Room(s) with a view

Greetings from Greece. I'd say hello in Greek, but I have no idea how to do that on the keyboard...

It's been a whirlwind week of ruins and heat! Today we made it to 39c. I thought I was going to wilt. So what have we been seeing? Well we started in Athens on Sunday morning bright and early (we all thought our guide was crazy with the early starts, but now that we realise that we may die of heat exhaustion at 10 am we are suddenly pretty happy with getting out of bed at 6am!).

First stop in Athens was the first Olympic arena of the modern era. I say modern, but it is still pretty old (1800 and something it was built...). It was used at the 2004 Olympics for archery and the marathon. It is also where they have the handover ceremonies for the flame. Believe it or not it seats something like 50,000.

After visiting some other sites across the city, and watching the guards outside of Parliament (they wear pom poms on their shoes) we headed up to the Acropolis.

It is only once you get up there that you can appreciate how massive the site is. The view back down at Athens, with the ruins in the foreground is pretty spectacular.

The most amusing part of this was hearing the other side of the stories I had heard in Turkey about the Greeks! Suddenly all I was hearing about was how Greece's ruins would be better had it not been for the Turkish occupation. The were still pretty impressive. The Greeks have patented a technique for cleaning ancient marble, so the ruins scrub up well.

We moved on to Mycenae in the afternoon and saw one of the best examples of a Greek theater. We had a lesson in acoustics. It is amazing, there is a point in the center where you can stand and even the slightest noise, even just breathing, can be heard by everyone in the theater like you are kitted out with 100 microphones.

They still use it in summer to do performances of Greek tragedies and the like. Apparently the biggest challenge to the modern theater actor performing in this arena is learning to breathe quietly, particularly when concluding a monologue, as the sound travels far more than in a modern theater.

That evening we stayed in Nafplion, which is a quaint little village (and also the very first capital of an independent Greece). It looked just like I had imagined a Greek town would.

Out hotel was up on the hill and we have a lovely view at sunset whilst we enjoyed our beers.

From Nafplion we headed to Olympia. The archaeological site was HUGE. This was the birthplace of the Olympic games. The first games were had here in 776BC. The site had a gymnasium, "hotels" for the athletes, even a " VIP" hotel reportedly built by Nero for his own comfort when participating in the games.

Back in those days, distance was measured by "Olympic stadiums". This was the original track where athletic events were held. Everyone was having a go to run it (though in 40 degree heat I decided a walk would be better). In those days it was a straight track and events were called things like the 6 Olympic stadium race (so 6 laps of the track).

Just one little problem with this site. CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS! My god. They descended like ants on an unguarded picnic. There was a costa boat in port (still floating, go figure) and each group was numbered, the highest number we saw was 75. This was what it was like as we were leaving (crowds reminded me of the actual Olympics in Sydney).

You know how every two years you see on the news the girls lighting the torch at Olympia? Well this is where they do it.

Interesting fact - the idea behind the Olympic torch was bought in for the 1936 Olympics. Whose idea was it? The same man who lit the torch for the first time. Believe it or not - it was Hitler. Not sure I will ever look at the torch the same again...

There have been museums, and Greece has the same problem as Turkey. Headless statues. I hate them.

I think I have worked out why they are broke. I passed a road works sign that said the work was costing €800 million. This bridge cost €750 million...

We had some more hardship views. I had coffee looking at this...

And then when we got to Delphi that night I had this view from my hotel room...

Delphi is of course home to Apollo and the oracle (sorry Mummy, oracle didn't have the lotto numbers - I did ask!). Apollo believed it to be the center of the universe. It was full of treasuries of gifts that people bought Apollo in the hope that the oracle would give them a favorable fortune. The view up at the site was also pretty impressive.

This is the treasury of the Athenians (most of the stuff in there had been pilfered from the Persians and given to Apollo).

There was lots of climbing involved here too...

But so worth it when you got up there to the top. Have I mentioned how blue the sky is here????

T
onight we are in Kalambaka. The hotel room here has yet another hardship view. Took this earlier this evening from my balcony... This place is one of the most active fault lines in the world. Have felt a few little tremors just sitting here writing this. Little disconcerting.

Still trying to get my head around whose who in the mythology zoo, particularly given that the Romans and the Greeks have different names for the same person (eg. Venus and Aphrodite are one and the same). Thanks to the wonders of my Kindle I have downloaded a 700 page compendium on Greek mythology and am making up for taking modern and not ancient history at school.

Tomorrow it is back to Athens, and then on Friday I am making my escape from Greece before they have their election this weekend (would rather be in Italy for that and watch it safely on CNN).

A Turkish Wrap

Greetings from Greece. Those of you suffering through a Canberra winter probably won't want to know this, but I swear it is about 4 billion degrees here in Athens! Before I move on to boring you all with tales of ancient ruins in yet another country, I figured I should wrap up my last few days in Turkey.

I know my last post was done from Ankara, but I had obviously not uploaded all my piccies at that point. For starters, I hadn't told you about the carpets. We went to see carpets being made by hand. A small one like this lady is making can take about 7 months to do.

No need for Gaye to panic that there is about to be a shipment of carpets on her front door - I resisted the urge to buy anything. I did however sit for a few minutes with a silk carpet in my lap and patted it like it was a kitty cat (it was sooooo soft). The carpet salesman only wanted to talk to me about Harry Kewell. Go figure.

I did not however show the same restraint at the ceramics workshop. Unlike the trip to the jewelry store or the leather factory, the carpet and ceramics place at least gave us a chance to learn about the traditional designs, and the traditional techniques for making the items (for the record, purchased nothing at the jewelry or leather goods store either!). The ceramics were so very pretty.

I am the proud owner of several pieces (some of which are from the turquoise section on the left of the picture). Gaye also gets a ceramic bribe for letting me mail it all to her house!

Remember the rock formations that we flew over in the hot air balloons in Cappadocia? Well they took us to see some that resemble things (like when you look at clouds and think you can see a frog or a gremlin). This one is pretty obvious...

(a camel for those with no imagination)

This one apparently resembles Napoleon's Hat. Took me bit to see it, but got there in the end...

And this one is the kissing couple...

I also finally got some good shots of the caves in Cappadocia.

The caves I mentioned previously that are now hotels? Well apparently you can pay about $500 a night for a room in one of those!

Managed to sneak a piccie of a real camel as well. I say sneak because you were supposed to pay the crazy man to take the piccie of the mangey camel. The camels did not look healthy.

In my last post I talked about the tomb of Ataturk and how amazing that site was. Well this is the building that houses the tomb.

All around the site are a military guard (it is a military site). They have guards who work on 45 minute rotations, standing perfectly still. In theory. I only watched them for about 5 minutes and watched them fidget and move. In their defense they were standing in blistering sun. I would have keeled over. Someone made the call that the tomb looked like it being guarded by storm troopers from a distance...and they were right.

In Istanbul we did many of the things you'd expect. We went to the grand bazaar, where very store keepers kept asking me if I was Brazilian (huh?).

We also went to the spice bazaar (quote of that trip being the store keeper who said to me "Madame, I help you spend your money" - I don't need help kind sir!)

I managed to convince one store keeper to let me try different types of Turkish delight. My favorite was the pomegranate and pistachio.

We then went for a cruise along the Bosporus. We checked out the cruise ships. One was a Costa. Cue Italian/Titanic jokes.

It was quite a pretty little cruise...

There was a (unfinished) house along the water that Forbes magazine have as one of the most expensive in the world. It recently sold for $120 million. This is it.




We also spent a day walking through old town. In the hippodrome I thought I was in Egypt...

We of course went to the Blue Mosque...I had a hard time getting a good pic with all 6 minarets and none of the construction site in front of it (hence why there are only 4 in this pic).

It was stunning inside. I want a blue mosque themed bathroom in my future mansion. The tile work in there is amazing.

We also went to Hagia Sophia, which ticks another of the world's biggest dome structures off my "seen" list...

Once again, it was quite beautiful inside. Though the structure itself has been rebuilt many times due to earthquakes and fire. Speaking of the former, we had a 4.9 near Istanbul on Thursday night. Honiara really has gotten me a little too used to them, I barley battered an eyelid.

So that is a wrap for Turkey. I will leave you with what I think is the jewel in my snow globe purchases so far this holiday. The Vespa shaped one I got in Italy wasn't bad, but I think this fellow might be though to beat...

Headless sculptures and hot air balloons

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.

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.

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.