After the furnace that was Anatolıa and the steam bath that was Kas, we have found ourselves ın a wonderful mountaın town about 200 kılometers from ıIstanbul. ıts actually cool here ın the evenıngs and pleasantly warm durıng the day. What a relıef. I would lıke to stay a week to receover from the heat. Yesterday we drove ten hours coverıng about 600 mıles from Kas straıght up on the road to ıIstanbul. We travelled through mountaıns and agrıcultural valleys all day. The roads here are quıte good, but the drıvıng ıs challengıng. At least half of the people on the roads here appear to vıew traffıc rules as mere suggestıons rather than laws to follow. Haırıng raısıng passıng, complete dısregrad of red lıghts and stop sıgns and lane markers, and ıntense taıl gatıng are the norm here. Alı and I have learned that the best way to travel here (and anywhere for that matter) ıs to lock your ego safely ın the trunk and do your best to keep yourself and others from beıng kılled. Amazıngly we only saw one bad accıdent, but we have read that Turkey has the worst accıdent rate ın the world, much of ıt from drıvıng under the ınfluence. Polıce do random stops and make people take breathalızer tests (We say thıs on TV but dıdn,t wıtness ıt oursevles.
The areas we have travelled through are well developed wıth good housıng and lots of new constructıon. ın fact there we have seen very few towns that have old housıng. And the streets are clean - no trash layıng around anywhere. Generally good ınfrastructure too ... wırless connectıons, good transportatıon system, servıces.
The town we are stayıng ın ıs near the Sea of Marmara. Our waıter claıms ıt was the seat of the Ottoman Empıre. After our long drıve and the joy over havıng fınally found a decent bottle of wıne, we were ınclıned to belıeve anythıng he or anyone else told us. The town has gorgeous vıews of the valley below and ıs so wonderfully cool. The only drawback ıs that there ıs a mosque dırectly next door...we can almost reach out and touch the mınaret... so the fıve AM call to prayer ıs a lıttle ıntense...especıally sınce the mouzın has a a jarrıng, gravelly voıce.
Tomorrow we are off to ıstanbul where we wıll meet up wıth our frıends Azız and Jamıla. More to follow from there
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Friday, August 3, 2007
Photos
I haven't figured out how to create a link to a photo website, but I am working on it. Until then, below you have a few photos from Anatolia. A fresco on the domes of a hidden cave church, some of those weird volcanic ash sculputres that housed a hidden monestary, a rock city, and a chaming little Turkman who sailed with us one afternoon on the Lycian Coast. Once we get to Istanbul, we'll have a better wireless connection and I can explore more. This is our last day in Kas. We are spending it at our favorite beach restaurant that has wonderful patios with umbrellas and lounge chairs and a ladder to climb down into the Mediteranean (which one must do every 20 minutes or so). I have enjoyed our time here although I feel like I have been sufering from heat exhaustion...extreme listlessness, nausea, muscle cramps, terrible fatique. Oh well, life is never perfect.
There are tons of ancient ruins around here but it's too hot to go visit them. I would like to come back to this region sometime in October or November when you can still swim, but the weather is significantly cooler.
It's been a pleasure to be in a resort area with no jet skiis, boisterous people (everyone is quiet here at the beach), or loud music. Ali and I decided that this place could be quite unpleasant if it were in the U.S,
Off to the Istanbul and more postings and pictures from there.
There are tons of ancient ruins around here but it's too hot to go visit them. I would like to come back to this region sometime in October or November when you can still swim, but the weather is significantly cooler.
It's been a pleasure to be in a resort area with no jet skiis, boisterous people (everyone is quiet here at the beach), or loud music. Ali and I decided that this place could be quite unpleasant if it were in the U.S,
Off to the Istanbul and more postings and pictures from there.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Kicking it in Kas
It’s 8:30 in the morning in Kas and the sun is already unbearable. We have taken some excursions for that past two days and today we are going to just kick it here at the beach. We leave in two days to head up to Istanbul for a week so we need to rest up for the big road trip. Yesterday we went to Greece and were unimpressed, although the Mousaka was excellent. The antipathy of the Greeks toward the Turks is palpable there and we were glad we were only spending an afternoon on the island.
The most frustrating thing about being in a country whose language you don’t speak is the inability to communicate with the residents. So far, the Turks we have met only speak a limited, functionally discreet English. Their best second language here at least seems to be German, but my German is too limited to manage much of a conversation. Luckily there are two English dailies here – a centrist one and a left-leaning one. News items of interest: A mayor and a few members of a local parliament in the south east I believe, were convicted and sentenced to a three year jail term because they allowed Kurds and Armenians to speak their native language when dealing with the government administration. Turkish is the only language allowed in government. Seems like a pretty harsh reaction.
There is a lot of blustering about the hard line Turkey will take against the Kurdish party that is outlawed (PKK) in Turkey and its excursions into Turkey from across the Iraqi border. Apparently there are negotiations with the US on how to handle this delicate situation, but the press is adamant that Turkey will cross the border if Iraq and the US don’t do something about the problem. Too bad we can’t find out what regular Turks feel about all this. Maybe in Istanbul we’ll have better luck with English.
Now that we have this wireless connections on the beach, I have more time to upload photos, so stay tuned!
Over and out for now.
The most frustrating thing about being in a country whose language you don’t speak is the inability to communicate with the residents. So far, the Turks we have met only speak a limited, functionally discreet English. Their best second language here at least seems to be German, but my German is too limited to manage much of a conversation. Luckily there are two English dailies here – a centrist one and a left-leaning one. News items of interest: A mayor and a few members of a local parliament in the south east I believe, were convicted and sentenced to a three year jail term because they allowed Kurds and Armenians to speak their native language when dealing with the government administration. Turkish is the only language allowed in government. Seems like a pretty harsh reaction.
There is a lot of blustering about the hard line Turkey will take against the Kurdish party that is outlawed (PKK) in Turkey and its excursions into Turkey from across the Iraqi border. Apparently there are negotiations with the US on how to handle this delicate situation, but the press is adamant that Turkey will cross the border if Iraq and the US don’t do something about the problem. Too bad we can’t find out what regular Turks feel about all this. Maybe in Istanbul we’ll have better luck with English.
Now that we have this wireless connections on the beach, I have more time to upload photos, so stay tuned!
Over and out for now.
Captivated in Capadoccia
Ten millions years ago three volcanoes erupted simultaneously -- more or less -- and spewed forth their innards into valleys across a wide arid plane in central Anatolia. Wind and water then proceeded to sculpt the volcanic ash over hundreds of thousands of years into huge delicate cones, chimneys, and other otherworldly shapes that litter the valleys of Cappadccia. These “fairy chimneys” are a true wonder to behold and provide endless amazement and delight as one wanders through the valleys here.
This landscape is wondrous enough, but even more astonishing are the ways in which humans have used them. Early Christians (1st and 2nd Centuries A.D) fled to Cappadoccia to escape religious persecution. In order to practice their new religion they carved into the “chimneys” (they are made of soft, white volcanic ash) to build churches in them, many multi-domed, with rock carved columns and frescoes. One rock formation we visited had been an eight-floor nunnery! Over the centuries the Christians worshiped in these hidden churches, improved on the frescoes (some are exquisite) as they hid their religions (and themselves) from waves of raiding armies. They also built over 40 underground cities to hide in. Ali and I toured one that had 18 floors underground. I got claustrophobic at the third level and so we came up. Around 40,000 people and their animals hid in these underground cities for months at a time.
While in Cappadocia, we stayed in a lovely little village in a cave hotel. It was right out of the Flintstones – even our patio furniture was of rock – rock table, rock couch. What was truly fabulous though was how wonderfully cool it was in our room. While temperatures raged in the high 90s (we are having a major heat wave here in Turkey... and the worse draught in 70 years.) we needed to sleep with a comforter at night because it got down right chilly in there after awhile
Now we are 750 miles away (I drove the whole way because Ali was suffering from food poisoning) on the Lycean Coat in southern Turkey. It’s a gorgeous area…mountainous, reminiscent of Big Sur, very scenic but hot beyond belief because of the humidity. It 's been 36 Celsius (97 F?) but with the high humidity is feels like 115.
Kas however, is lovely town popular with tourists...mostly German and Turkish from the languages we hear. There are no high-rise hotels or anything like that, just small pensions and hotels, so it doesn’t feel oppressive in terms of tourism, really. Today we spent nine hours in beach chairs on the rocky coast, jumping into the exquisitely cool Mediterranean about every half hour. The only way to survive in this heat.
Tomorrow we take a boat tour to a sunken city and some small islands. We have a great hotel recommended by friends of Carol’s with beautiful sea views from our room and balcony. The island directly in front of our window happens to be Greek, so we decided to take a boat over there one day this week. We are here until Saturday when we drive the 600 or so miles to Istanbul.
Right now I am posting this from a beachfront restaurant across the street from our hotel using the restuarant's wireless connection. Very civilized.
Signing off for now.
This landscape is wondrous enough, but even more astonishing are the ways in which humans have used them. Early Christians (1st and 2nd Centuries A.D) fled to Cappadoccia to escape religious persecution. In order to practice their new religion they carved into the “chimneys” (they are made of soft, white volcanic ash) to build churches in them, many multi-domed, with rock carved columns and frescoes. One rock formation we visited had been an eight-floor nunnery! Over the centuries the Christians worshiped in these hidden churches, improved on the frescoes (some are exquisite) as they hid their religions (and themselves) from waves of raiding armies. They also built over 40 underground cities to hide in. Ali and I toured one that had 18 floors underground. I got claustrophobic at the third level and so we came up. Around 40,000 people and their animals hid in these underground cities for months at a time.
While in Cappadocia, we stayed in a lovely little village in a cave hotel. It was right out of the Flintstones – even our patio furniture was of rock – rock table, rock couch. What was truly fabulous though was how wonderfully cool it was in our room. While temperatures raged in the high 90s (we are having a major heat wave here in Turkey... and the worse draught in 70 years.) we needed to sleep with a comforter at night because it got down right chilly in there after awhile
Now we are 750 miles away (I drove the whole way because Ali was suffering from food poisoning) on the Lycean Coat in southern Turkey. It’s a gorgeous area…mountainous, reminiscent of Big Sur, very scenic but hot beyond belief because of the humidity. It 's been 36 Celsius (97 F?) but with the high humidity is feels like 115.
Kas however, is lovely town popular with tourists...mostly German and Turkish from the languages we hear. There are no high-rise hotels or anything like that, just small pensions and hotels, so it doesn’t feel oppressive in terms of tourism, really. Today we spent nine hours in beach chairs on the rocky coast, jumping into the exquisitely cool Mediterranean about every half hour. The only way to survive in this heat.
Tomorrow we take a boat tour to a sunken city and some small islands. We have a great hotel recommended by friends of Carol’s with beautiful sea views from our room and balcony. The island directly in front of our window happens to be Greek, so we decided to take a boat over there one day this week. We are here until Saturday when we drive the 600 or so miles to Istanbul.
Right now I am posting this from a beachfront restaurant across the street from our hotel using the restuarant's wireless connection. Very civilized.
Signing off for now.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Toasty in Turkey
Ali and I arrived on Wednesday evening after a long period of flying -- five flights for me and three for and Ali. We flew separate routes and met up in Munich for the last leg of the flight. I almost missed the Munich flight because my previous flight got off to a late start in Amsterdam. We landed just ten minutes before the Ankara flight was scheduled to take off at which point I and two fellow Ankara traveling companions were whisked off the airplane and deposited in the van of a good German who careened around the tarmac for fifteen minutes delivering us to passport control and then through secret passageways to our flight which was being held for our arrival. I think those might have been my fifteen minutes of fame because I felt like a real celebrity. It was great to see Ali on the plane.
Because we are carrying personal belongs for five months of travel and living abroad we decided to drive around turkey rather than drag our luggage on and off buses, trains and planes. So today we take off to Capadoccia in Anatolia to visit ancient underground cities.
So far we like the Turks although our communication is limited to grinning and awkward hand and body gestures. Lots of grinning. Ankara is a large, noisy, polluted city, but the areas that we have seen are clean and well maintained. And it’s toasty here – in the 90’s or so. But it’s quite pleasant in the morning and evenings.
Stay tuned for Turkey road tales.
Ali and I arrived on Wednesday evening after a long period of flying -- five flights for me and three for and Ali. We flew separate routes and met up in Munich for the last leg of the flight. I almost missed the Munich flight because my previous flight got off to a late start in Amsterdam. We landed just ten minutes before the Ankara flight was scheduled to take off at which point I and two fellow Ankara traveling companions were whisked off the airplane and deposited in the van of a good German who careened around the tarmac for fifteen minutes delivering us to passport control and then through secret passageways to our flight which was being held for our arrival. I think those might have been my fifteen minutes of fame because I felt like a real celebrity. It was great to see Ali on the plane.
Because we are carrying personal belongs for five months of travel and living abroad we decided to drive around turkey rather than drag our luggage on and off buses, trains and planes. So today we take off to Capadoccia in Anatolia to visit ancient underground cities.
So far we like the Turks although our communication is limited to grinning and awkward hand and body gestures. Lots of grinning. Ankara is a large, noisy, polluted city, but the areas that we have seen are clean and well maintained. And it’s toasty here – in the 90’s or so. But it’s quite pleasant in the morning and evenings.
Stay tuned for Turkey road tales.
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