October 26 to November 9, 2023, Fethiye and Istanbul, Turkey

Fethiye 

We decided at the last minute to go to Turkey, sort of.  We needed to leave the Schengen visa area for about 2 weeks so as to not overstay the maximum 90-days. When we were in CA, we thought we would go to Egypt, but during our trip, several people who had visited Turkey recommended it for having more of a variety of sights to see that the kids would enjoy. So Turkey it was. But then, the middle east way started on October 7 and we considered maybe not continuing heading east, but instead going to Albania or Bulgaria or Senegal… Rhodes though is a 2-hour ferry from Turkey so we settled on taking the ferry over to Turkey, seeing how things felt in the area, and then deciding whether to head up to Istanbul.  This makes me nervous (as I want to buy our plan ticket from.. somewhere.. over the Spain, where I know we want to by my about Nov 9 and it is now Oct 25!) but it also makes good sense to be a a bit cautious (the US State dept, ever the Chicken Littles of travel, had just issued a world-wide cautionary bulletin for all Americans traveling anywhere abroad to be careful, which was sort of unusual). 

We picked a beach-side apartment complex rather than an Airbnb to stay in, to have folks who work there to chat with and help us out, if needed.  And of course, you guessed it, things were just fine!  The big beach near Fethiye, called Calis Beach, is a British, ex-pat haven.  Observations:

Inflation was making prices really hard to predict – Turkey’s inflation was over 70% for 2022. I have of course read about high inflation and hyper-inflation, but seeing it play out made clear how difficult it is. Restaurants used markers on menus as they could not keep their pricing on their printed menus up to date; lots of people quoted us prices in British pounds or Euros, the small grocery markets did not put prices on a lot of items, and prices were just sort of unexpected and unpredictable. For example, our beachside apt was $56 a night ($130 in Greece); dinner at a sit down restaurant was $75 ($30 in Greece); tour for 5 with lunch was $300 ($150 in Greece); and roasted corn on the street was $0.25 (we ate some but should have eaten a lot more of that yummy corn!).  So, the pricing was weird and hard to figure out, topped of course, by the knowledge that Turkey is a bargaining place, where you know you are supposed to ask for “best price” all the time; so spending money took more brain power than usual.

That aside, Fethiye was pretty easy living, we ended up staying there for about 10 days, longer than we planned. 

Katie and Scott about to be let into Turkey, through the Fethiye port of entry. 

We never rented a car but signed up for some fun and funny tours.  Here are some of the sights we took in: 

·       Horseback riding, take two.  Avid readers will remember that the kids had a horseback riding experience in Scotland that ended in two smiling ear to ear kids and one kid in tears – Because we had time in Feythiye to get oriented to the place, I spent some time trying to find another experience to try for a 100%-smiles result.  I found what I thought I wanted – someone who would do more of a lesson rather than just a walk on a horse. Gold stars! However, the teacher required that an adult also sign up for the session (boo, I do not enjoy riding on horses, but I have now done it twice for the little sweeties).   Bonus though, the lesson included a walk through a sight we had wanted to see – Kayokay. Kayokay was an ancient Greek village; as part of a treaty to end a Greek-Turkish war in 1923, all Greeks in Turkey (other than those in Istanbul) were exiled to Greece and all Turks (other than those very near the boundary of Turkey) were exiled to Turkey, no matter how long they had lived in the place.  In Kayokay, after the Greek inhabitants left, Turks exiled from Greece were supposed to come and settle in the village however, they refused supposedly based on fears of ghosts of Greeks who had been killed in the village.

So! We found the right dolmus (minibus public transit system that works so great in Fethiye) to get to the place and Scott got to walk around the ghost village during our lesson.  We took turns riding horses and practicing basic skills.  Then, we tested our skills by taking the hoses on a walk through the village; our teachers walked alongside us, which I normally find to be so degrading like, you ride the horse because you are too weak to walk!, but in this case, it kept our pace not too fast and gave all of us a lot of freedom and responsibility to keep our horses in line (and not continuing to snack on vegetation beside the path; sigh, I always get the hungry horse).  Overall, we had a great time (such a 100% success rate, I was very proud of myself) and I continue to look forward to the day that the kids can pursue this interest without me on a horse with them.  

·       Pamukkale and Hierapolis– Amazing sight; mountains where hot, mineral-rich water pools and flows down the mountainside, leaving behind carbonite mineral deposits that are bright white; over time, these deposits have hardened into waves of white rock that look like marshmallows.  Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish.   Hierapolis was a Greek colony beginning around 200 B.C. and then of course, the Romans created baths in this location and both civilizations left behind great ruins to enjoy.  Also, some say that Phillip the Apostle is buried in Hierapolis. We stared up the hill where the burial was, but we had limited time at the site on the tour and opted to spend more time at the amphitheater AND (another great site!) a location called Plutonian gate, a 2,200 year old structure outside of a cave where carbon dioxide gas released from the ground accumulates. Historians theorize that priests would go into the gave with small, live animals, hold their breath, and then emerge alive while the animals perished, thus, the priests were sacred and the animals were sacrificed to Hades.   

From the top of the ancient theater. 

Queen Katie, posing. 

Above and below: In front of the Plutonian gates. 

Climbing on the carbonite mineral 'cotton castle' walls. 

In front of the mineral pools.

·       Daylan Bay – We went on a boat tour including Daylan (turtle) Bay (where we learned about a beloved British woman, June Haimoff, who settled in Turtle Bay and then spent many years fighting a hotel development and successfully saved a favored nesting site for carretta caretta turtles; then we felt a bit guilty about our boat tour, thinking that she would surely not have liked the boat motors [she advocated for metal frames around the motors, that propel the boats through some shallow & vegetated areas] or the tours [we had the opportunity to buy a local product, blue crab, to taste and then to throw into the Bay to attract adult turtles to the boat docking area.] On the other hand, we reasoned with ourselves, the local tour guides, bus driver, and boat driver all loved turtles and had an economic stake in making sure they have a relatively safe place to keep living and breeding in the wild. Conservation is tricky. 

The tour also included a mineral mud bath – such a funny experience, boy was this not a hit with the kiddos – We all gamely got into the squishy pit with all of our boat mates, I had just started to pile up the mud to make sure all parts my showing-skin were property covered in mud that could dry out when Alex had hopped out and said “I’m done!”  Katie and Luke started long enough for us to get to the drying spot and have the boat-photographer take our photos before they ran for the showers. I barely got my face dried before I felt I needed to join the group!  We all then entered the co-ed mineral baths.  Even a warm pool that the kids could sort of paddle around in could not overcome their horror at the sulfur spell. Well, my skin did feel sooooo soft.. for a few hours, sadly no lasting effect.  Oh, and Luke and I tried out – surely for the groups’ benefit – having our the dead skin on our feet nibbled at by small garra ruffa fish..  I… did not like the sensation nor the sight of creatures swimming around my toes. Luckily, that treatment too did not seem to have much of a good effect on my skin, so I can happily not have that experience again!

Chatting on the boat. 

Pretty nice views on the boat - Katie and Luke playing games.

Behold! The sea turtle! 

Pretty nice beach at Daylan, where the turtles lay their eggs (we were not there in the right month for the laying. 

·       Other important adventures.

- Fethiye has these amazing rock tombs; they are truly unique, dating to the 4th century B.C., constructed by a people called the Lycians, carved as they believed winged creatures would carry the dead away so they placed them up high in the mountains. Perhaps also they were filled with valuable offerings and the families hoped the valuables would be safe up high (they were not).  This one is called the Tomb of Amyntas. 

            

At these amazing tombs in Fethiye. 

The view from the tomb. 

Look at the amazing columns carved into the mountainside. 

      - Lazing around at the Mediterranean Sea – We walked across the road to the beach and some of us got in the water and some looked for cool rocks and read at the beach.

    - Fethiye has such an amazing waterside park!  Called Sehit Fethi Bey Park, I cannot overstate how awesome it was; I think of all the park planning sessions I have been a part of and this one has everything so thoughtfully designed and executed. It has really cool and tall play structures (now that my kids have gotten bigger, I have noted how small most part structures are – that makes them great for ages 2-5 but really boring for ages 9 on); a running and bike riding track, spaces to sit, sports courts, adult workout areas nearby, contemplative areas, surprising spaces (little hills that you walk over and find ponds with ducks on the other side), and really cool sculptures (one with forms of horses running so that from the water and at night, you can almost think the forms are real horses).  Just so awesome and big and well-done.   

 

We took this pretty nice ferry back and forth from our hotel to Fethiye town.

.. and they let you hang off of the small ferry. 

 

.. and sometimes they let little kids drive the ferryboat..  :) 

We had a few pretty nice beachside dinner. 

Here is a quick dictionary one of the waiters gave me to aid out stay in Turkey.

Less positive but still interesting experiences – We initially went to that waterside park because it is across the street from the city hospital. Our first trip-hospital visit!  Nothing serious or something deadly serious. You see, Fethiye has many stray dogs and cats (what is about former Ottoman Empire and stray cats and dogs?) and we have three children who canNOT for any reason, ignore these animals. Scott tried valiantly to signal disapproval, disdain, and hostility to petting the animals. Sadly, everywhere we went people got to pet the cats and (less often) the dogs; we noticed many dogs had plastic ear tags and waiters helpfully told us that is because the city has vaccinated them so people know those stray animals are safe to pet.  And so we went for about 2 weeks.  On our balcony one night, a noisy cat came for a pet and Alex got a bite and a scratch that drew blood.  No plastic tag on the cats (I suspect because cats are less likely to transmit rabies than dogs, but that is a guess).  Arg, we went to sleep puzzling about what to do other than cleaning and Neosporin.  I awoke to Scott already having a plan – He had looked up the nearest hospital and recommended that we just go and get Alex shots.  Very good plan.  Fethiye is set up for tourists – when they walked into the hulking hospital building unsure what to expect – we planned that I would wait for as long as Luke and Katie wanted to play at the (amazing!) park and then maybe split up if the hospital visit went beyond a few hours. Ha!  They were back in 30 minutes; the hospital has a “tourist” desk that whisked them through the process and cost… $25.  We returned two more times for shots; we’d been watching the biting-cat all week and it was still alive and fine when we left Fethiye so we ended up traveling to Istanbul and not taking any of our precious days on the ground there finding the hospital in that city.  Seems he did not get rabies. But! He is now protected against getting it for about a year, so that is good.

We ate more Turkish delight than I thought we would. There was a sweets place – Turkish delight; baked goods; baklava – fairly near our apartment and we went so often that we were known there; each time they saw Katie and I coming, they would prepare treats for us to taste and call Katie princess and we’d somehow end up with 500 grams of sweets.  Katie has a wide palate and enjoyed the orange, green, yellow, and red gelatine-nut-fruit candies while I only really enjoyed the Nutella or chocolate-nut varieties. On my last stop at the shop, the two purveyors implored me to sit and served me Turkish tea and fresh pomegranate juice as a goodbye. It was strange and awkward to sit for a bit, as I could tell one man was trying to tell me that the other man would really REALLY miss my visits because I was so charming; but it was one of those funny experiences one has in other countries that you remember because they were so different.

     We had our last dinner in Fethiye and readied ourselves for our flight to Istanbul the next day, Unfortunately, I got a call from home that night about a friend’s illness that was serious and scary; that put me on the path to returning home a few weeks earlier than planned.

Istanbul

With my friend ever-present on my mind, we made our way to Istanbul. Wow, quite a place to fill up your senses!  Istanbul is the largest city (partially) in Europe (14.8M, in a sense, though Moscow has almost 18M).  We arrived the city’s newer airport, the one built on the Asian side (the kids were excited to have landed in Asia, momentarily forgetting that the whole time we’d been in Fethiye, that was Asia, too) and Scott braved negotiations with taxi drivers while I ordered Burger King for our hungry little monsters.  After negotiations knocked the quoted price down about 30 Euros, we made our way to a big van; two girls who were riding passed our hotel got squished into the front seat with they driver (they were not happy) while we lounged in the big back of the van, which was definitely, like the driver had promised a VIP ride!

Our VIP taxi ride from the Istanbul airport.

 

We made it to our hotel which was so sweet – It was located a 5 minute walk from the amazing Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, site of the Roman hippodrome, and Roman cisterns.  Our rooms were the only two on the floor (small hotel), so the kids got to stay in one room and we could pop back and forth to monitor their bedtime (note to other prospective family-travelers, something about traveling makes bedtime crazy; our kids who used to be in bed by 8:30 [at least, Alex and Luke were!] are now accustomed to staying up until 10).  As soon as we dropped our stuff, Scott had to get on a work call while the four of us had time to go explore. It is always exciting and scary to walk through a new city for the first time, in the dark.  And I hate to say it, but it always feels different (read: less safe) when Scott (or another adult) is not one of my walking partners. 

 Not to worry at all though, Istanbul is a very safe city, lots of people out at night and many many restaurateurs and shopkeepers out on the sidewalk, beckoning you in (sidenote: it was in Istanbul where Luke, not unkindly, raised his concern that each time someone asked us to “come in, for dinner my friends!” and I responded with something like “No thank you, not tonight”, then, they’d invariably say “Maybe tomorrow night, you’ll come back” and I’d say “Maybe” – Luke did not like any of my responses; he felt like saying “no” was mean and saying we’d come back (maybe!) was a lie. He didn’t know what I should be saying, and he acknowledged that he didn’t have an answer, but he didn’t like the exchanges… Our sensitive and thoughtful and maybe a bit judgey-child.)   

 Back to night one, we readily found the beautiful path that marks the former site of the Roman hippodrome (now just a walking path with some markers and amazing columns, one taken by the Romans from Egypt). The path goes between the Hagie Sofia and the Blue Mosque. With both mosques lit up at night, strolling along a pedestrian route among other tourists and the kids running the around the hippodrome made for a pretty magical evening.  Luckily, Scott’s call ended a bit early and we managed to get back to the hotel, grab him, and do the whole walk over again before we collapsed into bed!  

 We had only four days so we had to work fast, here is what we did: 

·       Hagie Sofia – We woke got right up and strode over to the visitor line. We had a good knowledge base for the church-cum-museum-cum-mosque, as Luke had done a memorable presentation on it days before (including his now-famous-in-the-family pronunciation guide: “It’s EYE-a-Sofia!”).  It was at first a church built by Justinian, Emperor of the Byzantines, around 800.  He was so impressed by what he had commissioned that he said, upon entering the church, O Solomon, I have surpassed thee!  I have not been in many mosques; here is what struck me: no shoes, walking on carpet, lights dropped way down, like, from a 180+feet in the ceiling down to 15 feet off the group, and no chairs gives the place a very horizontal feel, like, you can just wander around on every inch of the floor (also made some visitors’ kids think of summersaults, and as they rotated around the carpet, our kids look at them with disdain, that their parents would allow such behavior in a holy place!). 

Also, no paintings of people or animals anywhere in the space is jarring – because nearly all of my holy-places visits are Christian, where saints, angels, and the Godly-family, etc, decorate most every inch of the place. Instead, beautifully lettered verses from the Qur’an and many many intricate, geometric and repeating patters symbolizing values like unity and the diversity of nature.   The Hagia Sofia is special because it was a church, then a museum, and now, only recently, a working mosque – so there are only a few places cordoned off from visitors, you can walk right under the beautiful dome.  The dome’s construction is very neat – to put it mildly – the designers placed four huge columns to bear the weight behind gigantic decorations so it appears that the dome is “floating”.

Hagia Sofia during the day.. 

.. and Hagia Sofia at night. 

 

Hagia Sofia

  ·       Blue Mosque -   The next day, we visited the Blue Mosque, a beautiful mosque built around 1609, just across a pathway from Hagia Sophia. It seems clear that the architect for the Blue Mosque was inspired by Hagia Sophia’s “floating dome” technique.  It was beautiful inside and outside.  Unlike Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque is constructed as a mosque, thus non-praying visitors are not allowed in a larger portion of the mosque (so, non-believers miss out on being beneath the giant dome); Muslim visitors did walk around the main prayer hall during non-prayer times, though I did see a woman being directed out of the main prayer hall area to the side, women’s prayer areas (it was clear to me that she, like the men in the main hall, had  just been enjoying the great view of the building).  Seeing those side, women-only prayer areas jabbed at whatever organ in my body holds my “injustice” thermometer.  I kept telling myself that, in the US, women’s basketball teams have separate and less-good facilities than, men, that women’s bodies are ogled at for all kinds of commercial and misogynistic purposes, have women hold much less power in politics and business than we should, etc. It’s funny how you can get used to things – even very negative things – but when confronted with similarly negative instances, they are just so obvious.

        Back from my digression - Below are the beautiful Blue Mosque photos.  

Look at the size of this column! 

·       Basilica Cistern - After meeting several nice salespeople wishing us to bring carpet homes – one was so friendly we could not manage to refuse him guiding us into his shop and hearing about his ventures in Miami and southern California – we made our way to the Basilica Cistern. This incredibly large (450 x 200 ft), underground cistern was built in the late 400s by the Romans. This cistern was one of several hundred beneath Istanbul, which supplied the city drinking water.  A forest of marble columns hold up the roof; the columns are reused so they are all mismatched, one notable column is standing on large, carved Medusa head turned on its side so it is the right height.

 

    ·       Topkopi Palace - We didn't actually end up going in side but we fully intended to! Until we got to the front of the line and realized the price was really high.. We were going to just buy them but then the cashier also said they only take cash.  That put us over the edge; we took a photo and called it a day...    

Topkopi Palace.. we did not go inside.. 

·       Grand Bazaar  - Many-many-laned indoor bazaar; so many jewelry stores, overwhelming… The kids got to practice buying items in what I perceived as a pretty high-pressure situation!  They purchased Turkish delight and evil-eye keychains (the evil eye is a spiteful-glare, often the eye spies those who are fortunate; having an eye-amulet wards off the evil eye).

Enjoying the kid-bought Turkish delight. 

                    Other fun: 

Visiting Suliman's Mosque 

Enjoying views of historic Istanbul from a bridge linking the old town and newer town.

From the Galeta Tower.

Taking a very quick ferry back to historic Istanbul; look at all the passengers crowding up to the platform! They just hop off before the ferry even stops. 

             

Roasted corn from street vendors, yum. 

Our last night in Istanbul, we walked around the hippodrome to soak in the views and savor the moment. 

And so quickly, it was time to head to an early morning flight to Madrid!