Wow what a trip that was. We set out in March 2021 to plan a trip knowing that Covid would still be around and that international travel could still be challenging.
So when we settled on Turkiye all we really knew was that we were going to see more of it than what you see in Istanbul and that it would be a driving trip. We wound up with a gift of a trip that will stay with us forever.
Driving because our itinerary took us to distant places in far eastern Turkiye, places where there is only one or two flights a day and only to/from Istanbul. So it was clear we needed a rental car.
Fortunately we would up with this terrific Volvo SUV, our spacious chariot for the trip.
The great thing about having the SUV was the comfort and the potential to deal with some challenging roads and weather conditions.
Turns out the roads in Turkiye were better than we have in the U.S., although these days that’s not saying much.
I would say 90% of the roads we drove were divided highway, some as smooth as glass. Another 5% were four lane roads of varying quality and the remainder were old roads or temporary roads that were in the process of being replaced. Overall we’d give the roads a solid A+.
We lost count of how many tunnels we drove through on the trip. Turkey is generally mountainous and so the tunnels help them move goods and people safely through what used to be very scary mountain passes.
Some of the tunnels were as long as 3km!
The drivers not so much. Puzzling behavior because mostly the drivers on the highways were erratic. They would speed up and pass you then merge and slow down forcing you to pass them. When they passed and merged back they’d practically cut you off.
Stoplights were hilarious. In Turkiye the stoplights are placed on this side of the intersection where you can’t see them if you’re first to the light. This resulted in the driver behind you honking at you to go when the stoplight you couldn’t see turned green.
But we made it without incident and wound up driving over 2,600 miles around the country. Now for some random thoughts.
The Black Sea was incredible, what an overlooked part of the world. The Turks and Russians know this as they flock to these resort towns in season. They even have palm trees.
The other side of the coastal mountains is another world. Dry and dusty it becomes a moonscape when you cross over the mountain divide. Erzurum was a perfect example this.
A town of about 300,000 squarely in some of the driest parts of Turkey. Erzurum is known in Turkiye as a great place to go ski (they even once bid to hold the Olympics!) as it is surrounded by mountains that hold a number of ski resorts. We stayed in one of them, and while there was a little snow on the ground it was too early to welcome skiers.
Turns out we got out of Erzurum just in time as they experienced a moderate 5.5 earthquake a few days after we left. That was followed by a severe snowstorm. Timing is everything!
There have been few places that we’ve seen that are as moving as Ani. Windswept and lonesome, Ani took us by surprise.
It was inconceivable to think that over 100,000 people once lived here and that it was as famous as Constantinople! You have to really want to come here because it’s not near anything and is hard up against the Armenian border which is closed to Turkiye so it make Ani a cul-de-sac where you have to turn around to exit. If you can figure out a trip to Ani that works for you, do it.
Another amazing sight was Mount Ararat.
Visually arresting and we got very lucky because it is usually shrouded in clouds. But a cool front had just swept through and cleared out all the haze and clouds giving us a perfect view of the peak.
In Kars there were packs of dogs roaming the streets. Stray dogs (and cats) generally get free rein in Turkiye. They have an aggressive tag and spay program but the leave them be on the streets and people leave out bowls of food and water for them.
This one fell in love with us and followed us down the street.
Lake Van was on our list because of the famous Akdamar Island that holds an ancient church.
Also this was the first place we really started to see any tourists. The picture above may seem like no one is around, but when I turned around after taking the picture here is what we saw.
A boatload of people had just arrived. That was our cue to leave. Hah.
While the church was amazing watch out for the clouds of gnats at the island shoreline. So bad we had to try to completely cover ourselves up until the boat left back for the mainland. Awful!
Who said Tia Maria was dead?
She is alive and well and living her best life at the Doubletree Hilton in Lake Van. Honestly an overlooked spirit except by our intrepid Kurdish bartender!
We don’t know what it meant or why it was there but we sure did like saying it out loud! Say it with us – YAYA!
And speaking of road signs, one for the books.
Just a quick left!
All over Turkiye it was nice to see two men walking arm in arm.
For Turks its a sign of close friendship and they think nothing about it. Imagine if this picture were taken in Chicago – you’d have a very different take on it.
One of my favorite pics from this trip:
We spent a few hours sitting on the terrace at our hotel in Mardin and this picture perfectly captures that afternoon.
Speaking of Mardin, it was bananas and it surely left a mark on our memories. Such a magnificent place!
Read the post for the whole story but it was impossible to drive to our hotel. We had to park our car on the one paved street and then fetch the bellman from the hotel down the hill. He came back and took our bags for us through the stone alleyways and down the stairs.
Then went back up the hill to safely park our car. And then we sent him back out to a store to get us vodka and mixers for cocktails because the hotel didn’t have a bar. The most incredible job by a bellman I have ever experienced on any trip we’ve ever taken. Don’t worry, he was handsomly compensated for all that work and worth every lira.
But wow the view from our room!
Olive oil soap was a thing in Mardin.
We didn’t buy any as we like our Pears soap (the soap the Queen uses!) but it sure looked pretty.
Here is what passes for parking in Mardin.
It’s not even a one way street!
When was the last time you saw a cobbler?
And oh my goodness, bread right from the wood burning oven. We bought that loaf sitting there for about 20 cents. It was still warm and delightfully chewy.
Last thing about Mardin and this’ll give you nightmares.
Our room was inside a 300 year old palace. So you can imagine to retrofit useable hotel rooms the designer had to make some concessions.
One of those concessions in our room was that immediately after entering you were met by a set of stone stairs that took you the last few feet up to room level where you arrived first inside the bathroom. After passing through the bathroom you’d enter the main part of the room, but the layout certainly was odd.
The worst part, however was that inside the bathroom you had this gaping stone staircase right next to the shower. One wrong step and you could easily go tumbling down.
And because the floor was marble you had to be extra careful not to slip! Yikes.
Okay, moving on to a different bathroom.
Talk about swanky! This was our bath inside our room in Cappadocia.
Here is Jeff toasting the fact that this was the bath inside our room.
In Sanliurfa we stopped at the Pool of Abraham. Legend has it that Urfa is the birthplace of Abraham and there is a whole story that goes along with that which results in these holy (and quite portly) fish swimming in the pool.
They are nicely fed because there are old men sitting in kiosks selling fish chow for TL2. Buy some and you can feed the holy fish. We bought some for these two boys so they could enjoy their time at the pool and it really was fun to watch.
We also went to the main market in Urfa. I’m pretty sure we were the only foreign tourists there as Urfa is about 20 miles from the Syrian border and not a lot of people other than Turks make it to Urfa right now.
Our experience was that people were unfailingly kind. A friendly smile goes a loooong way!
Here we are at a gas station car wash in Gaziantep. You just haven’t lived until you’ve done this. Full service for 70 cents.
The car was just so dusty from the drive that it really needed a bath.
This is nettle soup. It was served right before our Kars goose dinner in Kars. See the Kars post for more information about this really interesting restaurant which was the first woman-owned business in eastern Turkiye!
I didn’t love the soup but Jeff proclaimed it a winner.
Here is Jeff cutting up inside Saint Peter’s Church in Antakya. We went here right after our visit to the Hatay Archaelogical Museum which has to be one of the world’s most underrated and least known museums.
It’s impossible to get to and tucked away in a small corner of Turkiye that is about 40 miles from the Syrian border. But if you’re near here, you should make the effort.
In Iskenderun we stumbled into an upscale grocery store to buy some road trip supplies and found this wonderful cashier at the exit.
She was giggly and SO MUCH FUN as she practiced her pretty good English with us. As we stood there, the man behind us chimed in and asked us where we were from in perfect American English.
Nevermind where we’re from, where are you from? He said he had just moved to Iskenderun from Dallas. Because we were so enamored with our cashier we never found out why, but I do wish we could go back to that moment and ask.
How much do you love her covid shield hovering over her head??
Fashion.
One takeaway from any visit to Istanbul is the traffic.
Also while we were in Turkiye the lira crashed by 30%. It created this odd parallel cost situation like in this taxi. Traffic was so bad that it took the driver about 35 minutes to take us the 1 mile to our hotel from the rental car dropoff. We would have walked it if we didn’t have luggage and the streets weren’t so full of people.
The whole while the meter was running (that he switched on) and it registered TL25 at the end. At that point that was about $2. Obviously not quite fair, so I gave the driver a TL50 note and he got mad – this should be at least TL100, he said. It totally wasn’t worth pointing out that I was already paying him 2x the meter (which clearly no longer mattered) so I just handed him TL100 and off we went.
Haircuts were supercheap. We went to a barber in Istanbul and got a razor cut, hot shave, hair treatment, and facial mask for $16! Quite possibly one of the best haircuts we’ve ever had too.
Yep, that’s a big butter bunny. Food was cheap too. Dinner out rarely cost more than $20 for two, and our most expensive dinner was around $100 in a finer restaurant in Istanbul. The delicious looking baked potatoes at this place were about $3 fully loaded.
Three great things to sample in Turkiye.
Simits.
They are essentially round bagels covered in sesame seeds an oh-so-delicious. About 20 cents and widely available in Istanbul. Not so much outside of there though.
Baklava.
There are stores dedicated to selling nothing but baklava, that’s how popular it is. Gaziantep is the world capital of baklava, the bulk of Turkiye’s pistachio crop comes from around there.
Turkish Delight.
I know you’re thinking gross, I’d never. But it is different in Turkey and the crap they sell us here doesn’t even remotely taste like actual Turkish Delight. Try it.
For the bonus, Miss Pizza in Istanbul.
I know it sounds crazy but this is excellent pizza! They make really interesting pies on top of a cracker crust. It’s our go to place in Istanbul if we’re out of time or energy (because they deliver!).
Our favorite hotel in Istanbul didn’t disappoint us. The Witt Suites is a wonderful place. The location is in Beyoglu, which is smack where you want to be, and the views are incredible. Despite more glamorous options, we’ve stayed here twice and will again the next time we’re in Istanbul.
So that’s a wrap on this trip. We loved it and are super glad we did it. It was a lot of driving but in return we saw so many things we otherwise could not have seen.
Tune in again in 2022 and see where we go. The pandemic certainly is making travel challenging but ultimately it is still worth the effort.
Make sure your vaxxed up and masked up!
Love, Alex + Jeff
