After several long days of hiking through Cappadocia and along Pamukkale, not to mention a less than restful overnight bus adventure, it was time to relax for several days along the Mediterranean. We took a shorter bus to Fethiye (Fet-e-yay), and one last one to Izmir. We opted not to tour around much, and just enjoy walking along the seaside. Finally it was time to visit Istanbul for real (and not just the Airport), where we got one last dose of history before a fun cruise to say farewell to Turkiye!
Fethiye
The bus station in Denizli is so large that it took us longer to find where our bus would be parked than it did to get to the bus station. We got some confusing directions at first but eventually someone knew which number stall this bus would arrive at (out of 70+). It wasn’t one of the larger coach buses like what we took on the overnight, either, it was a smaller 20 passenger bus and was on a different floor than where we arrived. Really made me appreciate knowing the right number for the Pamukkale bus!
This bus was only about 4 hours, and nearly empty, so it was a very quiet ride. Since this ride was completely in daylight, we could enjoy the scenery and appreciate all of the mountains we had to drive over. Sure they weren’t huge mountains but that is part of why it does take so long to drive through the country. Several blogs we read suggested driving yourself around the country because the roads are very well maintained and signage makes things easy, as long as you stay out of Istanbul! We did consider it but since we knew we’d have several down days, we didn’t want to have to traverse the 3, 11-15 hour segments ourselves.
Finally we arrived in Fethiye and it was an easy taxi ride to our hotel just off the sea. They had a really cute display of towels on the bed when we arrived, and just look at these colors for the sunset!
That evening we had ourselves some pasta and were tempted by this ice cream that’s “as cold as your ex-girlfriend’s heart”.
Our full day there we walked both directions about as far as we could go along the sea just chatting and people watching, and scoping out other restaurants for dinner. When we needed to, we went back to the hotel to cool off and work on a post or two. For dinner we found somewhere to get more Turkish Ravioli, sigara boregi (cheese rolls), pizza and Raki! We got to enjoy dinner as the sunset over the sea.
Izmir
We had one last long bus in Turkiye to take us to Izmir, but now we were back on the larger Coach that was fairly full. There were even a few that brought their cats with them. One would meow loudly whenever her mother left the bus without her, or would be on a leash when she did go outside.
After about 5-6 hours we made it to the Izmir bus station and managed to find the right bus that took us near our hotel. There was supposed to be some sort of machine or stand that could sell us reloadable cards but we couldn’t find that, so we just hoped we could use our credit cards. Unfortunately, Mr. Wander’s main contactless card he was using didn’t work for him, and I couldn’t scan a second time with mine. We were unfortunately holding up the whole bus and I didn’t even think about getting my Google pay app open to use a different card, so this woman asked if we needed help and she gave him one of her passes on her reloadable card, it was so nice of her! I tried giving her the equivalent cost in Lira but she wouldn’t take it. Such kindness!
We made it to our hotel room, which in this hotel they had several themed rooms, ours was “Earth”. I am curious what some of the others might have been like but it was interesting for something different. Since it had been a long day on the bus we didn’t venture far and just got dinner in the hotel, which of course had to include sigara boregi!
Our hotel’s buffet breakfast was pretty impressive, they had so many different kinds of cheese, it practically had it’s own island in the middle.
I think we explored even less of Izmir, but we did do a walk in a park, to the sea, and a little bit into the old town. I really loved seeing all the gorgeous dress and wedding shops. We had a giant late lunch where I tried a kebab plate and this time they gave me a whole tray of spices to try with the meat! I’m not sure what they all were but they were all definitely delicious, and none were overly spicy.
One thing that really surprised us was just how cool it was in Izmir, I was walking with my fleece, although it did get warm after walking in the sun. It was about 60F (15C)!
Istanbul, not Constantinople
It was a no-brainer to take a flight this time, since it was direct to Istanbul and only about 45 minutes, compared to an 8 hour bus ride. When we were in the lounge waiting for the flight, we had an opportunity to finally try the Ayran milk drink. I never wanted to buy it or commit to it on a plane in case I didn’t like it. Mr. Wander didn’t mind too much but wow was it not for me! I prefer my milk sweet! I did have delicious apple flavored sparkling water that really hit the spot though. I think I had 2-3 while we waited.
Once arriving in Istanbul, we purchased a metro card and found our way to our hotel quite easily. It was surprisingly even more cool than Izmir! We spent a few days relaxing and taking the time to complete the plan for some of the next few countries, including some complicated flights involving where we’re going in January (spoiler, we’re venturing back out next year!). It was time well spent though, because utilizing points, a companion pass, and choosing my cities carefully I managed to save us at least $2000 across 4 different flight itineraries! Now I don’t analyze every flight like this, but when you are changing continents that’s where you can really get the most out of your time doing the research.
Due to availability, we ended up booking both tours in Istanbul on the same day, which was also our last full day in Turkiye. First was a walking tour which took us to all the major highlights including the Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, a Roman cistern, a rug shop, and the Grand Bazaar.
Our hotel was close enough that we were able to walk, which was nice as the tram was so busy during rush hour! We walked to the German Monument where we met up with our tour group. Here we met several from Europe and the US, and the funny part was two of the groups were from cities where we were headed in the next week: Leicester in the UK and Utrecht, Netherlands.
A brief history of Istanbul, it has been known by two other names in its history. It was founded by Greek settlers in the 7th Century BC as Byzantium, named after Byzas, the son of the God Poseidon. When Constantine the Great conquered the city in the year 330, it became capital of the Byzantine empire but he renamed the city first to New Rome, but eventually to Constantinople, after himself. This name remained even after it became under control of the Ottoman Empire, but it was still the capital city. In 1930 with the establishment of the Republic of Turkiye, the capital was moved to Ankara and the city was renamed Istanbul. It was a name that was occasionally used by the Ottoman Empire. The Greek translation is “to the city” but in Persian and other western Asian languages, “istan” is often used to refer to land, or a settlement, which is why so many countries end with “-istan”.
We started our tour walking to the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque. As I mentioned in the last post, this was the spiritual center for the Eastern Orthodox church for nearly 1000 years. It was captured during the fourth crusade in the 1200s and briefly turned into a Christian Church, but was given back to the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Byzantine Empire was restored. Eventually, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman empire in 1453 and it was converted into a mosque.
As part of the conversion, the bells, altar, and all iconography had to be removed, which means the beautiful mosaics were removed or plastered over. It was closed to the public in 1931 and turned into a museum in 1935. in 2020 this was overturned and is once again a practicing mosque, although the top level is still used as a museum on all days except Friday when it is reserved for Prayer.
You can start to see where some of the plaster has degraded and started to fall. In one earthquake, the plaster covering a beautiful mosaic of Mary was revealed. Because it was in the main worship area, they instead covered it with a sheet, and you can get a small glimpse in the corner of the mosaic.
Another interesting part of the conversion is the direction of worship. The Orthodox church was built to face East, or more specifically, Jerusalem. Prayer in Islam, however, must be directed toward Mecca. Istanbul is close enough to both of these places that the angle is at least 5 degrees different, so the entire worship floor is oriented slightly to the right.
One thing you will see prominently in mosques is the calligraphy giving the names of Allah (God), the prophet Mohammed and his grandsons; Hasan & Hussein. Depending on the branch of Islam you may also see the four caliphs, that are like the first popes of Islam, like you see here.
Before I give you the smattering of pictures from the rest of the Hagia Sophia, I wanted to point out one funny thing. It’s easy to romanticize people “back in the day” as being so wise in their building of all these landmarks, conquering nations, and discovering new lands, however it is good to find things like in the picture above that prove we’re all still human. Runes were found on a railing of the second level which has been well worn, but is thought to have said “Halvdan carved these ruins”, which in modern times might be written as “Halvdan was here”.
In some of these pictures you can really see just how ornate the mosaics are underneath the plaster. In the picture with all the people, the bottom halves of those mosaics are missing as people have taken a piece for their own personal religious artifact or souvenir over the centuries.
The next stop was the Palace nearby which is where the sultans lived, along with many concubines. Sultans did not marry so they would not have personal ties to anyone, but any son of a concubine could be next in succession, usually based on which concubine was the favorite of the Sultan. Concubines were essentially woman slaves, and would be kept in “quarantine” for 9 months to ensure they did not have a child from any other man before lying with the Sultan.
We went inside several palace buildings, and it was all surrounding a lovely central garden. Many of the rooms inside the sultan’s living quarters of the palace were so ornate, and every one had some sort of tap to create the white noise of running water, prevent any eavesdropping on the Sultan’s private audiences. One Sultan was paranoid about being murdered in his bath that he had locked gates put in the bath house. The Sultan was not without guards, Eunichs that were bought as slaves from Africa lived in the Palace grounds as well, but they were known to be extremely loyal and were treated well with nicer living quarters than most of the concubines.
That room with the four poster bed actually had two in different corners for optimal temperature between summer and winter seasons. A later Sultan built on a second bedroom to be his sleeping room and turned this one in to his dressing room. It isn’t like he hung all his clothes like a closet, instead in all of the cubbies there would be a mannaquin head with a turban. He just had to point to one and the corresponding outfit would be brought to him to be dressed.
The last building we visited was the treasure house. We had to get in a line as they staggered entry to prevent too large of crowds inside, and also the tour guides could not join us to reduce congestion. Most people seemed excited about some of the larger diamonds and gems but I was thoroughly impressed by the delicate work of some of the other pieces, especially some of the covers for the Qur’an. The best part of this building though was the view of the sea and Bosphorus Strait.
I was ready to leave the Palace as it was getting very busy of several tours and others visiting the area on their own, plus it was time for lunch! They arranged a lunch for us at a spot that seemed to cater to tour groups. I especially enjoyed the red lentil soup that came out first but I was too hungry and never took a picture. I wanted to take a cooking class while in Istanbul but just couldn’t find one that worked with the days we were there, so that is something I would love to do when we go back someday!
After lunch we headed to the Blue Mosque, which is officially the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, named after the Sultan who commissioned the build. In Turkey, most people do not know it by the name Blue Mosque, so if you try to go there I wouldn’t tell that to your taxi driver, it is best to use Sultan Ahmet Mosque instead. The name was given by some Author or travel writer, I cannot remember who the guide said, but only those outside Turkiye really know it as blue.
The blue tiles inside are what has given it its nickname, but in the current restoration has become a more muted, almost teal color of blue, and in my picture I looks even less blue than I remember. It is absolutely spectacular, and was so beautiful. You might see hanging from the giant chandelier some ostrich eggs. Our guide told us it is used to prevent spiders inside the building as they smell the ostrich and stay away, but they must be replaced every 25 years. That is one method of pest repellent I’ve never heard before! As this is an active mosque and people were actively praying in one corded of sector, we all had to have head coverings out of respect, and even the men needed their knees covered if their shorts were too short. It was handy to break out my wrap I got in Thailand again, although it is a bit too thick to use it for this purpose for too long.
Next we walked back near the German Fountain where two other monuments were, part of an obelisk and a serpent column. There used to be a whole line of monuments at one point as this was the center for the track of an ancient Roman Hippodrome, made for chariot races. Most of the statues missing were metal and were taken by the Crusaders that defeated the city in the 13th century. The obelisk is actually from Luxor, Egypt, and was stolen by this one man, but they broke it as it was being lowered for transport. It was still quite a feat of engineering to move what they did retrieve, it was taken sideways across several ships across the Mediterranean. At the bottom, the man signed his name saying he erected the obelisk, but the ruler of Constantinople at the time felt he failed since part of the Obelisk was missing. After the ruler passed, the original architect replaced his name once again.
To get an idea of what the Hippodrome looked like, we visited a mini museum in an old cistern nearby, but first we needed to experience a Turkish Rug shop presentation since that was built on top of the cistern. It was a much shorter one than what we experienced as part of our Ephesus tour on the Cruise excursion and I still got to enjoy a cup of tea. Once we got downstairs it was immediate that you could feel the humidity. Much of where we were standing would have been full of water at the time it was used by the city.
There were a set of horse statues that were removed at the time of the Crusades and are currently in the Vatican. I might have actually seen them and not realized they used to be from here! Our last stop was the Grand Bazaar, but on the way I had to sneak a picture of these cute kitties taking a nap. We didn’t go too deep through it, and from where we were at it felt much like a modern mall, way different than I expected. Our guide explained most of the shops we saw from the main path where we entered were jewelry or metal shops full of chains, bracelets, necklaces, and other gifts made of precious metals that would be gifted to a newly married couple. This is instead of giving cash, they could sell the pieces as needed to be used for a new car or home purchase.
Our guide took us to a shop full of tea leaves, spices, Turkish delight and other treats. The whole shop smelled so delicious with all the teas and spices on display. They gave us a tea and explained the difference between Turkish delight that is more processed and made from artificial flavors and processed sugar, usually looking like square jellies covered in powdered sugar; and the one made with natural ingredients, sweetened with honey, layered in a roll and sliced to serve. It was SO delicious and much better than the processed ones I had tried so far at buffets and those the hotel gave us in our room in the picture below (full disclosure, I forgot to get a picture of the tastier natural ones so I found a free stock photo). I would love to learn to make this some day! Definitely need to find a good Turkish cooking class on our next visit!
Our guide ended the tour here, but recommended going off the main path as it gets better the farther you go in, but my foot was starting to bother me again after being on it all day. The nice thing about ending at the Bazaar is that it was closer to our hotel and we only had about a block to get back. We took time to put up our feet and relax until it was time to take the tram to our next adventure, a cruise on the Bosphorus Striat!
It was a plated meal and we opted for the drink package since it was only a few dollars more, and I was excited for a few last glasses of Raki! Overall the meal was quite nice, and we enjoyed the performers dancing, However I’m not sure how much of it was traditional beyond the dervishes, it seemed very modern. We also didn’t enjoy the view too much, I popped out twice to take some pictures but it was pretty cold to stay out for very long.
Despite what the cup said, I had tea instead of coffee, but Mr. Wander enjoyed me holding a cup that said “Coffee”, as he insists I will like it some day. Right now I can only enjoy the flavor when there’s copious amounts of sugar and rum involved, like in Tiramisu or Kahlua. It was a fun evening overall and a great farewell to Turkiye!
Next time
Once again we are returning to a country we have already been…twice. I told you we’d go back to the UK, although this time we stayed within England. We got to see a comedian I really like, met up with our friends from the Egypt trip, and got to spy a few white cliffs before ferrying back to the EU. We ate our way through Brussels, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam while meeting up with another friend and capping it all off with the notorious windmills. In short everything we missed in our first experience in Amsterdam when we got sick!