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April 30-- ATHENS
The breakfast room of the Triton hotel overlooked the street and the market where we watched the hustle bustle of the morning.It was a beautiful day for being a tourist in Athens. A 5 minute walk led us to the transit train (the above ground one – not the underground one) which took us right into the heart of Athens for 1.30 Euros. In character, Mike started talking to the people sitting next to us on the train during the 15 minute ride. Carol and Con (short for Constantine).They are from Australia and were visiting on one of the cruise ships. We toured several of the marked ruins, including the Parthenon. There are other ruins with no name which are marked simply by a fence enclosing the ruins in a pit. Apparently, it is not allowed to disturb them after they were discovered and uncovered.The ruins on the hills beside the Acropolis go back to the 5th century BC and extend up to the 9th Century AD. The Parthenon was a temple dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Virgin) after the attack of the Persians in 480 BC.It was built under the direction of Pericles, the renowned politician of Athens, between 447 and 438. Restoration of the monuments of the Acropolis has been of importance since the 1800s. The first restoration attempt without the proper diligence resulted in serious problems. A more methodical and conscientious began in 1983. The Acropolis restoration program has undertaken a complete renewal of the Acropolis, taking down the building block by block, cleaning, laser-scanning, looking at every angle of the blocks, and then putting them back up together. The last time Beverly was in Athens and toured the Acropolis, it was in an October about 10 years ago. There were considerably fewer people visiting. But today it is swarming with people – and it is still April. Some of those people are school classes studying ancient history. We can’t even imagine the numbers of people that will be there in the summer. Mike offers to help people with their group pictures. With wall-to-wall people, it is difficult to let your mind transport you back in time to imagine that the Acropolis through ancient eyes.
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April 30 – May 1
The ferry left Piraeus at 7:00pm.We had a cabin on the Hellenic Seaways ferry.Piraeus is a busy port.Not with shipping but with ferries and cruise ships. We arrived on Chios at the ferry terminal around 4:30AM – a bit earlier than we had intended.The phone call waking us up in our room on the ferry at 4:00AM cut our sleeping short.The streets, still dark, were a mixture of ferry travelers arriving and people leaving the lively bar`. Several cafes were open for the ferry traffic in addition to the people leaving the bar, still lively at 6AM stopping for coffee and/or breakfast at the several open cafes. Chios is known for Mastic gum and the economy doesn’t suffer like the rest of Greece because many Ship owners and ship captains live there. We drove down the coast to Karfas and found a hotel called the Golden Sands.It was one of the few that actually had beach front.We checked in early.After a walk on the beach, we went to rest our heads – woke up after noon.We went into town for the afternoon.
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May 2
In the morning, we left to tour the Island and find a nice beach.We headed North.When we asked people where their favorite beach was, they quite often said Karfas. Hmm, that’s where we just left.Oh well, we were exploring.We picked a beach near Mapmapo. We stopped to admire the small port town that reminded us a bit of one of the Croatian Islands.We ran into Tony who is from England and lives there 5 months out of the year.We ended up talking to him for almost two hours about politics and our lives. (This type of interaction is becoming more and more common on our travels. We still wanted to find a beach.Beverly navigated with a map to a place we thought there might be a beach following the back roads.We ended up on a beach but ate by our bike – there wasn’t much of a beach.We decided to go back to Karfas.Beverly wanted to take a picture of the 4 windmills she saw on the way to the beach.We stopped and there was another photographer there taking pictures.He was from Cypress.We ended up talking with him for about 45 minutes. When we got back to our beach, it was time for dinner.Oh well, we enjoyed the beach at Karfas our first day.
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May 3
The ferry to Cesme left at 9AM.There were plenty of pedestrians but we were the only vehicle.We have had beautiful weather after in arriving in Cesme.When we drove off the ferry, we met Karen from Iowa. She now lives in Istanbul and works in a library, wanted to take our picture. We had stopped to take pictures immediately after disembarking.She said she writes a blog and likes to write about Americans who are traveling.She said we are living the dream just traveling around and seeing the world on a motorcycle. Our European insurance is not valid in Turkey. We needed to buy Turkish insurance before we could get our bike through the border. Had to walk into town but no one seemed to know where the office was located. Finally called the Turkish insurance bureauand got the address. Bought the insurance and started the Turkey part of the trip. We had corresponded with Ozhan who was a member of the Turkey VStrom club. We said we would met for a beer. While we were driving from Cesme to Ismir, another VStrom passed us. We waved, checked out each others bike and went on. Turned out it was Oxhan. What are the odds in a city of 4.5M people. Later that day Oxhan and Beste met us dountown and we roamed around the town while we got acquainted. Beste and Ozhan are PHD physics specialists who work at the local university. Ozhan did some of his work at Yale and Beste did her PHD thesis at Loyala in Montreal. It is a small world.
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May 5
We mostly stayed at Ozhan’s working on laundry, organizing pictures, planning our trip and our blog.Mike ventured into town on a few errands. In the evening we had dinner with Betsa, her friend, Ayse, and at least 10 other physicists from Turkey and other countries.Mostly theoretical astronomical physicists – you know black holes, Higgs Boson particle, quantum physic stuff.They are all here for a conference where they are trying to set up a third center of its kind in the world.The other two are in Italy and Brazil. The brain power was staggering but beer was the great equalizer. We drank beer and laughed, listened to so many wonderful places to visit in Turkey.How can we possibly visit or have all these experiences?Of course, we can’t.Has Turkey made it to our return list already? We met Isha.She is an astronomical physicist studying black-holes.She lives in Istanbul with her husband, who is also a physicist.They invited us to stay at their home if they are not obligated to other conferences. We talked to Tugrul, who knows a great deal about Turkey.He is a well-known in solid state physics.We suggested that the decisions whether or not to go to war should be left to us, the people– not the politicians. Beverly has this idea that Betsa is representative of and alternative life that she may have lived.They talked about alternative universes and quantum physics where such things could be possible.The difference between Beverly and Betsa, though, is that Betsa actually understands the concepts and the math.They both are interested in the fiction, Flash Forward;Beverly read the book and Betsa watched the TV series.They were truly sad to leave each other. We will meet Ozhan's friend in Fethiye and in Kas there is diving among some ancient ruins sunk by an earthquake. We haven't dove for a while but I think we have to do it. 18 days left in Turkey and already we are out of time for what we want to do.
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May 4
Ozhan graciously offered to take us on a Motorcycle tour.Beste could not go with us because she had work to do. We toured the village of Sirinci where Beverly bought spices for her friend Kathy. We hiked to the tower that could not be knocked down.The man who built the tower had a bed and breakfast up the hill.He wanted to build a tower but the government said no.He built it anyway and they threw him in jail.He is there for 2 years.They didn’t knock down the tower.When we were walking down we were invited for tea. A car park was at the end of the market streets, meaning we drove through the narrow lanes filled with vendors, shoppers and tourists. The7th stage of the 50th Presidential Cycling Tour of Turdy was supposed to be passing through the same roads we traveledthe very next day on May 5.We stopped by the big banner for the cycle race along the mountain up to Meryen Ana.Meryen Anais the last place Mary lived.Jesus asked the apostle John to look after Mary after he was crucified and took her to this place. After visiting Mary’s place, we had lunch in Selcuk which is right next to Ephesus (the Ephician place) That night, we enjoyed dinner at Nar Café and Kumru in Urla Isleke which is right along the water. What a lovely day.
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May 6, 2014
We said goodbye to Ozhan and after 5 hours we were in Fethiye.Ozhan’s friend, Ezgin Tan, who works at a local sports store, made a reservation for us at a local hotel. We stopped for lunch and the place had lunch where Beverly said it was the best salad bar she had ever seen.The chef, waiter and other crew wanted pictures with us. It was a beautiful drive – especially cresting the top of the mountain before the road descends to sea-level on several switch-backs.Mike offered to take the group pictures for the other people who stopped to document themselves against the backdrop of the awesome scenery. During the drive, we were stopped three times by the police;twice at the toll booths – one of those times we took pictures and the traffic police officer took selfies of all of us.The other time was for speeding.We knew about the speed traps before coming to Turkey and got hit anyway.The ticket saysthat we are supposed to pay it before we leave the country. After arriving in Fethiye, we went for a walk along the promenade which extends maybe 2 miles around the bay.A man sold us a fresh fish – he brought it out with a lemon stuffed in its mouth to show us.Served with salad, sauces and fries.How much is it?Eighteen.(Lira) OK.We thought it must be 18 each, which is about $9.It was a fabulous meal and we weren’t even disappointed to find out that it was eightEE – not eighteen.
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May 7, 2014
After enjoyingTurkish coffee withEzgin, Ozhan’s friend, at the sporting good store, we said our good-byes and drove 120 miles to Kas(pronounced cash).We found the NaturaBlue Scuba shop, recommended by Sultan, Ozhan’s girlfriend, and went for an afternoon dive at the dive site called Neptune.We saw pottery on the ocean floor, trigger fish and a black-haired fish. We both hadn’t dove for a while but the dive was easy and we were comfortable. We passed the test for a bigger dive tomorrow. Adnan, the owner of the Meltem where we were staying, invited the guests to a fish dinner on the terrace of the hotel.It was quite a spread. He just went down to the market and bought a fish for each guest. We sat with Suzanne and Steven from England who were hiking the Lycian Way. Kas is place we could see ourselves hanging out for a few days.It is not expensive, the Meltem Hotel is nice. There are hikes, beaches and other things to do. Of course like most places in this part of the world, there are ancient ties. 1. Turkish Tv/Actress star wit Mike 2. Dive Boat 3. Eran and Beverly 4. Suzanne and Steven and Mike at dinner 5. Beverly and Mike all dressed for dinner on the terrace 6. Beverly jumping into the Mediterranean Sea 7. It was a great dive |
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May 8, 2014
Being in the water yesterday was such a great experience, we decided to do it again. And besides, a dive operation always checks out your diving before they take you to the good spots.The Canyons dive was truly amazing. The topography had lots of structure.If we were at home, it would be perfect for Ling Cod.One of the canyons was a deep crevice.We knelt on the bottom under a small overhang and looked up at a diver’s shadow against the light from the surface.It was quite a picture opportunity – but we had no underwater camera.Later, Eren snagged a camera from another of the crew and took a few pictures of us. It was tempting to continue with the diving adventure but we really wanted to get to Sanliurfa.We had hoped to get to Konya by the evening.It would be a long drive.We decided on the route through Antalya just in case we needed a bail out.Not long after departing Kas it started to rain.The roads were extremely slippery in areas.We saw one car spun out.We slipped several times on corners and stopping even though we were taking it very slow.This is the first rain Mike’s jacket has experienced and it is not as effective as it should be in keeping the water away from the body.Needless to say, it was best for us to get off the road. The tour of Turkey rode this route. The Tour of Turkey route was neutralized part way just northwest of Kas because of the bad roads when wet. This is what Mark Cavendish said about them… After 30km on the slick descent off the first categorised climb, around 20 riders crashed. It wasn't an easy stage right from the beginning. During the first categorised climb, it went wet and the roads on the inland of Turkey it's like marble when its wet - it's incredible. Even going uphill round a corner the wheels were going." "The organisers made a wise, wise decision to of neutralise the race - there were guys everywhere. We found the Hotel Europa in Antalya.The weather forecast was for 2-3 more days of rain.During dinner, we started working on a new time-line for our trip. 1. Joseph and Beverly 2. Mike Beverly and Eran 3. Selfie 4. Meltam Hotel in Kas 5. Mike at Europa in Antalya 6. Beverly and Mike diving 7. Beverly and Mike diving |
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May 9, 2014
It is still raining – sometimes pouring.The forecast shows more rain for tomorrow. We are stuck in the rain for two days so we changed plans and wrecked our budget.We might have to go back to Ozhan's and sleep on his couch and eat his food. If we flew to Sanliurfa, we would have to go through Istanbul.Instead, we flew to Diyarbakir, a town about 100 miles from Sanliurfa with a direct flight from Antalya. We will visited the ancient city of Mardin and Gobekli Tepe which is a recently discovered temple 12000 years old. We will be back to Antalya on Sunday and continue our trip to Cappadoccia. Our flight left Anatlya at 9:00 and arrived at 11PM in Diyarbakir. Cab, hotel Seker and we were ready to hit it in the morning; we will be on our way first to Mardin and then to Sanliurfa. We are hoping that we aren’t labeled off topic by flying and then driving to one of our destinations rather than riding.We’ll back on the bike in a few days though.It really was dangerous and miserable. Beverly working on a new plan Flight leaving in the rain |
Loving following along with Y'all via the HUBB!! I hope better weather for you in the coming days!
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Submariner, we are glad you enjoy it. Thanks for commenting. We are having a blast.
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Good stuff. Wonder if it was you I saw the other day when I was in Kas.
All the best, Dicky Kas-Antalya, Turkey | Horizons Unlimited |
Dicky,
Could have been us if it was on the 8th or 9th. What a beautiful place. |
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May 10, 2014
In Diyarbakir, a taxi took us to Budget car rentals where we picked up a Opel Corsa. The car was a 1.3 Diesel and ran great. We in North America need to get our heads out of our gas tanks and use more cars like this.Abdulah was our agent. He worked the cruise out of Houston in a past life. He was very helpful and called during the trip to see if we were OK. He offered to take us to the airport when we returned. When we told people that our route took us to Sanliurfa, they unanimously said that we must go to Mardin if we were that close.A loop of 350 miles took us to Diyarbakir, Mardin, Sanliurfa and back to Diyarbakir.This route passed through the small town of Kiziltepe, only 7 miles from the Syrian border. Mardin is an ancient town. It is a UNESCO site and was originally inhabited 10000 years ago. Muslims, Christians and Jews live peacefully together in the town. A small group of people still speak Aramaic which was the language of Jesus. The museum was closed but we walked around the streets, bought fresh orange juice and a treat that looked like it might be something like a donut.It was... but only kind of... because it was dripping with a sugar or corn syrup. The terrain from Mardin to Sanliurfa is flat and the roads are mostly good. This, after all, is just above the upper fertile crescent which lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates where the first civilizations began, the Mesopotamians.It still looks like a fertile plain. A note to our friends, Kathy and Paul – we did not find any moatengators here.In fact, we didn’t even find a moat.The history of the moatengator is being questioned and may need to be revised. We left the cord that powers the GPS back on the bike which meant that we would have to find our hotel Kilim is a city of 800,000 by following our nose and asking around.We drove into town and luckily, came within a half mile from the hotel.A few inquiries later and we were checked into our room.But that was after we first drove to Gobeklitepe, one of our most sought after destinations in Turkey. 1. Mike making sure the Taxi driver knows how to get to the Budget car rental 2. Mike and Abdulah at Budget Rentals 3. The fertile plains 4. The plains from the hills of Mardin 5.Mardin streets with Donkeys used to transport products 6. Beverly and Mike in Mardin 7. Beverly in scarves 8. Mike buying a treat in Mardin 9. Syria in the distance 10. Kizeltepe – 7 miles from Syria |
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