Turkey

We take an OAT trip, "Turkeys Magical Hideways", flying in and out of Istanbul. The group was planned by Marilyn and Rolla Ogle and everybody on the trip new somebody else. Our good friends Roberta and Jason MacInnis joined us from their canal boat in France.

Our usual leaving picture sitting in our plane. Almost nobody else wore masks on our flights. We flew in a day early to help with jet lag and deflect any problems from potential flight delays.

Our trips route in Turkey. We did not sign up for the pre or post trip extensions. The countries official name is now The Republic of Türkiye.

Istanbul lays along the Bosporus Strait. On the map the left hand side is in Europe and the right hand side is in Asia. Officially a town of 16 million our guide said it probably is actually closer to 20 million people. Our hotel was about where the "n" in Istanbul is.

Our first evening, June 2, in Istanbul. We have a lovely meal at the Kaki Umbrella Cafe with Jason and Roberta who had flown in a day before we did. The Bosporus is in the background.

The Blue Mosque across from our hotel. It is known as the Blue Mosque because of the many blue tiles on its interior. 9:33

9:10pm The Blue Mosque at night. They were doing some work on the mosque and it wasn't lit up at night for the rest of our stay.

9:37am There is a metal disk in the bowl used to pour water from the bowl over yourself. We moved to a lower floor with a more conventional bathroom after our first night as the door placement made it ackward to get in and out of the room.

12:17 We walk along the Bosphoris and take a picture, Pat is with us along with Jason and Roberta. We are in the Sultanhemet area.

We meet our trip leader Nurdan and the rest of our group. She gives us our schedule for the next day. 4:25

The early arrivals take an evening boat ride and pass by the Maiden's Tower. 8:50pm

Pat and Linda. 8:56pm

We visit the Ayasofya Cami (Hagia Sophia Mosque) 11:13

11:17 We visit parts of the mosque that are open to non-muslims.

11:18 The main dome. There is still some Christian images from when it was a church.

11:29 The main floor where we couldn't go.

11:36 Crosses have been removed.

11:39 Partially destroyed mosaics.

11:45 Largely intact.

11:45

11:58 This mosaic is above and entrance (we exited here). They can pull a cover over the Christion Icon above this entrance to the mosque.

11:56

12:04 We leave the Hagia Sophia.

After the Hagia Sophia we had lunch at a place Marilyn had been to circa 1995?? It was close to the Hagia Sophia.

12:10 The Pudding Shop

12:51 We choose what we wanted to eat and sat down at a long table.

1:39 Also close by was the Basilica Underground Cistern. Built in the 6th century it is approximately 453 ft by 213 ft and supported by 336 30 foot marble columns.

1:43 A reused piece of marble. There are two medusa heads used as column supports.

1:46 Several artwork installations are in the cistern. In the background a medusa character is spotlighted. Marilyn is taking a picture and Stephen and Chris are geting their's taken.

1:59 A final view of the cistern. There is a shallow layer of water with metal walkways. At one time boats were used to show people around.

2:10 The Hippodrome.

2:29 Along the Hippodrome an oblisk brought from Egypt. About 30 feet are missing.

2:28 The base shows how it was originally erected in Egypt.

6/4 4:25 We visit the Grand Bazaar. Nurdan told us not to wander too far from the main central walkway as it is easy to get turned around and there are multiple entrances.

6/5 9:05 A cat inside the Blue Mosque. There were a lot of stray cats in Istanbul.

9:06 Nordan said these ladies were supposed to only pray back in the women's section, not where they are. She is probably proud of them.

9:09 The ceiling.

9:15 A view of the central dome.

9:16 One of many group shots taken on our trip.

9:18 Leaving the Blue Mosque.

9:22 The courtyard of the mosque.

Next we go to the Topkapi Palace

A google image of the palace.

10:02 We are in the central courtyard of the Topkapi Palace.

10:02 A overview of the palace.

10:40 A list of some of the items we will see.

10:45 One of many display cases. Here are some "everyday" items.

10:55 From a small balcony along the route we see the heavily used Bosphorus strait.

10:59 The Topkapi Dagger of Mahmud I. The dagger was the object of a 1964 capper comedy

We pass through this room.

11:25 Truly a miracle wood can last so long.

11:26 And steel doesn't rust away.

11:27 The prophet Muhammad's footprint.

11:45 We visit the harem.

The family room in the harem.

12:21 The Sultan's easy chair.

12:32 Black eunchs were employed in the Harem.

We visit the spice market.

2:58 Two of the spice markets main intersecting corridors.

3:08 A spice shop.

We did a Bosphorus tour during the day with our group. 6/05 4:08

9:02 Some facts about Turkey. Pg 1

9:02 Pg 2

9:02 Pg 3

9:02 Pg 4

Hagia Sophia at night. 9:26

10:13 Istanbul airport is new and built to be a huge international hub.

1:27 Mount Erciyes. An inactive volcano 12,851 ft high.

3:07 We stop for a late lunch and fuel for the bus along our route.

3:12 We bought some of there pomegranate syrup.

We visit the Goreme Open Air museum.

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6/6 4:05 A group shot in front of a structure called the Nunnery.

4:06 About the people who lived here.

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4:15 A display of some of the scenes inside the Goreme churches.

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4:53 Tables and seats were built in.

5:19 An extra charge for entering this church. We didn't see this often where the pricing is in Euro's but had to be paid in Turkish Lira. WIts what happens when your having 100% yearly inflation.

5:29 The area we were exploring.

8:52 A cup for Turkish coffee.

8:54 Strong. Served with a sugar cub.

4:45am Inflating the balloon

4:50 They get everyone in the basket and ready to launch. With the basket completely full they could take 32? people.

We fly close to a town.

5:09 Lots of balloons have taken off.

At 2:21 we bump a bit.

5:29 The sky is filled. The day before and the day after our flight the balloons were not able to take off.

5:23 Marilyn and Rolla.

They were landing balloons directly onto trailers as ours did also. Here they are manuvering to a spot to deflate the balloon.

5:41 Who would have thought it would be so much fun.

Some more flight time.

5:49 Women in gowns were having their photo's taken.

6:22 Our ground crew.

9:43 So many pictures to be taken.

9:48 And more.

9:57 There home was made into a museum. They have rented it back and set up a shop.

10:00 Their kitchen.

10:02 The living room.

Nurdan tells us about the living room.

10:12 These boards were dragged over cereal grains to extract the seeds.

10:14 Normal is overrated.

They have a nice courtyard.

6/7 10:54 We enjoy some tea.

10:37 We bought this sculpture he made.

Nurdan answers a question.

We visit a rug manufacturer. He has about 5000 weavers around the area who make the hand knoted rugs.

Emerson has a small handknoted rug from China but never really understood how much work goes into its production. Turkish rugs have a double knot.

Which video to keep?? The sales pitch was strong and they were not cheap rugs.

The thickness of the pile is set by the trimming.

11:30

Jason participates in a demonstration of the strength of silk.

2:34 A small restaurant where we had lunch.

3:07 We visited one of the underground cities.

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3:11 A cross section drawing of the village showing its many layers.

3:19 Roberta and Jason in front of the underground winery.

3:28 They had big stones they could roll to block entrances if attacked.

3:30 Some of the passages were pretty narrow. Emerson got a bit claustrophobic.

6/7 4:02 A local town built on top of some of the caves. These are fat-tailed sheep.

A local market.

Lots of feta cheese.

6/8 9:26 Linda tries some honey.

9:33 Stuffed ochra

11:39 We do our "day in the life" experience.

After exploring their farm and orchard we help prepare the meal. We each took a turn at stuffing the dough. The lady of the household had prepared the mix ahead of time and would reach over and help us in the preparation.

Our.... is cooked.

12:57 We get to enjoy our meal in a lovely outdoor setting. The tree limbs were bent into a beautiful overhead covering.

5:26 Family shot.

5:26 Back at the hotel we have supper.

Hot.

5:53 We are given our next day itenerary.

6:20 The Whirling Dervish monastery is in an old trade route stop.

6:21 The traders would bring there camels etc into the courtyard at night.

The dervish dates back 700 years and is a part of Sufism. It is a whirling prayer ceremony. The crossed hands at the start of the ceremony represent the number one, testifying God's unity. When whirling the right hand is raised and directed to the sky, representing his readiness to receive God's beneficence. The left hand is turned toward the earth, representing his willingness to convey God's spiritual gift to those witnessing the Sema.

During the actual ceremony we were not allowed to take pictures. In the demonstration afterwords you will notice that both arms are up while in the ceremony the right was raised up and the left was down.

7:19

8:42 We all sat down later to enjoy the evening. Our waiter from earlier was still around and made sure we got glasses etc.

6:35am The view from the balcony in front of our room. Our group had all the rooms around this courtyard.

10:51 At a road side checkpoint. They check papers and can tell if the bus had been speeding. We were ok.

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11:31 The tourquise mosque in Konya. This is the home of the Whirling Dervish or Mevlevi. We visited the monestary museum in Konya.

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11:41 Young men wanting to become a Dervish would have to spend 24 hours as shown. The cook would watch the young men. If he thought they were worthy he turned the shoes pointing inward and if not worthy he pointed them outward.

11:55 Tombs. The top section is not a sarcophagus, the body is buried below.

12:00 A Quran from 1314.

12:02 A more elaborate Quran from 1278.

12:11 We visit a series of small rooms where the trainees stayed.

12:15 Each room had information about the students and being a Sufi.

12:24 A typical room

12:54 We walk through a cemetary close to the museum.

The call to prayer. We heard it often.

1:14 At lunch we have a soup containing the ochra like we had seen on strings at the market.

5:48 On our drive from Konya to Antalya we stop at a well preserved amphitheatre. It is used for performances.

5:57 Looking down into the amphitheatre.

6:03 From the side.

6:23 An aspiring thespian.

The only song we could think of at the moment.

In front of our hotel. The sea port was a short walk from here.

9:01am We had a talk from a retired archaeologist. He was obviously very knowledgeable but also had a great dry sense of humor.

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11:36am We go do the Antalya museum.

11:39am Early bronze age ceramic.

11:46am More on ceramics.

6/10 11:48am It took a long time to reassemble this broken statue.

6/10 11:57am One of the rooms with statues.

12:05 Apollo.

Zeus.

12:13 One of elaborately carved sarcophagi datng to the Roman Era.

12:37 The Mother Goddess Statuette

12:38 Terracotta from the mid-6th century BCE.

12:40 Father Christmas lived in Anatolia.

12:41 Relics of St. Nicolas

12:45 Old coinage

12:47 Tools for making coinage.

1:18 A store window with circumcision costumes.

3:34 Nextdays schedule.

4:45 The view from our room.

7:03 A statue to Ataturk.

7:03 About the statue.

Usually on an OAT tour there is a home hosted meal. Our group divided up into between two different hosts who lived in the same area.

6/10 7:45 At our home hosted meal. Their daughter, Ipek, didn't get Roberta in the frame.

7:5 A delicious meal. We had an interesting conversation touching on Turkey and Erdogon and why a rich country like the US seems to have so many homeless people.

9:12 They hadn't been married for too many years.

9:16 On our way back to our bus we passed this coffee shop. Ipek also got on our bus until it was ready to leave. A smart 12 year old girl.

6/11 9:40 A Roman stadium. One of the better preserved ones.

Inside the stadium what do you do but race. Jason and Roberta are not at all competitive. It was a pretty warm day to have a race.

6/11 An entrance to the stadium.9:55

6/11 A little water helped bring out colors in the mable. 10:29

6/11 Water used to run from the aqueduct down the middle of the main avenue. 11:18

6/11 Roger by where the water entered the main avenue. Note the crossing over the water way. 11:39

6/11 11:41 Roberta and Jason went exploring higher than the rest of us.

6/11 2:59 Back in Antolya in front of Hadrian's gate.

6/11 3:12 In front of the Hamam (Turkish Bath) we all went to.

6/11 4:30 After our Turkish bath and massage we get tea and a chance to continue to relax.

The ladies after their bath.

6/11 8:44 Our evening meal.

6/12 7:44 A cats about to get some food from Phil.

6/12 8:34 A large murel along the street we took from our hotel.

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6/12 12:10 Myra. A very ancient town in a fertile alluvial plain. More Roman ruins.

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6/12 12:25 We are still having fun.

6/12 2:25 Along the drive down the coast there are many many greenhouses. Some are even growing bananas.

6/12 5:20 In Fethiye we board a gulet, our home for the next four days.

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6/13 9:38 From Gemiler Beach we travel to Kayakoy. The round object in front is a cistern for storing water.

6/13 9:59 A town of about 600 homes at one time populated by Anatolian Greeks. Jason has found a way into where this church is located.

6/13 10:01 Inside of the churck. After the Turkish War of Independence the Greek population was relocated to Greece but the town was not reoccupied by Turks coming from Greece.

6/13 10:03 The church was built in 1910 and the city abandoned in 1923.

6/13 10:10 A general view of the town.

6/13 11:02 Just below the town is a small shoping area. This gentleman opened his shop for us.

6/13 11:58 Back to the gulet and time to enjoy the ocean waters.

6/13 7:45 Linda enjoyed the Mediterannian waters a lot.

6/13 7:45 Our evening meal.

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6/14 8:16 On a hike Chris has a shoe blowout. Some gaffers tape came to the rescue.

6/14 8:50 Roberta and Jason who are much faster hikers than the rest of us made this greeting for us at the top of the climb.

6/14 8:52 Ancient ruins probably of a military outpost/watchtower.

6/14 8:55 People scratch out a living in this arid area.

6/14 9:34 Back down and into the water.

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6/14 6:30 A fine place to kayake .

6/14 6:37 The kitchen area on the gulet.

6/14 7:51 Little bees would fly around our meals. One didn't want to give up on the delicous food but did object to being eaten by Linda.

6/15 9:20 We take a small boat up the Dalyan River.

6/15 We take a small boat up the Dalyan River.

6/15 9:50 You can take your choice to toilet types here. This is the only place we even saw a squat toilet.

6/15 9:47

6/15 10:26 The Domed Church.

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6/15 10:27 We check out what remains of the church.

6/15 10:28 Same method as earlier for attaching the column to the base.

6/15 10:29 We didn't understand why they had strong arches filled in with pieces that would break.

6/15 10:47 Another amphiteatre.

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This one had a way of changing the scenery during an event.

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6/15 11:17 At first seeing the new marble looked odd and wrong but it really shows how it looked like when it was built.

6/15 11:42 Tombs built into the cliff.

6/15 8:14 One of the pesky little bees met its match.

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6/16 6:16 Our captain, helper and Suleman.

6/16 8:12 Our cabin. We are packed up and ready to disembark in Marmaris.

6/16 12:42 We saw quite a few Egyption Storks as we drove from Cappadocia.

6/16 2:01 We enter Basilica of St. John guarded by the usual animal.

6/16 2:16 Nurdan tells us more about the church.

6/15 St Jean Kikisesi.

6/15 A view from St. Jean.

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6/16 2:19

6/16 2:25 For Baptisms.

6/16 3:04 More information on the area.

6/16 9:03 Evening on our hotel balcony.

6/17 8:41 Some history.

6/17 9:04 excavated water tile.

6/17 9:20 The city hall meeting area.

6/17 9:23 Along our walk.

6/17 9:26 Looking toward the Library.

6/17 9:50 Connecting/redirecting pieces for the water tiles were made of stronger material that wouldn't erode.

6/17 9:51 The well worn path.

6/17 10:43 Information on public Latrines.

Nordan explains the usage.

6/17 10:53 The Library of Celsus.

The inside of the library wasn't as large as we thought it might be.

6/17 11:06 A menora etched into the libraries steps.

6/17 11:28 The Ephesus Great Theatre.

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6/17 11:35 More information on the theatre which could hold 25,000 people.

6/17 2:23 A sun dial.

6/17 2:24 Backgammon anyone.

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We say goodbye .

A compilation of pictures Nurdan put together for us.

We fly home.