Ballooning over Cappadocia, Turkey

This was my view this morning out my window at sunrise and is specifically for my granddaughter, EmmyLou.  She likes red balloons but this is the closest I could get!  It's times like this I wish I had photographic equipment like my daughter Paula, who is a professional photographer but my Android phone will have to do.

It's hard to describe the colours I'm seeing, not just of the balloons, but of the Fairy Chimneys, as the sun peaks above the horizon.  The many hues of the rock formations quickly change colour as the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Cappadocia is well known for their amazing balloon rides, mainly because of the incredible views from the sky of the Fairy Chimneys and formations.  My room location is perfect as it allows me to watch the climbing balloons as they take off. Even if you don't plan to go to Turkey please check out the Cappadocia Balloon Flights website for some of the fabulous pictures of the ballooning here at www.cappadociaballoonflights.com

Enjoy the following music clip by the 5th Dimension as you think of doing something like this.  Definitely part of my musical memories!

Ballooning became a method of travel back in 1776 and became popular in Cappadocia in the 1990s because of the wind streams flowing through the beautiful valleys here.  It's the perfect conditions to fly silently through the valleys.

Am I going to go ballooning while I am here?  I'm not sure yet. If I do though it will have to be in a red balloon (or at least have red on it)!
www.turtletour.com

Ephesus in Selcuk, Turkey

The streets of Ephesus were paved with marble, welcoming the likes of people like Cleopatra in 33 BC. While they were in Ephesus, Cleopatra ( assisted by her lover Mark Antony) spent time planning the fall of Octavian, the nephew of Julius Caesar.

Of course Octavian won the war and drove Cleopatra and Antony back to Alexandria.

I spent time at the Ephesus site, just 10 minutes outside of Secuk 2049 years later trying to take pictures while avoiding the crowds of school children learning their history lessons!  They are so lucky to have a site like Ephesus to visit, where they can get hands on experience.

In fact the site is still "touchable.". People can run their lands over blocks of marble that are centuries old. 

Ephesus is also an active archaeologist site that shouldn't be missed if you are traveling anywhere near Selcuk, Turkey.  The size alone is phenomenal and as you meander down the hills you really get a sense of what people would do to stay entertained centuries before.  There is a theatre and library, bath houses, shops, etc.

Judy, my friend I was traveling with, suggested I do a little bit of pre-reading or visit the Ephesus Museum before I went to the site, which I did.

There are audio machines to listen to (available in different languages) but better to get a guide and support the local economy.  The site is expensive to enter compared to others (40 Turkish lira - equivalent to $20 CDN) but well worth the money.

One of the things that is interesting when one travels is meeting other travelers from all parts of the world.  One of the people staying at our hotel was there for the weekend to see Ephesus.  He was considering it for his next project.

Jean-Pierre van Lin is the Managing Director of LIVE:TOUR5D, an interactive experience at historical sites.  In the middle of June, the company will be presenting the Battle of Waterloo "live" in Belgium.  The concept for visual and tactile learners, especially learning history, was amazing for me. Check out his site at www.livertour5d.com

I met many other wonderful people during my time in Selcuk too.  There was Ilker and Selma who own the Nazar Hotel, hidden away in a local neighbourhood.  Selma is one of the best historical guides from Istanbul to Pannukale.  Ilker is passionate about what is happening in his country right now and was interesting to talk with just to get a sense of life in modern Turkey.  The hotel site is www.nazarhotel.com

Just a note - the pool is only open from June 1st to November 30th.


Another place I would like to mention is Celsus Ceramic, a wonderful Turkish Ceramic and Jewelry store in the village part of Selcuk. It is run by a young couple, Gulcin and Yasin.

Gulcin is well known for her ceramic painting and Jewelry making. You will really get a real sense of the Turkish hospitality at the shop and also fair prices, especially if you are just in port for the day on a cruise ship stop.

Please give the business to the locals, not to the cruise ships who have built their own huge shops to take cruise ship passengers to.  Get into the heart of safe Selcuk and support the local economy!

If you happen to be in port on a Saturday, take in the Selcuk market to buy local cotton, one of the best and safest markets in Turkey.  It's easy to get from the Kusadasi port to Selcuk, a 15 minute ride away by taxi or dolmuses (the local mini bus).

There are also many local restaurants close by to experience the wonderful Turkish cuisine.  Thete's the TAT restaurant, also in the village or a couple of other spots just up the road that are great.  You will never starve in Turkey!

 At the end of the day, anywhere you go in Turkey, you can take in an amazing sunset. Whether it's over the ruins or over the hills or over the ocean, It's beautiful!

Steps to Having a Hamam (Turkish Bath) in Turkey!

I had my first Hamam (Turkish bath) ever the other day while in Turkey...... good place to start them!  I had no idea what I was in for.  My friend Judy had shared some funny experiences a couple of travel groups had but I really had nothing to compare it to in my own experience!

The Turkish bath, or Haman, as it is called, is part of the lifestyle of the Turkish people and goes back centuries.  Even though there are now mixed Hamams, the traditional bath had separate bath days for men and women and in most cities that is still the case.

I had my first Turkish bath in Egirdir although there is also on in Selcuk I found out for ladies only on Fridays from 9 to 1. Egirdir has 2 days for ladies on Thursday and Friday.

The building is located in the middle of the city hidden away behind the post office.  I entered the building and asked for prices first.  It would cost me 40 lira (equivalent to $20 CDN) for a Turkish bath and soap massage, which was what Judy recommended.

I was escorted into a change room and the gal motioned to me to take everything off except my undies.  She gave me a light weight striped towel to wrap around my body.  With my research after the fact I found out the striped cotton (or sometimes cotton/ silk blend) towel is also part of the traditional bath.

Men are required to wear it in the bath around their waist and were not allowed to be nude at anytime.  Of course nowadays they would just wear a pair of launch!

Women cover their body from armpits to thighs but once they are in the Hamam, they can just leave their panties on.  Traditionally they would go nude and it is probably still acceptable.

The hamam can also be visited for many reasons, again part of Turkish tradition. A bridal party may hold a "cleansing" before the wedding, complete with food and drink and music.... tambourines and singing. Forty days after a baby is born the hamam may be part of the "coming out" party.

For me, I was just pleased to be all by myself in the hamam at first.  I had also been given a pair of non-slip sandals to wear.  I went through the main room, which had a non-operating marble fountain and a couple of long padded benches.  Then the masseuse opened a wooden door and then motioned me immediately through a second one.  Behind door #2 was a hot, steamy beautiful marble room!

It was certainly NOT what I was expecting.  Turkish bath....bathtub....right? Or at least a pool.  In the old days often a pool was part of the process but now it is a combination of heat and steam and water created by actual heating units and modern technology.

In front of me was a thigh high octagonal shaped piece of marble about 7 feet across that the masseuse motioned for me to lie on after motioning for me to take off my towel.  No-one else here? Okay.  As much as I am a child of the sixties there is still a part of the Canadian conservatism in-bred!  I did as I was told and she left.

Oh my!  Wonderful glorious heat coursing through my body from the marble and from the steam in the room.  Marble is one of the hardest surfaces known but it was actually quite comfortable.

I lay on my tummy for awhile and then flipped onto my back.  Above me small skylights set in the domed ceiling let in the daylight.

The door opened and another woman entered.  I smiled and she smiled back.  She then sat down on a  bench on the side of the room next to a marble sink sitting on the bench.  Next, she turned on the water and using a dish provided she began pouring water over herself.  Centuries ago the water dishes were made out of hammered silver or copper but the ones for our use were plastic.

Well, I figured, I may as well give it a try and moved over to the wall, making sure first that I had the bath shoes on.  There was no drain in the sink. The idea was to run water into the sink (both hot and cold available) and then scoop it out to pour it over my body.

After a few minutes I was back on the slab.  I noticed the other woman had a loofa that she was using on her body and I wondered if I should have been given one. A few minutes later I found out I didn't need one.

My masseuse arrived, dressed as  I was...just panties.  She held two loofa mitts.

Using job specific English she asked, "normal or hard?". No soft involved!

"Normal please!" I answered.  She again motioned me to move, this time to a marble slab built into the wall.  I lay down, face up and the massage began!  My whole body was loofa-d and I couldn't believe the dirt that rolled off!  I'd had a shower that morning but obviously it wasn't that great.  Yuuk!

Next came the soap massage.  Somehow the masseuse squeezed and manipulated a bag with a couple of soap bars in it until it was full of frothy foam.  She used it on my body until I was squeaky clean.  I say squeaky because there was definitely no surface oil left on my body to grease anything up!

She quickly rinsed me before starting the final massage.. a medium tissue one as opposed to deep tissue.  I think I would have come straight off the marble slab had it been deep tissue. There were 2 or 3 spots on my body that didn't like the intense pain as it was so I let her know through my yelling.  She was good.  She backed off.... not like my massage experience in China..... but that's another story!

She let my body have a bit of a break for a moment and went to talk with the other woman doing her own loofa-ing.  I had to look over because with the wonderful acoustics in the bath it sounded as though they were singing together.  They were only talking but the echos created a lilting sound.

The final part of the process was the rinse, which you would think would be easy. Not so.  Most of it was but the final position she wanted me to get in was one my body rebelled against.  I may have been good at doing the heel squat as a young person but there was no way this 66 year old body would allow it!

She motioned me to once again lie on the octagonal slab and I happily walked over on my now jelly feeling legs and was enveloped once again into the wonderful heat.  I lay there for maybe another 10 minutes, not rushing to leave. Nor was I rushed.  There was enough room for at least 3 bodies on the slab if I needed to share.

After exiting and getting dressed the last part of the process was receiving some rosewater on my hand.  A young woman with Downs syndrome had the job to do that.  I only mention that because it was nice to see that the Turkish culture embraced people with challenges and employed them.

The whole process took close to 2 hours and many people will stay up to 4 hours from what I understand.  It can be a very social thing.

I was lucky that the other woman came out so I had an opportunity to take some pictures.

Would I repeat the experience? Oh yes!.... hopefully in Gorme, before we fly out to Istanbul.

Rose Oil in Egirdir, Turkey

Each country has special places where the locals take regular holidays.  One of the places in Turkey is a small lake community called Egirdir.  It is situated inland not far past the university and military city of Isparta, which is the rose capital of Turkey.  But Egirdir also has a rose industry we found out.

We planned our trip from Selcuk by bus, not knowing quite what to expect.  We were very surprised because the bus service, KamilKoc, was excellent.

Judy compared it to premium economy when flying. We had TV available (in Turkish, of course), foot rests, reclining seats, and free snack and beverage service during the trip.  We also had charging stations for computers and Internet (very slow) available.

We had to take a mini bus from Selcuk to the bus depot but the whole trip to Egirdir one way was only 55 TL, approximately $30 CDN for a 6 hour trip.

We had reservations at a small pension that Judy had stayed at over the years called Choo Choo Pension.  The original owner was pretty eccentric, or so I was told..... another story! but the family who owns it now are great!

 The little hotel is located right across the street from the lake and it has a restaurant situated on the lakeside as well as the hotel side.

The little point of land where we were staying used to be an island accessible only by boat.  Eventually a causeway was built to connect the island to the mainland.

One of the special things we did today was take a drive into the hills to see where roses are grown and harvested for rose oil.  Then we went to see where the oil was extracted.  It takes 3,000 kilos of petals to produce 1 kilo of pure rose oil.  1 gram of rose oil sells wholesale for 45 TL, so it is a very expensive product.

Then it was back to the city (only 15,000 people) to attend the local market that happens every Thursday.  Judy picked up rose products that she wanted to take home as gifts.

I finished my time in town having a humam .... a Turkish Bath.  I'll explain the process in my next blog post!

We finished off the day with yet another fabulous Turkish dinner followed by the traditional drink "Raki" which is similar in taste to the Greek "Ouzo."

Great Things to See in Selcuk, Turkey

What is life like in Selcuk, Turkey? I decided to take Saturday and just do community things instead of going out to see more of the sites.

My morning began with a very traditional Turkish breakfast, fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, orange slices, a hard boiled egg, and coffee.

The neighbourhood here is very quiet even though it's only a block off the main road. The local bread shop/ grocery store is two doors away, run by a couple of ladies, probably mother and daughter.  Laundry is often hung out in the evening to dry during the night and is taken down in the morning.  I looked down the street and could see a man sweeping with something that looked like a large search of twigs.

The local Turkish people tend to keep to themselves, unless they are involved in tourism.  I can smile at them but they don't smile back....yet!  I've found that in many of my travels.  It takes time to build relationships.

There is no local newspaper here so a woman's voice (surprising because it's such a patriarchal society) makes announcements over a loud speaker a couple of times a day; who died, deadline for taxes, special celebrations, etc.   Five times a day there is also a call to prayer over other loudspeakers situated at the mosques throughout the city.  It may be noisy occasionally, but definitely interesting and an easy part of the culture to accept once I'd been here a couple of days.

Transportation is varied, from cars to motorcycles to mopeds to bicycles.  There is even a couple of tractors on my street.

People's dress is varied too.  Many of the older women wear traditional clothing; colourful ballooned pants, blouse and sweater, and head scarf.  Men often have a cap of some sort on, like a wolf sailer style or a knitted skull cap.

Younger people are mostly in western dress with no head covering.  I think it's a personal choice now as many younger people have moved away from the traditional Muslim culture, which makes it easier for tourists to blend in. The only time I will need a head covering is if I go into a mosque.  Otherwise, I keep my shoulders and knees covered, mainly to show respect in a conservative culture.  When in Rome!....

There are very few women wearing the black burkas so the ones that do definitely stand out.  I actually saw a couple of women making a "fashion statement" with their burkas, beautiful turquoises and bright fushia outfits in the market.  Change is coming!

I am not going to talk about politics too much other than what I have heard so far is very interesting.  I will say that some people believe that the country's current leader is not what he appeared to be when he took power a few years ago and the younger people are realizing that.

There are at least two groups of people in the traditional Turkish cultures.  The other large group are the Kurdish people.  Many of them hold sales positions because they are darned good at selling.  I think some of them are taught the fine art of sales before they can walk!  The Kurdish people are similar to many of the indigenous people in Canada and have dealt with many struggles over the centuries from what I understand.

Drinking coffee and tea and sharing food with others is a big part of the culture.  Each neighbourhood has their favourite tea man, who delivers on demand. More men than women it seems participate in this ongoing ritual that can happen many times a day.  I very seldom see women sitting in the sidewalk cafes and if they are they are well removed from the men. The men will be together for noon meals but there are no women in site. Before or after a meal older men tend to spend time playing tiles, which similar to dominoes.

As I mentioned, call to prayer is 5 times a day.  At that time many of the men (a few women) attend the mosque.  Friday around 1:30 is the big weekly prayer, so people who have been too busy the rest of the week try to attend then.  Often they have to bring in extra carpets because the mosque is full and they have to set up prayer stations outside.

I went out to the local market today, held every Saturday.  Everything you can imagine is available here.  In this part of Turkey they are well known for cotton.  The main employers are garment factories supplying much of the world with good cotton clothing and jeans. They also do the high end labels.  The one thing I don't notice here is the real poverty.  On the most part people appear well and not needing to beg for money and food.

One of the things that wasn't present at the market, especially around the food area was flies.  It is such a clean area that I don't think flies stand a chance!

A few other things I've discovered here?  It's a good idea in the older buildings to drink bottled water as the pipes are very old.  Also, the old sewer pipes can get plugged up easily so they ask that people dispose of paper products in the waste basket.  Also electricity is getting more expensive so our hotel has an automatic shut off when the electronic key is pulled out.

Crossing a road is a challenge!  Even though Selcuk has marked crosswalks, that doesn't mean cars stop. I DO NOT cross when there is any sign of traffic.... because if there is you can be assured the car will speed up.  They aren't trying to run the tourists over, this happens with everyone!

But standing on the corner allows me the opportunity to watch the storks feeding their babies.  There seems to be at least one nest on every corner to keep people entertained!

The evening meal came straight from the market.  It was almost the end of the season for artichokes but we were lucky enough to order a feast of them.  They were prepared in a way I've never experienced them and were exceptionally good!

After a full day it's back to the hotel to finish off the evening with a glass of wine and yogurt, strawberries and pine honey!