Leigh in Azerbaijan

Tanya arrived home after nearly two days in transit. I have that joy still to come.  She had most of Saturday waiting around in the Singapore airport, but is now cat-sitting at Skye and Chris’ place.  They have gone to Thailand for 11 days.
Yesterday I went with Ann Marie to Ortakoy and then went to [...]

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This flash file graphically shows the many empires that have dominated this part of the world.
The growth of the Ottoman Empire. (flash file)

Turkey, a brief history (flash file) 

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It’s Sunday and school starts tomorrow! We’ve had a great time.
Last night however was a low point in the hotel situation. We went low-budget and hired a room in Kayseri which turned out to be rather smokey. In addition it was across the road from a major mosque which started up at 5am [...]

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Cappadocia in the middle of Turkey is an amazing sight.
The ‘fairy chimneys’ in Goreme, formed from volcanic ash and topped with harder rock, were weathered to leave tall natural formations that were then used to create homes and churches over countless generations.

While being a Biblical name most of what we saw was post-Biblical with [...]

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Leaving from Kuşadarsı, not far from Ephesus, we ferried to Samos, which was 1.5 hours from Turkey. This was just a day trip.

One of the churches in town.

Streets are particularly narrow in Samos, so this tri-truck was very appropriate.

We spent the day walking up the hill to the older quarter.  Many houses could not be [...]

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After waking at 5am to Morning Prayer broadcast at thousands of watts I caught the tram at Sultanahmet to meet Tanya at Ataturk Airport. It was foggy on the way out and Tanya’s plane from Dubai was the first for the morning not to be diverted to the other airport in Istanbul (close [...]

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Tanya arrives in the morning, school is over and I’m trying to get the details of flights and accommodation all in the one place.  Blogs on Ephesus and Cappodicia to come shortly.
The daytime weather is now stunning.  If it wasn’t for the Istanbul smog it would be lovely.
Leslie Tulloch arrived Tuesday.  She went to Sultanahmet [...]

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Went as far as this on the tram this morning to explore the route needed to meet Tanya Friday morning. The headstones were next to the mosque.

On the way back to the city I stopped in Sultanahmet and photographed the Blue Mosque from another angle.

It seems like the crowd is increasing in Sultanahmet. Must be [...]

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