Our coach, driven by Erol, left Titanic Hotel at 7:20am and arrived at Kapadokya at 7:30pm; a long day in the saddle. There were five breaks along the way for toilet and refreshments. At our first break for morning tea we had difficulty in communicating our order and the man behind the counter started shouting at a customer.
He came out into the cafe and threatened the man, who ran away. The cafe staff tried to hold the employee back but he was strong and ran 50 meters across the carpark to continue the fight. Resorting to violence to solve differences seems common in Turkey.
At the lunch stop we again had trouble working out the correct way to order and be served. The man who ladled our soup was a double for Seinfeld's "soup nazi". No smiles and rude manner, yet waited for Lyn to give him a tip. This was the type of scenery in the high country around 1000 meters high.
We watched a video on the history of Turkey as the bus sped along six lane highways and when we arrived at the capital, Ankara, we were taken to the Memorial and Mausoleum for Ataturk, the creator of modern Turkey. Our knowledge of him increased today and we think he deserved the esteem which people around the world afforded him. This was his resting place and the marble building which holds it.
His personal transport was a 1938 Cadillac, like the one a friend of Malcolm's owned.
His official car was a Lincoln.
We watched the changing of the guards with representatives of the three armed services. They stood unmoving in the hot sun for perhaps an hour at a time. The marble paving and buildings made the area very glary and hot.
There was a bridal couple in the garden of the flag.
Back in the coach we watched a biopic of Ataturk. This quote at the mausoleum was typical of him.
We drove past the large salt lake which is almost as salty as the Dead Sea. It is huge and supplies 70% of turkey's salt (population 78 million). There were people standing in the water but we saw none floating.
Near Kapodokya we saw the volcanoes, one of which was 3.200 meters high with permanent snow. The lava from 25 million years ago created a very strange landscape, which attracts tourists from around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment