2010 - Turkey - Day 4 - Troy / Canakkale, Turkey

Facts about Turkey: 1/12 the size of US. Known as Asia Minor—near east (not middle east) Neighbors are Iraq, Iran, Syria, Georgia, and Armenia. 7 different climate ranges Home of the Sultans, Ottomans, Byzantines, Hittites, Assyrians, Phrygians Marmara area known for sunflowers and seeds and oil, grapes and wine Coastal areas known for olives and olive oil, Turkish tobacco and oranges, tangerines and figs Aegean area for cotton, walnuts, apples and plums Mediterranean for oranges and bananas. Also use greenhouses for vegetables, and tomatoes. South East has the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and Mesopotamia—means the land between the rivers. Haran is found in Mesopotamia. Pistachios are grown from area next to the Euphrates Northern mountains have wheat and barley, cattle, sheep and goats Apricots grown in the central and Eastern Turkey, famous for raisins North area is rice and timber, shipbuilding. Also hazelnuts—85% of world’s hazelnuts are from Turkey. It is a self sufficient country, also rich in copper, gold, tin, iron, silver and aluminum We left our hotel at 8:00 am. and drove 2 hours along the coast heading South West. We had a short stop then drove another 2 hours to the ferry at the Dardanelle. We had about 30 minutes to get some lunch. We had just made sandwiches from breakfast, so we sat outside the restaurant and ate. The only problem we had there was more dishonest vendors to sell “authentic” perfume. They were lucky I didn’t hurt them ;) Our ferry across the Dardanelle into Asia was only 30 minutes. Then we drove about an hour into the old city of Troy to see the ruins and excavations. There wasn’t a lot to see, but that city is 3,000 years old, with lots of history, and it was really cool to be standing there. The drive from Troy to our hotel was another hour or so. We are staying right on the coast of the Aegean Sea in a city called Canakkale. The Trojan horst used in the Hollywood movie of Troy is right across the street from our hotel. It was donated to this city after the making of the movie. We had a little time before dinner so we walked a little on the coast and got some pictures of the horse.