It’s been a long time coming, but here it is: our final Istanbul blog! We loved Istanbul and had an amazing time tramping around town with TLB.

Tuesday, February 26 – Saturday, March 2: Istanbul (not Constantinople), Round Two

Tuesday, February 26

Easy one hour flight from Cyprus back to Istanbul!

However, as we booked this flight on a budget airline, we flew into Istanbul’s budget airport, Sabiha Gökçen, which meant that we couldn’t take the metro into town, so we hopped a shuttle to the new side of town and planned to take a taxi across the bridge to our hostel.

Had verbal agreement to use the meter with taxi driver before getting into the cab. After he started driving, the taxi driver covered the meter, lied about the drop fee, and added on approximately $10 in additional fare. UGH. So aggravating! Muttered to ourselves, gave the driver exact change and jumped out of the car into the rain … only to have the driver yell at D about an alleged rip in one of the bills. D yelled back that he’d already scammed us and that we didn’t have any more money. Taxi driver spat at D. We strode off.

Taxi drivers are the worst!

Were overjoyed to arrive back at Agora, see friendly faces, and enjoy hot showers.

Wednesday, February 27

Sprang out of bed and skipped upstairs to breakfast to meet TLB, who came to travel with us from New York! Joy!

Traveled out of the Sultanahmet neighborhood to check out the amazing Kariye Müzesi (Chora Church), another church converted into a mosque converted into a museum, but alas, it was closed (closed on Wednesdays).

Headed back into town, snacked on street food, and relaxed with tea and nargileh at the çay bahçesi we stumbled upon the previous week before exploring the incredible Istanbul Archaeology Museums. Gawked at ancient sarcophagi and the oldest love poem in the world, etc. Very cool.

Bonded with TLB and our new Argentine friend from our hostel, M, over a cozy dinner at Istanbul Anatolia Cafe. Good food, pleasant and jovial staff. M is from Buenos Aires and has an Argentine passport and an Italian passport and currently lives and works in Paris and speaks a smattering of three to four languages. It’s always so interesting to talk with people from other parts of the world. Same, same, but different.

Thursday, February 28

Kariye Müzesi (Chora Church), take two! Made it there,  made it inside! This church turned mosque turned museum is an incredible example of beautiful and well-preserved Byzantine frescoes.

Gnoshed on more delicious street food!

Wandered through the Grand Bazaar again before T and TLB split off from D to get our hamam on. In case you were wondering, a “Turkish bath” really does mean “adults being bathed by other adults.” Hee! That said, once we realized what was happening, we settled in, went with the flow, and left feeling quite relaxed.

Fabulous dinner at Ciğeristan, a restaurant recommended by Agora – excellent lentil soup, delightfully fresh and unlimited mezes, and according to D and TLB, delectable kebab meats. Another delicious authentic meal. Had one of our favorite encounters with locals on this trip (there were so many though – Turks are so friendly!): the chef brought us extra chai and a house specialty, pistachio tea, sat down with us and we had a conversation with him about America and Islam halfway via him typing questions into Google Translate on his phone and halfway through a young Turkish couple sitting next to us and translating. And then the chef and our server came outside with us to take photos with us. We’re always hopeful that when we have interactions like this, we leave our companions liking Americans a little bit more.

Friday, March 1

Sun! Our first and only day of sun in Istanbul! We’d been saving Topkapı Palace and Harem for a sunny day as a good deal of the grounds were outdoors. Short list of wonders: incredible gems in the Imperial Treasury, gorgeous views of the Bosphorus, amazing mosaic tiles everywhere, including in the Harem.

Street food.

Mado (Turkish ice cream slices, eaten with a fork and knife). Delight!

Girls afternoon of shopping (scarves and soaps) at Jennifer’s Hamam! Yes, it’s owned by a Canadian, but she works with Turkish weaving families (everything is made on traditional looms with organically sourced Turkish fabrics). Also: her shop is fixed price, which of course, is perfect for a girl who hates bargaining and refuses to negotiate.

Wound down our last evening in Turkey with beers and sunset watching from cushioned seats on the Galata Bridge.

Relaxed with a final nargileh and wine on our hostel rooftop, chatting with TLB and M about travel.

Saturday, March 2

Up at 0430 to catch our cab to the airport! At the airport bright and (before) early for our ten hour flight from Istanbul to New York City.

Exchanged the last of our lira, slurped coffee, and boarded our (second to last) flight of the trip

…

arrived in New York City around noon, jumped on the LIRR to Penn Station, bought tulips, and sprinted out of the wind tunnel that is 34th Street into S’s apartment!

Lunched with S and P, checked out a bar that actually had enough seats for people to sit in, played improv with S, P and DN, ordered Thai food and T had a surprise ice cream birthday cake! So good to be reunited with out New York Family.

Sunday, March 3

Coffee date with S.

Kati Roll with S and DN.

Flight home to San Francisco! Another amazing trip, but so good to get home into our own bed.

Final phone photos (we’ll have a separate post with D’s lovely edited camera photos):

Thursday, February 21 – Friday, February 22: Istanbul (not Constantinople), Round One

Let’s just say that we were less than thrilled with our Göreme hostel as they scammed us out of our ten percent deposit upon arrival (and we didn’t want to argue to the point that would make the rest of our stay potentially uncomfortable), so we were less than sure that they would come through on our airport shuttle for our Istanbul flight.

We paid for the airport shuttle. It was five, ten, twenty minutes late (nonexistent?).

Fury!

Luckily, D had talked to some other Americans at breakfast the previous day and they had offered us a ride to the airport in their rental car as they were on the same flight! We watched them pack their car as our shuttle continued to fail to arrive, and as they reiterated their offer to give us a lift, we swung our backpacks into the car and were off (at last!) to the airport!

Long story short, we made our flight (which, of course, ended up running late) in a timely manner, and we were in Istanbul, off the metro, and at our hostel by noon!

Fabulous.

Thursday, February 21

ISTANBUL!

So much history and culture! Where to start? (With our metro ride of course!) Ha! Smooth ride from the airport (only one transfer) to Sultanahmet, the “old city” where our sweet hostel, Agora Guesthouse sits with an awesome rooftop terrace overlooking the Bosphorus.

Here’s how it went down: we stepped off the metro with a full view of the Blue Mosque only steps downhill (and en route to our hostel)! There was a sliver of sun peeking through the clouds so we threw down our bags in the park, and D scampered off to snap photos.

D secured his photos, and T promptly stepped off the sidewalk into the curved curb and fell to her hands and knees thanks to the weight of her bags (yes, and perhaps her general lack of balance). Who else would fall to the ground right smack in between the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya? Luckily, there were suddenly two gentleman helping her to her feet (three, if you count D).

Settled into the hostel, consulted our maps, strolled out for a wander about town. Did we mention that we’re right next to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya? As in: the Blue Mosque is basically part of our walk home from wherever we are? Jealous?

Lunched.

Tried to go to Topkapı Palace, but it was only open for another hour. Not enough time!

Gawked at the palace wall and the outside of the Aya Sofya.

Slipped into the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque). Good thing T always keeps a scarf for such occasions (although it’s surprising how many people enter religious places without seeming to read the dress code signs at the entrances). The mosque is just beyond incredible, gorgeous. T’s words and phone pictures will most definitely not do it justice, so you’ll just have to come see it for yourselves. Amazing!

Friday, February 22

How is it February 22 already? Why do we only have one week left?

First things first: breakfast buffet! YOGURT. FIGS. Bread, meat, cheese, granola, etc. Yes, it’s served on the rooftop terrace.

As it was raining, we made an indoor activities itinerary:

• Aya Sofya (first a church, then a mosque, now a museum … phenomenal building, fascinating history, incredible (and varied) architecture and art) Wikipedia says it’s “considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture.” Wikipedia knows what’s up.
• Basilica Cistern (enormous underground water chamber/filtration system … numerous columns, two of which have Medusa heads)
• Grand Bazaar (huge, covered market … gates, streets and shops galore!)

Nibbled on street food, chanced upon an awesome çay bahçesi (Turkish tea garden) behind a cemetery of sorts and whiled away a couple of hours with çay, nargileh, and a gin rummy tournament. (TLB, we’re taking you here next week!)

Bliss!

We’re off to Cyprus for a few days, but we’ll be wrapping up our trip with three more days in Istanbul (and we can’t wait!).

Istanbul phone pictures to tide you over until our return:

Monday, February 18 – Wednesday, February 20: Cappadocia (Göreme)

Our second stop in Turkey was Göreme, a town in central Cappadocia which has some pretty unique geological features (“fairy chimneys“). The eastern boundary of Cappadocia is the upper Euphrates River. It doesn’t get much cooler than that!

Monday, February 18

As we mentioned in our last blog, we took an overnight bus from Selçuk to Göreme. Despite the fact that from around 3 a.m. onward there appeared to be no visibility through the snow caked windshield of our bus,  our driver somehow managed to stay on the road and deposited us safely among the snow flurries in Nevşehir.

Of course, Nevşehir was not our final destination. That would have been too easy. We shivered in the snow until our shuttle transfer to Göreme arrived and threw our bags and ourselves onto that bus, stat.

Somehow, even though it was only about a half an hour drive from Nevşehir to Göreme and the elevation didn’t appear to change, we slipped out of a winter wonderland and into a landscape of volcanic rock. Yes, the snow was still sprinkling down, powdered sugar style, but it was just enough to catch the eye and then melt upon contact with the ground.

Göreme at last!

We trudged through town to our cave hostel, checked in and settled in for a one hour nap. Yes, T told D this wasn’t possible. Yes, we hit snooze at least twice.

Also: there was no heat in this room either! D scrounged up a space heater for our room (Amen!), so T finally managed to squirm out of bed and settled into the following layers for the duration of our stay in this town: two pairs of socks, two pants (base layer leggings and jeans), four shirts (tank top, long sleeve base layer, fleece, vest), coat and beanie.

Too. Many. Clothes.

Have tentatively made determination that it makes no sense to travel anywhere cold ever again (okay, maybe just T!). But seriously: who can feel good (or move comfortably) in so many clothes?

Anyway!

We moseyed over to FIrIn Express for more tasty pide and then set off on our quest for to explore the Göreme Open Air Museum. The museum is really an outdoor collection of caves that generally used to used as churches (some with frescoes) in a fairy chimney landscape. It’s a mellow, meandering walk from town (just over a kilometer or so each way). We made it there and back before dark without getting rained on!

Braved the bone chilling cold for dinner (and the dear sweet warmth of a hot stove) at Cappadocian Cuisine. Cheers for continued good vegetarian fare in Turkey! (Don’t worry, D feasted on meat.)

Tuesday, February 19

Breakfasted! Decent spread at hostel (similar to Turkish breakfast spread at Homeros).

Skipped around to the following “Green Tour” sites:

• Derinkuyu Underground City (deepest underground city, multiple levels, Christians used to hide from enemy attacks here, so cool!)
• Ihlara Valley (3 kilometer hike through the valley, past old cave dwellings and churches, lunch near the river)
• Selime Cathedral/Monastary (Favorite place! Multistory cathedral carved into rock, was also converted into a caravanserai … and you can climb through part of it and go through tunnels to different sections, etc!)
• Pigeon Valley (panoramic view which gets its name from all the little pigeon holes in the valley walls … people used to encourage the pigeons to come because they collected the pigeon excrement to sell to farmers as fertilizer)
• Onyx carving demonstration (yes, this was the stop where they took us to a jewelry shop and gave us free tea and then hoped we’d purchase their wares … the important item to note here is that T won the demo item by correctly answering the following question: what does Cappadocia mean? (answer: the land of beautiful horses))

Adventure! Hiked from town in the direction of the open air museum, but split off from the main road to traipse around Rose and Red Valleys. As we set off on our walk, we gained a traveling buddy, S! S is from Shanghai (and his wife was sleeping in while he wanted to start seeing the sights), so we explored together, sort of making up our path as we went. We wound our way through fairy chimneys and cave dwellings and along the gorgeous valleys, but the most awesome part of this day was happening upon a multilevel cave dwelling that we could sneak around in! So unexpected and cool! (Note: people don’t really live in these caves anymore except for tourists (guilty) who want to stay in a cave hotel/hostel.)

Lingered over two delicious meals at Cafe Safak. Two meals and lots of tea. Cozy.

Confirmed the details of our early morning airport shuttle for our flight to Istanbul with our hostel! (This will be important in the next post.)

Here are a few phone photos of Cappadocia:

Saturday, February 16 – Sunday, February 17: Selçuk and Ephesus

We were beyond thrilled to get off our last plane and out of the airport! Our (free!) airport shuttle dropped us off several blocks away from our awesome hostel, Homeros Pension, and after sipping çay (Turkish tea) and snacking on butter cookies and lokum (Turkish delight), we snagged a free ride to the ruins at Ephesus!

Lonely Planet declares that Ephesus is the “best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean.” We’ve learned to take LP’s recommendations with a healthy dose of cynicism, so we approached the site with curiosity (and perhaps a tinge of anticipation).

We were pleasantly surprised! There were carvings and columns and stadium remnants galore! Very cool.

After we wandered through the historical city, we meandered back to town/our hostel. Three flat, easy kilometers. It felt so good to finally be moving after two days of squishing into airport seats!

We settled into the common area (heat, there was a stove for heat in this room!) in our hostel as we consulted TripAdvisor for our dinner options and we settled upon Mehmet and Ali Baba Kebab House, a family run restaurant that’s rated on TripAdvisor as the number one restaurant in town. Excellent choice! Sweet folks, delicious food (good vegetarian options!), wonderful service (and Mehmet’s son designed their website). Mehmet was super friendly and told us fun stories about touts and other tourists and the dangerous gypsies at the nearby castle (note to T’s parents: don’t worry, we stayed away from the gypsies!).

Climbed the hill back to our hostel, crashed out. Crashed out for at least twelve hours. We slept in until 0830 on Sunday morning (late for us, ha!).

Shuffled into the common room for our complimentary breakfast which, luckily, turned out to be one of the better ones we’ve received: fresh bread, honey, jam, oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, and çay or kahve (Turkish coffee). Chatted en español with a couple from Madrid.

Doubled up on our hot showers (because you never know what the next hostel will bring), relaxed, and sauntered off to the Ephesus Museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closed for renovation … for months!

We headed to the next landmark on our list: the Temple of Artemis. The temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but today only one sad column remains standing in an overgrown field claimed by (only slightly aggressive) touts.

Feasted on pide (Turkish pizza), fruit, and rice pudding at Ejder Restaurant for lunch right next to the remains of an old aqueduct where storks still come to nest every spring!

After lunch, we skimmed another hill to explore the remains of St. John’s Basilica (allegedly the site of St. John’s tomb) as well as one of the oldest mosques in town, İsabey Camii.

Just as we stepped into Celsus Cafe for kahve, it began to rain. Talk about fortuitous timing! We settled in for a series of gin rummy games, and the owner of the cafe sat down with us to chat. We shared a cappuccino nargileh (D’s choice, T totally would have picked mint or melon) with him and a Korean girl, S,  traveling on her own through Turkey. Quite a well traveled girl!

As the rain subsided and the cold seeped in, we hiked back to our hostel for a delicious, homemade Turkish dinner (including green beans and cauliflower dishes … and a pudding with a cardamom sauce!) by the warm stove before schlepping our bags down to the bus station to board our Only Overnight Bus Of The Trip (Amen!).

There are so many things to say or not to say about this bus ride. But maybe we don’t feel like talking about it right now … except to say: yes, there were assigned seats; no, the bus was not cold; yes, they offered snacks and tea; no, they did not offer dinner; yes, we are probably glad that there was no foul toilet on the bus; no, we are not glad that tea/toilet breaks verged on thirty minutes in length.

Yes, we are glad that the cost of the bus saved us the cost of a hostel for the night and that it was cheaper than a flight!

No, we are not glad that there did not appear to be windshield wipers to shove away the layers of snow that kept accumulating in the driver’s direct line of vision!

Yes, we are a bit cranky after spending only one of the last four nights in a bed. Yes, we are thrilled that we will spend the rest of our nights on this trip in a bed!

Yes, we will stop ranting now. We’re done moving so quickly, so you probably won’t hear from us about Göreme for a few days.

We’re having a few technical difficulties this trip (laptop died so we didn’t bring it, netbook must be plugged in to turn on/netbook doesn’t have photo editing software), so we will only be posting a few photos from our phones with our blogs during the trip. The real photographic glory will be available once we get home and D works his magic.

We’ll tell you all about Göreme real soon. Promise.