Tours in Turkey

You notice it first in the call to prayer overlapping with a ferry horn on the Bosphorus, two sounds that shouldn't belong together but do, because Turkey has never really settled on being one thing. It sits across two continents and it feels like it, a country where a tram can carry you from a Byzantine church to a spice market in the time it takes to finish a glass of tea. That mix is the whole point of coming here.

Istanbul is where most people start, and it earns the attention. The old city around Sultanahmet holds Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque within sight of each other, their domes trading the skyline back and forth, and walking between them you pass the Hippodrome, where chariots once turned and now people just sit. Topkapi Palace, with its Harem quarters and views over the water, gives you the version of Ottoman life the sultans wanted seen and the parts they tried to keep quiet. Down the hill, the Grand Bazaar swallows you into covered lanes of carpets, lamps and copper, and you learn quickly that the asking price is only ever an opening line.

Beyond Istanbul, the country opens out fast. Cappadocia's valleys are pocked with cave homes and rock churches, best seen from underneath a balloon at sunrise if you can manage the early start. The coastline along the Aegean and Mediterranean strings together ruins like Ephesus with beach towns that don't take themselves too seriously. Ankara holds the government and a quieter sort of history. Inland, Anatolia keeps its own pace, one that has nothing to do with tourist season.

Food carries you through all of it. Breakfast is a slow negotiation with cheese, olives and bread. Street stalls sell simit and roasted chestnuts depending on the season, and dinner tends to end with baklava and a coffee poured thick enough to read afterwards. None of it needs planning, it just happens if you leave room for it.