Flotilla

Hey everyone, most of you have probably heard about the flotilla bringing aid to the Gaza strip being attacked (maybe "stormed" is a better word?) international waters. The people killed were mostly Turkish, so you can imagine Turkey's reaction to this. I was at work all day so I didn't really know what had happened, but on my bus ride home I saw huge crowds of people carrying flags and there was an abnormal amount of traffic for that time of the night. I learned today they were all protesting outside of the Israeli consulate which was in the area I was taking my bus through - and apparently there were 10,000 people there! I'm really lucky I wasn't in worse traffic and that the crowd didn't get out of control. I'm not really interested in giving an editorial with my thoughts and two cents worth but I just wanted to let you know I'm okay and that there have been some reactions - lots of Turkish and Palestinian flags last night. This is unfortunate for the relations between Turkey and Israel because I think they were already a little tense. Anyway, I'll let you know if anything happens but I'm fine, don't worry!

Eurovision

Hi everyone! I'm doing a little better this week, the weather is pretty hot now, I'm going to the gym a lot, hanging around - life is going just fine. The last few days have been Eurovision, an annual contest in which different countries (I'm not sure what the rules are for which countries can participate, because Turkey can so it's more than just European countries. Some about being based on the European Broadcasting Union) perform a song live (each country chooses one song to perform a few months before) and then people vote for which song they like best, but I don't think you can vote for your own country. This year it was held in Oslo. I actually missed all of the rounds on TV but I've been youtubing the videos. Turkey has done pretty well actually. In 2003 they won it, last year they got 3rd place, and this year they got 2nd place!

Here's the winning video. Lena, from Germany, and the song is "Satellite". She's cute (and at times looks like a bird that has to go to the bathroom) but it's not my favorite song:



This is Turkey's song for this year. I really like it, although I don't think he sings well live. Use Youtube for the music video - it's pretty catchy - maNga "We could be the same".



This was by far my absolute favorite song. I don't think it's for everyone but I love the beat and the rhythm and the dancing. If it doesn't make you want to get up and dance I don't know what will! It's France's song, "Allez Ola Ole" by Jessy Matador.



On a different note, I got a few pictures from my travel companions. Here they are:



When we were in Mardin, two cars parked in front of our van during the night and we couldn't get out of the street. Here's a group of men trying to move one of the cars out of the way.



On top of Mt. Nemrut, waiting for the sun to rise. It was so windy and cold!



This is after we climbed Mt Nemrut. We checked out of our hotel and drove around for a while, and we visited this area that had a few statues that have been hanging around for hundreds of centuries. The views were gorgeous as you can see.



Us on Akdamar island in Lake Van. I know I posted a similar one but I thought it was nice.

End of the vacation blues

Phew has it been difficult to get back in the swing of things! Taking 3 weeks off and getting away from a busy work place and hectic city was a great idea, but also I've been a little grouchier than normal. I am a beach kind of a girl - give me some sun, sea, and a book and I am happy, and finishing the vacation with 5 days of that was wonderful (especially after a busy [but fascinating and beautiful] tour). So coming back to live in a cement apartment, surrounded by other charmless cement apartments without any bougainvillea or clear blue water in sight has been tough to face but I'm slowly getting back into the rhythm of things. My students are helping, when I see them at school they are excited to see me and hear about things, and they politely (and usually correctly!) say they missed me. All is well here, I don't think I missed much and there weren't any big changes, so that's good!

Here are some photos I took while at Sinan's family's house:



Breakfast. I watched Sinan's mom make the borek, the pastries in the middle. They are filled with meat.



This is something to spread on bread at breakfast. It's made up of tomato paste, garlic, crushed walnuts (I'll use peanuts if I make it for my dad), a lot of butter, some mint, parsley, and some spices. It's really good!



Squash and potato pancakes



We also made sarma, the rolled up grape leaves with a rice filling. She also baked some chicken with potatoes and tomatoes and rice with peas and chickpeas. Quite a meal!

After my two days in Antalya, I went to Kas alone, it's a 4 hour bus ride from Antalya. I know a couple of people who had been there who really enjoyed it, it's not too touristy and it's just a small village on the Mediterranean. I'm so happy I choose to go there, it wasn't crowded at all, everyone was really friendly and helpful, and there are tons of little restaurants, cafes, and bars with wonderful views. The only downside is there isn't actually a beach right in Kas, but my hotel had a platform with chairs, umbrellas, and a little bar and a ladder to go swimming in the beautiful, clear sea. If you want a beach, there are some not too far away. The town is beautiful with flowers growing everywhere - I wish I got around to take more pictures but another time!





View from my balcony.



View from in front of the hotel



I went on a really well put together day long boat tour, we visited the sunken ruins of Kekova. There used to be houses there but time and earthquakes destroyed them and a lot of it is underwater. The boat I went on had a little bit of glass on the bottom so we could see some broken amphoras. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to stop or swim but it was still pretty neat nevertheless.



Pretty pretty water

Kars - Ani

Hi everyone! Today's post is about my last day on the tour, where we visited Ani, about 45km away from Kars, in the Northeast of Turkey (if you look on a map, we really covered a lot of territory). At one point Ani was a community that held almost 100,000 people, and most of the buildings were built by the Armenians and Selcuks. But by the 13th century, numerous invasions and earthquakes led people to abandon it, which leaves us today with a spooky, mysterious, and fascinating area to explore. I have a weakness for climbing all over ruins and this was a dream place for me, plus it was only me and Unluer so our time was flexible and we are both pretty fit so I think it was fun for both of us. If you just picked me up from Istanbul and dropped me at Ani, I wouldn't have any idea where I was - the landscape reminds me of Ireland or England, the gray sky, green hills and mountains, and rocks. Thinking back to all the different landscapes I've seen in the last 11 days, I'm pretty amazed I've only been in one country!



You can see the specks of some of the buildings off in the distance.





This building was struck by lightening.



A close up of the ruins, you can see the pile of rubble and some writing on what probably used to be the wall.


A hamam, probably contributed by the Seljuk Turks - cleanliness is really important in Islam.




A well preserved church





I feel in love with this cathedral. When we walked in it my jaw fell down and my eyes watered up. It was so magnificent and so intact and huge - I wish I could have captured it.



That's me up in the alter area, to help give an idea of the size.



Massive columns



The Silk Road used to pass right through here, there's part of a bridge that they used to use. Also, that's Armenia right there! It was only until the last few years that people have been even able to visit Ani, and very recently be able to take pictures.


It's not often you get both a mosque and a church in the same picture. Pretty much the only buildings still standing are churches and a mosque. All of the houses are just piles of rocks. Divine intervention? Or just sturdier building methods?



Just the remnants of a wall.



Cows grazing.

Well that concludes my trip to Southeastern and Eastern Turkey! For those of you that stuck in there and followed me, I can't thank you enough. I can't tell you how fun it is for me to go through my day, think about what pictures to take and what to write about, I really do look forward to it. I will be posting some food pictures soon from Antalya, and if I can take my eyes out of a book or away from the view I'll snap some pictures in Kas. On Tuesday I head back to Istanbul where I have to remember where I live and how to teach. Eek wish me luck! Life is good!

Ishak Pasa Palace

Only 2 more days to write about! I'm actually in Antalya now, a city on the Mediterranean Sea, with my boyfriend's family (minus the boyfriend - he's in Istanbul). It's nice and relaxing and sunny and hot. I actually felt sad when the tour came to an end and I had to say goodbye, not only to my travel companions, but to southeastern and eastern Turkey. It truly is an amazing and beautiful place!

Shelia and Art finished their tour in Van - this was planned - because having a new hotel every night, waking up early, being busy all day, sitting in the car - it certainly isn't easy, even for me, and they are over 70 years old! They are remarkable people. So the last two days it was just me, the tour guide, and the driver!

The main event of Day 1 alone was visiting the Ishak Pasa Palace, which was about 2 hours north of Van, in Dogubeyazit. This palace is surprisingly new for Turkey, it was just built in 1685 and finished in 1784. The architecture is an interesting mix of Selcuk, Ottoman, Armenian, and other styles. I believe it was only used for about 100 years. It's located near Russia and Iran which led to a lot of wars taking place in this area. The location is gorgeous, being located near Mt. Ararat and other beautiful mountains.





Impressive entrance



There was a fountain for water AND milk!!



Inside of one of the courtyards. The palace was like a small community, with different courtyards for merchants and the common people, and then for the government people, as well as a haram, library, mosque, dungeons, and things like that. There were over 300 rooms but some of them have collapsed and we can't enter them.



I think this was inside of the mosque. This was a hard place to capture.





This place actually had a central heating system. The holes are were the pipes were. Pretty amazing!



This is old Beyazit, dating from BC times. Look carefully and you can see a mosque and castle built into the rock.

Here are some pictures of the drive to the palace, the landscape here never ceases to amaze me:



Some really angry looking stones, as a result of a volcano eruption. This area was much different than other areas of Turkey that we had been through - much grayer, darker, and a more traditional feeling. We drove through places where I didn't see any women at all, and small little houses with mud for yards. I'm not going to say it was more depressing, but life is much more difficult and different out here than other places I have seen.





That's Mt. Ararat in the background, Turkey's highest mountain, 5137 meters high!

Going to Tatvan, Akdamar Island, and Van

After Hasankeyf, we drove to Tatvan, which is right on the biggest lake in Turkey, Lake Van. The climate was noticeably different - at Hasankeyf we had sweat on our shirts, but a few hours later we were surrounded by snow capped mountains.







Tatvan was a pretty unremarkable city, it's just used as a base to visit Lake Van and Akdamar Island, which is a small island with a small Armenian church on it. We used a ferry to get out to it.





The church was built in 921AD by a king and there also used to be a palace and monastery which have not survived, but as you can see, the church is in pretty good condition!



There were so many reliefs on the outside, I couldn't believe how many there were and again, what good condition they were in.



Jonah and the whale



David and Goliath





The inside was really decorated, they certainly didn't leave any empty space!





While inside of the church, we were swarmed with a group of girls, most of them headscarfed, who are in teacher's school, and who really had probably not interacted with many tourists. They liked Art's bucket hat so much and wanted their picture with him. They were so sweet and friendly and they were dying to have us sit with them upstairs on the ferry but it would have been a little too much. Those are their feet hanging over the side. Unluer wanted to grab them but I didn't want anyone to fall over.



Some appetizers at a restaurant - delicious!



My kebab, made with good and probably local lamb meat.



Iskender kebab, very delicious but I can not eat it often at all. Pieces of pide bread are put on the place, with slices of doner (the meat that revolves on the stick and gets shaved off), followed by tomato sauce and melted butter, with yogurt on the side.

We stayed the night in Van, which was a really really busy city and so modern, many chain stores and young hip people. We visited the museum which was small but good, and things got a little silly out in the courtyard with the statues/steles.