Amazing Turkey - part 2 (and down with complaining!)

I was sad but not surprised to read last week that people are being encouraged to lie about being ill while on holiday.  Apparently a British tour operator, suspicious of the rise in claims for holiday sickness, sent investigators who posed as a family on holiday.  They were approached by a representative of a company that specialises in holiday compensation claims who suggested that photographs of a packet of Immodium were all it would take to get them a big pay-out. 

While I have sympathy for anybody who is ill on holiday, this culture of compensation for every little problem has gone crazy.  Most holiday illnesses, in my experience, are caused by change in diet or too much sun (and sangria!) rather than ‘food poisoning’ and are nobody’s fault. The fact that there are companies that exist purely to handle these complaints is revealing.

The other thing that people may not realise when they make a complaint is that they are not only hitting a large tour operator; those companies contact the hotel who then has to prove that the complaint is unfounded – or forfeit payment for the guest.  At Poppy, we haven’t had people complaining of illness but we have had guests requesting compensation.  Amongst the ‘horrors’ they mentioned were leaves on the balcony (it was Autumn), lime scale in the kettle (I do actually de-scale them but it only takes a few boils for it to be white again) and the neighbour’s dog barking.  Thankfully, none of these claims were successful!

So, let’s talk about nicer things.  Here are some more things that are amazing about Turkey.  They may not appeal to you personally but this type of site has created a whole branch of tourism – religious holidays – which Turkey is still behind in.  I have read that 60% of the places mentioned in the bible are located in Turkey, which sounds a little hard to prove to me BUT the following are certainly available for visiting...

St Peter’s Church near Antakya (south east Turkey), hollowed out of a cave on the spot where St Peter preached the Gospel;, said to be the first church of Christianity.

The Church of St Nicholas in Demre (100km along the coast from Fethiye), the burial place of St Nicholas who was Bishop here (then named Myra).  This is already popular with Orthodox Christians for whom he has special significance and it is on the list to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The House of the Virgin Mary (near Ephesus) where it is said she lived her last years after coming here with the Apostle John.  The Roman Catholic Church has never verified the authenticity of the house but it has never denied it either and since 1896 there have been many papal visits (the last in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI).

Saint Paul, one of the most important figures in early Christianity, was born in Tarsus (southern Turkey) and his journeys to spread the word took him to many places in Turkey, some of which still have churches dedicated to him.  He was so successful, and Christianity took such a strong hold in Anatolia that the Emperor Constantine founded the capital of his new Christian Empire here – at Constantinople.  Istanbul still offers many religious sites – including the incredible Aya Sofia (Hagia Sophia) which was the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years from its completion in 537AD.  How amazing is that?!

A little about Ankara/Angora

I spent two weeks in Ankara with Emre.  Ankara has changed hugely in the twenty-odd years I have been visiting it.  The growth seems to be continuing – the population is now just under 5 million (doubled since 1990) and there are 35 indoor shopping malls (2014 – probably 40 by now).  The skyline, once characterised by two or three tall buildings, now boasts plenty of skyscrapers.

Every year there are new roads, flyovers and underpasses – makes it hard to find your way round when you only go there once a year!  There is also now a (not very extensive) metro system and of course, this being Turkey, there are also thousands of minibuses as well as overcrowded council buses.  It used to be a relatively easy city to drive round – at least in comparison to Istanbul – but despite all the public transport and the development of the road system, the traffic is now appalling.  The driving is also appalling and to those of you who think you have seen it in Fethiye I say “you ain’t seen nothing yet”!

While Ataturk was organising the resistance to the Allied occupation of Turkish land, he used Ankara as his base.  In 1923 he named it as the capital of the new Turkish Republic. Unlike Istanbul it is located centrally in Anatolia, the heartland of Turkey.  In case you are wondering, it is a little of 600km (325 miles) from Fethiye.

Despite its recent growth, Ankara is an ancient city.  It was previously known as Angora and the goats, cats and rabbits (and wool) of that name all come from here! 

 You might know that I love to visit museums and have seen (and subjected the boys to) most of the museums in Ankara over the years.  So imagine my excitement when I found out about a new one – the Erimtan Museum.  It holds a collection that includes jewellery, coins, glass and ceramic objects acquired by a civil engineer called Yuksel Erimtan with a passion for archaeology and a desire to stop Turkish artefacts from being taken abroad.

There are some impressive pieces such as this 3000 year old Urartian belt and a collection of seal rings – with which notables would put their mark on documents – but a lot of thought had also gone into the way things were displayed.  Translations of inscriptions and letters brought the ancient civilizations to life, actually showing most effectively how little things have changed:

(In Roman times) “both males and females enjoyed perfumes and even over-wore them at times so that the famous Roman orator Cicero concluded that, ‘The right scent for a woman is none at all.’ ”

From the Roman poet Ovid’s Cosmetics for the Female Face: “But, Girls, let your first care be your manners...Age will lay ravage your figure and your pretty face will be ploughed with wrinkles.  There will come a time when you can’t bear to look in a mirror...But good manners are enough and are long-lived...”!