After a brief stop in London to visit Claire, a close friend from high school, I started my trip on Turkey, on a two week tour with 5 other young travelers from England, U.S.A. and Australia. My time in Turkey was busy, fast, and diverse. I left feeling as though I’d barely caught a glimpse of Turkey, but also as though years wouldn’t be enough to explore it fully. It’s a country impossible to summarize, and as each place I visited was so unique, I thought I’d provide my Turkey Top Ten to highlight some of my best moments within the two-week whirlwind.

1. Hot-Air Ballooning in Cappadocia

This was pretty much the best reason I’ve ever had for waking up before 5am on a Monday morning. The idea of hot air ballooning wasn’t one that had crossed my mind often before arriving in Cappadocia, and I can honestly say that the experience has ruined me for any potential future hot-air ballooning opportunities. I’ll admit, I was nervous for the flight – I have a healthy appreciation for fire, and a basket hanging from a giant canvas, propelled upward by the heat of a giant blow torch is not my first image of relaxation. However once we were in the air, my fears dropped as quickly as the hills around us.

     

2. The Rest of Cappadocia and Hiking Through the Valley

So it turns out, I quite enjoy hiking…who knew?! We spent two days hiking all over the area, which has this incredible terrain that was formed by layers of volcanic ash and lava, eroded over time. There are homes and churches carved and built right into the rock, and some have original frescoes on the walls. I climbed up into caves created by parts of the rock having worn and fallen down, and marvelled that the area was not only free to explore, without fees or off-limits areas, but that we hardly saw a single other person in the hours that we hiked.

     

3. Swimming in the Mediterranean

It was while I floated on my back in the sea at the beach near Antalya that it really hit me that I was so far from home, and in Turkey. The water is so warm you can walk right in (at least it was in September), and so salty that it hurts your eyes, but makes you buoyant – after a long overnight bus ride, I relaxed and laid at the surface of the water without moving or sinking for ages.

4. White Cliffs of Pamukkale

This is a phenomenon that I couldn’t have imagined, let alone that I knew about before traveling there: from several hot springs, water emerges at the surface of the cliff-top, depositing calcium carbonate that eventually hardens into terraces of travertine. It’s so white that it looks like a glacier, and the pools of water are so clear and bright that they seem photo-shopped for a spa advertisement.

5. The Best Hummus I’ve Ever Tasted.

Truly. I’d recommend a visit to the country solely based on this hummus. The magic lies in the hot melted butter that’s poured overtop. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I ate a whole serving of it with a spoon. If you ever visit Istanbul, I think the restaurant is called Varka.

6. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar

Overwhelming to say the least, this was recently reported as being the most-visited tourist attraction in the world, with over 91 million visitors per year. I think the key is knowing what you’re looking for when you go in, and perhaps being okay with getting a little bit lost (luckily I was always with people who seemed to know the way out, as every corner looked identical to me. Bargaining on prices was a new experience for me, and I still have no idea whether I got good deals or not.

7. Derinkuyu Underground City

This place impressed me so much that I literally became short of breath while walking through some of the pathways and staircases (or maybe that was more to do with the lack of oxygen and slight claustrophobia…). The tunnels and rooms, 50 metres underground, form a city that was large enough to accommodate around 5,000 people for months at a time.

8. Suleymaniye Mosque

While Istanbul’s Blue Mosque is certainly much more famous, I really preferred my visit to Suleymaniye. It was much more accessible, as all of the tourists were concentrated in line-ups at the Blue Mosque, but also, once inside, Suleymaniye had a calm and peaceful atmosphere. We (the girls) were given scarves to cover our heads, and the boys in shorts were given skirts to wear overtop.

9. Ancient Ruins at Ephesus and Hierapolis

I realize that Turkey is only the beginning of ancient ruins I will have visited by the end of this trip, but I certainly started strong in this respect. Again, despite the fact that Ephesus is more famous and perhaps more significant, I enjoyed walking around the ruins at Hierapolis, which when we visited, were almost empty of people.

     

10. Turkish Coffee

As my friend Bob said, “it’ll keep you up for days”. I certainly never doubted the potency of the strong drink. I always ordered it with sugar, and am not totally sure if that made me appear as more of a tourist, but the real thing that sets it apart is the texture – thick and a bit grainy (the grounds settle in the cup). You can’t drink all the way to the bottom, so it felt like a game every time of whether I’d stop at the right point or drink too far down and get a mouthful of bitter grounds.

xo

Laura