One of my top highlights of Turkey

Well with summer finally in full swing here in Turkey I’m going to now tell you all about one of my favourite things to do in Turkey and one of most travellers true highlights of their time when travelling in this beautiful country.

One of the most popular things to do is cruising along the beautiful Mediterranean coastline of Turkey (often called the Turquoise Coastline) on a traditional Turkish gulet. Beautiful old wooden boats, of all standards that are decked out with cabins for your bags and bathroom needs and huge deck areas with sun lounges, sun beds and places to sit around eat, drink and dance! All you need to do is hop on board and then it’s just chilling out, swimming, sunning and seeing some amazing sights along the way. I have been out on these cruises over twenty five times and feel like I could take off again tomorrow and still love it as much I did the first time.

The cruises go in both directions between Fethiye, where I am based, and Olympos. No matter what direction you go in you get to see the same things along the way. The beautiful Butterfly Valley, where I can’t promise that I’ve seen any butterfly’s in the valley, but the waters are some of the bluest I have ever seen and it still makes me go WOW every time I see it. You then cruise past one of the most photographed beaches in Europe – Oludeniz. You cruise past and anchor down one end where the Blue Lagoon is located. The scene of the original Brooke Shields Blue Lagoon movie, it’s a body of protected water that if you enter via land you have to pay an entrance fee, but from the boat you can swim over rocks and into the lagoon for a quick look for free. At the end of that day you then anchor down at St Nicholas Island, where after looking through the ruins that scatter the island you get to enjoy one of the best sunsets of the trip from atop of the island.

The next day you then wake up in a bay that the water is so clear you can the bottom of the ocean although would need scuba gear to get there. You then cruise along to one of my favourite places in Turkey – Kas. This little town is covered in bougainvillea plants; cobble stone streets and beautiful Ottoman homes. It’s the best place in Turkey for silver jewelry and if you can handle the heat of the place, then walking through all the silver shops and stocking up is well worth it.

The last day, or first, depending on which direction you come from, you get to visit the Sunken City. Once part of the island across from where it now lays, many centuries ago an earthquake hit and sunk this part of the City into the ocean. What you can see is steps leading down into the ocean, door frames opening out onto open water and sunken house foundations. You then get time in the picturesque Kekova. A tiny small fishing village that has been left unspoiled over time. You can enter the castle grounds that sit on top of the island for sweeping views over the ocean you have just come from or you may just want to hunt down the restaurant that has some of the best the home made ice cream in town. That night you get to go to a nightclub/bar in the middle of nowhere called Smugglers Inn. A little wooden shack that’s grown over time to be a three levelled dancing party haven.

The time in between the sites are spent in beautiful swimming bays and you can wake up every morning and dive off the boat for a quick dip whilst breakfast is being put out. The cruises are a highlight of my time in Turkey and as I said earlier, I really could go out there tomorrow and do this all over again, week in, week out.

People always ask me what my favourite things are to do in Turkey. Well this easily makes my top 3!!

Butterfly Valley

Sunset over St Nicholas Island

Sunken City of Kekova

Stunning Kas 

Blue Cruising

Ancient Sports in Turkey

Last year I was asked to go out to some local oil wrestling to take some photos. Well seeing as this is something I had never witnessed before, I was in! I posted a small comment about it on Facebook and my cousin immediately wrote back – there’s another blog post. So this one is for you cousin! You know who you are :) 

Oil wrestling in Turkey is very popular and is said to be one of the oldest sports still running in the world. Dating back from Ottoman times, when the soldiers used to wrestle to keep their stamina and physic, it is still a sport that carries much prestige and attracts the crowds.

The men are dressed in leather shorts that usually go from their waist to below the knee, almost to their ankle. They are then covered in oil from head to toe. The “match” will start with the men being called out and announced before the crowd. They will then walk up and down the field in a marching style, kneel down, thank Allah and then hug their opponent. The men will then start to wrestle. To win the match, one of the men has to turn the opponents navel up to the sky and it only has to be for a spilt second. Blink and you may miss it, which I did a few times. It’s a match of patience, endurance, strength and determination. In ancient times there was no time limits to these duels, they could go on for days on end and men were known to have died from exhaustion. However, these days, there are time limits enforced on each match.  

I love sport and can watch almost anything, although I’m not sure I would rush back to sit through a day of wrestling battles. One thing I really enjoyed about the sport is although these men are wrestling and battling it out, they will stop if one of them gets oil or water in his eye and needs to wipe it. They will give up their position, pause to wait till their opponent is ready and then start the wrestling again. They all show aggression and of course their aim is to win, but at the end of the match they will hug and even walk off the field arm in arm. It was also really fascinating to watch these men wrestle it out whilst covered in oil; I really have no idea how they do it with the leather pants that I’m sure would weigh a ton plus how they get any kind of grip when smothered in that oil beats me!

One thing I will tell you though is it totally beats the crap fake stuff you see on TV from America. Sorry to all you “wrestling” fans out there, but this is the real deal.

Whilst I was learning about this ancient sport I was also told about another sport that is popular in Turkey that I had never heard of before – Camel Wrestling. Now this, I’m sorry this just sounds as ridiculous as what it really is. It’s more for a bit of a laugh then a “sport”, however it’s still taken quite seriously in certain parts of Turkey.

Now camels are not aggressive by nature. So how do they get these two male camels to fight it out? Well they wait till its breeding time, then they get the two male camels ready for a fight and parade a female camel in front of them, who just so happens to be on heat. This obviously starts off a battle of who will be king. The camels will either smack one another with their necks, try to get the other down on its knees or some have been known to just sprint out after the female, leaving the deserted camel the victor. These “wrestle matches” can last for a few minutes, if that at times. The winner of the day is then paraded around town in colourful saddles and there is music being played and people dancing in the streets. I think by the sounds of things it’s more of a spectacle than a sport. I would still like to see it, as I’m sure it would be as amusing as it sounds.

So although the Turks are into their more modern day sports as well – basketball and they love, love, love football – soccer, these two ancient sports still manage to draw the crowds and competitors year in year out. Considering the history behind the oil wrestling, I would hope it is a tradition that is carried on and doesn’t die out.

They have been announced to the crowd and now awaiting their match

I was quite surprised by some of the grips they try to get. I suppose with all the oil its the only way they can get a grip

I would have thought in normal wrestling this looks like a winning pin down to me? 

Now this one - I just don't understand? 

Anzac Day in Gallipoli

So it’s been a while since I have sent one of my blogs out. But you know how it goes, when you go back home on holiday to Australia there is little time to sit and write about Turkey! So, apologies for the hiatus people, but I’m back.  

Yes, back in Turkey and now back online to kick off my blog in 2014!! So welcome back...

With Anzac Day coming up this month I thought what better subject to write about than my experience in Gallipoli for Anzac Day, 1999!

I was invited to go along to the Anzac Day service in Turkey and to be honest, Turkey had never hit my radar for a holiday destination, but I was really keen to get the chance to be at Gallipoli for an Anzac Day service. This ended up being my first introduction to Turkey and a lifetime experience I will never forget.

The year that I went to Gallipoli was the last year they held the dawn service ceremony down in the gravesite at Anzac Cove. The gravesite sits almost on top of the beach where our troops landed many years before, so really a perfect location to commemorate what happened here. The following year the combined governments changed a few things for Anzac Day for future years. They decided to build an out door amphitheater across the road from the gravesite to support the crowds that were growing in numbers and they also banned alcohol for the dawn service and the duration of Anzac Day out on the peninsula.

I’m not sure what some peoples agendas are when they head to Anzac Day, but when I attended Gallipoli back in ’99, I felt that the lack of respect that was shown, by many, whilst standing in a gravesite of our fallen soldiers was abysmal. Not only where we all squashing in and around the gravesites of these fallen soldiers for the ceremony, but the site was also scattered with empty beer cans. Now I know it's in the true Aussie spirit to have a beer or two on Anzac Day, BUT on the graves of our fallen soldiers, I think not! So I am thankful that the governments saw sense to this and now this kind of behavior is no longer accepted.

Anzac Cove is a very beautiful spot that has quite an eerie feeling to it. The ceremony itself was very moving and a moment when I really felt proud of my nation and where I came from. I am a skeptic and always have been when ever I have heard people talking of believing in ghosts, I laugh! However, that morning there was something happening in that cove for sure. With the ceremony taking place at one of the graveyard, the ocean is out on my left and the impossible cliff tops stretching up in the shadows on my right, I got a sense of how forbidding the Anzacs landing was, even before the sun had risen to give me a clear picture. As I kept my attention to the ceremony on stage there was an ever-present feeling of ships out on the ocean and small boats coming in for the landing. No matter how many times I looked to be sure I was not seeing things, I felt like I could sense there was something there and kept seeing shadows. I swore I looked ten times or more. When the sun did rise and I finally got to see what our soldiers faced those many years ago, I can only hold those poor fellows in higher esteem. 

The day continued onto the Australian ceremony at Lone Pine and by late morning, the day is really done and we headed back to our hotel. This was when we truly started the Aussie style celebrations, with a BBQ and a few cold ones to see out the day.

The day before Anzac Day we had done a tour out to all the gravesites memorials and monuments for Australians, New Zealanders and the Turkish. We also visited some of the trenches that still remain from the war and the museum show casing some of the war artifacts that they are still finding to date. We got the chance to stand in the trenches and you get to see just how close these men were fighting one another. So close in fact, there is a display in the museum of two bullets fused together, as they were fired at such close range. We were also told of stories of enormous heroic efforts, stories of mate ship and immense bravery of all the nations. Even stale mates where the men took the chance to swap cigarettes for food and its even been said that they were all playing a match of cricket at one cease fire period.

I am thankful to not have experienced a war in my own lifetime, too close to home. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard life must have been for these soldiers. Nor begin to imagine what it must have been like to farewell a loved one to only not see them come home. When you leave Anzac Cove, there is a very emotional and touching statement made by the man who won this peninsula for the Turks, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He later went onto be the first President of Turkey and totally reformed the country. His words on this plaque are a beautiful sentiment that binds our countries together, in some ways forever.

As for this being my first experience in Turkey. Well I came blind sited. I remember feeling so culture shocked in my first few days in Istanbul before we headed down to the Gallipoli peninsula. It was like nothing I had ever seen, experienced or known in my life. I was only in Turkey for five full days and I knew by day three that I would be coming back. The country had a mystic about it, a mystic that was intriguing and captivating all in one. Coming for an Anzac Day in Gallipoli, even the more special.

For the Aussies and Kiwis out there, for the war buffs or history buffs, truly, make Gallipoli a stop along your travels. For an Anzac Day ceremony or not, you will truly appreciate the experience! 

Anzac Cove. You can see the grave site is literally on the ocean. Can't deny the beauty of the place. 

Lone Pine - the Australian memorial.

The words from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The man who won the Gallipoli campaign for the Turkish, became a war hero then on to become Turkeys first President. 

"The Nek" - this is the view looking up from Anzac Cove. This is what the soldiers had to try and conquer, whilst the Turkish had the best vantage point from above. 

A monument of a Turkish soldier who had run out in the line of fire to carry an injured Aussie soldier over to his own trenches for treatment.