Another great day in Turkey

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Travel from Konya to Antalya, Turkey

My alarm clock. Yes, the call to prayer comes very early.

Well today would be another travel day with a few stops along the way and we had one stop in Konya before we headed to Antalya. This was at the Mevlana Museum which is an old lodging of the whirling dervishes. There is also a small mosque and the Mevlana Tomb which contains the tombs of many dervishes including Mevlana’s sarcophagus. Mevlana was a poet and author of religious writing. He was a great student of Islamic theology. After his death Mevlana’s son created the brotherhood of Mevlevi or whirling dervishes which exerted considerable conservative influence on the country’s political, social and economic life. Mevlana was a mystic of islam but not a muslim of the Orthodox type. He saw all religions as more or less the truth. Several Ottoman Sultans were mystics and although the sect was banned for a short time by Ataturk in the 1920's, the tradition remained strong and continues today. This is a very holy place for Muslims who can often be seen praying for Mevlana’s help.

In the courtyard of the Mevlana Museum.

It really was a neat old place to visit. They normally make you remove your shoes before entering mosques but here they just made us cover them with little disposible booties. Reminded me of heading into the OR something. The museum is full of old items but the neatest were the old Korans, including the world’s smallest Koran and an amulet. The amulet would contain a certain or a few certain passages from the Koran and would be worn as protection from hexes or spells. Sorry, no pictures allowed.

We then continued on our journey to Antalya. We stopped along the way for a pit stop and just as we were leaving we were approached by a group of kids. They were heading to a Mai Tai competition and saw us and wanted to take a picture with us. Once again it appears we are a tourist attraction. So we took a couple pictures and a couple of the boys demonstrated some moves for us.

The drive to Antalya was quite enjoyable. Kind of like driving through Kananaskis in Alberta. Lots of trees and green and if look up a little bit of snow on some of the mountains. It was actually really nice. So glad someone else was doing the driving.

Some of the randomness I saw when I wasn't sleeping.

Eventually we did arrive at the highlight of the day and certainly one of the highlights of Turkey thus far........... Aspendos Theatre.

An outside look at Aspendos Theatre. Trust me it looks very different on the inside.

It is considered to be the best preserved Roman theatre in the ancient world. It was constructed between 80-161 AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and then restored in the 13th century. It certainly is breathtaking and I found myself going WOW as I entered through the archway. You can imagine the atmosphere back in the day when the stands were full and there was a play on the stage. It continues to be fun for me to visit these places knowing that when they would have been at the height of thier use......I would have been kept out because I am a woman.

An inside look at Aspendos theatre.

Me hanging out on stage.

The acoustics of the place are just amazing and that was demonstrated by a few people including Ergun, Liezel and a few of us singing happy birthday to Sam.

Some of our theatre entertainment. This guy is a complete stranger.

Of course we had to climb to the top row of the seats to get a full view of the place. I made it to the top without an issue but once I was up there and started to look down I started getting queasy and dizzy and had to quickly make my way back down to a lower level. I think the level of light at that time of day made it difficult for me to focus on anything and then the vertigo set in. Not a good feeling at all.

Ed, Winston, Ergun, Reshmi, Paul (waving at me), Monica and Sam enjoying what Ergun has to say.....while I enjoyed the theatre from much closer to the ground. Liezel and Eva are not in this picture because they are off taking many, many pictures of thier own.

I missed a little bit of Ergun’s commentary on the theatre itself but I felt better being closer to the ground and that is all that counted.

Sam, Ergun, Winston, Me and Eva. This is one of the many, many pictures that Liezel took.

The group of us having some fun at Aspendos.

So after our visit to the theatre…....which was truly fabulous, we headed to the hotel….which happens to be located in the Inner Castle in Antalya (the ancient City of Antalya). So basically it is a fenced in area of the city with lots of old, old buildings many of which have been turned into hotels and restaurants and that kind of thing and pretty much everyone you meet is either a tourist or someone who wants to sell something to a tourist. We met a guy who said he was one of Ergun’s best friends and that is why we should shop in his store. Ergun doesn’t know him but the guys in the area apparently like to know the names of the tour guides so they can try to lure in the tourists. It really did feel like the giant fence was keeping us in but we negotiated our way around for a bit before it was time for dinner.

Hanging out on the outer fence of the inner castle. We kind of felt like we were going to have to swim our way out. Oh well, at least we knew there would not be a lot of vehicle traffic in the area since they don't let many in.

Hadrian's Gate which was built in 130 AD to honour the visit of Emperor Hadrianus. It is the only remaining entrance to the ancient city of Antalya. It was covered with sand for many years so is very well preserved.

It was Sam’s birthday today so we actually had a reason to celebrate….not that being in Turkey was not reason enough. Ergun and Ekrem managed to get a cake and it was a complete surprise to Sam. It was a lot of fun. We are only a few days into this trip but I have a feeling the group is going to get close. It is really nice to travel with a small group in a small van instead of the giant bus. Gives us a lot more time to get to know each other.

The group of us waiting for Sam to cut his birthday cake. Sitting between Ed and I is Ekrem who has been taking care of all the driving duties for our trip.

Julie