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Photo: Religious Frescoes

August 26, 2011 By Jillian

The Sumela Monastery hangs precariously on a steep cliff an hour north of Trabazon, Turkey.  Founded in 386, the monastery, like everything in Turkey, has a long and complicated history. Built by Greek monks who found an icon of the Virgin Mary in a nearby cave, the monastery has fallen into run several times over it’s history.  As you can probably guess, relations between Turkish Sulans and the Greek Orthodox Church haven’t always been the greatest.  For a long time the monastery functioned under a special pass from the Sultan.  Early in the 20th Century, the region was occupied by the Russians, who seized the monastery.  Population exchanges between Turkey and Greece in the 1920s resulted in forced abandonment of the site.

Today the monastery still holds an important place in the Greek Orthodox Church.  In 2010 the first divine liturgy in decades was held on site, an indication of the warming relations between Turkey and Greece.

As you can imagine, the place has a gorgeous view into the valley, and tucked away in a ravine, it’s the perfect place for a picnic lunch.  Of course we had a little fun with the frescoes…

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.
Orthodox Christian Monastery in Turkey

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: politics, religion, sites

Photo: Kneeling in Terra Cotta

July 5, 2011 By Jillian

The Chinese really put a lot of money into the Terracotta Warriors .  I’m not going to pass judgement on how it was done and what happened to the people who used to live on the land, but the fact remains that the Chinese have created an expansive network of warehouses and museums to protect and exhibit the Terracotta Warriors.   When you see them all lined up, many of them in the exact location in which they were buried, its a pretty cool and yet weird site.  Hundreds of thousands of statues, of soliders and both animals, each with individual features- I mean its almost like something our of a horror movie.  I was waiting for them to come alive and eat the tourists.

Sure the place was crowded and nobody pushes through a crowd like an efficient tour guide, but it was definitely a cannot miss place.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Definitely check out our original Xian post- we passed along good tips for independent travelers to make the most out of their visit to Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors.  Very frequently the farmer who discovered the warriors is in the giftshop signing books.  He didn’t look too happy to be sitting there, but welcome to communism I guess.  Maybe someone could convince the government to give that guy and his family some time off… say like a Maldives holiday.

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: art, history, sites

Photo Tuesday: All you Need is Love

December 28, 2010 By Jillian

As 2010 comes to a close, we thought this was the most appropriate photo to end the year.  A popular graffiti wall, the Lennon wall in Prague is full of quotes and art expressing all sorts of ideals and beliefs.  When we visited a small quartet played instrumental music from the Beatles giving the place a memorial like atmosphere.   Happy New Year!

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: czech republic, photos, prague, sites

The Center of the Silk Road

September 29, 2010 By Jillian

It’s hard to believe, but we made it to the center of the silk road, or at least the cross roads where all the silk roads came together. At one time it was the center of an empire (and then another and another and another and another) and was a bustling bazaar filled city with the widest array of goods available in the world at that time. For centuries, fabrics, exotic spices, teas, foods, metalwork, crafts, animals and slaves were all traded in the bazaars of Bukhara and Samarkand. He who ruled those cities ran the trade, and profitable that it was, it’s no surprise Bukhara and Samarkand were a sought after war prize.

IMGP7440What’s left in Bukhara today is a surprisingly good amount of the old city- madrassas, caravanserai’s (silk road inns), several mosques, minarets and even a fortress. Having been sacked by Genghis Khan in the 14th Century, the city was completely destroyed except for one minaret, 40m high, which Genghis himself couldn’t bear to bring down and neither could the Russian Red Army in the 1920s when they took over the city. Although there are throngs of French tour groups (oh la la!), in the evening Bukhara quiets down and we found ourselves alone at sunset in the Kalon Mosque. Peaceful as it was, it wasn’t hard to imagine a courtyard full of merchants (like modern day souvenir sellers) hawking their goods, camels resting near by, trying to unload and reload before continuing their journey.

IMGP7460Samarkand however was a different story. While the buildings that are left are striking in size and design, there is no “old city” left. Everything near the sites has seemingly been torn down, sanitized, landscaped and paved. The architecture that is left is absolutely stunning, the tiled designs are for the most part in excellent condition and the “Registan” area is probably the most impressive single area that we’ve seen thus far. That being said, there’s an entrance fee for everything and its not a pleasurable wander, it feels more like tourist site to tourist site amidst a bustling city.

IMGP7518We also found a few sites, not right in downtown Samarkand, to be more interesting and a different than most of the larger sites we had visited so far. One, the Ulugbek Observatory featured the site that pioneered the science of Astronomy hundreds of years before Galeleo and Newton, and housed a museum detailing much of what was done there. We also took a day trip (shared taxi across the street from the Registan) to escape the “just for tourist” feel of Samarkand to Shakhrisabz, where the buildings haven’t been completely renovated and there is still life to it all. We were in Shakhrisabz on a Wednesday and counted at least 12 brides in full puffy gowns.

To our great dismay the atmosphere in Bukhara and Samarkand is a bit like Disney World. The main square of old Bukhara, with its mangrove shaded pool, was surrounded by upmarket tourist restaurants with Christmas lights strung about. IMGP7491The entire old city of Bukhara has been sanitized by the government (literally, much of the old has been bulldozed) and although we were in Central Asia, there weren’t any signs of that developing world vitality- local vendors, children playing in the streets, animals grazing in the grass. Samarkand was similar, the historical sites have all been turned into souvenir shops and the former classrooms and dormitories of the Madrassas now house mass produced souvenirs from China.

Last year the government knocked down the main pedestrian street in Samarkand and rebuilt a beautiful shop lined boulevard. A decorative wall blocks tourists view of real-life. Even the market had been torn down and renovated, and its gleaming gate and newly decorated walls shout new rather than old. Our couchsurfing host in Tashkent lamented the government changes, and frankly we couldn’t agree more. It’s as though the government has come through with a huge checkbook, cleaned, renovated and made the whole place “perfect” for all those French tourists. It’s a real shame, in our opinion the sites we came all this way to see have lost their sense of place.

IF YOU GO: Transportation between the cities of Uzbekistan is easy with shared taxis making the trip for twice as much as the bus. The taxi is faster (and therefore a dangerous roller coaster ride) but is still cheap. We traveled between these cities, mostly via bus, for approximately $5 each with some rides lasting 8 hours. Food is similarly priced and we generally paid $16-$20 for a private room. In Samarkand we recommend the Bahodir B&B; despite the plumbing problems mentioned in the guidebooks it was a very comfortable and cozy place to stay.

Filed Under: Asia & Oceania, Headline, History & Culture, Uzbekistan Tagged With: religion, sites

Cappadocia: A bike trip to the moon

September 2, 2010 By Danny

IMGP6323Picture this: two volcanoes. One explodes and spews soft rock. The second explodes and covers that soft rock with hard rock. Over time water eats away at both rocks, but the hard protects the soft below it. People arrive, want to hide from various empires and dig themselves into the soft rock. That is a short history of Cappadocia.

Arriving in Cappadocia before 6am we were practically still dreaming when we walked off the bus and saw a sky filled with hot air balloons floating over buildings built into cave walls and mountainsides. IMGP6307Taking advantage of the cool air of the morning, we set out for a hike through one of the nearby canyons and found ourselves alone surrounded by cave homes. Near each dwelling, up high in the rock were curious holes, home to pigeons, all decorated to help the pigeons find their way back. Strange rock forms abounded, and we had the entire place to ourselves. Arriving back in town as the heat set in, we checked into our hotel room, or err cave. For the same price as a couple of dorm beds back in Istanbul, we booked a private cave room. Feeling like the Flintstones we slept like “rocks.”

Our tour of Cappadocia continued like this for two days, visiting strange rock formations and staring at the incredible power of wind and water. We visited tremendous underground cities. Yes, I used the word city, each one once held several thousand people. IMGP6448The Goreme Open Air Museum was a collection of cave dwellings and monasteries carved into the cave walls with byzantine frescoes adorning the walls and ceilings. Strange towers rose from the ground where the hard rock on top protected the soft rock below from centuries of water, and souvenir shops were never in short supply.

We did manage to do more than just some site-seeing. We rented mountain bikes for the first time since we biked Kruger NP in South Africa. Against the suggestion of our rental agency, we took those bikes through one of the narrowest canyons in the Cappadocia area, without a decent map or a compass. Don’t worry, it doesn’t end badly.IMGP6390 In fact, we pulled, hoisted and hiked those bikes along a precarious trail. At one point we had to use ropes to pull ourselves and those rental bikes up and over giant rocks. The few times we were able to ride, we took those bikes through caves and under gorgeous arches. Pulling our bikes up a rather steep hill at the end, we caught an Italian tour group off guard. Staring at us in disbelieve, the souvenir shop owner offered us water and juice (for a price of course) and tried to sell us her hand made lace. Opting instead to celebrate with baklava and yummy pides, we coasted downhill back to Goreme, arriving two minutes before the bikes had to be returned.

IF YOU GO: We were lucky enough to be traveling with a pair of Aussies from our Blue Cruise and shared a car rental for about $60 for a very nice 24 hours. This probably worked out in our favor but not by much. IMGP6482The tour prices are reasonable if you want to see everything but Cappadocia is a perfect place to just go for a walk through the surrounding canyons (if you base yourself in Goreme) and take an occasional bus trip to a nearby city to see an underground city. We stayed in the Nomad Cave Hotel and had a very nice time there in our own cave room with breakfast, dormitories were also available. We took a direct overnight bus from Olympos to arrive in Goreme but there are connections to Goreme from all major cities such as Istanbul and points further east. You might have to connect through one of the nearby larger cities such as Kayseri, however, which is also home to the main airport.

Filed Under: Cycle, Europe, Headline, Middle East, Turkey Tagged With: landforms, sites

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