Turkey

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 reasonable prices), bakeries, traditional restaurants, ... (read more →)

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 describes the Spice Bazaar as ... (read more →)

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 the main bazaar area, with ... (read more →)

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 and down Istakal Cad, but ... (read more →)

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 pillars and water. The cistern ... (read more →)

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 applaud their understanding of capitalism ... (read more →)

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 beautiful churches in the world ... (read more →)

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 should cover their head (if ... (read more →)

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 ask at the hotel you’re ... (read more →)

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 the day. We ate one ... (read more →)

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 a 5 minute walk from ... (read more →)

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 at this point of taking ... (read more →)

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 sites lined up in a ... (read more →)

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 to find the market. When ... (read more →)

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 the emphasis is on quality, ... (read more →)

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 – the building was so beautiful, ... (read more →)

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 in a while. Our fan ... (read more →)

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 up our travel from Cappadocia ... (read more →)

Our final activity that day (we really pack them in) was a guided hike through the Rose Valley offered by the hotel. Little did we know what we were getting into. The hike into the valley involved started off with jumping over a few ridges, sliding down a few slopes – we got dirty, but ... (read more →)

Next up was the underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli. This is not for the claustrophobic! These underground cities span up to 8 floors underground, with windy tunnels leading through them. Bring a flashlight in case the generator-powered lights go out. Some of the tunnels are very narrow with very low ceilings, so be prepared ... (read more →)

We stayed in the Kelebek Pension (271 25 31) . It’s about a 10 minute walk uphill from the otogar. For US$15, we stayed in a “fairy chimney room”. Our room was literally a cave inside one of these rocks – complete with a private shower! It was simply one of the most unforgettable hotels ... (read more →)

We arrived after a very long bus ride from Denizli (close to Pamukkale). We were told at the Denizli otogar that we couldn’t make it to Goreme in one day – but we guessed that was mainly because there were no bus companies that operated direct buses from Denizli. We took a chance and got ... (read more →)

The first thing we visited in the morning was the Goreme Open Air Museum, which is a collection of ancient cave dwellings just outside the main town (2 km, and a beautiful walk!) It is best to get there early in the morning, before the tour buses. A lot of these caves are very small, ... (read more →)

Capadoccia is one of our fondest memories of Turkey. “The Valley of Fairy Chimneys” is truly like something out of a dream – it’s hard to believe you’re really seeing it. The area is sprinkled with these giant finger-like rock formations that have been dug out and inhabited. There is a lot of hiking and ... (read more →)

This area is known for thermal springs, whose calcerous salt runoff has left vast white basins carved into the mountain. It’s hard to describe in words. The hot springs were used in Roman times for their therapeutic powers.  Pamukkale is about 3 hours away from Kusadasi and Ephesus. As such, it makes for a fairly ... (read more →)

It’s pretty warm and there is not much shade – although we were able to hide behind some walls for shade. However, there’s no need to weigh yourself down with gallons of water – there are snack stands spread throughout the site! (with reasonable prices). Off-peak availability might be a different matter, ... (read more →)

When you approach the site, many guides will offer to tour you around. We took the advice of our guidebook and passed on their offer, and we are glad we did. Whenever we needed to, we could latch on to an existing tour group (although few were in English). However, the guidebooks ... (read more →)

In August, the crowds were pretty thick. It was the busiest / most popular sight we saw in Turkey. We suppose it is also so popular because it is a cruise boat excursion. Almost everyone was with a guide. The only escape was in the area surrounding the Nymphaneum. There wasn’t many ... (read more →)

Our hotel arranged transport there. This seemed to be the easiest way to get there, and allows you to walk down through the ruins and be picked up at the other end. There are two entrances to the ruins. We were dropped off by our shuttle at the Magnesian Gate, which means ... (read more →)

Ephesus is *the* reason to go to Kusadasi. It bills itself as “the best-preserved classical city on the Mediterranean”, and in our experience, is second only to Pompei. It grew to be the second largest city in the Roman Empire, the site of a Christian Shrine, and one of the seven ... (read more →)

We stayed at the Liman Hotel pension that was #1 on both Let’s Go and Lonely Planet’s list, with good reason. ‘Mr. Happy’ met us right as we came through immigation, and walked us 2 minutes to the hotel. His English was almost better then ours. We shelled out the big ... (read more →)

Kusadasi is a small town with high prices and one main attraction: Ephesus. The town is very expensive (by Turkish standards) because of the number of tourists that roll through every day: It’s a stop for many cruise boats, as they shuttle their passengers back and forth to Ephesus. To this ... (read more →)

Clothing: All of our guidebooks seemed to disagree on what was appropriate wear, so here are our observations. Ian was ok in shorts/tshirt almost everywhere we went in Turkey. Only in ultra-conservative Konya did we feel it was necessary for Ian to wear long pants (this is where combination/zipper pants came in very handy). In ... (read more →)

We visited Turkey after one week in Greece. We arrived by ferry from Samos. We started that day in Mikonos, and planned to go from Mikonos to Samos to Turkey. Getting information on the trip was nearly impossible from Greece – relations aren’t terribly good. The 6am ferry arrived at 9:30am in Mikonos – it ... (read more →)

In Turkey, we never felt threatened or unsafe – even when we were completely lost in the slums of Ankara. We took the usual traveller precautions of not prominently displaying a wallet or expensive jewelery, and this was sufficient.Turkey doesn’t require immunizations, although it is recommended to be up to date on your MMR and ... (read more →)

Turks are some of the kindest people we have met in the world. Day after day we were astounded by how truly nice these people are. Every time we were lost, someone would immediately offer to walk us to where were trying to go – not just direct us – and there was no strings ... (read more →)

We got around using public transportation. This worked well most of time, except when we wanted to get a bit funky in where we were going.Inside the towns, privately-run dolmus (minibus) ferry locals and tourists around. The way these things work is that you look for a bus with your destination written on the front. ... (read more →)

In August 2002, we backpacked around Turkey for 9 days. During this time we visited Kusadasi/ Ephsesus, Pammukale, Goreme and Cappadocia, Ankara, and Istanbul. We were never part of a tour group, we backpacked and arranged all our own travel.