Road Tripping... Turkish Style

Just before my time was up in Turkey I was lucky enough to have my parents and their friends come for a 3 week visit. Three weeks can seem like a long time to visit anyone but when you are riding around the countryside exploring and seeing things, it goes by really quick. We started with them having to wait around Ankara a little bit so that I could finish up with my work at BLIS and then a couple of day trips to places like Beypazari and Eskisehir. When I finally got done with the job spot, we loaded up the two cars that we rented (we chose to do two small cars for more comfort and to save on gas - which we did do, the failing was that it was 2 cars and it was easy to lose one another in the busy city streets). Our trip included the main stops of Kapadokya (Cappadocia), Mersin, Tasucu, Konya, Pamukkale, and Istanbul with short stops for pictures and/or lunches in places like Afyon, Isparta and the Salt Lake.

The Salt Lake... like a moon scape of glittery snow.

Our first big activity was to go ballooning at sunrise over Kapadokya. I was a little bit nervous in the beginning because all that keeps you from your fate is the wicker basket you are in.

About 3 seconds into the flight, you are so relaxed and nearly 400 metres into the air.  It's spectacular.

We were fairly close to the flames and it kept me WARM!!!

My dad and I shared a compartment of the balloon basket.

No matter how many times I go to Kapadokya, I simply can't get enough of the beauty and the history.

Next stop was the underground city at Derinkuyu.  I didn't go down there, but stayed up to photograph the beautiful Orthodox church.

This was the view from my room in our little hotel in Tasucu.  This was the very same hotel that my grandparents stayed in when they came to visit us in 1983.  Back then it was the height of luxury in the area, now it is little better than a pension but still worth the stay. 

Near to Tasucu is Kizkalesi.  We decided to spend a morning at this beach sunning ourselves and playing in the water.

The view couldn't get much better than this.  This castle has a fabled history of a king building the castle for his precious daughter, to help protect her from harm (I think the story goes that a fortune teller told him she would be bitten by a snake).  Her food was rowed out to her daily and a snake got into the boat, onto the island and bit her, thus killing her.  I'm not sure if that's the story or not, but it's the one my brain remembers being told as an eight year old.

This is the restaurant that we ate at once a week  when I was a kid... it's still there and still being run by the same family.  What a treat to visit a piece of the past!

My parents, sticking their feet in the Mediterranean for the first time this visit.

Me and the fabled castle in the background.

Who are those cute people?!

This is the old townsite where we used to live, it is now overgrown and unused.  A heartbreak to see for sure.

The beach I spent most afternoons at as a child... not too shabby, eh?

From Tasucu, we drove to Konya, one of my favourite cities in Turkey.

Mevlana's museum and masoleum.

After Konya, we sped off to Pamukkale, a place I hadn't been to yet.  I loved it!

Hieropolis is at the top of the pools of Pamukkale and it's said that Cleopatra herself came here.

In the first picture of Pamukkale, I was standing down there, near the island... now I'm at the top... what a view!

The pools are made of travertine (a type of marble I think) and are snowy white.

This is called Cleopatra's pool.  For a fee you too can swim in the healing waters like the famed Egyptian did.

Our final stop was the beautiful city of Istanbul.  We flew into here because the traffic is just too crazy for foreigners to drive.

A dervish, sharing his worship time at a local cafe.

My favourite sight in the city: the Basilica Cistern.

The Blue Mosque

An Egyptian obelisk in the area of the old Hippodrome.

My beautiful mom and I on our Bosphorus boat ride... this is where I hustled the hustler!  Don't be afraid to demand the price you want for the activities you do on vacation!!

Picture perfect... enjoying the sun, surf and breeze.

If you are ever in the area of Turkey and are looking for a good holiday location, look no further... I've loved my time in this beautiful country and I know I'll be back to see more of it.

The Not-So-Black Black Sea

This time last week I was in pure awe of the wonderful beauty of the Black Sea region of Turkey.  More specifically, my friends and I were in Trabzon.  Now, if you've been reading my blog, you know that I've traveled at lot in Turkey and I've seen most of the major regions.  I've visited the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bosphorus, the south east, and central Anatolia.  I've found most of the landscape to be similar in one way or another.  Perhaps similar is the right word, familiar seems a better fit.  However, when our plane landed in Trabzon, my draw dropped. Everywhere I looked was the greens of my west coast Canadian homeland, the skies were the clear bright blue of places like Montana and the Black Sea was the turquoise of the Aegean or the Caribbean, but there were still the familiar signs, mosques, sounds and smells of the rest of Turkey.  It was breath-taking to say the least.

The view of the city and the sea from the Aya Sofya.

Our first day, we were whisked off to see the Aya Sofya (not like the one in Istanbul, this one is much
smaller and from what we could tell the entire interior was all frescoes at one point). It was simply beautiful and the setting of it overlooking the Black Sea was gorgeous.

The Aya Sofya.

We then lunched on the seaside.  Eating super fresh seafood and the kofte (meatballs) that Trabzon is known for.  The mezzes were beyond delicious and the famous Trabzon bread was unreal!

The restaurant where we had lunch.

After lunch we hopped back into our van and headed out to the fabled Sümela Monastery in the Pontic Mountains. The roads up are twisting and narrow. You can ride in a car nearly to the actual entrance of the monastery but not quite.  You will have to walk on some narrow and not altogether safe trails for about 15 minutes.  Generally the trails are okay but there are a couple of spots that aren't for the faint of heart in the sense that they are slick and with nothing to stop you from tumbling down the very steep hill on one side.  The crazy, narrow road, the crossing of wet river roads, the multitude of stairs and the trails are all worth it in the end.  The monastery was simply stunning inside with more frescoes than I'd ever seen in any location.  And knowing that you are standing on a structure built into a cliff side centuries before has a mystical quality to it.  Never mind that you can hear the roar of the river raging over the rocks far below and everywhere you look is green, beautiful trees.  There is something about being at the top of a mountain, in a place that is so reverent towards nature and the Creator.

the mountain views on our way to the monastery

nearly at the entrance

once we got inside, this is what we saw

I was so happy to have made it inside!

some of the frescoes on the exterior of the church

one of the many frescoes on the interior.  As long as no flash was used, pictures were allowed.

The raging river that ran through the gorge below.

The exterior of the monastery as seen from the road below.

Afterwards we stopped for dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the sea and parts of the city.  It was stunning and the food was delicious.

The view from our dinner spot.

The famous cheese/corn meal dish of the region. Delicious!

After dinner we left to stay at a friend's family home high in the hills surrounding Trabzon. We didn't know what to expect but when we woke in the morning, this is what we saw:

Our breakfast view.

I never got tired of looking at this!

It was simply gorgeous and we were spoiled with a breakfast of farm fresh veggies, homemade yogurt, homemade cheese, fruits and tasty savoury pancakes and potatoes. It was amazing.

The tea farms on our way to the lake.

Our last stop for the weekend was to go out to  Uzungöl, which translates to mean long lake.  Now I'm sure we didn't see all of it, but it really wasn't a long lake at all. It was however beautiful to see this little lake surrounded by huge green mountains.  For some reason it make me think of Switzerland, so I began to call the area Turkey's Switzerland.  It was stunning.  We had a walk and some tasty lunch (the best soup I've ever had in Turkey) before rushing back to the airport to catch our afternoon flight back to Ankara.

Yup... didn't feel like Turkey at all, except for the mosque.

I loved this area!

My traveling companions and our caretakers at the house and our guide. 

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this part of Turkey.  It is just so different from all the other spots and is such a special place.