Day 13 - Ürgüp

05.28.2011

Personal:

- Kaymakli underground cave dwellings that were used for protection from invasions and as communities and homes until the 1950s

- Uҫhisar Kalesi – most of us climbed to the top of this castle, which seemed like the highest point in Cappadocia

- Lunch in a modern Karavansaray

- Pottery/Ceramics demonstration (also in a structure carved into the rock)

- Downtown Ürgüp

- Gym – one treadmill, one bike, and one total fitness machine haha I miss MAC/Forrest Fitness Center

- Dinner buffet at hotel

- Whirling Dervishes ceremony – demonstration of Sufism (outlawed religious order) in a 1259 Karavansaray with an outdoor lightshow of the history of Cappadocia; ҫay after the ceremony

Research:

- Sufi orders were outlawed in 1925 and the ceremony became a spectator sport; research the history of Sufi politics

Day 12 - Antalya, Konya, and Ürgüp

05.27.2011

Personal:

- Long driving day!

- Drove for two hours, then had ҫay and some Turkish cookies that looked like Tadelles but tasted too dry

- Drove another two hours to Konya for lunch, which was at a restaurant overlooking the city of Konya, but only from the second floor (we’re so spoiled haha)

- Visited the Mevlana Museum that is actually a converted Mausoleum for Mevlana Sufi

- Walked past one of the central mosques of the city during their big, community, Friday afternoon prayer

- Visited the Karatay Medresesi (Madrash) – school from 1251- end of the 19^th century for tile workmanship and other academic disciplines

- Drove to Sultanhan Karavansaray (1229) for a quick walk through

- Stopped for more ҫay and some Tutku(?) cookies

- Drove to another gas station/truck/bus stop for a chocolate-chesnutt bar

- Saw two volcanoes, including Mount Hasan

- Finally reached Cappadocia and Ürgüp for dinner!

Research:

- Atatürk banned Sufi orders in 1925 – research the specifics like when that policy was abolished, underground Sufis, etc.; today the Whirling Dervishes is only a tourist attraction; Mevlana Sufi believed in the love of God and tolerance for all other religions

- Friday 13:00 Prayer – community event; waiters released from work to pray; Demokrat Parti politician sponsored a parade and rally following the prayer in Konya, so he was praying politically with the people in the mosque; social norms and politics

- People in the US think a Madrash is a school for jihad, where in fact it is simply a place of learning

Atatürk banned religious schools and centralized them under the government; religious orders were closed and “theoretically” still are

- Turban/headdress of men not allowed to be seen in public; also includes headdresses of Christians and other religions unless the person is “on duty;” public displays of religion on Friday that we see are technically against the law

- Has Parti Truck – “Özkan” political leader? Threw confetti into the streets with his face and the party logo on it

Day 11 - Antalya and Termessos

05.26.2011

Personal:
- Hiked up the Toros Mountains to Termessos, an ancient Roman site with an incredible theatre. We spent a good hour climbing all over the ruins to see the beautiful view of the valley from all different angles.
- Lunch overlooking the Mediterranean Sea
- Free Time - tried to go to the gym, but it was too sketchy; did laundry in the sink for the first time haha
- Antalya Painting - On our first night in Antalya, I came a cross an oil-painter on the side of the street. He had just started working on a large canvas with a view of the city and Mediterranean marina from a postcard he had found. He didn't know any English, but I conveyed to him with much interest that if he could paint me a smaller size, I would buy it immediately. The next day I came back, and he said he needed some more time to let the paint dry and add the finishing touches. Then this afternoon, I came to his post to see it finished, sitting on the easel! He was not there yet, so I waited for a few minutes with my friends. One of the neighboring merchants came over and said that the painting was not for sale, it was for someone special. After telling him my story, he called the painter to let him know I was waiting for him. About thirty minutes later I was finally able to thank him and pay him for the original oil painting :) He gave me his e-mail address too so that I could send him the photo of us with the painting haha.
- Shopping in the Old City markets of Antalya
- Dinner
- Live music at the same cafe as last night

Research:
- Old City of Antalya - Nikki, Emily M., and I met a Turkish shop owner as we were looking at scarves. After the typical "where are you from" conversation, he began to tell us his life story haha. In 2001 he was dating a woman from San Jose, CA who is Jewish, and he is of course Muslim. He could not travel after 9/11 because he did not want to be profiled by TSA and be accused of being a terrorist for his religious and geographic affiliations. He explained to us a bit more some security issues, but that was the most significant one I remembered.
- MHP/CHP/AKP vans broadcasting music and driving around the city as campaigning

Day 10 - Antalya, Perge, Aspendos, and the Old City

05.25.2011

Today we drove out of the city to Perge, another Roman city, with a stadium that was a bit less in tact than the Aphrodisias stadium. It was really interesting how the mosaics and floor tiles were covered with sand and gravel to prevent erosion, but disappointing that we were unable to see them. Because Anatolia is prone to earthquakes (as we witnessed last week), most of the ruins that we see have been put up by archeologists. At Perge we have the opportunity to sponsor a column to be erected in our honor! Hmmm senior gift?

We then went to Aspendos, which is the most intact theatre that we have seen yet (except the stage was missing) because the Turks had fortified the bricks of the structure. Unfortunately all the statues from here are also in museums for protection and preservation, so we were unable to see them in their "natural habitat." We did have some fun climbing the bleachers and admiring the view though :) On the way out of the museum we saw a couple of camels and a "baby" camel for our entertainment. 2TL per picture, please!

Our next stop was the Sultanhani Karavansaray, which is a caravan palace/fortress like an ancient bus stop.

Then we finally ate lunch at this really interesting restaurant that descended into a swamp-side cafe. Seems like Turkey has everything!

We then traveled to the Antalya Museum with all kinds of prehistoric, Byzantine, Roman, and Ottoman statues. My personal favorite was the description of the life of Saint Nicholas from Anatolia, which gave the Eastern history and meaning behind some of the Western Christian traditions.

Day's not over yet! We had some free time to relax before starting a walking tour with Tosun to see the Old City of Antalya that concluded with freshly-squeezed orange juice overlooking the marina and the Mediterranean Sea. What a sight to remember.

After a dinner buffet at the hotel (yes, it is only dinner time haha), we went back to the Old City Bazaar to listen to live traditional/folk music for a few hours. What an action-packed day!

Day 9 - Pamukkale, Hierpolis, and Antalya

05.24.2011 

Personal:

-Pamukkale means “cotton fortress” made of calcium deposits; man-made calcium deposit pools for tourists to pretend to be in the real thing; played with stray dogs/puppies

-Hierpolis – city located in the valley above Pamukkale pools, yet still in the valley of another set of mountains; contains the largest/most extensive ancient cemetery because people would come to Pamukkale to be healed but died instead; Plutonium temple (God of the Underworld?)

-Anatolia Restaurant lunch: pita bread with lentil soup and some other vegetable mixes; boiled mushrooms, and fresh fruit with ҫay for dessert J; serenaded by a musician playing a Baǧlama with a parrot on the scroll; a guy in another tour group said hi because he lives in Camarillo and is a Cal Lu grad

-Temple of Aphrodisias – American/Turkish-American excavation team from NYU; mock-temple put up by archeologists because the originals are in the museum next door (protection from earthquakes and erosion); early Bronze Age remains on the other side of the Acropolis theatre

-Antalya – opium flowers for medicinal purposes; first glimpse of Mediterranean Sea (visible from our hotel window); Antalya airport is the 2^nd largest to Istanbul in Turkey; dinner on balcony of hotel overlooking city; walked through streets of downtown (another rally, but this time with Turkish flags and not soccer jerseys; celebration about sending young men to the army)

Research:

-Turkey has 82 provinces with province capitals of the same name

-Hyper-reality – man-made Pamukkale pools; replica statues in place of where the original should be

-Eastern music uses quarter tones that are not typically written but passed down traditionally; Atatürk westernized Turkish music by “exporting” musicians to France and Germany to learn classical music techniques 

Day 8 - Sart/Sardis and Pamukkale

05.23.2011

Personal:

-Visited ancient Jewish Synagogue/Roman Bath Complex from the Roman/Byzantium period; white stones with crosses and Greek writings juxtaposed with the original red brick walls; large enough to hold 1000 people (large for Jewish community even at that time);

-Sardis – one of the cities where John wrote Revelations

-Temple of Artemis – only archeological site with columns still standing from earthquakes because it was covered in dirt; small 6^th c church behind the columns; marble blocks can weigh anywhere from 2-28 tons

-Lunch at a 4-star hotel with an incredible view; resort for residents of Izmir and surrounding cities

-Hotel in Pamukkale/Hierpolis – resort with a swimming pool, natural hot spring/thermal pool, “Dr. Fish” pedicures (which none of us got thank goodness), and spa; smelled like fish and sulfur the whole time haha; buffet dinner overlooking the city

Research:

-City of Sardis: from 7^th c BCE to 7^th c CE; major city for nearly 1500 years and retained name for 3000 years; “When Arabia was conquered by the Persians in the mid-6^th c BCE, Sardis became an important Persian administrative center…conquest by Alexander the Great in 334 BCE and became Hellenistic; 1^st c BCE – 4^th c CE Roman; Greco-Roman metropolis 4^th c – 7^th c CE; Modern town of Sardis (Sart) grew up after War of Independence in 1919-1922”

-Pamukkale – big MHP community according to how heavy the campaigning is in the area we drove through

Day 7 - Kusadası

05.22.2011 

Personal:

- Free day!

- Turkmen Carpet Weaving demonstration – breeds caterpillars for their silk; weaving demonstration; one 8 sq. ft. rug could take about nine months by one lady; an 18’x26’ rug would take 8 ladies 1 ½ years to weave; one rug presented the story One Thousand and One Nights mentioned in one of Borges’s short stories, and that rug has 360 knots per square inch; world record rug has 6,400 knots per square inch

- Downtown Bazaar – lunch at a street café; walked through the shops; sat at a little concession stand for drinks and ice cream to people watch and relax

- Hotel – read by the pool/swam; dinner overlooked the coastline again

- Evening – Istanbul’s soccer team won, so we walked downtown to see the celebrations; stopped at a restaurant to watch everyone parade down the street with entire families waving flags on motorcycles and hanging out of the windows of cars; more fireworks; reminded me of when we were in Rome when Italy won the World Cup in 2006; more ice cream on the walk back to the hotel

Research:

- Turkmen Carpet Weaving (kilim) – marginalized workers; classes free because they are subsidized by the ministry of education of the Republic of Turkey;

- Kusadası – downtown bazaar is geared towards cruise-ship tourists, who dress and behave much differently than bus/backpack tourists and especially than locals; the shop owners expected everyone to be interested in their store and were offended when we were not fazed by their salesmanship

- Soccer Game – rivalry between Istanbul and the team from the Black Sea coast; both teams celebrating even though Istanbul won

Day 6 - Selҫuk, Ephesus, and Kusadası

05.21.2011

Personal:

- The father of a shop owner (who is studying economics) is a retired imam of 21 years for to recently retired mosque. He wrote all of our names in Arabic and gave us half off at the shop J

- Church of St. John ruins

- Bizim Ev Hanımeli Restaurant and Cafe – most delicious, homemade food yet; about 30 different dishes; nestled in the orchards of Selҫuk; everything tasted excellent and was gluten free for the most part (didn’t know what 99% of it was though)

- House of Virgin Mary – unifies Christianity and Islam with 1) Mary is the mother of Christ; 2) Jesus is a great prophet; and 3) Jesus is the second coming. Holy Water; prayer wall with tissues;

- Ephesus (Efes Örenyen) – Bibliotek; Heracles passageway; Amphitheatre (overlooking a valley formally filled with water); we took a picture for Clark Crane on the ancient Roman Toilets (you can see Brad and Miles below haha)

- Yamaҫevler Archeological Terraces – we took a detour tour just outside the walls of Ephesus to see newly excavated marble terraces that would be multimillion-dollar homes by today’s standards; world’s largest puzzle

- Grand Önder Hotel – overlooking Aegean Sea where all the cruise ships visit; plenty of swimming and relaxing; blogspot.com was blocked; fireworks over the beach at night

Research:

House of Virgin Mary – see above; prayer wall resembles Western Wall in Jerusalem; one of the tissues was a prayer to get the current governing party out of office (AKP/Erdoğan and political Islam)

Day 5 - İzmir, Pergamum

05.20.2011

Personal:

- Ege Universitesi – gated, looks like a big institution

- The Hilton Hotel was the first high-rise in the city – proof of recent Westernization of Turkey

- Tea on top of a Citadel in a Kurdish area; little boy came to “observe” us; we’re told he was there to “steal” any valuables quickly while we were enjoying the view

- Battleships in the sea

- Archeology and Ethnographic (?) Museum – slight car “quelf” with some of the local Turks and our bus driver; let’s just say with light street laws comes reckless driving

- Afternoon free – explored the “colorful markets of İzmir” with some Turkish coffee and a non-touristy market nestled downtown about a mile from the hotel. Tosun, our tour guide, bought us some Turkish Coffee at a really quaint cafe overlooking the markets :) From there we shopped like crazy. I even found a sterling silver Atatürk charm! In the evening we went out into the city for some “bro-chilling” (team-bonding haha) at a really interesting underground lounge.

Research:

- Kurds: general lack of trust from other Turks; known as poor thieves; lived in run-down parts of city (like the slums of LA) in communities a few blocks from upper-class commercial streets

- Tension between the AKP government (PM Tayyip Erdoğan) and the military; a 3-star general is in jail for disrespecting the Prime Minister; AKP is passing quick laws to limit the power of the military

Day 4 - Assos, Bergama, İzmir

05.19.2011

Personal:

Our first stop was the Temple of Athena on the top of the mountain that our hotel/resort was on. This was unfortunately the only ruins we were able to climb on for some interesting pictures. The small road leading up to the Temple was covered with souvenir markets. I thought I had lost my wallet this morning, but false alarm. It always happens at least once. Our tour guide, Tosun, severely doubted it was stolen due to the friendly nature of the Turks and our current environment.

After Assos we drove to Bergama, which was needless to say the start of the most interesting 24 hours of the trip. Lunch was a the Hotel Berksoy, which was where one of the rotary clubs meet. We saw several things including a Roman Temple dedicated to the Egyptian Gods, which was the first Roman ting built with red bricks. Also in Bergama we saw heavy street campaigns for the Kemalists, CHP, MHP, DP, and some AKP.

 

The Asklepion Acropolis was our next big stop just up the road. Here someone wanted to make a lot of money buy building a gondola to carry us up the mountain, which saved our stomachs but receives much criticism for juxtaposing modern technology with ancient ruins. Once we reached the acropolis we could see (and hear) a thunderstorm brewing in the valley. We (attempted) to withhold the photo-shoot and just listen to Tosun in order to go through the outdoor museum fast, and luckily made it down the gondola safely without any lightning striking and before the rain hit.

We then drove to another ruin site, which is adjacent to a heavily guarded military zone. (I really want to know what’s behind that fence.) Of course the storm would hit just as we begin the tour. Several of us took this opportunity to run and play in the rain without slipping on the marble and mud, which was a blast. Bad idea to be cold and wet on the bus driving to İzmir, though.

That night some of the students decided to explore the city while others stayed back at the hotel. We were playing UNO in one of the rooms when it felt like someone jumped on the bed. We all looked at each other to criticize the other for the movement, and then realized we were on the 6^th floor during an earthquake! It only last that one jolt, though. We ran down all the stairs and out of the hotel to find no one else had reacted to the shock. I guess earthquakes are a daily occurrence in Turkey? Since then I have felt several tremors and sea-like movements in the hotels, particularly on the higher floors. I hear Istanbul is waiting for a “big one” just like California.

Research:

Greek Temples face east.

Churches and Mosques enter from the West

In Mosques, the morning light is sacred.

Today is a national holiday celebrating Atatürk landing in Sampson, Anatolia/Asia Minor.

Dempkrat Parti (DP)

Heavy campaigning in Bergama, but for mostly the minority parties. Interesting. Technically the urban areas should vote more CHP and for the Kemalists, but with greater populations and an infiltrating traditional class, AKP is projected to win about 46% of the vote. 

(unfortunately I didn't get the memo for the funny picture haha)

Day 3 - Canakkale, Gelibolu, Troia, Assos

05.18.2011 –Ҫanakkale, Gelibolu, Troia, Assos

Personal: 

Drive from Istanbul to Assos:

Because we have to stop every two hours for the bus driver (labor laws), we had Ҫay tea at the market beside the gas station. There I purchased two newspapers, the Milliyet and Hurriyet, but everything was in Turkish. Good news is they gave me a free Atatürk bumper sticker!

Lunch was about twenty minutes from the Greek border at a seaside restaurant on a peninsula. It was another five courses (including huge oranges and baklava for dessert), and a little too filling for the upcoming bus ride.

On our way to the Ҫanakkale Strait from lunch, we saw a heard of sheep walking along the side of the freeway! We also passed by a BP oil station and a Disney “Cars” sign marketing a car shop.

We then took a car ferry (with several coach busses) across the Dardanelles Strait to Gelibolu/Gallipoli (“good city” in Greek), where 500,000 soldiers were killed in 1915 over a strip of land from the Ottomans, English, French, German, and Australians (I think). This was the first battle that the Ottomans and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk won, giving him his respect and stature that sets the stage for his societal and political revolution. The name of our car ferry was “Onsekiez Mart,” which means the eighteenth of March, noting this battle. Gelibolu is also where the Ottomans first set foot on the Anatolian Peninsula in 1354 (just 100 years before they captured Constantinople) during the period of the second Sultan.

Our next stop was Troia (Troy) with the infamous Trojan horse that is 95% myth and 5% legendary. Homer only vaguely refers to it in the Iliad.

Assos was our final destination, luckily, after such a long day of driving and sight-seeing. The shops closed extremely early, so we spent the evening on the mini-pier overlooking the Greek Island, Lesbos (known for a few philosophers that I can’t remember just yet), across the Aegean Sea. We attempted to go into the water, but it was freezing. See video haha posted on Facebook haha.

Sustainability:

   Solar panels/solar-powered water heaters on nearly every roof

   Only CFL light bulbs

   Hotel cards turn power on/off in each room, and only one card distributed per room

   Wind turbines actually working on hills

Quotes:

“Hey guys – let’s play spot the mosque!”

“I spy with my Turkish eye…”

“I’m about as confident in FOX news as I am in the Trojan horse…5%”

Research:

On the drive:

   Greek Orthodox Patriarch – Church of St. Georgoe

   Bulgarian Orthodox Church – made entirely of metal, imported

   Jewish synagogues and hospital

“İŞҪİ Partisi” – research

(See Gollipoli and Atatürk notes from above)

Day 2 - Istanbul, Turkey

Sorry I'm behind! I will update days 3, 4, and 5 when I have more time...

Today we visited the Ayasophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, and Bosphorus Strait as we continued to explore Istanbul :)

Personal

1453: shift from Roman Byzantine Empire to Ottoman Empire

Hippodrome – formerly used for horse races

Hagia Sophia/Ayasofia – no straight lines or round spheres; physics of architecture were guess-and-check

Call to Prayer is sung by a man or woman at the top of the minaret tower surrounding the mosques

Blue Mosque – about 20,000 tiles

Kadir Has Universitesi

T.C. Istanbul Ticaret Universitei (Istanbul Commerce University)

Cruise around Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus Strait; delicious freshly squeezed pomegranate juice

Lemon Tea with Dr. Fogg, one of her friends, and Molly Clancy – discussed religion and politics while he and Dr. Fogg caught up on each other’s lives

Dinner with Molly at a street café – had a “Donor Wrap,” which was like a taco with lamb meat, and sweet-tasting rice

Tried to take Metro to Taksim for some live music, but it was too frustrating with 13 people trying to maneuver the bus/trolley system

Cozy Pub for the rest of the evening (which was where we had lunch earlier in the day, so we were familiar with the staff)

Quotes:

“I can see Asia from my backyard”

“If that’s Asia, why are they flying the Turkish flag?”

Research

Constantine column resembles Washington Monument

Underground tunnel system leads to various sites in Istanbul – were they used for the government? By the public? Privately?

“Ritual Absulsion Place for Women” (?) outside Blue Mosque

Tosun – “everybody defines secularism differently; for Turks, laws are not based on the Koran”

Islam – no clergy class between God and man/women; ok to stay home for worship to be a good Muslim; women worship separately from men in the back of the mosque

Ayasofia – linguistically wisdom, Christ, feminine; incorporates Christian, Greek, and Ottoman roots

Churches face east, mosques face southeast; spot converted church into mosque by the angle of the niche in the dome

Christian crosses removed from walls when converted into mosque

MHP – campaign flags have three crescents

Saadet Partisi – research

AK Parti – blue/orange/white flags

“Polis” – term posted on temporary fences; in Greek it means city, in Turkey it is literally the "police"

Tea with Dr. Fogg’s Friend

AKP wants to make Turkey an Islamic Republic gateway between the West and the East

Islamic majority oppresses religious minorities

10% coalition threshold for the General Election (June 12, 2011)

About 70% of the Turkish people wanted to join the EU in 2009, but now only about 30%

Newspapers to follow: Hurriyet (secular), Turkish Daily News, Zaman (biased, not reliable), Milliyet

Youtube was banned for awhile because it revealed corruption

Fetullah Gulen was self-exiled to Pennsylvania until Islam was removed from politics

Today, corruption is at its peak and Turkey is headed downhill (according to Dr. Fogg's friend)

The University is a zone of science, there should be no religious garb. Now it is not enforced much, so most wear their headscarf and are starting to refuse to go to class on Friday, etc.

It is now encouraged for non-Muslims to wear headscarves in order to get ahead in career (according to Dr. Fogg's friend)

Izmir-Kemesalti

Bosphorus University is like Turkish Ivy League

Koc University