The Turkish Experience

Here are our thoughts on some of our more interesting experiences in Istanbul, Turkey…

Driving in Istanbul:
The roads and driving conditions have slowly been deteriorating as we’ve headed east. They didn’t get any better once we arrived in Istanbul…driving there was chaotic, to say the least. As we entered the city the main freeway slowly turned into complete mayhem. The traffic lines disappeared, cars drove literally wherever they felt like, and traffic laws apparently did not exist. We could now see why the guidebooks said driving into the city was not recommended. None of the road signs matched anything on our maps so we made more than a few wrong turns trying to get to the town center. The one nice thing about the lack of law and order was if you went the wrong way you could always just back up into oncoming traffic or make that U-turn across four lanes. We tried both of these a few times and somehow managed to survive.

Sleeping in Istanbul:
Camping, or even safe parking, in the city is pretty much non-existent so we broke down and got a hotel for a few nights. We had no desire to camp way outside the city and make the drive into town a part of our daily experience. It turns out getting the room was an experience in itself…we got a good deal at a very “unique” place. Everything in the room was black or white. The walls and bedspread were zebra print and the drapes were metallic silver. This place definitely had character. Anyway, what the hotel lacked in décor they made up for in their location. Since they were located in the heart of Istanbul’s Old Town it was easy to walk to everything and avoid the hair-raising commute.

The Turkish Bath, Rachel’s Take:
After a couple of days exploring the city on foot, we decided an authentic Turkish bath would be a great way to the end the day. After checking a few out, we ended up at Gedikpasa Hamam which has been around since 1475. Upon entering the baths we were immediately separated. Dustin went his way and I went mine. I quickly changed into my swimsuit and headed into the hamam only to discover everyone else was naked. It was a funny thing, but I felt out of place in my swimsuit and it just confirmed that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I quickly made a beeline for the safety of the sauna. My attendant kept trying to get me out of the sauna, but I insisted I could take the heat much longer than she thought. Yes, you really get an attendant, which is a Turkish man or woman (women for women & men for men) who attend to you during your bathing experience. My Turkish attendant did not speak English but I could tell she wanted me out of the sauna when she literally came in and pulled me out. Next, she decided to pour cold water over my head and have me lie down on the warm, marble stone platform. After laying on the stone for awhile it was time to exfoliate. Exfoliate she did! Several layers of skin came off during this process, which I guess was a good thing since I got the thumbs up sign when I had dead skin covering my body. Finally, the exciting part…your attendant soaps you up so you’re covered from head to toe in bubbles! I felt like a little kid again playing in a bubble bath. I admit it was a little odd having a stranger wash me but it was all part of the Turkish experience.

The Turkish Bath, Dustin’s Take:
Have you ever wondered if something could be both disgusting and relaxing at the same time? Well, that’s what the Turkish Hamam (Bath) experience was. We went to an authentic place in the heart of Old Istanbul that was built in the year 1475. Think about that for a second, it was built over 500 years ago…this place was around before Columbus set sail for America. From the looks of it, a lot of the building hasn’t changed since then either.

First the relaxing parts: Laying flat on your back while staring up at the ceiling in the hamam was a very relaxing, almost surreal experience. (The heart of the Turkish Bath is a large room with domed ceilings full of interesting designs and a raised, heated marble platform in the middle that you lay on….kind of like a big, fancy steam room.) It was quite an experience to lay there and realize that guys have been doing the same thing here for 500 years. The sauna was also nice and relaxing.

The not so relaxing parts: The place stunk, although I guess anywhere that has had sweaty guys in it for 500 years isn’t going to smell great. Also, getting rubbed down by a large, hairy, half-naked Turkish guy isn’t my idea of relaxing. We’re talking exfoliating, massaging, and getting soaped up by a 300 lb version of Borat…it wouldn’t be my first choice of evening activities.

Call to Prayer:
One interesting thing we’ve noticed while traveling in Muslim countries is the “call to prayer”. Throughout the Muslim world they have a call to prayer five times a day. The prayer is blasted over loudspeakers throughout the city. The five times vary by day, almost like an ocean’s tides. During the prayer time, which lasts about an hour, the mosques would be closed to visitors and you’d even see streets blocked off with the entire area covered by people praying. Of course, a couple of the calls to prayer would occur during the middle of the night which means you’d be awakened at all hours by this loud song/prayer.

The Blue Mosque:
The Blue Mosque, built in the early 1600’s, is probably Istanbul’s most popular, and certainly most recognizable, sight. Upon entering we were surprised to see many similarities between the mosque and Christian churches…stained glass windows, painted ceilings, and intricate carvings made it feel like any other Christian church. The only difference was that there are no pews in a mosque-just open floor-and we were walking around barefoot-no shoes are allowed inside.

The Grand Bazaar:
Hoping to find some great bargains we headed to the Grand Bazaar, supposedly the largest covered market in the world. After all of the great markets we visited in Africa and the SE Asia countries -Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia-we were hoping to find more of the same here. We could not have been more wrong. The Grand Bazaar was filled with nice, but way overpriced leather goods, ceramics, clothes, rugs, and just about anything else you could want. The one thing everything had in common was it was very expensive, costing more than you’d pay just about anywhere in the US or the rest of Europe. Even the obvious name-brand knockoffs were expensive. Needless to say, after fighting the crowds through the market and being shocked over and over by the ridiculous prices, we quickly got out of there.

That's it for Turkey...Greece is up next!

Bulgaria & Serbia

After getting out of Bosnia-Herzegovina in one piece, we spent three days covering the 700 miles from Sarajevo to Istanbul. Besides one short detour to the Rila Mountains in Bulgaria for a little hiking, we basically drove straight through Serbia and Bulgaria into Turkey. The biggest reason it took so long was the awful condition of most of the roads. For the entire stretch out of BiH and through Serbia, as well as most of Bulgaria, we averaged 45 mph. The narrow two-lane roads were covered with potholes, donkey's pulling carts, and bad local drivers (definitely the worst in Europe). There's not too much exciting to write about this section of the trip, but we're in Istanbul right now and are having a very interesting time...stay tuned for details!

Croatia and BiH

Croatia has been on my list of "must see countries" for about four years now. I know it sounds cheesy but after watching an episode of "The Today Show" where they featured Dubrovnik, "The Pearl of the Adriatic," I had to see this magical country for myself.

After leaving Bosnia-Herzegovina we made a beeline for Croatia's Adriatic coast. Hoping to get off the beaten path we drove out to Zuljana, which is a tiny fishing village on the Peljesac Peninsula northwest of Dubrovnik. This village was the exact opposite of touristy and exactly what we were looking for. It had two restaurants and one market, so if you were lucky one of them might be open. After exploring the town (which took a total of 10 minutes) we spent our days relaxing on the beach, swimming in the bay, and leisurely strolling along the coastline.

Zuljana, Croatia:

Feeling a bit ambitious after a couple of days, we decided to rent a boat and hopefully catch a fish or two for dinner. We trolled for half of the day and I ended up catching (almost) the one and only fish of the day but it escaped right before we pulled it in.

Feeling refreshed from the blissful solitude we headed south to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately, Dubrovnik was not what I thought it would be. We expected the city would be bustling with tourists since Croatia has become the hot Mediterranean destination but it ended up being even more crowded than we imagined. As we walked along the marble streets (yes, they really are made of marble) we tried to picture what Dubrovnik might have been like 5-10 years ago before tourists arrived.

We pictured an old city with historic stone buildings, quaint cafes, and charming shops situated on the turquoise blue Adriatic sea. Instead, we encountered swarms of tourists, upscale shops carrying name-brand products like Gucci and Prada, along with the extremely touristy shops filled with useless trinkets. To make matters worse, several huge cruise ships would arrive into port every day, shuttling herds of people into this once charming little town. Aside from the overwhelming crowds, Dubrovnik is a stunning city from a distance, but overrated in terms of being a "must-see destination".

Dubrovnik from a distance:

Eager to move on, we left the city and headed north, back into Bosnia-Herzegovina. As we were driving we just happened to go by the very tiny, picturesque village of Pocitelj. We could have easily been in Italy for all we knew. The village was situated on a hill overlooking a river and was extremely adorable with it's cobblestone streets and beautifuly terraced gardens. We spent the morning exploring this village and enjoyed some home-cooked food before continuing on.

Pocitelj, Bosnia-Herzegovina:

After Pocitelj, we found another great little village to explore in the old town of Mostar...cobble-stone streets, great markets, nice cafes and few tourists...just what we were looking for (and the exact opposite of Dubrovnik).

Mostar, BiH:

Bosnia-Herzegovina has definitely surprised us with a few great villages. After the couple of days we spent in northwestern Bosnia we weren't too keen on the country. It seemed like a very somber, depressing place. But Pocitelj and Mostar have been pleasant surprises.

Today was spent exploring Sarajevo, unfortunately we were back to that bleak, depressing feeling again...there were still many bullet-holed covered buildings and only a few semi-interesting streets worth exploring.

Upcoming plans...we're hoping to make our way across Serbia relatively quickly and spend some time in Bulgaria before heading to Turkey.

Flyfishing Bosnia

After reluctantly leaving the beautiful country of Slovenia, we decided to head to the northwest corner of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our hope was to maybe find another hidden gem of a country that hasn’t been discovered by tourists yet. (Plus I had read about some great flyfishing in the area I had to check out…It was on the internet so it had to be true.)

We started out in the small town of Bihac on the Una River. The river through town was deep and slow…not good flyfishing conditions, so we decided to explore downtown Bihac instead. We definitely found another place not discovered by toursits yet, but I'm not sure it's a "hidden gem". The town had that same hard-to-describe mood that we found in Nairobi, Kenya….somber, bleak, gray, crumbling, that feeling that everyone is eyeing you up. For good measure, many of the buildings were riddled with bullet holes…a subtle reminder of the not-too-long-ago war. Needless to say, we didn’t stick around very long.

Bullet ridden building in Bihac, Bosnia-Herzegovina:

We ended up finding a large campsite outside of town. (No free, renegade-camping here like we have been doing in the rest of Europe…we decided to pay for the safety of a guarded campsite.) We would’ve had the entire camp to ourselves except for one lone Austrian guy who was headed to Croatia. It’s safe to say this wasn’t exactly a touristy place.

The following day we headed south to the Unac River in Martin Brod, a tiny town near the border with Croatia. The one website I found on fishing in Bosnia claimed this was the best river in the country. After negotiating a half-day price with the warden I hit the water. (Not many people speak English, but as far as I can tell, in Eastern Europe each river is managed by a local “warden” who collects ridiculously high daily permit fees from foreign fisherman. From the looks of it, the warden was just a local with enough of a connection to someone important that they got a semiofficial looking badge. I’m sure the “permit” money went straight into their pocket…the whole thing seemed a little fishy, but I wasn’t about to start causing trouble here.)

Anyway, the hassle was well worth it as the fishing was great. In three hours of fishing I caught 32 rainbow trout. Most were small, between 8 and 12 inches, but a few were close to 14 or 15” and I lost a couple much bigger fish. While I was fishing the warden ended up taking a liking to Rachel, showing her all the good fishing spots and the places the big trout would hide. If we wanted to, we probably would’ve been able to fish for free the following day, but we were headed to the Croatian coast…

My first ever Bosnian trout, a real beauty:

A little better fish:

If you look closely you can see the graveyard in the background:

And just because there is no such thing as too many fishing pictures:

Croatian Drive Thru

On our way to Bosnia-Herzegovina we passed through Croatia. The plan was to drive straight through as we were going back after spending some time in Bosnia. Anyway, we were driving on a back road in the middle of nowhere when we saw this in the parking lot of a small restaurant:



Even though it was only 8:30 in the morning and we had eaten breakfast not too long ago, I insisted we at least stop to see when the pig would be done. Although the lady working didn’t speak a word of English, with enough pointing and hand signals we determined that it would be ready at 10am. We figured it would be well worth our time to wait around for an hour and a half, and we were right…come 10 o’clock we were digging in to some of the best pork we’d ever had. They didn’t even mess with any side dishes…we were just served a little bread, a couple of sliced onions and about 2 ½ pounds of the deliciously juicy meat.

Insiders Tip - Slovenia

What if we told you we found a country that has all of the following....

A picturesque fishing village on the Adriatic Sea with delicious, fresh seafood and narrow cobblestone streets perfect for aimless wandering.

A capital city with that small-town feel, a charming center with plenty of great cafes, old churches and markets full of fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, cheese, milk, and breads.

Less than an hour from the capital, and only three hours from the coast, you have rugged mountains, gin-clear rivers and beautiful, undeveloped lakes. Also throw in an island with a historic church and a castle on the hill for good measure. This area is full of hiking and biking trails, rivers perfect for flyfishing or rafting, and just about any other outdoor sport you can think of.

Sounds pretty nice doesn't it? Well, this is what we found in Slovenia. We weren't planning on stopping here, but decided to take a quick look before heading to Croatia. (Before this trip, we wouldn't have even been able to locate the country on a map - It's nestled in between Italy, Croatia, Austria and Hungary.)

Anyway, we were very pleasantly surprised and have spent the last five days here. We had a great time relaxing and swimming in Piran, on the Adriatic coast. The capital, Ljubljana, had enough interesting architecture, fresh food markets, and cafes to easily waste away the day. And the town of Bled has been great...we went mountain biking our first day and yesterday I spent the entire day flyfishing the Sava Bohinjka river while Rachel hiked around the lake and explored the town. (Fishing was great...one of the most scenic rivers I've fished and full of smallish rainbow trout and hard-fighting grayling. I even caught my first-ever grayling on a flyrod!)

After fighting the tourist crowds in Paris, Munich, and Venice it's been great to explore Slovenia's relatively undiscovered sights. Go now before everyone else finds out about this place!

The coastal town of Piran, Slovenia:

A fresh, raw milk vending machine in Ljubljana:

The 15th century church near Bled:

Mountain biking in Triglav Nat'l Park (This was the flat part, we did head into the mountains later):

Hooked up on the Sava Bohinjka river:

We didn't get a chance to write a post about Venice, but it's a great city that we thoroughly enjoyed exploring. Check out the pictures if you're intersted.

Switzerland, Round 2

After dropping Connie and Hannah off at the Munich airport we made our way back to Switzerland to spend some time with Phil and Amelia. We met Phil and Amelia during our trek to Gokyo Ri in Nepal. We spent a few days hiking together during the day and playing cards while eating interesting food at night.

Our first few days at their place in Baden were spent relaxing at their apartment, eating delicious food, and exploring their village and nearby Zurich. Since Nepal was their last stop on a 10 month around the world trip we spent a lot of time reminising over all our travels and hearing how they did adjusting to being back in the "real world".

Rachel and Amelia in Zurich:

Anxious to show us Switzerland in all of its glory, we followed Phil and Amelia south to Zermatt. We stopped at a small place in Grachen that Phil knew of for a fine dining experience...we feasted on cheese fondue and red wine while overlooking the Swiss Alps.

Great food, great wine, great company, and great scenery....quite the combination:

The next day we embarked on a hike in the Alps (to work off all of the cheese) where we had incredible views of the Matterhorn. Like all of our other hikes in the Alps, we walked for an hour or two before coming to a "hut" with a fine view and cold beverages. We enjoyed a drink as we soaked in the surroundings and reminised about our time in Nepal.

Feeling a bit more refreshed we're back on the road and working our way across northern Italy, with a quick stop in Venice today. We should arrive into Slovenia tomorrow.