Turkey

Turkey has always been a must-do on my travel list and while I was a bit apprehensive due to its geographic situation, I decided it was now or never to make it a reality.



The first stop was Istanbul, where the city is filled with gorgeous, ginormous mosques. Any mosques I visited afterwards could not live up to the grandeur of the ones in Istanbul. I spent one afternoon watching the sunset with the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia in sight while the call to prayer echoed around the city - it was magical.



Next up was Cappadocia, an area known for its unique landscape. Yes, some of the structures do look phallic (hardy har har), but the more fascinating thing about this area is that people carved caves into these structures to create living quarters. Some of these caves have been turned into cave hotels and I can tell you that it's pretty damn cool staying in one.



Hot air ballooning at sunrise is one of the most memorable activities you can do in Cappadocia. While the sun decided not to make an appearance on my balloon ride (I did catch it on other mornings), it was still breathtaking and slightly terrifying on how high we flew. I also did quite a bit of hiking in Cappadocia, which was an absolute highlight.



I love ruins, so a stop at Ephesus was a must. I also visited the lesser-known Aphrodisias, which had a minimal amount of visitors and contained one of the most impressive stadiums I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good shot of the stadium due to the fact that I was being kicked out by an attendant (two ruin cities in one day is time crunching).


Pamukkale (which translates to Cotton Castle in Turkish) looks like it's blanketed in snow, but it's actually covered in calcium carbonate caused by the hot springs (aka travertine). You would think by the name, it's a soft walk up the hill but it's actually painful walking on solid calcium carbonate barefooted, as the ground is cold with rippled edges, created by the flow of water.



South I went to Fethiye and Oludeniz, where I hiked a small portion of the Lycian Way, an ancient footpath of the Lycian people. The recommended route is to hike from Kayakoy (an abandoned Greek village) to Oludeniz but because this is me, I did it in the opposite direction. This means the hike was much more difficult, as it was an uphill climb rather than down. Good workout though!



When by the Mediterranean Sea, one must lounge on beaches.


This looks like a regular fire but it's actually a Chimaera, an eternal flame. The ground releases gas that keeps the fire burning (forever!), and the Greek mythology of the Chimaera is thought to have originated from this site.


Driving along the Mediterranean coast in Turkey is gorgeous, quite similar to the Pacific Coast Highway in California, but the water was even more blindingly blue (which I didn't think was possible). A recommendation I would have for future Turkey road trippers is to get a GPS that won't take you off of the main highway. No matter what setting it was on, the GPS directed the car to take back roads. At one point, it thought the car should have been going at 90 km/h but the road was this tiny, gravelled path winding up (and up and up) a mountain in the middle of nowhere with no guardrails whatsoever. I thought if anything were to happen, no one would ever find my body, not even a villager, because that's how remote the area was. An experience I never want to repeat!



The last stop was Antalya, a beautiful coastal town with a well preserved old city centre. A great way to cap off the end of my trip.



Now onto the most important part of the trip: food. On my first day in Istanbul, I purchased a kilo of dried fruit, among many other things, because I am ridiculous and enjoy lugging around extra weight in my luggage. I cannot resist a good food market and the stores leading up to the Spice Bazaar had my name all over them. (The actual Spice Bazaar is quite tourist-y, but the stores surrounding it are excellent.)




On a recommendation from a friend, I did an Istanbul food tour and it was as excellent as she said it would be. I ate items that I would have never have discovered myself, including buffalo sucuk (sausage) and bal kaymak (clotted cream with honey - my mouth is watering just thinking about it). It also solidified my love for mezes - appetizers that I could eat as a main course because they were so tasty.



I stayed at the Kelebek Cave Hotel in Cappadocia and it had the best breakfast buffet I have ever seen in my life. There were at least fives types of cheeses and olives, fresh fruits, dried fruits, cereal, nuts, different types of baked and fried carbs, and most importantly, fresh honeycomb (!) that you can can cut off to stir into yoghurt, spread onto some toast, or eat it by the spoonful. I would recommend the hotel just for the breakfast alone, but really, the service was fabulous all around.


Let's take a moment to talk about Turkish tea (cay, pronounced chai): the Turks drink tea all day and you might see tea being delivered to the different store owners on a platter. The cup is like a shot of tea, and the shape is said to help retain the heat. As a tourist, they will try to offer you apple tea or some other wishy-washy option (a merchant try to sell me "love tea"?) but demand for the real stuff because it's what a good cup of tea should be. And yes, tea was one of my purchases that I brought back to Canada so that I can stock my too-full tea cabinet.



Other delicious things that I ate: manti, which is Turkish dumplings. Considering that I love dumplings from other cultures, this wasn't a surprise. Once I hit the Mediterranean, all I wanted was calamari. The grilled calamari was pretty good, but the fried calamari was fantastic. It was crispy on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside. So good.


Another highlight was the fruits that were available. Once I headed south, pomegranate, persimmon and orange trees were everywhere. I had fresh figs that blew my mind. Even the dried figs were somehow more delicious.



And of course, the dessert. This article in the NYT on Gaziantep baklava convinced me that I had to visit Turkey and while I didn't make a stop in Gaziantep (too close to Syria), the baklava did hit that sweet spot. I also discovered my love for halva, which is a tahini (sesame) based dessert. I bought a solid block of halva home with me but at one restaurant, they made a creme brule-type of halva for me when I requested a dessert menu and there was none. (I don't even think I need to tell you that it was amazing, but it was.)


All in all, it was a great two weeks in Turkey. I hope to return one day to explore the eastern side of the country.