=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=
=0=| This is the start of the pictures we have of Turkey though most were lost in a roll of film that we sent to have developed but never got back (we got someone else's pictures which we returned, but to no avail). We got back to the states just before the holidays and sent off the film as quickly as possible not thinking that there would be more film be processed with the holidays and a greater chance of film getting mixed up. What to do? There were lots of large and impressive buildings in Istanbul, but after all the buildings we had seen over the last few weeks none of them really impressed us very much. There were some very large domes. This tower was close to our hotel. The hotel we stayed in had been a very classy tourist area, but that was many years ago and the area had become run down and tourists stayed elsewhere. However, our hotel was very near to the major tourist attractions which included Blue Mosque and Cathedral of Saint Sophia. Early on there had been the massive dome of Saint Sophia, but when the moslems took over they felt the need to build an even larger dome for the Blue Mosque. This seems to have been a watch tower with stairs up the center. Barbara is leaning against the tower. She is in her blue parka which we got in Korea (only $10). This was our first encounter of cold weather in our trip. That worked out nicely as from Italy on we were going by train making our luggage more of a hassle. However, from Turkey on we were wearing our parkas which freed up lots of space in our bags. We also sent a box back from Turkey as we found a U.S. military APO and that allowed us to abandon one of bags in Turkey. Anyway I climbed this tower and took some pictures from the top, but they must have been lost in the missing roll of film. |
=0= |
| The hotel we stayed in was advertised as a youth hostel (and was pretty inexpeinsive as a result), but the room only came with one blanket (as they expected us to have sleeping bags) and the windows leaked dreadfully. We had to ask for another blanket and using that and wearing plenty of clothes and using parkas as blankets and staying close together allowed us to stay warm enough. We also lost the pictures of the zoo in Istanbul which was mainly interesting because of how ordinary the animals in the zoo were. They had cats, dogs, chickens, cows, sheep, and pigs. The most exotic animal was a camel. This zoo was not in any of the tourist literature but we saw it on the map and decided we had to visit it (just to be complete). We figured that the zoo was mostly for school children in the city so that they could see the animals from farms and such. |
=0= |
| We also took a ferry through the Bosphorous Sraits. The picture above, this picture, and the pictures below were all taken from the ferry. The suspension bridge here and above spans the two continents from Europe to Asia which is suppsoed to be pretty significant (though I personally wonder how anyone can call Aisa and Europe diffferent continents, just where is the intervening ocean between Europe and Asia). We took the ferry to a town along the straits (shown below) where we had lunch. There was an old fortress at the top of the hill which you can see in the pictures below. The Bosphorous Srait leads into the Black Sea which was a major Soviet port at that time and Turkey was a part of NATO. So that the fortress was in a restricted military zone and we couldn't get very close to it. |
=0= |
|
=0= |
=0= |
| While in Turkey we also took a train on the Asian side, just to a town we noticed on the map (and with a cheap fare of 50 cents for a forty five minute trip) where we had lunch. This is the end of Turkey (quick visit with all the lost pictures). And we are off to Rome. |
=0= |
|
=0= |
=0= |
| When we got to Italy we were glad to see relatives of the three wheel trucks we had liked so much in Korea and they are shown in the picture above. They are the smaller size (like the original three wheel trucks in Korea), but were new trucks. Cool! There are other pictures of three wheeled trucks in 2007 in Rome and Florence, too. This is of a relatively new monument which the Italians call the wedding cake monument. They feel it is too austentacious with so many decorations and frills and it does look somewhat like a wedding cake. |
=0= |
|
=0= |
=0= |
| Above on the left is a pyramid that was in the center of a traffic circle which struck our fancy. On the right is a monument of an elephant carrying an obelisk which we saw as we were waiting at a bus stop (and I like elephants). There are all sorts of old buildings throughout Rome and this was one building that struck our fancy but was not considered to be of any particular note. |
=0= |
This page was last updated on October 21, 2007.
