(This is the transcription of sketchy
handwritten notes I took to help me remember places I visited and
label photographs. I plan to gradually elaborate them with
details and commentaries. I also plan to eventually hyperlink
diary references to photographs.)
26 June 1998, Friday
(traveling on rental car with Martín and María Inés):
Waking up in Izmir
Selçuk,
St. John Basilica on Ayasaluk Hill
Ephesus
Church of the Virgin Mary
Kusadasi
Through Izmir
Candarli (quiet and charming
fishing village on the Aegean Sea, hotel, German
speaking attendant, beach, Genovese castle,
fishermen)
27 June 1998, Saturday
(traveling on rental car with Martín and María Inés):
Candarli ("swim" [I'm a
terrible swimmer] on the Aegean Sea)
Bergama (Pergamum)
Asceptlion (ancient Greek medical
center)
Geyikli
Yükyeri,
Iskelesi
Bozcaada ferry
Güzelyali (Hotel Tusan, swim on
the Dardanelles)
28 June 1998, Sunday
(traveling on rental car with Martín and María Inés):
Güzelyali (swim on the
Dardanelles)
Troy
Çanakkale
Ferry to Kilitbahir
Gallipoli peninsula
Eceabat (lunch)
On the road to Istanbul (big
traffic jams, thousands of weekenders returning
to town).
Got discouraged by Istanbul
traffic and decided to return rental car at the
airport despite having more than 12 unused hours
on the contract.
Hotel Erboy
29 June 1998, Monday
(with Martín and María Inés in Istanbul):
Move from Hotel Erboy to Hotel
Armada
Topkapi Palace: Sarayiçi (Church
of Divine Peace), Court of the Janissaries,
Harem, Ortakapi, Kubbealti (Imperial Council
Chamber), Harem (imperial family quarters),
palace kitchens (big chimneys, collection of
Chinese celadon porcelain), Third Court, Gate of
the White Eunuchs (entrance into the Sultan's
private domains), Hazine (chambers of the
Imperial Treasury), Hayat Balconu (Balcony of
Life, with a great view of the Bosphorus and the
Sea of Marmara), Suite of the Felicitous Cloak
(holy place), Mosque of the Eunuchs, Fourth
Court, Kiosk of Mustafa Pasha, Circumcision Room,
Imperial Stables, Fountain of Ahmet III.
We Uruguayans are very few, even
on our own country. To my surprise, however, we
are today the largest national group in Topkapi
-- thanks to a travel group of about 300 students
from the School of Economics (same school where I
got my undergraduate degree), Universidad de la
República (Uruguay) on their graduation trip
around the world. They have already been six
months in Far East Asia and the Middle East. Now
in Turkey, next in Europe, then to the United
States, then to ... Six more months of travel
ahead.
Aya Sofia closed on Mondays.
Blue Mosque
Underground Byzantine Cistern
Galata Tower
Galata
Cross of the Bosphorus on a small
rowboat
Spice Market
Bosphorus boat tour (made friends
with covered woman from Kaukasistan (sp?))
Hotel Armada, restaurant, folk
singing and dancing.
30 June 1998, Tuesday
(with Martín and María Inés in Istanbul):
Aya Sofia
Chora Monastery (Kariye Museum),
tomb of Theodore Methochite The Great
City walls and Palace of
Constantine (Tekfur Saray). Used ladder to climb
the palace ruins and city walls. Great view of
the palace, city walls, Golden Horn, ...
Palace of Blachernae.
Walk along the entire length of
the Byzantine city walls.
Edirne Kapisce (old route to
Adomenepolis, used by Mehmet II The Conqueror to
invade the city
Mihrimah Camii (Sani, architect)
Armenian Church, hidden inside the
walls. We are invited in by the caretaker.
Topkapi Gate, gate of cannons.
Yedikule fortress: Golden Gate
(Byzantine triumphal arch), seven towers (four
built by Theodosius I, three (inside the walls)
by Mehmet II, eagle profile, Komnenen dinasty,
place of torture and execution (Sultan Osman II,
age 17, was executed here in 1622 during a revolt
of the Janissaries); execution fountain, used to
throw executed dead bodys to the sea. I climbed
the tower, walked through dark passways, walked
on the walls. Mosque Ruins.
Taxi to "Pierre Loti
Café" (we intended to go to the legendary
Pierre Loti Café at the tip of the Golden Horn
but taxi driver "misunderstood" us and
took us to a Pierre Loti restaurant in
Sultanahmet)
Back to Hotel. Took picture of
Blue Mosque at night, with crescent moon.
1 July 1998, Wednesday
(with Martín and María Inés in Istanbul):
Taxi to the REAL Pierre Loti Café
(where 'Pierre Loti', Louis Marie Julien Viaud,
1850-1923, used to sit and admire the city. He
fell in love with Istanbul and with Aziyade (a
married Turkish woman); wrote romantic novels
about the daily life of the city.
Cemetery of the Great Eyüp
Eyüp mosque
Market square, pigeons
Mihmandar Lokantasi
Taxi
Bulgarian church
Dolmabahçe Palace
Navy museum
Military museum: concert by the
mehter, medieval Ottoman marching band,
Janissaries
Taksim Park, Taksim Square
Greek Orthodox Church
McDonald's
Pedestrian street; Istiklal
Caddesi, streetcar
Walk south
British Embassy
Pera Palas Otel
Taxi back to Armada Hotel.
Dinner at Korean restaurant.
2 July 1998, Thursday
(with Martín and María Inés in Istanbul):
Grand Bazaar (covered market, 4000 shops,
several km of streets, mosques, banks, police stations,
... you name it!). Something to experience (But not to
shop for me, a well-known shop-averse; I manage to spend
three hours in the Grand Bazaar without buying anything
-- despite the aggressive selling tactics of the dealers,
specially the rug dealers.)
Change mistake. Instead of giving me (the
equivalent of) US$ 50, the bank attendant gives me US$
100. He calls me four hours later to the Hotel Armada. I
walk (about 30 blocks) to the bank to return the extra
US$ 50. I feel relieved (not of the US$ 50 but of guilt).
Martín and María Inés take a taxi to
the airport, to return to Berlin. I'm on my own now.
Gulhane Park (next to Topkapi Palace). Tea
garden, a quiet refuge to sip a drink while gazing at the
Bosphorus.
Sarayburnu Park on the Bosphorus (free).
Atatürk monument on tip of peninsula. Sultan monument.
Fishing piers.
Walk back to Marmara Sea. Lighthouse.
People bathing. Ottoman style tent kitchen (closed).
Fishing by the Marmara Sea. I read that
fishing villages were established in this area as early
as 1000 BC.
Back to Sultanahmet. Blue Mosque light and
music show. Aya Sofia lighted.
3 July 1998, Friday
(Istanbul, on my own):
I check out of Armada Hotel. I'm taking a
bus to Cappadocia at 8 p.m. I leave my big bag in the
hotel, pack some essentials on a small backpack, and head
for the streets. I leave the backpack on the Cappadocia
travel agency (Magic Valley Cappadocia Tours).
Archaeological Museums. Art students
drawing the silhouettes of nude statues at the entrance
park. Schoolchildren seating on the floor of the museum.
Extensive collection of Lycian, Greek, and Roman statuary
and sarcophagi. Museum of the Ancient Orient (holds
ancient gates of Babylon, clay tablets with Hammurabi's
law code, rich Assyrian and Hittite collection.
Sirkeci. Small restaurant. Very pleasant
conversation with waiter, who seats to chat at my table.
Amazingly, he knows all about Uruguayan soccer.
Train station.
Galata bridge, port. Fish sellers on the
Ferry port. Picturesque tea seller. Ferries.
Back to Sultanahmet. Watch France-Italy on
a sidewalk bar.
Back to travel agency. Shuttle bus to main
bus station.
Bus to Cappadocia. Fourteen-hour trip. I'm
going to Ürgüp, but I learn most of the passengers go
to Göreme.
Bus has a TV monitor. It shows the first
few minutes of Brazil-Denmark. Denmark scores and the
image disappears, never to come back again. Will Denmark
upset Brazil? I keep wondering all night long ...
00:00, stop at Hosgeldiniz.
I seat next to a bulky wrestler from San
Francisco State. He went with his school team to some
wrestling match in Bulgaria, and then to Greece. He
doesn't know anything about Turkey -- or where the bus is
going. I tell him: "Cappadocia". "Never
heard of it," he replies. His only reason for being
here is that he fell in love with an American tourist in
Athens. She's now travelling in Turkey, and he's after
her. That's all he cares about. Strangely enough, he's
majoring in Geography. His girlfriend majors in Political
Science. I fall asleep ...
4 July 1998, Saturday
(Cappadocia tour, first day.):
Early morning. Bus empties in Göreme
except for me and the bus driver.
Ürgüp. Yusuf, the friendly travel agent
I met in Istanbul, is waiting for me. He takes me to the
Melis Hotel. Very spartan but clean. Nice. My bedroom is
not ready so I take a shower in the common bath upstairs.
9:30 a.m. We leave in a small tour van,
with about 10 other passengers. The driver is Yusuf's
father.
Some fellow explorers:
Karla Sánchez, originally from Colombia
but now a US citizen. She had just spent two years in
Russia with the Peace Corps. Going next day to Antalya
for a few days, and next to Romania, and next to ....
François and Aurélie, French newlywed
young couple from Lyle.
Canadian couple from Toronto. He's
originally from Austin, of Egyptian mother and Turkish
father. She was born in Cape Town, South Africa, of
Finnish mother.
Hong Kong young women..
Dutch river rafter. Has already tried most
Turkish rivers.
Derinkuyu underground city. (Cappadoccia's
soft volcanic soil is littered with underground cities
built by early Christians. The one at Derinkuyu is the
most spectacular. Rock-cut beneath the earth, it extends
for several kilometers, and has eight or nine underground
levels. It forms a labyrinth of narrow tunnels leading to
thousands of rooms of various sizes.)
Ihlara Vadisi Grand Canyon. (The Melendiz,
now a rivulet, used to be a large river rising on the
slopes of an extinct volcano. The ancient riverbed river
bed opened a deep canyon in the rocky tableland.
Vegetation manages to grow only in the bottom of this
steep valley. The green fertile valley contrasts with the
arid landscape of the rest of Cappadocia. The valley also
contains villages, including Yaprak Hisar, with its fairy
chimneys, and Selime, known for its primitive church with
three naves divided by columns.)
Three km walk through the valley to
Selime. The Hong Kong girls and I get lost while stopping
to take pictures. I cut my feet with sharp rocks
attempting to cross the riverbed barefoot, to meet the
rest of the explorers.
Stop at Belisirme.
Lunch at Selime. One may optionally
request a table on the water, on the shallow but freezing
riverbed. Some do, I don't, my feet still bleeding.
Agzikarahan Caravanserai. (An ancient stop
for caravans on the silk route, one of the best
preserved. It looks like a walled fort from the outside,
built with blocks of local stone and featuring three- and
five-side towers. In the center of the courtyard stands a
massive square-shaped construction, opened at the bottom
by double pointed arches. I learn it used to be the
mosque for travelers and servants. It was customary
throughout the Seijuk-Turkish Empire to have this type of
accommodations to give hospitality to travelers.)
Back to Ürgüp around 6 p.m.. (The
village of Ürgüp is located in a deep basin surrounded
by a fortress of natural rock formations. On the sides of
this fortress, hundreds of rock-cut houses blend
harmoniously with those made of stone. In and around
Ürgüp, there are excellent examples of typical
Cappadocian houses, most of which have been carved out of
the soft volcanic rock or built with local stones. Due to
the abundance of stone and the lack of wood, the local
inhabitants found ingenious ways of creating comfortable
dwellings in the volcanic rocks. Along the mountain
slopes or in the cones, people carved out living
quarters, cellars, stables, and storage areas, some of
which are still used today.)
Guess what? The 300 Uruguayan students I
met in Topkapi Palace are all in Ürgüp today (although
on a different tour). Unbelievable.
Kamuran had warned me against going to
Cappadocia in the heat of the summer. Well, it's summer,
alright, but amazingly cold at night because of the
altitude and dry climate. I was not prepared for this
summer cold. I go to bed early, trying to keep warm. The
room is not heated but nevertheless quite comfortable.
5 July 1998, Sunday
(Cappadocia tour, second day.):
New and old explorers. Karla is gone, and
so are the Hong Kong girls and the Dutch rafter.
François and Aurélie, and the Canadians are still with
me. Some of the newcomer are:
A group of Brazilians, including Rodrigo
from São Paulo. They come from France, where they have
followed the first-round World Cup games of the Brazilian
football team. It is a great sacrifice for them to leave
"a verde-amarelha" ("the green and
yellow", the Brazilian national team soccer shirt)
and come here.
French middleagers who speak no English.
American student living in Germany who
speaks fluent French. He acts as a de-facto
French-English translator.
American student on an around-the-world
tour (Delta Airlines packet).
Two young women from Sydney.
North Carolina young woman who lives in
Strasbourg.
Zelve. (Zelve is one of the best preserved
sites of troglodyte (cave dweller) communities in
existence. The volcanic rocks and cones provided
insulation from the unrelenting heat of summer and the
freezing cold of winter. The cave dwellers of this region
developed ingenious ways of creating comfortable living
quarters, churches, monasteries, pigeon houses, and
storage areas.)
Peri Bacalari ("Fairy Chimneys")
("Fairy chimneys" were formed when lava
covering the tuff (consolidated volcanic ash) gave way
along preexisting cracks of sloping areas and became
isolated pinnacles. The natural "chimneys",
which can attain a height of up to 40 meters, have
conical shapes and consist of caps of harder rock resting
on pillars of softer rock. A "fairy chimney"
exists until the neck of the cone erodes and its
protective cap falls off. The subsequent disintegration
of the remaining pinnacle continues until it is
completely leveled down.)
Pasabag (Monk's Valley). (The formation of
"fairy chimneys" can be best observed in the
lovely valley of Pasabag, located near Zelve. Some of the
cones in this region have three or four heads. These
distinctive cones, now located in vineyards and fields of
dancing sunflowers, were once used as hermitages by
monks.)
Avanos. (The Kizilirmak ("Red
River"), the longest river in Turkey, divides Avanos
in half. The red soil of the region provides local
potters with the raw material used to produce the pottery
and bricks for which Avanos is famous. The potters there
use a wheel controlled by a foot pedal, a model that
probably differs little from the type used by the people
of central Anatolia from the beginning of the second
millennium. Unfortunately, some of the most typical
pottery shapes have been lost due to the advent of
electricity. For example, special jars formerly used to
store cool water have now been replaced by
refrigerators.)
We visit a ceramic factory in Avanos. We
are given a demonstration of the ancient foot-pedal
wheel, still in use. There is a contest, and I'm the one
who first guesses what the potter is making: a sugar pot.
As a reward, the potter jokingly hugs me, leaving fresh
clay mud all over my clothes and face, and hands me the
sugar pot. He tells me I should hold it very still for 14
days, to let it dry, and then bake it in a 1000 Celsius
degree oven. I would carry this delicate fresh pottery
piece for the rest of my trip, letting it slowly dry
along the way, and would manage to get it back to Houston
with only minor "shape distortions". I would
never bake it, though.)
Göreme Open Air Museum. (The Göreme Open
Air Museum, from the village up a steep hill on the road
to Ürgüp, is the best known and most visited of all the
monastic settlements in the Cappadocia region. It is also
the largest of the religious complexes, and its churches,
of which there are over thirty, contain some of the most
fascinating of all the frescoes in Cappadocia. Apart from
a small sixth to seventh century chapel, which has almost
collapsed, all the churches in Göreme date from the
period after the iconoclastic controversy, and mainly
from the second half of the ninth to the end of the
eleventh century.)
Uçhisar "Fortress". (As the
highest point in Göreme, Uçhisar offers a marvelous
introduction to the region. Excellent examples of various
types of volcanic formations found in Cappadocia can be
seen from the top of the "fort", a natural rock
formation. The "fort" consists of two enormous
rock cones surrounded by multitude ff smaller ones
resembling towers. In the cone, many rock-cut dwellings
have living rooms, kitchen, storage areas, and stables
carved at various levels. Due to avalanches, the houses
at the foot of the "fort" are not longer
inhabited.)
I skip a visit to a rug factory because I
have a bus to catch. I take a bus to Nevsehir, then
another to Istanbul.
This time, I'm the only non-Turkish
speaker on the bus. I seat next to a friendly old man
from Ürgüp, who tells me in broken English he is a
truck driver who has driven his truck all the way to
Belgium. He is constantly praying with the "Muslim
rosary" dancing on his hands. He advises me to get
off at Harem rather than at Esenler.
6 July 1998, Monday
(back in Istanbul):
Another 14-hour bus ride. I get off at
Harem, on the Asian side, around 9:00 a.m, and take the
ferry to Sirkeci, on the European side. The boat is
shoulder-to-shoulder packed with early morning commuters,
going to work.
Off at Sirkeci, taxi to the Armada Hotel,
to pick up my stored luggage, and next to the Bebek
Hotel. I check in and take a big nap, to recover from the
bus trip. I call Sukran.
Walk along the Bosphorus to Bogazici
Univerity and Fortress of Europe.
TRAVEL
NOTES AND PICTURES
