Eight Boots Abroad

Istanbul, Türkiye! This MASSIVE, beautiful, historic mega-city is where the West (Europe) officially meets East (Asia) – we explored the city center, attended a European women’s soccer game, and consumed impressive amounts of Turkish delight, baklava, and kebabs!

We stayed in central Istanbul, the Golden Horn/Sultanahmet neighborhood – in the shadow of the incredible Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. Most evenings after dinner were spent on our hotel’s quiet rooftop terrace, snacking on Turkish delight and taking in the stunning views: to the south, hundreds of ships lined up to enter the Bosphorus Strait… and to the north, the architectural masterpiece of the Sultanahmet Camii.

During the day we independently explored Istanbul by taking electric trams to visit different areas of the vibrant city. Our adventures included trips to the Egyptian Spice Market (where H found amusement in trying to get as many free samples of tea and Turkish candy as humanly possible), and the Grand Bazaar market (which was a bit overrun with tourists and lacking in character). We visited the interiors of the Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent (what a name, right?!) and the Blue Mosque.

My most favorite “touristy thing” we did during our time in Istanbul was visit the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi)! Built by the Byzantine Empire 1,500 years ago, the underground cistern was filled by an extensive network of aqueducts. It was one of 80 underground cisterns in the city and could hold nearly 3 million cubic feet of water for the citizens of Constantinople. There are 336 marble columns within the massive cistern, which were actually repurposed from earlier temples and structures in the region (and also, a giant Medusa head sculpture!). This patchwork of mismatched columns made the walk through the space especially fascinating. The cistern is no longer active, but was recently renovated for tourists and now has special lighting and walkways that traverse throughout, above a pool of shallow, clear water. The whole experience was kind of magical!

Our favorite “non-touristy thing” we did in Istanbul was attend a women’s European Champions League soccer game! Howie’s friend and teaching teammate has a daughter who plays professional soccer for the Prague Slavia team, and happened to be in Istanbul for a game. She was sweet enough to get us front row seats for the event! The kiddos absolutely reveled in the fact that we were the ONLY people in the entire stadium cheering for the Prague team, and leaned into their cheering with exuberance.

After 5 days in Istanbul, we traveled to the region of Cappadocia in central Türkiye. When we were planning this year, we made a commitment to overland travel by public transport whenever reasonable – not only for environmental reasons, but also because using local public transport does give you a bit of a closer connection to the local people/culture. This commitment to travel by overland public transport is how we found ourselves on a 14-hour overnight bus ride without ventilation, a chainsmoking driver, our vomiting child, and no access to a bathroom. There’s no denying… it was definitely “memorable” and “authentic.” We’ll spare you the rest of the painful details.

We narrowly survived the nightmare on the Turkish night bus and finally arrived in the small town of Göreme… in a rainstorm. Honestly, spirits were a little low. The owner of the small, family-run hotel where we staying picked us up from the bus station and took us in as his own, warming us with homemade tea and lifting our spirits. This was just the beginning of our special bond with our host Ali, his son Türker, and their lovely family during our time in Cappadocia.

We spent five days exploring the fascinating area around the small town of Göreme. The Cappadocia region has been inhabited by humans for at least 3,500 years, and is home to an extensive network of abandoned underground cities. The largest of these cities (Derinkuyu) had 20,000 inhabitants and extended for 12 stories underground! Our kiddos LOVED exploring the ancient labyrinth of underground tunnels, climbing up and down through narrow chimneys and passageways, playing the most epic (and dusty/dirty) game of hide-and-seek they could imagine!

In addition to ancient underground cities, Cappadocia is also famous for its distinctive “fairy chimney” rocks (hoodoo formations) which have also been inhabited for thousands of years. Interestingly, these amazing rock formations were also home to some of the earliest churches in Christianity. In fact, the region of Cappadocia was vital for the establishment and spread of very early Christianity. As we hiked through the valleys surrounding Göreme, we would stumble upon these ancient early Christian churches, carved into the rock – frescos from nearly 1,600 years ago still visible on the walls and ceilings (sadly, all of this history is not-so-well protected from damage/vandalism).

Many of the “fairy chimney” rock formations in the Cappadocia region are still inhabited today – most by local families, others have been converted to hotels for travelers. Our host Ali took us to visit one of his friends who still lives in one of these ancient dwellings. It was interesting to see the layout of the home – the bedroom was located on the top level, accessed by a tight, tiny stairwell. It reminded us a bit of a hoodoo version of a treehouse!

Cappadocia is also famous for the numerous hot air balloons that launch each morning, flying above and through the hoodoos that cover the valley floor. We were lucky enough to have a great view of the balloons every morning from the upper level patio at our hotel.

For me, our time in Türkiye was a mixed bag. The roughest part was having a sick kiddo, and the overnight bus from Istanbul to Göreme was a pretty intense experience which I would prefer never to repeat (we changed to a different bus company on the return route and things went much better). It was fascinating to experience the vibrant city of Istanbul – the size of the city is absolutely mind boggling, and the traffic is insane! My favorite part of our Türkiye adventure was spending time in the lovely town of Göreme with Ali and his family. There were heaps of hiking trails through the valleys around town and we found great new routes to wander and explore every day.

Soooo, now we’ve officially left Europe and are crossing into Asia! I’m cautiously optimistic to see what adventures are in store for our next few months!

Off to Nepal! ❤️

Türkiye – Istanbul and Cappadocia – Howie’s addendum

Much like the experience of my dreamy wife Sonya, for me, our time in Türkiye had its ups and downs. One thing that has sometimes been a challenge for me during this year of travels has been the feeling that I don’t want to miss out on a single experience along the way! Realistically I understand that I can’t have all the fun, all the time, every single day for an entire year, and that at some points we will run into difficulties that don’t go quite according to the plans we have dreamed up. Türkiye certainly had some amazing moments, but we also had some stumbles along the way that didn’t quite go the way we had anticipated. 

First, the highlights:

The Byzantine and Ottoman architecture around the city of Istanbul was spectacular! It has been yet another interesting shift to the East as we have moved to Türkiye from Greece, and the famous Blue Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque felt both stunning and unfamiliar. Eating Turkish Delight on a moonlit night from a quiet rooftop overlooking the Blue Mosque with my wife and kiddos is an experience I will never forget. 

The Byzantine cistern was fascinating and hauntingly beautiful, and had not been on my radar at all before we arrived. It was neat for the kiddos to see yet another link to the distant Roman past – a nice bookend to the Rome-influenced portion of our journey that began all the way back at Volubilis in Morocco!

Istanbul was an adventure in and of itself – the city felt unimaginably massive in scale! Traveling across the city by the network of buses in order to reach the soccer stadium led us to places that were well off the tourist track – in fact, the bus drivers on a few occasions didn’t want to let us on the bus because they figured we had lost our way to the tourist sites! Happily, this led us to a fun, cheap meal in a local kebab restaurant and a super night at the soccer match to cheer on our friend’s daughter (Go Slavia Prague!).

Hiking among the fairy chimneys and hoodoos in Cappadocia was delightful – paths winding along the poplar and apricot trees would open up to views across the badlands, punctuated by improbable cave dwellings, some thousands of years old, and some still inhabited!

Next, the not-highlights:

It was hard to fully enjoy this segment with the family not at full-strength, health wise. Our poor kiddo came down with a very unpleasant cold that kept her trapped in our hotel room (literally inside a cave!) for days on end. This limited our Cappadocia adventures to a large degree, and I am sad that she missed out on some neat hiking.

Sadly, the Hagia Sofia. I had long wanted to see this famous structure, but it is currently going through a rough period. Having been at times in its history a Greek Orthodox church, Catholic church, and a mosque, the Hagia Sofia had for most of the last century been a museum. In 2020, the site was converted back into a mosque in a contentious move by President Erdogan, and since then steep fees have been imposed on foreign visitors, access is limited to much of the historic site, and lines are incredibly long to enter. In a place like Istanbul, where the East and West meet, it is sad to see this movement towards division.

And last, the rise of ugly tourism. Cappadocia is an amazing site with rich history and deep natural beauty, but it is being badly damaged by the worst aspects of tourism. The town of Goreme at the region’s heart feels like Moab, Utah in a lot of ways – and it is suffering in similar ways, magnified by a lack of regulation. After a beautiful afternoon and evening hiking through the badlands, passing small orchards and tiny cave-homes where we purchased fresh juices from fruits grown on site, only encountering a small handful of people along the way, it was jarring to arrive at the outskirts of Goreme being greeted by literally hundreds of ATVs tearing across the landscape. We continued walking towards town past long strings of tourists on horseback, elaborate Instagram photoshoots driven in by jeep and set up one right next to another, and countless motorcycles that have torn up the fragile terrain. Graffiti and vandalism have damaged many of the thousand-year old frescoes found inside the early churches in unprotected caves throughout the region. Clearly as tourists on a trip around the world we contribute to the issue – this place however was a firm reminder to me to travel with as light a footprint as possible.

One final highlight: baklava. It is so good.

Off to Nepal, a place I have dreamed of returning to for 23 years! I’ll end with this masterpiece, courtesy of my dreamy wife: