Monthly Archives: June 2014

Love Valley

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Around Cappadocia you will find a lot of day hikes.  This is because the landscape in this part of the world can be quite interesting.  The valley I hiked through today was an interesting 4.5km trip called Love Valley, close to Göreme.

Can you figure out why they named it Love Valley?
All of these rock formations are natural, nothing is man made.  Since the rock is soft, you will see areas that have been tunnelled through though.  This makes the hike interesting, since you often pass through tunnels and caverns to stay on the trail.
Here is a more up close look at some of the formations!  
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Princes' Islands

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The Princes’ Islands are about 20km south of Istanbul and take about an hour by ferry.  They are pedestrian only so you don’t get loud traffic noise like back in the city.  The largest island is the most developed and has the most cafés and restaurants.  This is the one I stopped at.

Most people go on a day trip like I did, but if you want, there are a few accommodation options.
This is a pension, or guesthouse.  Would you stay here?  It looks like some sort of set for a horror film!  There were people staying here, you could see them sitting in the lobby.  In case you did want to stay in this area, there was a little town that seemed to have some more upmarket options.
There is good hiking here as the island has two peaks.  On the top of one is a church.  The church itself is quite small, but the view from the back of it is quite spectacular.
You can see the stretching out Istanbul in the background.  The Asian side is straight ahead and the European side on the far left, mostly off camera.  Here is another view from the ferry dock.
On the other peak you can see what was an orphanage.  Apparently it’s the second largest wooden building in the world.  It’s now deteriorating pretty badly so you cannot go in, only up to the gate.
There are a lot of cafés all over the island.  I noticed if you went off the beaten path a bit, the prices for coffee seemed to drop pretty quickly.  You certainly didn’t need to worry about carrying enough water, people were selling it all over the place.
If you do go to the islands, make sure to note the time of the last ferry.  Apparently people have been unexpectedly stuck here for the night!  Also, I’m told they ferries get very busy on weekends and holidays.

Yedikule Castle

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Wanting to explore some of the outer suburb areas of Istanbul, away from the millions of tourists, I took the new subway system that was built with the help of the Japanese and went out to Yedikule castle.  

The new subway is pretty neat, since it goes under the sea.  They call it the Marmaray, named after the channel.  Right now it only has a couple stops, but the plan is to expand it out much further.  It has connections to other metro and tram lines along the way.
The castle is very close to the train station, so you can easily walk.  From the top of the towers you can get a good view of the city and the ocean.

The castle is still original.  No safety features have been added, so you should be very careful as you walk along the castle walls.  You can climb the towers too.  It’s a shame they don’t put up some signs giving some history, it would make for a more rounded experiance.
At the bottom of the towers are jail cells.  Apparently many prisoners were held here and some were even executed at this site.
Now inside the walls is just another Istanbul suburb.  There is a gate that will just allow one car through at a time, so traffic lights are used.