Selcuk, part two

Day # 5 - Selcuk day two

There were a few things i forgot from yesterdays blog post.
Firstly, before the nargile, during dinner, i tried raki, which is the turkish version of ouzo. It was the most disgusting thing evverrrrrr. They pour it into a glass, half full, give u ice and you add water. The alcohol turns into a milky colour. You're also supposed to have a glass of water on standby, because its so strong. I only had a sip, but mannnn was it strong!

Today's post is going to be a bit long because i couldn't decide between which pics to post. Also, i am experimenting with this formatting thing....its very limited with this app so please ignore the ugliness lol.

In the morning we had our orientation walk of thr town of selcuk, Its quite a small town and you can probably finish walking around it in half an hour. By our hotel there were doggiew and kitties nearby, thie was a curious little one...too bad my cam couldnt focus in time :(


Our first destination was a nearby mosqur called isa mosque. We didn't go inside the actual mosque but we went into thr courtyard which was gorgeous...so many ruins all around.


Our next stop was the Ephiseus musem, which stores ruin from the ancient city (which i go to in a sec). There were statues and stuff, but none really that distinctive...






Our next stop was st john's bascilica. The church obviously isnt still standing, but the ruins of the church were still gorgeous. They sky was the most perfect blue without a cloud in sight.



Took a panoramic view from the hilltop, it was absolutely gorgeous. I couldnt help but stand there and stare out, breathing in the fresh air. It was such a pleasent feeling....





The ruins themselves were very impressive with many columns still standing
...


Travelling by myself required me to learn how to use the self timer function...looking at the next couple shots, i think ive done pretty well for myself...especially the second one..needs to be accurate timing!





Have you ever seen a more perfect blue sky? Just absolutely beautiful.






In addition to using th self timer, i am lucky to have group mates who dont mind helping me take a pic :)


After the ancient basilica, we headed over to lunch. The food was yummy, but the best pic by far was the random kitty that came by beside my seat to meow and yawn...perfect moment captured...


After being super full at lunch time we head back to the hotel for some rest and relxation by the pool. In fact, i wrote the last post by the pool yeseterday :)


At five pm, we head over to the ancient city of ephiseus...to avoid the masses of tourists that come from the cruise ships during the day. Even so, there seemed to be a ton of people there, i cant really imagine what it would have been like with even more.





This next picture is my feeble attempt to take a pic using the self timer ...got
the angle just slightly off...juuuuuussst slightly lol.





According to my very knowledgeable tour guide, this city used to be home to approximately two hundred thousand people, and what we saw here today is only ten percent of the actual city.


This down here is a temple in honour of hadrian, the same guy the wall was built for....the artwork on these temples were exquisite, cant imagine how these people carved it in the stone...this one might be one of my fav pics.


Behind me here is the ancient library of Ephiseus...the sheer size of this building was daunting. There were two floors of this library, and at one point held twelve thousand rolls of parchment paper (which were the books back then)..





Just masssssive. A lot of this library front is not original though, a lot of it has been restored by the turkish ppl so that we can see it with all of its beauty.








There's a faint circle on the ground, that was a special symbol for the christiafns, which was draw all over the city of ephiseus. The dirty feet beside belong to mysfelf and the tour guide (the painted one is mine lol)


I think coming at this time of day was the perfect idea, the sun hits the trees and the stones just right. Having said that, these pictures do not do the city justice, it was much more beautiful than any camera would be able to capture.


As with all ancient cities, there was a very and theatre, or "the great ancient theatre of ephiseus"...pretty sure chalar made that up on the spot. It was nice when we got there, the sun was slowly going down and there were only a handful of people in the theatre. The acoustics were quite good...we know because a little boy decided to sing some opera on the stage while we were there lol. Like the next pic? Another self timer pic...im getting good at this lol.


As we were leaving, the sun was just setting over the hills..


I think ive seen more gorgeous sunsets in the last few days than i have in my whole life in toronto lol...


I was going for a silioette look on this one, but i guess my camera auto adjusted and took a proper one instead. Ahhh well, still good :)


Goodbye ancient city of Ephiseus...


We left the ancient city and started a thirty minute trek to dinner on a old dirt road. Dried figs is one of the key industries of selcuk. Aparnetly, if you have a pack of dried figs at home, there is a ninety percent chance that it is from turkey lol. Anywho, when we were walking on the road, we passed by many fig trees...i guess we walked by alot of farms. Chalar told is that there is a turkey saying "goz hakki" which directly translates to "eye right"...meaning if you see it, you can take one. So we took some figs. Mmmmmmm delicous! Actually, i think thats the first time ive ever eaten a fresh fig before, so that crosses off item number twenty three ...EAT A NEW FRUIT. yay.


This is the road we were walking on, lots of little rocks and random cars driving by.


So we arrive at this restaurant, which was super traditional. The place's specialty is gozleme, which is a type of turkish pizza or pancake. Ive had something similar at the asian food market before. So basically, they make a very thin layer of dough which is made of just flour and water, and put stuffing in between.


We had ones with spinach and cheese, cheese, mushroom and spinach, minced meat, honey and banana, turkish nutella...all verrrrry delicious.


Mmmm...gozlemeeeee


As always, after the massive dinner, i got supppper sleepy. And give that we were sitting at a table with our shoes off, and surrounded by big pillows, i couldnt help but fall asleep. My tourmate sarah was a sweet enough to take my camera and take a pic of me in this very vulnerable moment.


Needless to say, it was a very fun filled and tiring today...but amazingly fun. Next stop, pamukale. :)

Location:Selcuk, turkey

Selcuk, part one

Firstly, id like to say that i think ive finally cured my jetlag. This trip took me a bit longer than I usually do...so I am happy to report that i have managed to sleep the whole night.

We started off the day a tad later that normal, at 9:30. We first left out hotel and took the city bus to the main bus terminal to catch our bus to selcuk. I found the name of the bus company to be particularly interesting, but i will let you see the pic below....


The bus ride took pretty long, we spent about six and a hlf hours on the road with short pit stops in between...



Once we arrived at our "hotel"' we took a local mini van to a local village by the name of sirenci, pronounced sirengi. It was a very quaint little village, with a very old church of st.john...


The local village had a few random things like an old car....


And local turkish ladies knitting in the street...


This village is pretty much sitting on top of a hill, so when we got our forty five minutes of free time, i decided to go wandering, trying to get to the highest point of the village.


Along the way, there was a kind turkish man who told me that there was a church at the top of the hill where there is a gorogeous view. Along the way, he gave me flowers he had picked ...toooooo cute and sweet.

He then helped me take a few pics of the church and scenery...





As i was about to leave, i asked to take a pic to remember my new turkish friend....


He was nice enough to offer me turkish "cha", or tea. Unfortunately my time was up and had to leave. Sigh. Goodbye handsom turkish man with beautiful blueish greenish eyes.

We head back to our hotel to the roof top restaurnt .and by this time, we are super starving since none of us had lunch. Before dinner, we sat down for a couple cool beverages as we watch the sunset over the nearby hills...





After the sunset, we sat down to some delicious mesa (sp??) plates, stuffed muscles and mixed grill meats. The meal was absolutelllly delicious....mmm...lamb and muscles......


After dinner, as people started to finish up and head to their rooms, candice, rick and our tourguide "charlar" stayed behind. Out of no where, a man brings a water pipe to chalar....And he starts to smoke it. I dont quite know how i got peer pressured (since ive never smoked anything evverrr in my life) but i ended up giving turkish "nargile" a try, others call it shisha.









It was a very nice apple mint flavour. It was great to try once in my life, but i dont think ill make a habit out of it, since i hear that one sitting of it is the same as smoking a full pack of cigarettes! Luckily i only took a couple breaths in.lol.

This day confirmed to me that turkish people are absolutely amazing and that i am in love with this country. Just walking arounid the village and looking out to the hills, gave me such a sense of peace and relaxation - something toronto just has never been able to do. One more day in selcuk to come.....

Location:Selcuk, turkey

Religion

So everyone knows I love canada dearly. People are nice and the food is great. But, it pains me immensely to say that i think i have found the one country on this planet where i have found nicer people. Turkey.

Turkish people have such a passion for their religion, their families and their communities. Yesterday night in istanbul, so many people were out celebrating friday after praying at the mosque. Today, in bursa, everyone was out with their families out and about.

Our tourguide caglar (pronounced charlar) took us to a local rooftop restaurant today for dinner. We were definitely thr only tourists there. Firstly, the view was beautiful...





What was extra cool about it was that this is a special restaurant where it sells a special "breaking the fast" menu, meant to be eaten exactly at sundown, which today was at 8:14pm. All the salad, bread, olives, dates, cheese are set down on the table but no one touches it while they wait for the call to prayers. After the call (actually during the call) ..Within seconds, i saw ppl eating dates, eating olives, drinking water (this is how u are supposed to break fast) or lighting up a cigarette. It was an amazing sight and an amazing meal. Everyone was so happy - saw so many hugs, kisses, pats, it was a nice sight to see between friends and familes....


After the awesome meals with the locals, we headed to a Dervish Lounge, which is a religious centre for Sufi Muslims. We were very clearly the only non-turkish tourists there, but were welcomed by the people who run the lounge with open arms. The place was verrrry crowded since it was ramadan so they had to find seats for us outdoors. Not only did the person who ran the mosque run around finding us chairs, but the locals also happily gave up their chairs for us. For outsiders invading on their religious grounds and ceremony, i would have expected a more hostile attitude, but instead we were greeted and welcomed so warmly, words can't even describe it. We were offered hot turkish black tea and freshly fried donuts...


There was about half hour of the leader speaking ot the crowd about the teaching of love...that you cannot be a muslim without love. Although i did not understand what he was saying, i could tell it was beautiful.

After the leader was done his prayer we were ushered into the building to go sit in the guest room before the "Wheeling Dervish" ceremony. Although some of the locals did not wear headscarves, our tour guide asked thatt we respect their religion and wear one...


Being part of something so religious, i dont think i could have not worn one. We were treated like vip sitting in the large guest room, but kids roam freely everywhere and these adorable three little girls came in and just started sitting there lol...


After sitting for a bit, we were ushered into another room where there was a balcony up top. The balcony was for women and thet bottom was for men, but since it was so packed, we just sat in the corner of the bottom area.

I have always seen people dressed the way the people in the cereemony were dressed in tv shows, or mags, but to see it in person, and as a reeligious ceremony was beyond words. Photos could not do this ceremony justice. These Sufi individuals basically spun in cirlces for twenty five minutes straight, going around in circles on que and tilting their head side ways with one arm reaching to the sky and one arm down towards the earth.


It was eye opening. The music was beautiful. I can't even put into words how amazed and "wowwed" i was...


The age group ranged -the youngest seem to be around ten or eleven, to the oldest maybe in his forties. I was so happy to be fortunate enough to see this very special religious ceremony, to be one of the few who get to see this side of turkish culture. I am still in awe of how dedicated and devout turkish people are with their religion.

Thank you Bursa for one of the most culturally eye opening experiences of my life.

Location:Bursa, turkey

Bursa in a day

Day #3 - Bursa, turkey

Today was such a an unexpectedly amazing day. I think it was the most memorable cultural learning experiences of my life. But, i will start at the beginning...

My day started off at 5:55 this morning after only four hrs of sleep.....



to get ready for our commute to Bursa, turkey, the fourth largest city in the country. First, cabs picked us up at seven on the dot to deliver us to the ferry station to catch a ferry ....


(view from ferry)
to catch a coach bus to bursa.....






(view from bus)

After arriving in bursa, we took the city bus to our hotel. So basically, after four modes of transportion, we finally made it. Our hotel ws nothing special, as with the one before...it is a (relatively) clean room with a delightful view of the building next door....



Our day in bursa started off with a walking tour to see the tombs of th past sultans, and then to the nearby clock tower for the panoramic view of thr city



(it appeare the pic shows up much smaller than it actually is, but u get the idea)
Its weird that before today, i never even knew of this city's existence, yet this very large and thriving city is here, with so much culture to offer.

We then headed towards Ulu Cami, which means great or huge mosque. During the period this mosque was built, all first mosques of each city was named the same thing. This mosque was absolutely beautiful. It didnt have the tiles like the ones in istanbul, but rather had beautiful caligraphy on the walls.


Its currently in the middle of ramadan, so there were many individual at the mosque praying. In the short time that i have been in turkey, i have been amazed by how religious and devout people here are. The call to prayer several times a day, the dedication to fasting, it is simply impressive.



I felt slightly uncomfortable for the fact that we were walking through the mosque as tourists, but everyone seemed welcoming and friendly. What wassssss kind of weird tho, was that this city has very few non-turkish tourists, we seemed to be a group of the very few. What was even more weird, was that aparently, even fewer oriental asians come...soooo a lot of kids were pointing and staring at me. Hah, the last time i felt like such a spectacle was when i was in flint, michigan, usa. Lol.

Anywho, my ultimate cultural experience deserves its own post