Turkey #5 - interesting pictures

Busy today - no time to blog but here are some interesting pictures, some of which came from tour companions Estelle and Dan:

Still More on Turkey - #4

What impressed me most about Turkey was its variety. Each place was uniquely different. Ismir by the seaside felt more like Alexandria than Istanbul. Antalya felt different from both Istanbul and Ismir. And Capadoccia was something entirely different from all those places. And we hadn't seen all of Turkey. There's all of the North and East to explore. No wonder people return to Turkey over and over again.

Ephesus - We visited this three years ago via Princess Cruise and thousands of people had crowded the place, and we didn't really understand our guide all that well. This time, the place was not as crowded and Yusuf gave excellent commentaries about the place: the temple of Artemis, the library (which isn't really a library but which held the collection of some wealthy man), the whore house across the library, the agoura, and more. The amphitheater was closed this visit so I'm glad that we had seen it last time; I even had the chance to stand on the stage and imagine how St. Paul might have felt when he spoke there and angered the people so much, they drove him away.



Mary's House - There's been some development here since I last saw it. Now there's a digging to unearth the ruins of the ancient church near Mary's house. Now the vendors sell rosaries. The chapel/church where Mary's house used to stand remains small and intimate. The nearby forest that had burned three years ago and dramatically stopped near Mary's house is growing back. The wall with people's petitions are still filled with the scraps of white cloth and paper, and the taps with spring water are still there. Mary is venerated by both Catholics and Muslims who call her Miriam. In a hotel restaurant a waiter looked at my pendant with Mary's image and he said in recognition, "Miriam." click here for more information on Mary's House.

The Ruins - We saw quite a lot of ruins, they're starting to run together. After Troy and Ephesus, we visited the acropolis of Pergamon, which is perched up a mountain. We visited the nearby ancient hospital with dreaming rooms and a shrine to Asclepion, Greek God of medicine. We saw the Hierapolis located in the midst of white lime cascades. What stands out in my mind is the pool with the fallen temple columns and statues. There is also the theater with the intact backstage walls, and a most dramatic view of mountains in the distance. We visited Perge with the wide avenue and fountain trough down the full length of this street. Perge also has a hippodrome, used for chariot races, and a section of this was also used as an arena for bloody gladiator fights. During a rainy morning, we visited Aspendos with it's huge amphitheater.


By the time we got to Antalya, we were ready to rest, and fortunately we spent three nights there. Time to do some laundry, sleep-in, catch our breath. We didn't take any optional tour. We relaxed and Antalya, called the Turkish riviera, was the perfect place to do that. We stayed at the Sheraton Voyager Hotel, quite nice, near the sea, although it was up a ridge so you had the view, but didn't have access to the seashore. We visited their marvelous museum and took the tram to their Old City. The Old City was down near the water, and it had winding streets, and tall houses with tiled roof and balconies that made me think of Moorish Spain.

And at this point, dear Readers, I must share with you my sadness that all the pictures I took in all these places I've been talking about are gone. My husband accidentally reformatted my camera, and the pictures are now in some picture-cemetery, forever gone. I am waiting for the kindness of my tour companions to send me their pictures, so until then, I'm making do with whatever pictures I have available. I should mention that tour companions: Estelle Schwalb, Dan Hopson, Lucille and Bill Voight, and George Matula have already shared some pictures.


(more to come)

Read also:


Check out these links as well:
 http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300924-travel-tips-to-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300918-still-more-on-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300925-cappadocia-turkey

More on Turkey #3

By the time we left the European side of Turkey to get to the Asia Minor side, I realized that the clothes I brought were too light. It was colder than I expected and rainy as well, but we had some clear days. The thin silk shirts and sandals were generally put aside for pants, socks, shoes, long sleeved pullovers and a waterproof coat.

In any case, it was pleasant to sit in the tour bus and observe the dense buildings of Istanbul thin out until there were stretches of land, rolling hills that were not quite so pretty near Istanbul, but which got prettier the farther away we got. There were many farm lands and only few workers, mostly women, and older women at that, wearing billowy pants, loose shirts and scarves over their heads. The men wore pants with a coat or vest. (Cadir the assistant in our tour bus wore a smart leather jacket for most of the two weeks.)Some men, especially near the Mediterranean wore ethnic-looking clothing - pants tucked into boots with a colorful vest. But no fezzes - Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal), military leader of Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s enforced reforms in Turkey to modernize it, to make it more European, and out went the Sultanate and fezzes, among other things.

We saw the ancient city of Troy near the province of Canakkale. Forget the fake wooden horse that greets you in front of the park; focus on the ruins themselves, all 10 levels of cities. Homer's epic stories about the Iliad and the Odyssey talked of Troy and for the longest time, Troy was thought of as fiction. It was the German Schliemann who took Homer's accounts seriously and his diggings between 1870-1890 uncovered the ruins of Troy. His name is tarnished however because the Turkish government has accused him of stealing and damaging the site. (Charles McLaren is said to have first found the ruins of Troy in 1822.) I am not sure why Schliemann alone is accused of stealing from ancient ruins, when all one has to do is visit the British Museum or view the British Royal jewels to see stolen items.

The diggings continue in Troy and because there were settlements built on top of settlements, there are levels of the various "cities" of Troy. They are mostly rocks and walls and rubble, but the idea that fascinated me was the notion that folklore does document human life and history. My folklorist friends, Ming Menez, Susan Montepio among them, used to talk about the importance of folklore for information about people's history, culture, life. There are clues in these stories, Ming used to say, and one has to more or less read between the lines. The other thing they used to talk about is the fact that epics or other folk lore will be similar in different places, but that these can be traced back to a common source. The story of the Great Flood, for instance, is told in many places.

Anyway, Troy got me excited about folklore once again; this is why Troy stands out among ancient ruins - it was talked about by the epic singer Homer. As to whether there really was a Helen and whether there really was a Trojan horse is uncertain, but the important fact was that Homer was talking about a momentous battle between the land-people (the Trojans) and the seafarers (the Achaean or Aegean). So important was this battle that Egypt sent thousands of soldiers to help Troy resist the seafarers. The Trojans and Egyptians knew they had to hold back the seafarers or else eventually lose to them, which did happen.

We spent a night in Canakkale, a university town/city near the historic Dardanelles; and the next night we stayed in Izmir which is Turkey's third largest city of Turkey. It's ancient name was Smyrna, and St. Paul had visited the place.

That was another thing that was really great about Turkey - this was the land that Paul, Barnabas, our own Mother Mary, John the Beloved, and other early Christians, had walked on. The idea that Turkey, although it was not known as Turkey then, but was part of the Roman empire, was Mary's home fills me with awe and some affection to the land and people who had given refuge to Our Lady.

(More later)

Read also:

Check out these links as well:
 http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300924-travel-tips-to-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300918-still-more-on-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300925-cappadocia-turkey

Travel to Turkey - #2 More on Istanbul

Our tour guide made sure we saw what needed to be seen in Istanbul - the Old city, Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, and a cruise down the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Despite the occasional rain, everything was great. Istanbul was once the capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires and ruins and buildings from these civilizations fill the city. Even though I had taken history classes, I never quite understood how these empires came and went. It was something to see the narrow point of the Bosphorus Strait where the Romans had placed huge chains to hold back the Turks; finally I had an inkling of the bloody battles that went on to allow one power to drive another out of the place.

There were epiphanies like this one that happened to me during this visit. For example, as a school girl a nun told us about how the early Christians had to hide in catacombs and caves to hear Mass, and how privileged we were since we could hear Mass any time in Churches. When I saw the underground caves and tunnels in Capadoccia where the early Christians hid from the Romans and where early Monks had carved out chapels and their rooms, I recalled what that nun had said. But I am jumping ahead; let's stay in Istanbul a bit longer.

A highlight was meeting Nurten Hatirnaz, the editor of the Turkish publisher (Bilge Kultur Sanat) that translated my novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, into Turkish. My husband, our friends John and Elizabeth Allen, and I slipped away from the group at the Grand Bazaar, and with the help of our Tour Director found the office of Bilge Kultur Sanat. We had delightful visit with Nurten. We had Turkish coffee, tea, met the staff, and took some pictures, which my husband accidentally deleted sometime during the trip - but that too is another story.

The fact the Bilge Kultur Sanat had translated my novel made me feel connected with Turkey in a special way. The thought had crossed my mind that my novel is part of Turkish literature. Meeting Nurten was like meeting an old friend.

It was like that in Turkey - one pleasantry after another. Even the members of our group all proved to be seasoned travelers - considerate and interesting people. Our tour guide was an archeologist, a Ph.D. who dazzled us with his knowledge on Turkish history, culture, politics, economics - name it. He was so passionate about everything Turkish so that we too started to see Turkey through his eyes and started to fall in love with the place and people. He also amused us with his delightful accent. Trained in German schools, he picked up the German habit of converting "v" into "w" so he would talk in this way: "After we wisit the Topkapi Palace, we will proceed to the Blue Mosque..." or "Even though the westal wirgens of the temple of Artemis had wows of chastity, they did in fact spend time with men who made huge donations and who vished to be united with the Goddess..." In a holiday mood, we turned silly and talked about making a wisit to whizz, in their toilets, which generally charged 1/2 or 1 Turkish lira.

We only grazed Istanbul, had just a little taste of this grand city, because really, how much can you see in three days? - and then we were on our way to other places in Turkey.

~~

Read also:
Check out these links as well:
 http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300924-travel-tips-to-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300918-still-more-on-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300925-cappadocia-turkey

Visit to Turkey - #1- Istanbul

I've been away for two weeks dear Readers, thus my silence. We visited Turkey and I'll be blogging about that visit these coming days.

Several years ago, while on a Mediterranean cruise, we stopped by Kusadasi and visited Ephesus. In particular we visited Mary's house and St. John's Basilica. Our ship was docked in Kusadasi and we had the chance to visit the Bazaar there where I found nice amber earrings and necklace. It was a very nice visit and we had made a note that we'd like to do a land tour of Turkey. I'm not sure what prompts one to say that - the place perhaps, the people certainly, but it seemed that Turkey would be a lovely interesting place to see.

It turned out that our friend, Elizabeth Allen, who had also visited Mary's house at around the same time, had come to the same conclusion about revisiting Turkey. We've traveled with Elizabeth and John Allen before - to Turkey and the Philippines, and so we planned a land trip to Turkey. We booked a 2-week tour via Grand European Tours. The tour included visits to: Istanbul, Gallipoli/Canakkale, Pergamon, Izmir, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Antalya, Konya, Cappadocia, and Ankara. There were 43 of us in the American group, and our tour director was Yusuf Burak. The driver's name was Ilyas, and the assistant's name was Cadir. I mention them because they were all exceptionally nice and competent people who made our visit very pleasant. I should mention that the local tour company's name was Neon Tours; this was the company that actually took care of us in Turkey.


The Allens and we had visited Egypt together last year and the memories of Islam, dessert sand and long robes lingered with me. I had also retained in my head, pictures of Turks wearing fezzes and turbans, images similar to the turbaned Arabs,so that even though I knew (on an intellectual level) that Turkey was different from Egypt and other Arabic places, I expected long-robed, turbaned men there. I'd equated Islam with Arabic garb. I had to correct this misconception because men in Turkey wear regular western clothes,even though they are Muslims. Some women cover their heads and there were a few who wear burkas - visitors, our tour director insisted - because (our Tour Director emphasized) Turks are NOT Arabs. More women than men dress like other Arabic women - that is, they cover their heads.

The other misconception I had - this even though I had already visited Ephesus - is that Turkey would be arid. Wrong again - at least where we visited, the place was generally green and lush. I understand there are arid places in Turkey; the country is very large and offers different geographic features and sub-cultures. This is probably the only country I've visited that offers such a variety, and we didn't even visit the entire country.

The entire two weeks I spent rearranging images in my head, deleting the incorrect ones I had made up and trying my best to retain all the wonderful ones that presented themselves to me.

Istanbul: This is one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited. Even the drive from the airport to our hotel was a pleasure. It was a Saturday when we arrived and people were out enjoying themselves. The day was warm and pleasant, the sea shimmered to our right as we coasted down the highway, past ruins of ancient walls and buildings and fantastic blooming bulbs. The Conrad Hilton was a nice 5-star hotel, deserving of its five stars, although I would have preferred an hotel in the old city. There's something to be said about stepping out your hotel into ancient cobble stoned streets, right into the heart of things. But never mind, our room was great, with a view of a park, street, and buildings. The towels were the best ever - thick and lush, we all fell in love with the large European towels. The buffet breakfast was also nice - assorted olives, vegetables, fruit, a huge hunk of honeycomb, breads, sweets, the standard eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, and bacon. (The other hotels did not serve bacon - it's a Muslim country.)

Sunday we met our Tour Director, Yusuf, who bemoaned the fact that there were 43 of us, a large group, and it was raining to boot, and it seemed everything was just going to be awful. He was such a gloom and doom guy that we laughed, because really, we were all in a cheerful holiday mood. It was colder and wetter than I expected. I had the coat that I wore in Ireland - that was smart; but I wore sandals - that was dumb. At some point I had to put on socks.

In the old city, we saw the Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sofia, Hippodrome, and Cisterns. Click on this site for descriptions of these places.


(More later)


P.S. My cat, Kiki, survived our absence. She's gotten over her allergy but she still looks


bedraggled.

~~~

Check out these links as well:
 http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300924-travel-tips-to-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300918-still-more-on-turkey

http://www.iwasinturkey.com/travelogues/300925-cappadocia-turkey