kamyanets-podilsky

one of the advantages of living in europe is that people visit...much more often than they do when you live in asia...i think i've already had more visitors in 5 months here than i did total in 3.5 years of living in korea...hmmm...note to self...since cloe (my flattie) is from france, that means her family and friends are even closer than mine, so she's also had visitors...woo hoo...
this weekend, her brother came to town...he was in kyiv for a couple days, and since cloe is tired of touring around the city, we decided to go out of town for the weekend...one of our coworkers suggested her hometown, in the west of ukraine...it sounded interesting, and we figured, why not?!?! i love that cloe is always up for a weekend trip...
our train left kyiv around 1630 friday evening, which meant that we left almost straight from school...i'm not a huge fan of doing that, but oh well...cloe had purchased the tickets earlier in the week and had a small adventure in doing so...she opted to find a ticketing office near our school, which wasn't quite as obvious as it should've been...she ended up talking to quite a few people on the street and having a couple complete strangers walk with her to figure it out...then, though we'd really only wanted to stay one day, the way the tickets worked out we were there for two full days...more time to explore is how i looked at it:)...(granted, it also meant not going home at all during the weekend, and arriving back in kyiv early monday morning...hmmmmm)

the train left on time, but didn't arrive on time...we were supposed to arrive in kamyanets podilsky at 2354...intsead it was almost 0030 by the time we arrived...there were plenty of taxis waiting around, and we took one of them to our hotel...the hotel knew we were coming, thank goodness...the guy who gave us our room keys didn't speak any english, and didn't make any real attempt to communicate with us, but he gave us a note that had been written out, it basically told us to go sleep and come pay in the morning...woo hoo...so sleep we did...

breakfast was interesting...we were given four choices, though i only remember two of them...both mornings all three of us chose fried eggs and 'sausage'...i put sausage in quotes because it wasn't any sort of sausage that any of us expected...hard to describe...since cloe and her brother are french, they were disappointed by the quality of the bread...it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't french bread...lol...there was rather tasteless salami and cheese for the bread, cloe and nathan didn't like that much either...breakfast also included tea and chocolate wafers...yahoo!!

we'd decided to do a half day trip to a nearby town called hotin (hotyn, khotin, khotyn, sp?) in order to see a fortress there...apparently the fortress has been used in several films...there isn't anything else to see there, but we figured why not...it's a small enough town that i knew if we didn't see khotyn during this trip, we wouldn't ever see it...the lady at our hotel told us how to get to the bus "station" (really just a spot on the street where a few matrushkas parked together) which turned out to be fairly easy...we hopped on a matrushka and waited for it to leave...cloe was soon deep in conversation with a local guy sitting in the seats in front of us, he told us when to get off the matrushka, and found us a taxi out to the fortress...

ukrainians are soooo friendly, and always willing to help out...(a huge difference from koreans in general...some koreans will help, but not many...nearly every ukrainian will try to help, even if they don't really understand what you're asking!!)...the taxi ride was quick, an easily walkable distance, so we decided to walk the way back...the fortress itself was rather small, and when we first walked in we completely missed the ticket office...whoops...probably because the sign announcing the kaca was rather small, and the taxi drove right past it...someone came into the fortress and told us to go buy tickets, so we did...there was no one checking tickets at the fortress entrance, i guess they just hope people buy the ticket as you're supposed to...i wonder if there is anyone in summer?

tickets firmly in hand, we walked back in and continued exploring...first, the church..a small, simple church...i didn't see any signs saying no photos allowed, so i took a quick photo inside...we were the only people in there at the time, i didn't feel as if we were intruding...
from there we continued along the path to the fortress...snow and ice (mostly snow) everywhere...everything white...since it was pretty quiet, we could hear the crunch of snow with each footfall...we could see the river, which was clearly frozen...beautiful...the inside of the fortress wasn't particularly exciting, but i loved it anywho...since it was small, we wanted to see every nook and cranny...

one of the towers had a small museum about torture used throughout history...it's amazing (fascinating and horrifying at the same time) what human beings will do to each other...how do people come up with ways to hurt each other? and what kind of person can do these things to another? sometimes the torture was purely physical...painful, and designed to be painful for as long as possible...sometimes part of the torture was the mental aspect...the fear of what is coming next, and how long it might last...eeek...
after climbing up every set of stairs we could find, we hoped to find a way down to the river, it would've been fun to walk on the ice...but the guy said it was closed, due to the snow/ice/cold...not surprisingly, they don't want people falling down a frozen path...i was tempted anywho, but for once in my life, erred on the side of caution...(this isn't at all common)

after exploring the fortress we explored the gift shop...i imagine it's a lot busier in warmer weather...still, there was some entertainment in what we could see...
instead of taking a taxi back to where we could pick up the bus, we walked...cloe and nathan hadn't paid any attention to where the taxi took us, but i had, and knew it would be an easy walk...and it was...chilly of course, as the road wasn't at all clear...there aren't many vehicles in khotyn, so the snow and ice hasn't melted or been removed at all...we could even see the gas lines in front of each house...i don't know why they're out in the open like that?

we checked out a grocery store (kit kats are cheaper in kyiv) then hopped back on a marshutka to kamyanets podilsky...we thought we'd explore part of the old town before it got dark, and eat...the map in lonely planet only shows the old town, so we weren't sure where we needed to go to get there; thankfully a couple people on the street pointed us in the right direction...
we got to the old town and quickly found a restaurant...the restaurant was listed in the guidebook, and cloe had thought it sounded interesting, so why not? a russian place, with completely russian menus...only we didn't get to see the menus...the waitress figured out quickly that we didn't speak any russian, she must've assumed we didn't read any either...i'm not a quick reader, and wouldn't have understood most of what i was reading, but i wish we'd had the chance to try...anywho, she got her mobile phone, called someone who knew a bit of english, and that someone sortof put together our orders...soup, salad, pork, potatoes and tea...cloe and nathan wanted beef, but that wasn't available...none of us was thrilled with what we had, but it wasn't bad either...the fun was in not really knowing what we were going to have...

after eating we walked through the old town...by that point it was after 1500, and you could tell the end of the light was coming relatively soon...and, it was COLD...maybe it just felt colder than it had because there was no one around...we saw only a few folks at this point...kinda creepy, but kinda cool at the same time...it was one of the few times i didn't have to wait for people to move out of the way to get better photos...there weren't people in the way to begin with!
the first thing we wanted to see was a cathedral...the gate we found was closed, and we figured we could see it the next day...the "souvenir town" was closed for the day (or for the season, we couldn't tell) so we missed that too...we found the dominican monastary, there was a service going on when we stepped in...

after the monastary we went to a small archeological museum...(the town has a redic number of museums, especially when you consider how small the town is!!)...very small...i don't know if we were the only visitors they had all day, or just that they'd gotten ready to go home when we showed up, and they opened back up...either way, they turned on the lights for us, and turned on the music...nearly every display had english and ukrainian information, which was neat...it's not a topic of particular interest to me, but it was small enough that i appreciated what i saw, and didn't feel overwhelmed with unwanted information...we also had fun with a few photos in the outdoor area...

from there we walked back to our hotel...i'd paid attention in the morning when we took the marshrutka, and i knew it was more or less a straight line...we stopped along the way, i originally suggested water...cloe and nathan did get water...i got ice cream...typical...
the evening's entertainment was something near and dear to my heart...bowling!!! we spotted a sign for the hotel across the street that said they had bowling...woo hoo!! after ben's visit in november and bowling with him, cloe was keen to try again...the first game was awesome...i was fantastic, if i do say so myself...i've definitely had better scores, but the fun was in my score being more than cloe's and nathan's combined...hee hee...i'd prefer to ignore/forget what happened after that...

the next morning we took our time getting out of bed, eating breakfast and making our way into town...we knew we had the whole day to see the town, and there wasn't much to see...we stopped first at a memorial with a tank...i think this is the third memorial cloe and i have seen with a tank in ukraine? nathan thought it was amusing, cloe and i thought "this is ukraine, why wouldn't there be a tank at a memorial?"
from there we kept going and made our way through the old town again, crossing the "turkish bridge" and entering the fortress...just like the fortress in khotyn, you can see several different architectural styles...not that this sort of thing matters to me...bricks, wood, stone...it was cold...very very cold...when we were in the shade we got really cold, really fast...at one point we had to go inside, because our hands and feet were FREEZING...sure, we'd been cold all day, but this was the kind of cold that is painful...the museum was the history of kamyanets podilsky...for being a small town, there was actually quite a lot to see...lots of handwritten notes/ID cards/reports/etc...i'm sure it would've helped if we could've understood what we could read...lots of photos, a few uniforms, etc...lonely planet says the museum is fantastic, or something like that...lol...

a few more photos after the museum, and we left the fortress...we'd wanted to stop for a coffee afterward to warm up and relax, but the place we wanted was closed for the season...howeva, in the courtyard was the sword of whoeva that guy is...you know, the one stuck in the stone...obviously, i wasn't able to get it out of the stone...clearly, i'm not the chosen one...
instead of that particular cafe, we ended up at a place called new york pizza...not bad, not great...the cake was far better than expected...there was an english menu, which surprised me, and the waitstaff was super friendly...at least my feet thawed while we were eating...

after pizza we were able to walk back to the cathedral we'd missed the day before, and we got to walk in just after the service ended...we got to see the inside (which was still decorated for christmas) just before they shut off the lights...a catholic cathedral, not the norm for this country...i think it is called st jehosaphat's...i don't know why, but it's a funny sounding name to me...i apologize in advance to anyone reading this with the name jehosaphat...say it to yourself five times quickly...orthodox christmas is 7 january, but catholic christmas is 25 december...i don't know which way this church was going, but either way, the decorations were long overdue to come down...oh well...
there wasn't anything left to see after the cathedral, so we headed back toward the newer section of town...we knew we'd have a couple hours to kill before heading to the train station for our night train back to kyiv...eventually we found a pizza place...two pizza places in one day, in a small town in western ukraine...hmmm...you'd think we could've done better...in warmer weather, that's probably true...but when it's -18C, the last thing you want to be doing in a strange town is wandering around after dark looking for food...the waitstaff at this place was super friendly, and helpful, we were happy to be there...they even called a cab for us when we left!! ukrainians are awesome!!

a night train back to kyiv, and voila, the end of a great weekend:)
a quick history lesson: kamyanets podilsky started out as a kyivan rus settlement...the town was briefly the capital of the ukrainian national republic...through it's history, the town/area has been ruled by the lithuanians, poles, russians, and ottoman turks...the germans used the old town as a jewish ghetto during WW2...with all the switching of rulers, it's a bit amazing that there is such a sense of ukraine in this area...

the snow finally arrived

after hearing about kyivan winters since i arrived, i'm happy to say i feel like winter is finally here...for real...sure, it was cold back in november and december, and we saw snow flurries a couple times...but that was it...no real snow, so it didn't feel like real winter to me...but now it does...it's basically been snowing all week...woo hoo!!
cloe and i decided to go out in the snow and take photos...just because...we live almost on the banks of the dnipro river, which is the massive river running through the city...it's mostly frozen, thanks to the chilly temperatures of the week...mostly, but not completely, as i discovered when one of my feet got very wet, and very cold...whoops...

the river is basically hard slush, i'm hoping the temperatures will get cold enough for long enough that it actually freezes...even though it isn't solid ice, there were still people out in the middle of the river, ice fishing...i don't know how they got out there, or how they stayed out there without slowing sinking into the river/slush/ice...
there were heaps of people out sledding, it seems that everyone in the city owns a toboggan...i wish my flattie and i had a sled...even a plastic sled would be awesome to have with this snow...a few folks were using thick cardboard or plastic to slide down the hill...
we also saw snowmen galore...it's interesting to see how creative some people get in the placement of the carrot...(that photo is posted on facebook, not here)...we saw a snowman family, snowmen with 'hair,' and a couple snow midgets...
the most ambitious snow creation was a fort...three people were working on that, they had three parallel walls up...i don't know if they had a final plan or not, but it would be neat to see a real "building" out there...

i don't know who the ice guy is, but it's a neat statue...i guess the weather determines how long it will be there...i don't know when it was put there, obviously recently...we saw multiple people pushing coins into the statue, my guess is that's for luck, or something along those lines...the church is still under construction, but for all we know, it could already be in use, if the inside is finished...
as we got to the end of the sidewalk we saw a nice cafe...my flattie said they have a lot of french stuff there, so of course she loves it...it was my first time there, but it definitely won't be my last...i wanted one of the pastries, but the price was a bit extreme, so i settled for something less expensive...

we splurged on the hot chocolate though, and it was worth it...really really thick hot chocolate...ben and bo would know what i'm talking about, it was the same stuff we had in odessa...so thick you can eat it with a spoon...which is what i did...if i could have done so, i would've licked the glass clean...too bad it's expensive enough i can't have it every week...maybe once a month?
on the way back to our flat, i told cloe we should make snow angels...she'd never heard of them...do they not exist in france? fun stuff:)
we also stopped in a grocery store on our way back, cloe found a cheaper place to get skittles, and a few other goodies...i have not been a good influence on her diet, hee hee...(america is taking over the world!)
i loved that we saw so many people out today...people here are definitely used to this kind of weather, and take advantage...how does anyone not love winter? sledding, snowmen, snow forts, skiing, etc...i'm hoping this kind of weather sticks around for at least two months, maybe even 3 months!!! bring on the snow!!! there is skiing in the west of the country, though who knows if i'll be able to make that weekend trip work out...i hope so...i wonder how much snow it would take for my school to close for the day? somehow, i have a feeling that's a pipe dream...lol...

the end of turkey

from canakkale i originally wanted to take a bus to erdine, a town on the european side of turkey...but the only time a bus to erdine left canakkale was at 3 in the morning...i decided not to go, basically because i didn't want to wake up at that hour...i am not a night person...
so i took a night bus back to istanbul instead...the bus i chose was supposed to leave at 2300...when i got to the bus office at 2230 they told me there was something wrong with that bus, and that i could take the 0100 bus instead...yippee skippee...i hate having to do things in the middle of the night...but i did...i went back to the hotel and read a book until 0030, when i went back to the bus office...
the bus ride was fine...faster than expected...the bus pulled into the massive bus station in istanbul at 0630 the following morning...i was expecting 0700...just like most airports, the arrivals and departures section of the bus station are in different spots...since i didn't know this ahead of time, i was a bit worried that i was getting off the bus in an unknown section of istanbul...thankfully, it was fine...that bus station is surprisingly busy at that hour of the morning...

it was easy to catch a service bus into the middle of town, then catch the metro back to close to amanda's flat...an easy walk from there...
we spent most of saturday doing a whole lot of nothing...the weather was crap, neither of us was motivated to do much of anything...we were productive in going to the grocery store, but that's about it...i picked up a bunch of tea to bring back to ukraine with me, as well as 2kgs of chickpeas...they're probably somewhere in ukraine, but i haven't found them...i also got pudding...my last chance to have real chocolate pudding until this summer, when i return to the states for a few weeks...dinner that night was roast chicken...sooooo good...
the next day the weather was even worse...rainy and windy...yuck...but i still needed postcards, and i wanted to go to a steak restaurant amanda had mentioned previously, so we had no choice but to leave the flat...(which was probably a good thing really)...we walked, took the metro, took the tram and walked into the city...a quick search for postcards, and then we made our way to a different bus stop, one where we could catch a bus to the mall where the steak restaurant was located..

a fabulous steak dinner followed...the meal was mostly steak, there was a small side of vegetables served with the meat...this had to be one of the best steaks i've ever had...cooked just as i ordered, the flavour was awesome...the only downside to the meal was the family next to us...a couple with one young child...they let the child run all over, and several times they lost track of where the child had run to...the waitstaff in the restaurant rescued the child more than once...i know i'm not a parent, but i found the behaviour appalling...shouldn't the child learn that meal time is meal time, and they shouldn't be allowed to run all over? especially because it wasn't just the parents involved...it was the waitstaff, and us because we were sitting next over, etc...we were both annoyed...
after dinner we walked through the mall...it's one of those fancy shmancy malls with a lot of high end named stores...the turkish government taxes imported goods like i've never seen before, so goods that shouldn't be expensive end up that way...a simple, black and white cell phone ends up being almost $100!! crazy...i got a phone just like it in ukraine for $30 or so...hmmm...we stopped at a cafe and had dessert and chai...my chai and chocolate fudge cake tasted just like what i love from coffee bean...coming from me, that's really high praise...basically, when we left the mall, i was in hog heaven...fat and happy...

sadly, i had to leave turkey the next day...booooooo...i said goodbye to amanda, then slowly packed up my stuff, had a cup of tea, etc...i left her flat, took the metro to the center of town, then took a bus to the airport...everything at the airport went really well, including changing the rest of my lira back into dollars...the best part of that was the way the dollar had depreciated against the lira since i'd exchanged upon arrival, so i actually made money on the exchange...gotta love an airport where they don't have obscene rates to exchange money!!! woo hoo...

cannakale

i was pleasantly surprised when my bus from bergama to canakkale took me straight into the part of town in which i wanted to be, as opposed to the otogar (bus station) which wasn't in that area...i liked this particularly because the map in lonely planet showed this area, but didn't show the bus station...i'm okay with walking long distances, but not so keen on doing so when i don't know where i'm going...basically, i prefer to have a map...
the first hotel i tried was closed for the winter season...i'm guessing they open up in april, not too long before anzac day...fortunately, someone sent me in a direction to find another place to stay...
i checked into my hotel then went for a walk...i got to watch the sunset, which was pretty, though not stunning...i don't think anyone gets excited about the sunsets in canakkale, though there are heaps of cafes and restaurant all along the waterfront...canakkale doesn't have the sights in town itself, but because of it's proximity to a couple other places people want to see (gallipoli and troy) it gets busy in spring, summer, and fall...the weather wasn't great, and it was getting to be late late afternoon, so i mostly went looking for food...there were quite a few doner places, and i loved the prices, which were among the cheapest i'd seen in turkey so far...woo hoo!!! i ate somewhere, then kept walking...

then i found a bakery...YUM...there were a number of items i wanted, i ended up choosing two...i took those back to my hotel room, and relaxed for a few hours before sleeping...
before the gallipoli tour the next day, i checked out a park/military museum close to my hotel...there were displays of weapons all through the park...mines, a few canons, etc...signs denoted the specifics of what i was seeing, as well as the country of origin...in the afternoon i went on my gallipoli tour, after which i returned to canakkale and went to eat at a doner place again...and i had more goodies from the bakery too...again, YUM...
the next morning i took my time getting out of my hotel, then walked a bus station (not the main, big one) where i caught a minibus to truva...truva is the turkish name for troy (i also saw it listed as troja) which you two of my readers should recognize as a place that gained fame from the author homer...

a while ago, back in the 1800s, a german guy became obsessed with finding troy, and thought he knew where it was...he ended up being right, but was so obsessed with it, and was looking for such a specific part of troy that he destroyed several layers, buildings, and more...archeology has come a long way since those days (in the late 1800s)...you don't get to dig like gangbusters at a site anymore...there are very specific procedures to follow to make sure nothing is lost or destroyed...not only was plenty destroyed during schliemann's original excavation, he took off with a number of artifacts after his dig was finished...those artifacts rightfully belong to turkey, (i think) but they're displayed in museums of various countries, like russia and germany...apparently there are some diplomatic spats taking place over those artifacts...turkey wants them back, of course; the other countries aren't so keen on giving them back...

troy wasn't just a single city...that is, it wasn't built once...the original troy (called troy I) was built way before the final city was built...i think the final was troy IX? or maybe it was only troy VI? each troy added a bit on the outside, as well as building up...the later troys sortof used the earlier troys as a ground layer...there are a few places in the ruins where you can see evidence from all of the different troys...they had different styles of building, though i probably wouldn't have noticed the small differences without the sign that pointed them out...

it definitely takes some imagination to figure out what troy used to look like...there are some walls left, but overall, it just looks like a bunch of rocks...it's easy to figure out the theatre, but that was the only place that was obvious to me...for the other locations in the ruins, i read the signs...
the bus back to canakkale came right when it was supposed to, and life was good...again, i had dinner at a doner restaurant (i've forgotten the turkish word for them) and dessert(s) from a bakery...

the next day was my last day in canakkale...checkout time for my hotel was at noon, and my original plan was to walk around the city all day...just walking, not worrying about seeing sights...but the weather was awful...windy as, and rainy...YUCK...it wasn't pouring rain, but it was raining just enough to annoy...argh...so i ate way more than i should, it was a way of staying inside, out of the rain...yuck yuck yuck...(though the extra food was quite tasty:)...when it got dark, i went back to my hotel and hung out in a lounge room...wasting time online:)
i'd booked a bus ticket that night, leaving for istanbul at 2300...but when i got to the bus company office at 2230, they told me the 2300 bus had a problem and wouldn't be going...my only option was to change my ticket for 0100....yippee skippe...

gallipoli

one of the holidays in the australian/new zealand calendar is a day called ANZAC day...25 april...that's the anniversary of the first day of the battle for the gallipoli peninsula, which started 25 april, 1915...the battle ended up going on for 8 months, but 25 april is the day it's memorialized...the gallipoli peninsula was strategically important during WWI, whoeva captured the peninsula also controlled the supply lines to istanbul...and with control of istanbul would be some control of the black sea...the allies fought for it against the ottomans/germans...for once, the term allies does not include america...this battle was fought by the french, british, and the anzac forces for the allies...the french were coming in from the south, the brits on the northwest, and the anzacs on the west coast of the peninsula...

before dawn the morning of 25 april allied forces began landing on the gallipoli peninsula...where they landed depended on which country they were from...the most remembered area is where the anzac (australia/new zealand army corps) soldiers landed...they landed on north beach...it was the first of many mistakes in the battle, because it wasn't the beach on which they were supposed to land...north beach was a mile or so up the coast from the intended beach, which they'd called brighton beach...brighton beach led to a smooth rise in elevation, the troops would've had an easier time taking over the peninsula...north beach on the other hand led to much steeper rises, even a few cliffs...plus, it was raining...welcome to a very unpleasant time in these gentlemen's lives...most of those fighting were quite young...the youngest was 14, though he was officially listed as 18...

the battle for gallipoli really started a little over a month previously, with some fighting in the dardanelles, the straight separating the biggest part of turkey from the gallipoli peninsula...allied minesweepers went through, and declared the water mine free...but overnight the mines were laid again, and when an allied ship went through, it blew up...whoops...needless to say, that didn't make anyone happy...also, earlier, german troops had sailed through and when they got to istanbul (or somewhere else along that coast in turkey, i don't remember exactly) traded their uniforms for turkish uniforms...they also changed the names of their ships to turkish names, and changed the flags to turkish flags...until this point, turkey (the ottoman empire) had remained neutral, and intended to remain that way during the war...not surprisingly, as the german ships sailed on, they got into battle, and others thought that turkey had gotten into the war after all...basically, they were dragged into the war, kicking and screaming...it was these incidents that led the allies to create a specific battle plan to win the peninsula...

when the allies landed on that beach, they came in strong...with heaps of soldiers...at the moments when they landed, the turkish army only had 160 men protecting that area, and they had very little ammunition...in fact, they retreated almost immediately...i'm a little muddy on these details, but this seems to me a time when the allies should've pressed forward, taken the high ground, and kept it...but this didn't happen...i don't remember all of what i was told, but mistakes by the anzac forces included a tea break as well...at numerous times, they should've taken the peninsula...
the battle ended up dragging on for 8 months or so...both sides dug trenches, often just a few meters from each other...even as they were fighting, they were also sharing things like cigarettes, matches and more...the turks dug the trenches in straight lines...the allies dug them in wavy patterns...i don't know exactly how the battle ended, but the allies lost...

gallipoli is where one of turkey's heroes first made his name...mustafa kemal...later called ataturk, which means father of the turks...(given that he was married once, for only a short time, and had no children, this is both accurate and not)...he was the army leader who inspired and led his soldiers; he went on to become the president of the country...it was because of him that they didn't surrender...at one point he ordered them to die for their country, and many of them did...far more of them died than allied soldiers...there is one unit that no longer exists in the turkish army because every single one of them died during the anzac battles...it's a good memorial, but tragic at the same time...

one of the biggest reasons tourists come to canakkale is the chance to take a tour of the gallipoli peninsula...specifically the areas that were important during the anzac portion of the battle...on the anniversary of the first day of the battle there are ceremonies on gallipoli to remember what happened...dawn ceremonies...my guide said in 2005 (the 90th anniversary) there were 20,000 people there, and that if we wanted to be there in 2015 we should make reservations now...
my tour started with a ferry ride from canakkale to kitabahir, a small town on the peninsula...then we drove north, and met up with a few folks who had come from istanbul for lunch...the lunch was pretty good...(certainly a lot better than the tour i took in goreme)...then we drove to the other side of the peninsula, and started with the informative part of the tour..our first stop was the beach on which the anzac forces were supposed to land...a bit farther north we saw the beach on which the soldiers actually landed...in between the two is a cemetary, one of many on the peninsula...

we saw the australian memorial, which is called lone pine...it's called lone pine because of the tree in the middle of the memorial...our guide said it was the third generation of this particular tree...we saw the new zealand memorial (fun fact: the kiwis gained the highest ground of any of the allies during this battle)...we saw numerous cemetaries...nearly all the cemetaries have the inscription along the lines of 'their names shall live evermore'...we saw the turkish cemetary, which included a statue of the last living soldier to fight for the turks in these battles...he passed away about a decade ago, a year after visiting this cemetary with his great granddaughter...
the tour ended with a ferry ride back to canakkale...a good day, though a bit intense, and a bit overwhelming in terms of information provided...of course, i'm a geek and i like that:)

bergama

my bus from selcuk to bergama was actually two buses...one to izmir, and the second to selcuk...the transfer was easy...the driver from the first bus even walked me to the second bus at the izmir bus station...how's that for customer service?
bergama is the host town to two sets of ruins...one known as the acropolis, the other as the asklepion ...
i'd read the guidebook, and it said that there were two bus stations in bergama, an old and a new...the book said the new one was way out on the highway, the old was in the middle of town...i was able to figure out where we were as the bus was coming into town, after passing the new bus station...i got rather confused as we passed the old bus station as well...so apparently there are three bus stations in town...go figure...fortunately, the town isn't that big, and i was able to figure out where i was, and how to get to a hotel...the first place i looked for i missed completely (i found it later, and wondered how i'd missed something so obvious) but i saw another hotel in the same area, so i checked it out, and it seemed fine...checkin was quick and easy, woo hoo...
i walked toward the information office, only to find that the lady was at lunch...she came back from lunch 15 minutes late, which annoyed me, but she more than made up for it with the information she gave me...a couple maps, directions to a couple places, and a book about the area...yay...

the red basilica

my first stop was a place called the red basilica...as you can guess from the name, it's a red church...well, it was...it was originally a huge temple to several egyptian gods, built in the 2nd century...now, it isn't a large area to explore...you get to go in one of the rotundas, and the main cathedral area...according to st john, (who must've lived in selcuk at the time) this one was of the seven churches of the apocalypse...pretty harsh i think?!?! when christians took over the church, they didn't do any renovation...they just created a basilica inside the giant building...
on the way from the red basilica to the acropolis, i  passed what looked like a donut stand...there was a large fryer set up, and a machine that dropped batter into the fryer in a donut shape...i queued up, and just watched for a minute or two...a bag of the donuts was handed to me, and i pulled out my wallet...i didn't really want the entire bag, but that was what was handed to me...as i tried to ask how much, they indicated i shouldn't pay...i tried even so, but i wasn't allowed...who doesn't like free donuts? bergama was definitely looking fantastic, and i hadn't even seen much yet!!

on the way up to the acropolis

one of the sights you can see from anywhere in the city is the acropolis...on top of the hill overlooking the city, it's obvious why it was built where it was...to get to the acropolis, you have two choices...there is a cable car going all the way up the hill, or you can walk on the road which goes all the way around the hill...according to the guidebook and the information lady, it was a 5 kilometer walk along the road...as i walked along the road, a couple came through a fence, and started walking back down the hill...it turned out they hadn't wanted to go back to the official entrance and walk all the way along the road...they pointed out that i could go through that same hole in the fence and thereby enter the sight for free...i've done such things before, but this time i opted not to...maybe i'm crazy, but i actually wanted to walk the whole way...i am always conscious of the need to burn calories, and i felt as though i hadn't moved enough during the day...anywho...i'm not sure that walk would've seemed so appetizing in the middle of high tourist season...my guess is that nowadays most people take the cable car up and down...it's certainly faster...
i got all the way up, and really appreciated the view over the city...bergama is far from a spectacular city, but it's nice to be that high, looking out over so much land...i wonder if the people who lived up on the hill appreciated how nice that is...

the temple of athena

there is a giant temple up there, (the temple of athena) and several smaller temples, a giant theatre, (seating 10,000 people!) what little remains of a library, and more...there were information boards everywhere, and though there was always a portion written in english, it wasn't always easily understood to me...the information was mostly about the architectural details of the ruins, and those didn't mean much to me...i would rather know how a specific building is used, and who used it...oh well...it was still fun to wander around...i enjoyed meeting a german couple in the theatre, i took a photo for them...they told me they'd first seen this area in 1974...how cool is that? i wonder if i'll return to places 35 years from now? i wonder how different the area looks in general...there must be some changes, but in terms of the ruins, i wonder if the changes are as drastic as with the rest of the town (of bergama, that is - i'm assuming there must be quite a difference between bergama in 1974 and now)...

after exploring all over, i decided to take the road all the way back down to town...not surprisingly, it goes a lot faster on the way down, even though the angle isn't drastic at all...it was a beautiful day, the walk was lovely, and i arrived back in town right as the sun was going down...since i really try to avoid being out after dark by myself, this was perfect timing...as usual, when i have been moving around all day, i wasn't hungry when i stopped moving...so i didn't have much in the way of dinner...ice cream and water...i know i know, not healthy...ooops...i need to work on my eating habits...regular meals for one, and balanced food, for another...
the next morning i got up and walked to the asklepion...as with the acropolis, this walk was up a hill, and also as with the acropolis, i didn't see the entry gate until i was almost there...the walk was only 2 kilometers, not far at all...the asklepion is right next door to a turkish military base, and there are numberous signs reminding visitors not to take photos in the direction of the base...as i walked into the asklepion i could hear the soldiers yelling cadence...i'm so glad i'm not in the military:)...

the asklepion was a medical facility back in the day...apparently people came from all over to be treated...the doctors at the asklepion didn't accept people about to die, or pregnant women...what's wrong with pregnant women? given the length of the entry road, "sick" people couldn't have been that bad off, they still had to get to the place and be accepted...the doctors treated people with mud baths, hypnosis, enemas, sunbathing and dream interpretation...sounds kinda like a modern day spa to me:)
as with the ruins i saw in ephesus, the first part of these ruins i saw was a long entry road...the sun was such that the photo didn't turn out as well...there were guys trimming the trees, which meant it wasn't quiet...oh well...i'm pretty sure i was the first person to visit that morning, it was nice to traipse around all by myself...there was still frost on the ground...the signs in these ruins were a bit better, in that they were of more interest to me...describing what the buildings were, not just their dimensions and architectural specifics...

there was a theatre in these ruins as well, not nearly as big as the theatres i've seen already...much much much smaller...but the seats still climbed quite a bit vertically, it was nice to climb up to the top and look out over the area...the hill isn't as high as where the acropolis sits, but you can still see out a ways...with lovely weather, it's always nice to climb up high...
after exploring the asklepion i walked back to my hotel, checked out and hopped on a bus to my next destination...

selcuk

selcuk is most known to tourists as being a base for exploration of the roman ruins at ephesus (efes) which are only 3km down the road...that's the reason i visited...
i arrived on a friday morning, around 0800...i think...i'd taken a night bus from goreme, and didn't sleep through the night, so my recollection of times and such is probably a little screwy...the bus was supposed to be direct, or so i was told...but when it got to aydin, i had to get off and transfer...not that this was a big deal, it was just unexpected...while waiting in aydin i was offered tea, which i gratefully accepted...i love how tea is served everywhere in turkey...i'm tempted to buy the double teapot before i leave the country, but lets be honest, do i really need that? no, not so much...(especially because i know exactly what kind of teapot i will buy the next time i'm in the states)

i was thrilled when the bus pulled into selcuk and i knew immediately where i was...no problems orienting myself in this town...i'd checked out hotels listed in the guidebook, and headed toward one...they had a room available and i was a happy camper...the grandma running the place even offered breakfast, but all i wanted was tea...i've gotten used to drinking tea all the time in turkey...
unfortunately, it was raining, and continued to rain all morning...yuck...a little before noon the rain let up, so i started walking down the road to the ruins...read my previous post for those descriptions...
on my way back to my hotel, i decided to check out the market...according to the guidebook, the market takes place once a week, and was conveniently located really close to my hotel...heaps and heaps of fresh fruit and veggies...i'm guessing local folks do their weekly shopping at this market...if i had a place to store stuff, i would've bought more...i can't get enough tomatoes, cucumbers, oranges, etc...unfortunately, those aren't so easy to carry around...i did buy some yogurt, which is ridiculously popular in this country...the yogurt i got was super thick...just the way i like it...i can stick my spoon in it (a spoon is the only utensil airport security will allow, mine has never been confiscated:) and the spoon won't fall over...i also bought string cheese...REALLY GOOD...and spices...and some sort of nut...the spice guy gave me a couple sticks of cinnamon as well...i'm almost positive the prices in selcuk are cheap as compared to the spice market in istanbul, though i'll check when i get back...i walked out of the market feeling very content...if i manage to eat all the yogurt and cheese i won't need anything else for the next couple days!!

dinner was a tavuk doner roll...simple, and good...and for the first time since i arrived in turkey a week ago, i bought ice cream...yum...snacking on the cheese and yogurt when i got back to my room...i felt as though i'd eaten tons, but i don't think it was that bad...
the next day i was really slow about getting going...which turned out to be a good thing, as selcuk itself doesn't have a whole lot to see...my first stop was the temple of artemis...it used to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world...now, one of the pillars is all that remains...there are some other rocks and such, but you don't really get an idea of how awesome it was supposed to be...even the pictures on the information sign don't really show much...it's a bit disappointing...
my next stop was a mosque...it's built at the foot of a big hill, and was built in 1375...i liked the gardens outside better than the inside...as far as mosques go, this one wasn't high on my list at all...not as airy and light feeling as mosques usually feel to me...

up the hill from the mosque is the basilica of st john...according to "them" st john stayed in ephesus twice, both for extended periods of time...and both times with the virgin mary...apparently when jesus was dying on the cross, he entrusted his mom to st john, who was allegedly his most beloved disciple...given that where jesus died wasn't safe for the disciples they all split up...st john took mary with him, and eventually they got to ephesus...he wrote a lot while they lived there...while i wandered around the basilica i got to the tomb of st john...it's not fancy...i wanted to take a picture, but a chinese group was praying...it went on for a good 5-10 minutes...and after they were done, they wanted to take photos...many many many photos...this person with that person, then with someone else, group photos, etc...it went on, and on, and on and on...finally, i thought they were finished, so i took my one quick photo and moved on...i looked back to see they were still taking photos! i know i like to take photos with me in them, but geesh!!

as i wandered around the basilica i was twice approached by men asking if i wanted to see ancient coins, if i was interested in buying them...no thanks...and trust me, approaching me out of the blue like that, even if you have something in which i'm interested is not going to make me likely to buy anything...ever...it's creepy...it's annoying enough avoiding these people when i'm walking into an area i want to explore...i'm guessing they don't have to pay the entrance fee? argh...
i would've loved to explore the castle that is behind the basilica...but it's closed for renovations and excavation...there are a couple good information boards that show what has already been found, and what else might be in there...oh well...
from there i walked back down the hill, following the street that was lined by the remains of old roman aqueducts...pretty impressive, even now...(the photos don't show it though)...i didn't do much else in town...i walked by my hotel without realizing it, whoops...clearly it doesn't stand out much...i had more ice cream, and did my best to finish off the yogurt i'd bought the day before...