ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 6)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

A functioning Roman fountain

Ancient city of Sagalassos

On our last day of the trip we just had enough time in the morning to visit the ancient city of Sagalassos. It’s a Greco-Roman city (even though the history of it dates much further back, the remains found are from that era).  There’s a successful restoration project in progress, and it already has become a site well worth a visit. There’s also the only functional Roman fountain found in the country on this site. After erecting up the ancient fountain, archaeologist were able to supply it with water coming from the same natural spring that had fed it 2000 years ago. There was another chance not to be missed, so drinking water from an ancient Roman fountain became the highlight of the day.  After visiting the site we hit the road to the airport to conclude a trip spent in a beautiful enviroment surrounded by beautiful people. 

ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 5)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

A poem written for Epictetus carved on to the rock at Yazılı Canyon

English translation of the poem

Taking a dip in the cold waters of the canyon

We were getting close to the end of our trip and we wanted to see a couple of more places in the area before we left, so we called the truck driver to drive us back after a nice breakfast which was crowned with thyme honey (honey obtained from bees feeding off of wild thyme). Picking up our car from the village, we drove off to Yazılı Kanyon (Inscribed Canyon). The name comes from a poem engraved on a rock in the canyon, attributed to the great philosopher Epictetus. The words of the poem still hold true to this day. Arriving at the site, we first treated ourselves to a nice lunch of trout, farmed right there in the river, which flows through the canyon with its ice cold water yearround. Afterwards we took a pleasant walk, passing through the woods in all shades of oranges, yellows, and greens. Once again the water looked so inviting just as Lake Egirdir had looked earlier in the trip, and this time around I didn’t want to miss my chance of taking a dip in the water despite the coldness of the water. I was only able to stay in the water for about a minute, but it was well worth it. We warmed ourselves up with some thyme tea and took off for the town of Aglasun, in which we were to stay overnight. Hunting down a dinner spot in town, we came across informational signboards about the ancient city of Sagalassos, which we were planning to visit in the morning before heading back to Istanbul in the afternoon.  We called the phone number found on the sign but they did not answer. Couple minutes later we recieved a short text message stating that the person was in a meeting and would get back to us in a couple of hours. Surely enough, the person called back in a couple of hours, and answering the phone I immediately started talking very informally, without even introducing myself, about our enquiry for information for the site and such. When I finished there was a moment of silence, then he asked me politely who I was, and introduced himself as the mayor of the town. Once I got over the first moment of surprise, I changed my voice to a much more serious and polite tone, and we agreed to meet shortly even though it was 10pm by that time. We were greeted warmly by the mayor of Aglasun, Mr. Aydın Kaplan. He was an enthusiastic guy with a vision for the town and had good intentions with high motivation. We were glad to see an exception to the usual cold, bureaucratic, high ego officials. 

ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 4)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

Gorgeous fall colors along the way

Aysun and Emirhan enjoying the merry go round

Three Musketeers

Deep in thought

Our accommodation for the night

Yaylim Point

Beydili village

My best buddy Emirhan

Our dining/living/bedroom in the house

The best prepared of us all, Benoit first gets tucked in his sleeping bag, then covers himself with the blanket

The next morning we headed over to a village called Çobanova that contained about 150-200 people living in it. The villagers talked us out of driving over to the Beydili village with our rental car and recommended higly to pay the truck driver to take us there.  It was a dirt road of about 10-15 miles, and given the dry weather and good road conditions we could have easily made the trip with our car but didn’t want to take the chance after the convincing arguments of the villagers. Well, you gotta support the local economy too. Beydili village was even smaller, with only 20-25 houses, with many of them deserted, there were only 25-30 people living in the village. It’s situated in an isolated area, surrounded by mountains, and because of its lower altitude compared to the other village, villagers move here during the cold winter days. All the houses were constructed with the same stone that covered the whole terrain, therefore from a distance you couldn’t tell apart the houses from the rocks and trees. Electricity came to the village after the 1980’s, they still get the water from the wells and cisterns, they have only been connected to the other villages by a road for the last seven years. Until then the only way of getting over to the village was by taking a long walk for a few hours (longer with the load of animals).  Thyme grows abundantly in the area and provides a second source of income for the villagers after the goats they heard on the steep, cliffy mountains.  The family who was hosting us in the village had a 3 year old son named Emirhan, who instantly became the mascot of our group, and accompanied us on our walks. We took a walk to Yaylım Point, which was on a cliff looking over a valley cutting deep through the high mountains. We all meditated in our own way watching the impressive view. We returned to the village, and were welcomed to a delicious dinner.  By the time we finished our meals, sat around and chatted for a while, we were feeling like it was getting close to the bed time, but it was only 8 or 9pm, which was way too early for any of us going to bed, and made us realize how slow the time passes in an isolated village without all the distractions of an urban life. Houses in the village are very much similar to each other, in which there’re two rooms, one to sleep in, one to sit, dine and such, with a small patio in front that has the fireplace which is used as the oven, and a storage space underneath the house. Even though the family prepared both rooms for us to sleep in, it was way too cold in the bedroom without any source of heating, so we decided to share one room with all our beds laid out on the floor around the wood stove.  We were just about ready to fall in a nice deep sleep when we heard some squeaky noise coming from behind the built-in wooden cupboard in the wall.  Aysun was alerted immediately, claiming that it was a mouse making the noise, and that it was going to come into the room and eat off our ears and noses at night (which she really believed was going to happen). We calmed her down and fell into a sweet sleep by convincing her that the noise was coming from something else such as wind or flies, even though we all were well aware that it was a cute little mouse talking to us behind the cupboard…

ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 3)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

A water pump turned into a car engine, such pickups are called "patpat" 

Picking our share of the quince off the tree

Benoit leaving marks with spray paint on the trail for others to follow

Just one of the many marble quarries in the region ruining the environment

Enjoying the snacks Hanife Teyze prepared for us

Listening to the humorous stories of Hanife Teyze

Aysun feeding milk to a calf

Highlight of the third day Hanife Teyze

Back at the hotel

The next day’s plan was to walk in between the villages of Gumu and Sutculer, which was to take 5 hours. With Benoit’s friends joining us we set off from Gumu and walked through wonderful landscape adorned with tiny villages and farm lands. Only disturbing sight was the marble quarries that have been popping up on every mountain top in the area, destroying the environment along with the lives of villagers. On top of cutting down trees and clearing large areas of land to extract marble, the dust spreading from the quarries also makes it impossible to grow any crops and threatens the health of the villagers. With the government backing private companies and licencing them against the laws, villagers feel at loss. It’s a horrifiying idea to think that we won’t be able to find the area as is in a few years. After 4 hours of walking we arrived at Karapinar village, where Benoit had befriended a villager on a previous trip. Benoit’s friend had gone to Istanbul the previous week, to work through the winter in the city selling a drink called sahlep on the street. Sahlep is prepared by mixing the powder obtained from wild orchid roots and milk. It’s a favorite winter drink in Turkey but finding true sahlep is very hard, due to the limited availability of the flower. Villagers in that vilage collect the root when the plant blooms in May, dry it and turn it into a powder. Luckily his wife was there and she welcomed us to her home. With the legendary hospitality of Turkish villagers, she immediately prepared some snacks and tea for us. She made us feel so comfortable that couple of us fell to a sweet sleep on the cozy cushions. Benoit and his friend left to get the car and come back to get us, while we enjoyed Hanife Teyze’s company. She started telling us about her life and family, how the old timers used to have 9 children, then the number dropped down to 7, and later to 5 during her time, and now down to 2 or 3. She got teary eyed talking about her sons being away, settling down in the city, and how she wished them to come back and settle in the village. She told us how she would write letters to her husband back when they were young and he was doing his military service. But she would write the letters pretending that they were written by his sister not his wife.  Our puzzlement was cleared by her explaining us that the letters had to be inspected and approved before they were delivered to the soldiers, and it would be very inappropriate for the others to be reading an intimate letter written from the wife but would be fine if it became from another family member. It seems as something odd and ridiculous to us nowadays but it was a different mindset with the social dynamics and taboos of those days. Another shocking story she had was about the kidnapping of a girl as a prospect for a relative of her. The relative, who was of the marrying age asked a girl’s family for their permission to marry their daughter but was refused and the girl was married off to another man. For retaliation he decided to kidnap the sister of that girl and marry her instead, without the girl’s consent. So all the relatives got together and planned out a devious scheme for the kidnapping. Hanife Teyze took her part in the preparation by preparing a mixture from ash and hot peppers (think of it as homemade tear gas). They also hired a couple ganster type guys for help. The plan was for men to go and throw the ash mixture into the eyes of the household members, and take the girl away by force during the confusion. The plan worked with couple minor frictions. They weren’t able to get them all blinded by the ash-pepper mixture, so some of the girl’s relatives were able to chase after them, and shot and wounded three of the kidnappers including the broom. The wounds were minor I guess, they all recovered. They hid the girl long enough to where the girl’s family would consent to the marriage, and at the end they got married. While we were listening to Hanife Teyze in total amazement and shock, the moral of the story came from her. She said that even though they have been married for a long time now with many children, they were never quite happy and there was always something missing in the marriage, so she says “if you’re going to kidnap a girl to marry, make sure to get her consent first!!”.  Time flew by with her company and before we knew it, it was time to go. 

ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 2)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

Bagoren village

Pomegranates blossoming like flowers

Devouring the pomegranates

Barla village

Rainbow welcoming us to the ancient city of Adada

The famous Roman road, highlight of the day

Lake Egirdir looked very inviting in the morning with sunshine reflecting off of its crystal clear water. We were very fortunate to have clear skies and sunshine this time of the year. Benoit took the credit for organizing everything so perfectly that the sun was shining due to his organizational skills. After breakfast we took a short ride to a village nearby called Bagoren, which contained about 20-25 houses, of which many were deserted. This was to be the case in almost every single village we stopped by. With the younger generations opting for the comforts of the city life, there’re hardly anyone left in the villages but a few old timers. After a 2 hour walk through a trail we arrived at the town of Barla and it welcomed us with a pomegranate tree with its fruit all exploded looking like blooming flowers, inviting us to enjoy the fruit without even having to go through the hassle of picking, splitting, peeling the fruit. Huseyin explained us that a heavy rainfall after a draught would cause the fruit to burst from absorbing too much water too quickly. Stuffing ourselves with the nature’s offering, we arranged a car to drive us back to our starting point where we had left our car. We were driving over to Sutculer to stay overnight and meet couple of Benoit’s friends who were to join us for a couple of days when we saw the road sign for Adada, an ancient Roman city. Even though we had only an hour before the nightfall we decided to make the most of it and see the city. This time we were welcomed not by a fruit tree but a beautiful rainbow, we had the universe working on our side. Going through the ruins of the ancient city, Benoit kept assuring us that the highlight was just a little further down, so we kept going and going, not knowing what the highlight was. It was already dusk with the daylight diminishing minute by minute. Huseyin and I decided to go little faster ahead of them to check how much further we had to go and whether it was doable before it got dark or not. We came to a large stone road laid down by the Romans that was trailing all the way from the city sitting on top of the mountain through the valley that revealed itself in front of us going down to the bottom.  We decided that going down a glorious Roman road with the striking view of the valley in front of us must be the highlight Benoit was talking about. The rain was getting heavier by that time, it was misty and almost dark, and we were way too far down to go back up altogether. I turned back to run up the mountain to get the car and meet the others at the bottom. It took them a while to get to the bottom and by that time Aysun’s legs were shaking from exerting herself and holding on to Benoit tightly to not fall in the dark on a slippery ground. She was exhausted but was keeping her spirits up, so the walk down on a Roman road under rain in the dark became the highlight of our first day. 

ISPARTA / "Friends, this is a Roman road!!!" *** (Day 1)

*** A famous quote by Benoit Paul Denis Joseph Marie Yves Hanquet

 Lake Egirdir

At the car rental 

A raki table, always a nice way to finish a day.  

 As usual I was the last one to arrive at the airport, and as always (well, almost always) I made it on time. Arriving at the gate I met with my travel companions, Benoit, who was the organizer, leader and superhero of the trip, his charming wife Aysun and beautifully souled Huseyin. The flight from Istanbul to Isparta took only about an hour, which was just enough time to read through the newspaper while fighting off Aysun’s attempts to strike a conversation. Our first mission in Isparta was finding a rental car, which was accomplished after a few enquiries. We settled on a Fiat Albea that ran on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). As an alternative to the highly priced gasoline these cars are modified to run on LPG by installing a tank in the trunk, which works just fine unless you’re rear ended, which could cause the tank to explode, turning you into a nice smoked jerky. We decided it wasn’t all that bad of a way to end one’s life and rented the car. By that time it was already dark, so we headed directly to our first destination of Egirdir Lake. The area is known as “the land of lakes” as it contains many lakes of various sizes. We checked into a “pansiyon” (from the french word “pension”) which in Turkey signifies a cheap accommadation similar to a motel. Benoit had been to the area many times before as a guide leading walking tours, so we were warmly welcomed by the Charly’s Pansiyon owner Ibrahim Bey (Bey is turkish for mister). He showed us a video of the rose harvesting tours they organize in the spring time and explained the whole process. Isparta is famous for its roses, which are grown in large numbers and exported. Rose oil obtained from the flower is used in cosmetics, rose water and its petals are used in food products to flavor deserts and make rose jam out of. Eating a spoonful of rose jam with its petals floating in it is a sensual experience.