Mosques, Fairy Chimneys, and a culinary tour of Istanbul

On May 21st, we took a big step in our travel escapade: we moved on to Europe!!! Well, only for a few days.....

We are currently in our 8th country during this great circumnavigation of the globe: Turkey!  We started off in Istanbul, a city of 13.4 million whose claim to fame (in addition to all the wonderful culture, of course) is that one third of its popluation lives in Asia, while the rest reside in Europe. 

One great thing about creeping our way back towards Western prices....we are staying in dorms again, which means many more chances to meet new people and make new friends :)

Sleeping in a cave in Goreme!

So what is there to do in Istanbul??  There is loads of culture, a spotless and efficient public transit system, and an unreasonable amount of delicious food to be eaten. Let's start with the most important of those :)

Istanbul:A culinary adventure
I didn't really know what to expect regarding Turkish food but I have been more than pleasantly surprised over the past week. We were lucky enough to quickly make some good friends at our hostel (Aaron and Santiago), who had previously made friends with a chef whose purpose of coming to Istanbul was to try as much food as he could. 

Score for us :)

Aaron and Santiago!!

Our culinary experience started out with seafood along the Bosphorus our second night there:

The true "mussel man" (haha I kill myself)

Mussels stuffed with rice and topped with lemon seaside.....doesn't get much better than this

Fish sandwich=5Lira....can't beat that

They literally catch the fish on this boat and then make it for you

Local brew

Over a few brewskies and amazing food, our friendship was sealed and we already had breakfast and dinner plans with the boys for the following day.

Breakfast? Pando's Kaymak...aka the most delicious cheese concoction you will ever taste (real definition: cheese of a creamy consistency made from boiled buffalo milk).

Kaymak and Cay (turkish tea)

It was quite the search to find Pando's....our directions went something like this: Take this train here, get off, take a taxi here, get out, find one of two eagle statues, follow it to the second eagle statue, keep going past the fish market, and ask this dude where Pando's is.  But about an hour and a half after we left our hotel, we were happily settled in for Mr. and Mrs. Pando to make us the MOST delicious cheesy breakfast ever :)

Boys anticipating delicious food :)

Navigating our way to Pando's.....below is eagle statue #2

Friendship re-sealed over cheese and honey....and Pando wanted in on the picture as well :)

And dinner?  Büryan kebap (essentially lamb cooked in a hole),  perde pilav (rice with chicken, onion, and nuts enveloped in a thin dough), and ayran (a yogurt/water mix, served as a drink, with froth on top). Simply amazing.

Perde Pilav

Büryan kebap

And here a few other shots of traditional food that we endulged in during the past week:

Katy's kofte (Turkish meatballs)

Manti: Turkish ravioli (stuffed with minced meat with a yoghurt and garlic sauce)

Chicken Kepab

And finally, we had to have lunch in Europe and dinner in Asia one day since the chance was given to us....

I know you can't tell, but this is lamb doner in Anatolia, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus

What else did we do besides eat??? Culture, culture, culture!!!

First stop on our cultural tour of tourist attractions: The Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque was built in the early 1600s as the current Sultan's attempt to build a monument that would be as beautiful as its neighbor, Aya Sofya. The name comes from the tens of thousands of blue tiles that decorate the mosque.  It is actually free for the public to go in and visit, as long as you cover yourself properly and don't enter during prayer times.

At night

Idiots on the steps outside.....please read the sign.....

Miniaret in the courtyard

Inside

And its neighbor, the Aya Sofya:

Aya Sofya....ahhh. This is probably the most beautiful, interesting, "tourist attraction" that I have ever been to. The monument was originally completed in 537 and used as a Christian church. In 1453, when the Roman Empire ended, Mehmet the Conqueror had the building converted into a mosque.  In 1935, it was converted into a museum and remains that way today.  It is not only an unbelievably beautiful building, but the way in which the Christian and Islam influences coexist in the museum were fascinating to me. 

Outdoors

Verrrry old mosiacs inside, from when the building was a church

Please note: atop, a picture of Madonna and the Child....below, a mihrab, a niche that indicates the direction of mecca, in the exact spot where the altar used to be

Basilica Cistern: And our final stop in tourist land, the Cistern. The church was built in 532, is all underground, and was used to store water for imporant surrounding buildings.  The place was forgotten about for a while but rediscovered in 1545, however the Ottomans didn't give the cistern the respect it deserved and in turn, the place has been restored about three times.

Medusa heads

 

 

 

Long story short: It was a cool, eerie place to roam around for an hour or so :)

Around Istanbul.....

Efes at a local bar

View off of our hostel rooftop (Sea of Marmara in the background)

Seaside in Istanbul

Rough stone obelisk

We spent some time hanging out in the former site of the Hippodrome, where chariot races occurred. There were some VERY old columns there....although the Obelisk of Theodosius was erected in 390, it was created in about 1450 BC and then brought to Turkey in 390 AD.

Streets of Istanbul

Getting lost in the valleys of Goreme.....
After metropolitan Istanbul, it was on to sleepy Goreme, Cappadocia (population 2,500) for some gawking at the fairy chimneys.  What is a fairy chimney, you may ask?

About 10 million years ago, volcano activity that spread ash and lava around formed rock tuffs in the Cappadocia region.   As time progressed, water and wind shaped these formations into the beautiful landscape that is visible today.  Cappadocia (and Goreme in particular) is known for these fairy chimneys....and the landscape is breathtaking.  The valleys had been described in Lonely Planet as resembling giant tubs of vanilla ice cream, or something out of the Flinstones, and the in person views did not disappoint.

Wandering around this town, I felt like I was in a Disney movie....I half expected Rapunzel to poke her head out of the top windows of a fairy chimney. 

We spent our first day wandering around Goreme, taking in the Open-Air Museum (filled with old Christian churches that existed in the rock formations), and getting lost in a number of valleys in the area.  Luckily, the weather was beautiful and being lost for a few hours was an enjoyable experience :)

View from Open-Air Museum

Frescos in the rocks

Rose Valley

Katy and Nick made it up....I sadly did not

But I tried :)

Ballooning
The quintessential experience in Cappadocia is to take a hot air balloon flight over the amazing landscape at sunrise.  So of course, we had to.  Our whole dorm was in bed by 11 the night before as all eight of us were getting up early for various balloon flights over the valley.  We were picked up around 5 the next morning and taken to the balloon office for tea and coffee before moving on to the balloon launch point.

All of the Balloon Turca balloons lined up

Watching one take off

Pulling up to the launch site

I had never been in a balloon before and wasn't quite sure what to expect....everything about this flight was amazing.  The company's brochure explained that because of the continental climate that Goreme is located in, the weather patterns are very predictable (particularly in the early morning), which makes "steering" the balloon a safer task than somewhere with unpredictable patterns.  This became obvious to me as our pilot cleared multiple fairy chimneys by mere inches....providing us with up close views of the fairy chimneys and surrounding landscape. 

Nick's sweet shot out the side during one of our highest points

One of our highest points above Goreme

Its hard to tell but we are actually pretty decently high up in the air here

There were balloons everywhere

Nick was debating coming with us....he's pretty happy he did :)

They even went so far as to bring our balloon almost down to the ground so someone from the balloon company could toss up a bottle of champagne and a bouquet of flowers for the second half of our ride.

Some mid-flight champagne

Overlooking Goreme

The crew pulling us in

And after the ride ended, there was more champagne while we watched the guys deflate the balloon and start packing it.

Waiting to help us land

Getting out of the balloon

Celebratory champagne

The pilot and us

Collapsing our balloon

Me, Katy, and Nick

After the balloon ride (and a short nap), Katy and I headed out to explore one of the nearby underground cities. These cities (such as the one we saw, Derinkuyu, were used as refuge for the Christians when they were under attack from the Persians and Aarbics in the 6th and 7th centuries. The city that we saw stretches on for 5km.....we probably only saw 10% of it max.  According to Lonely Planet, as many as 10,000 people lived down here for months at a time.

This particular city was rather tourist-free, so Katy and I spent an hour or so just wandering around the tunnels, going all the way down (8 stories!!!) to the undermost floor, and goofing off.

For your reading pleasure

A ceiling at just my height :)

Going down.....

down.....

and way down....

Alright, so we didn't technically lower ourselves via the ventilation shaft but we did go down to the source of it, which was eight stories underground!

Taking a short break to read :)

Yes, we are professional adults....I swear

And let's not forget about our mini culinary experience in Goreme:  We had to try out the Tavuk Testi, the kebaps that they cook in a clay pot and then crack at your table.

Cracking the pots

Aryan (with some fairy chimneys in back)

We met our friend Nick back at the hostel and headed out to Fat Boys, which in just two days had become our favorite spot in Goreme due to its affordable Efes (local) brew, backgammon boards, pool table, and tonight, control over all the music :)

Our new Turkish bartender friend Mustafa.....preparing some raki (local liquor)

Its Miller Time even in Turkey :)

Rainbow over Goreme a few hours before we left

And now we are on to Pamukkale to check out the travertines and Hierapolis...If the rest of Turkey treats us as well as Istanbul and Cappadocia did, we are surely in for a treat.  More updates ASAP!