Türkiye 28 October- 27 November

Turkiye  - sort of like Morocco’s Hollywood throbb’ish really sexy big brother, except for the magically reappearing and never-ending cigarette in his mouth. If not for the constant cigarette smoke in the air, this country would be in my (still evolving) top 5 list. It’s also one of the safest places I feel I’ve ever been…which is odd. For me, the most dangerous thing in this country, aside from 2nd through 24th hand smoke, are the ancient sidewalks in all of the archeological sites. It’s tough to gawk at shit and coo at every stinkin cat lounging on 2000 year old corinthian pillars when you constantly have to worry about tripping over a random brick or stone and face-planting. Granted, tourist problems aren't the same as everyday resident problems. But, to illustrate, I saw a guy pull up in an inner-city mall on his motorcycle and run into a store. He stayed inside a few minutes and never turned his motorcycle off - just left it running. Didn't chain it up, didn't try to hide it - just left the key in and everything.

Oh, fun fact...a one hour shisha (hookah) session can impart as much as 100 cigarettes' worth of junk into your lungs. They smell better than cigarettes and I can actually sit next to one but holy hell these things are addictive - we sat next to a table of guys during dinner one night and they didn't take the mouthpieces out of their mouths for the entire hour we were there.

Highlight pics - including a Marriage Proposal for husband. For most of my random and lengthy recap and musings see the bottom of the page, past all of the pics...if you can make it that far.

Hammam (Also known as Turkish torture disguised as luxury ex...exfolli...exfollicat...uhhh, skin removal and bathing)

Seriously, if you're ever on the fence about trying a Hammam, or Turkish Bathouse, jump over the fence. I've had one massage in my life and and am now a convert to the Hammam experience. Here's the scene, you check into a bathouse, sometimes sort of opulent and sometimes really opulent but always marble - lots of marble. Most of the hotels, even the cheap ones, have mammams in the basement and some are beautiful. Depending on the facility, it might be separated - women on one side and men on another. In other facilities you might have the couples option. We did both, a few times. Typically women have a woman working with them and men are mixed - I had a man once and women the other times. My modesty flag kicked in pretty rapidly but once they started scraping the muscles away from my skin my attention got diverted and I quit worrying about flashing the lady and more about not farting. It's sort of that yoga-class-after-Mexican food thing, but someone else is pushing on your stomach and back and nether regions and all you're worried about, aside from the death grip on your scapula, is making odd noises where there shouldn't be any.

They start off by ushering you into a dressing room to undress and put on a towel or some cool little disposable boxers and then sit you down on a warm marble slab next to a beautiful marble bowl with running water. In the couples procedures they have you both in the same room, basically next to each other. Once they get the temps right, they start pouring water all over you with a beautiful but really dented copper bowl. Then, without any warning, they start with 180 grit sandpaper and begin peeling the dead, and in my case, still living and attached, skin away from your body, using US military approved techniques.

Once the dead skin removal phaze is over and you return to consciousness, they dish more water all over you to wash the skin down the drain. Then they get you up and move you to another, bigger slab of marble and lay you face down and remove the towel from all but your butt crack. Then they do this really cool thing, but you can't see it since you're on your stomach so the suspense builds. They take a pail of soapy water and dunk a thin linen bag into it, getting it real soapy. They pull out the bag and swing it around, getting it full of air, sort of like what you do with a trash bag to fit it onto a trashcan. Then, they close the open end of the bag and squeeze the bag between their fingers, making these wonderfully tiny little bubbles into a foam that goes all over your body. Once you're covered with the soapy foam they start the Helga's House of Pain techniques again, but this time it's with slippery skin so it feels really amazing. But it's funny in that you're on this wet, soapy slippery marble slab and they're just pushing you this way and that, and you're sliding all over the place. After they finish with your back they stand up and you try not to slip on the wet soapy marble floor while you're struggling not to flash them the front side and reposition the now soaking towel on your front side. Then you lay back down on your back and they start the foaming process over on the front side. And yes, they cover up JUST enough of your privates that it's not an indecent exposure charge in Arkansas.

Once they finish with the foaming they sit you up and dish clean water on you to get you all feeling good. At this point I really didn't want it to end - this is how the rich people do. Then they dry you off and move you to the massage tables. You can opt for different massage treatments and I really wanted to relive my soccer/karate days so I went for the sports massage, which is the normal massage but they cake you in Ben-Gay or Tiger Balm. The smell of Tiger Balm always reminds me of my old guy karate camps - blood, sweat and mentholatum. So, after the massage, and if you haven't asked the masseuse to marry you yet, they put some kind of magic mud all over your face that dries and gets all crusty. Then they take you to another room with comfortable couches and burn some incense and bring you tea and let you realize that your life, until now, has sucked. And then you have to get up and wash off your face and leave.

A few different hammams...

Istanbul - sorry for the overflow of cistern pics but I love that place!

Goreme / Cappadocia

Silk Road / Underground City

Konya - the home of Whirling Dervishes

Antalya

Kas

Oludeniz / Fethiye / Kayakoy

Pamukkale / Hieropolis

Ephesus (check out the ancient bathroom pics)

The Kingdom of Lydia (it was real...no joke! The first place to mint money)

Cats

Random Thoughts

Over the course of five weeks in Turkey we spent almost two weeks in Istanbul, spread over three separate stays. We mixed the lodging up and stayed in Old Town, the New City area, Moda (on the Asian side) and finally near Galata Tower and Bridge, overlooking the water. I liked each area but loved the Bridge location for its proximity to everything we wanted to see. From a value perspective, Old Town and Moda offered the best deals and Moda, with its younger population, had tons of great restaurants and nightspots. The major sights, from the bridge metro stop, are all within a ten-minute ride, as is the beautiful river promenade on the European side. I think the promenade actually goes on for miles, on both sides of the river before it turns into a succession of huge waterside mega-mansions. I loved the views of the waterway with all of the boat traffic, people traffic, fishers with their lines dangling over the bridge and backdropped on all sides with the beautiful collection of Mosques and Bazaar’s. It was even more spectacular at night when all of the lights came out - it reminded me of a huge Christmas light display. From our rooftop deck we sat for a couple of hours one afternoon and just watched the non-stop activity below - it’s tough to describe how busy the waterways are here. The Bosphorus is the only waterway connecting the Black Sea with the rest of the world, so you get oil and gas tankers, cargo ships, cruise ships, pleasure boats, little fishing boats, ferries of all size and all sorts of tour boats. Add that to a city of 20+ million people and you have a non-stop flow of traffic going every way you can imagine.

We managed most of the major sites in Istanbul, a boat ride on the Bosporous, the Blue Mosque, Galata Tower (walked by, not up as it was EXPENSIVE), the Old Town walk, the New Town walk, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Market, the River Walk, Besiktas, etc…but my personal favorite sites were the Hagia Sofia, the Basilica Cistern and walking the city at night.

The Hagia Sofia is obvious, as it’s one of the most famous churches in world history. Originally built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537 it was later converted to an Ottoman Mosque in the 1400’s. Aside from the massive structure that you marvel over - how did they build something like this in the 5th century (???), this still maintains many of the original Byzantine Christian iconography AND it is one of the only mosques in the world that non-Muslims can tour. The original paintings were mostly covered over when it was turned into a mosque so many have been uncovered and partially restored for viewing. The 1st floor is a functional  Mosque and you can listen to the Muezzin call for prayer and peer over the balcony as the faithful pray. The 2nd floor, which is more like the 4th floor as it’s so high up, is open to tour. I’m constantly fascinated at the craftsmanship of 2000 year old mosaics and paintings but the monstrous domed painted and mosaic cupola is what draws your attention, especially when the sun is shining through the building. You can get a sense of the height from the pics…what an amazing building.

Over the centuries, Istanbul had to rely on water piped in for drinking. Storing that water became a job for the chief engineers. In order to do this, they built a huge collection of underground cisterns to store it. We visited a couple of them but the most amazing sight (for me) was the Basilica Cistern. It was a vast undergound facility that stored millions of gallons of water and made for some of my favorite pictures of the trip so far. With the hundreds of ancient columns and clearwater pool, this offered a beautiful backdrop for pics - I was told I added too many cistern pics above, but they are too pretty to leave out!

From Istanbul, we flew to the city of Goreme, in the beautiful Cappadocia region. The area is famous for the “Faerie Towers”, the other-worldly collection of ancient homes built INTO rock towers. Centuries ago the residents, looking for safety from marauders, built their homes, churches and communities into the towers by carving out the limestone to form caves. The cave homes helped to keep them hidden and safe for centuries and also preserved some amazing artworks of early Christian stories. It’s amazing how large some of the caves were - one community house had a table that fit 30 or so people for meetings and meals…I tried to picture what that looked, sounded and SMELLED like with no deodorant back then…ugh.

The surrounding area has become a tourist Mecca and many of the hillside towns created hotels and rentals into the cliffs to mimic the fairy tower caves. We stayed in one of our favorite hotels of the trip so far, Aydinli Cave Hotel. The rooms were built into the hillside with walls of solid rock that had been chiseled out beautifully. And the owner was one of the most genuine and friendly people we’ve ever met - one of those people that you just want to give your business to.

The area is also world famous for the hot-air balloon rides that leave early every morning (well, not EVERY morning…dammit!) and head out over the valley to look down at the towers. This is one of the most iconic shots of Turkey and unfortunately we didn’t get to go up in a balloon as the winds were too high for four straight days. The Turkish government is extremely safety conscious and will cancel all balloons if the weather is even slightly windy. The weather was beautiful each day but the early morning winds caused them to cancel all balloon traffic during our stay. We will return here some day just to take that balloon - everyone we talked to said that the rides were stunning.

From Goreme we drove along the original Silk Trail, the thoroughfare that brought the silk trade from India to the European continent. The first stop was in one the original underground cities, the village of Derinkuyu Yeralti Şehri. Again, like Goreme with the cave villages, this city was built over 300 feet underground to provide shelter from marauders. There are multiple cities built underground in the region, and were surprisingly spacious, with areas for livestock, people, restaurants and even running water in places. I can’t say I’d really like to live that far underground - being slightly claustrophobic made the tight quarters a bit uncomfortable, especially as we descended deeper into the earth. As with every other old, enclosed site we visit, I wondered what this place smelled like with a few hundred people and animals living here…I’m such a princess.

Nearby Sultanhani, one of the original Silk Road outposts, provided shelter and safety for traders on the ancient route. One of the original bazaars still stands and has been mostly restored. During our visit it housed a large antique Turkish rug exhibit - good thing we don't have a house anymore or would have walked away with a rug and a hefty shipping bill.

Konya, down the road, is famous as the home of the Whirling Dervishes, a trance-like worship practice of the Mevlefi Sufi order of the Muslim faith begun in the 13th century by the mystic, Rumi. The ceremony or worship demonstration was different than what I expected - not as fast. I guess I pictured the Tasmanian Devil tornado dance but instead they spun more steadily and rhythmically. It was meaningful and beautiful but left me wondering what the hell Rumi was taking in the 13th century that made him want to spin past the dizzy stage and think it was a higher level of worship? Or was this a simple college hazing prank that got incorrectly translated through the ages? It was a big enough mark on the faithful that they built a beautiful blue mausoleum for Rumi in the already beautiful Konya Selimiye Mosque.

Driving to Antalya and then Kas on the southern coast, we went to a Turkish Super League (Football) game at Antalyaspor vs Besiktas. The game was great but the home side got crushed and everybody smoked in the stadium. Antalya is a great seaside city with a big city feel but maintains that little beach vacation vibe. Kas, down the road a bit from Antalya is an amazingly beautiful seaside village with a 2600 year old functioning amphitheater overlooking the ocean. It's cool standing in the middle of the stage and hearing the echo or reverb from your voice due to the acoustics. In ancient times they didn't have electronics so the theaters were designed where even the top row could hear the performers without any microphones.

Next on to Oludeniz, a beachside town at the foot of a 7000 foot mountain that is home to a gorgeous little Blue Lagoon and a Red Bull Paragliding competition each year. The city was just closing for the season so there wasn’t much open, but it was peak paragliding weather, as hundreds of paragliders jumped from the mountain above us, landing meters away from our hotel on the beach. Unfortunately, this provided one of the more “Shit gets real” moments of the trip so far, as we saw a guy crash into the ocean. He was performing tricks down the mountain, flips, circles and loops and it appeared like he simply mistimed his final few tricks or got blinded by the sun and hit the water on a circular down stroke. A couple of available boats rushed out to try and save him but we heard later that he died in the hospital the next morning. It was scary watching it unfold, as he seemed to be in control until the very end and then all of the sudden he wasn’t. The hit into the water was pretty severe - he was doing a loop and swung down into the water with such force that we heard him from a couple of hundred feet away. Unfortunately this is a somewhat regular ocurrence here and steered us away from building up the courage to try a tandem ride with a guide.

Outside Oludeniz sits an eery reminder of the Turkish war with Greece from the 1920’s. The Turks defeated the Greeks in 1923, which led into the creation of modern Turkey under the rule of Ataturk. Because the two countries had ever-changing borders and territories over the centuries, there were still entire villages of Greeks in the new mainland Turkey and vice-versa, after the war. To settle the war, Turkey uprooted these villages and shipped all of the Greeks back to mainland Greece, with Greece doing the same to its Turkish residents. The ancient town of Kayakoy, now a ghost town, has sat vacant since 1923 when its inhabitants were forced out. All that remains are vacant houses, churches and streets dotting the hillsides. This same split also left the nearby islands in the control of the Greeks - it's odd because some of them are less than a kilometer from the Turkish beaches.

Ephesus (One of the highlights of the trip for me) you know, the place where the Apostle Paul supposedly delivered his letter to the Ephesians. The 4th largest city of the ancient world. The letter was actually written because the big business leaders banded together with the city government to bar Paul from lecturing about a "One true God". The problem wasn't so much about the God aspect as it was about sales. At that time, Ephesus was the world's leader in carved statues of the many gods worshipped at the time and the business owners were worried about Paul cutting into their sales numbers. So instead of preaching his sermon, Paul wrote and delivered it to the masses. Also, Ephesus was supposedly where Paul brought Mary (Jesus' Mary) after Jesus died and where she lived for 12 years. There is an ancient church near the ruins in her honor.

Ephesus is one of the most important and intact of the ancient cities and houses the Library of Celsus, a two story rebuilt facade that is stunning and every bit worth the visit. I get goosebumps every time I stand near these ancient ruins...mind wanders to how they built this, what life was like, how people treated each other and then how did they tie the togas to not fall off?

If you're going to Turkiye, for two weeks I'd recommend two-three days for Ephesus, two-three for Cappadocia and the rest for Istanbul. Istanbul is worth at least four-five days and more if you have it. Driving like we did is great if you have a lot of time, but flying to Cappadocia and Ephesus is cheap and quick. If you do have the time, the Turkish roads are among the best we've encountered and the drivers are typically considerate and play by the rules. This doesn't apply to taxi drivers, by the way. In any country anywhere.

Random hotel moments:

Istanbul Crowne Plaza - I teared up a little at breakfast today. I was sitting at breakfast in the hotel by myself and going through pics and this elderly couple came over to the table next to me. The man was slightly disabled, with a cane and an arm in a sling and appeared to be in his pajamas with an overcoat while his wife helped him sit down and then went and got him some yogurt and a drink. Apparently they left something in the room so she left him alone for a while and he started eating the yogurt. He was getting part of it in his mouth but having a bit of a tough time since he was down an arm. I said hello but couldn’t understand his accent and went back to my pics. I looked back over in a minute and he had dribbled a bit of yogurt down the side of his mouth and onto his shirt. For a brief second I debated reaching over and helping him but before I could react the manager of the hotel came over and said “Hello father, can I help you?” He proceeded to help the older man clean up and even dipped a napkin into some water to clean up his shirt. They were speaking in English but I had a tough time understanding the older man, as it looked like he might have also suffered a stroke. Then, without asking, the manager sat opposite the man and started peeling a hard boiled egg and feeding it to the older man. He even said, “you don’t want the white part, right?” and peeled away the egg white to feed the yolk to the man. The man’s wife and daughter returned about this time and he greeted them each with “Hello Mother” and “Hello Sister”. By this point I was having a hard time containing the tears from the tenderness of the moment.

I mentioned later to the manager that it was wonderful watching the respect and love he showed to the man, who I thought was his actual father but was simply a guest in his hotel. Apparently the manager knew the man from previous stays as he was in town undergoing hospital treatments and they’d developed a bond over the years. For some reason it’s still a wonder the sheer kindness one human can express to another.

Antalya Crown Plaza - This morning during breakfast at the hotel in Antalya, at 9:05, the emergency sirens went off. Not a very welcome sound to hear when you’re actually on the beach. I got up and grabbed my camera, looking toward the beach horizon to spot a tsunami and realized that all of the employees were standing at attention in the lobby or on their assigned floors, when the Turkish National Anthem blared out on the hotel loudspeaker. I forgot that today, Nov. 10th, is the anniversary of the death of Turkey’s beloved father, Ataturk, who the country was named after. It was nice to see everyone, young and old, so respectful of their founding father.

DoubleTree Kusadasi - Kusadasi is the cruise ship drop-off for the ancient city of Ephesus. In the hotels we always get a chuckle out of the music piped in. This morning the muzak had some piped in synth covers of the Cranberries and then the Cure and then Cyndi Lauper but it was really funny when they played an ethereal Rhumba’ish cover of GnR’s Sweet Child of Mine…I’m sure Axl would love to hear a sweet little pixie voice replacing his screams.

Each morning at breakfast there are from 4 to 9 cats hanging out at the pool, right outside the door from us. There is a three legged mama cat and from the look of it she doesn’t miss any meals. I think that’s because the staff here keeps sneaking out salmon pieces to her every time the manager wanders off to smoke, which is frequent.