Memories of Turkey

We started our year of travel in April with a flight to Istanbul.  I was blogging with my trusty iphone 3GS and adding only photos that I took with its camera. My plan had been to upload photos from my camera somehow and add them to the blog.  Reality is that just wasn't possible until a notebook computer came into my travelling life (read about that in my blog about India).  Now it is almost seven months later and it doesn't seem right to essentially rewrite a post to include photos.  So, here are some of the most memorable photos from Turkey in April with November thoughts.

Early April in Turkey means that the Tulips are almost past their peak.
We learned that Tulips originated in Turkey and were gifted to the Dutch.

The Blue Mosque.  Buildings in Istanbul were originally built in the
eighth century or earlier.

I have dozens of photos of the Islamic decorations.
Ideas for quilting.
Tthe calligraphy in the middle will be the name of the Sultan.

Hagia Sophia started out as a cathedral with incredible paintings and mosaics.
With the coming of Islam, it became a mosque and these were all plastered over.
When it became a museum, some of the mosaics and paintings were uncovered.
Spectacular.  There is even some Viking grafitti in the balcony.

First of many local animals

Wall decoration.  Later we saw broken ceramics used to decorate buildings
in Thailand and South East Asia.

My Turkish carpet adventure.  The one in the middle is silk while the
outside two are wool, natural dyes, and made in Kurdish Turkey.

Weekend festivities going into the park.
Not real guns or ammunition.
I think.

Remnants of the old wall

Ancient (B.C.) jewelery that would be current today.

Later we learned how to make these circular wine jugs.

Alexander the Great 

This one was restored to show the original colours

View from our hotel rooftop.

Meeting Calypso, our home for the next six months

Nico and Mikkel our guides.  Amazing meals came from this kitchen

Troy. Very quick visit during pouring rain.

Travertine terraces.  

Lizzard

Check my post on "flowers for our guests"

Retail therapy.  The lovely scarf I am wearing was hand tatted by this lady.

Sandy Lane

Goreme.  Watching the hot air balloons from the comfort of our
lounge chairs with coffee in hand.

Master potter.  This is the process of making the donut shaped wine jugs.

Surviving the cold at 2500 meters.

Next morning, the view was stellar.

It didn't take a lot to get the Brits and Aussies playing a bit of footy.