Maya did me a favor and wrote the bulk of our travelogue from Türkiye (official spelling change as of 2023). I differentiated my own details and commentary in BLUE below. Thank you, Maya!
Note: even after purchasing airfare, we had planned to do a loop of Türkiye, Greece, and Bulgaria with a rental car. The girls had the most interest in Greece, while the terrain of Bulgaria appealed to me. However, a few days after booking an Istanbul RT flight, we discovered that rental cars cannot be taken out of the country in most cases (except from Bulgaria), so since our flight did not originate in Sofia, that plan was squelched and we resigned to shift to an all-Türkey tour. We never did make it to the Mediterranean as the Girls imagined and confined our roadtrip to Istanbul, The Aegean, and western Anatolia.
Turkey is a country that borders the Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea. It touches many countries. Greece and Bulgaria are on its European side and Syria, Iraq, and Iran on its Asian side, just to name a few. Turkey is partly in Europe and mostly in Asia. The city that connects the two continents is called Istanbul, our first stop on the trip.
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| Türkiye straddles Europe and Asia between the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East. |
Prior to leaving, I looked up many videos on what to wear in Turkey. Obviously, I knew you had to wear long pants and headscarves in Mosques, religious places for the Turks. I also knew it was a pretty modest country so I had to keep that in mind. Despite the 100°F weather forecast I saw on my phone for Turkey, I packed long pants and shirts. My family are very light packers, we have never brought a suitcase anywhere. In fact, I don't think we even own suitcases. This allows us to move quicker through airports and in general just travel safer and easier.
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| Dress Code |
Something we had never done before catching a flight at Chicago O'Hare was take the train from Kalamazoo to Chicago. We woke up early and had a cab take us to the train station. This is when it really sunk in for me that we were leaving because I sort of had déjà vu from when we got a cab to the airport to go to Columbia. The cab driver was a scruffy old man, a smoker, probably 10 years younger than he looked. He was the first person Papa talked to about inflation.
Papa had a mission on this trip. He knew Turkey had rampant inflation so he wanted to get the local perspective about how they dealt with it. Everyone knows inflation is a big problem in the United States and it's getting worse by the second. He told us he wanted to learn more about countries whose currency is about to crash.
The train was a pleasant ride. Genna and I sat together. We were going at a slower speed than I had expected the train to go, but we got there faster than I thought it would have taken. We had a couple of hours to kill in Chicago before getting to O'Hare via the subway. We hung out at a Starbucks and then walked a couple of blocks to get on the L. It must have been a short wait to board because I can't remember being bored at O'Hare. All I remember was a bunch of loud French kids, on a school trip perhaps, waiting to board the plane to Paris.
Let me do a quick review of Air France. It was overall mediocre. Our seats were somewhat okay. I was in the middle of Genna and Mom. We were in the middle aisle so we had no windows to look out but the flight was going to be during the night anyway so it didn't really matter, we had the seat-back TVs to keep us entertained. The in-flight entertainment was okay, I guess they had some good movies but nothing I could keep my eyes open the whole time for. For dinner, you had the choice between pasta or chicken. I was enchanted when the flight attendant spoke to us in French and the other passengers in English because they thought we must have been French. The flight there was much much quicker than the flight back, mom said it was because we were going against the wind. The dinner was whatever. I would expect the French to have better food standards, but it was airplane food so I don't really fault them. I spilled coffee on myself during this flight so it kind of knocks the review down. The flight attendants were nice but they weren't as magical as the Qatar Airlines flight attendants I had seen when we were traveling to Asia. Those Qatar flight attendants were so dolled up and pristine, not a hair out of place. These Air France flight attendants seem to be a little frazzled and disheveled. Overall I would give Air France three stars. Not the best but not the worst.
At the Paris airport, all I can remember doing was walking. It was probably a good idea since we had just been sitting for 8 hours but for some reason, I didn't feel like it. It was so hot but we were wearing our heaviest clothes because remember, no suitcases. I remember changing my outfit, feeling a little insecure among the posh Parisians. Our next flight was supposed to be a short one but our take off was delayed because they had to tie down a criminal who was in the back of the plane transferring to Turkey. I was so tired at the time that I couldn't have cared less. I slept the whole flight with my head down on the tray table. I didn't miss much except a cream cheese cucumber sandwich. (Seriously what is that, Air France?). Glad I wasn't awake for that monstrosity of a sandwich. We landed in Istanbul and it was midday I think. As usual, Papa was quickly herding us to the transport desk inside the airport to secure our cab from the airport to our hotel. He kept saying we had a car waiting for us and that’s what justified us practically sprinting. We had a hard time finding the cab booth. We finally found it after running around the entire Airport. In the end, we ended up waiting for 30 minutes for a cab to come. I was asleep for most of that cab ride too, but I did get sleepy glimpses of the city as we weaved through the winding streets.
Our hotel was surprisingly in one of the most touristy areas (Sultanahmet). We usually don't do that when traveling but this hotel was reasonably priced ("reasonable" for this trip came in at the $100-150 range, a far cry from the typical budget travel we're accustomed to well under $100/night). It was nice though. It was close to everything we wanted to walk to and it had a great breakfast and nice accommodations. The guy at the front desk was very helpful and I would say it was one of the best hotels of the trip. After settling down in our hotel for a bit we decided to venture out. The main square near our hotel was home to the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque, the two main attractions in the area. That night we had our first Turkish meal.
Now let me explain something about Turkish food. Our family thought it would be more like Lebanese food or Middle Eastern food. It was derivative of that but it was different in its own way. We noticed that the food was very simple, almost bland. Sandwiches and wraps were seasoned with lemon juice, or chilies. They were set on the table such as ketchup is in America. Another signature of Turkish cuisine was yogurt or ‘Ayran’. It was a thin yogurt, thin enough you could drink it and it was almost slightly salty. But it helped fill up a meal and combat any spiciness from the meat. I didn't like it at first but towards the end of the trip, I liked adding it to my order. Another thing we weren't expecting was the almost French-like bread that they brought to the table at every meal. We were expecting maybe flatbread like naan, but it was like chopped-up baguette. The breakfasts were big, usually buffet style.
Here is where we started noticing the effects of inflation. Upon arriving we were shocked to find out that our American dollar seemed to be pegged to Turkish Lira, and we had not gotten more Lira for our dollar as we expected. At restaurants you would see where the price was taped over as many as six times, to keep up with the increasing prices. It was the same with our museum passes. There was a sticker pasted over where the original price was. We took it off and it was much less before.
The Museum Passes were initially a hard buy because they were 165 Euros per person. We were reluctant to buy this pass which let us into many Museums and archaeological sites in Turkey, but the individual admission for each one if we hadn't bought the pass would have exceeded the total of our Museum Passes, so it was worth it. If I was a more statistical-based person like my mom I would have the exact amount of museums in archaeological sites we went to, but I'm not.
The MuseumPass Türkiye cost 165 Euros per person, but the admission to the 20 sites that we visited on the pass would have cost 296 Euros. While a splurge, it streamlined trip planning in many cases where, when not sure what direction to go next, we pointed ourselves towards a covered attraction on the Pass. Although we have done some open-ended trip planning in the past, this tour unfolded with only the slightest framework and we were booking not only onward hotels, but choosing the actual cities on the fly. The lack of planning was a telling sign that none of us were invested in the trip enough to commit to research or have strong opinions on must-see destinations.
The first site we visited in Istanbul was the Blue Mosque. There was a long queue to get into this mosque but the line was moving fast. If you didn't have the right attire to go into this religious space, they provided you with a long skirt or head scarf. Once inside, we marveled in awe at the huge curving domes of the mosque. Everything was detailed so intricately and it was so beautiful. The stained glass let in light illuminating the beautiful artwork. Big chandeliers hung down more towards ground level. The mosque was several stories tall and it was an airy open building. Most mosques in Turkey were structured the same. They all had to be facing towards Mecca, the holiest city according to Islam. They all had great courtyards with fountains in the middle so mosque goers could wash their feet and hands. After the mosque, we decided to cross the tram tracks to go to the TIEM museum. The museum included many traditional woven rugs. My favorite one was a rug that depicts Istanbul with the Bosphorus splitting Europe and Asia.
Our other sights in Istanbul were the Topkapi Palace and a few other mosques which were equally as beautiful. We went to many bazaars and markets, walking miles. One night we ferried across the Golden Horn and walked home something like 5 Miles. Our main goal was to get to the Galata Tower which overlooked the city. We took an elevator up this Tower which once towered over even the tallest buildings in Istanbul. It was a very narrow structure and you could walk around the balcony look out over the city. The sky was pretty smoggy that day but it made for a cool sort of effect. It was really cool to be able to be looking at Europe and Asia all at one time. I think this 5 mile day really tired us out.
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| Lookout from the Galata Tower |
The next day we ventured a little further to a less visited mosque (Süleymaniye) which hardly had any people. After that, we ventured into the neighborhood which had Roman aqueducts from ancient times, used to carry water between cities. That night we went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. I think this was one of the most interesting museums of the trip. They had statues and figures of ancient Romans and Greeks. The statues were mostly life-size. Some were even two times bigger than a human body. I can't do it justice by just explaining it. Outside of the museum was also a historical minefield. Discarded stones, sarcophagi, and marble were strewn about a garden outside near a cafe and all along a nearby alley.
On our last day in Istanbul we took the metro under the Bosphorus to the Asian side of Istanbul. It was less touristy and there were more locals going about their daily routines. The Çamlıca Mosque we saw there was my absolute favorite. The sun illuminated the beautiful art carved into the marble stone. Due to it being a little farther away from the main city, we were probably four of twenty people there. The gardens around were also beautiful as was the inside of the mosque which was astronomically huge and tall.
We took a ferry ride back to our hotel later that day. It was then that the family debated switching routes and going to Greece or Bulgaria. (We were becoming disillusioned with inflation, the bland food, and the challenge of booking onward hotels during an unexpected Holiday (Eid al-Adha) Even our hotel host implied we should have gone to Greece). We hadn't picked up the rental car yet so we were considering changing paths. In the end we decided to stick with our route because there would be a lot of unknowns if we did.
The next day we traveled by tram to the car rental place and set off for our first roadtrip destination, Troy. Çanakkale was a resting point to see the iconic Trojan Horse replica. We walked along the port to stretch our legs before heading further south. There we saw the actual ruins of the ancient Trojan civilization. This was our first glimpse of ruins. We drove farther south, stopping to see the temple of Athena at Asos. It was at the top of a mountain village and the views were worth the hike up. The Aegean Sea below us was beautiful and looked crystal clear, framed by Greek islands in the distance.
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| Temple of Athena at Asos |
Our second hotel of the trip in Ayvalik was probably the worst. There seemed to be an unfortunate sewer backup while we were there causing the room to not smell so good. The house we stayed in was shared by many people including the owner and his family. They were nice but did not speak a lick of English and smoked indoors. The hotel was close enough to the coast where we could enjoy a day at the beach. I wish we could have spent more time in this region but I'm the only one in the family that likes the beach. Genna is allergic to the sun.
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| Quaint alleyways in Ayvalik |
Our favorite word of the trip was probably ‘promenading’. Here we promenaded along the harbor looking out at the bay. A little bit inland was a street of shops that were surprisingly cheap for a tourist town. I really enjoyed walking around that town and there were cats everywhere. Baby cats! And they were really cute. We had a seafood dinner that night. Genna had mussels, Papa had sardines, Mom had fried anchovies, and I had fish. Then we topped off the night with ice cream and headed home. But not before realizing that we had a leaking tire.
We were driving along hoping to find a gas station. Mom was trying to navigate to one and we passed many. I don't know why we didn't stop but eventually we settled on one. The gas station attendant (they have those there) didn't speak much English so he was confused about what we were trying to say. Eventually, they had an English-speaking guy talk to us and he told us to follow his buddy, a mechanic. So we follow the motorcycle mechanic to his warehouse in the dark. In the back of my mind I was a little scared we might get killed but everything worked out fine and we got our tire fixed for 15 bucks. We got home late that night, tired.
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| We blindly followed the moped mechanic to his shop and when we arrived at Point B we realized we had driven 3 km directly behind our starting point (the gas station at Point A). The late hour and dark rural route to our destination conjured up scenarios of being abducted with our 2 teen girls, but the mechanic was honest as can be and promptly patched us up. The 3 km detour remains a mystery, perhaps he did not like making left turns (or as we discovered on the highway system on our roadtrip, Turks have come up with all sorts of convolutions for left turns and divided highways). |
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| Exploring Bergama Archeological Site |
The next day we drove to another ruin spot at Bergama. I think these were my favorite ruins of the entire trip. There were no real trails at this place so you could really go wherever you wanted. The highlight of this site was the amphitheater. It was the steepest one of the trip and it was well preserved. This was such a cool thing to see. After that, we headed down to the City and walked around the Museum after eating our grocery store lunch. The museum was extensive and very informative but that day Gen and I ran around just laughing at each other and having fun in the precious A/C. I think we were just slap happy from being in the car for too long. We then went to an art museum in Izmir which was cool. I liked the old art better than the new. They had a wall that would move when you touched it that was made out of wood. Izmir had another bazaar where we got our first Turkish coffee and our last. Turkish coffee is very gritty. It's like they don't filter out the grounds. In that bazaar, we met a very enthusiastic guy who spoke broken English but he was excited to be talking to Americans.
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| A Turkish Coffee served with a shot of Sherbet which is a little like a grapey, diluted, apple cider vinegar. |
Our next hotel, Nazar, in the city of Selçuk, in my opinion, was the best. The guy at the front desk was very hospitable and spoke perfect English. He recommended so many good places to go around the town. It was the hottest during our trip here, in the hundreds. I was so glad that that hotel had a pool. The courtyard was very nice. The staff there were wonderful and very helpful. The main attraction of this town was Ephesus where the ancient library was. We woke up early to beat the crowds, which worked. While we were walking out of the park, we saw throngs of tour bus groups. The library was beautiful and we got there before anyone so we had it all to ourselves. The amphitheater there was also a highlight. We checked out a preserved ancient dwelling (The Terrace Houses) of about six houses where the people used to live. The mosaics on the floor were very impressive.
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| The photo does not do justice to the intricate carvings of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus. |
Later we drove up the mountain to a family restaurant in the village of Şirince, recommended by our hotel owner. They had an old lady making the fresh pasta (manti) and crepes (gözleme) as we walked in. That was one of the best meals we had on the trip. The view from the restaurant was also beautiful looking through the mountains and over the valley where the houses were. In Selçuk we also tried pide, the Turkish pizza. It was really good.
On the drive to the next location, we stopped at some ruins at Nysa that were completely devoid of people. We saw more Roman aqueducts and more amphitheaters and we even got to go in an underground tunnel. This one was very very cool since there were no people around.
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| A tunnel under Nysa |
Our next destination was the travertine of Pamukkale. These turquoise-blue pools spill down cliffs of calcium carbonate. The pools were cold on the mountain but further back was the antique pool where you could swim in ancient ruins. This pool is warm as it was the start of a thermal spring. While we were sitting at a picnic table this kitten was lying on it, too. We were all petting it when some random guy walked up to the table and snatched it away. We then saw him bring the cat to the guard standing nearby who didn't know what to do with it. I thought that was funny. It was not a solitary, problematic stray. There were random cats and dogs all over the place.
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| The Cleopatra Antik Pool at Heiropolis. So touristy and warm! |
The next couple days of driving was a combination of more ruins so I won't bore you with talking about it, you can just look at the pictures.
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| A temple at Aphrodisia |
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| Travertine terraces at Pamukkale |
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| Refurbished Mosaics at Laodikeia. We would have loved to know more about the process of archaeological discoveries and how they are recreated and displayed. Without exception, the English translations on interpretive signs were pasted in with an obvious lack of proofreading by a native English speaker. |
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| The running fountain at the Forum of Sagalassos |
We drove to Lake Eğirdir where our hotel was on a little peninsula sticking out into the middle of the lake. We thought we could get a boat tour going to the nicest beaches around. But when we talked to the tourist booth lady she said they had no boat tours and it didn't look like anyone was out on boats, so we had to abandon that idea and just go to a beach. Surprisingly, the beaches there were slim pickings and you had to pay for every one, no matter the quality. Altınkum beach had a smell I could not get over, maybe from the decaying seaweed or algae, but I would just not get in the water that day. We had some nice meals in this town and we ate this odd food, Çiğ köfte. It was like a beef paste but raw, wrapped in a tortilla with vegetables. I didn't know it was raw beef at the time but looking back it wasn't that bad.
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| Eğirdir was picturesque, but we had a hard time finding things to do, in contrast to what our Lonely Planet promised. |
Maya negelcted to recall MY favorite stop at Midas Kenti in Yazılıkaya. This monument is located in the Phrygian Valley, a region with a tempting long trail. While the Golden Touch is a myth, there was a ruler named King Midas in this region during the late 8th century BC. Fact and fiction aside, this area enchanted me with its Seussical rock formations and a pleasant hour-long hike we took around the cliff dwellings and ancient cisterns.
Midas Monument
The next hotel we stayed at was über modern and it had a very dark theme which we weren't used to. Eskişehir was a nice little city to stop in and it had a river that divided the city but it was much smaller than the one in Istanbul, obviously. While Mom rested, Papa, Genna, and I went around looking for a ‘Migros’ or supermarket. We stocked up on fruit, cheese, yogurt, and bread. I can't remember what we had for dinner that night (it was a ketchup-y döner wrap) I just remember the ice cream. I got raspberry and it was very good. This town seemed to be the hot spot of fancy dresses because in every street we walked by it would just be store upon store of these fancy dresses. We only had one night in this city but it was a very pleasant one and I enjoyed walking around the river at night.
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| Riverside Promenade in Eskişehir |
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| Artichoke vendor in the market at Bursa |
The next city was Bursa. It is on the other side of the Marmara Sea from Istanbul and we were nearing the end of the trip. We tried going on some cable cars up the mountain but the price for foreigners was insane. We instead tried to kill some time before a hotel check in by exploring some museums. Our hotel in Bursa was very old but nice. We were on the top floor and our window overlooked a main street near the Grand Mosque. I also enjoyed walking around this city at night. We had a really good ‘döner’ or shawarma at a small restaurant and then bought some baklava which was very good. Here there was also a very large market, or bazaar, which had a variety of textiles, food, meat, nuts, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and much more. In the middle of the bazaar, there was a small courtyard with an even smaller mosque in the middle. After one night here we had to head back to Istanbul to return our car and begin the journey home.
During the drive back to Istanbul, we took a scenic detour to the coast of the Black Sea. We stopped at some beautiful views. The cliffs and the turquoise water were breathtaking. The beaches were expensive so we kept on driving to our hotel near the airport.
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| The Black Sea looking so enticing, yet inaccessible |
The hotel airport was as expected. We had to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to get to the airport. There were four security checkpoints; two in Istanbul and two in Paris. Genna and I both got patted down at all four checkpoints. This has never ever happened to me. The even weirder thing was when we were in Paris, Genna’s and my boarding passes didn't scan on the machine so we had to step aside and get drug tested. It was really weird but we eventually boarded the plane and made it back home. The flight seemed two times longer than it was on the way there.
Türkiye will not be remembered as our favorite trip, but it did have its moments. Despite being heavy on archaeology and light on beaches, I think at least 3 of us really enjoyed walking amongst such significant historical and cultural landmarks. The girls will always smile when they hear the word promenade or think about their night and day tans. And, mark his words, Jeff says this will be our last big family trip! (28 hours of travel just to reach your destination will inspire retirement). The lack of pre-planning has made me more interested in researching Türkiye post-trip, and I hope to learn more about archaeology, ancient timelines, and Turkish cooking. We could have given Türkiye more of a fair shake and expanded our itinerary to Cappadocia and the Turquoise Mediterranean Coast. Or even had the courtesy to learn more Turkish phrases and pony up for more enticing food. But as intrepid as our travel may seem on the surface, we don't stray too far from our comfort zones of budget, socialization, and sand in our pants, even to the detriment of enjoyment at times. Güle Güle, Türkiye! (which means "goodbye", and was a phrase we did not utter once because we are linguistically lazy Americans.) Güle, and sorry we could not meet on better circumstances.
