The Lycian Way
Fresh figs!!!We spent a happy few days along the south-west coast of Turkey, taking in pretty beaches lined in pine trees and cliff tombs situated on the 316-mile Lycian Way.
A Lycian tomb overlooking an idyllic little beach in Butterfly Valley. See that tiny sliver of moon?
We found a great waterside restaurant in Dalyan, Beyaz Gül, and kept going back. (This was the only time I ever ordered Turkish coffee though.) From the restaurant veranda we had a view of these Lycian rock tombs set into the cliff across the water:
Boatloads of tourists motored by as we ate, and in the evening the tombs were illuminated by floodlights. There's something sort of Indiana Jones-ish about them, isn't there? (Or maybe I'm just thinking of The Last Crusade.)
Chameleon Love
Kate: I think I'm in love. I'm sorry, Elliot.
We all fell in love with this adorable little chameleon! Some friendly Turkish guys we met on the beach at Iztuzu (near Dalyan) had found her on the road, and were now keeping her as a pet. "We are four traveling together, but now we are five!"I could have watched her crawl up and down our arms all day. We took lots of photos, but this one was my favorite since she seems to be affectionately brushing her cheek against Kate's shoulder.Happy New Year!!!
Ephesus
They say no trip to Turkey would be complete without a visit to Ephesus, one of the great cities of ancient Greece and Rome. The ruins were amazing, but the site (like Hieropolis the day before) was ridiculously crowded. Afrodisias may not have ruins quite so dramatic as the Celsus Library (above), but it was a much more enjoyable excursion overall.
The terrace houses were the highlight of our visit. The gorgeous frescoes and floor mosaics are well worth the additional 15-lira entrance fee, and because most tour groups don't budget enough time for it, the excavation site is relatively quiet too.
Many of the decisions made by the restoration team were puzzling at best. "Cubist architectural collage"?! WTF!
I feel like I should submit this one to LOLcats once I think up a funny tagline.
Afterward we went to the museum in town and checked out the Artemis statue, once housed in one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I think I counted twenty-nine boobs.Happy New Year, everybody!
You Always Hurt the One You Love
From the museum at Afrodisias:Achilles supports the slumping figure of the Amazon queen Penthesilea, whom he has mortally wounded. Her double-headed axe slips from her hand. The queen had come to fight in the Trojan War against the invading Greeks. Between her being wounded and dying in his arms--the time represented here--Achilles fell in love with her.
Nero and Agrippina
(Also from the museum at Afrodisias.)Did you know Nero killed his own mother?
The Three Graces
Above: Afrodisias. Below: the so-teeny-it's-just-the-one-floor-mosaic museum at Narlikuyu, near "wonderful Kizkalesi."
Faces
These faces, on fragmentary friezes stacked on display outside, were my favorite part of Afrodisias. Apparently there was a school for sculpture here in ancient times. (Check out more faces on this page.)
I like this fellow. He's very jolly.There were more cool effigies inside the museum:
Doesn't this guy (Flavius Palmatus, governor of the province of Asia) look just like House??
I love a pretty ruin
The double tetrapylon at Afrodisias.After the Phrygian Valley came the ancient-cities portion of our trip. Afrodisias was far and away my favorite; there certainly were highlights at Hieropolis and Ephesus, but they were also really, really crowded. Lots more photos from Afrodisias in days to follow.(I really have to pick it up with the Turkey blogging. We're going to Colombia in January!)
Yarn 'n Ammo
This storefront in Afyon was, without a doubt, the most bizarre thing I saw on our month-long trip.
The Phrygian Valley
The Phrygian Valley is full of rugged mountain scenery and wonderfully obscure monuments like this one, a rock-carved chamber tomb. Just don't trust the guy who wrote this chapter in Lonely Planet when he says there are Afyon-based tour companies willing to take you here. You're on your own! (We hired a taxi two days in a row, once from Eskişehir and then from Afyon--that seems to be the only feasible way to sightsee in this region.)We don't know a whole heck of a lot about the Phrygians, but we do know they were Thracian seafarers who ventured into Anatolia (between 1200 and 800 B.C.) and conquered the Hittites, who inhabited the region at the time. What's left of their stonecarving (see third photo here) is pretty darned amazing. (You might say they had a thing for lions, but then so did the Hittites.)
The yazilikaya ("written rock") at Midas Sehri, associated with the king of legend. (The carvings date between the 8th and 6th centuries B.C.)Below, photos from the circular walking route at the same site.
Next Turkey post: YARN 'N AMMO!
Midwest '11
I seem to be making a habit of visiting Minnesota and Wisconsin in the autumn. This trip was even better than last year--not only did I get to spend QT with Jill, Sarah, and Maggie and her family, but I also got to meet my cousin, Brother John, who teaches Spanish at a Catholic boys' school, St. Lawrence.
Brother John's colleagues invited me to speak to the English and creative writing classes, which was TONS of fun. You would not believe how nice and friendly and polite these kids are. I may be a grown woman, but I'm still afraid of teenage boys--every time I pass a group of them on the street my inner 14-year-old whimpers oh no, they're going to make fun of me!--so you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was when boys kept coming up to me to shake my hand. "You must be the author! I'm so-and-so. Welcome to St. Lawrence! I'm looking forward to hearing your talk tomorrow."Yup. Seriously.
The students came prepared with questions, so once I'd gotten the preliminaries out of the way (and shown them the engagement portrait that inspired Mary Modern, mentioning that Anna and Paul are Brother John's ancestors too) we spent the rest of each class period doing a Q&A. I think I'll answer some of them again here on the blog, since they're questions I get asked a lot. (How long does it take you to write a novel? How do you choose a point of view? Do you outline?)I got to chat with several of the boys after class too, and they kept asking me for autographs (haha)—even on their jack-o-lantern!
Then I came home, and this was in the mail:
I opened the card, and literally gasped. I'm amazed they could fit this many signatures.
My experience at St. Lawrence really cemented my desire to teach. I don't know that I'll necessarily end up teaching creative writing at the high school level, but I can say for sure that I can't think of anything more rewarding than helping people discover and appreciate great literature while nurturing their own voices.(You hear that, universe? I WANT TO TEACH!)
Dinner at Mohamet's
Jill eats meat and Kate does not, hence the goofy poses.During Ramadan, practicing Muslims don't eat until after sundown. We think this must be part of why it was so hard to find places to eat when we were staying in smaller towns (like Eskişehir and Afyon). It wasn't even a vegetarian thing--Jill was as frustrated as we were.But in Eskişehir (ess-keh-she-HEER) we stumbled upon this marvelous little hole in the wall where the owner, Mohamet, and his wife Esme were very friendly and accommodating and loaded us up with eggplant dip and roasted vegetables and salad and the best kind of bread and some majorly tasty salsa. Esme (who was finally sitting down to her own dinner) kept telling us their son was working at a hotel in "Finlandia," and we eventually realized she meant Florida.This meal was awesome for another reason. We stuffed ourselves until we couldn't eat any more (and that hardly ever happened elsewhere--we often left the table feeling like we could keep eating), and the bill came to 15 Turkish lira. That's three dollars a person. We felt downright guilty for paying so little, especially when the meal was so satisfying.Next up: photos from our travels in the Phrygian Valley.
How the Lion Got his Name
Aslan means "lion" in Turkish. Cool, huh?(Above and below are pics from Hattuşa, the Hittite city.)
People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.
Aslankaya ("lion stone") in the Phrygian Valley. (The Phrygians were a seafaring race that conquered the Hittites and settled in Anatolia—way inland, which is odd, right?—possibly in the 12th century B.C.)
Rainy Days in Bursa
Gorgeous tilework at the Green Mausoleum.The next morning we took a ferry (then a bus) to Bursa, where we strolled through a peaceful green park dotted with Ottoman tombs (the Muradiye Complex) and spent a couple hours in the local baths (crazy-hot bath, sauna, naked ladies with ponderous bosoms squirting Pantene into our palms and watching us lather up like we'd just arrived from another planet). We were disappointed to find the Green Mosque closed for renovations, but as we were standing by the doorway trying to peek inside a man stopped to chat with us. Yunus (a businessman overseeing the installation of the new carpets and tilework) ended up giving us a mini-tour of the mosque and then taking us back to his office/shop/studio for apple tea. Eventually our cynicism kicked in--was this all a ploy to get us to buy stuff?--but in the end we only got a couple small things that we actually needed (e.g., a wedding gift), and he didn't seem to mind. He gave us his card and told us to call or email if we ever needed any help in our travels. So in Bursa we first saw just how genuinely friendly most Turkish people are!
Istanbul, Evening
We got off the tram at Sultanahmet and tramped through the park (the Hagia Sophia on one side, the Blue Mosque on the other; loads of people milling about, roasted corn on the cob for one Turkish Lira) to our guesthouse, and drank in this view before heading out again for dinner.
Marvelous fruit
Pomegranates growing in the courtyard at Hotel Yaka in Kizkalesi.
We got watermelon with breakfast most days--peaches, sweet melon, grapes, and/or figs, too, if we were really lucky.
We were tempted to raid this truck...
...and somebody did, promptly disposing of the evidence.
Figs for lunch! (On the beach at Iztuzu, near Dalyan, on the Mediterranean.)
If you are in Istanbul at the right time of year (i.e., now), look for this guy on the main drag just south of the Blue Mosque. His pomegranate juice is only 5 Turkish lira (about $3; other vendors were charging twice that). Pure pomegranate juice is so intensely delicious it makes your tastebuds explode.
Home from Turkey
The splendid front door of the Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) in Bursa.
Walking at Midas Sehri in the Phrygian Valley.
Touring the terrace houses at Ephesus.
Elliot pretending to bird-watch after pelting us with pebbles at Hattuşa (once the capital of the Hittite Empire).
Walking in Cappadocia.
Hot air balloons in Cappadocia, early morning.
Ceiling detail of the Kirkdamalti Church in the Ilhara Valley, Cappadocia.
The Hagia Sophia. I understand why the guidebooks say you'll be stunned into silence.
The Chora Church, Istanbul. This might sound odd seeing as it's a Byzantine church, but it really is an enchanting place.
The Baghdad Pavilion at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.I'm going to try microblogging this trip—one photo and one anecdote per post. Should be fun!
Golconda
The view over the entryway from the ramparts at Golconda.There are only a few more stops on my India trip to share with you; from Hospet (the nearest station to Hampi) I took an overnight train to Hyderabad, and I had the day to pass before taking another night train to Aurangabad (the jumping-off point for the marvelous caves at Ellora and Ajanta). Then I took a morning flight back to Mumbai and chilled at the airport until it was time to go home.
So I arrived in Hyderabad around 4AM, which meant that I was pretty much at the mercy of whichever shady character wanted to lead me to a hotel that wasn't shuttered for the night. I ended up at the 'Hotel Reliance,' where there was a bucket of water beside the Indian-style (i.e., hole-in-the-floor) toilet in lieu of a working faucet and the ceiling fan rumbled and shook like it was about to fall on my face. The consolation prize: I had not one, but TWO numbers scribbled on the wall to choose from! I was a lucky girl indeed. This room made me think of the horrible place Kate and Elliot stayed at in Hong Kong, where it appeared the air shaft led directly down to hell. I laughed to myself, tried to get a couple hours' sleep, and thought up the perfect last line for my magnum opus. Then I got up, went to half a dozen places before I found a restaurant with veggie-friendly breakfast options (many more Muslims than Hindus in Hyderabad), and bargained for an auto-rickshaw to Golconda, a vast medieval fortress a half-hour ride from the city.(By the way, I got pretty good at bargaining with taxi drivers. I'd ask for the price listed in the guidebook, they'd initially refuse, I'd start to walk away and they'd call after me saying they'd do it for the price I'd asked. I was always too timid to do this before, especially when traveling on my own.)
The Balahissar Gate.
Balahissar Gate detail.
The mortuary baths. Fairly self-explanatory.
I glanced up from taking that shot of the mortuary baths to find this little boy looking down at me. I love this shot.
You pass all sorts of royal residences, mosques and temples and stables and such as you traverse the grounds and climb up to the summit. There's a multi-story hall at the very top with a view out over the rest of the fortress as well as a refreshment stand and a Hindu temple (you can see it below).
On the way down again.It was really hot, so I treated myself to a ridiculously overpriced peach iced tea at a slick Western-style café down the street, then went looking for some nearby Islamic tombs. I took a few wrong turns and gave up when I got too tired and cranky. This part of my trip was about deciding when I'd seen enough and that it was time to relax. So I took an auto-rickshaw back to the city and rested up before the night train to Aurangabad.Kate and Jill and I are leaving for Turkey tomorrow (Elliot is meeting us there in a couple weeks), so I'll be taking a break from blogging until September. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Romping elephants
There's a donations/lost-and-found closet at Sadhana Forest where you can often find some really cool free clothing. Someone got rid of these awesome elephant pajama bottoms just because of a rip in the seam. So easy to fix!
Elephants are my new obsession, although I don't yet have as much proof of it as I do my owls.
Lakshmi, the temple elephant at Hampi, out for her morning constitutional/bath.(More proof here and here.)
This fabric is really cool, but the pants were enormous. So I decided to make good friends with my seam ripper, and turn them into a romper using a pattern mash-up: the tried-and-true Mendocino sundress crossed with the McCall's pattern I used for my mermaid pajama bottoms. (Jill Draper was wearing an adorable strapless romper on our first night at Squam and I thought, I really need to make one of those! Perfect for bumming around the house.)I tried on one of my sundresses by pulling it up over my hips just to be sure I could get away with not using a zipper or some other form of closure.(Olivia wandered in while I was at my sewing machine, and wanted to try on the pants.)There are several sun-faded patches, but there was nothing I could do about that. The bodice is made up of four pieces from the lower legs. If I could sew it over again I'd make the legs longer, but oh well. I didn't reinstate the pockets (too much poochiness around the hips? and anyway, I'm lazy.) I fretted a bit over how best to join the two pieces, but it wasn't a big deal--I gathered the waist with a stray length of elastic thread, turned one piece inside the other with right sides facing, and stitched away.And I just used the drawstring for the straps! So easy!I always wonder how bloggers like Mena at The Sew Weekly can make a dress for a couple of dollars. Basically I need to start cruising some estate sales and flea markets! But I had thread to match and elastic thread left over from the sundresses, so this project was ALMOST free--I did run out of elastic toward the end, and had to buy one more spool. So total cost = $1.79 plus tax.
Weird angle, but you can see how I got the elephants lined up on the front center seam, woo hoo!(Thanks for the pics, Snook!)