Bosphorous Cruise

We took the Bosphorous cruisde with Tony and Ashley, which ends at the Black Sea. We stopped at a cute village for lunch and hiked up to the remnants of a castle.

Me, Ashley and Tony at the Blue Mosque.

Emre and Tony at the Turkish barber. It's not just a haircut, they drink lots of tea, get facials, have their ear hair burned out and have their eyebrows threaded.

View of the Bosphorous as night from the Asian side.

What to See When You're a Tourist in Turkey

Istanbul is by far the most interesting place to see in Turkey. Even in winter (which is short) you can enjoy the sites and city life.
-Spend a day in Sultanahmet, the oldest part of the city visiting Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the underground cistern and the Grand Bazaar.
-Visit Topkapi Palace
-Spend an afternoon strolling Beyoglu, the hip part of town, across the golden horn from Sultanahmet. Visit Nisantasi, the poshest part of town too.
-Visit the Istanbul Modern, the new Turkish modern art museum and have lunch at the cafe there.
-Take a cruise on the Bosphorous and see Ortakoy and the other charming old fishing villages, now hip areas with great night life.
-Take a ferry across to the Asian side to see modern middle class Turkish life. Everyone strolls on Baghdad Avenue to shop and bump into friends.

Outside of Istanbul my favorite place is Cappadocia, an amazing region in Central Anatolia. The landscape is unimaginable- ancient cave dwellings and churches carved into lava formations. It is a 8+ hour drive from Istanbul, so an overnight bus is a good option. The public bus is about $25 each way. You can hire a taxi to drive you arround for the whole day there for about $75. Or Fez Tours offers a short guided tour there: www.feztravel.com/

From May through September the coast is fantastic! Loads of ancient ruins dot the beautiful sparkling blue sea. Rent a car and drive along the coast staying at a tree house in Olimpos, spend a few days in the charming small city of Kas where you can kayak over an old Lycean city now underwater, visit Dalyan (Lycean tombs on the cliffs), Fetiye and end in Bodrum. Consider a few day cruise on a gulet or a side trip to Rhodes.

On your way back to Istanbul don't miss Ephesus, the largest ruined city in Turkey. Here's what Lonely Planet says about it: Of Turkey's hundreds of ancient cities and classical ruins, Ephesus is the grandest and best preserved. Indeed, it's the spunkiest classical city on the Mediterranean. Ephesus was Ionia, a flourishing cultural centre during the Greek Empire, and a busy provincial capital during Roman times. Ionia's Temple of Diana was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World, and the city was generally renowned for its wealth and beauty.

Sts Paul and John took up the quill in Ionia and the Virgin Mary is said to have spent her twilight years here. A walking tour of the ruins will take at least half a day. Places you'll come across include the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, in which seven persecuted youths slumbered for two centuries, then woke up and ambled down to town for a meal; the colossal Harbour Gymnasium; the grand marble-paved Arcadian Way; the impressive Temple of Hadrian and a scattering of Roman fountains, pools, brothels, libraries and public toilets.

The Asian Side

Istanbul is divided into two main parts- the European side and the Asian side. The historical part of the city is on the European side, which itself is split by the Golden Horn.

The Asian side was a few fishing villages with mainly Greek and Armenian residents until the 19th century. There are still many churches and a monastary here. By the mid 20th century it became the residence of choice for middle class Turks. All the old wooden kushks (very large single family homes) were torn down with itnternationlist style 6-story apartment buildings put up instead. They are pretty ulgy, but the area has maintained the garden surroundings of the old homes, so it much more pleasant and residential than many parts of the European side. One other plus is that we never have power or water cuts here, while they are frequent on the European side. We also have the best markets and malls. There are constant ferries across to the European side and two bridges, but traffic is terrible.

Here's a bit I lifted from Time Out Istanbul:

Though lacking the European city's richness, the Asian shore does offer a pleasantly less hectic experience. The two main centres of Üsküdar and Kadıköy offer shopping with a regional slant and a sprinkling of historic sights. North of Üsküdar, the settlements along the Asian Bosphorus still resemble the quiet fishing villages they so recently were.

While most of what's interesting dates from the past 100 years or so, the area's history predates that of the European shore. The oldest settlement in the Istanbul metropolitan area, Chalcedon, was discovered near Kadıköy and dates from neolithic times, much earlier than anything on the European side. The first Greek city was also founded at Kadıköy in 675 BC -17 years before the founding of Byzantium. But, separated by water from their more powerful European neighbour, the Asian settlements suffered badly over subsequent millennia; the work of various invading armies explains the lack of substantial early remains.

Before the 19th century, only Üsküdar saw any significant development. That changed in 1852 when a steam ferry company, Sirket-i Hayriye (literally 'the good deeds company'), started plying its trade across the straits. Rich Levantines from Beyoğlu began constructing elaborate summer mansions along the shore to the south and east of Kadıköy. For the first 50 years of the service, the ferries were all products of British shipyards. In fact, trade between the Ottoman and British empires was at such a level that by the end of the 19th century the Kadıköy suburb of Moda was more or less an English colony. (Our apartment is in Moda.) Under the republic, most of the mansions were demolished and replaced by apartment blocks. These retained the mansion garden settings, though, something which gives the Asian shore, especially between Kadıköy and Bostancı, a more spacious feel than the European side.

Click on the link below to read the rest.
http://www.timeout.com.tr/show.php?isim=asian.htm

Bodrum Castle

This is another photo of Bodrum from our trip the first week of February. That is the Castle of St. Peter in the bacground, built in 1402 by the Knights Hospitaller based in Rhodes.

Bodrum was also the site of King Mausolus' Mausoleum, one of the Seven (Ancient) Wonders of the World.