Turkey Update by Sarah and Chenda

Fish market near the Galata Bridge.

Sarah working hard on her
 blog at the flat with the Galata Tower
 view out the window.

Spice Bazaar!

Last Saturday, we packed up our bags AGAIN, cleaned up the flat we rented near our beloved Galata Tower, and headed back to Ataturk Airport on the tram to pick up our rental car.  We were off to tour some more of Turkey. 

After negotiating the busy India like traffic in Istanbul, the foreign signage, and the Sea of Marmara countryside, we reached the town of Eceabat in time to check into  the Edjer Otel and search for dinner. The next morning, we took the  30 minute ferry across the narrows of the Sea of Marmara to Cannakale  after touring the Gallopoli (or Gelibulu Peninusula) battle sites.  We did not stop in Cannakale because we wanted to get to Troy. 

We liked the replica of the Trojan horse
that you could climb into and stick your
arms and head out the cutouts the best.

Troy was a really ruined ruin.  Good introduction to the excavation and tourist side of this history tour.  The entire site is fenced off and there is an entrance gate with “museum” guards, ticket booth, and parking lot with a bunch of tour buses awaiting Asian tourists.  Upon entrance, past the museum shop and WC (water closets), we were met with a huge replica of the Trojan horse surrounded by a hibernating landscape and benches surrounded by large pieces of weathered carved white marble that were once parts of great halls, pavilions, gates, and temples.  Most of the ancient marble rubble is scattered about in sort of a work in progress construction site meets overwhelming mind boggling unfinished puzzle kind of way.  The ruins are roped off with lots of arrows keeping you going in the right direction and info signs mostly about the history of the excavation efforts and major contributors.  This was the beginning of our Ancient Wonders of the World tour in Turkey.

Behram Kale to see the Old Ottoman bridge and 14^th century fort.  Hilly coastal drive thru abandoned summer beachside resorts, hotels, restarants, and cafes.  The Aegean Sea is beautiful, calm and clear.

Selcuk- ancient aquaduct, St. Johns Bascillica, 6^th century citadel on Ayasoluk Hill (couldn’t go in because it has been closed for 5 years for restoration as we were told by the old man who claims to be a worker on the restoration effort.  He was trying to sell us his ancient contraband coins (Alexander the Great, Julius Ceasar, and someone else who had his head molded in ancient metal coinage) that he found in the citadel.  Brian seems to be a magnet for these coin salesmen.   Stayed at Aduran Pension with the  exciting lightning storm.  Lightning struck across the street from us killing the power for a few hours.  This happened a few times during the night.

Pergamum theater.

In Bergama at the ancient city of Pergamum on top of a very scenic hill above the very quaint town on one side and a meandering river and lake on the other sides amongst the undulating hills, there was a theatre that we raced up.  Zander won a chocolate bar for reaching the top first. This ancient city was not as ruined as Troy, so it was more interesting and more to see.  It was not roped off either, so we were able to climb and explore the entire huge site.  The Temple of Trajan at the top of the hill was really cool because it had huge columns and you could picture what it was like when it wasn’t ruined by the earthquakes and time.  I was also amazed by how old everything was!-some of it dates back to the 8^th century BC!

Library of Celsus at Ephesus.

Pemmakule travertine terraces in the background, that's not snow!

 We walked in the rain at the site of ancient Ephesus this morning.  It was even more intact and pretty amazing too. Instead of one theater, they had 2.  The Greeks were really advanced!


 Right now, we are in the town of Pammakule accross the street from these travertine terraces anticipating our tour of Hierapolis tomorrow. 
 Personally, I'm looking forward to walking on the huge/glacier sized wihite calcium carbonate terraces more than visiting another ruined city, as amazing as they are, I enjoy construction and creating more than destroyed civilizations.  Hierapolis will be the pinnacle of our Ancient site in Turkey and it should be great too.
 -Chenda
The ruins are really interesting and cool (says Sarah).