Fethiye

The last stop on my trip was at Fethiye, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. This involved one last overnight bus from Göreme, but it ended up being quite a pleasant journey and I slept well. I had originally intended on moving to Bodrum for the last night or two as that was where I was due to fly from, but Fethiye seemed really nice, and I hadn't heard of many people recommending that I carry on to Bodrum.

On my first day there I took one of the popular 12 island boat tours, and it was really nice weather, so went swimming a couple of times as well as having a generally relaxed time.

On my final day in Fethiye I decided to brave the Turkish roads again on scooter - I took a drive along the coast to the ghost town at Kayakoy and on to the stunning cliffs around butterfly valley.























As I decided to stay at Fethiye until the day of my flight, it meant a long days traveling to get home. I caught a 7:00 bus to Muğla, from where I caught a mini-bus in the direction of Bodrum. I was a little worried that I'd failed to explain that I wanted to get off at the airport, especially when the bus pulled over and tried to drop me off on the side of the motorway. But it turned out that this was the closest place the bus passed to the airport, and from here taxis took passengers the remaining few miles.

So this brought my month long trip to an end, disappointed to return home, but glad for a rest and my own bed. I saw some amazing places along the way, and met some great people. Now just to start planning my next trip...

Cappadocia

After spending the day walking around Ankara, I caught an afternoon bus to Göreme in Cappadocia arriving there later that evening.  The day of exploring in Ankara had taken a toll on my foot, so I spent my first day relaxing in my hostel - Rock Valley Pansion. Luckily my hostel turned out to be really nice, and especially the people who work there, so it ended up being a fun day even though it was frustrating not being able to get out.


The next day I decided to hire a couple of  scooters with someone else at the hostel, and head out to see some to the amazing surrounding scenery.

Ankara

Having already completed far too many overnight bus journeys on this holiday so far, I decided to treat myself for the trip from Istanbul to Ankara. I got myself my own lockable cabin complete with bed on the overnight train. An impressively cheap deal - about £30 for a 250 mile 9 hour journey.



This meant that I woke up reasonably well rested when I arrived in Ankara the next morning, and ready for a day exploring the city. Other than a couple of problems, the rain (there was lots of it), and I'd somehow hurt my foot (turned out two weeks later that I'd broken it). Taxis were fairly cheap, so this made it a bit easier to get around, and I decided to begin the day with a look around the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in the hope that the rain my ease off.



As you will see from the following photos the plan didn't work so well as the rain continued. I decided to spend some time having a look around the citadel and walking up to the castle at the top of the hill with it's impressive views over the surrounding city.







The final thing I did in Ankara, and probably the highlight was to visit Atatürk's monumental mausoleum at Anıt Kabir. It was a really impressive and beautiful place, and gave at least some impression of just how important Atatürk was and still is to the Turkish people.

Istanbul

After a long overnight journey from Thessaloníki I arrived in Istanbul. I hadn't managed to get so much sleep on the bus, as we had to get off a couple times at the border for passport control and to purchase a visa. The first thing to try and do was to get out of the massive Istanbul bus station and try and find my hostel. Some other people on the bus were trying to get to a similar part of town, so we all set off to brave the Istanbul rush hour.

After a relaxing first day in Istanbul spent mainly waiting for my room to be ready and then sleeping in it, I began the second day with visits to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya near my hostel.









As it was a Thursday, I decided to check out the weekly street market in the area of the city around Kadırga and Kumkapı. It felt like the least touristy part of Istanbul that I experienced, and one of the nicest.





In the afternoon I went to the Basilica Cistern, a massive underground chamber, originally used in Byzantine times for water storage.









The next day with spending some time exploring the Grand Bazaar, time that I probably should have actually spent shopping rather than putting it off to later in my trip.







The spice bazaar down by the river was very busy but an interesting place to walk through on the way to the ferries that cross the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul.