Dinner at Alanya
After my second day of scuba-diving lessons in the turquoise Turkish sea, my experienced diving pals from Ankara Aqua Club knew what to do, dinner at Alanya. Hard work makes hungry and what would be better than a tasty sandwich outside a cafeteria in the street of this still winter sleepy tourist town on an early spring evening?
Spherical pano La Marsa Oasis
On the way to the herbalist, lost in La Mara oasis, hibernating between green shades of ancient presidential garden, unknown birds and children play, a humming town washes ashore, a distant ambulance chases a soul escaping toward angels singing.
Zoomable planar pano La Marsa Souk
Despite the revolution, supermarkets are still full, everything more expensive than you really need, and thus basically it is again La Marsa Souk; the open air market on a cool late December Sunday morning in this north eastern Tunisian sea-side town. My wife and her brother go for the fruit and vegetables and then we look for what else, going home with a white porcelain teapot, a five liter printed glass bottle and a lentil formed curious looking stone that I think wants to be cut in half to show it is a septarian concretion.
Spherical pano Just Saw Fish
On my way home for Christmas with family, before I could write down the new address of my oldest friend, the battery of my laptop went dead and I just saw fish. Not the ‘oude visch markt’ told the strange guy opening the door in the wrong street, possibly the ‘vis straat’ just around the corner in the medieval center of the little town of Zaltbommel, where indeed his son welcomed me at the door.
Still with my heart full of Turkey, I heard about the big news in the papers, showing the latest Cretaceous fossil Sawfish that they found together in Mount St Pieter near Maastricht.
The next day, continuing the voyage, we passed student friend’s “Oertijdmuseum” near the town of Boxtel, exposing the petrifact to families with kids attracted by the omnipresent dinosaurs.
With the sound of their roaring skeletons still in my ears, I left with some nice eternal crystals in my pocket.
Spherical pano An Indian summer
During the half year that I have been living in Ankara, I had 3 rainy days and now an Indian summer. At home we call it old wives’ summer and here they say ‘Pastırma Yazı’, like the highly spiced air-dried cured beef of Anatolian origin. This is perfect weather for late summer peppers and a colorful walk in calm and quiet Ankara’s upper middle-class neighborhood; where my office is just around the corner at the end of the road. Apart from the guy that washes his cars 3-times a day, I only meet gardeners on my rounds to keep that body from rooting in my office chair. Their head-scarfed women of the land are cleaning inside and those Indians must be gathering wood for the harsh winter that is approaching with the evening air.
Spherical pano Artemis Of Sardis
At the present day village of Sart, in the Turkish province of Izmir (Smyrna), are found the ruins of the temple of Artemis Of Sardis. Artemis is the Greek goddess of the wild animals, the twin-sister of Apollo, who is the god of the domesticated herds, siblings of Zeus and Leto. This holy place was part of the former capital of the Iron Age kingdom of Lydia, which last ruler was the proverbially rich Croesus, defeated by Cyrus the Great from Persia around 2500 years ago, after the Delphi oracle had ambiguously foretold that if he attacked the Persians, a great empire would be destroyed. Continue reading
Spherical pano Ulus food market
If you cook for yourself in Ankara, you need to know where to shop, like friendly Mustafa who pointed out how to find Ulus Food Market. “There is no love sincerer than the love for food”, as George Bernard Shaw once said; and .I love my food fresh and at reasonable prices. That’s why I need ‘Ulus Hali’ in the old center of Ankara where even fish is abundant, shiny, with clear eyes and red gills. Get acquainted with the friendly fishmongers, butchers, grocers and bakers. Fill-up your bags with a nice assortment of fish and meat, fresh vegetables, dried spices, bread and cookies, likely paying a fraction less than you would normally do; leaving a bit for a bottle of wine to cook with or even add some to the food, as W.C. Fields used to do so reluctantly.
At Ankara Anitkabir
In the center of Turkey, in its capital, on a hill at Ankara Anitkabir, rests the national heart of Turkey. This is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of all Turks, born 1881 in Thessaloniki (Greece). A particularly brave soldier during World War I, he rebelled against allied forces on 23 April 1920, while establishing a new parliament (Grand National Assembly) in order to defend the remains of the Ottoman Empire against Greek and Armenian occupying forces advancing from the west and east. Emerging victorious as commander in chief of the Turkish army, he declared independence on 29 October 1923, and the Turkish Republic was born.
spherical pano of La Marsa Corniche
Below the road along the cliff between La Marsa and Sidi Bou Said (Tunisia), one finds the villas of La Marsa Corniche. Quiet is the beach because of rocky sea bottom and in the warm red-green underwater world of algae and seagrass, we spend lazy summer afternoons. when not sunbathing on hot sand or shade-reading against the cool wall along this Mediterranean sea-shore. Remembering the last vacation with my father, the beach is empty apart from fishermen returning home, certainly because of the early morning hour and maybe also a bit because of the Arab spring that brought refreshing wind with some uncertainty and a whiff of fear.
Spherical pano Heaven Or Hell
The question is, now that I am slowly petrifying, do I get closer to heaven or hell? As a young geologist it seemed simpler, when heaven was walking unknown wilderness, cooking on campfire and sleeping in a tent. Growing older meant moving to a room above a bar in a god-forsaken village, followed by a run-down three-star hotel from a glorious past in some provincial town. And now that I am Key Expert in Turkey chasing ministerial office tigers, I lay low along infinite buffets, wallow in four star luxury and while bathing in hot hydro-thermal fluids rising-up from deep realms, I really wonder whether I am getting closer to heaven or hell.
ANKARAMAS 