Antakya, April 22 - 25

Antakya, April 22 - 25

For more photos, please see: http://www.anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/

On the long holiday weekend of National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, we took a three-day Tempo Tur excursion to Antakya, the ancient city of Antioch, located on the Hatay, a centuries long disputed finger of land on the southern Turkey/Syria border. Antakya has a 3,000 year history. It was an important site in early Christianity and, later, Islam. It was located on a crossroads of the North/South as well as the East/West ancient trade routes. It served as an economically attractive region because of its location but also because of the extensive plain of extremely fertile soil between two mountain ranges. For all these reasons, it also had strategic significance for multiple covetous empires and nations. In 1939, due to Ataturk’s military, economic and cultural vision for the new Turkish Republic, the Hatay was freed from France’s control and annexed to the Turkish Republic shortly after his death.

Antioch-on-the-Orontes (the latter was the old name for the River Asi, which flows through the city) was once called the "Queen of the East," or "The Fair Crown of the Orient" due to its wealth, influence and its extraordinary beauty. You would never know it had been so beautiful. Today it looks like so many other run-down Turkish cities—lots of cement block apartment buildings, car dealerships and too many cars. However, archaeological digs continue to find exquisite examples of early ruins, including the long, pillared Roman road that lies beneath today’s main street, and wealthy villas of the ruling elite, most with beautiful mosaics now housed in the archaeology museum.

Two years ago, the Turkish government committed to vast improvements in the city, including infrastructure work, restoration of existing old buildings and neighborhoods, and promotion of the city as a tourist site. Some of the motivation behind these government subsidies is to relieve some of the pressure from other popular tourist destinations in Turkey; e.g., Ephesus, Istanbul, Cappadocia, Antalya, etc. And some of the rationale is economic—to increase even more tourist visits, bringing money into this part of the country. Additionally, Turkey is also expressing a sense of extraordinary pride in the beauty and rich history of the entire country, not just the more well known areas. And the few old neighborhoods of Antakya that survived seismic traumas are beautiful.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

Archaeology Museum

Because of the wealth of ancient Antioch’s merchants, old homes excavated in the 1930s, mostly in the suburb formerly called Daphne (see below), were found to have been decorated with huge, elaborate mosaics depicting classical themes. The museum was constructed to house and display some of the large numbers of mosaics recovered, although we saw in a documentary that the building is only large enough to house about one fifth of its holdings. Unfortunately, none of the houses themselves, nor virtually any other ancient buildings, survived a series of massive earthquakes over the centuries. The floors, however, remained intact or with enough surviving pieces to display the exquisite artistry used on these intricate designs. From not too far away, they look like paintings. The museum owns the second largest collection of classical mosaics in the world. I’m not sure where the largest collection is, but I suspect it is in Rome. Just yesterday, a colleague of Larry’s told me that the museum has recently received the go-ahead for expansion. Her husband is an architect and has designed museum buildings in Turkey; maybe he’ll be working on this one.

St. Peter’s Cave Church; St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church; small Catholic Church; Habib-I Neccar Mosque

Antioch played a significant role in the history of the early Christian religion. Evidence can be found everywhere in the city, as well as in the hills surrounding it. The most extraordinary church was carved into the cliffs of Mount Staurin (Mount of the Cross), reputedly by St. Peter himself. This cave church was one of the earliest Christian prayer locations. The Crusaders built a wall at the cave entrance, but inside is the original first century church where the word "Christian" was first used. Because of the significance of this early church, a recent Pope named it a holy place, fit for visits by pilgrims. Each year there is a pilgrim ceremony attended by people from all over the world. Because at the time it was built Christianity was outlawed, there is an escape tunnel at the back of the church leading into the mountain. It’s pretty obvious, so I would think the Romans could easily follow the early Christians up the tunnel. But, perhaps someone on the lookout gave the worshippers warnings of approaching Roman soldiers. Places like this certainly spark the imagination and make the Western Civilization courses of our youth come very much alive.

Nearby is a huge earlier carved relief of Charon, guardian of the River Styx, carved into the mountain overlooking the city. It was constructed in ancient times in hopes of relieving a devastating outbreak of the plague, but, when the plague ended earlier than expected, the relief was never finished. We did not get to see this enormous statue, despite the fact that it was only about 100 feet above St. Peter’s cave church, because the guide thought that we old folks were not up to the climb. Darn! What we did see, however, were a large number of simple caves carved into the surrounding hills and inhabited by the earliest Christian hermits, thus beginning the tradition of hermitages.

Visits to other churches provided evidence of the wide variety of religions that coexisted throughout the history of this amazing city. It is possible that we visited more Christian churches than I would have expected because, not only is this the center of early Christianity, but the forty people on our tour were all Turkish (except us) and therefore, Muslim, although not all practicing Muslims. Most may never have been in a Christian Church before, so this may have been something new to them.

One impressive mosque, Habib-I Neccar Mosque, was actually named after an early devout Christian convert whose remains are reputed to be buried somewhere in the building.

Harbiye/Daphne

The Harbiye suburb of Antakya was once called Daphne, named after the nymph who, in answer to her prayers, was turned into a laurel tree to escape the amorous advances of the god Apollo. The canyon where this occurred is a gorgeous forested wonderland of multiple waterfalls, fresh breezes, lush vegetation and beautiful views. It was the location of the summer homes of Roman Emperors; again earthquakes destroyed the buildings, but the beauty of the area remains. Today it is the site of tourist trinket vendors and cafes, with waterfalls pouring into the sides of the latter. It’s a little tacky in places, and heavily populated with tourists, but is still quite beautiful.

St. Simeon Monastery

One early Christian monk, St. Simeon, spent forty years atop a column in the middle of a monastery built in the 6th century AD on a tall hill overlooking the valley and river below. Today’s ruins still show the base of the column, which had been carved from the mountain top, and the surrounding churches built around the octagonal center of the monastery. This monastery marks the beginning of the Christian monastic tradition, later exported to Italy. Today, we can view not only the city below from the ruins of this favorite pilgrimage site, but also a new windmill farm currently under construction to take advantage of the ever-present breezes. Antakya plans to use windmills to provide 100% of its power in the near future. Good for them, and shame on us in the U.S. for not following their lead.

Moses/Elijah? meet

On the shore of the eastern Akdeniz (Mediterranean), a large calcium stone sits inside a recently constructed structure in the town of Samandag. Here, our guide informed us that this is where Moses is said to have met the Prophet Elijah. However, when I looked up some information about the site, it turns out that it is the tomb of Hizir, or al-Khidr, an enigmatic figure is Islamic history, and not Elijah. But the story apparently is similar to one told in the Talmud about Elijah. In the Hizir/Moses story, Moses is tempted three times to break his vow of patience and trust, reminding one of many other "three temptation" stories; e.g., Jesus, among others. Today the site is a holy one, and the goal of pilgrims, who come to pray and pay homage to these early holy men.

There is a tradition of visitors circling the site three times before entering to pray (for good fortune?). So our bus driver, before letting us off, circled the small building three times, making me dizzy and all of us chuckle. I have not figured out what the large rock inside the building actually is; it is such a strange shape covered with calcium deposits, and doesn’t seem to belong here on the beach. But, the tour was conducted in Turkish, and I never got a good explanation, so it remains a mystery to me. My most vivid memory is likely to be the wad of gum I stepped on in my stockinged feet, after removing my sneakers before entering this very holy site. Yuck!

Seleucia Pieria and Tunnel

After the death of Alexander the Great, his empire was divided into three, one part of which was ruled by the Seleucids. Seleucia Pieria, built around 300 BCE, was the ancient port of Antioch. The city itself was destroyed by earthquakes in the sixth century. This port city was the point from which St. Paul set out on the first of his missions, around 45 AD. On the path climbing to the city and its tombs, we passed an exposed layer of soil and pebbles, reported to date from Neolithic (or did our guide say "Neandertal"?) times. It is possible that some of the lower cut tombs were used by these ancient peoples in their time. Higher up the hill, the tomb maze of the Seleucids, called Besikli Cave Tomb Monument ("Tomb of the King") reaches well into the hills. It contains 93 vaults and was constructed between the years 1 and 5 AD on the site of the earlier tomb carvings.

Of equal significance is the tunnel built into the mountain near the ancient town. This tunnel, one of history’s engineering marvels, was begun by the Emperor Vespasian, when this area was still part of Syria, and completed about one hundred and fifty years later during the reign of Titus. It was intended to divert a stream that had been silting up the harbor and threatening the town with floods. We passed by, and over, this deep tunnel many times in our climb to the Seleucid tombs, but still saw only a fraction of the long chasm, a section of which passed within the mountain itself.

Cevlik Beach and Doric Temple

Climbing another hill, this time by minibus, we found the remains of a Doric temple overlooking the long – about 14 kilometers – straight Cevlik Beach, with fine, brown sand, unusual in the Mediterranean, where the beaches are generally pebbly. At the far end of this beach looms Mt. Cassius, the home of Zeus, according to local legend. This temple, occupied at the moment by two cows and their owner, was also destroyed by earthquakes, but enough was left to visualize the extraordinary effect its location must have had on ancient worshippers of Zeus and, possibly, in the basement of the temple, Aphrodite.

Armenian Village

Prior to WWI, Turks and Armenians lived in relative harmony in the eastern half of Anatolia. With the Russian invasion of Anatolia, and their recruitment of Armenians as allies, tensions between the two ethnic groups erupted into horrendous bloodshed on both sides and the subsequent expulsion of Armenians from the area. These tensions still exist today. Nonetheless, Ataturk, in the 1930s, after annexing the Hatay to Turkey, offered Armenians the opportunity to return to their ancestral homes in some sections of Anatolia, including this village, called Vakiflik Koy. Apparently this is the only village that took him up on his offer and, therefore, is the only remaining Christian Armenian village in Turkey, where the 130 residents make a decent living from the surrounding orchards and sales of local crafts to tourists, most of whom are Turkish. I for one loved the crocheted doilies, but they were too expensive for the little amount of money I brought with me on this trip. Another temptation offered to us for sale was strawberry and pomegranate liquors, of which we were offered several free samples. Delicious! Alas, they are sold in glass bottles, and wouldn’t have made it home easily when we return to the States in June. This village is very pretty, with flowers blooming everywhere, and a great view from the hills to the Mediterranean. Alas, the residents are nearly all old, so its survival as an Armenian village remains in question.

Village wedding, and canyon tea house

On our bus ride back to the city and our hotel, we passed through a canyon village called Hidir Nebi, which was listed on our itinerary. What was not listed was the wedding celebration that we gleefully viewed from the sidelines. Above, if I did so correctly, I have imbedded a video of some of the music and dancing at this wedding celebration. Alas, I am not that familiar with taking videos with my camera, so, as I tried to figure out how to do so, I missed the traditional village line dance. But I did succeed in capturing some more contemporary dancing by some young men. A few women joined in, but it is mostly men who dance at these public celebrations. [Another "Alas." The video takes way too long to upload, and I don't have editing software that lets me shorten the video. So I won't be posting it after all, at least not for now. Sorry!]

A few miles down the road, we passed over an Ottoman bridge spanning the impressive Batayaz Canyon. Nearby, we put our feet up on the railing protecting us from falling into the canyon, and had tea while taking in the pretty hills and newly blossoming flora.

Iskenderun and Naval Museum

After leaving our hotel on the last day of our trip, we stopped at the city of Iskenderun, the largest city on the Hatay, and the home of a Turkish naval base. There was no beach here per se, but the sea walls and the sea itself sparkled in the early morning. This busy port seemed unusually clean and bright for such a busy shipping and naval spot. Unlike in Fethiye, farther to the west, we saw no litter or obvious pollution in either the water or the extensive park running along the seaside. The light was beautiful and reminded me why so many artists visit the Mediterranean to capture the special effects caused by this bright sunshine. Later we visited a naval museum, which had its charms (especially the beautiful building, which looked like an old mansion), but was otherwise pretty unremarkable.

Sokullu Complex and Payas Castle

Our last stop before the long bus ride home to Ankara was just north of Iskenderun. There, we visited the 16th century Sokullu Complex consisting of mosque, hamam, bazaar, medrese, soup kitchen, and caravansaray. At the time of most of its construction, the Ottoman Sultan and Grand Vezir were keen on promoting trade in Anatolia. They set out to construct such a center, expecially a caravansaray, to provide refuge for trade caravans all along the Silk Road and other trade routes. These rest stops were constructed every forty kilometers – about thirty miles, the length a typical camel could reasonably travel in one day – and provided safe places to rest, eat, pray, and refresh. This caravansaray was one of the biggest I’ve seen or heard of. Because the Hatay was located at the crossroads of so many trade routes, a larger than normal complex was needed. The travelers were charged no fee for three days worth of lodging and food. They slept in an arched–lined building, surrounding a huge courtyard where their animals and trade goods were kept, and where they could keep an eye on them. After three days, they were expected to pay for their lodgings and food, unless they were poor or having a hard time, in which case the fee was waived and they could stay as long as needed. Vendors in the attached bazaar were charged a fee to help subsidize the travelers.

A Crusader castle also forms part of this enormous complex.

The mosque within the complex was impressive, as usual. It was either designed by the famous architect, Sinan, or imitated his style; our guides were unclear on this account. One astonishing olive tree in the mosque’s entry courtyard is 2,000 years old and still producing olives.

While our guide was explaining some of this to our group, two men approached us and asked us to join the wedding party of 1,500 guests who were about to be served lunch in the long bazaar building. Wow, this was one gigantic wedding celebration! We waited for quite awhile before the food was served by an army of volunteers. As always, men were served first, then women and children. But our guides asked if we could be served early, as we needed to get on the road. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to ask this favor, but am very grateful. One thousand five hundred people take awhile to serve. Anyway, after a surprisingly tasty meal of pilav, yogurt/cuke/garlic soup, lamb (I decided to try a few mouthfuls for the first time in fifteen years), and a great Turkish dessert – we hit the road and headed back to Ankara. This time we rode in the daylight -- our trip to Antakya was overnight -- to view the spectacular countryside in a part of Turkey we had never before visited.

Beypazari and Other Adventures

For more photos, see: http://www.anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/

Since our return from Ireland, we have been staying in Ankara, again enjoying the company of friends, eating a lot, some exercising, and concert going. One exception is a trip to an outlying town, Beypazari, for sight seeing and shopping (although we would have preferred more sight seeing and less shopping). Another exception is a funeral: Mama Ayse passed away. Between activities, we made plans for trips in our remaining weeks here in Turkey, which, alas, are numbering only a few.

Here are some highlights:

Jazz concert gala – Hacettepe University’s main downtown campus has a music conservatory, where it is establishing the first academic jazz program in Turkey. To celebrate the new department, Meldan, as chairman of the Department of American Literature and Culture on the Beytepe campus, arranged for an opening reception and jazz concert, featuring a female jazz vocalist. I am not a fan of jazz vocals (with the exception of some Jazz Age women; e.g., Ella Fitzgerald and a few others), but this woman was superb. After singing for about ½ hour, accompanied by a few instruments, she ended her program with a jazzy rendition of a Swahili lullaby, which had been sung to her by her grandmother in her childhood. We all left the concert hall with more of a swing to our step than when we entered.

Bilkent concerts – Much of the same—lots of good music, with some great contemporary music I had never heard before and, as always, it seems, Tchaikovsky. (Many in the Bilkent orchestra are from Russia). The April 3 concert was packed, since it was one of several memorial concerts honoring the founder of Bilkent, Ihsan Dogramaci, who passed away several weeks ago.

[We interrupt this narrative] – Congratulations to the UConn Husky women’s basketball team for winning their second consecutive NCAA Division I national championship, and achieving their second consecutive undefeated season (78 wins in a row!).

Lunch in Kugulu Park – Becoming a "lady who lunches," I joined Barbara in a nice park restaurant overlooking the swans in Kugulu Park in downtown Ankara. We had the best seat on the outside terrace overlooking the park.

Haircut with Ibraham– Taking a chance in getting a haircut with someone I didn’t know, I joined Meldan at what turned out to be a "salon of the stars." Turns out that this hairdresser does the hair of one of Turkey’s most famous Vegas-type performers, someone I see on Turkish TV constantly, and whose performance I do not care for at all. Nor do I like her hairdos, so I’m glad I didn’t know this before hand. For seven months I have been carrying around a photograph of my head after a U.S. haircut that I particularly liked, in order to show a Turkish hairdresser what type of haircut I would like. Naturally, I lost the photo the day before my appointment! So I was at his mercy, which turned out to be great. I now have the shortest haircut I’ve ever had. And it’s a terrific one! Thank you Ibraham.

Cocinella – Michael, our friend in Germany, was in town again to visit his wife, Serpil. This time we were able to meet both of them for dinner, as well as a student of Serpil’s, who also teaches Italian and works for the U.N. We all had delicious noodles and vegetables at a cute little bistro, whose name means "Lady Bug." Naturally, there were ladybug decorations everywhere. Of note is a tentative plan for all five of us to visit Italy this summer, with the student leading us on a tour of three cities: Rome, Florence, and Venice. Will it ever happen? Probably not. Sigh.

Muslim Funeral - On Saturday morning, April 10, Meldan called to tell us that Gulriz’s mother, Mama Ayse, had passed away (she was 99 years old). The funeral would begin at 1:00 p.m. that day at Kocatepe Mosque, the huge mosque in downtown Ankara. On a lovely, sunny day, we stood outside the mosque to pay our respects. As is customary, there were several individuals in coffins outside the mosque, each with many dozens of people paying their respects. As at a wake, we talked softly among ourselves, until the imam arrived for brief prayers. At this point the men stood in lines before the imam, the women in back, as the prayers were recited. This was hard for me, the Westerner, to take, but it is the custom here. Eventually, the coffins were carried off, the flowers were taken by street vendors to dismantle and sell on the streets, collections were offered for civic and charitable organizations, and we all left for the burial.

Driving through sections of Ankara I didn’t know existed, we eventually reached the huge graveyard, but had missed the graveside ceremony. Mama Ayse was buried on top of her mother’s remains in a grave tightly packed among thousands of others, with only about six inches between them. Unlike our western-style graves, these are coffin size structures that extend about three to four feet above the ground.

Another ride through yet more sections of Ankara unfamiliar to me eventually led us to the home of Gulriz’s sister. She had not attended either the mosque nor the graveside ceremony. Instead she prepared to receive visitors, hire another imam, and prepare food for us all. After a brief consoling visit in yet another Architectural Digest-type luxurious apartment, we sat through beautifully sung funeral prayers with, again, men separated from women. Although I brought a head scarf with me, I gave it to Meldan, who had forgotten hers. This left me as the only woman without a scarf. But I was not the only tradition breaker in that a few men chose to sit with the women, Larry included.

During this visit, I discovered that Ayse is not Gulriz’s mother’s name at all. I cannot remember (nor could I pronounce) her real name. Gulriz had teasingly called her mother "Ayse" because the word means "nanny." When her mom was being particularly controlling, Gulriz would call her "Ayse." The name stuck, not only with Gulriz, but with others as well.

Iranian dinner – One of Larry’s older students, Zahra, the mother of two adult children, invited us to her home for a delicious Iranian dinner—some of the best food I’ve had since arriving here. Most of the time at her apartment was spent listening to her experiences in Iran, where she had been jailed for a year as a pro-democracy protester in the early 1980s. She is currently a refugee in Turkey, while her husband still lives in Iran, but is free to travel between the two countries (the husband, not Zahra).

Native American Group "meeting" – Fifteen years ago, we attended informal meetings of individuals – mostly academics, but not exclusively – interested in studying and discussing Native Americans. Those meetings were social, with lots of good food, but eventually centered on fairly extensive discussions of specific aspects of Native American culture and/or history. Over the years the meetings got less and less frequent. But, as Larry and I will be leaving the country before long, a meeting was called, to be held at the second home of Bercin, a Hacettepe English literature professor, and a friend and neighbor of ours. It was questionable whether Gulriz, who founded the Dept. of American Literature and Culture at Hacettepe, as well as the American Studies Association of Turkey, would attend. It was the day after her mother’s funeral. In addition, she was in the midst of a ten day stay in the hospital—ostensibly to find out what is wrong with her, but in reality, a plan by her doctor (Burcin’s husband) to teach her how to take care of herself. She is diabetic, something she would not admit previously, and has other major lifestyle issues that are seriously affecting her health. Anyway, we were happy to see her at the meeting. This is a good sign that she did not fall apart after her mother’s death, as she had predicted she would. And she is walking a little better.

To make a long story shorter, the meeting consisted of five hours of eating, laughing and talking (mostly in Turkish, so I just smiled politely and pretended I could understand), with about ten minutes devoted to the token "meeting." Enough English was spoken to make it fun for me; these are very nice people who like to party.

Larry in Izmir, Ellen on the U.S. military base – While Larry flew in an out of Izmir, on the Aegean Sea, to give a talk about early American national documents, I spent the day with two American friends, shopping on the U.S. military base for stuff I couldn’t get anywhere else – like peanut butter – or things that were otherwise too expensive here in Turkey, like oregano, and an additional flash drive for my computer.

Beypazari – Our one out-of-Ankara journey was a day trip to a town about an hour outside Ankara, Beypazari. The word means market place of the "bey," or leader. This tour was "organized" by the Turkish American Association in Ankara. The word "organized" is in quotation marks because it is probably the least organized tour I’ve ever been on – very frustrating. Nonetheless, there were some good things about it. The weather, for example, was gorgeous. The town itself has a 3,000 year old history, being situated at a strategic point in the middle of the country, along the lucrative Silk Road. Today’s municipal leaders and conservation experts have been leading a successful effort to restore the hundreds of Ottoman homes and revitalize the market centers to make it a tourist destination. They have been remarkably successful. This was evident when, after only a few hours in the town, we noticed the streets fill up with thousands of visitors eager to buy jewelry, egg noodles, and cloth from the hundreds of vendors lining the street. Most of these visitors, according to our guide, are from Istanbul and Ankara. Although we had not planned on spending most of the day among shops (we would have preferred more cultural stuff), I was successful in finally finding some of the scarves I have been looking for since September and – finally! – some small gifts for my little girls and boy back home.

Some highlights of the Beypazari trip include the following: The Living Museum. An old Ottoman house has been turned into a museum highlighting the life of an Ottoman family, Turkish crafts and culture. People dressed in old Ottoman costumes greeted us in beautifully decorated rooms or, in one case, told us folk stories. One woman in particular told, and acted, a folk story about marital relations; although reflecting the patriarchal society I find so stultifying, the story was very funny, and effectively told.

In other rooms, craftsmen and women worked on their respective crafts, selling some products but also teaching people in artistic techniques. I tried my hand at Ebru, the Turkish paper marbling technique, creating a somewhat amateurish, but pretty, painting of three tulips representing me, Larry and Anna. My role in the creation was to hold the tools, while the teacher guided my hand, so I couldn’t go wrong.

On display in the museum, of course, was the building itself, with very elaborate hand embroidered cloth found decorating nearly every surface. One interesting note about the building was the way in which beggars were dealt with. When a beggar knocked on one of the house’s four doors – the one used only by beggars – a kitchen worker would put food into a closed "lazy Susan," and swing it around for the beggar to receive. The transaction was conducted in a way that the house door was never opened and the beggar and kitchen worker never saw each other. Interesting custom.

Another Beypazari highlight was the state subsidized craft education center, where craftspeople were trained in local artistic specialties. Beypazari is known for its silver filigree jewelry. Here, people are trained in silver work (where we saw very little ventilation in the workshops, alas), embroidery, wool dying techniques, kilim production, leather work, and other crafts. The items produced in the school workshops are sold in their onsite shops, with the proceeds donated to the poor. Our guide suggested that we could get more variety of silver products in town, so we didn’t buy from the school shop. This was before we knew the proceeds were donated to the poor--darn! As it turned out, the items sold in town were far too garish for my tastes; I wish I had bought something in the school.

When we were hungry, we accidentally stumbled into a restaurant that apparently has been featured several times on Turkish TV, it is so good. Despite the excellence of the food, and the beautiful way the frothy ayran was served (a yogurt drink), our ample delicious meal amounted to only about $6 each. Oh, that’s right, we’re no longer in Dublin.

I should have mentioned this first: we had an early morning panoramic view of the city from a large rocky outcropping and former fortress. There we were able to see why this was such an important stop on the old Silk Road. The town is situated in a wide valley, surrounded by hills that were likely created by extensive earthquake activity. The central hills are referred to as "dinosaurs" because from the vantage point of the centrally located fortress hill, they look like a family of dinosaurs marching down the long valley. I think this is one image I will always remember from this part of Turkey.

Finally, when we were tired of shopping – again, we did not realize this was mostly a shopping trip; hence our disappointment – we sat in a pretty park café, drinking tea, as we awaited our guide and our bus to take us to the Inozu Valley and then home.

The Inozu Valley is one of steep cliffs, with homes and churches carved into the soft volcanic rock, a little like Cappadoccia, which we will be visiting next week. Earlier in the day, we had driven through the valley, planning to have lunch there and, perhaps, a little walking around. But, since there was little agreement about where exactly to have lunch (the guide left too many decisions to us clueless passengers), we quickly left the valley and headed back to town, without even a brief stop to take photos of this impressive valley. We were promised a return trip later in the day. However, as we sat waiting for the bus in that pretty park café, a huge black cloud approached from the west. (Was it the evil ash cloud from Iceland? No, just a thunderstorm after what had been a beautiful, warm, sunny day). So, we missed out on the Inozu Valley and headed east, back to Ankara, just ahead of the oncoming rain.

Walking tour of Early Republic Ankara – Degil - Scheduled for Sunday, the day after Beypazari – this tour of early Republic buildings, led by the terrific archaeologist that had led the earlier Roman Ankara tour, was held without us. That rainstorm caught up with Ankara and, although the tour was still on, we didn’t want to take it in the rain. Naturally, not long after we made our early morning decision, the sun came out after all, but by then it was too late for us to catch up with the tour. So we’ll continue visits to the early Republic buildings on our own, supplementing the visits we’ve already made to the first parliamentary buildings.

Next trip: Antakya next weekend. Can’t wait. 　

Dublin, Ireland

For more photographs, see: http://anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/

Apologies to friends and family members who have been looking forward to reading about our trip to Dublin. I have had my first major attack of writer’s block since arriving in Turkey in September. But I finally broke through the block. Thanks for your patience.

March 24 to 30 was spent in Dublin, Ireland, ostensibly to attend the 2010 conference of the European Association for American Studies, a joint effort between Trinity College, Dublin, and University College Dublin. The theme of the conference was: “Forever Young.” Larry was to deliver a paper on Saturday on the American painter, Thomas Cole, and his series of paintings depicting the rise and fall of empires as synonymous with youth, maturity and old age of man. Since we were paying for our visit -- no institutional support from UConn, Hacettepe, nor Fulbright -- we decided that we would spend six days in the Emerald Isle and do as much sight-seeing as possible between conference sessions.

First, a few words about the conference. Friday was registration day in the Art Building of Trinity College. I have organized meetings and attended many conferences over the years. So I was not prepared for the lack of signs directing people to the proper building and/or rooms. And Trinity College itself seems to have no interest in naming their buildings, at least not visibly. So finding the registration room was tricky. There were many, many other organizational problems with this conference. But the next one, in two years, will be held in Turkey. With Meldan serving as the newly elected Vice President of the European organization, we talked about the logistical problems of the Dublin conference, and the need to ensure that they are not repeated in Turkey.
Despite the organizational bloopers, the workshop session I attended was excellent and included Meldan’s paper, with which I had helped her in her preparatory research. She is a good speaker and the paper, dealing with Amy Tan and the literary canon, was very good. I didn’t attend Larry’s session, as I had read his paper twice already. It too was excellent. He attended more workshops than I did, and reported that they were generally very good, with at least one exception, where the speaker’s Irish brogue was so thick he was not understood by anyone in the room.

Which brings me to the two “keynote speakers” I heard. In all my conference attendances, I have always found keynote speakers to be good to excellent. This is generally why they are selected as “keynote.” The two I heard at this conference were horrible. Enough said.

Now for the fun part: sight seeing in Dublin, Ireland.

For those of you who know Ireland at all, you know it is a wet country. The forecast called for rain the entire time we were there. But we got lucky and had plenty of dry patches for most days. The wettest (and coldest) was on our last day of sight-seeing, when we were trekking through a national park and a small, charming Irish town, Kilkenny. Each day we were in Ireland the temperature dropped slightly from the previous day, until it snowed on the day we left.

Wednesday, March 24 - Gaining two hours on the flight West, we arrived late afternoon in some rain, which soon cleared up. On the bus from the airport, we found the bus driver to be one of the most helpful and friendliest drivers we’ve ever encountered. After six days, I found that he was pretty much the norm among Irish people, at least those whom tourists are likely to encounter. Once we found our hotel, with excellent directions from the driver, and checked in, we went off on our own to investigate the immediate vicinity of the hotel, which turned out to be centrally located and within walking distance of nearly everything we had hoped to see, including most of the conference sites. (One conference day was accessible though only by bus).

Walking to the hotel, we had already discovered Grafton Street, an Istiklal Caddesi look alike (in Istanbul). Another pedestrian walkway, it was a central shopping area, with lots of upscale shops, pubs and street entertainment. Nearby, we wandered through the beautiful St. Stephen’s Green, a central urban park that had formerly been private and accessible only to the wealthy inhabitants in the Georgian mansions nearby. Now a public space, it is still surrounded by a gate which is locked at sundown. The periphery of the park, just inside the gate, is full of trees and thick vegetation, rendering the surrounding traffic and buildings virtually invisible from inside the park. Within this circle of vegetation is a more manicured park, with two nice ponds (with swans and ducks, naturally), pretty park buildings, and lots of flower gardens, statues and open space.

After emerging from the opposite end of the park from where we entered, we followed signs to various national museums, all of which were about to close for the day, so we kept walking, only to find another pretty urban park, the Archbishop Ryan Park, another plot formerly open only to the local wealthy. This one has a nifty recently installed statue of an insouciant looking James Joyce reclining on a large granite rock. Another unusual feature of the park is a large, irregular grassy mound which, according to a nearby sign, is the entry way to a WWII underground air raid shelter, large enough to hold more than 1,000 of Dublin’s inhabitants during an air attack. Most beautiful in the park are the heather gardens, showcasing the ubiquitous plant that grows throughout the country.

Feeling hungry, we found one of the restaurants I had researched on the Internet that caters to vegetarians. Govinda has four restaurants in Dublin; the one we frequented was between the two parks and across from so many of the museums on our list. Great food at a reasonable price, partly because the server lowered the price when we requested from the buffet only the vegan choices. We came back here the next day, because nearly every other restaurant, and everything else in Dublin, is really expensive!

Our hotel, Camden Court Hotel, is a three star hotel. Most of the online reviews I had read in advance said it is too noisy and the beds are uncomfortable. We found it very quiet. And the bed, although unusual, was comfortable enough for us. Another Internet complaint was that it was too hot. It certainly was the first night, but then Larry figured out how to turn the heat down. Duh! What we really liked were the breakfasts – lots of choices, including lots of fruit, and Irish porridge, which was my favorite. Another favorite in the hotel was the pool/sauna/Jacuzzi/steam room/gym complex. Despite the price of 115 Euros per night, we really liked this hotel. Given that it was the cheapest conference hotel listed, we had been a bit wary.

Thursday, March 25 – The next day was a serious sight-seeing day for Larry and me, since the conference didn’t officially open until the next day, Friday.

Dublin Castle http://www.dublincastle.ie/index.html This does not look like your typical castle. That’s because it is fairly recent in its current manifestation. Built originally by the Vikings, it was rebuilt many times over the centuries, first by the Normans, then the English, later the Irish. When we asked a tipsy gentleman outside a pub how to find the castle, he pointed vaguely in the direction of where we should walk, but warned, “it doesn’t look like a castle.” He was right. Some of the exterior sections have even been painted bright, contrasting colors. Very odd. Several of the rooms are still used for ceremonial state functions. But mostly it is a tourist site. The best part of the tour was venturing underground to view part of the Viking city walls recently found under the castle.

Chester Beatty Library – http://www.cbl.ie/ On the Castle grounds, this library was the passion of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, an American mining magnate, whose collecting specialty was the Book Arts, something of particular interest to me, the rare book librarian. Alas, the Books Arts gallery, which is what attracted me to the building, was taken over by a display of Chinese brush paintings from the 15th century to current times. Although I was disappointed to miss the Book Arts exhibit, the gorgeous Chinese paintings and calligraphy, on loan from the Shanghai Museum, were worth seeing. On another floor, a large display of artifacts collected by Beatty highlighted some of the world’s major religions: Christianity, Islam, and three Far Eastern religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Here I was able to see some of the miniaturist paintings from the Qur’an, as well as (amazingly!) some fragments of the earliest known writings, on papyrus, of the four Christian apostles. Wow! Note: I wonder how the web site translates the 8 Euro admission price – each! – to “Admission Free.”

Christ Church Cathedral - http://cccdub.ie/ This is one of two Anglican cathedrals in Dublin, the other being St. Patrick’s. The older of the two, originally a Viking church constructed 1,000 years ago, this is now Cathedral of the Dublin Diocese, whereas St. Patrick’s is the national cathedral. There is a third, Catholic cathedral, St. Mary’s, that serves as a proxy; the Catholic church apparently also laying claim to Christ Church (I think; the history is long and confusing to this layperson). Christ Church is a gorgeous building, with centuries of changes and renovations, to the point where it is hard to distinguish the medieval from the more recent sections. One of the unique aspects of this cathedral is the huge, eerie, medieval crypt that occupies the basement of most of the structure. I took two photographs before realizing that photos were not allowed down there (they were, upstairs).

Connected to the cathedral by a pedestrian bridge constructed in the 19th century is a separate building that once served as an administrative center for the church. Now it hosts two exhibitions on the history of Dublin: Viking Dublin, and Medieval Dublin. Did you know that Dublin was originally a Viking town, then for many centuries an English town, the latter surrounded by “Irish tribes”? We didn’t. The exhibitions were playful and designed for both adults and children, with lots of wax figures representing individuals from Viking and medieval times. One Viking served as host to the earlier exhibition. He was a life size drawing of a Viking, with the face cut out, within which a hologram face talked to us. I don’t know about Larry, but it made me jump when he started talking to us.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral – http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/index.aspx was founded in 1190, making it the “younger” of the two cathedrals in Dublin. It serves as Ireland’s national Anglican cathedral, after a late 19th century agreement that settled once and for all the anomaly of having two cathedrals for one branch of Christianity in a single town. After centuries of upheaval and neglect, a mid-19th century renovation was subsidized by the local brewer, Benjamin Guinness. Unlike Christ Church, headed by an Archbishop, St. Patrick’s is headed by a Dean, the most famous of whom was Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels. His grave and epitaph are found in the church. The church and surrounding park sit on the site of a holy well, where St. Patrick converted the local populace to Christianity in the 5th century.

National Gallery – We saw all the sights above in one day. Ouch! My aching feet! Nonetheless, we had noticed yesterday that the National Gallery, normally open until 5:00 p.m., would close later today, at 8:30 p.m. So, after another dinner at Govinda’s, off we went to see some art. To our feets’ relief, we arrived just in time for a free concert of Chopin pieces in a beautiful concert hall in the museum. After the concert, we exited to a fairly heavy rain, feeling grateful that it had held off during our sight-seeing marathon. NOTE: mid-day the next day (Friday), we were able to return to the gallery to see the paintings there, including Rembrandt, Vermeer and, of course, Irish paintings. Very nice art museum; good food, too, in the café, though a little pricey (as is everything in Dublin, we discovered).

Friday, March 26 - Trinity College and the Book of Kells - http://www.tcd.ie/Library/old-library/book-of-kells/ The next day, Larry and I went to Trinity College, one of the hosts of the conference, for the first time. After registering for the conference (Larry, that is, I got in for free – nobody challenged me and I wasn’t about to pay an additional 90 Euros), we headed for the Trinity Library and the famous Book of Kells. This book is the most famous illustrated Bible in the world and was transcribed by monks in approximately 800 AD. It is considered a masterpiece of calligraphy and manuscript illustration and is truly beautiful. The college did a spectacular job of creating a lengthy exhibition of illuminated manuscript techniques and discussions of the book itself, before we were finally able to see the tome itself. I had seen it once before when it was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, but it was worth seeing again. It is considered to be Ireland’s finest treasure.

When I was new on the job as a Special Collections librarian – several decades ago at UConn -- one of the first requests to me from a patron was to see the Book of Kells. “We have the Book of Kells?” I stuttered. Turns out it was a reprint in our collection—very expensive in its own right. But what did I know then? (not much, obviously)

After exiting the exhibit, we walked through “The Long Room,” a huge vaulted library room, with 200,000 old, old books. As a rare book librarian, I was eager to take pictures, but, understandably, not allowed to.

The remainder of the day was spent at the National Gallery of art.

Saturday, March 27 - Bus Tour of Dublin – The next day, Saturday, Larry was to give his talk at one of the dozens of conference workshops, as well as attend some other talks. Since I had already read Larry’s talk about the painter, Thomas Cole (great talk!), I decided to go sight-seeing on my own. Hopping on a “hop on, hop off” tour bus, with a reduced rate for this senior citizen, I sat on the upper deck of the double-decker to view the sights and hear the guide’s comments about this pretty, if sometimes grim, city. My intention was to take the tour in total once, lasting about 90 minutes, then start a second time, this time “hopping off” to visit specific sights, then back on another tour bus to continue to another sight. But I got awfully cold up there in the fresh air. So, after passing by three particularly interesting tourist spots, Kilmainham Gaol, the Guinness factory, and Phoenix Park (about 2.5 times the size of New York City’s Central Park), I settled on the National Museum of Decorative Arts.

After disembarking from the bus, I found myself alone in a section of large old warehouse looking buildings. Following signs for the museum, I entered a forbidding courtyard surrounded by what looked like huge military buildings. Alas, they WERE huge military buildings, although no longer used by the military, and turned over to the National Museum, which consists of most of the major museums in the city, similar to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. This one is newly occupied – but only partially – by the Decorative Arts museum -- and was a big disappointment to me. The costume and fabric exhibitions, although very nice, were small. One section of the museum consisted of a temporary exhibition on Natural History, to compensate for the main Natural History museum being closed for many months for renovation.

Anyway, after leaving the museum the way I had come in (which turned out not to be the main entrance), I could not find the bus stop to “hop” back on another tour bus! A nice woman nearby, with a brogue so thick I understood almost nothing she said, likewise didn’t much understand me. And so she directed me to “hop on” the local tram, which seems to be free, at least I didn’t pay, where I disembarked somewhere near the center of the city, enabling me to get back on a tour bus. Unfortunately, between the museum and the place where I picked up the bus again, were several of the literary sights I had hoped to see. So I missed those too. I think I need to return to Dublin for another week or so.

The little I was able to see again that day included beautiful Georgian houses, with their colorful doors. The guide said that the residents were instructed (by whom, I didn’t hear) to paint their doors black out of respect (for whom, I didn’t hear). “But, Dubliners being Dubliners,” he said, “they painted them every color but.” Finally, a longer visit to the National Museum for Archaeology and History, which houses a huge collection of gold artifacts from the Bronze Age, extracted from Irish bogs. Also extracted from the bogs were mummified bodies that had been victims of ritual sacrifice or other murders and thrown into the bog where, due to a lack of oxygen, the bodies did not deteriorate. These poor people’s remains were very grim indeed.

Sunday, March 28 - Conference, shopping and more museums
The next day I decided to attend more of the conference. Specifically, I wanted to hear my friend Meldan’s talk about Amy Tan. I had earlier helped her locate materials in preparation for her talk, which was one of four in the workshop that focused on Asian American writers. She did an excellent job. Since Larry had more workshops he wished to attend, but I didn’t, I headed back to the National Gallery to see some more paintings. Then I had a few hours to go shopping on the famous Dublin shopping street, Grafton St. Finding some things I liked in Marks and Spencers, I decided against them (no room in my luggage) and headed back to the conference to find Larry and a colleague, Ozge. They wanted me to show them where the Archaeology and History museum was so they could see the bog artifacts and more on Vikings and Egyptians. Alas, it was closed, not because it was Sunday, but because of a labor action. We had been seeing picketers in various places, but we were never faced with having to decide not to cross a picket line (in any case, we wouldn’t have done so). So back we went to hear another keynote speaker.

We rewarded ourselves for having to sit through another dreadful keynote (although, as I said, the workshops were quite good in general), by heading for a restaurant for really good pizza, a surprise to us given that we were in Ireland, not known for pizza. Then we found an Irish pub where the three of us finally had a Guinness. It was surprisingly mild; either that or my tastes have changed—I used to think Guinness was bitter, and awful. Fittingly, the pub was called International Bar, where two Americans (us), a Turk (Ozge) and someone we met there from Spain mingled with local Dubliners waiting for the nightly comedy show to begin. We left before the show, being pretty tired by then.

Monday, March 29 - Tour of the Countryside: Glendalough & Kilkenny
Our final tourist day was spent on a bus tour of part of the Irish countryside. The entire Turkish delegation went on this tour, originating early in the morning and ending about 6:00 p.m.
Because we were outside all day, except when in the bus, naturally it was cold and rainy. It was Yedigoller revisited, in that the first stop was at the Glendalough portion of the Wicklow Mountains National Park, http://www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie/ where we followed paths, umbrellas aloft, to a medieval monastic settlement. Of particular note was a 1,000+ year old bridge to the settlement,that had just been washed out from excessive rains. Sounds like New England this winter. We were able to approach the ancient cathedral and monastic grounds from an alternative route. Cold and wet, we took refuge in the park’s hotel restaurant, where Ozge was eager to try a scone, something she had never had before. She’ll have to keep waiting, though, as the rest of our group, about 28 people, ate all the scones before we could order any.

Next stop was the town of Kilkenny, http://www.virtourist.com/europe/kilkenny/index.html a beautiful little town, with a big castle (Kilkenny Castle) that is peculiar in that it is missing one of its four sides surrounding the central castle courtyard. Apparently blown out during one of several sieges, the wall was never replaced, because, during more recent renovations to the entire castle, it was decided that the view of the grounds from that angle was too pretty to block with another wall. We didn’t spend much time in the castle, as we didn’t have a whole lot of time in the town. This is a shame, since it is very pretty, and we would have liked to explore more on our own.

Our guide did take us to various churches, and also showed us a small structure that served as a soup kitchen during the Famine. Also, he pointed out one small street, with seven (!) charming pubs all in a row. And, pointing out an old inn, he told us a gruesome story of a woman accused of witchcraft after four husbands died, reminding us of our own New England history. After a brief lunch and a sample of Kilkenny beer, which Larry, Ozge and I preferred to Guinness, we had little time left to explore on our own.

Larry’s family at home has been at work recently constructing a family history of their somewhat convoluted heritage. It turns out that one of their ancestors is from Kilkenny! What a nice coincidence!

On returning to Dublin, we noticed that a movie theater near Trinity College was advertising Michael Moore’s new movie, “Capitalism, a Love Affair.” Instead of eating dinner, then, we decided on the movie. As usual, it was terrific; we are great fans of Michael Moore. By the time we got out of the movie, it was 9:00 p.m. and we were starving, especially since we had only soup in Kilkenny earlier. So we decided on an Indian restaurant nearby, where we paid way too much money for food that was so spicy hot it was barely edible. And we had ordered “2” level dishes, with “4” being the hottest. (We didn’t see any “1” level dishes that appealed to us). Lesson learned; we should have returned to our staple, Govinda’s.

Tuesday, March 30 - The following day we returned to Ankara, leaving Dublin in more cold rain and, before long, snow! The flights were uneventful. Turkish Air is a good airline, serving very good food—even vegan food, if we ordered in advance for Larry, which we didn’t, alas. The only comment about the flight was the crowded airport in Ankara, where hundreds of people, mostly women it seemed, were returning from the Hajj in Mecca. (There is actually another word for “Hajj” when people make their pilgrimage off season, as these people did, but I cannot remember the word). We were surrounded by a sea of headscarves and white clothing! Larry had experienced this in Erzurum, but this was a first for me.

Addendum: I have been selectively photographing foods while in Turkey, including some meals I have prepared, with the thought that I would write a separate “food” post for my blog. I thought people might be interested in the types of food we eat here. Alas, today’s New York Times (Apr. 7) has an article about the large number of people who photograph their food and post the photos on their web sites. Now I feel weird, so I’m not sure I’m going to go through with this. Damned NYT—they scooped me!