Home again, home again, jiggety jig
Aug. 18th, 2005 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catspawHeh. Just what it says on the header. I'm back, bronzed and fit (bronzed anyway - Turkey was *hot*).
What a country! I adore it over there. I love the landscape, I love the people, I love the chaotic way nothing every seems to go entirely *right*, I love the language even though I mangle it mercilessly ;-)
We were in Side this year - what a marvellous place. For one thing, it's one of the older resorts ::snort:: in so many senses... The hotel we were staying in dated from the 60s, which was a marvellous change from the purpose built tourist hutches we've been in before. Heh, the plumbing was just as cranky though, no more, no less. Turkish showers are wonderful things. The taps always turn the wrong way and 'thermal equalising' as a concept seems to have passed right on by - unless it can be interpreted as 20 seconds of scalding hot water followed by 30 seconds of freezing cold, cycle to be repeated ad lib. The village is built in the ruins of a Graeco-Roman town. Everywhere you turn there are bits of columns lying about, robbed out stone built into 'modern' buildings, ruins of shops and houses, a hospital and a library. These are totally unfenced off and you can wander through them to your heart's content. I swear to god, some bits you can stand in a paved street between houses and shops, close your eyes and *hear* 1st century life going on all around you :-) Although I have to say, it pains my historian's soul to see people wandering around freely in an important archaeological site - I saw some teens rolling a piece of a fluted column around to make patterns in the sand and wanted to go shout at them, 'Leave that alone! Don't you dare move it, context is important!' Still, there's one hell of a lot of the site still uncovered, so I'm guessing the authorities think there's enough to go round, enough to be interesting when they eventually have the money to fund a dig.
All in all it was a marvellous holiday - all the sweeter for probably being the last ever time all five of us will be on holiday together. Although we said that last year, and still made the trip together this year, so maybe there's hope. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because somewhere along the line all my children have become very good, witty company (despite the occasional spats, none of which were very major) and the overwhelming memory for me will be laughter and fun. That and the realisation that with comparatively grown-up children in tow, it's frighteningly easy to do absolutely nothing. For hours and hours on end. :-))
Roll on next year.
What a country! I adore it over there. I love the landscape, I love the people, I love the chaotic way nothing every seems to go entirely *right*, I love the language even though I mangle it mercilessly ;-)
We were in Side this year - what a marvellous place. For one thing, it's one of the older resorts ::snort:: in so many senses... The hotel we were staying in dated from the 60s, which was a marvellous change from the purpose built tourist hutches we've been in before. Heh, the plumbing was just as cranky though, no more, no less. Turkish showers are wonderful things. The taps always turn the wrong way and 'thermal equalising' as a concept seems to have passed right on by - unless it can be interpreted as 20 seconds of scalding hot water followed by 30 seconds of freezing cold, cycle to be repeated ad lib. The village is built in the ruins of a Graeco-Roman town. Everywhere you turn there are bits of columns lying about, robbed out stone built into 'modern' buildings, ruins of shops and houses, a hospital and a library. These are totally unfenced off and you can wander through them to your heart's content. I swear to god, some bits you can stand in a paved street between houses and shops, close your eyes and *hear* 1st century life going on all around you :-) Although I have to say, it pains my historian's soul to see people wandering around freely in an important archaeological site - I saw some teens rolling a piece of a fluted column around to make patterns in the sand and wanted to go shout at them, 'Leave that alone! Don't you dare move it, context is important!' Still, there's one hell of a lot of the site still uncovered, so I'm guessing the authorities think there's enough to go round, enough to be interesting when they eventually have the money to fund a dig.
All in all it was a marvellous holiday - all the sweeter for probably being the last ever time all five of us will be on holiday together. Although we said that last year, and still made the trip together this year, so maybe there's hope. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because somewhere along the line all my children have become very good, witty company (despite the occasional spats, none of which were very major) and the overwhelming memory for me will be laughter and fun. That and the realisation that with comparatively grown-up children in tow, it's frighteningly easy to do absolutely nothing. For hours and hours on end. :-))
Roll on next year.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-18 04:11 pm (UTC)so you are a wrinkly old nut? Hehehe! You going to wolfcon SG10 with year?
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Date: 2005-08-18 06:29 pm (UTC)SG10? You already know the answer to this one ;-) We shall have to meet up - although there's a certain irony about meeting up in London, 400 and some miles away, when we only live about 20 miles apart as the crow flies, don't ya think?