Turkey Overview

We did a total of 8 nights in Turkey - 4 nights in Istanbul, 3 nights in Cappadocia, and 1 night at the airport hotel.  It was a fabulous country and I cannot recommend it enough for a vacation.  I would have loved to visit some of the beaches as well had we been there in warmer weather.

We thought the 4 nights in Istanbul and the 3 nights in Cappadocia was the perfect amount of time.

In Istanbul I'd say there are two different areas you can stay in - Sultanahmet which is near all the historical sites, or Taksim which is near a lot of dining and nightlife.  Taxis are pretty cheap so in my opinion it's not a huge deal which neighborhood you stay in.

Our top list of things to do in Istanbul was the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and Blue Mosque.

In Cappadocia we debated between staying in Goreme and Urgup since those are the two most popular towns.  We went with Goreme based on advice from various message boards and were very happy with our choice.

Our top list of things in Cappadocia was the sunrise balloon ride, a hike through one of the valleys to see the landscape up close, and eating a testi kebab.

The Husband's advice is to bring a bottle of Febreze.  People smoke everywhere.  I can't tell you how many cab rides we had where there was a no smoking sign in the cab but the driver was smoking like a chimney.  I did have to dry clean all my coats and sweaters when I got back home which is not something we're used to since our town is now no smoking anywhere indoors.

And by the time you're reading this we will be in Bangkok.  After we return I'll have posts on Thailand, Cambodia, and Tokyo.

Turkey - Istanbul Food

We aren't huge fans of Turkish food, especially The Husband, so we kind of decided to go with more varied cuisines while we were in Istanbul.  We figured our choices would be much more limited to Turkish food when we were in Cappadocia and there's not nearly the amount of restaurants to choose from.

Flamm - We got lost trying to find the restaurant I'd picked out after pouring over Time Out Istanbul.  So we pulled out the Blackberry to search Frommers.com and find another restaurant.  We ended up in a great area of town called Taksim.  This is where the hip Istanbulites come to eat and drink.  Flamm is an Italian restaurant.  I had a fabulous spaghetti carbonara.  The Husband had tagliatelle with pesto.  We both loved our pasta.  The Husband started with a subpar Caprese salad.  The mozzarella was not very good but the tomatoes were delicious.  I had a Turkish pastry which was full of gooey cheese and was very good.  Also, with the bread came a grilled tomato in olive oil with sun-dried tomatoes on top that had an excellent fresh taste.  The meal was a little expensive, mostly because of the wine.  Wine in Turkey is heavily taxed by the government.  Our bottle was one of the cheapest on the menu and was 80 Turkish Lira which is nearly $60.

Alemdar - We went here for lunch since it was about 50 feet from the Hagia Sophia and we were starving.  We knew that we were in tourist territory with likely high prices and mediocre food but it was pretty good.  I had lamb shish and The Husband had meatballs.  The meatballs tasted like little sausages.  The dishes came with grilled tomatoes, what looked to be a grilled pepper, something that looked like onions seasoned with something else, some delicious rice, pancake like things to wrap it all in, and french fries.  The food was decent and they had live traditional Turkish music playing.  I think it's a decent choice if you're in the area.

Picante - We headed back to Taksim for dinner and chose Picante, a Mexican restaurant.  I was impressed with Istanbul's ability to do Mexican.  We started with some chile con queso that was so good I wanted to order another.  I had a plate of chicken nachos that were very good and The Husband had a chicken burrito. Nothing standout besides the chile con queso but solid choices.

Anadolu - We chose our restaurant in this Bosphorus village based on the amount of actual Turkish people sitting there.  All the other restaurants were empty.  We managed to order the fried mussels and the chicken kebabs.  These both came in sandwich form.  The fried mussels were a big fail.  The chicken kebab sandwich was very good though.  It came with tomato, onion, and lettuce on the sandwich along with some great spices.

11 Leblon - Another night in Taksim.  We had another bottle of 80 Lira wine.  The wine may be expensive but it's been very good with each bottle that we get.  For an appetizer I had a trio of 3 mini-samosas.  One had shrimp, one had meat and peas, and another had spinach, roquefort, and walnuts.  Very good.  The Husband had Cajun Chicken Crisps which turned out to be similar to chicken fingers.  He thought they were delicious.  For dinner I had a pasta in roquefort sauce with mushrooms.  The Husband had spinach ravioli with walnuts in a cream sauce which was wonderful.  The best part was our chocolate souffle for dessert.  Amazing.  Probably second only to the chocolate souffle we had in Costa Rica last year.

Orient Cafe - Another round of pasta, this time for lunch.  It was on the way from the Grand Bazaar over to the Blue Mosque and we were starving.  Pastas were cheap and were decent but very greasy.  Even better we weren't hassled to come in the restaurant like almost every other restaurant we passed.

Otto - Another restaurant in the Taksim area.  We were sold on the restaurant because of the cool bar.  We enjoyed a prosciutto platter with green salad (rocket as it's called in Europe) and dried figs (amazing) for an appetizer.  Then we shared a 4-cheese pizza with parmesan, mozzarella, gorgonzola, and emmanthal cheeses.  The pizza was wonderful.

Spinach ravioli at 11 Leblon

Delicious bagel type thing that is sold on the street

There's lamb in here under the wrap

Meatballs

Alemdar Restaurant

Taksim at night

On Saturday night this alley was so packed you could barely get through

Chips and queso at Picante

Nachos at Picante

Burrito

Turkish tea

Bread at 11 Leblon

Trio of samosas at 11 Leblon

Cajun Chicken Crisps at 11 Leblon

pasta at 11 Leblon

Eating outside at Picante.  They give you blankets because it's freezing.

Turkey - Istanbul Hotels

We had a hotel problem before we even arrived.  When we emailed to confirm our hotel, we were told that they were overbooked the first night and we would have to stay next door at their sister hotel.  Not  cool.  And we were not happy.

From what we could figure out on TripAdvisor after quite a bit of digging through info on the 2 hotels, this has happened to at least 2 other people.  So it sounds to be a bit shady to me.  I don't know if it's because we had the cheapest rate and they could get more money out of others (we did get a great deal).  Or if it's just because we were the lucky ones who emailed to confirm or what the reason was.

Plus our transfer to the hotel, which was provided by the hotel, never showed up at the airport.  He wasn't there when we arrived so we emailed the front desk.  They said he was on the way and 15 minutes away.  So we waited for 30 and he still wasn't there.  2 hours after our plane touched down, we said screw it, and took a cab to the hotel.  We both canvassed the entire international terminal looking for a sign with our name on it and there was no way in the world he was there.

The first night we were put in Gulhane Park Hotel.  It was a decent hotel but not our style at all (not as modern as our first choice) and was not quite as nice.  I'd say there's better out there.

So we had to pack everything up again to move to hotel #2 the next morning.

Hotellino was our first choice.  After our airport incident and the incident with them being full they welcomed us when we came to check-in with glasses of red wine and a plate of fresh fruit.  When we were finally able to get to our room on the 2nd day we were greeted with a room much more our style.  Beautiful wood floors, much more modern, and a nicer bathroom.

They had a decent breakfast every morning.  There was yogurt, juice, cereal, cheese, meats, olives, and fruit. Breakfast is included in the rate.  We enjoyed having a glass of wine in the hotel lobby every night.  They have free internet so we'd upload our pictures for the day and check on anything we wanted to do the next morning.

Included in our rate was also a half day tour (I think this might be part of the airport pick-up though) and bottled water that was supposed to be in our room.  Neither were mentioned.  Bottled water was 33 cents down the block and we already had plans to see everything but it just wasn't what was promised.

Summary:  great hotel, doesn't live up to it's promises, not worth the hassle.  Very unfortunate as we enjoyed our stay there.

Istanbul - Bosphorus Cruise

We spent one day taking a ferry from downtown Istanbul up the Bosphorus to a small village.  This tourist ferry leaves at 10:35 am in the winter (there is an additional departure in the summer) and arrives back at 4:30 pm.  You can get off the boat at any of the stops and spend a couple hours there before the boat comes back to take you home.  You cannot hop from stop to stop.  Once you get off you're there until the ferry comes back 3+ hours later.

This is the ferry schedule:  http://www.ido.com.tr/en/index.cfm?page=SubPage&kapsam=178&textid=2274&ln=EN

The ferry is located in Eminonu and was the closest dock to the Galata Bridge.  The cost was 20 Turkish Lira round-trip.

We decided to get off at Andolu Kavagi which was the last stop and is right before the Black Sea.  Even though it was a warm, clear day, I froze my butt off when we were on the ferry since we sat outside on the way there.

We passed the Dolmabahce Palace on the way as well as the ruins of several castles and some beautiful waterfront mansions.

And then when we got off in town we were in Asia!  Istanbul is the only city in the world that is split on two continents.  The Bosphorus River divides the European side from the Asian side.  This was our first visit to Asia.

We hiked up a very steep hill and many steps to reach the ruins of the Yoros Castle.  I had to peel off the 10 different layers I had on for the boat ride.  The existing castle structure was built by the Ottomans in 1453 by Fatih Sultan Mehmed.  It was built on the narrowest part of the Bosphorus to make controlling the waterway easier.  Previous structures and fortifications had existed on the same piece of land for centuries.

After visiting the castle we went back down to the village for lunch.  There are several eateries near the castle as well.  There were so many restaurants to choose from and they all had the same menu.  I ended up picking the one that had a bunch of Turkish men sitting there.  I figured if the locals like it, it must be good.

Based on the amount of restaurants in the town, I assume there are many more people that visit in the summer.  I felt kind of bad that our boat hadn't brought that many tourists to their town that day.

For I ordered the fried mussels and The Husband ordered the chicken kebab.  Turns out they both came on a  type of sandwich.  I didn't end up liking mine.  The Husbands had some onions and spices that made for a delicious sandwich.  And it was dirt cheap.

Our waiter/restaurant owner was also one of the two non-English speaking people we met our entire time in Turkey.  I was able to practice the three Turkish words I had learned on the plane ride over and whipped out my little phrase book.  A phrase book was definitely not needed.  All menus were in English (even the not touristy restaurants).

On the way back we sat on the inside of the ferry since the sun would be setting soon and it was getting cooler.  It was very neat to see the sun set behind the old part of the city.