Just a few pictures so far, some script when I get the chance
A Trojan Squirrell no less. I'm told it's not quite the same species as our Red Squirrell, but we'll not hold that against it.Mum, above in Istanbul after surviving being hoist over a cemetery the cable car having been built to save walking commuters the long walk up. Behind her is the 'Golden Horn', a piece of land so fertile that it fed the city, and so of course was rapidly and completely built over.Below, the rebuilt Library facade at Ephesus. They don't need wars, earthquakes do the job quite effectively, although you get less warning.
The Hippodrome at Istanbul,with umbrella salesmen taking advantage of the unseasonal, or at least unneccessary, weather while we looked at this structure, I think it's a fountain. I would be able to tell you what it was called, but I was being persuaded to buy small pointless toys by someone who thought I really needed one, or two.The Turkey trip. September 2011
Istanbul, Ephesus, Troy, Sea of Marmara, Bosphorus, Gallipoli.
Looking out from Gallipoli. The Turks were so unimpressed with the pointless waste of life in WW1 that they declined the invitation to join in WW2. As a result they still have quite a lot of old towns and cities which avoided the modernisation that comes with a good bombing raid. They did, however, put up a rather nice memorial showing that they were a bit sad about our attempted invasion, but had forgiven us.
They are rebuilding the main railway station, near our hotel. On the outside is an engine that was described as an early "Orient Express", I think that might have been stretching the truth a bit. Most of Turkey uses marble where we use brick, monoblock, or concrete. Looks nicer too. For me the most interesting part of Turkey, or at least the part we saw, was the people. The religion is Muslim with some Christian and a bit of every thing else, while the racial type is largely European, some Arab and a bit of every thing else.
So effectively they are much the same as we know in "western" culture but with a Muslim majority that has been relatively stable for a good while. They have some seperatist challenges, the Kurds in the south want to be free and the Turks don't want them to go. Rather like Ireland, Tibet, and Georgia. However, like most Muslim countries that we haven't successfully invaded recently, they seem tolerant of other religions and more moderate, or to put it another way, less extremist. I've always thought that extremists are those are people with their backs to the wall, fearful of the slightest challenge to their faith in case it's the first sign of forced change. Sadly, it seems to me, that the fear of the different can lead to a pre-emptive strike at an imaginary danger, and is often encouraged by a greed for profit and power. I would challenge the instigators of any war in history to prove otherwise, and would suggest that it's a bad church that supports them. I suppose it would be too much to ask nations not to react until after the first stone is thrown (by a government rather than an individual) leaving it to the police until then.
Turkey is not a rich country, but very hard working and optimistic, I wish the EEC would invite on the basis of democracy and honesty rather than political convenience. I'm told their 'human rights' record is poor, but I haven't noticed that stopping us trading with anybody.
