Turkey - Rich in history

Before going I did my research, but I was not ready for the natural beauty and culture that I experienced. The trip was an exhilarating - from cities to beaches, boat trips to islands and gorgeous hills gradually dropping down to magnificent blue sea. The view of cappadocia valleys from the hot air balloon was breathtaking. Since, I love history my time in Ephesus & Hierapolis ruins felt very insufficient. The tourist guides were really cool, helpful and knew better English than most of our hotel receptionists.

The food for me was just okay. And that's on me because I am a vegetarian, and turkey is predominantly non-vegetarian country. Lot of times we survived on just bread-butter, salads and tasteless tomato pizza. But we did find vegetarian baklawa and turkish delight which were awesome.

This is just my personal travel log which I write so that few years down the line I remember it as vividly as I do it now. For tips and other stuff please follow professional travel writers. Also all images are clicked by me.

Starting The Trip

We took the flight from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to Istanbul International Airport via Dubai.

The journey was bit long, almost 9 hours including the waiting time in Dubai. Turkey is UTC/GMT +3 hours so 2.5 hrs back from India. We were happy that we will get little bit time to explore night life in istanbul. Though on the contrary we were exhausted and didn't do much, just looked around for food and exchanged our Euro to Turkish lira (₺).

Istanbul

Istanbul formerly known as Constantinople during Byzantine period is the largest city in turkey. It is divided by bosphorus strait thus lying in both Asia and Europe.

Whoever possesses the Constantinople ought to rule the world - Napoleon Bonaparte

Taksim square

Our hotel was near Taksim Square so we started our trip by roaming around the streets of taksim. You can find lots of vendors selling chestnuts which smells enticing in the cold winds of April. We even found lot of ice cream shops eager to give us the infamous Turkish Ice Cream show.

Grand Bazaar

Then we went grand bazaar to put our bargaining skills to test. It is said to be biggest street shopping area with more than 4000 shops. You can find shops selling jewelry, crockery, turkish baklawa, carpets, souvenirs, and lots of other items. It is super easy to get lost in there and even you might not cross the same shop again.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is one of the most visited tourist attraction in whole turkey. Formerly it was a cathedral [world's largest for a thousand years] which was converted to mosque after the fall of Constantinople. You can clearly see the eastern roman architecture with mix of islamic elements.

Watch Netflix's Rise of Empires - Ottomon to understand the significance of Hagia Sophia and its importance to the city of Constantinople.

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace was former resident of the Ottomon Sultans in 15th and 16th century, which is now converted to a large museum. It is very near to the Hagia Sophia and is easily reachable by the foot since we were in that area. It is divided into four courtyards:

1. First Courtyard act as a garden.
2. Second Courtyard has palace kitchens, imperial treasury, imperial council where ministers & sultan discuss affairs with each other, and weaponry.
3. Third Courtyard mainly contains audience chamber where sultan received his guests. It also has more than 400 rooms for residents living in the palace.
4. Fourth Courtyard was the innermost sanctuary of the Sultan and his family. It also offers a great view of the istanbul along the bosphorus strait.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque - The Blue Mosque

Sitting infront of Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque, famous for its six minarets. The guide told us that when the mosque was ready with its "altı minare" (six minarets), at time it was a unique feature of the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca, sultan was criticized for his presumption. So he ordered a seventh minaret to be built at the Mecca mosque to calm down the situation.

Sadly we were not able to go inside the mosque because it was closed to visiters.

Arasta Bazaar

Just beside the blue mosque is one of the traditional bazaar of istanbul - arasta bazaar, famous for selling textiles, carpets, spices and lots of souvenirs. We also did a bit of shopping here, it was too beautiful to ignore.

Exploring our Hotel - The Grand Hyatt

Next day we decided to explore our hotel a bit before heading out for our tour. Our pickup car being little late also helped.

Princes’ Islands - Büyükada

Princes' Islands are group of nine islands in Marmara Sea, we just visited the biggest one Büyükada which means Big Island in Turkish. In Byzantine and Ottoman times many royalty were exiled here hence earning its name. Right now also it does not have large population. Only people living here are ones who have retired or want a peaceful life away from busy city of Istanbul.

Reaching the Islands

To go to the island we took a ferry from Kabataş. It was a mesmerizing and chilly 1.5 hours ride.

Since all motorized vehicles are forbidden here [except service vehicles] you can explore the islands by foot or rent a bicycle. We rented a electric bicycle but one of us was not able to ride it properly so we dropped the idea. We mainly explored it by foot and later on by small electric buses operated by some company I guess. A large area of island is still covered by forests.

Also we got to know that earlier horse carriages was also available for transport but was banned in late 2019 because of bad treatment of horses.

Bosphorus Cruise

At night we went for a 3 hours cruise along the bosphorus strait where one side you can see Asia and other side you can see Europe. There was also Turkish folk dance and belly dance show. The part that I liked was there were people of different nations, and you get dance on music of different cultures.

Since it was little jam packed with people, we did not enjoyed it that much. I think going on a yacht cruise would have been a better option. Maybe next time :).

Anyways this ended our trip in Istanbul, now on to next city - Kuşadası.

Kuşadası

Kuşadası is a beach resort town on Turkey’s western Aegean coast. It does not have airport we flew to Izmir and took a cab to Kuşadası. We checked in around noon and decided to explore the hotel first then walk around the town.

Exploring our hotel - Charisma Deluxe Hotel

Our hotel was located just on the sea shore. It was beautiful, anyways judge yourself.

Walk to Güvercinada

Güvercinada or Pigeon Island in Turkish is named because of lots of pigeons found in the area. The island island is connected to the mainland by a causeway. It also has a beautiful fort on the which was built by Ottomans around 15th century AD for defending the city.

Walk from our hotel to the island was really fun and enjoyable. What more do you need, sea on one side and beautiful weather with lots of enjoyable sights on other side.

House of the Virgin Mary

Next day we started our tour by visiting the house of virgin mary which is now converted to chapel. It is believed that she was taken to this house by Saint John and lived year for remainder of her life.

The tour guide told us how it was discovered, which is actually a fascinating story. It was discovered in 19th century by following the description of visions by Anne Catherine Emmerich, a Roman Catholic nun and visionary.

Ephesus Tour

Ephesus was an ancient greek city later was captured by Romans. Ephesus was a prosperous city under the rule of romans, because of the trade through sea route. The city lost its importance in later years because harbor got shifted away. It was also partially destroyed around 6th Century AD due to earthquakes. One of the most important structure in ephesus is Temple Of Artemis which is considered one the seven wonders of the Ancient World but nothing of it remains. The temple used to bring lots of visitors to the city adding to its wealth.

The guide walked us through some of the structures that still remains or was reconstructed from the ruins obtained during excavation. It was declared as UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015.

This ended our trip in Kuşadası, now on to next city - Pamukkale.

Pamukkale

Pamukkale meaning Cotton Castle in Turkish is located in southwestern Turkey. It is famous for calcium carbonate mineral left by flowing thermal waters [i.e hot springs]. According to our tour guide, in 1960s lots of 5 star hotels were built near the travertines causing a lot of damage to the area. Later when it was added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 the hotels were torn down to preserve the area.

We took a car from kusadasi to pamukkale. Along the way, we saw lots of power plants utilizing these thermal water as a source for geothermal energy. Apart of this, Pamukkale also has rich mineral deposits and you can find lot of unique stones here for jewellery. One such gem is Zultanite - depending on its light source, its color varies between a yellowish green, light gold, and purplish pink.

Paragliding

Paragliding is famous in pamukkale because of the scenic view that you can see from the sky. The white blue travertines of cotton castle, ruins of hierapolis and cleopatra pools. It was one of the most thrilling 20mins ride for us.

Cotton Castle

When the water, supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide de-gasses from it, and calcium carbonate is deposited. It gets deposited by the water as a soft gel which eventually crystallizes into travertine.

Hierapolis

Hierapolis is another roman city whose ruins we visted. Even in roman period it was famous for its hot springs, where many patrons came to relax or retire. Now the city is mostly ruins with most of artefacts in hierapolis museum or taken away to museums in London, Berlin, and Rome.

Hierapolis Museum

Well this marked our end of trip in pamukkale. We then went to rest in our hotel - Colossae Thermal Hotel. It had beautiful hot springs which we really enjoyed. Now onwards to our next city - Antalya.

Antalya

Antalya is one of growing cities in southern Turkey with population growing over one million. It is famous for its agricultural export such as flowers, tomatoes, and fresh fruits. In past few years it has a large number of shipyards specializing in building luxury yachts.

Exploring our hotel - Limak Lara

We took a car from pamukkale and reached antalya in approx 4 hours. Our hotel was a piece of luxury get away with its own water park and beaches. Our room even had a private jacuzzi.

And at night it looks even more beautiful.

Duden Waterfalls

Next day we started our tour by visiting duden waterfalls. The duden river which creates the waterfall does at two places - upper duden waterfall and lower duden waterfall which falls into the sea. We even did ziplining on the duden river near the lower duden waterfalls.

Boat ride from Antalya Free Zone

Antalya has a very beautiful harbour and Mediterranean sea looks very picturesque here. Antalya free zone has one of the largest harbour and lots of private yacht. It also boasts one of biggest place for manufacturing luxury yachts. The 2 hours boat ride was certainly one of the most beautiful boat rides that I have ever been to.

Tunektepe Teleferik - Cable Car Ride

Because of windy day cable car ride was closed. Sadly it ended our tour a little early ☹️.

Theme park - Land Of Legends

After a relaxing night at our hotel, next day we went to the biggest theme park of the country - Land of Legends. Its main attraction on entering is a hotel made in fairytale castle style. The hotel rooms are even customized for kids. Past the hotel you can find big shopping avenue. We skipped past all that and entered the theme park. We enjoyed dolphin show, roller coasters, water rides and lots of other adrenaline filled rides.

This ended our trip in Antalya, moving on to last place - Cappadocia.

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is an important historical region near Kayseri which means "Land of beautiful horses". It is famous for its hot air balloon rides, fairy chimneys, luxurious cave resorts and unique historical churches.

We took an early morning flight to kayseri from antalya. We were lucky since there is just one direct flight and not even everyday. We took a cab from Kayseri airport to our hotel.

Exploring our hotel - Gamirasu Cave Resort

Gamirasu Resort is a exquisitely restored Byzantine monastic retreat in Goreme region of Cappadocia. Earlier it used to be a christian monastery and housing prison cells. A 12th century Byzantine Christian church forms part of the Gamirasu, and until recently, part of the hotel was still used by Christian monks. Lot of care has been taken to blend the historic facades with the natural curves of the Cappadocian landscape to preserve its traditional style whilst providing us with modern conveniences.

Our room was a perfect example of this. It was 4000 years old and was in the winery section. You can read more details about in the below image.

ATV Ride

We checked-in into our hotel around noon. After exploring the hotel we got bored a bit and wanted to hop out and explore the area. Our hotel manager suggested that we can go for ATV ride. It was a full 2 hours ride through trails between hills and villages.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

If there was a thing that I was most excited about in this whole trip then it would be hot air balloon ride. But when we reached our hotel and got the news from the manager that last three days were too windy and the rides were cancelled, we got very downhearted. But in the evening when my agent called us to tell that most probably we are good to go for tomorrow, we were extremely happy 😃.

The balloon ride took us through spectacular valleys of Cappadocia, Goreme town and the fairy chimneys. We even saw how the balloon is filled with hot air and gets deflated. I would say everyone should experience this once in their lifetime.

Pigeon Valley

Guvercinlik Vadisi (Pigeon Valley) earned its name from the countless man made pigeon houses that have been carved into the soft volcanic tuff. It is one of the best spots for walking or hiking in the Cappadocia region.

Ihlara Valley

Ihlara valley is famous for its 15 km long canyon flowing through the forest and numerous rock-hewn churches and buildings. We also did a short hike along the river.

Ala Church and Oil Making

Ala Church is a large cave church near Ihlara valley. It is estimated to be built around 1000AD. It has a spacious central dome and is one of the largest cave churches in the cappadocia. The paintings in the church are severely damaged, though they are detailed. The guide pointed us through some recognizable ones - Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, etc.

Nearby the church there are rooms for oil refining.

Derinkuyu Underground City

The Derinkuyu underground city is an ancient multi-level underground city in the Derinkuyu district, extending to a depth of approximately 85 metres (279 ft). It is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found throughout Cappadocia.

These underground cities are man made, but it was not made this huge during a single period or empire. They were extended by people throughout the history. These were mainly used by people to protect them from raids and incursions. For ex: From Muslim Arabs during the Arab–Byzantine wars (780–1180 AD), by Christian natives from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in the 14th century, etc.

End Of Trip

Well that's all in my itinerary for turkey. It was certainly a mesmerizing experience for me. If I ever get a chance, I would surely like to sail beautiful waters of Istanbul again. Hoşçakal !!