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| The ferry dock on Rhodes |
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| A restored street in the old town. |
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| The moat around the castle. Ther e is a nice hiking path down there but we did not go on it. |
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| One of the many gates to the castle and old town. There were not many crowds so it was very nice and we could see well in the museums. |
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| A typical street in Rhodes |
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| Cafes and shops |
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| Suzi asking directions. She was good at making herself understood and getting the help we needed. |
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| This is the coliseum which seats 25,000 in Ephesus so they figure the town had 250,000 citizens. The acoustics were great. The guide said there had been some big names who had given concerts there...Elton john, Dianna Ross, others.... |
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| Me at breakfast in the hotel near Izmir and Ephesus...another very nice place. We had very good luck with the places we stayed. |
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| This is Pamukkale, a few hours drive from Izmir. Its located at the top of a mountain even tho in this picture it looks like a beach. They are hot springs with a very high calcium level so as they bubble out, they lay down these calcium cliffs and pools. It takes a day to get there and back...I would have rather stayed in Istanbul an extra day. Its interesting but a little anticlimactic. |
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| This is the most interesting part of Pamukkale in my opinion. There had been a 5 star hotel built on the top of the mountin, overlooking the calcium pools and cliffs but in the 1999 it was torn down when the site was designated as an historical site. There are also ruins of a Roman town nearby there. These are the palm trees that the hotel left behind. I can just imagine the legal wrangling that must have gone on. |
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| A little street in Selcuck, near Izmir, in front of our hotel. |
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| We took a bus south from Selcuck to this little seaport town of Marmaris to catch the ferry to Rhodes the next morning. This is a very sweet little town...lots of fabulous sailboats !!!! We could have spent an extra day there too !!! |
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| THis is explained in the next picture. These underground cities go down as far as 8 stories tho I only went down two stories. |
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| These were hiding places for religious groups which were hiding from other religious groups.... I can't remember who was attacking whom at this time. But, they took their animals down with them and it was very interesting what they had carved out. The ground here is relatively soft too as its made from that volcanic ash like those tuffas where they made the caves. |
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| This is a typical café carved into a tuffa. |
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| We left Cappadocia and went to Ephesus ( you know...the Ephesians from the bible) where there are these fabulous Roman ruins. They have found the paved roads so you can see how the town was laid out. This was the second largest seaport in the eastern Roman Empire but now its actually inland as the river has silted in....but you can see where it was. |
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| The Austrian government has built a huge roof over some of the ruins so their teams can restore the homes. You can see some of the beautiful mosaics and wall paintings they have restored. I don't know what the final plans are for this project. |
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| Another view from the hotel...you can see they have built right into the "tuffas", lots of rooftop living, some solar panels, even a blue tarp with the streets below. |
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| We took a back street but they found us anyway...and I bought a little necklace that she told me matched my eyes...sales pitch in very good english |
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| Add cThis was a hike thru the Rose valley...I think its called that because the canyon walls are rose colored in certain light. Grape vines, pomegranate trees, fig trees....all around. Not much soil unused. |
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| This was a Greek town until in the 1940s Turkey sent 2,000.000 Greeks back to Greece and called 500,000 Turks back to Turkey from Greece. They refer to it as "the exchange." It was an awful time...families that had been in one place or the other for generations were made to leave. There seem to be squatters in some of the houses but no one has really set up housekeeping in them..vendors are along the roads but the homes are basically empty still. |
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| Went descended into a beautiful valley, Valley of the Kings, for a great lunch. We walked down but they had a jeep to bring us back up after lunch. |
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| The man is a local turk with raging blue eyes and ran the lunch operation..there were about 12 of us. The woman was traveling with her husband and they had just finished sailing in the Mediterranean with their two sons and their wives. Her youngest son went to Middlebury and has just completed his Ph.D at /CU in Boulder. Small world again. |
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| They put food in those little holes to attract the pigeons and then they collect their droppings and use it for fertilizer. The owner says he pays young boys to climb up the ladder you can see there and collect the droppings. I hope he pays well !!! |
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| This is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. |
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| A light shop on the street in Istanbul. One of many but we did not feel overwhelmed....it was actually very interesting and the shop keepers were not intrusive. ( As we had heard they would be) |
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| I took this to show the Muslim ladies in the background and the variety of their dress. It a very diverse group of visitors here in the Hippodrome section of Istanbul |
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| Our first meal in Istanbul...the first of many wonderful meals. |
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| I later asked one of our guides about this and another young boy who I saw in Istanbul dressed all in white with a white turban. He told us that the boys were celebrating their circumcisions, an act which designates their transition from a child to a young adult. I watched this kid for a while and he was still acting like a child. |
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| I included this photo because I learned about meerschaum. Its a rock that softens when its wet making it easier to carve and also it absorbs nicotine so that's why its used in pipes and cigarette holders. |
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| These are dried eggplants which are used for dying wool and also used during the winter to eat as stuffed eggplant. |
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| Of course we got taken to a carpet market and had to later endure the sales pitch but we did get to see how they prepare the dyes from various plants for the wools. This was a school partially run by the Minister of Education. Actually, I learned a lot but didn't buy a carpet but not because I did n't want to. They were beautiful, but....I don't have a floor. |
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| After Istanbul, we went to Cappadocia where these fascinating caves are located. Its complicated, but these mounds were formed by prehistoric volcanic ash and the early Christians carved out holes and virtual homes when they had to hide from other religious groups. |
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| This is the view from our hotel in Cappadocia out over the valley. Very interesting and beautiful place but you can't go in the summer as it gets way above 40 degrees centigrade and in the winter it gets snow. But, in May, it was fantastic !!! |
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| This is a taxi ( tacsi) called OK, Supertrans. This is just another example of the Cyrillic alphabet...it just intrigues me. If you're intrested....the p has the r sound, the c has the s sound, the upside down u has the p sound and the h has the n sound...its so intersting. Incidentally, Peace Corps recommends we use this company. |
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| This is the entrance to the local market....my neighborhood is called Krasno Selo and that sign says " Pazzar ( Bazzar) Krasno Selo" |
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| This and the next photo are views of downtown Sofia whici I took from the restaurant on the top of the conference center which I have a picture of later. |
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| This is a tram stop near my apt. Their public transportation is very good |
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| A service dog on the Metro |
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| This is the entrance to the "Military Club". Its a huge building with a couple restaurants and a big theate |
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| This is a bakery that I have to pass each day.....not easy !!!!! |
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| THis is their conference center...pretty fantastic. You can see Mt. Vitosha in the background...they have skiing there. |
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| This is the Sofia Art Gallery. They were set up for a free Bluegrass concert sponsored by the Irish Embassy in honor of St. Patrick's day, see the next picture. |
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| This is the lead singer and the bass player of the band " Lily of the West". The lead singer is coming to Nashville in August on a Fulbright. There were also a mandolin and a guitar player. They also had a guy playing drums which is pretty weird for bluegrass They sang most of the songs in English but did a few in Bulgarian. The seats were all full with SRO. It was a big success but their actual music was not too polished...but it was OK. I am still working in the clinic with the kids with Disbilities 4 days a week and next week I'll start every afternoon in an English instruction school working with some of their teachers. Life is a lot easier here than it was in Nicaragua but there are still challenges....just fewer and much more manageable. Its a very good experience. Thank you for paying your taxes :) |
