You know you have been watching too much BBC News when you know all the details of Prince Phillip's bladder infection. The tv needs to stay off in the hotel rooms for a little bit I think.
When I wrote my last post, I believe I was in Antalya. Land of the hotel with the worlds crappiest Internet connection and stacka middle aged Russian (male) tourists in speedos (eat your heart out Tony Abbot). We managed to get out on the water for a little sail on Friday morning. It was an amazing day for it.
When we were done with that, we met up with the others and hit a museum. Now, I had a moment of realization at the museum. Turns out I am totally, completely, 1000000% creeped out by headless statues. This country is full of them.
What made it worse though, was when I wandered further into the museum, I found the severed heads room!!!!!!
I have no idea if these make matching sets. It does pose the question though - what is creepier, a room of decapitated statues, or a room of severed heads? Either way I haven't been sleeping well...
The statue I liked the best was this one.
I liked the story behind it. Notice how it is broken down the middle? Well a Turkish museum had the bottom half, and an American museum had the top half. The President of Turkey himself had to go and ask for it back (took a bit to convince the Americans to hand it over). Even flew it with himself on his private plane to make sure it got home safely.
I saw this statue as well. Once again playing into my creepy cherub theory...
There were some ruins as well. This was a very well preserved Turkish bath. We asked the question as to why Turkey's ruins are so much better preserved. It turns out that anything that dated back a few thousand years ago was buried, and nobody stealing treasures or fighting wars knew it was there to destroy it. As a result,it hey are well preserved to be seen today.
We got to see one of the best preserved theaters in Turkey.
They still use it once a year for the annual opera and ballet festival. Starts this week if anyone is interested in hearing groups like the Estonian National Opera perform. It seats 15,000 people!
We eventually made it from Konya to Cappadocia. Now, by this point there had been one sight of Turkey we had seen daily. The eczane, or pharmacy. See, one third of the bus have the plague, and another third seem to have either all eaten something I avoided, or alternatively not heeded the constant "the water is not fit to drink" warnings because they all have a nasty stomach bug. The Australians, who seem oddly immune to both illnesses, are at this point contemplating setting up a quarantine zone on the bus to protect ourselves. We also also took a piccie of the next pharmacy we stopped at.
Cappadocia is pretty amazing. The natural rock formations from the erosion of lava over time have left some spectacular sites.
People used to live in some of the rock formations. These days they have been converted to hotels.
I got a little distracted from the rock formations by my new Canadian friends telling me about Turkish ice cream. They then bought me one. It doesn't melt. It is really creamy. It got a big thumbs up.
Apparently in the book about 1000 things to do and see before you die it says you have to take a hot air balloon over Cappadocia. So, a few of us got up at 4am to be brave and tick this off our bucket lists. This is our balloon being readied.
We then hopped in, and it was time for take off!
The balloon was an amazing chance to check out the formations, or "fairy houses" as they are often referred to. At some points we got so close to things we could touch them. One of the girls in our group even picked an apricot from a tree whilst on the balloon.
There were stacka balloons up there, and it as an amazing sight.
I only started getting nervous when the balloon got really high and the other balloons started becoming little specs...
We arrived in Ankara from Cappadocia this afternoon. We visited the tomb of Ataturk this afternoon, which was an amazing site. I think the most interesting part was the museum and reading the recount of Gallipoli from a Turkish perspective. It was also amazing to read about the many things Ataturk did for modern Turkey. I can't think of another country that has an much to thank one individual for as what Turkey does for Ataturk (which would be why he is heralded as a father of the nation). In the transport section of the museum there were quotes from him on the importance of road maintenance from the 1930's. That won him brownie points with me!
I am in desperate need of a post office. My single suitcase is starting to suffer capacity issues. Off to Bursa at some point tomorrow. After that there is just Istanbul left on the Turkish itinerary.
When I wrote my last post, I believe I was in Antalya. Land of the hotel with the worlds crappiest Internet connection and stacka middle aged Russian (male) tourists in speedos (eat your heart out Tony Abbot). We managed to get out on the water for a little sail on Friday morning. It was an amazing day for it.
This was our boat. And yes, the one to it's right was supposed to be a pirate ship. The part of me that had scurvy really wanted to be on the private ship. We took a little sail along the coast, enjoying the Mediterranean.
When we were done with that, we met up with the others and hit a museum. Now, I had a moment of realization at the museum. Turns out I am totally, completely, 1000000% creeped out by headless statues. This country is full of them.
What made it worse though, was when I wandered further into the museum, I found the severed heads room!!!!!!
I have no idea if these make matching sets. It does pose the question though - what is creepier, a room of decapitated statues, or a room of severed heads? Either way I haven't been sleeping well...
The statue I liked the best was this one.
I liked the story behind it. Notice how it is broken down the middle? Well a Turkish museum had the bottom half, and an American museum had the top half. The President of Turkey himself had to go and ask for it back (took a bit to convince the Americans to hand it over). Even flew it with himself on his private plane to make sure it got home safely.
I saw this statue as well. Once again playing into my creepy cherub theory...
There were some ruins as well. This was a very well preserved Turkish bath. We asked the question as to why Turkey's ruins are so much better preserved. It turns out that anything that dated back a few thousand years ago was buried, and nobody stealing treasures or fighting wars knew it was there to destroy it. As a result,it hey are well preserved to be seen today.
We got to see one of the best preserved theaters in Turkey.
They still use it once a year for the annual opera and ballet festival. Starts this week if anyone is interested in hearing groups like the Estonian National Opera perform. It seats 15,000 people!
We eventually made it from Konya to Cappadocia. Now, by this point there had been one sight of Turkey we had seen daily. The eczane, or pharmacy. See, one third of the bus have the plague, and another third seem to have either all eaten something I avoided, or alternatively not heeded the constant "the water is not fit to drink" warnings because they all have a nasty stomach bug. The Australians, who seem oddly immune to both illnesses, are at this point contemplating setting up a quarantine zone on the bus to protect ourselves. We also also took a piccie of the next pharmacy we stopped at.
People used to live in some of the rock formations. These days they have been converted to hotels.
I got a little distracted from the rock formations by my new Canadian friends telling me about Turkish ice cream. They then bought me one. It doesn't melt. It is really creamy. It got a big thumbs up.
Apparently in the book about 1000 things to do and see before you die it says you have to take a hot air balloon over Cappadocia. So, a few of us got up at 4am to be brave and tick this off our bucket lists. This is our balloon being readied.
We then hopped in, and it was time for take off!
The balloon was an amazing chance to check out the formations, or "fairy houses" as they are often referred to. At some points we got so close to things we could touch them. One of the girls in our group even picked an apricot from a tree whilst on the balloon.
There were stacka balloons up there, and it as an amazing sight.
I only started getting nervous when the balloon got really high and the other balloons started becoming little specs...
We arrived in Ankara from Cappadocia this afternoon. We visited the tomb of Ataturk this afternoon, which was an amazing site. I think the most interesting part was the museum and reading the recount of Gallipoli from a Turkish perspective. It was also amazing to read about the many things Ataturk did for modern Turkey. I can't think of another country that has an much to thank one individual for as what Turkey does for Ataturk (which would be why he is heralded as a father of the nation). In the transport section of the museum there were quotes from him on the importance of road maintenance from the 1930's. That won him brownie points with me!
I am in desperate need of a post office. My single suitcase is starting to suffer capacity issues. Off to Bursa at some point tomorrow. After that there is just Istanbul left on the Turkish itinerary.
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