Tour though Turkey

It turns out we both really like Turkish food. We split most of our meals so we could also try the soups and salads. The first picture is a woman making a “pancake” which is a very thin type of crepe (not as eggy) filled with whatever…we had cheese and spinach. The stick in her lap is her rolling pin; she’s looking at one cooking on the grill, and preparing another one. We found that they were always made in a restaurant but open to the street so people could buy them and eat them on the run.

The next picture is of a very typical method of cooking. They cook a variety of food from veggies to all kinds of meats and stews in clay dishes. The food doesn’t burn to the dish, but come out piping hot. The second picture is the same thing with a twist. The bread is used to seal the top to the bottom and the bottom is more the shape of a soup bowl. Jan drank apple tea (hot apple juice) while Chuck chose the more traditional Turkish coffee (with little or no sugar!) Many of the shops we entered offered us one of the drinks and they were brought by someone like the guy in the 3rd picture.

Every minute of the trip was something new either culturally or geographically. We are going to pick and choose, or it’ll take you two weeks to read what we did. On our way to the region of Cappadocia (we stayed in the town of Goreme) we stopped at the second largest lake in Turkey, Salt Lake. The pictures are of Chuck and our friends Kath and her mom, Nina standing on a walk and a rock covered with salt. Notice all of the white to Chuck's right and behind them.

The area of Cappadocia was all under water millions of years ago. According to our guide, the rock is very soft until it’s exposed to oxygen. Over time, the water cut into the rock, leaving lots of unusual rock formations. Then, people began carving them to make caves and homes. Here are a few of the rock homes. Some pictures were taken from the hot air balloon ride that we took over the area (which was absolutely fantastic!) The second picture in this series is of the rock formation when it had a hard rock layer on top. They lovingly call these fairy chimneys. The last picture is of (left to right) Nina, Jan, Stacey, Kath and Chuck…to prove we actually went for a balloon ride. You can even see the rock formations in the background.

We learned how silk comes from the silk worm to silk material including how the silk is “farmed”, gathered, spun etc. The next picture is of the cocoons. They are boiled to kill the silk worm inside, and then unwound. In the picture, the man took a brush and picked up several by the silk threads (which Yuli is touching). It was fascinating.

We visited Derinkuyu, an underground city built around 700 BCE. It was used to hide from invaders. There were rooms for food storage, kitchens, churches, stables, churches, wine presses and ventilation throughout. The whole thing was quite remarkable. The stables were in lower levels than the people so the ventilation wouldn’t bring the smell through the rest of the rooms. The picture is of Jan and Yuli coming through a tunnel. There is a large stone off to the left that would have been used to seal off the tunnel in case they were invaded. Many of the upper tunnels had the rock gates that could only be opened by the lower side, trapping the invaders.

Our next stop was the hot springs of Pamukkale, which weren’t hot but they were very interesting. The water has calcium carbonate in it, which settles, turns into jelly and then eventually hardens on the rocks. It’s quite beautiful. Chuck found tad poles in the one of the pools. You can see one in the middle picture.

Turkey has snow covered mountains, lots of beaches on the Mediterranean, arid and rain forest climates and lots of ruins in pretty good shape. We went to Ephesus and there were great ruins. But the thing we’ve never seen before was the public bath. It was only for men, had constant running water beneath the seats and had many places for incense and perfume underneath too. We’re sure this is not what Ephesus is known for but we were impressed. The picture is of several members of our group. The next two pictures are from our dinner the last night.

Random thoughts about this impressive country: The country has been occupied by many. But in 1923, it became a state and education became the goal of the country. They have a 96% literacy rate. The country is VERY clean, even the public bathrooms. When our bus stopped for breaks, someone at the gas station washed the buses. Parts of the country were dusty but cars, trucks and buses were spotless. The roads and sidewalks were in good shape. The people were very warm and friendly. Even the people trying to get you to come into their shops help you out.

Istanbul

We went to Turkey on a G.A.P. tour but got there early to see more of Istanbul. We arrived in the beginning of tulip season and when we returned two weeks later, they were still beautifully in bloom. The city is big (14 million people), bustling, has beautiful buildings (in a different way than Paris and Prague.) There were people everywhere we went and always very nice. We’ve found most of the European cities we’ve visited, including Cluj, Romania, are much more densely populated than we are used to in the United States.

We ate breakfasts of a round bagel like bread with sesame seeds, and fresh pomegranate juice (delicious!) We snacked on a sticky ice cream served by an entertaining man who stole a customer’s cone out of his hand with the whole glob of vanilla ice cream.

We saw Haghia Sofya, a church turned mosque—Turkey is 96% Muslim but is a secular country. The rural or older women wear scarves, but you see VERY few face and body coverings— It is huge…large enough to put Notre Dame inside of it. When a church, it had beautiful mosaics and paintings on every inch. As a Mosque, the faces had to be removed or covered, and they added the large wooden discs with writing on them. To give you a bit of the scale, the second picture is standing on the bottom floor. The third picture is workers renovating one of the wooden discs that you can see in the second picture.

We went to the Basilica Cistern, also incredibly large…and wet. It is larger than two football fields. It was built in the 6th century CE and has 336 columns.

We met fellow tour goers, Nina and her grown daughter, Kath a day before the tour and saw Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. Both were wonderlands. The palace and its grounds were beautiful, as shown in the picture below of Kath in the flower garden. Besides the splendor, we saw land deeds (2nd picture) and many relics (Chuck was delighted) like Joseph’s turban, Moses’ staff, Abraham’s pot, St. John’s arm, Mohamed’s beard.

We were listening to a concert on a small outdoor stage when this guy on his motor cycle drove up to listen. Jan took these pictures as he was driving away.

We saw the Blue Mosque, the only Mosque in the world with 6 minarets. The Mosque in Mecca had 6, but when Sultan Ahmet I commissioned the Blue Mosque and recognized the problem, he paid to have a 7th minaret added to the Mosque in Mecca. The other picture is of a Muslim man washing his feet, lower legs, arms, hands and face before he goes into the mosque to pray. The faucets and benches were on the side of the mosque.

This is a brief description of our time in Istanbul.  We will write about the rest of our Turkey trip soon.