Category: Turkey
Going home! It’s been a while since we’ve traveled to a place where we’re happy to be going home. There’s nothing wrong with Morocco, but we think Turkey ruined it for us. Our trip to Turkey was absolutely one of the best (a close second after Botswana and Tanzania), and after having just been there … Continue reading Traveling Back To The US
Last night was one of the best sleep I’ve had in a very long time since arriving in Turkey. The muezzin did wake me up, but I was able to fall right back to sleep. As much as we gripe about the daily 6AM wake up call, Joe and I both agree that it is … Continue reading My Favorite Turkish Food
Our second to last day in Turkey. It’s been an incredible trip, but also a long two months. Don’t let anyone tell you that traveling is easy. Other than holing up in a resort for a week, traveling is work. All the planning, logistics, and navigating take time and energy. We had initially planned to … Continue reading Back In Istanbul
When traveling it is always best to learn to expect the unexpected. The best laid out travel plans can sometimes be derailed, and spontaneity may land you with a serendipitous find. Trabzon isn’t your typical Turkish holiday destination. Most people stick to Istanbul, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, and the Western coast. Very few venture into the Black … Continue reading The Unexpected
Ephesus is probably the most well known and intact ruin in all of Turkey. Aside from that, none of the other ruins in this country have garnered much attention from tourists. To be quite honest, we didn’t know much about the ruins in Anatolia until we reached Fethiye a couple weeks ago. As we were … Continue reading Sagalassos – A Hidden Gem
Today was purposely scheduled to be a light day because Joe needed to keep an eye on the post election market. It actually ended up working well, as I was tired from yesterday’s excursion up to the mountains. We made the short trek to Antalya Museum, which contains most of the finds from excavations around … Continue reading Antalya Museum
We’ve been on a roll with respect to traveling to sites via public transportation. Today we took the tram to the Antalya bus terminal to catch the dolmuş to Korkuteli. There are two separate terminals, one is the ilçeler (counties) terminal and the other is the sehirlerarasi (intercities) terminal. Korkuteli bus is at the counties … Continue reading Termessos – Eagle’s Nest
Today’s trip to Aspendos was slightly more involved than yesterday’s trip to Perge. After getting off the tram at Aksu station, we had to catch the bus to Serik. This bus has a more provincial feel - check out the fringes dangling from the roof, and all the little evil eyes hanging off the window. … Continue reading Aspendos
Antalya has a number of Pamphylian (Pamphylia is the ancient geopolitical region encompassing modern day Antalya) Greco-Roman ruins in the area. Perge is one of these ancient ruins, which has been extensively excavated since 1946 (still ongoing) giving visitors a chance to visualize what the ancient city looked like back then. While we were in … Continue reading Perge
Traveling within Turkey is actually quite easy. There are buses and dolmuşes (minibuses) that’ll bring you anywhere you need to go. So instead of keeping the rental car, we took the 3 1/2 hour mid sized bus to Antalya for $5 each. First, we needed to catch the city dolmuş to get from our Airbnb … Continue reading Travel Day – Fethiye to Antalya
The rain finally stopped late this morning, so we decided to go for a walk around lunchtime. We remembered that today’s the Friday food market, where all the villagers bring in all their produce into town to sell, so we set off for the market. The market is huge! They have all sorts of produce … Continue reading Local Market
Thanks to the rain, we’re stuck in the apartment for the next 2 days, which is a welcome change. A chance to rest and do nothing but to catch up on the news. If only California could get some of the rain Fethiye is getting right now, the wild fires would be put out in … Continue reading Gold & COVID
Instead of driving 3 1/2 hours to Olympos, we opted to stick around Fethiye and explore the town. We found a few beautiful vistas, and agree that the waters in Turkey are best seen from above to truly appreciate the beautiful colors. View of SeaMe Beach past the marina. We chose not to go to … Continue reading A Day In Fethiye
Driving in Turkey is relatively easy. We felt right in place as they disregard speed limits like we do, and they also hardly ever use their turn signals like Californians. However, two observations had us scratching our heads. First, they don’t respect lines. They’ll drift from one lane to the next, taking the shortest path … Continue reading Three Hours At The Beach
There is no doubt that Turkey has a rich history. Everyday there’s something new and amazing to learn about this country. However, not everything is great and glamorous. One of the darkest days in recent Turkish history has to do with exiling it’s minority Christian citizens (e.g., Armenians, Greeks) after the rise in Turkish Nationalism … Continue reading One More Month To Go
Lycia is a Greco-Roman geopolitical region that encompasses the modern day Fethiye to Antalya regions of Turkey. Their history dates all the way back to the 15-14th century BC. So obviously, we’ll be visiting a lot of Lycian ruins while staying in the area. Both ruins we visited today, Xanthos and Letoon are examples of … Continue reading It’s All Lycian To Me
It’s been a while since I’ve slept through the night and not gotten woken up by something before I was ready to wake up. While staying in the city and town centers, we’d invariably get woken up by the muezzin who announces the morning prayers at 5-6AM. We thought our problems would come to an … Continue reading Left Our Thinking Caps At Home
Our time in Istanbul seemed like eons ago, and it was the last time we stayed in one place without moving for more than a week. Since then, we have been changing accommodations every 3-5 days going from one town to another. It felt like a whirlwind of packing/unpacking, riding public transportation, and walking with … Continue reading A Mini Break
After finally getting the rental car, we made our way to Dalyan, an hour drive from Marmaris. The sole purpose of staying a night in Dalyan was to check out the Lycian Tombs, and the Airbnb that I had specially picked out had a full frontal view of the tombs. Airbnb common areas View from … Continue reading The Goat, The Boat, and The Bal
We decided to sleep in after yesterday’s long day. At least we tried to. Unfortunately, our Airbnb is located right next to a mosque, so we were woken up at 6AM, but luckily, we managed to fall back to sleep. The day really didn’t start until noon as it was raining off and on all … Continue reading Marmaris National Park
I don’t recall how I came to know about Pamukkale. I just knew that I had to visit once I saw pictures of it. It reminded me of rice terraces in Southeast Asia, except it’s brilliantly white with beautiful clear blue water. It looked like something from another planet. Pamukkale, AKA cotton castle Travertine pool … Continue reading Pamukkale & Hierapolis
The guidebook didn’t seem enthused about Marmaris. Describing it as a “big, brash resort city”, and that there was no reason to linger as it doesn’t offer anything you can’t find elsewhere. The only reason to stop here is if you’re meeting a boat for the Blue Cruise or taking a boat over to Rhodes, … Continue reading Marmaris
These 2 days were the first couple of days we haven’t been woken up at 5-6 in the morning by the call to prayer since landing in Turkey. Not because there isn’t a mosque in Datça, but because the mosque is located far from where we are staying. So we got a chance to sleep … Continue reading Lazy Sunday In Datça
Our Airbnb host graciously arranged a rental car for us when I inquired about how to go about getting one. Luckily Joe knows how to drive a manual. We decided that there are two skills in life that are good to have - knowing how to drive a manual and knowing how to type. Olive … Continue reading Knidos & Old Town Datça
There is an hour and a half long car ferry that leaves Bodrum 3 times a day to Datça. Most people bring their cars with them. Bye bye Bodrum (Castle) And fancy yachts (with a helicopter) If you look closely, you’ll spot a St. Bernard in the orange SUV. For those without a car, a … Continue reading Onward to Datça
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