the Laughing Boomer

Terrific Turkey

What a first impression of Istanbul:  we landed  early on a bright spring day, drove by the long waterfront through busy streets lined with millions of about-to-bloom tulips, and arrived in Sutlanahmet, the centre of old Turkey. Istanbul is an amazing, huge city which still felt friendly and personal, even though it has over thirteen million people. The main tourist district has lots of hotels and dozens of outdoor cafes with short little tables and stools in colourful fabric or large Turkish pillows on the ground.  People lounge, drink Turkish coffee and smoke water pipes, or hubblie-bubblies. We were in Istanbul a few days before our fifteen-day GAP tour started so spent some time exploring the city.

We enjoyed the Topkapi Palace, located in the historic harbour, the Golden Horn, in the Bosphorus strait in Sultanamhet. It’s a beautiful palace complex with gracious old grounds, planted with hundreds of tulips and other plants. It houses collections from the Ottoturk era, such as an 86 K diamond, bejewelled vases, boxes, swords and thrones covered with rubies, emeralds and diamonds. Displayed are gifts to the Ottoman Empire from Russian, Japan, Britain and France. The Grand Bazaar and nearby street markets sell Turkish copper pots, multi-coloured hanging lanterns, scarves, ceramic pottery and Turkish kilims and rugs. We also visited several mosques, including the famous tiled Blue Mosque, started in 1603 and the Hagia Sophia or Aya Sofia, which was built as a Christian church in 527 to 565 and then converted to a mosque. We rode a small ferry up the Bosporus strait.

Turkey sits on two continents Asia and Europe. According to our guide, most Turkish people consider themselves European. We didn’t visit Eastern Turkey, but apparently it’s much more traditional. Geographically it’s a big country and it also has a large population of seventy million people. Turkey has lots of things going for it – the infrastructure is good with well maintained highways, an excellent bus system.

As with all GAP tours we covered a lot of ground – hundreds of kilometres over our two week tour, through the lovely countryside, up mountains, and along or close to the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits. The fertile valleys and hillsides were covered with spring fruit tree blossoms, olive trees, vineyards, cotton fields and bright yellow fields of rapeseed. Turkey is the first country we’ve visited since New Zealand. that is very garden focused, with lots of trees and potted plants for sale. Most Turks live in apartments except for in the small seaside villages, where there were small houses.

We were warned that Turkish (men mostly) at the markets would be aggressive and pushy at times but after Egypt and India we found it quite OK. Turkey is a more secular Muslim country and though many women wore scarves, especially in Konya and smaller cities, it was more relaxed than Egypt, for example, where we didn’t have an opportunity to talk to one woman during our time there.

Gap Tour Our GAP tour had 14 people, nine from Canada and the rest from the US, Pakistan and Austria. As well, nine of us were 50 -plus so it was an older crowd. It was quite a well educated group and many spent a great deal of time reading their Lonely Planet books and writing notes. As usual we enjoyed the mix of people and backgrounds and had lots of fun together.  Our tour- guide, Deniz, was a mid-twenties Turkish woman who was extremely well versed in Turkish history. It was a physically active tour as ruins are generally on hills or mountains. We hiked at least two or three hours most days and so exercised a lot. That and using squat toilets does firm up the leg muscles!

Ankara was formerly known as Angora because of the sheep wool from the area. After our overnight train there we visited the prize-winning, Anatolian Civilization Museum. Our guide explained the ancient, ancient history of Turkey, and at this point we began to wish we’d refreshed our ancient history more. Along with the President of Cuba, who was visiting at the same time we were, we saw the newer, beautiful Ottoman Memorial.  Obama had visited the week before. We then traveled on to Cappadocia in central Turkey.

Cappadocia has some of the world’s most unique landscapes: it’s been called a lunar moonscape and was featured in the Star War movies. The 500 km volcanic area is from three volcanoes 60 million years ago. The mountains have worn down to hundred of caves and strange dome-like columns or fairy chimneys, some with remarkable similarity to the male anatomy. We spent a lot of time visiting various spectacular viewpoints and hiking through the area.

We visited an underground cave city, Derinkuyu. The soft rock caves were simply carved out of the mountainside as people needed more rooms. These caves have excellent ventilation, storage and water systems, kitchens and sleeping rooms and places to make wine.  People could exist in these seven story-deep cities for up to six months, sparing them from invading troops. People have lived in caves and underground sites for centuries; the government moved them out in the 50’s. Some of the caves are Christian churches, dating back hundreds of years, and the Goreme Open Air Museum highlights them.  As most people didn’t read, the paintings, still very vibrant, show the Christian story in great detail.

Cappadocia was colder and rainy; typically spring weather and we even saw snow as we reached 2,000 metres. We visited a carpet showroom where silk carpets are made by local women. We enjoyed the explanation and demonstration of the silk production process from the cocoon to the final yarn. Although it’s a commercial operation with carpet sales the main purpose, we still learned a lot. We also had a pottery-making and decorating demonstration at a high end pottery store. We did other touristy things – ate in a cave restaurant, had a Turkish bath and attended an evening of folk dancing, belly dancing and a whirling dervish demonstration. Some of our group went hot-air ballooning. After three days we moved on to Konya.

Konya is a religious town, home to the whirling dervishes and the amazing Mevlana Museum, dating back to 1247. It had centuries –old Koran prayer books, ancient prayer-rugs and a beautifully designed interior. We visited mosques all over Turkey, but the particularly beautiful ones were, in my opinion the Konya mosques. Most of the mosques are often quite plain inside but the more famous ones have intricately patterned domes and beautiful tile work, especially around the mihrab, or the altar that faces east towards mecca. Muslims don’t use images as Christian churches do, such as pictures or statues of Jesus or Mary, but instead use intricate motifs and flower patterns.

We became used to the call to prayer over loudspeakers five times a day, but never liked the call around 4:30 am, especially in Bodrum where our hotel was right next to the mosque. I found it interesting that although it was a Friday, equivalent to our Sunday, and we were in the main mosque of a religious city, only four people attended that evening session. Deniz mentioned that, like many countries, young people don’t attend the mosque except for special occasions.

Antalya, on the Mediterranean Sea, is a charming high-cliffed old city of one million people. One of its claims to fame is Hadrian’s Gate. With its curved bay, blue ocean and stunning Taurus or Toros Mountain range it’s a spectacular site. The area around Antalya apparently has hundreds of all inclusive resorts, with approximately 2.5 million Russians and Germans holidaying here every year. We stayed in a small pensiyon in the old city and enjoyed our late night strolls through the winding streets, feeding the cats. 

Kas. We stayed two days in the beautiful seaside village of Kas, at the foot of a mountain with whitewashed houses high up the hills, and wooden boats in the harbour.  It’s touristy, with outdoor cafes, palm and bougainvillea trees, winding streets lined with small shops selling Turkish carpets, scarves, ceramics and jewellery, but what’s a better way to spend the afternoon but sitting in a sidewalk cafe gazing at the beautiful harbour. The day we left Kas we drove along the coast and saw many miles of the Mediterranean coast.

Bodrum. Our last week, after the tour had ended, found us in the place we liked best. Bodrum is a small sugar -cubed –house town of around 40,000 that swells to thousands more in the summer.  It’s on a beautiful bay with clear see-to-the bottom water and teak sailing boats in the harbour. The town has a lovely beach promenade, and dozens of shops and outdoor restaurants. There are historic sites of course – we spent a day visiting the old castle and Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. It was pre-season so we booked at the small Guluc Pansiyon for 23 Euros a night. We enjoyed some much needed down time in the sun. In all of the three Mediterranean cities we experienced balmy weather

Ruins and History

We were not prepared for the number of ancient ruins, mosques, castles, cave cities and world heritage sites and by the end of the tour we were “ruined”, “mosqued” and “stoned” out”.  After Antalya we visited Graeco-Roman sites of a large city ruin, Perge, and Aspendos, the best preserved Roman amphitheatre in Asia Minor. It’s the eighth we’ve seen this year.

We climbed a steep rough hill and saw ruins of a small Lycian city Phaselis, situated near a lovely beach and the spot of two legends. One legend is that this is where the Olympic flame started and, kept lit by underground natural gas, eternally burns. Another is the tale of two brothers, one good and one bad, and of one conquering a fire-breathing monster, Khimeira, that lived on the mountain, which is now called Chimeira.

Turkey has great historical significance. The land has been conquered by the Romans, the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Seljuks, Ottomans and many others. St Nickolas or Santa Claus came from Padama, Alexander the Great was mentioned at almost every historical site, Helen of Troy and the Trojan Horse and many Greek philosophers lived here. Ruins were from both Hellenic, and Roman periods. In 1922, for example, Greeks were forced back to their country, and we saw former old Greek villages. The Greek Islands are very close – a half-hour -ferry ride in some spots, so the people share a common heritage. Just as bad weather comes from Canada to the US, the rain and wind we experienced a few times comes from Greece.

From Selcuk, where we stayed overnight, we saw the ruins of Ephesus, considered the fifth most important historical Roman city. It’s still under excavation. The ancient city has the regular roman ruins we’ve become accustomed to – a main street lined with columns, with ruts where the chariots rode carrying the gentry, a latrine, a large agora or marketplace and amphitheatre. Ephesus also had  a medical centre and a parliament building. The large famous library had a discreet passage to the brothel. Ephesus was abandoned quite suddenly many centuries ago because of malaria.

We moved on to a town called Pamukkale – which means Cotton Castle, so named because it’s near a unique white travertine plateau. It’s an amazing natural wonder, built by deposits of calcium-oxide rich waters flowing down the slope. We walked down in bare feet, as required not to destroy the site, and it was tough! Nearby we visited yet another ancient city, Hierapolis, or Holy City, with a large burial site, an amphitheatre seating 7,000 people, and again, a cathedral high up a hill.

In Pergamum or Bergama, in the province of Ismir, we saw the Bergama Acropolis, and the Temple of Tragan, with its marble pillars and Corinthian columns glistening in white against the blue sky. This site was only discovered in 1975 by a German, who carted much of the site off to Berlin.  Guess we need to go there. This Acropolis had, as do many of the sites, an amazing view of the cities and valleys and surrounding mountains. On this particular day there was a bright blue sky with a few clouds, crisp April air, cliff swallows darting about, massive fields of yellow daisy-like flowers, white flowers, red poppies, laventeria and wild grasses. The Asclepion of Pergamum is a famous ancient medical centre.

Ken really liked the Troy Site or Troia. Although there were few ruins, we could trace the city built upon city over the ages and the links with Homer’s famous Iliad and the story of Helen of Troy.  The only wooden horse there is huge but was built in 1975 and the other horse from the 2004 movie Troy is a tourist attraction in the city of Canakkale. We visited there later that night and strolled the lovely waterfront. Canakkale is on the Dardanelles strait, a strategic bottle-neck piece of land controlling the crossing between Europe and Asia. Because of that the region is famous for two of the most-bloody wars in history – the war of Troy and Gallipoli.

Galipoli or Gelibolu

I was very disappointed that we didn’t visit Gallipoli, although it was on the schedule. Apparently around 8,000 people from all over the world, but mainly Aussies and New Zealanders, come to the Memorial on ANZAC day, April 25^th. Unfortunately the logistics and the twelve hour day required for the ceremonies didn’t fit with our tour schedule. People come to honour the 500,000 soldiers who died there in three days in 1915, 30,000 in one hour. Half of the soldiers were Turkish and the rest mainly from Australia and New Zealand.  The Turkish National Day was also around the same time and we watched dances from the representative ethnic groups who live in Turkey. Strange to come so close and yet miss it. The morning we missed Gallipoli we visited lovely little Alipey Island; again a very picturesque spot with red-roofed white-washed houses along a small fishing cove.

Food The food is, well, Turkish.  Ken ate kebaps (with a p) and meatballs every day for a week before he moved to other things. He loves the Turkish coffee and I like the apple tea. Vegetarians aren’t well served.  I ate a lot of lentil soup and sheppard’s salad.  Breakfast is basically cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese olives, boiled eggs and fresh bread. Lunch is often gozleme, a pancake filled with spinach, cheese or potatoes. We also enjoyed dried apricots, figs, yogurt and yogurt drink and of course, Turkish delight.  The food quality is excellent, but after a few days we found it repetitious and longed for some diversity.  Turkey is completely self-sufficient in food production. Orange and lemon and olive groves dot the south and near the Mediterranean Sea were miles of greenhouses. We loved shopping the farmers’ markets for fresh strawberries and other fruit.

The language is Turkic, written in Roman characters. Decades ago the government implemented the change from Arabic overnight, and millions of people were made illiterate.  Some of the words are spelt as they sound taksi, pansiyon, captan, otel.  After several months in India, Egypt and Jordan I found it strange to be able to read signs again.

As so we ended our month in Turkey with our stay in Bodrum and a short ferry ride to Greece. We loved the tour and the people and were fascinated by the history and the culture of this wonderful place. Of the many places we’ve traveled over the past ten months, Bodrum is one place we would consider coming back to for a long-stay on the Mediterran