Turkey!!!!

Turkey was my first trip out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! I was ready for a get away and a break from Saudi! This was a little more than 3 months after I arrived, which we weren't allow to leave the kingdom for 90 days after arrival, so basically I got out as soon as I could! I met a friend from Portland in Turkey and we had a really lovely couple of weeks going all over the country: Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Kabak. Turkey is beautiful and the people are incredibly friendly.

In Istanbul it was so nice to sit at street side cafes and eat dinner and drink beer. We were able to walk all along the water, it felt very free compared to Saudi. I have a friend in Riyadh who is Turkish and works at the Embassy here so I was able to get a lot of good ideas about what to see and where to go from him. Istanbul is really beautiful and very interesting in that it was part of 3 major empires so there are details mixed together from each.

Cappadocia is more in the middle of the country. It's formed from the explosion of three nearby volcanoes that created these fairy chimneys all over. The people carved dwellings into the chimney's and farmed the land. We got to stay in one of the cave hotels here, very lovely, with beautiful views of the rest of the fairy chimneys. There was a lot of hiking and exploring the different valleys and rock dwellings in the area. One morning we went up for a hot air balloon ride over the fairy chimneys as the sun was rising! Beautiful!

Kabak is a very small town down on the Mediterranean Sea. This was a perfect place for relaxation and beach time! Staying in a beach bungalow nestled in trees with a deck facing the sea was spectacular! There was waterfall hiking, a boat trip to snorkel with the fish, laying on the beach, and delicious meals with interesting people. Also while we were down on the Mediterranean we visited some Lycian ruins.  They were a fierce people staunchly against being a conquered people who burned down their houses with themselves inside when being attacked by outsiders, actually I think they did this twice in their history. 

A perfect first trip!