Turkey.2004
a d v e n t u r e s .
Some background...
Having been born in Turkey and living there until I was almost three, it has always been on my Someday List to return - to meet an entire half of my family that I don't remember or know, to explore the history of my heritage, to re-learn the language. But life demands, the sizable financial commitment required, and eternal procrastination got me to 29 without having made the trip.
Much to my delight and surprise, when my love asked me to marry him on May 1, he also presented me with an two week engagement trip to Turkey! I was both overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness *and* the sudden shove out of my comfort zone into a strange new world.
5.22-23.04 :: saturday/sunday :: never-ending travelling
Having never travelled internationally, I am not sure the boy and I were prepared for exactly how *exhausting* it is. I mean, we are no strangers to marathon travelling, with our notorious 24 and 32 hour-straight driving treks across the U.S., but this is different - there is no nice big back seat of a Suburban to curl up in!
By the time we flew out of Boston, headed to Paris, it was already 6pm and we had been travelling and in airports for over 7 hours. Luckily, the flight, though long, was quiet...no nightmare tales of wailing children or creepy fellow-passengers.
By the time we arrived in Paris at 6:30am, we were having wild fantasies about getting a 2 hour nap in the airport before we flew out to Istanbul. However, Fate was to intercede in a big way. Bedraggled and exhausted, we sought out an information desk to ask about our connecting flight. The desk clerk discovered that my Paris-Istanbul ticket had been ripped out accidentally in New Orleans.
So we trugged through the line at customs, and rather than head to our terminal for the nap of our dreams, we went to the American Airlines ticket counter to get my tickets re-issued. Of course, AA wasn't open until 7:45, and since it was only 7am, we played the waiting game as we swayed on our feet and stared into space.
Finally, we were on the shuttle to the terminal Air France was flying out of. As we approached the terminal, it started to look alot like Christmas...blinking lights everywhere. It seemed that every emergency vehicle in Paris was in front of that terminal, though we could see no apparent reason for all the commotion. We were dropped off at the terminal across the street and from there, we spent almost 2 hours trying to find out where our plane was going to depart from.
The next day, we were to discover from my mother what had happened in Paris - that the terminal had collapsed at 7am, killing 5 people. I got goosebumps thinking about the fact that good old-fashioned New Olreans incompetancy was what possibly saved us from being in the middle of that ourselves. I sent up a heartfelt silent prayer to my Karma Angels for being on the ball in keeping us out of harm's way.
But having no idea at the time that Fate was being gracious, we were cranky, annoyed and anxious as we staggered around waiting. Finally, they announced a new gate. As it turns out, they had to bus us out to the tarmac where the plane was waiting because they had an obvious lack of gates available. It took almost an hour to load the plane, and finally - FINALLY! - we were on our way.
It was only a 2 & 1/2 hour flight to Istanbul, and David and I - in our daze - realized they were going to serve us lunch. This was a complete surprise because, as you all know, in America, airlines have all but done away with in-flight meals in their efforts to price tickets affordably. Over the course of this vacation, we flew both Air France and Turkish Airlines, and if they are an average example of airlines in other countries, we are being completely ripped off here. On both airlines, the food served was absolutely amazing - delicious, high-quality meals that tasted as wonderful as they smelled. Compared to the meals we ate on AA, I became rather embaressed about what Europeans must think when they fly in the U.S. AND wine and liquor were free on both airlines!
At 2:30pm local time, we finally arrived - over 20 hours of travelling - and now all we had to do was stay awake all day to stave off the jet lag. Hah.
Let me pause here to give you a little insight into the family I was visiting in Turkey. They are all from my father's side, and if one can make sense of the family tree my mother labored over, they are all distant cousins of some sort. The only truly close blood relation I have is my father's brother - Enver. However, I came to find over the course of our visit that, like many old-world families, blood relation doesn't mean much. Being "family" is an inclusive, warm, welcoming thing that doesn't count which branch of the tree you fell from or how far apart those branches are.
They all knew me as a small child and I was the first baby in that generation of famly, so it seems I left a rather strong impression. Having grown up in a very stricly nuclear family unit, I had always envied other people's extended family and lamented not having one of my own. Little did *I* know that I had them - they were just 1/2 way around the world!
As we broke through customs, my family immediately spotted us and did the airplane wave :) Neşe, who we were going to stay with, and Enver ushered us out into the world. As we began to drive away from the airport, David and I stared blearily out of the windows, trying to absorb the sheer size of what we were seeing. Istanbul was so much larger and more cosmopolitan that we had envisioned. Its hard to describe the conglomeration of different flavors of buildings in the city. You have these immense, glorious mosques & palaces nested in among big boxy apartment buildings for as far as the eye can see, broken up by gorgeous waterfront with deep aqua water. With the Bosphorus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmarus all surrounding Istanbul, the sheer amount of waterfront area is unlike anything I have ever seen in a city. Though, the first thing we noticed was the drivers and traffic - more on this later, but suffice it to say that lanes are a discretional thing for the most part!
As we came to find out, most of my family speaks at least broken English, much to our relief. My uncle Enver was the only one who spoke no English at all, and there were a few who spoke it very very well. Neşe & Mehmet were in the middle, and I think as the week wore on, Mehmet was more and more happy to get to practice his English with us. Inclined toward teasing and with a great sense of humor, he actually went to great effort to explain various idioms in the Turkish language and effectively teased us our whole trip, as well as constantly teaching us the way to say things in Turkish. I couldn't help but think how much my sister would also enjoy his banter and demeanor. We even learned useful and quirky things like the word for pistaccio is also a word used to refer to beautiful women in Turkey. Go figure!
The rest of the day and evening was a vigilent effort to stay awake. We were walking zombies and it was so hard to focus on conversations in broken English and be responsive. During dinner, Vedit arrived to greet us. He atually speaks English fluently and he had wanted to come by and make sure we were alright. In a funny moment of family history, I was to learn that not only was he the 2nd person (after my mother, of course) to see me after I was born, but he was the one who gave me the doll I carried with me everywhere until I was 4, which I still have at my mother's house.
We finally fell into bed around 8pm and remained in a motionless sleep until just before sunrise. And somewhere between the place of waking and sleeping, my brain was recounting for me the significance of what I was doing. I found myself stumbling over myself to remember any - all - tiny bits of Turkish I knew so I could try to talk to these people who were my family. And suddenly I was so overhwelmed by this amazing, indescribable gift that my love had given to me...how thoughtful he was, how long I had wanted this but never given it to myself. And all I could do was sob as he held me and petted my head. I not only got to have *his* family, but he had given me the opportunity to know that *I* had family that I had never known.
As we drifted back to sleep, the eerie, beautiful chants of the morning call to prayer of the nearby mosque hung in the air. It was a very surreal moment.
5.24.04 :: monday :: old istanbul
With a good night's sleep under our belts, we awoke around 9am and had our first Turkish breakfast: fresh French bread, various cheeses, olives, tomatoes, jams, butter, and coffee (though they usually have tea). We expressed the desire to head into the city center to launch into our sight-seeing, and Mehmet let us know that Enver - who doesn't actually live in Istanbul - would take us around.
Enver? Belen, isn't he the only one that doesn't speak English? Yes, my friends. And you begin to see the adventure that this would create. Everyone else worked during the week for the most part, so Enver was our primary guide in the city. Needless to say, this was slightly stressful for all of us - sightseeing is exhausting enough, but when you throw into the mix a foreign country and a non-English speaking guide, we were completely drained at the end of every day. However, we got along, and saw some amazing things.
The first order of business was to exchange some money. We had brought traveller's checks, trying to be all safe and stuff. Three banks later, we finally found one that would take them. Moral of the story, folks: when travelling to Turkey, take your ATM card. You can get money on every corner and there are no fees. Go figure. Damn 21st century! On the upside, a U.S. dollar converts to roughly 1,500,000 Turkish lira. So we were instantly multi-millionaires!
After taking the bus down to the old part of the city, we first walked through the park area that was once the center of the hippodrome in the city center. All that remained were a few center pillars that they carriots used to race around - one of which was a breathtaking Egyptian Obelisk that was originally made in 1500BC and was brought to Istanbul by Constantine.
Our first stop was the Blue Mosque, so named for its intricate blue tile mosaics that cover the interior of the building. Stepping inside after removing our shoes, I was overwhelmed by the sense of peace and solemn beauty of the place. It was very grand from the outside, but inside was awesome - it's easy to see why everyone raved about the Turkish tilework that lined the pillars, walls and domes. Having never been in a mosque before, I cannot tell you if this is unusual, but all the mosques we entered in Istanbul all have hundreds of wires suspending candelabras from the high domes of the ceiling. I am sure in the twilight hours, this must be a beautiful site.
Unfortunately, Hagia Sophia was closed, so we moved along to Topkapi Palace, which afforded us views of strange and interesting things, such as an 86 carat diamond and the skull and arm of St. John the Baptist. The armory had some lovely weapons, and the various buildings were pretty interesting.
However, the coolest thing we saw that way was the Basillica Cistern. For those of you who don't know what a cistern is, it was a water storage system used by the Romans, and this cistern could store enough water to sustain 36,000 people for up to 10 days. As we decended the steps, the sense of eeriness was palpable. They had beautifully haunting classical music playing and all the columns were lit dimly to create just enough light to see the details on columns and the cavernous nature of the building, but all bathed in a deep-red glow. At the far end of the cistern was a very unusual site. While building it, the Romans had recycled some old (possibly Greek) sculptures of Medusa's head - one on its side and one upside down, serving as the base of 2 columns.
We made it home just before a cold, ugly storm rolled in, and the evening was relaxing, with a quiet dinner and some lovely conversation with the neighbor's daughter, who had just returned from living in the U.S. for 9 months. She offered to take us for a drive by the Bosphorus the next day, and we gladly accepted.
Overall, it was a busy, wonderful, tiring day. I realized today that the desire to learn Turkish is finally a tangible goal with true motivation backing it, which is a huge change from my half-hearted attempts in the past. I think I will now dangle a bigfat carrot in front of myself to finish my degree. Once I place out of my Turkish credit and finish my English degree, I am giving us another trip to Turkey - to explore, lounge by the seaside, and celebrate my success!
5.25.04 :: tuesday :: the bosphorus & classical turkish music
This was perhaps one of our only days in Istanbul that was thoroughly relaxing, strolling along at the sort of pace we are accustomed to in our quiet lives. We awoke at 9am, had a leisurely breakfast and confirmed to ourselves that we had No Plan today.
While we lounged in the sunlit living room, reading books until around 1pm, Vedit called to invite us to attend a classical Turkish music concert at the university that evening. We were very excited at the prospect, and thanked him for his thoughtfulness.
The neighbor, Marve, came to pick us up at 2:30pm and took us for a nice drive along the Bosphorus, through many small waterside towns, and eventually we stopped to have tea at a little place on the water. It was a sunny, clear, beautiful day - and the drive along the coast was gorgeous.
Returning around 5pm, we were quickly wisked off to the concert. The concert was being given in honor of a very famous clasical Turkish composer whose son was in attendance to hear it, and we definately got the impression that this was a big deal. The music was so very beautiful, though so soothing that it was hard to stay awake at times!
Following the concert, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at an outdoor cafe in Oroköy and enjoyed a wide variety of tasty things to eat.
Over the course of the day, we made many interesting observations worth noting:
International-Travel--David has a radically different schedule than the Home Model.
For the bulk of the vacation, David was the first one to pop out of bed - often at 8am - and he took over the fixing breakfast duties. It was quite unsettling and bizarre to witness, as his usualy daily schedule doesn't dream of beginning until around 11am each day. I found myself dragging behind him to wake up and start the day, and I whined more than once, "But I'm TIRED!"
Drivers and roads in Turkey are INSANE.
We will never complain about U.S. drivers again. Ever. There are no rules in Istanbul. There are no visible punishments for crazy driving. There are hardly any LANES marked on roads. It's a very scary free-for-all. On our nice drive down to the coast, we were travelling on a barely-two-lane road that had cars randomly parked along it, winding through buildings, that was sloping down at about a 30 degree angle. There were many places in the road where only 1 car could pass through at a time, and even then, the surrounding objects were inches from the side mirrors. I will say, though, that these people KNOW where the edges of their cars are. Words cannot adequately explain the experience of Istanbul traffic, roads & drivers.
Turkish street cats are shameless.
Every cafe has resident street cats. And they all know exactly how to suck in their cheeks, sit beside you and plaintively mew for scraps. Most don't look too scraggly and we never saw fleas on them. They fight with other cats who are infringing on their meal ticket, and the entire dynamic is fascinating. They really understand which tables to work, how to make the most impact and as a result, I think they make a pretty good living.
5.26.04 :: wednesday :: miniaturk
At 10am, Nilüfer came to pick us up to see a new attraction that had opened up in Istanbul recently, called MiniaTurk. It is an outdoor park that has miniatures, to scale & with amazing detail, of every major historical building in all of Turkey. Even the landscaping around the buildings was done in miniature...little bonsai'd trees and bushes. It was so cool - and Badtz enjoyed posing in front of many sights. For those of you who would like to know more about the place, they actually have a really good Flash site in English!
Unfortunately, it was field-trip day and the entire place was packed with children. This wouldn't have been too bad, except that David, apparently, is a bigger tourist attraction for children than the miniatures. So surrounded by tiny buildings, he had hordes of children around him, wanting to talk to him and ask him questions. I can hear all of you chuckling at the mental picture :)
Once we escaped munchkinville, we drove to a hill overlooking Istanbul for some tea and then had Turkish ice cream for the first time. MMMMMMMMMM :) Very creamy & thick - alot like the homemade icecream branches that finally popped up in the U.S. about 10 years ago.
We made our way back to the house so Claudia could pick us up for dinner. Turhan and Claudia are old friends of my parents whom I actually met in Houston years ago. Turhan was my father's sidekick in college and his wife, Claudia, is English - so the evening was full of delightful conversation (in fluent English!) about family, politics, travelling, sights to see, and more. The political discussions in particular were fascinating. It is such an eye-opening experience to speak with people who are not cocooned inside the U.S. newsfeed mentality. Turhan travels extensively in the middle east and has for 20 or more years for business - and his insights into the changing political climate of late was really intriguing. If you want to geek out on this stuff, ask David & I to recount our conversations with him that night :)
5.27.04 :: thursday :: süleyman's mosque, covered bazaar, beyoğlu, taksim square
Thursday, we headed back down to the city center to see more sights. Even as we planned the day, I think David & I were both beginning to realize why we don't vacation like standard people. It's exhausting to sight-see, and for us at least, that exhaustion doesn't reconcile with the concept of a vacation.
First stop was Süleyman's Mosque, which continued the precedent of elegent, beautiful architecture. It seems that everywhere you turn in Istanbul, there is another awe-inspiring mosque to see.
Next on the list was the famous covered bazaar. The equivalent of an ancient mall, it was completely overwhelming. The sales people are all so loud and so intrusive that it is hard to even walk down the paths that wind through the extensive market area. I was so glad I am already fairly used to street beggers, panhandlers and other sorts approaching me, because I am conditioned to say no & ignore persistant people as a result. I cannot IMAGINE what that place must be like for people who feel obliged to answer everyone and listen politely.
While there were certainly some beautiful things to be seen and purchased, the majority of the place smacked with the same feel as any other tourist city's "market" - full of a bunch of crap with everyone trying to sell you the same thing.
The bazaar did, however, afford us a moment of total chagrin. Wandering through the silver area, we looked over to see our wine pourer. The same exact wine pourer David has gotten me as an engagement gift. And out of morbid curiosity, I inquired as to the price. It was 1/3 the price we paid for it, of course. Who would have guessed it was hanging out halfway across the world at such a bargain? Ack!
After fleeing the bazaar, we headed to Beyoğlu Street, a part of town that was architecturally almost exactly like New York, though a little more quaint, with cobblestone streets and shopping & cafe's scattered along it. And while wondering along this street, we saw the one and only Goth we encountered in Turkey :)
We ended the day with a relaxing and lovely dinner with Vedit and his partner, Anne. It was another evening of fluent English, for which we were greatful. Vedit also helped us plan our trip to Ephesus by booking plane tickets for us and making reservations at a hotel in Selcuk that his friend had recommended for us (for only $20/night!)
5.28.04 :: friday :: prince's islands
What was planned on our part to be a completely relaxing day became a perfect example of good intentions leaving us frustrated and tired. Our plan was to go to the Prince's Islands, which is just off the coast in the Marmarus Sea. The islands apparently shun motorized transportation, so there are almost no cars and we were told it was a beautiful place to walk around, enjoy the peace and even walk on beaches.
Unfortunately, we left ourselves to be scheduled by other people, and this resulted in a less than ideal situation. We didn't leave the house until around noon, which was probably a mistake on our part. But we didn't realize exactly how long it would take us to get there via our not-so-direct route. Enver took us via 2 buses & a ferry to meet Nilüfer & Merih. From *there*, it was another hour and a half on ferry to the island where they wanted to take us for lunch. And upon finishing lunch, we rushed back to the docks to catch the ferry back, as the next ferry was not for another 2 hours.
It was so frustrating to us because the islands were beautiful. We would have enjoyed walking hand in hand down the quiet streets, stopping here and there to have tea or a snack. We stared longingly back at the town, wishing we had been alone to explore at our own pace. That was really the hardest part of this trip - everyone had such good intentions in showing us around, but it was all so rushed and stressful compared to our usual mode of life.
Despite our frustration, we very much enjoyed meeting Merih, who felt like a grandmother I never knew. She spoke English fairly well, and she was a spunky, interesting, engaging woman. At 74, she was trucking up and down hills like a trooper - I only hope I can still be in that good a shape at her age!
The evening brought a big family dinner at a restaurant, which was very tasty. We struggled to stay awake as everyone chattered around us. As rather solitary people, the level of socializing that everyone engages in is a little overwhelming. We were very happy to fall into bed and dream of our "holiday" by ourselves to Selcuk that would begin on Monday!
5.29.04 :: saturday :: fortress of europe
This was a far more relaxing day, even though it was busy. Mehmet, Neşe, & Enver took us around the city before we moved camps to stay with Tunç & Nilüfer for the remainder of the trip. First, we bought our bus tickets for the return trip home from Izmir, and then we wandered through the shops by the coast at Oroköy, where I found a gorgeous necklace for club nights.
Then David & I spent about an hour frolicking through our first taste of exploring ruins. The Fortress of Europe, built in 1452, was SO MUCH FUN! Climbing the steps to walk along the fortress walls, the overwhelming feeling of history was delicious. The stronghold was this amazing mixture of old, worn stone and vibrant, green healthy trees and plants. The combination was this unkept wildness where once there was military rigidity, and our photographs don't really do it justice. We took great joy in being able to climb, explore, see and feel it all around us - the place was quite well preserved, but not so neatly that you lost the abandoned feel. Apparently, every summer, major concerts are still held there in it's outdoor amphitheater! The Turkish pop singer, Candan, that David & I have come to enjoy played there last summer, in fact.
We found ourselves wishing that more of our tourism energy had been invested in places like the fortress, and it continued to fuel our excitement of escaping on our mini-trip to Selcuk. We left the fortress so hungry that we were ready to gnaw off arms. They took us to this amazing restaurant in Kariköy, where we ate so much we could hardly walk.
The evening turned out to be quite a little family gathering. Nilüfer was receiving a tennis trophy at their sports club, so about 10 of us were in attendance at their reception dinner at the club. Note to Americans: Turkish awards dinners also serve spaghetti and red wine as the standard meal ;) It was enjoyable to watch my family hang out together, sing to traditional Turkish songs, dance and generally have a wonderful time with each other.
5.30.04 :: sunday :: leander's tower
Finally, a day with a pace we could handle! Breakfast, laundry, Turkish children's programs (they have a 6 year-old son), and reading on the balcony were our morning agenda. Tunç mentioned that his son, Doruk, was learning how to play chess, so I gladly accepted a game with him. And to my amazement, he saw and moved in ways that I wouldn't have expected - damn underestimation of children! And in the end, I lost - but I still claim it was only because his father swooped in and coached him at the end! :)
Around noon, we loaded the kids in the car and went to Leander's Tower. This was a pretty neat place, with a very interesting history. The current tower, built in the 18th century, is on a tiny island off the coast in the Bosphorus, though many other towers had been built and destroyed on that spot since before Byzantium was even a settlement (circa 600BC). The tower's history spins tales of love, betrayal, murder, imprisonment, and all sorts of fun & scandelous topics. The view from the top is beautiful, and it even had a gorgeous restaurant they built inside it. It was very reasonably priced, and eating while gazing out the ancient, arched windows at the blue of the water around us was quite an experience.
We returned to Tunç's to finish packing for the trip, and then they dropped us off at Mehmet & Neşe's since it was easier to get to the airport from their house. We had a very quiet evening of home movies, which we enjoyed very much - it was neat to see all the people we had been meeting when they were in their early 20's. We fell into bed early in preparation for setting out into the world by ourselves the next morning.
5.31.04 :: monday :: selcuk
The early morning greeted us with completely crappy weather, and we were glad to be leaving it behind! We had to say our goodbye's to Mehmet & Neşe, as they were leaving on vacation just as we returned from Selcuk, and Enver was also returning to his home in Ankara. Neşe dropped us at the giant mall near their home (funny how I still don't think of "malls" in other countries!) which had a nice shuttle bus to the airport.
Luckily, we seem to be better at giving ourselves plenty of buffer time when travelling internationally, because we always seem to be invariably in the wrong place. So we trekked over to the correct terminal and still had plenty of time to enjoy a universally expensive airport snack. Unlike U.S. airports, there is none of that silly "boarding order announcement" garbage - when the clock matches the boarding time on your ticket, you just start getting on the plane. This was very strange to us :)
Once we arrived in Izmir, we needed to aquire transportation to Selcuk, which was about 45 minutes away. We felt a little out of our element, and decided to hop in a cab to the bus station, where we could get a bus to Selcuk. However, the slick-talking cab driver convinced us that, while he *could* take us to the airport for 40 mil, he would be happy to take us all the way to Selcuk for only 70! We resisted, but he was insistant, and we finally caved in. While we knew we were spending money frivolously, it was rather nice to just sit back and not have to think as we travelled to our destination.
The hotel that Vedit had found for us was right in the center of town and was clean, quaint and perfectly adequate for our simple needs. We unpacked, settled in, and then got ourselves ready to explore the city, since it was only noon and we had the whole day ahead of us.
Once again, we were rather overwhelmed by restaurant owners trying to chat us up and push us in the door, and we found ourselves fleeing past them in hopes of finding a place to eat that didn't harass us. This is how we happened to duck down a side street and found a little place that was quiet with outdoor tables in the shade. We sat down, and the owner came out to greet us, give us menus, and recommended his specialties. We sat back, relaxed, ate a delicious lunch, and found ourselves smiling at the quality service that was unobstrusive but still very friendly. He introduced himself as Mustafa, and invited us to return that night to eat fish and drink some local Sirence wine. We happily accepted, and wandered off with full tummies to see what Selcuk had to offer.
David had his eye on Selcuk Castle up on the hill, but we found out it had been closed for about 5 years. But we made our way to St. John's Church, which was fabulous! The church is reputed to have been built over the tomb of St. John the Baptist, who took the Virgin Mary to this area to live out her life after Jesus's crucifiction. The ruins were complete accessable to explore, and we climbed, poked our heads in holes, and took lots of pictures. The view out across the countryside over peach orchards and lush green was so peaceful and lovely.
Next, we came to Isa Bey Mosque, which also had a much more accessable, alive feel to it than the grand mosques we had seen in Istanbul. The courtyard was so inviting, we sat in the shade and leaned up against columns for a while, and I pondered what it might be like to come and write in a place like this. Peace resonated throughout the building, and the day was turning out to be exactly what we had been needing - slow walks along ancient streets, holding hands, soaking in history of these ancient places, chattering about this and that.
In our wanderings around the small town, we also came across ancient Turkish baths and scattered remnants of aqueducts. Around 4, we headed back to the hotel, where we relaxed, napped and got cleaned up for dinner.
Dinner was even more delightful than we had anticipated, with salad, borek, fresh fish, potatoes, complementary fresh fruit for dessert, and a fabulous bottle of local wine. The wine was very unusual - it had very strong berry flavor without being particularly sweet, and our mouths didn't quite know what to make of it, though we really liked it. The whole dinner was so romantic, and Mustafa made sure I left with a red rose that he gave to David to give to me.
6.1.04 :: tuesday :: ephesus
Already feeling complete renewed and back to our usual pace of life, the day unfolded before us in a deliciously lazy fashion. We woke around 10 and headed out to the Ephesus Museum across the street. It was truly amazing. The statues were almost alive with the detail carved into the marble. The artifacts collected there were all very interesting to see, though we cruised through pretty quickly because we wanted to make sure we had time to see Ephesus.
We grabbed a quick lunch of Turkish pizza that left us stuffed with great food for only $5 total, and then we set off on the journey to Ephesus. Most people hop on a bus to get there, but since it was a lovely day and only a 3km walk, we decided to just make teh trip on foot, preferring to continue our solitude rather than jostle around with other tourists. The path there was actually quite nice - lined with trees and running parallel, but just off the road for most of the way. On the way there, we passed the Temple of Artemis, which was once one of the 7 wonders of the world, so we stopped to look - and what we found was a single column in the middle of green swampy water :)
After a slight uphill climb for the last part of our walk, Ephesus began to unfold ahead of us. The beauty of it was truly awesome, and we spent hours wandering around, gazing up at the arches, columns, buildings, mosaics, and statues that had been uncovered.
Unfortunately, Ephesus is accessable enough that it has a high amount of tourist traffic milling through it, and this has resulted in a "stay on the path" mentality. Occassionally, we would find barriers knocked over, which promted us to duck "behind the scenes" and experience some quieter, more untamed moments in the maze of tourists. But however annoying we found the restrictions and the droves of people, the experience was still amazing.
Eventually, we found a lovely little spot under a mulberry tree, next to a 2000 year old sidewalk covered in mosaic tilework, where a broken column and perfectly situated stone afforded us a shady spot to take out the Travel Scrabble and play a game. People walked by and couldn't help but smile at us, drinking water, munching on walnuts and playing a game in such an ancient place. I am sure they thought we were quite strange, but we were quite content to be sharing our lives with the ghosts of citizens past :) I could have burst with the joy of such a delightful way to spend the day!
On the walk back home, one of the couples who had commented how lovely our Scrabble location was stopped and offered us a ride back to Selcuk, which we happily accepted. We cleaned up for dinner and wandered to Mustafa's for another fabulous dinner of salad, borek, lamb, shish kababs, fruit and wine. It made me feel a little teary to feel so immediately welcome and like a regular in such a foreign place, but Mustafa had such a wonderful way of making us feel comfortable and happy. After we finished our wine, he brought us each another glass of different wine and shared a drink with us and even bought us a souveneer of a statue of Aphrodite!
6.2.04 :: wednesday :: priene
Our plan for Wednesday was to travel to Aphrodesius, which is said to have even more amazing ruins and be much quieter and more accessable. However, in looking at the effort to get there and the timetables not really cooperating, we had to formulate another plan and write off Aphrodesius for the next trip.
We decided to go to Priene, a Greek city believed to have been part of the 12 cities-states settled by the Greeks before 1000BC. The city plan was laid out in about 450BC, and because the Romans didn't look favorably upon this settlement of about 200,000 people, it was never really settled or built up by the Romans. The city became more or less abandoned by about 600AD, it is one of the best preserved examples of a Hellenistic city.
We were quite excited by the prospect and managed to navigate 3 mini-bus rides to progressively smaller towns to get there. The bus dropped us at the bottom of the hill, where we climbed a pretty good incline to reach the entrance. We paid a whole $2.50 to get in, and it was AMAZING! Obviously not as well restored or put-together as a place like Ephesus, it was free-range exploring and you could feel the deep age of the place.
David and I tried to put to words what it was about a place like this that felt so Right compared to busier, more touristy spots. And he finally nailed it: when it's quiet and more untouched, you can actually *hear* the buildings talking to you, telling you their story. It's like I could feel the energy of the thousands of people and thousands of years all around me - that it never left, it just got more quiet. And in this remote place, where we only saw about 15 other people all day, it reverberated around us.
One fo the more spectacular parts of Priene was the Temple of Athena, which still had a few columns standing. But all around it were the pieces of the fallen columns, and once we read that there were originally 34 columns, we made a quick mental scan of the area, realizing that every piece was *here*, just laying on the ground, waiting to be reconstructed. We entertained wild and wonderful ideas of the ultimate "puzzle" it was (no box lid for this one!) and how we could wile away a few years overseeing the reconstruction of this grand temple :)
Eventually, we climbed down to an area where houses had been and found what had to have been a very wealthy manor house. We poked around and eventually decided to sit for a while in the shade of some interior walls, under a tree, read aloud to each other, and drink some wine we brought along as we snacked. And we spent the next two hours enjoying the hospitality of the beautiful old home, loving it as no one had done in perhaps a thousand years, sharing our daily life with it. And you could hear it sigh with contentment around us. It was a gloriously peaceful and content space.
On our way back to Selcuk, we stopped in Kuşadasi to track down a beach and allow David to indulge his desire to dip himself into the Aegean. Though I was tired, it was a nice walk, though he said the water was cold and dirty. However, we got ice cream on the way back, which makes everything better! :)
We returned to Selcuk and closed our stay with our final delicious dinner at Mustafa's (I believe the name is actually the Ephesus Restaurant or something). He collects postcards from aroudn the world, so we promised to send him one from New Orleans and we took a picture with him to commemorate this wonderful and fortuitous cafe.
6.3.04 :: thursday :: travel to istanbul
All relaxed and zen from our little holiday, it was apparently time for some adventure!
Having been told that there was a bus to Izmir running every 20 minutes, we rolled out of the hotel around 7:45am to catch the bus. However, we had been misinformed and the next bus didn't leave until 8:15. Theoretically, this was fine, as the bus was arriving in Izmir at 9:15 and our bus was leaving for Istanbul from the same bus station at 9:30 - close but doable.
We all know it cannot be that easy :) So after bumbling around in the bus station, trying to figure out where we were going to catch the Ulusoy bus to Istanbul, we finally arrived at the designated area and there was no bus. The ticket clerk roudned up an English-speaking employee to explain to us that the bus had left *this* station at 9am and the time printed on our ticket was for another bus station. He assured us that we could still catch the bus at the other station and arranged a cab for us, gave the driver instructions and sent us off into....gridlock traffic.
David and I are trying to stay calm as the traffic inches along and the cabbie negotiates through it as best as he can. Finally, we break through the traffic and haul it to...the dirt shoulder of a road leading out of town. There is a small police booth and...dirt. By now, we are feeling quite doubtful, but the cabbie stays with us, checks with the policeman to see if the bus has come (I assume) and finally, 15 minutes late, when the bus appears down the road, he flags it down for us and it stops. We just look at each other and silently understand that we are at the "I not only missed my bus but I had to dash to the vest last possible point in the city where it passes before leaving civilization to catch it" stop.
But we made it. We climbed on and were happy to realize how nice the bus was. It sure beat Greyhound's mode of transport and our total cost to get back to Istanbul was only $60 for an 8 hour trip. So we hunkered down for a long ride, and it wasn't too bad.
Bahar, who we had not met yet, picked us up from the bus station, and we hung out at her house, went out for a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant on a marina, and then she took us to Tunç's. She didn't speak English very well, so it was a pretty quiet evening, which after a day of travelling, we were happy for.
6.4.04 :: friday :: istanbul
All in all, it was another frustrating day that didn't turn out the way we had hoped, despite good intentions. The trip down the Bosphorus that we wanted to take was only on Sundays, so that plan was out. Nilüfer took us around the city, showing us various small places, helped us buy the CD we wanted and fed us famous yogurt (which was really good). However, after the quiet of our trip, we were so unhappy with being in a car all day, fighting ugly Istanbul traffic, and being thrust back into the standard run-around-with-your-head-cut-off tourist venture. She meant well, but our hearts just weren't in it.
We saw her daughter's school, which is the biggest in Turkey, and it was gorgeous. Aylin is on the synchronized swimming team, and we watched her practice and then returned home. Dinner was at a fish restaurant that night, and Tunç helped us work out our plans to be off on our own the next day to do our last sight-seeing in the city center.
6.5.04 :: saturday :: hagia sophia & galata tower
Powered and navigated by our own doing, the day was fabulous. We hopped the ferry over to the European side, called Vedit to arrange an afternoon meeting place and went to see Hagia Sophia.
While we had found the mosques beautiful, Hagia Sophia was something else altogether. It was huge, and the odd blend of mosque features, with bits of old church iconography uncovered was pretty amazing.
The marble used throught the inside was gorgeous - 5 or so patterns and colors, all arranged in such a way that they didn't fight each other, but formed a perfect balance of color and texture. Some of the domes had the yello painted frescos of the mosque, but in some of the restored parts of the building, we see what the church looked like before they painted it over. The mosaics are all in *gold* and the luminescence of the walls and ceiling are amazing. Every nook and cranny is decorated in a breathtakingly beautiful way, and the religious mosaics that are being uncovered from some of the walls simply glow under the soft light. To have seen this place in the prime of the Byzantine Empire must have been as close to heaven as you could imagine getting on earth.
Upstairs, there was a really great art exhibit done by an artist that captured photos and paintings of parts of the building...and they were gorgeous. It was an awesome exhibit that only magnified the beauty you saw around you, rather than competing with it.
After we left Hagia Sophia, we went to the covered bazaar in an attempt to get a few items to take home with us - prints of the city, oil lamps, wine glasses. Instead, we wasted way too much time and walked out with nothing. I long for my return and the ability to speak Turkish and not feel *quite* so overwhelmed by the place. We shall see, I suppose.
Running hopelessly late in meeting Vedit, we met him at the ferry stop instead and he escorted us up to Galata Tower. We had tea in the shadow of the tower and gave him the wine we bought for him as a thank-you while we were in Selcuk. Once we said our goodbyes, David and I went up Galata Tower and looked out over the city. David took pictures in a full panorama, which we made into a really great picture.
We caught the 6:30 ferry back to the other side, where Bahar picked us up. Tunç & his family were going to be out that evening until about midnight, so we hung out at Bahar's, drove across creation to eat dinner (which was at least very good) and then vegged out on the couch watching BBC until about 1am when they finally picked us up.
We fell into bed around 2:30am, and I was so thankful that I had had the foresight to pack almost everything that morning instead of counting on time that night to do it.
6.6.04 :: sunday :: travel home
We rolled out of bed at 5:30am to get to the airport for our 8:30am flight. Turkish Airlines served us a fabulous breakfast (even the rolls were warmed and crispy!) and we slept on and off to Frankfurt. We had a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, where we got in some more sleep, and somewhere in the middle of the flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, we could only wallow in the misery of international travel, sleeplessness and the neverending plane ride.
All wallowing aside, it was an uneventful, peaceful trip home, for which we were thankful. Mike & Andee fetched us from the airport at 9pm, and we arrived home to find Will doing dishes with deathmetal blaring :) He looked a little startled to see us, and we grunted our appreciation at him, since we were rendered incapable of any real communication skills by that point. We fell into our bed at 10pm, completely relieved to be home at last!