Travelling Hopefully - Dardanelles Edition

 The city of Canakkale looks out over the Dardanelles. It really has little choice since the Dardanelles have shown no sign of moving. The Dardanelles are of course familiar to most Australians as the scene of the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War. It is familiar to the Turks for the same reason although the Turks refer to it as the Battle of Canakkale. Gallipoli (or Canakkale) was the Turks only clear cut victory in the First World War and furthermore a prominent part was played by Mustafa Kemal the man who would go on to build the secular Turkish state that exists today. As such it occupies a prominent place in modern Turkish history and is seen as the starting point from which the new Turkish nation emerged.

Subsequently other things have emerged like a wooden horse of Troy. Not the real one which, even if it existed (which it didn't), would probably have decayed by now given that the Trojan War, if it happened, took place more than two thousand years ago. No, the wooden horse of Troy in Canakkale is the one built for the 2004 movie Troy which (in another atrocity perpetrated against the Greeks) starred Brad Pitt. After the movie the horse was taken to Canakkale and set up on the waterfront where it is eagerly photographed by tourists who weren't satisfied with the fake horse that is actually set up in Troy (I have photos of both). 

There are also artillery pieces set up in the parks which are part of the batteries that defended the Dardanelles and were thus indirectly responsible for the entire Gallipoli campaign in the first place. Canakkale was actually a pleasant place, it's a university town which means a lot of night life and there is a handsome waterfront adorned with various eating establishments (plus a large wooden horse and a derelict submarine). The waterfront was important as after a stay in an overheated hotel we piled into our bus and drove onto a ferry to take us across the water to the site of the Gallipoli landings.

The area is a huge park/cemetery, quiet (when we were there at least) and still. The heights behind the landing beach are an indication of exactly how silly the idea was in the first place. There are memorials for Australian troops at Lone Pine and New Zealand troops at Chunuk Bair. There is also a handsome memorial to the 57th regiment of the Ottoman 19th division who were the first to meet, and stop, the Australians short of their objectives on the first day of the landings. Mustafa Kemal sent them into battle with the words, "I do not order you to fight. I order you to die. In the time it takes us to die our reinforcements will arrive." Kemal himself didn't die although he came very close but a large chunk of the 57th regiment did.

We spent a few hours at Gallipoli wandering through the parks and memorials and seeing what is essentially the foundation stone for three separate countries. Newfoundland troops also served there but they wound up as part of Canada despite not really wanting to.

With Gallipoli behind us we pointed our nose towards Istanbul and the end of our journey. Once again the staggering size of Istanbul was brought home to us as we ploughed through it for what seemed like ages. That night we had a farewell dinner and I got to ride on a funicular. It's nice to end on a high point. By this point I was rather sick and was surviving by gobbling over the counter cold medication which in Turkey seems to contain significantly more of the active ingredient than you will find in Australia. It is to this alone that I attribute the fact that I was actually capable of standing on the last three days of the tour. 

Travelling Hopefully - Fluffy Squirrel of Troy Edition

 Troy, one of the most famous cities in the ancient world or at least the Mediterranean adjacent part thereof. It’s history goes back to at least 2500BC and whenever it got wrecked such of the locals as survived persistently rebuilt it. So far about a dozen iterations of the same city have been found piled on top of each other.

Of course Troy is most famous for the entire Greek-Trojan war thing which may or may not have happened and if it did happen may or may not have played out the way we think. We have Homer’s word for it of course but since there’s some doubt as to whether he existed or not his testimony shouldn’t necessarily be taken at face value.

Still something pretty devastating happened to the Troy du jour at roughly time that we think the Trojan War may have happened. The survivors pieced together their shattered lives and their shattered city as best they could. Like many fallen empire since they relied on the tourist trade to restore their economy. Fortunately they had an amazing publicist. Homer may not have existed but he had a way with words and everybody who was anybody in the ancient world wanted a few selfies on the spot where Hector and Achilles threw hands. It got even more intense when the Romans took over as the Romans claimed their city was founded by a Trojan prince who escaped the city when it fell. As creation myths go this has the advantage of being slightly more plausible than the entire “suckled by a she-wolf” thing which was the Roman’s other stab at explaining their existence.

Troy rose and fell so often that an outside observer would probably have got nauseous just watching it. Finally Troy fell for good (so far) and eventually got covered in dirt. Strangely the worst thing to happen to Troy occurred some  centuries later when a light fingered egomaniac from Germany turned up. This charmer thought archaeology involved blowing things up with dynamite and stealing everything not nailed down. He was only half right. Still his antics put Troy back on the map.

All of which is a very long winded way of explaining why I was currently traipsing through partially unearthed rubble for the third day in a row. Don’t misunderstand me, I was well aware of the historical and cultural significance of Troy it’s just that to the untrained eye one crumbling piece of stone seems very like another and,  hey look! A squirrel! Our guide informed us that the site of Troy was rather well endowed with squirrels and I spent the rest of my time there looking for a photo opportunity with one. Perhaps that could be Troy’s new marketing slogan “Come for the horse, stay for the squirrels”. 

Travelling Hopefully - Yet More Ruins Edition

Despite being possessed of St John’s basilica, a rather significant mosque and the ruins of an aqueduct running through the middle of town Selcuk is most famous for being a five minute drive from Ephesus.

What is Ephesus? Well nowadays it’s a large expanse of stone and ruins but back in the day it was one of the most important cities in the world as long as you define “the world” as being the central eastern Mediterranean. Still Ephesus was somewhere significant and had been for a considerably long time.

Ancient (or at least reasonably old) Greeks founded the place allegedly on an existing cult centre. As with most things Ancient Greek it wound up being slightly less ancient Roman as if to prove that no amount of philosophy and learning will protect you from a hard bastard with a sword.

Subsequent to that it became one of the earliest centres of Christian learning. Saint John preached there and St Paul wrote them endless letters and various church councils were held there. Eventually a combination of Goths, earthquakes and river siltation persuaded the surviving occupants to move somewhere a little less fragile.

In addition to the above Ephesus was home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately some nutcase burnt it down and all that’s left is a single column slapped together from the ruins to mark the spot.

We spent a happy few hours wandering around the ruins and photographing the random cats and dogs that were also wandering the ruins. My favourite was the library of Celcius which was built to honour a prominent local Roman. His son had actually wanted to build a big mausoleum for his father on some of the choicest real estate in the city. The local officials said “No” at which point the son came back and said “How about I build a really impressive library instead and stuff Daddy’s corpse under the floorboards?” Apparently the city authorities were fine with that so an awesome library holding twelve thousand scrolls (and at least one corpse) was created. Modern librarians might want to take note if they’re short on funding.

Ephesus also has an onsite museum that gives a video show of the city’s history. It’s quite a good show and at the end of it my knowledge of Ephesus had been marginally increased.

Travelling Hopefully - Overunning Cup Edition

Our tour guide presented with two pieces of good news before we left Pumukkale. Firstly he had managed to wangle us a balloon ride over the ruins of Hierapolis the next day. Great joy was evinced by all and sundry. Then having dangled the bait he pulled out the big one. That afternoon we would go to a wine tasting from a local winery. Cheers rang out around the room. Some of the more emotional had cheeks wet with tears.

It is fair to say that we looked forward to the coming dawn with a sense of anticipation normally only felt by those who believed the last judgment was at hand.

Early (but not too early) the next morning we were deposited in a field and left in the care of people whose idea of fun was blasting immense amounts of air and gas into giant condom shaped things spread out on the grass.

Air and gas were duly blasted and when the sad shriveled fabric had transformed into round bulbous growths looming over our heads we were invited to clamber into the basket. Assistance was given to the feeble and those who had changed their minds at the last minute.

Then we and fifty or so other balloons were aloft, rising into the morning sky silent except for the blasts from the flame jets and the excited squeals of the passengers. My apologies to anyone who was disturbed by my excited squeals.

From up above I could look down on the theatre at Hierapolis and gaze across the countryside laid out like the world’s best map beneath me. Down below vehicles raced down the streets trying to reach our landing spot before we did. The sun came up from behind the Taurus mountains (yes, they’re still around) and I almost gibbered with joy. 

Eventually what goes up had to come down. A four wheel drive with a trailer was parked in a convenient field. We glided low and the pilot actually landed us on the trailer at which point willing hands lashed the basket to the trailer to prevent us drifting off again.

Once safely back on terra firma we headed off for wine tasting. Sorry, I mean the charming Turkish town of Selcuk which was conveniently located near the ruins of the city of Ephesus a major centre and port of the ancient world.  Selcuk is also the location of the basilica of St John the Apostle (the one who wrote the Book of Revelations). Allegedly he is buried there although solid proof is lacking.

We ate lunch in a mounting frenzy of anticipation until our guide could withstand the pointed comments no longer and we made the short voyage to the village of Sirince which is famous for its picturesque architecture and fruit wines.

We arrived, wine was drunk. Some of it was quite good all of it was consumed. Then I had ice cream, as you do.

Travelling Hopefully - Limestone Edition

It is a commonly held fallacy that any liquid takes on magical qualities if it has bubbles in it. This explains the appeal of champagne and soda water. If you pass said water through a couple of random chemicals suddenly you have a healing spring and people will flock to it eagerly for a “cure”. 

This made a lot more sense in ancient times when a one in ten survival rate was still better than most doctors could claim. So it isn’t surprising that when the Ancients in what would eventually become Turkey discovered warm springs bubbling out of limestone they went nuts for it and built a spa town called Hierapolis right next to the source of these healthful waters. What is slightly more surprising is that the place is now a ruin rather than a thriving health resort.

And what an impressive ruin it is. There are Roman ruins heaped on top of earlier Greek ruins. There is an impressive set of Roman baths, now a museum containing relics dug up from the surrounding site. There’s also an extensive necropolis. As any medical practitioner will tell you the best place to find corpses is a hospital. People die there all the time. It’s the same with Hierapolis, being a centre of health and healing meant it attracted the sick and the dying. A goodly number of them never left.

One can still bathe in the warm mineral springs if you think it will do you any good. The occasional drowning aside it probably won’t do you any harm which is the first requirement for a medical treatment. I didn’t bother, deciding to treat my disease riddled body in the traditional manner, by paying a doctor to misinterpret my symptoms and prescribe some generic drugs that probably cause your colon to explode if you mix up the dosage. Medical science, as you can see, has moved on although its destination remains in doubt.

I did go to the theatre which is huge for the ancient world and amazingly well preserved given that the entire city was flattened by an earthquake. I managed to get a few good photos once we shoved the influencers out of the way.

By this time it was evening and we repaired to our hotel in nearby Pamukkale. This is a Turkish town that seems to exist so tourist buses heading for Hierapolis have somewhere to park. Our hotel had a pool that we didn’t swim in.

Travelling Hopefully - Greenhouse Edition

One of the hidden gems of the trip so far has been being informed of whatever agricultural product the particular region of Turkey we’re travelling through is famous for. As we headed towards Beypazari on the first day it was all about carrots. Cappadocia was grapes and pumpkins then Konya, centre of Turkey’s wheat belt. As we approached the Taurus Mountains we were solemnly informed that strawberries were the crop du jour and down around Antalya and Kas it is cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes.

To facilitate the production of the latter the flat land (there isn’t much) is covered in domed structures. From a distance it looks like an industrial estate but they’re actually greenhouses. Only these aren’t just greenhouses they’re more like green mansions, sprawling estates where the aforementioned vegetation can grow unhindered by such trivialities as the weather.

Of course this proud defiance of nature has its limits. A flood has recently sloshed through the region leaving the locals to conduct frantic repair work. We passed them digging ditches and laying pipes. We lolled back in our comfortable minibus and wished them well as we put their efforts behind us.

We thought about these noble sons of the soil as we ate our salad that night. Well I didn’t but presumably somebody did. Or at least had vaguely positive thoughts towards farmers in general. On the positive side if there’s another flood the locals can upend their greenhouses and paddle them to safety.

Travelling Hopefully - Brief History Lesson

The trouble with anywhere in Turkey and indeed the whole Middle East is that no matter how long someone has been living in a place someone else was there first. Take Lycia where I am temporarily domiciled at the moment.

Lycia has been around in some form or another as far back as Wikipedia can remember. The Hittites knew about it at which time the Lycians had their own language and government. Then the Persians turned up and dispossessed the Lycians of such foolish notions. Only not really because the Persians were quite happy for the Lycians to go on being Lycian as long as they did what they were told. Which the Lycians dutifully did.

They fought with the Persians against the Greeks, lost and wound up as part of the empire of Athens. Apparently that wasn’t to their liking so they left, got conquered by somebody else who wound up being beaten by the Persians so Lycia wound up being Persian again. Then Alexander the Great dropped by. Once again the Lycians found that siding with the Persians against the Greeks was a losing proposition.

After that lax immigration policies resulted in most of the Lycians vanishing under a tide of Greek immigrants as Alexander’s successors settled down to rule various parts of his empire. That should be enough for any self respecting society but then the Romans came. The Romans gave Lycia to Rhodes (Why? Don’t know) then took it back again and made them a self governing protectorate. Some time later the Romans converted them to a non self governing province.

Over a thousand years went by and any surviving Lycians and their Greek replacements might thought things had settled down a bit. Then Romanus Diogenes made a mess of the Battle of Manzikert and suddenly Lycia was welcoming the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks didn’t hang around long in the grand scheme of things and little over a century later Lycia was part of the Beylik of Teke. Never heard of the Beylik of Teke? Don’t worry it didn’t last any longer than it took the Ottoman Turks to become aware of its existence.

Now Lycia is an integral part of modern Turkey and surely will remain so because history never repeats itself over and over again. All we have to remember the Lycians is a bunch of looted sarcophagi with roofs that look like ships and the occasional ruined city. Why the ship shaped sarcophagus roofs? Apparently the sea was very important to the Lycians. Possibly because it constituted the only escape route from the people constantly overrunning their homeland.