Batman, Lice, Philadelphia...and other Turkish cities

Guess what? I think I have struck a half decent tour group! They are not perfect, we have one family who may be three of the rudest people I have ever met, but we'll sort them out.

Hmm...just got very distracted by BBC news - they are interviewing a man that looks like a mix of Ted Danson and Lurch from The Adams Family...disturbing.

Anyway, given I don't have a tour group to bitch about, best to just move on to what we have done so far. As the title of this post suggests, I have been studying the map we were give and my three favorite Turkish towns (in terms of names) would have to be Batman, Lice and Philadelphia.

Day 1 and we headed out of Istanbul for Gallipoli. The Australians and Kiwis, along with out Turkish guide had to give a bit of a history lesson to the Americans and Canadians in the group. Many were shocked when they started hearing the numbers of people that died or were wounded there (they estimate 100,000 dead and a further 400,000 wounded). We visited Lone Pine to see the Australian memorial.

We also visited the New Zealand memorial, and went to ANZAC Cove. This is the view from up at the NZ memorial looking back over the cove.

We spent the night in Canakkale, and then in the morning headed for Troy. I was quite excited about going to Troy, but unfortunately the site isn't that well preserved, and for some bizarre reason is over run with stray cats. Still, there was a giant replica of the Trojan horse - and yes, you can climb inside!

We then had an ancient medical lesson and learned about the asclepion. Essentially this was the hospital you went to back in the BC times, assuming you were "well enough to go to hospital". In effect, it was a mental hospital, and not a place for people with a physical illness.

The following day was a bit of a highlight. We headed from Izmir (where Homer was born - not Simpson) to Ephesus. This was not only well preserved, but huge. We also went to the Virgin Mary's house.

Mary's house was interesting. Apparently it has been there since well, Jesus was born, but nobody knew about it til Mary came to a German nun in her dreams in the late 1800's and gave her directions. It is now a pilgrimage spot for Catholics.

Two points of interest at Mary's house. Firstly there is still a traditional water source of holy water that you can drink. I didn't have a bottle handy to gather some, but bought a small bottle at the gift shop on the way out. I have to drink it sometime in the next two weeks (as it is illegal to take it out of Turkey - and quite frankly if I was going to get arrested for something I am not sure that the illegal exportation of holy water would be my first choice). If I get struck down by lightning in the next week, you know why.

The other interesting thing is the 'wishing wall'. There were lots of wishes that people had placed there.

Most of them that I saw were for the usual - health, wealth and happiness. One person clearly had Mary confused with Santa...

It was then on to Ephesus. There was a little stall out the front that was surprisingly honest with it's marketing of it's wares..

We would be here forever if I showed all my pics of the site. There was well preserved ruins of everything from brothels to shops to houses to public toilets. This was the theater.

And this was the library (complete with secret entrance to the brothel in case the Mrs didn't believe you when you said you were headed to the library and decided to follow you...).

One interesting story we heard was about the carving below. Turns out Nike (pronounced Nikki) is the Greek goddess of victory. The shoe company took her name, and It is believed they took their tick symbol from the depiction of her dress.

We then traveled to Pamukkale, which is famous for it's thermal pools. The rock formations are all from the thermal water pouring over the side of the hill for centuries. Unfortunately, with so many hotels redirecting the water to their own pools the site is running low and isn't as pretty as it once was. It is however where one goes apparently to see Russian tourists in their bathing suits! (Tony Abbott style).

The little pools you can see below used to be bright turquoise when there was more of the water.

This is the view back over town from the top of the hill. The site also has considerable ruins you can walk around, and a pool and spa where they line people up and have the little cleaner fish eat their dead skin off.

No idea what the plan is today - I appear to have handed all organizational ability for my life over to the guide and simply wake up when I am told to (now there is a first).

Azerbaijan - Land of Eurovision...and fountains

Well, I am happily back in Turkey. The midnight start time on the shows (in order for them to be live across Europe at 9pm CET) along with a mattress that was worse than things I have slept on in some of the most remote Eco lodges in Melanesia have taken their toll. Nothing that a 5 star hotel room, a nap, and some Turkish junk food couldn't fix though!

Baku was an interesting place. Everything was new, and you got the impression that a show was being put on for the foreign media and tourists. I suspect that if you went back without a major international event on it would be a very different city. The stories (none confirmed by me) you could overhear in the press center about arrests, protests, journalists being silenced and the forced relocation of people were disturbing. This is a country that clearly has money, and lots of it. They had clearly done a lot of work in the lead up to Eurovision and were not afraid of an electricity bill!!!! Place was lit of up like Disneyland on the fourth of July.

One of the funniest things I saw was a hill that was brown during the day, but they used green lights during the evening to make it appear lusher. It was Canberra stadium circa 2000 Olympics!

The place was an interesting mix of the old and the new.

The above pic is the Maiden Tower, a UNESCO site.

The arena on the other hand (above) was brand new and purpose built (and still being finished during the week!).

I stayed in the old town, where you had cobbled streets and rug sellers on every corner. And cats. So, so many stray cats.

The old city is contained within a wall. It was always interesting to see the new buildings popping over the top of that wall.

One of the "highlights" inside the wall was the Miniature book museum (I kid you not). This pic is of the complete works of Shakespeare, with my finger as scale. They had a copies of everything from the bible to Lord of The Rings.

What I could not get over in Baku was all the fountains!!!!!!!

The "Hungry, Hungry Hippo" fountain...

The "juicer" fountain...

A more modern fountain...

They even lit them up at night.

So much for Azerbaijan calling itself the "land of fire". I think it should be the "land of fountains".

Am happy with the Eurovision result. Sweden will be a nice change next year. Baku was a bit of a hard slog, and quite frankly had too many Melanesian-esque challenges in trying to get things done - which I think I need a break from after the last 6 years.

Believe it or not, I am in Turkey for another tour! Am about to go to the welcome function downstairs and meet the group - wish me luck that they are better than the last one!

Whiskey, Guinness, fire trucks and sheep - an Irish experience

Niamh wanted me to give her a pseudonym for this post - but why protect the guilty little fire starter?

Started out in Dublin on Monday afternoon. That is to say I started out in Dublin, my luggage (yup, first luggage drama of the trip!) decided to stay in London City for a longer transit. By Tuesday morning, my luggage had arrived and I had sufficient warm clothes to go explore (might have made for a crappy birthday otherwise). Niamh wanted me to post a pic of blue sky in Dublin. This is literally the only one I have...

We wandered around the city. Have a verrrrrrry nice lunch, and then set off in search of the Jameson distillery. On the way we saw this

I wasn't so keen on a visit to the Leprechaun Museum (much to Niamh's dismay), so we powered on.

In the foyer they had a lovely chandelier made from whiskey bottles

We went in for the tour, and thanks to Niamh announcing that it was my birthday, I got included in the whiskey tasting group. Got a diploma and everything...

On Wednesday we continued with the alcoholic theme and hit the Guinness brewery

The view from the top was pretty impressive

As was the waterfall inside the brewery

Turns out they don't just make beer

So we then hit the road to head from Niamh's home town up north. Important lesson for Belinda. Northern Ireland is a different country, with different money. Many types of different money (so confused). We finally saw many of the sheep on the highway that I had seen on so many postcards (had started to think I had caught the wrong flight and was in NZ).




The biggest excitement of those days though came on Thursday afternoon. It was a little chilly, and there was a fire in the fireplace. Little did we know however that it had spread to the chimney. Turns out the gentlemen at the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade are lovely (took their shoes off in the house and everything). Thankfully the only casualty was the stove in the fireplace.

Today we headed up to the Giant's Causeway. People kept getting in my pictures...

The story goes that a giant in Ireland wanted to start a fight with one in Scotland, so he built some steps for them to cross the sea. When he saw how big the Scottish giant was he ran to his wife and hid. She dressed him as a baby to hide him. The Scottish giant saw the baby and freaked, wondering how big Dad must be and ran back to Scotland destroying the path as he went. Oh, there was also so alternate explanation about volcanoes.

The giant left his boot behind when he did a runner...

This afternoon we went to yet another whiskey distillery. Bushmills this time around.

They fill 300 bottles of whiskey per minute. The man behind me told his friend "if only we could drink it that fast...".

Back to Dublin tomorrow, and then Sunday I start to trek to Azerbaijan (via Turkey)!

Florence & the art of Ninja Turtles

Well, I am pleased to say that I "graduated" from cooking school in Tuscany. The final dinner was really all about seafood and citrus (yes boys and girls, FRUIT). Some of my favorite dishes from that night included the octopus and potato salad

the seafood risotto

and the lemon sorbet (though I still smell like lemons after scooping them all out for the presentation)

It was all washed down with limoncello. Two types in fact. One made from ripe lemons and one made from green lemons

On Saturday morning I said goodbye to my new friends and we all headed to Florence. They kept telling me my hotel was nice, and well placed. I took them at their word when I looked out of my window and this was the view from my room

The weather was sensational on Saturday. Clothes were changed, shorts and sandals cracked out, and copious amounts of gelato eaten whilst wandering the streets. I had thankfully taken note of the advice provided at cooking school and pre-booked my trip to see the statue of David. I wandered aimlessly in the Dell'Accademia through some of the wackiest examples of modern "art" I have ever seen to try to find the 17 foot piece of marble I had come to see. I literally stumbled out of a room and was standing right in front of him. The statue is massive. David looks pretty good for 500 years old (I can see why them moved it inside, it is in excellent condition). Now, you can't take photos of the original David in the museum (so the pictures below are of the replica that is in the Piazza Della Signoria) but everyone in Lucca was telling me that when you look at David in profile, he looks fierce, and just like a man that just took down Golliath.

But when you look at him front on, he looks a little scared.

The original really does have different facial expressions when you look from a different angle.

There was one statue at the Dell'Accademia that you could take a picture of....

Not all statues in this town (and there are maaaaaaany) are as good as David. Some are a little disturbing. This one is next to the David replica, and quite frankly, I got not idea what is going on here...

I found the river, bought yet another gelato, and went for a wander given how pretty a day it was

I hit the markets (can one person own too many Italian handmade leather sandals?). I was on a quest to find the tackiest souvenirs in all of Italy for Julian Vasquez for his birthday. I found it, but quite frankly was too embarrassed to buy it (sorry Julian). After a week of four course Italian dinners each night I decided to rebel and did the most touristy, and un-Italian, thing I could for dinner. Fajitas at the Hard Rock Cafe.

On Sunday the weather rebelled. The maximum temp was 16 degrees less than Saturdays. Not gelato weather. Thankfully I had a 9am ticket to the Uffizi (decided I would rather get out of bed early than fight the crowds - smart moved as it turned out, place was empty when arrived, but you could hardly move by the time I left). During the course of the morning I managed to see the art of three out of the four ninja turtles (Donatello, where art thou???). After seeing the sculptures of Michalengo, and the paintings of Leonardo and Raffael in the space of only a few meters I had the ninja turtle rap firmly stuck in my head (those heroes in a half shell are on a mission you know).

I've never pretended to be an art lover. I would much rather be at a museum than a gallery. I gotta say though, at least at places like the Louvre you have landscapes and portraits to look at. Here in Italy though, it is all religion. Soooooooo many depictions of the crucifixion. Sooooooo many versions of Madonna with child. There was clearly a lack of things to paint in the 1400 and 1500's. That or they were unionized and instructed to all do the same thing. I'm also of the opinion that cherubs are disturbing. Don't believe me? Google Caracci's 'Venus with Satyr' and look at those little cherubs. That painting creeped me out, particularly the little guy down the the bottom left. Don't get me started on all the rather graphic depictions of the beheading of John the Baptist. They had a temporary tapestry exhibit full of Flemmish works from the 1500's. That was worth the price of admission for me.

I've wandered around a few of the other lovely buildings here in Florence, though I have had to try to avoid being trapped in a different kind of tour group hell. Those cruise ship excursion groups are tough to avoid some days.

Tomorrow I am headed to Ireland for the week.