PAMUKKALE, AFRODISIAS and KONYA

Monday 13 September (Pamukkale 13-15 Sept)
Today I paid by credit card as my brand new Debit card has started to split, funnily since this card has a far better time than the rest because instead of being in a underclothing money wallet it is carried ın my neck wallet and should be kept flat by the Passports etc. I have strengthened it by a strip of micro-pore but am nervous in case it is swallowed by an ATM. There is an unfinished judgement about whether it is better to carry one card rather than two from the same account, two doubles the risk of it being stolen a big concern in Mexico and one leaves one exposed to damage as at present.

We had an excellent journey today, the bus to Izmir left within 20 mins of our arrival at the bus station in Foça, we were just ten minutes in Izmir before leaving in the last two seats available on the 12 o'clock bus to Denzili and had just 10 mins to wait before the minibus (20 seater) left for Pamukkale. Several touts were trying to attract us to Hotel Dört Mevsim ( which also seems good) but as we were walking past our first choice Venus we went in and were offered a wonderful room with a double and two twin beds for 70TL including breakfasts, so here we are with a warning that we may have to change to a good double tomorrow if they get a quad booking. Pool, home cooking, beautiful as well as large room  - a good ending to the day. They also did little things for free like book our ongoing bus journey and run us to the bus stop, and run us to the highest part of Hierapolis to the South gate, where the coaches park.

Venus Hotel

One day in I felt what good value Venus was popular but unlike Turkey. Our first dinner wasn't great but after that I started to mellow and to enjoy the company of other English speaking travellers particularly John and Julia from NZ who followed us into the pool. They were from Napier (Hawkes Bay country) and were getting towards the end of a couple of months or so in Europe. Julia was born in Italy so has dual passports even though her mother emigrated whilst she was still young, John claimed Scots and Irish roots and they had visited relatives in both countries plus Norway where their daughter now works and will meet their son in Venice in a few days time.

Night two
The car as described dropped us at the south gate and we walked towards the centre before noticing some small groups were walking up to the very highest points within the site so we backtracked a little and did the same to the Roman Theatre and then onwards and upwards to the Martirium of St Philip were he is thought to have been martyred. Both were magnificent, two of the most impressive parts of the site, and it was particularly interesting to watch a huge crane being used in the reconstruction of the latter. Work with heavy blocks of stone which originally was also done by manual effort using only mechanical advantage via multi-pass pulleys and levers according to Rick (see  next day) and presumably wooden scaffold as we saw being used just today in the construction of a small minaret.

HIERAPOLIS the Martirium of St Philip at top

From there it was all downhill to the centre with the major attractions of a museum, a swimming area in reputedly healing water, one of the reasons for the city was once again health.

Pool with restaurant at centre

First view of Travertines

We took a break in the cafe then found the travertines where the water flowing over the mountain side layered it with a white coating of calcium carbonate the white colour like ice or chalk but a very different structure, perhaps like that found in show caves, being solid and offering good traction. 

After listening to a tour guide I decided that we would at least try the shortest route back to town which was to walk barefoot down the travertines, but first Joan had the desire to walk to the far west of the site - to see of all things the well preserved latrines.

By the time we got back to the centre we were very tired but took a rest at smaller cafe with a huge pancake rolled out by two Muslim women and the flavoured by a generous coating of parsley and then Fetta cheese before folding it in two and placing it on a traditional griddle in a clay oven. That and another Aryan drink restored our heart and as we tackled the travertines. We soon found it was quite unlike ice and easy to walk on the chosen route was being washed by flowing water, but could be decidedly uncomfortable on the small stones deposited in the polls.

Muslim pancakes

Descending the travertines

Having spotted another German couple, just a little younger, start their descent before us there was no turning back as the path got a little steeper and the water flow faster and the path narrower because of the deep pools to the mountain side where men and girls in bikinis were bathing. In fact my feet survived better than Joan, who regularly goes barefoot in the house, she thought hers had been severely cut but there was no such damage on inspection whilst showering.

We were little short of exhaustion on returning to Venus, but we had been on our feet from 10 until 6pm with just a couple of short breaks, and after a rapidly eaten dinner, four courses soup, vegetables, salad and main course for 20TL each we flopped into bed. The good news was that they had been able to organise transport for tomorrows  trip to Afrodisias which they had failed to do today for lack of support.

Nıght 3
The taxi picked us up at 9.45 as planned and we soon introduced ourselves to Rick and Rosemary who were already installed from another hotel. This trip had been organised by the hotel privately but the cost was just the same 30TL per person as the larger trips w but without guide. We could hardly have better companions, Rick taught archıtecture at Waterloo University in Canada. Rick said that Waterloo University was set up at that time to satisfy demand for engineers and that it is now the biggest Technical university in Canada. We had quite a prolonged discussion about education and my belief that we had done our as then unborn children a disfavour when we came back to Britain to raise a family. He said secondary education had got into a mess there as well, this by offering more and more options for study leading to the neglect of the harder subjects so as to satisfy improve student interest.

Forgive me whilst I reminisce for I remember playing an exhibition Rugby match at Waterloo organised by Toronto Scottish way back in the fifties in an attempt to popularise rugby. 

That day a great tackle brought down my mate 'number eight' Ian Gregor in full flow, he looked round and merely said 'you again' before we on with the game. A similarly spectacular tackle, also on a 'number eight' Notts, Lincs & Derby county player all but got me a place in the Ontario team to play the British Lions back and then the Barbarians, until the coach saw my damaged heavily strapped ankle - the result of turning it over playing with Roy Green at handball, a popular version of squash without rackets. 

At the time I captained my home team Hamilton and we won Ontario League 2 that year thanks largely to an influx of engineering graduates from UCD to Canadian Westinghouse for graduate training like me. The greatest problem in that league at that time was to get 15 players a side, often reducing numbers and loaning players to even up the sides. Division 1 was a different matter with several very good ex UK young players were on the field but strangely almost no Welsh - there were Toronto Irish and Toronto Scottish teams but no Toronto Welsh.

I played a season for Mount Royal in Montreal (whilst commissioning the lift bridges over the St Lawrence Seaway) playing second row with the great Irish number eight Tom Reid just back from a Lions tour of South Africa. It's amazing how much bigger Rugby players have got in the succeeding years. Even in my time I had to move from tight head prop to blind-side wing forward because of the increase in average size in the tight five forwards.


Afrodisias is a great site but less frequently visited mostly because of its remoteness, there is no obvious centre close by with the necessary amount of accommodation. We for instance had a 90 minutes plus taxi ride in either direction. Rick said he had been lecturing about this site for years but this was the first time he had seen it in the flesh, as it were. He said how different sites were to what might be imagined from a plan and he was carrying extensive details but finding it difficult to orient, but having done so he was a mine of information.

AFRODISIAS another great site near Pamukkale

The museum there was fabulous full of magnificent sculptures recovered from this site and from Laodicea once famous for black wool, banking and medicines closer to Pamukkale. Thinking I was late having separated from the others in the museum I went straight for the tractor train taking visitors back the 500m to the car park and unfortunately had to wait 25 minutes whilst the rest searched for me in the museum and cafe (according to the LP there is nothing there except the site, not even water purchase - out of date once again).

16 Sept Journey to Konya (16-18 Sept)

En route, taken from bus

The hotel ferried us to pick up the mini bus feeder to Denzili from where we would catch the bus on to Konya, that last journey took us 6.75 hours the largest portion through the straw coloured (yellow ochre as Joan described it) bread basket of Turkey because the harvest had been taken and so the landscape of slowly rolling hills with high mountains in the background was nothing but stubble. It is amazing to think that anything grows in such dry hot land but I guess it is not that different to the great wheat belts of say Oklahoma in the US, then suddenly it changed to greenery again and to huge fruit orchards. The land is more typical of the USA in that huge areas without division into fields are under cultivation and there are no farms to be seen presumably because the farms are all large. 

From the Otogar we got a taxi to the Rumi Hotel recommended by John and Julia 26TL, though given more time and energy we would have explored the tramway which runs passed the Otogar to the central round about in the centre of which is the Alaadin mosque (pronounced Alla-deen  and certainly not Aladin!). We were given a large room with a extra wide double bed 6ft plus. Nevertheless at 70 euros we went in search of a cheaper alternative for the next two nıghts and found another large comfortable, though far less well appointed room in a hotel close by on the main drag, Mevlana Sema Otelag for 80 TL. Breakfast at Rimi was a delight because of the rooftop location overlooking the Mevlana museum, the major attraction here, though it was spoiled somewhat by an ugly tall steel chimney on the next building. One of the features is a turquoise tower almost the green of such significance to Muslims and domes of course. 

Mevlana museum

Our first day there was spent first fighting the bus-loads of Turkish tourists at the museum, apart from audio guides nothing was marked in English in a location which of very special importance to Muslims because the founder way back in 1240's Rumi, later known as Mevlana, is a very important authority on the Quran and a famous poet to boot. His son Sultan Veled organised his followers into a brotherhood known as Mevlevi or Whirling Dervishes. A side building was devoted to the Whirling Dervishes a manifestation of Islam who got close to God by dancing, twirling themselves into a trance. Must try that at Jive when I get back and adorn myself in long white robe with a swirling skirt to outdo Tessa!

After that we went around many of the cities museums (3/4 million inhabitants) but only the Karatay Müzesi The tile museum impressed. 

Mevlana museum

The Museum of Wooden Artefacts and Stone Carving was a complete washout until a tour party arrived and persuaded the office to switch on the spotlights positioned to show off each exhibit. It not often I delight in the arrival of tour parties but this one at least allowed us to see the exhibits. Absolutely exhausted again we went for a lie down before going to the restaurant over the road called Şifa Lokantasi where for the second night running I had Firin Tandi Kebab 100gram of tender lean roast lamb on bread all cooked in a Tandoor oven, whilst Joan also had the same as before Patlican (aubergine and meat Kebab).We both started with another local speciality Dorun a soup of yoghurt, rice and mint. This meal ran to 30 TL for two, and was the first real meat I have had since leaving home, though Joan reminds me she discovered and introduced me to Şiş (shish kebab) chicken in Pamukkale. 

The first night in this restaurant the owner had used our city map to indicate to us the major attractions of Konya. He went on to talk to four Asian girls on an adjacent table and two coloured girls from California advising them to travel independently like us rather than go with a tour party. All examples of the way we are being welcomed in this country. He also told us there would be a free performance of Twirling Dervishes at the Mevlana Cultural Centre on Saturday at 9 pm so we decided to spend an extra day, this one had already proved full of new discoveries.

18 Sept
John had said that for him Konya represented the real Turkey and for us this day proved true for us like Edirne, Gelibolu and Foça. After a good night's sleep in a very comfortable bed and another good breakfast we set out to find the Gülbahçesı Konya Mutfağı restaurant as per the LP map with a view to going there this evening, not as per their out of date name of Köşk Konya, which described it as a restaurant run by a famous Turkish food writer . Not 100 metres away was another rooftop restaurant called simply Konya Mutfağı, which we decided was the imposter.

Street Outside new Centre

Cultural Centre 2002

Half way along the main road to the Cultural Centre 2002, where tonight's Whirling Dervishes ceremony will be performed we came to an impressive new War Memorial with two rows of flagpoles outside and a huge cemetery with inside mosaics and columns and ceilings of beautifully carved wood. 

Inside a War Memorial

That was impressive enough but at the end was a small but very interesting museum which used entirely miniature figures and miniature house scenes to portray both the battlefields of Çanakkale to the life style in differing parts of the country from hand operated grindstones to drop spinning by standing women ( in Peru we had seen the post woman spinning like this as she walked along the road to occupy her hands), to the blacksmith and the animals and rolling the dirt covered flat roofs of the houses to a wedding scene where the bride was leaving with her dowry on a horse drawn cart.

It dated from 2008 and the only possible complaint was that there was no inscription in English which is really the world language for travellers. Otherwise I would rate it the most interesting yet. 

Then on to the Cultural Centre which we confirmed as the venue for tonight's Dervishes at 9 pm with no need for tickets, it was to be inside and not in the amphitheatre outside. Another wonderful example of modern Turkish architecture. Both on the way there and on the way back we stopped at the tourist Office on the opposite side of the road to talk with a very helpful man with excellent English, a rarity in this city. Not only was he good to talk to but the more interest we showed the more pamphlets he gave us of Rumi, Konya and the specialities like Dervishes and surrounding sites of interest. 

Yesterdays long posting was written here in one of the Internet cafes near Alaadin. That evening at just after 7pm we went to our restaurant. The menu was little different to the other and the service was slower but the food was if anything slower. We started with a spicy ... soup the Joan ordered Etli Pilavi (rice with meat) I ordered diced lamb with rice for ) 9TL but they cross served us so Joan ended up with the meal which did even more than it said on the can and it looked magnificent together with a spicy paste and garnishing. Amazing what extra she got for just 1TL more. Drinks again of Ayran and a salad the whole bill 31TL vırtually the same as the previous nights plus a outdoor rooftop overlooking the Mevlana Museum. Recommended.

Dervishes Dance impressive new Konya Centre

The auditorium for tonight's Dervishes was staggering, think Cardiff Millennium Centre but only 20% full, just a few western Europeans (say 12) and the rest Turkish Muslims. The event stared with a 10 minute introduction from a lectern in Turkish so I can but surmise that he was explaining the history and principles of the order to the Turkish audience. The Whirling ceremony itself took 60 minutes.It started when an orchestra of 12 dervishes took the stage in their costume with high pointed hats which represent their tombstones, the back row of 6 were all singers the other two rows were instrumentalists with wind and string instruments. 

A solo singer sang a dirge for the first 5 minutes then the Grand Master followed by 8 others came down onto the stage and began to walk slow deliberate steps in a circle occupyıng perhaps half of the stage, one step then feet together then the other foot leading in a rhythm set by the orchestra. Then a second group of 10 joined them lead by their master they walked to their positions marked by sheepskin rugs kissed the floor got up and took off their black cloaks to reveal theır white dresses. The two masters formed a start line and as each dervish passed it he started to twirl hands across his chest at first with hands across the chest then the arms slowly raising one pointing down slightly more than the other to indicate transition from earth to heaven past his own tombstone.

They continued to twirl once per second for about 15 minutes before resting between each twirl they took one slow step forward circling around the perimeter of the stage. This twirling was repeated once maybe twice more before the ceremony came to an end. Very moving if clearly authentic and religious, though as Patrick remarked at breakfast the audience was not as respectful as one might have hoped, the woman behind me reprimanded me for taking a photograph fair enough remembering this was a religious ceremony, but after seeing that most of the audience was doing likewise with their mobile phones I surreptitiously took a couple more during the twirling. For the audience this was clearly a show and far too slow to be very interesting.

At breakfast today we spoke to Patrick and Julia two youngish English who were coming to the end of their three weeks which they had spent walking along the Lyceum Way (?) from Fethiye to Antalya in the heat through marvellously maintained and small villages on one occasion seeking refuge in a ladies house. They too had been at the Dervish ceremony yesterday so we transferred a good deal of our thoughts as well as much information about our travels.

Up to Date again. This afternoon we go by bus to Goreme in Cappadocia

GOREME CAPPADOCİA, ANKARA and AMASRA

Goreme 20&21 Sept

Writing 25 September about 19 Sept 
The Metro bus company unlike the rest seems keen to take tourists to their final destination and took us direct to the bus station in the central square of Goreme. We walked over to the Tourist İnformation office also on the square but that proved as useless as the LP implied, but they did, after some change of mind, point us in the right direction for the Kelebek which was clear LP favourite and was also as recommended by John the Kiwi. But after a long walk up a steep hill we found as expected that it was full. 

No-one had met us from Gumuş and it looked close on the simple map she had given us without pointing out that it was impossible to walk directly from one to the other. Joan stayed at Kelebek whilst I went to view, it was a good cave room cut into the hill, so I fetched Joan and we settled in. It was a good choice for the room was authentic, though clearly modern and basic with a comfortable bed and an ideal location, the breakfasts were by far the most meagre so far which I rationalised as being due to the fact that most of their business was cheap multiple occupation of large shared rooms with everyone having the same breakfast.

Gumus cave rooms

Our cave bedroom

Following the guide again we ate at the A' Laturca which we found excellent. Joan having a Spinach Pancake which she repeated two days later when we returned to the venue. In between we went to the other top recommendation, the Local Restaurant. Both were good and demonstrated the fact that Goreme is basically 100% for tourists. The town had a pleasant laid back ambience of a tourist town but set in unique spectacular scenery.

Next day we decided to visit the Goreme Open-Air Museum İnitially created as a Byzantine monastery for some twenty monks which had become a Christian pilgrimage site by the 17th century with an increasing number of churches cut into the side of the hill, many with well preserved frescoes of clear Christian sıgnificance.

Cave church

View of Cappadocia

It was a pleasant stroll back downhill for 1km to reach the village. İn the morning we had stopped at the Nomad Office one of several places offering day trips, circular green, red or blue itineraries were the usual choices. On enquiring Green was the preferred route, so we asked more about the 2.5km walk to judge if we would find it difficult. No it is an easy walk along the river at the bottom of the deepest canyon (70m) in Turkey came the response, she forgot to mention the 500 large steps needed to walk down to get to the bottom! This was a problem for Joan who is climbing using only a single leg for the lifts due to hip or back pain which needs investigation when we return. By contrast I, having started this trip with more than usual difficulty in my knees and hip, am now walking as freely as for some years. Wish I could say the same about my heart, we are both out of breath these days after climbing a few floors of  the circular staircases in the hotels and I succeeded in falling down the first we encountered in Istanbul- hardly a lift in sight so far!!

For the price of 70TL including a 120km round trip by minibus, lunch and site entrance fees, we signed on for the following morning. By the time it had finished its pick up the 20 seater was full with most of the members well under thirty. The canyon and the walks were the easy bits, that we were the last to arrive at the lunch spot was solely due to stopping more often to look or take photographs. 

The main event of the trip was already past that was a visit to Derinkuyu the largest underground town in Cappadocia some 55m deep a warren built on eight interconnected levels with a few rooms for the VIPs a hiding place for the Christians who were being persecuted by the Persians. The LP suggests it was a town built for 10,000 people our excellent young guide thought 1000 was a better figure and he felt it could only have been used as a refuge in times of danger with people descending to live below for perhaps a maximum of ten days. The underground workings had an excellent air supply from several metre diameter aır shafts, there were storage areas for food, water from a well 50m below the lowest point and a series of 300mm diameter communication tunnels linking the various levels  for defensive use. 

Derinkuyu underground village

Several parties, mainly of young people were visiting clambering through the tunnels, an exercise which could be painful for the unwary and would never be allowed these days in the UK without hard hats. We thought the real test would be the descent and return via a down and return path from level five to level eight which a had space for only one way traffic, we had to crouch in a small side room so that another party could pass, but no the hardest bit was the final ascent to ground level by the smallest tunnel of them all after started regularly scraping my small day sack on the roof I decided the solution was to go on all fours and then from the joking understood that several other of the taller males had already come up dog like as well.

Our guide was extremely interesting in describing the formation of this area of strange peaks and the way in which these so called chimneys were used as a basis for man made houses above ground as well as beıng suitable for tunnelling of the type we had just seen. He said the area was initially covered by volcanic lava which had then been broken up by earthquakes. The resulting rock being very soft had largely been shaped by rainfall leaving the Klu Klux Klan chimneys, the outside of which had hardened as a result of exposure to oxygen. But the inner of the rock, as he demonstrated, was as still pliable and could easily be scrapped away  into rooms and tunnels. We felt we had done well and certainly we had found the whole exercise very interesting. Joan, remember can no longer kneel on the softest of surfaces and once on the ground finds great difficulty in getting up, deserves a medal.


The lunch by the river was excellent a choice of main courses including trout, then soup, fruit plate for desert and tea. We had to pay only for drinks we had Aryan a clear favourite now, so I handed the waiter the requisite 4 TL but he came back as he walked away and showed me I had in fact given him fıve - how often would that happen in prosperous western Europe let alone say India or most of Asia except I must a say China. We noted in particular the good humour of the waiters as they collected piles of used plates and then carried the pyramid back to be washed.

Another cave church

Lunch by the river, Joan hides her lost tooth

Last highlight of the day was the visit to the monastery at Selime built into the rock hillside. The guide asked anxiously if we were coming up, with the clear intent of persuading us not to. But bit between our teeth by now we ascended though being more than a little concerned how we would fare on the descent because of the extent of of the scree. He pointed a favourite view poınt for taking pictures of the star wars scene across the valley, I don't know whether this has actually been used in a Hollywood movie, anyway I scrambled up but had to be helped on my way down unsure of whether a foot would slip an on-locking guide jammed his foot on mine and left me confident to take the last step down to terra-firma from the summit.


Joan who understands not a single word of Turkish overheard three young tour guides, including our own, talking together at the top of the cathedral and she was convinced they were talking about us oldies and that the conversation went.
"Are these yours,"
"Yes"
"I've had terrible trouble with people like them, who were constantly complaining and making everyone in the party's life a misery"
"And I've had terrible trouble with people like them too"
"How are you getting on?"

From then on our guide was expecting trouble and constantly asking us if we were OK and sounding surprised when we said yes. He was even more surprised when Joan thanked him sincerely at the end of the trip and apologised for being slow at times. In fact many of the party had been supportive throughout especially two young Japanese university undergraduate students (doing biological laboratory science courses, rather like Rachel and of a similar age too). 

Two Japanese students persuaded us to go to Syria next year!!

They would offer Joan a helping hand when having to manoeuvre large steps though they were so slight that Joan wondered how they would cater with her weight if it came to that. They were on the next day's bus, they going back to Istanbul,Japan and university and we only half way to Ankara. We talked during one of the toilet/refreshment stops, they told us they had travelled for two months starting in Jordan and into Syria and then across the border to Turkey and that they found Syria particularly friendly and interesting, as well as easy and very cheap - which surprised us thus giving us ideas for our next European/ Middle East trip - maybe in a years time.


The trip finished with a viewpoint overlooking Pigeon Valley from the town of Uchisar. Here the houses had been developed for pigeons farmed by humans, for for food, for the fertiliser value of their droppings, for their use in communication and for .....

They came even lower than this

Cappadocia is also famous for hot air balloons. Waking at seven the first morning and seeing sunlight steaming into our cave I went out in my pyjama shorts to have a look and was rewarded with sight of around four at any one time as they rose and disappeared down a valley at right angles to ours. Not to be outdone Joan went out the next morning at six and saw as many as thirty balloons in the sky, but the best day of all was the less promising dull morning after the third night this time only one firm Royal appeared to be flying balloons which looked made of sturdier material than the others but the four or five of this type were flying just above  head height right past our cave, two touched and another found its a way between two pinnacles on the way down our valley which lead to Pigeon Valley. 

Until then Joan had been uncertain what NZ John meant when he said they had had balloons roaring past their door. Of course all was explained, the roaring was the sound of the flames as the balloons struggled for a little more height. We got a fine view of them, the passengers must have had a fine view of us, we could all but touch hands, and they could virtually touch the pinnacles, or castles as they are called in Turkish. Since for the independent traveller such a trip costs 150 Euros each (eight nights bed and breakfast or nearly the price we paid for our 4 hour round trip London-Istanbul from Heathrow) we did not participate but it is doubtful if we would have got much more than a little of the frisson betrayed by the excited voices on-board.


ANKARA ( 22&23 Sept)
Writing 30 September & 1 October from home about Ankara and the last 7 nights of our trip).


Our first impressions of Ankara from the access road were what a surprisingly modern city it is with lots of attractive high rise buildings, but in fact later on getting a complete vista we could see this was true for only one small sector. The new Otogar which had no less than 58 bays, or platforms as they call them making no distinction between bus and rail included a metro station from which we took the train to Kizilay. We decided Ankara needed an absolute minimum of two nights to give us one day for exploration, we are beginning to run out of time as usual, which implied only two nights at Amasra on the Black sea coast so we booked the onward bus before leaving the Otogar, the final three nights having been booked on initial departure from Istanbul.

Ankara city centre

The decision to stay the extra night was based on the reputation of the Museum of Anatolian Civilisation. So after surviving a evening thunder storm, the first rain since we arrived in Turkey four weeks earlier, and a hasty an ill advised decision to eat in the restaurant next to the Gold Hotel. This was a third choice of hotel in the area The Metropol and Otel Elit both being full we set out the next morning by metro then taxi to the museum. The pavements along the Ataturk Boulevard were fully three metres wide and uncluttered and walking to the hotel area was slightly uphill, but instead of building a sloping pavement they had built it as a series of patios then two or three steps to the next higher level but incorporating a ramp bypass for pushchairs and the wheelie bags of in-valid old cronies like us. All adding to a favourable view of the town as did the first street we tried for hotels which was packed with stalls selling books, we have not seen such an array since Barcelona on St Georges Day (more important in Catalan than in England) when it is the norm for men to buy women red roses and women to respond with books.

Museum exhibit

The museum simply underlined the length of civilisation in Anatolia (today's Turkey) human remains traceable back to 9,000 years BC and beautifully documented through the various periods through Hittites to the Roman period with a marvellous display of artifacts which has toured the worlds best museums. It was elected International Museum of the World in I think 1997. It needed a full day a morning a rest and an afternoon. Instead in the afternoon we went a little more uphill to the walled Citadel and when about to descend we went through a smallish archway thinking it was a way out then found we had entered a town of traditional houses still within the walls inhabited by young families playing on the streets free of cars. Hopefully we will have some photographs to do justice to the experience. No other tourists, of whom there were few, had made the breakthrough except two Americans with serious cameras, like us trying to recapture an older way of living.

CITADEL high pedestrian sector of Ankara

Kids at play

View from Citadel over traditional housing sector 

Then for the remaining two hours of the afternoon we took another taxi to Anit Kabir a mausoleum and tribute to the life of Ataturk (Father of Turkey). I would liken it only to Tianamen Square and the mausoleum created for Mao in Beijing, it is as impressive but far more interesting being a tribute to his life. He gained power in 1928 and died just a decade later and in the meantime capitalising on his triumphs in the First World War and his achievement in driving The British, French, Italians and Greeks out of Turkey in the War of Independence in order to gain election by the governing council to lead Turkey as PM. In this decade he was responsible for the bold reforms which changed Turkey completely from a failing Muslim Ottoman state into a westernised secular state. 

We had been aware of the impact of Ataturk previously but the vast range of his political reforms is extremely well documented one subject after another in a series of beautiful alcoves in Anitkabir, regrettably we had only time to walk past these alcoves in a hurried attempt to get round by 4.45 pm which was the time of the day's final showing of a video on the life and achievements of Ataturk which was to be in English. In fact we didn't make that either and only just snuck in to see his tomb after closing time.

Anit Kabir, Ataturk's mausoleum

ATATURK

Gallipolli

Next time I go to Turkey I will spend a whole day at Anit Kabir and really learn of the vast foresight of this man. There is little doubt that Turkey is still perhaps the fastest developing country in 'Europe' and that the range of his reforms dwarf those of Atlee our great post war reforming PM covering things as widely different as reform of the alphabet to bring it more into line with western Europe banning the outward signs of the Ottoman past like the Fez and the Dervish Cult or the wearing of head-scarves by women whilst on government tasks like teaching or attending school as a pupil or working as a doctor or civil servant to all aspects of a western state such as a Constitution, Social Security and Education. 

He is portrayed as a great reader/studier throughout his life even whilst engaged in working his way up through the ranks of an army engaged in serious warfare for two decades to establish recapture and consolidate the borders of their own land, and that the resulting deep understanding allowed him to formulate dramatic reforms for the time ahead. There is little doubt that I have a great deal more to learn about Ataturk which may well rub off some of the gloss and what I have at the moment is little more than a series of  impressions - but they ring very true. No doubt in some ways he could best be seen as a military dictator but I have little doubt he dragged Turkey into the modern world.

The current referendum was about reform of that constitution and the 'Yes' vote allows something like 35 changes some of which may well be strengthen the power and scope of the judiciary viz a viz the military but there is never-the-less concern amongst 'No' voters about whether the judiciary will a end up becoming a tool of government policy.


That evening we decided to search the area around the hotel to find a decent place to eat and for a while we had problems for sure there were lots of places open but these were essentially Meyhanes or pubs where young men in particular went to drink and always it seemed to play games like cards or drafts or ... or Okey a game of 'runs' and 'sets' played with checkers. The later being the primary game everywhere, one which fascinated Joan so much that we are now proud owners of a set and it will rival Mah-jong in our house this Christmas. 

Nevertheless we persevered and found an excellent restaurant just slightly uphill from the Otel Elit, looking rather similar but one where everyone was eating. Though the waiters spoke not a word of English nor even had a menu in English we ended up with perhaps the best value meal of all, some 55TL including Double Raki (pronounced Rakuh). A couple of starters aubergine and yoghurt based but spiced with chilli chosen from a display counter, once the waiter realised choosing this way was the way to overcome the language barrier. Then a sea-bass each from the Balik (fish), as opposed to the meat (kebab) or vegetarian, section of a short menu in Turkish and a plate of mixed fresh fruit for desert obtained by pointing at a nearby table. 

Delicious, in a bubble of conversation, open to the warm outside air, though only a single row of tables were actually on the pavement, and with a UD string instrument player and singer making his way round the tables, paid for by the expense of the management and engaging at least one table on the pavement in song. Not bad for 27.5 Euros or 23 pounds for two even at today's lowering value of the pound against the Euro which dropped 4% in our five week trip. 

Remember Ankara is their capital city with practically no non-Turkish tourists so the prices reflect more closely what Turks actually pay and demonstrates how inflated the prices are in areas with a fair proportion of  tourists. In this respect Edirne, Gelibolu, Foca, Bergama, Pumakale, Konya, Ankara, and Amasra all offered good value, and with the exception of Sultanamet (the old city) in Istanbul, Cannakale and Goreme in Cappadocia we had avoided the most touristy residential bases.

The small restaurant was on Olgunlar Sokak in the Kisilay area of the city and called Yesilcam (pronounced Yeshilcham) Restaurant which advertised Canli (fresh) Fasil (I guess ingredients), Telephone Ankara 4170252.


AMASRA 24&25 Sept 2010
About 18 months earlier Joan had spotted a rare article of interest to us in the Saturday Guardian Travel Section and the writer was a Turk singing the praises of Amasra the first and perhaps the most beautiful resort on the the Black sea, around 8 hours by bus east of Istanbul and saying how its charm was now being threatened by a government scheme for large scale open cast coal mining. It was probably this article which first started Joan to think about Turkey. Leaving Ankara we were faced with Amasra to the north or Bursa (silk/textiles) and Iznik (Quartz based tiles used in the most famous pre-1400 mosques) two other places which had attracted her a great deal. Joan's decision but I was secretly delighted when she chose the sea side.

Amasra still a fishing port

A downhill 500m walk on Ataturk Blvd to the Kisilay metro station got us rapidly to the Otogar where we picked up a Metro bus which unlike the rest actually went passed Bartin (where most stopped ahead of transfer to a minibus). The bus with drinks of cold water, and tea, coffee, fruit juice or Coke and a packet cake or biscuits and wipes to cool face and hands, air conditioning, and LCD screens on the back of each chair - we were impressed as usual here plus comfortable seats with sufficient leg room. 

Brilliant road surfaces except occasionally to allow minor diversions created by the vast road expansion - everywhere two lane roads were subject to development of another two lane carriageway. Not since China had we seen so much road building, though China would easily take the biscuit. Though there was no disguising the fact that the road between Bartin and Amasra was mountainous, twisting and narrow and could not be expanded easily, any coal exports would have to be via the Black Sea for now - hence the danger to the small 7,000 inhabitant resort unknown outside Turkey.

We were later to become very friendly with the young couple in the seat directly in front though we made no contact until getting off in Amasra when they offered that we go together in search of hotel accommodation. 

Ezgi and Ozan

We went together to the Tourist Office from where Ozan and I were taken to a nearby hotel whose only merit was a room with a fine view over the bay, I knew inside that this at 70TL for a double without breakfasts was poor value. We agreed to look more and he went into a bigger hotel a good deal better but I suggested we try to find the one I had chosen from the LP. It was clearly the best of all' especially once Hotel Turkili dropped their price to 80 TL with breakfast (when I said 80TL at the beginning as a typical price Ozan had thought I was talking about the price for each person).

That was further confirmation that this particular '100% Researched and Updated' LP on Turkey was indeed an excellent guide to both  accommodation and Restaurants. In the past few years we tend to have been very critical of LP guides and indeed were beginning to prefer the Footprints publications.


The rest of the day we went our own ways and we chose to eat at Cesmi Cihan restaurant LP's top choice and it was absolutely excellent for 55TL, a large plate of the famous Amasra salad decorated with flowers made from a yellow root vegetable with carrot eyes and including 39 ingredients (which unusually for Turkey included a dressing of olive oil and vinegar), then another Amasra speciality a huge plate of three types of deep fried small fish, Anchovies, small Red Mullet and small Hake. To finish two double Raki (which is becoming a habit) and followed by a special unordered Amasra desert of a large stiff Yoghurt like block covered in honey and crushed nuts. Our initial view was that the desert was like junket, but later we found the name of the yoghurt-like block translates as clotted cream and the waiter pretended he had horns to get us to understand it was made from cows milk.

We found Ozan and Ezgi had just eaten as we passed on the hotel steps, then saw the hotel staff had for their own lunch, a delicious version of Whitebait freshly caught locally. Ozan later said we had paid less than them, another boost for the LP because we would not fault the quality or quantity of what we had eaten.

I had expressed the hope we might meet at breakfast, they were wary of making a commitment to be there at any specific time (one of several young couples we met who were spending a few days away together, from which we conclude that the modern sexual mores of our culture are also affecting the way keen young Muslims are living in Turkey at least.


We did by chance go to breakfast at the same time and began a conversation with Ozan a which became more and more interesting, unfortunately Ezgi could not speak and word of English but she was anxious to get Ozan to keep her in the picture. Ozan had just finished a spell in the army (I assume doing the 18 months national service that all boys have to undertake once they reach 20) but he had gained a great deal from the education he had received and had just joined the air-force on a more permanent basis in a technical role again attracted by the education in the field that he would get. They hoped to get married soon.

Ozan currently working in Ankara would be moved from place to place by his job and was keen that Ezgi would be free to move with him, he very much wanted hoped that she would devote her life to him, the fashion normal in this country just over 50 years ago and for this reason he was quite content that she had dropped out of university. He wanted her to stop wearing short skirts once she was married. They were clearly very happy and very much in love. 

Ozan's English was surprisingly good and he was able to communicate on a wide range of topics including religion and politics and his vision for their future life together. Just one flaw caused us problems resulting from the Turkish language in which he, she and it and related adjectives take a single form. So when he was talking of 'he' he could be referring to Joan, Ezgi, his mother, her mother or any other woman. Fortunately I already knew there was only a single third person subject pronoun, 'o' in Turkish, and was able to warn Joan what was going on. he said he was quite aware of his flaw but couldn't get it right whilst speaking on difficult topics. Considering his limited experience in speaking English learned first at school he was doing amazingly well, he said he had read many books in English. Doubtless the military because of their membership of NATO and close links with the USA encouraged knowledge of English.

Ezgi 

What Ezgi lacked in language she more than made up for in personality and body language with a quite bewitching smile and prolonged beaming eye contact. For once Joan and I agreed she was very pretty indeed, for Joan that means delicate features for me sexy. 

I found Turkish women more attractive than most, often Marilyn Munroe figures with tight tops and short skirts or jeans, certainly not heroin chic, but often with deep brown eyes and almost black hair and with black make-up of eye brows and dramatic eye make-up, often with very slim noses, add this to a light brown complexion like that which makes Anglo-Indian girls so attractive. 

Ezgi did not fit this model, she had long hair dyed blond and was fairer complexion and slighter built than most, Ozan was also slim, slightly below average height, and I guess equally attractive.

Turks clearly have a great mixture of races in their make-up, the interaction with Greeks is the most important in recent time but historically wave after wave of people moved in from the east as they migrated to avoid persecution, and in more modern times there was of course the Ottoman Empire from Persia to Eygpt. I saw great similarities between their history and ours, in the twentieth century both lost a powerful empire which brought easy wealth and then the inevitable decay. 

Both nations lost their empires and their way and became too sure of their right to an important place in the world. We slowly recovered after the fifties but it was perhaps not until Thatcher that the ordinary man truly began to realise he had to work hard to earn his livelihood. We are replaying what Ataturk realised in the 1930's, but they had a set back with another military coup in 1982? during which many people disappeared, as in South America when under military rule.

But it was not only the westernised women who were attractive, in say Konya, which was as close to the real Turkey as we and NZ John got, the majority wear was Muslim head scarves and many young women wore extremely well cut slender lightweight coats to their ankles (almost like expensive long raincoats).

Ozan described himself as Muslim but half way along the scale of good to poor Muslims, for instance he did not pray 5 times a day and drank raki. Yet questioning about religion drew him into a long statement of ergo, he clearly respected Judaism and Christianity but he made a great play on the fact that theirs was the final one god religion and that the Quran was based on a single text written down at a single time and he believe it to be the true doctrine. He believed fervently in an all powerful God who oversaw all and was all knowing, science was never in conflict with religion, and was merely showing us how God had worked. He explained that the Muslim religion was strongly moral and should never be confused with violence or terrorism. I have mentioned several times in this blog already that the high moral code of the Turks seemed to us was increasingly apparent the longer we stayed in this country. 

Fun on a trip round the bay

We decided to spend the day together, the first being a boat trip around the bay followed by fried fish, we think a Mackerel, in a bead roll. He explained that from the first time Ezgi saw us on the bus from Ankara she wanted to get to know us, and that now she had she was very happy and hoped we would come to their wedding probably next June. She insisted on paying for the fish and also for some mussels stuffed with rice. Ozan felt at some stage he might well get posted to England to help him develop his English and we said we would be pleased to see them if such an opportunity arose. We exchanged email addresses so we could maintain contact and agreed to go with them to dinner to a restaurant where there would be live Turkish musicians and so agreed to meet at the hotel at 8.30pm.

We had a similar meal to the evening before, on decking high above the sandy beach, which is packed with sun worshippers in summer, the meal at 80TL was not up to that of the previous evening but then you have to filter in a four piece band including an extremely good player of a wind instrument not far removed from an oboe and a stringed instrument. They had gone from table to table entertaining the diners and getting them to sing and dance, but had missed us out, so as we were leaving Ozan got them to play for us, Ezgi had already been dancing even a she sat down with a fantastic array of clapping, of hand and swaying movements, she also went to Salsa lessons, and was keen to get me dancing which I did willingly but I wasn't in the same league.

When we got back to the hotel we said our goodbyes since we were leaving early the next morning, they returning to Ankara at midday. Ergi gave Joan a big hug but we not knowing what went in each others modern culture only shook hands as we both did with Ozan (Incidentally men commonly greet each other by touching the top sides of their heads together - a sort of modified cheek kissing.) Maybe we will meet again, I hope so.

Amasra's traditional salad design

Always dancing

Traditional band, Ozan makes them play for us as we leave 

For an account of the last three nights please return to the Istanbul posting.