Well. Once again my
adventures and everyday life have far outpaced my blog posts. Whoops.
I never claimed consistency as one of my talents. I’ve been in Afyon for over a month now so,
hopefully, as I adapt to my schedule, blogging can be a more regular
occurrence. (One can always hope, right? :) ) An outline of the last month's
travels:
·
Aizonoi
and Çadvarhisar: Çadvarhisar is a fairly
small/traditional farming village about 135 km from Afyon proper. What makes the town special? It contains the largest surviving temple to
Zeus as well as a bunch of other old ruins that were only “discovered” by
Western explorers in the mid-19th century. Unlike
many Turkish tourist sites, we were among very few travelers, and were
definitely seen as a novelty by the people we encountered in the small
town. The bus/minibus adventure to and
from Afyon went remarkably well and strengthened my confidence for future
travels.
·
Eğirdir
Gölü (Lake Eğirdir): My favorite weekend so far. We traveled to the Turkish “Lake District”
for a weekend with friends, swimming, biking, and relaxing dinners of fresh
fish. The staff at the guesthouse,
Charley’s Pension was incredibly welcoming and offered wonderful
accommodations, kahvaalti (Turkish breakfast), and traveling assistance. This weekend (and the lake and mountains)
were exactly what I needed and maybe even a little reminiscent of my hometown—hopefully I can return in the spring before I leave
Turkey.
·
Antalya: One of the major tourist towns on the
Mediterranean coast of Turkey and also the placement site of one of my friends and a fellow Fulbright compatriot. First
off, the size of Antalya reaffirmed truly small and easily navigable nature of
Afyon J Secondly, the numbers of tourists (mainly of
the aged European variety) made me realize how truly homogenous Afyon is. Instead of being corrected and spoken to
rapidly when we attempted Turkish, Antalya-ites recognized and appreciated
my limited vocabulary. Instead of constantly being
asked, “Why don’t you know Turkish?” our meager knowledge of Turkish was
complimented and (I think J
) appreciated. We found a used bookstore, dined near the water, swam in the Mediterranean, visited Hadrian's gate, and perused the Antalya museum.
On Sunday, we visited Perge, another ancient Roman site that is definitely more popular than Aizonoi. Many of the statues at the Antalya museum originated at this site, so it made a great 2-day experience!
More updates on day-to-day life in Afyon to come soon! Also, I’ll be taking a 6-day trip to Georgia
for Kurban Bayramı (The Sacrifice Holiday—on the Islamic calendar, to celebrate
Abraham’s [Ibrahim] willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail) later this week! Stay tuned!
