So after 5 great nights in Greece, we headed off to Turkey for a week. Colin had planned a full first day in Istanbul and I was up for his challenge.
Fırst thıng I started to count was how many people ınvıted me ın to look at or buy Turkish carpets. On the first day, I was up to 7 times, including one offer for a honeymoon carpet since Colin and I must have been on a honeymoon since we were walking together (logic…don`t think so). Every carpet salesman wanted to know where we were from and then said, oh my daughter lives in the US in Georgia, or I have been to New York. Really any opening line to get us in. Colin and I never set foot in one carpet store which was fine by me.
Istanbul
I feel like we saw so much of the city on our first day including:
1. Hippodrome: used to be used for chariot races. There is a obelisk of Theodosius from Egypt, the remains of a spiral column intertwined by snakes and was a nice area to walk through.
2. Blue Mosque: This is a work of art in itself. There are 6 graceful minarets and a cascade of domes that are luminous blue. It`s one of the holiest mosques in Istanbul and quite a site. We came the night before and saw people getting ready to pray. Muslims pray 5 times a day and you hear it from the loud speakers all over town (beginning at 5 in the morning and it did wake us up the first few days). When we went inside, I had to put on my sarong to cover my legs and they gave me a pink shawl to cover my chest as my v-neck t-shirt was showing too much skin for the mosque. I thought I was fine as long as my shoulders were covered, but I was wrong, and didn`t want to be disrespectful. We also had to take off our shoes and carry them in a plastic bag as everyone prays on the carpet inside so no shoes allowed. I will say the mosque was very impressive with lots of colored tiled and a large open area for people to kneel and pray towards mecca.
A break…we decided to stop for a little coffee and enjoy the wonderful cushion seating areas. It was so nice to take our shoes off, kick back on these large cushions and enjoy our coffees. I could use these in a backyard patio if I had a house.
3. Haghia Sofia (or the church of holy wisdom): This church was quite an overblown splendor. The inside was impressive with the domed ceilings and amazing mosaics. We were able to cruise the ground level and upper level to see all the mosaics and be in awe.
4. Basilica Cistern: This was a vast column filled cistern (336 columns) that held water not only for summer use but also for times of siege. It was a whole underground world of water and little fishies lived in the water as well. This was one of my favorite sites as it was quite unusual, lit up with red and orange colors to show off all the columns and very cool temperature wise (which was a welcome treat from the heat).
Another break – lunch. Trying to get any meal is quite the experience as we walked down one alley with tons of restaurants. All the waiters were very friendly and wanted to help us and tell us everything on the menu. As you would think it was helpful, I found it completely irritating. I just wanted to look at the menu as I could read the English menu and decide for myself. There was such pressure to go eat inside, that I said to Colin to keep walking until they left us alone or we could decide on our own. We finally decided on a place and had a great meal.
5. Topkapi Palace: This is the most iconic monument in Istanbul and is where the Ottoman Sultans used to live. It was a massive complex with many courtyards, imperial buildings and we decided to visit the harem which was impressive. We also made our way to see a few of the relics including Moses staff.
At this point, I was totally spent as we saw all the above in one afternoon! It was a full day of sightseeing, and I was exhausted and felt like I hit that tipping point. No more big sights (as we were leaving for Cappadocia in the morning)
But we weren`t done for the night. We decided to rally again and go listen to some local Turkish music and watch some Turkish dancing before dinner. Turkey is known for its “Whirling Dervish`s”. Essentially, the dervish`s spin around and around to music for a long time…to the point you think they will fall over but they don`t. They wear big, tall hats, and big white skirts that spin out as they twirl. So we sat and enjoyed some Turkish bread enjoyed the dervish. Oh the Turkish bread…I saw this little old lady rolling out dough by hand, filling it with cheese and then throwing it on a concave grill, and I decided I wanted some for an appetizer. It was so good!
After a casual drink on a rooftop bar, overlooking the beautiful Bosphorus River, we headed to dinner at a recommended place. Little did we know we had a funny, little troll man for a waiter that kept us laughing most of the night. Honestly, he was sweet, but soooo odd, and he swore he had seen Colin and me before and tried to make such awkward conversation with us. We just had to laugh. Afterwards, off to try the Hookah as Colin was very interested in it and I was up to join. We found a great outdoor lounge and had a fun night out until 1 in the morning. What party animals we were…
Next morning we headed off to Cappadocia for a 2 night trip. We flew to Kayseri and then drove an hour to get to the city of Goreme. This part of central Turkey is known for it`s cave dwellings. There are tons of huge stone caves, some wıth mushrooms on top and others that were poınted and were called fairy chimneys. Wıth these caves, and locals used to live in these spaces. We decided to stay in the cave hotel as when else will we be able to live in a cave??? It was such a great experience as it was hot during the day and cooled way down at night. Such a fun experience.
We started off our time in Goreme by cruising town to see what was there, then off to a Turkish night of fun including Turkish dancing and more whirling dervishes, traditional belly dancing, a bonfire (why…no idea) and then audience participation for belly dancing. The belly dancer were trying to get the tourists to join her for lessons in front of the audience, but Colin didn`t think the little skirts with gold coins were his style. and he stayed in his seat (plus he didn`t want to leave me all alone…noble of him right)? But seriously, the tourists that were joining were true exhibitionists. They loved the limelight and dancing and shaking it all – to the point I felt sorry for them as they were really silly looking towards the end.
We had a full two days in Cappadocia, and even changed our plane ticket to stay longer as we were really enjoying everything. Since everything is so away from each other, we joined a tour to go see the following:
– Underground City – This was amazing. It was a whole city built underground and went 8 levels down. There were small walkways (which were hard for me to crawl through), but this was built as a way of protection from intruders as they couldn`t move quickly in the maze of tunnels with the short tunnels. There were also huge round rocks they could roll out to block intruders. Very smart cave dwellers!
– Ihlara Valley – this was a deep gorge that we got to hike in for a couple hours. Beautiful setting right along the river. All along the way were interesting yellow flowers, and I tried to blend in and hide. Did it work???
– This was a panoramic view of the pointed caves (faıry chımmneys). It`s said to be where Star Wars was filmed, but our tour guide wasn`t sure. We heard ıt was fılmed ın Tunsıa and thıs spot just looked lıke ıt Still pretty neat looking.
– Selime Monastary – More caves for us to explore. It was fun as Colin had tons of energy and was running all over the place and exploring every nook of the caves.
After our tour, we settled back in town and had one of the best dinners in Turkey. Our food was cooked in a terra cotta pot and when it was brought to our table, we got to use a hammer to break the pot. We had to be careful as if we did it wrong, we would be eating some clay in our dinner. Luckily, Colin and I both are skilled and cracked open our pots and enjoyed the dinner.
Next morning we woke up before the sun was up to go for a hot air balloon. This is something I always wanted to do, but there are only a few places in the world that the air conditions and locations are just right for this. So at 6am, we watched them blow up our balloon, we set sail and I was amazed with the skill of the balloon pilot. He was able to drive it so close to a tree we actually picked leaves off, then up and down all the valleys with caves and then way above the area. It truly was the best way to see the entire region and appreciate it. Such a highlight!
That night we flew back to Istanbul, little did we know there would be two bombings a few hours after we landed. There was a lot of political issues as the government may be losing control and the discussions were going to start the next day. The bombings were in a civilian area near the airport. We were fine and didn`t know until the next morning when concerned friends emailed me.
The remaining time in Istanbul was mixed for me as I got sick. This was the first time on this trip that I was sick enough that I stayed in…I was joking that if I had a job, I would have “called into work sick and stayed home”. That means I didn`t go out sightseeing with Colin and stayed in bed all day. The silver lining was I would rather stay in sick in a nice hotel vs a hot hostel. Colin was wonderful and took care of me even though I forced him to go see the Grand Bazaar and a few more mosques as I knew I needed to sleep and rest and didn`t want him to miss out as I had a few more days to explore later. Even thought I was home sick, Colin and I were able to communicate with my i-touch and his blackberry so he was able to check in on me. bring me treats and make sure I was fine which was wonderful!
The next day I was feeling a little better (not great, but ok) so we took a slow day and explored the spice market…just wish I had a home to cook in as there were so many great spices to cook with that I wanted to buy. We also took a cruise on the Bosphorus River and later went to the Asia side of Istanbul for dinner. It was kinda fun to say…”want to go to Asia for dinner tonight?” as Istanbul is the only (or one of only a few) cities that is split on two continents. Very fun.
So that was the first week in Turkey. I felt like I was treated like a princess by Colin as we had a great time, eat at wonderful restaurants, and such a great break from roughing it.
Turkeys Logistics:
Istanbul Hotel:
Hotel Nomade
DIVANYOLU, TICARETHANE SOK. No: 15
34400 SULTANAHMET, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
TEL: + 90 212 5138172
http:// www.hotelnomade.com
Dinner:
Valide Sultan Konagi – traditional Turkish
Kutlugun Sk. 1
(+90 212) 5176558