So, we are all finished for now. Time to put up the tools and get out the books.

“Oh,” said the shopkeeper. “You are so lucky! I have always wanted to live in Mountainair!”

The New Ceiling

We just finished another big project. We have one of those dreaded garage-conversions on the north side of our house. It is actually a great space, and we use it for a pantry, laundry room, hobbies, and music. The walls are insulated, but the ceiling is not. The space is unheated, but there is a gas outlet. The main problem in this room was a 7-1/2 ft. ceiling. Mike took out the false ceiling, and we liked the look of the bare wood ceiling 9 or 10 ft. above our heads, so he added a strip of wallboard to finish the walls. Our new roof will add a layer of insulation, and we will get a gas fireplace for heat.

The Music Corner

Another problem in this room is the window with a view of the new garage that was tacked on by the previous owner. Mike put a skylight in the garage, and I put frosted window film on the window to diffuse the light from the skylight and to obscure the view of the garage storage. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it is better than a dead, black window, and we weren’t ready to tear down the garage in order to bring the window back to life.

Festival-goers wait for the music to begin.

One of my favorite blogs is Istanbul Eats. Here you will find news and reviews, tips and advice regarding food and restaurants in, and occasionally out of, Istanbul. A post this week, The Other Hidrellez, led us on an adventure last night up the Bosphorus to the Çayırbaşı quarter of Sarıyer. Just click on that link and tell me that you wouldn’t want to go see what that was all about!

Wishes tied to strings above the crowd wave in the breeze.

Hıdrellez is a Spring festival that commemorates an important meeting of two prophets, Hıdır and Ilyas (Elijah). Apparently the meeting happened on May 6, so festivities begin on May 5 with bonfires, food, music and dancing. Hıdır is a prophet who brings good fortune, so people write or make models of their wishes on scraps of paper or fabric and attach the wishes to a tree (known as a Nahil or Wish Tree).

The band is upstaged by an exuberant dancer.

The summer before we moved to Istanbul, we watched a documentary about the Istanbul music scene called Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul. One of the musicians in the documentary was a clarinet player named Selim Sesler, and he was performing at the festival. When we saw his name of the list of performers, we were determined to go.

A mother and daughter share some cotton candy.

The Sarıyer district, at the north end of the Bosphorus, is bounded by the Belgrade Forest to the west and the Black Sea to the north. It took us about 30 minutes to get there by bus, but over an hour to return to Arnavutköy because of the never-ending street party in Bebek. Despite the return traffic, the trip was worth it. The food was good, and the music was excellent. I have not seen such a happy crowd of people in a long, long time. May all their wishes come true.

P.S. Here are some links to Turkish food blogs in case you are interested.

Istanbul Eats

Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook

Cafe Fernando

Bakras Castle

One of our friends says that Turkey’s motto is “Safety Last,” and these castles demonstrate why. There are no guard rails or guards for that matter. There are broken arches, crumbling walls, and falling rock. When walking along what you think is ground, you might suddenly come upon a hole that is in the ceiling of a subterranean part of the castle. You can’t believe you are allowed into them. You can’t believe your luck. It’s every kid’s dream.

We saw three castles – Bakras Castle near Belen, Toprakkale and Yılankale near Osmaniye.

Inside Toprakkale

Sokollu Mehmed Pasa Complex

We also stopped at the Sokollu Mehmed Pasa Complex at Payas. This includes a caravanserai, a mosque, a medressa, and next door, a castle. There were no tourists, but the door keeper, who spoke no English, opened the whole complex for us, and gave us simple explanations in Turkish.

Finally, a word about returning rental cars at the Adana airport. The car rental desks are near the baggage claim in the arrivals lounge. If you are not arriving by airplane, there is no way into the arrivals lounge. You have to enter the departures lounge, knock on an out-of-the-way door that separates arrivals from departures, and be admitted by a security guard who will escort you to the car rental desk.

Courtyard at St. Peter's Cave Church

Our second day in Antakya, we visited St. Peter’s Cave Church, the Archeology (Mosaic) Museum, and the fortress above the city. St. Peter’s Cave Church is one of the first Christian churches. It is located in a renovated cave on the east side of town that already contained a natural escape hatch and a natural baptismal font. Different groups added and improved the facade and the courtyard. Early Christian converts – Peter, Paul, and Barnabas – all worked in the Antioch community.

Mosaic of Soteria, or Salvation

The Archeology Museum, also known as the Mosaic Museum, contains beautiful and mostly intact mosaics from Harbiye (Daphne) and Seleucia Pieria. More photos here.

Antakya Walls and Fortress

A drive to the ruins of the Antioch fortress at the top of Habib-i Neccar Mountain finished our sight-seeing. There is a little cafe where you can sit and look out at the city and surrounding hills.

The rest of our time in Antakya was spent wandering the streets and the bazaar. Behind the bazaar is a district of charming old houses. In there is a Catholic Church almost adjacent to a mosque. We bought some souvenirs from the Caritas shop, and then headed across the river to the city park. The park is a nice big park with a colonnade of cedar trees surrounded by eucalyptus groves, playgrounds, and tea gardens. The tea gardens are lively with backgammon, card, and okey players.

Here is the nitty-gritty of our stay here:

Lodging: The Antik Beyazit Hotel was clean and comfortable but a little shabby. The food was good, and the hotel is close to everything.

Food: We really liked the food in Antakya. I think you could eat anywhere, but here is where we ate. They all serve good regional food, and the prices are reasonable.

Antik Han

Anadolu Restaurant

Sultan Sofrası

Remains of the Pillar

Our first day in Antakya, or Antioch, was a Monday, a day off for many of the the city sights, so we decided to drive to the sea coast. On the way we stopped at the Monastery of St. Simeon. Among the turbines of a brand new wind farm at the top of the Hill of Wonders are the ruins of three churches and the remains of the pillar upon which St. Simeon the Younger lived and died. In the early days of Christianity and especially in Syria (of which Hatay was a part) it was the practice of some hermits to live atop a pillar. Some of the minarets in Antakya are modeled on St. Simeon’s pillar.

Beşikli Cave Tombs

From here we drove back down the mountain and on to the ancient port of Antioch, Seleucia Pieria. Not much remains, but a necropolis and a flood control tunnel cut through the rock are interesting.

Mike has tea beside one of the waterfalls.

We returned to Antakya through the town of Harbiye. This – how do they know? – is where Daphne was turned into a laurel tree (defne in Turkish). It’s a beautiful place, full of springs and waterfalls, tea houses, restaurants, and souvenir shops where you can buy laurel soap. We had lunch up in the town and tea down at the water.

More photos here.

On Saturday, we flew to Adana where we spent the night and rented a car for our trip south into the province of Hatay. Adana reminded us of Cairo. The streets were packed and noisy — cars, trucks, donkey carts, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, fruit vendors — and the designated lanes were overflowing from 2 lanes to 3 or 4. Although our map showed that the streets were named, there were no street signs that we could ever see. It’s the kind of city where you drive by instinct and intuition. We found our hotel by stopping a lot and asking for directions. Once there, we went out for authentic spicy Adana kebab. Sunday, after many wrong turns and detours, we escaped Adana and headed for the Karatepe Open Air Museum near Osmaniye.

This eighth-century BCE Hittite fortress is now part of the Karatepe-Arslantaş National Park. From the small museum and ticket booth, we walked to the first of two monumental gates which was lined with carved tablets, reliefs, pillars, and statues. From the first gate, we walked along the old walls and through a pine forest to the second gate close to the shore of a manmade lake. The carved reliefs made us wonder if the Mayans were actually a lost band of Hittites.