Yüzotuziki

A Tip:: All posts entitled City - Gün # tend to be full of photos from a weekend trip. The rest of the posts are useless paragraphs, full of my ramblings and random photos.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Şanliurfa - Gün 2

Today, I have been in Turkey for exactly 2 months.

We checked out of our pension this morning, and only had a minor conflict with our host over the price. We ended up just walking away, and he didn't stop us. Sometimes, the "family-run" pensions are really nice- they give you guidance, feed you, and provide an inexpensive place to stay. Sometimes, I'm just sick of all the hassle of bargaining.

We arrived in [Şanli]Urfa, and were immediately approached by people halking their bus-companies' benefits or talking about their pensions. Nothing screams English-speaker more than 3 women travelling, without headscarves. By some chance, I meandered into the "Star Batman" bus line, and got some tickets for a fast, cheap, and nice bus home later that evening. They even gave us a driver to drive us to the Gölbaşı area and show us around a bit. Not an English-speaker, but that's sometimes a nice change.


The fish pond of Gölbaşı
A short history of Gölbaşı: One day, Prophet Abraham was in Urfa destorying pagan idols, when King Nemrut punished him by lighting him afire. Instead, God turned the logs to fish, and Abraham landed safely on a bed of roses. Even today, it is said that anyone who catches one of the carp in Urfa's fish pool will turn blind.

Jumping carp
Carp jumping over each other for food


Urfa had many Turkish tourists, but very few foreign tourists. We saw many boys wearing these Arabian scarves (Sharon called it a "Yasir Arafat Scarf"). The sellers would wind it up on around your head (as in the photo) to take a photo.


Gölbaşı

Fish pond and roses.
The end of the fish pond, and the roses which cushioned Abraham's fall.

A wheel in the fish pond
Rose Garden and fish pond

A mosque at the bottom of the castle
A castle wall on the hill above a mosque

Golbasi
Gölbaşı, with some threatening clouds

A view from a cafe
A view from a Cafe
It is still Ramazan, so restaurants do not serve food (or drink, usually). We bought some snacks at a local bakkal and snuck up into a cafe overlooking the Dergah for "lunch."

The Dergah through an arch
The Dergah through an arch

Bazaar
A snapshot of the bazaar
We spent a fair amount of time wandering through the bazaar. Somewhere in that photo I think there's a man with a donkey, or perhaps he's hiding behind something.

On the streets they were selling plastic bags of hot concentrated çay, along with limonlu- the hand soap which smells like wood cleaner, spices, and the various usual bazaar items. This was the first time I had seen butchers with shops in the bazaar. The winding roads of the bazaar also had too many shoe stores, barbers, and some great fabric stalls.

Naturally, I broke down and bought a carpet of Kurdish design:
Kurdish carpet/wall hanging

The view over Golbasi from the restaurant
The view from Çardaklı Köşk
It began drizzling, so we headed for dinner. It was just late enough that the restaurants were beginning to open. However, as you can see in the photo, the eateries were empty at 5:30pm, but all set for large groups to break their fast together.

Sillik dessert
Lisa, looking over her "loose woman"
For dessert, we had şıllık, which translated to "loose woman." It was walnuts, wrapped in a thin, doughy pastry, and of course, set in a pool of sugar syrup.

After our meal, a group of high school girls came to our table and talked to us in English (sometimes, the locals practice their English with us).

We spent the rest of the evening sitting in the lobby of an expensive hotel, drinking çay and (real) coffee, listening to some traditional Turkish music. The waiters were all wearing traditional Ottoman costume.

Urfa was the first town where I had seen the men wearing a sort of baggy pants similar to the shalvar of village women. I suspect it's related to some Ottoman fashion that was never quite phased out here. It was also the first time I saw men wearing turbans here. Much of the stereotypical Middle Eastern fashion has long left Turkey, but it still lingers in the villages (and especially the southeast).

Friday, October 28, 2005

Mt. Nemrut - Gün 1

A minaret attached to a gas station
To Kahta, land of dust, men in Ottoman pants, and scams! ...not to mention, minarets attached to gas stations.

Sharon, Lisa, and I survived the 12 hour bus ride to the slight-southeast. AŞTİ Otogar was absolutely packed with people fleeing the city to go home for the Şeker Bayram Holiday this week, so we were lucky to have tickets.

Upon arrival at 6am, we checked into some shady pension and slept for a few hours. By 1pm, we had arranged a tour to Mt. Nemrut- haggling 15 lira off the price by excluding dinner.

The Cendere Bridge
Sharon and Lisa crossing the Cendere bridge, our second stop.
The Cendere (pronounced jen-DARE-eh) Bridge was built by the Romans, who "borrowed" the limestone from a nearby, pre-Roman burial mound. It was built in honor of an emporor, his wife, and two sons. When one of the sons was killed, the remaining son commanded one of the columns to be removed, leaving just 3 to stand at the corners of the bridge.

Our driver dropped us off at the Bridge, and told us our van would be there to pick us up. He gave us his credit card for assurance. Meanwhile, we spent our time feeding the local kitten and looking at carpets.

A man travelling by donkey
A villager man transporting goods by donkey
Our ride eventually showed up, and we were off, stopping occassionally to take photographs of the amazing view.

The view of Eski Kahta
The Village of Eski Kahta
The village of Eski Kahta is the current location of the Yeni Kale (New Castle). But it also houses a carpet-weaving school where local women learn to make carpets (they sell for very high prices on the Western Coast).

Yeni Kale
Yeni Kale (New Castle)

Inside the carpet class
Inside the carpet School

Iris at the Seljuk Bridge
Iris at the Seljuk Bridge
We made our way to the Seljuk Bridge, which crosses the Kahta River.

Stele
The profile of the Mithras Stele
The next stop was at a few steles (stone reliefs). Below, you can see one of the best preserved steles- Mithradates I is shaking the hand of Hercules.

Mithradates shaking Hercules' hand
Mithradates-Hercules Stele

A donkey part of the way up the mountain
The last stop was the summit. We spent a half hour driving over the bumpiest cobblestone road I'd ever seen- going straight up the mountain. Once to the parking lot, it was a bit of a hike to the summit. So, some older tourists opted to use donkeys such as the one pictured above.

It was still cold enough up there to keep some snow.

Fallen heads/bodies on the Eastern Side
Fallen heads/bodies on the Eastern Side
A basic history of Mt Nemrut: King Antiochus ordered several statues (depicting himself alongside the gods) to be built atop this mountain. However, earthquakes have shaken many of the heads from their bodies, leaving the statues as they are today. It is suspected that the large burial mound the statues surround possibly contains King Antiochus' remains.

Fallen heads and bodies on the Western side
Fallen heads and bodies on the Western side

The Western Face, with the artificial mountain in view
Iris at the Western Face, with the artificial mountain (burial mound) in view

Sunset on the Western Side
Sunset on the Western Side

Reliefs lined up on the Western Side
Reliefs lined up on the Western Side

A view from the mountain- with waterway in the distance
A view from the mountain- with a waterway in the distance

We returned to Kahta, and scrounged up some dinner at the only open restaurant in town. We headed back to our pension for çay with our host (and apparently 4 of his male friends). His "restaurant" had a slow flow of men coming in and out, but no one was eating, just drinking. The rest of the town was the same way- no women, just men of all ages meandering about.

After spending 12 hours on the bus the night before, the bed felt good.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Bilet

I'll be seeing you at 3:35pm, Saturday December 31st.
I'm coming home.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Ankara - Gün 3

The green bus dropped us off on campus around 8am. We changed clothes, got breakfast at Cafe Sun Shine, and headed for Anıt Kabir (Atatürk's Mausoleum). I had visited it back in the beginning of September, but this time my dad and I took the subway to get there.

AnitKabir- Ataturk's tomb
The building holding Atatürk's symbolic body
Inside the space where Atatürk's symbolic tomb is located, there are tall metal lamps, each filled with the dirt from various provinces of Turkey.

Smog hovering over Ankara
The view of Ankara from Anitkabir
Anıtkabir is surrounded by "Peace Park" which is filled with trees imported from all over the world. Additionally, it gives you a great view of the smog that hovers over the city (espcially during the winter).

Kocatepe Mosque from an elevated crosswalk
Kocatepe Mosque
From Anıtkabir, we headed to Kızılay and Kocatepe (pronounced k-owe-jah-teh-peh) Mosque. This relatively new mosque is the only piece of Ottoman Architecture in the entire city, and it wasn't even built by the Ottomans. Despite this, Kocatepe Mosque has become the symbol of the city.

Kocatepe Mosque
You couldn't see it in the previous photo, but Kocatepe Mosque actually has a supermarket (sort of K-Mart meets grocery store) directly underneath it. You can sort of see its entrance at the bottom in this photo.

Iris and her Father in a cafe
We spent the rest of the day wandering around Kızılay, stopping at various cafes to drink çay and play Tavla/Backgammon (the real Turkish life). I found some of the best ice cream I've ever had at Cafe Su, which apparently has a karaoke bar in the basement.

The former Red Crescent HQ
The Former Red Crescent Headquarters
This is just the view from the park on Atatürk Caddesi- complete with fountains and the inescapable Atatürk statue. The massive building in the photo is actually empty; it used to be the headquarters of the Red Crescent (like the Red Cross).

After dinner, we headed back to ODTÜ, dad packed up and headed for the airport via taxi. It was a good weekend.