Around the world in 40 days but no Gallipoli

[Flying mermaid]

Rotten luck with the lift. We were up there a few days before you and all was in working order. Did you go for the special fancy dress photo up the top 

No! In fact I don't do photos at all, not even ones Mr FM takes. Did you - the costumes actually looked rather nice

 

[Flying mermaid]

One final thing on Istanbul - all the cats and dogs roaming around. I found the dogs very sad - dogs so much need someone to love them and many of these dogs just look a bit depressed. Turkey currently has a policy of capturing free roaming dogs, de sexing and vaccinating them and then releasing with a tag in their ears.

When we had a snack at one of the Sultanahmet Square cafes I was feeding two of the cats. Unfortunately got scratched by one. It didn't attack, my hand just go in the way when it tried to get a piece of meat before the other cat.

So I now have a new resolution - no feeding animals. It is possible to get rabies from a cat scratch, but pretty rare. Cat Scratch Disease is more possible, but it doesn't seem too bad and you can't do anything to stop it anyway.

 

[Flying mermaid]

As previously mentioned we had an easy run to the airport. We asked the driver to take us to the CIP terminal - basically business class and status checkin. you are through very quickly and straight into the Lounge. Once the flight is called you go through a gate at he lounge and then get bussed to the gate. You have to climb up a stair to get to the gate - a bit difficult if you are mobility challenged.

The lounge dragons are not the most pleasant, but I was pleasantly surprised by the cabin staff. I wasn't too impressed last time I flew TK domestic in 2009, but all 4 flights this time had really friendly professional staff. Before takeoff drinks were fantastic as well - freshly squeezed juices and real lemonade with mint - just wonderful. Food was good as well - nice quality and quantity and served really fast. To be quite honest thought it was better than QF J domestic.

 

[Flying mermaid]

We were staying in Selcuk and decided to go with Hotel Nilya to get a more authentic feel. We really loved it - the owner was terrific and a bit of a wheeler and dealer, but he did lots of extra things, like drive all his guests down to Ephesus and pick them up again after 4 hours. He organised our private trip to Pamukkale and was always ready with suggestions. His staff were terrific as well. Nilya is more like a B&B - A lovely courtyard with a small no of rooms and breakfast served downstairs. The room was great, although you couldn't swing a mouse in the bathroom.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Nilya has a sister hotel, Bella, where you can eat in the restaurant on the roof and it gets added to your Nilya bill. All very inexpensive - a 4 course meal was $15. We ended up eating there every night as we were too lazy to find anything else (and none of them looked any better) and also we wanted to support our host. A basket system was used to send drinks down to the ground floor

 

[Flying mermaid]

We were in a little back street about 2 minutes walk from St John's Basillica. It was very much a local area.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Our first night we had a look at the local mosque - one of the first to have a courtyard and then the castle and St John's - built over the the apostle John's grave.

 

[Flying mermaid]

St John's and some random tortoises

 

[Flying mermaid]

some night views

 

[amaroo]

No! In fact I don't do photos at all, not even ones Mr FM takes. Did you - the costumes actually looked rather nice

No way. My fancy dress days are well and truly gone. They looked like they hadn't taken a photo in years.

 

[ellen10]

My work colleague is there at the same time as you.
She said she is loving the Turkish food.

 

[Flying mermaid]

My work colleague is there at the same time as you.
She said she is loving the Turkish food.

Oh yes definitely! It is all very tasty - we have had so many different things, particularly in Cappadocia. Not having a great effect on the waistline though!

 

[ellen10]

Oh yes definitely! It is all very tasty - we have had so many different things, particularly in Cappadocia. Not having a great effect on the waistline though!

Yes she said thank goodness they are doing lots of walking.

 

[Flying mermaid]

We were dropped in Ephesus by our hotel owner, with him promising to pick us up in 4 hours. We bought the entry to the terrace houses (15 TL extra) and that was almost the best part. I will let the pictures do the talking here.

 

[Flying mermaid]

and some more

 

[Flying mermaid]

In the terraces houses they are taking all the bits of marble and reassembling into a whole piece. World's biggest jig saw.

 

[Flying mermaid]

More from Terrace Houses

 

[Flying mermaid]

Our hotel guy picked us up and drove us back to Selcuk. We walked into town for lunch, which included these cheesy mushrooms.

 

[Flying mermaid]

After that it was time to see the treasures in the museum - covered a large range of years. We particularly like the statues of the mother goddess.

 

[Flying mermaid]

More from the museum in Selcuk