Blogs from Aegean, Turkey, Middle East - page 79

From Aphrodisias we drove to the ancient site of Pamukkale (cotton castle) and hierapolis which has the largest nercropolis of the ancient world. ... read more

In my opinion one of the most beautiful sites of Turkey. A beautiful serene environment with hardly any people, which adds to the beauty of it. It has the largest stadium of the ancient world which houses more than 30,000 spectators!!!! Magnificent!... read more

Ayvalik. An inseperable part of the Turkish national homeland(!). Signs all over point out that it was here that the first military resistance was formed against the advancing Greeks back in 1919. I daresay I'm a bit puzzled. By all indications this was as Greek a town as any in western Anatolia. I spent all day walking down the quiet narrow alleys, among unmistakably Greek houses, spotting the occasional unmistakable church. One sign on a shop read "Rum evleri tamir ve yikimi yapilir" (lit. "We fix and demolish Greek houses"). This is yet another town fallen victim to the forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey -- Greek speaking Turks sent east to Anatolia, and Turkish speaking Greeks shipped off to Greece. A true tragedy. Yashar Kemal has an excellent trilogy "Bir Ada Hikayesi" (lit. "An ... read more

I finally made it to Bergama. It took me roughly a day (24 hours) to hitchike from Balikesir, including a detour that took me way out of my way to appreciate Assos for an hour. The sheer quantity of historical artifacts is astonishing. There's an enormous pagan temple built in honor of some egyptian god: the Christians built a church inside of it, and the Muslims converted one of its towers into a mosque. The acropolis at the top of the hill is impressive (despite the fact that the Germans disassembled and carted away the most impressive parts of it which can now be seen on display in Berlin). And there's a whole other complex on the side of town. That's not counting the old Greek and Ottoman houses, the mosques and Hamams which are everywhere. ... read more

We made it to Bodrum and then hired a car and drove to Kushadasi.......Shan did the driving on account of the fact I'd forgotten my licence in London. Have to give credit because the Lonely Planet Guide rates Turkey as one of the more dangerous countries to drive in......add to the fact they drive on the other side and Shan had never drived a Stick Shift before getting us the first 150kms was a pretty fine effort. Personally from the passenger seat it was a pleasure to watch the landscape go by. We made Kushadasi our base for a couple of days and here is where we met Murat the waiter at the Ali Ustanin Yeri Kebab shop.....every meal we had in Kushadasi thereafter was at this cafe. Funny guy and if enyone ends up in ... read more