Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

One day after. 

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Ari Tatil - Konya V

 This was the knock out, really your imagination could run wild, I have tried to find some more detail about this 'Talismanic Shirt' . It belonged to Sultan Veled, from the 14th Century. This was a wrap over top as you would see the dervish wear for Sema - I'm intrigued if it was for religious or war purposes, so many stories could be woven from this garment....

not quite the same but,

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1998.199

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/453498

Wordless Wednesday

Ari Tatil - Konya IV

This slightly crumbly silk this prayer rug tickled me. I love the feet places - even though they are midget size and really quite beautiful for feet placing, but the tulips, carnations and ? flowers really make this for me, the vibrant red silk pervades, this must have been a stunning piece in it's prime. I forgot to record the details.

Ari Tatil - Konya III

Around the edge of the courtyard facing the turbe are the cells that were used by the resident dervish, these have been nicely restored into a small museum, some show how the rooms would have been arranged for various purposes - others hold significant artefacts. There are a few beautiful textile pieces, however the 'Serpush' that belonged to Shems of Tabriz (Mevlana's spiritual guide) amazed me - from the 13 century - yep so that is 800 years old.... or near about, it is 2 sided, and it says on the museum label that it is a 'fabric upon two sided carpet cap'. It has real substance and is similar to a mitre in style. I love the stitching. Amazing condition.

Ari Tatil - Konya II

The tiles around Mevlan's tomb were stunning, the 'cloth' made from metal.The energy here was astounding. However this was my second trip across the graveyard to the Turbe, the first trip I could not get within seeing distance (below) the surrounds have beautiful graves, and way too many people.

               

A new corner

After a few days short of 10 years in Turkey came back to the UK,

1 child more

1 husband less

2 house moves

3 proposals of marriage (I will reply to you one day ES) no weddings of course. 

5 different cell phone numbers 

6 years at Hisar for the twins

7 years of singledom 

10 hour drive to Fethiye (I was told it was 7)

11 Trips to Antalya
15 Suitcases to the UK
212 Old Area code

705 Blog posts
1953 New Area code
86, 000 km driven
3644 days in Turkey
too much love and laughter to count..... we will miss you!

    

Wordless Wednesday .... night

Ari Tatil - Konya I

I was promised by a Dervish friend a trip to Konya.... this never ever happened, hence taking my self (one thing about Turkish men - they promise the moon.)
The Mevlana Cultural Centre is on the outskirts of the town - it is a small place and we secured a passable 2 bed apartment near to it - it was nice to have a base that wasn't a hotel, travelling with littles makes it difficult to get their exact way of making chocolate milk or pasta with butter and black pepper.... this place was perfect. It was across a beautifully lush cemetery to Mevlana's Tomb.
The Sema (Whirling ceremony) is held only on a Saturday night at 7pm, at 6pm there is a talk in English by a professor from the local university.
Having been to many Semas, touristic and real ones in Tekke, this was quite different, comfortable, like stadium seating, announcements and lighting. I prefer the Cerrahi Tekkesi in Karagumluk. (Not Melvana Dervish - different sect but they are comparable for the ceremony)
There was no charge of course, and truly it was worth going to, but it is a lot easier to see in Istanbul than in Konya.....

Ari Tatil - between Ankara and Konya

Wide open spaces, long empty roads...... no fences - crops for miles upon end.....

Wordless Wednesday

Ari Tatil - First stop - Ankara IV

 

 

The reason for coming to Ankara was to go to the Anitkabir, the tomb of Ataturk.
It is impressive - the scale is MASSIVE. We arrived the day after the national holiday, and were shoved in with a group of military visitors, maybe we didn't look like tourists or it was my red jacket!
We gained speedy access to the morseleum then went to the museum - both really worth the visit.
What impressed me however were the guards. In Turkey we have compulsory military service, each guard was a substantial specimen - really they had sifted the tall and handsome for this duty, they stand on a pedestal - about 6 inches tall - but all were very much taller than the average Turk.

Ne mutlu Türküm diyene (English: How happy is the one who says I am Turkish)

Ari Tatil - First stop - Ankara III

In the castle area is a Koc museum - like it's Istanbul sister is it beautifully laid out and has a quirky mixture ranging from old brick telephones to steam engines. Not too big, with a restaurant in the court yard and I guess the roof opens, beautiful light fittings - reminding me more of a mosque.
However the best thing was the medicine cabinet from the pharmacy display in the basement -
Translated - the green side - Light poisons - red side, Killer poisons..... surely all poisons are Poisonous?? I love this concept.....

Ari Tatil - First stop - Ankara II

We were instructed to go to the Castle - we took a longer route, walking through the slightly crumbly area up to the castle it's self (just restored walls with NO safety precautions) a stop for Gozleme then to the next part..... I love the way an extra few inches were squeezed from the air for the second floor of these buildings.

Wordless Wednesday

Ari Tatil - First stop - Ankara

The day before we left Istanbul for our voyage of discovery was Children and Sovereignty day, celebrating the establishment of the Turkish Parliament, the day was then given to the children as a holiday.... this is the first parliament,.... the front was rather like a judges podium but impossible to photograph. The desks were like school desks, and I am sure things happened quickly as it looked really quite uncomfortable!
The other picture is of Ottoman Turkish, and modern Turkish - the first books after the 'letter revolution' when over night the language was re-defined, not only adopting a roman script, but vowel harmony and rigid rules about agreements within sentences, a new way of speaking which was designed in part to level out the dialect between the regions and create a single new Turkish language, quite an achievement in a short space of time.

Wordless Wednesday

Ari Tatil - where we went....

So this became the plan,
Ankara - to see Ataturk's tomb, with additional guiding provided by Istanbul friend via whataspp....
Konya - needed to be there for Saturday night - it is the only day you can see the Dervishes spin
Goreme - Cappadocia - seemed the most relaxed town in the area, lots of stuff close by.
Afyonkarahisar - We wanted Yalova but 1, I couldn't face a 10 hour drive, 2. We wanted a thermal hotel so the kids could swim and I could sit in HOT water. Not exactly the nicest place to stay but it was a good location.

Istanbul - Ankara , 5 hours, Ankara - Konya 3 hours, Konya - Goreme - 2.5 hours, Goreme to Afyon - 6 hours, Afyon - home - 6 hours...... a lot of driving.... some squabbling in the back.... some empty threats.....

Ari Tatil - roadtrip

Last week was Ari-tatil - kind of half term, spring break or if you are Turkish - bee holiday! I decided we were going on a road trip. Turkey is a massive country, it's highway structure, lakes and mountains make road travel slow, most people do long distance by air or bus, the train system is under developed. Air ironically is often cheaper than the bus.
However, I like driving and the country is spectacularly beautiful.... so road trip it was. I wanted to go to Konya desperately - I have been promised a guide, but like many Turkish promises it was full of hot air (real hot air later in the trip)
So my choice was Konya, the kids selected Gaziantep, Trabzon, Ankara, Cappadocia and Izmir, they also requested a swimming pool - or access to the sea at some point.
Check the map - these places don't make sense in the time (8 nights) unless I drove all night.

oops...

You know there is a great thing on blogger.... scheduled post.... this means you can write a post, and it goes live when you want it to.... We have just had a week of holiday, I set all my scheduled posts..... and .... nothing.... I was too 'busy' to check, I just thought it would happen... ufff....

2091 km road trip to come

Elefanta island.

A year ago, to the day, I was in Mumbi, curry for breakfast... The day spent on Elefanta Island, then swimming.... Magical. 

Children's holiday

In celebration of the Turkish parliament being established in 1920, the day is marked with a holiday - each year following originally it was a Sovereignty day, then it was made Children's Day in 1927. School is out but the lower years are expected to go to school for flag waving. Banks and governmental building are closed (shopping malls are open of course!)

Wordless Wednesday

Emirgan Park - Tulip festival, part 3 - the ugly.....

 

 

So you just got married, 

Where do you go for your pictures?? 

Yes the Tulip Festival - of course - it will be nice and quiet .... hahahaha

it is quite usual to see brides in the parks - registry offices are usually quite dire places, not everyone can afford a hotel with nice grounds for pictures,  however why get all hufffy about small kids photobombing your wedding pics when you choose such a public place. 

These people really ...... 

Tutting once again..... 

The purple and black wedding dress was really not very flattering..... she was quite a substantial bride and it made her look more like a summer pudding than a meringue. There were 4 fully covered brides in the park.....