Category: GALLERIES, MUSEUMS AND ARCHAEOLOGY.

All the culture you want and dream of.

SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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HIERAPOLIS. OLD BIRD IN HOT WATER AND HISTORY.

OR, A WHITE MOUNTAIN OF CALCIFIED MINERALS

Well, finally this old bird got to swim in Cleopatra’s pool!

The background is not foaming sea but the top bed of calcified spring water!

Going to Pamukkale from Tire requires a three-hour drive. I was drained and bone weary from the ghastly band and its thumping bass keeping me awake till two in the morning. The weather was shit and I was a reluctant passenger at the beginning. However once on the road, I was reinvigorated and regained my energy and adventure lust.

Climbing the side of the mountain you rub your feet raw trying to get to the peak

The countryside is spectacular. Valleys, mountains, lakes, rivers, deciduous woods, coniferous forests and the eternal olive groves are everywhere. I saw places of poverty as well as more affluent communities. The arrival vista at Hieropolis is, however, another thing even in the grey misty weather.

Cleopatras Pool. with column ruins below the thermal pool bubbles like champagne as it aids your health in many ways

It stretches over a mountain top, glistening white like a huge, white snowy blanket of an ancient giant, thrown casually down landing atop a mountain full of bubbling hot thermal springs. It has a secret bonus, the ruins of the major Greek ‘Holy City’, Hierapolis.

Health-giving minerals dry on the calcified crust
Continue reading HIERAPOLIS. OLD BIRD IN HOT WATER AND HISTORY.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels

ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS

INLAND TURKEY IN SPRING, IN LIKE A LION AND OUT LIKE A LAMB.

Alert: Sorry for the big delay but my plans obviously changed after the ghastly events here with the earthquakes. On finally deciding to come I had a few other hiccups. My Turcel phone decided that it wasn’t working after me topping it up with a data package, well it worked but just for one day. It’s crazy we have spent literally hours on the phone trying to find out why they are insisting that I set up an account over three months ago the idiots! Also, yesterday, when I was writing this, Google decided something more had to be paid on my email so I had that drama too as I kinda need emails for tickets etc. Also, I was told my photo limit was full so I couldn’t store pics. I spent hours trying to resolve it all and had no luck. Other bits threw me off so I sulked a bit, drank beer and got nowhere. I’ll fix it on my return to London but as we know travel always throws a few curved balls to check your mettle!

Loving the fresh mountain air and bubbling streams of the spring water

Springtime in Turkiye is a beautiful thing, especially when you’re escaping a dreary down-in-the-mouth London. It’s full of little lambkins and alpine flowers, olive trees as far as you can see and the soft green fuzz of fresh grass. Water can be heard along the way gurgling in the mountain streams. The villages are stirring after the short but sharp winter and life starts new and fresh. This is the time most tourists don’t see and indeed it is a very different land from the parched land in the summertime.

Breakfast on my first morning

My usual preparations of cleaning and tidying my place in Soho left me clear-headed and ready to travel. I was heading for a village inland from Izmir, having managed to book a little chalet at an extensive lodge in the foot lands.

Continue reading ESCAPING LONDON FOR MOUNTAINS AND MUSEUMS
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

ARTEMIS AND HER TEMPLE IN EPHESUS AND EARLIER ‘MOTHER GODDESSES’

Women were revered in ancient times it’s a shame that now everything is muddied and sullied, but here we see a snapshot of our distant ancestors’ love and reverence for the ever-evolving mother goddess through millennia.

In a darkened hall, two representations of Artemis overwhelm the visitor

Blue skies and hot sun in January in Selcuk, aka the famous Ephesus, home of one of the world’s seven wonders, and a great day to look into mother goddesses and their impact across the globe. After going to the Efe Museum and having an eye-opening proper look at the history there, and getting it sorted in my brain chronologically I walked over to the sad broken and pillaged site of this previously magnificent temple.

A last pillar resurrected

I had been to the actual Ephesus site previously and had marvelled at it but never really studied the place, only looking later at documentaries about Cleopatra’s sister having a mausoleum and the sinister side of that particular woman pharaoh.

Continue reading THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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FINDING MY PARADISE IN EPHESUS TURKEY.

OR, HANGING OUT IN SELCUK (EPHESUS)

I’m in the middle of my trip and haven’t had a chance to report in! Been super busy since I got here and knackered for the most part so here’s where I’m at present.

Well my old birds, I’m stuck out here after we cocked up a bit! I have moved from Tire to Selcuk for the rest of my stay at a lovely pension which is a stone’s throw from the magnificent Ephesus. I now have a little breathing space to relax after over-partying on Friday! I was a little too exuberant celebrating on Friday night and rather suffered yesterday. I was a bad old bird.

14th century Hammam by restaurant and pension ISA BEY HAMAM
The bath consists of an elongated rectangular core structure with a central domed room, the hot bang room, which was surrounded by special bathing rooms. To the north are adjoined a lukewarm room without any bathing function, and side rooms with a toilet. To the south lay the warm water reservoir and the furnace room. The bath was entered from the north via a peristyle courtyard. To the east were shops, and in the west was a separate bathing area for women. Constructed in the 24 half of the 14th century A.D., the path was only operational for 60-80 years. Already by the mid-15th century, it served as a cemetery.

Today however I went out and did my favourite stuff, museums and archaeology. This is truly a magical place.

I visited the actual Ephesus ruins two years ago so today had a chance to see some of the artefacts removed and placed in their fine museum in town. As I am still weary I have returned to my Rebetika Pension and am on the top terrace in blazing sunshine writing this with my beer and in a much more relaxed state of mind.

Rebetika Pension and views
Continue reading FINDING MY PARADISE IN EPHESUS TURKEY.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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MALACCA THEN JAKARTA.

OR, TIMING IS EVERYTHING, MINE WAS PANTS.

Me in Jakatas National Museum

Top Tip: However well organised you are things can go awry. There was no way to know that they had stopped boats over the Straight of Malacca to go to Indonesia without having to retrace my steps to KL then fly to Jakarta. There was no way of knowing that a massive and contentious protest was on the very weekend that I was over in Jakarta so many things were closed. Shit happens and you just have to deal with it when you’re on the road solo travelling. This however did weaken me again after my healing time in Kuala Lumpur. This was a real bummer as stress always is a thing to avoid when you’re trying to rebuild your immune system as I explained in a previous blog “How My Troubles Began” When travelling, however much of an itinerary you have, you must take time out and rest up. I tried to squeeze in a lot making up for lost time which never works does it now hmmmm?

Photo of me having lost loads of weight in Kuching

After my huge success in fabulous Kuala Lumpur, I got a bit cavalier and decided to go to Malacca which people said was lovely. I really should have learned by then that most tourists are idiots and headed straight onto my snorkelling target on the remote island of Bunaken. Stupid, stupid old bird.

A galleon. Super.
Continue reading MALACCA THEN JAKARTA.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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KUALA LUMPUR, MUSEUMS, ORCHIDS AND BIRDS.

OR, LEAVING BORNEO AND ARRIVING IN KL FOR A BIT OF TLC.

Journal Excerpts and Perfect Timing a continuation from last post!

KUALA LUMPUR

It wasn’t even in my plan to go there.

Views from the hotel roof terrace including the magnificent mosque and railway that takes you straight to the airport!
Continue reading KUALA LUMPUR, MUSEUMS, ORCHIDS AND BIRDS.
SOLO TRAVEL FOR WOMEN by oldbirdtravels
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MAGNIFICENT STUCCO ART.

OR, CALAKMUL, BALAMKU AND KOHUNLICH. FINALLY, I CATCH A BREAK ON MY ROAD TRIP OF ARCHAEOLOGY.

A week-long road trip was hell and heaven. Mostly hell, but the bits that were heaven were sublime. It all would be heaven if they hadn’t imposed such restrictions where they weren’t needed. Seems there is no middle ground here but I love it just the same.

Note the bits that look like a moustache? those represent heavenly breath.

Alert: I’m working under duress with internet on and off more times than a tarts knickers! (excuse me if this old saying is offensive!) I will go on to publish and correct it all later! IN THE HOWLING WIND AND RAIN DROPS THAT THREATEN MY GEAR EVEN BELOW THE THATCHED ROOF I WILL SAY TATA FOR THE MOMENT! That’s all folks!

Kohunlich posh area up the steps
Continue reading MAGNIFICENT STUCCO ART.