Jan. 28, 2001

We slept through Saturday morning. When we finally got up, it was a beautiful day. After breakfast we went to Yenikapi to catch the 3:30 hizli (fast) ferry boat to Yalova. The guide book says the trip takes 30 minutes. The touch screen kiosk at the dock says 45 minutes. The route map brochure says 1 hour. 1.5 hours later, we arrived in Yalova.

From Yalova, we caught a bus (2 million/person) to Iznik. It was dusk by the time we got to the lake side, however, we were able to see we were in a pretty area of olive trees, hills, and little villages.

Iznik was a pleasant surprise. It is small enough that one can walk around and see all the sights without getting tired. However, it also has enough sights to keep one occupied. After we checked into our hotel (which only gives doubles to couples if they are married or foreigners), we took a walk in the cool windy air. We could see the byzantine gates and various mosques and ruins. We ate soup and pide for dinner then took another walk down to the lake. The lake path wasn't lighted so we couldn't see much. We had a nice walk anyway. We could smell the clean air and water.

Iznik is a fairly conservative/traditional town. The only bars I saw were on the lake front and open only for the tourist season. There were lots of sports clubs and Kirithaneler filled with men drinking tean and watching the football game on TV or playing cards. The younger men seemed to all be at the billiard parlour. The women were only occasionally seen parting with friends at doorways, or chatting near the houses. We got some cake from a pastry shop and settled down in our room to watch T.V. The highlight was a touching National Geographic program about the perilous lives of seals (foka in Turkish).

The next day we got up early and visited the museum and Aya Sofya (minaret)along with the lesser sights of various türbes, a Roman theatre, the Green Mosque, aqueduct, the baths and the scraps of a Byzantine church. Iznik's main claim to fame is its ceramics. I was told that the materials they used had a balancing effect like crystals. Spread that news about and Iznik will become a New Age colony. The only ceramics we saw were in the windows of souvenir shops, in shards in the museum and in piles of shards at the excavation site. Iznik's ceramics had their heyday sometime around the 16th century. Then all the talented aritsans were shipped to Istanbul (where they apparently used the Tekfur Palace as a workshop). Slowly, attempts are being made to revitalize the ceramics industry. There are a couple new kilns and workshops (and excavations of the old ones) but since it was Sunday, everything was closed. I think the most impressive part of the town is the walls. These walls are not tall like the Istanbul ones but a modest size proportional to the town. They are a comfortable town boundary. The main roads run East-West and North-South, with a gate in the wall for each direction. Outside of the Eastern gate, there is a large graveyard. Across the street is a peaceful tomb surrounded by fruit trees.

We took a daylight stroll along the lake. Iznik lake is a calm, large lake with lots of ducks who fly away if you get too close to the area where they are swimming. The weather became partially cloudy. Half of the lake turned a misty greenish grey while the other half, under the blue sky, remained a rich blue. In the distance there was a little snow on the hill tops while olives lined the shore.

At noon we caught the bus to Yalova. The ride was pleasant. It is a beautiful area. We went by a small Ottoman bridge, lots of olive and fruit trees and storks' nests attop electrical poles.

From Yalova, we caught a dolmus to Termal (350,000TL each). Termal rests in a valley surrounded by wild evergreen trees and carefully tended gardens and groves. There is a confusing array of saunas, baths, hotels and other resort ammenities. We followed the guide book to the Sultan Banyo because the Valide (the other one we saw) just had separate men's and women's sections. The Sultan was the deluxe option with private bathing rooms for couples. It also had a waiting list. We took a number and were told to come back 1.5 hours later. We ate some lahmacun and then drank Turkish coffee in a tea garden. Termal is a leisurly sort of place so waiting wasn't really a problem. We people watched and cat-watched. At 3:30 we went to the bath.

Basically, the private baths each had two rooms. One was a changing room; the other had a deep marble slab bathtub (standing in it, the edge reached about chest level) and a marble sink with faucets which ran cold and hot spring water. There was a little window far above which let the steam out. After we got all clean and I managed to dry my hair. We raced to the dolmus hoping we could catch the next ferry. It had started raining. We got to Yalova in time for the ferry but there were no seats left. We bought tickets for the ferry that would leave in 2 hours and went off to find someway to kill time in Yalova. The best option was eating dinner. We chose Filiz 2 where we ate lahmacun and soup. Roshan pointed out that we'd had soup and lahmacun for the past 2 days. "3," I corrected. He hadn't counted our Ankara trip and our return meal at home of soup from a package.

I suggested we find something interesting about Yalova, so I would have something to write about. The only thing we came up with was the '99 earthquake.

Yalova had been struck really badly. A lot of the news pictures of completely collapsed buildings came from there. I didn't visit the area after the earthquake because I don't like visiting disaster areas unless I'm doing something useful. I remember all the photos of buildings that looked like the ground floors had collapsed first and the rest of the building just collapsed on top of them.

A lot of construction was going on. It seemed like somehow they had hoisted the upper floors of the building up and were rebuilding just the ground floors underneath. To be honest, nothing looked very secure and I was glad to be on the ship again instead of in one of the buildings.