Water, Cruising, Beach, Trees, Desert

To anyone that is used to, and relishes, my overly long and drawn out entries, sorry. I am so far behind in this blog that if I were to be as descriptive as usual I would be in this internet cafe for a week. So this conclusion to my Turkey adventure is going to be shorter than usual and skimpy on the details. If you want more of the details, read Em's blog (esinick.blogspot.com) as she had more time to write some parts.

Pamakkale
From Selcuk to Pamakkale we rode. We visited this little slice of beauty as we passed from one stopping point to another.

Pamakkale is a lazy little town that doesn't support more than a hand full of stores and restaurants, a few hostels, and its prize: the thermal baths and the Hierapolis. The Hierapolis is a Roman ruin that supports an interesting necropolis. The large, stone tombs of this resting place have been rejected by the Earth and thrust upward at a multitude of angles. They have also unfortunately been desecrated by thieves and many, if not all, have holes in the sides where valuables and human remains have been removed. One your way up to the remains, you pass along a hill side that supports natural thermal pools created from calcium carbonate deposits. These deposits have created terraced pools that are crystal white in some locations and give off the illusion that there is snow in the 100 degree climate. They are really something and one of my favorite sights on this whirl wind adventure.

From Pamakkale to Koycegiz we traveled during the same day.

Koycegiz

We camped that night in a very quaint hostel called the Tango Inn. This place was cute eclectic with its tower like stairwell that wound upward to let one out to a balcony filled with hammocks and cots. If it weren't for the mosquitoes I'd almost wish that we'd camped out there as it was cool and had a very camp like feel to it. Instead we had a nice dorm room with a slanted ceiling all to ourselves. It was nice and the people running the establishment were very kind and helpful.

The reason for the sojourn to this quiet little town was for a boat ride that the proprietor at Kiwi Hostel told us about. We awoke early the next morning to catch the all day cruise. A nice treat was that we were the only English speakers on the boat trip and possibly the only people that weren't Turkish. It's nice to travel every once in a while and be with locals or at least people of the same nationality of the country. It's a more rewarding experience and lets you see what the actual country and its inhabitants are like, as opposed to the touristy locations.

Our boat supplied its own entertainment in the form of a sun darkened, active, aspiring magician, and amateur comedic. For most of the two hour trip out to Turtle Island (where we swan and sun bathed for three hours), our entertainment performed simple magic tricks with string, forced passengers to dance, put on a belly dancing outfit and proceeded to dance better than me, and all around made us laugh.

The trip took us to Turtle Island, named for the turtles that lay their eyes there; past the Kings Tombs, large Nabattean like tombs similar to those seem in Petra; through reedy marshes, that reminded me of the Southeast Asia that is depicted in film and media; and to famous mud baths. The mud baths were a nice conclusion to the day. After months of traveling, we got to wade through sulfur rich mud, coat ourselves, let it dry till we were so stiff smiling hurt, rinse off, and then jump in the mineral rich thermal baths. It was fantastic and made our skin feel quite nice for the next few days.

That night we said goodbye to this mini-paradise, yet untouched by major tourism, and traveled to Fethiye, the meeting place for the Blue Cruise.

Fethiye

When we arrived in Fethiye, we realized that we were never really going to get the chance to explore this town. This little sea side village was filled with little shoreline restaurants, houses built up the cliff-side, a castle and museum, and I'm sure many other gems that our 10 hour visit there didn't let us explore.

We showed up at the bus station at night to find out that half the other foreigners that were on our bus were headed to the same hostel as us. After finding a police officer who got a hold of the hostel (on a cell phone cause their normal line wasn't working), we were put on a shuttle and taken to the bottom of the hill upon which the hostel sat. Gotta love the fact that they dropped us at the bottom of the hill. When we arrived, it was to realize that even though we had made a reservation, there really were no rooms available. We argued with an employee about the outrageous fares for the joint (quite high) and finally managed to snag two couches in the lobby. This was probably one of the worst locations that we could have gotten due to a sensor light directly outside (there were more windows than walls in the lounge), that went off every time a person, dog, cat, bird, wind spirit, etc. walked by. Needless to say, we weren't very chiper the next morning. But the fact that we were setting sail that day on a four day cruise and that a few of our bus mates from the previous night were going with us, helped to mollify the bad night.

Fethiye is the starting (or ending if your coming from the other direction) point for about five different boat cruise companies. The Blue Cruise experience is considered a must for all backpackers and foreigners that visit this Euro-asianic country. You and 9 of your soon to be best buddies set sail on a decent sized yacht along the turquoise coast for fours days of blissful laziness.

Our traveling companions for the next few days included a crew of two...a Turkish captain and an Aussie first mate/cook, four Aussies (one guy and three girls) that were heavily into their partying and drinking, a Turk, three Italian Stallions (so named for their large packages that they seemed inclined to flaunt incessantly by only wearing speedos the whole trip), and Em and I. These passengers all had their own quirks and idiosyncracies that ended up making the trip quite enjoyable.

For three days we sun bathed, swam in beautiful turquoise waters, hiked through a few Lycian and Roman ruins, partied at the most remote bar I've ever seen, played chess, ate wonderfully, and generally relaxed. We visited Butterfly Valley, Saint Nicholas' Island (St. Nick as in Santa Claus), the town of Kas, the Sunken City of Kekova (which you really need to dive under to see properly), Simena Castle, and Pirates Cave (where treasure is believed to be hoarded), and a small town where there is a large Santa Claus statute and a church dedicated to the man. That's just ridiculous.

At the conclusion of our cruise, we were loaded onto a bus and driven the further 90km to Olympus.

Olympus

Olympus is a hippie's wet dream. This town is really a conglomeration of treehouse dwellings that have been built all next to each other and subsequently inhabited. If all the tree houses where to disappear over night, you would be left with pristine nature...that's how undeveloped this place is. Once you get used to that, this is a wonderful place and I wish that we had spent more time there.

Upon arrival, Em and I decided to stick with our Cruise buddies and camp at their treehouse, this turned out to be quite an adventure. First off, there weren't any real dorms, so the guy in charge split the six of us that showed up into two groups of three (we picked up, Craig, the Aussie from the cruise) and deposited up in two, what appeared to be high school extra credit constructions. Our little treehouse was little more than paper thing slices of wood stapled together over 2in thick stilts, all placed over a hillside. We were making bets on whether or not we would all go crashing down the hill during the course of the night. It was that crappy.

Deciding that staying away from the potential death trap, the Aussie headed to the beach and Em and I went to explore the "town." The conglomeration of treehouses nestled atop the next with beach bums, surfer dudes, and hippies a like, make this one of the best people watching towns around. After lounging for a bit at a cafe, we too headed for the sand (with turned out to be rocks) and waves. The beach was delightfully warm and we swam for a bit before heading back to camp for a much needed shower (the hose rinse off on the cruise really didn't cut it after four days).

That night we meet some other Aussie travelers and caught up on world events. We learned about the failed attempt to fly liquid bombs from the UK to America...what is happening in the world??? Has everyone just gone totally insane? All this hate is not making anything better and if people don't start realizing that soon, there won't be anyone left to hate anymore, or to celebrate their disappearance with. Sorry for that little outburst, but it was just so weird to be in the middle of this picturesque setting, where everyone is friendly and jolly, and and realize that as you sit there, a dozen major the cities in America were a surveillance away from becoming disaster zones. It puts a different spin on things.

So as not to totally change the mood of this entry, I will move on to more happier relations of my journey and leave the ranting and dreary thought to the what-would-have-beens.

The next morning, the Aussies and us relaxed. We spent the morning playing cards and drinking tea, while in the afternoon Em and I wandered around the ruins of Olympus and hiked in the hills while the Aussie chilled on the beach.

During this time, Em and I also concocted our new travel plans, of which you will learn later.

A 5pm, we all said goodbye to this forgotten way of life and headed back to the hussle and bussle of more modern times.

Goreme, Cappadocia
Cappadocia is probably the second most known place in Turkey to visit after Istanbul. The capital, per se, of this region is Goreme, a picturesque town with more hostels than inhabitants (or so it seems). The main attraction of Goreme is that you can sleep inside a cave. A long, long time ago a series of eruptions from the cones of Mt. Erciyes and Mt Hasan covered the area in a thick layer of volcanic ash which solidified to form the soft tufa that characterizes the surface strata here. That's right, volcanic activity had made the cliff faces soft and malible to the human-wielded tool, and spacious dwellings have been carved into the pre-hollowed out cliffs. We stayed at a place called Shoe-String that contained a multi-roomed dorm. It was fantastic, as we thought we were living in a gnome house.

A bonus of arriving in this cartoonesque town, was that we met back up with our friend Krystin, whom we first meet on the Felluca in Egypt. We had been keeping in touch with her, so we knew that she was going to be there. Even though it'd been about three weeks since we'd all seen each other last, we immediately fell back into a comfortable friendship, as if we'd never parted.

The first two days in Goreme, we hiked all around the wonderful valleys that surround the region. These valleys are filled with abandoned cliff-dwellings (the Turkish government evicted the last dwellers in the 1970s, believing that having its inhabitants living in cliffs was an embarrassment), many of which were converted into churches during the persecution of the Christians by Romans; multi-colored rock faces (yellows that melt into oranges, and subsequent reds); seemingly random squash patches; and Fairy Chimmneys (caused by the erosion of the soft rock under the denser top material). After being lazy for a week on the cruise and then in Olympus, it was nice to be active once again.

The one thing that all of us agreed on after walking these valleys, was that the creators of gnomes, Flintstones, and Smurfs all had to have visited Cappadocia at one point of other in their lives previous to inventing their now famous tv-shows/scary garden creatures. Just walking through the valleys and sleeping in the caves, it's hard for these smilies to not pop into one's head.

On our third and last day in town, we decided begrudingly (we really hated these things), to take a tour of the area. We hopped on the tour because it really was the only way, with such a limited amount of time, to see a little bit of all the other wonders that this area has to offer. The tour was lead by a girl that we all believed, didn't really speak English, but rather memorized a few phrases and hoped that no one would ask her to expound on anything. In sum, we didn't really learn much on the tour that wasn't already written elsewhere.

After visiting a few vista points that gave spectacular views of the various valleys and the town of Goreme, we set off for the Underground city, Derinkuyu. There are believed to be as many as 300 underground cities in the Cappadocia region. When the Christian were being persecuted by the Romans, they took to these naturally formed and humanly enhanced dwellings (some containing 14 levels and hundreds of rooms). The underground cities are one of the main attractions in the area.

Derinkuyu contains eight levels. It is complete with a large ventilation shaft, storage units, even places where grapes were squished for vine making, stables, sleeping quarters, a church, dungeon, and school. Walking through these darken hallways I was reminded of the Time Machine and the half of the population that lived underground forever and never saw light. While the former occupants of Derinkuyu were only temporary residents of these caves, it still gives a disquieting feeling to think that certain individuals may have lived a large percentage of their lives under these rock surfaces, never venturing above ground.

Rising back into the sunlight day, we sheep followed our leader to Ihlara Gorge/Valley. This is a 20km or so stretch of valley that has been recognized as a national park and protected site. This means that its beauty is relatively unmarred by industrialization and modernization (always have to leave room for the entrepreneurs). Although it would have been wonderful to have set out early in the morning to walk the entire 5 hour journey, without the hampering of hundreds of fellow tour touting tourists, we had to settle for a rapid walk through a fraction of this beautiful terrain. What few glimpses I got on our speed walk through, showed me a lazy brown river meandering through a lush green undergrowth, all shadowed by towering cliff faces (some showing signs that they were once homes).

At the end of our trek we were treated to a nice lunch at one of the half dozen river-side restaurants that sprung up at the mid-way point in the park (and end of our walk). The food was good, if a little literal (I ordered mushrooms and cheese and got just that...no rice or veggies or pasta to go with it) and soon we were on our way again.

The next stop on our tour was to a Rock Monastery. This Monastery was carved into the soft cliff-face, as so many other dwellings in the area, but its size makes it interesting to explore and magnificent to behold.

From the Rock Monastery to a Caravan stop on the Silk Road we went. This was a place where travelers could stop for the evening or a few days if they so desired and sells their goods or collect more to continue on with. There were sleeping and living quarters to be used in the Summer and those to be used in the Winter.

In the interest of time, or so the guide said, because Krystin, Em and I needed to catch a bus that evening, we skipped Avanos, a small town known for its pottery. Basically it's a "shopping" opportunity. Not sure how she thought this one was a better alternative, but instead of the pottery's studio, we ended up at the Oynx factory. He we were given a small lecture and demonstration in the art of sculpting onyx and silver and then let loose in the greatly over-priced store. Do I smell commission? The man running the small market across the street was a genius, as everyone wanting to escape the forced shopping excursion relished the idea of buying an ice cream (even if they were over-priced).

Finally, our sheep herder realized we were all ready to leave and we set off for the last stop on our trip: to see the multi-headed Fairy Chimmenies. The Fairy Chimneys were created by a combination of the volcano ash hardening over the tops of the soft rock face, and erosion pining away at the exposed portions. This lovely work of nature has lead to the Fairy Chimneys, which have furthermore been named, Cocks or Penises, take you pick. Basically triangular shaped heads that mushroom out over indented shafts. And no it is not just me with a perverse imagination, ask anyone that has ever seen then what the first thing that comes to mind is and they will say penis. Where the term "Fairy Chimney" came from is a mystery to us.

Back in town, we gathered our bags and headed on a bus to Kahta, the closest town to Mount Nemrut. Being poorer and more adventurous than the average traveler, the three of us forwent the over-price sheep herding tour and decided to visited the last two sights on our Turkey tour (not the last for Krystin, just Em and I) via public transport and local accommodations.

Kahta and Mount Nemrut
The trip to Kahta involved first a small van bus that they overloaded by three adults (these poor buggers were forced to sit in the foot wide aisles on 8in high fold out chairs), a worrisome layover at a bus depot that ended with us running after four guys that assured us they knew where they were going and eventually hoping on a bus as it drove down the street. Apparently there are some buses that don't actually pull into the bus depot, they kind of stop momentarily on the side of the road to grab the few extra passengers that are going that way.

Since we were going to a very remote town past the point of normal tourism (except by way of organize tours), we were the only foreigners on the bus. Here was our first real glimpse into rural Turkish life. The average person on the bus had at least one child with them, but some families had five or six. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that, these people can't afford tickets for everyone so they buy tickets for the adults and bring all the kids on for free. The result is that there are 5 people sitting in two seats or there are a zillion kids in the aisle or under other people's seats. We were situated in the back of the bus and as such had grandma sleeping on the floor of the seat behind us, three kids in the aisle directly next to us, four people in the two seats in front of us, and a bunch of pissed people cause we took the empty seats that they were using before we got on. This lead to a long night.

Arriving at 6am the next morning we weren't looking forward to the eight hour delay till the dolmus running to our hostel left. Luckily, a man showed up saying that the hostel owner called him since he was in town and headed towards the mountain that we wanted, and told him to give us a lift for a slightly exaggerated fee. Jumping at the opportunity to get to a bed, we took him up on his offer and where soon sound asleep in a remote hostel in the middle of no-where.

Around noon we all became cognizant once again and set off to locate some lunch. The egg-tomato-pepper combo offered at out place didn't sound so appealing so we set of down the hill to one of the nice places we'd seen that morning when we'd driven up. After surprising the workers (as to see travelers there without a tour and in the middle of the day is not a usual occurrence), we found out that we would be having an egg-tomato-pepper combo for lunch (there wasn't much variety out here). Lunch was good and quickly burned off as we hiked the mile back up the hill (at a 50 degree angle) in the blazing sun. Our venture tired us out and we spent the rest of the day talking and reading in the garden.

We also noted that every person that lived in the village came at one point or another to our place and gathered water from the stream there. I think that this was the only water in the whole place. It was entertaining to watch car load after car load pile out with bottles and containers, walk to the water (that really didn't look clean), fill their containers up, and depart.

We woke at 2am the next morning to begin the real reason for our journey to this remote village. We were determined to hike the 10km to the summit of Mount Nemrut. At the summit, there are several meter tall stone statues. The heads of these statues were dislodged during an earthquake and have since been laid down in front of their bodies. An interesting decapitation scene.

The site was constructed by Antiochus 1, who prided himself on his royalty and power. He was deposed in 38 BC by the Romans after a 26 year reign. Antiochus believed himself to be the descendent of Apollo, so he built a statue of himself along with those of Apollo, Zeus, Tyche (Fortuna) and Hercules flanked by a lion and an eagle. An artificial mountain peak of rock 50 meters high was piled between the two ledges of the gods, and some suspect Antiochus' tomb, as well as that of three women, may be underneath it.

We hiked up to view the sun rise over this large shrine and were not disappointed.

In order to catch our dolmus back to town (as if arrived at 7:30am), we hitched hiked down the hill with some locals. There were five of us in the back seat and all of us thankful that it was only 10km.

Urfa and Harran
From Kahta to Urfa we traveled that morning. At the bus station we were assaulted by a tout as soon as we exited the bus. He turned out to be the owner of a small family pension that was actually listed in the Lonely Planet and after some bargaining, we decided to stay at his place. This turned out to be cute and clean. The husband and wife owners, had turned their various rooms into dorms that surrounded a central courtyard. The place was nice and centrally located. Our host, being ever gracious, offered to show us around the town and proceeded to take us through the large city park. There he ran into his nephew and pawned us off. In this city, the main subject seems to be tourism, which is odd as there aren't nearly as many tourists here as elsewhere in the country. The park was full of boys varying in age from seven to about 25, all wearing official Volunteer tourism badges and begging for you to let them show you around. Is was odd.

We got a mini tour from our new guide and had him drop us off at the internet cafe. Some email checking and it was off to re-exploring the city. There was a castle that I wish we'd gotten to see, a bazaar that we wondered through, numerous stores, cute restaurants, a mosque with sacred coy that were dedicated to the Prophet Mohammed or said to have been made by him (something like that), and real Turkish people. Since this was Eastern Turkey and close to the Syrian border, the atmosphere was almost like being back in Egypt or Jordan. This region is more religious and pious than the traditional tourist places in the west and south.

The next morning we set out for Harran for a quick day trip. This is the reason that we came to Urfa. Harran is considered to be one of the world's oldest continually inhabited societies. People have been living here non-stop for thousands of years. Harran is where the foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were laid. It is also the site where the fist University of Islam was built. So much history was made and see in this town, but all that remains now or acres of ruins, a few crumbling buildings, and a handful of locals.

But that's not why we went there. No, we went to this dust bowl town, because it is home to the Beehive houses. These homes were created by taking the bricks from the Great Mosque and the castle in town and stacking them in a circular pattern to create homes that stay cool in the 100+ degree summers (it was 104 when we were there) and warm in the winters. Whereas Goreme has its penis Fairy Chinmneys, Harran has its boob Beehive houses. These homes are circular with slopping tops that have pointy centers at the very top. Maybe we've all been traveling for too long, or the people in Turkey have an unconscious sexual fetish. Either way if you google these and see a picture (or wait till December when I post some), you'll understand what I mean.

An hour in this over heated fry pan was enough and we headed back to the slightly cooler Urfa where we spend the rest of the day exploring and staying out of the direct sunlight as it was stifling hot out.

That night we said goodbye to Krystin as she headed to Olympus and we set out for Istanbul and an international bus.

Back to Istanbul
Leaving Istanbul almost brought on a panic attack as it began to seem reminiscent of Alexandria, Egypt, with everyone telling us that there really were no direct buses from Istanbul to Budapest, Hungary, regardless of the assurances of Lonely Planet. After visiting eight different bus companies were were told that we could take a bus from Istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria and from there catch a bus to Budapest. So we grabbed our chance to leave and purchased the tickets.

Here we had an eight hour layover and had spotted a Carrefour (the same Super Walmart-like supermarket that saved our sanity in Alexandria, Egypt...seems like every time leaving the country turns out to be crazier than anticipated, Carrefour shows up). We were overjoyed and spent our whole free day there, as it is a mini-mall and supermarket.

Seeing that we had time to spare, we decided to have some fun. There was a salon in the joint run by a crazy man with weird hair, one of those mustaches that are curled at either end, and a rainbow of clothing. He was quite the personality. Em opted to dye here hair and picked out a lively red pink color (that has since faded to a red orange color...why doesn't dye ever stay in out hair?) and I opted for a haircut. I pointed to a picture in a magazine and said that I wanted that. The master, went crazy with the thinning scissors and I ended up with short hair (it comes to just below my ears). While not exactly what I had in mind, it's cute, but requires a lot of gel if I care enough to make the curls stay instead of frizing afro style.

With our appearance altered, but somehow allowing more people to see that we're twins (weird how the more different we look, the more people think we're the same...interesting paper topic in there somewhere), we boarded our cramped little bus to begin the 25 hours journey that would take us across two countries and into a third.

And here I will end this entry. The next addition, for those that still have an interest in reading these stream of conscience babblings will begin with our lovely cross country adventure and explain the change in itinerary. Stay tuned.

Selcuk

Sorry folks for the long delay in updating...there's been a zillion things happening and when I have had a chance to visit an internet cafe I was typing up a job application. Here's a little bit of what's happened over the last two weeks. I will have to add the rest in a few days when I get a chance.

Selcuk
It seems that I left off even longer ago than I had originally thought. So onward...

From Canakkale and ANZAC haven, we headed to Selcuk on an overnight bus. In Canakkale we were staying at a hotel that was associated with a tour company called Hassle Free...we have since nick-named this Hassle Free Hassle. We asked them to book us on a morning bus out to Selcuk and the first thing that they did was book it for the wrong day. So when we went to pick up the reserved tickets, the bus people looked at us like we were crazy. We fixed it by booking for the 10pm bus cause the morning one was full by this time. Then we asked for the hostel to call and book us at a room in Selcuk. They said that it was all arranged and that there would be someone there to greet us at 6am when we arrived. 6am roles around and no one is there. Luckily the hostel was close and some people gave us directions. When we arrived, we ended up waking up the owner who told us that he had waited the previous morning for us for an hour. We felt terrible. So it just goes to show that travel agents suck.

The hostel in Selcuk was called Kiwi House and is probably one of the favorite places that both Em and I have stayed at. When we arrived at the crack of dawn there were no dorms available so they put us in a private room with a king bed. This was in the basement so it was actually cool and comfortable to sleep in (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to sleep in some of these places where it's 90 degrees at night and there is no fan or AC). When we crawled out of bed at noon they gave us breakfast for free and told us about all of the great things that you can do in and around Selcuk.

Selcuk itself is a relatively small town that doesn't host a ton of attractions, but it does happen to be home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and a few ruins that are quite well known in their own right.

Around 1pm we set out to explore the town and hike the 3km to Ephesus. Our first port of call was the Ephesus museum. Since we didn't have a huge idea what these famous ruins represented we decided to check out the museum dedicated to them before venturing to the ruins themselves. The museum itself is cute, with a nice simple collection of some of the more impressive items recovered from excavations at the site. An the best thing is that it's air-conditioned...a treat in this part of the world.

From the museum we set out for the ruins themselves. An old mayor of the town decided to beautify the town by adding a 2km stretch of tree lined sidewalk that leads from Selcuk proper to the turn off for Ephesus. In the hot, dry climate, this shady walk way is quite nice. Along the path there is a turn off for Artemis' Temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This temple used to be grand and huge. It was a place were thousands flocked to pay homage to the Anatolian fertility goddess Cybele/Artemis. In it's heyday it was larger than the Greek Parthenon. In 356BC the Temple was burned down by Herostratus who claimed that he wanted his fifteen minutes of fame. I think he was just nuts. The Ephesians planned to build a new grander temple to replaced the destroyed one in 334BC. Alexander the Great found it so wonderful that he offered to pay for the reconstruction if they'd dedicate it to him, but the people wouldn't allow him saying that it wasn't fitting for one God to make a dedication to another. When the new temple was complete, it was recognized as one of the Seven Wonders. Today all that remains for the most part is a tall pillar in the middle of some shattered stone blocks and a marsh like floor. It's really hard to picture what this masterpiece used to look like.

A few kilometers later and we arrived at the entrance to Ephesus itself (an empty tour bus going back to pick up its human cargo actually gave us a ride for the last kilometer or so saying that it was too hot to walk...nice huh?). We opted to purchase a hand-held guide (one of those things where you type in a number and it gives you information corresponding with that particular item) and spent the next three hours exploring the ruins. We even wondered into off-limits territory accidentally cause we came from the back way and didn't realize until we were at the front that we'd gone out of bounds.

Ephesus is the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean city started as a large trading center and the center of the cult of Cybele. Under the Ionians, Cybele became Artemis, the Temple of Artemis was built and more people arrived to worship and trade. Then the Romans came and Artemis became Diana and Ephesus became the Roman provincial capital. Some of the main sites to behold in this city are the Great Theater, where gladiator flights were common during Roman rule; the Marble, where an elaborate water and sewage system was set up below the street; the Library of Celsus; the public latrine; and many of the gates.

The next day in town we ventured to the Castle that was reported to be interesting. On the way there we checked out an Archaeological library that is in its infancy. There is an American woman that married a Turk who always wanted to teach archaeology to locals and to have a place for scholars to come to when in Turkey. When the husband passed away, she began the venture to make his dream a reality. The result is that there is a very nice library, complete with computers and a small cafe. They are in the process of setting up some sort of learning center and possibly a field school. When we showed up at the door, the lady in charge was more than happy to give us the whorl-wind tour.

From the library to the Church of Saint John we went. The church was built by --- who believed that Saint John was buried there. The church is quite nice and leads to the Castle which we tried to visit. We didn't know that you had to go through the Church to get to the Castle so we left the ruins and wandered around for a while down dead end streets trying to determined where the entrance was. Eventually we found someone that spoke enough English to let us know that the entrance was through the Church ruins, but that it was currently closed to the public.

Deciding to cut our loses and to head somewhere cool, we set out for the pool associated with our hostel. This pool is a 2km walk away from town, but is well worth it when you finally arrive. The pool is situated in the middle of an orchard and is filled wıth fresh mountain spring water. The down side of this is that it was freezing cold water (even with it being hot as hell outside), but the upside is that there was no Chlorine to make you feel gross on getting out. It was nice and we stayed there for the remainder of the day.

While at Kiwi house, the proprietor told us about the Blue Cruise, which is a four day/three night boat cruise from the town of Fethiye to the wooded coop-op of Olympus. This sounded so inviting that we signed up. That left us two days to get to Fethiye.

Staying goodbye to our favorite hostel, we set out for our next destination, stopping a few places along the way.

Unfortunately I've got to run to catch a bus so that part of the story will have to wait till I can again find time to write. Sorry that there's not much here to account for the last 15 days.

Istanbul...Constantinople...Istanbul...and Canakkale

Istanbul

Monday July 31st, Em and I said goodbye to Cairo and boarded a plane to Istanbul, Turkey. There was something quite nice about being able to leave this developing country through a modern means of transportation and to emerge, a few hours later in a completely different environment. It was sort of like traveling from the archaic into the semi-distant past. Stepping from the smog drenched city of Cairo into the clean, Mediterranean air of Istanbul was just what we needed after starting to lose focus in Egypt. Turkey, like the rest of Europe, has a quaintness about it that you just don't find in the US. The street are small and cobblestones, the citizens have a more sophisticated air to them, and the feel to the place is more laid back and reserved. Even though Turkey is a Muslim country, like Egypt and Jordan, it is secular and therefore more progressive and western than religious neighbors.

At the airport, Em and I met a fellow American, Matt, that currently lives in France. He was kind enough to loan us his Lonely Planet so that we could find a place to stay upon arrival, but as it turns out we didn't really need it. We all got along great and we ended up grabbing the last available room at the hotel where he was staying. It is major tourist season here and therefore places are full most of the time. It's such a change from before where it was low season and people were practically begging you to stay at their places instead of turning you away at the door.

So our home for the next three days became the Paris Hotel and Hostel. This was located off of the main thoroughfare in the Sultanahmet Ghetto, which is anything but ghetto. It's actually a very chic tourist area that houses the majority of sites worth visiting and thus is inhabited mainly by foreigners and those that pray off of their business. It's a very nice area and after being in Cairo we were talking about how lovely it would be to get an apartment and stay for months.

Over the next few days the three of us (we kidnapped Matt's Istanbul book and he subsequently came along with it) toured most of the well known sites. The first day we visited Hagia Sofia (Aya Sofya), which is thought to be the most treasured of Istanbul's sites and considered by some to be the Eight Wonder of the World. It was originally built as an Eastern Orthodox church, which was converted into a mosque in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, and then into a museum in 1935. The architecture is amazing and the inside is decorated with marble walls, gold inlaid designs, Christian reliefs painted over with Muslim symbols that create a unique juxtaposition, switchback ramps that lead to higher levels, and just a very nice atmosphere.

From the Eight Wonder of the World to the Blue Mosque we trotted. The Blue Mosque was built by the Ottomans in part to prove that they could create something as grand as Hagia Sofia. Sultan Ahmet I ordered its construction in 1609 and ten years later this eye-catching building was completed. The mosque gets its name from the blue color that is prolific on the inside walls, but has faded some with time so that although blue, it is not as vivid as it once was. The mosque is also unusual because it only has 6 minarets, when it was traditional to build with seven. I don't know the story behind this change though, but I believe it has to do with the architect deciding to be different.

The Blue Mosque is situated next to the Hippodrome, which is where the Byzantines used to hold chariot and horse races. Now this area is a long, skinny park surrounded by a road. The park contains two obelisks and the remains of the Tripod of Plataea. One of the obelisks is Egyptian from the reign of Tuthmosis III and was originally erected at the Temple of Karnak. Emperor Theodosius stole the artifact in 390 BC and had it cut into three pieces, shipped to Constantinople, and re-erected at the Hippodrome. Only the top section survives today, but it is still impressive.

In the 10th century the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus built another obelisk at the other end of the Hippodrome. It was originally covered with gilded bronze plaques, but these were stolen during the Fourth Crusade. The stone core of this monument also survives, known as the Walled Obelisk. This obelisk now looks like little more than a group of rocks that have been piled high.

The Tripod of Plataea, cast to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC, was moved from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and set in middle of the Hippodrome. Most of it was destroyed or stolen when the city was sacked during the Fourth Crusade. All that remains today is part of the base, known as the "Serpentine Column." One of the serpent heads is on display at the Istanbul Archaeological museum.

After viewing these sites, we decided to take a completely different track and went to visited the World's Largest Covered Bazaar. This is really a giant type of mall where there are streets that direct you to the items that you seek. It's an experience, there were streets and streets of peddlers selling every kind of knock off that you can think of and the occasional rare gem. Em went looking for a motorcycle jacket and almost walked away with a Harley Davidson "Biker Bitch" model, but we convinced her to think about it for a bit. I picked up a small travel chess set.

Day one was long and quite filling and led to an even more full day two. We woke early and ventured to the Archaeological Museums (you all knew that I'd eventually make it here, right?). This complex houses three very different museums, the Museum of Oriental Antiquities, the Archaeological Museum and the Tiled Pavilion. The Museum of Oriental Antiquities contains many treasures from various different cultures, but one of its gems is the Treaty of Kadesh. This is the the world's oldest surviving peace treaty, made between the Egyptians and the Hittites in 1269 BC. It's written in cuneiform and in such small handwriting that it is amazing that anyone could tell that it was a language, let alone be able to read it.

The main Archaeological Museum is huge and contains sculpture rooms, tombs, history displays, and even a children's museum and replica Trojan horse. While we were there, there was an entire class or two (about 60 kids) of art students. They were drawing their own masterpieces of the Greek statutes and their work puts my art to shame. They were all quite good.

The Tiled Pavilion contains examples of tile and porcelain work that didn't appeal to Em or I much at all.

By the time that we left the Archaeological Museums it was too late to explore the Topkapi Palace, so we caught a cab downtown to the Dolmabahçe Palace. This Palace was built in the 19th century by Ottoman Armenian architects Karabet and Nikogos Balian for Sultan Abdulmecit. Sultan Abdulmecit felt that the Topkapi Palace was too medieval and that the royal family needed something more decadent and fitting for people of their standard. What they got was just that, with 285 rooms, 43 large salons, a 4000 kg (4-1/2-ton) Bohemian glass chandelier, and a Bosphorus-shore façade nearly a quarter mile (1/2 km) long. It's the grandest of Ottoman imperial palaces. It's beautiful and the favorite site for all three of us (at least from what we've seen of Turkey thus far).

That night we picked up another person for our little group, Elizabeth, a former Californian that is now living in Turkey. She decided to teach herself Turkish for fun and then come here for a year to make sure that she has really grasped the language. I wish that I was as good at languages that I could do that.

All of us decided to try and catch the English language sound and light show that was held at the Blue Mosque. I believe that this was created by the same company that did the shows in Egypt as it had the same type of over dramatic Brits portraying various characters from times now gone and the same useless lights flashing randomly. We arrived late and the show was only a half hour so we actually didn't catch the majority of the performance, but that's okay. We had more fun walking around and chatting. It's so nice to be in a country where you can take a midnight stroll for miles and never once being harassed.

Our last morning in Istanbul we hit up the last major attraction in the area, the Topkapi Palace. This was the original home for the royal family. The monarch lived here with his horde of wives, concubines, children, and servants. The Harem, where the women, children, and imprisoned brothers/sons lived, takes up a large portion of the complex. In the beginning times of this society, ascension to the thrown was based on which son from whichever concubine or wife, managed to kill all of his brothers first and stake a claim. This form of attainment eventually became less grievous as future sons imprisoned their brothers in the Harem, where they grew up without understanding the ways of government, warfare, and society and thus posed no threat. Then eventually, the time honored form of the oldest male child claiming ownership to the throne, was instituted.

Although the Palace is beautiful in its own right, after viewing Dolmabahçe Palace, Topkapi pales in comparison. One can easily see why a more glamorous abode was demanded.

Canakkale
We said goodbye to Matt, the Lonely Planet Guide, and Istanbul and boarded the bus for Canakkale, the way station for two important sites: Troy and Gallipoli.

We arrived at the ANZAC House and booked ourselves onto a day tour for the Gallipoli for the next day. I blame our ignorance on the poor state of the American education system and the fact that Gallipoli really has nothing to do with Americans. I like to know if any of you have ever heard of it before reading this blog. Ignorantly we boarded the bus and were taken on a four hour tour of the war memorial that is Gallipoli. Gallipoli is the site of an eight month siege by the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) forces of the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli from April 1915 to January 1916 (WWI) in hopes of capturing Istanbul and forcing Turkey to withdraw from the war. The attempt failed and over a quarter of a million soldiers from both sides were killed in what amounted to a competely useless battle. Nothing was gained by either side and the conditions were so terrible that another half a million soldiers died from wounds or diseases, or poor sanitary conditions.

Gallipoli is a huge pilgrimage site for those from Australia and New Zealand and even from Newfoundland, France, India, and Great Britain, whom all lost soldiers there. Turks also honor this place and it was interesting to see cemeteries to all the different forces side by side. In death, all of these soldiers were mourned for by both sides of the conflict and now all the parties involved are allies.

Troy, as most know is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Trojan War cycle, especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Although I greatly wanted to go visited the site, we were put off by talking to some of the people at the hostel that had gone there. They all said that there wasn't much of value to see and that they wouldn't recommend going. So we took them at their word and didn't venture there. I guess it will have to wait for another trip, if I do decide to check it out.

So we have two cities of many under our belt and are headed this evening to Selcuk, a small town close to the famous city Ephesus. More on that in the next installment.