Turkish Delight

Many friends have asked if we'll continue to dazzle you with our adventures.:)  I'm a little torn on whether to continue, but figure we're still traveling and bucking the norm, so we'll see what happens.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll be as “off-the-cuff” as I was on the boat.  Sleep deprivation, heat exhaustion, and fear of death can lead a gal to say a lot of things that (while entertaining) are better off filtered for the masses.;) 

Anyway, I’ll just jump in with Turkey, which we visited last October for our 1-year anniversary/honeymoon.  Not our normal M.O. when it comes to travel destinations, but I was desperate for something with cool weather, a chance to relax, eat, and enjoy each others company.  So, to remove temptation, I had to pick a place that wouldn’t have any natural wonders of the world, great apes, SCUBA diving, or wilderness adventures.  That’s not to say that Turkey is boring…I just didn’t want to sweat, trek, camp, or watch JB chase critters for that perfect picture on our honeymoon.  We needed to refocus, and it was perfect, especially after having sweated our butts off on the boat.

We spent 5 weeks in Turkey and traveled from Istanbul to the Black Sea Kackar Mountains, on to the central Cappadocia region, south to the Mediterranean, and on to the Aegean (west) coast.  We were both a little apprehensive about taking a relaxing vacation versus high adventure, but are now strong advocates for the Turkish experience.  We ate our way through the country and I’m pretty sure it showed by the end (no thanks to the ridiculously tasty chocolate baklava), but the food was SO good!  They grow most of their food in country and you can tell by the taste of all the fresh food we ate.

The Turks are very hospitable, giving, and proud.  They will invite complete strangers into their home and offer them tea.  I even had a guy at a store give me his sunglasses off his face, so JB and I could go for a hike (I’d lost mine, and there were no shops that carried sunglasses where we were).  I returned them at the end of the day and thanked him profusely.  That would NEVER have happened on South Beach.;)  

Our hiking consisted of a romantic stroll through pastures up a mountain (picture the Sound of Music).  Snow-capped mountains, castles, lush green pastures, beautiful vistas, picnic packed by our hotel owner…sigh and relax.  

We also went on a sunrise hot air balloon ride over central Turkey.  We tried renting a motorbike, which I drove and JB played passenger.  I’m fairly comfortable on motorcycles, but have never had someone ride with me, so when we went off-road unintentionally, I may have skidded out a couple of times and almost flipped us, but we were only going maybe 2 mph.  

Once we got that out of our system, we relaxed to the hilt at an awesome new wave resort called “Shambala”.  Think yoga zen meets Mediterranean cliff.  We were both in heaven!  And we had a big screen tv with the Big Ten Network!  So, while the Med was out our window, we may have watched a few sporting events from time to time.  

Last stop was Alacati, which I describe as the Cape Cod of Turkey.  Lots of wealthy folks from Istanbul come down for the weekends over the summer months and occupy the beaches and shop at the boutique stores and sleep off their hangovers in remodeled white stone Greek homes.  We were there in the off-season and had the whole place virtually to ourselves!  Another perk to this is that the neighborhood dogs could all focus their attention on one set of tourists and keep us company. 

After 5 weeks of Turkey, JB proceeded to buy a Turkish hat and t-shirt and declared that the Turks held a place in his heart and he would sing praises about the country to all our friends and family.  Needless to say, we both loved our time there, and whenever we run into someone else who’s traveled to Turkey, they rave about it as much as we do.  So, if you’re looking for culture, cuisine, and a unique experience…Turkey should definitely be on your list!  ‘Nuff said.