Annette George & Evan W. - Canada  
May 22, 2007
Itinerary: Self-Drive Turkey Tour

Hi Rina!

My apologies. It's taken me a while to get back to you. I became deeply entrenched back into work on our return. It's not fair is it? Thankfully, every once in a while I get a flash memory of an incident or experience on our trip and the crisis of the moment melts away for a moment or two.

We totally loved our trip! Our hopes and expectations were more than surpassed. Turkey was an odd combination of familiar and exotic at the same time. Cappadocia had a sense of the prairie expanses; Traveling through the Tauraus mountains felt much the same as the Rockies. The Mediterranean reminded us of being at the lake. We came to the conclusion that there is no place like Istanbul! We loved being right in the middle of things at the Triada!

The things that evoked the exotic to us were the caves, the underground city, the ruins of Caunos, the mosques, palaces, the lemons, olives, fish (well, the food in general), the palm trees, the architecture, the historic sites and of course the people. Our province, Manitoba has the slogan 'Friendly Manitoba" and it's true. People here are generally very friendly and helpful. However, we've
come to describe Turkish people as 'Friendly Manitobans to the hundredth power!!".

A big reason we have such fond memories of Turkey is the advice and suggestions you provided to us. The itinerary was perfect. It gave us an opportunity to see and get a feel for a variety of regions without feeling rushed. This was important to us as we are not the hurrying type. We were happy with all of the cities/towns/villages we stayed in and would recommend them to others. The same goes for the accommodation you lined up for us. A couple were a bit difficult to find, but they were always worth the search and that's part of the adventure and a great catalyst for meeting people!

We gave you our impressions of the accommodations in Ayvali, Konya, Antalya and Kas when we met you. You know we loved the Gamirasu and that we have no hesitation recommending the others we stayed in. The hotel in Fethiye was great. We loved the balcony overlooking the harbour. Actually we had two of them. The hotel was very quiet. We may have been the only residents. There was some construction going on for improvements to the pool area which looks like they will be very nice. It was a nice walk to the town centre. My Fethiye highlight is that I could go for a run there. There was an excellent  nd long path along the harbour which led to a wide road that has a sidewalk along both sides of the road. Flat and safe are the 2 criteria I look for and Fetiye was the only place that met them. George's Fetiye highlight is that he got caught up on his journal (because I was out running for once), and Evan's highlight is the trip we took on what we call "the road of terror". It was a classic! It's a 15 k loop road that took us repeatedly to great heights before quickly descending to a beach more beautiful than the last. The road was barely bigger than single lane, no guardrails and it was crumbling away on the side in a couple of spots. We stopped at a beach or two to catch our breath and gather strength for the next stretch and returned to the hotel as great heros!We did eventually find our destination which had been Kayakoy.

Our next stop was Dalyan and a stay at the Konak Melsa. The owner, Canser and her manager went beyond the call of duty. Canser spent the day with us showing us Caunos, where she grew up, taking us on a river boat ride to the hot springs. It was a beautiful sunny day. We had the hot springs to ourselves and I even jumped in the lake. It was cold. Once again we were the only guests in the hotel so we got a lot of attention. Caunos was amazing and the turtle beach was also impressive. We liked the river walk along the river in town. Dalyan met my running criteria, but I didn't go.

Then it was off to Istanbul and the Triada. As I mentioned, we loved the location and the hotel was very comfortable. We loved the stairway but took advantage of the elevator option too. The staff were friendly and helpful. The breakfast got a bit repetitive after several days. There was one morning we were surprised with croissant-type buns! This made a big impression on George who was convinced each morning after that the new buns would make another appearance. They didn't, but he remained hopeful! I learned in Turkey that the way to get George out of bed in the morning is to offer a buffet breakfast which
expires at 10!

There was renovation going on in the building next door which was bothersome during the day, but stopped by 5 or 6 p.m. We decided that something was being sculpted out of marble since it couldn't possibly take someone an average of 15 hits per nail! We plan to come back whenit is done so we can see what all the hammering resulted in!! It was nice having the kitchen facilities so we could make tea and store some yogurt and cheese etc. There is a new grocery store quite handy to the hotel. Evan practiced brewing Turkish coffee according to the
directions your friend with the restaurant along the road outside of Kas gave us. It was so easy to get around Istanbul from the Triada. I was glad we were on that end of Istiklal Caddesi and close to Taksim and the funicular. I also loved that we could go out of the hotel any time of the day or night and experience that steady stream of people! It was unbelievable! Evan and I had a hammam experience at Cemberlitas which was a unique experience that I'm glad I participated in.

We hope to return to Turkey again. We left many sights unseen to motivate us to return. I hope you have settled in to your new offices. I have been talking up Turkey as a destination and I hope to convince others to visit. Those that do, I will direct with great confidence to you. Thanks again for all your help in making this a memorable trip for us! We are very grateful!

Annette George & Evan!