the end of my holiday
So here is my last holiday update, even of it was made from home.
Fifth entry
Location: Goreme, Underground city
First we went to one of the underground cities. This particular one could house up to 20000 people at a time. There are kitchens, storerooms, breweries, smithies and everything else necessary. Ocassionally ventilation shafts over a metre in diameter plunge down through the rock.
Throughout the city there are false passages and round portal stones that can be used to block tunnels. In places the tunnels are less than a metre high and less than half a metre wide. Ocassionally there are chambers with numerous rooms and passages branching out from them. I obviously play too much dnd because it reminds me of what it must be like trying to move through a kobold lair. I took some videos to try and capture the feel of the place as stills don’t convey the claustrophobic labyrinthine nature of the place. It is sid that it would have been one of the wonders of the world if people had actually known about it Apparently we went through only a 20th of the city. The rest is not currently open to the public.
After that we went wine tasting. The wine is kept in vats underground carved out of the rock. Turkish wine is not the equal of Australian stuff.
We followed that up with lunch in an underground restaurant carved out of rock.
After lunch we went to a ceramics place which had some amazing stuff. It was…you guessed it…underground and carved out of the rock. On top of that it was a former caravan sari. They had some absolutely beautiful hand painted ceramics. Copies of Iznik and Hittite work, ottoman miniatures and the “silk” designs of the family business. I tried my hand at the pottery wheel (foot powered mind you) invented by the hittites. Some of the designs were so incredibly intricate.
I also went to a Hamam or Turkish bath. They have a steam sauna, cold pool, heated and marble block. Then you get a scrub, wash and a massage. It was great!
We had a photo stop in a place called camel valley. One of the rock formations looks like a…camel. Much of the landscape here is quite phallic though. Well it is if you have a dirty mind.
Location: Ankara, Istanbul
We set off early in the morning for Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The first thing we saw there was Ataturk’s mausoleum. As well as being a monument to the founder of the Turkish republic it is a museum of the Canakale campaign (what turks call the Gallipoli campaign) and the war of independence. Before coming on this trip I knew virtually nothing about the war of independence. It was an appalling time when some of the entente powers committed terrible atrocities. Ataturk led the Turkish people in expelling the occupation forces after a hard fought campaign.
After that we went to the museum of Anatolian civilizations. The exhibits span 10000 years of Anatolian civilization but focus mainly on the Hittite civilization. I made the joke that we had to see 3 years of history every second to get through the full 10000 years in the time we had.
From there it was a short trip to the air port to catch a plane to Istanbul
I struck up a very limited conversation with the man next to me. His name was Aziz and he spoke Turkish, German and French. I found out that he was going on business to the swiss/german border and I told him about my holiday.
We arrived back at the yasmak sultan hotel (my now home away from home) for dinner
Location: Istanbul
In the morning I went to Hagia Sophia. Oh my god! It is huge, and is one of the few structures that I feel dwarfed in. I swear the place could have been built for 4 metre tall giants. 8 of the columns come from the Temple of Diana one of the wonders of the world. There are also 2 massive marble urns brought from the city of Pergemum. I took a video to try and capture the scope of the structure because stills just wouldn’t do it.
Went down into one of the underground cisterns. The water came from over 30 km away and they were only rediscovered in the 1950s. many of the columns have been brought and reused from other structures.
Went to the Istanbul archaeology museum. It houses quite a varied collection including scenes from the monumental gate of the city of Babylon.
I spent the late afternoon sitting on the roof of the Yasmak sultan updating my journal and looking at the Hagia Sophia. It rises into the air behind a forground of dense foliage with its four minarets piercing the sky. They look like torches with the light around their railings. The sky itself has turned a blue grey and a few soft clouds are scattered about. The walls around the dome have been given a peach coloured tint from the lighting aimed up the walls. Rivaling even the height of its minarets the great dome sits atop the structure, deep blue and crowned with a golden spike. Flocks of white and black birds drift lazily around the whole scene. One day I think I will spend a day here drawing it all.
Location: Istanbul
Today I spent the morning in the “old bazaar”. There isn’t just one bazaar in the old city, there is four or five. I had some conversations with a number of shop owners. It is amazing how chatty they are even when they know you don’t want to buy anything.
I went to the Military Museum in the afternoon. Its collection extends from the first centuries of the ottoman empire to the independence war and some exhibits from the present day. They had a $2.50 entry fee and another $5.00 if you wanted to take photos. I made sure I got my $5 worth. Weapons, armour cannons! The works.
Later in the afternoon there was a military band performing. Not a modern military band but an ottoman janissary band. Drums, symbols, pipes, trumpets, standards, armoured soldiers and funny hats.
Location: Istanbul, plane
I went to the Museum of Islamic and Turkish art, housed in the Ibrahim Pasha palace. The palace was named after Ibrahim Pasha the grand vizier of the son of suleman the grim. He was executed for suspected (and false) treason but the palace retained his name. It has sections covering early Islamic arab art, the various Islamic dynasties, Mamluk, Ottoman and Timurid art.
In the afternoon I went to the grand bazaar and went shopping. Among other things I bought a brass helmet. It is such an immense bustling place. You could spend a week among its thousands of shops there.
I got stopped at security because of the metal nasal piece of my helmet and a metal oil lamp. They were both in my check in luggage but they wanted to know what they were. I bought a litre bottle of raki and it only cost $13. While waiting for the plane I struck up a conversation with a Romanian named Irina. It never ceases to amaze me how many people speak English. The Israeli sitting next to me on the way to Bankok spoke English and he took 10 years to learn it. The plane was almost empty from Bankok to Singapore so Irina came and kept me company and told me a bit about Romania. “It is a nice place but the people spoil it”, was one of the things she said. You don’t get people usually being so brutally honest about their fellow countrymen.
Singapore airport is enourmous and very well set up. I saw a 4 GByte compact flash card...didnt know those existed yet.
The Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney was terrible. The seats were narrower and the legroom less than on the Turkish airlines flight. In spite of me not being an overly large person my shoulders went beyond the sides of my seat and started intruding on the seats of the people next to me. Also my knees were about an inch from the seat in front of me. I spent seven hours being a battery hen, unable to move and occasionally having lights turned on and food put in front of me.
So that was my holiday in Turkey...Im thinking next year Vietnam or South America.
Fifth entry
Location: Goreme, Underground city
First we went to one of the underground cities. This particular one could house up to 20000 people at a time. There are kitchens, storerooms, breweries, smithies and everything else necessary. Ocassionally ventilation shafts over a metre in diameter plunge down through the rock.
Throughout the city there are false passages and round portal stones that can be used to block tunnels. In places the tunnels are less than a metre high and less than half a metre wide. Ocassionally there are chambers with numerous rooms and passages branching out from them. I obviously play too much dnd because it reminds me of what it must be like trying to move through a kobold lair. I took some videos to try and capture the feel of the place as stills don’t convey the claustrophobic labyrinthine nature of the place. It is sid that it would have been one of the wonders of the world if people had actually known about it Apparently we went through only a 20th of the city. The rest is not currently open to the public.
After that we went wine tasting. The wine is kept in vats underground carved out of the rock. Turkish wine is not the equal of Australian stuff.
We followed that up with lunch in an underground restaurant carved out of rock.
After lunch we went to a ceramics place which had some amazing stuff. It was…you guessed it…underground and carved out of the rock. On top of that it was a former caravan sari. They had some absolutely beautiful hand painted ceramics. Copies of Iznik and Hittite work, ottoman miniatures and the “silk” designs of the family business. I tried my hand at the pottery wheel (foot powered mind you) invented by the hittites. Some of the designs were so incredibly intricate.
I also went to a Hamam or Turkish bath. They have a steam sauna, cold pool, heated and marble block. Then you get a scrub, wash and a massage. It was great!
We had a photo stop in a place called camel valley. One of the rock formations looks like a…camel. Much of the landscape here is quite phallic though. Well it is if you have a dirty mind.
Location: Ankara, Istanbul
We set off early in the morning for Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The first thing we saw there was Ataturk’s mausoleum. As well as being a monument to the founder of the Turkish republic it is a museum of the Canakale campaign (what turks call the Gallipoli campaign) and the war of independence. Before coming on this trip I knew virtually nothing about the war of independence. It was an appalling time when some of the entente powers committed terrible atrocities. Ataturk led the Turkish people in expelling the occupation forces after a hard fought campaign.
After that we went to the museum of Anatolian civilizations. The exhibits span 10000 years of Anatolian civilization but focus mainly on the Hittite civilization. I made the joke that we had to see 3 years of history every second to get through the full 10000 years in the time we had.
From there it was a short trip to the air port to catch a plane to Istanbul
I struck up a very limited conversation with the man next to me. His name was Aziz and he spoke Turkish, German and French. I found out that he was going on business to the swiss/german border and I told him about my holiday.
We arrived back at the yasmak sultan hotel (my now home away from home) for dinner
Location: Istanbul
In the morning I went to Hagia Sophia. Oh my god! It is huge, and is one of the few structures that I feel dwarfed in. I swear the place could have been built for 4 metre tall giants. 8 of the columns come from the Temple of Diana one of the wonders of the world. There are also 2 massive marble urns brought from the city of Pergemum. I took a video to try and capture the scope of the structure because stills just wouldn’t do it.
Went down into one of the underground cisterns. The water came from over 30 km away and they were only rediscovered in the 1950s. many of the columns have been brought and reused from other structures.
Went to the Istanbul archaeology museum. It houses quite a varied collection including scenes from the monumental gate of the city of Babylon.
I spent the late afternoon sitting on the roof of the Yasmak sultan updating my journal and looking at the Hagia Sophia. It rises into the air behind a forground of dense foliage with its four minarets piercing the sky. They look like torches with the light around their railings. The sky itself has turned a blue grey and a few soft clouds are scattered about. The walls around the dome have been given a peach coloured tint from the lighting aimed up the walls. Rivaling even the height of its minarets the great dome sits atop the structure, deep blue and crowned with a golden spike. Flocks of white and black birds drift lazily around the whole scene. One day I think I will spend a day here drawing it all.
Location: Istanbul
Today I spent the morning in the “old bazaar”. There isn’t just one bazaar in the old city, there is four or five. I had some conversations with a number of shop owners. It is amazing how chatty they are even when they know you don’t want to buy anything.
I went to the Military Museum in the afternoon. Its collection extends from the first centuries of the ottoman empire to the independence war and some exhibits from the present day. They had a $2.50 entry fee and another $5.00 if you wanted to take photos. I made sure I got my $5 worth. Weapons, armour cannons! The works.
Later in the afternoon there was a military band performing. Not a modern military band but an ottoman janissary band. Drums, symbols, pipes, trumpets, standards, armoured soldiers and funny hats.
Location: Istanbul, plane
I went to the Museum of Islamic and Turkish art, housed in the Ibrahim Pasha palace. The palace was named after Ibrahim Pasha the grand vizier of the son of suleman the grim. He was executed for suspected (and false) treason but the palace retained his name. It has sections covering early Islamic arab art, the various Islamic dynasties, Mamluk, Ottoman and Timurid art.
In the afternoon I went to the grand bazaar and went shopping. Among other things I bought a brass helmet. It is such an immense bustling place. You could spend a week among its thousands of shops there.
I got stopped at security because of the metal nasal piece of my helmet and a metal oil lamp. They were both in my check in luggage but they wanted to know what they were. I bought a litre bottle of raki and it only cost $13. While waiting for the plane I struck up a conversation with a Romanian named Irina. It never ceases to amaze me how many people speak English. The Israeli sitting next to me on the way to Bankok spoke English and he took 10 years to learn it. The plane was almost empty from Bankok to Singapore so Irina came and kept me company and told me a bit about Romania. “It is a nice place but the people spoil it”, was one of the things she said. You don’t get people usually being so brutally honest about their fellow countrymen.
Singapore airport is enourmous and very well set up. I saw a 4 GByte compact flash card...didnt know those existed yet.
The Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney was terrible. The seats were narrower and the legroom less than on the Turkish airlines flight. In spite of me not being an overly large person my shoulders went beyond the sides of my seat and started intruding on the seats of the people next to me. Also my knees were about an inch from the seat in front of me. I spent seven hours being a battery hen, unable to move and occasionally having lights turned on and food put in front of me.
So that was my holiday in Turkey...Im thinking next year Vietnam or South America.