Cappadocia & Istanbul, Türkiye + Würzburg, Germany

My trip to Türkiye and back to Germany in April was one I had waited literally 20 years for. If you missed the “why” backstory…

Long story not short - my BFF Amy lives in Romania & has made a concerted effort for 15 years to always visit me on her trips back to the States. We were both talking about wanting to travel again in this new season of life (this is the 1st year both my kids can drive, so if I leave for a trip now, I won’t have to make any special arrangements for them) and it’s about time I came closer to her for once! :-D So we decided last summer that we’d save, budget, plan, & really do this, instead of just dream about it. 

International travel is the only passion in my life that has been put completely on hold the last 20 years, since choosing to have a family, choosing to prioritize being a stay-at-home mom, and literally not being able to even consider affording it. God absolutely provided & sustained us, but the last four years in particular have been the most financially challenging we’ve ever experienced. For a good portion of that time, we had to learn how to re-budget our entire household to live on just 37% of what we were used to. We had to learn how to go without; the kids had to learn how to go without. It was not easy, and it certainly was not fun, but I know they gleaned valuable life lessons by watching how we dealt with these financial challenges openly & honestly. When I started my second job last year (in addition to my StudioSmile teaching business = still going strong!) at the personal trainer gym, we were finally back in a position where we could agree that that money could be banked in a separate travel account. I planned & budgeted for this ever since!!! I waited literally 20 years (last time in Europe: Italy, July 2003!) to be able to rekindle this life’s passion of mine, being a good & faithful steward of that which has been entrusted to me, and this is CERTAINLY just the beginning of a new long-awaited era of international travel in my life!!! Bring on the passport stamps!!!!!!!!!! (Maybe even 2 more this year that I’ve saved & planned for!)

I flew out on Easter afternoon, and Amy & I went to Cappadocia for a few days, then Istanbul. My flight back to Houston went through Frankfurt, and it didn’t increase my ticket price for my layover to be 4 hours vs. 4 days & 4 hours, so I spent a few extra days on my way home in Germany. I lived in Würzburg & went to uni there 1998-99, but I hadn’t been back since - unbelievable that it had been almost 25 years!!! I still dream of being able to show my kids around Wü one day, too, (JB has been! He came to visit me there - yep, we’ve been together that long! ❤️) but this opportunity was too perfect to pass up, even though my family wasn’t with me this time. 

Now enjoy this full recap (maybe over multiple days, like a novel! :-D) present-tense diary style! 

Monday evening, 10 April 2023

Left Houston Sunday afternoon – Chicago Sunday evening – Frankfurt Monday morning – arrived in Istanbul Monday afternoon. 

Cannot forget this Easter blessing: I had the WHOLE ROW to myself for the long haul Chicago to Frankfurt! (& the best food & a Milk Bar cake truffle for dessert! :-D)

Now sitting in Istanbul for the last 5 hours with Amy, b/c our final flight to Nevşehir was cancelled for fog (worth waiting that out!) Our redirected flight now to Kayseri leaves at 9:40, arrives at 11 PM, our hotel is fully an hour away, & we have to be picked up at 5 AM for an adventure that can’t be rescheduled - we’re just laughing, powering through, & will nap midday tomorrow if we want. So thankful to have a BFF here to share this with, (Amy met me here in Istanbul & we’re together until next Mon!) How did we pass extra airport time? Yoga in a digital mirror sculpture here, of course!

Tuesday, 11 April 2023

Beyond bucket list: hot air balloon flight over Kapadokya at sun up with almost 100 other balloons!!! My 1st time in a hot air balloon = stunned I wasn’t the least bit anxious!!! I could even lean out over the edge! (Must’ve been b/c it was so smooth & stable! I’m usually terrified of edges & ledges - I can’t even lean over a railing at the top of a flight of stairs.) This felt free & oddly safe in a way I can’t explain… Magical!!!

Blowing up at 6:10 AM:

Look down - see the edge of the balloon basket?!

We flew up in a cloud towards the end for a few minutes:

Toasting our successful flight! Balloon flat behind us:

And such provision from God: we’re staying 3 mornings here on purpose, just in case flights got cancelled on day 1 or 2. We found out last night that today is the first day they’ve been able to go up in 5 DAYS b/c of the rain, and only the 2nd time in 15 DAYS!!! :-O We would have been devastated!!! This is what we came here for! (Still have more amazing things planned, but…) Thank you, God!!!

(Kapadokya? “A semi-arid region in central Turkey, known for its distinctive clusters of “fairy chimneys” - tall, cone-shaped rock formations - and also for Bronze Age homes carved into valley walls by cave dwellers & later used as refuges by early Christians.”)

Wednesday morning, 12 April 2023

Good night & good morning! We ended up at the most amazing dinner last night, getting to experience the quintessential Kapadokyian delicacy, Testi Kebab (pottery kebab)! Meat cubes (lamb, beef, we had veal), shallots, tomatoes, garlic, & peppers are placed into single-serve local clay pots. The top of the pot is sealed off with a piece of dough, & the pot is placed vertically in a tandoor oven to work like a mini pressure cooker. It's brought out on fire tableside; the waiter cracks & opens your pot and pours the delicious kebab onto your plate! It was the most tender meat I’ve ever had!!! And Seten Restaurant had stellar views down into Göreme village at night!

We used our jacuzzi tub before bed last night, (I need to take pics of our incredible cave room!) and this morning we woke up (not as early as yesterday!) to watch the balloons go up, this time from our own hotel’s patios. Amazing to get this different perspective!

(PS pic - leave it to me to find bubble tea in a remote corner of Türkiye! :-D)

Wednesday afternoon, 12 April 2023

We took the “Green Tour” today - Pigeon Valley overlook: 

Kaymakli Underground City (8 stories dug down into the volcanic rock)

Selime Monastery, where people literally went to live in solitude (my fave - lots of rock formations to climb around on!)

Hiking through the Ihlara Valley up to St George Church (a cave church built ~1290 at the top of the valley’s canyon)

Our guide, Cevdt, was exhaustingly informative :-P so we are resting with salep (my new fave hot beverage) at Kale Terrasse restaurant before the evening’s events.

BTW, we booked our balloon adventure & the Green Tour through Cappadocia Visitor travel - this isn’t an affiliate link, just a genuine, unsolicited recommendation! We’ve walked down to visit & chat with Ahmet at the Cappadocia Visitor office multiple times the last two days - when our anticipated sunset camel ride was cancelled (& completely refunded!) due to rain, he gave us umbrellas to explore Göreme & the suggestion to try Seten for dinner = such a win!!! Anytime we have had questions out & about, we just WhatsApp, & Ahmet responds with such good ideas. He has felt like our personal concierge! Cannot recommend highly enough!

Thursday afternoon, 13 April 2023

Sitting (longer than we wanted, but not awful) at the airport in Nevşehir…and this double gem of a rainbow just appeared behind my back!!! 

Saol (thanks), Kapadokya! Our cave room (literally carved out of the rock) at Traveller’s Cave Hotel was AMAZING! 

The cave opening entrance looked out over the valley of Göreme, just like the view from the picture of me on the patio with all the hot air balloons rising yesterday morning. That patio was just one level above us, essentially on the cave roof of our room!

We had a little dance entertainment with dinner last night, and I got my 1st Turkish ice cream “show” this morning, after a hike on ground level with the local fairy chimney rock formations. Finished with another salep (this one sprinkled pink with a dash of blackberry powder!) before heading to the airport to fly now to Istanbul…

Friday evening, 14 April 2023

From my airplane window, arriving at SAW on the Asian side of Istanbul at sunset last night - Amy took pics of this same sight; we were pretty far apart in the plane, and she still saw His message for us, too ❤️

1st day in Istanbul: so much more than we even expected!!! We began with a walking tour that ended up turning into a full day private tour - just us & our guide, Abdullah, b/c we all had so much fun together! He took us inside the Basilica Cistern - breathtaking underground water storage with incredible columns & cool lighting: 

Past the German Fountain (I got to translate the inscription!)

Blue Mosque (only outside - inside closed for renovations)

& Hagia Sophia (going inside tomorrow)

and all through Topkapı Palace:

We had lunch at a Michelin restaurant, Deraliye, and I had a goose kebab wrapped in pastry – honestly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life!!! 

After lunch, Abdullah took us to a truly authentic Turkish rug-making co-op, where we got to not only watch these amazing artisans every step of the way, from harvesting the silk threads from silk worm cocoons & spinning the silk, to every step of weaving the rugs. We even got to try tying a couple double knots ourselves! 

We explored part of the Grand Bazaar, where I ended up buying a gorgeous little lamp & some pure salep powder, and we ended our time with Abdullah at Tree of Life Ceramics, learning about their artisan process, as well. It was such a delight to have Abdullah take us to all the places for things we were interested in with people he actually knows & without pressure to spend big $$$$$!

We walked back to our hotel at sunset & ran up to our rooftop terrace = *the* reason I settled on this hotel!

Saturday night, 15 April 2023

2nd day in Istanbul: we got out of the tourist-focused old city & had adventures in 3 different areas. It’s actually peak viewing of the famous tulip festival here, so we trekked up to Emirgan Park & were bowled over by the beauty! (Tulips are the national flower of Türkiye & were originally sent to the Dutch from here!) Amy took more close ups, but I tried to capture the sheer volume with my composite (& we had to show off the best braid Amy has ever woven! :-D)

We took the ferry back down towards the Golden Horn (yay, cheap Bosporus cruise!) to Fener/Balat to see their colorful neighborhoods & just get a sense of this completely different area.

We took the tour I was most excited for tonight in Beyoğlu: “Foodie Tour by Night: Traditional Meyhane & Street Foods” & it did NOT disappoint!!! We took the funicular up & explored all around Istiklal Street, esp. some of the passages & side sections with our guide, Tolga, where we were very happily the only tourists! Bonus blessing: it was another private tour!!! We’d paid for “small group” (up to 8: but like yesterday, it was just *us* = divine! We stopped at *EIGHT* places over 4 hours - still so full with mezze, Gözleme (a cheese-filled Turkish pancake), Tantuni (like the best beef wrap you could ever imagine), etc.

And b/c I drank Turkish coffee at 8 PM, that’s why I’m still awake to journal at 3 AM here. :-D That coffee was worth it, though - I am not a big coffee fan in the first place, but this guy made the best I’ve ever had.

The baklava from Hafız Mustafa 1864 was also stellar - highest pistachio ratio ever!

Amy & I were open to walking through Hagia Sofia on our way home from the tour, b/c we pass right by it & figured the line to get in (it’s free) would be shorter at 11 PM. We were wrong about a short line, but it moved so quickly! We were a little heartbroken that every shred of its former heritage has been removed, leaving it as purely a mosque now, instead of the ecumenical beacon it had been. We also weren’t jazzed over the quality of the purchased head coverings, but being there at night during Ramadan was a memory.

Yay for rocking 3 different forms of public transportation (tram, buses, & ferry), experiencing so much outside the usual, & more perfect weather! Now, can I fall asleep?

Sunday night, 16 April 2023

3rd & last day in Istanbul: full day, but fewer pics - two of our big experiences were no photos allowed. But first, we started off with the Spice Bazaar (Egyptian Bazaar) - slightly less chaotic than the Grand Bazaar & we stuffed our faces with every free sample of the various types of Turkish delight we were offered! 

We walked across Galata Bridge, took the Karaköy funicular we had taken last night back up to the foot of Istiklal Street, & this time walked all the way down past Galata Tower & back across.

This afternoon, we experienced Turkish baths at Cağaloğlu Hamamı - this was what I had been waiting for!!! Spa life from 1741 *beyond* lived up to the hype! :-D 

•15 min of hot steam room rest (like sauna)

•10 min of being rubbed with a kese (a private one-use scrubbing glove)

•20 min bubble foam massage 

•Treats after while resting: Turkish tea, homemade sherbet (not American frozen, but like fresh juice,) & Turkish delight = HEAVEN!

My only pic (BeReal :-D) actually inside - you get changed in private rooms upstairs that look out over the relaxing areas below for afterwards:

The sauna, scrubbing, bubble massage, washing, etc., are obviously in a different private area - this is their stock photo of exactly where we were, but it really is this beautiful!!!

Tonight we went to the Dervish Experience at Hodjapasha Cultural Center - not a “show” but a serious religious ritual we were allowed to respectfully view, (so again, no pics.) Definitely glad I got to witness it, and Rumi is one of my ultimate favorites for wise quotes, so it was cool to learn more deeply about his origins.

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Hoşça kal ("Horsh chah call" - goodbye), Istanbul! 

Hallo, Würzburg for the 1st time since I lived here 1998-99!!!

So much is still the same. I’m sooo proud of how much German I can still understand & speak! I’m staying (an Neubaustraße!) just a few doors down from the restaurant that was most special to me when I lived here - eating there tomorrow! This apartment (The George Rooms) is fantastic - definitely recommend to anyone coming back to Wü!!! 

I’m spending the most time with my friend, Thomas, & his fantastic family - he directed a play I was in when I lived here, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. Here’s making Spätzle for dinner at Thomas & his awesome wife Michi’s home with their precious Leontina - my 6 yr old twin:

And the entire crew:

Their family belongs to St. Johannis Kirche, & thanks to their precious friend Christa, we were allowed to climb to the very top today (between the 2 thin towers, above the bells!) for an incredibly unique view of the city! 

View from the very top, with the Residenz (palace) over my shoulder to the left and the Festung (fortress on the hill) higher over to the right:

Wü is full of churches, and we went back through quite a few of them, because they all hold such amazing art & history + being older now, I appreciate it even more.

We re-created my part of the only picture I have of myself here, other than parties in our student apartment building & travels to other places; because this was home, I never took pictures of myself out & about around town here, like I did when we traveled anywhere else. This was also back before digital cameras, & we didn’t waste a lot of real film. :-P In the back garden of the Residenz (palace)

Side garden:

Inside the palace:

(Play “WHERE’S SUSIE?!?!” (Feel free to zoom above!))

Around town:

*THE* quintessential Würzburg photo op (I have this from 25 years ago, but just not with me in it :-/)

Thomas took this of me & his friend at a café window from outside on the Straße - just joyous!

As Queen Bubble Tea Ambassador of the World, I continue my quest to expose & convert first timers:

I dug deep into WWII studies *after* I lived here, so I really want to go back this trip & learn as much as I can about that time here, because I didn’t really before. One major thing I *did* know about was the complete destruction of Würzburg in only 20 minutes by allied fire bombs on March 16, 1945, but I have already learned new things about that today, too. These crosses are made of nails from the cathedral in Coventry, England, which was also completely bombed in WWII (by the Germans in 1940.)

Just as Würzburg was completely destroyed by allied fire bombing in March 1945, the people of Coventry fully understood the horrors these cities shared in war & sent these crosses as symbols of peace & reconciliation instead of hatred - so powerful!

Finally, this is one of the most gut-wrenching & amazing Holocaust memorials I've ever seen… It is extremely unassuming – you may have no idea what it even is as you pass by on the street, unless you look inside. 

It's a stone suitcase; inside is a bear, a toothbrush, & this journal writing:

"It was on 26 Nov 1941 in Würzburg when we had to go into exile. We had to report at four o'clock in the afternoon at the city theater, where there were already many Jews. Me with my mother and father. We stayed in the hall until four o'clock in the morning.

Then we headed into the bad luck, but what we didn't know."

Herbert Mai was 12 years old at his deportation. He survived as one of very few.

He and hundreds of other Jewish deportees from Würzburg are remembered by this suitcase. He was a part of the "DenkOrt Deportations" at the main train station.

Written by a student of the Matthias-Grünewald-Gymnasium

***

Honestly, Germany does such a powerful job of incorporating remembrance & acknowledgment into their culture. We could take some lessons about accountability…

Thursday, 20 April 2023

More beautiful reminiscing in Würzburg… But yesterday morning began with a few powerful new sights. Yet again, Germany does acknowledgement & respectful remembrance so well… Very unobtrusively here, on the way into the main train station (that building in the back) there sits this unassuming display of luggage… I thought that single stone suitcase in town was the most powerful Holocaust memorial I had ever seen, until this…

Every single suitcase bears the name of a different town in this area, where people were brought from to Würzburg to be deported to the camps…

It was a gut punch to see the single stone suitcase that blew me away the day before placed here, again, among all the others, and to realize that his single suitcase bears the entire representation of Würzburg. Every other suitcase here represents a whole nother city just in this area…

Another aspect that makes this Holocaust memorial so powerful is how every single piece of luggage is unique – different colors, different sizes, different shapes, different materials, expressing the diversity of humanity…

Details of what happened here, in English on the right:

Feel free to scroll through this video quickly to get an overview, or slowly to read some of the different town names:

I still get can’t get over the fact that each piece of luggage represents an entirely different town… The baby carriage, and the bear & hat at the end… THIS is the definition of memorializing responsibly with respect. The bottom of another info plaque there says, “With the way we act, each of us decides what kind of society we live in.”

Stolpersteine were the most important little Holocaust memorials that I already knew about but hadn’t actually seen in person before I came this time:

How powerful to walk along the sidewalk, catch a glance of brass on the ground, and you instantly know that someone had their life stolen from that location…

I absolutely cannot express how important these things were for me to see.

And now for a less intense change of pace:

What does this art installation mean??? :-D The sign translated says:

“Blue Sheep: Everyone is equal - everyone is important. Beyond all ethnological, religious, or cultural differences and with their very special charm, the blue sheep want to give food for thought & draw attention to the connections between us.

They would like a sense of togetherness and peaceful tolerant interactions with each other, on the basis of appreciation of the other.”

How awesome is that?!?! This stands in the courtyard of a hospital/wine purveyor (Juliusspital)

We lunched at the Italian restaurant where I used to eat at least every other week: Bella Napoli “Da Luigi” - nothing has changed! 

All of my university classes here were “am Hubland” (up the big hill - Wü sits down in the a river valley) so we retraced my bus route (10!) from I Haus all the way up am Hubland!

My old apartment building: I Haus! (I lived one floor up from my finger pointing)

It has an awful new façade - that entire middle section with primary color lines used to be open balconies off of our communal dining room & kitchen areas on every floor. Do the kitchens not have cool balconies anymore??? :-(

The library am Hubland:

Back in the dark ages when I lived here (98/99) we didn’t have cell phones, much less smartphones, and we didn’t have internet in our apartment building. The only way to check your email was at the uni computer lab, and the biggest one was in this library am Hubland = so, yes: I spent many, many hours in this library!!! It was my only free connection to JB!

Almost all of my classes were in this building - Philosophische Fakultät:

…and it is probably the *only* building that hasn’t been remodeled, yet! It looks exactly the same! :-D Thomas & I went to the café up these stairs & sat here yesterday, just like I used to. It was kind of cool to spend time in that building with zero angst for school work. :-P

View from the Philosophische Fakultäts building café down into Wü, with the Festung (fortress) rising on the other hill across the river:

View of St Stephen’s Church from Thomas’s family room window:

A few genuine Frankish delicacies last night at Bürgerspital-Weinstuben (right under the Glockenspiel that I didn’t know existed until Tuesday :-D)

Today we took time to hike up to the Festung Marienberg (fortress) which is *the* image of Würzburg. I can’t believe I only hiked up there once or twice when I lived here! View from down in the city (right by my apartment this stay)

Perfect Würzburg panorama from halfway up!!!

Looking back down over the Alte Main Brücke:

Single leg down dog halfway up :-D

And at the top:

Friday night, 21 April 2023

Leaving my apartment this morning - with awesome treats, and what a view: Festung Marienberg in front, Neubaukirche behind me!

Tschüß, Würzburg! Hello, Houston, our couch, soothing Astros baseball, beagles, & bubble tea!!!

I’m officially a jet-lagged zombie. (Going east has always been easier for me than going west, and it’s been 20 years since I had 2 full weeks on European time to recover from!) God came through more ways than I can count on this trip - the last one being my friend Thomas’s entire family rearranging their schedules to drive me to the airport in Frankfurt this morning, b/c Deutsche Bahn went on strike for 10 hours - which just happened to be my train-to-the-airport window!