Istanbul, not Constantinople

At over 12 million people, Istanbul is not only the largest city in Turkey, but the 5th largest city in the world. The Khalerias got their fair share of exploring the sights – the city is an international hub; we ended up there three times over two months – and spent the equivalent of almost two weeks soaking up the morning call to prayer, friendly Turks, and tasty kebaps.

Night skyline over the Galata Bridge

Two of the most famous mosques in the world tower over the old part of town, and their respective calls to prayer can be heard throughout the city.

The Blue MosqueThe Hagia Sofia

Street food is abound all over the city, and doner kebaps are readily available on every corner for about 2USD. Its easy to spend the day getting lost on the streets and eating your way through town.

Sweet Corn

Fresh fish sandwiches and fruit smoothies

The infamous doner kebap, before and after

Fishermen fish over the bridge, and then sell the fish to the restaurants below. Afternoon entertainment

More to come on the worlds largest market, the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul…

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Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey that draws millions of tourists each year because of its crazy geology and interesting culture. Riding the bus into town was one of the strangest experiences – something akin to exiting the 5 freeway to get a coke, and finding you landed on the moon instead.

Overlooking the city of Urgup

The infamous fairy chimneys (which im pretty sure are only famous because of what they resemble from a distance…)

The region is surrounded by volcanoes, resulting in soft volcanic rock formations of minarets and spires all over the city. The residents of Cappadocia carve their homes, businesses, and churches out of/into the tuft, making a landscape best described as other-worldly. You can imagine our resident geologists delight at all the rock-talk…

The Flinstone residence

The picture below was at a monastery, which still had some amazing paintings murals inside – and some really, really old graffiti:

Kids were even punks back then…

Besides just taking in the general scenery, most people come to town to take hot air balloon rides over the valley. They were a little too pricy for The Khalerias budget (starting at 150USD), but it was pretty amazing to wake up for sunrise and see hundreds of balloons over the city.

Sunrise from our hostel

Sunset over Love Valley

Next up: Turkey’s capital, Istanbul! Then The Khalerias are going to fast-forward to our trek in Nepal…

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Turunc, Turkey

From Pammukale, we headed down the coast to a small town called Turunc to meet the Galerias for a family vacation!

Turunc is small resort town right on the Mediterranean Sea. The place we stayed was gorgeous, and had an incredible view…

Our Turuncian oasis for the week – the Loryma Resort

Turunc by day…

…and by night.

We spent our days relaxing on the Med, and our nights eating delicious Turkish cuisine.

A million thank you’s to the Galeria family for meeting us in Turkey, and spoiling us rotten! We love you!

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Pammukale, Turkey

(Part two of The Great American Turkish Road Trip)

From Selchuk, we drove to a tiny town called Pammukale, which is famous for its natural hot springs and Travertine pools. The hot springs vary in temperature, and are a big tourist destination for foreigners and locals alike. It’s rumored that Aphrodite spent her time bathing in the pools, some of which have ancient Roman columns littered among them (These pools cost $20 to go in, so we skipped them. Lame.)

The natural travertine deposits make for an interesting backdrop, and half the fun was watching the locals pose for strange pictures. Ryan, John, and Mike got in on the action as well…

Hot bods.

After saying goodbye to Mike and John, we continued further south to meet the Galeria’s on the Mediterranean coast!

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Ephesus, Turkey

From Egypt, we headed to Turkey to meet our friends Mike and John in Istanbul. After a few days in the capital (post to come), the four of us rented a car and went on The Great American Turkish Road Trip – down the Western Coast of the country.

Our main stop was a small town called Selcuk. The city is famous for some of the oldest Greek turned Roman ruins ever discovered – an entire town called Ephesus.

Selcuk is also the site of the Temples of Artemis – one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. I would post some pictures, but there’s nothing left but a column in a garbage dump. Shame.

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Freshed!

The Khalerias was on the front page of WordPress yesterday!
Being a big fan and loyal follower of Freshly Pressed, I cant begin to show enough gratitude to all the people who stopped by the blog, left kind comments, and sent me overly-flattering emails. Im working on getting back to all of you in the next couple days… but THANK YOU!

The interwebs is a pretty amazing place.

A post on the wine country of Mendoza, Argentina tomorrow… before we head out on a Blue Cruise charter boat for a four day trip from Fethiye to Olympus, Turkey.

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