Temple of Apollo at Didyma

The only question came to my mind when I was standing in front of the Temple of Apollo was if I was going to lead a happy and fulfilled life..

Although the famous oracle of the temple gone long ago, I still heard her answer in the silence of my heart. '' - You can, if you choose to...''

I'd better believe her as it was she who told Alexander the Great that he will beat the Persians right at this place.

In 313 BC, the Milesians began to build this temple on the site of the earlier shrine, which they intended to be the largest in the Greek world. Construction continued during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and the Oracle of Apollo at Didyma rivaled that of Delphi. However it was never entirely completed.

In those days , pilgrims walked 20 km along the Sacred Way from Miletus to the temple to worship Apollo and also to find answers about their future. Well, in modern times we did not walk that distance but drive. I guess it still counts...

While we were leaving Oracle also whispered to my heart that I will always be happy with this man :))

Flip Flops

I am not one of those women who is crazy about shoes. Well, I have a thing - for big bags, but let's say it's on a managable level.

However when it comes to flip flops, I cant get enough of them. Where my shoe expense for the summer is almost close to nothing, I constantly keep buying flip flops of all colors and shapes. Luckily they are not expensive.

I even succeded in converting my husband in to them who used to think that it was not a -man- thing, before me. Now I cant get him to wear a decent shoe when we are going out.

They represent all the things that I love.. Summer, freedom, simplicity, outdoors etc..God bless who invented them..

PS: As for my little model, she had a happy but short life. After she started her life in my balcony,my neighbor adopted her. She soon became a lazy and fat cat but unfortunately she got hit by a car..

Priene

I love visiting ancient cities. A couple quiet minutes spend by sitting on a thousand year old pillar always reminds me that nothing is permanent. I like imagining the people, how they lived, what they cherrished and even sometimes try to hear their sounds in the blowing wind. It's always a great meditation about life for me. All those beautiful ruins, much loved cities, temples and Gods, gone long ago, remind me not to cling on to anything. Nothing is permanent: All our material treasures, all out loved ones, our lifes..... What we really have is the moment we are in, rest was and will be history..

Luckily we have plenty of ancient cities around here for me to meditate. Today I will take you to ancient Hellenistic city of Priene. We stopped there 2 weeks ago on an early morning. I was quite hungry so before starting to climb the city, I fed myself with grilled goat cheese and tomatoes, which were the only available things in a small restaurant at that hour.

Priene is a beautiful city established on a mountain around 8th century BC. Pillars of the Athena temple welcomes you to the city. They are magnificent. For my day dreaming time I found a shadow under a pine tree, near the temple. I tried to visualize Alexander the Great and the time he spent in this city during his siege of another nearby city Miletus.. Well, as Hollywood gave us the image of handsome Collin Farrell as Alexander the Great, it was rather easy to imagine him ordering the construction of this temple and probably standing right by my pine tree to decide where to built it.

Our last stop on the city was it's small theater with VIP seats.. Theater originally built in the 4th century BC by the Greeks, and later was expanded by the Romans in the 2nd century AD to hold 6,000 spectators.. One of my guide books said that whoever visited this theater had not miss the opportunity to photographed himself sitting on one of the 5 VIP chairs. So that's what exactly we did..

BLACK & WHITE Sunday

When looking for new blog posts, I found out that Julie at BeingRuby and Anne Marie at

NaDaFarm are playing a game of Black and White Sunday.. I dont really know what the rules of the game are but just for the fun of it and as I love B/W photos so much, here are mines. I took them last Thursday on Oludeniz - Fethiye..

Oludeniz - Fethiye

I have been away from Datca and internet for the last 2 days. We went to Fethiye and Dalyan. This time my mother and my niece were with us. On day 1, we were at Fethiye a well known tourist center about 3 hours drive from here. Although we spent the night at Fethiye our main target there was Oludeniz.




It is a small resort village famous with its beach about 20 minutes away from Fethiye. It is frequently rated among the top 5 beaches in the world and probably one of the most photographed beach on the Mediterranean.


It is also famous for paragliding and regarded as one of the best places in the world to paraglide due to its unique panoramic views, and the Babadağ Mountain's exceptional height.



While we were there we also drove to nearby Valley of Butterflies to see the magnificent view from the top. The road was so narrow and it was a scary ride but it worth...






Later in the day the weather gets cloudy and it started to rain a bit, but the view was still magnificentHowever as someone coming from the Datca peninsula, I did not like the quality of the sea. First of all water is hot. It's not cool and refreshing. We call it as hamam/ bath water here. Second it does not look very clean. There were lots of sea weeds swimming with me. But dont take me too seriously, Iam sure it was OK but I am a bit fanatic about the waters of my lovely peninsula. I swam on so many seas and oceans but couldnt find a match yet..

House of the Virgin Mary

If you ever visit Ephesus and if you are a Christian by religion, the possibility of you to visit the house of the Virgin Mary is 99%. It's very close to Ephesus and why not gain some merit while you are around.

It is believed that Virgin Mary had spent her last days in this house which is in the vicinity of Ephesus and that she had died there. It is an important pilgrimage place visited by thousands of tourists every year. The last holy VİP guest was Pope Benedict XVI who visited the shrine in 2006.

If you can ignore the crowds, it is a very nice and peaceful place on top of a mountain. After visiting the chapel, you could light candles, drink from a spring running under the house which is believed to have healing properties and make a wish on the wish wall by tying a piece of fabric.

Ephesus

Last time I visited Ephesus was 20 years ago . It was a rather cold February day, and I had a wonderful experience there. I heard the sound of silence for the first time in my life. I was sitting on an old stone and there was not a single soul around and there was absolutely no noise...No bugs singing, no birds flying, no wind blowing, no distant traffic noise, absolutely nothing. It was kind of scary at the first moments, but such peace afterwards.. Since that day I did not hear the sound of silence again..



Well, last week when we were there, it was the total opposite of my experince of 20 years ago. It was very hot, very crowded and so much noise..I think all these considered normal as Ephesus is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Turkey.

I will not give you many historical details about the town but just keep in mind that it was the capital city of Asia Minor during the Roman period and it was one of the richest city of its time.. One of the seven wonders of the world Artemis Temple was a product of this city and the very first bank in the world established in this city.. So please walk with me in the lovely streets of this ancient city.







Library of Celsus who once was the house of 12.000 books.Hadrian Temple..Goddess Kybele is still watching you..Goddess Nike.. Dont mix her with your sport shoes..And finally two very tired traveller who was posing in the theatre just before rushing to the A/C of their car..