Turkey- 1995

We’ve been to Turkey several times; our first and best trip was in 1995.  We flew to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines, via New York, to begin our three-week Turkish adventure.  Although we landed in Istanbul, we only stayed in the airport long enough to catch a flight to Antalya, on the southern coast, where we began our trip. Our plan was to save Istanbul for last since we were meeting up with our friends Turgut and Fatma.

Antalya is an old port city on the Mediterranean with a warm climate, beaches and a laid back atmosphere.  We spent our first night in a wonderful hotel with a room facing the sea, and awakened to the first of what would be many Turkish breakfasts: feta cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber and bread.

Because of jet lag I awakened at 6 am and decided to stroll along the sea.  From my handy Turkish phrase book I had learned a few words including hello, thank you and good morning.  As I walked near the old port, I saw three Turkish policemen sitting on the shore having tea.  I said to them gunaydin, good morning, and received a cheerful response, both in Turkish and English.  The English speaker, a woman, approached me, asked where I was from and suggested I join them for morning tea.  Thus ensued a lively conversation, a wonderful way to start the day in this fascinating, new (to me) country.

After two days in Antalya we got our rental car and headed east along the Mediterranean, using our map (no GPS then), with no specific destination.  After a few hours, as morning turned to afternoon, we realized that it was getting hot - really hot.  We studied our map and decided we should head up the mountain toward the holy city of Konya where it would be cooler.

We reached Konya early evening in time to hear one of the many daily prayers, broadcast on loudspeakers which seemed to be located on every corner.  We checked into a room and walked around to get a feel for the city.  We learned that Konya was headquarters for the Whirling Dervishes, a Sufi religious sect, known for its dramatic dancing where they swirl a huge “skirt” as they perform.

Clearly standing out as tourists, we were approached by a young man who offered to give us a tour of where the Dervishes perform. While the troupe was out of town, it was still possible to see their home base and museum.  We agreed to a short and inexpensive “tour” and after twenty or so minutes gave our guide a new name:  “smelly feet,” because he probably hadn’t changed his socks in six months.

In 1995 I was fifty-five years old, and to maintain my health I jogged every day.  In Konya, I left the hotel room at 7 am, started running, and within a few minutes  several wild dogs were following me.   As I ran faster, they began to gain on me, and I began to have visions of being eaten alive by these probably starving animals.  I ducked into a nearby store, waited until they left, and returned to the hotel without any battle scars.  Thereafter, I was more careful about my running route.

A word about Turkey’s carpet salesmen:  If you haven’t been to Turkey you probably don’t know about the ubiquitous carpet salesmen.  They are in every city, there are zillions of them, and they’re very persistent and determined to sell you a carpet.  They all have the same approach.  They first ask:  “Where are you from?”  When you answer, they say:  “What a coincidence, I have a cousin (or brother or sister) there.”  Then they go into their pitch.

After a few days I got tired of their nonsense, so decided to turn the tables on them.  When they asked where I was from, I’d say:  “I’m from Iran, own a Persian carpet business and sell carpets all over the world.”  I said it with a straight face and even if they thought I was bullshitting, they walked away.

After Konya we headed northeast to Cappadocia, also called the Valley of the Fairy Chimneys.  Cappadocia is a magical place that has to be seen to be believed.  The fairy chimneys are tall, cone-shaped natural rock formations in strange shapes, like mushrooms and animals, that were formed millions of years ago.

The main town is Goreme, also called “cave town,” because of the hundreds of caves carved into the rock which have been converted into residences and hotel rooms.  We stayed in one of the rock hotels and it was perhaps our most interesting hotel experience.  There are several other valleys: Devrent, Monks, Rose, Love and Ihlara, all of which have their own collection of amazing rock formations.  But perhaps most fascinating of all was Kaymakli, an entirely underground ancient city with miles of tunnels, passages and churches, all deep under the surface of the earth. 

In Goreme, we also had our first authentic Turkish bath, called a hammam.  Misti and I went together.  The hammam was housed in one of the rock caves, with large heated stones and an ancient feel and smell about it.  For modesty, we wrapped ourselves in towels and, after the bath and our lying on the hot rocks, we each had a giant Turk give us a massage.  Between the setting and the masseurs, it was like something out of an Arabian nights movie.

Cappadocia was the highlight of our Turkey trip, and I recommend it to anyone planning a Turkish adventure.  For those who don’t expect to visit Turkey, I suggest a ten-minute online Google tour to view what must be one of the most fascinating natural phenomena in the world.

After Cappadocia we went to Pamukkale, a town in western Turkey famous for its thermal waters which flow down travertine terraces.  It’s near Hierapolis, an ancient Roman spa city founded around 190 BC. It was a thrill bathing in a two-thousand year old thermal pool, with submerged Roman ruins beneath us.                  

Next, we headed down the Anatolian coast and visited the towns of Kos and Kalcan, both small, old Turkish towns with nice beaches, few tourists, and a very laidback feeling.  We went on to Izmir, but there was a business convention in town so we couldn’t find a room, and instead went on to Datca, a port town situated on the narrow Datca Peninsula.  We were pleasantly surprised with the town, found a hotel overlooking the harbor, and it was nice knowing we were off the beaten tourist path.

In Bodrum we hired a gulet for a short tour of the harbor.  These are charter boats that hire out for days, nights or weeks, and offer sleeping accommodations as well as home-cooked meals. They’re run by Turkish couples, are hundreds of them all along the coast, and they’re not very expensive. We were only doing a several hour cruise, just to cool off and have a pleasant boat ride. 

It was very hot and the boat owner suggested I go for a swim. I learned to swim late in life, at age 37, and never was a great swimmer, but I thought why not.  I dove off the boat and was enjoying the warm, lake-like sea when I noticed that the boat was drifting away and the guy and Misti weren’t paying attention.  I didn’t want to drown that day in Turkey so swam like hell back to the boat, and from that day on was more careful about jumping off boats into foreign waters.

We went on to Ephesus, an ancient Greek city on the Ionian coast.  Ephesus was built in the tenth century BC and is famous for the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  We visited the Library of Celsus, built in the first century AD by the Romans, in honor of Tiberius Julius Celsus.  It was built to store 12,000 scrolls and was the third largest library in the ancient world.  It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 10th century AD and the façade was rebuilt by archeologists in the 1970’s.  The library is one of the most famous ruins in Turkey and was featured on the back of one of Turkey’s banknotes.

We continued south toward Istanbul, our final destination, but first sidetracked to Gallipoli, actually Gelibolu, in Turkish.  Gallipoli is a small town on the Dardanelles Strait and is the gateway to the Gallipoli Peninsula National Park, known for the battlefields of the WWI campaign between the Ottoman Empire and Allied forces.

We knew about the famous Anzac (Australian-New Zealand) battles during WW I, had seen the movie Gallipoli with Mel Gibson, and thought this would be an interesting experience.  We went into the small town, asked where we could find a private guide, and hired an older man who gave us a several hour very stirring and informative tour of the battlefields and graves, and at the end of the tour we visited the small museum.  This was late in the afternoon, there were no other people around, and it was a very emotional experience.

We drove on to Istanbul to meet up with our friends Turgut and Fatma.  While I had driven in many foreign cities, and learned to drive in New York City, I wasn’t quite prepared for Istanbul.  It wasn’t the difficulty of driving but rather the inability to read the signs, few of which were in English.  We were headed to Yeneka, Turgut and Fatma’s house, in a neighborhood about ten miles outside central Istanbul.  We got quite lost and resorted to what we call “taxi navigation,” whereby I hail a taxi, describe our destination, and tell them we will follow and pay them, usually a very modest amount, when we arrive.  I’ve done this many times in cities all over the world and it works well. 

We spent several days in Istanbul with Fatma and Turgut showing us the sights.  Istanbul, with a population of about fifteen million, straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait, and being at this crossroad, it reflects the culture and architecture of the many empires that ruled the area, including Roman, Egyptian, Byzantine and Ottoman.  With Turgut and Fatma as our guides, we explored the major sights including the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar.  We realized it wasn’t possible to see and do all the sights in this amazing city, and vowed a return visit.

After several days in Istanbul we boarded our Turkish Air flight for the long trip home by way of New York City.  Thus ended our Turkish adventure.