Abbreviated Adventures.

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-19^th 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!