Travel writing from my study abroad program in Turkey; the Burch Field Research Seminar through UNC-CH. Five weeks in Istanbul, two weeks traveling Western Turkey. Awesomeness.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Road Trip!

Believe it or not, nothing too crazy has happened to us on the road yet. I know. With this group, something weird or Turkish mystery-related is always happening. I think by typing that, I’m just asking for something to happen now.

Sunday we left early. Like we were up at 5:30 and out the door at 6:00 so we could get to Sultanahmet to catch our bus. No problem. We did it with little drama involved even after having the power go out around 11:00 p.m. the night before. The bus ended up being a little crowded, as in, every seat was full.

We’re using Fez Travel to get around Turkey. They’re an English based hop-on hop-off travel company that goes all around Turkey. Each bus has a driver and then a tour guide to make sure everything goes smoothly. So with our bus full of us, some Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, and one Singaporean family who never talked, the first order of business was to of course go to sleep. Except I couldn’t really sleep in our cramped seats. Ah, but who am I kidding, I can go to sleep anywhere.

After some stops we made it to our first destination – Gallipoli. For those of you who are not war-buffs or are familiar with Gallipoli, here’s a brief little history. Gallipoli was the site of the most important battle for both the Turks and ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand) during WWI. It’s where Australia and New Zealand carved out their identities through a nine-month campaign that ultimately ended in their, and the Allies, defeat. So Gallipoli is a big thing for the ANZACs, which partly explains why you might run into a fair number of them in Turkey. It’s as equally important for the Turks because it provided the one big victory for the Ottoman Empire during WWI and it was under Ataturk who rose to prominence after this one victory. Gallipoli is the peninsula on the European side of the Dardanelles Strait that marks the entrance into the Sea of Marmara, which means it leads to Istanbul and the Black Sea (and the countries with a Black Sea border such as Russia). So the battle at Gallipoli pitched the ANZACs and Turks, who had never had anything to do with each other before, against each other.

With our special tour guide we picked up to take us through Gallipoli we hit all the important battle sites and memorials. This guide was a Turk who spoke English with an Australian accent. It was the strangest sounding thing. Also, he felt the need to be repetitive so it was “the Brighton, the Brighton Beach” and “the Anzac, the Anzac Cove.”

After Gallipoli we said goodbye to our guide and got back our original one and then went to catch a ferry across the Dardanelles to end up on the Asian side. We stayed at Cannakale that night in a hostel style hotel. The best part of the night was Turkey’s monumental, history-making win over Czech Republic in the Euro Cup. You have never seen happier Turks. After playing horrible, the Turks came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in the last fifteen minutes. Talk about crazy. So with their two wins, Turkey advances to a quarter-final match versus Croatia.

After a somewhat restful night on a springy mattress it was back on the bus and time to visit another battle site – Troy. Um, can we say awesome? I love ancient ruins. There were nine different versions of Troy and the famous Iliad one was Troy VI. So we explored the ruins a bit with another special tour guide, then it was time to move on.

After some driving down the coast of the Aegean we made it to our next stop after lunch. Pergamum is the ancient Greek and Roman city that lies on top of a mountain. The city itself was a state organization, one made for training soldiers and also providing mental health facilities. They had things such as music and arts therapy even back then. Apparently death wasn’t welcome in the city though; there is no cemetery and supposedly those sick enough to die just left the city. There was more civilization at the base of mountain that helped to support the city at the top.

The best thing about Pergamum is the backdrop – the views are incredible. The theater especially is awesome. It’s the steepest ancient theater and the mountain just drops around you providing an excellent view to the countryside surrounding the city.

Speaking of excellent views, this is good moment to talk about the new camera drama. This time it was my video camera. My hard drive on my video camera is messed up so I couldn’t take any videos whatsoever. I was really frustrated about the whole thing and I hope you, my avid viewers, can understand when I don’t have any video to show of these first two days of my trip. Luckily I was able to drop some money on an SD card and will be able to film limitedly for the remainder of the trip. Ugh. I’m still pissed that the hard drive messed up though. I guess I’ve been using it too hard these past four weeks.

After Pergamum it was back on the bus so we could make it to Selcuk for our next stay. We stayed at the Australian and New Zealand Guesthouse. It was an awesome place, though it’s funny that these Australian and New Zealand things keep popping up. Anyway, they had supper waiting for us when we got there. Barbeque chicken. Yum.

This was a definite upgrade from our stay the night before in a more hostel type place. Here we shared comfortable rooms, though Turks are funny about their bathrooms. For whatever reason, they seem to think it’s a good idea to put the bathroom all together.

What I mean is that the toilet, sink, and shower are all in one small tiled room together. Um, I can get the toilet and sink, but the shower? So basically when you shower, water goes everywhere and if you’re not careful, that’s the end of your toilet paper. I suppose its space efficient. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I come back to the States and I have a whole bathroom to myself.

So whereas the night before we were crashing in a dormitory with some of the people on the tour bus; Selcuk gave us rooms. Amanda, Kristina, and I crashed in one with Kristina and me reuniting in a double bed akin to our flat back in Istanbul.

The next day was supposed to be kind of a do-whatever-you-want relaxing day, but there was so much we wanted to do in Selcuk. We were up and eating a delicious French toast breakfast by 8:30 a.m. Our first order of business was to go to the Ephesus ruins.

Ephesus is one of the best preserved and largest Greek and Roman cities. Pergamum may hold the views, but Ephesus has everything else, including a huge 25,000 seating theater. It’s a good thing we went during the morning because it was still ridiculously hot and there was no shade besides what a few of the ruins provided. What we saw of Ephesus was huge, but only a small amount of the ruins have actually been excavated.

At one point a fair number of us ended up congregating in the shady, beautifully restored library to take a breather from the heat and the huge numbers of Asian tourists. Prof. Sarah shows up a few moments later and comments that she would find us all in the library. I was amused to say the least. We played around the ruins a good two hours. William gave a great monologue from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the theater. We could hear him perfectly in the top row and he earned a standing ovation from the other English-speakers who were there at the time. One of the crazy things about Ephesus is that where before the city was right on the water, now it’s some seven kilometers away. That’s a lot of sea that has silted up over 2000+ years.

After Ephesus it was time to visit the Virgin Mary’s house. Reportedly it was her last place of residence before her death. John the Apostle brought her there after Jesus’ crucifixion as he was entrusted with her care and in charge of preaching the word in Asia Minor. The house is a restored stone structure in a pretty wooded area on one of the mountains near Ephesus. Mary’s house was alone, but she definitely wasn’t isolate. Ephesus was huge for its time. Some 250000 people at its peak and around the time Mary would have been there. There is a natural spring there as well that provides fresh water.

I’m not Catholic, Lutheran, or Orthodox, but I am very glad we went. That’s all I have to say on that matter.

We headed back down into Selcuk afterwards and had a bit of time to kill before we were to meet Mrs. Gurel for lunch. I know, I know - wait, when did this happen? - you want to know. After spending the weekend with the Gurels awhile ago, Mrs. Gurel wanted to meet the rest of the group. Izmir is only 45 minutes away from Selcuk so she drove down to take us all out to lunch.

Before that though, I got an SD card for my video camera while everyone else went to the museum that housed a lot of the art that has been picked up from Ephesus. We then met Mrs. Gurel who was as gracious and charming as ever. She provided a van to transport us all to the place of our meal. We had a leisurely lunch in the shade at her friend’s place that also supported a lot of ancient and Ottoman arts. It was really nice place and the food was excellent.

After saying goodbye to Mrs. Gurel it was time to hit the beach. Though I did have to work out an issue with the SD card I purchased as soon as that was resolved we finally made it to an Aegean beach. Though I had jumped into the Aegean before at the Gurel’s summer home, it was nice to be at the beach, especially with everyone else. It was such a warm day, the water was perfect. We swam and chilled on the soft sand for about two hours.

Then after a quick change, we went up to a small Greek town in the mountains. I was thinking it would just be this quaint little affair, but it was even better than that. It was so beautiful and we were there at sunset. The weather was perfect and the sun provided great lighting. After walking around a bit, we had a leisurely supper at a restaurant there and then traveled back down the mountain.

David and I watched the Italy-France game once we got back (Italy won), while the others learned backgammon. But after a full day, we were all exhausted and it didn’t take but a minute to fall asleep that night.

Amanda, Kristina, and I overslept a little this morning, but we were still able to grab breakfast before our transportation came. It was then a two and a half hour driver to our next and current destination – Pamukkale. Pamukkale is home to beautiful white calcium deposits with hot springs and mud baths that look like glaciers. That is, if you think glaciers chill in 100+ degree weather.

Our hotel is another win. Very comfortable and the proprietors are cool too. It’s another three girls per room; this time it’s Kelly, Yekta, and me.

Once we got to Pamukkale, we were all ready for lunch so through the heat we navigated the very small town until we stumbled upon a place to eat. Pamukkale used to be a lot bigger with five star hotels on top of the calcium deposits so people could walk right out to the springs. However, some environmental groups showed up ten years ago and closed the hotels down because the amount of people was destroying the calcium. A lot of business left with the hotels and now Pamukkale is much quieter.

After lunch we went back to our nice little pension and chilled for a couple of hours. Some people went swimming in the small pool, others, like myself caught up on blogging. At 4:30 we met with Prof. Sarah for a class discussion before heading up the calcium deposits.

The calcium deposits are beautiful and kind of out of this world. They gleam white in the distance and when actually walking on them, water pours over the surface causing ridges to appear. Apparently Yellowstone has a fraction of these calcium deposits that Pamukkale boasts. It looks kind of like a melting glacier. Or marshmallows. I kept expecting the Ghostbusters marshmallow monster to start moving underneath my feet.

Water emerges from springs at the top of mountain and waterfalls down the side, forming pools and rushing down the pathway we used to climb. Some of the pools look like the infinity pools you find on cliffs. Now imagining this white mountain with water sliding down around you, with a barefoot climb to the top, standing in waterfalls along the side, and to all that, add a mountainous backdrop. All that equals pure awesomeness.

Once we got to the top we made straight for the hot spring and luckily because it was less than an hour till closing time at 7:00 we got in for half price for a swim.

The calcium hot spring was amazing. The water was warm, but not too hot. It bubbled around you, but it did burn a little bit when going under water. And it tasted something awful. But we swam in the hot spring with the ancient ruins of Hierapolis all around us. Roman columns covered in algae could be found everywhere. We found one in a deep section where you could stand on a fallen column and swim underneath it. We all took turn borrowing Yekta’s goggles so we could go under and explore. After paddling around until 7:00, it was then time to explore the ruins of Hierapolis.

Where Ephesus was devoted to the Goddess Artemis and all her many forms, Hierapolis is all about praising Apollo and fearing Pluto/Hades. From all the geothermal energy, there was one particular area that was so thick with sulfur that most animals suffocated. So Pluto had a bit of a cult following with the poison cave/valley. We found the Temple of Apollo and the Pluto cult among the ruins and then we climbed up the hill to the theater. The theater was pretty impressive with its views rivaling Pergamum’s. Add onto this the fact that we were witnessing the sunset in tandem and it was spectacular. Though for whatever reason my eyes had dried out something horrible after getting out of the hot spring so I was struggling a bit with my contacts.

We eventually climbed back down the white calcium mountain and made it back to our hotel where after a quick shower, we were promptly served a delicious and very filling supper.

David and I caught the end of the Russia-Sweden EuroCup game (Russia won) and then it was back to blogging and video-editing. But only for a little while. Despite feeling really content after my shower and being really full and comfortable, I decided to accompany Edward, Amanda, Kristina, David, and Zoe back to the calcium pools for a midnight dip. Unfortunately we weren’t able to communicate very well to the security guards and we had to turn back at the entrance.

We could have snuck in, but none of us wanted to risk getting caught by a Turkish security with a Turkish machine gun, and get sent to Turkish prison. So it was back to the hotel and finally bedtime.

The next morning was nice and slow. We didn’t have to leave until 10:30 and I woke up around 9:00. After getting ready I had a nice breakfast and then played with the two hotel dogs. I can’t wait to see my own pets once I get back to the States.

We piled into a van of sorts with luggage piled all around us. Edward called it a “box on wheels” which I think about sums it up perfectly. Our driver also randomly stopped to talk to a buddy of his. It kind of fit the mystic Turk experience, especially when we started debating if we were being sold into slavery.

“Oh, I got 12 Americans and their luggage…”

“40 YTL, no more.”

You know, Americans come cheap and you can upgrade to a bigger size for only five YTL more.
Luckily our drive in the box on wheels was pretty short. We got dropped off at the bus station in the neighboring city to Pamukkale where, after a short wait, we boarded a spacious charter bus for our journey to Egirdir.

After a few hours of sleep onboard the bus we made it to the beautiful lakeside city of Egirdir (that’s a silent “g”). It was after 3:00 before we got settled into our dormitory that housed ten beds just for the each of us, and by that point I was starving and craving a diet coke.

The majority of us went to get a meal and then it was time for a swim in the blue-green lake. I’ve never seen a lake quite like this one. For one, it was perfectly blue-green and clear with mountains surrounding it; it was like something out of a fantasy. For another, despite the town and the small harbor, there were virtually no boats in the water. It was perfectly calm. Of course, having six Americans go splashing in it doesn’t really help the calm, but the lake was huge. Besides us and some children who were also swimming we were alone in the water.

I’ve never had a swim like that before. The water was crisp and cold and so smooth. I could easily see to the bottom. Interestingly, Lake Egirdir is the second largest fresh-water lake in Turkey. If that was in the US, there would be so many people, so many boats, the water would probably churn brown. In any case, it was fabulous.

With only one shower for our dorm and needing to meet in 20 minutes at 7:00 p.m. we were at a dilemma. So we took the obvious solution, all climbed in our bathing suits and fought over the shower head. Despite our best efforts, we were still late.

At this point, Prof. Sarah wanted to talk to all of us about how we really haven’t been able to meet up academically the past two days. A lot of this has really I think been miscommunication on everyone’s part. But our Prof brings up a fair point. I have to remember that this is not just a vacation, as much as I want it to be. I’m here to learn about the history, and to try to carve out an identity for the Turkish people who brush by these ancient and not-so ancient ruins.

But also, I think with our exploration of ruins, with our constant meeting of new people and new places, we are definitely learning. It’s something I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s there. How do Turks just pass by such ancient history? And for Kristina’s and mine project, where do the clothes and outward expression of character mean for the women of this country? And most importantly, when did Turks think it would be a good idea to put showers in without some sort of division to the rest of the bathroom?

After our discussion we did a bit of exploration, got a bite to eat at a lakeside restaurant on one of the small islands, and then watched a lightning storm in the distance.

Tomorrow it’s off to the national park near Egirdir for some frolicking on the King’s Highway.