Our last stop in Turkey was in Antakya which I wish we’d never done.  It was awful.  I didn’t bother taking any photos as after the fairy tale that was Göreme, this place was dirty, crowded and dodgy.  The next paragraph are some of the notes I took while we were there:

Second only to our shit dorm in Athens, this is the worst room I’ve ever stayed in in my entire life.  The painted white concrete walls and steel framed single beds keep a great prison like theme.  Inexplicably, there is a thick woollen blanket on each bed, handy for the heat of Summer in the Middle East, no fan and no air con.  I sincerely think that the pillow cases have been stuffed with old laundry or perhaps rocks.  Our “ensuite” composes of a rusty shitter with a showerhead tied to the wall with string.  No toilet paper, back to tap and plastic jug.

It’s a shame we left Turkey on such a bum note.  Apart from Antakya, I loved loved loved Turkey and would go back in a heartbeat.  Even for just a weekend in Istanbul or something.  Istanbul is so awesome and of course Cappadoccia.  Despite what we’d heard about salesmen there, I found them really polite and they always backed off with a smile when you simply said “no, thankyou”.  They were quite incredible to watch, actually. All of them spoke about eleventy thousand languages, I watched one carpet salesman switch from English to Spanish to Japanese when he saw tourists walk past.  We felt we could trust the people here and people went out of their way to help us or stop for a chat, if just to practise their English.  The TEA.  I would go back just for the Apple Tea.  It’s totally a safe place to travel and public transport, whilst long and boring, is fairly reliable and easy to bullshit your way through.  Turkey is totally on my top places to see list.