The Village

Hello all!
As usual, it's now about 3 days later than what this post is actually about- our stay in the village. Had an incredible time in the Open Air Museum in Cappadocia, and with any luck you'll find out about it before the end of the week!
But first, the village (it's called Eşenler). How did we end up in a remote mountain town? It's kind of a program, started by Mehmed, who I've mentioned before. Originally from the village, he came to Konya, where he now runs a successful carpet store; the local boy made good, and now he's giving back. He organizes groups of tourists or students to come stay in the village, where they are put up with families (20 lira a night, including three meals). With the income generated by this program, the town has been able to install either running water or electricity, I can't remember.
We arrived in Eşenler mid-afternoon after a 2 hour drive from Konya. Before going into town, we went up to a hill for a picnic, terrific views,

and Eşenler's famed enormous praying mantis, the third largest in Turkey:

Also, we walked through some cherry fields with our host, Muammer (Mehmed's brother), sampling the cherries, apricots, and erik. Erik are little green fruits that are very sour. How sour? Ask David:
When we got to town, this was the site that greeted us:
A whole field of carpets. Western buyers don't like the naturally vivid color of Turkish carpets, so they're put out in the sun to give them a more pastel look. They told us that after a large theft several years ago, several villagers now sleep out on the carpets at night; a plot began to brew in our heads.
Meanwhile, it was time to go meet our families. Edward and I were given to such a nice family! I would say we lucked out, but everyone's families were so hospitable and generous. Here's a little family portrait:

Me, Edward, Erdag, his mom (don't think we ever learned her name), and his wife. Unfortunately, we never got the whole family, including the dad Mustafa, the daughter Isra, or any of the assorted grandparents who floated around. This was taken in the store the family runs out of one of the house's rooms.
The family was so great! Especially the mom, who loved to play jokes on us (sneaking up on Edward, putting some kind of plant on me that gave me a rash for a couple hours, etc.) and made such delicious meals with her daughter-in-law. This is how we ate: the mom put a big tablecloth on the floor, put a big tray with all the meals' dishes on that, and we sat around with our legs under the tablecloth and ate communally out of the bowls of food. Nothing in common with the American style, but it worked, and I rather liked it.
The next morning we went out with our families to their respective farms to pick cherries. Such cute kids:
It was not hard work, and Edward and I really enjoyed it. But after an hour, they told us we were going back! I managed to ask why we were only working for 60 minutes (I couldn't remember the word for hour. Sidenote about language: our family spoke no English. Like, none. Seems impossible to live with them for even 48 hours, but we are all doing pretty well with the language; all the basic nouns pretty much, and 5 or so key verbs. The Turkish-English dictionary played a prominent role, but we did pretty well- they even said so!), and they said it was enough. We came back for a huge, delicious lunch, and then went to a waterfall for some relaxation after our long day. Before we left though, we met the grandpa of the family, and had a little dance party (non sequiter, much?). Turns out the old dude loves to sing and dance; he's 85, so it's awesome. Of course, they made me dance with him; hilarity ensued:

The things in our hands are spoons, because that's what you dance with in Turkey. You clack them together, and they make beautiful, beautiful music. What an afternoon.
The waterfall was amazing. I challenge you to find a better one than this:

We swam in the strong current for a good hour or two, then walked around, as far as the falls themselves. When we got back, we talked to our families about our idea for sleeping that night: on the carpets. They were very accomodating, and, after dinner, Edward, Zoe, and I gathered lots of blankets to go sleep under the stars. I've never seen a night sky like that in my life, such incredibly bright stars. It was a great experience.
I woke up early, cold, and more than a little disoriented. After watching a beautiful sunrise
I fell back asleep. Eventually, 7 came, and it was time for us to wake up, eat breakfast, and leave our families for Cappadocia. It was so good to get to experience Turkey beyond Hagia Sophia and Istiklal, to really get to know how most of the people in this country actually live.
We're in Cappadocia now, and my computer's about to die. Thanks for reading, hope to talk to you again soon!

Whirling Through Konya

Hello all,
The Turkey-Germany game just ended; looks like the Turks won't take Vienna after all. Close game, but this time the last minute shot wasn't Turkey's: final score, 3-2 on a 90th minute Germany goal. Turkey played remarkably well for having 8 or so players out due to penalties and injuries. Still, I'm in a bit of a down mood as you might imagine. But the blog must go on.
Our day in Konya was a blur of mosques that spanned almost the entire history of Islamic Anatolia. We started with this elegant 17th century Ottoman mosque:

From the night before.
It was built by Murad IV, one of the only sultans after Suleiman the Magnificent whose reign did not continue the empire's downward trajectory. It's kind of a balance between the classical, Sinan
style of the 16th century and the more European, baroque style of the 19th:

Absolutely beautiful as you can tell.
From there we went to Konya's second most significant religious site, the tomb of Şems. Şems was the teacher of Rumi, or Mevlana, the founder of Sufism; Rumi's tomb is probably the thing for which Konya is best known today. But before we visited Rumi, we saw his teacher. It's a site of significant devotion for Muslims; one woman we saw screamed 'Allah!' and went into some kind of convulsions, though apparently this is frowned upon in Sufism.
After Şems' tomb, we went back in time a little more to visit another mosque, Alaeddin Camii, built in the mid-12th century. In the 11th century, a group of Turkish nomads from Central Asia moved to the Middle East, where they came to dominate the politics of the Abassid Caliphate. This Turkish dynasty, known as the Seljuks, also fell after some time, dividing into several different groups. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (the Turkish term for 'Rome' or Byzantium) established itself in Asia Minor, with its capital at Konya. That's why Konya has such a rich Seljuk heritage. Alaeddin Mosque is the most prominent example of this; it's set up in a really bizarre way, but has a breathtaking mithrab:
This color of tile (sometimes it looks awfully like UNC blue) was unique to the Seljuk period, and you see it often in Konya.
We continued with the Seljuks, next visiting Ince Minaret Medrese; a medrese is a religious school and this one is named so because of its thin (ince) minaret, most of which was destroyed by lightening in the 20th century:
It's now used as a museum of Seljuk and Ottoman wood and stonework. The most incredible part is the facade, on which is written the entire first chapter of the Koran in beautiful Arabic script:
After a quick lunch, we went to the main attraction: Rumi's tomb. Rumi was something of a mystic, and not in the sense that we use it (i.e. a sketchy Turk). He lived in the 13th century and preached a message of religious universalism; today, he is the best-selling poet in America. His tomb is a place of pilgrimage for Muslims across the world, but especially Turks, who visit by the millions every year. Its famous for its distinctive blue-green tiles:
You can't take pictures inside the mausoleum itself (which contains Rumi, members of his family, and members of the royal Seljuk family as well), but it was beautiful. More significant was the remarkable 'devotional energy' (as William would call it); really powerful.
We finished up with another mosque, from the 19th century, very European in style. It was a really interesting contrast with everything we'd seen up to that point. After a huge Turkish dinner, we went back to bed early to get ready for our trip to the village. It's about 1AM here now, so I'm gonna go to bed; stay tuned for the village post! Thanks for reading, talk to you soon

KUPAYI İSTİYORUZ!!

Yeah we do. Translation at the end as a reward for reading this monster.
So our second day in Eğirdir was nature day. After our Turkish breakfast (I'm gonna miss them- believe it or not, I even eat the cucumber now), we drove an hour or so to a national park northeast of town. I think I'll just post pictures, to explain that way:
This sign greeted us as we entered the park. The point is: Turkish parks have everything American ones do (squirrels, rabbits, deer) plus, ya know- leopards. We cracked up for hours. Is this even hilarious? I don't know. Sometimes I think that our collective sense of humor is so relative to our experience here that others may not get it. Anyways, we didn't see any juaguars or whatever's on the sign, so maybe the sign was a joke itself.
God, was this place beautiful: a perfectly clear, flower lined stream surrounded by towering peaks.

But beyond the astounding natural beauty, the park is significant because it contains a portion of the ancient Royal Road. The Road, originally built by the Persians in the 6th century BC, ran from Susa (in southwest Iran) to Sardis (in western Turkey). It was said that messengers could travel its nearly 1,700 miles in a week. For a little more perspective, this was the route Alexander the Great took when he conquered the known world in the fourth century BC. The Road, or at least what we walked, is not in very good condition today, but it's still spine-tingling to consider that you're following the same route that, say, Xerxes did over two millenia ago. That sense of history is heightened when you see things like this right next to you:
This is a random Greek engraving on the cliff side that lines much of the road. Not sure what it means; all you classicists out there, get to work! We saw 4 or 5 of these.
When we reached a suitable location, we put down our stuff and swam among the pools and waterfalls for a good 3 hours, much of it in one particularly beautiful grotto with high cliffs for jumping.
That night, we gathered around our hostel's TV for the day's main event, Turkey vs. Croatia in the Euro Cup quarterfinals. After 90 minutes of play, the score was tied at zero (exhilarating, except not at all), so the game went into a fifteen minute overtime. Still tied, so there was another, after which there would be a shoot-out if still tied. With two minutes left (at the 118:42 mark!!), Croatia scored. What a letdown; all this time wasted. Turkey's final drives all collapsed, and it appeared that the extra minute of stoppage time would be just as unproductive. Just before the final whistle, at 121:12, Turkey finally scored, the latest goal in Euro Cup history. It was so improbable, so incredibly exciting- so Turkey. With so much momentum, Turkey's victory in the shoot-out seemed assured, and the Turks sealed victory only 3 shots into the 5-shot shoot-out. God, what a game. In the entire tournament, Turkey has led for nine minutes; they play Germany on Wednesday, and I can only assume that they will score 7 goals in the final minute to win. One bad thing- Eğirdir is a town of about 10, so there were no celebrations to speak of; how incredible would it have been to be in Istanbul or Ankara!! I find it a little hard to believe how much I've been swept up in this whole soccer thing, but I'm there cheering as hard as the Turks, cursing and congratulating the players (whose names I mostly know now) and generally acting like a football fan. One of Turkey's biggest dailies, Aksam, had this headline the next day: VIYANA'YI ASTIK, KUPAYI ISTIYORUZ: We passed over Vienna (where the game was held; a not-so-subtle reference to the famous unsuccessful Ottoman sieges of 1529 and 1683?); now we want the cup! Turkey is missing about half its lineup against Germany, the favorite to win the Cup, but at this point, anything seems possible.
We left Eğirdir the next morning on a packed bus for Konya, a city of about 1.5 million, 3 hours away. The drive was beautiful,
and, much to the chagrin of our horrible 'tour-leader', included a stop at a 13th century wooden (only one of its kind) Seljuk mosque. Arriving in Konya, we grabbed a quick lunch and went off to meet our host, the Shields' friend Mehmed. He's a carpet dealer, and it's his village in which we'll be staying tomorrow and Tuesday. He gave us a tour of the homes of some of his employees, women who weave carpets at their homes throughout the city. It was so interesting to see them work and walk through the neighborhoods. It was a beautiful night. Unfortunately though, I wasn't feeling well, so I went to bed early. It's about dinner time now on Sunday; we've had a very full day, so I don't have time to actually catch up to real time! Maybe tonight; hopefully, because we certainly won't have internet in the tiny (pop. 1,000) Taurus Mountain village we're going to tomorrow for two days. Until next time, miss you all and thanks for reading!

Pamukkale and Eğirdir: "Free Water Pipe for the Kids!"

Hello all!

It's about midnight on Thursday night; we're in Eğirdir (in Turkish, do NOT pronounce the g-smiley face; instead, it's soft, so the town we're in is pronounced 'Ey-er-deer'), a small town in southeast Anatolia. We left Pamukkale this morning, so I'll start with our time there.
Pamukkale means 'cotton castle' in Turkish, a reference to the billowing white cliffs that dominate the town. I had heard of the town before, through my dad, but only knew of the thermal springs. It turns out that on top of the huge cliffs, made of calcium deposits, is an ancient Greco-Roman city, Hierapolis, which at its height was home to 100,000 people. Can you imagine? I guess not, because I haven't posted any pictures. This place was incredible:
The view from the bottom-ish.

Us going up. To get to the top, you have to take off your shoes and walk 250 meters up the slope. Doesn't sound that bad, but if you step on the wrong rock or knife-shaped calcium deposit, your life sucks.
Have I mentioned that I hate Europeans now? This was one of about 4 couples we saw having these kinds of photoshoots. Yuck.
Here's the agora, or marketplace, of the ancient city Hierapolis. Perhaps you've seen enough ruins now, but I still love this stuff. Hierapolis was much more unregulated (and much less crowded) than Ephesus, so I pretty much was able to wander at will.
Here's a beautiful little temple/tomb half buried by the deposits, with the incredible view.
Again.
There are literally fields of debris, much of it beautifully carved, on the site, filled with columns, capitals, and engravings.
The amphitheater, with much of the stage sculpture uniquely still intact.
The sunset. Pretty incredible to watch it from the top of the amphitheater.
Hey lil Hierapolitan kitty! This was actually tragic, because this tiny kitten tried to follow us down the calcium path and meowed after us for a good 5 minutes.
And of course, cute little kids running after us saying 'click! click!' when they see the cameras.
We left Pamukkale at about 9 this morning, arriving in Eğirdir around 4. The town is set at the foot of a mountain on the shores of Turkey's second largest lake:

Our hostel was very accommodating, offering, as one of the managers put it, 'free water pipe for the kids!' (us). We spent the afternoon swimming in the lake and walking around a 13th century Seljuk mosque compound, finishing up with a moon-rise dinner:
With Edward and Kelly's help, I'm finally starting to learn how to use my camera!
That's about it; we're actually in Konya now (it took so long to load pictures that I wasn't able to post in Eğirdir), so I still need to talk about yesterday. Hopefully soon. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you all later!

Fascinating Ephesus

Hello all!
We’re on the bus now, from Selcuk (Ephesus) to Pamukkale. No internet obviously, but I don’t know when we’ll have it, so I’m writing now.
Yesterday was a free day; Prof. Shields promised we wouldn’t have to get up before 11. So we decided to start our day at 8. I mean, we were in Selcuk/Ephesus for one day, and there’s a lot to do, as you’ll see.
Stop #1 was, obviously, the city of Ephesus itself. One of the largest and most important cities of antiquity, Ephesus is now the site of some of the best preserved Greek and Roman ruins on Earth. The Greek city went through the hands of countless invaders (Lydians, Persians, Alexander the Great, Rome, Arabs, Turks…), but continued to flourish until a final conqueror appeared on the scene: environmental change. Ephesus, like most other great cities of the classical world, was a port city. In the second century AD, however, the rivers that fed into the harbor began to change course, filling the city with silt. The Romans were able to stave off the inevitable for a while, but by the fifth century, the wide harbor had been transformed into a malarial swamp; today, the sea is 7km away from Ephesus’ ‘harbor road’. By the time the Ottomans arrived in the 14^th century, a ragtag village was all that survived of the great city. Still, the city is of great importance, especially for Christians: Paul was here and two ecumenical councils were held here.
It’s kind of unreal to go through the site, passing the same buildings (or foundations of them anyways) and walking down the same streets that existed two millennia ago. I won’t recount every single building, statue, and engraving, but here are a couple pictures:

Hey lil Ephesian kitty!

For William, all Ephesus' a stage

There were several huge, beautiful storks in the hills around the site

The most important extant building in Ephesus is the Celsus Library, built in the second century AD

The columns and ceiling carvings are particularly beautiful

The theater, which could hold 44,000, or about twice the capacity of the Dean Dome
One commodity for which ancient Ephesus was famous is still sold here:

Genuine fake watches. God, this place was so touristy.
After Ephesus, we took a 20 minute drive into the mountains to see the House of the Virgin Mary. Yeah, I was confused too- this is where she lived at the end of her life. Evidently, after Jesus' death, John brought Mary with him to Ephesus (where he is buried). In the 19^th century, a blind German nun who’d never been to Ephesus described the area with remarkable accuracy, and said that Mary’s house was here; expeditions later in the century found the house as she’d described it, and the Pope’s visit here in 1967 confirmed its authenticity for most Christians. It’s a place of significant devotion; not as much as some of the Islamic tombs we’ve seen, but still very powerful.

The house where the Mother of God lived.
Next stop was the Ephesus museum. It's pretty small, but has a good number of interesting objects. Not as many as you might think though, because many of the objects discovered here were transported to European museums. It's a common, and for Turks unfortunate, phenomenon. For example, in Pergamum, the stunning, 40m+ frieze from the altar of Zeus was removed entirely in the 19th century; it's now exhibited in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. Probably the most interesting piece was the huge votary statue of Artemis:

One of the most important buildings in Ephesus was the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It was continuously rebuilt and repaired until the fifth century when a Christian mob destroyed it and buried the votive statues. Nothing of this incredible building exists save these few statues.
After the museum, we met up with a family friend of Emily's, Mrs. Gurel, a member of Izmir high society. She took us to meet her equally well-heeled friends at a beautiful lunch spot, where she fed us a delicious meal. Her friends had a very interesting take on the current political situation, at once recognizing the popularity of the AKP and proclaiming how "Turkey will be very happy" when they are banned. (SIDENOTE- for a very interesting article connecting politics and Turkey's recent soccer success, read this). The food and company were great, but we had one more item on our agenda for the afternoon: the BEACH.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of the beach; this is walking up to the lovely Aegean. We had a great time frolicking for a few hours in the waves; maybe not waves by NC standards, but more than we expected and good enough for a least a little body surfing.
The day's final activity was a trip up to a small village in the mountains for dinner. Sirence is billed as a 'Greek village', but no Greeks live there anymore. A mosque has replaced the churches, and you only hear Turkish on the street. Still, the 600 or so inhabitants live a very different life from what we've mostly seen so far. They're geared slightly to tourism, but it appears that most were engaged in agriculture or handicrafts. It was a gorgeous little town in a breathtakingly beautiful setting. I wish I was better at taking pictures:

Well, now it's 11pm on Wednesday; we had another busy day (bet you weren't expecting that) in Pamukkale. Waayyyy to tired to post about it now, hopefully soon. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!