Ephesus

We made our way from Aphrodisias to Selcuk in less than 2 hours.  Selcuk is the closest town to Ephesus, however once we saw our tiny cramped hotel room, we decided to change hotels for the first time on our trip.  It was important that we feel comfortable and enjoy our last few days in Turkey.  So we ended up quickly finding a beachfront hotel about 30 minutes away called Kusadasi.  This was definitely more our speed.  We got a great cheap room overlooking the Mediterranean.  The hotel was pretty dead, which was fine with us. 

The best thing about the area around the hotel is great little restaurant called The Yellow Rose.  The owner is really sweet and made us delicious Turkish dinners for really reasonable prices both nights.  I particularly loved their homemade soup.  It was kind of like chicken noodle soup but with tiny pieces of pasta and shredded chicken.  The last night we ate there, we watched the discovery channel in Turkish with the owner and his uncle. 

Drove to Ephesus the next afternoon.  It definitely lives up to the hype.  Lots of tour groups here but it really wasn’t too bad.  Ephesus is in excellent condition, as huge sections have been very well restored.  Astonishingly, only 18% of the city has been excavated.  There are various groups of archaeologists that come annually to unearth more and more of the ancient city. 

The Greek city was built in the 10th century B.C., and flourished after it came under control of Roman republic in 129 B.C.  It has all of the familiar sections of an ancient city – Agoras (marketplace), baths, latrine, temples, stadium, theater, and even a brothel.  Most impressive, and the common tourist picture of Ephesus, is the Library of Celsus.  This library contained 12,000 scrolls and is made entirely of marble. 

The gorgeous colonnaded marble street meanders through the city and past a set of terraced houses.  These houses were for the wealthy citizens and built into the side of the mountain.  They had heated private baths, beautiful marble and mosaic courtyards and basilicas.  We were fascinated with all of the work that must have gone into building these homes with such attention to detail.  And the fact that a lot of it is still in existence is mind-blowing.

Spent our last night before flying to Athens in Izmir, a pretty big port city on the coast.  We enjoyed a nice final dinner on the busy Izmir waterfront.

We have had the most incredible time in Turkey and are terribly sad to be leaving.  This country has completely surpassed our expectations.  We knew it would be lovely, but never imagined it would be such a wonderful experience.  Greece, you have your work cut out for you…

Tesekker ederim Turkiye

Pamukkale/Hierapolis & Aphrodisias

We arrived in Pamukkale for a 2-night stay.  Again, just shy of tourist season, there were very small crowds.  Stayed at a lovely family run Melrose House Hotel.  It sits just at the base of the massive travertine pools that are the main attraction here.  Most of the hotels in town are operating at a bare bones level preparing for full on tourist season, but we really enjoyed our quiet little hotel that offered delicious home cooked meals for breakfast and dinner. 

We only needed one full day to take in the main sights in and around Pamukkale.  Our first stop, about 10 miles from our hotel was the ancient city of Laiodikeia.  It is in the beginning stages of being excavated but had two theaters, one of which was huge and adjacent to a large mountain with a view of Pamukkale in the distance.  Cicero lived here for a time before Marc Antony “had him liquidated” (as Lonely Planet puts it).

In the afternoon we visited Hierapolis and the travertine pools, which are right next to each other and are a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I got my first bee sting ever on the drive to the pools… thank goodness no allergic reaction.

The travertines look like an icy, snowy mountain containing crystal blue pools – some cool and some warm.  The pools are derived from springs in a cliff almost 200 meters high, overlooking the city.  The calcite-laden waters create an awesome landscape made up of mineral forests, petrified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins.  At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the dynasty of the Attalids, the kings of Pergamum, established the thermal spa of Hierapolis. 

 Jason took a dip in the pool and gave himself a mud mask facial.  The consistency is really pleasant, similar to mud or putty, and supposedly has healing qualities. 

After hanging out in the travertine pools we went into the Antique Pool.  The mineral rich warm water also touts many health benefits.  A nice bonus was that you are swimming on top of old ruins and sunbathing on original Hierapolis columns. 

We hiked all around Hierapolis after finishing up in the pools and watched sunset from the massive ancient theater.  At sunset we met a very nice Peruvian woman who now lives in Italy.  We talked with her and her Italian buddies about things to do once in Italy and Peru.

After another wonderful breakfast at Melrose House Hotel, we headed 1.5 hours towards Ephesus, stopping in Aphrodisias.  The car ride was a nail-biter up into the mountains, passing quaint little farming villages along the way.  Jason is an excellent driver! 

Aphrodisias is gorgeous and a great way to check out another well preserved, but more sprawling ancient city than Ephesus (and a lot less crowded).  It’s set in a valley amid Roman poplars, green fields and warbling birds.  The museum here was fantastic.  It was filled with ancient marble statues and had a wonderful 3D interactive map which showed you how the city once looked. 

Aphrodisias began as a prehistoric mound around 5,000 BC.  By the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. it had become large and prosperous due to its rich marble quarry, with a population of around 150,000. 

The coolest thing here was the huge stadium that was once home to many gladiator fights.

Antalya

We flew from the Cappadocia area to Antalya, a good sized city along the “turquoise coast” of the Mediterranean.  Jason and I decided to spring for a rental car for the remainder of the trip in order to avoid arranging tours throughout the rest of our time in Turkey.  Gas is the second highest in Europe here!  At least we got a diesel car – a Renault Symbol.  It cost $118 USD to fill the tank!  Luckily, we also got Turkey SIM cards so we are able to navigate using Google maps.  It’s working out pretty well so far. 

We stayed at another fabulous hotel in Antalya called Dogan hotel.  Btw, all of our hotels have been extremely reasonable with just booking a few days in advance on Kayak.  The hotel pool was just being filled for the season on our second day, but we opted for taking a dip in the Mediterranean at a private beach five minutes walk from our hotel. 

For our first full day, we drove 45 km to the ancient overgrown cities of Aspendos and then Perge.  What a treat!  Again, very few tourists and perfect weather in the 70s.  Seeing all of these ancient ruins under the backdrop of towering mountains is really humbling.  There is so much history here.  Alexander the Great conquered most of the cities we’ve seen around 300 BC. 

Perge was excellent and we almost skipped it on our way back to Antalya.  It is currently being excavated and we were able to see men working on digging out the city.  There are ancient theaters, baths, basilicas and markets at most sights. 

Back in Antalya, we stumbled upon a great little bar with an awesome live house band playing traditional Turkish favorites.  Jason and I were pulled up to do some line dancing with a group of four local patrons.  We loved this place and ended up going the next night too. We've also been seeing celebrity look-alikes in every country we visit. We wished we had been sneaking pictures throughout the trip.  The bar had total Ben Affleck doppelganger.

After three nights in Antalya, we headed out for our drive to Pamukkale (about four hours northwest).  We stopped at another ancient city called Termessos.  It is at the top of the mountains and required a scary 20-minute drive and steep hike to the main part of the ruins.  The Pisidians fought off Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC here.  Our favorite find in Termessos was the very well preserved theater sitting in the shadow of a huge mountain and overlooking the Mediterranean and Antalya below.

Cappadocia (Kapadokya)

Flew from Istanbul to Cappadocia to visit the legendary caves and fairy chimneys.  It is a magical place.  We stayed in the town of Goreme and our hotel Roma cave suites was actually in a cave.  It's low season right now so we got to choose whichever room we wanted.  We ended up with a huge suite with a fireplace and full sized jacuzzi. 

On the day we arrived we hiked to both sides of the canyon.  Sunset point and Panorama.  It’s mind blowing to see how many caves are carved into the mountains. Some are so high, it’s hard to imagine how they did it. 

We went for a horseback ride through several of the beautiful valleys (sword, Rose and Red) and up to the city of Cavusin, where we explored a huge cave church dating back to the 5th century AD.  After our horseback ride it started to rain, and we treated ourselves to a hamam.  It’s a Turkish bath where men and women are in separate areas.  It includes 15 minutes in the sauna, private pool and a soapy massage.  Topped off with Turkish tea – wonderful.

Took a full day organized tour on day three with only five other travelers.  We ended up having a really fun group of people.  There were three Korean, one Turkish and one Japanese tourist.  The first stop on the tour was an underground city called Derinkuyu, which is 85 meters deep.  It was used to hide Christians during enemy attacks in the 5th through 10th centuries and was originally 16 floors deep.  It has very narrow corridors and we were told not to go in if we were claustrophobic, had asthma or hypertension.  Jason has discovered a new found fear of tight spaces…

Next, we drove to the Ihlara valley.  It’s gorgeous with a river running through its deep canyon.  The waters are supposed to be healing.  We hiked down into the canyon passing a cave church, and had lunch along the river in Belisirma village. 

On our way back to Goreme, we stopped at an amazing ancient cave monastery called Selime which really felt like being in another world.  Then we ended up at the hilltop town of Uchisar, which had breathtaking views of Pigeon valley, caves and fairy chimneys.

We had a lovely final dinner of claypot chicken, tapped open at our table with delicious pickled vegetables, while sitting on floor cushions next to a cozy fire.

We woke up after our third night and took an adventurous hike (maybe 4-5 miles) up behind Goreme.  It was totally desolate and beautiful with nothing but caves, fairy chimneys and snow capped mountains as far as you can see. 

The one thing we didn’t see were the hot air balloons.  Usually, it’s THE thing to do in Cappadocia but it was apparently too windy for balloon trips.  Plus, it costs about $150 per person.  It has been wonderful visiting all of these places in the off-season.  We love the feeling of practically having complete privacy at all of these incredible destinations.

Istanbul

Merhaba (hello) from Turkey!!  First stop, Istanbul.  We got upgraded to an incredibly luxurious “comfort class” on Turkish airways from Delhi to Istanbul.  Really set the tone for what was to come in Turkey…

Istanbul is where east meets west.  The people speak of the European and Asian sides of the city.  The divider is the legendary Bosphorus Strait.  It splits Istanbul and travels from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.  We made sure to do a 2 hour cruise up the Bosphorus to view Istanbul by water, and what a majestic city it is.

We stayed at the Kaftan hotel and immediately made friends with the new owner, Osman, who was really warm and welcoming.  We chatted over coffee with him for almost an hour, talking about our backgrounds, politics and tourists.  He was very accommodating and allowed us private access to the roofdeck restaurant during the closed hours, which overlook the Bosphorus. 

We arrived in Turkey just as provincial elections were about to take place.  There are massive political rallies happening, and we saw tons of vehicles promoting their “mayorial” candidates while blasting really loud music.  All of the people we met joked with us about how absurd the campaigning style was for each and every candidate.

Our hotel was located in the historic center of town along the water.   Steps from our hotel, we visited the Blue Mosque (built 1603-17), Aya Sophia (Church of the Divine Wisdom, built in the late Byzantine era, 1238) Topkapi Palace (court of the Ottoman empire, 15th – 19th centuries), Basilica Cistern (underground Aqueduct which served the palace, originally constructed in 529 AD) and The Hippodrome (ancient location of chariot races).

On one day we took the tram to the Beyoglu neighborhood, which is in the northern part of the city.  It’s also known as “New Istanbul.”  It’s a hilly area that reminded us of San Francisco, packed with cute restaurants and bars.  We went to the top of Galata Tower there, which is the highest point around, and took in fantastic 360-degree vistas of Istanbul.

And of course let’s not forget about the amazing food!  Our free hotel breakfast consisted of the Turkish staples: tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheeses, hard boiled egg, dried apricots, cured meat and bread.  Done in moderation, it’s a great start to the day.  We typically have only been eating breakfast and dinner, and it’s working out well.  Another favorite of ours are the kebaps (as they call them here).  Chicken, beef, lamb…you choose.  Always accompanied by a delicious salad.  We could definitely live on a Mediterranean diet, yum!

We checked out the two main Bazaars in town – Spice and Grand Bazaars and sampled “turkish delights,” a fruit and nut candy covered in powdered sugar.  There are a plethora of carpet shops here, which were beautiful, but thousands of dollars.  Ran into several sales schemes although it’s not nearly on the level of India.

Oh, and cats are everywhere!  Lots of dogs too, which are all protected by the government.