Turkey 2024

In July/August, the Miller family travel throughout Turkey together! It was an incredible trip! Seeing where Levent grew up was also really cool. It was an incredible trip.

It was also a pretty intense trip. We figured out that we were on 9 different flights counting traveling there and then traveling in-country too. So lots of traveling, which was exhausting, (One day we managed to turn a 5 1/2 hour van trip into a 12 hour trip. ugh. Long story) as well as lots of activities with very little down time. Plus, Levent caught something on the plane and was sick for a few days, which was such a bummer. And then all of us, except Levent's older brother Chadwick, all had some form of illness throughout the trip. So that wasn't great. But we made the most of it. We all decided that if we ever got the chance to go there together again, we would cut out one city and make it less intense. But overall, we don't regret anything we did. Again, it was so incredible to explore this amazing country.

We started in Istanbul, then went to the Cappadocia region, then on to Gaziantep, which is where the Millers lived, and then the "kids" split off from the parents and went to the coast of the Aegean Sea while my in-laws went to North Cyprus. We all met again in Istanbul for 1 night before heading back home the next day.

Here, in random order, is a list of highlights

Going on a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia. This is actually a bittersweet highlight for me since Levent was too sick to go. It would have been so cool to experience it with him. But it was pretty magical otherwise. We got up super early and kind of watched the sunrise from the balloon (our budget balloon was a little behind schedule lol). I thought I would be really anxious the whole time, but I surprisingly was not. Cappadocia is a pretty unique region with lots of interesting, and sometimes pretty phallic looking, rock formations. The rock was pretty pliable too and ancient people and monks and churches carved out caves in the rocks. So it was pretty cool to see this landscape from above.

I ate ice cream on the European side of Istanbul, which means that I am one step closer to completing my goal of eating ice cream in every inhabited continent in the world. (All I have left is Australia!) The ice cream in Turkey is pretty unique. It's stretchy somehow. The vendors at the tourist ice cream places will like "put on a show" with your ice cream - putting it on the cone and then taking the whole thing off again - before they finally let you be. That part was not my favorite but we endured it for the great ice cream.

The best ice cream we had was in Gaziantep. The flavors were lemon, pistachio and kunefe. So good!

Seeing all the cats in Istanbul. (There were a lot of cats! The city really embraces them and people and businesses will take care of their neighborhood cats).

Our hotel/Airbnb in Cappadocia was very cool. I took a lot of photos of it (maybe you can pick it out from the album I shared). It had a lot of little rooms off courtyards and roof terraces and an incredible view. Breakfast was included with our stay and it was amazing. Turkish breakfasts are usually pretty basic while being very delicious. It usually consists of things like good bread, cheese, fresh veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers, olives and fresh fruits, jams and honey, eggs, tea, etc. The Turkish breakfast at this hotel was like a Turkish breakfast on cute steroids. It was incredible. I also ate the best nectarine I've ever had in my life there.

The food in Gaziantep was the best. It is actually the "Gastro city of Turkey." (It's part of its branding I guess because we saw that in a few different places). I had the best baklava of my life there and am now ruined for all other kinds of baklava. Gaziantep grows a lot of pistachios and they are way better than the ones we can get Stateside. We bought some home and compared them. The best way I can describe the Turkey pistachios is that they are creamier than the California variety. The California ones taste "wetter" which I know makes no sense. But they somehow taste like they have way more moisture in them than the ones in Antep.

Seeing "The Gypsy Girl" mosaic at the Mosaic museum in Gaziantep was so cool. Well, the whole museum was very cool. It was basically whole floors of mosaics that had been recovered from the bed of the Euphrates River. The artwork was incredible (although, ironically, the art got worse whenever Christianity entered the scene). And how old they were blew my American mind. (I think a lot of them were from the 2nd or 3rd centuries. What. The Gypsy Girl was the best though. Since it was the "crown jewel" of the museum, it was in its own room. You entered the room through a winding hallway that was completely dark. Then it opened up into a room with the Gypsy Girl on the far wall. Everything was in darkness except Gypsy Girl. Very dramatic but very impactful.

Swimming in the Aegean Sea. It was so clear! We stayed in an Airbnb that was like in a "vacation rental" neighborhood. And even though it wasn't a very good Airbnb experience, the location made it all worth it. Ours had a view of the sea and a very short walk down the cliffs to a variety of private (to the vacation rentals) swimming areas. One afternoon we went to a National Park because we heard the sea was even more clear there. And sure enough it was! We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon chilling in the water.

Going to see the ruins at the ancient city of Ephesus. Once again my mind was completely blown by how old everything was. When I saw the library, I gasped out loud. It was so cool. (It was also super hot and we were out in the heat for about 5 hours. woof. It was also crowded with cruise ships that dumped all of humanity off their boat and into tourist sights. I am not a fan. But we made the most of it).

Afterwards, Chadwick found a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant that we jokingly referred to being in the "mechanic district" since the place was surrounded by mechanic shops. We had moussaka, rice pilaf and cacik (cucumber and yogurt) and it was the best meal I had the entire trip. So good. 

I could go on and on about other things I enjoyed about this trip, but I think that was a pretty good summary. Even though all travel makes me incredible nervous, I am so grateful that I've had the chance to travel to so many places in the world. (Most of the countries being places I never thought I would go to). Turkey is up there as probably one of the coolest places I've been. Perhaps we'll return someday.