Home and hosed

Well it's over and the washing is nearly all done, all I have to do is go back to work on Saturday and Turkey will be in the distant past. Have been watching the sad news about the Earthquake and sending all my love to the lovely people we met and hoping all will improve soon.

We did stop in at Singapore on the way home for a bit of R & R but was slightly disappointed by all the high-rise and very familiar shopping malls - could have been in Sydney except for the heat and humidity !!

Our hotel lobby




And shopping, you can just hear the husband's groaning in the background !!!




That's all till next time

Love Wendy and Graeme

Istanbul again and again

Back here in the Golden City Hotel we are given our old room back with it's beautiful view of the mosques and water.




Almost feel like we could stay here but not quite - it is good to be heading home

See you soon

Love Wendy and Graeme

Goodbye Yuvacali Village No 1

Almost back in WiFi land and 3 days have passed very quickly. We have thoroughly enjoyed our farm stay experience and the peace and quiet of the countryside after busy Sanliurfa. Our day tours were in a private fiat car/ van which are very popular here in Turkey, and our drivers all part of the family - first Mustafa ( Alison of Nomad Tours husband )and then his brother Mehmet. They are part of a family of 16 surviving children, grown up in Yucavali. Our hostess is their sister Pero and with her husband Halil and boys Faruk and Fatih and daughter Aylin made up our extended family.




We ate and slept in their main room (except when we slept on the roof under the stars ) . On the first day our tour was to the ancient city of Harran, famous in the old testament and for it's beehive shaped houses and many layered castle ruins from Roman times.







In the evening we visited with the neighbours ( more uncles and the grandmother ) and they showed off Graeme with the many sheep ( average around here is 15 - 100 per family ) apparently he is rich and important enough to be a member of Parliament here and also have many more wives !!!! Although they generally only have one at a time these days but good luck to those who have more as the women do most of the work around here.

This is Pero making the bread - it is blurry because she moved so fast !!!



And these are the sheep going off to sleep with their shepards watching and Halil treating one of his for mastitis.




See you soon

Love Wendy and Graeme

Goodbye Yuvacali Village. No 2

Day 2 was off to Mt Nemru by heading North with Mehmet and over the Euphrates via car ferry and then winding to almost the 2400 m summit until we walked up and up to the statues in the clouds. It was freezing and very windy - and somehow my thermals brought all the way from Bathurst for the occasion got taken out of the backpack before we left the village and repacked by Mr Busy in the big bags. Almost bearable until it started to sleet and my legs in their thin skirt went blue - but the experience was worth it.









Back down it was almost warm in the sunshine and we dried out as we walked around a Roman ruin on the top of a cliff with amazing tunnels into the limestone mountains. No one said to bring a torch !!!




Home was past an almost intact Roman bridge at the end of a deep ravine - and no tourists to be seen except an intrepid German couple who we had met a few times over the course of the day.

The rain fell on the plains too and the farmyard turned to mud - but inside was warm and the food lovely and plentiful and there were many cups of Turkish tea.

See you sooner than before

Love Wendy and Graeme

It's easy to get lost in Sanliurfa Bazaar !!!

The castle was easy enough to find - it's on top of the hill ! We wandered amonst the rubble up top for a while and peered into the dusty moat and then clambered out via a long, steep and windy tunnel. Not good after seeing ones husband standing on the brink of the castle walls to take photos and of course no railings in sight. The tunnel went down and down from stone block to rough hewn walls and finally we found the sun again.



It is Saturday so everyone was out for some sunshine and to visit the pools of Abraham, where legend has it he was saved from the fires of King Nimrod - now there are some very well fed fish in a pretty park and a very big mosque.


Heading back to the guesthouse after buying some presents for the village school we visit tomorrow, we ventured into the labyrinthine bazaar area - full of shoes and scarves and nicknacks as well as sheeps testicles ( and other assorted bits ) and blacksmiths and furniture makers - and ventured out via another door altogether into narrow lanes between stone houses and backs of shops that seemed to go on forever. Luckily we are not wandering there still !! But the people here are so friendly we would only have had to ask and we would have been shown the way.

As we were when trying to find the mosaics museum - well marked on the map if only it was correct and the mosaics were in a building as indicated not under a very large tent !!! Thank you Turkish old guy and truck driver man.


See you soon

Love Wendy and Graeme

Ganziantep to Sanliurfa

We thought that Ganziantep was a bit too busy and grey when we arrived yesterday but then we found the baclava and all was ok.
After sleep we happened apon the market place and enjoyed the small shops and windy streets.


Some school boys found us amusing and followed chatting in Turkish and saying hello hello for quite a while - I was telling them they would be late for school, but Graeme was sure they had no intentions of going - a wagger from way back !!!
The copper smiths and blacksmiths were busy with their hammers and fires and the place was busy with shoppers - and not a tourist to be seen !!!
Sheeps head soup for lunch anyone ??


Not speaking Turkish here is a bit of a problem - in restaurants and bus stations, but sign language is pretty universal as well as having a map to point to . Our hotel guy in Antep must have thought we would never make it so he sent the lobby boy to drive us to the otogar and then show us how to buy the tickets and which bus to get on - sure we would have made it ourselves eventually but who can turn down such service !!!

See you soon

Wendy and Graeme

Fairy chimney's of Goreme

Beautiful Goreme, so glad we braved the bus to come back here. Graeme is convinced he can now drive his tractor around town and it would be cool !!!
We walked out of town and up one of the valleys this morning and it was just delightful - away from the crowds we picked wild grapes and walked in the grasses and looked up at the chimneys and climbed as high as we dared.







Back in the village we walked lots of narrow streets and admired the cave hotels, big and small. Our host Mustafa tells us that 80% of town is involved in tourism in some way, but this is good for the locals and business is great.

We have met a few Australians here, the Turkish men must be appealing as there are a few women who have married and stayed, and then a lovely young girl who was waitressing after only being here 2 weeks - when we talked about the women who stay she smiled and said she should leave soon, but perhaps it's already too late !!

One last photo before bed - doesn't do the scene justice though and i'm not good at night shots.


See you soon

Love Wendy and Graeme