Turkey

We recently moved into a new home.  The house is pretty new and most of the work we’ve been doing is cosmetic.  The backyard, however, was another story.  Picture the Sleeping Beauty forest.  Without the castle, the princess or the prince.  Or any magic.  It was as if they’d planted [...]

We took a ferry from Eminonu to Kadikoy to get a sampling of the Asian side of Istanbul. This is a residential and commercial area that is an easy escape from the tourist trap that is Istanbul. Frequent ferries run quickly there. There is a street market, jeweler’s stores (with [...]

Misir Carsisi, or the Egyptian Spice Bazaar, is a good next destination after the Grand Bazaar. Walk through the narrow streets filled with everyday shops, and you will eventually get to the Spice Bazaar. Don’t be worried about asking anyone for directions, everyone we talked to was very helpful.My guidebook [...]

The Grand Bazaar has over 4000 shops, banks, mosques, police stations, fountains, and restaurants. It is the largest bazaar in the world. As you walk in on Kalpakcilarbasi Cad., you will think it’s just like a shopping mall. This is only jeweller’s row, however. Take a right and dive into [...]

Taksim Square is the location of some very upscale hotels, as well as the Ataturk Cultural Center. Istakal Cad is the main road leading off from the square, and is an upscale shopping area during the day, and a club scene at night. There is a tram that runs up [...]

This underground area is located between the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. It is a huge cave with 336 columns, with walkways leading you around the cave, over the water. Water drips down the roof above, and piped in classical music accompany the funky light show playing off the [...]

Before you visit, make sure you have a high enough credit limit. The Palace is the most expensive site we visited in Turkey. Admission to all three sections of it (main entrance, Harem, and Treasury) cost about $30 in 2002. Of course we paid. I understand gouging the tourists (and [...]

The Aya Sofia was built in 532. The exterior was painted blood red by Emporor Justinian to warn potential revolutionaries. The dome was originally a lot higher and bigger then what you see today, but an earthquake just 20 years after it’s construction destroyed it. It remained one the most [...]

Our first stop in Istanbul was the Blue Mosque. It’s not actually blue on the outside, but the tiles inside it are. It was the Sultan Ahmet’s response to the Aya Sofia and was completed in 1617.Be sure to attend outside prayer times. Men should be wearing pants, and women [...]

Unfortunately, there are a few safety issues you should be aware of in Istanbul. Taxis are notorious for ripping off tourists picked up in Sultanahmet or Taksim – make sure the ‘day rate’ is set during the day (one light on the meter, not two). It’s a good idea to [...]

We ate two dinners in Sultanhamet, and both were expensive and bland. (in addition, I believe my wife got sick from eating at one of them). The guidebook warned us about restaurants in this area, but they were close to our hotel and we were exhuasted by the end of [...]

For the sake of convenience (and not because of price!) we found a hotel in Sultanahmet. Moonlight Pension (517 54 29, 87 Akbiriki Cad) was our guidebook’s recommended hotel – and while it was clean and conveniently located, it wasn’t the nicest place we’ve stayed in.The hotel is located about [...]

We arrived in Istanbul from Ankara on the bus. The bus first stopped at a port on the Asian side of the Bosphorous, then went on to the main bus station. As is the case elsewhere, the bus station is located quite a distance from downtown. We made the mistake [...]

We spent 3 days in Istanbul to finish up a 3 week vacation to Iceland, Greece, and Turkey. It was a great way to finish off our vacation. We were backpacking and not part of a tour group. It’s a very easy city, with almost all of the main tourists [...]

After leaving the museum, we got hopelessly lost trying to find the citadel. We ended up in some areas where no tourists had ever been, trudging around the outside of city walls stepping in between piles of broken glass. We eventually gave up on finding the tourist site and tried [...]

This award-winning museum (European Museum of the Year, 1997) features various artifacts that were left behind by the empires that ruled the Anatolian plain from the Paleolithic era until about 700 BC. There is a great collection of Paleolithic, Neolithic, Hatti, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian and Roman artifacts found here, where [...]

We visited the Kocatepe Mosque, which is a modern mosque built right above a Western-style shopping mall. It was conveniently located next to our hotel. We visited after evening prayers. The place was dead quiet. There was no barriers separating the tourists from locals. It was a spiritual moment – [...]

We stayed at Otel Buyuk Ersan. It was fairly conveniently located (about a 15 minute walk from the subway) and easy to find. It’s a huge affair, with 85 non-air-conditioned rooms. It looks like some cheesy hotel from a bad 60′s movie. It wasn’t dirty, but they definitely hadn’t redecorated [...]

Ankara, the capital of Turkey (not Istanbul – surprise!) is a busy, smoggy city. Most tourists give it a miss, but there’s a few sights worth checking out if you’re passing through. Ankara is also a major transportation hub – and it was the perfect way for us to break [...]