Selcuk

Leaving Fethiye mom and I traveled to Selcuk, the small town located just outside of the famous Greek ruins of Ephesus. We arrived in Selcuk late at night and were quickly picked up by the pension (hotel) owner that we had booked with and got settled in their fabulous pension for the night. We were welcomed with some amazing leftover stuffed vine leaves before heading to bed.

The next morning we got up and enjoyed a delicious fruit breakfast, a nice change from the standard Turkish breakfasts we were used to, and got organized to head to Ephesus. The hotel dropped us off at the upper entrance to Ephesus and upon entering we obtained an audio guide to serve as our guide through the ruins, that combined with overhearing the hundreds of other guides served us pretty well. The first stop was the Odeon, a small theatre that is fairly well preserved and seated about 1500 people. After the theatre there were a few other smaller ruins in the immediate area that we saw before heading into what appeared to be a region of caves. Inside the caves was really interesting, not only because it was a cool relief from the heat and the hundreds of other tourists, as it contained posters talking about all of the different research projects that had taken place at Ephesus over the past few years. Continuing down the hill from here we entered Curetes Street which was one of the main streets in Ephesus and runs down past shops, houses, baths, and workshops. Also lining the street were statues of gods and famous athletes although now only one statue remains in place. Walking along this street we were able to see the ancient toilet house, houses built into the hills (although we didn't enter the terraced houses), the foundations of shop houses and the Temple of Hadrian.

After Curetes Street we came to the most famous sight remaining in Ephesus: the library of Celsus. The front wall of this library is the most famous structure in Ephesus but also as a result it was always the most crowded. Leaving the library we continued to the Great Theatre, the largest structure in Ephesus, and marveled at how big the city must have been to be able to fill up the 44 000 person theatre. Leaving the theatre we came upon a short play being preformed for the tourists (pretty certain that it was for the hundreds of people on cruises that happened to tour the site the same day as us) and got to see some people act out some dancing, entertainment and even a gladiator fight all dressed in traditional costumes. Our final stop in Ephesus was the church of Mary.

Returning to Selcuk the rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying a relaxing lunch, using the internet and organizing the our onward travel. That evening we enjoyed a fabulous home cooked meal in our pension before retiring for the night.

The next day we spent the morning relaxing in Selcuk before heading out to the nearby beach where we spent the day relaxing on the sand and swimming in the Mediterranean. That evening was again spent enjoying another home cooked meal in our pension.

The third morning in Selcuk was my last day there as I was leaving my mom to continue on to Greece alone. We spent the morning getting organized to head out and then seeing the Basilica of St John the Apostle. This is quite a fabulous ruined church and said to be one of the largest in the world at the time of its construction. That afternoon after a sad goodbye to mom I boarded a bus to Izmir and from there on to Chesme where I would take a ferry across to the Greek island Chios. More on that in my next update.








A view of the Odeon theatre in Ephesus, the smaller theatre in the old city located near the upper entrance.












Standing in front of a statue of the goddess Nike, the goddess of victory.
















Mom sitting on one of the toilets in the communal toilet building.


















Mom and I standing in front of the front wall of the Library of Celsus, the most famous image in Ephesus.












A view of the front wall of the Library of Celsus.














A view of the large theatre in Ephesus.













Some of the trumpet players in the small performance that we got to see in Ephesus.













Mom enjoying the sunset and a glass of wine from the roof of our great pension in Selcuk.

Olympos, our Blue Cruise, and Fethiye

So we left Antalya to head towards the coastal settlement of Olympos. Olympos is a tiny little resort type area that consists mainly of hotels and restaurants near a pebbly beach and some old ruins. So once we arrived there we quickly found a summer camp like hotel (most of the hotels here are set up to handle a hundred or more guests and include dinner and breakfast so it kind of feels like staying in a summer camp while you're here) and got organized for our Blue Cruise starting the next day, a Blue Cruise is a 4 day sailing trip from Olympos to Fethiye that's been nicknamed a Blue Cruise.

After getting all settled in we decided to walk down through the ruins and check out the beach, our first beach experience on the Mediterranean. The walk down to the beach was quite nice and we got to see lots of old ruined buildings along the way which we hadn't expected, or at least not of the quality that we saw. Arriving at the beach we quickly found a nice pebbly spot (the entire beach was covered in small rounded rocks) and spread out to enjoy the day. The beach was pretty windy and so at times it seemed more like we were bracing ourselves from the wind rather than enjoying the beach but it was still enjoyable. The water at the beach was crystal clear as well and fairly warm so it was wonderful for swimming. After relaxing on the beach for a few hours we headed back to our "camp" and spent some time checking out the fantastic ruins on the way.

That evening we joined a tour to the nearby site of Chimaera, which is a place where fire has been burning on the side of Mt Olympos for centuries. The flames here are just points where natural gas is seeping through cracks in the mountain and has been set on fire. So after being deposited at the base of a short walk we climbed a part of Mt Olympos to see the Chimaera site. Here there were about 20 spots that were on fire and was extremely interesting to see, especially at night as it lit up the surrounding area wonderfully. After seeing the flames we returned back to our hotel to prepare for our boat cruise the next day.

The following day at 10 am we were picked up and got to enjoy a nice hour long van ride to Demre, the starting point of the cruise. After enjoying an early lunch and wandering around the town for a few minutes we got to board our boat and we were underway. The first day of sailing we sailed by a little town located on the coast (I think, it may have been an island but I doubt it) and got to enjoy some time to swim in the beautiful Mediterranean then. After our short swim we proceeded to sail over the remains of a sunken city, an old city that became submerged under water after an earthquake, although the water was too choppy to really be able to see anything of note below us. We continued on to our mooring spot for the night and enjoyed another swim in the Mediterranean before spending the evening relaxing on the boat for the night.

The next morning we set sail bright and early to arrive in the port of Kas where we enjoyed our breakfast. After breakfast we were given a few hours to wander around the city which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Turkey. The city was quite picturesque although because of this it is also very touristy but still an enjoyable stop from the cruise. Mom and I started off by walking around the town for a bit and stumbled upon the remains of an old theater just on the edge of the town. After seeing the theater we spent our remaining time just wandering around looking for some nice beaches and seeing the town. Returning to the boat we continued sailing for a bit and spent the afternoon swimming in a couple of different bays and generally just enjoying the great sunshine and the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean. During one of our stops we caught some sea urchins and with the help of a fellow Japanese tourist we cracked them open and enjoyed some uni.

The third day on the boat we started off by sailing for Butterfly valley, a secluded little bay that's famous for being a stop on the migration path for one type of butterfly. Unfortunately we were there at the wrong time of year for any of the butterfly's, but we did enjoy a walk through the valley to a spectacular waterfall that we climbed up. The climb up the waterfall was a lot of fun as it required actually climbing up where the water was falling using ropes and stuff to pull us up. After visiting the butterfly valley we proceeded to sail to Oludeniz, a beautiful resort town and a great lagoon for swimming. Here we spent several hours swimming and jumping off cliffs into the great water while a couple of guys on the cruise went paragliding. After stopping off at Oludeniz we continued to St Nicholas's Island, an island that houses the ruins of a small town and most importantly was a spot where St Nicholas lived for a few years. Here we enjoyed our last night of being rocked to sleep on our great cruise boat.

Our final day on the cruise we got to finally sleep in and we slowly made our way to the port in Fethiye. Upon arriving in Fethiye mom and I found a hotel and I proceeded to relax for the afternoon while mom went to and abandoned ghost town just outside of Fethiye. That evening we enjoyed a delicious fish meal from the local fish market before retiring to our solid be for the night.

The next day we decided to spend the morning touring around Fethiye before catching a bus out to Selcuk to see Ephesus. As a result I decided to head out to the ghost town that mom visited yesterday as she spoke so highly of it while she did some shopping in the weekly market. So I headed out to the ghost town to see a small village of completely abandoned buildings standing alone on a beautiful hillside. The village had once been an entire Christian community but after the first world war when all of the Christians were deported to Greece the village was forced to be abandoned. As a result today you can walk around the crumbling remains of this old town and see just how much the buildings have deteriorated in the fast 80 years. A truly extraordinary sight.

After returning to Fethiye to meet up with mom, we quickly made our way to the bus station and caught a bus to Selcuk where we were going to see Ephesus and our last stop together in Turkey. More on that next time though.










Some of the old ruins at Olympos.




















The flames at Chimaera, burning out of the solid mountain rock.



















Mom swimming in the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean during one of our stops on the Blue Cruise.















The theater at Kars, complete with a fantastic view out over the Mediterranean.
















The guys on the Blue Cruise picking apart the sea urchins to feast on the uni inside.
















A couple of the guys climbing up the waterfall in the Butterfly valley.

















Sunset over another similar Blue Cruise boat on our last night on the water.















A view overlooking the ghost town just outside of Fethiye.

Antalya and Konya

After leaving Cappadocıa we headed towards the coast for our first views of the Mediterranean Sea but first we decided to stop of en route in Konya for a few hours. Konya doesn't have much of a tourist destination but it is the location where the whirling dervishes sect of Muslim originated and where the person who founded it's tomb is.

Arriving in Konya we quickly took the tram downtown and headed off towards the museum for the whirling dervishes and where the famous tombs are. On the way we stopped off to grab a bite of the famous Konya pizza and we enjoyed eating a delicious meter long pizza each. After lunch we continued towards the Mevlana Museum to see it. We entered the museum to find it packed with tourists on bus tours but it was still quite enjoyable and definitely worth the visit. We started off by walking around the complex and seeing the museum parts surrounding the main tomb where inside we got to see samples of the traditional dress and also wax figures showing their traditional way of life. After seeing all the surrounding parts we entered the main tomb and museum building and were amazed at the how beautiful and peaceful it was inside. After examining all of the tombs and museum part which mainly consisted of old copies of the Koran we left the Mevlana museum to head towards Alaaddin Hill.

Alaaddin Hill is a well kept and very green park that contains several tea gardens and the Alaaddin Mosque. We first decided to enjoy a cup of tea in one of the shady tea gardens here and while doing that we met a fantastic old Turkish guy who insisted on giving us a tour of the mosque and the surrounding area after sharing a cup of tea with him. After tea we got a great tour of the huge and well preserved mosque, remnants of an old palace that was on the hill and the entrance of the Ince Minare Museum which has a fabulously carved entrance way. After this tour the guy had to rush home for dinner so we returned to the park to enjoy the sunset and some more tea while playing backgammon. The evening was dedicated to enjoying an absolutely delicious meal at a hard to find restaurant and using the internet before returning to the bus station to catch our 1am bus to Antalya.

We arrived in Antalya bright and early the following morning and after getting into the city centre and finding a hotel we proceeded to take a nap for most of the morning as we were both tired after our overnight bus ride. In the afternoon we proceeded to check out the Antalya Archeology Museum which was absolutely fabulous and enormous. The museum started off by going through all the different civilizations that had ruled Turkey and talking about how they evolved, then it proceeded to show loads of marble statues of Greek gods that were found at nearby Perge. The majority of the museum was dedicated to displaying the statues of the gods as well as sarcophagus's that were found there also. The museum was so large that by the last section we weren't able to absorb too much so their displays of modern Turkish items we quickly passed through. All in all it was a great museum and definitely worth checking out. After the museum we returned to our guesthouse to organize a tour to Termessos the following day. The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out in the guesthouse and checking out a nearby market that only occurred once a week. The market was really big and sold nothing but fruits and vegetables almost so it was interesting to wander through it and watch all the local people buying their groceries for the next week.

The next day mom, Ben (a fellow tourist) and I got in our taxi and headed to the ruined city of Termessos. Arriving at Termessos, which is just north of Antalya, we proceeded to leave the car park and start the short walk up through the forest towards the ruins. Our first stop once reaching the ruins was the gymnasium and baths which were quite stunning. Termessos has been left to let nature reclaim the ruins and so it hasn't been restored at all and this gave the result of feeling like we were true explorers wandering around the ruins, it also helped that we were almost the only people there (the only fellow people present were a group of graduate students and their prof from the archeology department at the University of Calgary and so they gave us a few pointers of where to find the best sites which was awesome). Leaving the gymnasium we continued to the theater which is the probably the most spectacular sight at Termessos. The theater is in excellent condition considering that it's never been restored and its location sitting on the edge of a cliff makes it just that much more amazing. After the theater we continued wandering around the site and looking at the other buildings but most of them had fallen apart so much that you could no longer tell what they once were, and without the help from the fellow Calgarians we probably wouldn't have ever found out. At the end we made our way back down to the car park a different path following the edge of a cliff face that contained several rock tombs carved into it, an interesting change to the ordinary way down. Returning back to Antalya we had planned on spending the rest of the afternoon on the beach but unfortunately the weather started to change and instead we just spent the remainder of the day at our hotel or wandering the streets of Antalya. All in all it was a great day though as Termessos was a truly spectacular sight and we were very glad that we got to wander around the ruins.

The next morning we got up and enjoyed our breakfast before catching a bus to Olympos, the place where fire shoots out of the rocks and where we were going to catch our Blue Cruise from. But more on that next time.










Mom and our retired economist guide at the Alaaddin Mosque.




















Mom pondering her next move in backgammon while the sun sets in Konya. Part of the old palace is visible in the background too.



















One of the statues of a Greek God that was found at the site of Perge and now resides in the Antalya Archeology Museum.

















A view of the ruined theater at Termessos.













The streets in the old part of Antalya in the evening.

Cappadocıa

So we arrived in Cappadocıa late in the evening after spending most of the day on the bus after seeing the sunrise on Mt Nemrut. Arriving in Göreme (the main tourist town in Cappadocıa) after 9pm we decided to follow Yux, the Japanese guy we went to Mt Nemrut to, to a hotel he had picked from his guide book. We arrived at the hotel and were quickly shown to one of their cave rooms, a specialty of Göreme. Since it was already late we decided to stay there and experience a cave room right away.

The next morning we awoke to an absolutely freezing room and to top it off a nice cold shower as well. We went and sat outside in the sun for breakfast and while warming up we decided to change hotels to something a little warmer and without a cave. We wandered around for a bit that morning looking for one and decided on the Flintstones Hotel, and man was that a gem. We quickly moved over to that hotel and got some advice for checking out the surrounding area of Cappadocıa and then headed off.

Cappadocıa is famous for its landscape and for the fact that people used to live ın hundreds of caves that surround the area. The country side around Cappadocıa is very similar to Drumheller as there are sandstone valleys throughout the area and even a few hoo-doo shaped rocks (although they call them fairy chimneys). While wandering through the sandstone valleys it is extremely common to see tons of caves in the valley walls where people used to live back in the 9th through 13th centuries (and to a lesser extent even before and after that range). So to get an understanding of the area our first stop was the open air museum in Göreme which was more of a park containing several cave churches and houses. The museum was fairly interesting and most of the cave churches were beautiful with very well preserved frescoes in most of them. However the only downside was that the museum didn`t provide any information about the people that lived in the area and used caves as their homes. It just described the caves that we saw so we didn't learn very much. After lunch we decided to go for a hike through the country side to see more caves that people lived in and for the spectacular landscape. We spent the afternoon walking through the red valley and the rose valley, both of which were extraordinary and contained hundreds of "holes" as my mom calls them (caves). After spending the afternoon hiking through the country side and exploring lots of caves we returned to Göreme to enjoy my birthday dinner at the Flintstones Hotel. The dinner was pretty average but the company was great and the staff even surprised us with a birthday cake! All in all it was a pretty good way to spend my 23rd birthday.

The next morning we woke up and decided to spend another day hiking around the country side. We started the day off by heading up the Pigeon valley towards Uçhisar. The pigeon valley wasn't as spectacular as the red or rose valleys we thought but the walk was still enjoyable. Once in Uçhisar we wandered through the town a while and ended up climbing Uçhisar castle which provided some great views of the surrounding landscape but aside from that it wasn't anything special. After Uçhisar we proceeded to walk through Love valley (but we also heard it was called Long valley and White valley so not really sure the real name) back past Göreme and towards Çavusin. Walking through this valley was extremely beautiful and probably the best walk that we did while ın Cappadocıa. Although the valley didn't contain very many caves, the rock formations and scenery were the best we had seen. When we arrived in Çavusin we proceeded to sit down and enjoy an expensive class of orange juice while playing the national game here, backgammon. After relaxing for some time we found out we had to hurry to catch the last dolmus (local bus) back to Göreme and didn't have any time to explore the town.

Our third day in Göreme we decided to join a tour to visit a few of the sights located a ways out from the city and hard to see otherwise. The tour started off with a viewpoint over the pigeon valley looking back at Göreme, something we had already seen so we weren't too excited by that. Afterwards though we stopped at the largest underground city in the area, Derinkuyu, and got to explore it for about an hour. The underground city was really amazing to see how big it was, it seemed to extend for ever (apparently it went 7 stories underground), and how much detail had gone into it. There were several points where they could lock themselves in by pushing a giant stone wheel over a passage and it seemed that each room served a specific purpose. Truly amazing. After the underground city we continued on to Ihlara valley which is more like a canyon than a valley and slightly different then the valleys near Göreme; however we thought that the valleys near Göreme were much better. After a decent lunch in Ihlara valley we proceeded to visit a cave monastery which provided some pretty good views but wasn't anything that we hadn't seen before around Göreme. Finally on the tour we stopped at one more view point and visited an onyx factory (just a stop to try and make us buy jewelry) before returning back to Göreme.

Our final day in Cappadocıa we spent the morning just relaxing around town and getting a few chores done, like updating our blogs and carpet shopping for mom. In the afternoon we arranged to get driven to the nearby town of Avanos to experience our first Turkish Bath. We had arranged it through our hotel and asked for it not to be one just for tourists but we were let down. The bath was fairly nice but we felt kinda rushed and compared to other peoples stories it didn't sound nearly as authentic. The bath consisted of first entering a steam room to heat up for a few minutes before jumping into a cold pool for a few seconds and then returning to the steam room. After warming up again we entered a different room where we got to lay on slabs of marble that were being heated up by more steam. After enjoying the warm marble for a few minutes we got the cleansing part of the bath my being scraped by someone with a fairly rough pad before getting washed with soap and a short massage. To finish off the bath we lay on the hot marble slabs again before drying off and returning to the outside world.

That was about all that we did in Cappadocıa and the next day we proceeded to head off towards Konya where we stopped for a few hours before continuing on to Antalya but more about that next time. More pictures will follow soon but it's taking too long here so you'll have to wait a little while for them.








Our cave room in the first hotel we stayed in.















Flowers in front of some caves in the open air museum ın Göreme.




















Standing in front of some frescoes in one of the churches in the open air museum.




















Mom gazing up at some more frescoes in another church in the open air museum.




















Mom enjoying my birthday picnic lunch on our walk through the red valley.




















Mom standing next to one of the huge stone wheels that they used to cover up entrance ways into the underground city.

















A view of a school in the underground city.
















Mom and I standing at a lookout point over the Ihlara valley.


















A view of the rock monastery that we stopped into on our way back to Göreme from the Ihlara valley.











A view overlooking the Pigeon valley with an extinct volcano in the background. Notice all the small covered up caves in the valley walls where originally people lived and in later times they were converted into Pigeon houses to collect their droppings to use as fertiliser.









The interior of the beautiful (although touristy) Turkish bath that we visited in Avanos. This is the room where we lay on the warm marble slabs (in the center) and were srubbed, cleaned, and massaged off to the side.

Mt Nemrut

So after spending a couple of days in Sanlıurfa mom and I headed to Mt Nemrut in our organized tour with another Japanese tourist. We left Urfa at 9am and settled in for a few hours of driving to get to our first stop, the large Atatürk Dam. We pulled up here at mid morning more for a break from driving than anything else as all we did was spend 15 mınutes looking out from a view point at the large dam. The sight was nice though as the water colour was a beautiful turquoise and the dam looked well built. After seeing the dam we continued on towards the Mt Nemrut area and stopped a couple more times for photo opportunities of the dam created lake and some poppy fields.

Arriving in the Mt Nemrut area we spent the afternoon touring around some of the surrounding sights before actually heading up to the summit for sunset. Our first stop was the Karakuş Tümülüs which is another burial mound (same as Mt Nemrut) with 4 columns remaining around the mound. On 3 of the columns carved images sit while the fourth one is empty. There is an eagle on one, a lion on another, and the third contains a slab of females holding hands. After our visit to Karakuş Tümülüs we visited Cendere Brıdge which is a beautifl Roman built bridge from the 2nd century AD. At the ends of the bridge there were originally 4 columns, however now only 3 remain as apparently they represented members of the emporers family and when the daughter died her column was removed. After the Cendere Bridge we continued on to Eski Kale which was the ancient Commagene capital af Arsameia founded around 80 BC. Here we followed a small path up a hill from the carpark and came upon a stone carving of Mithras (Apollo), the sun god, with sun rays radiating from his head. After spending some time examining this we continued on upwards to find 2 more carved stones. The front side of these two stones haven't survived the years but the back side still contained some writings carved on them. From these two stones we climbed up to a a large cave entrance containing a path to an underground room, but it was blocked off so we couldn't explore it. Still above the cave was another stone carving, this one in fantastic condition, displaying Mithridates I shaking hands with Heracles. This area also contained another cave entrance and some more greek inscriptions. Continuing upwards to the top of the hill again we finally made it to the remaints of the foundations of the capital city, although not much is visible anymore. This place also contains the "Greatest view in Eastern Turkey" accoding to our guide, and the view was spectacular. Descending back down to the carpark we enjoyed a cup of tea as I needed the excuse to charge my dying camera battery.

Our next stop for the day was the famous Mt Nemrut. We left the car at the carpark and started the short climb up to the summit. Actually the top of the mountain is completely manmade and thought to be covering a tomb so tourists aren!t allowed to climb to the very summit, but the interesting features are located below it on the western and eastern terraces so it didn't really matter. Once we reached the eastern terrace we were rewarded with great views over the surrounding landscape but more importantly we could see the huge stone heads of some of the gods along with their bodies behind. The terrace was originally designed as a series of thrones, each containing a different god, but over the years they have deteriorated slightly and now the gods' heads sit at the base of the thrones in a line. The stone heads are definately the highlight of the eastern terrace in my opinion and seeing the 2 meter tall heads looking out over the plains was great. After viewing the eastern terrace for a whie we were invited into the security guards hut for a cup of tea as he was our guides uncle and wanted to give us a chance to warm up, something that was greatly appreciated. After tea we proceeded around the mountain to see the western terrace, and where we would wait for the sunset. The western terrace contained yet more heads looking out over the plains with their bodies around them again. Also around the western terrace there were a few carved slabs of sandstone that Persian and Greek royalty. After veiwing the western terrace we proceeded to try to huddle out of the wind in an attempt to keep warm while waiting for the sunset which was still an hour away. After nearly getting frostbite on my toes (stupidly I had woren sandels up) we, and another hundred people, were blessed with a very beautiful sunset over the horizon and some great light on the western heads. After the sun disappeared below the horizon we joinded the procession heading back down to the carpark and some warmth.

We continued 12 km down the mountain to our very welcoming pensıon where we were spending the night and proceeded to enjoy a very good (and long) dinner. We headed to bed as soon as dinner was over as we had to wake up at 3am the next morning to return to the summit for sunrise. Crazy, I know.

The next morning we were awoken at the ungodly hour of 3am and driven back up to the summit. After the short climb back to the eastern terrace we again sat huddled out of the wind and waited for the sun to rise. Thankfully this wait was shorter and after about 30 mınutes we were rewarded with a nıce sunrise over the horizon. To add to the beauty, about 20 mınutes after the sun had fully risen it began to shine on the heads sitting here and provided some incredible light for photos on the heads. After seeing the sunrise and taking pictures we went back down to our pension where we enjoyed a great breakfast before being driven to Khata where we were catching a bus to take us to Cappadocıa, our next adventure.










Beautiful red poppies in a field with the turquoise waters of the dam behind.




















The column containing the carved eagle at Karakuş Tümülüs.





















The stone slab containing the carving of Mithridates I shaking hands with Heracles.




















Mom and I standing next to a statue on the eastern terrace at Mt Nemrut.
















Mom and I standing on a wall on the western terrace with some of the giant heads visible in the background.
















The fabulous sunset behind a couple of the giant heads of the western terrace.

















A shot of dinner that Mom and Yux (the Japanese tourist with us) are enjoying while our guide was busy starting to make desert.















A view of some of the heads on the eastern terrace during sunrise.


















Another view of the heads on the western terrace during sunrise.










A final view of the western terrace heads.

Sanliurfa

We left the expensive and beautiful town of Mardin for the very conservative city of Sanliurfa (Urfa). The city is a famous religions pilgrimage site as it's the birthplace of the prophet Abraham. So when we arrived in the evening and went for a walk around the city we were extremely surprised to find it just as modern, if not more so, than Van. The city seemed full of new fashion clothes, fancy hotels and just well developed. Not something that we had been picturing for Urfa.

The next was going to be our only day to check out the city as our original plan was to leave that afternoon to head towards Mt Nemrut. We ended up finding a great tour based out of Urfa for Mt Nemrut leaving the following morning so that meant that we had all day to explore Urfa before leaving the following morning. Since we now had a whole day to explore Urfa we took our time walking down to the Gölbaşı which is a picturesque area in Urfa filled with gardens, ponds, and old buildings. The ponds are full of supposedly sacred carp, while surrounding them are rose gardens and the Rizvaniye Vakfi Mosque and Medresei which contains a beautiful wall lining one side of a pool. While we were taking pictures of the ponds and wall we were approached by a young boy who wanted to show us around a bit to practice his English. After agreeing that this was not a guided tour we agreed to follow him to a spot with a great view of the citadel standing above the Gölbaşı then over to the Dergah. The Dergah was quite interesting as it's a complex that includes a mosque but more importantly the Hazreti Ibrahim Halilullah (Prophet Abraham's Birth Cave). After examining the cave we exited to find the young guy's older brother who wanted to continue taking us around the city.

For the next couple of hours we had a private tour of a couple of the mosques, the bazaar, a carpet shop (of course) and some old buildings. The tour was great although when we went to give this guy a tip for our "free" tour he was insulted and was trying to demand that we pay more for a full tour, something we had never agreed upon. Anyways after a short heated discussion we parted ways with both parties feeling angry with the other I'm sure. The rest of the afternoon was spent just wandering around the bazaar a little more and catching up on some internet usage.

That evening we returned back to the Gölbaşı to enjoy some dinner while looking out over the lit up castle and the gardens. It was a nice spot even if the food wasn't the greatest. After spending some more time wandering back through Urfa to our hotel we retired for the night in order to prepare ourselves for our adventure starting the next morning out to Mt Nemrut.









The wall of the Rizvaniye Vakfi Mosque and Medresei over one of the ponds filled with sacred carp.



















Mom and our "guide" enjoying a cup of çay (tea) in the bazaar.


















After our tour we returned to the bazaar to get a döner for lunch and here is the guy preparing one for us.















A view of the citadel all lit up in the evening.













Mom standing in front of the Rizvaniye Vakfi Mosque and Medresei wall at night time.

Van and Mardin

Leaving Doğubayazıt we headed towards Van to spend a day or two. We arrived in Van in the early evening and after searching around for a hotel we wandered out around the town to grab some dinner. Van turned out to be a much larger and more developed town than either of us expected and we were completely shocked to find the number of high end stores lining the main street. After a small dinner and some desert we headed back to our hotel to organize tomorrows activities and for bed.

The next day was our only full day in Van and we planned to visit the nearby castle on the shore of Lake Van before heading out to an Armenian church an hour outside of Van. We had planned on spending the day touring around with a fellow Iranian tourist and so just after 9am we set off to visit the castle. Arriving at the castle we had to first walk around the base of it to reach the entrance and we quickly discovered how big the Castle was. However upon climbing up the hill to it we found that although it covered a huge distance the castle was mostly ruined and the only part that really remained intact was the minerat. After spending some time admiring the views from the top we headed to the bottom to walk through the few ruins of Old Van, mainly a couple of old minarets and 2 newer mosques. After viewing these we realized that we had spent too much time at the castle and we no longer had enough time to visit the Armenian church. So we altered our plans to visit a nearby cat house at the university campus. The famous Van cats all live in house at the university and they are famous for being perfectly white but with 2 different coloured eyes: one yellow and the other blue. The cats were fairly nice although a bit mangy and we couldn't properly pet them as they had to stay behind a fence that we weren't allowed inside of. After visiting the cats we wandered around the university campus for a bit before heading back into downtown Van where we spent the evening wandering the streets and enjoying a nice dinner.

The following day we departed Van to head towards Mardin. This journey was quite long, first a 7 hour bus ride to Diyarbakır and then another hour and a half ride down to Mardin. Mardin is a very beautiful town built onto a hill side that overlooks the surrounding the plains, but it is also very expensive as it's an upscale tourist destination. After hunting around the town for a "cheap" hotel (we still ended up paying 100 Lires a night) we headed out to grab some dinner and watch the sun setting over the city. Mom had read about a great restaurant here and we set out to find it; however when we reached it she was heartbroken to find out that it was completely booked for that night and we had to settle for something less appealing. After a less than stellar dinner we wandered around the picturesque town and just enjoyed the scenery. Mainly looking at the lights on the plain stretching out before us and the castle all lit up.

Our first full day in Mardin was also our last as the town was too expensive to spend any great amount of time in. The day started off pretty interesting as at breakfast in the hotel we were surrounded by many men in suits. Thinking that there just must be some big conference happening we thought nothing of it until they all stood up together and we noticed a couple of them with earpieces on and microphones on their sleeves. The only explanation must be the Turkish secret service (or something like that) afterwards we learned that some important minister was staying at the hotel (not sure which one) and they were all there with him.

After breakfast we proceeded to wander around the town and saw some of the old sights such as a couple of mosques, the Forty Martyrs Church, and the Sultan Isa Medressi. All of these buildings were quite old and definitely worth the wander through. The one sight that we were really hoping to see was the bazaar, but unfortunately we were there on a Sunday the one day when it's closed. We had to console ourselves by returning to the great restaurant that mom wanted to visit the night before and enjoy an absolutely delicious lunch before catching an afternoon bus out to Sanliurfa (Urfa) our next destination.








The view of the minaret at the Van Castle with Lake Van in the background.














A view of the interior of the Hz Omer Mosque near downtown Van, a mosque that we quickly stopped in to see between visiting the Van Castle and the cat house.




















A shot of the famous Van cats with one yellow eye and one blue eye.


















The interior of the mosque on the university campus. The only building other than the cat house that we spent any time examining.













Mom and myself standing on the roof of a mosque in Mardin at sunset with a sight of the old part of Mardin stretching up the hill in the background.


















A view of the castle on the top of the hill at Mardin at nighttime.











Some old houses in Mardin where the owners are washing their beautiful Turkish carpets. They just pour water over them and leave them draped over their houses to dry.








While wandering around the town of Mardin we found some kids that had a collection of chicks in a cardboard box. Upon them setting them out we were shocked to discover that about half of them had been dyed some unusual colours!










A view from the interior of the Sultan Isa Medressi, and nice old building that was pleasant to wander through.