Category: Turkey

Yesterday DawnO and I had a pretty low key day by our standards.  We knew we had to save our energy for what was to come.  We spent our day walking around our town and we stopped long enough to have a nap before the evening.  For dinner we had an amazing dish that they cook in a clay pot.  When they bring it to your table they have to crack it open with a knife.  

Once the sun went down we went straight to bed because our morning was going to begin at 4am.  We were scheduled to watch the sunrise from 700 meters in the air…

Our favourite Cappadocian, who arranged our hotel and this balloon trip, ended up being our hot air balloon pilot.  It seems like Mustafa can do anything, but I bet he can’t sing a solo in a Community Musical Theatre production… where was I?  Oh yes, pictures.

Finally, here is a shot of us with Mustafa.  

This is our last day in Turkey.  We head to Istanbul this evening and then to Jordan (The Kingdom) tomorrow.

Yesterday was our final day in Istanbul, so we spent the morning doing the tourist things that we hadn’t experienced yet: the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar. We liked the spice market, but on our way to the Grand Bazaar we got a bit crowd-o-phobic so stopped for a snack and a decision. Truthfully I (dawnO) was OK with skipping the Grand Bazaar, but robO felt it was a must see. And he was right. It was quite a nice experience, especially compared to the chaos of the surrounding streets!

 

 

That evening we flew to Cappadocia, an area in Central Turkey. It was a long experience, from 2 screaming babies on the plane, to lost then found luggage, to a long ride to Goreme, where the room we had booked was no longer available; and it was after midnight.

Turns out we had traveller’s luck on our side. The hotel manager Mustafa is an amazing man. It was not his fault at all that we had no place to stay (our online booking was a bust, but no money lost). He took it upon himself to ensure we were taken care of. He set us up in a room at a friend’s hotel (which is a 5 star place I’m sure) for the night and would figure out more in the morning. This morning we were stressing a bit about our options, and Mustafa came back, arranging 2 more nights at this same amazing hotel (did I mention for the original price we were to pay??!!), recommending a great hike for our day, and by the way, he’s a hot air balloon pilot and set us up on a flight with a discount for ‘all of our trouble’. If you are ever coming here, you NEED to meet this guy because he is a caring and generous man. I can hardly wait to give him a positive review on Trip Advisor. (Not coincidently, the reason we chose the hotel that we did was because of great reviews about this guy.)

Anyway, this area is so cool. It’s kind of like Drumheller meets Bedrock from the Flintstones. Here are some pics from our day…

 

 

 

 

 

What a birthday! I warned RobO that if these great birthdays keep up I’m going to start expecting a trip every year at this time! (If you can’t remember last year’s Quebec City awesomeness your homework is to scroll back and read it.)

 

 

I met up with robO and we went to a Turkish Bath. This place was built 300 years ago and is in the ‘1000 places to see before you die’ book. Anyway, picture a big marble room filled with naked women soaping each other down. Before you get too excited, my woman was named Inge and she was exfoliating dead skin off of my body in little lint-like rolls. This was followed by a wash down and an oil massage. My skin has never felt so good! Check it off the bucket list! You can Read robO’s report for the full man experience.

Sorry… no pics of me in my birthday suit!

Next we visited the Bascilica Cistern, which is an underground water storage made with beautiful roman columns. And we got a special treat… a dress up like sultans and have a photo taken. Who could say no to that?!

The rest of our afternoon was spent eating amazing Turkish food and checking out the beautiful Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia.

 

We finished off the night with a birthday dinner and rooftop patio views of the sights. Not too shabby for the first day of my 36th year!

Looking forward to checking our the bazaars, then flying to Cappadocia tomorrow!

I can’t get enough of this picture:

Today DawnO celebrated her 36th birthday in magnificent fashion.  It all started with a Turkish bath.  And yes, we both got the full meal deal. You can read DawnO’s blog ‘Keblog’ for her experience.  Mine got a little awkward.

I was told to relax and enjoy the sauna while I await my man.  Now at this point I was the only one in this huge room which was quite a cool place to be with nothing but your postage stamp of a towel and your thoughts.  Eventually the door opened and this was the scene:

It all started with a massage and streches, which included this dude trying to make my heel touch my back.  I may have yelped, but I did not let him see me cry.  I was then led to the sinks where I was scrubbed with an abrasive oven mit and washed with something that looked like a soaped up mop-head.  Up to this point my tea-towel was doing a better-than-expected job of covering my bits and cracks.  But it all came unravelled during my final rinse.  Soap was in my eyes so I lost sight of things…  When I finally opened them, I was free-balling it.  Unphased, my man finished the rinse cycle while I scrambled to cover up.  Afterwards he let me do some necessary self-rinsing and then met me outside the bathing room to wrap me in warm towels.  All-in-all, I would highly recommend a Turkish bath.