the turquoise trail

Turquoise trail represents the path taken; stars represent towns where we stayed.  {budget} I purchased this trip as a bus tour on teambuy.ca for $2298.  This included the flight, all breakfasts, all dinners, and all of the mentioned attractions with the exception of the turkish bath.  It also included the tour bus and all our hotels.  In my opinion it was an extremely fair price for what we received and I don't believe that I could have done it for less myself.  The tour company recommended tipping our guide a couple dollars more /day than google seemed to suggest was standard; so I would suggest doing your own research to find what you are comfortable with; plan at least $7/day total.  If you are interested in a hot air balloon ride, you can plan to spend approximately $200.  If you are hoping to find a rug while in turkey, you should budget accordingly.  There is a huge range in prices depending on where you buy it, size of rug, quality, ...

{Saturday November 2} I got up around 7 this morning, had a shower and then we went to the dining room for breakfast. I was quite excited to see French toast this morning. After breakfast we went for a little walk out to the back of the hotel, where there is a really nice pool area.  We met our group at 8:15 to get our day started. We will have a very full day today so hopefully we can keep on schedule.  Fairy Chimneys of Goreme Our first stop this morning will be at the fairy chimneys of Goreme. The chimneys were formed by a volcano (2005m high) that erupted basalt stones and volcanic ash thousands of years ago.  The elements consumed the ash, but basalt is very hard so it remained.  The Christians carved out the rocks, forming churches and living in the rocks between the 4th and 14th century.  It is extremely unique landscape and really quite stunning. I feel like we barely had enough time to take it in, but most of the stops have been a whirl...

{Thursday October 31st}  We got up around 7:30 again this morning and got ready for the day. We had a slightly different breakfast this morning.. Same basics but we also had an egg and vegetable casserole. We left our hotel around 9 and headed towards Pamukkale.  This morning we started with a Turkish language lesson. The English language belongs to the Europe-indo language group. The Turkish language belongs to the Altaic group of languages.  English is an inflectional language meaning we have root words, with exceptions (for example stood; root word stand is not found within stood).  Turkish is an aglotinitive language meaning you have a root word and then many suffixes (for example root word eye, plus one suffix is glasses, plus two suffixes is optometrist - no exceptions) After about an hour and a half, we stopped at a gas station with a store for a bathroom break. I bought some really nice lotion with olive oil in it (smells amazing!) and got some...

{Sunday October 27th}  Didn't wake up until 8am this morning and had a wonderful sleep! Hopefully it isn't the quiet that keeps me up tomorrow night!  After getting ready for the day we went up to the terrace for breakfast. It was pretty much the same as yesterday,  except there was a really good smoked cheese!  We boarded the bus at 10am and were wished gunaydin (gun-eye-den; good morning)!   Topkapi Palace We headed again into the old city to Topkapi Palace. Once there we parked and entered the imperial gates through the main courtyard. Within the main courtyard is what is now used as a concert hall, one of the oldest buildings in Istanbul from the 4th century.  From there, we got our tickets and entered through the middle gate and into the middle courtyard. After Dr. T showed us around, giving us some history and showing us the highlights, we were free to explore on our own for 2 hours.  Topkapi Palace We went into the l...

{Saturday October 26th}  3:30 am now... Very tired and yet I keep waking up every couple hours. The windows here seem to be very thin as we can hear everything!  Going to try for more sleep now as we have a full day coming!   Sunrise over the Golden Horn We got up around 7am this morning and headed up to the 7th floor for breakfast. Above the restaurant there is an open terrace, so we went there to watch the sunrise. It was quite cloudy this morning, so not the best view of the sunrise, but still an amazing view overlooking the city. We can also see the Bosporus behind the hotel.  Breakfast here is interesting but still pretty good. Quite a selection of olives laid out, also cheeses, and tomato and cucumber. There was also a table of breads and pastries, fresh honeycomb, fruit and yogurt, and some hot food.. Eggs, "sausage" aka hotdog, and potatoes.  Quite tasty, and the beautiful view helps too :)  After breakfast we came back to the room...

Hello all & thank you for reading my blog.  This is my first posting & my first blog, so I will begin by telling you a little about myself and my reasons for starting a blog.   I recently turned 25, and decided that for my birthday I would like to travel to a country that I had not been to before.  I ended up taking a 10 day trip to Turkey (an amazing country!) and along the way I kept a journal of my adventure.  Upon my return, I shared this with some family and close friends.  (I also realized that Turkey had been my 25th country I've travelled to!) My Great Aunt has always been a huge supporter of mine, and since reading my journal she has encouraged me to pursue photo-journalism.  I decided that a blog would be the easiest way to share my adventures and see if it really is for me...  So here it goes!   I am very excited to be starting a blog, however one of my biggest reservations has been the critical comments I see on the ...