Turkey Day 8 - (3/17)
Picture uploading still isn't working well - I just can't get it to take. Maybe things will improve in Istanbul.
We're in the middle of nowhere at the moment - a place called Pumakkale. We left Kusadasi this morning and drove east. Lunch in a little village - probably the best food so far. Afterwards we visited a school - something Bulent set up at the last minute. The kids were really pleased to see all the Americans come in. A few spoke really halting English. Mainly "my name is" and "How are you". Apparently they were luckier than normal and had an English speaking teacher on staff. The first room of kids were very young, and very obviously frightened. Before leaving home I had bought about 30 postcard of Houston, and they were a hit. I gave some to the teachers in the first two rooms. Then there were groups of really excited 11-12 year olds, and I started just handing them out. The feeding frenzy ensued - they were like a pack of hyenas. Bulent told the first-graders that we were from the village of George Bush - probably not the best segway these days.
Back on the bus and drove to Aphrodisius (sp?). City of marble, and spots were quite specactular. The Hippodrome seats 60,000 people. That doesn't jive with Bulent's rule on how the estimate the size of ancient cities (take the ampitheater size and multiply by 6) - his thought was it might have been a truly ancient equivalent of Mecca or Jeruslem with lots of pilgrims coming in.
The remnants of the temple were quite spectacular, and a couple of the pictures came out very well. Wish I could upload them. A little more driving, and we're staying in the Lycas River hotel. The geothermally heated pool is really sweet. I jumped in before dinner, and might go back. The down side is that we're really in the middle of nowhere. Nothing other than a few hotels, and no streetlights to even make it safe/fun to enjoy.
Picture loading back. Here's me in the Aphrodisius ampitheater:
We're in the middle of nowhere at the moment - a place called Pumakkale. We left Kusadasi this morning and drove east. Lunch in a little village - probably the best food so far. Afterwards we visited a school - something Bulent set up at the last minute. The kids were really pleased to see all the Americans come in. A few spoke really halting English. Mainly "my name is" and "How are you". Apparently they were luckier than normal and had an English speaking teacher on staff. The first room of kids were very young, and very obviously frightened. Before leaving home I had bought about 30 postcard of Houston, and they were a hit. I gave some to the teachers in the first two rooms. Then there were groups of really excited 11-12 year olds, and I started just handing them out. The feeding frenzy ensued - they were like a pack of hyenas. Bulent told the first-graders that we were from the village of George Bush - probably not the best segway these days.
Back on the bus and drove to Aphrodisius (sp?). City of marble, and spots were quite specactular. The Hippodrome seats 60,000 people. That doesn't jive with Bulent's rule on how the estimate the size of ancient cities (take the ampitheater size and multiply by 6) - his thought was it might have been a truly ancient equivalent of Mecca or Jeruslem with lots of pilgrims coming in.
The remnants of the temple were quite spectacular, and a couple of the pictures came out very well. Wish I could upload them. A little more driving, and we're staying in the Lycas River hotel. The geothermally heated pool is really sweet. I jumped in before dinner, and might go back. The down side is that we're really in the middle of nowhere. Nothing other than a few hotels, and no streetlights to even make it safe/fun to enjoy.
Picture loading back. Here's me in the Aphrodisius ampitheater:
And I'm quite proud of this picture of the temple:
There's another one with the sun shining through from the other side, but I'm not sure that it will work on the web. That's it for now. L8R
posted by pantherman at 11:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home