Turkey: Some highlights

Turkey Some highlights from a month's visit March 1998
Travel

In 1998 I spent
seven months backpacking.
I spent March in Turkey.
There was so much to see of historical and religious significance,
and I had many friendly encounters with people.
Turkey remains a highlight in my travel memories.

Aya Sofia

Istanbul

I loved the chaos and the surprises in odd corners,
the fragment of Greek marble lying abandoned,
the beautiful tiles on a small neighbourhood mosque,
the bazaar that seemed to have no borders,
the reminders of civilisations in times past,
the bustling sea separating the city into Europe and Asia.

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Some favourite places:
*Yerebatan Cistern underground, where Constantine's columns were reused by Justinian to store water in a huge cistern.
*Huge sarcophagi from Sidon at the Archaeological Museum, with evocative decoration on the sides - mourning women, soldiers in battle, a lionhunt.
*Standing under the huge dome of Aya Sofya, Christian and Islamic symbols side by side within it.
*gazing at the ruins of walls that surrounded the old city and finding fragments from the civilisations of earlier days.
*Topkapi, with opulence and huge emeralds in the Treasury, and tales of poisonings and murder in the Harem as each mother schemed to have her son as the next Sultan.

Istanbul: old city walls

from Galata Bridge looking back towards Yemi Camii

Window in Harem
at Topkapi

Neighbourhood mosque near Sirkeci

Bursa

Some great experiences
*Yeni Kaplica, the thermal baths, a very Turkish experience with local women.
*A high school visit: I met up with a high school's deputy principal who invited me to go and speak English with several classes. I was made very welcome, and had no voice left at the end of the day! My young guide for the day urged me to feel comfortable visiting mosques.
*The view of snow lying lightly on the ground and roofs.
* Yesil Cami, a mosque covered with green tiles, and Ulu Cami, a large mosque in the centre of Bursa. I entered both of these at the insistence of my young high school guide. I don't like to treat places of worship as tourist sights, but in both mosques I was peaceful in the presence of people praying and treasured the experience.

Snow on the ground Bursa

Gallipoli

A visit to Gallipoli is a "pilgrimage" for citizens of the Commonwealth,
a chance for us to understand the tragedy where so many of our young men died.

Walking in the landscape of Gallipoli gave understanding. Such a beautiful setting beside the sea, but everywhere we walked, it was a cemetery to war dead, our own and those of the Turks.

I know more now about the place names of Gallipoli:
*Anzac Cove, named for our soldiers by the Turks,
*the monument with the words of Ataturk to mothers of those who lost sons in a foreign land,
*a statue of a Turkish soldier carrying one of the wounded enemy,
*the huge expanse of the Lone Pine Australian Memorial, with its wall of names of unidentified soldiers,
*the closeness of the trenches.
*"Shrapnel Valley" where soldiers lived in dugouts,
*the 'open' Turkish memorial so the spirit can roam free,
*the terrible loss of Australian lives at the Nek,
*Chunuk Bair, where New Zealanders won a brief victory so that the New Zealand monument stands on high with that of Ataturk,

"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the evening
we will remember them."
-- From the Anzac Day Service

Assos

There were lots more highlights....
but I am not sure when I will get back to this page to add to it. Sorry!