Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 18

Hot on the heels of our visit to Troy, today we are off to see another ancient city, this time Ephesus. This city was named after one of two things; either 'Efersia’ - Amazon Queen - named after the legendary wacko Amazonian women who cut off their left breasts to make it easier to use their bows and who are said to have founded the city OR after the symbol of the city, 'apis’ - honey bee. I know which I prefer, take your pick. There are also two reasons to explain why Ephesus is situated where it is. There's the highly implausible: access to the sea for trading and between mountains as it's easier to defend OR the much more likely: Ionian Prince Androclos was given a sign by the Delphi oracle who said to ... read more

This evening a few of us take a short trip from Selcuk to see a pretty little village up in the mountains called Sirince. The houses are very old and are of Greek style. For centuries the village was populated by Greek people whose families had been there for generations. In 1921-22 Greece and Turkey began a conflict that meant the two nationalities instead of living peacefully together began to hate each other. To resolve the situation the governments of the two countries came to an agreement in 1923 to exchange residents based on their religions so Greek Christians had to leave their homes in Sirince (and many other parts of Turkey) and go to Greece and the Turks moved into their homes. Because there were more Turks than Greeks many houses remained empty. Today Sirince ... read more

Today we are on the move, leaving Istanbul behind. The open road for me is a time for reflection and resolution. We are due to visit the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, a place of war and the tragic deaths of hundreds of thousands of young men caught up in battles not of their making. I'd mentioned to our tour leader that I'd prefer not to go on the tour here and could I be dropped off somewhere to wait until the group finished looking around Gallipoli. I really didn't want to spend part of my holiday going to a place that represents how crap human beings are, showing how little they've learnt from history and how a few men in power make decisions that destroy so many young men's lives and those of their families. As ... read more

Being taken around the ancient sites of Istanbul my imagination transports me back in history - they do things differently there you know! I feel the weight of privilege as a woman today able to stand in these places denied to so many women of times past. I mentally stick my middle finger up on their behalf! We are standing in the grounds of what used to be the Sultan's Topkapi Palace (now Gülhane Park). Here egotistical men claimed themselves superior amongst all men (women didn't count for much in those days) and took on the role of leader, top dog, head honcho (or in my considered opinion - asshole extremist) living in opulant luxury while 'their people’ lived in abject poverty. These Sultan's felt the need to bolster their fragile masculinity by keeping up to ... read more

Enter Istanbul's Grand Bazaar at your own peril, for those who are not quick of wit and sound of mind may find themselves trapped in the labyrinth of criss crossing alleys and walkways forever doomed to wander past shops of gold! Dazed shoppers can be seen at various gateways exiting with a mixture of relief and confusion. 'Where the f am I?', they ask random strangers still clutching onto their redundant street maps as if their life depended on it. As our group braves the Bazaar (safety in numbers we kid ourselves) we are dazzled by gold jewellery, brashly and unashamedly begging us to buy. Here gold is king, the stuff of dowries and bridal dreams. There are colourful ceramics, plates, bowls, lanterns and sumptuous patterns on material fit for a Sultan. There's Turkish delight and ... read more