The land of the Turks

From the airport, we took a city bus to the nearest tram station. From there a short tram ride and we were in front of the Sultanahmet Mosque. Our hostel was in an amazing location although in a very small lane but only 600 meters from Sultanahmet Square. Bahaus Hostel booked from Hostelworld.com, charged us only 7 Euro per day per bed. With a terrace bar having an amazing view, it was a great place with a very friendly and helpful host named Tugay.

Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral before the Ottoman Empire transformed it into an imperial mosque. Now it is turned as a museum and more popularly known as Ayasofya Müzesi. An interesting fact about the Hagia Sophia is that when it was built in the 537 AD, it was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time.

We only had a lamb doner kebab as a late breakfast and hence for a late lunch we headed towards one of the famous restaurant suggested by our host at the Bahaus Hostel, called the Akın Balık, situated just on the other side of the Galata Bridge on the Golden Horn. But, any time you want to taste the delicious balık(fish) in this restaurant you have to get your table booked else you won't be able to get a seat there. We were hungry and disappointed, but we reserved our table for the next day and had some good tawa baked fish at a nearby not so famous restaurant. By this time we were already quite late and our next destination was to walk up to the top of the Galata Tower.

In such planned trips I often try my best to reach at a rooftop or some high altitude point from where the day end can be witnessed in golden and all other divine colors of the daylight. Galata and its surroundings are the best part of the city to enjoy the evening. People dance in street music, food, pubs nightlife and before that breathtaking golden hour over the majestic city. One of my Turkish friend who knew I loved beer suggested me to go to a pub called Varuna Gezgin which was interestingly a very multicultural pub and a good place to enjoy the dinner with some really good beer. The Taksim Square and around had really good eateries, pubs and nightclubs and with amazingly hippie streets it's amazing for a night walk.

The historic Sultan Ahmet Camii, which is more popularly known as the Blue Mosque was our first point of interest for the day. This breath-taking building is one of the most majestic Ottoman mosques in all of Turkey. It has a free entry for people for all religion. For the Muslim devotees, the prayer hall is open. But this mosques is worth a visit because of its astonishing architecture both exterior and Interior. The area in from of the Mosques is an open place, known as the Sultanahmet Square and is the most happening area in the old Istanbul.

After getting a boat ticket we were waiting for the time the boat was scheduled to arrive. There were many boat riding companies. And the area was full of people fishing and even some were for the restaurants selling from the fresh catch. A place where you cannot get bored of waiting for the boat. Tea hawkers, fast food stalls etc. are there for you apart from the beautiful lively ambiance.

This 90 minutes tour is one of the most interesting tourist excitement, mostly starts from the Golden Horn and then goes into the Bosphorus Strait. When you look on one side it is Asia and the other side in Europe. Seagulls chasing your boat and the boat passing by the bridges connecting the continents and beautiful mosques e.g. Ortaköy Mosque comprises of this relaxing boat trip.

The next proper stop with both of us coming out of the car was for breakfast in a highway restaurant. Our plan for lunch was at Ankara which is theoretically the mid-point but the fastest route we were traversing if we would enter the Ankara city then we lose more time so we moved on expecting we would get some good food may be somewhere on the way. Ankara is the capital of the country looked quite developed and dense when seen from the highway.

Since I was driving the whole night I took some rest on the back seat and had fallen asleep. When I woke up Anil was driving with too much astonishment and question on his eyes. he said, "I was thinking to wake you up but look at that huge lake it's going on since more than half an hour and some black tiny things moving on it". I was shell shocked I had never seen such a thing. I immediately googled to find out that it was a salt desert/lake called Tuz Golu (the second largest lake in Turkey with its 1,665 km² surface area and one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world).

On reaching Goreme we boarded the Stay In Peace Cave Hostel, which I had booked from booking.com. It was an amazing hostel and so was the city. We dumped our bag and headed to the center of the town for a restaurant since we were damn hungry and it was already late afternoon. There was this nice restaurant where some lamb kebab and Efes beer helped us. The town was so amazing that a small walk can also impress you. There were many activities around and the most famous was the hot air balloon ride which for us was scheduled for the next day morning.

As the evening approached again as my general rule, we trekked up to a high altitude location called sunset viewpoint to experience the sunset. The sun had already set but there was some light and that was enough to define the beauty of the view. We enjoyed the view and spent some time even after the crowd let with a couple of Efes and it was amazing.

I had booked the balloon ride from the website of Air Kapadokya online and they had promised to pick us up from our hotel at around 4:45 am.

Next morning as they promised the driver had come to pick us up from our hostel. The excitement was giving goosebumps and all the sleep had vanished. We reached their office filled up the necessary forms and were waiting for our turn. After a wait of 15- 20 mins a bus came to pick us up from the office and take us to the valley from which the balloons are supposed to take off. We were almost there when the bus was taking a U-turn. Every passenger on the bus was like "WHAT happened!!!". The ride got canceled due to windy conditions. Now this was nowhere in our calculation or I had missed in my research, else we could have allotted another day or two here. I was sad, very sad. All the energy I was holding due to my excitement got vanished. The company returned the money and even offered if we want we can try our luck the next day. My madness was telling me to stay back and I would have been alone I would have sure stayed a day extra here but Anil had a point that if the same thing happens the next day we shall feel worse so let's stick to the itinerary and move ahead.

We completed our sleep, had our breakfast and decided to roam around Goreme for some time before we leave for Antalya in the afternoon. We went around Goreme Open Air Museum, the Love valley and Pasabag(also known as the monk valley) and all of these had different shapes of volcanic rock formation.

After Pasabag the next place we were aiming at was Side in the Antalya region. From Pasabag it was a drive of 6 hours. Our plan was to reach there before sunset but not every calculation Google does apply in such long distance drives.

We had some Turkish Ice cream at Pasabag something you should not miss in Turkey, more because how it is served to you. The guy usually plays around with you and tires you to grab the ice cream before he actually serves it to you.

When we reached Side it was already dark. We took a stroll around the pretty beach town and then reached the famous Apollo Temple which appeared in many movies across culture. For Indians, you can tune in to the Bollywood song "Tu Jaane Na" from Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani and remember this monument.

Our hotel was booked in Antalya but here we thought we made a mistake because Side was way more happening or by the time we reached Antalya it was quite late and the city had gone quiet. The hotel(Ersoy Efe Pansiyon) we stayed in Antalya was a decent one although not as interesting as the hostels we stayed in but it was quite cheap as a hotel with room tariff being only 15 Euros.

The next morning was a typical city walk. Like most tourist place Antalya also had an old town and taking a stroll can be really interesting, with tiny lanes, beautiful houses and then everything ends into the sea. The beautiful color of the Mediterranean Sea, a beautiful old boat pier and some very pretty resorts with beaches that can provide you with really refreshing swims. We were not prepared for a swim so decided to sit in a waterfront restaurant and have our breakfast. Having good food in a place with a good view is always a blissful and satisfactory feeling, may it be a costly restaurant or a beach shack.

We freshened up quickly had some snacks in the hotel and headed off to the beach. Our plan was to hit the sea so we took our towels and clothes and drove to the beach. The beach was one of the amazing ones I have ever seen in terms of the picturesque, quality and color of the water and of course cleanliness and at the same time liveliness of the beach. We swam in the blue clean water quite a long time and relaxed on the beautiful beach. In the meantime, I saw para-gliders hovering over the beach. Swimming is of course relaxing but flying any day gives more sense of freedom. So I immediately booked my next day morning to fly over the turquoise blue sea from the Gravity Paragliding Head office situated on the beach itself.

In the morning the bus was again near my hotel to pick me up and this time I was praying that this too does not get canceled like the hot air balloon. The pickup bus picked everyone on the way and took me to their head office near the beach again. We waited there for some time when at last the main bus came to take up along with our respective pilots. Within the bus we had picked up chits with the name of our respective pilots, for me it was 'HIKO'. We could not jump from the top of the mountain since it was a bit windy but from another lower point but even that didn't reduce the experience I believe. The beautiful blue water and amazing artistic landscape looked such fascinating that you won't feel like getting down.

The white wonderland of Pamukkale was drawing us. The town was Denizli but more popularly known for the famous calcium carbonate hill, Pamukkale. The drive was again for 3 hours. We reached there in the afternoon and boarded our hotel at Denizli, It was not a great hotel, a very small one but we anyway had a plan to start as early as we could the next day morning. We freshened up in our room and had some lunch at a hotel nearby before heading towards the main attraction of Denizli.

Pamukkale means cotton castle in Turkish, maybe because of how it looks. The area was formed due to calcium carbonate deposit from flowing water. Geologically, Pamukkale's terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by water from the hot springs.

Again this place was used in Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahaani song. The area looks like snow but is a total illusion. The water accumulated in the stairs forming thermal pools is a great sight. The area is quite slippery so when you enter after paying the entry fees of 5 Euro you are instructed to open your sandals as a precautionary measure. It looks amazing in light and further gorgeous during the sunset. The beauty of this place even attracted many wedding photographers for shooting their pre-wedding assignments.

We were there till it was dark and were never did the place stopped to mesmerize us. In every light, the cotton castle blossomed in different shades. It was beautiful.

We again checked in to the Bauhaus Hostel in Istanbul. After driving all across the country, now was the time to relax before we go back to Dubai and restart the 9-6 work life. So, for relaxation, we had booked a Turkish Hamam bath. It is a kind of massage and cleansing, where big fat men give you massage and bathe you with their special hamam soap. You would really feel embarrassed because you are in only a towel and at times during the massage, it almost opens up to expose your naked body. But at the end, it was so very relaxing.

After coming back to the hostel we went upstairs to enjoy the terrace bar. Relaxing in such weather with such a beautiful view with a bottle of chilled Efes was always the best thing that could happen when the holiday is about to conclude.

Istanbul being one of the most visited travel destinations, Grand Bazaar is always flooded with tourists in huge numbers. The colorful shops, the smell of the spices, sweets, colorful gift items and what else. The lanes are narrow but are quite colorful and lively.

The Sabiha Gokcen International Airport is on the Asia side of Istanbul and by road, it takes a long time. So our taxi took the waterway. The RO-RO vessel carried our taxi to the other side over the Bosphorus. Such Turkey bid us goodbye even on the way to the airport in an equally exciting way.