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!