Safranbola

Another weekend we took a day tour north into beautiful tree covered small mountains,  to the town of Safranbola renowned for many buildings built during the Ottoman Empire.

Its many handsome three-story stone and timber konaks (mansions) were built by wealthy merchants and craftsman.
In Ottoman times, the town lay on a major trade route - the historical Silk Road.  Below is an Inn for caravans built in 1645.

Traditional and historic Cinci (Turkish) Bath.  Separate times for men and women.

Two more beautiful mosques.  We are finding each interior is different and one needs to remember these are all painted by hand.  

wall to wall carpet with already sewn individual prayer rugs spaces - saves men bringing their own, I guess.












The Safranbola area is also a major producer of the spice Saffron.

A few miscellaneous pics around town.

A beautiful Turkish bride.  The wedding dress industry is huge in Turkey - there must have been at least ten wedding dress shops just in our small neighborhood in Ankara.

candy merchant with props. 

a ride with büyükbaba (Grandpa) 

not too sure I'd feel safe living in these houses....

Some of the streets were old time real cobblestones - whatever they could find.  Not exactly easy walking but we did fine in our sturdy Keene walking shoes.










Then we drove about a half hour East to a small village - Yörük (nomads) that was once famous for its valiant calvary.

My dad would have gotten a kick out of the sideways chimney 

We walked through an old semi restored house

The gord is cool but I was more interested in the small, most likely hand-pieced quilt.

old pack saddle

cute little wood stove

Last stop was a communal laundry room that was 300 - 350 years old and was still in use until 10 or 20 years ago. 

Laundry room 

One of two large fireplaces where they heated the water

These huge pieces of stone had been cut and pieced together to incline slightly towards the center where the drain was.   One side was higher for taller women and the other side was lower for shorter women.  Ingenious.  And we read how that there are 12 sides to the washing table - something with Muslim symbolism.

Then the fun began.  Our local "docent" came running up (I think she forgot about us) and in rapid Turkish was explaining how the women of the village would come together to do their laundry.  She was quite a character and whatever stories she was telling must have been hilarious as the Turks in the group were laughing quite a lot.  Our tour guide did translate some about how the mothers would always be on the lookout for possible wives for their  sons who were good workers.  Then she grabbed Roy and hugged him - maybe she was husband hunting too?  He showed her his wedding ring and pointed at me and she kinda shrugged and laughed.  Some of her stories must have been a little off-color as our guide didn't seem to translate everything and there was much laughter. 

Roy and his new Turkish girlfriend 

It never fails - if someone in the group is going to get hugged or kissed, it always seems to be Roy.  Maybe he looks "safe"?  Disneyland,  dinner theater in Spring TX, and now Turkey.  

our nice tour guides 

Adana

The first weekend of April our favorite Air Force family here had to travel Southeast to the city of Adana (the fourth largest city in Turkey and the home of Incirlek Air Force Base) and invited us to come along for the 500 km trip/drive.  If you know us, it doesn't take much arm twisting for more exploring of this incredible country (always remembering what a tour guide once told me:  if it's not 1,000 years old+ in Turkey, it's not old!!).  It was a little bit of a tight squeeze in a Dodge Grand Caravan with 4 adults and 4 children but we survived and thank goodness for the built-in DVD players and our tried and true Animal ABC game.
On our drive south to Konya we made a brief stop at a large lake to see what?  Some birds of course.   What kind of birds were a surprise.

Yes, those are flamingos.  Come to find out from our Birder-in-residence, that Turkey has the largest breeding population of greater flamingos in the world.  There were thousands of birds and Roy could have easily spent the rest of day there.
Once in Konya we stopped at a large Park to let the kids play and stretch our legs (Konya was known as Ilonium in the New Testament and Paul and other Apostles preached here).

cute locals 

What is left of a tomb in the Ottoman Empire

This statute reminds me of an armed Cousin It from the Adams family or a cloaked dwarf from LOTR.  Oh wait, that won't work, he has arrows (like an Elf).   Anyway, whomever or whatever it is, I thought is was kinda cooling looking.

a fancy minaret 

We wandered around the market section part of town and it looked like many other market streets with much of the same merchandise, but this guy selling live leeches was a first.  Yes, you read that right, those are LEECHES.  Don't ask me what you do with a leech nowadays but it makes me shudder to consider the possibilities.

A white stork. 

 

The next day we continued our drive South and made a stop in the town of Mut to see this interesting looking Castle.

sadly we couldn't go inside the turret.

Beautiful downtown park.  

Our fun traveling companions.  From the left:
Annabelle, David holding Autumn, Marie, Christian and Jessica.












Through some impressive looking mountains......

Another imposing old Fortress near Silifke, but we couldn't figure out how to get up there.











The Mediterranean Sea and the Maiden's Castle near Kizkalesi

It is 300 meters off the coastline and was thought to be built just after the First Crusade.  It may have been a defense against pirates and/or used by pirates over the centuries.
A local legend states (Wikipedia):  a fortune teller informs the king that his beautiful daughter will be poisoned by a snake. He adds that even the king is unable to change the fate. Shocked by fortune teller's words, the king tries to change the fate by building a castle in an island where no snakes live. He sends his daughter to live in the castle. But a snake hides in a grape basket sent from the main land and poisons the princess. This legend is not unique to Kızkalesi and some other localities in Turkey share the same story.
David thought it would be fun to take paddle boats over to the island - oh sure, why not?  We're game for almost anything.  Except bungie jumping and sky diving, I draw the line at those.  One does not willingly jump out of perfectly good airplanes.  Roy on the other hand, said sky diving is on his Bucket List.   He's on his own for that one.  
Well....  getting into the boats turned out to be a bit of a challenge for clumsy me.  

Yep.  I am wet.  But how many people can say they have fallen into the Mediterranean Sea? Jumped, dove, waded maybe.  Thankfully I just sat down in it; gracefully I hope, although I doubt it.  LOL!    It wasn't exactly warm but not too cold either.  On our paddle over, the water was beautifully clear and blue;  I now understand why people have vacationed since forever near and around 'the Med'.  

from the island, the land fortress is behind us.

inside

friendly resident

Once in Adana, thanks to David, we were able to stay for 2 nights on the large Turkish & American Air Force Base there - very nice;  another first and probably last.  As with the Embassies, for security reasons we have no pictures.  We could have been in any US neighborhood and felt very safe especially considering we were only 75 miles from the Syrian border.  
Ok, wait, we got one picture because we were so tickled to be able to eat at the Taco Bell on Base (probably the only one in Turkey).  And you know we were absolutely desperate for Mexican food to make that statement.  

On Sunday we visited the stunningly beautiful Adana Mosque, which come to find out is the largest in Turkey and rivals most in the Middle East for sheer size.  

Marie and I modeling our scarves (required for mosque entry).  Jessica & Annabelle.

 To enter a mosque, all must remove shoes and women must cover their heads.   Non-Muslims are not allowed to enter a mosque during prayer times and I'm not sure but entrance on Friday - Holy Day - may be prohibited to Non-Muslims.

beautiful tile display

After our mosque tour, we attended Church on the airbase.  The Branch there is so small it is actually a twig, bless their faithful hearts.  So wonderful to again meet with fellow Saints in a remote corner of the world.  

On our way home we stopped in Taurus - the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, to see his "well".  

a local resident we were delighted to see.  We have a soft spot for tortoises. 

Again we passed through some imposing mountains as we drove home.  Notice the snow.  We have a whole new respect for the Apostle Paul's missionary travels.  He must have been one tough traveling/hiking/walking guy.  

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that".....

In March our little Branch presented a musical fireside -  Kenneth Cope's "Women at the Well".  Beautiful words and music.  For a small Branch we have an amazing number of pianists and several women have beautiful voices.

Spring is slowly coming to Ankara.

Planters and sidewalk boxes have been planted with a variety of pansies - very pretty.

















At the beginning of April we had to say a sad farewell to Elder and Sister W., (Fred and Nori), the Senior Couple Missionaries that have been serving in the Ankara Branch for the past 6 months.   We will miss them very much.

As with any large city, there is another side of Ankara....

I think these are Syrian refugees camped out

These  3 pictures were taken near Roy's office in the middle of an upscale neighborhood and fancy Mall.  Begging is rare but I'm seeing more as the weather warms.  Most of the beggars, many children, appear to be Syrian refugees; Turkey has taken in over one million of these poor  displaced people.

This is near the "castle" and a typical old neighborhood.

So, my friends, wherever you are living you are rich.  Very rich.  Count your blessings.

We are surrounded by Embassies

Our apartment is in the Kavaklidere neighborhood in the Cankaya district of Ankara.  Whereas Roy's office is in the Cukurambar district and the Church building is in the Gaziosmanpasa neighborhood.   Sorry, this is probably boring, but this blog is my journal and I want to remember these little facts.  As we have discovered we seem to live smack dab in the Embassy quarter.

This red roof is the Polish Embassy as seen from our apartment window.   If my part-Polish beloved step-mother were still alive she would get such a kick out of this.

I know you can't see them in this picture, so you will have to trust me when I say that to the left down the hill are the French, German, Italian, and the United States of America or Amerika Birleşik Devletleri.  I would add pictures of these but come to find out pictures of Embassies are frowned upon and the rule is enforced by stern looking young men with machine guns (at least for larger Embassies).  All have big gates and fences of some kind so as to block all views.

Behind our apartment is the Czech Republic embassy, and behind them is Slovenia

further up the hill are Switzerland, the Israeli Ambassador's residence (not sure where the Embassy is), with the Japanese Ambassador's residence at the top of the hill (currently under major reconstruction/remodeling).  At the top of the hill on one side are the British and nearby India.  The Russians are down the hill from them and over several streets.  On the other side is Pakistan and the US Ambassador's residence.  From the entrance to our apartment complex the Iranians are between us and the Hilton hotel.  On our walking rough to the Church is Brazil, South Africa, and several other smaller countries.  For a while I would find a new one on each of my daily walks - Finland, Greece,  Denmark, to name a few.