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My visit to Turkey proved Phil’s Osophy “The most amazing things that can happen to a human being, will happen to you, if you just lower your expectations.”  Phil Dunphy

I had zero expectations for Turkey.  I thought it would be like our other travels in the Middle East, and I had recently been to Tunisia and ignorantly thought it would be the same. 

Now that I’m here, I hear our world traveled guests say, “The best Roman ruins are in Turkey.”  And I agree.  Here are the cities we visited in Turkey:  

Alana

Antalya

Kusadasi

Istanbul

Cannakale

Alana

Sites Visited: Aspesdes (old Roman Ampitheatre) 

City of Side Museum and Ancient ruins: Agora, Ampitheatre

The water was so beautiful and the views were breathtaking. 

If I wanted to come escape the world during vacation, and had enough money, I would seriously consider coming to Alana.  There are so many resorts across the water, which was turquoise and so clear, I wanted to jump in in the beginning of April.  There were restaurants along the water, and daily “cruises” or party boats on the pier. 

the food is very similar to Greek food but not as fresh, things are picked, stewed and you can't really tell what it  is when you eat it, unless it's clearly a fish (this was actually delicious sea bass)

Antalya

Famous for Archeological Museum, Beautiful beaches and Shopping

It is also one of the most visited cities in the world! (makes perfect sense to Americans, because I’ve never heard of it..)

We walked through the bizarre and down to the waterfront, beautiful!  It was quite a large city with TONS of shopping and resorts, too.   

Kusadasi

Sites Visited: Epshesus, St. John’s Basillica, Virgin Mary House, Terrace Houses, Turkish Restaurant, Shopping at City Center

Epshesus is totally worth a visit! One of my favorite archeological ruins visited so far!  Kusadsai is an amazing town for history lovers, shoppers and vacationers. 

Downtown:

Terrace Houses:

Cannakale

Sites Visited: City of Troy (Ruins), Downtown Troy, City of Gallopoly

The horse that was used in the movie Troy is found downtown, which is pretty cool!  Gallopoly is green and beautiful and has lots of memorials for the Azuca Battle and the city of Troy had some pretty good ruins and there were puppies and cats roaming all over the place-pretty typical of Turkey. 

The beach:

Ruins of Troy:

A local feeding cats:

I want to get the word out: Turkey is an amazing country and you should highly consider it while planning your travels!!  AND, if you lower your expectations about something, every good thing that could happen to a human being WILL happen to you!