Doğal Yaşam Parkı (Wildlife Park) Izmir

We love visiting the Doğal Yaşam Parkı and have gone more times than we can count.  I feel like the animal park is one of Izmir's hidden gems.  I have been to many zoos in the US, and while they have been nice, they are often crowded.  This park is spacious, clean, and well decorated.


What keeps me going back to the park though is the amazing views of the animals.  They are frequently active and close to viewing areas.  During our visits, the lions, pumas, tigers, bears, wolves, and hyenas often come within inches of the viewing areas.  In my opinion, these up-close encounters are the best part of the park.

The park is also recognized as having the first and only elephant family in Turkey.  They are also the only Turkish zoo with a rainforest enclosure.

We went often during our first fall here, where we got to see tigers fighting and bears and hyenas walking inches away from us.  We even saw a mother zebra get tranquilized so that they could better care for the baby.  But by far our best trip there was when the wolves stopped what they were doing, looked at us, and came over to the glass to interact with us.

We took Tuğçe there when she came to visit, and it was her first time ever going to the zoo - and she loved it of course.  The petting zoo was open that day and we had some fun encounters with the goats.

We've had some great memories there, and I look forward to going back for more.

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Caddebostan Beach/Park

With spring approaching and the weather getting nicer, I started looking into the beaches surrounding Istanbul.  I found that there was a free one near Kadakoy called Caddebostan, so the boys and I set out to find it one afternoon while Nate browsed a nearby bookstore.

The beach wasn't very hard to find.  We took the 4 Bostanci bus about 7-8 stops down, got off too early, and walked a bit.  The beach itself was a bit of a disappointment though.  It was dirty, with a lot of seaweed and jellyfish washed up near the shore.  It made for good pictures nonetheless.

There's a nice park that runs parallel to the beach though, and that made for a nice afternoon walk.  The park is huge, grassy, and had a nice playground on it, though it was a bit crowded on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

There was at least one other beach further down too, but we didn't quite make it that far.  The boys got a bit tired and crabby, so we headed to a nearby McD's for some happy meals and then headed back to the Iskeli via taxi.

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Bosphorus Cruise

We had decided that we would get out and do something to see the city a bit more this weekend.  We were debating a cruise, a trip to the islands, a visit to Eminolu, or a few other options.  The weather was looking moderately uncooperative though, so we decided to walk down to the square in Ortaköy and hop on one of the Bosphorus cruises that was getting ready to depart.  We'd been on the ferry already, and that was a lot of fun, so we figured a longer tour couldn't really hurt, and this one would be going in the opposite direction (north rather than south).

The cruise probably lasted about an hour, maybe a little more, and ran 20TL per adult (that's just shy of $6 right now, and BOTH kids were free--awesome!).  On board they served tea and other beverages, and they walked around to server you.  There was a covered area with chairs and tables on the main deck, so you could easily sit back and just enjoy the view.  We decided to head up a level and get a better view.  There were chairs and tables there as well, and benches all along the front of the boat.

It was a little chilly and breezy on our way out, but it began to warm up a bit as the sun came out.  Our tour took us from Ortaköy, just south of the Bosphorus bridge, up the to Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, then turned around and came back.

  

  

Probably the most interesting thing we saw on our tour was Rumelihisarı, a castle built by the Ottomans in the 1400's.  It was apparently built in 3 months and used to "control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait and prevent aid from the Black Sea to reach Constantinople during the Turkish siege of the city in 1453" (thank you Wikipedia).

 

 

 

 

On our return voyage we mostly just had fun soaking up the scenery and taking some photos of ourselves along the water.

  

   

  

We also got some nice views of the bridge and surrounding palaces on our way back.  I think even the munchkins had a good time, though they were clearly tired by the time we got back.

  

 

We allowed them a few minutes of play time at the playground in the square (which we visit entirely too often.  Then we ended the day the right way - with a dinner at a Turkish restaurant.  The place we went to specialized in grilled foods/kebabs, and they were delicious.  It was served with flatbread that was thin like a taco shell and a side of barley.  It also came with oodles of topics, including some salsa-like tomato sauce, onions, parsley, lemon, cabbage, peppers, and so much more.  There were so many plates on our table we could barely fit everything, but it was sooooo good.  :-)  We ended our meal the traditional way, with çay, and then browsed the markets in the square on our way home.

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