A History Lesson

This one's for you Jacob!

After Istanbul we flew to a city called Izmir to begin our road trip down the Turkish coast. The first stop though was inland in a town called Selcuk (pronounced Selchuk). Why stay there? To see Ephesus, the best preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean, if not all of Europe (this is clearly not my own language, yes I copy and pasted).

If you read the last post on Istanbul you'll sort of know that I'm not a history buff, at all. But Turkey is such an old country, with so much history that it would be ignorant of us not to learn some of it. Plus I find myself more curious by the day trying to imagine what it was like back 'then'.

So for our less than 24 hour stint in Selchuk we decided to hire a guide to tour us around Ephesus and teach us about this former grand capital of the Roman province of Asia which had close to 400,000 inhabitants dating back as far 1200 BC. Our guide 'Octay', supposedly related to the Greek God Octavius, was the best.


This is Octay. We asked him a million questions and he'd kindly but directly told us, 'be patient, I will get to it' - I would have scolded us too.


The Temple of Hadrian, to publicly honor General Theodosius who was hanged innocently. This is the second most famous attraction at Ephesus.


Background is Curetes Street - the Champs Elysees of Ephesus - which had dozens of store fronts and pedestals displaying statues of honored citizens.


The men's latrines. I found this one pretty fascinating with full plumbing and clean running water. honestly, better than some of the toilets Josh and I have experienced in present day Turkey! This was a social gathering place for men to shoot the sh*t - scuse the pun. Many of the wealthy elite would frequent the latrines. It was a hot spot.


Known as the Terraced Houses in Ephesus. This is a photo of a living room in one of the houses where the elite of the Roman world lived. These homes were several 1000 square feet with every modern luxury you could think of. It's impressive and amazing the way people lived several thousand years ago.



The most famous attraction, the Library of Celsus. It was the third largest library in the ancient world. One of the neatest things was on the steps of the library a menorah had been inscribed (under order of Caesar) as an acknowledgement of the Jews help against Egypt. Josh obviously appreciated this one.


Sadly the end of the tour with Octay.

I thought I'd throw in a few other photos from Selcuk itself. Before going we hadn't heard much of anything about the town - its typically more of a pit stop for people visiting Ephesus - but we thought it had charm.


Hotel Nazar where we stayed. The place is family run - literally three generations working there. We felt like we were living alongside them and their five year old grandson who had some serious pipes!



Our first Lahmacun - Turkish pizza - with ground meat on top and no cheese. So good especially after our three hour tour in the sizzling sun.


The men out drinking tea and socializing. Sorry had to point it out again!


Our token animal picture. We always have to have at least one! This was Ellis and as you can see Josh is smitten.


As we're about to leave Selcuk/Ephesus the trunk of our rental car wouldn't close and a couple of the family members from Nazar Hotel tried to help. We ended up driving a few hours with our trunk roped closed (once again I'm grateful for Boy Scouts). Long story short we didn't actually break the trunk. Good news.

Next blog I'll fill you in on our first week or so on the Turkish Coast. It may be even more beautiful than I thought it would be.

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Location:Selcuk and Ephesus, Turkey

Istanbul - Round One

Within our first 24 hours in Istanbul we literally took more photos than our entire two weeks in Greece. The sights are absolutely fascinating and the Turkish people even more so. There's so much action, tons of people, dogs, cats (who are so friendly too), noises, colors, smells. It's amazing an sensory overload.

I've posted a bunch of photos with captions below because visuals will do better justice of Istanbul than my rambling.

But first, a few quick observations:

1. My absolute favourite part so far are the people. They are so unbelievably nice, hospitable and generous. One of the first things our hotelier taught us in Turkish was, 'hello my friend.' I find their culture so interesting and people watch all the time (yep, Nosy Nora lives on).

2. On the people topic I can't get over the number of men in Turkey, seems like 10 to 1. They're everywhere! Where are the women? Wherever I look there are men sitting, standing, smoking, drinking tea (which is delicious), playing backgammon, some working, it goes on. I can't help but feel out of place sometimes.

3. I've heard about the call to prayer but experiencing it is another story. It woke me up at dawn on our first morning and although I wouldn't say I'm religious, you get the spiritual feeling.

4. Visiting the Hagia Sophia was a huge highlight. It dates back to 600 AD and took only 5 years to build with the help of 7500 people. It boggles your mind that they were able to build this kind of structure so long ago. It started as a church then the Ottomans converted it to a mosque and now it's a museum. Snoozing yet? Usually I am but I find myself being fascinated with the history. Dad you'd be proud.


Enjoying my first Turkish tea.



Outside of Hagia Sophia.



Inside Hagia Sophia, behind us names of Islamic leaders.



Inside Hagia Sophia, you can see plaster that was used by Ottomans to cover up Christian mosaics.



Outside of the Blue Mosque.



Inside the Blue Mosque, it's beautiful.




Where's Josh?


Outside another mosque, men washing their feet. A cleansing ritual before entering.




Couldn't help myself, a man turned on one of the washing taps to let a cat have some water.




Outside the Spice Market. This place is insane! So many colors, smells and people.



One of hundreds of stalls at the Spice Market.




A quick baklava pit stop in the Spice Market. Pistachio baklava is amazing!




Some young Turks playing backgammon (common game for men) at one of the stalls in the market.



A less common site to see but it's clear the women stick together.



Dining on Nevizade Street, an area jam-packed with restaurants full of locals.




Taken at a stop during our day long cruise along the Bosphorus Straight which divides the Europe and Asia sides of Istanbul.




In the town of Andolu (stop on our cruise) we (or I) happened to watch a slew of navy seals walk through. Must be a regular thing because none of the locals seemed to notice.


A man in Istanbul selling tea to go.




The most authentic Turkish meal yet. The owner spoke no English. He cooked on a stove on the sidewalk, with two frying pans. We ordered 3 things on the menu using sign language and by pointing at the menu. He then proceeded to bring us 6 items, only one of which we actually ordered! It was totally hilarious but also delicious.

We'll be back to Istanbul in a couple of weeks and can't wait. Now onto our road trip along the Agean/Mediterranean coast.

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Location:Istanbul, Turkey

Seaside in Crete

Another week has flown by - and too easily. We aren't having any problems settling into travel mode. It's exciting arriving somewhere new, settling in, exploring and then packing up to begin a new adventure.

This past week in Crete we rented what was advertised as a "traditional" villa, with our friends Rachel and Mitchell, in a small coastal town called Almyrida. Evidently the word "traditional" is up to one's own interpretation. Villa Maria was truly great from the outside with a pool, a few eating areas, fruits trees and breathtaking views; however, the inside included a few less-than-desirable characteristics such as a couple questionable washrooms, a lovely sewage smell, and our very own resident ants. Jokes aside, we were happy with our spot and Villa Maria had her charm.









A few highlights from our week in Crete:

Our car rides
We rented a car for the week. Josh was driver and Mitchell navigator. They were a perfect pair. It made our road trips pretty seamless - with the exception of getting lost once at sunset where we literally found ourselves in the middle of an olive grove.

When we first picked up our rental car we were challenged with fitting all of our luggage into a tiny Fiat. The boys conquered it no problem. I swear Josh's boy scout badges pay off far too often - if you want a good laugh ask him about his Boy Scout poncho:). We then had a 2-hour journey in darkness across the island and miraculously arrived at Villa Maria despite a comical set of directions, some off-roading and a handful of u-turns. Rach and I occupied ourselves with 80s and 90s movie soundtrack trivia - sorry boys!




Elafonisi day trip
Elafonisi is rated the nicest beach on Crete and justly so. I have to say this is by far the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. It was the perfect combination of powder sand, clear turquoise water, and great people watching.






Before we got to the beach we stopped at a little restaurant recommended to us. Funny enough as we pulled up we realized their signature dish was Canadian style pizza! The couple who owns the place spent 25 years in Canada but returned to their native land about 10 years ago. We opted not to order pizza and went with a few authentic dishes to Crete. They also introduced us to Cornela, their goat that they won the day before at a church raffle. This was one chatty goat! I think she was trying to get her bearings and was also afraid of her fate. I was relieved to hear she wasn't going to be the "weekly special" but kept as a pet instead.






Dinners - slam dunk for two out of the three
After our day trip to Elafonisi, we got home late and the boys whipped up a delicious pasta dinner.




On another day trip we went to Chania - a larger venetian style town on the island - and perused their Saturday open air market to get some ingredients for dinner. We settled on fish and Josh, Rachel and Mitchell got some cooking instructions from a local fish monger which helped to make this meal delicious. I happily stayed out of the kitchen.


(Venetian harbor in Chania)







The third homemade dinner unfortunately took a nose dive. It was Rach and I's turn and we attempted a Cretan casserole. This did not go so well, thanks to our oven. The recipe said 45 minutes in the oven but after almost three hours it still wasn't cooked through! The highlight of the night was when Rachel and I put on our dresses - we happen to have bought similar ones. But changed after a few hours when we realized we wouldn't be eating until midnight!




Looks good doesn't it?? Looks can be deceiving.








Scenic Almyrida
We enjoyed many a walks along the strip of Almyrida. It was small, and not really Greek - at all actually - but was still very cute and scenic.







One of our many coffees, lunches, beers at Cafe Francoise - a popular beach spot for locals and tourists.




Below was a little picnic we had on our last night (courtesy of the Purdys) on top of a rock overlooking Almyrida bay.



We had a great week with the Purdys in Crete and we already miss them.

We've just touched down in Istanbul and can already tell this place is going to leave a lasting impression. Talk soon.

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Location:Almyrida, Crete - Greece