Turkey - Even Better With Gravy

After 4 wonderful days in Istanbul, we spent the last 3 days in the beautiful Cappadocia region in Central Turkey. This area is like no other place we've seen. The rock formations were created by a volcanic eruption many, many years ago, and have been preserved and incorporated into the small developments that have popped up. It also helps that our hotel, the Anatolian Houses, is out of this world (thanks for the reco, Team Siemon!).

Here's a picture of us somewhere along our hike, as well as a picture of Annie and Pallavi trying to figure out which way to go as we hiked through one of the valleys. I should note that we thought we had a trusty guide in a stray dog (who we named the Blue Mosque), until he faked an injury and abandoned us right at crunch time.

The best panorama of the region was from the Uchisar Rock Castle. Here are a few pictures from that vantage point - Pallavi high atop the rock castle, on the phone with her mom high atop Edison, New Jersey.......Mike and Annie not at all phased by the precipitous drop about 12 inches to their right......and me staking claim to the Turkish flag, which I took a liking to, for some reason.

Here's a picture of Pallavi and me on the scooter that we rented on the last day to tool around the area (I like using the phrase 'tool around'). Good times!

As we close out our Turkey experience, a big shout out to Annie and Mike for being such fun travel partners and for sharing their awesome pictures with us. Here's to you Team Jacksonville (in song, of course...)......sherefe (that means 'cheers' in Turkish)!

Dixit, Dixit: One couple's strange, exotic journey from Florence to Cappadocia

Of course, there are many things we miss about Florence:

• The castle-like doors of our apartment on Via della Vigna Vecchia.
• The warm and welcoming owner of Osteria de Benci with the Elvis side-burns.
• The rooftop cafe at Rinascente in Piazza de la Republica where we had our Italian lessons with Lucia.
• Lucia.
• La Nazione newsstand near the Bargello Museum, where Amol bought the Herald Tribune in the mornings.
• Cappucino and hot chocolate and Scrabble at various caffes in various piazzas across the city. Amol is becoming an expert on scoring the 50-point bonus for using all his letters. I think he has an unfair advantage because he just finished reading "Word Freak" about the underworld of competitive Scrabble.
• The super rich hot chocolate that we discovered only towards the end of our trip. It was especially good at Paskowski's in Piazza de la Republica and at Rivoire in Piazza de la Signoria.
• The open-air museum-ness of the city, which our friend Fio pointed out.
• Random accordion players. I wonder if locals find them to be a nuisance. I loved them.
• Buying soymilk and bananas from our market. Somehow, buying groceries in Europe is more fun than at home. Unless we go to the farmer's market.
• The Paperback Exchange bookstore. A small group of American women would sit at the back of the store and try to register any unregistered Americans before the upcoming election. I admired their dedication and good posture.
• Even the loud, inexplicable construction noise outside our apartment in the morning.

Fortunately, we have a good distraction from missing Florence too terribly. Turkey has been wonderful. Beautiful and astounding. Some of the things we've loved:

• The exterior of the Blue Mosque. Amol is mesmerized by it and wants to build a house in its image.
• The interior of the Aya Sofya.
• Dubb, indian restaurant. Incredible view of the Aya Sofya from the 4th floor terrace.
• The mix of East and West on Istiklal street. We saw a very old woman pulling an utterly enormous load of boxes on a handcart, uphill, in front of a Starbucks. Istiklal has 3 Starbucks.
• The landscape of Cappadocia. It's really like we're on another planet. I can't believe that this place exists in the same world that I have been living in all this time.
• The hamams (Turkish Baths). They are kind of like saunas, but without the steam, but with heated marble benches that make you super warm and relaxed. (Julie and Jason, you'd love it!)
• The "British Orientalist Paintings" exhibit at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
• The dog that followed us on our hike through the Rose Valley. We named him Blue, after Amol's new favorite building. We all felt very betrayed when he abandoned us for another group with better snacks. Our friend Mike was particularly devastated.

Istan-bullish on Turkey

While there's a big-time bear market in the US, we are quite Istan-bullish on Turkey so far (yes, I'm going to milk that pun for a while). Those of you who have been here know what I'm talking about....to those of you who haven't been here, put it on your must-see list immediately. Here are some of the highlights so far -- two of the main sights, the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque, are awesome. The Aya Sofya was built in 537AD as a Byzantine church, served as the Eastern Vatican for 900 years, was converted into a Mosque when the Ottomans conquered the Byzantines in 1453, and was turned into a museum in 1934. Rick Steves calls it 'one of the most important and impressive structures on the planet.' Here's a picture of the two of us in front of it.

The nearby Blue Mosque has become one of my favorite buildings to look at. It was built in the early 1600's and remains a functional mosque today. Here's a picture of Pallavi in front of it.

Also, water plays a big role in the history and culture of Istanbul, as the main part of the city lies at the confluence of three bodies of water (does that make Pittsburgh the Istanbul of the west??). We took a day-cruise up the Bosphorus Strait, a 19-mile strait which separates European Istanbul from Asian Istanbul and also connects the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea. It was a fun boat ride with some breathtaking views. Here's a picture of Pallavi on the boat (she's the one who looks like the unibomber) and picture of the two of us with the Black Sea in the background.

Adding to the good times here in Turkey are our friends, Annie and Mike from Jacksonville. We're thrilled to be traveling with them and look forward to borrowing Mike's travel iron. Here's a picture of the four of us in front of Aya Sofya.