Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 09:33:26 -0800
From: jennifer aitken 
Subject: homeward bound


greetings all
apologise in advance as i feel a long rant coming on, given that it's
the last. feel free not to bother!

well  here we are on our last day in turkey, all rather surreal, can't
believe the months have passed so quickly.  it's been awesome and though
there's lots of cool stuff to look forward to at home, am feeling a little
sad about this finishing the good life and entering the real world thing
...

big newsflash, we are now uncle and auntie-to-be of twins!  ants sister
nicky had her babes last week - a boy and girl called maggie and oliver,
apparently very sweet they are

turkey has been fantastic, we have felt very much 'on holiday! here.
 the travelling is all very easy.  although it's pretty touristed, mostly
it's done quite tastefully and also  the people have generally remained
friendly and pleasant - always a bonus!  it's been odd to bump into so
many australians and new zealanders, almost embarrassing at times!  
funny thing, most of them (other kiwis) seem unable to comprehend that
we aren't working in london! apparently that is the only way to do it
...  We also had the very odd experience of bumping into three acquaintances
from  new zealand within half an hour!

anyway i think i last wrote from Fethiye on the mediterranean coast.
spent a couple more days here and thoroughly enjoyed it. visited an eerie
ghost town nearby which was deserted 1920s after the greeks were booted
out and the turkish republic was created , so the greek orthodox inhabitants
all went back to greece.  

also had a lot of fun at one of the local bars here, where the manager
was completely mad and used to give us tambourines to play and attempt
to teach us some dance moves.  got quite addicted to some of the turkish
music there and had to race off and buy some of the cds. i know those
of you in nz can't wait to hear them.  
Also made friends with our waiter at our 'usual' restaurant - the guy
had 3 wives but said he might get another next year!

tried out a turkish bath which was most pleasant.  it's basically a big
domed room with some marble washbasins and taps, and a big marble slab
int he middle, where you lie feeling like a piece of meat on the barbecue
(as it's pretty hot inside!)  you then get scrubbed down with a wire
brush and have the chance to see how dirty you actually were (the guy
was somewhat horrified by my level of dirt, i'm ashamed to say)
you then get a soap massage, (medieval torture technique) and a few vertebrae
clicked in or out of alignment.
strangely enough you  feel really good afterwards!  we even went back
for another!

Next stop was Selçuk, close to some incredible ruins from the Greek and
Roman periods (and before that too)  Best of all was Ephesus, which 
is mentioned in the bible for those of you who know their stuff. It's
very well preserved with lots of massive columns , a cool theatre tc.
 What was interesting was that the main town square was surrounded by
all the essentials - the public library, the public toilets (pretty flash
ones too, i've definitely used worse ...), the markets and the brothel.
So what's changed?
The ephesus museum was awesome as it had stuff like backgammon boards
whch aren't so different from modern ones, also stone tablets engraved
with times tables and spelling exercises etc.

In Selçuk we decided to go carpet shopping.  Had a lot of fun pulling
out Jen and Ants' bargaining technique number 2.  This is the one where
ants starts upping our offer and i start nagging him that he can't go
any higher, he keeps looking at the seller with that exasperated look
that says 'wives, who needs em eh?'  Worked like a dream, guy started
at 380 US dollars and we got it for 140, gorgeous big carpet too.  I
think we should start a career in acting

Next moved on to Çanakkale, from where you can visit the battlefields
ont he Gallipoli peninsula.  A very interesting but somewhat sobering
day. It's now a peaceful green place with lovely little bays, all seemed
a bit incongruous considering what happened there.

Çanakkale was a student town and so we managed to find some cool dingy
little bars playing live turkish music

Near to Çanakkale is the remains of ancient Troy (complete with a tacky
reconstruction of the Trojan Horse)  There were remains of civilisations
right back to 3000BC (so they were pretty ruined - but fascinating still)

For the last week we have been hanging out in istanbul, which is a big
modern city but still has quite a bit of character, especially in our
area, which has a lot of old mosques etc.  The Blue Mosque is gorgeous
especially at dusk when birds wheel around the minarets and the call
to prayer goes out, very Arabian nights ...

Aya Sofia is the other big mosque nearby, though it started off as a
church about 2000 years ago.  It's absolutely huge and has fantastic
gold mosaics inside

We also visited an underground cistern which was where they used to store
the town water in roman times; a huge vaulted chamber with hundreds of
pillars and fish swimming in the water that's left

anyway , enough rambling about monuments!  (though i should also mention
the ludicrously extravagant Topkapi palace where the sultans lived their
extravagant lives, and the treasury is chock full of emeralds as big
as y our fist)

martin bexon came out from england to enjoy istanbul with us, which was
fantastic, and naturally that involved lots of chatting in coffeehouses
and smoking waterpipes, and of course checking out the nightlife
we had one particularly hysterical time when we went into what we thought
was a nightclub only to discover that all the women were in fact prostitutes
)and half of them weren't women either), who attempted to solicit the
boys while i collapsed in giggles in the corner

we also saw a bit of belly dancing, but it was a free show in a pub,
so i think we got what we paid for!  she was a definition of skank, she
was dancing but it wasn't belly dancing, and she wasn't turkish either!

istanbul has some excellent markets, so we had a chance to catch up on
some shopping.  
also did a day cruise on the Bosphorus - the bit of water between the
asian and european sides of turkey - which was gorgeous, saw some nice
fishing villages that have now been absorbed into the suburbs, and had
fantastic views of all the minarets of Istanbul against the skyline

however all good things must come to an end, so we catch our plane to
singapore tomorrow, then back to christchurch on tues 21 nov.  Will be
time for a reality check!

Whoever is around and about, will let you know when i have a permanent
abode, otherwise give me a bell at either my folks (timaru, 688 6577)
or ants folks (christchurch, 348 5719)

Must scoot and catch up with some of the friends we have made (one guy
we have been travelling with on and off for the last 2 months!)

Tons of love and apologies for waffly emails
Jen xxxxxx