Turkey

Millie has now developed a Pavlovian response to the word “ruins”. She immediately crosses her arms, rolls her eyes, and says “harumph”. Luckily today was the last ruins for a while. After breakfast we packed everything up and drove over to Ephesus. While my attitude is slightly better than Millie’s, I’m definitely getting ruins-blindness. So…

This morning at breakfast Millie noticed this decorative rifle on the wall and loudly asked “Dad, when we get home can you teach me to shoot a gun like that?” To be clear, we are not a gun-owning or hunting family. Between this and the ketchup incident we had done enough for America’s reputation in…

We set the first non-airplane alarm of the trip last night so we could get up early enough to beat the heat. The forecasted high for today was 108. After a quick hotel breakfast we were at the Hierapolis ancient city shortly before it opened at 8. After many earthquakes over hundreds of years, much…

I woke up this morning to the devastating news from home of the flooding. I can’t get the girls who are missing from camp out of my mind. I know it’s trite to say “I’m hugging my kids tighter” but when Millie crawled into our bed this morning, I did. We had breakfast at the…

I am really loving Turkish hotel breakfast buffets. They are typically bread with sesame seeds, eggs-to-order, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, cheeses, and then a variety of fresh fruits and jams. it’s the perfect mix of healthy yet filling. After eating a bunch of melon and apricots this morning, Nick said “I think this trip might turn…

We packed up the weird jungle Airbnb (photo below) and set off. We had an ocean view for 90% of the 2.5 hour drive. Halfway through we decided against stopping at another old set of ruins. Too hot. Millie silently watched her iPad for the drive. I have such mixed feelings about it; it makes…

Another day of being beach bums. Just like yesterday, we walked down to the beach and picked up water and snacks on the way. We are already out of the sunscreen we bought yesterday. Three very pale people afraid of sun damage are averaging about a bottle a day. I didn’t account for that in…

We played and then walked down to the beach from our Airbnb. Along the way we stopped at some small shops to get essentials and non-essentials: a big bottle of cold water, snacks, more sunscreen, a bucket and shovel, and two very overpriced snorkels. Nick is an avid snorkeler / scuba diver and I am…

Our Konya hotel was a block from Rumi’s tomb, so before we set off we went to visit it. We were both taken by the difference of reverence shown by tourists and those who were visiting for spiritual reasons. Half of the people in there were having an emotional experience, the other half was pushing…

We packed up our cave hotel in Cappadocia and started our drive South. We had originally debated flying between here and Antalya but decided to drive because it was cheaper. I’m so glad we did. Our planned drive time today was about 4 hours and Nick found interesting stops along the way. As we left…