Our flight back was good, and we got through Pearson really quickly. We actually deplaned at a satellite terminal, which Pearson calls the Infield Concourse and then bussed over to immigration at T3. I thought it might take some time for our luggage to be carted over, but it was really quick. We were through the airport in under an hour, which is really fast for Pearson.
There were highlights almost every day on the trip. Here's what made my Top 100 list and their current rank. There's now finally 100 places on the list :)
- 34 Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt (already on the list)
- 37 Sagalassos Ancient City, Türkiye
- 55 Sanahin Monastery Complex, Alaverdi, Armenia
- 59 Ani Ruins, Kars, Türkiye
- 61 Acropolis, Athens, Greece (already on the list)
- 74 Corvo Caldeirão on Corvo Island in the Azores
- 76 Rose Valley, Cappadocia, Türkiye
- 78 Abu Simbel Temples, Abu Simbel, Egypt
- 96 Ephesus Ancient City, Selçuk, Türkiye
I was really impressed with Armenia, which I didn't know much about prior to the trip. It has an amazing cultural background -- they even invented their own script in 405 AD, to match their language! There's dozens of monasteries around the country, some abandoned, some still functional, and most of them in really cool settings. We only saw six and all were amazing. If you're trying to figure out where to go for your next vacation, I'd strongly suggest Armenia.
We had to rearrange our itinerary a few times, which is not unusual for ten week trip. We swapped out the southeast of Türkiye, and instead went to Sofia and Belgrade; and also had minor changes in northeast Türkiye and in the Azores. All the changes ended up working out for the better. The southeast of Türkiye is probably better as a whole separate road trip, from Mount Nemrut in central Türkiye through to Ishak Pasha Palace in the east, passing through Mardin and Dara.
There were lots of unexpected highlights, such as hearing the pipe organist in the Angra do Heroismo Museum in Terceira, driving through the Kaçkar mountains (as a result of one of our itinerary changes :) ), walking through Rose Valley in Cappadocia, the amazing monasteries in Armenia, the Terraces at Ephesus, and the mini-Olympic museum in Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
We saw two of the Ancient Wonders of the World, which wasn't intentionallly planned. We saw the Great Pyramid in Egypt from the GEM Museum, and then saw the remains of the Temple of Artemis. Technically it's just the site of the Temple of Artemis, but still :)
I posted 224 pics, of which only 28 (12.5%) were from my camera. I think it's still worthwhile to bring my camera on the trip for when I need a larger zoom, but for day-to-day touristing, I didn't bother to carry my camera in my daypack.
Overtourism is becoming more and more apparent. In particular, cruise ships depositing thousands of tourists for a quick day trip overwhelms the destination, which we saw in Lisbon and Valetta. I actually plan trips to avoid cruise ships in port (there's websites with the timetables). Our favourite places on this trip were those that don't typically attract a lot of tourists, such as Konya, Corvo and Flores Islands in the Azores, Ani ruins, Armenia, and the Ancient Cities in Türkiye not easily accessible by day trip from Antalya. It's usually a bit more effort to get to these locations, but we find it worthwhile. Luckily, there's still lots of these types of places in the world to see :)
No comments:
Post a Comment