Philadelphia Film Festival...

saw "The Answer Man" at the Philadelphia Film Festival last night with my friend, Cyndy (who is covering the film festival for a local radio station, which you can read here). Jeff Daniels was there for some award, and there was a Q&A session before the film was premiered. i thought the film was pretty good....didn't really have high expectations going in, so perhaps i was just pleasantly surprised. it didn't hurt that the film was shot entirely in Philly, and one of the major locations for the film takes place around the corner from where i live.

where have i landed??

Cappadocia...final leg of my amazing trip....place that i almost didn't go, had i not impulsively extended my stay for another 3 days just to fit this in. this whole region in the center of Turkey is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it's not hard to see why. its landscape is truly out of this world, with caves/dwellings cut into the rock, underground cities where persecuted Christians used to hide...i can't do it justice with words so here are some pictures:


i met up with Steffen again, and we both found this part of Turkey fantastical. S was especially fond of the caves...i suggested he buy a rock and make a dwelling for himself, seeing he's an architect and all. a little snow didn't stop us from hiking through this amazing landscape, though, i have to admit, a heat lamp that followed me around would have been really nice.

Istanbul not Constantinople...

met up with my friend, Jonathan, in Istanbul and had a whirlwind of a weekend. we managed to pack in almost all the must-see historical sights (Blue Mosque,Hagia Sophia, Underground Cistern, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar, Topkopi Palace....) and even had time for to go to a Hamam (Jonathan squeezed in a second one before he had to fly back to Dubai). all this, plus i experienced my first ever ATM card being eaten up by the evil money machine.

we also managed to eat some fantastic food, and in spite of the rainy weather, and my tiny pink umbrella that really didn't serve any good in keeping us dry, we had a great time.

on Sunday i took a ferry and crossed over the Bosphorus to the Asia side (Istanbul spans both Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosphorus), and attended services at a church that had connections with the one i attend in Philly. i had very little idea of what was being said in the service, but enjoyed learning to sing some Turkish songs, and just get a taste of worship amidst people of all nations....made me appreciate the grand reach of the gospel, that it's not just for a certain people.

on my way back to Europe, i decided to take a taxi so i could have time to pick up my luggage from the hotel and head to the airport.....and this is the beginning of another adventure. i was stuck in a taxi a lot longer than usual since there were a whole bunch of road closures and detours due to some protests. my cab driver spoke absolutely no English, and we conversed in Turkish (or at least i tried) the entire time....during which i surmised that he was indeed trying to pick me up. it was a most ridiculous situation, with language barriers like you wouldn't believe, and physical attempts by the cabbie to woo me--can you imagine him trying to dance with me in the car? and...at one point he took my hand and kissed it. if this had been anywhere else, i'd gotten out of the cab, however, we were on some highway or somewhere (i had no idea), and i really needed to get back and not miss my flight. long story short, he wasn't creepy enough that i used his services from the hotel to the airport- since i was able to get him to give me a cheaper rate. he did give me his phone number, and after asking for mine, i finally just lied and told him i had a boyfriend i was meeting, so he'd leave me alone.

Ephesus...

saw Ephesus in the pouring rain....not the best way to see the ancient city. but it was still pretty cool to walk through it. the upside is that there were practically no tourists! i much rather have that than moving among throngs of people. the beauty of having a car and all our belongings with us is that one could change clothing when needed....had to peel off my soaking jeans afterwards, and was glad that i have dry pants to change into.

Lycian Way...

"i'm going to plunge to my death!"- this was what my brain was telling me as we were hiking down to the Butterfly Valley, in Faralya, on a part of the Lycian way-- trails that connected the ancient Lycian cities. the hike was rocky and steep, and at points ropes had been tied to branches that jutted out of the side of the cliff, so as to help the climber leverage himself up or down the vertical "path."

God bless Steffen, cuz he was bouncing down the trail in his motorcycle boots, carrying all of my stuff, while i gingerly examine every step i took to ensure that my life was preserved. we did eventually reach the bottom, and what a sight. a secluded beach of peaceful beauty! there was also a great waterfall that we attempted to reach at the bottom of the valley, however, it proved to be too difficult, especially after S fell into the streaming water and then tried to hike bare-footed (did i say he was...crazy?!), and we still had to make our way back up the cliff.

by the time we got back up, we were starved. we found a road side restaurant near Kabak, where S supposedly ordered some lamb chops for us, but we got served....eggs. we were so hungry that we just ate the eggs that were supposed to be lamb. oh well, the redeeming part of the meal was a nice sunset we saw while eating.

Tukish pensions

as we traveled through the western Mediterranean and Aegean coasts of Turkey, we've done a lot of looking around for places to sleep at night. mostly we ended up in pensiyons. a favorite one has to be the "Akay Pension" in Patara, run by a super friendly young couple. as in life, sometimes you can't judge the book by its cover, this pension was in the midst of some serious renovations. when we arrived to look at the rooms, we had to tread through wet concrete floors, laundry hanging where the breakfast room would eventually be, smell of paint....the rooms looked comfortable, but we opted to look around the small town some more. In the end we returned, and were offered dinner, cooked by Kazim's wife, once they found out we had not eaten yet. we hung out in their living room that night, eating, chatting, playing the guitar...and unsuccessfully trying to get their 2 year old son to warm up to us. by the end of the night, we experienced yet another example of Turkish hospitality, and felt as though we were all old friends.

car adventures in Turkey...

While on our journey, we drove (okay, i drove, but in my defense, i was acting on Steffen's insistence) a little bit too far onto a beach we wanted to check out, and realized too late that we would probably not be able to get out. after several failed attempts (including recruiting an elderly man who was walking on the beach, to help us push the car- he was old, and i was afraid we would actually induce a heart attack in him), we gave up. so while S tried to search for some planks to see if he could get some leverage on the sand, i went searching for help in this tiny farming village where no one apparently spoke English. i had my Turkish phrasebook (which was not much help in our particular situation, but somehow managed to gather and provide entertainment for some village children, who repeated after the Turkish i was attempting to utter), and tried to get help, stopping anyone and everyone. finally we were able to convince a woman who had a tractor to get someone to pull us out...thanks to a van-load of women and a couple of guys who were riding through the town campaigning for a politician, one of the guys spoke English, and translated for us to get us the help. this is were the Turkish hospitality was so evident--we try to give them some money to show our appreciation, but they all emphatically denied it, leaving us grateful and thankful, promising them that we wouldn't do such a stupid thing again.

we're off!

the beginning of THE road trip. my friend, Steffen, and i started off from Antalya after lunch, after recouping from a night of dancing and partying at the wrap-party for the film S has been working on the last 6 months. we had our luggage, S's rental car (which had indispensable items for the trip, such as a power drill--you never know when you need one--but we opted not to take the circular saw with us), and were ready to roll. we headed along the coast westward, toward our destination for the night, Olympos, where S was keen to show me some really cool tree houses. there were great views of the Mediterranean sea, and ruins that we climbed to explore. once we were out of city limits, S jumped out of the car and insisted it was high time for me to learn to drive a manual car...so i had a crash course and lived to tell the story.

after dinner we went to Chimaera in the dark to hike up Mt. Olympos to see the cluster of flames that blaze spontaneously from crevices on the rocky slopes. these natural occurring flames were thought by the ancient folks as ones from fire-breathing monsters. i was reminded of my hike to see the eruption of Etna in Sicily, and i insisted that we had no need for headlamps, that the moon would light our way (thanks, Ida, for that "lesson"). good thing S took the lamps anyway so we could get back down the mountain with ease. the flames were a strange sight indeed. they are constantly lit. S didn't need to bring any matches for his little smoke and we drank our warm beers to toast this surreal camp fire experience.

we overnighted at the Kadir's Treehouse, which seemed like it would be a very popular place in the summer time. we stayed in this bungalow where the door didn't close b/c there was no handle from the inside (S's luggage served as our lock for the night), and it took us 30 minutes to figure out the light situation. AND.....S discovered a not-so-alive cockroach under his pillow, which prompted me to jump and demand that he check my bed for any of its friends. i did not sleep well that night, partly due to my jet lag, but also, i suspect, due to images of cockroaches finding their way into my ear in search for a warm dark place...

Turkish Hamam...

i had my first experience with the famous Turkish bath today. it was a very...interesting experience. all the prior readings about what takes place didn't quite prepare me for the whole ritual of being thoroughly washed by another person (some have liken it to torture) .

most hamams are separated by sex; the women and men have different areas for bathing. you go into this steamy room (feels kind of like a sauna) where there is a hot marble/stone platform in the middle of the room, where you lay down to sweat and get washed. one is supposed to let the heat open up your pores before you begin the exfoliating process and scrubbing and getting soaped. Afterwards, you cool off with water on the periphery of the room and in a quiet room outside.

my very first hamam experience was somewhat atypical in that it was co-ed....right, you see where this is going. and my attendant (the person who scrubs me down, and bathes me) was male---which would've been quite uncomfortable had it not been for something even more disturbing....bunch of practically naked old men sitting on the periphery of the room while i was laying on the slab of hot stone in the middle of the room being handled like a piece of meat. the attendant was *very* thorough in his scrubbing and marinating cleansing of me, and while i had my bikini on, i felt naked, especially with the leering eyes from the peanut gallery.

despite all of this and the fact that i couldn't wait to be done in that room, by the time i was finished, i felt really great....an entire layer of skin had been sloughed off, and the tensions of my 24 hours of traveling to this country had been eased away. good way to start my journey in Turkey!