Aside from me not being dead. I've been busy busy taking lots of photos and seeing lots of things. I've actually got a stack more photos to upload of Turkey, so there'll probably be one or two more posts about it.
I'll start with the food (this is going to be a reoccuring theme since food in Turkey is tasty!
Below, you see a picture of delicious caek followed by a standard Turkish breakfast. Sigara börek is fetta cheese and some herbs wrapped in pastry and cooked to perfection. SOO Tasty.... ^_^
Alright, so some interesting trivia for you. In Turkey, it can be very hard to get a building permit for a shop or what have you in different areas, however, if you build a mosque.. You can build a shop on the same ground as well. This means, that mosques will be often left half-finished while perfectly finished shops are left underneath them.
The mosques in these pictures have been left for quite a while now according to some locals we talked to.
Really amusing to see so many mosques built around shops. Although you can't see in this second picture, it to is built ontop of a bunch of shops.
Techies doin' techy stuff :)
Sadly, I didn't get to do -any- real urbex in Turkey. Its really not the kind of country you want to get caught doing -anything- in. I did notice a lot of possibilities though... And maybe, if I learn the lauguage a bit better, i'll try next time I go.
In Ankara, there are lots of underground spaces for electricity and cabling and water and what not. Any further details i don't know sadly :(
Aside from the abundance of semi-built mosques, there are also hundreds (probably thousands) of construction sties. The one in this picture is probably going on 40-50 storeys and I could only snap this picture of it as we drove by from a distance. I have ZERO idea as to what its purpose was. If anyone happens to have any info. Let me know!
The other important thing i noticed, anywhere there is anything abandoned or being constructed, or is public works etc etc, there is likely a huge billboard infront of it, trying to divert attention. As is in the case of the photo below where the 10 storey shell of an abandoned building was obscured by an equally large billboard fro 'Turk Telekom'
Underneath bridges and along streets you'll randomly find huge walls (like below) with murals and painted tiles with a common reccuring animal (sheep, rabbits etc etc). I don't know what the signifigance is but its different to look at.
I've never seen a serious car crash in Australia, in the first week in Turkey, I saw two. This is unsuprising seeing how all Turkish drivers are rather reckless and have a fairly casual disregard for road-related-safety. The car in the below pictures had been rolled off the brige above and fallen on the roof of one of the sides. Since no-one in Turkey wears seatbelts (they take the clips out of the seats in Taxis -__- ) this driver probably has some serious issues now...
Shopping centres... They're always shiny. And pro-tip: "Taking a camera inside any building, then taking photos is generally not approved"
They have a bit of an issue with people blowing shit up from time to time, so they like to put on the standard security routine. Bear in mind, I walked through this building with a black pelican suitcase (full of my camera gear), dressed as i normally do and security waved a metal detector wand around me and waved me on through...
What the purpose of that was (since they didn't open my case) I have no idea. :/
Anarchy... Its the same everywhere.
Although I don't have any photos of it. I was caught up in a bit of a riot in down town Ankara. I couldn't take any photos. But about 300-400 police stormed past in full riot gear. The most interesting thing I saw out of their gear was that there were about 20-40 officiers who were clearly the designated tear-gas/grenade officers. They had about 20 grenades strapped to their vests easy to grab and deploy. Scary stuff. Especially since the protestors they were going after numbered about the same...
And the Occupy Wall Street protestors think they have it bad. Lulz.
I always like art like this. Although it was turned off at the time, when its plugged in, the display in the disc held by the statue shows the image of the person standing infront of the camera head.. Cool stuff.
Ahh trains. OH! I almost forgot. Another thing i missed out on exploring... The Turkish Metro! Its partially built, but more or less, its abandoned! It cost to much to build so the government cut off funding -temporarily- but for the time being, its easy enough access, no activity in the tunnels. PERFECT TIME TO GO! I will certainly regret this later -_-
Super-sized-super-markets. Now with a staggering 45 checkouts! O_O Its bigger than bunnings!
I got a back-pack tailor made for me. Designed to load up all my exploring gear (pelican case, tripod, some climbing gear, drinks, medkit etc) Its actually quite huge (a little to huge) and while I was initially happy with it, the main zip has since broken (replaceable but unusable for the time being) and one of the straps has started to tear (as a result of me carrying about 25KG loads around on it. Derp.
REAL Turkish markets. Cool places. Lots of things to see and buy. I didn't buy much other than Tasty treats....
Tasty treats... I don't know what its actually called... Its like semi-melted candy on a stick. :P DELICIOUS. And sooo unhealthy...
Until next time!
Cheeri-o
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