Artemis' Handmaidens

Today we left the coast and headed inland for the Turkish hinterlands. Not really, but that's how one of the guidebooks says it. Our first stop was a town called Sart (Turkish) and Sardis (ancient Roman) that has a couple of ancient ruins that were very interesting.

The first ruin we visited was the Temple of Artemis. It was really fantastic, but you've seen a lot of these photos on my blog already. Now here's the under-story. We parked the car and paid the entrance fee, the began the walk toward the ruins, which are around a bend in the path so that they are not visible from the parking area.

Before we came within sight of the temple, we were met by the expected souvenir merchants AND four young ladies selling little bouquets and garlands that they had made. Since these girls were so sweet and only asked for one lire (about sixty cents), I gave it to them and asked for their photo. They were thrilled and really hammed it up.

Next we exchanged names. Theirs are (from left) Nestihon, Hatice, Havva and Zeynep. They asked me my name and I said "Kim", to which they repeated "you" by pointing back at me. Turns out my name, Kim, means "who" in Turkish, so every time someone asks me my name and I tell them, it's a kind of "Who's On First" routine. I have learned a little pantomime that reinforces that indeed MY name IS Kim!

Bergama to Foca

This photo is for Carol and Dana... as we drive further south, the wildflowers are increasing in quantity and frequency. Leaving Istanbul, there were very few flowers blooming alongside the road. A few daisies and not much else. Now there are flowers everywhere. Yesterday, driving from Bergama to Foca, we suddenly began seeing these purple flowers whizzing by. Curiosity got the best of us and we stopped to see what they were. The buzzing bees and the delightful fragrance immediately screamed "lavender"! This stuff grows WILD for miles along the highway, interspersed with white rockrose, pine and fig trees. It's beautiful!


In many ways, this land reminds me of southern California. The coastline is rugged, but not as arid as the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The hills are covered with fig and pine trees, rockrose and tamarask, and the rock is mostly white limestone now. The water is clear and looks like it would be great for snorkeling or diving. We are starting to see lots of little islands just off the coast.


Here are a couple of obligatory shots of stuff too funny to pass up. Gas stations in Turkey are pretty easy to spot: there are the familiar ones like Shell, and then the local ones such as AKPET, USPET, etc. "PET" in each of these refers to "petroleum". Yesterday we saw a sign for a new one... "petkim". This sign was standing at a highway intersection, rather than at a gas station, so I'm not actually certain that it was a petroleum company brand. But it was funny nonetheless!

Here's another cultural curiosity that caught my attention. As Ed knows, I LOVE ice cream. On this trip I haven't had much opportunity to indulge since Robert is diabetic and the convenience of eating what is available usually takes precedence over my preferences. Yesterday was different. We spent a hot morning trudging and climbing through two different historic ruins and I was hot, sunburned and tired, and when we stopped at the market to stock up on lunch and dinner items, I saw the ice cream bars. They looked a lot like the familiar Dove Bars and Ben & Jerry's bars, so I checked out the different types - caramel, hazelnut, milk chocolate, FISHSTIK? Oh, it actually says "fistik" which means pistachio. Pistachio sounded great, so I got it! Fishstick didn't sound quite so appealing! By the way, pistachios are native to this area...


These fellows are the first I have seen playing backgammon. I expected to see lots of people playing. Maybe there is more to come.


Another fisherman. We have spent most of our time along the coast, so far. Today we go inland for a few days. I expect to return to the coast by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I've taken lots of images of boats and fisherman. It is very difficult to get photos of women here. They seem to be so modest that when we ask permission, they mostly say no. I will keep trying. We are noticing that the further south we go (along the coast, at least) there are more women without the headscarf, head uncovered. The next big city along our route, Izmir, is supposed to be the most westernized city of all Turkey. Next Thursday I will return to Izmir and fly to Istanbul to catch my return flight home.


Here's one last shot of the style of boat photo I love most. This was taken in the same little harbor where I took the fisherman shot above, in a little village called Babakale, west of Bergama. Babakale is one of the most western points of Turkey. Just offshore are a number of Greek islands, such as Lesbos.

Turkish Rock & Roll

This morning I visited an archeological site in the city of Bergama called Asklepieion. At the parking area of all of these sites is where the local vendors sell their goodies to the eager tourists. Most of these merchants are very eager (to say the least) to sell you some high-quality item such as a rug with a camel or an elephant on it (there might be some camels in the eastern part of the country - maybe - and I am sure that the only elephants are in the zoo), an "authentic" rug, or a "genuine antique" hookah. In fact, these folks even have stuff like Pinnocchio marionettes and Native American war bonnets and bows & arrows! We don't yet understand if the tourists actually buy this stuff, but the merchants seem to use this goofy stuff to make visitors from other countries feel "at home"!

I usually talk to these people and ask to take their photograph, or try to speak Turkish with them. It often cracks them up to hear us butcher their language, but they also seem pleased that we are trying to speak! Anyway, it puts everyone at ease and we end up having nice interactions.

Today, we arrived very early, just as things were opening up, and the merchants were all playing backgammon so I watched for a while until one guy sang a few bars of some Turkish song. I asked if he was a musician. He claimed he wasn't, but that the guy across the game board was. Turns out he plays oud and baglama and had one of each right there in his little stone shop. Here is a brief video of one of the songs he shared with me!

Trojan Puppies

This post is for Jody... Well, I'm sure you've all heard of the Trojan Horse. At Troy they have built a replica of what the legendary horse might have looked like. It stands about 35-40 feet tall and is mounted near an interpretive center in a public courtyard at the Troy site. When you park your car and go through the turnstiles at the ticket booth, it is the first thing you see.

All over Turkey, there are stray cats and dogs. I expected to see the cats, but not the dogs. They are everywhere. Even at Troy. Here at Troy, I saw a German Shepherd and an Aussie Shepherd that both seemed to be the resident dogs. They snack on tourist leftovers and add charm to the landscape. They hang out at the base of the Trojan Horse model and lounge around waiting for handouts.


Well, the Aussie must be a male, and the German a female, because there were about nine little six-week-old puppies bopping about to entertain us. Everyone had their cameras out taking pictures of the puppies - not the ruins of Troy, or the Trojan Horse - the puppies!


The momma looked like she had had several litters and she was no dummy. When she wanted a rest, she got up on the platform that the Trojan Horse was mounted on and plopped herself down for a snooze where her puppies couldn't quite reach!

Troy and Assos

Here's a great example of the types of things found at the Troy excavation. Lots of block walls, fluted columns and a few engraved items such as tombstones, building facades and carved ceilings. You can walk around and snoop just about everywhere and there are about twelve "stops" with translated comments and descriptions on a guided walk.

We spent a couple of hours at this site, about an hour at Troia/Alexandria, and another hour at Assos. The rest of the day was spent driving the slow road - probably 80 or 90 km in total. The countryside is gorgeous. Hilly, rocky, green, with lots of sheep, goats and shepherds. Mostly the men do the herding, but we have seen a couple of women also. These are very plain people and seem to live in little villages, each with a simple mosque. They take their sheep out every day, into the countryside around the villages. If they need to go somewhere further afield, one or more people pile on to a tractor and drive into the big city! The men drive (of course), and it's pretty colorful to see grandma hanging on for dear life (actually, they look pretty comfortable, but the roads are awful and it seems like grandma could bounce off any time).

The road we followed hugged the Aegean coast, and between the villages were enclaves of summer houses for the more affluent. Many are still under construction, others are finished and either closed up awaiting the summer season, or not yet sold. Lots of the homes in this area have solar panels and we have seen a number of wind farms. Vehicles are mostly gas-powered, but every gas station has propane and natural gas available as well. I recently asked Chetin about the electricity in Turkey and he said that most was generated in the east by hydro-electric plants.

People here drive like maniacs. As I said, most people don't have cars, but those that do drive six-across on a four lane highway, pass with abandon, and squeeze through the tightest spaces in traffic! We have seen almost no young people driving, but yesterday were almost creamed by a carload of adolescents coming around a bend in the middle of a small village road. We were driving at a very moderate speed a hundred feet behind a donkey cart, when the kids came whizzing around the corner, barely missing the cart and driver. As they over-corrected, their car skidded and nearly hit ours. The looks on their faces were like they were on a roller-coaster. Close call.



Here's one more shot of the countryside and coastline around Assos. Not sure what's in store for today or when I'll find the next internet access. More photos soon!

Marmara and the Aegean

This afternoon we arrived in Behrmakale, where the ruins of Assos are found. Offshore six miles is the island of Lesbos, in Greece. You can see Lesbos in the photo above, through the columns at the temple of Assos!


This is Ismail, our personal archeologist for the day. He gave us a guided tour through what seemed like a small excavation called Troas (sounds like Troy, but is actually a few miles south of the famous Trojan city). Troas is the Turkish name for a Roman city of about six square km called Alexandra.


This is the entrance ramp to the gates of Troy VI (Homer's Troy). I took many photos of this excavation and enjoyed it thoroughly.

This photo shows the Dardanelles from the Anatolian (Asian) side. Hellespont is a few miles to the southwest (left). These straits are less than 4,000 feet wide at their narrowest point (shown in the image). It is amazing to imagine the vast number of ships that pass through these waters on the way between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It's also amazing to think of the battles that have been fought to control these waters, and the books (back to Homer's Iliad) that have been written featuring this place!

These are the deckhands on the ferry between Kilitbahir/Gallipoli (Europe) and Canakkale (Asia). I thought they were very much like the deckhands we have on Whidbey Island!

After departing Istanbul, our first stop was the battlefields of Gallipoli on the Gelibolu peninsula. It was raining most of the day, so I was wet and cranky, but this is a soft shot of Anzac Cove (using my sawed-off Holga lens on the Nikon digital back), where the Turks held off the Australians, New Zealanders and the French Allies to hold the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara.

The Call To Prayer

As I was boarding a passenger ferry from Eminonu in the old part of Istanbul for Kuzguncuk on the Anatolian side, the Imam began the call to prayer. This happens five times a day, beginning at sunrise and the last one at sunset.