Turkey Diaries - Day 9 - Istanbul

On Sunday, after breakfast at our hotel, our first stop was the Dolmabahce Palace.

This palace was built in the 19th Century by the Ottoman Sultan of the time. It faces the sea and is a majestic building. The difference between this palace and the earlier Topkapi Palace is that the design and architecture is predominantly European in this one. It's a modern palace in many ways but in some ways it still conforms to the traditional culture of excess and vanity of the Ottoman Sultans. For instance, although the paintings are by the European artists, there is still a Harem. The funny thing is that in the main/administrative section, the paintings depict wars and soldiers and kings whereas the paintings in the Harem are mostly of inanimate objects and no portraits at all. We found that very sexist. There is a humongous ceremonial hall that has a chandelier of crystal that weighs 4.5 tonnes. The hall itself is more like a stadium with ceiling/dome as high as some 100 meters!

After Dolmabahce Palace, we had lunch in the adjacent cafe that had a view of the Marmara sea. Then we went on a cruise of the Bosphorus River. This river passes through the city of Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. There are castles, palaces, mosques and a fortress on the European side whereas the Asian side mostly has summer homes of rich people with a couple of palaces and one fortress. The cruise itself was very relaxing.

After the cruise, we stopped at our hotel for a little while before going for dinner at a restaurant in Sultanahmet that also had a whirling dervish show after dinner. After the show, we came back and went to sleep. Overall, Sunday was a much more relaxing day than most days we've had on this trip.

Turkey Diaries - Day 8 - Istanbul

Today/Saturday, we woke up at 9 am and had breakfast at our hotel.

Our first stop was Topkapi Palace. It is a palace that was used by most sultans of the Ottoman Empire. It's a huge facility with various sections - sultan's quarters, sultan's privy space, council/court for hearing petitions, kitchens, courtyards, princes' chambers, library, treasury - and all of them are immense in size. The main highlight was relics from Prophet Muhammad's time including his personal artifacts and his companions' belongings. It was also interesting to see the treasures stored in their treasury - gifts from various other kingdoms for the Ottoman Empire, loot from wars and historical artifacts. The crown jewel here is an 82 karat diamond clear as water. We also saw the Harem section of the palace and it was very instructive about the life of luxury and excess that all the Ottoman kings lived. After spending 3.5 hours exploring Topkapi Palace, we went to see two other museums that are located within the larger boundary of the Topkapi Palace area and are called the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul. Both these museums had artifacts from the ancient Roman and Mesopotamian era but these museums weren't as interesting as seeing the Roman ruins at the original site of Ephesus in Izmir earlier in the trip.

Then we had traditional Turkish lunch of kababs at a nearby restaurant. After lunch, we saw the Basilica Cistern. It's a huge underground water storage facility - 230 feet by 460 feet with 300 plus columns and the height/depth is around 50 feet. It was used by Romans to store water in case there was a siege of Constantinople. An interesting quirk is that at the base of two columns, there are two Medusa heads - one upside down and one tilted to one side. No one knows why they are there. Medusa is believed to be a woman from Mythical times who turned anyone into stone who looked at her and legend has it that she had snakes instead of hair.

After Basilica Cistern, we went to the Galata Tower. There was an almost 1.5 hour line outside this tower. This tower was used as a guard tower by keeping a lookout for approaching enemies. It give an excellent panoramic view of Istanbul from the top. After Galata Tower, we had dinner at Taksim Square and came back to our hotel. Off to sleep now. Till the next update, bye!

Turkey Diaries - Day 7 - Istanbul

On Friday, we woke up at 9 am, had complimentary breakfast provided by our hotel and then asked the management to change our room since it was very small. The one that they gave us wasn't much bigger but it had a better floor plan. After changing rooms, we left for our touristy day.

Our first stop was the famous Blue Mosque. The locals call it the Sultanahmet Mosque, after the Sultan who ordered the construction of this mosque. By the time we got there, the Friday prayer had just ended so we prayed Zuhr in congregation. The mosque is fabulous and has a grand building. We also saw the remnants of an Egyptian Hippodrome - just one pillar is left now. This used to be the arena where chariots races were held when the Romans had Istanbul (or Constantinople) as the capital of their empire.

Then we saw the highlight of our trip so far - the Hagia Sophia. It used to be a church and had to be reconstructed after burning down twice during its long history as a church. When Sultan Ahmet took over Constantinople, he converted the church to a mosque by adding minarets. Hagia Sophia remained a church for some 900 years and then a mosque for some 400 years before the secular government of Mustafa Kamal (affectionately called Ataturk which means father of Turks) declared it a museum. The building is just a fascinating juxtaposition of Islam and Christianity. Paintings of Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist along with Quranic verses along with crosses and calligraphic names of Allah, Prophet Muhammad, the four Caliphs and the prophet's two grandsons - you see it all there. After spending about 3 hours at the Hagia Sophia, we had supper at a restaurant.

Then we went to the Grand Bazaar - it has about 4000 shops and all of them are in a covered facility. We window shopped there for about an hour and also got some Turkish Apple Tea. After that, we went to Istanbul's Times Square - the Taksim square. It really is the face of modern Turkey, specially the nearby Istaklal Street with all kinds of European and North American chains, malls, clubs and cafes. We went to a mall, had some snacks since we were tired of all the walking and needed to rest. After that, we got a massage at one of the massage chairs at the mall that operate with coins - a much needed recovery.

Then we got back to our hotel and are off to sleep now. Tomorrow's going to be another touristy day with lots planned. You'll hear about it in the next update, tomorrow :)

Turkey Diaries - Day 6 - Cappadocia to Istanbul

On Thursday, we woke up at 4 am to get ready for our 4:50 am pickup for the hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia. The skill of the balloon pilots is surprising. There were more than 50 balloons in the air with on average 20 people in each of them and yet it all went smoothly. The terrain that you get to see from above is quite varied - volcanic complexes, cinder cones, fairy chimneys and volcaniclastic rocks in different colors of red, white, green and brown. It was a magical experience and we came down after about an hour in the sky when the sun started going up.

After the hot air balloon ride, we went for the "Green Tour" or a tour of Southern Cappadocia that started with a tour of an underground city that the ancient Christians used to hide from the armies of Pagan Romans. After that we went for a 3.5 km hike in a valley. During the hike, we saw a church that's literally "under a tree". We also stopped to enjoy Turkey's special apple tea. After the hike, we had lunch with our tour group and then went to see the largest cave monastery of Cappadocia. There was lots of driving involved in all this so we used some of that time to catch up on sleep. We barely made it to our airport shuttle bus after the tour but the tour company was nice enough to accommodate our schedule and dropped us off in time to catch the shuttle bus. The shuttle took us to the Kayseri airport and then we took a flight to Istanbul, our fourth and last city of this trip - after Amsterdam, Izmir/Kusadasi and Cappadocia. We reached our hotel in Istanbul at around 1 am and went to sleep right away.

Turkey Diaries - Day 5 - Izmir to Cappadocia

We woke up at 3 am in Kusadasi and reached our final destination of Goreme (a town of Cappadocia) around noon - after a taxi from our hotel in Kusadasi to the bus station and a bus to the Izmir airport followed by two flights, Izmir to Istanbul and Istanbul to Kayseri followed by an hour long shuttle bus from Kayseri to Goreme. We are staying in a cave hotel - yes, it's built inside a cave formation. It's an ultimately cool experience and we are loving it!

After freshening up, we went to see the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's an impressive chain of connected caves that were inhabited by early Christians of this area. There are numerous churches inside the cave range and the wall murals carved on stone in all these churches are extremely fascinating. The best preserved of them is the so-called black church because of the predominant use of black in the murals. The black church was very impressive and the highlight of the entire museum. After spending about two hours exploring this museum with the aid of an audio guide, we walked back to Goreme and had a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant. We had their local specialties and everything tasted delicious. The highlight was pottery kabab - kabab baked inside a clay pot and then the pot broken in front of us at the table to reveal the food - and it tasted divine.

After that we walked back to our hotel and will go to sleep early tonight since we have to wake up at 4:30 am. Tomorrow, first we will take a hot air balloon flight and then take an all-day guided tour that includes a tour of an underground city, a tour of a monastery built inside caves and a hike through one of the several valleys in the area. Breakfast and lunch are also included. As soon as the tour ends, we'll set off for the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. We'll have dinner in Istanbul. Goodbye till tomorrow's update :)

Turkey Diaries - Day 4 - Ephesus

We had complimentary breakfast at our hotel's terrace that overlooks the gorgeous Marina and then took a bus to Ephesus. Ephesus are ruins of an ancient city from the Roman Empire that are a short drive away from Kusadasi and the main tourist attraction of the small resort town. We hired a taxi that dropped us off at one entrance of Ephesus and we walked our way through the ancient city to the other side where the taxi was waiting for us.

Walking through the ruins of an ancient city is a very different experience from going to a museum since you are able to marvel at how grand the city must have been in its heyday. The city is believed to be the site where the Gospel of John might have been written. We walked on the cobblestone pathway that was the main street of the city in ancient times. On both sides, we saw the remains of several temples and residences. We also saw the remains of public toilets - in those days, only the royal family had the luxury of private toilets and everyone else used the public facility. The Library of Celsus is the second most impressive structure in the ancient city of Ephesus. The outer facade has been reconstructed from its original stone blocks and is quite imposing. The entrance is quite exaggerated and when you go inside, the area of the actual library is quite small. The library was built from the donations of a Roman Senator by the name of Celsus who was then buried under the library.

After the library, we continued our walk and made our way to the most impressive structure of Ephesus - the Grand Theater. It is an outdoor theater and one of the biggest in the ancient world with a seating capacity of over 20,000. The Romans were the inventors of the auditorium style seating and apart from ensuring that every attendee's view of the center stage is unobstructed, this style also ensures the best possible acoustics. We made our way to the top of the seating rows to get a view of the stage and that's when a child with one tourist family started singing and we could hear him perfectly clearly all the way back despite being in open air! If the engineering feats of this theater are incredible, the view that you get from the top is even more impressive. You see the river (that is about a one km walk down from the theater) and the hills that surround the city. After that, we continued walking and saw a graveyard of gladiators and then made our way out of this impressive city.

Then we saw the supposedly last resting place of Mary, mother of Jesus. We also saw the remains of the Roman Temple of Artemis. After that we got back to our hotel and after freshening up, walked around the city of Kusadasi to an island called the Pigeon Island. On our way back, we did some shopping and then had dinner at our hotel's restaurant. Again, very nice food but this time with even better presentation as compared to last night's dinner. We just finished packing and now are going to bed for a few hours before we have to wake up at 3 am to catch our next flight to Cappadocia.

Turkey Diaries - Day 3 - Amsterdam to Izmir

We woke up at 7 am, got ready and went to see Vondel Park, right behind our hotel. We checked-out at 8:15 am and reached the airport at around 10 am after the train from Centraal to Schiphol was late. Our 3.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul got delayed by half an hour. That resulted in us landing at Istanbul airport just 1 hour and 20 minutes before our check-in cutoff time for the next flight from Istanbul to Izmir. We had to first buy the on-arrival visa and then go through passport control. The whole thing took over an hour and we had less than twenty minutes left before collecting our bags from the international terminal and dropping them off at the domestic terminal! We ran the whole 20 minutes and barely made it to the check-in counter. We were sweating and short of breath and really fatigued. Then we realized that the airline staff was very laid back and the boarding hadn't even started! We were easily able to get on the flight.

It was a short 50 minute flight on a domestic Turkish airlines called AtlasJet but the whole experience was truly impressive - new Air Bus aircraft, professional staff and great service. In just those 50 minutes, they were able to give us a sandwich, coffee and a snack, in 3 different rounds! Thanks to the busy schedule since last night, this was the only food we had during the day time till we reached Izmir.

After reaching Izmir, we took the free shuttle bus to Kusadasi offered by AtlasJet. The shuttle ride was more than 80 kilometers so it was amazing that the airlines offered it for free. After getting dropped off in Kusadasi at the bus terminal, we took a cab to our hotel. Then we had dinner at a fabulous restaurant next to our hotel.

Turkey is totally exceeding our expectations so far. It reminds us a lot of Pakistan but with a lot better infrastructure such as roads, airports, buses and service quality. It's like implementing the good things of North America in a Pakistani setting. Our hotel is quite modern and Kusadasi is not even a big city of Turkey. Our windows look out over the Kusadasi Marina and what a mesmerizing view it is! The restaurants next to our hotel remind me of Ocean Drive in Miami.

The restaurant had traditional Turkish food - BBQed kababs of different types, lentil soup with salad and a special bread. Comfort food to compensate for not having had a proper meal for over 36 hours. The server was extremely polite and friendly, just like all other people we have interacted with in Turkey so far. After dinner, we walked along the Marina and took pictures. Oh and the weather is just perfect with a gentle breeze and a not-too-high-not-too-low temperature. We are going to sleep now since we have another long day tomorrow. Till tomorrow, good night.

Turkey Diaries - Day 2 - Amsterdam

Sunday was a busy day. After waking up and getting ready, we joined a free walking tour of the city's attractions that started at 1 pm. As we were running late, we had cereal bars for breakfast. The walking tour went on for three hours but was very informative and we got to see most neighborhoods of the city. The walking tour started in Dam square which has the Royal Palace, the residence of the Dutch royal family and Queen Beatrix. Then we walked through Jordaan and saw a mall that's inside a Post Office. We passed through the Red Light District and saw the Old Church that's inside the district and was built here to sell salvation/redemption to sinning sailors who frequented the district. We walked through the Begijnhof Convent and were then shown the widest bridge and the narrowest house of Amsterdam. The common theme of the stories being narrated through the walk was the business acumen of the populace since the inception of the city. The walking tour ended around 4 pm outside the Anne Frank Museum.

After the tour, we had Amsterdam's famous Fries - mine with green pepper sauce and Samia's with peanut sauce. After that we went for a boat cruise that takes you through almost a 100 attractions of the city in a boat that travels through Amsterdam's canal system. After that, we went to see the Anne Frank Museum. The museum is the old house of a Jewish girl who hid there for 2 years with her family trying to avoid getting captured by Nazi Germany. They narrate the story with original artifacts, pictures and interviews that takes you through the various parts of the house including the secret annex where they remained hidden. They were finally captured after hiding for two years as someone in her father's office betrayed them and informed the German gestapo. No one except the father of the girl survived and the remaining 7 people died in Nazi Germany's concentration camps. The father later found Anne's diary that she kept before being captured and got it published in 1940s. The diary has been translated into more than 70 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world. It was a moving experience walking through the house.

After the museum, we came back to our hotel. We had thought that we'll have dinner in a restaurant that's close to our hotel but it was closed. We tried searching for other places but nothing good was open. We had Dutch stroopwafels that we bought during the day and went to bed.

Turkey Diaries - Day 1 - Calgary to Amsterdam

We took off from Calgary at 4:40 pm local time on Friday for a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. We will be stopping in Amsterdam for a couple of days before moving on to Turkey. We reached Amsterdam at 8:30 am local time on Saturday, March 23, 2013. After going through passport control and getting our baggage, we took the train from Schiphol airport to the city centre station Centraal and then a tram to our hotel. We reached the hotel at 10:45 am but since check-in was not till 2 pm, they offered to hold our bags but asked us to come after 2 pm. We went back to the city centre after a 10 minute tram ride and walked around. We had some snacks (Dutch stroopwafels and Chicken Schnitzel) and did a tour of the Bijenhof monastery.

It's only 2 degrees Celsius but it feels unbelievably cold because of the strong wind. We were half frozen and kept on ducking into stores to warm ourselves up. We got back to our hotel at 2 pm and checked-in. We were so cold and tired that we went to sleep almost as soon as we felt warmer. We slept for a good 6 hours and woke up fresh but hungry. Although we had thought before the trip that we would sight-see in the evening but given how cold it was, we just ended up having dinner.

We left for dinner after making a reservation for 10 pm. We took the tram but reached earlier than our reservation so walked around the area. We dined at an Indonesian restaurant. The food was fabulous! Interesting concept too - we had what's called a Rijsttafel (a Dutch word that translates to "rice table") where you get to sample a few bites each of some 20 dishes. Most chicken, lamb and beef dishes were superb. They had arranged the dishes in order of increasing hotness so the last two dishes (one beef and one fish) literally felt as if they had put our tongues on fire - THE hottest dish we've ever tasted! You must be wondering why we chose to have Indonesian food in Amsterdam. Well, the reason is that after Dutch conquests of Indonesia back in the day, lots of Indonesians settled in the Netherlands so the Indonesian food in Amsterdam is excellent. In fact, there isn't any native cuisine of the Netherlands - their culinary claim to fame is inventing "French" fries (yes, the name is misleading) and Dutch pancakes (all the ingredients are added to the batter before frying it). We've had Dutch pancakes before in Calgary so it'll be interesting to try the authentic ones here for a comparison.

Again, it was extremely cold. Unlike Calgary's dry cold, the cold here is wet which makes it a lot worse. When the temperature is -2 degrees Celsius, it actually feels like -20 of Calgary! The wind is very strong and it feels like it'll blow you away and just gets into your bones!

After taking a tram back to our hotel, we discussed our plan for tomorrow and marked places on the map. In fact, Samia is marking the map as I write this update. Before the trip, we had planned to visit the tulip gardens tomorrow but given the strong wind and the fact that the tulip fields are open and hence colder, we'll just stick to exploring the city.

Things to do for tomorrow include waking up early, Dutch pancakes (if we can find a good place), Anne Frank Museum, canal boat cruise and exploring the city on foot. We love the city, it has an aristocratic feel to it with a distinct brick building architecture and canals running throughout the city. The infrastructure is really impressive and the people extremely friendly. Till the next update, bye from us!