Turkey travels, culture, food, handicrafts and a great time!.

OMG, Turkey is such a delight! the ruins after our Egypt trip, it has been a delight to see how ancient cities are looked after and maintained in Turkey.

Below is a couple of Turkish men twirling ice cream, very good ice cream.

All over Turkey are these evil eye trees.

We had lunch in a gorgeous restaurant in Cappodocia Cultural house and below was the most amazing framed embroideries, silk fabric and silk cotton.

All satin stitched and hand embroidered.

Next stop was a visit to a pottery place that creates the most gorgeous plates, containers and wine decanters, such a shame they are all breakable and we still have a few weeks left of our trip.

And of course, I had to have a go!

In Konya we visited the Rumi museum, this was where the whirling dervishes were trained.

On arrival into Ayvalik where we stayed in a pansion, a restored ottoman mansion. The front door.

Entry foyer

Kitchen for food prep.

Our bedroom.

Quite charming with many folk art designs and collectables, the pansion consisted of 3 floors with 2 bathrooms on each floor and about 12 bedrooms, the group contributed to a mezze night and much fun was had by all, dinner was finished off with a game of cards.

We also had the opportunity to meet a Canadian woman, name forgotten, who came to Turkey 25 yrs ago and loved Turkey so much she stayed. She is responsible for running a shop front, teaching the local Turkish women on how to make goods out of recyclable materials, such as Nescafé packets, liptons tea, ring pull tops, etc.The shop front allows the  local ladies to learn some arts and crafts and a little money can be earned on the side and donated to the local population.

Above one of the Turkish women, sewing materials on the machine.

Food has been a big part of our tour, in every town that we have stopped at, our tour guide has suggested a local delicacy to the area, in Ayvalik, it was recommended to have a panini and stuffed mussels with lemon, we tried both, very enjoyable.

In Pammukkake we visited the white travertines and the ancient city, (Hierapolis of Phyrgia), just as we were finished visiting the city and walked to the travertines, we had torrential rain, we waited for awhile but then decided to brave the wind and rain and walked back to the hotel via the travertines. 

Wild poppies are growing all over Turkey.

Gateway to Hierapolis.

What a wonderful thing to do, the rain added to the delight of walking on the travertines,  the water was so warm, to walk on a world heritage site while still raining was awesome.

The white travertines.

One if the many art works in the city of Selcuk

Ephesus temple and library 

Troy in Troya.

Ferry ride to get to Gallipoli 

Gallipoli

ANZAC Cove

Lone Pine

New Zealand memorial.

Look what you find in toilets!

When in Pamukkali, we had the opportunity to see the Whirling dervishes.

The whirling dervishes performing.

The horse from the movie, "Troy"

We travelled 3,300 KM's over western Turkey.

R Egypt tour, it is great to see how the 

In Cannakle is the horse used in the movie "Troy" the Turkish government purchased it after the movie was completed, it is situated along the wharf area, where we had our last meal as tomorrowwe leave early to catch the ferry and drive back to Instanbul, farewell Turkey and onto Greece.

Onto Ankara and some cultural education.

After leaving   Instanbul and a visit to the Grand. Bazaar,  we had a 5 hour drive to Ankara, with a few stops on the way. Tour group slowly getting to know each other.

The Grand Bazzar has over 4,000 shops and employs 30,000 people, you can easily get lost, so if you see something, buy it because the shop would be difficult to find again. DH and I did get lost, all part of the adventure. On our drive to Ankara we stopped at a salt lake and walked on it, an absolute amazing sight. We arrived into Ankara late evening. The next morning saw us going to The Ancient Civilisation museum. This is a beautiful museum and wonderfully presented, It was  refreshing to be educated in another ancient civilisation, Antolian.

Look closely at this marriage vase, pictured below, featured in the museum.

DH and I in front of the fyrigians wall,  Anatolian museum.

We also visited the sycophogus of Ataturk, we had to wait to enter the museum due to a visiting dignitary from Austria. Below the Turkish flag in a garden display.

Entry to the museum.

We departed for Cappodocia, everyone was amazed at the rock formation, of this place, welcome to Bedrock. 

on our fist morning in Cappodocia we woke to a wonderful sight of over 70 hot air balloons in the sky.

Some of the amazing rock formations in Cappadocia.

Rock formations. After a wonderful 3 days in Cappodocia we set of to Guneysenir for a home stay. 

On arrival to Guneysenir, we were ushered to where the local Turkish women were having handicrafts lesson and wanted to show the tour group their creations, as you could imagine I was excited to see some of the local ladies handiwork. this was also an opportunity for me to show them some of my English paper piecing techniques. I also left with the ladies some pattern pieces and some instructions on how to paper piece. Although language can be a barrier, quilting has no boundaries for enthusiastic learners.

Our home stay was a success and we sampled local Turkish cooking and hospitality, Guneysenir is a small village, with little tourism, just another addition to our adventure in Turkey.