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Published: August 25th 2014
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The Trojan Horse
Wooden horse, wouldn't go I have to say I really had no idea how much history there is in Turkey, I thought Istanbul was the capital, it's not, and that Gallipoli is there and that's about it really.
During our whirlwind On The Go Tour of the Turkey I've learned that there is so much I don't know about this country. We have been to ancient sites and learned about events in history that I thought had happened in Egypt or Greece or around that area (don't judge please).
We packed a lot of sightseeing into an intensive and extremely hot few days. There was a tour of the ancient city of Troia (Troy), did you know that subsequent excavations revealed nine ancient cities, one on top of the other dating back 3000 years BC - fascinating! Of course we also saw and climbed into a replica of the Trojan horse and took silly photos as tourists do!
Pergamon, was once one of the Middle Easts richest and powerful kingdoms, and was also an Ancient Greek city before the Romans took control in 133BC (understand my confusion?). Pergamon is also home to one of the classical worlds steepest ampitheatres, it was scarily
and dangerously steep. After walking down the very steep stone steeps, thinking if I stumble I will die, I was officially over seeing ancient ampitheatres.
Next stop was the Ancient Greek city of Ephesus (are you following? we are in Turkey), built in the 10th century BC. Ephesus is very well preserved and has around 8000 visitors a day! Mehmet our all knowing tour guide showed us where the brothel was and told us stories of how they used to do business, I don't think much has changed several thousands years later. We saw stone carvings of the goddess Nike and the pharmacy symbol, they've been around that long!!
After a few days of seeing ancient ruins and more rocks that I could ever wish to count, I think I was becoming a little delirious from the heat, so I and the tour group were very happy to see something different. We visited the UNESCO World Heritage listed city of Pamukkale, meaning 'cotton castle', where there are hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonated minerals left by the flowing water. The water in the travertines is warm, about 35 degrees Celsius. Interestingly, for me anyway, is that about
Ephesus
The library a year ago I came across a photo of the travertines which I thought was amazing and that I would like to see one day so I saved the photo as my screensaver on my phone. There you go, I had no idea they were in Turkey or that I would be wading through the travertines one year later. Very cool!
Also at Pamukkale is a thermal pool known as 'Cleopatra's pool' or the antique pool where you can swim amongst marble columns, capitals and plinths that are believed to have fallen into the pool from the nearby Temple of Apollo during an earthquake a few thousand or so years ago, making it a sacred pool. It was an interesting experience swimming in the warm waters and then having a rest of an ancient plinth! (As you do!)
We saw a lot during our short visit to Turkey, including how Turkish rugs are made, it takes a Turkish lady about nine long months to make a handmade Turkish rug, I had a go at doing a knot, maybe I will stick to my day job.
No Jigi Jigi (jiggy jiggy) in the Turkey? Well yes, there was
Antique pool
Or Cleopatra's pool one night of Jigi Jigi with the tour group, and what fun we had. Mehmet took those who wanted to have some fun to an Irish bar in Kusadasi. I hate to miss out remember! We all walk in to find the bar is empty, never mind after a round of shots we were quickly finding our happy place (and very funny place) - there's karaoke, great idea lets do it!! There is nobody in the bar, come on!! After a few drinks, the names of which are a bit rude to mention, I found my singing voice and we sung and we sung and we sung and we danced and danced and laughed a whole lot. The girls sung so well, the bar staff gave us singlet tops with no Jigi Jigi in Turkey written on the back....there was something about good Irish catholic girls on the front! Anyway, what happens in the Irish bar in Turkey stays in the Irish bar in Turkey! As for me, I sang so well I lost my voice for the next three days!
Turkey is a wonderful place to visit!!
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