Please Keep off the History
Taken by Neil Carey on June 16, 2006.
We've once again entered the part of the world where mass tourism requires that there be ropes and signs and so on to keep you out of parts of the ancient sites.

Throughout our trip to Turkey, we've had trouble with activities not taking place due to lack of tourists. In E?irdir, there was absolutely nothing happenning, in Göreme, pensions were close to empty, but at least all the different pensions work together so they can still offer the same activities. Similarly, in Olympos, we booked our cruise with one company, but they couldn't get any other customer's, so they put us on another company's boat.

Well, we found them. They were hiding in Ephesus, unless they were Russian, in which case, they were hiding in Pammukale.

Our Boat
Taken by Neil Carey on June 9, 2006.
Named the Sydney. Despite having masts, we are told that the boat, as well as all the other boats that run similar trips in this area, is actually too heavy for the sails to be sufficient, and that they're only occasionally used to save fuel when doing the reverse trip from what we did.

Well, the few days has very definitely been a holiday for us. We spent a lot of time on the water, as we were slowly making our way from Olympos to Fethiye.

We started on the boats on Tuesday, when we signed up for a day trip out of Olympos, so that I could go scuba diving. The boat was a bit crowded, as there were many day trippers on it, though only three people, including myself, going scuba diving. The diving here wasn't as great as the Red Sea. There are certainly a few fish around, and these neat anemone things that have a beautiful flower/tendril thing sticking out, and then retract into a tube when there's movement nearby, which are kind of neat. But there was no corral, and the more tropical fish we saw when we went diving out of Aqaba were quite missing.

We are now in Olympos, on the south coast of the med. It is very sticky here - not really all that hot, but very very humid, and there is very little air flow, hardly a breeze to speak of. I can't tell you how frustrated I am at not having a pair of shorts. You'd think I would have bought a pair by now, but I haven't. Silly me.

We did go to the beach yesterday, it wasn't too crowded, but I'm not used to going to public beaches, so it felt a little crowded to me. Mostly Turks yesterday, as it was Sunday (the weekends in Turkey are oddly enough Saturday and Sunday, despite Friday being their holy day. We have been told, and are noticing, that although Turkey is about 99% Muslim, they are not nearly as strict about it as the Arab countries we've come from (and we found them fairly liberal as well)). Even though the med is fairly warm (especially compared to northern Alberta lakes!) I'm still a little chicken to get in all the way - something about it being too cold. I know, I'm weird.

Some things we've observed about Turkey:

Turkish pants - in Antakya we saw men wearing funny pants (people of our generation may remember the fashion trend of Hammer-pants?); they are really baggy pants with the crotch hanging down close to the knees, but the waist is at the waist (not like the young hipsters back home these days who wear the waists around their butts to accomplish a similar effect). I think they remind me a little of pants that genies wear in cartoons. Around Egirdir we saw women (but not men) wearing similar pants, but with even lower crotches, almost halfway down the calf. I would compare them to "gypsy-pants" (though we are eventually heading into actual gypsy country, and I may have to revise my Hollywoodized notions).

Goose Farm
Taken by Neil Carey on June 2, 2006.
We encountered a spot that appeared to have a flock of geese. They weren't enclosed or anything, but seemed to be being farmed, as there was food and water for them. We think the goal may have been to collect the down.

We decided against going to the Black Sea coast in the Northeast, as much as we'd like to, because it was just too far away, and it looked to be a bit pricey. We told ourselves that we would probably pass through the region if we ever do the Silk Road trip (from China to Turkey) that we'd really like to try someday.

Overlooking Göreme Valley
Taken by Neil Carey on May 28, 2006.

Cappadocia really does have it all. Well, everything except low prices, that is. The landscape here is amazing. When we arrived, we came in during a lightning storm, shortly after sunset, so the lightning was flashing behind all these rock formations. One particularly large formation, which looks a little like a castle, had a flash go off behind it just as we were going by, and looked like something out of a Dracula movie.

Turkish countryside
Taken by Neil Carey on May 24, 2006.
From the window of the bus, shortly after crossing the border from Syria.

What a difference a border makes. It is only 100km from Aleppo to Antakya, but once you cross the (very disorganised) border, all of a sudden, you enter Europe.

While we are technically still in Asia, it is a much more European atmosphere. The streets are wide, traffic is a bit calmer. Headscarves have gone from being worn by a moderately sized majority, to being worn only by a tiny minority of women, mostly older women, at that. Western brand names, which were almost non-existent in Syria, have reappeared. The stores are better stocked than anywhere we've been since Malta (excepting the Amman Safeway).

There are still a few things to remind us that this isn't Europe yet. The call to prayer is still heard 5 times a day, though still soundly ignored by most people; there are still people wandering the streets to shine shoes, sell tea, and, in a new addition, weigh people.

Noria
Taken by Neil Carey on May 18, 2006.
Hama's chief attraction. The Norias, there are 17 of them, are essentially water pumps that use the current to turn them and scoop up some water to transport it into an aqueduct. Originally used for irrigation purposes, we were told they're mainly a tourist attraction now, though in a drive through the country, we saw some smaller ones that looked to still be irrigating fields

From Palmyra we took a private car to visit some far-flung sites, turning what could have been a 2 hour bus ride to Hama into an all day trip on the scenic route, visiting a desert castle, Qasr al-Heir al-Sharki, the ruins of the Roman/Byzantine/Ummayad city of Rasefeh, and a brief stop to see the Euphrates river, unfortunately far upstream of the most interesting historic sites that are closer to the Iraqi border.