Turkey: Istanbul, Cappadocia and everything inbetween
Merhaba! (Hello in Turkish)
So we’ve been back from our trip to Cappadocia for a few days now, all of the pictures are uploaded and I figure now is the time I should be getting around to the recap. I know some of ya like reading these novels, so enjoy!
This trip kinda came outta no where for us. Originally, we were planning to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania but the plane tickets to Africa were WAY too expensive for the relatively short time we can take off at a time, so we decided to find a more affordable trip and decided after some research that biking around Turkey – specifically the Cappadocia region – would be a great alternative.
Overall, had a great time. The food in Turkey is wonderful (although, I’m really sick of lamb right now). The people were, for the most part, really nice. Some preconceived notions of Muslim culture were dispelled, others however we reinforced. Anyway, if you’d like to….read on!
DAY 1 – JFK TO ISTANBUL 9/24
Ah, the trip begins. Took a half day of work, scrambled to get ourselves away from cube life and headed toward JFK. Nothing really interested to say for this day…ate like a freaking pig before we left….bagels, pasta, pork…all the goodies we’d miss for the next 2 weeks.
DAY 2 – ISTANBUL 9/25
12 Hour flight on Turkish Air was uneventful, landed in Istanbul around 10AM (they are 7 hours ahead of us; this would be a loooong day for me and Amy). Tip for anyone thinking of going to Istanbul…don’t bother taking a taxi anywhere, their Metro and light rail is a great system…we were pleasantly surprised to have dependable public transportation.
Day was mostly spent wandering around Istanbul a bit, getting our bearings and figuring out the very confusing ferry system. The way Istanbul is set up means that you need to take a ferry in order to go between the European side of Istanbul and the Asian side (Turkey is literally the middle ground for both continents). Got on a ferry to the Asian side to check it out…grabbed some great street food (roasted chestnuts and very spicey corn in a cup….oh so yummy, oh so cheapy) and grabbed a room for the night at some random hotel.
Fun fact – I also saw a VW Scirocco today! I’m not into VeeDubs at all but man the US market is getting hosed that we don’t get this beast. Looked like a VW R32 and a 911 Turbo had sexy time…didn’t grab a photo but this is what I’m talking about:
No other really cool cars. Most of Istanbul is POS Renaults, Peugeots, Tatas (lolz) and some nice beamers.
DAY 3 – SPICE MARKET IN ISTANBUL & TRAIN TO ANKARA 9/26
Today rocked. Really thought that we weren’t going to enjoy Istanbul, since the thought of crowded foreign cities doesn’t appeal to us much but man it was a great day.
Woke up and enjoyed a breakfast of Turkish coffee and baklava at a café on the Asian side. Turkish coffee is like a nutty tasting espresso except when you get to the bottom theirs a shit ton of gritty coffee grinds…at first we thought it was a mistake but after a few more of these through the trip we realized its par for the course.
From there we decided to head over and check out the touristy area of Istanbul, the areas near the Mosques (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Royal Fortress etc) as well as near the Grand Bazaar (a very famous market area dating back to the Byzantine times (1450s)…not really feeling the vibe there (we’re more into seeing the actual city and not following around tour groups and high priced food) we decided to head over to the Egyptian Bazaar, also known as the Spice Market.
Man, what an insane place. Unbelievably crowded and hectic at 11AM…tons of vendors selling everything from extremely expensive saphron to antiques to burkas to everything in between. The vendors that were selling meat and cheese and nuts and spices were of particular interest to us and we managed to pick up a few treats for our trip.
Spice market was a little nuts, so we took a break to grab some grub…restaurant owners around the spice market are intense, they will physically try to pull you into their place to eat. All are about the same with food selection and prices and décor so we decided to pick the guy that was the least pushy. Some lamb shish kebap later and we were ready to roll.
Headed back to the Asian side to catch our overnight train to Ankara (the Capital)…being our first time in Turkey we weren’t really expecting to see all these statues and huge 40 foot portraits of this very Stalin-esque looking individual. After asking around we ended up learning this guy (all over their currency, all over government buildings, statues everywhere) was Attaturk.
Basically, the guy has been immortalized by Turkey. Lead the Turkish War of Independence, was President of Turkey and lead numerous social, economic and most importantly to many people: culture reforms across the country – such as outlawing head scarves in public schools, etc….all things to help Westernize Turkey and move to becoming a secular state. He died in 1938, but the way Turkey has immortalized him you’d think he was still in power today (in some ways he is, based on what we heard from locals about politics in the country and having to pay respect to Attaturk).
View from the Ferry
Sultenamet Mosques and Call to Prayer (happens 5x a day for 10mins...loudspeakers blast the call to prayer)
Thought this was cool...The 4 Seasons Hotel. It used to be a prison lol
At the Fortress
Passing out
Translation anyone?
__________________
2007 Miata Powered Lotus 7 Replica - Sooner than later
2009 Saab 9-7x Aero - Swedish for TBSS
DAY 4 – ANKARA BUS TO SALT LAKE AND IHLARA GORGE 9/27
Off the train at 7AM we walked through Ankara to our hotel meeting spot with the group we joined up with for the biking portion of our vacation. Me and Amy both got big into mountain biking this spring/summer so we found a travel group that covered the bike rentals and brought you from location to location to bike mainly off road day in and day out…each day was a pretty leisurely 20-30 miles.
Anyway, we make it to the hotel meeting spot and hop on a bus heading toward the first of many areas around Cappadocia. Kinda cool and unexpected was as we were driving along the highway we came across this gigantic Salt Lake called Tuz Golu. It’s nearly 1000 sq. miles and was pretty surreal to be walking around on it. It looked like we were walking on ice/snow so you get this feeling like you’re going to fall at any moment but pretty cool, felt like we were on another planet.
Did a little bit of biking and came to one of the first of many many many rock cut churches. Little bit of info here…so Cappadocia is full of all these cone shaped rock shapes that were created some 30,000 years ago by a number of volcanic eruptions. What makes them so cool is that the rock is pretty easy to shape and chip away at. So everyone from pre-Christ nomads to present day (seriously) Turks use these rock cone as homes. What makes them so significant also is that early Christians escaping persecution used them to make some of the first churches and hideouts through the region.
We aren’t religious what-so-ever but I gotta admit it was pretty cool being inside some of these churches that we dated back to 7AD. 7! 7 years after the crucifixion and these churches are carved out around Turkey…totally cool.
What wasn’t totally cool were the sheets on our bed that night.
DAY 5 – CYCLE TO UNDERGROUND CITY IN KAYMAKLI AND VISIT MUSTAFAPASA 9/28
Today was bad ass, we cycled to the underground city of Kaymakli. This place was huge, only about 10% of the place was restored and open to the public and it goes down deeeeeeeep into the earth. The place was built in the Byzantine era to avoid attacks from invaders coming through the area. Thousands of people would stay in this city for months at a time with a network of tunnels setup to run everything from churches to gathering food to waste systems. It was cramped, cold and amazing.
Back on the bikes our day ended up in the city of Mustafapasa. Pretty cool town, nothing really amazing to see or do but still a nice place. Mustafapasa actually has a lot of Greek architecture in the area and we learned something fairly interesting, apparently in an agreement between Turkey and Greece in 1923 the two countries exchanged (forcibly) over a million Greeks living in Turkey and Turks living in Greece…literally entire towns were moved from one country to the other…farm land was given as equally as possible but it’s amazing that this many people had to give up their homes and land to move because of the government’s decision.
That night we stayed in a cave hotel. The building was shaped from the rock structures I mentioned earlier, all of the rooms carved out of the rocks, etc.
Fun fact – I killed 39….yes, seriously….flies in our room that evening.
DAY 6 – CYCLE TO GOREME 9/29
Going to let a lot of pictures speak for themselves this day. The cycling was amazing, got to see some of the country side, got to bomb down this REALLY steep winding road in the town and did the typical “look at this 2000 year old church” stuff.
We also stopped in a town and got a bunch of dried fruits, nuts and seeds from a vendor on the street. The man made a good raisin.
Dinner at night in the really, really awesome town of Goreme (pronounced GEH-RO-MEH) with some of our cycling buddies was also tasty-delish.
Not so fun fact: Broke my bike twice this day (chain once, derailleur the second time) resulting in having to ride down a steep ass hill only to get the thing fixed…then ride back up the 2 mile endless incline…again.
DAY 7 – GOREME AND FARM AT UCHISAR VILLAGE *9/30*
So kind of a big day here.
For the last 6 months or so I’ve been planning to ask Amy to marry me on this vacay. Got the ring, got the parental approval, and went through all the mind numbing steps (extra special thanks to Brett and Chels for helping so much). Anyway, freaking out all the days up until today…I was terrified to bring the actual ring with me, didn’t know if it was going to go off at the security check points, constantly on guard in Istanbul to not get my ass robbed, etc etc etc. However, we finally came upon a spot that was perfecto and here ya go…
So the day started out good…normal bit of back roads biking (this time no breaks) and random sights along the countryside. Then we hiked down to a farm in the bottom of a rocky valley…farm grew everything you could imagine and also was a tiny outdoor restaurant occasionally (husband and wife operated, so you need to call ahead so they can cook that day…instead of farming).
The food was amazing, the setting was great and we hiked around the grounds a bit. I noticed this pretty cool rock cone shaped thingy and decided to continue being monkey boy and climbed up inside it. Realizing this was “the spot” I encouraged Amy to climb up too. After 5 mins of “Dammit Amy, RUN and jump” she joined me. Cutesy moment ensues and I asked her to marry me.
Instead of the typical “Yes!” and tears response I got the following “Where did that come from?” “Where did you find that?” then eventually a f’n ‘yes’. Thanks Mrs. Most Unromantic woman in the world (I know she’s reading this).
So yeah, yay! Pretty excited about it…also was nice to not have to worry about carrying around an engagement ring in my damn pocket the rest of the trip. Bonus fun was that she literally had no idea what so ever. The past 3 months I’ve been really messing with her “maybe we’ll wait til I’m 30, that’s a good age” “ah who knows, this marriage stuff is overrated” …etc lol.
Rest of the day was great…bit of a blur since we were just excited about what happened. Checked out the highest point in the Cappadocia region (a Citadel carved in rock, which was used as a burial ground at the top at one point) and had a romantico dinner that night back in the town of Goreme.
DAY 8 – AMY SICKIES…COINCIDENCE? 10/1
So what’s the best way to celebrate getting engaged? I dunno…but waking up violently ill and vomiting for 4 hours probably isn’t very high up on that list.
For once, it wasn’t me getting sick. It was Amy…coincidence that the night I ask her to marry me she’s up all night puking her brains out? Hmmm. The crying “Why God? Why did I say yes?!” probably was just the vomit talking. I kid, I kid.
Don’t really know what got her sick. We shared the same 2 dishes for dinner and the place was clean. Shit happens I guess. We decided to stay in this day and miss out on some apparently good biking…it’s cool, we needed a breather from all the action for a bit.
Got to hang out, write some postcards and eventually felt good enough to walk into town and grab some grub at this restaurant we loved. Best babaganoush we ever had.
DAY 9 – BIKING FOR ME / MORE CHURCHES IN GOREME FOR AMY / BUS TO ANKARA / DINNER WITH FRIENDS 10/2
Since I missed out on biking yesterday and Amy was still pretty shot from her visit to Puketown (Population: Why am I marrying Ryan?) I went biking this day on some back roads around Goreme and Amy went with some friends we made to some more Church stuff.
My day was hell. Lots of sand, not a lot of great biking but still a workout so it was all good. Attached are some of Amy’s pics.
Rest of the day was spent on a bus back to Ankara (5 hours) then grabbing some dinner in the city with friends.
DAY 10 – ANKARA CHILLAGE – TRAIN TO ISTANBUL 10/3
Ankara wasn’t nearly as fun as Istanbul but we still wanted to check it out so we decided after breakfast to go to the Anatolian Museum in Ankara. It was voted best museum of Europe in 97 if that means anything? Lol
It was an interesting visit, mostly just artifacts from Turkey and the region from the last 100,000 years. Took a ton of pictures.
That evening we headed to the Ankara train station once again for our overnight train and people watched a bit. Check out the wonderful paintings in the train station (this is my uncomfortable stare).
DAY 11 & 12 – ISTANBUL LAST DAY 10/4 ISTANBUL TO JFK 10/5
Slightly worried about the state of the hotel availabilities around Istanbul due to the IMF conference (as well as the resulting IMF protests – which we didn’t see any of btw) we headed right from our overnight train to the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul in search of a place to sleep for the night.
We found a nice little hotel with only 5 rooms owned by a man that spoke zero English, but still managed to get across that he was a communist lol. He was a nice guy, fed us tons of food and the price was right.
Today was Sunday in Istanbul, and most of the major stuff is closed…we spent most of the day lounging around at numerous cafes and restaurants getting in as much good food as we could before our early flight the next morning. Also kind of funny, as I got scruffier through the trip everyone was assuming I was either from Spain, Italy and a lot of Turks actually thought I was Turkish lol They'd come up to me speaking Turkish and I'd have to be like "whoa man, I know beer and hello..."
A bunch of delays later we landed around 4PM, got home at 5 and passed out until 7AM the next morning…all chipper and ready to fight through the 200+ emails awaiting.
Museum shots:
These are actual paintings that are on display in the Ankara Train station:
Turkish Coffee and Baklava in Istanbul
View from our communist hotel:
Imagine a bagel with chocolate and nutella all over it:
So yeah, that’s about all. We had a great time, happy to be back home and looking forward to seeing our GONE buds again. Also looking forward to John ripping me a new one for the engagement lol.
Awsome pics - Beth is going to Turky sometime next year with her parents
__________________
Pebbels and Gravel Racing + Kmart = 11.16 @ 122
Or Rocksand Racing + Kaltech = 11.16 @ 122 Depends on How You Read It.... Best 60' 1.51 M6 -- Pullin the wheels 3-4 inches http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthr...46#post3276446
Why would you buy more when you already have BRG and me?
Quote:
Originally Posted by City Goat...
Train station in Istanbul
Right click, save as. Thank you, sir.
Congratulations on the engagement! I hope you have many happy years together. So where's the wedding? Bora Bora? North Pole? Something more adventurous?
Congrats Ryan! what the hell is that train, a Steinz?
__________________
Life is all about ass, you're either covering it,hauling it,laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, busting it, trying to get a piece of it, or behaving like one.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." ~Thomas Jefferson, 1776
Nice story, great pics and congratulations on the engagement.
__________________
__________________________________________________ ____
Life is like a jar of jalepenos;
What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.
__________________________________________________ ____
"You know, you can't tune a motor that's hurt. They run much faster on fuel then they do on aluminum". - E.T. '86
Location: Close enough to Cincinnati, or is it Dayton?
Posts: 11,630
Offline
Smurfin A!!!
Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
__________________
Winning isn't everything, watching you lose is.
2005: SAP grilles, M6, Factory 18s - 1 of 114
Mods: 18x8.5 Beyern 5s w/Kelly Fierce HP, DBA Standard Series Slotted and Drilled Rotors/Hawk HP Plus Pads, JHP Gauge Pod, Holden Bluetooth & Door Lock, Afterthoughts Auto stainless steel lettering kit, CAGS delete, Gas-Cap Velcro, BMR Color-Matched Strut Tower Brace
345.72-hp & 351.13-ft/lbs... BONE STOCK!
First let me say Congrats on your Engagement!!!!!! You and Amy are the only other people Roe and I know that has gone to Turkey. We stayed in Istanbul for a a day and a half, but visited other cities in Turkey before going to Istanbul. 9We were in Turkey for 5 days altogether) I posted in your other thread about going to Turkey and the places we went. While in Istanbul we did visit the places you went to. And you are right, the shop owners practically pull you into their shop to buy, buy, buy, lol!!! One guy had a leather coat half on me before I knew it, hehehe. And the food was better than we thought it was going to be. They have a thing about their Baklava being better than the Greeks, lol. We gave a kid a $5.00 tip after lunch one day and he thought he was the riches kid on the block and was waving it to all his friends, lol, lol. The beggers were shunned away from all the outdoor eateries, but managed to try. We bought some jewlery at a shop and they closed and locked the doors before they brought out the goods and offered us all kinds of treats. We bought about $600.00 U.S. worth of stuff that would have cost us almost 3 times the amount if we were buying it here.
It's a very ancient city and the surrounding cities are just as ancient. The Roman Empire is seen in so many buildings and designs. The Palaces were beautiful as you seen. Anyway Ryan I'm glad you and Amy enjoyed it and seen it in a different way than Roe and I. We were on a Cruise ship and Istanbul was the last stop. And yes the long flight home was grueling to say the least. We would love to go back!!!!
Awesome write up as usual! Congrats on the engagement!
Walt
Thanks my man! Looking forward to BSing with you at Cecil!
Quote:
Originally Posted by CamaroAl...
Congrats on the engagement, nice pics as always
Thanks Al, really appreciate it, you guys have always been so awesome to me and Amy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry...
Congrats, and awesome pics
Thanks Barry!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Midnight...
Smurfin A!!!
Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
haha, I love to share this stuff. It's a pain to write out everything but it's fun to look back on all of it a year from now and see what we did and maybe it'll even inspire some people to check out the other end of the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROKS ROKET...
First let me say Congrats on your Engagement!!!!!! You and Amy are the only other people Roe and I know that has gone to Turkey. We stayed in Istanbul for a a day and a half, but visited other cities in Turkey before going to Istanbul. 9We were in Turkey for 5 days altogether) I posted in your other thread about going to Turkey and the places we went. While in Istanbul we did visit the places you went to. And you are right, the shop owners practically pull you into their shop to buy, buy, buy, lol!!! One guy had a leather coat half on me before I knew it, hehehe. And the food was better than we thought it was going to be. They have a thing about their Baklava being better than the Greeks, lol. We gave a kid a $5.00 tip after lunch one day and he thought he was the riches kid on the block and was waving it to all his friends, lol, lol. The beggers were shunned away from all the outdoor eateries, but managed to try. We bought some jewlery at a shop and they closed and locked the doors before they brought out the goods and offered us all kinds of treats. We bought about $600.00 U.S. worth of stuff that would have cost us almost 3 times the amount if we were buying it here.
It's a very ancient city and the surrounding cities are just as ancient. The Roman Empire is seen in so many buildings and designs. The Palaces were beautiful as you seen. Anyway Ryan I'm glad you and Amy enjoyed it and seen it in a different way than Roe and I. We were on a Cruise ship and Istanbul was the last stop. And yes the long flight home was grueling to say the least. We would love to go back!!!!
Welcome Home,
ROK
Rok! Hey man,
Yep we saw your post in the other thread about the stuff you and Roe saw along the coast. Must have been amazing, were heard great stuff about Epheres(?)
We actually didn't buy much! We wanted a lot of stuff but all our money was tapped out from the trip itself. Really we only indulged in food and treats.
Turkey was great though, it'd be nice to go back and see the coast next time...maybe even visit Cyprus, Greece, etc.
Congrats Ryan, Looks like it was a nice trip for Both parties.
__________________
New Cartek CAI & DA Super Tune.
Lots & Lots of Cartek Bolt on Love.
PB for `09, 10.883 et @ 124.12 mph.
100 % stock top & bottom ends. Member NJGTOGROUP.COM
We have a Salt Lake, salt flats, biking and hiking in Moab, I guarantee we have more churches, and hell we're practically a foreign country! I bet the flight would have been cheaper too!
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesbiz...
how big is your deck? Mine has mold all over it and I've been thinking of getting a new one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/Hummina/GTO.jpg
Mods: CAI, Kooks 1-3/4 black, Ported TB, Custom Borla Catback, Full Pedders Suspension, TTP V3 Equalizer cam, Vig 3600, ETP 215s, Ported FAST 90, Built 4L60E, 1 Piece Aluminum Driveshaft, 3.91s by Rocksand
All engine and trans work done by TTPerformance in Passaic, NJ
11.562@116.70 1.568 60' 458RWHP/431RWTQ through an A4
Congrats Ryan, Looks like it was a nice trip for Both parties.
Sure was! Thanks Bob!
Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO48...
Ryan, you should have come to Utah...
We have a Salt Lake, salt flats, biking and hiking in Moab, I guarantee we have more churches, and hell we're practically a foreign country! I bet the flight would have been cheaper too!
Hey man,
Yeah in all honesty, I've heard that Utah has a hell of a lot to offer for what we are into. But gotta get the international travel outta the way while we can.
Def. wanna hit up Moab for mountain biking though.
2005 GTO Owner
Turkey
New Cartek CAI & DA Super Tune.
