Day 47

June 6 2013

Today, plus a bit of history and customs

The lady of the house had made breakfast consisting of a sort of fried egg or was it a cheese filled pancake? to be put on my slice of bread. Then the master of the house joined me for a while sharing the teapot while I fixed their electric clock. His wife told me that he had been a doctor all of his life and his hobby had been archeology. As soon as I said that that was interesting (and I meant it) he opened a cupboard and showed I few things he had dug up in the Goby dessert, The vertebrae of a dinosaur and a dinosaur nail, teeth and even a dinosaur egg, all fossilized .

The house I am staying in has no internet, so I needed to seek a connection elsewhere. A four or five star hotel would have a wifi so I baldly walked into one of the five star hotels, straightened my back, walked over to the reception saying, "ahem what was the wifi code again?" The guy quickly opened a book and gave me a strip of paper with the login details. I walked over to the guest lounge and noticed a “free coffee” percolator setup and made myself a cup of coffee. A small table and chair were put together and now I was ready to update my blog and write some emails.

And now for the bit of history- anyone not interested just switch off right here.

I went to the historical museum today and saw and read many things confirming what I already knew or had found out many years ago.

The name Turkey came up a lot in the museum. So what about that? In biblical times (first century AD) what is now Turkey were many different countries. Their names come up in the New Testament a lot, like the Lydia, Laodicea, Smyrna, Ephesians, Cappadocia's, etc. Around 900AD, what is now eastern Turkey was invaded by the peoples from the east. These people came from Mongolia and the plains west of Mongolia. Some of these people came from further west in what is now known as Turkistan and Turkmenistan. The first Turks settling in what is now Eastern Turkey and Western Iran were the Seljuk Turks. Later they invaded the rest of the country and never went back. This is the reason that all interesting ruins in Turkey have Greek writing in them as it used to be Greek territory

The invader looked like Chinese and Mongols with slant eyes and eastern faces. After the invasion they mixed with the local population and started to lose their Asian looks. In Turkish museum there are often old paintings still showing the slant eyes of the first Turks. Even today in remote Turkish villages I have seen people with slightly slant eyes. The Mongols went all the way to Western Europe albeit for a short time. Today in the museum I saw all that from this side of the fence.

On my way back from the hotel I called in the five star hotel again for a toilet stop and to have another coffee. I met some interesting people there who were participating in the Peking to Paris car race using old cars, even pre-war stuff. They showed me many pictures, mostly about the breakdowns. I think that that race or rally goes back to the early 1900’s. Old cars and old people, a good combination and they seem to enjoy every mile of it.

Customs

I never get any looks anymore like I did in other countries and I am glad about that. Today on my way back from town I did get some strange looks though. The reason: I was eating an apple while walking on the street.

I suppose as this was and still is a country of Nomads they have different customs and I read that eating is one of them. The highlight of the Nomad’s day was to sit down and eat a meal. I checked this and the customs is that a meal has to be enjoyed to its fullest. It says that you never leave the table until everyone is finished, and you never walk and eat. I did see a group of young guys buying stuff in a shop though and they eat everything standing in a group in the shop and left when everyone is finished. So today I got a few strange looks while eating an apple and walking along the street.