Sacred Fish

From Kahta it was on to Şanlıurfa, or Urfa for short, famous for aptly named Urfa Kebabs and the “Balıklı Gol”, which literally means “Lake with fish”. Upon arrival at the bus station, my three companions and I were in the midst of deciding what to see first when an elderly couple began beckoning us. “Where are you going?” they asked, not quite waiting for an answer before shuffling us into the backseat of their tiny car. “We want to see the lake with fish!” we replied, earnestly. Before we knew it, we were whisked away in the car with the now-familiar stop-and-start jerkiness of a driver who is still not completely comfortable with the necessary act of changing gears manually. While exchanging pleasantries and being complimented on our Turkish, we learned that our chauffeur and his wife had two daughters who were about our age and that they wished we were staying longer so they could treat us to a home-cooked meal. Ah well, we had other fish to fry.

Urfa has more character than most of the Turkish cities I've seen in my time here. It has charm. It has a lake, with fish. Sacred fish! They are sacred because apparently they are made of the ashes of Abraham (the story behind it is unclear as per usual, and we deduced that it probably comes only from the Koran and is not featured in other holy books, because otherwise one of us might have remembered that one time Abraham was engulfed in flames and then his ashes turned into fish). The lake is more of a pond on the grounds of a mosque, but there is a whole park nearby which unites it with Urfa Castle and a small bazar. The whole area is reminiscent of what one probably imagines when one thinks of Turkey, based on Hollywood notions of “The Orient” and the like. It is beautiful nonetheless.

This trip, much like a Russian nesting doll, also involved an inner jaunt to Mardin, a mere three hour bus ride away from Urfa. Mardin is a tiny, tiny city on a hill, and it is famous for its brilliant panoramas, a former monastery, and I believe the type of stone used in building the majority of its buildings. Here in Mardin the Turkishness of the story continues, since again in our quest for our next bus we were offered a tour of the city from a native. This time the native in question was a cab driver, so he requested a nominal fee. Still, we felt looked after. Our driver was very gentlemanly, patiently smoking by the car while we took pictures and even stopping at an ATM so we could all replenish our cash reserves. He spoke a mixture of Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic, as most people do in that part of Turkey, which sounded very interesting as he chatted on the phone.
After a whirlwind hour and a half in Mardin, we headed all the way back to Urfa in order to catch our next bus to Van.

Eastern Adventures

The week after I gave my first exams I had another first...I took my first trip towards the east of Turkey. In fact, I ended up going almost as far east as one can possibly go before winding up in Iran (Doğubayazıt, Turkey). I visited not one, but two famous mountains, I went to churches built before America was even discovered, and I saw both sacred fish and a famous breed of cat (not in the same city, however). But I get ahead of myself. Even though this trip was only five days long (the week after midterms, students have what they call a "head vacation", or a week when they just ditch classes to go home and let their mothers do their laundry), it it was so jam-packed that it will take a couple of posts to do it justice. Without further ado...

Kahta and Mt. Nemrut
Mt. Nemrut is a darling of the Turkish tourism bureau. They simply love putting pictures of the ancient stone heads of uncertain origins on various propaganda. As a result, tourists such as myself are drawn to the top of this mountain they would probably otherwise not pay any heed to. One of the starting points for the ascent is the town of Kahta, which, I was later informed, is known as the “rip-off capital of Turkey” or somesuch by the guidebooks. My companions and I did not really get ripped off there, but Kahta, in mild terms, was not a favorable introduction to the East for me. (Happily other cities would prove better.) It is a man-dominated town and with a pervasive aura of utter depression. It wasn't long, though, before we were in a dolmuş speeding towards the base camp of Mt. Nemrut, with several stops to see ancient things in between. The countryside surrounding Mt. Nemrut is absolutely gorgeous (as is the east in general, as I would learn).

Possibly the sketchiest ferry I've ever seen. Possibly. For a few minutes I lived in fear that we were going to try to drive on to it.

This is the approach to Mt. Nemrut. You have to hire a driver to get even close to the mountain because it is so far away from the nearest towns. In any case, right before we got to this hill we were stopped by local gendarmes for a routine roadside ID check. Our driver, however, had no ID, no money, and no registration for the bus. He got out of our bus and slowly approached the gendarmes' van with a wry look in his eye as we all watched anxiously from within. Eventually we saw him laughing, and decided that this was probably not a good sign. He sauntered back to the bus and explained: "I used to be a firefighter in town. I would bring the water to the men. I told them, are you remembering me? I was bringing you the water. Maybe I don't bring you water any more. So they say to me, 'Yes, we remember, you can go.' Ha ha ha. Maybe I not bring them water, ha ha." So...our driver quite literally carried a lot of water in that town. He told us that story triumphantly about four more times during the day.

There they are, all majestic and whatnot. They were really cool but the climb was a bit snowy (i.e. treacherous). Also there is a chain in front of them so you can no longer get right up next to them, unlike what pictures of past tourists might have you believe.


Stay tuned for more Eastern Adventures!

Anadolu mola

Look at this beast!

The internet in this bus is faster than the internet in my apartment. Seriously, I cannot describe how much I love Turkish buses. They are five-star hotels on wheels- they give you a snack (sometimes TWO snacks) and a beverage (Turks are the only people I can think of who thought 'Hey, doling out cups of boiling water inside a moving vehicle sounds like a good idea...'), and often will give you a blanket or pillow if you ask, AND the newest and nicest buses have in-bus WCs in addition to 3G internet, MP3s, TV, movies, and video games. What more could you need? Anadolu, the major company which has one of its home otogars in Uşak, is happily one of the best. They ALSO offer magazines and bad novels to read, and little disposable coverlets for your headset.

I'm on my way to Antalya now, by the way. It's Republic Day Weekend, so no afternoon class!

Horsin' Around

This past weekend I went on my first real Turkish excursion. Where? To the Aegean, of course! More specifically, Ayvalık, Çanakkale, and Truva, the latter known to the rest of the world as Troy.

In other words, I went from this:


To this:


Ayvalık is a really neat little town. I think it would be an amazing weekend destination in warmer weather (it was incredibly windy and chilly when we were there) and has some of the best beaches in Turkey, so I'm told. Since swimming was not a possibility, my two cohorts (one was a Fulbrighter from Balıkesir) climbed Şeytan Sofrası, or Satan's Table, for some incredible views of the surrounding waters.

After this we headed to Cunda aka Alibey Island, famous for its restaurants with seafood mezes (Turkish small plates you are supposed to eat while draining a bottle of rakı over the course of several hours). My cohorts and I completely forgot to take pictures of this meal because we were so hungry. We had delicious fresh raw fish, grilled octopus, perfect olive oil, a beautiful salad, and a mouthwatering melon (and other fruits) for dessert. The food in Ayvalık and environs was my favorite part of the whole weekend.

The Turkish kahvaltı, a wondrous meal on an average day, was downright swoon-worthy at our "Butik Otel", Antikhan.


The next day we headed north to Çanakkale, famous for...

being close to Troy (it is also near Gallipoli, but that did not interest us so much). That is the horse used in the movie, which was donated to the town after filming.


This is pretty much what the site of Troy looks like. In certain areas you can see Troy I-IX, and the strata are labeled as such. One follows a roped path and reads signs in Turkish, German, or English about what you are seeing- namely, that which early would-be "archeologists" didn't accidentally ruin or purposefully steal when they were excavating.

So, even though Troy was not my favorite part of an all-too-brief coastal jaunt, I still was glad to have seen it. What kind of legendary heroes actually made their lives here? We may never truly know...


Eventually, my time came to an end in Çanakkale and I embarked on a long bus ride to my current home. I hope to visit the Aegean many more times.


ADDENDUM:
They totally let you climb inside the other fake Trojan Horse on the actual site of Troy.

A well-oiled machine

I am writing this post on a Pamukkale bus line. This cross-country bus...has free internet access. This is a bus in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Ankara and Uşak...and I am on the internet.

Pamukkale is one of the more reputable Turkish bus lines. They make some attempt to regulate how the drivers drive (such things as 'staying in lanes' and 'obeying speed limits'), but of course all other drivers still pose a major threat. Turkish buses are many in number and variable in quality, but I am really impressed with what I've seen of them today. The drivers get personally fined if they do not leave the station on time, so at 10:30AM (my bus left at 11), the station abruptly emptied of buses, and five minutes later new ones pulled in. It's amazing.

As I was leaving, our main Fulbright liaison asked if I was excited. I said yes, and she said, "I know, it is a new life!" And now I'm on a bus in Turkey, using the internet for now, but about to start re-reading The New Life. How ridiculous is this?

No! Really! Thanks!

So far, Turkey is great. It is beautiful and has actual hills and other changes in land elevation, unlike certain states I could name. On the extremely short (40 minute) flight from Istanbul to Ankara, they served us a full meal (!), including the delicious yogurt I can't wait to eat all the time. Also on that short flight I had my first Turkish tea in Turkey (well, technically, several thousand feet above Turkey). The sizable group on that Istanbul-Ankara flight arrived at the hotel utterly exhausted, and we headed to dinner in search of water more than anything else, when lo and behold the extremely attentive staff started trying to serve us a five course meal. After some hesitant bites of the first two courses, muttering "tamam" ("okay"), and general awkwardness, they discerned our meaning and skipped the main course...but they brought dessert out anyways.

But enough about food (ha ha JK! but I have the whole nine months for that). Let's go back in time for a minute to when I was still at the Ankara airport. I had long since decided my bags were too annoying to drag aboard a shuttle bus, so I took a cab with another Fulbrighter. Since we all have pretty ludicrous amounts of baggage, at first the other girl and I thought we wouldn't be able to fit in one cab. Suddenly a small taxi-directing man, cigarette in mouth, appeared at our side, spoke to our driver, and from somewhere a bungee cord was produced, and before we knew it all of our luggage was haphazardly secured bulging every which way out of the trunk and generally ignoring the laws of physics. Turkish driving entails a lot of ad libbing where the laws are concerned, for as our cab driver deftly demonstrated, the painted lane lines are there as guidelines only, and car horns are useful for either alerting other drivers' to your presence in the in-between-lane-zones or to tell a pedestrian they'd better decide RIGHT NOW if they want to run for it or hop back on the median, because this car is not slowing.

Now fast forward to tomorrow, when what basically amounts to an all expense paid vacation in a hotel in Ankara begins, featuring free WiFi in the lobby (YES!), and of course lots of meetings and lectures disseminating information about Turkey and how to live here without causing too much trouble, other than occasionally confusing attentive waiters and the unavoidable suchlike.