A week in Turkey - A dream come true

Can't believe it's been 2 years since I've last blogged..

I visited Turkey & Greece with J for our graduation trip. Turkey is probably the most scenic country I've ever been so far. 

It didn't cross my mind at all, but since we did Eastern Europe tour and J thought it would be a great idea to tour Turkey & Greece since we were so near..turned out it was the best decision ever. I absolutely love Turkey and would highly recommend!! Scenic, welcoming locals, reasonably priced and delicious food!

Language wise, all the locals actually understand and speak English well. We have no issues with ordering food, asking for directions and all (except for one incident from Cappadocia to Pamakkule..it was a nightmare).

In terms of currency, they uses lira. We changed lira in Ireland (or was it in Germany?) - well basically in Europe because the rates is better compared to changing it at the airport in Turkey! Most hotels accept credit cards as well if you don't wanna bring cash.

ISTANBUL

We stayed in Sultan Palace Hotel in Istanbul. It's relatively central and you could walk to most tourist attractions within 5-10 minutes. Save up your transportation costs. There's wifi too.

Blue Mosque

Known as Sultanahmet Camii in Turkish -- has blue tiles surrounding the inferior walls of the mosque. It's free to visit, but you need to take off your shoes & put them into plastic bags.
Note: Ladies need to have some coverings for hair, and not wear revealing clothes, ie. no spaghetti straps, tank tops or shorts. Cover the shoulders, and knees - the knees bit applies to males as well.

Basilica Cistern

The largest ancient cistern that lies beneath the city of Istanbul. It's quite spooky. The whole cistern is dark and wet. They actually play some creepy background music that makes the whole atmosphere even more eerie. The Basilica Cistern is approximately 4 minutes walking distance from the Blue Mosque. Very convenient to just walk there. Entrance fee is about 30 TL per person (€4.30).

There's a Photo Booth at the entrance of the cistern. It's almost impossible to get a good picture at the cistern due to the dim light, unless you have your own DSLR. 

J and I in Turkish traditional clothes 

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is 1 minute walking distance from Basilica Cistern. Most tourist attractions are around the Sultanahmeh Square. The entrance fee is 100 TL (approx €14) per person. Personally, I like Hagia Sophia more. I feel like the interior is very pretty and more grand!

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace is 3 mins away from Hagia Sophia. Entrance fee is also 100TL (€14). 

Bosphorus Bridge

We headed to Bosphorus Bridge and had their famous fish burger. It started drizzling halfway and we were walking on the bridge partially soaked. Although the weather wasn't ideal, it was the accompany that matters at that time. 

Places I would like to visit in Istanbul but didn't get to included The Grand Bazaar - Istanbul's largest and oldest covered market & most visited tourist attraction in 2014. Such a pity we didn't get to visit because they closes at Saturday 7pm, and I think they dont open during weekends :( I believe it might be similar to Morocco's souk. The others being the Galata Tower (closes at 8:30pm) & Spice Bazaar.

CAPPADOCIA

We were only in Istanbul for 1 day, the next day we took a flight from Istanbul --> Kayseri Airport

We had the hotel transfer to pick us up straight from airport to Sultan Caves Suites. It was a dream come true! I remembered looking at their Instagram posts before and the cave suites were so unreal!! Can't believe I actually stayed in one of these. Thank you J!

The view from our room

Sultan Cave Suite's backyard

After checking in, we went to explore Göreme. The person at the hotel told us it's within walking distance to explore the surroundings. So we walked to Göreme National Park and some Valley (not sure whether it's Rose Valley or red valley)..but oh boy, we underestimated the HEAT!! I was probably 40 degrees or more and we almost had sunburn! I am actually pretty good at tolerating heat but oh boy, it was scorching hot. Can't imagine the poor husky J. 

The sceneries along the walk were unbelievable. I felt like being in a fairytale. 

Göreme National Park

A must go! The place is HUGE, about 100 km2, and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site! The rock formations are all natural!

I think our initial plan on day 1 was to go hiking at love valley to enjoy the sunset, but it was just too hot and I wasn't wearing proper footwear..so halfway through the journey, we gave up and headed back for Watermelon juice and dinner. 

Our dinner at a cave restaurant. How cool is that?!

Top deck Restaurant Cappadocia

Hafiz Abdullah Efendi Sk. No 15

50180 Göreme

Hot Air Balloon

This..is a dream come true. I've been wanting to ride on a hot air balloon since Secondary 2, after watching Korean music Video 'Grace' by Lee Soo Young, which starred Lee JunKi as the hot air balloon society's president. That was in 2006 and this hot air balloon dream came true in 2018 - after 12 years!!! Words really cannot contain and it was really once in a life time experience (unless there's a 2nd ride sometime in the future xD). Thanks J for the graduation + one year anniversary present :) 

Sunrise ♥

There are about 300 hot air balloons each day from different companies. The view is breathtaking. It can be quite chilly when you're high up in the sky, hence a jacket or scarf would be handy. I think J was contemplating between Butterfly or Royal, but he eventually chose Royal from all the researches and reviews that he has been through. According to our tour guide the next day as well, Royal is one of the best companies so great choice!

We also discussed regarding Queen vs King flight. Regardless of the Queen or the King package, there will be free breakfast buffet prior to the ride. The tour would pick you up from your hotel at 4am! The main differences are Queen flight is 60 minutes, while King flight is 90 minutes. The maximum number of people for Queen is 16-20, while for King it's 10-12; so basically more space and more comfortable for the passengers. You'll receive a gold medal as memento for both, but a polo t-shirt for the King package (which I uses as pyjamas now hehe). There's also champagne after the ride (there's obviously price difference for the champagne but I'm not an expert and I dont really mind either). They asked for donations and tips from passengers though but we being poor students at that time just provided thanks and appreciation hehe. Well, the ride itself is not cheap! I believe the Queen package is probably €175 per person while the King package is €240 (there might be price difference from time to time according to season)..but if you pay by cash, you can have 10% discount (or something like that). 

J chose the King's package for our best comfort and experience. Thank you very much again! J later bought me a hot air balloon porcelain piece as a memento to remember our good times in Cappadocia ♥, but a small part of it broke off when we brought it back to Ireland, and when I shipped it back to Brunei. :(

Royal Balloon brought us back to the cave suites around 7:30 - 8am. We were dead tired, but we had a second round of breakfast. 

Absolutely love the variety of fresh fruits!

After breakfast, we initially wanted to take a chill day to tour around Göreme, but surprisingly, J had already booked for a private tour. He planned all these before our final year med exams, so he probably forgot he was so organised back then. We ordered for a taxi, and the private tour guide came at the same time as the taxi! The taxi driver was furious as he felt like he came for nothing, so J eventually had to pay him 100 Lira or smtg as an apology :(

The tours available in Cappadocia are actually quite confusing, but to simplify:

RED tour: covers central Cappadocia - consists of most of the must go destinations; Open Air Museum / Göreme National Park, Uçhisar Castle, Pasabag (Monk's Valley), Rose Valley, Pigeon Valley, Pottery workshop

GREEN tour: the longer distance tour of Southern Cappadocia. Includes Derinkuyu Underground City, Göreme Panorama, Red Valley, Onyx Workshop, etc.

BLUE tour: Turkish village experience with mainly visiting places like churches, Soganli Valley, Keslik Monastery, Ürgüp Fairy Chimneys, etc.

If you only have one day to tour around, choose the red tour! It consists of the main tourist attractions, but as the tour we took was a private tour, I think J customised it in a way that it included the Underground City as well. We skipped the Goreme National Park as we went ourselves on the first day, but if we had known that it's included in the tour, we could have avoided the sunburnt!! Nevertheless, everything happens for a reason and I believe every experience is worth it. 

Uchisar Panorama

The highest point in Cappadocia which provides a panorama view of Cappadocia. Absolutely stunning

Uchisar castle

Kaymakli Underground City

Thankfully our tour guide was there to explain to us and guide us around the underground city. It was a maze down there, and you could easily get lost! There's 2 main underground cities to visit - Derinkuyu (the largest -- able to shelter 20,000 people with their livestock and food), and Kaymakli. Kaymakli is wider but Derinkuyu is deeper. Kaymakli is also the more visited underground city as it has different entry points for exit and going in while Derinkuyu uses the same tunnel which requires a bit of a queue and could be overcrowded. They build these underground cities to provide shelter and refuge during war times.

The tour included lunch @ Ibrahimpasa -- a buffet lunch for Turkish dishes. Then we proceed with the remaining attractions.. but I was actually half dead because we woke up at 3am (mainly because I need to make up for the hot air balloon hehe)

Urgup Fairy Chimneys

Pigeon Valley

Pigeon valley earned its name from multiple pigeon houses at that region made from soft volcanic tuff. There's also an evil eye tree there. Evil eye actually symbolises good luck and is meant to ward off evil, hatred, jealousy and bad spirits. You can buy a small piece of evil eye and hang it at the evil eye trip to make a wish. J also got me an evil eye bracelet for good luck :)

The other attractions include Pasabag (Monk's valley) & Rose valley which we opted to skip because I was too tired and sleepy. The guide also brought us to some jewelry places and pottery store to buy ceramic; I think most tours have these hidden itineraries because if the customer buy from the store, they probably get commissions from the owners, but it was slightly uncomfortable for me. So quickly, we ended the tour and headed back to our hotel to rest. 

The next day, we woke up at 4am (again!!) to catch the sunrise and photoshoot set up provided by Sultan Cave Suites. The sunrise is around 6am~ but when we arrived at 5-ish, there were ALOT of couples queuing up already. I seriously think that waking up so early on two consecutive days made me look tired. Thanks J for being patient and taking lots of pretty photos.

Before we left Cappadocia, we went to try Turkish Hammam. I did Hammam when I was in Marrakech, Morocco, but it was J's first experience. 

PAMUKKALE

We bought bus tickets from Denizli to Pamukkale. Everything was ok and there were a lot of people waiting for the bus with us..we eventually went up on the 7pm bus to head over to Pamukkale..but halfway through the journey, they said we went into the wrong bus?? They could not speak English very well and we had to google translate from English to Turkish and eventually the bus driver dropped us off at a bus stop and we were basically stranded there!!! The people were also unfriendly and we were so lost. Thankfully J was there to take charge and comfort me. Can you imagine how scary that it? In a foreign country, and stranded. There were some delays and hence, we only reached Pamukkale around 8:30am! We were supposed to arrive at around 5pm the earliest to go to the travertine pools. T____T I guess life is really full of unexpected turns. I was really scared, frustrated, mad and lost..but thinking back now, it really is an experience, and now I have interesting stories to tell my future kids xD

We checked into Hotel Sahin straight away and went to the Travertine pools right after.

Travertine terraces

One of the most instagrammable places in Turkey - the travertine terraces. Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish. By the time we went there, there were huge crowds already! So avoid the crowds by heading there really early, or really late (near sunset). 

They don't allow shoes on the terraces so bring a plastic bag to keep slippers in it. 

There's also pools which require entrance fees - the travertine pools are opened from April 15 - Oct 2 from 8am - 9pm (entrance ~ TL 35) and antique pool is Open from 8am - 7:30pm (~ TL 33). You need to bring your own towel to swim. We didn't swim in any of those pools and focused on taking pictures at the terraces only. 

EPHESUS

The next day, we check out from the hotel to head to Selcuk using train. It was fairly on time, and we had a English guided tour around Ephesus. Entrance fees and buffet lunch is included in the tour. We shared the tour with an Indonesian family for the day. The tour include places such as:

Isa Bey Mosque

Ephesus ancient city

Census Library

Temple of Artemis

Great Theatre

Temple of Hadrian

House of Mother Mary

The tour then sent us to Izmir airport at the end of it. We overnight in Izmir Airport's hotel, and took an early flight the next day to Athens, Green :)

Tav Airport Hotel

Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport International Terminal, Gaziemir, Izmir

FOOD WE TRIED IN TURKEY:

The famous turkish tea!! They usually provide it for free, theres also the peach tea which is fragrant and sweet!

Bread outside of Blue mosque

Grilled corn on the cob

Bosphorus Bridge's famous fish sandwich (fresh fish guys!!)

Turkish coffee - too strong for my liking

Aryan yogurt drink - I love this altho it's quite tasteless initially, but i grew to like it. Like J said, it's an acquired taste!

stuffed eggplant

Mixed platter

Turkish pizza

Ravioli

Baklava

Turkish Shish Kebab (TL 37 / €5.25)

Yuzu Testi - Testi Kebab, which means pottery kebab. Meat cooked in the pottery. Super cool when they served us, it was still on flames. 

TL 37 (€5.25)

Kagitta Pastirma - which means baked bacon i believe (TL 25 / €3.55)

Meat platter again - turkey is all about meat meat meat meat meat

Simit: Turkish circular bread with sesame seed; a popular Turkish breakfast 

Gül böregi: phyllo dough stuffed with spinach and cheese 

Pors kol boregi: puff pastry in long rolls with ground minced meat

Turkish ice cream - Dondurma

Also had my first Shisha experience - I think we chose apple and peach flavours?? But I regretted it. Its essentially like smoking and I hated smoking. I thought it would be like vaping with just the vapour, but it feels like inhaling coal into my lungs..Not a pleasant feeling...and I accidentally tumbled the charcoal into their white sofa which caused a mess and the ashes were all over. Thankfully, the shop didn't ask us to compensate for anything but I felt really bad. Sorry!!

That was the end of our 1 week Turkey trip! One week is definitely not enough for such a beautiful city, but I'm glad J planned this trip. Thank you again, for the lifetime memories :) 

It'll always engraved in my heart. I hope everyone who've visited or will be visiting Turkey will enjoy it as much as I did.