt travertines. The flowing water has created champagne-waterfall style terraces of small pools down the side of a mountain. The high salt content in the water has left the side of the mountain completely white, and has created a clay-like residue on the floor of the pools that is reputed to have special healing properties. The overall effect is quite stunning, creating a beautiful scene when set against the blue sky.

We walked up the side of the mountain – as people have been doing since the 2nd century BC – and sat in the bum prints of the ancient Romans by bathing in the naturally warm pools.

One modern phenomenon that we found highly amusing, entertaining and a tad curious was tourists of all ages, ethnicities, shapes and sizes getting glammed up and having their other halves take sexy photos of them posing in the pools, often after having first smeared clay all over themselves.

It was genuinely strange.  

We couldn’t resist the temptation of having a go ourselves….although the photos are going to stay safely housed  on our hard drive and will not be venturing anywhere near the blog. You’ll just have to use your imaginations!

Floating through Cappadocia

The view from 820 meters 

Our balloon deflating

 Clockwise from top left: Our balloon being inflated; cruising through a valley; pre-dawn luminance

Aside from being known for its stunning landscapes, Cappadocia is also known for as a mecca for hot air ballooning.

We thought that the opportunity was too good too pass up so decided that we would do a sunrise hot air balloon ride.

We were picked up by the company at 5:30am before being driven to their base for a light breakfast and some tea and coffee before driving out to board our balloon.

It was quite eerie driving through the pre-dawn darkness seeing dozens of half inflated hot air balloons dotting the landscape.

We arrived at our balloon, jumped in, and took off just before the first rays of morning light started breaking over the horizon. It all happened very quickly, but the timing was perfect.

The first part of our journey saw us glide majestically through a valley that was full of caves that had been carved into the rock. It was quite surreal to be floating so gracefully through such a rugged landscape.

We then ascended up to our maximum height of about 820 meters….which is pretty high!! The strange thing was that it was almost impossible to feel the balloon moving. It was almost like we were just ‘existing’ in the air. It was only when we took a moment to look over the basket that we realized that we were suddenly a very very very long way from the ground.

It was fascinating to watch the pilot go about his business. We had never really considered what their job would be like, but it was really hard physical work. Our pilot was sweating by the end of the journey from pulling on the many ropes that control balloon.

After an hour or so, we landed on the far side of the Love Valley.  To land the balloon, the support team drove a trailer to the spot where they are landing, and the pilot had to land on top of the trailer. Once safely back on the ground, we celebrated with a glass of champagne before heading back to our hotel to enjoy a second breakfast.

It was an amazingly peaceful, yet exhilarating journey, quite unlike anything we had experienced before. Watching the landscape change shape, colour, contrast and texture as the light changed and our altitude changed was a delight. 

Cave Men (and women!) in Cappadocia...

The Rose Valley

View from the Rose Valley

Clockwise from top left: The Love Valley; a fairy chimney cave; a valley full of caves

View over Cappadocia

Clockwise from top left: Fairy chimney caves; a crumbling multi-storey cave; a frescoed chapel inside a cave

Our next stop was Cappadocia – a beautiful region in central Turkey that is best known for it’s crazy unique geological rock formations, hot air balloons, and caves carved into rocks and cliffs.

We spent three days in the area, and could easily have spent a couple of weeks. It’s that kind of place…strikingly beautiful, but genuinely unique.

As we sit here to write this, we are realizing what a difficult place Cappadocia is to explain…it really is like nothing we’ve seen before.

The region is generally fairly flat, but consists of many shallow valleys in which the unique rock formations have evolved. Over the years, the rock has broken away from the cliffs to leave cone shaped ‘fairy chimneys’.

The most remarkable aspect of all this is that back in the day, rather than building conventional above-ground accommodation, the inhabitants of the area decided that it would be more practical to carve entire cities out of the cliff faces and fairy chimneys.

The scope and scale of the carved caves, houses and tunnels is almost impossible to grasp, but literally valley after valley was full of them, still in remarkably good condition. To this day you can still find dining tables, empty graves, church altars, frescoed walls, wine presses, and shelving, all carved out of the rock.

Not only did they love digging caves above ground, they also dug massive underground cities that were used primarily during the frequent times of war. We were fortunate to do a tour through one of them that descends eight stories below the ground and features over a hundred rooms and tunnels. It was quite remarkable to see the stables, churches, storage areas, kitchens, ventilation shafts, and stone doors that are still visible today.

Perhaps the other unique geological formation worth mentioning is the rather suggestive shaped rocks that are ironically situated in the Love Valley. Between the four us, they certainly provided a bit of a giggle :)