Turkish Delights

Welcome to Turkey
Its the second week in september, for the last twenty years it has meant the start of a new school year. But here were are the deck of a boat in the Med. enjoying the sunshine. You can't help feeling guilty being on a holiday so soon after school starts but to be honest that guilt lasted about .653 seconds and then it dissolved in the surrounding beauty of the turkish coast line.
The Turkish experience is fabulous, the people are great, the country is stunning and its clean!

Our first night we stayed in treehouses, which I thought would be open A-frames, they turned out to be shacks with very little ventilation, but for one night, it was fine and the surrounding grounds were beautiful.

no frills.

The trees in the surrounding grounds were orange and lemon trees... beautiful.

They look like "greens" but they really are "oranges".

Dinner was a yummy buffet as was breakfast and the beer was cheap!

Karen and Jeff Genest

Lounging Turkish Style! Drinking Efes beer ... Its a pretty fine brew!
buds
After some R and R Conor and I went to check out the beach.
But on the way to the beach, much our surprise we ended up walking through 3rd and 4th century ruins.

An ancient tomb and sarcophogus. An ancient aquaduct.

Most of the ruins were hidden in the the trees and with out the signage you would have walked right past it, completely unawares.

Mosaic tilings on the floors.
A roman arch that marked the entrance to a temple which has unfortunately eroded away.
We eventually made it to the beach... Very rocky, but the was water clear and warm.
A natural arch.

The next day we drove to Demre (Myra) where we were to hop on our boat for our cruise.

Stepping into Demre was like arriving at the North Pole. Santa Claus knick knacks are everywhere.

Saint Nicholaus was born in this area and was the Bishop of the area between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
Lenore gets a head start on the Christmas Rush... Wouldn't these look nice hanging from our Christmas tree in Doha.

We finally made it onto the boat ... There were 19 of us plus the crew ... And did we ever luck out!! Just a very nice group of people, easy going bunch, lots of fun!

We left the Demre hatbor and our first stop was Simena (Kalekoy) also the home village of the captain of the ship.

The village has a beautiful castle (4th century)... Much of the ancient harbor is underwater has the Mediterranean has risen.

The area is sometimes called the sunken city. But unless you scuba its hard to really appreciate.
The vista though was stunning ...
the climb was a work out but after sitting for a few days it felt good to stretch your legs.
I wonder if that villa's for sale hmmmm .... Location, location, location .....
Don't jump !!! All right, all right, you can shop!
Lenore in her element! The blue pendant in the background is everywhere in Turkey and is called a "Nazar" its purpose is to ward off the evil eye.
A couple of bracelets hucksters, with attitude..
Bar - b on the rocks, captn' and the first mate.

The meals were excellent, mainly vegetarian, but the cook was excellent and very creative, presentation was always very nice. Breakfast got to be a bit of a drag. Turkish breakfast is always the same, no variety .... airport, hotel, boat break fast was tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, feta cheese, nescafe or tea.Apres dinner wit da boyz.. Bar, Dave n' Jeff
Every night we slept on the deck, the skies were clear but the air was warm! The Milky Way was visible in all its splender.
Sunrise on the Med.
We were moored every night in beautiful little coves.

Our ship mates were a lively bunch !
But Jay was dreadful
Day time was a mixture of motoring( not sailing),

swimming ... peer pressure
floating
floatilla
games
reading
taking pictures,
or jus' chillin'
enjoying the scenery, especially the water color which was always beautiful but never quite the same in different places, a light green-blue here
blue-blue ( I don't know...)
kind of a pretty pale green here, this fellow was the ice cream guy, no hokey music playing but the ice cream was definitely deluxe!
Aquamarine
Cobalt
... but always very relaxing!
Not only did we have ice cream vendors, but this husband and wife made crepes
... with nutella and banana.... they were "very" tasty

This is St. Nicholas Island, yes this is where he hangs in the off season..

The ruins are in very good condition and their character

A stone arch and our ship beyond in the bay
Very nice lighting that evening, there wasn't a bad photograph to be had
light through the arches is cool
I like the cross above the arches and how the negative space is used to illuminate
A cell or residence?
the corridor outside and inside

Summit ... Heidi, Kris, Karen and Damien... what a good lookin' bunch!
nice view from the top!
The ship was about 30 meters long (100ft)
This is our cook and the galley
The forward berths, there are six but we only used them for washing up in the morning, storing clothes
Capn'... and his crew
a friendly bunch
Fethiye and the end of our 4 day adventure


Fethiye had lots of carpet shops, which is typical in turkey
You can buy watches too and fortunately the store keepers are pretty upfront.
The turkish delight is laced with ... je ne sais quoi ???
But the end result fairly ... uplifting?
Fethiye has beautiful open mall the roof of which are bouganvalea plants
Great seafood - conor and I had octopus...mmmm

On to Istanbul

We had a great hotel in Istanbul, you could see the blue mosque and
Hagia Sophia and the Sea of Marmara all from our hotel roof restaurant, pretty cool.
We had 2 day in Istanbul which is definitely not enough. We saw the Palace the first day and took a boat ride up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea.
The Palace is impressive
The tiles and the trim is very ornate, very eastern.

Make sure to wash feet and hands
The picture behind Lenore are black and grey sone which have been glued in place... beautiful

Istanbul is a real mix of the very old and the very new
some things get lost in translation... but make you smile!
Our boat ride up the Bosphorus was a couple hours. The bridge above unites Europe on the right and Asia on the left.
We took the municipal ferry very which very comfortable and extremely reasonable.
There are palacial residences along the Bosphorus.
Sometimes good and bad,side by side.
You wouldn't want to swim in the bosphorus, these guys seemed to be everywhere.
We disembarked to climb to the castle on the hill
and grabbed fish sandwiches for the hike!!

Sounds worse than it was, they were pretty good, a little heavy on the onions

the climb was worth it, the view was great, unfortunately the castle was closed
I got to see the black sea, would have liked to get closer, the fort on the point marks the end of the sea and the start of the river. Lo and belhold... its blue, not black!


The castle from the outside was cool it was built in repeating layers.
The ramparts sit where the river is narrowist to protect from the invading hoards...

Holidays can be exhausting, right Andrew!
We went for a stroll of Istanbul that night, highlights included ...
Hagia Sophia
Ice cream vendors who have this great routine they put on. Turkish ice cream has a consistency approaching marshmellow, its very sticky. The vendors can pull a yard of this stuff out and wave it over their heads. The routine is hilarious, they all do the same shtick.
Our last day we visited the
Hagia Sophia was a christian cathedral from 530 to 1450 when the Ottoman turks converted into a mosque in 1935 it was turned into a museum. Much of the Christian motifs were plastered over
but are now being restored, many are beautiful mosaics..

it's very odd to see these images in a mosque.
the columns were magnificent, green.Lovely ornate chadeliers
On to the blue Mosque and their stained glass windows...
The entrance
beautiful stained glass

the colors are amazing
ah lunch and Kofte or turkisn meatballs ...
delicious!
The grand baazar was grand but after a while, bland, as all the shops were

same same and not very different
this kid, however, was very cool he was selling tops/ yoyo toys and he was a little magician with them.
more rugs to buy

Working!
Cisterns supporting the streets of Istanbul above
Two columns bear the head of the medusa!

We had a great time but all good things come to an end
Turkey was a delight.