I just got hit by a car tonight.
No, I'm not kidding. I was walking along, next to a parked car. He suddenly decided he needed to move, steered right into me, and as I fell onto his hood, continued driving, not looking or stopping to see if I was ok. That's Turkey for you.
I have strong feelings of hatred right now.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
I Need a Prescription for Xanax
I'm not kidding. Yes, this is the ranting post.
So our hotel that we stayed in in Pammukale was CRAP. Like, the worst hotel experience I've ever had. Let's go through it step by painful step, shall we?
First, we got there and although the owner was very nice, the price was pretty high (60TL/night instead of the 25TL we'd planned to spend). We were extremely tired and hungry at this point however. Also, it was dark and we knew we could drive around for a long time looking for pansions that were cheaper and open in the off-season. He showed us the rooms and they seemed very nice, with a view from the balcony of Pammukale. Although the heat wasn't on because there were no other guests, he showed us that each of the rooms had its own heater. (The fact there were no other guests SHOULD have tipped us off, but sadly, we remained ignorant until later.) Nesta talked him into 50TL/night, we paid, turned on the heater, and went to hunt for dinner.
Like I said in the previous post, dinner was amazing. We returned to the hotel and found to our surprise that although the heaters were running, the rooms were still well below 50 degrees! We put our hands up in front of the heaters, and they were blowing out mostly lukewarm air with spurts of hot air. Great. We're freezing. We drank a little wine to help us warm up and then got ready for bed. I went to wash my face, and lo and behold, there is no hot water! Chris went and asked them to turn it on, and they were still banging around when we went to bed an hour later.
A few hours later we both woke up, wide awake, and freezing. We were awake for hours, finally going back to sleep at 4:30, after checking that there was indeed hot water. We woke back up 3.5 hours later, took hot showers, which unbeknownst to us would be the last time we felt hot water at that hotel. We went downstairs and met Nesta for breakfast, which was made and served by the hotel owner/manager. It was very good, which was the only part of this hotel that was...
It was during the day that I first noticed my face itching, and looked at Chris. The right side of his face had approximately a dozen mosquito bites on it! I had much fewer, but whoa. We saw later in our room there was an infestation of mosquitoes! Gross. And just what we need.
We planned to go to bed earlier that night, thanks to our bathrobes that would keep us warm. After Nesta left, we stayed up a bit talking, and were about ready to turn in when there was a knock at the door.
Nesta called to Chris that he needed to open the door and have is ikamet (his residency permit) card with him, because THE JANDARMA IS THERE!!!! The Jandarma is a cross between the police and the military, usually armed with automatic weapons, and looking scary. I about peed my pants. We opened the door, and sure enough, there they are, all 4 of them, the hotel owner, and Nesta in her PJs. It's 10:45PM.
Chris hands them his paperwork, and since I don't have one, and I didn't bring my passport since we're traveling inside Turkey, I give them my driver's license. (Lame, I know, but how was I to know that the police would be knocking at my door?!) After looking at both carefully, they gave them back and proceeded to search every room in the hotel, looking on the balconies and inside the closets. It was probably 20 minutes later, just as I was calming down, that they knocked again, and asked to see our paperwork again. This time they took it with them downstairs. After 30-45 minutes, they brought it back up again, and left for the night. And how am I supposed to sleep then?! And a hot shower couldn't help because once again, there was no hot water.
Nesta knocked on our door the next morning asking if they had dropped her ikamet off at our room, because they hadn't returned it to her. Lovely. The hotel owner knew nothing either. They were just getting ready to drive around to all the Jandarma outposts (there are several) to ask for it when Chris, being the brilliant man that he is, decides to look at the reception desk. Whew, there it was! As we were checking out that morning, the Jandarma was back again, this time with a whole vanfull and the police. We still don't know what was going on. I am just happy to be out of there!
Moral of the story: If you go to Pammukale, skip the Yildizhan Otel.
So our hotel that we stayed in in Pammukale was CRAP. Like, the worst hotel experience I've ever had. Let's go through it step by painful step, shall we?
First, we got there and although the owner was very nice, the price was pretty high (60TL/night instead of the 25TL we'd planned to spend). We were extremely tired and hungry at this point however. Also, it was dark and we knew we could drive around for a long time looking for pansions that were cheaper and open in the off-season. He showed us the rooms and they seemed very nice, with a view from the balcony of Pammukale. Although the heat wasn't on because there were no other guests, he showed us that each of the rooms had its own heater. (The fact there were no other guests SHOULD have tipped us off, but sadly, we remained ignorant until later.) Nesta talked him into 50TL/night, we paid, turned on the heater, and went to hunt for dinner.
Like I said in the previous post, dinner was amazing. We returned to the hotel and found to our surprise that although the heaters were running, the rooms were still well below 50 degrees! We put our hands up in front of the heaters, and they were blowing out mostly lukewarm air with spurts of hot air. Great. We're freezing. We drank a little wine to help us warm up and then got ready for bed. I went to wash my face, and lo and behold, there is no hot water! Chris went and asked them to turn it on, and they were still banging around when we went to bed an hour later.
A few hours later we both woke up, wide awake, and freezing. We were awake for hours, finally going back to sleep at 4:30, after checking that there was indeed hot water. We woke back up 3.5 hours later, took hot showers, which unbeknownst to us would be the last time we felt hot water at that hotel. We went downstairs and met Nesta for breakfast, which was made and served by the hotel owner/manager. It was very good, which was the only part of this hotel that was...
It was during the day that I first noticed my face itching, and looked at Chris. The right side of his face had approximately a dozen mosquito bites on it! I had much fewer, but whoa. We saw later in our room there was an infestation of mosquitoes! Gross. And just what we need.
We planned to go to bed earlier that night, thanks to our bathrobes that would keep us warm. After Nesta left, we stayed up a bit talking, and were about ready to turn in when there was a knock at the door.
Nesta called to Chris that he needed to open the door and have is ikamet (his residency permit) card with him, because THE JANDARMA IS THERE!!!! The Jandarma is a cross between the police and the military, usually armed with automatic weapons, and looking scary. I about peed my pants. We opened the door, and sure enough, there they are, all 4 of them, the hotel owner, and Nesta in her PJs. It's 10:45PM.
Chris hands them his paperwork, and since I don't have one, and I didn't bring my passport since we're traveling inside Turkey, I give them my driver's license. (Lame, I know, but how was I to know that the police would be knocking at my door?!) After looking at both carefully, they gave them back and proceeded to search every room in the hotel, looking on the balconies and inside the closets. It was probably 20 minutes later, just as I was calming down, that they knocked again, and asked to see our paperwork again. This time they took it with them downstairs. After 30-45 minutes, they brought it back up again, and left for the night. And how am I supposed to sleep then?! And a hot shower couldn't help because once again, there was no hot water.
Nesta knocked on our door the next morning asking if they had dropped her ikamet off at our room, because they hadn't returned it to her. Lovely. The hotel owner knew nothing either. They were just getting ready to drive around to all the Jandarma outposts (there are several) to ask for it when Chris, being the brilliant man that he is, decides to look at the reception desk. Whew, there it was! As we were checking out that morning, the Jandarma was back again, this time with a whole vanfull and the police. We still don't know what was going on. I am just happy to be out of there!
Moral of the story: If you go to Pammukale, skip the Yildizhan Otel.
Ah, the Life of a Tourist
So last weekend we took our trip to Pammukale. Because it was a long trip (3 days) and because I have so much to say, I'm splitting the blog into 2 parts: the good stuff and the usual omg-how-has-this-happened-to-us stuff (yup, one trip without it was all we got!). This one will focus on what an awesome time we had. I'll save the ranting for the next post :)
Have I mentioned that our landlady, Nesta, is one of the coolest people I know? If so, let me state it again. She agreed to drive Chris and I to Pammukale, which is about 3-3.5 hours away, but also suggested that we stop at a few places along the way. The first one was Aphrodisias, and all I can say is O.M.G. We had over 3 hours to spend there, and it STILL wasn't enough! And personally, I liked it even better than Ephesus. Less tourists, prettier surroundings, and just a lot more on-site to see. It was also more spread out, whereas Ephesus is one main road. And yes, I am comparing it to Ephesus, even though it's not nearly as well-known (half the Turks I talk to said, "Where?"). As usual, Chris will post pictures when he's good and ready, and there's even video with yours truly narrating! The coolest part was by far the stadium though, which seats 30,000 people and is amazing condition. Whereas many stadiums there will be missing seats, or parts that are ruined, this was basically intact except for the entrances at the top. Originally used for Greek sporting events, one end was converted for Roman blood sports later on. There were even several small openings that I like to think were where the wild animals were released from. Carved into the seats were various graffiti symbols, which denoted whose seat it was, whether belonging to a guild or a family, or people from nearby cities. One thing we're still unsure of is the holes bored through some of the seats. Maybe flagposts or something? Your guess is as good as ours.
A close second to being coolest was a whole wall of faces we happened to see on our way out. After years of excavations, they had all these carvings of marble faces in relief, and they put them all together to form a long wall. I took pictures and video, that will show you what I mean. They were incredible though, all very different, different expressions, features, and in such good condition that some of them really appeared like they were alive and looking at you! (A little creepy, that.)
The theatre was also really cool, in similar condition as the stadium. The stage was even still there! That is rare, usually it's just the seats. There were several other awesome sites as well, including the massive gate that was the entrance to the temple of Aphrodite. The gates are gorgeous, and perched on a grassy knoll with a stunning background. Perfect picture place! The temple was cool but not in particularly good condition. Lots of stones and carvings still laying around. When Christianity came to the city it was turned from a temple into a basilica, and a lot of what we saw there was from that time; crosses and other Christian symbols.
Anyways, enough about Aphrodisias, otherwise this will be a hugely long blog. So next we drove into Pammukale and planned to see that the next day. (We had a FANTASTIC meal that night, a mixed grill that included lamb, steak, chicken, and köfte, along with rice pilaf. We also had mezes of sarma (stuffed grape leaves), the best we've ever had, and eggplant salsa, ALSO some of the best I've ever had. It was one of those really great meals at the end of the day when you're starving!)
Pammukale translates to "cotton castle" and as is obvious from the name, cotton is a big deal here. Before we tackled the hills of Pammukale, we went shopping! We bought bathrobes ($15!!), towels ($6.50 for those huge bath sheets, $3.50 for hand towels), and looked at sheets but couldn't remember how big our bed was in centimeters. After that, we snogged down some gözleme and got ready to climb!
As you'll see from the pictures, Pammukale is famous for it's white hills. In ancient times it was called the frozen city, not because of the weather but because the hills look snow-covered. Interestingly, it's quite the opposite of frozen: it's the site of thermal springs that were thought to be healing in antiquity, and the community developed around the hot springs, similar to Bath in England. So once you climb to the top of the hill, over the white stuff (I think it's something like calcium being leached from the limestone by the thermal waters, but this is where it gets science-y, and I suck at science) there are ruins at the top. So we started climbing and very soon were told to take off our shoes, since for the rest of the way up they could hurt the environment. Now was the time I REALLY wished I had gone for that pedicure before we left... But a very cool climb, and even now I still can't believe how much like snow it looked, but yet how warm I was. (Think sunny day, white reflects heat, oh yeah, it didn't feel like November!)
At the top, we were amazed by the size of the ruins. We had thought there would just be a few here and there. No, this was a very large and well-developed community! Well, we didn't really have time to look at everything if we were going to be back down before dark (it gets darker earlier because the sun goes behind the mountains sooner) so we basically picked 2 things we wanted to see: the ancient pools and the necropolis.
The ancient pools were actually in a temple (of whom I can't remember right now) and the thermal waters are actually open to the public to swim in. There are parts of the ruins at the bottom of the pool, which you can see because of the crystal clear water. So basically you get to swim where ancient people swam, and with pillars and such at your feet. Cool, huh? Yes, except that it was completely surrounded by a food court, lounge chairs, and people. It ended up looking more like a unique hotel swimming pool than anything else. Major disappointment there.
The necropolis was better. Pammukale is also known for it's necropolis, which is where people were buried in the hillside, and there are these cool little entrances to their tombs. We saw some as we were walking, but they were far off the path, and we weren't sure if we were allowed to stray from said path. Then as we got closer via the path, Chris made the executive decision that we were going to go for it. Good call, Christopher! Because we saw some awesome stuff! And there were no other tourists around to bug us! Amazing concept. We also saw the Northern necropolis later, which is along the pathway, and it wasn't nearly as cool. I mean, it was cool in that we got to see a lot more variety of tombs, and a lot more in number of each variety, but they were all crammed together and again, the tourist issue. (Why is it that while we all are tourists when visiting other places, we hate other tourists getting in our way? Same for cruise ships, we love to be passengers, but hate all the other ones...)
At this point, it was getting time to leave. I was exhausted (you'll read more about why in the ranting post) and my feet were hurting, and the thought of taking the 20-30 minute walk back and THEN going down the hill was more than I could bear. We called Nesta, who came to our rescue in the car. Bless her. We bought her dinner that night. (Dinner that night was similar to the previous night, but added in another eggplant dish, this one with grilled, smokey-flavored eggplant mashed with garlic, onion, and lemon juice. again, omg. Chris had the same mixed grill, Nesta had steak and freshly-made fries (YUM! I think I snitched as many as she got to eat), and I had köfte and rice again.)
Sunday we woke up, exhausted again (again, see ranting post for details) and headed for a quick view of Laodicea (one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, for those of you who are interested). Although Nesta had been there 2 years ago, and said there wasn't much to see, which is actually part of its appeal, the fact that it's not all reconstructed, a lot had been done in those two years. A lot. Other than the fact that it was gorgeous, I really don't have much of a sense of it, mostly because I was dead on my feet. Maybe Chris can fill in some gaps, since he looked around more carefully than I did.
We drove back that day, and I slept for half the trip. A very fun and full weekend! I'll have to do the rant post tonight or tomorrow, since I just got an SOS call from my friend, who needs some lunch and sympathy. Hope you all are having a great time preparing for Thanksgiving! Mom, I miss the pumpkin cheesecake already!
Have I mentioned that our landlady, Nesta, is one of the coolest people I know? If so, let me state it again. She agreed to drive Chris and I to Pammukale, which is about 3-3.5 hours away, but also suggested that we stop at a few places along the way. The first one was Aphrodisias, and all I can say is O.M.G. We had over 3 hours to spend there, and it STILL wasn't enough! And personally, I liked it even better than Ephesus. Less tourists, prettier surroundings, and just a lot more on-site to see. It was also more spread out, whereas Ephesus is one main road. And yes, I am comparing it to Ephesus, even though it's not nearly as well-known (half the Turks I talk to said, "Where?"). As usual, Chris will post pictures when he's good and ready, and there's even video with yours truly narrating! The coolest part was by far the stadium though, which seats 30,000 people and is amazing condition. Whereas many stadiums there will be missing seats, or parts that are ruined, this was basically intact except for the entrances at the top. Originally used for Greek sporting events, one end was converted for Roman blood sports later on. There were even several small openings that I like to think were where the wild animals were released from. Carved into the seats were various graffiti symbols, which denoted whose seat it was, whether belonging to a guild or a family, or people from nearby cities. One thing we're still unsure of is the holes bored through some of the seats. Maybe flagposts or something? Your guess is as good as ours.
A close second to being coolest was a whole wall of faces we happened to see on our way out. After years of excavations, they had all these carvings of marble faces in relief, and they put them all together to form a long wall. I took pictures and video, that will show you what I mean. They were incredible though, all very different, different expressions, features, and in such good condition that some of them really appeared like they were alive and looking at you! (A little creepy, that.)
The theatre was also really cool, in similar condition as the stadium. The stage was even still there! That is rare, usually it's just the seats. There were several other awesome sites as well, including the massive gate that was the entrance to the temple of Aphrodite. The gates are gorgeous, and perched on a grassy knoll with a stunning background. Perfect picture place! The temple was cool but not in particularly good condition. Lots of stones and carvings still laying around. When Christianity came to the city it was turned from a temple into a basilica, and a lot of what we saw there was from that time; crosses and other Christian symbols.
Anyways, enough about Aphrodisias, otherwise this will be a hugely long blog. So next we drove into Pammukale and planned to see that the next day. (We had a FANTASTIC meal that night, a mixed grill that included lamb, steak, chicken, and köfte, along with rice pilaf. We also had mezes of sarma (stuffed grape leaves), the best we've ever had, and eggplant salsa, ALSO some of the best I've ever had. It was one of those really great meals at the end of the day when you're starving!)
Pammukale translates to "cotton castle" and as is obvious from the name, cotton is a big deal here. Before we tackled the hills of Pammukale, we went shopping! We bought bathrobes ($15!!), towels ($6.50 for those huge bath sheets, $3.50 for hand towels), and looked at sheets but couldn't remember how big our bed was in centimeters. After that, we snogged down some gözleme and got ready to climb!
As you'll see from the pictures, Pammukale is famous for it's white hills. In ancient times it was called the frozen city, not because of the weather but because the hills look snow-covered. Interestingly, it's quite the opposite of frozen: it's the site of thermal springs that were thought to be healing in antiquity, and the community developed around the hot springs, similar to Bath in England. So once you climb to the top of the hill, over the white stuff (I think it's something like calcium being leached from the limestone by the thermal waters, but this is where it gets science-y, and I suck at science) there are ruins at the top. So we started climbing and very soon were told to take off our shoes, since for the rest of the way up they could hurt the environment. Now was the time I REALLY wished I had gone for that pedicure before we left... But a very cool climb, and even now I still can't believe how much like snow it looked, but yet how warm I was. (Think sunny day, white reflects heat, oh yeah, it didn't feel like November!)
At the top, we were amazed by the size of the ruins. We had thought there would just be a few here and there. No, this was a very large and well-developed community! Well, we didn't really have time to look at everything if we were going to be back down before dark (it gets darker earlier because the sun goes behind the mountains sooner) so we basically picked 2 things we wanted to see: the ancient pools and the necropolis.
The ancient pools were actually in a temple (of whom I can't remember right now) and the thermal waters are actually open to the public to swim in. There are parts of the ruins at the bottom of the pool, which you can see because of the crystal clear water. So basically you get to swim where ancient people swam, and with pillars and such at your feet. Cool, huh? Yes, except that it was completely surrounded by a food court, lounge chairs, and people. It ended up looking more like a unique hotel swimming pool than anything else. Major disappointment there.
The necropolis was better. Pammukale is also known for it's necropolis, which is where people were buried in the hillside, and there are these cool little entrances to their tombs. We saw some as we were walking, but they were far off the path, and we weren't sure if we were allowed to stray from said path. Then as we got closer via the path, Chris made the executive decision that we were going to go for it. Good call, Christopher! Because we saw some awesome stuff! And there were no other tourists around to bug us! Amazing concept. We also saw the Northern necropolis later, which is along the pathway, and it wasn't nearly as cool. I mean, it was cool in that we got to see a lot more variety of tombs, and a lot more in number of each variety, but they were all crammed together and again, the tourist issue. (Why is it that while we all are tourists when visiting other places, we hate other tourists getting in our way? Same for cruise ships, we love to be passengers, but hate all the other ones...)
At this point, it was getting time to leave. I was exhausted (you'll read more about why in the ranting post) and my feet were hurting, and the thought of taking the 20-30 minute walk back and THEN going down the hill was more than I could bear. We called Nesta, who came to our rescue in the car. Bless her. We bought her dinner that night. (Dinner that night was similar to the previous night, but added in another eggplant dish, this one with grilled, smokey-flavored eggplant mashed with garlic, onion, and lemon juice. again, omg. Chris had the same mixed grill, Nesta had steak and freshly-made fries (YUM! I think I snitched as many as she got to eat), and I had köfte and rice again.)
Sunday we woke up, exhausted again (again, see ranting post for details) and headed for a quick view of Laodicea (one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, for those of you who are interested). Although Nesta had been there 2 years ago, and said there wasn't much to see, which is actually part of its appeal, the fact that it's not all reconstructed, a lot had been done in those two years. A lot. Other than the fact that it was gorgeous, I really don't have much of a sense of it, mostly because I was dead on my feet. Maybe Chris can fill in some gaps, since he looked around more carefully than I did.
We drove back that day, and I slept for half the trip. A very fun and full weekend! I'll have to do the rant post tonight or tomorrow, since I just got an SOS call from my friend, who needs some lunch and sympathy. Hope you all are having a great time preparing for Thanksgiving! Mom, I miss the pumpkin cheesecake already!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Şirince
Some actual recent pictures! These are from this past weekend's trip to Şirince, which Barb has already described using the 1000 words approach. But here are my 15000 words worth of pictures. Actually, Barb took most of the pictures (using her camera phone, since we forgot the actual camera, brilliantly). But I'm still taking credit for them, so she needs to write another 14000 words to catch up.
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| Şirince |
Sibel and Yağmur
Here are some pictures of Sibel and her daughter Yağmur, who are our Turkish neighbors who speak almost no English. That hasn't stopped us from having some fun times with them, though. Sibel's son and husband weren't around when we took these pictures, or we'd have some of them, too. These pictures are kind of old (late September).
And although many Türks are fanatically devoted to Atatürk, footage of him isn't permanently on the television, Big Brother-style. It's just a coincidence that there was a commercial showing him when I snapped the fourth picture. Really.
And although many Türks are fanatically devoted to Atatürk, footage of him isn't permanently on the television, Big Brother-style. It's just a coincidence that there was a commercial showing him when I snapped the fourth picture. Really.
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| Sibel and Yağmur |
Pictures from US Trip
Taking advantage of our NEW HOME INTERNET ACCESS, I am going to post a backlog of pictures.
Here are some pictures from the day I spent wandering around downtown Chicago while I was waiting for my work visa from the Turkish consulate:
And here are some pictures of my family and Barb's family from when I was in GR:
Here are some pictures from the day I spent wandering around downtown Chicago while I was waiting for my work visa from the Turkish consulate:
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| Chicago |
And here are some pictures of my family and Barb's family from when I was in GR:
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| Family |
The Greatest Day in the History of the Internet
So, guess where I am right now.
I am sitting on the couch in our apartment. Why is this worthy of a blog post, you ask? Because, as you may have noticed, I am also using the internet. Yes, the long-awaited day has arrived: we now have internet access in our apartment!
So, now I will have to find a different excuse for why I post to the blog so infrequently.
I am sitting on the couch in our apartment. Why is this worthy of a blog post, you ask? Because, as you may have noticed, I am also using the internet. Yes, the long-awaited day has arrived: we now have internet access in our apartment!
So, now I will have to find a different excuse for why I post to the blog so infrequently.
Yay for şarap!!
So this weekend something amazing happened. Chris and I actually left AND returned to Izmir WITHOUT ANYTHING GOING WRONG. whoa. Let me say that again. Nothing went wrong! So those of you who thought you'd read about our latest disastrous trip, sorry, you're SOL. Not only did everything go right, I got wine out of the deal too!
So we kept seeing the name Şirince on wine bottles and hearing the name from Turks who said it was an amazing little wine village. Well, you had me at the word "wine" so we've been trying to arrange to go there for, oh, two months or so. We always wanted to go with people, but it never seemed to work out. So I finally had enough waiting, and laid down the law, which stated we were going this weekend, come hell or high water. (Plus we were down on our wine stockpile.) After quizzing 3 different people about the possible ways to get there (we've learned our lesson- NEVER trust anyone's directions, ALWAYS double-check, and ALWAYS ask multiple people), we decided to take a dolmuş (a mini-bus basically, and super cheap!) from Uçyol (near our apartment) to Gaziemir, and from there another dolmuş to Selçuk, and then a third one to Şirince. Since Chris walked up to Uçyol the night before and checked, we knew we could at least get the first dolmuş. So we did, and wow, it went flawlessly! Lots of waiting (the total trip was 2.5 hours) but we didn't mind, since we didn't have much else planned for the day.
Can I just say that Şirince is beautiful?! Of course, I forgot our camera in my anxiety and misgivings about just what would go wrong this trip ( I don't think I believed that we'd actually get there). So sorry, I only have pictures on my phone, and Chris will have to figure out how to get them onto the computer and then onto the blog, and I'm really not even sure if they're big enough to do that with. Anyways, yes, it's gorgeous. Up in the mountains, with white houses and wooden shutters, stone streets zigzagging throughout the village, and a very intimate feel. Of course, there were a billion tourists, which (going on a tangent for a second), I really felt annoyed by and disgruntled towards. But then again, how can I be disgruntled since (a) I am a tourist as well, (b) I couldn't have gotten there if there weren't tourists and a demand for dolmuş routes there, and (c) it has made it so many villagers speak English, which was nice to hear. But I'm sure you all know how yicky and disappointing it is when you expect to have some space to breathe and end up jostling with tourists and looking at hideous trinkets for sale everywhere. But I digress, sorry
So yes, it was gorgeous, and we tasted and bought bunches of fruit wines, as well as some merlot. We even got some homemade merlot, so this should be interesting :) We were only in the village for a few hours, but we enjoyed our time there, especially the church that has been excavated and restored. Then, later, we found another one, although this one was earlier in the process of restoration, so it was pretty rough. Who knew there'd be room in this tiny village for not just one but TWO churches in antiquity? Cool stuff.
Well, enough for now. This weekend is Pammukale, which I'm sure I'll have more to write about (3 day trip vs 1 afternoon) and some pictures.
So we kept seeing the name Şirince on wine bottles and hearing the name from Turks who said it was an amazing little wine village. Well, you had me at the word "wine" so we've been trying to arrange to go there for, oh, two months or so. We always wanted to go with people, but it never seemed to work out. So I finally had enough waiting, and laid down the law, which stated we were going this weekend, come hell or high water. (Plus we were down on our wine stockpile.) After quizzing 3 different people about the possible ways to get there (we've learned our lesson- NEVER trust anyone's directions, ALWAYS double-check, and ALWAYS ask multiple people), we decided to take a dolmuş (a mini-bus basically, and super cheap!) from Uçyol (near our apartment) to Gaziemir, and from there another dolmuş to Selçuk, and then a third one to Şirince. Since Chris walked up to Uçyol the night before and checked, we knew we could at least get the first dolmuş. So we did, and wow, it went flawlessly! Lots of waiting (the total trip was 2.5 hours) but we didn't mind, since we didn't have much else planned for the day.
Can I just say that Şirince is beautiful?! Of course, I forgot our camera in my anxiety and misgivings about just what would go wrong this trip ( I don't think I believed that we'd actually get there). So sorry, I only have pictures on my phone, and Chris will have to figure out how to get them onto the computer and then onto the blog, and I'm really not even sure if they're big enough to do that with. Anyways, yes, it's gorgeous. Up in the mountains, with white houses and wooden shutters, stone streets zigzagging throughout the village, and a very intimate feel. Of course, there were a billion tourists, which (going on a tangent for a second), I really felt annoyed by and disgruntled towards. But then again, how can I be disgruntled since (a) I am a tourist as well, (b) I couldn't have gotten there if there weren't tourists and a demand for dolmuş routes there, and (c) it has made it so many villagers speak English, which was nice to hear. But I'm sure you all know how yicky and disappointing it is when you expect to have some space to breathe and end up jostling with tourists and looking at hideous trinkets for sale everywhere. But I digress, sorry
So yes, it was gorgeous, and we tasted and bought bunches of fruit wines, as well as some merlot. We even got some homemade merlot, so this should be interesting :) We were only in the village for a few hours, but we enjoyed our time there, especially the church that has been excavated and restored. Then, later, we found another one, although this one was earlier in the process of restoration, so it was pretty rough. Who knew there'd be room in this tiny village for not just one but TWO churches in antiquity? Cool stuff.
Well, enough for now. This weekend is Pammukale, which I'm sure I'll have more to write about (3 day trip vs 1 afternoon) and some pictures.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Archaeology Museum Pictures
As promised, I am posting the pictures from the Archaeology Museum. I must give credit to Barb for helping out this time. I took most of the pictures and set up the album in Picasa, but she added the captions and did the actual uploading, since she had our laptop at the office, where they have internet, unlike at our apartment, where we still don't. (We're making progress on that front though! Going to get residence permits tomorrow so that we have proof of address, which we can use to get internet service. Woo hoo!)
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| Archeology Museum |
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
YAY! We DID something over the weekend!
FINALLY, I have something to write about! So, since Chris and I no longer work weekends (have I mentioned how truly wonderful and free I feel since getting back to a 5-day workweek?) we decided to do something this past weekend. There is an archeology museum in Konak, just a short bus ride from our place, and since I pass it every day on the bus, we decided to go there. As is the usual MO, Chris will post pictures at some point in the future. (I'm not promising it will be the near future, but he will post them!) Let me describe some of what we saw. Since there are no pictures, I will use the thousand words instead :D
Part of the museum's collection is actually outside, which I thought unusual but pretty neat. They have a whole garden area with stuff placed in them like a Roman sarcophagus from the 2nd century AD, a HUGE amphora, and (my favorite) a statue of a barbarian!!!! (You all know I LOVED the barbarians in my history classes!) They also had another section that was less garden and more just stuff displayed. These included a row of statues, pillars, relief carvings, and more sarcophagi (wow, I had to look that up, what a weird-sounding word!), which were really neat. We also met a cat who decided she loved us. I've never had a cat who almost knocked me over because she pushed so hard against my legs as she was weaving in and out of them. Eventually, however, the cold got to us (ok, me) and we headed for the entrance.
We didn't make it inside before we made more feline friends. And a dog. Seriously, this place was FULL of really sweet animals, all of who looked well-taken care of, which is unusual here. Chris managed to drag my increasingly-freezing body away, and we explored inside. It was pretty sweet inside, smaller and more delicate items than outside. There were 2 floors, one of which was ceramics (zzzzzzzzzzz: I can only look at so many pots, then I stop caring), the other which was more statues, smaller accessories, and more delicate carvings. There was also a mosaic that they're working on, although we couldn't get close to it and it was covered.
What was probably the coolest thing though was that all of this stuff was SO OLD, when we saw stuff from the 19th century, which would have been amazing in the U.S., we didn't even bother to look; it wasn't old enough. Some of the ceramics were even 2nd millenium BC, which kind of blows my mind. So much of this stuff was worn, but still perfectly recognizable as to what it was. At the risk of sounding hallmarky, it was quite moving. To think that someone who lived thousands of years ago actually touched this, carved this, and although they're long ago dead, I can see their work, appreciate the beauty. Makes one think about the big picture, and how we fit so small into it. So what do we have to show for ourselves that people will look at later on? OK, enough of that. Sorry, I go off on these little random wonderings.
We were thinking about leaving when a crowd of school kids poured in, which quickly made our decision for us. Back out into the cold we went. The two cats we'd met when we came in returned, and one of them almost came home with us. She was pregnant though, and although Chris is more seriously considering giving in to my pleas for a kitty, he also knew getting a pregnant one wouldn't be the best idea. So we're waiting 2 months, and then going back, and this time she WILL come home with us!
So that was our excursion this weekend. It was a good thing we picked Saturday to do it, since Sunday it rained. November is their rainiest month, and it's been proving it so far. Cold and rainy, although it's been a bit warmer today. We're hoping it'll hold off for this weekend long enough to go to Şirince for wine tasting and exploring.
Anyways, sorry to cut this short, but I have a student coming in 15 minutes, and I should probably consider getting ready for them. Start bugging Chris to post pictures, they're much cooler than my talking about them. :)
Part of the museum's collection is actually outside, which I thought unusual but pretty neat. They have a whole garden area with stuff placed in them like a Roman sarcophagus from the 2nd century AD, a HUGE amphora, and (my favorite) a statue of a barbarian!!!! (You all know I LOVED the barbarians in my history classes!) They also had another section that was less garden and more just stuff displayed. These included a row of statues, pillars, relief carvings, and more sarcophagi (wow, I had to look that up, what a weird-sounding word!), which were really neat. We also met a cat who decided she loved us. I've never had a cat who almost knocked me over because she pushed so hard against my legs as she was weaving in and out of them. Eventually, however, the cold got to us (ok, me) and we headed for the entrance.
We didn't make it inside before we made more feline friends. And a dog. Seriously, this place was FULL of really sweet animals, all of who looked well-taken care of, which is unusual here. Chris managed to drag my increasingly-freezing body away, and we explored inside. It was pretty sweet inside, smaller and more delicate items than outside. There were 2 floors, one of which was ceramics (zzzzzzzzzzz: I can only look at so many pots, then I stop caring), the other which was more statues, smaller accessories, and more delicate carvings. There was also a mosaic that they're working on, although we couldn't get close to it and it was covered.
What was probably the coolest thing though was that all of this stuff was SO OLD, when we saw stuff from the 19th century, which would have been amazing in the U.S., we didn't even bother to look; it wasn't old enough. Some of the ceramics were even 2nd millenium BC, which kind of blows my mind. So much of this stuff was worn, but still perfectly recognizable as to what it was. At the risk of sounding hallmarky, it was quite moving. To think that someone who lived thousands of years ago actually touched this, carved this, and although they're long ago dead, I can see their work, appreciate the beauty. Makes one think about the big picture, and how we fit so small into it. So what do we have to show for ourselves that people will look at later on? OK, enough of that. Sorry, I go off on these little random wonderings.
We were thinking about leaving when a crowd of school kids poured in, which quickly made our decision for us. Back out into the cold we went. The two cats we'd met when we came in returned, and one of them almost came home with us. She was pregnant though, and although Chris is more seriously considering giving in to my pleas for a kitty, he also knew getting a pregnant one wouldn't be the best idea. So we're waiting 2 months, and then going back, and this time she WILL come home with us!
So that was our excursion this weekend. It was a good thing we picked Saturday to do it, since Sunday it rained. November is their rainiest month, and it's been proving it so far. Cold and rainy, although it's been a bit warmer today. We're hoping it'll hold off for this weekend long enough to go to Şirince for wine tasting and exploring.
Anyways, sorry to cut this short, but I have a student coming in 15 minutes, and I should probably consider getting ready for them. Start bugging Chris to post pictures, they're much cooler than my talking about them. :)
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