Initially, we were scheduled to fly back to Istanbul on Saturday before our final week of the project, so we couldn’t make any other plans for the weekend. When our Istanbul plans changed (more on that in my next blog!), we needed to book a weekend trip at the last minute. ROAD TRIP!
From Ankara, it takes about two and half hours to drive to Safranbolu. Its unique preservation of the Ottoman era earned it standing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As you can probably guess, Safranbolu got its name from its production of saffron, which is still some of the best in the world.
Kunal, Meadows and I stayed in a historic Ottoman home, which has since been converted to a hotel. Unlike the Cappadocia cave suites, Safranbolu hotels want you to live as the Ottomons did; they are extremely primitive. We also didn’t expect the city to be such a sleepy, historic town!
With nothing better to do, we went to bed and got up early! First, we hit the Bulak Cave. A short drive from Safranbolu, the cave is very much alive. We found ourselves surrounded by magnificent stalactites and moist rock formations.
The entire scene felt as if we were inside a human body or perhaps a horror film!
Just when we thought the cave could not go deeper or feel creepier, it did. I should add that we were the only people in the cave!
Next on the agenda was a hike of Yenice National Forest. Other visitors warned us that the trails would be hard to find; the trails have little to no signage and the few that exist are in Turkish. Well… they were right! We drove for two hours looking for a place to hike. We tried countless dirt roads and gravel paths, stopping many times to look for signs and ask for help (only to encounter major language barriers!). This could have been a miserable experience if it weren’t for good music!
We gave up on Yenice and headed back to Safranbolu for lunch. During the course of the weekend, we ate at two restaurants in the historic city center; both were really good and very quaint. Plus, we had nice enough weather to sit outside!
A short walk up the hill led us to the Kaymakamlar Muze, a historic home of a district governor. This is what I would deem a TripAdvisor fail. Despite good reviews, this “museum” gave us nothing but plastic shoe covers and some hilarious photos with mannequins. It offered no information about Ottoman living other than its bizarre and sometimes robotic mannequins.
After a while, we decided it was best to embrace the situation and pose with them! Sadly, we learned essentially nothing new about the Ottoman culture.
It was at this point that we realized that without our good attitudes and good company, the three of us would not enjoy Safranbolu. Again, we made the most of the afternoon and created our own hike! At the top of the mountain, Meadows found a bench with a nice view of the city.
In the evening we escaped the historic city for a slightly more lively dinner. On Sunday, we resisted the urge to drive straight back to Ankara and visited another tourist site. With our lowered expectations in mind, the Crystal Terrace did not disappoint!
This glass platform overlooks the beautiful Tokatli Canyon from 80 meters above. We took in the view and then devoured some ice cream at the nearby restaurant.
With that, it was time to go back to Ankara for our last few days!
I HATE MANNEQUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re lucky none of those mannequins look like you. One time this creep made a mannequin that looked exactly like me. The store that owned the mannequin dressed the mannequin that looked like me in lingerie and had it in all these awful positions. Jerry and I luckily stole it and when we got into the car Jerry joked ‘I don’t know about you, but I have hankeriing for some Double Mint gum.’ hahaha, not bad right? Anyway when we got the coffee shop, Kramer pretty much broke my mannequin trying to prove to the waitress that he wasn’t into her anymore. It was all kinda funny I guess.