tcreath goes to Turkey...a trip report
 

Hello everyone!

Well, we just got back from Turkey last night, after 26 hours of travel, and I'm still quiet exhausted but I wanted to get started on my trip report since tomorrow its back to work. This report will be shorter and more to-the-point than my usual trip reports, mostly because I will be very busy with work and school and have little faith that I will be able to finish the entire report if I don't keep it short and sweet!

I will start off by saying that we loved Turkey! This was our first trip, and we were more than impressed. We only had a week, which is borderline criminal but apparently the office will fall apart if they are without me for more than a week at a time and so we take what we can get. Our interary was 3 nights Istanbul - 3 nights Selcuk - 1 night Istanbul.

Hotels:
Hotel Ada Istanbul - After weeding through tons of hotels online, we chose the Ada based on the looks, price and tripadvisor ratings and were quite pleased. The hotel was small, with only 3-4 rooms per floor, but it was nice and quiet. We had a large jacuzzi tub in our room, which was a nice added bonus after the really long flights and the chilly and tiring Istanbul sightseeing. The breakfast spread was lovely. Only complaint is that there is a small mosque right outside the hotel and the prayer call at 5:50 am, though lovely, was on the annoying side. http://www.adaistanbul.com/

Hotel Bella Selcuk - This hotel was a little difficult to find (mostly because I failed to ask for specific directions and viamichelin.com couldn't locate the address) but it was a nice hotel. The owners are very friendly. We originally booked a double balcony room, but the hotel is undergoing renovations and they were still waiting for the hand-carved beds to arrive so we were put in a small double. The room was pretty small but very pretty. They had an upstairs terrace that is covered in the winter and has a large fireplace. This is where breakfast was served, which included a made-to-order omelet each morning and free tea and coffee throughout our stay. http://www.hotelbella.com/selcuk_hotels/index.htm.

Zeynep Sultan Hotel Istanbul - We found this through venere and chose it because the price was right. We were only back in Istanbul for about 18 hours before we had to depart, and just wanted a basic room for our last night. And silly as it is, I love cats and chose this budget hotels over others because they have a big fat orange and white hotel cat that sleeps under the chairs in the lobby. Darling!

Here are some highlights:
- Seeing the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque lit up at night after our arrival. Beautiful!
- The beautiful mountains along the coast
- The food
- The people

Some lowlights:
- Not bringing my heavier coat. I decided at the last minute to pack a lighter wool coat that would fit in my suitcase because I didn't want to drag it around multiple airports.
- Stupidly choosing to fly into Sabiha Gokcen airport from Izmir, against the advice from Fodorites recommending otherwise....but more on this later.
- Not eating more rice pudding

I want to take a quick moment to thank tower for his kindness in mailing me maps of the coastal area after responding to a post. He provided tons of great info that was greatly appreciated! And to all other fodorites who were kind enough to answer my many threads of Turkey, and for those of you who posted your own reports or responses. I read hundreds of posts on Turkey and they really helped make our trip the success that it was.

I'll be adding to this shortly. Thanks for reading!

Tracy

Definitely looking forward to more.

Day 1
After a mostly uneventful flight we finally arrived in Istanbul around 5:00 pm. We arranged for airport pickup from the hotel. I will say that I have seen a lot of crazy driving but Istanbul drivers take the cake. We almost ran over at least three people, bumped into another cab driver, literally, went down a one-way street backwards and almost backed over a couple of cats...but we made it. We quickly checked into our hotel, dropped our bags, freshened up and ran out to get a little sightseeing and some dinner before going to bed. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best, as it was rainy and chilly. Seeing the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque lit up at night is magical, and when we heard our first call to prayer soon afterwards we were quickly reminded that we were finally in Turkey! The Blue Mosque was still open so we headed inside. Oh my...all of the tiles were gorgeous!

I am terrible about writing down names of restaurants, mostly because we just menu shop before choosing where to eat. Unfortunately I don't have the name of the restaurant we ate at this night for dinner, which is annoying because it was one of the best meals of our trip. It was in the Sultanahmet area, very close to the Bascila Cistern, on a corner. I had the kofti and Matt had a doner kebab. I had kofti (small meatballs) four times on this trip and the kofti at this restaurant were, by far, the best. And the rice pilaf was wonderful; slightly sweet and nutty. All of the food in Turkey was delicious, and the plates are always very pretty, with lots of condiments (tomatoes, parsley, onions, etc) and sides perfectly arranged. And the bread...yum! Most restaurants in Istanbul came with big puffy bread, topped with sesame, that was baked in a brick oven.

Day 2
Since it was Monday, the Hagia Sophia was closed so we decided to visit Topkapi Palace, Bascilica Cistern, the Suleymanyi Mosque and the Grand Bazarre. Yes, we move fast! But it was off-season and we were able to move through sites without dealing with lots of crowds. Since you probably read lots of information about these sites I won't go into too much detail. Topkapi Palace was fascinating, much more than I thought it would be. I definitely recommend paying for the separate entrance fee to see the Harem. The Suleymanyi Mosque was, unfortunately, being renovated so we saw very little inside. Bummer because I was really looking forward to this! It was a little hike to get to it, and we only saw pictures of what it looks like.

The Grand Bazaar was crazy, as I assumed it would be. Salesman are constantly calling out at you to look in their shops. For anyone heading to Turkey for the first time, I highly suggest you try to research some of the prices of the items you would like to purchase before going into the Grand Bazaar because I found out later on that we overpaid, quite a bit, for a few of our items. Not that big of a deal, since most of our purchases weren't that expensive, but kind of annoying. It's difficult to know what is a reasonable amount to pay when you have no knowledge of typical base prices.

Lunch was at the Han Restaurant on Hudavendigar Caddesi and was doner kebabs followed by tea. I love the tea culture in Turkey! All of the tea is really good (my fave was the rosehip), and served in small glasses. Tea is offered everywhere and I'm going through withdrawals. Yesterday I was browsing a gift shop in the Dallas airport (killing time) and I didn't get offered one single glass of tea!

More to come!
Tracy

Sorry for all of the typos. Jetlag is still taking it's toll. And the link to the Zeynap Sultan Hotel in Istanbul is http://www.zeynepsultanhotel.com/English.htm.

Tracy

Oh shoot, Tracy, I did not realize you were going up to the Suleymanyi Mosque - we did the same thing last spring and found out it was closed. I still had a good time looking at the cemetary and the mausoleums up there, so it make the hike worthwhile.

Additionally, there was a mom cat with kittens living among the cemetary stones - they were so cute :)

PS - I am enjoying your TR - fun reading at my lunch in the cubicle farm on a Monday

Tracy...

Loving your report so far. Those Grand Bazaar salesmen are something else. I believe the best "line" I heard was "you smell like an American"...never did find out if that was a good or bad thing! :)

Looking forward to more of your report!

Tracy.... enjoying your report so far... and don't feel crazy about booking a hotel based on the fact that they have a resident cat - I have done that too!

In fact I visited a restaurant in Paris that maitaitom recommended, based solely on the fact they had a cat who walked around and visited the patrons. :)

I'm enjoying your report so far, Tracy. Too bad you had to miss the Suleymanyi Mosque. There are 2 other small mosques in that area that are wonderful as well. I enjoyed the smaller mosques more than the larger ones since there were no crowds and you could get right up next to the tiles and really look at them.

Looking forward to more report and to some photos.

Wonderful, Tracy. Turkey's on our list, and you're making it sound both easy and enchanting.

Anselm

Thanks everyone! Anselm, Turkey was much easier than I anticipated. Something about it sounded daunting to me, but from the moment we arrived all of the apprehensiveness went away. It's as easy as visiting any of the other European countries we have visited. I highly recommend a visit!

I stopped halfway through day 2 because it was lunchtime and the pizza man was ringing our doorbell. Not very healthy, I admit, but we have that "day after vacation lets stay in our pajamas all day and lounge around the house" thing going on.

Day 2 Continued
So after the Grand Bazarre we visit the New Mosque, also very nice, before heading back to the hotel for a nap. Anybody that has read my previous trip reports knows that we like to sleep! We tend to get up early and go, and we often return to our hotel around 3-4 pm to take a short nap before getting ready for dinner. This always works well for us and we sort of fell into this habit early on in our travels. It's a nice way to see things and still feel the relaxation of a vacation.

So after our nap we browsed through our guidebooks some and decided to head towards Taksim square to see a little of the New District. I decide at the last minute to leave my umbrella in the hotel, since it cleared up nicely. Our plan was to catch the tram in Sultanahmet and ride to the Kabatas stop and then take the funicular up to Taksim Square. For whatever reason we could not find the tram station near the Blue Mosque. I mean how hard can it be...just follow the tram tracks, right? Well, apparently for these two stupid Americans it was hard because we ended up walking to the next stop, Gulhane, which is near the entrace to Topkapi Palace. Here is a hint: the ticket booth for the tram isn't that noticable, but its the little brown nondescript kiosk across the street from the tram station. We had to ask someone.

So we get to Taksim Square, which is insanely crowded. Sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that we won't see many crowds since we tend to travel during off-season, but Istanbul quickly reminded us that it does happen to be one of the largest cities in the world and the locals do happen to leave their houses on occassion. ;) From here we make our way to Istiklal Street, a pedestrian-only street filled with modern shops, restaurants and cafes. We stopped in Haci Bekir and picked up some hazelnut Turkish Delight. I will make a confession: this stuff is actually really good. I was put off but its look, which is very gummy, but it is suprisingly tasty. They had lots of samples. Definitely give it a try!

Again, I forgot to write down the name of the restaurant but we ate at a lovely place right on Istiklal Street. It was more cafeteria-style on the main floor, but had two other floors above it. We headed to the top floor, which was the non-smoking floor. The prices were very good considering the opulent decor, with pastel painted walls and gold leafing on the cealing. I had an Iskender Kebab, which is a kebob on a piee of bread with tomato sauce and yogurt sauce, covered in a brown butter. It was okay, although the bread made it taste a little soggy. I understand that these can be really good, so I have a feeling that I should have given it a try elsewhere. Hubby had an Adana Kebab which was good and nicely spiced. The best part of the meal here, though, was the flat bread. It came out in a big bowl followed by three smaller bowls filled with various toppings for the bread, one of which was similar to a tapenade. I'm a bread and pastry kind of girl, and this was right up my alley! I seriously could have just skipped the meal and eaten more bread...

And since apparently that wasn't enough food, we decided it was a good time for dessert. We walked around a bit to "work up our appetite" and then went to Mado. There are Mado locations all over town, and they have fabulous desserts. I went in with a plan to order some rice pudding, which I heard was fabulous in Turkey (and found out the next day that the rumors are true) but there was this fudgy nutty cake sitting in the case calling my name and I had to have it. Oh my gosh was this good. Afterwards we have some tea and then gather up our things to leave.

As I head to the door I quickly find out that it is snowing. I'm not talking about little flurries here; the snow flakes are large! And of course where was my umbrella? In the hotel room. Now, this may be a good time to explain my hair situation. I have yucky frizzy curly hair that gets straightened each and every day because its truly scary. I immediately go into panick mode; I don't care if nobody in this city knows me...I can't let them see me like this! So I had to do double duty and cover my head with the hood of the jacket under my coat and my scarf and then made my way out the door. And the snow...it wasn't sticking but it was coming down heavy enough, and blowing right at us. I couldn't even look up without getting snow in my eyes. Hubby had on his trusty STL Cardinals hat, since we like to fit in with the locals and all, so he tipped his hat down and guided the way. I looked up a couple of times though, and I have to say that it was a beautiful site. The snow, together with the pretty lights strung across the street, made for quite a scene. I tried to take a pic but unfortunately it just didn't do the scene justice.

We finally get back to the tram station and for safety reasons I decided to keep my head fully wrapped until we were in the safe confines of our hotel room. The jacuzzi really came in handy that night because by the time we got back to our room we were pretty wet from the snow.

Jen and HappyCheeseHead, Turkey is a cat-lovers dream! There are literally cats everywhere. We kind of made it a joke: "look, there's a cat"! I normally feels sorry for them, but most looked pretty healthy and our hotel owner told us that most Turkish people look out for stray animals and will leave food and water for them. Hopefully this is true and not just a ploy to make me feel better. I made it a habit of stopping to pet every cat I saw that would allow it. My favorite was a small orange cat in Selcuk. I crouched down to pet the cat and she/he climbed right into my lap, settled, closed its eyes and started to purr! I saw this cat two more times during the three days there, and it did the same thing each time. I asked Matt if he thought security would notice if there was a cat in our suitcase? :)

DH and I are leaving for Turkey in 2 weeks and are planning a very similar itinerary to your's... can't wait to read more! Sounds like a wonderful trip so far!

Great report, Tracy! I remember your planning threads. I'm glad you had such a great time. Looking forward to reading more.

tcreath,

nice trip report and it comes in handy since my husband and I and leaving next month for Turkey, we are staying 7 nights,too ( 4 nights istanbul, then 1 night in Selcuk then 1 night in Cappadoccia then 1 night in Istanbul). Just like you I love cats,too. Thanks.

tcreath: I am posting quickly, after merely glancing at your report.
One reason is that we are meeting up in 20 minutes with another Fodorite, Ms. lizzy, whom I met at our Ottawa GTG on Feb. 8 -- she's back in town for the evg and we agreed to connect.
The second reason: it did not take more than a glance for me to appreciate the quality of your report -- frank, practical, down-to-earth, enthusiastic yet free of an enthusiast's gush. I will re-read and savour a bit later.
Welcome back.

Tracy:

I stayed at the Empress Zoe in Sultanahmet last year. Many of the merchants in the neighborhood had litter boxes stashed outside among their wares. Sultanahmet is a cat lover's paradise.

Tracy...

I had icecream at that same Mado on Istiklal Street. It was goat milk icecream and was a fairly gummy consistency.

My dad remarked one time when he was in Turkey he also had goat milk icecream and it was a "little too much goat"! ;)

Hi Tracy,
I, like HappyCheesehead, am reading this while eating lunch in my little cubicle, daydreaming about Turkey. Great trip report so far - we are headed to Turkey in September and while I knew already we'd enjoy the culture and history, I didn't know about the cats! Oh my poor husband - I like to "adopt" kitties along the way on our travels and tend to drive him a little nuts with it. Now I'm even more excited for our trip!

Amanda :)

Tracy,
I am enjoying your report. Keep going please.

Amanda,
If you like dogs, there are also dogs running around. It's amazing and scary to watch them dodge traffic. The ones with the tags in their ears have been checked and are ok to pet, or so I heard. They seem to be taken care of.

Tracy...happy all went well, and that you're back home...want to hear more....you bring back fond memories.

stu

Hi Tracy

Me too..reliving some fond memories. Maybe that kofti restaurant was Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi 12 Divanyolu Caddesi. Located opposite Sultanahmet Square. Yes the kofti and pilaf was great. A local recommended Sultanahmet for kofti and I had read about the Tarihi and was not disappointed. The Old City gets carpeted (oops sorry) alot for being too touristy. However zone out this tacky side and it has a more traditional feel and much less frenetic than the European flavoured Beyoglu area. And the call to prayer at 5.30am was at first hard to take but I then enjoyed it as part of the atmosphere. Looking forward to your next instalment.

Hello everyone! I will add to the report soon, hopefully, but in the meantime our pictures are finally loaded. They can be found at www.kodakgallery.com/tracybates. Turkey is the top album. Warning: we are not great photographers. But since TedGale couldn't tag along to take our photos for us (he takes amazing pictures, for those who haven't had the pleasure of viewing them) we had to make due.

Enjoy!
Tracy

Great photos, Tracy. Loved the captions!

AA

Thanks AA, but I have to give credit to my husband as he is more creative with captions than I am!

Tracy

Tracy: great pictures. It looks as everyone was pretty bundled up. I'm hoping that I will be warm enough with a raincoat with liner. I'm rethinking that though. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

And on to day 3....

Today our plan was to visit the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque again and the Archeological Museum. We get up early, to another dreary day, and make our way upstairs to fill up on breakfast. I know this has been said time and time again, but the Turkish yogurt really is good! I dumped big heaping spoonfulls of some kind of fruit jam (raspberry, maybe?) and honey into mine and after I consumed enough sugar to last me at least the next three days we were on our way.

Again, I won't get into too many details about the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque because if you are headed to Turkey and haven't read about these yet than you really shouldn't be going! The Hagia Sophia is huge. You know how sometimes you visit sites and they are about as big as you pictured them? Well, Hagia Sophia was a lot bigger than I imagined. There is 20 story high scaffolding in there, so you can imagine. The site is a work in progress, even after all of these years, and from what I read I don't think it's expected to be completed for another 10 maybe? But it truly an amazing sight. And, of course, there are a few cats in there that, embarrassing enough, caught my attention before the beautiful frescoes did. And I swear these cats knew how to work their audience because everyone was taking pictures of the cats posing.

The Archeological Museum is a must, in my opinion. Although a lot of Turkey's treasures wound up in other museums (the British Museum, etc) there are some great things in there, including some wonderfully preserved sarcophaguses (is that a word? sarcophagi, maybe?). It gives a deeper appreciation of what we saw in Istanbul and what we would see in Ephasus the next day. However, be prepared because it is quite large. I will confess, though, that I can only handle so much museum at one time before I get bored. Luckily my dad wasn't with us or we would have been there all day...I started getting flashbacks of hours and hours spent at the St. Louis Historical Museum in my younger days while my dad explained each and everything in brutal detail.

We decided that we wanted to try pide, the Turkish version of pizza, for lunch and so we stopped at one of the many pide restaurants somewhere in the Sultanhamet area on our way to the Galata Bridge. The pizza was good. I just got plain cheese and Matt got the minced meat version.

The weather started to clear up nicely and this afternoon ended up being the best of our entire trip. The sun was shining and everyone was out enjoying it. I should have mentioned above that my other great regret was not taking a short Bosporus cruise that afternoon, as we were approached numerous times. We had a plan to see the Spice Market and the New Mosque that afternoon and decided to wait until our last day in Turkey to do this. Big mistake because it ended up raining the entire last day. Oh well...next time.

The spice market was, in my opinion, much better than the Grand Bazarre because it wasn't nearly as crowded and the salesman didn't seem as pushy. And the smells...all of the spices together created a nice aroma in the air. We bought a nice coral bracelet for Matt's grandmother and some embroidered pillow cases for my mother-in-law and then went to the New Mosque, which was lovely of course. Tiles everywhere, and the sun was flooding in through the stained glass windows which gave it a nice glow.

After another nap that afternoon we had dinner this night at a restaurant near Topkapi Palace. There was an Anatolian woman sitting on the floor in the window rolling out flat bread and yet, it was touristy but the food was good and the atmosphere nice with lots of pillows on the benches and heavy woods. My adana kebab was great, but the highlight was the guzleme, a Turkish crepe made with the flat bread. They stuffed it with a white Turkish cheese and we watched it bake on a stone. It was delicious. We drank Efes beers and then polished off our meal with a delicious rice pudding.

Afterwards we strolled around the streets of the Sultanahmet area for awhile before calling it a night. We wanted to get to bed early because we had an earlier morning flight to Izmir in the morning.

Opaldog, hopefully it will warm up but if not I highly, highly suggest something warmer. On the coast the temperature got up to the low 50's but the rain and cloudiness made it feel much cooler and I still bundled up with my scarf and gloves most of the time. The rain gave the air a damp cold to it that gave me the shivers most of our trip. We had a fabulous time anyhow, but without a proper coat I would have been freezing and would have ended up buying one.

Great trip report and photos, Tracy! We were in Turkey in 2007 - this brings back great memories!

Tracy, great report. You have definitely peaked my interest in Turkey. It's been on my list for awhile, but now I might just have to tear myself away from Dubrovnik. Love your pictures too. Overall, how was the food?

Barb, the food was super. I really, really enjoyed it. Of all my travels, I think I enjoyed the food in Turkey the best overall. I'm a fairly picky eater but there wasn't a meal that I didn't like. Everything was very fresh, with lots of condiments such as parsley and onions on the side for those that want it. The flat breads that they use are very good and a fave of mine. And the fruit...they have lots of fruit orchards and you can get a glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice on the coast for like $1.00. We purchased some fruit wine (quince and mulberry) and some mulberry jam in Sirince. I'm not a seafood eater, but the seafood is supposed to be really good as well.

Tracy

Tracy, if you don't mind my asking, how did you handle money-- did you use ATMs for cash or use credit cards or both? Any problems?

Ok, now my mouth is watering. Do you think our dollar goes a little further there, or is about the same as W. Europe?

Kris, no problem at all. We used our debit card to withdraw lira out of the ATM daily. Some places accepted debit/credit cards but most did not, and our hotels requested payment in cash as well.

Barb, I thought that prices in Turkey were very reasonable, especially outside of Istanbul. I think our hotel in Selcuk was around $35 or $40 a night with the exchange rate. Food was also very reasonable, especially when compared to western Europe or even Croatia. However, the sites were on the pricy side. I think we spent $20 lira per person to get into many of the major sites, which comes out to around $12 pp.

Tracy

Thanks for the great report (and photos). So glad to hear you had a great time despite less than great weather. I leave two weeks from tomorrow.

Still enjoying reading your report, Tracy. Keep it coming, please. Thanks for posting. :)

Tracy...

I had the same opinion about the Spice Market...liked it so much better then the Grand Bazaar. Now I'm off to look at your pictures! :)

Tracy...

Don't kidd yourself...your pictures are terrific!

Marcy, you take gorgeous photos as well and mine definitely don't compare! And you should have seen how many blurry ones got deleted! ;)