Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 457

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 felt some earth tremors in Datca. "Its nothing", smiled the locals,"Don't worry". At 6 O'Clock on the Tuesday morning there was an earthquake measured at 5.6 on the Richter scale. I woke first with the bed shuffling beneath me. Linda awoke with a squeal a couple of seconds later. We hugged each other frozen on the bed as the earthquake proceeded for perhaps 10 or 15 seconds. We were shaken both up and down and from side to side at the same time, accompanied by a muted clinking as the contents of the room brushed and rubbed against their neighbours. Subsequently our memories include a distant rumble but I cannot discount the possibility that this has been added by our imaginations. After the quake we laid on the bed for a few minutes lodging somewhere ... read more

Last saturday I got the notion in my head that I'd like to do some walking... Bursa is cool and all but the constant stares and "hello"s one gets in a city get old real fast. After some quick consulting with my rudimentary map I decided that Balikesir would be a decent target: roughly 150km -- not too near and not too far. I had left most of my heavy gear (including walking shoes, socks and warm clothes) back in Istanbul and admittedly had too much useless gear with me (4 books!), but I figured I'd give things a shot and I could always bail if things got hairy. I bought a pair of socks, a loaf of "village" bread which looked like it wouldn't dry out too quickly, a kilo of grapes, some peanuts and ... read more

I graduated from university in June/July 2004 and less than 2 months later I was packing my stuff and embarking on what was going to be an exciting first cultural experience. Carmen, a university mate and I had been selected, after some serious Aiesec training and hands-on assessment of our adaptability, leadership and cultural ambassadorship potential to go on an Educational Traineeship and teach EFL ( English as a Foreign Language) in Turkey. We had been told that the school where we were going to teach was one of the best private institutions in Eskisehir, a large Turkish city with a population of over 600,000 inhabitants, renowned for its beauty and for having mainly a young, student population. Needless to say we were both over the moon!:) We left Pitesti by coach and it took ... read more

Here's something I find useful to meditate on when I'm feeling restless or pissed off: Dwell on uncomplicated beauty: A landscape; The sun on your face. Nothing touches you. Keep the image of your death Cheerfully before you at all times. Gain perspective. Seek to clarify and comfort, Never to obscure or mystify. Your aspirations are pointless; Your ambitions can do nothing. ... read more