Wednesday, September 24 –

Transition day in Turkiye! Before we departed, however, I got in my morning jog. Running around centuries old architectural marvels is definitely better than just jogging by houses and strip malls!

One final breakfast at the hotel. I am once again amazed at how much nicer the hotel breakfasts are here. Europeans must be sorely disappointed when they visit the US.

Regardless, we were off to the waterfront for a cruise along the Bosphorus. It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride, and Taylan pointed out a number of sights along the route.

We landed on the Asia side of the city to board our bus for our trip to Ankara. It was a long ride, but it was broken up by a couple of stops for bio breaks and lunch. Lunch was interesting. Ostensibly, it was a truck stop. But it had a cafeteria style lunch with a huge selection of hot and cold items, and an area to buy your fresh bread, olives, dried fruits, and fresh veggies. Definitely not what comes to my mind when I think of a truck stop.

The rest of the afternoon was on the bus, where we learned quite a bit about history, but did not have a lot of photo ops. However, it did give me time to writeup my notes. In addition, it was interesting to watch the terrain change as we moved east.

We got to Ankara about 5:30. As it is the capital, it seems a bit more modern, though the traffic and drivers appeared just as chaotic. After we checked into our hotel, Dan and I ventured out a bit.

We stopped at a restaurant Taylan recommended. Again, mezze was the order of the day, which was just fine by me. We walked up to the case, rolled the dice and picked a few items to share. We were very pleased with our choices!

As we finished eating, several other tourmates showed up, so we stayed for an extra drink and the fresh fruit the restaurant provided as dessert. Dan tried Raki, the local Turkish firewater, which is licorice flavored, similar to Sambuca. I stuck with wine.

We ended up spending another hour there, enjoying the beautiful evening and the company. There are some downsides of being on a tour, but these experiences are definitely one of the biggest reasons we have enjoyed the ones that we have taken.

Given the lengthy dinner, we didn’t wander as much as we had planned, but we did stroll through a little park nearby. Dan found a few canine friends to complete his evening before we headed back to the hotel.

Early night tonight because we have another early start tomorrow.

15,040 steps

8.3 miles