Ten Days in Turkey

Actually 8 days on the ground and 2 days traveling.

A quick summary, hopefully followed with more details or photos.

Day 0.5/1
Depart the area on Winter Solstice and lose six hours flying east.  So the longest night of the year becomes very short for us.  Arrive in Zürich in the morning.  Exit the area and take the train downtown, walk along the river to the lake and say hi to the swans and seagulls.  Breakfast at Globus and then walk back to the train station and the airport.
Flight to Turkey is delayed.  Very loud flight -- including mentally ill woman across the aisle speaking very loudly the whole flight.  Arrive in Istanbul and our bags are among the last to come off.  Find the shuttle bus to the hotel.  Check in, dinner at the hotel restaurant ("Turkish ravioli" for Daddy Geek, pasta for Geek Girl, Mezze platter for me), fall asleep, wake up because the heat won't turn off and Daddy Geek cools off the room by opening the door to the hallway.

Day 2
Wake up at 6 am to catch the 7 am shuttle back to the airport.  Breakfast at the airport (plain bun for Geek Girl, cheese bun for Daddy Geek, olive bun for me, coffee for adults).  Fly to Cappadocia.  Snow flurries as we walk from plane to terminal.  Once again, our bags are almost the last ones on the carousel.  Find the shuttle bus driver.  Doze off on the drive to Goreme.  Check in to hotel.  Lunch in a restaurant on the main strip (lentil soup and salad for adults, mysterious meat/pastry items for all).  Walk around town and look at fairy chimneys and rock "castles" and listen to the calls to prayer coming from the mosque P.A. system.  Daddy Geek arranges for a Hot Air Balloon ride, picking up the next morning at 5:50 am.  Groan.  Daddy Geek and Geek Girl hang out in the reception area where the wifi is better and there are a couple of cats and a big aquarium.  Early dinner takes us to Nazar Borek Cafe, where we have lentil soup, spinach borek, pide (Turkish flatbread pizza).  The owner's friend is deaf/mute, but enthusiastically shares with us books on the area.  Daddy Geek really wants the apple cinnamon borek, but they're out, so we get a couple orders of these chocolate crepe-like things.  Early to bed.

Day 3, Christmas Eve
Shuttle bus picks us and another couple up at 5:40 am and then we go to another hotel (or two) to pick up more people.  Shuttle takes us to balloon company headquarters.  Caffeinated beverages, buns, and breakfast cookies/biscuits while we get a quick orientation.  "Our pilots speak English and their English is as good as your Turkish."  Take shuttle buses to balloon launching sites.  Watch balloons get inflated.  Climb into baskets and practice "landing position" (wall squats while holding on to handles on the basket).  Up we go.  Amazing view of the area and the valleys.  Geek Girl appreciates the cleaner air (a lot of coal smoke in town).  Wind isn't too bad.  In fact, for landing the pilot (and his ground crew) lands us directly on the trailer!  They feed us some cake and bubbly beverages.  We are returned to the hotel just after 8 am and go find breakfast.  Rolls, mystery meats, cheese, olives, boiled eggs, yogurt, muesli, and various dried fruits.  Geek Girl likes the sausages that have the ends cut so when cooked they curl up.  Naptime for Mama Geek while Daddy Geek and Geek Girl hang out in reception.  For lunch we go to a Turkish flatbread pizza place for lentil soup and a couple of pide(s).  Geek girl discovers she likes peach nectar -- the brand name is Cappy instead of Kern's.  We walk out of town to the outdoor open air museum -- a preserved group of cave buildings -- ie lodgings and churches built into caves.  We walk back to town and stop at the coffee place for hot chocolate for Geek Girl and tea for the adults (mint for Daddy Geek, apple for me).  We also get some Turkish Delight and Baklava.  Back to the room to rest before dinner.  Reception had helped Daddy Geek make a reservation at Dibek -- known for pottery kebab.  Meat/veggies are cooked in a clay pot for 3 hours and then served with rice, salad, and pickles.  We finish with an almond dessert which is curiously reminiscent of Chinese bean pastes.  Speaking of East Asia -- there are a lot of tourists from China, Japan, and Korea.

Day 4, Christmas
Nowhere to be, we get to sleep in!  We're the only ones at breakfast (everyone else woke up early?) and instead of the sausages there's marble cake.  We rest and then go back to the Pide place for lunch before going on our hike -- hopefully in the Rose and Red Valleys.  We get to the trail head and the trail down is very snowy.  Scenery is amazing.  Muddy/snowy trails, but amazingly none of us slip and fall.  Near sunset we are at a scenic viewpoint and we try to find the trail again, but are uncertain.  Daddy Geek finds a taxidriver to take us back to town.  We stop at the borek restaurant.  Still no apple cinnamon borek (owner has been too busy to make them), but he makes us an apple cinnamon crepe thing (and of course a chocolate one for Geek Girl).  Back to the hotel to pack and then out to dinner at Old Cappadocia Cafe.  Geek Girl has pasta, Daddy Geek grilled meat/rice, and I had grilled meat on eggplant/yogurt.  We also have some rice pudding and baklava/ice cream.  The ice cream is very smooth -- more about the ice cream the next day.

Day 5
Reception told us our shuttle driver would pick us up at 5:50 am, but don't be surprised if he's late and doesn't show up until 6 am.  So imagine our surprise when someone knocks on the door at 5:35 am!  It's like arranging a cab ride in the DC metro -- they're either early or later, but never when they say they'll be there.  We pick up more passengers and drive to the airport.  Breakfast at the airport -- spinach borek for adults and spice cake for Geek Girl.  Fly back to Istanbul -- airport on the Asian side.  Very long bus ride (due to traffic) in overheated bus.  We arrive in Istanbul and we need to text the apartment owner to let him know we've arrived.  Staff at the Hotel Intercontinental kindly let us into their network to send the message and we're off.  We arrive at the apartment to get the keys and the tour -- most importantly instructions on using washer.  We go out for lunch -- meat doner kebab for adults, chicken doner on bread for Geek Girl.  We stop off at grocery store to buy breakfast groceries and then head back to the apartment to do a load of laundry, catch up on email, and research dinner options.  Daddy Geek suggests we go to Ficcin -- which serves Caucasus cuisine.  We start with a couple of mezze -- roasted eggplant/yogurt and red pepper paste walnuts.  Geek Girl has the "ravioli", Daddy Geek has the meat pie, and I have the liver.  Very yummy.  Geek Girl wasn't too crazy about the yogurt sauce so Daddy Geek shared his meat pie with her.  Afterwards Daddy Geek and Geek Girl had ice cream on the way home -- very interesting texture -- they said with was very elastic.

Day 6
Breakfast at home, minor panic attack due to misplaced valuables, and we're off.  The landlord provided us with a transport card, so we walked down the hill, added money to the card, and took the tram line to the old part of the city.  We had hoped to go to the Blue Mosque, but arrived just as it was closing for prayers.  So we waited in line for the Hagia Sophia.  The line moved pretty quickly and soon we were inside and stunned.  Absolutely amazing -- and such an interest mix of the the church and mosque aspects.  Afterwards we each had a pretzel (cheese-filled for the adults, nutella-filled for you know who) and wandered over to wait for the Blue Mosque to open again.  We hung out in the courtyard which had a model and interesting things to read.  We thought visitor entry was on the North side, but nope it was on the South side and of course there was a line.  Geek Girl and I put on our scarves and before we entered the mosque we removed our shoes.  Wow!  The tile inside the mosque and the dome itself are just beautiful!  Afterwards we took the tram and funicular back towards the apartment.  We had thought to try and see the Basicila Cistern, but I had underdressed and was just too cold to stay out any longer.  We stopped of at a restaurant for Turkish coffee/hot chocolate and desserts (when in Turkey, have sweets at 4 pm).  Geek Girl had profiteroles with ice cream, we think Daddy Geek had chicken breast pudding (and ice cream), and I had a dessert called Asure, or Noah's Ark pudding.  At this point we had our discussion about what to do for dinner and Daddy Geek expressed frustration that the ladies wanted to relax and stay in.  But he kindly went out to get doner kebob for the adults for dinner (Geek Girl was full from the profiteroles).

Day 7
It's Sunday, so we should have breakfast out!  Daddy Geek found a cafe that would be on the way to the tram stop.  Pancakes, fruit, and honey for Geek Girl, salmon, eggs, and toast for Mommy Geek, and amazing Turkish breakfast for Daddy Geek -- cucumber/tomato salad, several types of cheese, olives, jam, sesame spread, sun-dried tomato paste, and bread.  There was a very yummy soft cheese served with honey.  We know this was going to be the nicest weather day of the Istanbul trip so we planned to be outdoors.  We had been hoping to take the ferry upstream, but we knew we would miss it so we took the tram directly to the city walls.  Then we spent a couple of hours walking on/next to the city walls back to the river, stopping at a church with amazing mosaics. We got back the river, but alas, had missed the ferry again.  There was a nice open area (but no food) so we walked and visited the playground.  Ferry ride back to the main part of town and we walked to the base of the funicular and took it to the top of the hill.  Funny thing -- one of the first things you see when you get off the funicular is a Shake Shack!  On the way back to the apartment we stop at a waffle place -- milkshake for Geek Girl, waffle/nutella/ice cream for Daddy Geek, and crepe/nutella/banana for me.  For dinner we go to a nearby place.  Turkish pastrami pide for Geek Girl, Daddy Geek and I share a couple of entrees --meat and veggie stew, and turkey and yummy rice flavored with cinnamon, chestnuts, and pine nuts.  Yes, we had turkey in Turkey!  We also had lentil soup and a white bean mezze.  Why all the lentil soup?  Because it was yummy and also came with bread for Geek Girl -- AKA carb girl.

Day 8
Time to visit the Topkapi palace!  Pouring rain on the walk to the tram.  Rain eases off as we wait in line for tickets.  Lucky for us, we're under the ticket booth awning when the skies open up again and buckets of rain come down.  Into the palace where we see cookware, dishware, jewels, thrones, the view.  We also visit the harem, which has amazing tile.  Geek Girl was free to several attractions, but they always asked to see her passport.  Afterwards we stopped at the tourist trap pudding place for coffee, hot chocolate, and chocolate pudding.  Then the Basilica Cistern -- there were fish in the water!  We decided to walk all the way to the funicular and we were cold so we had an early dinner at a pide place (well, we had been looking for another restaurant, but it was hiding in a nook).  Lentil soup and salad for the adults, pides for everyone.  On the way back to the apartment we picked up (well Daddy Geek stayed and paid while the ladies went home) Turkish pastries and another chocolate pudding.

Day 9
Rain and flurries!  Daddy Geek and Geek Girl like looking at old things way more than I do, so they went to the Archeological Museum and then Starbucks for coffee/hot chocolate/brownie.  Geek Girl kept suggesting Starbucks because we went there a lot when we lived in Zürich.  But the only reason we went was because it was non-smoking.  Anyways, at last she went to a Starbucks in Istanbul.  I walked back to the bus stop to make sure we knew the fastest route back and then did a little shopping and walking (and doner kebob for lunch).  It was kind of cold, wet, and miserable, so I did stop for a coffee and rice pudding and then back to the comfort of the apartment.  We decided to go back to Ficcin for dinner because we liked it so much.  Different mezze this time -- chard, lentil balls, chicken walnuts and same entrees, but for different people.  Well, I had ordered the ravioli with ground meat and they gave me potato, but that was okay.

Day 10 the long long journey home
So, Istanbul taxi drivers are notorious cheating their fares, so we decided to take the bus to the airport.  We had a 7:40 am flight, so we needed to get there at 5:40 am, which meant waking up at 4 am to leave the apartment at 4:30 am to walk to the bus stop.  Not fun in the freezing pouring rain.  We were almost the last ones ones on the bus and a kind gentleman moved so Geek Girl and I could sit together.  Check in, passport control, security, time to look for breakfast.  Geek Girl gets chocolate ice cream because it's her last day.  Long line for borek, pretzel and water.  Head to the gate.  Flight is delayed due to mechanical issue on plane.  Fly to Münich.  Hang out for a couple hours -- hooray free wifi.  Get on plane back to D.C.  -- 9 hour flight.  I dozed, played 2048, watched Boyhood.  Daddy Geek and Girl Geek read and played games by themselves and with each other on the headrest screens.  We land in D.C., survive the ridiculously long immigration/customs line, find the car, go to Trader Joe's, and get home, shower, and collapse.

I'm still waking up at 3 am.  Why is so easy to stay up late and so hard to stay asleep?