Turkey

What We Did: We spent two full weeks traveling through Turkey. We began in Istanbul (three days there); then took the overnight bus to Goreme in the central Cappadocia region (three more days); took another overnight bus to Olympos, on the Mediterranean coast (two days); sailed on a “blue cruise” gullet boat from Olympos to Fethiye (four days); and then relaxed in Fethiye and Marmaris (three days) before catching a ferry to Rhodes, Greece.

Overall Impression: Turkey was easily one of our favorite destinations. (Of the countries visited so far, Amy ranks it third behind only New Zealand and Vietnam. Definitely a top spot.) There is a ton to see and do in this country, and we could have easily spent another week here.

Food & Drink: The food in Turkey is fantastic, often very simple but expertly spiced and marinated. We frequently had amazing lentil soup, enjoyed delicious kebab sandwiches on pita, and ate ridiculous quantities of bread at every meal. For beverages, we pretty much drank tea, tea, and more Turkish tea (with the occasional beer thrown in). Sorry, no more tea, please. I need a break.

The People: The Turkish people are exceedingly friendly and outgoing. (I’d rank Turkey and Laos as the two friendliest countries we’ve visited.) Shopkeepers routinely invited us in for tea, even when they knew that would not be buying anything. Restaurant owners would come chat with us during our meals and literally shake our hands when we said goodbye. And,on a slightly different note, Amy couldn’t stop talking about how attractive Turkish men are. (Enough already!)

Cost: Turkey is by no means cheap (not like Southeast Asia, for example). But good accommodation is reasonably priced, and the food can be very inexpensive---especially if you get slightly away from the tourist centers. For instance, at a small restaurant in Feyithe, Amy and I ordered lentil soup, Turkish pizza, a dip platter with pita, and beer---and our total bill was only 8 liras (about $6). And fantastic kebab sandwiches are widely available for less than $2 each.

Night Buses: We took night buses from Istanbul to Goreme and then, later, from Goreme to Olympos. Both of these buses left late in the evening (usually around 10 or 11 at night) and arrived at 8 or 9 in the morning. The buses are modern, air-conditioned and quite nice---but they are still only as comfortable as buses can possibly get. (Thank goodness for sleeping pills.) The photo below is from a shuttle bus (not a night bus) where the bus was overflowing, and I had to sit on the floor. (Thankfully, it was a relatively short ride.)

Istanbul: Turkey’s largest city is as fascinating and memorable as any European city we’ve seen. Our three days here weren’t enough. (We wanted to stay at least four nights, but we couldn’t find accommodation beyond our three nights.) Highlights included the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and just aimlessly wandering the winding, cobblestone streets of Old Town.

Cappaddocia: The Cappadoccia region was probably my favorite part of Turkey. The rock formations here look like they are from a different planet; incredibly unique and often flat-out stunning. Much of the town of Goreme is built into these rock formations, and our hotel was actually a “cave hotel” with the rooms dug out of a rock chimney.

For activities in Cappaddocia, we hiked through canyons, toured an ancient underground city, and floated over the rock formations and canyons in a hot air balloon. Very cool place.

Olympos: Our next stop was the tiny town on Olympos, a small backpacker hangout located in southern Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea. We hiked the surrounding mountains, wandered through ruins, hung out by the sea, and generally did a whole lot of nothing at our bungalow. Very relaxing. Very nice. We also did a night hike to the Chimera Flames (a natural phenomenon that produces everlasting flames from the ground), where we had a bit of a scare---Amy fell and sprained her ankle. Fortunately, the sprain was slight, and it didn’t restrict it her much. And what better means of recovery then to spend four days relaxing on a boat? (That is exactly what we did next.)

Boat Cruise. From Olympos, we boarded a sailboat and spent four days and three nights cruising the Mediterranean coast until we reached Feyithe. There were 11 guests total on the boat, and--aside from several stops to explore coastal towns or ruins--most of our days were lazily spent sunning, swimming, and playing cards. (Luckily, the weather was fantastic.) The water here is crystal clear, and the mountains rising up out of the sea are extremely scenic.

Feyithe. Our boat cruise ended in the coastal town of Feyithe, where we spent two more nights. Throughout our trip, we had been reluctantly resisting the urge to buy many souvenirs (since we had almost no room in our suitcases and didn’t want to carry heavy souvenirs around for months on end)----but, here in Feyithe, we finally broke down and bought a few items. (For better or worse, we’ve visited 17 countries so far and yet most of our souvenirs and gifts will all come from a single country. Oh well.)

Marmaris. From Feyithe, we took a three-hour bus to the coastal town of Marmaris, which is a popular destination for Europeans. Very touristy. We had barely an evening in Marmaris before we caught an early morning ferry to the Greek island of Rhodes.

In Rhodes, we met up with Amy’s sister, Jenny, and Jenny’s husband, Rob. (Plus, their baby, Ethan). The plan is to visit the Greek islands of Rhodes, Crete, and Santorini before spending a short time in Athens. Greece is one of the final countries on our trip (only Paris remains), and we are definitely going out with a bang. More soon…

Have you ever been on a hot-air balloon ride? Neither had I. That is until we arrived in the country of Turkey and the spectacular region of Cappadocia. I knew at some point in my life that I would probably get to experience the thrill of floating high in the sky in a hot-air balloon. But if you asked me a year ago where and when it would be, I would have never guessed it would occur this year, and absolutely never across the world in Turkey. But that’s exactly what Kevin and I did a few days ago.

We woke up very early on Sunday morning (5:30am!) to catch the first ride of the day (sunrise). When we arrived at the launch site, the excitement started; just in seeing the 10 – 15 incredibly massive balloons getting inflated in preparation for the morning’s first launch was a sight to be seen. The day couldn’t have been better for ballooning if hand-painted by a master artist herself – the sun was just starting to rise over the hilltops and blue sky engulfed us. We waited as our balloon was being inflated and several others launched before our eyes; the anxious passengers filling into the baskets and then the balloons slowly floating into the sky. Our balloon wasn’t even inflated yet and already my camera had taken nearly 100 photos. I couldn’t wait for our turn!

Finally, the 9 of us in our group were told to get in the basket, which was partitioned into 5 sections. Kevin and I climbed into one of those sections. Then, with the massive, fully inflated balloon dominating the sky above us, the pilots ignited the torches that sent our balloon aflight. The feeling as we left the earth and started to float is indescribable. It’s not a scary feeling – nothing like a roller coaster or other thrill-seeker’s adventure – but rather a peaceful and surreal feeling as you slowing float away into the sky. The view was incredible – the Cappadocia region in Turkey itself is uniquely beautiful – built upon incredible rock formations as far as the eye can see. The ancient people that settled in this land made shelters and homes out of the rock caves, which can be seen everywhere . In fact, even the hotels and hostels are mostly built within these ancient caves (including our hotel room!).

Floating in the sky gives you an incredible view of the caves and rock formations all throughout this region. And the feeling of being in a hot-air balloon is amazing – it is such a peaceful and romantic experience, with the occasional adrenalin rush. A few times the pilots descended us deep into a canyon made by the rock formations to get an up close and personal view of the caves and landscapes. This was an incredible feeling – the expertise that they needed to have in order to keep us floating deep in the canyons without hitting any of the rocks amazed me. (Isn’t at least some of the direction and speed we move based on the current wind pattern and out of the control of the pilots??). At any rate, Kevin and I agreed that the most exhilarating part of the ride was when we were descended deep into the canyons, and not, as I would have expected, when we were flying hundreds of feet into the air.

At one point when we were deep within a canyon, the pilots changed our direction to have us head toward a rock tower (or what they call cave chimneys since they are tall, long, and usually inhabit a cave within them that was used in ancient times for shelter). The view was great, and kept getting better as the pilots moved us in closer and closer. I kept thinking that they must be planning on turning us around soon. But we weren’t changing directions yet. And we were getting closer and closer to the point that if we didn’t turn around now, I thought for sure we would hit. So I peeled my head away from the chimney to look at our pilots – what were they thinking?? They just had this calm look on their face with a slight smile. I quickly looked back at where we were headed. We were definitely ascending now in an attempt to get above the chimney, but it was going to be close! Nearer and nearer to the chimney we got while we continued to ascend higher and higher, but not yet enough to clear the chimney. Now everyone in our basket was on the edge of their feet and starting to squirm – a few people called out worries. We saw the pilots staring intently ahead concentrating deeply on this maneuver. Finally, we had reached the chimney and ascended to the top of it, but all of the passengers held their breath (or closed their eyes) as we moved up over it, uncertain whether we would clear it. You could see all our heads (well those of us who kept our eyes open) lean over the basket (including our pilots!) to ensure that our basket cleared. It did! Whew…that was all the excitement I needed for the one flight. Everyone cheered and I found the pilots smiling, clearly proud of their efforts. I couldn’t help wondering how they practice these moves – it certainly leaves you no room for error!

After about an hour and 15 minutes of flying, we slowly descended to the ground. Our ride was over. And what a ride it was! We celebrated with glasses of champagne and were each issued certificates of our achievement. I wasn’t exactly sure what our achievement was, unless it was keeping our breakfast down while they succeeded in the trick moves. At any rate, Kevin and I were all smiles as we toasted each other to another amazing experience overseas. Hot Air Ballooning in Turkey? Who would have guessed (though I hear Luxor, Egypt has amazing hot-air ballooning...)!