Turkey

My friend, Kitty, and I were in Turkey for two fascinating weeks. Istanbul is a beautiful vibrant city with minarets lining the skyline, seven mosques on seven hills in the old town. It’s a hilly city so one can see houses and buildings ascending the hillsides. The Bosphorus Strait, connecting the Marmara Sea (Mediterranean) with the Black Sea, flows through the city separating the Asian side and the European sides, the old and the new. We took a short boat trip on the Bosphorus, up the European coast, and then returned on the Asian side.  It was interesting to see the different houses, buildings, and castles. From our guesthouse window and from the rooftop terrace we could see the Bosphorous with boats and ships passing by.

We stayed in Sultanahmet, the Old Town, with narrow winding cobble stone streets, and an abundance of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, and shops. Food vendors with carts sold slices of melon, corn on the cob, roasted chestnuts, and fresh pomegranate and orange juice. Everywhere one turned there was an amazing view: the Blue Mosque (1616) filled with delicate blue tiles, Aya Sofya (537) originally a church, later a mosque, but now a museum with numerous domes, frescoes and mosaics. The huge Topkapi Palace (1453) each room more impressive than the last, with incredible tiles, marble, and stained glass windows. We visited the Grand Bazaar, which offers everything. Vendors approached us encouraging us to look at their jewelry, ceramics, lamps of colored glass, and of course, carpets. It was amazing how many Turks knew about Minnesota, many had been here, or knew someone who had. The Spice Market is a place for the senses with the delicious aromas and bright colors of spices, teas, dry fruit, nuts, and of course, the candy, Turkish Delight.

Aya Sofya

 The food was great, especially the Turkish breakfasts with bread, feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, an egg, cherry or apricot jam and Turkish tea served in small clear glasses. The yogurt is also delicious, not to mention baklava and rice pudding. The wine was good too.

           

From Istanbul, we flew to Izmir, then took a bus to Selcuk so that we could visit nearby Ephesus, which to me was a highlight, with Greek and later Roman ruins. The population of the Roman city in the 1^st century BC was 250,000. The city is very complete with broad avenues and one can well imagine the splendor that it once was. It was an important commercial center and port with 250,000 people living there during Roman times.  One can see what were once a covered theater, bathhouses, a hospital, houses with mosaic floors, a building for prostitutes, and the library that is especially well preserved. The huge outdoor theater held 25,000 spectators. There was a social latrine for the men where they could sit next to each other and do their business. The harbor is lost because the river has silted up. It was very exciting to be there and to be walking down the marble avenues once lined with statues.

 We spent a long day going to and from Pamukkale (“cotton castle”) where white calcite pools go down a mountainside in a series of travertines or terraces. Everything is white, very much like a ski slope with people bathing in the small pools. It was fun wandering down the hillside barefooted, walking through the pools. On the top are the ruins of Hierapolis, which was founded about 190 BC. Much of the ruins consist of a cemetery (necropolis). People traveled there because of the mineral springs for medicinal purposes, but many died, thus the huge cemetery. The city was abandoned in 1334.

 From Selcuk, we took a bus to Marmaris, a resort town on the Mediterranean coast. The beach wasn’t very impressive, but the water temperature was perfect, and I spent several days swimming at the beach. A wide boardwalk with palms and mountains in the distance reminded us of Malaga on the Costa del Sol in Spain where Kitty and I lived together. We enjoyed walking on the boardwalk and observing the many small and large boats. It was from here that I took a day trip to Rhodes, Greece since it was so close.  We stayed at a family run pension and felt well looked after. There was a lovely shady garden covered with vines growing on an overhead trellis. Turkish tea was served in the morning and apple tea in the afternoon and evening. There were always cats, one very very fat.  There are stray cats everywhere in both Greece and Turkey that people look after. Only in Cappadocia did we see stray dogs, but they too looked taken cared for.

 In order to get to Cappadocia (“land of the beautiful horses”) we took an all night 13-hour bus trip. The attendant took care of us by constantly giving us juice after every stop, more that we really wanted.  As we approached Cappadocia early in the morning, we could see hundreds of hot air balloons rising above the flat plains; it was very magical. Upon arriving in Goreme, we immediately thought of the Badlands with all the interesting shapes from eroding rock. Cappadocia was an early Christian center and refuge from the 4^th to the 11^th century when people lived in caves carved into the rock and also had cave churches. The Open Air Museum in Goreme has many of these churches with lovely frescoes. In this area there are endless hoodoos or fairy chimneys, called that because smoke came out of small air vents and people thought it was fairies. Throughout the area there are numerous strange and interesting tall volcanic rock formations in beautiful colors, some looking like mushrooms. Riding in a tour bus, we drove across flat plains or gently rolling hills and saw people working in the fields putting the harvested potatoes in sacks. There seemed to be an endless amount of pumpkins, or squash that were drying in the fields; the seeds would become a snack food. 

 We visited an underground city, Derinkuyu, where 4000 people once lived, not permanently but during the time that they were hiding from enemies. The tunnel network went down 60 meters. There were air vents and smoke vents. It was eerie walking though the various, often low tunnels. It was originally built in the 8^th -7^th century BC and was probably expanded during Byzantine times. There are 38 of these underground cities.

I did two Turkish baths, one at a traditional bath from 1475 in Istanbul, and one in a modern spa in the south. They were basically the same starting with a sauna to open the pores followed by a complete body scrub on a marble slab, then a lathering which in Istanbul was a complete body massage with lots of suds. At the spa, the finale was an oil massage. Both were luxurious experiences that left one extremely clean and with very soft skin.

Turkey is very European, but one knows that it is a Muslim country because of the call to worship heard through out the day, especially early in the morning. Many women wear scarves, but a few are completely covered. Alcohol is readily available, but the old men sit in the cafes drinking tea.

Turkey is a great place to travel and with many layers of history; we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and found the Turks to be extremely kind and helpful.