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Trip For Physical, Intellectual, Emotional Exercize

Trip For Physical, Intellectual, Emotional Exercize

Old Sep 17th, 2017, 11:13 AM
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Trip For Physical, Intellectual, Emotional Exercize

It was supposed to be a surprise for currently demoralized and torn into pieces Eser. But she reached an emotional peak much earlier than the time I was prepared to divulge, and her need to be pacified would not succumb to endearing words and gestures. So I did disclose and involve her in part of the planning. This way, the choice of our lodging for the part of the trip planned more for her gratification cannot be charged to my my account completely.

Here's the plan :
- Thursday we remove ourselves from depressive Istanbul, inundated by a million kids suddenly commuting to school, and dive to Iznik.

- Saturday morning we leave Iznik and drive to Sagalassos, at Aglasun in Burdur province, a 445 km, ride. Unfortunately Saida Lake which deserves to be visited also lies too far to the West of Aglasun.

- One night at Sagalassos Hotel, which has very good reviews, takes us to our visit to the ancient city.

- After the hike, we take the longer but more scenic Eastern route to Lara district of Antalya, where we have two nights at The Marmara, but possibly not in one of their revolving rooms.

- Tuesday, sees us taking the inland route to Datca via Marmaris, close to 500 km to KaraIncir Bay, (Black Fig Bay) where we shall be at the only resort on the bay for five nights.

- Depending on our budget, we may also take a day to visit Rhodes which is only an hour's ferry cruise away, costing about $150 return.

I would really appreciate advice from readers whether this is recommended. (ferry arrives at Rhodes at 10 AM and leaves at 4 PM, but must be present at 3,)

Tomorrow will be working on packing.

Tuesday is taken up by all day meeting of the Technical Board of the Federation of Asian and African Insurance and Reinsurance Companies' Pool, luncheon and dinner.

Wednesday, financial matters, instructions to doorman and wife who will take care of flowers and cats, bank cash withdrawals if needed, etc.
That is when I will do my brushing up on Sagalassos and its history.

I will try to report every day or every other day. Will take my communicating laptop and also my old gaming laptop which has XP operating system making it possible to play all heroes and civilizations games without a hitch.

First report may be on Thursday, on the status of the people, animals, plants and sunsets at Darka, Iznik.
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Old Sep 17th, 2017, 12:11 PM
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> Black Fig Bay

That looks nice. I once stopped to see the Sanctuary of Apollo on the north side of the main road there.
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Old Sep 21st, 2017, 09:18 AM
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Thursday night, as promised.

Two very hot days. Wednesday temperatures reached 39 C en route; today it was 34 C. Now 24 C and raining with some thunder.

So, no swimming in the lake tomorrow and naturally, I added another driving day to our Southern trip to correct Eser's pouting lips although they were actually rather sensual.

We start driving to Eskisehir tomorrow morning, thus halving the next day's drive.

Eskisehir has become a pleasant and lively university city due to its progressive mayor; nice river, lawns, sculpture, interestingly long bar street, a district of renovated Ottoman Houses, good museums. Friday night, boring but point giving stay at Eskisehir Hilton Garden Inn.

Then, on Saturday, we may take a detour to an unvisited Phrygian city called Pessinus. Unfortunately, little remains of Midaion and Dorylaion.

We should reach Lake Egridir that evening to stay at Fulya B&B an interesting boutiqe location with great lake views. Unfortunately, the gods decided that we have had enough lake at Iznik so they allowed us the last room which may be the only one without a sea view.

These two stays will cost us about the same as one night at Sagalassos Spa and Lodge and increase our travel time by only one hour or so, but allow us to take hitherto undriven routes.
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Old Sep 21st, 2017, 12:43 PM
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I just caught up with your trip, OC and as ever I'm greatly enjoying travelling with you, and Eser of course.

I hope that the temperature becomes more reasonable and the rain departs, giving only sunny blue skies and warm seas. as for Rhodes, you're on your own, as I've never been.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2017, 09:55 AM
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Took 5,300 steps into the center of Eskisehir and cab back, after having dinner at a very busy Memphis Bistro along with hundreds of students, guzzling great Bomonti Beer. Our only disappointment was that "the King" was not around.

In all our time on the busy streets of Eskisehir we saw only two women wearing the head covering popular among Party supporters and those required to wear it because of male dominance. They were walking with small children. Actually, the famous mayor's lead was reduced to 5% in the last election, but that must be due to the rural population in the region, because everyone we saw or talked to were very modern. We will take some photographs of park, buildings and sculpture around the hotel before we drive off tomorrow morning, and I will post them on my www.otherchelebistravels.blogspot.com site.
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Old Sep 22nd, 2017, 12:27 PM
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thanks, OC - I'll have a look when I'm not so tired.
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Old Sep 25th, 2017, 05:22 AM
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Too tired to post last few days, and even now.

Rushing out of Eskisehir missed taking the photos I wanted to, but will post from the few we managed.

Drove to Pessinus at Sirihisar. \interesting mountains and too little left of what used to be a major city. A village exists on the most of the site and the Australian excavtion team either didi not have the funds, could not get the villagers to return stone and marble blocks used for their homes and walls or just lost interest.

There will be some photos approaching Sivrihisar and the antoique town, although the extra hour and a half may appear to be a waste of time to people of the female gender who accompany me.

Arriving latish at Egirdir, we were fascinated by the lake and the tiny peninsula where our B&B was situated in very Greek island type streets. There was a cancellation so we ould get a lake view room. Rather small but nice and cozy. Fulya pension had a nice roof terrace for the typical decent breakfast.

Photos of the lake and peninsula.

The ride to Sagalassos was horrible due to the slippery winding roads where our car tried to break at every automatic downshift coming down the mountains, scaring me into visualizing transmission trouble forcing me to leave Eser to handle while I recover at a closeby teahouse. Once on level ground the unusual unnecesary braking moved further from my thoughts, to reappear as we started climbing the eight kilometer mountain road towsards the ruins of Sagalassos.
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Old Sep 25th, 2017, 05:39 AM
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Eser for sainthood!!
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Old Sep 25th, 2017, 06:33 AM
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Sounds very scary, OC. looking forward to the photos when you can recover sufficiently to post them.
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Old Sep 25th, 2017, 09:12 AM
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Eser has been sainted more times than I can recollect, by Fodorites, free-loading diners at our home, waiters at my alumni club, old friends who kept on asking her how she has been able to put up with me for so long, our grandchildren and any child she has ever met.

Sagalassos was worth all, including time totally wasted for the ceremony to have Eser sainted by the local gods and their servants in this realm.

After the drive, I astonished myself, Eser and a Ukrainian couple with a baby by walking up from fourteen hundred meters to sixteen hundred meters altitude, the almost two kilometres to the grand structure possibly concocted by the Belgian archeological team which was the first to work on the site. Given time and some assistance, I could make a bigger one using a tiny percentage of all the marble and carved stones in the area.

I think I will start of with the above paragraphs and post a gropu of Sagalassos photos immediately.
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Old Sep 25th, 2017, 10:43 AM
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I may have posted hundred and fifty photos, some with captions.

This is the first draft, I may go back in a few years and remove duplicates and any pictures of those of the female persuasion.

www.otherchelebistravels.blogspot.com
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Old Sep 26th, 2017, 07:24 AM
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This is copy-pasted from my blog although I had problems publishing it.

More photos of other interesting spots will soon follow.
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Old Sep 26th, 2017, 09:35 AM
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most interesting photos, OC, and just what I imagined such a place would look like. It must have taken ages for you to take them all.

What I did not find were any photos of the hotel, so vividly described in your blog. Did I miss them?
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Old Sep 26th, 2017, 10:50 PM
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I added the photos this morning.

Also made a few tiny corrections and additions to captions.
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Old Sep 27th, 2017, 02:31 AM
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how many guests staying at the same time as you, OC? it looks like a vast place.
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Old Sep 27th, 2017, 03:27 AM
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Here's the hotel site :

https://www.themarmarahotels.com/the...alya-otel.aspx

It is definitely not a small boutique hotel.

A low estimate is about 300 rooms.

We had lunch at Dalyan, a British stronghold, on the way to Black Fig Bay. We were required to watch the rock tombs on the hillside across from the river and ponder about not being able to take it with you or Ozymandias who may have been a distant relative of Eser in one of her historic reincarnations.

We also had to take the 30 minute drive to the beach (Iztuzu) where the caretta turtles lay their eggs. We did not pay to enter the huge beach and could only see the hatchlings from a very long distance and could only surmise on how much they resembled people and wondered why some of them are painted like Easter eggs.

Alargish Brit, possibly a retired naval officer with red moustache and all was walking back from the beach and refused our offer of a ride back to town, saying he was practicing for a 40 kilometere race. I could not keep my mouth shut, and said, "Oh, is that how far the cemetary is in your neck of woods?" I did not stop to ask the next elderly foreigner we saw on the route although he looked tired and emaciated.

Our kind deed of the day was picking up a shepherd before reaching Dalyan, who was still practicing after having seven children and many grandchildren, the oldest of whom was 24 years. I must admit that Eser could not hold her giggles when he panicked when he could not open the right rear car door to get out because of the baby lock we had forgotten to clear.

Next blog entry will be Dalyan, Kaunos, Iztuzu.
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Old Sep 27th, 2017, 03:33 AM
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My very dear young/old American friend LW who I first met in 1960 called just now to say that we are invited to supper at his village house at Milas on our way back to Istanbul and that he was making reservations for us at a B&B at Herakleia, on Bafa Lake.

He even divulged the proposed menu as grilled Saint Pierre Fish or lamb chops, when I did not sound too enthusiastic upon his remark that his wife was going to cook. After all, we know the lady with whom we arranged the marriage for a small fee.
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Old Sep 27th, 2017, 05:16 AM
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I stayed in the Marmara Hotel when I went to Turkey in 2012.
I had one of the revolving rooms and it really was strange. It moved so slow you could not feel it but every time you looked out the window it was different.
From the website pictures it looks like it has been remodeled since I was there.
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Old Sep 27th, 2017, 06:47 AM
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I'm having trouble envisaging staying in a revolving room but i suppose it might be fun. You're right that Dalyan is a favourite with Brits - about a week ago I fell into conversation with a nurse who was leaving the hospital at the same time as me and that was where she was bound the next day, for her 2 weeks' holiday. I had to re-read your sentence about the shepherd - I had got hold of entirely the wrong end of the stick.
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Old Sep 28th, 2017, 02:43 AM
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Dalyan, Kaunos and Iztuzu, in all their nakedness at the blog.
See the photos now or forfeit your chance to escape the Kaunos tomb curse.

www.otherchelebistravels.blogspot.com.tr
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