Pammukale to Canakkale. 27.7.2010

Troy

We drove towards north towards the coast and covered some distance. We skipped the Roman town of Ephesus as we had seen Palmyra (Syria) and Jerash ( Jordan) and decided to go to Troy instead. This year my son Thomas had actually done his school assembly about the Legend of Troy from Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad. In this legend (of which there are many versions) the city of Troy is besieged by the Greeks for ten years. Towards the end, the Greeks offer a present to the Trojans, a wooden horse and promptly depart in their ships. Even though some of the Trojans warn against it, the wooden horse is brought into the city. During the night, the Greek soldiers who were hidden inside came out to slaughter the inhabitants of the city. They set fire to Troy signalling the Greek war ships to come back. Troy was defeated.
Thomas pretended to be a Greek in his assembly and had to hide in the vaulting horse(used for PE).
In Troy, the kids enjoyed climbing in and out of the wooden horse replica and meandering around the ruins. These ruins were not discovered until the 19th century when a handful of historians were convinced that Homer had based his story on the events that happened to a real city.

Pamukkale. 26.7.2010

Travertines

We rose early to keep ahead of the crowds and walked up the hill alone. The glistening white rocks combined with the trickle of water underneath your feet had a very calming effect. It is beautiful and peaceful and one of those moments when you marvel at how nature is such a marvellous artist. The snowy appearance is caused by the calcium carbonate deposits created when warm mineral water cooled and deposited calcium as it cascaded over the cliff edge and down the hill. This substance is called travertine, a sedimentary rock that has a fibrous appearance and often white, tan, or cream coloured. It is used as a building material in Europe. Cool!




Romans
The Romans quickly worked out the waters of Pammukale have restorative qualities because of the calcium rich waters. They built the spa town of Hierapolis here and a sacred pool now the antique pool) in which many Russians come here to alleviate their aches and pains. You can also visit the sprawling ruins which prospered during Roman and Byzantine times and suffered a major earthquake in 1334 when it was abandoned.

Turkish Riviera to Pammukale. 25.7.2010

Simplicity
We drove inland again through the mountains towards Pamukkale and stopped for lunch at a little town called Korkuteli. If you want to experience the real Turkey this is where you must come. Women with headscarves walking with their children in the midday sun, backgammon playing old men sit together on street corners. A mountainous landscape, fountains and a mosque in the village square adds to the charm. As we sat on the restaurant terrace a convoy of cars tooting their horns from a local wedding passed by, the musicians playing on the back of the pick-up truck. The simple restaurant we chose had no menu but we were offered canoe-shaped meat or cheese pide(a Turkish version of pizza) chicken sis or lamb sis kebab with a huge portion of salad. Why is it that tomatoes taste so good when you are on holiday? The food was simple, clean and delicious. And to finish strong tea (cay) served in delicate tulip glasses.
Afiyet Olsun ! (Enjoy your meal)


Pamukkale







UNESCO
We assembled the tent and went to explore. We have been lucky on this trip to explore many world heritage sites and here was another one. In 1988 UNESCO awarded this stunning site with world heritage status. That meant hotels and roads were removed and a new system introduced to drain and fills the pools of water on a rotating basis. In this way the sun can bleach the pools to a glistening white, which only happens when the pools are empty. It also reduces algae and pollution. Guards are on hand to make sure visitors do not stray into restricted areas and that people have removed their shoes. All that said, the sheer amount of visitors coming here (over a million per year) threatens the beauty of the Pammukale environment. Even with UNESCO’s help Pamukkale is under significant environmental pressure year in year out.
The park below is filled with local Turkish families at 7 o’clock, hardly a tourist to be seen. There is a lovely vibe in the air as we stroll around. People say ‘Hello’ or ‘Merhaba’. They touch our kids’ hair and smile. Grandmas, aunties, mums and dads, picnic with their kids on the grass or stroll across the lower travertines with their toddlers.

Turkish Riviera 24.7.2010

Water, water everywhere

Today we visited the Alanya Aqua Park and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Numerous slides, tubes, pools, floats and rafting kept them amused for hours. Great fun!

Goreme to the Turkish Riviera 23.7.2010

Environment

We drove along another beautiful,forested road today. Turkey has 33 National Parks, 16 nature parks, 35 nature reserves and 58 ‘nature monuments’ which are mostly protected trees, some as old as 1500 yrs. Turkey has improved it’s protection of the environment in recent years, aspirations to join the EU may have had something to do with this. The parks are supposedly protected and hunting is controlled, however sometimes the regulations are enforced in the parks but at other times the litter dropping public is ignored. Hopefully, the situation will improve in the coming years as Turkey really does have some stunning national parks to preserve for the future.














Package Tourism

We drove through the mountains for hours and eventually reached the coast and a little camping on a quieter stretch of coastline between the tourist havens of Alanya and Side. The Swiss owner has a pension overlooking the sea. We camped on her front lawn 20m from the sea and 10m up. All the mod cons were available and 2 huge dogs inhabitated the place. To Amber’s delight they had just had 8 new-born puppies which were 3 days old. And the father dog was named Thomas! We drove to Side to eat dinner and experienced the hoards of holiday makers parading their newly tanned limbs.
Package tourism, concrete and convenience are all here to stay in this part of Turkey.

Goreme, Turkey. 22.7.2010

Goreme Open Air Museum

Today we rose early in order to beat the tourist buses that come into Goreme at 9 o’clock. Goreme Open Air Museum is a cluster of rock cut churches, chapels and monasteries. It was a Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20 monks and then it became a pilgrimage site from the 17th century. Most of these churches and chapels only have one source of natural light- the doorway. On the walls of these little chapels are frescoes, some of which are remarkably well preserved. We explored and meandered around the village and then in true hobbit spirit we went to get second breakfast, just in time to see the tourist buses descending on the museum!

Goreme, Turkey. 21.7.2010

Fairy Chimneys

We awoke at 6 am to witness a remarkable site. Around twenty hot air balloons were floating in the sky above the surreal landscape beneath. Flight conditions are especially favourable here and ballooning is a popular way to see the extraordinary landscape of gorges and cones. We met up with our guide and drove off road in the valleys to see the troglodyte dwellings and peribacalar (fairy chimneys). These structures can reach heights of up to 40 metres, have conical shapes and are topped by caps of hard rock resting on pillars of softer rock. The local villagers call them kalelar ( castles). The geological explanation is that erosion wiped out the lava covering the tuff (consolidated volcanic ash)leaving behind the isolated pinnacles.


The Dutch and the Belgians

It is quite amazing how many Dutch and Belgian cars you see here. It’s holiday season so you see lots of Germans, French, Italians and Dutch but Dutch/Belgian cars are everywhere due to the fact that so many Turks who reside in Holland and Belgium are also home to see their families during the holidays. We entered a little shop in Goreme and we didn’t have to try to speak Turkish as the friendly owner had lived in Belgium for 37 years! Of course, the kids got free ice-creams.








Testi-kebap

We ate lunch in a local restaurant and tried the Testi kebap (pottery kebap with meat or mushrooms and vegetables cooked in a sealed terracotta pot which is broken theatrically at the table). After the kids made mud pies on the camping (there was no mud before we got there!) and had a swim and relaxing time around the pool.

Syria to Turkey. 20.7.2010

Border

We rose early as we planned to drive all the way to Goreme in Turkey (Cappadocia). First we had to negotiate the Syrian- Turkish border post at Kilis. We chose this crossing as the Bab al- Hawa crossing, which is closer to Aleppo, is generally busier and the road beyond Kilis is better. Indeed the border crossing was not too busy but as any of you who have lived in the Middle East will know, you need a large dose of patience when dealing with anything bureaucratic. Eventually after many stamps in the passports, little pieces of white paper and two and a half hours we were on our way. Interesting little fact here- we saw lots of old Syrian cars turning to rust at the Turkish border post. These cars were presumably not roadworthy enough to enter Turkey. Turkish officials were checking Syrian cars thoroughly. Petrol is also much cheaper in Syria so they don’t want you bringing in petrol either. Luckily they just asked us if we had petrol and didn’t make us empty our truck!

Gaziantep to Goreme

In contrast to Syria the roads are well-maintained in Turkey and there is a plentiful amount of service stations and rest areas. Yes, you still see houses that are half finished (either the owner needs to get more funds to build further or the builder has gone bankrupt) but Turkey is certainly more developed, cleaner and greener. We drove along the coastal highway from Gaziantep to Tarsus(birthplace of St Paul) on a relaxing road with no chaotic drivers, three lanes (so trucks can overtake each other easily and not slow the fast lane down) and no potholes. What an easy drive! We drove inland to Cappadocia through picturesque villages, valleys where you can see for miles and tree covered mountains. Even though I'm a keen geographer I hadn’t realised how much of Turkey is forested. In fact, an impressive 26.7 % of 779, 452 sq km is tree covered. The highway climbs up to 1400m past Ala Daglar National park (with Mount Demirkazik standing at 3756m). It’s simply beautiful! We arrived at Goreme at 6 o’clock and found a very good camp ground- Kaya camping. The breathtaking view of Goreme’s famous fairy chimneys- rock columns, mushrooms,pyramids and the valleys of cascading cliffs which were formed when Erciyes Dagi erupted is amazing. Tired and hungry, we ate and put up the tent. We had stepped into a magical children’s fairy tale and with that we closed our eyes and went to sleep.