Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Itinerary: Slowly but Surely

Today I realized that my trip begins in a little under 6 weeks and I haven't done any planning at all. So I plopped myself down in front of my bee-yoo-tiful new laptop (Windows Vista has killer graphics!) and planned my little heart out...

May 3, 2007
Day 1 (Th): Leave Cincinnati for Istanbul
Day 2 (Fr): Arr. Istanbul in the early afternoon. Head to either the Hanedan Hotel, Hotel Sebnem, Yunus Emre Hotel, or Hotel Niles. All look nice and very reasonably priced (approximately 35-55/night). Do some sightseeing--possibly the Hippodrome, Hagia Sofia and the Yerebatan Cistern.
Day 3 (Sat): Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque
Day 4 (Sun): Boat ride up the Bosphorus. Wander around.
Day 5 (Mon): Leave for Izmir (high-speed ferry to Bandirma, then express train to Izmir). Arrive in Izmir around 2:30 pm, then catch a dolmus (minibus) to Selcuk.
Day 6 (Tue): Rent a car in Selcuk and head for Ephesus.

That's as far as I've gotten. After Selcuk, I plan to drive up to Cappadocia but want to stop along the way in Fethiye, maybe Kas, maybe... who knows? One of my ventures into a travel board forum got me an invitation to look up someone who lives in Cirali, which is off the Mediterranean coast, so I might stop there. Eventually I'll wind up in Goreme at some point, and then will start making my way back to Istanbul. I would love to visit Sanli(urfa) and Harran but I'm not sure if I will have the time to make it that far east.

(Click on map to see larger)

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