Seabiscuit and Beyond: Travels in Turkey

Location: Pamukkale, Turkey

Mid-October we finished up our pet sit with Livvy in New Hampshire, spent some time visiting with family and then flew from Boston to Istanbul. We have been in Turkey for just over 3 weeks and are really enjoying the country. It is beautiful and the people are very friendly.

Sunrise on our last day at sea on the Gulet Cruise from Fethiye to Olympos.

October 17 - 25, 2023, Istanbul, Turkey: We arrived in Istanbul Tuesday afternoon, collected our luggage, and after getting some help from a local tour company, found our transport to our hotel in the Sisli neighborhood of Istanbul. One of the guys at the hotel recommended a restaurant nearby for supper so we stumbled up the hill for our first taste of Turkish food. It was delicious, with lentil soup and many different appetizers; we shared a meat pideh (Turkish pizza) and a chicken shish kebab for our main course.

Our first night in Istanbul - Dave ready to dig in to the lentil soup and appetizers.

As some of you know, one of the reasons we came to Istanbul was to take advantage of their "dental tourism". While we were in Houston this summer, Dave got an estimate from a dentist there to replace several crowns and a bridge. The cost was the price of a small used sportscar so we decided to look at options. Istanbul is known for both medical and dental tourism, most of it cosmetic, with qualified doctors and dentist and reasonable prices. We found a dental clinic that was 1/6th of the cost we were quoted in Houston and included our hotel (breakfast included) for 7 days and transport to/from the airport and to/from the hotel to the dental clinic. How could we pass that up?

So, every day while Dave happily went to the dental clinic, I toured Istanbul. There are so many historic sites to see and things to experience that I had no problem filling my days. Here is a brief list: Self-guided walking tours of the New District/Istiklal Street, the Old Town back streets, city walls and neighborhoods, and the Golden Horn; a guided tour of the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Hagia Irene, Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque and the Grand Bazaar; a boat ride up and down the Bosphorus Strait (Dave joined me for this); visits to the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, several other mosques and the Spice Market; and walks through the parks in the Sisli neighborhood. If you want more info about the historic sites, I've included links for most of them above or in the captions of the photos below.

Here are a bunch of photos from our time in Istanbul.

The Republic Monument at Taksim Square.

Turkish Delight for sale in a shop on Istaklal Street.

A stall at the Fish Market near Istaklal Street. You could choose your fish and they would cook it for you.

The Gate of Salutation, aka the Middle Gate, at the Topkapi Palace.

Kettles for candy making in the Topkapi Palace kitchens

The Golden Cradle in the Treasury Section of the Topkapi Palace.

A cast of the footprint of the Prophet Muhammad in the Relics Section at the Topkapi Palace.

B with the Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque in the background

B with the Hagia Sophia in the background

Inside the Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque

The entrance to Istanbul University

B outside the Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque

Inside the Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque

The view of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus Strait from the terrace of a restaurant near the Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque

Inside the Rustem Pasa Mosque

Spices for sale in the Spice Market

Inside the Spice Market - If you think this looks crowded you should have seen the crowds around the market stalls in the streets and alleys nearby

People fishing near the Galata Bridge

Here are some of the photos from our cruise on the Bosphorus Strait - The Bosphorus Strait is 17 nautical miles long and connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara:

Dolmabahce Palace on the European side of the Strait

The Rumeli Fortress on the European side of the Strait

The dock in Anadolu Kavagi, on the Asian side of the Strait and the northern most point of our cruise.

Yoros Castle above Anadolu Kavagi on the Asian side of the Strait

Mansions along the waterfront on the Asian side of the Strait

Kucuksu, a 19th century hunting pavilion of the sultans, on the Asian side of the Strait.

And back to touring Istanbul:

October 29th was Turkey's 100th anniversary as a country. This guy is selling flags for the celebration in the Besiktas neighborhood of Istanbul. The statue in the background is a black eagle, the symbol of the Besiktas Soccer Team.

Waterfalls in Yildiz Park near the Ciragan Palace Kempinski (now a luxury hotel)

Grilled sea bass for our 25th anniversary supper at a restaurant near Istaklal Street

Fancy boats for hire for cruises on the Golden Horn and/or the Bosphorus Strait (this is not the boat we cruised on)

October 26 - 31, 2023 - Gulet Cruise from Fethiye to Olympos, Turkey: On Thursday, October 26th we caught a flight from Istanbul to Dalaman/Mugla, a small airport serving southwest Turkey. A car picked us up and drove us to Fethiye on Turkey's southwestern Turquiose Coast. We stayed in Fethiye for two nights.

The view from our hotel room in Fethiye

On Saturday, October 28th we boarded Bluefest, a gulet, for a 4 day/3 night blue cruise from Fethiye to Olympos. Here is a map of our cruise plus our travels from Olympos to our pet sit location in Yesil Uzumlu.

Gulet Cruise Day 1: A representative from the cruise rounded all of us up from our hotels and we walked down to the pier and boarded "Bluefest". We had a short briefing and were then lead to our cabins. After settling in, we left the dock and motored out of Fethiye Harbor. Although the gulets are sail boats, most of the ones that do these cruises never put up their sails; they just motor along from place to place. We got to know our cruise mates (12 people) and crew (6 people) as we cruised to our first stop at Butterfly Valley. We anchored off the beach and everyone jumped into the sea for a swim before lunch.

Small lighthouse on a point as we cruise out of Fethiye Harbor.

Looking aft as we cruise from Fethiye to Butterfly Valley

The cliffs above Butterfly Valley

The beach at Butterfly Valley

Dave unlaxing on the foredeck after a swim near Butterfly Valley.

The crew served us a nice lunch then we heaved anchor and cruised to our second stop near Oludeniz. More swimming around the boat and one of our cruise mates, Drew, went on a paragliding adventure off the cliffs above Oludeniz. She said the drive up the mountain to the launch pad was scarier than the paraglide back down.

The shoreline near our anchorage at Oludeniz

Grant jumping from a rock cliff into the water at Oludeniz

Paragliders coming down from the cliffs near Oludeniz

Our next stop was an anchorage near St. Nicholas Island, aka Gemiler Island. We were able to go ashore and explore the ruins of the churches and buildings from the 4th - 6th centuries.

Looking up at the ruins on St. Nicholas Island

Ruins of a 5th century church on St. Nicholas Island

Looking down at our gulet Bluefest from St. Nicholas Island

An old tunnel system connecting the buildings on St. Nicholas Island

Ruins on St. Nicholas Island

Watching the sunset from St. Nicholas Island

For supper the crew grilled fish on the foredeck and we ate family style at a large community table on the stern. After supper, Rory taught us how to pay Yanif, a card game. Towards the end of the game, the captain spread the coastal charts out on the table and told us we had two options for the travel times for our next destination. We could stay at anchor and leave at 4:00 a.m. with a 9:00 a.m arrival or we could heave anchor at 21:00 and arrive at 2:00 a.m.. We voted to heave anchor tonight so that we could have a nice relaxing morning at our new location. The crew cleaned up the supper dishes and we got underway.

Gulet Cruise Day 2: We anchored up about 2:00 a.m. as planned and awoke to new, beautiful surroundings. Today was Turkey's 100th anniversary celebration and we watched a boat parade outside the Kas harbor before going in to tie up at the docks. We roamed around town for a couple of hours then got back on the boat for lunch.

Morning at our anchorage near Kas

Looking toward the town of Kas from our anchorage

The boat parade outside the Kas harbor

A Kas waterfront bar decorated for the 100 anniversary celebration

A small Turkish marching band downtown Kas

Dave having a pomegranite juice near the Kas waterfront

We left the Kas Harbor and anchored nearby so that we could swim while Drew and Rory went on a scuba diving adventure. We heaved anchor mid-afternoon and moved to a beautiful secluded cove for the night. After supper we played a fun game called salad bowl which is a combination of Taboo, Charades and One Word.

Sunset from our anchorage

Watching the full moon rise

Gulet Cruise Day 3: We had a nice relaxing morning today. Breakfast and coffee and some swimming around the boat, then anchor up at 11:00ish. As our anchor was coming in, they hooked onto another anchor and chain that somebody must have ditched. It had the whole crew surprised as they looked over the bow. They figured out how to heave the abandoned anchor and chain onto the boat, we got our anchor racked and got under way. We cruised by the sunken city of Simena on the shore of Kekova Island then anchored near the city of Kalekoy where we went ashore to explore the fortress and the town.

Sunrise from our anchorage

The fort above the city of Kalekoy

The sunken city of Simena on the shore of Kekova Island

Underwater buildings from the sunken city of Simena

The harbor in Kalekoy where the dinghy dropped us off to do some exploring

B sitting in the amphitheater at the fortress in Kalekoy

Looking down over the Lycian tombs spread out over the hills near Kalekoy

Looking down at the fortress walls and across the sea to Kekova Island

From Kalekoy we moved to our anchorage for the night, relaxed, swam, watched the sunset and had our last supper as a group.

Our last supper on the gulet with our cruise mates.
Clockwise from the bottom left: Drew, Grant, Mitch, Olivia, Ryan, Annie, the Turkish couple from Istanbul, Erin, Rory, Dave and B

Gulet Cruise Day 4: Today was our last day on the Gulet. We had breakfast and coffee then moved from our anchorage to a small harbor where a launch took all of us and our luggage to shore. The group split up with the Turkish couple heading to Istanbul and back to work; Ryan, Annie, Grant and Olivia headed back to Fethiye; Mitch and Drew went to Antalya; and Erin, Rory, Dave and I squeezed into a taxi for the drive to Olympos. Dave and I checked into our "treehouse" while Erin and Rory went to stay at a different tree house hotel closer to the center of town.

Early morning on the foredeck. Most of us slept outside in the fresh air with the moon, planets and stars as our night lights.

One last photo of the gulet Bluefest as we headed to shore.

Our room at the treehouse hotel. We had the Honeymoon Suite.

The rock cliffs near Olympos. Our treehouse hotel was filled with people who traveled from all over the world to rock climb in this area.

November 1 - 3, 2023, Antalya, Turkey: We checked out of the treehouse this morning and headed into Antalya, the largest city on Turkey's western Mediterranean coast. We stayed in the old town, called Kaleici, which is the historic district inside the old city walls. We spent our time there walking through the Kaleici area, enjoying the coastline and touring the museums. Here are some photos from our time in Antalya.

The Roman Harbor in Antalya. It is located at the base of the old city walls

The Kesik Minare (Kesik Minaret) at the Sehzade Korkut Mosque

Ruins outside the Sehzade Korkut Mosque

An old entry way in the Sehzade Korkut Mosque

Hadrian's Gate

Tower of the old city wall near Hadrian's Gate

The Yivli Minaret Mosque in Antalya

View of the Roman Harbor from our hotel room

View of the old city walls and the Yivli Minaret

Statues of the Gods room at the Antalya Archeology Museum

Statue inside the Antalya Archeology Museum

Mermerli Beach near the Roman Harbor

Hidirlik Tower where the old city walls join the sea walls

November 4 - 7, 2023, Fethiye, Turkey: From Antalya we rode the bus back to Fethiye for a few days. We walked along the waterfront and explored some of the historic sites in the city.

Our bus parked at a roadside restaurant where we stopped for a bathroom/coffee/smoke break. The trip took about 3.5 hours.

Tomb of Amyntas south of the center of Fethiye. The tombs were carved into the sheer rock face in 350 BC

The Crusader Fortress above Fethiye

Looking at the Fethiye waterfront and harbor from the Crusader Fortress

Looking down at the Roman Theater and the harbor in Fethiye

Vegetables for sale at the Farmers Market in Fethiye

Olives for sale at the Farmers Market in Fethiye

November 8 - 12, 2023, Yesil Uzumlu, Turkey: We took a break from being tourists to pet sit with three dogs, Buddy, LouLou and Bertie in the village of Yesil Uzumlu in the hills northeast of Fethiye.