Dimitar Kaldamukov's blog

Last time I was in Turkey was 2006 and we managed to see only Istanbul. Well, only part of it. We had only 3 days – funny little time to see something as huge as this mega-city.

This time was different. The plan was to rent a car and to try to see ancient Turkey. I mean old Greek towns and little villages.

West coast of Turkey used to be cradle of civilization. Smirna (today Izmir) has been one of the most prosperous cities in the middle ages. Efes, Pergamon, Troy…towns of the most unique ancient thinkers and soldiers.

Our trip took 6 days – 1-6 May. Participants:

Atanas Slavov, constitutional lawyer and adventurer:  

Plamen Slavov, member of Sofia Bar Association, skilful car driver and profound map reader

Denitsa Rukanova, барабар Петко с мъжетеJ, great spirit…

Petar Kombakov, Old Zagar friend of mine…

Myself, the usual suspect  

And the whole band

Day 1

Our starting point was Stara Zagora. On April 30^th we all slept there in order to spent time instead of starting the trip from Sofia. Early on May 1^st we headed for Turkey. Important lesson – if you go to Turkey by car through Bulgaria or even Greece, make sure to enter Turkey with full petrol tank. The gas price is approximately EUR 1,7, which is twice as in Bulgaria.

At the border we waited for 2 hours. Тhanks God that Petar was there because he managed to leave behind all trucks. Otherwise we would have waited behind all trucks I assume.

While we were waiting for the customs to check the car we saw this:

Very interesting though. They explained that their journey would take them 6 months. In Singapore they will send the truck by boat back in England and by plane they will do to Australia. I felt noble envy for them. They will see half the world.

When we passed the border we drove about 200 km. to Canakkale. There we took the ferry. The price is USD 4 per person and USD 5 for the car. After the ferry we headed for Troy. We were at Troy around 18.00. It works till 17.30 so we decided to come back next day and started to look were to sleep. Having a tent is a good idea in west coast of Turkey. There are many camps which are not shown on the map. Even people offer you to sleep in their backyard J So we found a place to sleep in one very small village just at the sea. I forgot the name of the village. The fish that we ate though was very delicious. Here are some pictures of the place and of our way to it:                            

Day 2

Firstly we saw Troy. We were all disappointed. Yes it is very old, yes the mother nature leaves its mark on it but still…the truth is that the Turks just do not preserve such UNESCO and other sites well. Troy was all in grass, the information was insufficient. The entrance is TKL 10. Actually every historic place costs TKL 10. Pictures of Troy      

After Troy by chance on the road we saw a sign for Alexandria Troia. Well it was out of the tourist track. Ancient city again. We parked in the grass and found a local guy who in a very broken English explained to us what was the theatre, church, citadel and etc. For the archeology freaks (Rukanova) it was very interesting place. We all liked it though. More than Troy. Probably because we were the only visitors

Then we were at Assos. Well, this is a place that one has to see. This is one of my favorite places that we saw…             

 By the way the portions in the tiny restaurants are small. But the view is magnificent.

Then Bergama. One has to mention that the sea road from Troy to Bergama is just gorgeous. Especially in May. You drive by the sea, everything around you is green and the ancient atmosphere of the place just grabs your mind.

Bergama is a place of beauty. The ancient city, the city of Lysimachos welcomed us with streets full of young people (actually all Turkish dwellings are young in terms of population), palms, mild climate and the great old city looking at us from the hill above the new city. We entered the city by night and had to find place to sleep. Do not use hotels. The ones we saw were not good and too expensive. Even bargaining did not help. We slept at Goby’s place. TKL 18 (after bargaining) for each of us. The place is nice, breakfast next day included, clean decent rooms. It is a huge house just in the downtown (5 minutes walking of the fountain). Goby (he is around 75) and his sons and daughters run the place. If you are not very picky this is the place.          

Day 3

Firstly we visited old city Pergamon. The from it is so beautiful. Do not miss it. Then we went to the old Christian basilica in the new city. Did not enter. After it Asklepion. Actually just Rukanova and Petar visited it (“visit” is hardly to say because they used a route through the grass, where the guards could not see them and entered the site without paying tickets). The rest of us were waiting. It is important to mention that next to Asklepion Turks have to military bases. As you well know Turkey is military state (do not wander when you often see Turkish soldiers with machine guns walking around) so it is not very clever to stay next to a military base. So all the time while we were waiting for Petar and Rukanova military people tried not to leave us outside the parking lot of the Asklepion (we did not want to pay TKL 3 for the parking and that is why tried to waited outside – which the military guys did not like at all).

After Bergama we headed for Izmir. I was amazed to learn that the population of Izmir is more than 4,000,000. When we saw it though all my amazement disappeared. Izmir is huge. Be careful not to miss it because the road may take you to Karshiaka which a little city outside Izmir. As I said Izmir is huge. Millions of cars on the streets, busy traffic. Anyway it turned out that the old city Izmir is closed. So we made a little shopping – nuts and raisins and started to leave the monster. Then we got lost. And the so famous Turkish helpfulness was again kind to us. We just asked one guy how we could find this and this road. He just said “follow me” entered his car and drived in front of us more than 15 km. in order to take us out of the city. This is the guy though:

A have to say that at no moment we say negative attitude from the Turks. Just the opposite. Everybody was kind and nice with us. Many people helped us just because we are “komshu” or just for the sake of it.

After Izmir we went in Kusadasi. One of the Turkish resorts. Before Kusadasi though we visited the house of Virgin Mary (which is presumably the house where the mother of Jesus has lived in her last days)   and a place called Seven sleepers.    

I did not like Kusadasi at all. Or at least in the night. Too many people, to many discos and huge hotels. If you want to sleep cheap, go to Captain Cook. It is a camping hided behind the hotels but just in downtown of Kusadasi. They have small houses were you can sleep for TKL 20. The camping ground is TKL 5 per person and TKL 5 for the car. We chose the houses of course.

Day 4

In the morning it turned out that we had missed the ferry. Our plan was to take a ferry to Samos. One has to be at the port at 7.30 though. Anyways we drank coffee in the center and then started looking for places where we can swim a little bit in the sea. We found a place with a very dirty beach. Just behind us there was a festival of eating (as one guy explained J )

After the swim we went in Efes. Do not go to Efes in mid day. It is hot. Very hot. The stones around you emanate heat. But the Efes is a place that one has to see.     

If you see a guy who wants to sell you ancient coins which had been found around Efes DO NOT BUY THEM. They are fake. Well, we bought.

Near Efes is Selchuk. Very interesting city. They have middle ages fortress and in the fortress if the grave of John the Evangelist. If you went there after the closing hours be aware that there are people there who can smuggle you through gaps in the wall in the fortress to see the grave. We pad TKL 20 to one very athletic Turk who smuggled us in the fortress. 

At the night we went to Pamukkale

Day 5

I forgot the name of the hotel in which we slept in Pamukkale but I should say hat this was the best dinner we had in Turkey. We The hosts were very nice, we were the only visitors in the hotel this night and they made us very generous dinner.

Pamukkale has to be seen. The strange thing there is that the guards leave the tourist to walk in the water on the stone which obviously destroys the site.

After Pamukkale we started to approach the boarder on the north. After 5 hours driving we reached Bandirma which is on Marmara sea. Very ugly and industrious city. Do not fool yourself to go there. Nothing to see.

I almost forgot to say that in Turkey we ate one of the most delicious strawberries that we have eaten before. The price it TKL 2 per kilo which is twice cheaper than Bulgaria.

Day 6 – going back

We crossed in Europe through Galobolu this time. It is very important to know few things. The ferry in Galibolu is worse than this in Canakkale. If there is a huge gas cistern around you should know that you will not take the ferry soon. The cisterns always go first and the ferry takes only them baceuse of safety precautions.

Anyways after we crossed we visited Edirne so that Petar can see the huge mosque of Mimar san. The rest of us have been there before.

As a conclusion I would say again that Turkey gave us 6 very sunny, funny and gorgeous days. We say places of thousands years old, ate delicious food and spent hours between friends. Actually the best trip is when one have good friends with.