We have been in Turkey for a week and have gathered the following impressions from our stays in Antakya, Kac, Patara and Mugla.
The geography is impressive: out of the sea rise rugged hills strewn with boulders and scrubby trees. The fertile valleys are green with intensively farmed olives, oranges and lemons as well as the most delicious tomatoes and cucumbers. The Mediterranean Sea is bright blue in most places where cliffs go straight to deep water, then turquoise in the coves with beaches. The first few days were cool enough to have us buying long pants, but then summer
arrived and it has been at least 30 degrees every day. Many beaches are actually pebbles, but Patara, where we stayed three days, boasts 20 km of fine sandy beach and some very large sand dunes.
Two thousand years ago the southern area of Turkey was the Lycian empire, which was part of the Greek confederacy (a fact that is never mentioned in the Turkish literature) and was later conquered by the Romans, Ottomans and others. At their height, the Lycians used local marble and limestone to build impressive cities with theatres, temples, aqueducts and plenty of tombs. Most are gone forever, but what remains is still more than what can be seen in Greece and Italy combined. The hills around Kac were actually littered with Lycian tombs and the museum in Antakya had some of the most exquisite mosaics I have ever seen. Tomorrow we go to Epheses, which was originally built in 600 BC and is reputed to be the most complete ancient city on the Mediterranean.
Coming from the Middle East and Asia, we are struck by the European-ness of Turkey, which gets ever more pronounced as we move west. The people are quite fair skinned and, apart from some of the older women, most wear western clothing. Although Rob and Kathleen still get plenty of smiles, most of the time we do not stand out, and walking down the street we do not attract anywhere near as much attention as we have in the past six months. People are very welcoming and show their hospitality by inviting us to join the family for tea at the places we stay. As well, strangers we stop on the street will take a few minutes and even stop others to confer before giving directions in some combination of English, German and Turkish. Yesterday at the post office three employees stopped what they were doing to help me to find the dialing code for Canada.
The products in the shops and scene on the street and in the market have more in common with southern France or Italy than Jordan or Egypt. And, as travelers, we are most impressed by the sparkling clean restaurants and bathrooms found in even the cheapest and most out of the way places. Of course all this modern western-ness comes at a price; most things in Turkey cost about as much as they do in Canada, but still less than we are bracing for in Greece and Italy.
Still, Turkey is a very foreign country, made more so by the fact that very few people speak any English. While walking through an orchard, we came upon a group of women pruning the trees whose clothes and equipment could have been from a hundred years ago. This week the country has seen huge protests, which have forced the government to dissolve and call elections. The main issue is the separation of the state from religion. The present government is overtly Islamic and has been putting through laws to move Turkey to being an Islamic country. Although 98% of the population is Muslim, modern Turkey was founded as a secular government and most people we talk to want to keep it that way.
Turkey is a fascinating country and an ideal transition between Asia and Europe. We had originally wanted to stay here for a month or more but extentions in India, Nepal and Egypt have cut our time to a busy ten days. Next time we will get to Istanbul!
The geography is impressive: out of the sea rise rugged hills strewn with boulders and scrubby trees. The fertile valleys are green with intensively farmed olives, oranges and lemons as well as the most delicious tomatoes and cucumbers. The Mediterranean Sea is bright blue in most places where cliffs go straight to deep water, then turquoise in the coves with beaches. The first few days were cool enough to have us buying long pants, but then summer
arrived and it has been at least 30 degrees every day. Many beaches are actually pebbles, but Patara, where we stayed three days, boasts 20 km of fine sandy beach and some very large sand dunes.Two thousand years ago the southern area of Turkey was the Lycian empire, which was part of the Greek confederacy (a fact that is never mentioned in the Turkish literature) and was later conquered by the Romans, Ottomans and others. At their height, the Lycians used local marble and limestone to build impressive cities with theatres, temples, aqueducts and plenty of tombs. Most are gone forever, but what remains is still more than what can be seen in Greece and Italy combined. The hills around Kac were actually littered with Lycian tombs and the museum in Antakya had some of the most exquisite mosaics I have ever seen. Tomorrow we go to Epheses, which was originally built in 600 BC and is reputed to be the most complete ancient city on the Mediterranean.
Coming from the Middle East and Asia, we are struck by the European-ness of Turkey, which gets ever more pronounced as we move west. The people are quite fair skinned and, apart from some of the older women, most wear western clothing. Although Rob and Kathleen still get plenty of smiles, most of the time we do not stand out, and walking down the street we do not attract anywhere near as much attention as we have in the past six months. People are very welcoming and show their hospitality by inviting us to join the family for tea at the places we stay. As well, strangers we stop on the street will take a few minutes and even stop others to confer before giving directions in some combination of English, German and Turkish. Yesterday at the post office three employees stopped what they were doing to help me to find the dialing code for Canada.
The products in the shops and scene on the street and in the market have more in common with southern France or Italy than Jordan or Egypt. And, as travelers, we are most impressed by the sparkling clean restaurants and bathrooms found in even the cheapest and most out of the way places. Of course all this modern western-ness comes at a price; most things in Turkey cost about as much as they do in Canada, but still less than we are bracing for in Greece and Italy.
Still, Turkey is a very foreign country, made more so by the fact that very few people speak any English. While walking through an orchard, we came upon a group of women pruning the trees whose clothes and equipment could have been from a hundred years ago. This week the country has seen huge protests, which have forced the government to dissolve and call elections. The main issue is the separation of the state from religion. The present government is overtly Islamic and has been putting through laws to move Turkey to being an Islamic country. Although 98% of the population is Muslim, modern Turkey was founded as a secular government and most people we talk to want to keep it that way.
Turkey is a fascinating country and an ideal transition between Asia and Europe. We had originally wanted to stay here for a month or more but extentions in India, Nepal and Egypt have cut our time to a busy ten days. Next time we will get to Istanbul!
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