This is our last full day in Cappadocia, and for the most part it is a free day. Over breakfast, we debate our options, which range from renting a scooter and going to some sights further out, to renting mountain bikes to see some sights closer in, to spending the day shopping. I, of course, really want to shop all day, but being the giver that I am, settle for walking back up towards the open air museum to see one of the churches that we closed the day we arrived.

It’s quite a nice day today, so after leaving the church, we head off down a side trail that leads up into the hills. Because the area is so large, only certain areas (like the museum) are restricted, so visitors have access to miles and miles of trails that lead up into the caves. Granted, exploring is more my kind of thing than it is Angela’s (she’s a stay on the marked trail kind of girl), but she humors me in this case, particularly when we see a trail winding through the bottom of a valley that calls out to me like a Siren.

After scrambling down to the valley floor, and following the trail for about a quarter mile, the more rationale of the two of us begins to question the wisdom of wandering down an increasingly overgrown trail, that leads to who knows where, and on which we haven’t seen another living soul. I don’t know if it is the tiger blood or the Adonis DNA talking, but defeat is not an option, and after some convincing that Tusken Raiders aren’t real, we press on.

In short order, we see another hiker coming down the trail in the opposite direction, and he gives us a bit of a preview of what lies ahead. There is only about a quarter mile left before running into an impassable drop, but knowing we aren’t headed towards a terrorist hideout or a meth cave calms the rest of the people on our tour.

As we proceed on, the walls of the valley quickly close in, and soon the trail is only a foot or so wide and we are squeezing around boulders. On the flight over, I watched the movie 127 Hours (about the hiker that got his arm pinned in terrain like this and had to cut it off), so that pops into my head from time to time, along with a huge sense of relief that Angela didn’t see it. The scenery is amazing though, and the absence of any other people very peaceful.

Coming up to the drop, it quickly becomes clear that defeat is indeed an option, so goddess in tow, we wind our way back to the main road. Having been a good sport on my little adventure, it seems appropriate that return the favor for Angela and we head off to town to shop. To make a Groundhog Day story short – yes, we looked at carpets, no, we didn’t buy one.

We stop for dinner at a place we found the day we got here that has moussaka we are craving (I don’t know what it is about eggplant, but it always tastes better on vacation), and then back to the hotel for our last night as the Flintstones. Changing her mind on a few last minute trinkets (or at least that’s the story she tells me, even though I did see her eying up the overweight bus station manager with the horrendous BO) Angela heads back into town while do a little work from my window office, and on that glorious note, our Cappadocia adventure comes to a close.

One of the great things about a room right next to the hotel office is that it comes with its own built in wake up call, as people gather in front of our door early in the morning, striking up loud conversations in a variety of languages. Mrs. Van Winkle just covers her head with a pillow (brave woman) and goes back to sleep, while I use the new found time to catch up on some work before calling the boys.

As with most days, we head off to breakfast with no idea what we want to do. So when one of the hotel staff comes by and asks if we want to go on a tour, we figure why not? Cappadocia is pretty spread out, so this solves the problem of renting a car and driving around on our own trying to find the places we want to see. The only catch is that the tour leaves 10 minutes later.

With limited time, we dash back to the room, skip the shower (a little gross, yes, but not near as gross as the bathtub in our room), hold our breath long enough to brush our teeth, toss a few things in a day pack and head for the door. Each tour advertises a maximum of 12 people (some of the stops are small caves and tunnels where big groups won’t fit), so we’re not at all surprised to get on a bus with 26 people, and for the guide to happily tell us this is the largest group he has even had.

About 40 minutes from Goreme, we stop at the Derinkuyu Underground City, an eleven level subterranean complex, that by some estimates, was occupied by as many as 25,000 people (and is only one of over 200 such complexes discovered in this area so far) seeking refuge from attacking armies. Originally built about 3,000 years ago, the network of tunnels and rooms was constantly expanded by successive civilizations, until they were abandoned altogether in the Middle Ages.

Another hour on the bus takes is to the Ilhara Valley, a 16km canyon honeycombed with houses and churches cut into the rock walls. It is believed that as many as 30,000 people inhabited the valley, predominantly Christians seeking to avoid Roman persecution. We get dropped off part way along and hike about 4km down to a collection of restaurants where the bus will meet us. In the “it’s a small world” category, at lunch we meet a couple from Calgary, one of whom is a pharmacist (unfortunately a hospital pharmacist, so not a user of our software, but she has knows of it and people that use it).

Our last stop is the Selime Monastery, another complex carved into the rock, which is one of the largest religious buildings in Cappadocia. Of the churches we have seen so far, these are by far the biggest, spanning multiple levels (that the guide advises we don’t go up to because it is dangerous, but seriously, doesn’t that just make it more likely that we’ll go?), and complete with ornately carved and painted columns.

Now no tour would be complete without the obligatory stop at the “local craft center”, and this one is no exception. We get the five minute demo of how onyx is carved and then are shuttled directly into the showroom, where spectacular deals await. I don’t want to gloat, since it probably doesn’t happen to everyone, but because our group is so large, we get offered a special 10% discount on anything we want to buy.

Tour over, we return to Goreme at around 6:30 and grab a quick dinner before heading back to the hotel to see our new “deluxe” room. As promised, this one is in one of the caves (the pointy building in the picture below), and compared to the hovel we slept in last night, is like checking into the Ritz Carlton. Other than being just slightly over 6 feet tall, and with walls so think that the only place I can get wireless internet is by cramming myself up into the windowsill it is a HUGE trade up, which makes for two very happy travelers.

Despite the early hour, things went surprisingly smoothly this morning getting from our hotel in Istanbul to the airport for our flight to Kayseri. Our book warns the drive can take as long as an hour and a half, but at the time of the morning we are going, and on a Saturday to boot, it is over in about 35 minutes, putting me at the airport the recommended 2 hours before my flight for what may be the first time ever.

With plenty of time to spare, I try to grab a little shut-eye at the gate, but waiting along with us is the Turkish equivalent of our Sammy – a boy with only two volume settings – loud and louder. He wants to say goodbye to every plane that leaves, and I think is worried that all the way across the tarmac the pilot might not be able to hear him.

We are flying Pegasus Air, which is the Southwest of Turkey, and like Southwest packs the passengers in pretty tight. No frills to speak of, but the plane is quite new though and the flight pretty short, so overall a totally painless experience.

Kayseri is one of two airports in Cappadocia, and is the busier of the two, even though it is the furthest from the places most tourists come to see. We are ultimately headed for a place called Goreme, about an hour away, and according to the information desk, can get there by taxi (expensive) or by taking a total of three buses (painful). As we are talking through the options, a Japanese couple asks us if we are also going to Goreme and if we would be interested in splitting the cab fare. Door to door service at half the price is a pretty easy choice, particularly when the other passengers don’t really speak English, reducing the risk of having to engage in idle chit chat.

The main draw of Cappadocia is the surreal desert landscape, populated with thousands of towering rock formations carved from the volcanic deposits. For millennia, these towers served as the homes for the regions inhabitants, who tunneled and carved directly into the rock to create entire communities. Many of these “fairy chimneys” (an early legend was that the towers and rooms within them could only have been made by fairies) have been converted to hotels, and a tourist “must do” experience is to stay in one.

We booked three nights in one of these caves on Expedia while in Istanbul, so after arriving in our cab, we’re anxious to see what all the fuss is about. Alarms start going off though as the desk clerk (who is also the bellman and concierge) repeatedly checks his state of the art reservation system, flipping the pages back and forth a few times and asking us if we have our booking number. As it turns out, they aren’t really that diligent about letting services like Expedia know when they are out of rooms, so have continued taking reservations and are now overbooked. After some discussion, we settle on taking a non-cave room for the first night, and then moving into a “deluxe” cave room for the remaining two nights.

Now this particular place we chose because it was listed as an “Expedia Pick”, and upon cross checking with Tripadvisor, we found it had reasonable reviews. Walking into the room we ask ourselves what those people have been smoking. Over the years, I’ve stayed in worse, but not by much, and probably not with a very unhappy traveling companion in tow. As some special extra touches, we soon come to learn that they only turn the heat on for a few hours in the evening, and that the bathroom window needs to stay open all the time to vent the sewer smell coming up through the drain.

The heater of course, wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t freezing outside…in May…in Turkey. What ever happened to global warming? If I ever see Al Gore, I swear I’m going to hit him with my shoe (or preferably, one of the sandals that I brought all the way over here but haven’t been able to use). Nasty bedspread aside, it takes all the smooth talking I can muster to cajole Angela from the bed, where she has cocooned herself, coat still on, trying to warm up.

As it is late in the day, our options for activities are limited, but a short walk up the road is the Goreme Open Air Museum. This is on our list to see, so today seems like a good day to get that out of the way. To our pleasant surprise, the sun has started to break out, and combined with the uphill hike has made the temperature tolerable.

The museum is really just a collection of churches and associated rooms (like kitchens, bedrooms, and so on) carved into the rocks by early Christians, who used the caves as a place to hide from the ruling Romans, who had a tendency to feed Christians to the lions. In their day, the ceiling and walls of the churches were covered with colorful frescoes, many of which remain and are in surprisingly good condition.

As churches go, these are quite small, so to see them you enter in packs of 20 people or so, listen to a guide describe the scenes depicted, and then exit to make room for the next group. We’re not part of a tour, so its luck of the draw as to what language the guide speaks when we are in any given church. In some cases we hear the full story in English and find it quite interesting, while in others, we try to cobble together bits and pieces from whatever words in German and French sound like English and then make up the rest.

Afterwards, we wander around the tiny downtown looking for a place to eat and a grocery store to pick up a few things to have on hand in our room. To our indescribable disappointment, noodle soup, our comfort food when on the road, is nowhere to be found in Turkey, and we return to the hotel empty handed. Its dark and cold, by the time we get back, so are thankful the heat has been on in our absence. Nevertheless, we both err on the conservative side and opt for full dress sleeping attire before plopping down on the raggedy mattress for the night.

The Olivium – that sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Something you’d travel thousands of miles to see like the Hippodrome, or the Coliseum. Well for some people, perhaps, but it has never been on my bucket list. Nevertheless, on our last full day in Istanbul, and both out of “must sees” and tired of crowds, our destination is a Turkish outlet mall an hour or so away on the metro.

So after actually sleeping in a bit for a change, and booking some reservations for flights and hotel in Cappadocia (our next stop), we’re off. While we’re open to whatever we may find there, the real attraction is deals on leather goods. A few nights ago, I bought a jacket at a shop on Istiklal Street that I affectionately refer to as my Fonzie coat, so now we are in need a little something for Leather Tuscadero.

Getting to the mall is surprisingly easy, particularly since we don’t know exactly where it is, but only the metro stop to get off the train at. As far as we are out from the center of town, its clear we’re not in the touristy area anymore, and it’s a nice change to be able to see typical Turkish life.

The mall itself is a bit of a disappointment (for me at least) but we do manage to find a few things (some dress shoes for me and a handbag for Angela, who swears she only has three at home). The highlight for me was actually not even in the building, but a bakery across the street where we picked up a small box of pistachio baklava, by far the best I have had here.

By the time we make it back to the hotel it is after 6 pm, so besides getting some quick dinner (falafel again), catching up on some work that I need to get done (blah), and packing our stuff up so we’re ready to check out in the morning, we’re pretty much done with Istanbul. Our flight out is at 8:40 am from the smaller (but further away) of the two city airports, so we need to be up early and to the bus by 6:00 am.

Having seen most of the high profile sights in Istanbul, we start the day with just one last target on our list, Topkapi Palace, which is back in the Sultanahmet area (near the Blue Mosque). It’s only about 3 or 4 kilometers away, so we figure we’ll skip the hassle of the metro (which we have mastered I must say) and jump in a cab for the short ride over. At least that’s the plan, until we find that despite all of the advancement in Turkey over the past decade, the cab drivers haven’t lost that adorable third world penchant for ripping off tourists. After an offer from the first driver for 20 Euros (about $30), and a second driver for 20 Turkish Lira (a still extravagant but not outrageous $14) we admit defeat and head for the train.

The second bad omen of the day appears in the form a giant cruise ship docked near the bridge where we stopped for the tasty fish fin sandwich. It quickly hits home that somewhere in Istanbul there are 3,000, mostly blue haired tourists that weren’t here yesterday. We know the palace will be one of the stops on their itinerary, so now its just playing the odds to see if we can get in and out first.

Games of chance are not my strong suit, a fact reinforced as we near the ticket booth for the palace and soon realize it is packed with people. Not only tour groups (many from the cruise ship no doubt), but the cherry on top is that today seems to be elementary school field trip day. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of kids moving around like locusts, denuding the landscape of all silence and serenity. Nevertheless, we’re here on a mission, so we get in the long line (the first of many) for tickets and soon enter the gates.

The palace itself was the home of the sultan’s for about 400 years before they moved to Dolmabache. The entire complex is quite a bit larger and it was common for people to live their entire lives without ever stepping outside the walls. The architecture doesn’t seem as interesting though, so after going through a few of the buildings, we focus instead on more of the artifacts that are kept here (like the Topkapi dagger, the Spoonmaker’s Diamond (the world’s fourth largest cut diamond), some bones purported to be from prophets, the Staff of Moses, and a hair from the beard of the prophet Muhammad. Each of these requires getting in a line of sheeple and moving slow and steady past the glass cases (which is the kind of thing I live for).

After a few hours, and about half of the complex, we decide we are palaced out and head for the exit. With nothing else on the agenda, this leaves Angela free to resume her quest for the elusive carpet, and we spend the rest of the afternoon dealing with rug merchants. Now in some quarters, it has come to be a bit of an insult to be called a rug merchant, but I can say firsthand that the reputation is not entirely unearned. I’ve met more people salespeople in Istanbul over the past few days that have “very good friends in Vancouver” (we still fudge a bit and say we’re from Canada) than I think I’ve met in Seattle in the last ten years.

The good news is we finally find a carpet that Angela falls in love with. The bad news is it costs more than a year of college. But, because we did not come on a tour bus, they will give us a discount, and that’s good. However, the new price is still more than a new car, which is bad. But, the carpet comes with a free frogurt, and that’s good. However, the frogurt is also cursed (ok, that last part’s not true, but it is one of my favorite Simpson’s episodes so I couldn’t resist).

Suffice to say, we remain rugless, and soon will officially have spent more time searching for one than has been spent looking for El Dorado. With one last full day Istanbul, we’ll see what tomorrow brings, but I think even the great rug hunter herself is running on fumes.

It seems when I travel to a different time zone, it is always the second night that I have trouble with. The pattern repeats itself here, as by 2:30 in the morning I am wide awake, and by 3:30, I throw in the towel, figuring its a better use of time to roll out of bed and catch up on some work than to simply stare at the ceiling. I don’t recall Angela’s exact words, but in my head they went something like “I just love the rhythmic tapping of the keyboard in the middle of the night. It lulls me to sleep, so thank you for sacrificing your rest for my benefit.” That may no be an exact rendition, but pretty close I think.

Not surprisingly, by the time 8 am rolls around and it is time to start getting ready to head out, we are both a little lethargic. We had planned on going back to Sultanahmet to see Topkapi Palace and return to the Grand Bazaar, but that suddenly seems like a huge undertaking, particularly given the Seattlesque skies overhead. After some discussion (which makes us feel like we are doing something, even though its a transparent attempt to not have to move), we decide to start with Dolmabahce Palace, which is just down the hill from us, and then figure out where to go from there.

The palace was built in the 1800s as the new home for the sultan (previous sultan’s lived at Topkapi Palace), who at the time was moving the country in a more westernized direction (hence the location on the European side of the Bosphorus and the European style of architecture). It also helped solve the problem of what to do with the 35 tonnes of gold (14 of those used to cover the ceilings) that were piling up in the corners of the old place, which, I guess, is a fairly good problem to have. The complex (all 485,000 square feet of it), is split into two sections, one used for the administrative functions of the empire, and the other for the living quarters for the sultan and his many lizadies (wives plus the 500 female slaves required to take care of them).

By the time we finish, the overcast skies have turned into a fairly constant drizzle, so we decide to walk back up the hill to the hotel (which looks MUCH closer than it actually turns out to be) and come up with a plan for the rest of the day. En route, we see a falafel restaurant and decide to give it a try, and while it good, Yum-Yum’s still reigns supreme.

When we finally make it back to our room, the lack of sleep hits me like a ton of bricks, and I close my eyes only to find 4 hours have passed when I open them. In the meantime, Angela has gone to check out the Turkish bath in the hotel, which earns a rating of two thumbs up.

With the day mostly over, we decide to walk over to Istiklal Street for dinner. We have passed a few places in our time here that serve kumpir, which is apparently a fairly popular fast food. Basically, the idea is to take a baked potato, whip up the insides with some butter and cheese (so far, so good) and then pile on a variety of available toppings. Going all in we load it up with mushrooms, corn, hot dog slices, pickled cabbage, a bit of what looked like macaroni salad, some grainy, brown stuff, hot sauce, and a dill, yogurt sauce. Not wanting to ruin a good thing, we pass on the ketchup and mayonnaise they offer to squeeze on top. We didn’t have our camera with us to take a picture of the actual masterpiece, but I did find a reasonable facsimile on Google.

Contrary to expectations, we find these ingredients don’t actually go that well together, particularly since most of them are cold. Nevertheless, we power through, but I do make sure to save a last bite of just potato to cleanse my palate as much as possible.

In the meantime, the weather has gone full on Seattle, so we head back to the hotel in the rain to plan for another day.

Our first significant issue with Turkey hit us bright and early this morning. As has been the case for many trips now, we use video chat to try and connect with the boys each day (which is essential to not missing them so much). Depending where we have been, things have generally worked out where we can talk to them in the morning before school, or between dinner and bedtime. Turkey, as it turns out, is in that dreaded zone where neither really works (they are asleep by the time we get up or are off to school by the time we get in for the night), leaving the rather unpleasant option of waking up at 6:30 am to be able to call them at 8:30 pm in Seattle. For the first few days, while we adjust to the time zone, I’ll probably be up anyway, softening the blow, but for the Mrs., who could teach Rip Van Winkle a few things about sleep, this is not a pleasant prospect.

Today however, things work out not too bad, and by the time we have checked in with Sam and Joey (Nick is off at camp) and prepared for the day, it is not even 9:00. Our destination today is the Sultanahmet area and a few of the sites there (it is too big to see in one day so will likely require a return trip tomorrow as well). This is the oldest part of Istanbul, and the location of most of the famous historical sights. According to our travel book, its only about a 15TL cab ride, but we are right next to a subway stop so figure we can grab a quick breakfast, save a few bucks, and avoid the omnipresent meter scam all in one fell swoop.

Part A of the plan goes off without a hitch, and after a simit sandwich (basically a sesame seed bagel more or less that is sold pretty much everywhere, and in this case stuffed with meat and cheese) and some borek, we head over to the metro station, where things quickly deteriorate. The metro itself is very clean, and now that we’ve done it once, makes a bit more sense, but this morning, after a few wrong turns that take us to places where we have to pay again to get back in, the tally quickly blows through anything we would have spent on a taxi, and we lose a little time in the process 🙁

Once on the actual train, we progress pretty quickly and soon find ourselves in Sultanahmet. Our first stop is the Blue Mosque (technically the Sultan Ahmed Mosque), which is one of the common images people association with Istanbul. The building itself is quite beautiful, and the tile work inside (from which the name Blue Mosque is derived) is amazing, but by design, mosques are devoid of any decoration, so after a few quick pictures, there isn’t a whole lot more to look at.

Right next to the Blue Mosque is our next stop, Hagia Sofia (or Aya Sophia), which was built as a church by Emperor Justinian in 360 A.D. Over the years, depending on who ruled Istanbul (then Constantinople), it has changed from church, to mosque, to finally a museum, but through all that, the building itself remained unchanged. By the time we arrive, the line up for the ticket window is a couple hundred yards long, so when a guide offers us the opportunity to join a group he has assembled and bypass the queue, the extra $10 is a no-brainer.

We spend a few minutes out front of the building, listening to the history from our guide – how it was built, who the architects were, what has changed over time, and so, and then head inside. Until about the 18th century, the Aya Sophia was the largest cathedral in the Christendom and the had the largest space unencumbered by columns of any building in the world. Walking though the door leads to one of those “wow” moments that happen when you know you are seeing something special. We take plenty of pictures, but none of them will do it justice, so fingers crossed that the video comes out well.

Our last stop before lunch is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern, which is the largest of the underground reservoirs built to support the city of Constantinople. James Bond fans may recognize this as a setting in From Russia With Love (remember Sean Connery rowing his boat in room full of columns), and with lights set at the base of each pillar and the reflection off the water, it does make for a very impressive location. Elsewhere in the city, there are ruins of the aqueducts that fed these giant cisterns so I’m sure we’ll see some of those in our travels as well.

The final destination on today’s itinerary is the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. It will come as no surprise to those who have followed our travels that we are in year three of a quest for rugs that has taken us through China, Hong Kong, Egypt, and now Turkey. Adamant to bring the search to an end once and for all, the 300 carpet shots in the bazaar draw us like moths to a flame. Three hours later we feel closer, but alas, still rugless, so will be back again tomorrow with only 298 shops left to go. And carpet or no carpet, the place is so massive that it clearly requires a more concerted effort to even scratch the surface of it. Its early in our trip, so we don’t want to get too burdened with trinkets and souvenirs, but I definitely don’t see Angela leaving here empty handed.

It turned out to be a great day in Istanbul (sunny and a bit over 60 degrees) so we decide to walk back to our hotel, stopping along the way to try some different street foods, including the style of doner (ask for durum) that will soon become the staple of our travels here. Our guide book also recommends the boats docked right next to the bridge we cross that grill and serve fish sandwiches to those waiting for the ferries. For 4 TL the price is right, but we soon find that for that price, not a whole lot of prep work goes in upfront. Fish fins it turns out are a little chewy.

Back at the hotel, we start to fill in some of the details of the coming days. Our current plan is to finish up our time in Istanbul and then fly to Cappadocia for a few days and then on to Izmir in search of a bit more heat. We’ll see how well that works tomorrow when we actually look up flights.

After a pretty pleasant flight (the Seattle to Chicago segment was a bit of a circus, but Chicago to Istanbul more than made up for it and the hassles were quickly forgotten), we arrived in Istanbul around 5:00 in the evening, cleared customs, and hopped in a car to the hotel. For no particularly good reason other than they both are in the same general region, I had visions of Cairo in my head, so was prepared for all kinds of traffic, noise, and dirt. Given that, it was a bit of a surprise to find things much more similar to cities in Europe. Although the airport was a very long way from the hotel, traffic moved quickly, and with very few exceptions, the neighborhoods we passed through were all clean and well-kept.

Our hotel is located a short walk from Taksim Square, close to the center of the city. I think some of the more uppity places are not that far away right next to the Bosphorus, but we are on a bit of a hill so have a good view. It turns out we are also right next to a Metro stop which should come in handy as we start to explore the city.

It is definitely on the cool side here, which we knew coming in, but nevertheless didn’t really hit home until we headed out for a stroll around the area and were quickly forced back to the hotel to get jackets. The forecast is for high 50s here all week, so I don’t think I’ll be busting out the Speedo and mesh tanktop until we get further south. However, given where we just came from, as long as it doesn’t rain we’ll consider that a win.

A short walk from where we are staying is Istiklal Avenue, which we stumbled upon while looking for some street food. It is the major pedestrian street in Istanbul, lined with shops and outdoor restaurants, and even on a Monday evening is crowded with people. We make a few stops along the way to sample some different foods with mixed success. The corn in a cup gets a thumbs up (brings back memories of Thailand), and the container served dual duty as a place to yack up the roasted chestnuts that were like eating sand. We also took our first stab at a doner which was so-so, but something we are going to keep working on to find the right way to order it.

I get the sense from all the different bars and tea shops that things can go pretty late in Istanbul, but that will have to wait for another day, as after the long flight, we’re getting pretty sluggish by 9:00. We have absolutely no idea what out plans are for tomorrow, but knowing what a morning person Angela is, I’m sure she’ll be up before sunrise making up a list of destinations.

It seems that either the years are getting shorter or I am going on more vacations, as here we are once again on the eve of departure for another of our annual adventures. Since there are a finite number of the former, I certainly pray its the latter.

This trip, we are on our way to Turkey, flying through Chicago and on to Istanbul. It has been a lot of years since we were in Greece and I tried unsuccessfully to convince my trusty travel companion to go and see the ruins at Ephesus, so its a testament to her evolution as a road warrior that she didn’t even flinch at the prospect of spending three weeks there. After getting sick from undercooked chicken in Malaysia, suffering through a dirty massage in Vietnam, and flying in rickety old airplanes in Indonesia I guess Turkey just doesn’t seem that daunting anymore.

As further validation of our growing comfort in far away lands (or our increasing apathy depending how you look at it), we go into this trip with the least defined plan we have ever had. Out itinerary so far consists literally of fly to Istanbul on the 24th, check into the one hotel we have reserved so far, and then by whatever route ultimately gets us there, be at the airport in Antalya at 6am on the 17th for our flight home. At some point we figure we need to get to Cappadocia, and we have talked about spending a few days on a gulet cruise around the southern coast. Of course we’ll also see the many Greek and Roman ruins throughout the country, but otherwise, we’ll take each day as it comes.

In the lead up to this trip, we’ve come across a surprising number of people that have either been to Turkey, or know someone who has, and for the most part, the feedback is quite encouraging. I am excited to be going as there are sights there I definitely want to see (and food I definitely want to eat), but when I talk about it, something seems just a little off compared to other places we have been. The only thing I can attribute it to is the name itself. Where places like Egypt and China conjure up images of the pyramids and the Great Wall, when I hear the word Turkey, I think of, well, turkeys.

Delicious? Yes. Daring? Mmmm, not so much.