Remarkably, this is actually what we did. Yeah, I'm surprised, too.
We started the day at the Zeugma museum. It is worth noting that I have never seen as many flies in one place before as I saw in the lobby. It was like a convention.
Anyway - exchange students at the museum entrance. Mota, Jimmer, Danza (all Mexico) and half of Derick (Brazil). Danza <3s Istanbul.
[pic]
I got lucky at the Zeugma museum. Flash is forbidden, as are, for some reason, tripods. I'm sure there's a decent explanation for that last one - a fear of marking the floors, perhaps - but it certainly feels like it's all just part of a large and clandestine plot to keep museum patrons from getting decent-quality images. Fortunately, my mini-tripod escaged the guvenlik's notice, mostly because I could wedge it in my pocket and whistle casually when they were around.
Hee. I'm sneaky.
This is the main tableau as you come in. It's pretty cool, and cunningly low-lit.
Mosaic (one of maaaany):
Hee. I caught Valerio (Brazil) and Valeria (Mexico) k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Yes, they are an Item. We call them Valeriolar, mixing Spanish and Turkish grammer.
Blase, next to a mosic, or rather the spot where a mosic should be (see the question mark?). During excavation in the late nineties, looters made off with several pristine mosaics, including the one not pictured above. Speaking of which - the town of Zeugma, where the museum's mosaics and artifacts hail from, no longer exists as an archeological site. Since the construction of the ??? Dam in ???, it's been underwater.
Assorted artifacts, mosaics, and students:
Garet, with Maeghan being sneaky behind him!
Juliana at the end of a gallery:
Derick and Garet:
This series transpired when I was on the floor with my mini-tripod, preparing to shoot something at the end of the gallery. That photo didn't work, but I caught some exchange students goofing off in the process, starting with Garet. I think he's hiding.
Juliana had discovered Garet's hiding place! She attacks!
Assorted feet - Juliana, Maeghan, and Garet, going left to right.
Group hug!
Juliana, all gorgeous an' stuff.
The fish's head was gone. Maeghan decided to assist.
Close-up of a mosaic:
[
There's a famous mosaic at the museum referred to as the Zeugma mosaic. It's the haunting remains of a portrait - all that's left is the eyes now, and they watch you. I don't seem to have a picture of it (this seems to be a theme with trips of mosaic museums), but thanks to a convenient gift shop (!), I now have it on a shirt. So that's something.
Jimena outside the museum.
On the bus again. I believe Juliana is attempting to make a point, using bottles as visual aids.
From the museum, we drove to the city of Urfa, formerly known as Ur. Yeah, that Ur. Birthplace-of-Abraham Ur. It's pretty staggering.
Buildings on the outskirts:
Snoozing exchange students:
Signage on the way in. You'll notice indications for [Harran ->] and [ <- Balikli Gol]. We saw both.
A clothing bazaar:
More buildings:
Pillars! Local legend comes into play here, as well as the long-suffering guide's (same from the last trip! Poor woman) commentary, which was difficult to follow on a good day and flat-out incomprehensible on a bad one. Anyway, local legend as conveyed by the long-suffering guide says that at some point, a local king decided to snuff Abraham by tying him to these two pillars and barbecuing him. Abraham prayed for salvation, and the flames miraculously turned to water and the kindling into fish. Thus we have today that Balikli Gol, which translates to "Fishy Lake." It's actually more of a constructed pool, but there are definitely loads of fish. Hungry fish. We fed them. It was like a scene from Jaws.
Anyway - pillars!
Juliana:
Garet, with ice cream. Turkish ice cream is fabulous. Even the soft-serve stuff (90 kr at Burger King!) is heaps better than the stuff Stateside. I credit magic.
Part of the fishy lake. More of a canal at this point, actually:
The lake! A mosque complex is here as well, and the grounds are a lovely park. It's a really nice area, and very peaceful.
The fish reminded me of Green Giant canned French-cut green beans. I was hungry. We all took turns poking at the fish.
I like the juxtaposition here - the local woman in full traditional dress, and Valeria in a tube top. Neither gave the other a second glance.
Local toddler. He was adorable.
There were boat rides in the Fishy Lake, so naturally, we had to go. I think it was fifty kr/person - something like thirty cents US - for a turn around the pond. Jimena was excited.
Maeghan and I in the boat:
Our boat! Jimmer (Mexico), Danza (Mexico), Maeghan (Canada), Mota (Mexico), Jime (Mexico), and a sliver of Garet (US):
The other boat! Left to right - Valeria (Mexico), Blase (US), Valerio (Brazil), Can the Chaperon (Turk), Juliana (Brazil), the rower, Fernanda (Brazil), Derick (Brazil), and Tinkerbell (Mexico):
And then we had a Tourist Moment (tm). See, there was this guy selling scarves... So of course we had to buy some. Especially when he showed us how to tie them on correctly. We were quite the spectacle. People took pictures of us. You'd have thought the circus was in town.
With our new headgear, we paraded to the cave where Abraham was born. It's open to all religions and anyone can see it, but it's foremost a Muslim holy place. It's inside a mosque complex, and you have to follow their rules. Sexes are segregated, shoes are off, and if you're a woman, everything except feet, hands, and face are covered.
Various shots from the courtyard:
Entrance. Men on the right, women on the left.
Inside. Maeghan is on the left, Juliana on the right. The mosque provided the gray robes we're wearing, as our t-shirts were a no-go.
The cave itself. It's...not a lot to look at, actually...?
The boys, who hadn't needed to cover anything and were therefore a bit faster in and out then the womenfolk, were in the courtyard when we emerged.
We joined them.
From the cave, we wandered to an enormous bazaar complex for lunch and further wandering. Blase, Maeghan, and I got pilav and beans for lunch. It was fabulous.
Maeghan, unabashedly walking into my picture (as usual):
A very tricked-out motorcycle. I believe it was outside a fabric stall.
At the meeting point outside the bazaar an hour or so later. I was bored and trying to be artistic.
A street preacher. He was nice, but reminded me just a bit of that sketch from Ant Farm (if you don't know it, I can't really explain it).
From the bazaar, we headed off to Harran, a town right on the Syrian border. These were at a rest stop on the way. "Winergy!" is fun to say. No, really - try it!
On the drive - a typical house:
Harran is famous for having the ruins of what's believed to be the world's first university. It also has a traditional house preserved. It's owned and maintained by the wealthiest family in the town, but "wealthy" is a relative term here. For all practical purposes, Harran is third-world. The odd tourists bring in income, but on the whole, the town survives on agriculture.
Jimmer in Harran, accompanied by goats.
Derick, Can the Chaperon, and Garet. I..am not entirely sure what they are doing here, but I would remind you that I spent fifteen days on a bus with them.
The university!
Maeghan in the doorway(s). For those of you who have noticed the prevalence of that type of shot around here, I really do just follow Maeghan around and yell at her to stop for a sec when she looks artistic.
Doorway without Maeghan!
Derick, Danza, moi, Mota, and Can the Chaperon. Note how I'm rockin' the scarf. The local kids thought it was hilarious.
[pic]
Speaking of the local kids...they came out of the woodwork as soon as we arrived. I suppose we were the most interesting thing in town that day, and also the most likely to slip them a lira or two.
View from the wall:
Garet, upstairs, touching the sun.
I followed him up - there were stairs, and everything was quite sturdy. The nifty silhouette in the bottom of the frame is me.
Oh, Garet. Never change.
A local house + laundry. See the blue frames in front? When the weather gets hot, people pile mattresses and blankets on them and sleep outdoors.
Walking from the castle to the "culture house."
This is a traditional home, preserved and maintained by a local family. They also sell handicrafts and clothing. Almost everything in the home was for sale. The caretaking family lives in a different house in the same compound.
I'm pretty sure Blase bought these pants.
The caretaker's family's house:
Fernanda outside, in the courtyard. These stools were amazingly comfortable.
The girl I'd photographed in the castle followed us in.
And I took these from the bus as we left.
Harran is quite literally a stone's throw from Syria, although actually throwing a stone probably would have resulted in, um, hostilties, and possibly the nuclear anhilation of a small, neutral country. See those trees? Syria!
Our hotel in Urfa was...interesting. It was a few sketchy allies away from the main drag, and looked as if it hadn't been renovated, or possibly had any residents, since the Nixon administration. I don't seem to have any pictures of the rooms, but the one Maeghan and I shared had windows that opened, for some reason, to the hallway. Rather than, say, outside. She pretended to do a striptease in one. I did a puppetshow in the other. Neither of us would go in the bathroom, there was exposed wiring where the ceiling light fixture had been, and there were scorch marks on the walls above the heating pipes. We only ate the bread at breakfast the next morning.
Jimena in the lobby:
Dinner was Urfa kebab and soup. The soup was terrific, and I quite liked the kebab, but it did not rest well with many present. Our hotel was conveniently close to a hospital, which turned out to be good. Blase needed it that night. Can the Chaperon blamed the kebab, saying that some of the meat had probably been goat.
The restaurant's cat. I gave it some of my kebab.
Desert! Like a crepe, but a billion times better and stuffed with...something tasty and hopefully not goat..
Still Life with Garet & Sugarcube.
The street outside the hotel.
After dinner, we went for a walk at Balikli Gol, the aforementioned Fishy Lake. It was quite nice at night.
Because I had, at this point, effectively convinced Can the Chaperon that my camera was as good as if not better than his (and my room was always better and my Internet was always faster, and I always had a balcony), we used my camera to take a group picture on a bridge over the aforementioned and much belabored Fishy Lake.
It was quite beautiful there are night.
No comments:
Post a Comment