Final day in Istanbul, Turkey

Our last day in Turkey before we fly home! We left Ankara early, headed to Istanbul. One last stop at a rest area for lunch and for some, shopping. This was a pretty nice stop, there was a decent restaurant with a wide variety of food at a buffet, cafeteria style. The salad section looked so good I had to take a photo of it. Another section was a sit-down restaurant with menus and waiters to take orders.

Next to the restaurant was a store that sold mostly food items. There were Turkish breads, different types of olives, jars of preserves and sauces, dried fruit, nuts and more.

Lunch and shopping break over, we got on with our journey. We knew we reached Istanbul by the stalled traffic on the roads. Some of us were dropped off near a pier for the scheduled cruise on the Bhosporus. I have done this cruise years before, and thought it may be different. It was not, in fact the cold and cloudy day made picture taking challenging. The condition of the boat was not great either. I forgot to bring a sweater, and one of my travel mates was kind enough to lend me his windbreaker. Below are a few photos from the cruise, including one of the cruise ship Celebrity Infinity docked in Istanbul.

After the cruise, we had a couple of minivans waiting to take us to the Grand Bazaar. Again, another place I've been to before. It was crazy crowded there, but I managed to take some photos and not get lost in the maze of shopping alcoves. It was quite a relief to get out of the Bazaar and sit down on the benches of the main pedestrian walkway to do some people watching.

Our group gathered at the meeting point and walked down to the Legacy Ottoman Hotel that was located in the middle of town. As Metin said, earlier, it took about 15 minutes to walk to our hotel but 40 minutes if we were to try to get their on minibuses. The traffic was mostly at standstill.

Our hotel was an historical and ornate building. Outside the hotel were touristy stores and eataries with a lot of people walking around. We checked in and got ready for our farewell dinner. The food was good, but not great.

There was live music, some of our fellow travelers danced and our tour manager surprised us by taking to the microphone and sang. It was a nice way to end the evening and the tour, but I wish we had more time to walk the streets outside the hotel. We had to pack and be ready for our transfer to the airport at 2:30 am for our flight scheduled to depart at 6:45 am.

Mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, and the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, Ankara, Turkey

Our last destination before returning to Istanbul: Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was a bustling modern city. We drove in from Avanos and stopped at a shopping mall, of all places, for lunch. It was easy to park a big tour bus, plus there was variety in the food court for the entire group.

The food court looked very much like one in the US, there were even Subway, McDonald's and Burger King!

I walked around twice before deciding on an adana kebab durum, a wrap that came with lentil soup and bread. It was very good and cheap (229 turkish lira or 7 dollars)

My friends decided on turkish pizza, one with mashed potatoes and the other with cheese.

After lunch, we went to visit the Anıtkabir, i.e. the Mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. There were a lot of people there since it was a weekend. It was a very impressive and symbolic place.

I joined the line to go into the Museum where Atatürk's personal's items were displayed. Past that, were different sections that covered Turkish history, battles, a room with beautiful paintings of historical scenes. Further on were alcoves with exhibits related to politics, significant events, the armed forces and social reform. I spent some time at the alcove displaying Atatürk's support for women's rights and his numerous reforms such as women's rights to education and voting, and changing marriages from religious to civil. He was an enlightened leader. There were old news clippings with photos of the first women pilot, teacher, doctor, etc. I wish I had taken a photo of that alcove!

On one side of the grounds wasthe Road of Lions, a pathway with replicas of Hittite lion statutes. I did not walk to the end of the pathway to see all of the lions and other statutes; tired after walking around in the museum.

We have one more place to visit, the Anatolian Civilisations Museum. It was a museum with artifacts from ancient civilizations, from the Paleolithic period chronologically through the Neolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian trading colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuq and Ottoman periods. Yes, there was a lot to see. After the Anıtkabir, I was suffering from information overload, and simply could not retain any more. I took a lot of photos of the information displays, although I'm sure a google search would give me details I missed. In any case below are photos of some of the exhibits I found interesting.

Ceramic factory and shop, Avanos, Turkey

We started the day with a visit to a ceramic factory in Avanos. The ceramics are made from red clay found in the region. The clay was kneaded traditionally using the legs to turn a flat wheel (see clay representation of this, 2nd photo below) under the feet.

A master crafsman demonstrated how the clay was shaped and molded it to the desired shape, in this case, a traditional Turkish wine flask. He made pieces of it right in front of us, and joined them together to form the final shape.

The flask would would then be dried and fired in an oven. After that it would hand painted, with the final product looking like the 3rd photo below.

There were so many beautiful intricate pieces in the seemingly endless rooms adjoining the main showroom. Flasks, pitchers, urns and jars, as well as bowls. I love ceramics, and had the opportunity to see different ceramics produced in several countries: Italy, Portugal, Poland and Turkey. I particularly like the more traditional Turkish designs with tulips.

Even the side of a step was decorated with painted tiles.

I love ceramics, and had purchased small ceramic bowls and plates produced in sItaly, Portugal, Poland and Turkey during previous trips to Europe. I particularly like the more traditional Turkish designs with tulips.