I was very fortunate to have visited Turkey in October of 2015. I met a friend in Istanbul and spent four days touring the beautiful city. During our first morning in Istanbul, we heard news of a bombing in Ankara, the biggest in its’ modern history. It was a bit disconcerting to us since we were going to be traveling to Ankara four days later.
Later that afternoon, we came across a protest group in Istanbul that was one of the groups targeted in the bombing that morning. They were marching through the street. Needless to say, we made sure to stay as far away from them as possible knowing they were a big target.
Aside from staying alert to our surroundings, we enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing time seeing the beauty of Istanbul while taking in the delicious food and the frequent stops for Turkish coffee and Turkish Delights! The locals were nice and hospitable. I enjoyed my visit to this big city and look forward to another time there in the future when the political climate settles down a little more.
After spending a couple days in Ankara, we headed off to Cappadocia, Turkey. My friend drove his family and myself in his Volvo SUV. I enjoyed the road trip and seeing the land formations change between Ankara and Cappadocia. A much more interesting way to see and experience the land is through overlanding. If you’re interested in doing this yourself through Cappadocia, check out Ferenc and Evelin’s experience and how much fun they had on the ground as well as in the air on their overlandsite blog.
I didn’t know much about Cappadocia, probably because it’s rarely in the news. When we arrived there after a three hour road trip from Ankara, my jaw dropped from seeing the incredible scenery that included cave homes and restaurants, fairy chimneys, colorful sunset, and other worldly landscapes. I’ve photographed some beautiful landscapes around the world but have never seen anything close to the unique land formations of Cappadocia! This is why I thought I would share with you the spectacular scenery of Cappadocia below. For more photos, please go here. Thank you for looking!
