Turkey

A little summary of my travels so far!

After several e-mails back to myself, I believe I have figured out how to use this keyboard and the writing ?s hopefully readable {The poor grammar cannot be blamed on the keyboard though}.

On the plane over here, I met a turkish girl who used to be an english teacher, and hence spoke very good english. I ended up staying at her place my first night in Turkey, she was going to give me a ride to my hotel but did not want to venture into the area in which the hotel was booked (don't trust everything you read on the internet!). The plane got in very late, and I had not slept at all and was very tired. A nice muslim priest decided to serenade me at 4:30 am from the mosque just down the hill, and my attempt at sleep ended. Turns out muslims must pray five times a day, and the mosques blare out prayers to ensure that you don't forget.

We had breakfast on the bosphorus the following morning, where I was able to learn a little bit about the traffic laws in Turkey. We were eating across the street from a police station on a one way road, yet that didn't stop anyone from driving the wrong way down the one way! They drive like maniacs here, and are encouraged as far as I can tell. The traffic lights in the towns actually have a countdown timer on them, and the light goes from red to yellow to green, just like at a racetrack! Go figure!

I got on a bus to head south, and learned several things about Turkish culture and myself! First, very few turkish speak english (I had kinda assumed that they all spoke english after taking to an english teacher on the plane), secondly, I cant speak Turkish! After a while, I managed to write down where I wanted to go and found someone to point me in the proper direction. The buses here are awesome, they give you coffee and tea, cookies and some lemon smelling stuff to put on your hands. Partway through the trip some army guys got on the bus, and a guy with a big machine gun came and sat down beside me. He stunk but I was not about to tell him so!!

I spent my first day touring the battlefields of Galipolli, with several Australians and New Zealanders. The tourguide was awesome, and the site was really neat (although very few Canadians fought there). I got back on a bus that evening and traveled to a town down south. I met some New Yorkers on the bus, and they made me question my decision to go to school ?n the US. One of the girls had no clue where Calgary was, until I explained to here that it was just north of Montana, it was the typical 'Speak American Please!'

On Saturday I toured the ancient ruins at Pergamum, which are located above the town of Bergama on top of a huge hill. I decided after touring that I would walk back to town (about 5k), wearing my big backpack ?n 35C heat! After walking all the way down the hill, I got to the barbwire topped fence surrounding the ruins, I felt like an idiot but there was no way I was climbing back up the hill! There were several young local guys running down the road, and I asked them for help. There only suggestion was to jump the fence (explained by hand signals because they spoke little english), and I figured it was worth a try! I managed to get over the barbwire with my backpack and only cut up my knee a little bit. They walked back to the village with me, and wanted me to pay for them to go to the other historical sites (I think?). I took off faster than having being chased by an angry old man after snowballing cars, and hopped! on the next bus out of town.

Sunday I toured the ruins of Ephesus, which were really neat, and saw an old roman theater that Elton John had played in April. Sunday I went up to the travertines at Pamukale, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. The hillside is covered with calcium deposits, and there is water running down which collects in these pools where you were once allowed to swim (no longer because they were being destroyed). Today I am sitting in a port town called Bodrum, and have just finished touring a ancient castle, and am heading to the mausoleum (another of the seven wonders!). Following this, I am going to go to Marmaris and get on a sailboat tomorrow for a four day trip around many small islands in the Mediterranean Sea.

Hope all is well in Calgary, and will keep you all up to date through my journeys!

Jeff

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