My non-Istanbul run through Turkey started in Ankara (2 nights, 1 day), then to Goreme (3 nights, 2.5 days), Konya (1 night, 0.5 days), Denizli (1 night, 0.5 days), Selcuk (2 nights, 1.5 days) and then to Istanbul and flying out.
My first impression from Ankara was that many Turks seem to have the attitude of a country that lost a great empire. It probably doesn’t help that the language sounds a little angry and hand gestures different than what we’re used to in the west. And shaking hands with a Turk can be a little like shaking hands with Donald Trump without the sociopathy and ick, they do grip your hand firmly and pull you in though. By the time I made it to Selcuk (Seljuk), I was in the friendliest city in Turkey and almost felt like a celebrity. The staff at the hotel called me by my first name. They seemed amused that my name ‘Eric’ means ‘plum’ in Turkish. I was window shopping and ended up sitting with a Kurdish merchant and drinking tea. He had spent four months on a road trip visiting 35 US states a few years ago. In the end, it was not hard to find Turks that were friendly and wanted to talk and wanted to know what the impressions were of their county in the US. US tourism has been down for several years and they want us to come back. They were adamant that the country was safe and I found no counterpoint to that.
Of the countries I have visited on this trip (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey), Turkey is the one where I have had the greatest problem with language. The others were all former Soviet Republics and I studied Pimsleur Russian for months prior to leaving. The Russian helped some, although Russian is nothing more than a second language in any of these countries. Turkey doesn’t really seem to have a second language. In the more heavily touristed areas, it’s not hard to get by on English even though I encountered very few native English speaking tourists, English is treated much as I treated Russian. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan all speak a Turkic language, so maybe I would have been better off trying to learn Turkish. My impression from walking around and talking to people is that I can pick it up easier than Russian.
Driving in Turkey: After nine hours on a bus from Baku to Tbilisi sitting next to an angry, old man from Turkey, I decided that maybe the 27 hour bus ride from Tbilisi to Cappadocia may not be for me. I investigated the options and found a cheap flight from Tbilisi to Ankara that was only two hours and the cost was about the same as a bus ticket. Upon further investigation, bus is a fairly expensive way to get around in Turkey overall. I did some cost comparison and decided that I could fly to Ankara and rent a car for about the same cost as taking the bus to and around Turkey. I had enough time in my schedule to see several places and Turkey is not short on things to see.
I was apprehensive about renting a car, especially after spending time in Georgia and Azerbaijan were the driving is bad. So, I spent an evening reading various travel blogs and guides on driving in Turkey. In the end, I decided to give it a shot. I reserved a car with Payless to pick up in Ankara and drop in Istanbul. Several of the things I had read said that renting a car in Turkey was an experience — they would lose your reservation and insist on starting over, blah, blah, blah. I found this hard to believe, but it certainly true in my case. Payless did not have my reservation. I produced a copy and was told that what I had was not a “reservation” but a “confirmation”. The car that I had confirmed was not available and that I would have to pay for the more expensive car that was available. Further, if I wanted to drop it in Istanbul, I would have to pay a drop fee. This all amounted to a substantial increase in the cost. I insisted that he honor the agreement that Payless had made to me and that I had a document proving. He said no. I said I would walk away and rent from someone else. He made some gesture, that I interpreted as ‘fine’. I said ‘Fuck You’ and walked down to Hertz. While I was at the Hertz counter, the Payless guy came over and asked me if we had a problem. I told him we were done and that I was renting from Hertz. He said some things in Turkish that I didn’t understand and went away. So, I guess you can believe what you read on the internet sometimes. After that drama, I rented the car from Hertz and drove to Cappadocia.
So, when I finally hit the road in a small Hyundai hatchback with a stick shift, I found the driving to not be too onerous. The highways and newer parts of towns featured concrete or asphalt roads, similar to our highways and streets in the US. In general, they were well maintained. The older cities had cobblestone, narrow streets where a small car was a plus. Google Maps mostly worked well. The drivers don’t seem appreciably worse than drivers anywhere else. It gets a little dicier in town for an American not used to driving in older cities. The streets tend to be narrow, cobblestone, not straight, and street signs are difficult to read while listening to a GPS. My advice is that when you’re close, park the car (the nice thing is parking seems to be allowed just about anywhere the car will fit, so go small), get out and find the place on foot and then go back and move the car.
Driving is a good way to see the countryside in this diverse landscape. Overall, Turkey is mountainous and most of the country is arid. Near the Aegean coast, the desert turns to trees, but the mountains continue.
Ankara: Prior to going to Cappadocia, I spent one day and two nights in Ankara. Ankara is Turkey’s capital and second largest city, with about 4.5 million people. Although it is not a major tourist hub, I found enough to occupy my time for a day. There’s a castle, a few nice museums, a bazaar, and many hamams. I walked through the castle, climbed to the top of the walls and snapped a few pictures. I visited the archaeological museum and the museum of industry, both of which take about an hour. The two museums are located next to each other and across from the castle.
I also spent an hour or so at the Tarihi Karacabey Hamami. This appeared to me to be a pretty authentic hammam experience and was priced as such. Tip included, I had the full package that included the scrub and massage for about $12. This hamam did not appear to be a tourist attraction as many hammams are. For example, when you walk in the front door, there are men walking around in towels. Usually, there’s a buffer, a reception area, and then in the back is where th bathing takes place. Aside from that, it was a pretty typical and well-maintained hammam.
Cappadocia: The drive from Ankara to Cappadocia takes about four hours mostly on roads that are comparable to major highways in the US or Europe.
Cappadocia is special for several reasons. First, it is debatable whether it’s more remarkable for its geology or its archaeology. As I understand it, the geology came about from volcanic eruptions and erosion over millions of years. Lava deposited layer after layer of molten rock into the valley that later hardened and eroded. It is pretty easy to see lines in the rock that delineate different deposits. Once nature set the pallette, early man — pre-Christian and early Christian moved in and carved cave dwellings, churches, cathedrals, and underground cities into the soft rock.
In other spots around the world, other early humans have dug caves to live in, worship in, and conduct all the other aspects of everyday life. Petra in Jordan, the southwest United States are a couple of examples. So, what makes Cappadocia special? The geology for one. The landscape is otherworldly. Spires of rock called fairy chimneys push skyward, some of the larger ones have been carved into dwellings or mausoleums. Some of the churches and cathedrals in the caves have been painted with frescoes (now badly deteriorated). Also, the scale is huge. One estimate said that it encompassed about 5,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Delaware.
Cappadocia has also been discovered by tourists. I was the only American that I encountered, but I met people from Russia, Peru, Majorca, the Canary Islands, Poland, China, India and Germany. Far and away, the largest group of tourists is coming from China. I feel for the Chinese tourists. In Cappadocia, there were no tours being run in Chinese that I am aware of (there were in Ephesus). On the balloon tours, they round everyone up and take them to what we’ll call a central sorting facility and give everyone a color sticker. They then call a coor and put you on a bus to your balloon. The problem is that all of this is done in English. A lot of the Chinese tourists do not appear to know their colors in English, so every time they called a color, a lot of the Chinese would get up and try to leave only to be told to sit back down.
On the block of my hotel, there were restaurants serving burgers, ramen, Indian and Turkish cuisines and not far away were at least two Chinese restaurants, pizza and fajitas could even be found on menus, though not an actual Mexican restaurant. Of course, you’re in Turkey. The Turkish food is the best you will find anywhere, so eat the turkish food. Here’s a few words you should know: Kofte is meatball, Sucuk is sausage, Tavuk is chicken, Ekmek is bread. Kofte Ekmek is a meatball sandwich — a really good meatball sandwich. Cay is tea. Pide and Lahmacum are both called Turkish pizza and I don’t know how they differ. I had the Pide a couple of times and it was good, though they make it without a red sauce.
Cappadocia has developed an impressive tourist infrastructure and that’s not all bad. They have more or less standardized the tours and cartelled the prices. Walking around comparison shopping is not going to yield a significant savings. You might find a slightly better deal on Trip Advisor or Viator, but I am a little leary of how that might be treated. One of the most popular things to do in Cappadocia is a balloon tour. These are highly regulated and they seem to take safety seriously. If the weather is bad (and bad does not always seem that bad), they don’t fly. If they don’t fly one day, the price goes up the next and continues to go up until they fly. The prices start around $220. When I got to Cappadocia, they hadn’t flown for two days and the price was $330. The next day, it was $285. The day after that, they didn’t fly again. I don’t know how this is handled when you buy a ticket online. In other areas, say, rental cars, the Turks don’t seem to feel any obligation to honor a price. My guess is that they refund your money and quote you the new, higher price and maybe cut a few bucks off if they feel bad. Having said that, if you can afford it, the balloon ride is worth it. It lasts about one hour and you will see beautiful sites that you can’t see any other way. Even with 20 or more people crammed into the gondola and the whooshing of the burners keeping the balloon aloft, it is peaceful and hangs over the terrain allowing you time to examine and contemplate in ways a plane or helicopter won’t. All of the tours also come with a pathetic breakfast, champaign after the flight, a certificate and offers to sell you a video and photographs — all of which I could have done without.
Cappadocia has also standardized ground tours. There’s a red, a blue and a green. I did the green and just to give you an idea of how large Cappadocia is, the Green tour involved about 200 km of driving. The three tours each go to three different areas. The reason I chose the green was that the red was more central to my hotel and thus, I thought I could see a lot of the places on the red tour on my own. The blue goes to more remote areas and focuses more on nature and hiking. The green was somewhere in between. The highlight of the green was the underground city which extends about eight stories below ground. If you want a good feel for Cappadocia, go to the underground city and the Goreme Open Air museum, which is on the red tour. Again, all of the tour companies offer these three packages. There are a few hybrids available, there are also, ATV and Jeep tours for which I am morally opposed. You can also go to a Turkish Nights show which includes dinner and sounded a little Dixie Stampedish to me.
Konya: On leaving Cappadocia, I headed west for a 3 hour drive to Konya. Konya is known for being where Rumi is from as well as the Whirling Dervishes. Konya is a city of about 2 million people. It’s downtown is lively and full of restaurants and cafes surrounding the plaza outside the Mevlana Mahallesi (Rumi) Museum. I missed the Whirling Dervishes. They do their rite(?) on Thursday evenings and I was there on a Wednesday. If you’re passing through, it is worth stopping. Unfortunately, Konya doesn’t have a many other things to do. I would say that the downtown is a nice place to wander and sit and people watch. I stopped in a small restaurant for lunch, where the owner proceeded to teach me the words for the various dishes (see above). His Kofte Ekmek was outstanding. The bread used for the sandwich had a crust that was crunchy to the point of brittle on the outside and soft and white on the inside. It reminded of the bread used on a Bahn Mi sandwich. I also met a man on the street who spoke good English and wanted to talk. He told me a little about Konya and an annual music festival that draws an international crowd. He asked if I had been to Istanbul and I told him that I was planning to. He told me that had been Constantinople, but they changed it. I held back the desire to ask, why? A decision I now regret.
Denizli: Denizli is a city of about 500,000 people and about five hours east of Konya. It, like Konya is an industrial city and has one major tourist attraction — Pamukkale. Pamukkale receives more Turkish visitors each year than any other tourist attraction in Turkey. The site consists of hot springs and calcium-rich water. Through natural processes, the calcium precipitates out of the water and is deposited on the hillside. A rather large hillside is completely white from calcium deposits. There are a number of pools holding back the spring water. When visiting, no shoes of any kind are allowed on the calcium. The calcium is not hard to walk on, it is neither slippery or rough. Be careful though, in the pools, the calcium dissolves and a rougher more jagged walking surface is exposed. Also, surfaces covered in algae can be slick. It is also crowded. The entry fee is about$11. I was fairly mehon the site, neither liking or disliking the site. Denizli as a town seemed prosperous, and an interesting place to kill an afternoon. So, like Konya, it’s a nice place to stop if it’s on your way, but probably not worth going out of your way for.
Selcuk: Selcuk (Seljuk) is on the Aegean coast and is near the ancient site of Ephesus. Ephesus is a major archaeological site dating back 6,000 years or more. The Ephesus archaeological site is about 2 km from downtown and also contains the Terrace Houses site (require separate ticket, but is inside the Ephesus site. Two related sites are in the town of Selcuk, the Basilica of St. John (co-located with the castle) and the archaeological museum. If you plan to visit all four, a combined ticket is about $23. I would recommend all four.
I spent about an hour in each of the two sites in town and about four at the archaeological sites. In that four hours I walked about six miles and 20 floors (I think most tour groups spend about an hour, maybe two at the archaeological site and see the theater, the library and maybe a few other things.) My advice would be to get there early because it gets hot here and a lot of tourists start showing up around 10:00. I got there at about 8:30 and it was pretty quite, by 10, tour buses started showing up and it got crowded. With tourists, comes the desire to take the perfect picture. I don’t mind the selfie takers. They are pretty self-contained. I do mind couples or groups trying to take a photo and creating some invisible cone that you shouldn’t penetrate. The most common of these involve a young woman in a dress (google travel blogs for a better idea of what I am talking about). She poses, usually with her back to the camera, she arches her back and glances back over her shoulder. I don’t know what it is about this pose, but it makes me think that many women would be happier if there head were on backward so that they could marvel at their asses all day. This pose of course isn’t used in water. At Pamukkale, one woman was wearing her dress in a pool and hold the hem up almost in a curtsy because everyone wears a dress in the pool.
I also went to the beach. It’s a little dirty, but you can drive on the beach, so it’s a trade. From Selcuk, the Aegean is about a 15 minute drive.
Selcuk itself is not large, under 50,000 people. It relies on tourism and the downtown is full of restaurants and cafes, though most of the people hanging out at these cafes appeared to be locals. There were a lot of old men playing dominoes or cards and a lot of young people out with friends. The tourists at the various tourist sites seemed to be mostly on tour buses and were probably staying near the coast where there are several large, modern hotels. Ephesus attracts tourists from around the world. I saw two guides leading tours in Chinese, there was also a large group of Indonesians (getting their picture taken holding a large banner), as well as the usual suspects from Europe.
On Saturdays, many of the streets downtown are closed for a market that sells everything. This creates some parking problems as that begin Friday evening and end Saturday evening. As there is very little off street parking, this can be a problem, but not an insurmountable one. I parked about 0.5 km from my hotel which was right in the middle of the market area.
A few more things: The internet is not great. A few sites, notably Wikipedia appear to be blocked. The block can be easily circumvented with a VPN, so bring one with you. Uber, Yandex, Bolt, Lyft by and large do not work here. None would work in Ankara, so I doubt that they would work in any of the smaller cities I visited. I tried Uber in Istanbul, and it brought up metered taxis. That’s another thing, the taxis use meters, so you don’t need to negotiate a fare.
Overall, I found Turkey to be modern and secular. I never felt unsafe in Turkey. Outside of the major cities, public transit was lacking which is why I rented a car.
Turkey has many more sites that I did not make it to and many more things to eat that I did not get to try. So, what’s Turkey have outside Istanbul? Quite a lot.