Pamukkale - 30/04

The day began well with a trip to Aphrodisias (Afrodisias, according to the guide.) Quite a nice quiet site and well worth the few tens of lire that it costs to get out here (1.5 hours by bus each way) and to access the grounds. It was another terribly hot day and I was glad of the opportunities to sit in the shade and to drink coffees or cold drinks. And I think a hat would be appropriate in future travels.

Map of Afrodisias

Some rather affecting sights to be seen. The Tetrapylon (if I've correctly remembered its name) was bright and lonely sitting out on the grass, and the agora was a very melancholy site with the pools of water filling the areas where the good townsfolk of Aphrodisias conducted their business. And the little theatre of the Odeon near the Bouleuterion, where the citizens would gather to debate the town business, was also a friendly size: it was about the size of a smallish lecture theatre. I sat in a seat at the top and could well imagine standing up to be heard or listening to others. And finally, the Stadium. Quite the best example I've ever seen. Very impressive. These really were serious citizens who would build such things for a relatively small town.

Sebasteion

A stack of friezes

Tetrapylon on the greensward

Tetrapylon

A torso at the Hadrianic baths

A watery agora

The stadium

Steps and seats

Back and hung around the hotel until my bus at 10pm. The bus trip actually turned into a chapter of disasters. The servis I took to Denizli decided to exchange me half way through with another bus, and while I was paying the first bus I must have dropped my wallet, and I didn't realise this until after the second servis had been some time underway. The people on the bus and the driver and all were concerned and were apparently trying to help me out, but no one spoke English so I had no idea what was going on. When I got to the bus station, I was surrounded by Turks shouting Turkish into mobile phones and told to go here, come here, go there, and on and on. I still had my Konya ticket and if I had lost my money and cards it would certainly have been easier to sort the mess out in a place where I had a 2 day booking, so I wasn't too keen to be taken away from the bus station. Nevertheless, they put me on a bus, which dropped me off at a Pamukkale station near a petrol station (Pamukkale was not the company that had been carrying me, and this was not where I had dropped it.) nobody there knew anything about anything as far as I could tell, and now I was God knows where in Denizli with no money. Things were looking pretty bleak. They phoned someone who spoke English, but she had no idea what was happening either. She was just a bystander in their office I think. Well, I eventually managed to get them to understand that I wanted to continue to Konya, and they sat with me as we waited for a bus back to the station. Then, who should stroll up but some guy from the station with my wallet. I couldn't believe my eyes. I gave him a big tip. Then the bus turned up with the same driver in it that had dropped me here and took me to the station with no charge. Apparently that was the plan the whole time, so there was never any confusion on their part, only the appearance of it.

At the bus station, I waited patiently for my 12:30 bus, which didn't come. At 1:00am I was just settling in to wait at the station to buy a ticket for the next bus to Konya, when I heard an official-looking fellow saying something about Konya to the crowd in general. Turns out that the bus has been cancelled, we have to change our tickets (walk, walk, walk to his office and back) and catch the bus at the side of the road (walk, walk, walk - with even the locals rolling their eyes.) I was never quite so glad to get on a bloody bus.

Of course, it didn't take 7 hours, it took about 5; so I was landed in Konya at 7am. And I didn't manage to get any sleep at all, but I'm quite used to that now.

Konya - 01/05

Thank God, after the previous night's shenanigans, there was no trouble getting to the hotel from the otogar. The tram was findable, it was easy to understand the operation (though I did accidentally sneak in the back door without paying,) and the walk to the Rumi was uneventful. The room is excellent, the hotel very swish, the breakfast vast and tasty, and the shower hot and strong. I feel ready for the world again now.

Map of Konya

I have to say, on the other hand that the Mevlana Museum is the worst waste of time that I've seen yet. The big attraction seems to be a bunch of household items, not even of the Mevlana's period. It's all Ottoman XIXth C stuff. Who's interested in that? Worse yet are the life size mannekins of Dervishes or of people being devout. Worst of all is the crowds of people struggling to get into the tiny little rooms where the exhibits are. Well, I've been and I've seen, so that's another must do done. I did like the fat turquoise-tiled and fluted minaret, so that's something, I suppose.

The turquoise tower of the Mevlana Museum 

Pigeons on a mosque

A stroll along Mevlana Cad to the Alaaddin Tepisi and the associated mosque was no more inspiring. I poked my head into the latter and then walked straight out again; it was like nothing so much as a low profile barn with carpeted floors. I think this is rather odd for a city that has the reputation of being in Turkey's 'Bible Belt.' I'm sitting now in a large cafe thing on the Tepisi hill overlooking the town (and the tramstop.) The view's ok, but the most striking thing is the scent of apple flavoured tobacco from the hubble bubbles that are being used around me. Very pleasant. But I remember it being quite unpleasant to actually use one of those things when I was in Egypt.

Had an added bit of excitement with some sort of protest/demonstration parading around the park here. They were noisy, but pretty well- behaved and the police were pretty near invisible. I couldn't really figure out what they were about but I guess they were some sort of communist rump: there were May 1 signs and things with doves and some mentioned 'democrasya' - the latter a sure sign of totalitarian sympathies. (Really, when was the last time a democratic regime described itself as 'democratic'? Or protesters mouthing that word had anything like that intention?). On the news that night there were items about May Day protests in Istanbul that were ridiculously violent. People were smashing the windows and doors of Starbucks and McDonalds (but of course) and in a nod to thinking globally and acting locally they also attacked the offices of the Akbank. Well done those losers.

May Day

Pleasant café above Alaadin Tepisi

Konya - 02/05

A nice overcast day, which eventually turned to a very fine rain. I went out to Çatal Hüyük on a local bus, with very little fuss. And I got back eventually too, though I was a little worried by the bus back being half an hour late. I have no idea what I'd do out here if I was stranded: it really is the arse end of nowhere. I note that the traditional buildings of Küçuk Köy (the little village 1 km from the site where the bus goes through) are not really much different from the buildings of the old place itself. They're all made of roughly formed and unbaked mud bricks, with wood and plaster roofs. The difference would be mostly that the Çatal Hüyük people walked over the roofs and had no streets, whereas the KK people have streets full of geese, ducks, sheep, and all the associated droppings. 

Küçuk Köy main street

The Çatal Hüyük site was very interesting. It had a small 'experimental house' which the archaeologists have built in order to test their ideas on how things worked. It was rather cosy, but then it had a door through which it got light whereas the roof might well have been less often fully open (but then again, why wouldn't it be?) I see that the information on the walls stills talks about a Mother Goddess cult, despite that proposal having gone out of fashion for about 30 years. It also talked about the very different ecology of the area at the time of its occupation about 9500 BP. That was also pretty interesting, as was the fact that in the course of 1500 years of occupation there is not a single piece of evidence for any warlike activities. I find that mysterious - just as the same lack of evidence for a fundamental and 'universally' practised human activity in the Minoan age of Crete is mysterious.

Plan and reconstruction of Çatal Hüyük

Experimental House 

West Mound excavations

Göreme - 03/05

Got up at some godawful hour this morning in order to catch the 6:30 bus to Göreme. Arrived there at about 10 in the am. Found the hostel quite easily, the guy came to pick me up, but it was only a few steps up the hill anyway, so it was probably unnecessary.

The Nomad Cave Hostel was quite interesting, as it was built into the side of the hill, so it was a real cave that I was staying in. This meant that it was freezing cold at night and I had to use their high power heater. It also meant that the wifi wouldn't work in the rooms, and all internetting had to be done in the reception/relaxation area. Faults that we're not inherent in the nature of the place were a toilet door that wouldn't close, a toilet that wouldn't flush, no hook for the shower end. It actually wasn't very pleasant.

Outside the cave

Inside the cave

In the afternoon I went for a walk around the town and out to the so-called Open-Air Museum. This was interesting enough. It was a collection of shrines and churches and cells where retiring monks and a Christian community existed in (I think) about the tenth century. There were a few frescoes remaining, but it was mostly pretty bare.

Rug shop under a rock house

Horses

Mountain hive

Post boxes?

Ankara - 04/05

A fairly long bus trip today, but quite enjoyable. At least, it was enjoyable when I finally got to the otogar in Nevsehir. The servis left at 8:11 and dawdled all the way. It didn't get there until 9:15. Since it only took 15-20 mins going the other way yesterday, the driver really had to make an effort to stretch this out. He stopped at every office for a fag and a chat.

Anyway, on the big bus I didn't have to share a seat with anyone, and the driving was pretty efficient. They really don't like going over rough patches in the road or over bumps; they all slow down to about 10-20 km/hr. we stopped at a place near Tuz Göl, which is an extensive salt lake (tuz göl). I wanted to go to the lake and have a bit of a paddle, or at least to walk along the shore to be absolutely sure that I'd been there. Unfortunately there was a divider across the highway and I couldn't cross it without making a spectacle of myself.

Ankara's otogar is huge and well-organized. I was very impressed, and they've got a passageway/travelator system to take you straight to the Ankaray line, and although the ticket system isn't too clear, I eventually got on and the line took me straight to Kurtulus station where I got off and walked with little difficulty to the Han hotel.

This place was a bit of a worry. It seems to be run by incompetent Russians. They had no record of my reservation, and asked me to find it for them. They had a strange keyboard that I couldn't get to make a ‘\’ for my username at bond, and the lady couldn't understand that I couldn't make it. I think she's a bit stupid actually; it wasn't a very difficult question, even asked in mime. When I came back down with laundry she said no. I made a surprised face, since I'd just been reading the laundry notice on the board, she then said yes, and there followed 5 minutes of nonsense while she made phone calls and wrote receipts and instructions. On the other hand, the hotel room I've got is really quite nice. I had a shower and it was *good*.

Went for a walk before dinner and had a döner in the park, where I was attacked by a remote-controlled helicopter. For dinner I had a pizza at Time Pizza just across the intersection at Kurtulus, and then went to have a coffee ('cupichino') in 'Trip' cafe, where there are a lot of young folks and a pair of loud singers with guitars entertaining folks. Actually, no one at all is listening to the poor fellows. I beg my pardon, the table behind me has just started singing along with them very loudly, and keeping a rhythm of claps. I guess they *are* listening after all.

Ankara - 05/05

First thing: went to the bus station and bought a ticket for Istanbul. This went quite easily, because the station is so well organized! There was only a slight confusion on my part when I read the ticket more carefully later and found that the destination was Bayrampasa. I had never heard of that and it wasn't in my book, so I went back just to check, but it was all ok. I wonder where it is though?

Back to Kizilay and had a long cappucino at Starbucks. Hooray for Starbucks! as I believe I've mentioned before. Had a bit of a wander up Ziya Gokalp Cad. or perhaps it was Mesrutiyet Cad., I can't be quite sure, looking for anything of interest, but there was nothing. It was about as interesting as K road in Auckland, or any shopping street anywhere really. So I headed off north to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the Citadel (Kalesi).

Odd monument encountered on the way

I got to the Museum first, and it was small, but fascinating. There were plenty of friezes from Hittite and Phrygian periods, and even a few dating back to the period of the Akkadian colonists No ref. was made to Sargon or any of the controversy surrounding the nature of those colonies; in fact there wasn't really much in the way of explanation of the context of these things at all. I suppose that would be given by the audio tours if you chose to pay extra for that, but I never do. I don't know why they insisted that there was no flash photography - there was nothing that could be damaged by light, it was all rocks and metal, oh, except for the frescoes from Çatal Höyük. Those were interesting to see, as was the original of the 'mother goddess' figurine.

The Citadel was odd. It's the old city fortress which is still being lived in by very poor people apparently, as well as some restaurants and cafes and tourist traps, but it's nothing like the rest of Ankara. It's certainly nothing like the modern city that completely surrounds it. The tourists all head straight for the fortress walls so that they can get a good look over the city. Nothing odd about that, but the walls have no fencing around them and there is a huge drop from them. If you fell off you would certainly be killed, but people had their children up there playing with no great anxiety. You'd never get away with it in Oz or NZ, that's certain.

On the walls of the Kalesi

Home again via Starbucks, and only out once more for an hour or so to have a meal. You get a lot of food here for $10.

Istanbul - 06/05

Today started well, but then went a bit off the rails. I had a decent breakfast at the Han in Ankara, having learnt that you had to ask the staff for eggs or coffee I had a nice omelette and a couple of cups. Then I went off to Kizilay and had a couple of good grande lattes and then off to the Otogar. Again, no problems there. Every city in Turkey could take a lesson from that place.

In Particular!, when I arrived at the station in Istanbul it was not clear at all where I was. I thought I'd been dumped at some other small otogar in another suburb, but I walked off to what looked like some sort of significant building rising above the road ramps and parking and general disorder, and I found that I was approaching the place I had expected except from an unusual direction. There were of course no signs of any description anywhere. Bloody ridiculous arrangement.

So, anyway, off to Sirceki station to buy a ticket for Thessaloniki. And what do I discover but that there IS no train there. Why? There is problem. When is train again? (Shrug) You must get bus. Where do I get bus? Don't know.
Yeah, that's some great information you're doing there lady.
So back to the main street looking for a travel agent. The buses apparently cost about the same as a plane and take up to 18 hours. Bugger that, I say, and ask for plane times. It turns out that there's a convenient plane to Athens at 12:20 tomorrow afternoon, so I grab it and pay the man 318TY. I suppose that's still a pretty acceptable price for the convenience, but it's a bit more than I'd counted on. This having been done I go to the Sydney looking for a bed for the night, and then to the Turquoise for a delicious feed.

I've had to cancel the Thessaloniki hotel, and I'll pay a penalty for that too, and I've extended forward my stay in the Athens hotel. I really doubt that I want to spend a week in Athens, but I'm thinking now of cancelling the nights of the 9th and 10th if I can find some convenient islands to spend them on. I do want to be here on the 11th though, so that there's no drama getting to the plane home.

I write this in Starbucks. And I am content.