Hello everyone,
Here I am, ready to tell you all about our amazing family trip to Turkey over Spring Break.
We had the blessing of taking a direct flight from Seattle to Istanbul and I think that was a first for me. I loved the fact we did not have to switch flights anywhere. It was a long flight though – 12 hours. However, Turkish Airlines is very nice and way more room than other companies. Both Ben and Lucas could move a bit on their seats and they even give everyone in the plane a nice little bag with socks, slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste and lip balm. Nice touch!!!
Our first stop was Istanbul. What an incredible city. The history is everywhere you look and it is clear why this is considered the cradle of civilization. There are people from all over the world buzzing around either to go to work or as tourists. I felt like the city never slept. We could hear noises late into the night of life going on outside the hotel. We could also hear the city intercom with the prayers 5 times a day. The majority of the country’s population is muslim and respect the traditions related to the religion.
Shopping
There are several bazaars all over the city, some big and some small. Of course, the main one is the Grand Bazaar which is the oldest and largest covered shopping mall in the world. There are about 4000 stores and 61 ramifications. Obviously as the good shopper that I am, I had to go visit, but it quickly became clear that everything in there was super expensive and it was just for the experience. They do expect you to bargain with them so they start the prices out really high. If you step outside the Grand Bazaar, you can find the same exact things for much more reasonable prices without having to bargain as much.
The Turkish are proud sales people and it is an art form for them, so we fell for their traditional ambush. We were walking around early in the morning in our way to the Blue Mosque and a man appeared out of nowhere and was very nice and helpful. Well, it turned out his family owned a couple of shops and one of them was a rug store. He would not let us go, he waited for us outside the Blue Mosque to make sure we would go to his store. Once we walked in and they made room for us on the couch, I knew we were in trouble. They brought us apple tea and water and started their rug presentation. It was clear we were not leaving without a rug. I was able to convince them that as a teacher I did not have that much money so we ended up purchasing a small Kilim rug for our foyer and two mini ones for gifts. It was a shock to have to spend that kind of money on the first day, but it was all about the experience at that point.
We did learn our lesson and from then on, we ignored everyone very well. No more eye contact with the sales people. They try really hard to get you to their shops and restaurants. They have people that their only job is to find and bring customers to their shops.
I had already read that their first customer was important to them and because we started our days fairly early we got a lot of discounts for being the first customers of the day. They are all very friendly, almost too friendly 🙂
Cappadocia
Well, on the third day in Turkey, we woke up super early and headed to the airport at 4 in the morning to catch a short flight to the Cappadocia region. I have to say, this was my favorite part of the trip. Cappadocia is something from another world. The landscape is incredible and everywhere you look there is something amazing.
We went ahead and hired a car and tour guide for the first day so we could see some of the main sites. We met Mithat at our hotel, which by the way was a cave hotel, the coolest thing ever!!! He took us to the Open Air Museum in Göreme first. There are a few churches inside the caves here and it is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This place is so full of history and really takes you back in time. The churches had beautiful paintings that were made out of fruit pigments.
Underground City
We also visited an underground city in Derinkuyu. WOW! To think that about 1000 people lived in this huge underground city with very small passages to walk through for about 5 to 6 months at a time is unbelievable. They had no choice and were just trying to survive hiding from the Romans.
I wasn’t sure Ben and Lucas were going to make it out in one piece, it was super tight for me to go through so it was a hard task for them. Totally worth it though. Now, that is history, these cities were build back in the year 34 or 35, right after Jesus died and the Christians had to go into hiding because the religion was not accepted by the Romans.
Once Constantinople took over and recognized Christianity as a religion, things got a bit easier and they then created many churches in the caves and even monasteries and schools, all inside these beautiful formations left by thousands of years of wind, water and ashes.
Our stay
As I mentioned earlier, our hotel was also inside one of these caves, this was a very different and interesting experience. The room was not cold, nor hot, it was comfortable. Moreover, it was bigger than most hotel rooms in Europe. The bathroom was very spacious and nice. For breakfast, we headed to the top of the cave and had a beautiful view of the area.
Breakfast
Breakfasts in Turkey were another nice surprise. They serve french fries, a fried cheese rollup, a sausage sauce thing, lots of vegetables, cheeses, fresh bread, cookies, cakes, coffee, tea, juices and hard boiled eggs. For us having breakfast included was perfect and very helpful. It was by far our largest meal of the day.
This is it for this post, but please read my other posts about some of the curiosities from Turkey and how I spoiled our flight crew.
Thank you for reading,
