The First Foray: Turkey

In 2015, I went to Turkey for 5 months. It was the first time I had traveled alone. It was impactful for a number of personal reasons, but I’ll stick to things about the places I visited.

It’s been 9 years since I got back from there, but I only recently processed all my pictures. Things just got so busy with life I never got around to it until now. That’s been true of many things I’ve done in between jobs this year. Hopefully I’ll be able to live in a way where things don’t get so backed up again.

Istanbul

I spent the most time in Istanbul, but I wasn’t so focused on taking pictures. Anyway, the city has thousands of years of history, going back to when it was Constantinople. It’s obviously a major city, so all of the modern city things are still going on. But for me, the most remarkable part is the architecture. In particular, I’ve never seen any building so perfectly located in its environment as the Ayasofya is on the Bosphorus, right where the Halic separates from it.

Princes’ Islands

By a short ferry ride, there’s an archipelago of little islands that historically were used to exile royalty, apparently both in the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. In recent centuries, wealthy people have used it for things wealthy people do. It’s an enjoyable trip out there, and there are many animals around. If you have extra time in Istanbul and want a bit of a getaway from the busy city, it’s a nice place.

Bursa

Before the Ottomans were able to take Constantinople, they used Edirne as their capital, and also Bursa briefly. Both of these cities have the 1300s architecture in their mosques to demonstrate this, but Bursa has a bit more, I believe. In addition to the geometric architectural differences, there are some remarkable works of calligraphy in the mosques that have a distinct style from what you can find in Istanbul.

As far as food is concerned, Bursa invented one of my favorite Turkish dishes, the Iskender kebap, and a sweet called Sekeri Kestane, or sugared chestnuts. And they have been a main center of silk production for centuries, so you can find many scarves and rugs there.

Efes

Efes, or Ephesus in English, has the best preserved Greek ruins I’ve ever seen. The most remarkable part of being there is that many of the facades of the building have been propped back up, along with the streets, so you can walk around on those thousand year old stones along the main street, seeing the layout of the ancient city. I’m sure there’s somewhere, but I don’t know anywhere else where I could experience something like this.

Kapakodkya

Kapadokya is in the central Turkey area, and it’s geography is distinct from the rest of the country that I’ve seen. I think of it as Turkey’s Grand Canyon. There are no big cities, but every direction you look has stunning landscape views. It might be my favorite place to just hangout aimlessly in the country. If I had more time, I would have gone back during my second trip.

Kas

Kas is a town on the Mediterranean. I believe there’s a lot of diving that goes on, though apparently it’s gotten expensive. For me, it was a slow town to just relax in, and I had really nice Mezes at a restaurant called Bi Lokma.

Oludeniz

Though I don’t have a landscape picture of the beach, this one is one of the most beautiful in the country. Apparently a Bond movie had some scene filmed here. It’s worth a visit if you’re in the area, but not otherwise, I think.

Cirali

Probably my favorite place in the country is Cirali. Between the Greek ruins, the Mediterranean beach, the mountains, the place is special enough. But there are also eternal flames on a mountain. Apparently methane rises out from under the mountain spontaneously and combusts when it hits the air.

Pamukkale

Pamukkale is a rather unique place. At the top of the hill are the ruins of Heiropolis and Cleopatra’s pool is up there apparently. But below is this huge white formation which has grown out of whatever minerals are in the water. They say that’s what makes the pool up top special. But it’s a massive structure that’s interesting to hike up to get to the ruins. There are pools where the water collects as it runs down the structure. I liked it.