England: Day 4

London

1. Don't really recall what we did today except for the British Museum. Its hugeee. Visited the mummies, the Mesopotamia, the ancient Greece, China prints, Indian sculptures etc. Its impressive....and its freeeee..I like! :) :)

Check out the larger than life sculptures!

2. After the museum we headed to Piccadilly Circus. It was buzzing with video displays and neon signs. That, I like. But the crowded places, not so. Well anyway, no pictures from there as it was raining. Thought I could just come by the next day to take some pictures..it is rather nice.

^8 Cee

Turkiye: Day 9

ANKARA
1. Ankara Citadel
2. Anitkabir
Ataturk really is a big deal in Ankara...I mean his picture was all over Ankara. He was the modern founder of Turkey and is as good as him giving life to the turks. Anitkabir is the mausoleum for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk...Its very impressive how they also lay out the history of Modern Turkey underground-lots of paintings, battle simulation, quotes & messages, statues and biography etc etc. There was also a peace park surrounding the mausoleum and it contains around 50,000 decorative trees, flowers and shrubs in 104 varieties, donated from around 25 countries...Ok i'm so not into plants but I think its pretty fresh how countries gives trees and flowers for planting as a symbol of friendship and sign of peace. Ataturk's famous expression, "Peace at home, peace in the country"

The Anitkabir
ATA is the army boys that just graduated that day "It is the basic principle to recognise the national forces as the only power, and to rely on the unquestionable superiority of the national will"
-The Sivas and Erzurum Congresses

^8 Cee

Turkiye: Day 8

CAPPADOCIA
1. Kaymakli Underground City

It was used as a shelter and was believed to be there since the Hitite period which is probably thousands of years before christ (ie caveman area-ish i guess??). It is called a city because it was so huge. It could fit 60,000 ppl. This underground city is 40m under and about 8 levels down. Tourist were allowed through the first four levels. Its always 17degrees throughout all the seasons in the year and it gets hotter the deeper you go (towards centre of the Earth). There were bedrooms, storage areas, kitchen, wineries, communal centres etc etc...

Stone door to keep the enemies away. Easy to push from the inside but not from the outside.

2. Somewhere around Cappadocia...3. Have you seen what happens when Popeye eats Spinach...click to enlarge
ANKARA

Ankara is the capital of Turkey... not Istanbul not since Ataturk made the sultans leave within 24/48 hours. Thats coz the Sultans were sellouts to The Allies since the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I. Location wise, its pretty central in terms of it being crossroads for trade in Turkey. When we arrived in Turkey the bus drove through streets of shopping. Wheee!! After weeks in suburbia... and all the signs had a big fat discount sign on it. We reached our hotel, checked in, ate and left and the shops were closeeeee :(((( So we ended up just walking about their equivalent of petaling st...well more like a pasar malam (night market)

^8 Cee

Turkiye: Day 4

KUSADASI
1. Woke up to an amazing view of the ocean
2. Stopped by Elegant-deri leatherhouse. They hosted a fashion show for us. Towards the end I got pulled backstage to 'model' a jacket... Well more like one of the model made me dance with him.
3. Visited Efes (Ephesus).
It was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, near present day Izmir (where Homer, and coincidentally our tour guide is from), Turkey. Efes was for many years the second largest city of the Roman empire, ranking behind Rome, the empire's capital. Efes had a population of > 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world. Only an estimated 15% has been excavated and what we saw already gave an idea of how splendid civilisation was!

On the left and right were shopping lots. A whole stretch of shopping right till the library at the end!

Temple of Hadrian

Library of Celsus with the ladies of the family :)

up close...2 stories high! (felt like 5 stories)
*gasp* frkn hugeeeee LIBRARY!!!!!Amphiteatre...also where gladiators fought
Seated 24,000 + Stands 1,000What used to be a harbor before it was slowly silted up by the Cayster River. (Also a reason for it losing its commercial importance)

^8 Cee

Turkiye: Day 3

CANNAKALE - KUSADASI
1. Spent first half of the day in Troia (aka Troy)

First of all, I never knew Troy was in Turkey. It was a half an hour trip from our hotel in Cannakale.

The legend of the Trojan War was apparently not really a fight between mortals but a fight amongst the God.

• It started with a beauty pageant between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. The Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of the three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful. Hera and Athena had tried to bribe him with power and victory in battle. Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world - Helen of Sparta. Paris chose Aphrodite.
• Kingdoms allied to Greece had taken an oath to protect the marriage of Menelaus and Helen and when she was abducted, war started btwn Greece and its allies against Troy with Hera and Athena siding the Greeks and Aphrodite siding the Trojans. The war went on for 10 years.
  
• It was upon the 10th year that the Greeks faked retreat and tricked the Trojans with the infamous Trojan Horse which could fit 40 of its strongest warriors. The Trojans broke their walls down to bring the huge horse in thinking that it could please Athena, the goddess of war.
  
• At nightfall, the hidden warriors attacked the city from the inside and that was the downfall of Troy.
  

Whether the mythical war took place is debatable as the earliest record of it was by Homer (also from Turkey and not Greece!) some 400 years after the war supposedly took place. But the city did exist and it could have been destroyed by earthquakes.

The tiny horse...

...NOT! This horse was built in the 19th century and acts as a symbol for the place.

Against the remaining walls of Troy

Was once part of Athena's temple

The wells where they used to sacrifice animals

2. Visited Acropolis after lunch.
Clearly not the Acropolis of Athens. There are many acropolis in the world. Acropolis means "up town" or "highest city". As you can imagine, the view was amazing!

Our tourguide, Tamer (2nd from right) pointing out the city belowAll 21 of us!The amphiteatre. Sunset :)

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