Aspendos Travel Guide

   Aspendos is a historical site, estimated to be established at the 5th century BC. It is famous with its theater (largest Roman theater). But, Aspendos is a historical city with its church, its agora (Market) and advanced engineering technology when comparison to other cities at that century. This advanced technology comes from water aqueducts because, at that century, they could carry water by water aqueducts.

   There are two aqueducts carrying water. These are called as `Belkis` which means a girl divided into two.and there is an old story about these aqueducts. The story is once upon a time there was a king and the king has a daughter. His population needed water due to hot temperature and lack of rain for irrigation of their crops. The king had to find a solution for this problem and then ordered that whoever can carry water inside the city center will be able to take his girl. Two men accepted that job. Then, they started to build these aqueducts into the city center. Irony of fate, they built their aqueduct into the city center at the same time. Both said that i deserve the gift of this job to the King. The King had to give a decision about this, then, he decided to divide his daughter into two pieces at midpoint of the girl and gave the parts to these two men.




   Even though the story looks sooo science fiction, there is unmissable evidence proving the story inside of Aspendos. I pointed out the evidence in the photo on the left side. There is a symbol showing a girl divided into two.





   Coming back to the main topic, i would go on with its location and its transportation options. Aspendos is 40 km away from city center (Antalya). It is in Serik district of Antalya. There are vary options you can use to get there. First is driving your own car to Aspendos (you can rent a car at the airport of Antalya). It is the best, because after Aspendos, you can visit nearby attractions (Historical Aspendos Bridge and Perge). Second is travel agency. Getting there by bus even looks worse than your own car, using travel agency for the travel is better for those wishing to spend less. Of course, you can make options more but these two ways are the main options.

Top view of Aspendos

Inside View of Aspendos

    Furthermore, nearby to the theater, you can pay a visit to the remains of  ancient Roman city. The city includes entrance gate, church, agore (Market place) and aqueducts (shown above).

Entrance Gate to the City

Church

A part of Agora

   Agora means market place. The photo above shows a little part of it. Because, there is an archaeological excavation carrying on there. In near future, what will be found in this excavation will be shown off to visitors in a museum.

Enjoy your visit to Aspendos.....

P.s.: For entrance to Aspendos and the ancient city, you have to buy a ticket whose cost is 20 Turkish lira. If you have a debit card of Turkish Is Bank, you can enter for free.

Sumela Travel Guide

   This amazing and must-see house was constructed in the heart of pure nature. This house is in Trabzon-Macka. Until Ottoman era, it was used as a monastery by the Pontus. It was nestled in a steep cliff at 1200 meters attitudes. Around the house, there is Altindere National Park which is also a touristic attraction due to its pure nature.

The view of Altindere National Park from Sumela Monastery

  Getting the Monastery is not easy, even you come by car. Because, cars can go to a certain point. After that point, visitors have to walk. Nice to say that this road is not too long and when on road, you can have a change to be taken a photo with 1000 years old tree. Also, when on the road, you can take some stunning photos of Sumela and the Park.

   Here is a photo i took when on road to Sumela:





When you reach Sumela, what you see is that there is a Monastery, some buildings and an old man-made elevator used in the past for taking visitors to Sumela from the bottom of the mountain. When at that attitude (1200 meters), you can take real oxygen with eye-feast of fantastic view.

   Entrance to Sumela is 15 liras. It opens from 9:00 to 19:00 in April to October, however opens from 8:00 to 16:00 in November to March. Here are some photos i took:

  

   Coming to transportation to there, there are several ways:

• Going there by your own car  : I strongly recommend you to get there by your own car. First, before going there, you can also visit to Trabzon and Macka, and On the road, you won`t get tired too much. Moreover, you can visit National Park easily by your own car.

• Bus Ticket  : You have to buy at least 3 tickets to get there. First is for coming to Trabzon, then to Macka from Trabzon bus station and to Sumela from Macka bus station.Till you get there, you might get tired due to the changes and you may not get satisfied with your visit to Sumela.

• Travel Agency : It is the easiest, the cheapest and the snuggest way for visiting Sumela. Using most of them is safe due to government control on travel agencies. However, bear in mind that there may be some agencies which could make your visit terrible due to many reasons. Hence, before deciding which agency you use, advised to use the most-preferred one..  

HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR VISIT.....

Cappadocia Travel Guide

   Cappadocia is a region spreading into a large area. Even the vast majority of tourists going to Cappadocia think before getting there that Cappadocia just consists of Peri Bacalari shown above, it is not. Since, This area contains a large green field and a town near to Peri Bacalari.

   Coming to how the Peri Bacalari is formed, i would say that it is formed by change. During the period of time, different forces helped it to be formed. First, Erciyes, Hasandagi and Gulludag were stratovolcano near to Cappadocia and the volcano they erupted created a soft area in Cappadocia. Then, Peri Bacalari is formed as seen in the photo i took above throughout time by wind and rain. In this area, there are many rocks like in the photo above.

   Another point i think needs to be mentioned about is transportation. There are many options from which you can pick to get there. These are:

• Driving your car
• Using bus service
• Taking flight ticket
• Using travel agency

   Which one you want to use is up to you. If you want to spend less, i suggest using bus service is the best option. If you go to Cappadocia from Ankara or somewhere else in Turkey, you first take a bus ticket to Nevsehir. (From Ankara to Nevsehir takes 3 hours and 30 minutes) After arriving at Nevsehir bus station, you should take another bus going to Urgup (the town near to Peri Bacalari). However, if you ask me which one you choose from the options above, it is definitely going there by my car. Because, when on road to Cappadocia, you can pay a visit to Salt Lake near to Cappadocia and after Cappadocia, you can also visit to Kayseri, which is a touristic city with its long-history.

(you can have a visit to Kayseri and Salt Lake travel guide in the blog for more info)

   There is one more option for transportation to Cappadocia especially for adventurers, It is taking a rail ticket to Kayseri then taking a bus going to Urgup at bus station. It is for adventurers because there is no high speed train to Kayseri for time being. Furthermore, what you experiment during the trip will explain the reason.

URGUP

   It is the town near to Goreme in which Peri bacalari is. There are many touristic hotels there. I talk about hotels, because if you go to Cappadocia, you have to stay at least one night. The reason is the best part of this travel is balloon ride throughout Capppadocia and it starts off in morning (usually at 6 a.m.). 

   Here are some photos i took during balloon ride:

 

P.s.: If you have fear of high attitude too much, believe me it may be better not to take a balloon ride. At the end, i was soaking wet! nevertheless as mentioned before, balloon ride is the best part of this trip...

   Temenni Tepesi (Wish Hill) is in the town center of Urgup. I got there after balloon tour but i strongly suggest you to get there at night. The view at night is wonderful. In there, you will find a chance to have a bird-look at Urgup and some part of Goreme.

   Entrance is free and there is a cafe at the top of the hill. The view is:



   After balloon ride and take a rest for a while, i suggest you to start off your visit with Urgup bazaar which is near to Urgup town center (Bazaar in Goreme is bigger). You can find many things from local food to traditional Turkish clothes.

   Prices are the same with the bazaar in Goreme and prices in the bazaar are definitely cheap in comparison toprices in the USA and in any member of EU. It is partly due to currency difference.

GOREME

   It is the place in which Peribacalari is. There is also a bazaar in which you can buy souvenir as to Peri bacalari and local food products. What is more is Salkimtepe in Goreme. It is the place in which you can have a bird-eye look at the area.

Bird-eye Look at Salkimtepe

   Peribacalari and Salkimtepe are in different location even though they are near to each one. You can`t walk from Goreme, hence you have to have your own car or use travel agent`s vehicle. However, If you get to Goreme by own car and don`t want to drive throughout there, you could rent an ATV vehicle there. It is not expensive and by driving it, you could see everywhere there. (The mountain you see in Goreme is Erciyes Mountain)

   Coming to talk about food, you can find whichever food you want to eat. I mean that if you want to eat Korean food, you can go to a Korean restaurant or if you want to give a try to Turkish cuisine, there are many Turkish restaurants in Goreme.

   Here are some photos i took in Goreme:

    

 

Enjoy your visit to Cappadocia....

Have you ever heard that Salt Lake is real?

   Salt lake, as you can understand from its name, is the lake containing lots of salt. It is the second largest lake after Van Lake in Turkey and the biggest hype saline lake in the world. It is just 150 km away from Ankara.

   As you can see from the photo above, lake color sometimes seen as red because of red algae. The lake color gets red as the population of red algae is on rise.The reason for the color is the lake loss water by evaporating and that kills lots of plankton which eats red algae. And if plankton cant eat red algae due to water loss in the lake, the population of the algae increases.

   Coming to Transportation, it is vary depending on what you want. But, my advise is going to the lake after traveling to Ankara by own car is the best choice.(you can rent a car anywhere in Ankara, pls also check `Ankara What to do` in this blog) Because, the lake is just 150-km away from Ankara and after the lake, you could drive to either Konya or Cappodocia. Both are near to the lake.

   Going the lake by travel agent is also a good choice. But, bear in mind that the agent does not just take to the lake, but also should take you to both the lake and Cappadocia. Because, they are close each one then why do you need to go though the same way twice?

   In addition to the transportation, my specific advise to those planning to get the lake is to go to the lake in August. Since, flamingo, which is the one of bird species in the world, go to the lake for incubation of their legs at that mouth. Also, flamingo here is called as red flamingo because of red algae. Because, they eat red algae here and their color turns to red.

   What is more you can find there is Health Products. On the way from the parking to the lake, there are shops selling health products, at least what they say about their products is health. you can give a try and if you like, you can buy some. Also, in the shops, you can buy some souvenir as to Cappadocia and Salt Lake. Prices are not high.


Enjoy your visit.....


P.s.: after reading this, give time to read `Cappodocia travel guide` in this blog. Because, planing your travel to Cappadocia with salt lake is advisable and time saving.

Useful Chinese- English- Turkish Expressions (Sentences and Vocabulary)

   In this article, i will give some useful expressions in Chinese to English and to Turkish. As European or american, we use Latin alphabet. Hence, i will use Chinese mandarin.

      These expressions are:

Chinese	English	Turkish
Ni Hao	Hi	Merhaba
Ni Hao Ma?	How are you?	Nasılsın?
Ni jiao shenme mingzi?	What is your name?	İsmin Ne?
Wo jiao...	My name is....	Benim adım...
Ni shi naguoren?	Where are you from?	Nerelisin?
Wo shi ... ren	I am from ...	Ben ... lıyım
Xing hui	Nice to meet you	Tanıştığımıza sevindim
Nizao	Good Morning	Günaydın
Zai jian	Good bye	Güle Güle
Wanan	Good Night	İyi Geceler
Zhu ni haoyun	Good luck	İyi Şanslar
Wo dong....	I understand to...	.... anlıyorum
Wo bu zhidao	I don't understand	Anlamadım
... zhongwen zenme shuo?	How do you say ... in mandarin?	Mandarinde..nasıl söylüyorsun?
Zhege duoshao qian?	How much is this?	Bu ne kadar?
Duibuqi	Sorry	Üzgünüm
Qing	Please	Lütfen
Xie xie ni	Thank you	Teşekkür ederim
Bu keqi	You are welcome	Önemli değil
Cesuo zai nali?	Where is the toilet?	Tuvalet nerde?
Wo xiang ni	I miss you	Seni özledim
Wo ai ni	I love you	Seni seviyorum
Kuai dian hao la	Get well soon	Geçmiş olsun
Jiuming a.	Help	Yardım
Yaozoule	I must go	Gitmem gerek
Hao	Good / Ok	İyi / Tamam
Buhao	No good	İyi değil
Bu	No	Hayır
Shi	Yes / t o be	Evet / olmak
Wo Yao...	I want...	... istiyorum
Zhe shi shenme?	What is this?	Bu ne?
Youmeiyou ...?	Do you have ... ?	.... var mı?
.... zai nali?	Where is ....?	..... nerede?
Wo xiang qu...	I want to go to ...	..... gitmek istiyorum
Xiang	To want	İstemek
Qu	To go	Gitmek
Wo yao chi xican	I want to eat Western food	Batı yemeği yemek istiyorum
Wo yao gen ni yiqi qu	I want to go with you	Seninle gitmek istiyorum
Wo yao da dianhua	I want to make a phone call	Telefon açmak istiyorum
Wo yao xiuxi yi xia	I need to take a rest for while	Dinlenmeye ihtiyacım var
Chu shen me shi la	What is up?	Naber?
Yiyuan	Hospital	Hatane
Shi zhongxin	City center	Şehir merkezi
Youbian	Right	Sağ
Zoubian	Left	Sol
Wangzou	To the left	Sola
Wangyou	To the right	Sağa
Yizhi	Straight	Dümdüz
Zai ... wei	At the end of ...	... -ın sonunda
Zai ... tou	At the beginning of ...	... - ın başlangıcında
Qiao	The bridge	Köprü
Chuanguo	Cross	Karşıya geç
Yuan ma?	Is it very far?	Çok mu uzak?
Yuan / Buyuan	Far / not far	Uzak / Uzak değil
... jın ma?	Is it close by...?	... yakın mı?
Qu huochezhan zenme zou	How do i get to train station?	İstasyona nasıl gidebilirim?

Hope these will help you....But, if you want more expressions or any specific one, feel free to leave a comment below....