2012 10 Izmir, Turkey, a set on Flickr.
Click the link to see the 18 best photos from our 18 best hours in Izmir, Turkey.Thursday, 18 October 2012
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Izmir and a fond farewell to Turkey
A number of people suggested that we take the train from Selcuk to Izmir, so we did that rather than catching a mini-bus.
The train was absolutely full for most of the 1.5 hour journey, so we stood at the end of a cabin with quite a few others and all our gear. Eleanor and Leo sat in the door well with a nine-year-old girl. They played games on her Mum's phone, much to Eleanor's delight. It is amazing how children can relate despite an age gap of several years and no common language. The girl was very patient with Eleanor and Leo, and her parents oversaw the games and even helped getting our bags off the train at the end of the trip. I spent much of the journey talking to a friendly and interesting Indian couple who had settled in Canada. All in all it was a great journey, in large part because of the seating situation.
We had a rather nice proper hotel in Izmir, a real treat! Once we had settled in we went off to find lunch and a coffee. As we were in the area, we stopped into the Agora, which from the outside looked like a few columns and lots of piles of rubble waiting to be pieced together. It turned out that there was also the excavated basement of a basilica, which was worth a visit.
They have found evidence of settlements in the area dating back 8500 years. Apparently, historians believe Homer was born in this area. It left us reflecting that our lives are so rich and full, but are really just a tiny blip in the grand scheme of things!
As we left we noticed a slide across the road, so decided to pop over before heading back to the hotel. We stayed about a minute... it smelled of cat or maybe chicken pee, the slide was horribly dirty, the area was strewn with broken glass and Adrian found a decapitated chicken head at the bottom of the slide. We didn't stick around to see if the body was nearby. A shoo-in for the worst playground of the trip so far! [Adrian: that chicken head was sickening]
Dinner was take away pizza at the hotel and we spent the rest of the evening in the garden talking about how much we enjoyed Turkey.
There are some fantastic sights, but it is the friendly, kind and incredibly helpful people who made it so special. We were never lost or looking at a map for long before someone would offer assistance and Eleanor and Leo lapped up all the attention (particularly Leo; we weren't sure whether it was his blond hair or that he is a boy). They were often given fruit or a little toy when we met people or sometimes just walking down the street.
Turkey is now firmly on the list of places we intend to come back to one day. We barely scratched the surface of what there is to see and do, but we had a flight to Athens the following day.
The train was absolutely full for most of the 1.5 hour journey, so we stood at the end of a cabin with quite a few others and all our gear. Eleanor and Leo sat in the door well with a nine-year-old girl. They played games on her Mum's phone, much to Eleanor's delight. It is amazing how children can relate despite an age gap of several years and no common language. The girl was very patient with Eleanor and Leo, and her parents oversaw the games and even helped getting our bags off the train at the end of the trip. I spent much of the journey talking to a friendly and interesting Indian couple who had settled in Canada. All in all it was a great journey, in large part because of the seating situation.
We had a rather nice proper hotel in Izmir, a real treat! Once we had settled in we went off to find lunch and a coffee. As we were in the area, we stopped into the Agora, which from the outside looked like a few columns and lots of piles of rubble waiting to be pieced together. It turned out that there was also the excavated basement of a basilica, which was worth a visit.
They have found evidence of settlements in the area dating back 8500 years. Apparently, historians believe Homer was born in this area. It left us reflecting that our lives are so rich and full, but are really just a tiny blip in the grand scheme of things!
As we left we noticed a slide across the road, so decided to pop over before heading back to the hotel. We stayed about a minute... it smelled of cat or maybe chicken pee, the slide was horribly dirty, the area was strewn with broken glass and Adrian found a decapitated chicken head at the bottom of the slide. We didn't stick around to see if the body was nearby. A shoo-in for the worst playground of the trip so far! [Adrian: that chicken head was sickening]
Dinner was take away pizza at the hotel and we spent the rest of the evening in the garden talking about how much we enjoyed Turkey.
There are some fantastic sights, but it is the friendly, kind and incredibly helpful people who made it so special. We were never lost or looking at a map for long before someone would offer assistance and Eleanor and Leo lapped up all the attention (particularly Leo; we weren't sure whether it was his blond hair or that he is a boy). They were often given fruit or a little toy when we met people or sometimes just walking down the street.
Turkey is now firmly on the list of places we intend to come back to one day. We barely scratched the surface of what there is to see and do, but we had a flight to Athens the following day.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
2012 10 Selcuk
2012 10 Selcuk, a set on Flickr.
92 photos from our trip to Selcuk, Turkey, the vast majority coming from Ephesus. Click on the link to see them all.Saturday, 13 October 2012
Selcuk
The trip from Bergama to Selcuk took about 4.5 hours in mini buses with a change at Izmir. These smaller buses are a bit more our speed than the flash intercity coaches!
Our hotel in Selcuk was cheap and fairly cheerful, if a little unusual on the cleaning front (post-clean there was no toilet paper or bath mat, but we were left a mans singlet in their place). We took advantage of the swimming pool at their other hotel a couple of times; it was lovely at the end of the day and had a fantastic view over the city.
We decided to take things a little more quietly on the ruin-front in Selcuk, so spent the first morning wandering around the city. We saw the Temple of Artemis from a distance; it was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, but is now a single column.
We stopped in at St John's Basilica, site of St John's tomb, and continued to a nearby cafe with good coffee and milkshakes. In the afternoon we caught a local mini-bus to Pamucak, a beach about 7kms out of Selcuk. It is sandy with shallow, calm, warm water and was almost deserted. Perfect!
The ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus are amazing; particularly the striking facade of the Library of Celsus, which reminded us a little of the treasury at Petra. There also some terraced houses that are still being worked on, but have incredible mosaic floors and painted walls. They give some idea as to how the other half lived in Roman times. Eleanor and Leo put on a 'show' (ballet) in the huge 20,000 to 25,000-seat theatre for a small crowd of maybe 10, of whom only Adrian and I were really paying attention. Still, it is early days for them on the big stage!
We could (and hope to) visit Ephesus again in 15 years or so and see so much more; it is still actively being excavated and only 18% of the city has been uncovered so far. I have a new appreciation for archeologists who undertake such painstaking work to uncover and understand these sites, then they are faced with a larger-than-life incredibly complex jigsaw puzzle to piece together. They must be exceedingly patient people.
A class of school boys were at Ephesus interviewing tourists on their experiences of Turkey. Between us Adrian and I were asked questions by about five groups who didn't seem at all concerned that we'd already been interviewed, so the data will be skewed with a few extra kiwis all saying exactly the same thing.
On our final day we took it in turns to visit the local museum that houses many of the statues taken from Ephesus. The museum is small, but interesting and includes three versions of an amazing statue of the Goddess Artemis who was worshiped at Ephesus. While Adrian was at the museum Eleanor, Leo and I revisited the little cafe for more coffee and milkshakes to find the owner had a toy room with a big box of blocks. A real treat for children who love building (and breaking) towers.
After lunch and naps, we took another trip to Pamucuk for more swimming and playing in the sand. A very relaxing way to spend our last afternoon in Selcuk.
Our hotel in Selcuk was cheap and fairly cheerful, if a little unusual on the cleaning front (post-clean there was no toilet paper or bath mat, but we were left a mans singlet in their place). We took advantage of the swimming pool at their other hotel a couple of times; it was lovely at the end of the day and had a fantastic view over the city.
We decided to take things a little more quietly on the ruin-front in Selcuk, so spent the first morning wandering around the city. We saw the Temple of Artemis from a distance; it was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, but is now a single column.
We stopped in at St John's Basilica, site of St John's tomb, and continued to a nearby cafe with good coffee and milkshakes. In the afternoon we caught a local mini-bus to Pamucak, a beach about 7kms out of Selcuk. It is sandy with shallow, calm, warm water and was almost deserted. Perfect!
The ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus are amazing; particularly the striking facade of the Library of Celsus, which reminded us a little of the treasury at Petra. There also some terraced houses that are still being worked on, but have incredible mosaic floors and painted walls. They give some idea as to how the other half lived in Roman times. Eleanor and Leo put on a 'show' (ballet) in the huge 20,000 to 25,000-seat theatre for a small crowd of maybe 10, of whom only Adrian and I were really paying attention. Still, it is early days for them on the big stage!
We could (and hope to) visit Ephesus again in 15 years or so and see so much more; it is still actively being excavated and only 18% of the city has been uncovered so far. I have a new appreciation for archeologists who undertake such painstaking work to uncover and understand these sites, then they are faced with a larger-than-life incredibly complex jigsaw puzzle to piece together. They must be exceedingly patient people.
A class of school boys were at Ephesus interviewing tourists on their experiences of Turkey. Between us Adrian and I were asked questions by about five groups who didn't seem at all concerned that we'd already been interviewed, so the data will be skewed with a few extra kiwis all saying exactly the same thing.
On our final day we took it in turns to visit the local museum that houses many of the statues taken from Ephesus. The museum is small, but interesting and includes three versions of an amazing statue of the Goddess Artemis who was worshiped at Ephesus. While Adrian was at the museum Eleanor, Leo and I revisited the little cafe for more coffee and milkshakes to find the owner had a toy room with a big box of blocks. A real treat for children who love building (and breaking) towers.
After lunch and naps, we took another trip to Pamucuk for more swimming and playing in the sand. A very relaxing way to spend our last afternoon in Selcuk.
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
2012 10 Bergama
2012 10 Bergama, a set on Flickr.
50 of the best photos from our visit to Bergama, Turkey. Click on the link to see them all.Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Bergama
The bus to Bergama was even more comfortable than our trip to Canakkale; the fairly new bus was immaculately clean and the man in charge of the journey was determined to keep it that way. Enter the Parker family who managed to drop crumbs on the seats, spill juice on the floor and sneeze bread everywhere making for a less-than-pleased man. Seldom has a dustpan been wielded so assertively.
We were happy not to be ejected from the bus early; although we were rather unceremoniously dumped on the roadside across from the Bergama bus terminal, which like many Turkish bus stations is outside of the city centre. Fortunately the helpful forecourt attendants at the petrol station called us a taxi and we were soon at our hotel.
Bergama has three ancient sites, so is definitely on the tourist trail, but is not as established as the other spots we have stopped in Turkey, so has a much more local feel. [Adrian: think Woodville, or Slough]
There is an acropolis at the top of a steep hill behind the town. It would have been incredible in its day and still is, particularly the 10,000-seat theatre, which is tall and narrow dropping straight down the hill to the stage. It was outside of the city walls to preserve space on the hill top and unusually tall as the hillside didn't allow for it to be more rounded. Theatre-goers with vertigo would have had a miserable evening! No time would be a good time to be a slave, but those during Roman/Greek periods working in construction would have had an extremely difficult job.
We all enjoyed our visit, including Eleanor and Leo who walked a long way. They are getting into the idea of exploring (clambering over rocks) and like to take us on a 'tour'.
The Red Basilica is a brick building that was originally a temple to some Egyptian gods. It was so big that rather than turning it into a church, the Christians just built a church inside its walls. It was one of St John the Devine's seven churches of the Apocalypse; the throne of the devil. There is a hole in the podium that would have allowed the priest to hide and appear the be speaking through a 10 metre tall cult statue. That is pretty cool! The walls now look to be on the verge of collapse, so visitors can only wander around the outside and imagine what it was once like in tact and with about 36 huge stone statues In the courtyard.
The third site is the Asklepion, an ancient health centre that was at its peak in the mid-to-late 200's AD. Yet another fascinating ruin. The work done here during this time contributed to our knowledge of circulatory and nervous systems.
We have decided to have a break from ruins at Selcuk, our next stop, apart from Ephasus of course. And maybe one or two little ones if we can fit them in...
We were happy not to be ejected from the bus early; although we were rather unceremoniously dumped on the roadside across from the Bergama bus terminal, which like many Turkish bus stations is outside of the city centre. Fortunately the helpful forecourt attendants at the petrol station called us a taxi and we were soon at our hotel.
Bergama has three ancient sites, so is definitely on the tourist trail, but is not as established as the other spots we have stopped in Turkey, so has a much more local feel. [Adrian: think Woodville, or Slough]
There is an acropolis at the top of a steep hill behind the town. It would have been incredible in its day and still is, particularly the 10,000-seat theatre, which is tall and narrow dropping straight down the hill to the stage. It was outside of the city walls to preserve space on the hill top and unusually tall as the hillside didn't allow for it to be more rounded. Theatre-goers with vertigo would have had a miserable evening! No time would be a good time to be a slave, but those during Roman/Greek periods working in construction would have had an extremely difficult job.
We all enjoyed our visit, including Eleanor and Leo who walked a long way. They are getting into the idea of exploring (clambering over rocks) and like to take us on a 'tour'.
The Red Basilica is a brick building that was originally a temple to some Egyptian gods. It was so big that rather than turning it into a church, the Christians just built a church inside its walls. It was one of St John the Devine's seven churches of the Apocalypse; the throne of the devil. There is a hole in the podium that would have allowed the priest to hide and appear the be speaking through a 10 metre tall cult statue. That is pretty cool! The walls now look to be on the verge of collapse, so visitors can only wander around the outside and imagine what it was once like in tact and with about 36 huge stone statues In the courtyard.
The third site is the Asklepion, an ancient health centre that was at its peak in the mid-to-late 200's AD. Yet another fascinating ruin. The work done here during this time contributed to our knowledge of circulatory and nervous systems.
We have decided to have a break from ruins at Selcuk, our next stop, apart from Ephasus of course. And maybe one or two little ones if we can fit them in...
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