Kars fortress

Kars is a surprisingly Russian/Caucasian (more about that later!) town, in the far north-east corner of Turkey. The fortress towers over the town and is said to be the strategic key to eastern Turkey.






We just avoided a thunder-shower while climbing the hill to the fortress. Kars and the surrounding region had many fantastic monuments and the feeling of being at the historic crossroads between Persian/Russian/Turkish was very strong, as was the presence of local lords, only nominally dependent on either of these three historic empires.

Bosphorus boat-tour

Before we throw ourselves eastwards into Kars and Ani I thought I'd give you some relaxing views of Istanbul from the the water (even if it was almost 40 degrees C at the time!).





If I find more of Gallipoli to show you later I will, but we will leave the peninsula to it's hardfound peace for now.

Kilim purchase

I was proven wrong on Thursday in thinking my next carpet buy would be a Bakhtiari camel bag (but I do still hang on to the thought) - now I came away from Istanbul with a Turkmen donkey bag instead. I intend to hang it on my living room wall (for all of you who wonder about the donkey... ;-) ). Kilim technique, lovely colours, very nice little piece at a very attractive price - irresistible!

Invasion on the beach

Seeing the tiny beachheads of the allied landings, with Turkish fortifications on the hills above - I couldn't help but wonder how the operation-planners thought the endeavour was at all realistic...!

Simit!

We rode in a dolmus (minibus) with a simit-man a couple of weeks ago. Of course I couldn't resist a picture of his fresh ware. The sesame-decorated bread-rings are delicious! Too bad we just came from breakfast, the smell of the warm fresh bread was heavenly.



Unfortunately, I don't think I am finished with the battlefields - so more will come! And other themes will follow - this is just a small diversion.

The Anzacs

Also from everywhere in the British Empire (and not only from Britain and France) came the Allied troops. In Gallipoli, the Anzacs were most noted for their courage and sacrifice, even farther away from home. Their motivation and feelings is, if anything, any more intriguing.

From the far corners of the empire...

Really interesting about the Turkish memorials at Gallipoli are how they depict the participation of soldiers from far outside todays Turkey, mirroring the much larger Ottoman empire, which fought (and partly fell through) the First World War. The stones commemorate boys and men from Thessaloniki (Greece), Aleppo (Syria), Tabriz (Iran), Baku (Azerbaijan) and farther east outside the borders of the realm, alongside those from Izmir, Bitlis, Antep and Nevsehir (all in today's Turkey). I really wonder how they all, some from far outside the Ottoman lands, came to fight and die in the trenches of the Gallipoli peninsula and for what cause?












I will return to the Allied memorials another day.

Assos

I have a huge backlog of photos to show and stories to tell and limited time to blog in. So have patience with me, please. I will try to take things sort of chronologically from the last few weeks (so I leave Ani and Kars for the time being, having given you a morsel to tempt you with), and a few themes do emerge here and there - but discovering that may take some time and effort... ;-)

This is Assos, a village near our bathing resort in north-western Turkey.



In the distance one could see Greek Lesvos/Mytilini quite clearly in good weather.



Reminiscint of the region's multilayered history, there was both an antique Greek temple and an early Turkish mosque at the top of the hill the village clung on to.

Ani on the Silk Road

We visited Ani yesterday, a medieval Armenian capital once 100 000 strong, and a significant post on the Silk Road (on one of it's many stretches that is). Today the ruins of its city walls and churches still stand, overlooking the Turkish-Armenian border gorge from the Turkish side. It was quite amazing and I hope to show you more of the marvels of its architecture.





This was the great cathedral of Ani.

Natural beauty

Maybe most chocking about Gallipoli was, after all, the overwhelming beauty of the landscape, in contrast with the never-ending memories of the widespread destruction it had witnessed...

Gallipoli memorials

Not all was happy sunshine though - we also went for a day to the battlefields and war memorials of Gallipoli, which was a depressing lesson in the sheer madness and human waste that war is. The whole peninsula is jampacked with war memorials (Turkish and allied beautifully equal but separate) and cemeteries, over many square kilometers. For tonight, I will show you one of each.





Later, I will try to come back to show you more. For the overwhelming feeling of the tiny beachheads, overlooked by Turkish fortresses, where the allied tried to land their invasion force, was sadness. Over the desperate attempt, and by the look of it how badly backed it was by topographical realities and facts...

Clark Kent horsing around?

Just a thought: at least at home, there are no phone booths any more, so where does Clark Kent go to turn into Superman? Mobile phones just don't suffice for that. Well, here is part of the answer... at least for Superhorse! Thank you, Turk Telekom!

Relaxed

Just a quick peak at us on vacation. Keep on looking in here - there is more to come!

Vacation paradise

This is where I've spent most of the last week or so - not bad at all! It's in Assos, on the Turkish Aegean coast (but we were in a different village than in the link though), on the mainland north of Lesvos/Mytilini in Greece (where I have also promised to go once - Angela, I haven't forgotten!).

Gazing forward

This is the traditional Turkish way of seeing into the future - reading your coffee-cup. I may have been bad at blogging for sometime, but I do hope you can see me trying to make up for it in the days to come...

Mersin corniche again

More of the corniche culture park!





I told you some of the stuff was a bit quirky... ;-)

Mersin corniche

A nicely made park along the seaside, if somewhat bizarre in some of its features (but more of THAT later!).

Mediterranean outlook

This is from the corniche in Mersin, on Turkey's south coast. More of the same to come, from a walk I took along it soon 2 weeks ago.

From the museum gardens

I think these pretty much speak for themselves...

Anatolian pottery

Two weeks ago today, I went with a friend to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. She is very interested in crafts and arts and for the moment is focussed on pottery, so we went to look at the historical pottery collections. I couldn't take photos inside the museum of course, so I can't show you some of their beautiful Neolithic and Bronze Age collections (several of of the pots I could easily use daily in my kitchen!, their shape and decoration are so attractive), but I can show you the collection in the garden.