Bayram Bash 2011: The Hall of Gods & Goddesses

I'm a big fan of old things. Ruins, rocks, human remains... that sounds creepy, but it's really true. I'm a real big fan. Naturally, I like museums. Loaded with old things! You can understand that I was amped to go the the Antalya Museum then, because it's consistently ranked as a top museum in Europe.

I was not disappointed.

Like all museums of archaeology, we began in the Paleolithic Age, taking peeks at some sweet arrowheads and stone tools and all that jazz. Then, of course, onwards into the Stone Age and Bronze Ages and all that fun. This was interesting, of course, when I didn't realize that the Antalya Museum had so many more promising artifacts to behold. As usual, we found some really well preserved pottery and ceramic pieces, as well as artwork cast from bronze.

This little guy reminded me of something out of Monty Python.

The museum also had a fantastic collection of Roman glass, which was really, really beautiful. I think the coolest job in a museum is the one responsible for arranging the various artifacts. I mean, you're responsible for literally presenting history in a way that will want to make people learn about it... talk about pressure.

How do you like that backlighting?

From glass, we moved onwards once again to an interesting display on how copies of even older Greek marble statues were made by the Romans.  Interesting, super cool, good to know, way to go Romans. I mean, they were super good at it. This surviving marble head is so pretty.

And then I saw this sign.

And I kid you not, readers, I almost fainted. They should just call it "The Hall of Awesome," because it's more accurate.

Let me stress that all of these statues date back to the 2nd century. Comparatively, some of them are in better condition than cars manufactured twenty-five years ago. The Romans built to last.

As a born-again Greek mythology buff (thanks, Rick Riordan!), this was just the coolest thing. The majority of them were found at Perga an archaeological site in the province of Antalya.

Here's just a small serving of the gods and goddesses featured in the Hall of... Gods and Goddesses.

Nemesis, the spirit of divine retribution... this girl had all
sorts of statues in this place.

Statue of a dancing woman, likely to have been a goddess.

Emperor Hadrian... not a god, probably thought he was one though.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and her son, Eros.

My girl, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, the forests, and the moon.
Perga apparently had a temple dedicated in her honor. Because she's the coolest.

Athena, the goddess of (deep breath): wisdom, courage, inspiration,
civilization, warfare, strength, strategy,  the arts, crafts, justice, aaaand skill.

Hera, the queen bee goddess. I find it ironic that he head was knocked off.

BIG DADDY ZEUS!

A headless (and topless) Aphrodite.

Apollo, god of music, poetry, the sun, light, and medicine.

Hygieia, the goddess of hygiene!

Hermes, the messenger god.

This might have been Hestia. I can't remember! Ahh!

This guy was just downright terrifying.

Dionysius, the god of wine.

More Athena!

Gosh, it was just the coolest thing. They were enormous too! It was like walking around in Clash of the Titans... but the old one, because that one's the best.

We also toured a room of sarcophagi found at Perge, and the coolest one, in my opinion, depicted all twelve labors of Hercules. It was almost more impressive than the statues in the Hall of Gods and Goddesses because a) the carvings were even smaller and b) someone actually PAID to be entombed in this sucker forever. It's almost as badass as a Jedi burial... almost.

Maybe the most recently famous artifact in the museum was the recently reunited pieces of the Farnese Herakles of Perga. While the bottom half was kept in the Antalya Museum, the top half had been in the Boston Museum for decades, where its discovery (and removal from Turkey) had not been documented (meaning: someone stole it). Like two months ago, the Turkish government was able to secure its return to Turkey after a number of tests concluded that the two pieces fit.

He was a pretty wild site to behold.

So, there's the Antalya Museum of Archaeology. It was awesome. Come visit me and we'll go. And we'll take inappropriate pictures with all of the statues. Just kidding, but not really.

Oh, this a drachma featuring Athena and her symbol, the owl.
I love that owl. Potential future tattoo.

Bayram Bash 2011: Antalya, Day Two & Three!

On our next day in Antalya, we did a little walking around town (and made a Starbucks stop!) before heading to the beach. Here are some pre-beach shots... all two of them.

 


The flowers are lantanas, a type of flower that grow all over the Florida Keys. My mom likes them.

Anyways, so after a gruelingly crowded city bus ride, we got to Lara Beach!

We then had dinner and finished our night with some delicious ice cream at this place called Vanilla Lounge, where Annika successfully scored us a ton of free samples before we actually purchased our ice cream. Mad props, girl.

Lemon-lime and raspberry-strawberry. Aye carambaaa.

Sadly, the next morning, Annika and I were the last of the Fulbrighters left in Antalya. Womp womp.

But, we walked around the harbor and this lovely little harbor-side park, where they had this really interesting exhibit that talked about how cities all over the world are simply becoming Disney World-ish... for example, people don't need to go to the real country, they can just go to Epcot; people can see both New York and the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.

It was a really interesting perspective on the authenticity of travel and experiences, I guess. I still like Epcot, though.

After we walked around the harbor, we decided to go to Antalya's world renowned archaeology museum. And here's the funny thing about maintaining a blog. I thought, before I went into the museum, that I'd just include some fun pictures of the museum at the end of my post about Antalya. Except I didn't realize how serious a museum this would be. Or that I would spend an entire BATTERY of power in this sucker. Hence, it gets its own post. You'll thank me later.

Bayram Bash 2011: Antalya, Day One!

WARNING: If you were looking for reasons not to come to Turkey, then this blog post isn't for you.

If, however, you were looking for the slightest bit of justification in your reasoning, read on.

Last week, I had the entire week of for a Muslim holiday known as Kurban Bayram (for those of you more familiar with Arabic-based Islam, it's called Eid al-Adha), which celebrates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to show his dedication and obedience to God. Families get together and sacrifice sheep; obviously, there's more than just that. Feel free to read about it here (don't be mad that I'd using Wikipedia, either). 

Because we had a week off, I did a little traveling. My first stop (and by "stop," I mean "a brutal twelve-hour overnight bus ride") was in Antalya. Let me introduce you to Antalya.

We stayed at the Sabah Pansiyon in Kaleiçi, the older part of town. Super beautiful.

Truncated Minaret. Or as I called, the Decapitated Mosque.

HADRIAN'S GATE!

 Hadrian's Gate dates back to 130 A.D. Do the math. That's nearly 1900 years... right?

After walking around town, we headed to this beach/archaeological site called Olimpos. On the way there, however, we passed a ton of little hotels... WHICH WERE TREEHOUSE HOTELS. Oh my gosh. Totally going back here to stay in one.

Treehouses <3

Okay, so Olimpos was really cool. Apparently it was a major Hellenistic port for pirates. Its major Greek god was Hephaestus, and according to Homer, Poseidon watched Odysseus sailing on the sea. It was really pretty and because it was sooo close to those treehouse hotels and because I did not have the proper footwear to hike around, I'm going back.

Tourist opportunity.

Ancient Turkish baths!

Some fancy captain's sarcophagus.

Keepin' the trend alive! Feet in the Mediterranean!

These kids... I love 'em!

So pretty. I'm feeling you, Olimpos. 

After beaching around and almost being abandoned on the side of the rode seventy kilometers outside of Antalya, we made it home and got some delicious dinner at a restaurant called the Villa Perla. I suggest it, if you're ever it town.

Flash?

Flash.

 And then after dinner, Annika, Ryan, and I explored a little bit of Antalya's nightlife... which was somewhat lacking, since it was still more or less a religious holiday.

We did, however, manage to find a bar with live music. At first, the music was great, and Turkish. Then, the female singer started singing English songs, which we were pumped about. I'll admit, I was too excited to hear Bon Jovi songs. But, a few lines into the song, we realized that she wasn't singing the correct lyrics. This became more apparent when she began to sing a that Rihanna song "Only Girl," and instead of singing:

"Want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world
Like I'm the only one that you'll ever love
Like I'm the only one that knows your heart"

she was singing:

"I'm gonna make you feel 'cause I'm the only girl in the world
Like I'm the only one that knows how to love
Like I'm the only one that knows the hard"

This, might I add, was hilarious and a perfect end to my first day of bayram.

"TEŞEKKÜRLER !"