Trip Report: Modern Cities, Seaside Resorts, Ancient Ruins, Turkey Tantalizes Taste buds and Transcends All Expectations

This tour started in Istanbul and ended in Kusadasi and we traveled for 19 days. In between we visited Ankara, Cappadocia, Konya, Antalya, Pamukkale, Aphrodisias, and Ephesus. After ending in Kusadasi we flew back to Istanbul for 4 more days on our own in this vast city.

Turkey was a destination I had my eye on for a while, but didn’t necessarily want to do it on my own. Solo travel doesn’t bother me, I’ve done it quite often, but when my friend (CL) said she too would like to see Turkey I jumped at the opportunity. And we had traveled together last year for a month in Central Europe, so we were comfortable with each others travel style.

And now onto the trip report!

Day 1, September 21, 2007 – Savannah, Georgia

We were scheduled to fly out of Savannah at 7am (ish) on September 22nd. Instead of getting up at “0 dark 30” and driving to the airport we used CL’s employee discount (she works for a hotel chain) and stayed at the Four Points hotel at the Savannah airport the night before the flight. It worked out really well. Since we stayed the night I was able to keep my car at the hotel for the whole time we were gone and didn’t have to pay any parking fee! We checked in, and went for dinner at a (non-descript) place across the street and then called it an early night. Even though we were minutes from the airport we still needed to be at the airport between 5:30 and 6am.

Day 2, September 22, 2007 – Departure from Savannah, Georgia

We were on the hotel shuttle van by 5:30am and we got to the airport within 5 minutes. We decided to do the outbound legs of the trip with only carry-on luggage and miraculously were able to fit everything we needed into one roll-board carry-on bag and one back-pack style bag each. We used the check-in kiosk and were at the security check point within 5 minutes of checking in.

Even though we had all our liquids in quart sized zip-lock bags we had our roll-aboard bags opened and checked but that time of the morning there wasn’t much of a line at the Savannah airport security, so we were through in a few minutes.

We were at the gate with our coffee in our hands about an hour before the flight. I know…I tend to like being at the airport early…I can’t stand feeling panicky about being late for a flight! J

The flight to Atlanta was brief and uneventful and we made our connection to JFK with no trouble at all. Now I know we left very early in the morning out of Savannah, but because of the connection times in Atlanta and JFK I planned the trip this way. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time for the connection at JFK and all our flights were on time so we did have about 4 hours to wait at JFK but I would rather be there and waiting for our flight to Istanbul then going into panic mode if there was a delay in Atlanta…I know, I’m a “little anal” about that kind of thing!

We boarded our flight at JFK to Istanbul and we took off on time. This was approximately an 11 hour flight. Usually I don’t sleep much on these long flights and maybe it was because we had been up early in the morning but after taking off and being served dinner I managed to fall asleep and according to CL (and my watch) I slept soundly for 5 hours! This truly amazed me because it does not generally happen that way.

The flight to Istanbul was uneventful and after 11 hours in “the friendly skies” we were ready to land and get our first glimpse of Istanbul!

Day 3, September 23, 2007 – Arrival in Istanbul

We arrived right on time and had no trouble finding the desk to buy our Turkish visas and then it was just a short wait in line to get our passports stamped. I stepped up to the official and quietly murmured “Merhaba”, he looked up at me and then down at my passport looked up again and said, “You smile a lot”…well of course I said, “I’m on vacation”!

Since we didn’t check any luggage we glided past the baggage claim area and walked out through the doors into the arrivals hall. There standing before us was a gentleman with a sign with my name on it….ahhh…our shuttle van to the hotel. We had a short wait for another passenger who turned out was on our flight and would also be on our tour. She was a great gal and we ended up spending time with her over the next day before the tour started.

We stayed at the Obelisk Hotel in Sultanahmet. This is part of the Best Western Chain, it did have some character. The website is http://www.obeliskhotel.com/. I had booked this hotel months in advance and was fortunate to get a rate of 68 Euro, which included the shuttle van to the hotel and breakfast.

It was close to 11am when we arrived at the hotel. We sat in the lobby and had some tea and were going to leave our luggage there while we went out to explore, but as luck would have it, we were able to check into our room right way. The room was small, but it was clean and comfortable.

After unloading the bags and freshening up a bit we met our new friend in the lobby and went to walk around the Ararat Bazaar, which is just up the street from the Obelisk Hotel. While walking through the market we had our first experience with carpet salesmen and managed to fend them off without making any purchases! :)

The weather wasn’t the best (cloudy and grey but not raining) and by 2pm we started to get hungry and after walking around for a bit we decided to just try one of the restaurants in the area. Honestly, we were so tired by this point I think we would have eaten anything and the huge pita breads placed on the tables of the restaurant look pretty enticing. We sat down at Malkoc Restaurant and Café at Akbiyik Caddessi Adliye Sokak No. 11. We ordered a mixed grill plate which included chicken, lamb, rice, carrots, yogurt and Turkish pizza slices. It was filling and for the 3 of us the bill was 63 Lire, this included 2 beers and one water.

Mixed Grill and Pita Bread....First Istanbul Meal.

By 4pm I was feeling “loopy” even with 5 hours of sleep on the flight! I don’t usually like to sleep that early, but I decided to take a nap that ended up lasting until 8pm. When I woke to the call to prayer I thought I was a goner and would be up all night. That didn’t happen I was sleeping again at 9pm and slept until the next morning!

Day 4, September 24, 2007 – Time to Explore Istanbul!

We started the day with a leisurely breakfast in the rooftop restaurant. There was an assortment of cereals, breads, meats, and cheeses. We planned to go to the Grand Bazaar and check things out.

We were excited to spend some time in the Grand Bazaar. CL has a Turkish friend here at home who has family in Istanbul and they own a carpet store at the Grand Bazaar, so armed with their phone number we called in the morning and made sure Murat would be a the shop.

By some great stroke of luck we found Murat’s shop and had a great visit with him and got a lesson in carpets and an invitation to come back in 2 weeks when we would be back in Istanbul and looking to make some purchases. We purposely didn’t want to buy anything during our first few days in Istanbul because we didn’t want to drag it around with us for all that time and we knew we would be back in Istanbul for 4 days before we left to go home.

Here we are at Murat's shop at the Grand Bazaar....

The weather wasn’t really cooperating with us, but after leaving the Grand Bazaar we made our way over to the Galata Tower. We took the tram over the Galata Bridge and then planned to take the Tunel up to the tower, but the Tunel was closed and we took a bus instead. However, not being sure of which stop to get off at we got off the bus a bit early, but found our way to the tower. Since it was so overcast we decided to not go to the top and wait to do that when we would be back in Istanbul in a few weeks.

By now it was getting to be late afternoon and decided to walk back to the hotel. Of course we did manage to find a bakery and bought some cookies to snack on…yup, when it comes to sweets, I have little self control!

Once back at the hotel we prepared to meet the rest of our tour group and then headed to the Blue Mosque. We arrived at the Blue Mosque and entered through the back door entrance…no line at all to get in. We had a bit of a history lesson and then was able to walk around the mosque and goggle at the grandeur.

Here I am at the Blue Mosque... when going inside women should cover their heads and everyone takes off their shoes.

As a group we had dinner at the Green House Restaurant (didn’t get address) and the meal was delicious. We started with spinach and cheese borek, followed by stuffed grape leaves and for dessert we had baklava, figs, and apricots. We called it an early night.

Day 5, September 25, 2007 – Istanbul Sunshine!

We woke to beautiful blue sunny sky today! And it stayed that way all day, which was terrific since it was a chock-full day of site seeing.

The first place on the agenda today was the underground cistern. We were there as soon as they opened the door and there was hardly anyone there while we were there. Then we were off across the street to Hagia Sophia. This massive museum began as a church then became a mosque and is now a museum. We filed into Hagia Sophia with all the other tourists and it was interesting to see the enormity of the place.

...Underground Cistern and


Hagia Sophia..











We also spent time this morning at the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. The exhibits here were very good and even though I’m not a big museum person I enjoy our time there.

We then had some time on our own to have lunch and CL and I headed over to Sultanahmet Koftecisi. We loved this place! We had the bean salad and the meatballs and didn’t go wrong with these.









We spent the afternoon at the Chora Church and what an amazing place. The mosaics were lovely and many were in very good condition.















The rest of the day was spent soaking up more of Istanbul by walking in the Sultanahmet area.

Day 6, September 26, 2007 – Istanbul Another Day of Sunshine!

It was another day of clear blue sky and we spent the morning exploring Topkapi Palace. We toured the grounds by starting with the Harem and saw some wonderful tile work. By the 4th courtyard we were treated to breath-taking views of the Bosphorous. One tip, if planning to go in the morning, instead of getting there right at 9am with the hordes of all the other tour groups, if you get there just 15 minutes later, you can get through the entrance much faster. Yes, you still have to contend with the masses once inside, but at least you don’t have to wait in an immense line. And be prepared to put your bags and cameras through an x-ray machine…this happened at almost all state run tourist sites.

Topkapi Palace...

When we were sufficiently awed by Topkapi Palace we headed over to Istiklal Street in the New District. We decided to have a walk around and have some lunch. At the recommendation of our guide we chose to try a local place for lunch that served sheep intestine sandwiches.

I can honestly say it wasn’t bad. It was a fried mass on a huge roll and as Anthony Bourdain says…”If it’s fried Americans will eat it”! I can say that although it didn’t taste bad, I probably won’t be making sheep intestine sandwiches for myself here at home! The name of the restaurant is Sampiyon Kokorec and it is located on a side street just off Istiklal Street. What I really loved about this place was that we were the only non-locals in the joint. It was quite fun ordering, it was mostly pointing to things behind the counter and nodding our heads yes or no.

After our sandwich adventure we found ourselves near an ice cream place, so we went in and tasted a sample or 2 and liked what we had, so had a bowl of ice cream. We got 4 scoops of various flavors and it tasted good, but seemed to have an almost gummy consistency, turns out it was goat;s milk ice cream…it was good, but have to say it doesn’t come close to Italian gelato!

After lunch we were off to explore the Spice Market where we spent some time roaming around the stalls and checking things out. We decided to venture out of the covered area and really got to see much more of the locals once we were on the streets that sold everything from wash buckets and cleaning products to grills and cooking utensils. It was lots of fun.


As the afternoon went on we made our way to the boat that would take us on a cruise around the Bosphorous. One benefit to the group tour was that we got the whole boat to ourselves. It was the perfect way to see the city and watch the sunset over the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.






We disembarked the boat in the Kadikoy area and found a great place for dinner. The restaurant was Ciya Kebap Restaurant located at Guneslibahce Sokak No. 43 (http://www.ciya.com.tr/). They only speak Turkish but using our highly polished “point and nod” method of ordering we had a wonderful meal. We had a yogurt soup and a kebap plate. For 2 of us the meal cost about 35 Lire.


At 9pm we headed for the train station to board our night train to Ankara. We boarded the train and found our 2 berth compartment. The compartment was very clean and comfortable and included a small sink. Toilets were located at either end of the train car…note of warning, one toilet was a Turkish toilet and the other was a “Western” toilet.

We were told that sometimes the air-conditioning doesn’t work well in the compartments, but when we boarded the compartment was comfortable, well, that didn’t last more then 5 minutes when the heat started blasting into the compartment. Fortunately within 10 minutes it was fixed, but we decided we wanted the window open for to get fresh air once we started moving.

I decided to take the top berth and shortly after getting underway (around 10:30pm) we jumped into our beds and tried to go to sleep…”tried” being the operative word here. With the window open, yes it cooled off quickly…to almost freezing and it was noisy, but I eventually fell asleep and at 6am woke up to have breakfast in the dinning car. And before we knew it, it was 8am and we were pulling into the Ankara train station.

Day 7, September 27, 2007 – Hello and Goodbye to Ankara

We left the train station and went directly to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum. I’m not a huge museum fan, but this one was pretty good and not so big that it was overwhelming. After about 2 hours at the museum we then made our way to Ataturk’s Mausoleum. Wow! What a place, it’s gigantic we were there just before noon and it was not very crowded. We did get to see a changing of the guard.

After the mausoleum we headed to the business district in Ankara for lunch. We decided to try a local “fast food” type of place where the specialty was baked potatoes. The name of the restaurant was Otantik Kumpir. There was a variety of potatoes to choose from and they scoop out the inside mix it with cheese, put it back in the potato and then top it with a variety of things, mine had fried chicken, corn, green olives, pickles and they put mayonnaise and ketchup on the table to put on top of the potato. It was a rather interesting meal, and filling, but not the most memorable meal I’ve had.

Once we were sufficiently full from out potatoes we headed to Cappadocia. It was about a 5 hour drive and our destination for the night was Mustafpasa and the Old Greek House (http://www.oldgreekhouse.com/). We had a terrific meal at the Old Greek House of a rice and lamb stew.