Author: Oli

A short dolmuş (minibus) journey from Hopa to the Georgian border at Sarpi marked the end of our 20 day traversal of Turkey. Once again, it feels like a good time to reflect on our journey, and highlight where it differed from Italy and Greece. For a full comparison of our route against Helen & Mick’s, check out our Top Gear race around Turkey ✈️🚄🚘.

Carbon

Overall, our journey across Turkey emitted 16% more carbon than our route from London to Xanthi in Greece. For the first time, we used a real mix of transport types, with train, car and bus each accounting for roughly a third of our emissions.

For comparison, we travelled nearly as far in Turkey as we did across France, Italy and Greece put together, which really puts into perspective how large Turkey is. But it wasn’t just the large distances involved that explain the total emissions, as we also emitted more carbon per kilometre travelled in Turkey.

Our higher carbon intensity in Turkey was due to our use of a hire car over public transport. However, for the first time this trip, it did allow us to travel further off the beaten track than we could on public transport or on foot, while also spending time with Mick & Helen. For reference, a medium-size diesel car carrying 4 people emits 13% more carbon per person than typical national rail, but 52% more carbon compared to coach travel. So while travelling by car is a good option in specific circumstances, we’ll try to avoid renting a car for just the two of us.

Cost

In total, we spent slightly less in Turkey than we did in Italy, despite staying 33% longer, and dropping our single largest expense of our trip to date on a hot air balloon ride. This difference was mostly explained by spending less on transport, due in part to our bargain £6.97 ride on the Doğu Ekspresi, but even more because Mick and Helen kindly funded the car hire that transported us a good distance across western Turkey. Our accommodation and food costs remained similar to Italy and Greece, although it’s worth noting that we got a lot more for our money here, staying in some really comfortable apartments and hotels.

Cats

Turkey racked up a grand total of 475 cats, giving the country a leading score of 23.8 cats per day. While the counter ticked up rapidly in Istanbul, it did slow a little as we headed east.

I’m not sure where we heard it, but I really like the quote: “Judge a city on how they treat their cats.” Istanbul did well, with lots of happy and well-fed cats, but we had a few reservations about Selçuk. In particular, we came across a number of award-worthy cats and related infrastructure:

🏅 Most relaxed cat: Antalya

🏅 Friendliest cat signage: Sivas

🏅 Best cat accommodation: Erzurum

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We had an excellent time in Turkey, and were blown away by the variety of experiences on offer. These included exploring an underground cistern in Istanbul, getting lost in Izmir’s bazaars, descending Pamukkale’s travertine terraces, hiking the Lycian Way, ballooning above Cappadocia’s fairy chimneys, gawping at Sivas’ architecture and riding the Doğu Ekspresi. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about Turkey before we started researching this trip, so it’s probably the country that’s surprised me the most so far!

The next country on our itinerary is Georgia, with our first stop in the Black Sea resort city of Batumi.

The Doğu Ekspresi is the daily east-west train route spanning the width of Turkey. It used to run all the way from Istanbul in the west to Kars in the east, although with the arrival of high-speed rail, it now connects only Ankara to Kars via a mere 1,944 km of track (!). I’d seen the railway referred to interchangeably as the Doğu, Orient, and Eastern Express, which confused me until I found out that all three terms mean “East.” Even more confusingly, the ambiguity of the term “East” means that the name also collides with the Orient Express, the direct train from Paris to Istanbul, which is sadly now lost in time.

Booking a sleeper carriage on the Doğu Ekspresi is notoriously difficult for a few reasons. First, demand for tickets far exceeds supply, so most are booked as soon as they go on sale (which, unhelpfully, is any time between 15 and 30 days before departure). Second, tour companies tend to block book carriages directly with the train company before they even go on general sale. And third, men and women can’t share a (4 berth) sleeper compartment overnight unless the whole compartment is booked. For these reasons, we opted for spacious pullman style seats and planned a daytime itinerary from Sivas to Erzurum, which rather poetically departed at sunrise and arrived at sunset.

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With bleary eyes, we checked out of our hotel at 4.20am, and walked through Sivas in darkness. This train route is notorious for long delays, but without a way to track the train, we had no choice but to arrive at the station ahead of its scheduled departure.

Although we’d heard that delays of 4 hours were quite common, our train departed Sivas a mere hour and 20 minutes late. Still, this gave us plenty of time to eat our makeshift yogurt and honey breakfast, and we happily trundled out of the station just as the sun was rising.

Put simply, this was by far the most spectacular train ride I’d ever been on. Over recent years, the route has become so popular that a second “touristic” train was scheduled consisting of only sleeper carriages. However, this train was discontinued earlier in 2022, further adding to the supply and demand problem. Still, it’s hard to appreciate the scenery if you’re asleep, so we were happy in our upright seats and did our best to keep our eyes open despite the early start to our day. Sara even told me off for paying more attention to my laptop than what was outside the window, before promptly nodding off herself.

The train snaked through mountainous terrain (aided by only a handful of tunnels) for the majority of our journey under a huge and cloudless sky. In fact, the track rarely seemed to hold a straight line, and in some areas the rock face came right up to the train window on both sides.

To stretch her legs, Sara took a walk down the train and found the sleeper carriage. It’s only looking at this photo now that I realise that these compartments don’t have a view out of the right hand side of the train. This made me even happier with our “choice” of upright seats.

As the train continued into the late afternoon, the rocky mountains gave way to more fertile plains, with the low sun turning the landscape golden and casting long shadows behind every lone tree.

Finally, we pulled into Erzurum around two and half hours late, although to be honest I’d stopped counting by this point, and was happy to appreciate the journey for what it was. Some of the stops en route had been incredibly brief, so we were waiting at the doors with our bags on, ready to mind the (rather large) gap down from the train to the platform.

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In total, our tickets cost the equivalent of £3.49 per person to cover 547 km of track over a period of 12 hours. At an average speed of 46 km/hour (28 mph), there’s plenty of time to gawp at the spectacular scenery.

Although we only travelled a little over a quarter of the Doğu Ekspresi’s full distance, it definitely scratched the itch left by our cancelled Trans-Siberian Railway adventure. It also gave me an appreciation for the importance of covering long distances in multiple short stretches, rather than in one go.

Sadly, this is where we leave Turkey’s rail network behind – after a few days exploring Erzurum, we plan to travel north by bus towards the Georgian border.

Cappadocia’s bizarre landscape formed as a result of volcanic eruptions and millions of years of weathering. The result is a sea of fairy chimneys, mountains, and canyons. While our hot air balloon ride gave us an aerial view of Cappadocia’s rock formations, we also wanted to see them close up. We took a road trip to explore some of the churches that had been built into the rock further afield, as well as spending a day navigating the Rose Valley on foot.

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On our first day in Göreme, we set off for a road trip with Mick & Helen through a few of the villages south of the town. First up was a visit to an abandoned church attached to a rocky cliff in the extremely quiet town of Cemil.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to find inside, but I wasn’t expecting this.

The church was an eerie blend of vibrantly colourful columns, vandalised frescos, and modern graffiti. Slightly unsettlingly, the faces had been scratched from many of the frescos that adorned the walls. This place sent chills down my spine.

We continued on to a monastery complex just outside the village of Keşlik, containing two more churches, a wine cellar, a house and a monks’ refectory, carved entirely from caves. We were met by the site’s guardian, who listed the use of each cave in the monastery complex, and repeatedly insisted that a “complete visit is possible.”

Dutifully, we entered the first cave and were met with a dazzling array of colourful 9th-century frescos. In contrast, the 13th century cave-church appeared to have its ceiling painted black. That was until our guardian friend emerged out of the darkness with a torch, and helpfully pointed out Jesus and his disciples depicted in various biblical scenes across a number of faded frescos. These were all but invisible until he highlighted them with the beam of his torch.

As we continued to explore the monastery complex, we came across what looked like a giant millstone standing just inside the entrance to one of the cave rooms. Once again, the guardian popped up to demonstrate that it could be rolled across the room’s doorway sealing it against any intruders, therefore allowing the monks to make their escape down a tiny tunnel at the back of the cave. This level of foresight and preparation gave us a bit of insight into the fear of persecution under which these monks lived.

All this exploration was hungry work, so we drove on to the village of Soğanlı and came across this beautiful family-run restaurant in an apricot orchard. As per usual, we ordered a colossal amount of food (not pictured), and spent most of the mealtime trying to palm off our plates on to each other.

The main reason we’d driven as far as Soğanlı was explore a whole ancient city of cave dwellings. Below you can see Mick welcoming us to his cave church, while I’m demonstrating how the monks used to dine at long (and now very dusty) communal tables carved out of rock.

The return journey to Göreme was largely uneventful, save for a few cows unapologetically flaunting the no overtaking signage.

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We spent the best part of our second day in Göreme hiking through the Rose Valley. Sadly, Mick wasn’t feeling well, so we stole him some of the breakfast buffet and left him in the peace and quiet of our hotel, while Helen, Sara and I set off on foot into the Rose Valley. It didn’t take long before the landscape had turned lunar in its appearance.

The destination of this hike (besides experiencing the breathtaking landscape up close) was a trio of churches, this time cut out of the inside of some fairy chimneys.

These multi-storey rock-churches had some of the most impressive and colourful frescos we’d seen so far, although again, the faces had been disturbingly scratched off.

We’d only hiked 5 or so kilometres by this point but we were already struggling in the afternoon heat and relentless sun. But then, as if by some mirage in the desert, a cafe emerged at the top of a rocky climb just as we arrived at the second church. Exhausted and slightly dehydrated, we flopped into seats in the shade of an umbrella, and gladly accepted the offer of some freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juice. If I didn’t have a photo to prove its existence, I’m not sure I would have trusted my own memory as this seemed such an unlikely refuge in the otherwise barren valley.

Helen became quite comfortable in the cafe, and was happy to sit tight while Sara and I continued toward the final church. However, we hadn’t gone far before Sara judged the descent too steep and decided to stop. I was determined to continue given how far we’d come, and proceeded to half-abseil, half-scramble down the path to the final church. Anticlimactically, the church was locked shut, and I returned to Sara bathed in sweat and out of breath, but with my need for completeness satisfied.

Sara took the following photo while she was waiting and is very proud of her new game of “Where’s W-Oli” (below). I should say that we think WordPress is compressing our images so this is probably virtually impossible!

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Sadly, this concluded our final day in Cappadocia, so we packed up and headed to the bus station. But then, out of the crowds popped Piotr, an old friend of mine from Hive. He and his girlfriend are on a similar journey east, also avoiding flying wherever possible. Our meeting was brief as their bus was due to depart imminently, but I hope our paths cross again for a little longer next time!

No sooner had I waved goodbye and good luck to Piotr, it was also time to say farewell to Mick & Helen. We parted ways for them to return to Istanbul, while we continued our journey east to Sivas, an important trading post along the silk road. It was lovely to travel with them for an action-packed fortnight through Turkey, and waving them them off from the bus window certainly brought a tear to the eye. We hope to see you both again soon!