No Moss For Us

We are….

… bereft.

We woke up at 3:45am this morning for our much anticipated sunrise hot air balloon ride over the lunar landscape of Cappadoccia. We were picked up and taken to an early, early breakfast where we kept checking a monitor, waiting for it to turn green as a “thumbs up” for takeoff. In short, the winds picked up and sadly the monitor turned red: all flights were grounded / cancelled 🙁

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This meant no balloon ride for us on this trip, as there was no chance to reschedule given our itinerary. However, there was a silver lining: we got to go back to sleep for a few hours before our day tour! We napped and then spent the day touring the surrounding valleys:

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and seeing the famous “mushroom” towers:

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(The above is a panorama, so click on it to see all the details!)

and exploring 4,000 year old underground “cities”:

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We certainly made the most of the situation, but as you can imagine, quite bummed about our bad luck. Fortunately, we see this as a clear sign: we’ll most definitely have to come back at some point!

– G

Grant & Jess Turkey

Fairy Chimneys

It took a morning of travel, but we finally arrived in Cappadocia (more specifically the town of Göreme)!

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We’ll be spending the night in a 1,500 year old room that had previously been both a Chapel and a dove cote in previous lives. Oh, and did we mention it’s carved into a “Fairy Chimney” (unique rock formations that look kinda like stone mushrooms)?

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We grabbed a quick lunch of what was basically lamb enchiladas, the split the day between exploring the Göreme Open Air Museum and hiking through “Love Valley”.

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The museum was a bunch of 900 year old rock spires (circa 11th century) that had been homes and churches for those living in the area. The mind-boggling thing about the churches is that many of their frescos are in great shape as the rock caves shield them from the elements and the sun.

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On the way back into town, we cut through Love Valley, which offered great views of many different rock formations.

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We were accompanied for most of the way by two very friendly dogs – sometimes it seemed like they were almost guiding the way!

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Midway through the hike, we realized we were running out of time to make it to Sunset Point, some some cross country hiking began, culminating in a 45° scramble up the side of the Valley. Well worth it for the view:

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On our way to dinner, we ran into a friend of Grant’s from Brazil – totally universed!

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And then wheeled our way into Topdeck Cave Restaurant without a reservation by promising to eat faster than the other tourists. We then bolted down a delicious mixed appetizer (meze) plate followed by the tenderest of lamb dishes. Dessert was soft ovals of flour and butter covered in grape syrup and walnuts called “aside”.

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Oh, and did we mention this meal wasn’t enjoyed on the ‘top deck’ but in a cave!

[Panorama — click for a full view!]

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-G & J

Grant & Jess Turkey

Travertine Dreams

We woke up to yet another view of the castle from our balcony. A quick Turkish Breakfast at our hotel, and we hit the road to head east. Our first stop was to Kaklik Magarasi, which is a cave filled with travertine pools and formations (travertine is essentially dissolved calcium that deposits slowly over time).

 From there we drove to one of the crown jewels of Turkey: Hieropolis & Pamukkale.

Hieropolis was an ancient Roman city which was bustling around the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. We walked through the ruins, which included a massive graveyard of stone tombs, latrines, temples, and gorgeous stone arch gates into and out of the city.

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Hieropolis abuts a massive travertine waterfall formation: Pammukale. Pammukale is literally hundreds of feet of pure white calcium formation, of which only a few azure pools remain at the top (sadly a water diversion project has left this natural beauty largely dry). We waded around the warm pools, and of course, grabbed a pistachio ice cream cone.

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We then drove to the city of Denizli for a quick dinner. A little wandering and some luck led us to exactly what we were looking for: Lahmacun!!! They were closing but warmly  invited us in. As we enjoyed some minced spiced lamb pizza bliss and sipped ayran (a delicious Turkish yogurt drink), we also got to watch the Turkish version of ‘Survivor’. Does it get any better than this?!

 – G

Grant & Jess Turkey

Exploring Ephesus

We left Marmaris bright and early by bus, with only a slight concern as to if we were going to the right place (people kept saying Dalaman but all the signs said Havalimani which turned out to mean airport in Turkish) and picked up our car. For the next 2 days, it was just us, our mighty Renault Fluency and the open road.

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First stop was a nearby park, where we used our newly learned Turkish to order ( 2 water = iki su) and managed not to accidentally double the amount of food.

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Then straight on to Ephesus, a 3,000 year old city that had been inhabited by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines at some point in its long history.

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Once we parked at the bottom, we took a free shuttle that stops at the government-sponsored school for Turkish carpet making and learned a ton about the different styles and materials used to make these beautiful rugs. For example, we learned that you can use different materials for the weave (ie: wool on cotton or silk on silk) and that the quality of a rug can be seen in its tassels. Who knew? We also saw the finest “rug” in the world, which had 4,000 knots per square inch (which is amazing when you think the average rug has 180)!

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Then on to the ruins! We saw temples, tried to puzzle out inscriptions, strolled down column-lined agoras (long marketplace streets) and practiced our oration in the huge Amphitheater.

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– J & G

Grant & Jess Turkey

Wild Marmaris nights

Though Marmaris is traditionally one of the three starting/ending points of the Turkish cruises, it surprisingly doesn’t feel like a huge tourist trap, yet. It definitely has all the hallmarks of such a place: an overabundance of bars promising cheap hooch, hawkers desperately trying to get you to take “just one look, my friend!” and so forth, but the fact that the foreign tourists are equal if not out numbered by Turks definitely helps.

It was our last night with our Blue Cruise compatriots, so we wanted to make the most of it. We started off with a whole fish dinner that the crew had caught for us.

imageThen we headed back into town to experience the nightlife, and examine all the comfy chairs!

imageAs there was also a local soccer match between rivals being played for the championship, so we also had a great time observing the antics at neighboring bars, including vigorous shirt spinning and plenty of flares and smoke bombs, capped off by a honking cheering scooter parade.

[Video of scooters here]

– J

Grant & Jess Turkey

Cruising the Turkish Riviera

If there was a short list of the most supremely relaxing things one can do in this world, taking a Blue Cruise on a Turkish Gulet has to be near the top! 3 days and nights where the only thing you have to worry about is sunburn, and the hardest part of the day is deciding between napping or diving into the crystal clear water. If it sounds like heaven, it pretty much is. (Also no phone or WiFi service, which is why this post is so tardy!)

  
Our evenings were filled with silly games taught to us by our crew, which included Grant and another passenger, Rory, getting tied together with string and having to try to escape.

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Now we’re in port at Marmaris, relaxing next to a pretty promenade and playing backgammon while we wait for what has been discussed as an epic night out on the town (no strings attached this time).

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– J

Grant & Jess Turkey

Getting to Fethiye!

We arrived in Istanbul, and two buses later settled into our AirBnB by the domestic airport. A short walk to dinner, where we ate iskender at ‘baydöner’. We tried to order one 1.5 portion but miscommunication got us TWO 1.5 portions of amazing thin doner over chopped bread with a red tomato sauce on top which THEN also had hot frothy spiced oil poured over the top.  

 

For dessert, we had knefe (sp?) a birds nest pastry, very sweet with cheese at the middle and heavy whipped cream + pistachios on top.

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Then next morning we got up at 3am to get to the airport and start our cruise around the Turkish Riviera! 

  
Talk to you in three days cause we’ll be completely off the grid!

-J & G

Grant & Jess Turkey