Turkey Stories


Where cats rule

On my second day in Istanbul I decided to take a ferry to Prince's Island. I had heard the views of the city were great and that it was a peaceful place where horse drawn carriages are the prefered mode of transport since cars are not allowed. The boat trip out there allowed me to get a sense for Istanbul's massive size. It seemed to just go on and o...


Lost in a sea of taffeta

Having discovered that it would actually be cheaper to fly the one hour to Istanbul than take the 20+ hour bus ride, I made the logical choice and head to the nearby Izmir airport.  Everything seemed to be proceeding normally until the pre-flight safety video came on.  I started to tune out since I can pretty much recite the briefing by heart but some s...


A touch of history

From Fethiye, I traveled north to Pamukkale, a small town that seems to thrive on tourism. What brings people here by the busload is the "cotton castle" - a hillside that is covered in terraces of white carbonite material deposited by flowing water. Not only is it a beautiful and unique natural wonder, but ancient civilizations flocked to the area as ...


From filthy to squeeky clean

Attempting to beat the heat again I woke up early to start my hike to Oludeniz via Kayakoy.  The first part was quite disappointing as the trail pretty much followed the road much of the way but I did get a really cool view of Kayakoy from the opposite side of the valley.  Kayakoy is basically a ghost town.  It was once a thriving place with over 2000 h...