Turkey

...and the 3rd one comes from Turkey. My dear friend Bärbel spent her holidays in Turkey and she knows I love the country ( well , you know too just by looking at the amount of cards that are uploaded here) and she  decided to drop one card in the postbox for me ( Vielen Dank ),
In the top row you can see (from left ) 1. Pamukkale 2. Alanya 3. Perge/Antalya &4. Bodrum/Muğla. In the bottom row (from left again) is 1. The Trajan Fountain in Ephesus 2. Anatolian experience 3. Troy/Çanakkale & 4. Nevşehir/Cappadocia while in the center is Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul !

Memories from Turkey

Today I thought I'd post the postcards I have bought while travelling and here I start with 2 multiviews from Turkey the country I have visited the most ;-)

Memories of Izmir

                                               From my visit to Izmir

Memories from Istanbul

                                      Postcards from my Istanbul trips

Memories of Ankara

                                     Postcards from my trip to Ankara

Memories of Çeşme

                                        Postcards from my trips to Çeşme

Ad cards / Turkey

Today I'll start with something different : ad cards ! I have only a few as I don't really collect them , I like them only if I'm on holidays and find something like that . In the same sence that I collect my travel tickets/ museum entrance tickets , sugars , matches , leaflets , wet towelettes from restaurants and everything else a tourist might come across... phonecards , maps ..bags ...:D I got these cards in Ankara during an evening at the cinema , I had already searched for actual postcards but since Ankara is not Istanbul ( in the sence of tourism) I couldn't find any so I grabbed these because I wouldn't like to come back home empty handed. I bought real ones on my departure night at the train station, so at the end I saved the game ! so here you are :

Antakya, Turkey

A small gift to myself . I'm having a hard time to find a postcard from Antakya. So when I stoumble across an offer from Goethe Institut to make free cards and send them I thought of myself and sent me an Antakya one . Goethe Institute Athens is celebrating its 60 years so it held a promotion. Its cards are huge and kinda thin but you can't complain for free stuff right ?

Antakya is my new turkish addiction as it a really beautiful city yet undiscovered by the masses. It is located in the southern part of Turkey very close to the Syrian borders. Due to its proximity to Syria , Arabic can still be heard there . It is the ancient city of Antioch having seen numerous civilizations rising and falling leaving their traces up to this day .It is the last part incorporated into the Turkish Republic in 1939 after forming a transitional short lived political entity known as Hatay State (Hatay Devleti ).

Antalya , Turkey

Antalya is located in the southern part of Turkey in the Mediterranean coast and it is the pearl of Turkish tourism as it is the countries biggest international sea resort and it was the world's 3rd most visited city by number of international arrivals in 2011.

It is uncertain when the site of the current city was first inhabited. Attalos II, king ofPergamon, was believed to have founded the city around 150 BC, naming it Attalia and selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Doğu Garajı district have uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that the city was founded earlier than previously supposed. Antalya became part of theRoman Republic in 133 BC when King Attalos III of Pergamon willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period.

Here you can see Hadrian's portal

The Hadrian's Gate, or Hadrianus Gate, or Üçkapılar (last one means "The Three Gates" in Turkish) is a triumphal arch which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Antalya in the year 130. It has three arched gates. According to the legend, Sultan Belkis, theQueen of Sheba, is said to have passed under those gates and enjoyed a happy day in the palace in Aspendos on her way to visit King Solomon. Formerly the city walls enclosed the outside of the gate and it was not used for many years. This may be the reason why it has not been harmed, and it was only revealed when the walls collapsed. It is considered as Pamphylia's most beautiful Gate. The upper part has three apertures in the shape of a cupola, and except for the pillars is built entirely of white marble. The ornamentation is very striking. The original Gate was two storeys but little is known of the top storey.

On either side of the Gate are towers, which are known not to have been built at the same time. The southern one is known as the Julia Sancta tower and is a work of the Hadrian era. It was constructed of plain stone blocks. While the base of the northern tower belongs to antiquity, the upper part is left over from the Seljuk period.

Many thanks to Belkis :)

Greeting card (II)

What about a Muslim greeting card? ( Also out of season :D)
There are two major celebration in the Muslim world Ramazan Bayrami ( Seker Bayrami ) and Kurban Bayrami ( I'm familiar only with their Turkish names ). Ramazan Bayrami marks the ending of the fasting month of Ramazan and it is also called Seker (Sugar )as it is a tradition to offer candies to family & friends who are coming for a visit ( A GLORIOUS way of celebration for me , great experience :-D ) In Kurban Bayrami sacrificial sheep are slaughtered and their meet is distributed to the poor .

I guess this card can apply for both celebrations but was given to me on a Seker Bayram ( along with candies OFCOURSE ). My ex boyfriend had bought it for me , wrote it and gave it to me while we were together in Ankara. It is one of the few things that have survived our separation storm ( ie that wasn't thrown out of the window ) so that I guess is showing how much I have always loved postcards even at times that I was not collecting very actively . Years after I can read at the back and laugh at what he wrote ...( * Note * I'm not laughing at Bayram , he had written many irrelevant things ) so cok tesekkur ederim Nuri 

Cesme , Turkey

No text
Sent from Turkey
2005

Thanks to MYSELF :D

Ankara, Turkey

One more time that I have neglected my blog so I ended up with a pile of cards :P Well, better late than never , huh? I'll start today with one of my favorite cards that came from Ankara. Well you may not find the postcard breathtaking but for me it brought nice memories from Ankara. I have lived there for three months some  years ago. Well , three months is not that long , surely ,but it was the longest I've been away from home :P And it has been a really anjoyable time of my life  as I was something between a tourist and a person trying to fit in there . It didn't work out staying longer but I never regret for the things I have done !

Ankara is the capital of Turkey as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk moved the capital from Istanbul when he formed the Turkish republic ! Istanbul remains the biggest city in Turkey , most visited and the center for most activities but Ankara has its own beauty too. It is not a love at first sight as Istanbul is for many people but it can capture your heart and mind if you give it a chance to stay there longer.

 One the right of the card you can see Kocatepe Camii , on the right is Atakule Tower ( both could be seen from my house in Yenimahalle ). In the middle top , if I'm not mistaken is Gölbaşı lake , never got the chance to go there and middle bottom reminds me of a place I have visited in Maltepe , near Kizilay but I'm not sure if it is :P

Cok cok tesekkur ederim Burak :)

Samsung Touchnote Promotion

I'm listing this 3 cards together even one is from a far different place than the other two , as they were sent via Samsung Touchnote  free campaign during the Olympic Games ! Even though I'm not sure that I count them as "real" postcards , I mean as collective items. , since they are plastic coated, computer-typed and send from Guernsey with a simple "postage paid" sign ( I wish I had an actual Guernsey card ), they made me day when I received them as I took them as a guesture " I'm thinking of you " from some people we already have exchanged with . One of them was not surprise at all since I send it to my precious self :D

So 1st one is from my dear -ME ! and it is showing a wonderful view from Istinye , Istanbul that I had taken with my own camera and is not available in any postcards . This place has always a special place in my heart and I wanted to have it printed in a card.

2nd one is from Istanbul again , from the center of the city this time in the heart of Beyoglu ! IT shows the facade of the famous Cicek Pasaji in Istiklal Avenue. It is a covered passage first openen in 1876, firstly as Naum theater . 4 years later a fire breaks out , and it was destroyed , a greek banker buys it and a fellow greek architect gives it this look. At that time it was called Cite de Pera or simply Hristaki pasaji by the name of his owner. In 1908 the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sait Pasha is purchasing it , and of course it renames as Sait Pasha pasaji . Following the Russian Revolution , many impoverished noble Russian women were selling flowers there , hence it is final name Cicek Pasaji ( flower passage ). After it's restoration in 1988 it was reopened with many restaurants and cafes in the inside. It sums up the history of Istanbul somehow , how cosmopolitan and metropolitan it has always been. Photo was taken & turned into a card by my dear Belkis

3rd is the famous Iguazu falls in Brazil ( see the story in my other Brazil related post ) " Responsible for this card  is Genesio . Thank you both 

Pamukkale , Turkey

A facebook swap occured here as well , as I can't forgive myself that I have been so many times in Turkey and I still haven't visited to this nature wonder of Pamukkale :P Pamukkale in turkish means "cotton castle" , it is located in southwest Turkey in the Inner Aegean region. It is a major tourist attraction as it combines natural beauty , hot springs combined with the ruins of Graeco-Roman & Byzantine city of Hierapolis ( that means Sacred City in greek ). Pamukkale & Hierapolis as one , were declare by UNESCO as World Heritage Site in 1988!

Melis'cigim cok cok tesekkur ederim

Konya , Turkey

This ultra beautiful card of Konya came to me with the bunch of cards from Singapore :D Since it would come in envelope , I didn't mind that it would come from another country instead of Turkey !Actually as it is a Konya card ( a place that I want to visit ASAP ) I wouldn't mind even if it was posted from outer space :D

Konya is inhabited since 3.000 BC and as you can imagine it has seen the rise and fall of numerous civilizations that have been living in Anatolia .... The card is about Mevlana Museum about the Muslim poet , jurist , theologian & Sufi mystic , Muhammed Celaleddin -i Rumi ! Thanks to David for the card and for introducing me to Seda who send me a wonderful CardBook about Konya & Mevlana . I don't know how I can possibly scan it without destroying it as I want to keep it in one piece , so I scanned just the front and back page ! Seda ,I  cannot thank you enough :)