April 14, 2010 (Wednesday)

Antalya Harbor. We got up early. Jerry is still tired from the harrowing day yesterday in the long, hard drive through the mountains down to the southern coast of Turkey and then damaging the rental car bumper in the Antalya Museum parking lot. When we ask this morning, we find out our Tuvana Hotel breakfast is not served until 8 am, so unexpectedly we have time to do something before breakfast. We decide to take in the old harbor from which Paul and Barnabas sailed, whose ancient name is Attalia. We ask for directions, and head out walking in that direction. The walk is easy, and the morning is beautiful.

The foothills of the mountains run right up to the shoreline, and reminds us a little of California’s Pacific coastline. We are up in elevation and are descending to the harbor. From this higher elevation on this cool, crisp morning, the harbor lays like a gemstone glistening. The view is picture postcard. The boats are colorful. The water is perfectly clear. When we get to the water’s edge, the harbor is so clear and calm like glass, you can see down some 30 or 40 feet, or more. We do a “talking head” movie of Jerry at the harbor that is great! We spend some time at this harbor where Barnabas and Paul caught a boat at the end of the first missionary journey on their way back to Antioch of Syria. I get to thinking that what Paul accomplished in his missionary travels is amazing. The distance from Antioch of Pisidia in the highlands of the mountains down to Antalya on the Mediterranean coast is quite far, so I’m wondering how long Paul took to walk that distance. I must do some research into Roman roads and distances traveled.

Hadrian’s Gate. We leave the harbor and start walking back towards the hotel through the streets of old Attalia. As if he had radar implanted, Jerry walked not to our hotel but straight to Hadrian’s Gate! (We had planned to do that after breakfast, but here we are.) The gate is beautiful in the morning sun and is important to my intrepid scholar as the only surviving Roman remains of ancient Attalia. He was especially pleased that the original Roman paving stones through the gate were preserved for viewing with a see-through walkway over them.

We finish picture taking and walk back to the hotel, asking directions now and then from shopkeepers along the way. The winding streets of Old Town Attalia are confusing. One man we asked for directions wanted to have a conversation so he could practice his “English.” He was very nice, offering us tea, as is the Turkish custom. We shared tea and conversation and enjoyed his hospitality.

We said a courteous goodbye to our friendly shopkeeper and moved on to our breakfast at Tuvana hotel. (The nose-blowing lady from dinner last night is here—ugh!) Once breakfast is done, we are off to check out of our delightful hotel, sad that we could stay only one night, and get the car.

Paul Harvey. This part of the journal is like the old Paul Harvey reports on the radio. Paul Harvey would set up a story in the opening bit, and, after a commercial break, he always would finish his story by starting with the line, “And, now, the rest of the story.”

So, here’s the opening Paul Harvey bit. We get directions from the car attendant how to get out of town and head to the ancient site of Perge, another stop of Paul on the first missionary journey, which is not far at all inland from the ancient port of Attalia. Well, of course, after we leave the hotel parking area, we find out that the way we are told to go is blocked by road construction right in the middle of busy downtown—naturally! To backtrack, Jerry has to make an impossibly tight right turn. Sure enough, trying to negotiate the turn with the sharp angle of the car and avoiding pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk was too difficult in the tight space, and Jerry scrapes the car’s right side on the high curb—dang those Antalya curbs! That’s the second time in less than 24 hours we have sustained damage to our rental car in Antalya due to high curb structures. With all the traffic now tied up behind us, we have no choice but to back up, get straightened out, and take a second shot at the tight turn, which Jerry somehow manages this time. We continue on our way with our damaged car. We find the main highway of D400 toward Perge, and off we go, although we are so disgusted, upset, and worried about the car.

“And, now, the rest of the story . . .” Is the Antalya story over yet? Well, no, not quite. Wait! There’s more! So, we’re tooling down the road moving along evenly with everyone else, and then suddenly a Polis officer is waving us over! We got a speeding ticket! 97.50 Turkish lira! We were flowing evenly with all the other traffic, not even passing anyone—yet, we are the ones pulled over! Jerry was so mad. Now, we’re beginning to think something is going on. In less than 24 hours we have damaged the rental car, not once, but twice, and then added a speeding ticket on top of that! Thank heavens we had stopped at that ATM. We pay the officer, get a receipt, and off we go. Jerry is steaming. He was not even trying to speed. This is turning into a very disgusting morning.

Perge. We easily find the signs on D400 to the ancient site of Perge and head there. Perge is where John Mark left the mission team on the first missionary journey after the initial work on the island of Cyprus, which upset Paul greatly. The issue of John Mark even fractured the mission team at the beginning of the second missionary journey, when Paul and Barnabas argued so strongly over John Mark’s participation that they parted company.

Once we arrive at Perge, which does not take long, we find the site is good. The central triple-arch gate into the city is still preserved. The nymphaeum (water fountain or water supply) is a beautiful, elaborate edifice, and the water ran down into a canal system in the middle of the street that flowed for several hundred yards. (I guess New Orleans is not the only city that at one time had a canal down its main avenue.) Perge has a very well preserved stadium. [A stadium is not the same as a theater; a stadium is an oblong oval used for footraces in the Greek world and later for chariot races in the Roman world.—Jerry] The theater officially is “closed,” but Jerry found a way to get some pictures anyway by climbing up a steep incline on the backside through thistles and briars. When he is “on the hunt” for a picture, that boy hardly can be denied, I must say. Jerry was excited to discover some nifty information in an inscription on the Perge site about a Roman lady who was a powerful patron of the city and held important civic offices. He said this inscription was important for sociological documentation.

Aspendos. When we finish the site of Perge, we think we still have time to take in another ancient site nearby called Aspendos, which has a magnificent theater, so we head there.

Really, that’s all to see there—the theater, but what a theater! Really stupendous. Stupendous Aspendos. (Is there an echo in here?) The theater is simply the best-preserved theater in Asia Minor from the ancient world. I liked the colorful camels in the parking lot, but Jerry said we were not riding. You should note that the Aspendos theater has a ferocious guard dog, but we managed to avoid his vigilant sentinel. Jerry talked me into climbing all the way to the top of the theater—and what a view! Well worth the climb and vertigo.

Side. Once finished at Aspendos, we head on down D400 to the resort town of Side, where we’ll have some down time for a few days. We get to Side, and the Garmin does help us get to the general area of the hotel we have reserved. However, when we finally find the hotel, the sight is dismal. [In Jean’s defense, we were being helped by a different travel agent for these arrangements, and that did not work well for this location.—Jerry] The place looks completely deserted, and paint is peeling off the walls badly. Yuck! We locate and talk to the proprietor but don’t get our luggage out. We decided to go to the ancient site of Side not far from the modern town, which is right on the shoreline, to try to see the theater and the archeological museum before closing time, but also to try to find a different hotel, even though we’ve already paid for this one.

Side Museum. We find the museum right next to the entrance road leading up to the archeological sight and ancient theater. We do the museum in a rush, because closing time is closing in quickly. Since the museum is small, we fortunately are able to canvas the holdings in our small window of time.

We view displays of nice coins that, unfortunately, are not dated or described, figurines, and Roman glassware. The influence of the sea on the city’s life is seen in exhibits of wine amphores and boat anchors. (This is the only museum we have seen, including in Europe, that has a display of ancient boat anchors.) We are discovering that every museum, even a small one, seems to offer something distinctive. Jerry finds another notable item of this museum in its interesting display of Roman burial practices and artifacts. Also, we saw a rare relief depicting the punishment of Ixon, a Greek myth not well known. [Xion treacherously killed his father-in-law, the first act of kin-slaying in Greek mythology. Stigmatized by all, Xion received Zeus’s mercy and was taken to Mount Olympus. There, however, Xion lusted for Hera, Zeus’s wife, and was punished forever bound to a winged, rotating fiery solar wheel.—Jerry] Some sarcophagi were on exhibit, but a notable one was a really fine example, well preserved, of the Pamphylia type from the 2nd century A. D. that had the typical Eros and Nike reliefs. The museum’s outer courtyard had more Roman sun dials on display than we have seen anywhere. A gladiator stele demonstrated how this particularly Roman bloodsport was ubiquitous throughout the Roman empire. We barely are able to finish the museum just as they lock the entrance gate behind us.

Site Visit. We ride around the Side site to see what we can see. We walk around the outside of the outer wall of the theater (but cannot go in due to being closed). From the backside of the upper elevation of the theater, Jerry gets a few shots overviewing the general site from a high point looking down over the general agora (market area) and forum.

Vespasian Monument. Leaving the parking area for the Side site going down the hill toward the city wall one catches a view of a distinct architectural piece integrated into the outer wall of the city. The inscription shows that the monument originally was dedicated to Emperor Vespasian (A.D. 69–79) and was meant to be a double-stepped podium for speaking purposes flanked by two Aediculae sides and a center niche, probably for a statue. Over time the podium and honorarium to Vespasian lost its function and was moved to its present location, where the monument was converted into a fountain. Jerry found this Side connection to Vespasian meaningful, since Vespasian was the Roman general who conducted the Jewish War  (A.D. 66–70), leaving his son Titus to finish the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jewish temple when Vespasion went to Rome to acclaim himself emperor to end the Roman Civil War that ensued after Nero’s suicide. Vespasian also conceived and initiated the building of the Colosseum, the most well-known Roman edifice in the world, which was finished and dedicated by Titus (c. A.D. 80). Many do not realize that Jewish slaves from the Jewish War and spoils of the Jewish temple treasures helped build and finance Vespasian’s Colosseum project (so Josephus).

Hotel Hunting. We still have a little daylight left, so we ride back into town and try to find another hotel. Unfortunately, we are finding out what being early birds before the tourist season officially opens means—nothing much is open. The entire town is vacated like a hurricane exodus along the Gulf coast. Hotels are closed. Stores are closed. We have no options. We were going to use our Side stop for a little well-deserved R&R (we have been going non-stop dawn to dusk for fourteen days straight) at what we thought was a resort area. We learn too late that Side is a “resort area” only some months of the year. We become proactive about our predicament and decide to cut short our stay in Side to just one night, preferring to push hard the next day in a long drive to get all the way to the Pamukkale area tomorrow. Since we stayed in Pamukkale the last time we were in Turkey in 2002, we know Pamukkale is a beautiful resort area open year round.

However, first we need to eat after a long day, so we hit the main drag. Once again, we are confronted by the realities of a non-resort resort area. Most restaurants in town are closed too, since it’s “early for the season.” Only a few restaurants are open. We finally find a very small café that is open that we feel like trying and catch a little supper. We are, of course, the only customers. The lady who is the proprietor cooks eggplant with red sauce, soup, and bread, which is actually very tasty.

After touring and supper, we finally get back to the hotel and see the proprietor. We tell him we’ll cut our stay short and leave tomorrow. I was proud of Jerry, because he managed this communication feat without insulting our host. Those pastoral skills sure do come in handy.

Paul Harvey Redux. So here we are in this horrible little room. The “shower” is just a spigot in the wall of the bathroom with no shower curtain, so getting a shower and not getting the rest of the tiny room wet is very difficult. Amazingly, the hotel does have wifi, so I get Skype to work, which facilitates making long-distance phone calls. After reading and interpreting the “legaleze” of the car rental documents, I decide we have to report the “damage” the car has sustained within 24 hours. I was soon to discover, fat chance.

“And now, the rest of the story.” I place the long-distance call to the number indicated on our papers. Unfortunately, the conversation is extremely frustrating. The person who answers has incredibly poor English. She keeps telling me over and over that I have to “get a Polis report.” She seems not to understand the nature of the “damage,” that is, that what happened was not an “accident” that involved another vehicle or the Polis coming, or any official report being written up. I finally gave up the communication struggle locally. I decide that I’ll try to call Avis in the USA. The Avis representative advises me to call the place where we rented the car, which was way back in Adana. I try and try to reach the car rental place in Adana but cannot. I’ll have to try to call them the next time I have Skype.

To bed with only a very thin sheet. Even though the walk down to the old Attalia harbor this morning was really nice, and the ancient sites of Perge, Aspendos, and Side were useful, productive visits for Jerry, on the whole, with the damage to the rental car, a completely undeserved speeding ticket not minutes later, a true dump of a “hotel” this afternoon, and an impossible communication struggle just trying to do the right thing tonight, today has been a really bad day. Probably the worst. We are tired from our travel, anxious about the car, miffed over a ticket, and lying in a dump.

For a video of the Antalya, Perge, Aspendos and Side action today:

April 13, 2010 (Tuesday)

Yalvaç. Up at 5:45 am to get ready and pack. We learn that breakfast is not until 8 am, so we vamp our plans and go riding around the fairly large city of Yalvaç to find the location of the Müze (museum) and to see if we could find the Roman aqueducts, which we saw not far from the Antioch site, but we had no signs or maps about how we might get to them. The front that had brought us rain for several days in Lystra (Karaman) and Konya (Iconium) finally was clearing out by the time we got to Yalvaç (Antioch of Pisidia), so we started having better weather by the time we were touring the site of Antioch of Pisidia yesterday afternoon, and this morning we have absolutely superb weather. On the way through town, we see the Müze (museum) building, so now we know where this building is for our visit later in the morning. The market that had kept us from our hotel when we arrived yesterday is all gone today, so getting around is easy. We found out that we had arrived on Market Day yesterday.

Antioch Aqueducts. We find the dirt road next to Antioch of Pisidia and follow this road, because Jerry has a strong suspicion this road might lead out to the aqueducts. Yea! He was right. What a radar he has, and what a great find. The aqueducts are in fairly good shape. First-century Roman aqueducts are amazing structures. We stay a while and take photos in the wonderful morning sun. Majestic, snow-capped mountains are in the distance, a beautiful vista against the bright, blue sky.

Jerry went down the hill to take a movie and had me stand near the aqueduct for perspective. While he was filming, unknown to him, two wild dogs started running up from far behind him, charging toward him. He was oblivious to their threat, so intent was he on making his video. I did not want to interrupt his action shot as he was narrating his movie and walking toward me, but I was afraid to death of the threat unknown to him of the wild dogs coming at him. I decided not to disturb his filming, but to let him walk past me. As soon as he passed me with the camera, I did what one might call the “Zhivago move.” In the movie “Dr. Zhivago,” With an assertive wave of his arms, Yuri chased off the howling wolves one night that were frightening Laura. So, taking my cue from the movie, I made a stand between the charging dogs and Jerry and waved my arms with as much assertive authority as I could muster without making a sound—and the wild dogs immediately stopped dead in their tracks and turned and ran away! Whew! Jerry never knew of the danger he was in until I told him later. He was pretty astounded all that took place while he calmly was walking along the aqueducts making his movie. One thinks of the lyrics, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Uncanny that Jerry had taken pictures of sparrows soaking up the morning sun on the top of the arches of the aqueducts.

We finished up at the aqueducts and headed back to the hotel. We enjoyed a late breakfast of soft boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and hot bread. Now, we ‘re off to the Müze we had spotted earlier.

Yalvaç Müze. The Yalvaç Museum has one of the nicest museum building entrances we have seen, with a pretty architectural front and manicured grounds. When we arrived, the same man from the Antioch archeological site yesterday that showed us the way to our hotel was at the front desk! He’s a pleasant fellow and asks if we slept well. He unlocked the museum for us, and again, we are the only ones in the museum. We then toured the museum inside.

The museum had interesting holdings, starting off with the jawbone of a Late Myocene mammal found in one of the valleys near Yalvaç. Jerry was interested in a seal with the image of a horse from the Bronze Age (about 3rd cent. B.C.). Several inscriptions derive from a temple of the god Men. An inscription mentioning the province of Galatia also caught Jerry’s attention, as well as a relief of a naked (= conquered) Galatian, hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck, imitative of the style of the famous reliefs depicting Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. Delicate gold-work is seen in an intricate gold vase about 2 inches high from the Roman period. A marble arm with a scroll in the hand illustrates the scroll form of books and writing. An overhead picture of a model of the ancient city of Antioch of Pisidia Jerry found most instructive for visualizing the ancient city’s layout and buildings.

One of the most fascinating pieces to Jerry was the head of a fisherman of the 1st century A.D. Since the disciples of Jesus were fishermen, Jerry’s curiosity naturally was peaked. The head was displayed in a case allowing a 360 degree inspection. Jerry studied this piece for quite some time but could not determine how the fisherman vocation could be ascertained from the features of the head. He then decided that the fisherman aspect must have been a part of the rest of the sculpture, if that survived, or something related to its discovery “in situ,” that is, in its original location.

Jerry was greatly disappointed to find that the Paul room of the museum was under renovation, so almost everything was missing (in storage we guess). The display cases were completely empty, and empty pedestals spoke of missing statuary.  Jerry was so disappointed because he was certain he was going to derive a number of illustrations for his classroom from this area of the museum. However, one has to get used to unforeseen circumstances when traveling abroad and especially when dealing with museums.

Even if the Paul room was pretty much empty, the museum still had other treasures of interest to my scholar. For one, Jerry was excited to see a rare copy of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (“The Accomplishments of the Divine Augustus”), a summary of highlights of Emperor Augustus’s career written by Augustus himself.

In addition, Jerry also was glad to get to view the Pauli inscription of an L. Sergius Paulus, discovered at Pisidian Antioch in 1912. This person possibly could be from the same Pauli family as the proconsul of the same name, Sergius Paulus, whom Paul encountered and converted on the island of Cyprus on the first missionary journey.

We then toured the garden area outside in the neatly manicured yard of the museum. The yard displays statuary and inscriptions in an orderly fashion. A pretty blooming tree in the garden has bees buzzing all around its white blooms.

We need more TL (Turkish Lira). Luckily, there’s an ATM right across the street from the museum, so I am able to get more cash easily. Now, off to find a gas station with a car wash, because this car is now extremely muddy! We stopped at a Shell station on the edge of town and filled up, only to find out that the car wash does not work. Ugh. So, we and our muddy car get on a road headed south that will take us to D330, the main north/south highway down to Antalya on the southern coast of Turkey via Isparta. We’ll have to find a car wash in Antalya.

Mountain Driving. The drive down to Antalya was a long and hard trek of hours and hours through mountain pass after mountain pass. The inclines were steep, the altitudes dizzying, and the roads full of switchbacks to make the ascents and descents. Jerry is a real trouper. He has been driving these Turkish roads for days on end, fighting the congested traffic in cities and the caravans of trucks of all kinds on the highways that always need passing. He seems to be like the Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going and going.

We went through a very pretty village named Egidie located on a lake, which appears to be very much a resort town. Tulips are being planted in the median in preparation for the tourist season. The town is quite quaint and scenic. Wish we could have enjoyed Egidie’s view for a while, but we have to push on through the mountains with their unending switchbacks up and down. Tough drive.

Antalya (Attalia). Finally! After hours on the road, we arrive in Antalya but can’t find our hotel. The traffic is the worst we’ve encountered for congestion and confusion in this city of ¾ of a million people. Streets are not named, not even the major ones. However, we do see signs to the museum we intend to visit while here, so we decide to go to the museum first and then look for our hotel later.

Antalya Müze. The Antalya Museum has a nice, paved parking lot. Unfortunately, the curbs are about a foot high. This high curb spelled disaster for Jerry. As he pulled into a parking spot, we got the front bumper hung on the curb! Naturally, Jerry backed up the car immediately to get the bumper off the curb. The front bumper, however, just hung on the curb and was torn partly off the car! Yuck! Jerry inspects the damage, but we decide to deal with the problem later, not wanting to miss getting into the museum. So, we go on into the museum and purchase our tickets. We got a sandwich in the little café before touring the museum.

The Antalya museum is spectacular. I can see why this particular museum has won so many awards. While the museum has holdings that go back millions of years, such as a petrified Echinodematas, Jerry’s interest was Greco-Roman. To give you just a sampling of what we saw, let me detail what you will be seeing in the pictures below.

An exquisite vase from the classical Greek period is representative of an entire collection of beautiful Greek items. The theatrical display included interesting copies of theater masks. The museum has numerous statuary, busts, friezes, and engravings. One impressive statue on a monumental scale was of Alexander the Great. Friezes of sacrificial bulls led into the Perge theater, as well as friezes illustrating the story of Poseidon, certainly appropriate, since Perge was an upriver port close to the Mediterranean coastline. An impressive frieze of Roman military horses arrayed in parade style came from the cenotaph of the emperor Gaius Caesar. Social life was illustrated in the markings of the top of a stone game table that included nearby an illustration of a Greek vase  in which two Greek soldiers are engrossed in playing a game. The coin collection illustrated well the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, especially the rulers of the Syrian throne leading up to and after the Jewish revolt under the Maccabeans. As stated, many periods were covered, including a well-preserved burial from the Early Bronze Age along with the unusual burial chambers that were found in Patara. The Patara burial skeletons were displayed under glass that you could walk over. Very interesting indeed. Another find from Perge is an extensive collection of artistic Roman glassware. Jerry had a keen interest in a statue of a Roman priest of the imperial cultus. The collection of monumental sarcophagi is the best we will see anywhere on our trip, with the lone exception of the Alexander sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archeology Museum. A picture of Jean taking notes while standing behind just the lid of one of these burial chambers illustrates their huge proportions.

Of all that we saw in this fabulous Antalya Museum, however, the “Dancer” sculpture hands down was our favorite work of art. This fabulous piece is a beautiful bronze statue that is so life-like that you almost can feel the wind blowing her light garments as she dances. The workmanship is extraordinary for the graceful lilt of the female form, the informal hair arrangement in loose, braided rolls on either side of the head, the soft, rounded facial features leading into a strong neck and squared shoulders, the easy draping of the thin garments casually wrapped around the left arm at the hip and gently collected between the fingers of the right hand swaying the loose-flowing skirt across the right thigh in perfectly coordinated movement of arm and leg, with the exquisite evocation of fluid movement along every crevice and curve. Jean was thoroughly taken with this unique masterpiece from the ancient world.

Tuvana Hotel. We finished the museum and head back to the bumper problem out in the parking lot. Jerry worked on the bumper for a while and got the main piece popped back into place pretty good. He thinks the bumper will stay in place. We are off to find a car wash in this teeming city, since the car is still muddy from the visit to the Lystra tel out in the countryside. We found a car wash pretty easily, thankfully, and got the car cleaned up.

We then start trying to find our hotel, which proves impossible. The traffic is horrendous, the streets are blocked, etc. I don’t know how Jerry stood the mayhem. Lines for lanes and stoplights for intersections are only suggestions as far as Turkish drivers are concerned. They drive like bumper cars at the fair. I’m doing no better trying to orient us with the map and the Garmin. What do the Turks have against street signs?

After an hour of useless turning round and round the same intersections, Jerry suggests we should stop and hail a cab to take me to the hotel so Jerry can follow. Finally, after a pretty long wait, I am able to get a cab. The trip to the hotel was unbelievable. Jerry thought he literally was going to loose both outside mirrors trying to negotiate what cannot be more than alleyways. What we learn later is that our hotel is right in the middle of old town in the ancient historical district, whose streets were not much more than walking paths originally. When we finally arrive at the hotel in this historic district, we realize in no way we ever would have found this hotel on our own.

The headache to find the hotel was worth the destination. The Tuvana Hotel is as charming as promised and more; since the tourist season has not really begun, our room is upgraded when we check in. The room is beautiful.

We have dinner at the hotel, which was very good food. Our only distraction from the wonderful restaurant atmosphere was a lady at a table nearby blowing her nose frequently and most loudly, not in any way making any attempt to be discrete about the process. That was disgusting. We are able to ignore her in the main and still enjoy our meal. After dinner, we sit outside in the swing of the enclosed patio garden area for a little bit. We decide we have had a good, but very stressful day, with the long drive through mountain passes coming out of Yalvaç down to the coast, tearing off the bumper at the museum, and fighting Antalya traffic in search of a hotel impossibly hidden down an unmarked alleyway. A shame we have plans to stay here only one night, as the arrangements are wonderful.

At the end of the day, Jerry, of course, goes right into his nightly ritual of setting up his “charging station.” He is quite the techie guy. How he keeps everything going is amazing.

Tomorrow we’ll walk down to the ancient harbor of Attalia (today’s Antalya) and then find Hadrian’s gate before leaving for the ancient site of Perge. [With the reservations she secured at the Tuvana Hotel right in the middle of Antalya’s historic district, Jean has placed us in one of our best accommodations of the trip, simultaneously putting us within walking distance of both the ancient harbor and Hadrian’s gate to boot, so, once again, she has demonstrated how well she has mastered the art of the travel itinerary—Jerry.]

For a video of the Yalvaç and Antalya action today:

April 12, 2010 (Monday)

Konya. Glad I wore earplugs last night. Even with the plugs I heard the Muslim “call to prayer” at 5:00 am. Of course, we are in the Muslim “bible belt,” so I guess these calls to prayer are louder and longer than most. Finally up at 5:40 am—we might as well get up since it’s obviously time to “point east.” Got our duds together and then did a movie from the hotel balcony abut the place of Iconium on Paul’s first missionary journey (3 tries finally did the trick). This morning is still cold and wet. Breakfast is in the restaurant on the first floor. We decide our hotel would be a great hotel for a tour group.

Lystra. Jerry retrieves the car from the underground parking garage where he parked when we arrived, and we load up in the drizzling rain and head out. We make our best guess for getting to Lystra and go pretty far on D696 heading SW. After feeling like we missed a turn or a sign because we have gone what feels like too far, we finally decide to stop at a gas station that suddenly appears on the right to ask for directions. I show our map to the non-English speaking attendants where we are trying to go. They motion to go back the way we came, so we turn around. Just as we’re driving back out onto the highway, Jerry sees a brown and white sign on the right that says “Lystra 26km” on a road angling right. Had we not stopped at the gas station just then, we probably never would have found our way to the ancient tel of Lystra. Providence. So off we go. We take one wrong turn and end up on a muddy street in the village of Gokyurt—oh, the looks we got! We turn around, backtrack, find the road again and continue.

We were just about to give up, thinking that, once again, we just must have missed a sign somewhere along the way, when off to the right the tel of Lystra appears in the distance. Jerry recognizes the tel immediately. Can’t believe it! The tel of Lystra appears to be slightly larger than Derbe. We saw a dirt road off to the right that looks as though its path goes around the tel. Thinking that path has to be the access road to the tel, Jerry turns off the paved road to try it—big mistake! (Don’t forget the weather has been rainy for several days.) Within about 30 yards, we quickly realize we are getting seriously stuck in deep, thick mud. Jerry really has to gun the car in reverse to get us out of there. This car is now covered in mud!

We go down the paved road more directly in front of the tel and park along the highway. Jerry decides he will have to reach the tel on foot. The weather is cold and windy and drizzly, but my persistent scholar dons his hat, rain parka, camera and off he goes. I sat in the car and watched him wandering around up there on the tel. He was gone a long time, sometimes completely disappearing on the other side. Can you find the car on the road in this shot below from the top of the tel?

When he finally came back down, we made another Jerry-as-talking-head movie with the tel of Lystra in the background (takes 2 tries). I had an ingenious idea of using the umbrella to block the wind from the camera microphone—worked like a charm. We also did a “drive by” movie, where I drive slowly down the road by the tel as Jerry records and narrates a video about Lystra. The day already is complete for Jerry. We found Lystra.

Yalvaç (Antioch of Pisidia). After our side trip out to the tel of Lystra, we retrace our road back into Konya to find our way to D330 in order to head to our next target, ancient Antioch of Pisidia, which lies just outside the modern town of Yalvaç. The D330 route to Yalvaç is through the mountains, and at times we see snow on the ground. On the way, we ate our snack: boiled egg (saved from breakfast), some peanut butter crackers, and 2 oranges. Bon appétit! On to Yalvaç—the Garmin proved helpful in getting us to the highway to Yalvaç. To our surprise a sign to Yalvaç actually appears.

When we arrive in Yalvaç, hundreds of people are at the center city market. We stop so I can ask a policeman where our hotel is located (Oba Otel—the only hotel in Yalvaç). He speaks no English, and I speak no Turkish, so we are quite a pair trying to communicate. I finally understand something about traffic keeping us from getting to the hotel and that someone is coming to help us. About 15 minutes later, a car drives up, and a man comes to speak to the Polis and then to us in minimal English. We finally understand from him that our best action to take right now is not to try to go to the hotel, since the way actually is blocked by the crowds of people, but rather to go on to the ancient site of Antioch of Pisidia just outside of town. He will lead us to the site of Antioch of Pisidia by driving his car there with us following him in our car (he tells us to “repeat me”).

Antioch of Pisidia. A few turns through city streets and just north of town and we arrive at the site. The Turkish people are so helpful. We brash Americans could learn a thing or two from them about helping visitors to our country. We pay our 3TL site entrance fee and the ticket man gives us all kinds of literature about tourist and archeological sites in Turkey. We ask about a water closet (bathroom), having been on the road for a while now, and the ticket man walks us to the facilities, since he can’t explain how to get there. What a relief—it’s been a long drive today!

We then start our tour of the remains of ancient Antioch of Pisidia. The site is impressive but not well maintained. We see the typical Greco-Roman remains: a theater, church (synagogue), Temple of Augustus, nymphaeum, etc. In the distance we can see the remains of Roman aqueducts, which you can see off to the right in the picture of Jerry below.

Shortly after we arrived, a class of high school students comes running eagerly up the hill to catch up with us to “speak English,” that is, practice their English skills. We have nice exchanges with them. We take a picture with the group and get the teacher’s email address so we can send the picture to her. We figure the ticket guy called her to let her know Americans were on the site. We were the only tourists at the site, and the students made a beeline for us. After some time with the class, we finish seeing the site. We just had time. The site was waiting on us in order to close for the day.

When we get back to the entrance gate to leave, the ticket taker and another guy are waiting for us. They tell us they will show us the way to Oba Otel, so they get in the back seat and point the way. Good for us both: they get a ride back into town, and we get to our hotel. Some streets are quite narrow, so driving the car is a little harrying. Our hotel is on a small street filled with “markets” with vendors selling their wares, so now we get the picture about the policeman saying we couldn’t drive there because of traffic. We park out front and check in. The hotel is adequate, and the people are nice.

After settling in, we walk up to a café that we think is a restaurant, but the establishment turns out to be a coffee shop only (Turkish equivalent of a Starbucks). We ask for a restaurant recommendation, and one of the patrons sitting at table nearby with his laptop computer offers to walk us to a nice restaurant. The walk is pretty long, and the guy has to get all the way back to his coffee shop and computer. The Turkish people are really something; they can’t tell you, but they will lead you, ride you, or walk you to your destination. The restaurant is very nice, cheap, and the food is great. Two full meals plus Cokes for only 16TL.

After supper we walk back to the Internet café we spotted earlier across the street from our hotel and spend a little over an hour on the Internet. The charge is only 2.75 TL—what a bargain! Back to our hotel, we get hot Turkish tea to take up to our room. Jerry immediately goes into his nightly charging-the-electronics routine, setting up his familiar “charging station” that we have at every stop. We briefly look at plans for tomorrow and do a little journaling. Getting late—good night!

For a video of the Lystra and Antioch action today: