Back to main page and index of daily reports


Thursday, September 29, 2005 - Leaving Egirdir, Rosy Isparta, Visiting the Tuvalet, What "No Smoking" Sign Means in Turkey, Anatolia HERE WE ARE!!


Leaving Egirdir, early morning walk with the sunrise in Egirdir before catching the bus to Anatolia, three hours drive. Waving goodbye to Egirdir. A New comfortable bus. The young man is the driver assistant, he will serve us drinks and today we also get a cake.

A short stop at Isparta, where roses are everywhere. The city is famous for fragrant roses, rose products, the production of rose oil, rose perfume, rose water and everything else rosy.

No, I was not buying tickets for a show or a movie; I was only visiting the tuvalet, (guess what this is…). Tuvalets are everywhere. Cost 250,000-500,000.

What do you mean "no smoking", you must be kidding…sitting here at the Internet cafe, I am chocking from the cigarette smoke. You cannot avoid it. Everyone here are smoking and when you try to suggest that it bothers you, they look at you the same way as they do when they hear that someone actually prefer not to eat meat... So the first time I saw a “No Smoking” sign at the bus stop at Isparata, I looked around and sure enough, most men were smoking anyway.

My new drink, Ayran (yogurt drink).

Antalya here we are!!


Settling into our new home, at the Sabah Pansiyon in the Kaleichi quarter in Anatolia.

Anatolia is a modern city in every way, yet it also preserved the charming old quarter of Kaleici, whose walls once kept enemies out of the city. Attalus II of Pergamum founded the city in the first century B.C. Emperor Hadrian visited here in 130 AD and Hadrian's Gate was built in his honor.

After that came the Byzantines, later in 1207 the Seljuk Turks. Then came the Mongols. And in 1391 the Ottomans captured the city. After WWI, the Allies divided up the Ottoman Empire and Italy got Anatolia in 1918. In 1921 Ataturk's armies put an end to all foreign holdings.

Ataturk is everywhere in Turkey. His Busts and statues are in every main square and in every town and village. Every city has an Attaturk Cadde (street), and park; he is on the money, on posters, everywhere. Ataturk, 1881-1938 was born Mustafa Kemal. He was the great reformer that established the secular Turkish Republic in 1923.

Back to main page and index of daily reports

Back to Top
1