Finally homeLast week I got home from Istanbul, so this last sound is actually not from istanbul. But the last few days were filled with some small things. A last concert on a top roof of a six store building with a nice view on the bosphorus at night. Visiting an old dutch church near the dutch consulate, with hardly any dutch people. Meeting with some turkish friends in a kind of studio. Where there was a guy who had lived a few winters in holland almost next to my home. Meeting with some foreign people, trying to live in Istanbul. Buying a darbuka and a ney, which are both quiet familiar in Turkey. So one thing was to get it all back to holland, within the allowed amount of luggage. It took me a while, but ev'rything is back home. If you want to see some more pictures, come on come over. See you next time in iStANbUl.
ruben
Roundtrip Turkey within 59 hoursLast few days have been filled with a lot of different things all around turkey
On sunday a friend of mine, David, came to travel together around some nice stuff here in turkey. We sailed up the Bosporus unto the Blacksea, visited an old castel over there, and sailed back. We had a beautiful experience in a hamam (turkish bath) with a massage. We had an overnight bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia, where we visited the biggest underground city, up to 55 meters underground, with 8 levels, visited the Ilhara Valley with a lot of caved churches from the 11th century and had a dinner in a good restaurant where we were almost the only visitors, so we had five people starring at us to see if they could serve us with anything. Next day we visited an open air museum in the same area. The landscape is very unique, moon-like valleys, sandy ground in all different colors, red, grey, orange, yellow, beautifull during a sunset. So in the afternoon we made a tour with 4x4 quads, which was a great experience, racing through those valleys and seeing everything within a short time. And again we had an overnight bus to Ephesus, which was not the best for our rest, but it was a combination of sleeping and travelling at the same time. The busses or better called coaches, are the best organised transport in Turkey, you can get almost anywhere with it, and it’s used a lot. But at the same time the coaches are a kind of saunas, most of the time very hot and humid inside, actually to hot to sleep. So nexxt morning arriving in Selcuk, a place next to the ancient city of Ephesus, we first had a breakfast, I learned how to play backgammon, and relaxed sometime before we visited Ephesus, which took us almost the whole day, wandering around, listening to our audio guide. But it was nice to taste the atmosphere and relax some time in the Great Theatre, which would be able to have 25.000 seats in the old days. Check some pictures on the pictures link later on. Back in Selcuk, we enjoyed different restaurants, cafes and teahouses while waiting for our next and last overnight bus back to istanbul. We enjoyed some sweet blakava. Bought some wine to make us a little bit more drowsy, so it would be easier to sleep on the bus, which helped some in the end. Back in Istanbul, we lingered around the Aya Sophia & the Blue Mosque while david finished the last drops of wine. The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum was worth visiting to see how art has developed in the this area of the world, Calleographics are the biggest part of the art, together with carpets. Very beautiful script with amazing arabic characters. And last but not least was our visit to the Grand Bazar. So after 59 hours david went back to where he came from, and I have another five days left to hang around. We’ll do one more concert with Storybox in a bar somewhere on the european side. And for the rest I try to meet some of the turkish people I have met before, to have last taste of turkish ‘delights’.
(within a few days i’ll put up some new pictures on the link)
