The flight from Newark to Istanbul was 11 hours, but it went relatively quickly due to my having my new Kindle Fire loaded with books and our having personal t.v.s loaded with the latest movies. The drive from the airport into the city was splendid, replete with evidence of Istanbul's (Constantinople's, Byzantium's) historical past and late winter/early spring flowers in bloom everywhere. It was chilly and we were tired, but we managed some exploring on our own before dinner and orientation at the hotel.
The next morning we toured the Blue Mosque, a 17th century Ottoman structure famous for its minarets and blue tiles; continued to the nearby Hippodrome, where chariot races and athletic events took place during the Roman era; and wrapped it up with the Haggia Sophia, the great Byzantine basilica built in the 6th century which remained the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years. It later was converted to a mosque but now serves as a musuem and is undergoing reclamation of its Christian past. We perceived right away that our guide, Sendar, a native Turk who was schooled in England, was a godsend, and so he proved to be. Pleasant, imminently knowledgeable, and enthusiastic, he made the trip both fun and educational.
That first day proved to be an omen, weatherwise. It was cold (in the mid thirties), raining, and windy. We came prepared for nippy weather with sweaters, scarves, appropriately warm undergarments, and jackets, but we were in no way ready to face those conditions. We were miserable at the outdoor venues, and the indoor ones proved to be little better. We were cold to the absolute bone and raced back to the hotel at morning's end and into the sauna and Turkish baths, which were restorative. We pampered ourselves late that afternoon with high tea at the Pera Palace Hotel where Agatha Christie and other famous folk rested up following their trips on the Orient Express.
The following morning the eight of us gathered with Sendar and approximately 25 others on our Mercedes-Benz bus to begin our tour of Turkey beyond Istanbul. After a few hours drive through beautiful countryside listening to Sendar's first lessons on the history of Turkey, we took a ferry across the Dardanelles to arrive at Gallipoli, the site of the famous WWI battle that set the stage for the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of modern Turkey. (If you haven't seen the movie, starring a young and unsullied Mel Gibson, make it a point to do so.) We drove on to Canakkale and proceeded to the nearby ruins of Troy, where we toured the 4000-year-old city and legendary location of the Trojan War immortalized by Homer. We overnighted in Canakkale, where the Trojan Horse from the movie Troy is proudly displayed in a public park.
On day five we drove to Pergamum, a powerful kingdom during the Hellenistic period, and visited the ruins of the Asclepion, an ancient Roman spa and healing center where Galen, one of the fathers of medicine, practiced his trade. We continued from there to Kusadasi, a city believed to be the birthplace of Homer, where we stayed overnight.
The following day we visited the nearby ruins of the city of Ephesus, first settled in the early Bronze Age and subsequently a great Greek city and still later a great Roman city. Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia cited in the Book of Revelation. The gospel of John probably was written there, and the Basilica of St. John is nearby. We spent several hours there, walking among the ruins that covered several square miles, but were told by Sendar that only 8% of the city has been excavated to date. It was fascinating to see evidence of so many civilizations existing on one spot, and we all agreed that it was a tour highlight. Later that day we visited the house where the Virgin Mary resided when she relocated to the area after the death of Christ, as well as the scanty remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
More ruins were in store when we traveled to Pamukkale the next day: the ancient city of Hieropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated atop the Pamukkale hot springs, and its accompanying vast burial grounds, the Necropolis. Hot springs dot the area, and our hotel was very near one. Nevertheless, we awoke the next morning to snow on the ground and snowflakes in the air.
That morning we departed for Konya, the home of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, better known in the west as Rumi and in Turkey as Mevlana, the 13th century Muslim saint and mystic who founded the Sufi branch of Islam and developed the whirling dervishes or Sema, a form of meditation. We visited his mausoleum, which also serves as a lodge and school for the training of today's dervishes. Konya, where we stayed the night, is also renowned for its Seljuk architecture.
The Cappadocia region, our next stop, was a far piece away, so during the trip we stopped to visit the Caravanserai of Sultanhan, a precursor of the motel, located along what was once the Silk Road from China to the east. We landed in the city of Nevsehir in Cappadocia that afternoon and first visited a carpet atelier run in partnership with the Turkish government to train carpet weavers. I was flabbergasted by the sheer beauty of the carpets, which were displayed for us dramatically, and equally flabbergasted by the discounts which could be had there. Several people made purchases, but I was thwarted by not being able to devise a means of getting a carpet to me in Panama.
After settling into our hotel in Nevsehir, we attended a performance that night of whirling dervishes, held in another ancient caravanserai. While commercial performance of dervishes are common in Turkey, ours were the real thing: straight from the Sufi headquarters in Konya. I was mesmerized. The whirling, or Sema, is performed by spinning on the left foot, looking upward, and meditating. The ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to the "Perfect." The performance lasted nearly an hour.
The next day we did a full day tour of Cappadocia, famed for its highly unusual topography and dwellings cut into sides of hills, some of the oldest of which were inhabited by early Christians hiding from their tormentors. Several of us were scheduled for a balloon ride over the region early that morning, but it was cancelled because of inclement weather. I was deeply disappointed because I had heard from other that it was the absolute highlight of a Turkey trip.
On day 11 we proceeded on to the capital city, Ankara, where we toured the Mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic. (He also was a war hero at Gallipoli.) That afternoon we went to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum with its unique collection of archeological artifacts from the Paleolithic Age to the present.
After overnighting in Ankara, we returned to Istanbul on day 12, arriving in the early afternoon and taking a half day Bosphorus cruise (some pricey real estate there, as well as palaces from earlier eras) followed by a visit to the Spice Market that was remarkable for its smells and artful displays. That night we had a farewell dinner featuring fish from the Black Sea in a charming downtown area.
We learned that Turkey is 95% Islam, but it is a secular, democratic, constitutional democracy with full freedom of religion. The only outward signs of Islam were women's kerchiefed heads and minarets. We saw only four burqas, and they were on women at the exceedingly crowded spice market on our final day. Minarets, on the other hand, are everywhere, both in the cities and the countryside, as they are used to call the faithful to prayer five times a day, beginning at 5:00 a.m. It's a wonderful but eerie way to be awakened.
Scenery ran the gamut from huge cosmopolitan cities like Istanbul and Ankara, to less populous but modern cities, to quaint villages, to long stretches of agricultural land and vacant land. The Marmara Sea (part of the Turkish Straits, which also includes the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles) lies to the north, the Aegean Sea lies to the east (we could see the Greek island of Lesbos when driving along the Aegean), and the Mediterranean Sea is to the south. Turkey is roughly the size of Texas. Geographically it is very diverse, with numerous seaside towns, snow-capped mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys. It is a fascinating, beautiful country. Miles of olive trees would be followed by miles of fruit and nut trees in full or almost full bloom. Wildflowers were everywhere. Even the ruins were carpeted with chamomile, poppies, and other unrecognized flowers. We saw species tulips in bloom along the roadside. (Tulips originally came from Turkey, you know.) As an avid gardener, I was enthralled. The food, very Greek/Mediterranean, was delicious, with an emphasis on vegetables prepared in savory sauces and kebab, mostly of lamb and chicken. And we couldn't get enough of the sweets, largely honey and nut based. Olives of more kinds than I knew existed, and exotic fruits like giant figs and pomegranates, were plentiful. Our breakfasts and dinners consisted of overflowing buffet tables of a wide variety of foods. I couldn't button my jeans when I returned.
All in all, an excellent trip. But a slow return home. Following another 11 hour flight, we arrived in Newark and spent the night there. Our connecting flight to Panama didn't leave until late the next afternoon, however, so we were obliged to spend the day at a big outlet mall across from the hotel, being saved from financial ruin only by the deficiencies of our luggage. The flight to Panama arrived late at night, necessitating another night spent there before flying out to David the following morning.
Larry survived. He ate better than he usually does when I'm away largely because of a new neighborhood restaurant owned and run by an Egyptian/Canadian chef, George, who has a delicious and inexpensive menu. The animals survived, too, though Kitty Kitty punished me with a bite immediately upon my return. Everything's back to normal now. Larry is watching sports on t.v., Chyna is resting her old bones, Kitty is hunting varmints in the garden, and Finny is fetching. And I've been to two meetings devoted to planning next year's Bid 4 Boquete event.
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