Afternotes
Several interesting things I learnt from this trip:
1. Call to Prayer - Adhan (Arab) or Ezan (Turkish), delivered five times a day by a muadhan to remind Muslims to come to mandatory prayer and leave worldly matters behind. Nowadays, they are done from loudspeakers up on the balcony of the mosques towers all over Turkiye. Where we went, I heard the first call usually around 6 a.m. I then found out what they were chanting meant in English:
God is Great
There is no god but God
Muhammed is the Prophet of God
Come to prayer
Come to salvation
God is Great
There is no god but God
2. Nazar (amulet) - the eye bead, meaning 'sight', 'surveillance', 'attention'. Amulet or a good luck charm that is supposed to protect one from the " evil eye " A typical nazar is made of handmade glass featuring concentric circles or teardrop shapes in dark blue, white, light blue and black, occasionally with a yellow/gold edge. They were sold in souvenir shops. I didn't get any because they looked creepy to me. Beside, I have stopped buying souvenirs for many years.
3. Santa Claus was born in Turkiye - check it out https://www.ktb.gov.tr/EN-113778/santa-claus.html#:~:text=Saint%20Nicholas%2C%20who%20is%20known,son%20and%20named%20him%20Nicholas.
4. Troy - we had to skip this stop because the main attraction, the Trojan Horse, was under restoration.
Troy is an ancient city located in Çanakkale, northwestern Turkey. It was one of the richest cities of ancient times, made famous by poet Homer in his, the Iliad.
Troy is an ancient city located in the heart of nature in province Çanakkale, northwestern Turkey. Troy is one of the richest cities of ancient times. It was made famous in Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad. According to Homer’s Iliad, this is where the legendary Trojan War took place. Today, Troy is an archaeological site, a national park, and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The modern day Turkish name for the site of Troy is Hisarlik.
Archaeological research shows that it was inhabited back then for almost 4,000 years starting around 3000 B.C. Always, after one city was destroyed, a new city would be built on top of it.
The name Troy refers both to a place in the legend and a real-life archaeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was laid siege for ten years. It was eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon at the Trojan War. It is thought that the Trojan War have taken place near the end of the Bronze Age which is around or before 1200 B.C. It took place around the time when a civilization, that is now called Mycenaean, flourished in Greece. The reason behind this Trojan War was, according to Homer's Iliad, the abduction of Helen, a queen from Sparta by Paris, the son of Troy's King Priam. The legend was after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside. The Greek pretended to sail away. The Trojans, thinking of keeping it as a victory trophy, pulled the horse inside the city. At night, those inside crept out and opened the gate for the rest of the Greek forces in and won.
Today, a reconstructed Trojan horse stands at the entrance of the site.
5. Well-cared street cats and dogs everywhere - a common sight. They eat anything. Tourists were encouraged to feed them by the locals. I didn't see one skinny cat or dog on the streets.
The first photo below was the cat right outside our first hotel. The last photo showed how good they were taken care of by the locals. The funny thing was we didn't see where they did their "daily businesses" because the streets were quite clean.
6. Public washrooms - most of the public washrooms were very clean. Most of the ones we stopped at were free. I was very impressed with how modern some of them were, with all touch-free technology (not only the flush but also the toilet seat disposable covers were automatically replaced after). Many have squat-toilets (which I preferred). Below a picture of the wall inside a public toilet .
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