THE SULTAN OF BAYTOWN

There have been many requests for this picture. This was taken at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

We are home

We are home, not with out some difficulty, but home. We are two of the most inspected people on this earth. In Turkey there are 2 inspections at the airport. The first one is as everyone walks in door and then another one at the gate. In Bodrum we had two inspections to get on the plane. We got to Istanbul and called the hotel to pick us up. “Sir, you have no reservation. Do you have a confirmation number?” Yes I do and I have a confirmation email. They have no record of this. They had an open room, so they picked us up and all our luggage. Did i mention luggage, we went with 2 bags and 2 backpacks total. On the way back, we had five bags and 2 backpacks. Anne was in charge of spreading the US government's economic stimulus package to Turkey. I was also bringing back two rugs.

We go to the hotel and had to go through another inspection. We are up to three.Yes, an X-ray at the door of the hotel. I gave the desk clerk my email confirmation. He apologized and sent us to a room. This was about 11:30 PM. We had a wake up call to meet the flight for 03:30.

Back to the airport, two more inspections (count is now 5). We checking in at the counter and were told we had 1 too many bags so we had to pay a fee. Off to the ticket counter and paid 103 TL, not bad, a good deal. Back to check in again, we give the clerk the card, “I am so sorry they did this wrong, I will call them”. Back to the ticket counter, and now the fee is 332 TL. My guess is that she only charged us to go to Amsterdam rather than all the way to Houston. Still, not a bad deal.

We are on the plane and the flight is uneventful till we get to Schiphol. A large team of Dutch passport people are waiting at the gate. I have never had this happen before there. They checked each and every one of us( count is up to 6). We make to the Schiphol gate only to be inspected again (7), but they won’t let me pass. They wanted the form that showed I had paid the excess luggage fee in Istanbul. No one had said I would have to produce this ever again. Thank goodness I had not thrown it out. Anne and I dug around in the back pack and found it. I finally passed and boarded the fight.

It was not crowded, so we all could spread out, and get some sleep. We made it Houston a bit early, all the bags arrived, rugs too. We passed passport control uneventfully, then we went to customs. We were told to go to “special x-ray”. We were met by a nice agent there, who looked at our customs declaration. We checked that we had been in a rural area and been to a farm, as we had. All our shoes had to be cleansed/disinfected (8). So out come the shoes, she proceeded to disinfect all our shoe bottoms, and sent us on our way. We get to the car, the battery is dead. The car park came by and gave us a jump. It started promptly and we paid and left for 3809 Linkview.

When we got home we had a strange desire to be x-rayed before we went in the house.

Outside of that, the trip home was very uneventful. I don’t think Osama Bin laden has this much trouble when traveling.

Anyway we are back!

Well today is our last here in Iasos. We will be leaving tonight on our long return home. This has been a great experience. We really want to thank Angelika for a great time and more than that for allowing us to really be and feel part of the culture and her home here.

My Uncle Jean is remembered very fondly by many of the locals and they have extended this towards Edward and me. Being Invited to a Sunnet, Invitations to local homes and even watching a Turkish soap opera on TV, with live translated commentary,which was a scream, it was all great.

We have many more stories and pictures to share so if you are smart you will do well to avoid our phone calls and avoid invitations to watch summer vacation movies. You have been WARNED!! : )

Ps Though for any of you animal behaviorists we really DO have a " Turkish tortoise romance video" Sat 7:00 BYOB

Wow what a day!!

We had a great day of visiting Greek and Roman sites near here. We also had a great day, because we learned our friend Mary Prihoda is home from the hospital and on the mend.

First, we visited a 1000, yup that is one thousand year old olive tree. It was on the family property of our driver today. We also met some of his family harvesting olives. It is the harvest season here in Turkey.

A 1,000 year old olive tree

Our driver Ender and some of his family, which we disturbed while they were trying to harvest their olives.

Younger people with the old tree.

Next we drove to Didyma Temple. It was a massive Temple for the Oracle of Apollo. This was the most important oracle in the Greek world for Asia Minor and second only to the one in Delphi. So this was the real deal. The temple was never finished is was supposed to have 122 columns, but only about 74 got built and some of them were incomplete. These columns were gigantic, I paced off 8 to 9 feet in diameter.


Post earthquake view, we don't have a pre-earthquake view, as cameras had not been invented.
The columns are enormous. This was a very important site for the Greeks, as all of this effort would not have been put into a "normal" temple.

Medusa, keeping the temple safe from evil spirits.


It's all Greek to me.

Naturally, being Turkey, the Oracle is a cat, for a minor sacrifice of tuna, she will divine your your future.




To learn more about this site, see the URL below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didyma



The next two sites we visited showed the hazards of buying waterfront property. Unlike Galveston, they did not lose shoreline , but gained it. Both sites were built at the shore of inlets of the Aegean, but had rivers change course, the harbor silted in and now are somewhat distant from the water. However the land is very fertile farmland between them and the water.


Miletos or Miletus, I have seen it spelled both ways was an important city, originally founded in 1400 BCE. It went through its Greek and Roman periods and was destroyed once by the Persians. The remains today are of the Roman theater. Angelika pointed out that Greek theaters placed into the hillside with the stage in the "valley" so to speak. It blended with the environment more. The Romans built their theaters on a prominent point and built then up so that they could be seen for miles. More expensive and they projected powder. This building held about 15,000 and was very well designed to have it empty after a performance in 20 to 30 minutes. Tailgating had not been invented yet.



The plan


One of the well healed patrons enjoying a day at the theater.


Hey lady, these are our seats!


From the Bottom


From inside the arena area.


From the top


We also made it in time for turtle mating season. To see the video, go to our adult site $19.95 membership fee.


http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/miletus

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Aegean/Ephesus/prien_milet_didim/miletus.html



Priene

Another of the old shoreline cites that lost their port when the river moved. This place was awesome, it is very still, very high in the hills. We took a picnic lunch up the hill and ate in the Greek theater. It was just too cool. Anne thought this was the best site ever. The only problem I have with Turkey it seems everything is uphill.




Everything is uphill here!

Our destination, the theater.


Here we are!!

The lunch bunch- a great place to have a picnic lunch

A literal ringside seat

A lovely patron of the theater arts


Who said bring in the clowns????



Come down to Mustafa Eddie's used column pick a part yard. Let me put you in a late model (3rd or 4th ) BCE model



Here is nice little model, used only by an elderly Goddess to go to and from the forum.
A funny thng happened to her onthe way to the forum, but that's another story.


The end of a very perfect day....

More about Priene is at:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/priene.htm

It's a rainy day in Kiyikishlajik

Its a rainy day today in Kiyikishlajik, to be referred to in the future as Iasos (its easier to spell) . We were going to 3 Greek/Roman sites today. The rain and overcast postponed that until tomorrow. Anne and Angelika rode the minibus to Milas to attend the Turkish Bath. It's ladies day at the bath,no men allowed, so I am here in the village with the 9 cats on the patio.

This village is a poor farming and fishing village. Everyone has several occupations, the gardener is also a carpenter. The grocer does electrical work. The mullah at the mosque also is a painter and carpenter. There is a market once a week where you can get fresh foods, textiles, small appliances, etc. We went to the market yesterday. No, these two ladies have never seen a market that did not want to visit. We then were taken to the beach by Angelika's neighbors. They have a car. The village is very restful, there is always fresh food, fresh fish, many ladies bake in their homes and sell to others. I can see why Angelika lives here for about half the year. she earns money by doing tours. She is amazingly fluent in Turkish, German, French, English and Greek. I can barely speak English. She and Jean, her late husband, really liked coming here. There are few ex-pats of various countries living here. There are a bunch of "developments" closer to the shore that appeals to 2nd home condo owners. they ave several that attach the English and some for middle class Turkish. There have been several more developments in the area that simply ran out of money or failed for some reason. They are standing unfinished and abandoned. Really weird,



On the way to the Market we spot potential dinner

A little palce we are thinking about putting a down payment on.


Let the shopping begin!!!

The breaksfast club, prepared fresh

Mumm this is good. It was wrap made of a thin flour tortilla like pastry with cheese and fresh green vegtables rolledup inside. Sort of a Turkish burrito.



On the way to the beach



arriving at the beach



Getting our feet wet.

Trip on the Bosporus

Angelika has a freind Ali who is also a tour guide. He was taking a group of Germans from the Saarland on a excursion up the Bosporus. He invited us to tag along. The boat takes us up the strait to where it merges with the Black Sea. The only marker is some channel markers to show the ships they are leaving the Strait and going to the Black Sea. There were a few interesting Palaces and homes along the shore as we traveled.

Leaving shore to start the trip
Istanbul Asian Side






Summer home of the Sultan


The New Sultan's Palace circa 1900


Where the Bosporus meets the Black Sea


Sunset Back to Shore

Istanbul - Hippadrome and Blue Mosque

I have attached a couple of Istanbul maps so you can get an idea of ow the city is laid out. It surrounds the the confluence of the Bosporus Strait, the Golden horn, and the Marmera Sea.
The Golden horn is really an inlet of the Bosporus, but is referred to as a separate area. It has played an inportant part in Turkish history, as a port for Roman, Greek, Genovese, Byzantine and Ottoman fleets. In history, the "owners of Istanbul", have tried to block the straits to keep invaders from coming in via the Black Sea by putting chains across the narrowest point. Smart invaders have taken their ships via portage arounn the blockage and put them in the Golden Horn to defeat the blockade. Anyway this is the overal layout and few of the places we visited are marked on the map.

We went to the Hioppadrome the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace which are all closely located.
The Hippadrome was a horse/chariot racing venue built by the Greeks and Romans. There is not much left know but a lovely boulevard. The Ottomans tore it down. It is very crowded with tourists and vendors trying to sell something to the tourists. A few views of us and the little left of the hippodrome.





On to the Blue Mosque.

The locals call it the Sultan's Mosque. It got its name from the blue walls and tiles decorating it.
It is not as blue as it was, some of the blue paint has been removed. It was dark inside so we had a tough time getting pics, but we have few and Anne tried the movie function of our camera to get to sweeping views of the size, etc. We are not great at this yet, but we hope it gives you and idea.

Quick Facts

Names:	Blue Mosque; Sultanahmet Camii; Sultanahmet Mosque
Type of site:	Mosque
Dates:	1609-1616
Architecture:	Ottoman
Architect:	Mehmet Aga
Status:	Active
Location:	Next to the Hagia Sophia in central Istanbul, Turkey
Phone:	(0212) 518 1319
Open:	9am-6pm, except during daily prayer times (about a half-hour, five times daily) and midday on Fridays

For more info on the Blue Mosque:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque








Across the courtyard from the Blue Mosque is the Topkapi Palace, whcih has home to the Ottoman sultans for most of their reign. More info on Topkapi can be found at:
http://www.anadol.com/topkapisarayi.htm

We toured all the courtyards, the harem, the sultans quarters, etc. The kitchens are closed due to restoration, but are supposed to be quite impressive. Remember there were 10-15,000 people housed here. That's a lot of folks to feed.






The ceramic tile work of the Ottomans is just amazingly beautiful. Most is in areas too dark to photograph and no flash is allowed.