Kara in Prague, Türkiye, and London - 2026
Cappadocia was such a cool place to see - interesting landscape there for sure!
You know what, I am the worst at posting my own trips. I realized long ago that I forgot to post my Morocco trip from 2024 completely. BUT I remembered this one! Back in May I had the opportunity to go a to a new-to-me country and I chose Türkiye. On the way over, I stopped in Prague for one night to meet up with my best friend who lives in the Czech Republic. It was only a few hours that I got to see her, but it did my heart good.
Once in Türkiye, I started in Istanbul on my own. I toured the Hagia Sofia (sadly the exterior and parts of the interior are being restored) and the Blue Mosque. I also visited the Basilica Cistern which was really cool - it is an underground cistern from the Roman times (3rd and 4th century). The columns were spectacular and I enjoyed walking through it.
I joined an Intrepid Travel tour for my time in Türkiye. I love joining these small group tours as a solo traveler because you get to meet other travelers and have a knowledgable guide who is usually from the country you are visiting.
From Istanbul, we went to the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the Battle of Gallipoli was fought in WWI. It was eye opening to be here with people from Australia & New Zealand, as this was such a pivotal battle for their soldiers in particular and it was obviously a really impressionable place for them to visit. I gained a broader worldview more from the other travelers than directly from the location as they told me about how the Battle of Gallipoli is memorialized still back home.
We went through Troy and saw the many ruins of the various iterations of Troy, and continued on to Ephesus. The ruins at Ephesus were really quite intact (or reconstructed, perhaps) and it was fun to hear and see how large a city it was. I kept thinking back to my Sunday School and Bible classes in high school where we learned about the Ephesians and Paul being there. After Ephesus we had a nice lunch where a cat decided my lap was the best place to sit (I wasn’t complaining) before we continued on to a carpet teaching cooperative and learned about making Turkish rugs.
I took my first overnight train journey on this trip, and it was an adventure! The air conditioning broke before we went to bed, and it was a HOT compartment. I hardly slept at all, but it was a cool experience that I wouldn’t trade (unless it was for an A/C compartment). We arrived in Ankara at the capitol and visited the Ataturk Mausoleum. It was interesting because our guide told us we were going to be visiting his father… but he meant all Turks’ father: Ataturk. That level of patriotism was something I hadn’t expected but found fascinating.
We moved on to Cappadocia next and spent 2 nights there, hoping that we would be able to do the iconic hot air balloon ride, but, alas, the wind was not on our side. We toured underground caves and hiked through the beautiful and mystical landscapes then had dinner at a local home. While there, we stayed in a cave hotel (carved out of the rock!) and had the opportunity to see a whirling dervish performance (they are only performers now - the religious are not allowed to practice that form of Islam anymore in Turkey) and a show of traditional Turkish dances by region and wedding festivities too!
That brought us to the final night back in Istanbul and we ate a delicious meal overlooking the Bosphorus. The next morning I flew out to London for 2 nights. While there I toured Tower of London and walked around the city to see major sites like Big Ben, the London Eye, Borough Market, and London Bridge (and the Tower Bridge which most people wrongly identify as London Bridge). I also got to see family friends for the first time in about 25 years and go to the musical Hadestown.
