Kutahya: Little Christmas Presence
Trip Start
Feb 08, 2008
1
91
125
Trip End
Sep 11, 2009
Kutahya,
Turkey
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A visit to Kütahya had also been an long time objective, I just moved it up in sequence. Kütahya is famous for its decorative ceramics. I guess it is second to Iznik in so far as rating the aesthetic qualities. Never mind, I had no real interest in the issue. But Kütahya (the Turks seem to drop the internal a, and they do somewhat huff the h) does crop up in history . . . . though nothing that I can recite without referring to books.
Basically, it was stop to look around on the way to the "classical" sites on the west coast
Castle View
. Also, I had had an acceptance by a resident member of the travelers social network in which I participate. He had sent me a couple of emails of acceptance, the last one a gracious one. In a cell phone text message he said he would be free after work, at 6pm.Arriving in the early afternoon I saw immediately that Kütahya physically seemed a miniature Afyonkarahisar, a town to the south that I had visited in 2005. That is, there is a castle on a steep peak arising from the center of town, and with a crescent of high hills ringing part way around the town. So, for me the thing to do is to climb up to the castle and have a look around. In these parts those heights can have quite a wind, so in the winter one does not want to lounge around, as apparently is done in the summer, judging by the tea gardens, now barren.
When I came down it was just darkening, and I happened into the final minutes of the covered market, just as snow began to fall and the sundown evening prayer call was being issued.
My erstwhile host had failed to respond to an earlier text message telling him of my arrival in town. Still, I decided to give him some more time and have a post hike hot meal first. I don't have a lot of patience to learn the names of Turkish food. It's just as easy to find a lokanta, with food displayed as in the picture, and just point to what appeals to me. It is usually tasty and healthy.
By meal's end the guy still hadn't called me, so I checked into a hotel, then went back to the otogar to get my checked luggage
Looking Back
.I didn't take my own advice (as written even in my previous blog piece, judging a book by its cover) and I checked into a place that was not written up in the Lonely Planet. Though others were near, I couldn't locate my first choice. It was cold and I couldn't find it by the address given, though the map was fairly accurate. It was not on the street listed, but on a side street, and slightly canted with its front not visible when looking into the street.
In fact, I could look directly upon it from the window of the room I did get in the "shoot from the hip" place I did go into. It really looked nice on the outside. And, in fact it looked nice and clean on the inside. It took a while for me to realize there were no showers. The a la turka common toilet was not great, but not real bad either. And, I just wanted a cheap place to sleep, and that was what this place was all about.
Being out in the cold wind as long as I was, then finishing with a large meal put me in the mood to not try and read or watch the Turkish-only tv, so I went to sleep around 8:30, but with having to put in earplugs because some guys were yakking in the echoing hall
A Different Gig than Troy
.My erstwhile "host" I guess called me at 8:50, but I didn't hear it.
I called him just before 9 in the morning, and we just agreed to try it again that evening.
I read some in the morning (now the Odyssey of Homer) before setting out on another afternoon hike, this time through some of the streets, then to walk the crest of the hills opposite the castle. A lot of the time I followed some dog tracks . . . . and there was one guy up there leaving tracks ahead of me.
At about mid-point I stopped to record the afternoon call to prayer, as multiple ones, came echoing up to me from the minarets below.
Finding a way down was some tricky footing in the snow. Any trails over a rocky slope were hidden by snow. But I never fell or slipped to twist an ankle. Eventually I found my way back down into the old Ottoman quarter of the city. As you can see from the street picture, not all of my walkings are through pleasing environments.
After another cold day of hiking . . . . walking, really. What's the difference? When does a walk turn into a hike? Well, anyway, I thought I'd have a go at the hamam--Turkish bath--that I had passed in the early afternoon. I figured that in a back street of a town like Kütahya it would probably be a good bet to be "folksy" and non-touristy
Looking to the Castle
. The way it works, for anyone who doesn't know . . . . well, it's rather like a sauna. Only the environment is marble, not cedar. You are handed a wrap and assigned to a small change room.
I was led into the back steam room, past the empty soaking pool. Sigh. I was so looking forward to the buoyant soak part. Anyway, after a spell in the marbled sauna room Mustapha came for me. He had me lie a while on the heated marble platform, then took me into the first room for my massage wash.
First the scraping with an abrasive glove. Then--and I was being rolled over so didn't get a clear picture of this--then he, I think, blew into a pillow case like sack with soap in it, then squeezed it out over my back, a soft soapy lathering for the massage-washing. The massage is like a chiropractic treatment with soap. I've had a couple, and each guy has his own technique. In this case I only almost lost it to bolt out of there yelping when he bore down on his fore arm as he raked from the back of my knees down my calf. Then there is the pounce on the ribcage, where you think your spine is going to be broken resulting in permanent para- or quadriplegia
In the Covered Market I
.You go rinse off, and maybe relax some more, then go out to the "reception" area where a guy wraps you in towels and a turban, and you sit with the fellas and have a tea. That's it.
The next day I designated to take a day trip to see the first century Roman temple at Azanoi, a xx km (xx mi) bus ride from Kütahya. The temple of Zeus is said in all accounts I have to be the most complete surviving Greek-inspired temple in Asia Minor (Turkey).
One has to walk about a half a mile from the bus drop on the main highway to the area where the remains of the Roman settlement are. And the first thing you surprisingly see after emerging from a tree-lined road is the temple of Zeus looming over some higher ground. It is very impressive, and especially so on this beautiful day. The temple is in a seductive state of completeness and void. There are some beautiful detailing still to be seen. Something I have never before seen are the little urn-like carvings at the tops of the flutes in the outer columns. A loving detail, me thinks.
This temple is otherwise highly unique by having a cavern beneath it
In the Covered Market II
. Some conjecture that the underground space was to replicate a cave, and may have served as a "sanctuary" to the goddess Kybele. Kybele is one of a long line of female deities worshiped in Asia Minor, from the Mother goddess of Çatal Höyük down through to the Virgin Mary. (Turkey, a few years ago tried a female prime minister--Tansu Ciller--but I don't think she made it to the worshiped realm). Other remnants of the former Roman settlement are baths, a theater-stadium uniquely juxtaposed, the reconstructed section of a Roman street, and a circular "macelum," or meat market. Along the wall of the meat market is inscribed an edict by Diocletian effecting price controls to ward off inflation. I remember reading about it in one of my earlier-read books.
Back out on the highway I had an easy twenty-minute wait in a heated stand awaiting the stop of the passing coach to return to Kütahya.
The next morning it was to be on to Bergama--with a few, I guess, Christmas present bed bug bites from my cheap--but clean-looking!--room.
