My 6th time through Istanbul airport (and 5th time this year), and I am finally leaving it to explore a new country, Türkiye. A mid afternoon flight from Tashkent arrived in Istanbul in the early evening and after clearing the border and collecting my bags, I got a transfer to the hotel in the old town which was about a 50 minute journey.

I was ready to start exploring Istanbul the next morning as I had a couple of days before my next trip started. I began with a walk uphill (hard to avoid in the old town), towards the Grand Bazaar. I have to say it was nothing like I expected it to be. I expected more of a bustling market selling everything, but it felt more of a tourist trap and the same things being sold on repeat.

Afterwards I walked to the Spice (Egyptian) market which felt slightly less of a tourist trap, and had a bit more atmosphere with the spices and Turkish Delight being sold.

I walked across Galata bridge, and passed many people fishing off the bridge into the waters of the Bosphorus. After an enormous croissant and an hibiscus tea, it was back to the old town for a walking tour I’d booked, to the Aya Sofia (formerly Hagia Sofia), the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern. The Aya Sofia is currently undergoing renovations so not quite at her best but has an interesting history having been both a church and a mosque. There are some incredible frescos depicting Christ and the Virgin Mary.

The Blue Mosque was absolutely stunning inside. The most incredible tilework, and you can certainly see where it gets its name from!

Basilica cistern was the final part of the walking tour, and is a huge cavernous cistern under the streets of the old town. It reminded me of the Roman Baths in Bath, though the architecture isn’t Roman.

The next day I went to Topkapi Palace early, and went straight to the Harem before too many of the crowds arrived, which was definitely a good decision. Beautiful tilework, interesting exhibits, I spent a good 3 hours there and the queues were somewhat larger by the time I’d finished.

That evening I met the group for my final tour of my midlife crisis gap year. We went for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Blue Mosque which was a pretty cool vantage point.

We still had some time in Istanbul the next morning before heading out of the city so I had a relatively leisurely morning of wandering around Gülhane Park and enjoying some excellent chocolate baklava. After some pretty average baklava in the Uzbekistan it was nice to have some really good Turkish baklava.

We headed east out of the city in the afternoon, ultimately heading to Cappadocia though we would have an overnight stop in Bolu along the way. The hotel was surprisingly busy for a Monday night, with a teachers conference and dinner/dance going on.

We started the next day heading to Ankara, the capital of Türkiye, and to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This is an impressively grand structure and plaza which was busy with visiting schoolchildren and tourists. There was also a very interesting museum within the mausoleum about how Ataturk defined modern Türkiye after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Lunch and then onwards to Cappadocia. We made a stop at Tuz Golu salt lake, a quite incredible glimmering sight where you could walk out on the salt flats for miles before reaching the water.

We arrived at our accommodation in the village of Mustafapaşa in Cappadocia in the evening. We stayed in a ‘cave’ hotel built into a steep hillside which was quite cool, though some people were struggling with the 100+ steps to the rooms with their luggage.

We had dinner with a family who had relocated to this region after the huge earthquake in southern Türkiye a few years ago. It was quite nice to have some home cooked food rather than the various versions of kebabs I’ve been eating in this part of the world.

The next morning we had our first proper look at the ‘fairy chimneys’ that Cappadocia is famous for, walking among them. They really are quite strange geological features, which people use as houses and storage.

Lunch in Göreme followed by a free afternoon before a folk show dinner and dancing in the evening which was very enjoyable.

We started the next day at Derinkuyu underground city, an ancient city burrowed into the earth in layers, which apparently housed up to 20,000 people at its peak. There are several underground cities in this region and this is the largest excavated to date. It’s absolutely incredible to think about the work that went into creating this many centuries ago.

Afterwards we went to Göreme Open Air museum which showcases churches and dwellings carved out of the rocks and fairy chimneys in Cappadocia. The churches have some incredible frescos in them.

We had a few photo stops on the way back to Mustafapaşan and then in the evening I went to a Whirling Dervish observation. It wasn’t a show or a performance, but part of their ritual. It lasted about 50 minutes and it was quite mesmerising to watch. Those of us from the group who went to the observance all agreed it was quite powerful.

Our short stay in Cappadocia was over the next day and we started heading south, towards the Mediterranean coast.