Our morning in Eskisehir began with beautiful weather and a tour of the two universities - Anadolu and Osmangazi.  We also visited an incredible wine shop that carried only Turkish wines - hundreds of them.  What a wealth of possibilities!  We bought seven bottles to last us until we leave Turkey on June 12.  We then had a great Turkish breakfast including sucuk and pastirma at Aykut's house.  We met his lovely and vivacious wife Melek and their cute 8 year old daughter.  Haluk then took us to see around the historic parts of Eskisehir before we packed the car and drove off.  Our first trip to Eskisehir will not be our last!
With me riding shotgun and navigating we took the back road to Afyonakhisar, which translates (I am not kidding) as Opium Black Fortress.  The area grows a lot of poppies for you know what.  Then we picked up the main road to Isparta (after buying Turkish delight - lokum).  Randy drove like a natural Turkish driver and we arrived at Gultekin Ozdemir's university right on time.  We followed him to our hotel in Egirdir.  This is an amazing place - a large lake surrounded by mountains.  We stayed at the Yesilada - Green Island.  This is a small island reached by a causeway.  The island is an old Greek settlement and is now mainly pensions and small hotels but also still Turkish natives live there.  It is very quiet, rather run down but with a wonderful charm.  Our hotel, Merci, was more than adequate.  We had a big king sized bed - very unusual in Turkey - with great internet connection.  The bathroom was about 2 feet by 2 feet and required careful planning to avoid getting bruised or worse.  Randy refused to shower there because he was afraid he might get stuck in the shower.  Gultekin  then took us up a mountain road for tremendous views of the lake (see pictures).  It was windy but well worth it.  We then drove to Isparta to see Ayse (his wife) and his two pretty daughters, Ada and Ayce.  Ayse is now a blond and it suits her very well.  The girls, born in Auburn, are mature, well behaved and smart.  Their English is remarkably good. We went with them to a good kebab restaurant overlooking the city.  After stuffing down more Turkish food (not that we could ever get enough of it anyway) we drove back to our island, and it almost felt like it was ours alone.

The next day brought beautiful sunny skies and cool air and after a walk around the island (it only takes 20 minutes) we breakfasted at the restaurant at the top of the hotel which afforded views nearly 360 degrees of the lake and surrounding mountains.  With a full Turkish spread we spent an hour eating and reviewing the Turkish map and our travels.  We checked out and discovered our room rate was 110 lira, about $60, not too bad!

We drove to Gultekin's house and began sightseeing with him and the older girl Ada who took the day off from school to be with us.  We stopped at a rose garden (Isparta produces a large percentage of the world's rose oil) and then went to their museum.  This was surprisingly good with displays of ancient artifacts, carpets (Isparta is known for its carpets also) and historic clothes, implements and rooms from the last century.  We shopped at a downtown area for baklava and Randy got turmeric from a spice store, and made a last brief stop at an old abandoned Greek church.  Lunch was on their balcony and included honey Gultekin had brought back from Bosnia and Turkish coffee.  We had also earlier made a brief stop at Ayse's clinic (she is a family practice medical doctor) which is conveniently located a few doors from their apartment building.

Alice and Dilruba with Tarcin the sweetest kitten in Turkey

Poppy - growing everywhere in central West Turkey right now

Haluk on the streets with his Audi - a big prestige symbol in Turkey (and the U.S.)

Alice surrounded by Turkish wine - so many choices, so little time!

Typical Turkish breakfast spread (at the Arapoglu's)

Aykut and Melek and their 8 year old daughter at home

Haluk in front of the industrial engineering building at Anadolu University


 

We set off on the backroads to Ankara.  It included beautiful lake and mountain scenery but also some scary roads including a village that was basically unpaved.  Our GPS (affectionately named Clive (Owens) by Elaine for his British accent) freaked out and kept telling us to turn on unpaved roads (his literal words).  After that came a mountain pass where we had to pass a big bus and several ridiculously large trucks.  We surprisingly found a new Opet gas station in the middle of basically nowhere and got filled up and the car rinsed down.  We arrived at the Dengiz house in Ankara around 8 PM, in time for a kofte dinner with them in their sunroom.  The Dengiz home in Ankara is our oasis in Turkey - a large and comfortable house with great electronics.  It is located in the southern suburb of Golbasi which is growing rapidly with housing developments.

An old house in Yesilada (Green Island) on Lake Egridir - most of these have not yet been restored

View of Lake Egirdir from a mountain - you can see the causeway leading to the small Yesilada in the center

Gulketin, Ayce, Ada and Ayse Ozdemir at home

Randy in front of our Yesilada hotel, the Merci

Rose farm in Isparta

Ada and Alice in front of the Isparta museum

One of the many Roman funerary statues in the garden of the museum

Gultekin buying an assortment of baklava

Randy and Gultekin buying turmeric (after we looked up the Turkish name for it on line)

The old Greek church in Isparta - it is locked and empty but the exterior and garden are well maintained

A beautiful bird picture in the Ozdemir apartment - actually a jigsaw puzzle they put together

Dolma and su boregi (water borek) for lunch on the balcony

One of the challenging roads we took on the back way from Isparta to Ankara (there is also a modern highway)

Scenery in the Anatolian mountains

Along one stretch of the road just east of Aksehir we found a series of about 20 stork nests on top of telephone poles.  Each nest contained one large stork

One of the nests with its bird, the beautiful white stork