Travel Eskisehir Sanliurfa Syria
Leaving Istanbul- Traveling to Eskisehir, Sanliurfa, Syria
The way I figure it, there are five main reasons to travel to a city:
1. to get drunk and party in bars
2. to go shopping
3. to get an education, to study something
4. to get a job
5. to get to a transportation hub
Other than the above stated reasons, I have no idea why anyone would want to come to a city.
As for us, neither pregnant Chaya nor I have much interest in getting drunk in bars, shopping is always a nearly insurmountable chore anywhere in the world, and after finally graduating from university in December, studying is just about the last thing that we would want to do.
--------------
Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Istanbul, Turkey- March 4, 2009
Travelogue -- Travel Photos -- Travel Guide
All Travelogue Entries
--------------
In point, Chaya and I came to Istanbul for one reason, and one reason alone: to work.
Our plan was to find some fly by night jobs as English teachers and take some bean money out of this stone cold city. Our first week here was spent in the dire rounds of finding a place to live. We moved between two good couchsurfing hosts for a week and then landed a cheap room in an apartment. We were now set to find jobs. I set out with this singular purpose and went in and out of four interviews without being bitten. Chaya got a bite taken out of her on her first go, and landing a job at an English teaching institute.
But she quickly realized that it was a place that she wanted nothing to do with it.
I believe swarmy was her adjective to describe it.
She walked out of training one night full of disgust, but she must have stormed out in style, for the company called her back a couple of days later for another shot at training. She did not take them up on their re-offer.
Chaya then went to another job interview with another English institute and got offered another job.
Pregnant Chaya is making Vagabond Wade look really bad.
It is a good thing for my pride that the company could not offer her work until three weeks from now.
By this time we should be long gone.
Istanbul has taken the bounce out of our steps. We need to find our waypoints again and connect them. We need to get back on the Open Road and be moving on. The prospects of sitting pretty in a big rainy city is not settling well in our guts.
With high handed smiles, we tried to force our square pegs into the circular holes of Istanbul, and only came to the conclusion that we are, in fact, square pegs. It is time to be moving on. Our feet are itching as we pass these rainy days settled on our butts - I, working on the computer, and Chaya, watching me work on the computer.
When the most interesting thing going on is me typing words into oblivion, it is time to be moving on.
This past week found Chaya and I doing anything in our power to indiscreetly not find work. Because landing jobs means staying in Istanbul. With shy faces we both admitted to each other last night that we really do not want to find jobs here.
Neither of us wants to stay in Istanbul.
The city is good. It is a good place to live, walk, relax. But if you do not like to go out at night and drink in bars, do not like to shop, are not going to university, and do not have a job there is little reason to stay in a city.
Waypoints through Turkey - Turkey Travel Plan
We connected some dots and layed out a path that looks like the above map: Istanbul to Eskişehir to Ankara to Şanlıurfa to Syria.
There are a few things that I want to dig into on this trip: the Meershaum mines and smoking pipe carvers near Eskişehir and an archaeology site near Şanlıurfa . So I bought a new suit, and am ready to again play journalist.
The money is tight, very, very, very tight. But I think we can maybe . . . just maybe make it to Cairo.
Leaving Istanbul- Traveling to Eskisehir, Sanliurfa, Syria
The way I figure it, there are five main reasons to travel to a city:
1. to get drunk and party in bars
2. to go shopping
3. to get an education, to study something
4. to get a job
5. to get to a transportation hub
Other than the above stated reasons, I have no idea why anyone would want to come to a city.
As for us, neither pregnant Chaya nor I have much interest in getting drunk in bars, shopping is always a nearly insurmountable chore anywhere in the world, and after finally graduating from university in December, studying is just about the last thing that we would want to do.
--------------
Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Istanbul, Turkey- March 4, 2009
Travelogue -- Travel Photos -- Travel Guide
All Travelogue Entries
--------------
In point, Chaya and I came to Istanbul for one reason, and one reason alone: to work.
Our plan was to find some fly by night jobs as English teachers and take some bean money out of this stone cold city. Our first week here was spent in the dire rounds of finding a place to live. We moved between two good couchsurfing hosts for a week and then landed a cheap room in an apartment. We were now set to find jobs. I set out with this singular purpose and went in and out of four interviews without being bitten. Chaya got a bite taken out of her on her first go, and landing a job at an English teaching institute.
But she quickly realized that it was a place that she wanted nothing to do with it.
I believe swarmy was her adjective to describe it.
She walked out of training one night full of disgust, but she must have stormed out in style, for the company called her back a couple of days later for another shot at training. She did not take them up on their re-offer.
Chaya then went to another job interview with another English institute and got offered another job.
Pregnant Chaya is making Vagabond Wade look really bad.
It is a good thing for my pride that the company could not offer her work until three weeks from now.
By this time we should be long gone.
Istanbul has taken the bounce out of our steps. We need to find our waypoints again and connect them. We need to get back on the Open Road and be moving on. The prospects of sitting pretty in a big rainy city is not settling well in our guts.
With high handed smiles, we tried to force our square pegs into the circular holes of Istanbul, and only came to the conclusion that we are, in fact, square pegs. It is time to be moving on. Our feet are itching as we pass these rainy days settled on our butts - I, working on the computer, and Chaya, watching me work on the computer.
When the most interesting thing going on is me typing words into oblivion, it is time to be moving on.
This past week found Chaya and I doing anything in our power to indiscreetly not find work. Because landing jobs means staying in Istanbul. With shy faces we both admitted to each other last night that we really do not want to find jobs here.
Neither of us wants to stay in Istanbul.
The city is good. It is a good place to live, walk, relax. But if you do not like to go out at night and drink in bars, do not like to shop, are not going to university, and do not have a job there is little reason to stay in a city.
Waypoints through Turkey - Turkey Travel Plan
We connected some dots and layed out a path that looks like the above map: Istanbul to Eskişehir to Ankara to Şanlıurfa to Syria.
There are a few things that I want to dig into on this trip: the Meershaum mines and smoking pipe carvers near Eskişehir and an archaeology site near Şanlıurfa . So I bought a new suit, and am ready to again play journalist.
The money is tight, very, very, very tight. But I think we can maybe . . . just maybe make it to Cairo.
Leaving Istanbul- Traveling to Eskisehir, Sanliurfa, Syria
posted by Wade Vagabond Journey.com at
4:20 AM
7 Comments:
Dear Sir, if you are in Turkey headed to Syria then you would be a fool not to visit Hasankeyf an ancient city and archeaology area on the Tigris river that will flooded once the Illisu dam is completed. Humans have lived in the area for 10,000 years and it is one of the oldest continually inhabitated places on earth. The historian in charge of excavations is a Turkish woman who works for the Istanbul Institute of Technology by the name of Zeynep Ahunbay. She speaks fluent english. You might wish to contact her for area info before leaving Istanbul. Turkey is the most amazing country on earth don't be in too great a hurry to rush to Cairo. The city is a furnace and tourist trap.
Thank you very much for this suggestion. I will surely take this lead. I appreciate it.
Thank you,
Wade
This city was in the Smithsonian Magazine along with a number of other disappearing historic sites.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Endangered-Cultural-Treasures-The-City-of-Hasankeyf-Turkey.html
Bob L
Dear Anonymous,
Would you happen to have Zeynep Ahunbay's contact information? If so, could you please email it to vagabondsong@gmail.com.
Thank you,
Wade
Thanks for that link, Bob,
It seems as if Turkey has its own "three-gorges" problems. I am going out to this part of the country next week.
Thanks,
Wade
EMAIL: ahunbaya at itu.edu.tr
The following is from her CV. Hope this may help She teaches historic preservation and directs conservation studio at undergraduate and graduate levels. A specialist in Ottoman architecture and historic preservation, Zeynep Ahunbay has assumed responsibility for the conservation of numerous sites of many periods: Ancient (Temple of Apollo in Side, Ancient Colonnaded Street in Tarsus), Byzantine (Theoskepastos Monastery in Trabzon, Land Wall of Istanbul, Haghia Sophia and Zeyrek Camii- Church of Christ Pantocrator in Istanbul) and Ottoman (Tarsus historic center; Uzunkemer, a 16 th century aqueduct by the famous Ottoman architect Sinan, 19 th century Ministry of Agriculture Building in Istanbul, Nezir Aga Mosque in Mostar). Her numerous publications derive primarily from these and other conservation problems in Turkey.
Thank you, a thousand times thank you,
Wade
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