Remember when Edward, Peter, Lucy, and Susan returned to Narnia in the book Prince Caspian? But it was many years later and they don't remember their lives as kings and queens at first, even as they stand amongst the ruins of their former kingdom?
How I felt walking through Ephesus reminded me of the part of Prince Caspian where they start to "wake up" and remember the grandeur of their lives in Narnia. What amazing splendor existed in antiquity and what incredible ruins still exist to help you imagine what it must have been like to walk those mosaic tiled halls and marble columned walkways. The Romans really knew how to make beautiful and lasting monuments to their empire! The day was really sunny and aside from gawking the amazing sites and thinking about the Chronicles of Narnia, I spent most of my time at Ephesus hustling from one shady spot to the next to stay cool and avoid a burn.
We left Ephesus and headed back to Istanbul late Thursday and have spent Fri and Sat here enjoying our last few days in the city. We are about to go out to dinner and do some final shopping before we come back to pack and sleep well before our 9 AM flight. When we're back in the hotel later I want to write more about Istanbul because I'm in love with this city!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Ephesus
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Pamukkale and Cleopatra's pool - Weds, May 26
Our trip down from the cliffs was memorable too as we walked through the Cotton Castle pools along one edge of the site. The wide terraces create a natural stepping stone type decent to ground level. The setting is so unusual and surreal that we saw many aspiring "next top models" striking poses against the white mineral rocks or in the shallow water, while their friends took countless glamour shots.
Cappadocia - Tues. May 25
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Tues, May 25:
Cappadocia is a magical land of "fairy chimneys" and underground cities where 2,000 years ago the earliest Christians fled in order to escape persecution from the Roman Empire. Everywhere you look you see sandstone cones left behind after a million years worth of wind and rain carved the structures out of a lake a solid lava. Swept away were the softest, most easily corroded sandstone particles and left behind are these towering beehive cones in which the people dug caves that stayed cool in summer and warm in winter. The "fairy chimneys," as the sandstone cones are called, rise up from the earth in all directions creating an environment reminiscent of some planet in Star Wars.
The underground cities, more than 20 of them in the region, are a web of carved out villages extending 80 meters below the earth's surface, where the hidden communities had stables, wineries, bedrooms, kitchens, ventilation systems and round stone doors that could only be opened from the inside (to keep unwanted persecutors out). They lived in these subterranean labyrinths for as many as 5 years at a time, until the danger had passed.
We are leaving the Cappadocia region now and heading back west. We're on an overnight bus towards Pamukkale where on Wednesday we'll explore the famous "cotton castle" (the translation of Pamukkale), cliff terraces of pools flowing into one another all turned white from the calcium deposits in the warm spring water. At the top of these cliffs are the ruins of the ancient Roman and Byzantine city of Hieropolis and it's famous amphitheater. Then we'll continue on to Kusadasi Weds night for a Thurs tour of Epheses, before returning to Istanbul for two more days (Fri and Sat) and Sunday we come home! Unbelievable how quickly time passes, even when on an overnight 11 hour bus ride across a bumpy terrain, with frequent stops!!
Speaking of the bus ride, before I go back to sleep... There seemed to be a rally going on when we arrived at the bus station. Crowds of men, women, and children, music, dancing, tears... What in the world (literally)!? Well we found out that this is the time of year the young Turkish men of a certain age go off to serve in their military (for I'm not sure how long and I don't know if it's mandatory?), but the send off that their loved ones give them is so touching. They practically won't let them go, and yet they send them off with such national pride, singing their anthem, waving their flag, FOLLOWING the bus and riding alongside the bus hanging out of their cars waving and honking and cheering. One group even STOPPED our bus after it had left the station (surrounded it with their little jettas) and pulled their two men off to sing and salute to them one more time before letting us continue on. The reason I'm awake now at 12:39 AM was the third or fourth joyous sendoff of the night woke me up at our last stop. Enrique has some great videos of the revelry.
I decided to write this while it was fresh in my head, but who knows when I will have wireless again and be able to post it.
Signing off now at 12:44 AM Weds morning on a bus filled with patriots heading west towards the coast! Love, Meagan
May 25 - Cappadocia
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Cappadocia is a magical land of "fairy chimneys" and underground cities where 2,000 years ago the earliest Christians fled in order to escape persecution from the Roman Empire. Everywhere you look you see sandstone cones left behind after a million years worth of wind and rain carved the structures out of a lake a solid lava. Swept away were the softest, most easily corroded sandstone particles and left behind are these towering beehive cones in which the people dug caves that stayed cool in summer and warm in winter. The "fairy chimneys," as the sandstone cones are called, rise up from the earth in all directions creating an environment reminiscent of some planet in Star Wars.
The underground cities, more than 20 of them in the region, are a web of carved out villages extending 80 meters below the earth's surface, where the hidden communities had stables, wineries, bedrooms, kitchens, ventilation systems and round stone doors that could only be opened from the inside (to keep unwanted persecutors out). They lived in these subterranean labyrinths for as many as 5 years at a time, until the time of danger had passed.
We are leaving the Cappadocia region now and heading back west. We're on an overnight bus towards Pumakalle (sp?) where on Wednesday we'll explore the famous "cotton castle" (the translation of Pumakalle), cliff terraces of pools flowing into one another all turned white from the calcium deposits in the warm spring water. At the top of these cliffs are the ruins of the ancient Roman and Byzantine city of Hieropolis and it's famous amphitheater. Then we'll continue on to Kusadasi Weds night for a Thurs tour of Epheses, before returning to Istanbul for two more days (Fri and Sat) and Sunday we come home! Unbelievable how quickly time passes, even when on an overnight 11 hour bus ride across a bumpy terrain, with frequent stops!!
Speaking of the bus ride, before I go back to sleep... There seemed to be a rally going on when we arrived at the bus station. Crowds of men, women, and children, music, dancing, tears... What in the world (literally)!? Well we found out that this is the time of year the young Turkish men of a certain age go off to serve in their military (for I'm not sure how long and I don't know if it's mandatory?), but the send off their loved ones give them is so touching. They practically won't let them go, and yet they send them off with such national pride, singing their anthem, waving their flag, FOLLOWING the bus and riding alongside the bus hanging out of their cars waving and honking and cheering, and one group at one of the stops along the way even STOPPED the bus (surrounded it with their little jettas) and pulled their two men off the bus to sing and salute to them one more time before letting us continue on. The reason I'm awake now at 12:39 AM was the third or fourth joyous sendoff of the night woke me up at our last stop. Enrique has some great videos of the revelry.
I decided to write this while it was fresh in my head, but who knows when I will have wireless again and be able to post it.
Signing off now at 12:44 AM Weds morning on a bus filled with patriots heading west towards the coast! Love, Meagan
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Hi from the Galata Tower
And the rooms of the palace shouted "SPLENDOR" with their dome ceilings and mosaic tiles. But to live there (unless you were the Sultan) was for most of his harem, to live a life of imprisonment. A beautiful prison, but a prison none the less. The concubines, eunichs, and princes were not allowed outside the gates, to protect the Sultan's hold on power.
I'd love to write more, because the Hagia Sofia blew me away, but it's late and tomorrow we wake up early to go to Cappadocia! I will upload a couple photos if I can from the rest of our day. I don't know if our next hotel will have internet or wireless but since it's in a more remote area I'm thinking possibly not. So until next time, love from here to you!!
