Mom visits Bodrum town part 2

We went to the Bodrum Castle on a Wednesday and spent a few good hours there exploring. The castle is now a museum that houses the remnants of shipwrecks that have been excavated all over the coasts of Turkey. The Castle also has amazing views of the sea and the downtown area. The first thing we did was walk around the courtyard were there are some informational paintings that describe how the different types of Amphoras and pots found in the shipwrecks were used. Along with a couple of Peacocks who live there - I think that is because the king who originally lived in the Castle had peacocks brought to live there so the castle is keeping alive that tradition (don't quote me on that).

Moms with the peacocks

gettin' their learn on

terracotta well drums.. cool!

The lovely family!

Old church which then became a mosque which then became an exhibition space.. not a bad recycling job

 The courtyard also contains grave markers, different types of marble sculptures/reliefs and mosaics. The Mosaics are not from a shipwreck but from an ancient site in Turkey.

Mosaics from... somewhere in turkey... :)

got to love those theater masks

We made our way to some of the areas where the shipwrecks were on display and we needed this photo to happen... I have one from 2012 when I first came to visit and the Obdans have many from over the years of their family vacations to Bodrum :) So Kath needed one too.

Shes so regal

 One of the shipwrecks contained hundred of pieces of glassware. Of course a large number of these glassware were broken so the people at the museum and INA (the place I've been volunteering!) put these pieces back together... I can't imagine how painful that was.

Here you can see some of the wood planks and the basic skeleton from this shipwreck.

There was another exhibit with glassware but not all of it is from shipwrecks and they all date to periods ranging in the early BCs to the 13th century (roughly) AD. Some of the glassware was actually found in Ortakent and its some of the oldest (Ortakent is our neighborhood :) )

This is a cup (barduk) with a lion on it, its a very important peice because its so well preserved. I'm pretty sure its Byzantine.. but again, don't quote me on that

You can walk along the top and the perimeter of the castle and on beautiful days like this one you can see far out into the sea and also all over the downtown area.

this is the top of the mosque/church/exhibition space i showed earlier

Hiding out in the shade :)

If you look hard just below the flag on the hill is the ancient amphitheater!

Enjoying the beautiful and windy view with my mommie :)

The mothers are so tiny!!

we're falling!

shes so brave!

I think this is for the hamam!

you can see Kos off in the distance!

oh hey mommie!

 We started walking around the perimeter of the castle and accidently went around a large portion of it, oops! we eventually got back to Betül and Paris :)

Betül!

 

moms made some friends

one of the shipwreck exhibits, attempts at making you feel like you're underwater with the shipwreck.

these little cuties are makeup holders- i think makeup companies should take a hint from this

 I insisted we walk to a far spot in the castle so my mom could see the dungeon.. and this was it! haha

theres a hand sneaking through the grate on the floor haha

i like to climb things.. i didn't get very far up this tree though

its like a video game, if you fall off the castle wall a giant exclamation point rises into the sky!

A tower right next to the dungeon stairwell

checking out the scenery

thats where we took photos together (me and mom) the previous day!

look at that cutie next to the old latrines!

tiny theater

necessary

such a good lookin group!

We finished the castle tour at the old church/mosque that housed a ship reconstruction. You can walk along the ship and look inside. its very cute

Happy to be exploring :)

 

 

under the floor there are more amphoras

yessss stuffed man cooking a fish!

At the entrance of the museum are two important figures in Bodrum's history. One is more recent and the other is a really really old guy

Mom with Herodotus

 

 

 

Mom with the fisherman of Halikarnasis

Afterwards we went to a lunch restaurant called Kismit that has some of the best home-cooked food in town. We got a large spread and all ate until we were uncomfortably full :)

so some of the food you can see there are: a chickpea and meat dish, rice, a fresh herbs pide, a plate filled with several local veggies and not pictured was our delicious lentil soup!

these are the two deserts we split. I can't remember the names but the one of the left is a baked milk dish with crushed hazelnuts sprinkled ontop and the other dish is a type of fried sweet dough with walnuts in the middle. Both are amazing

Mom's visit to B-Town!

My Mom came to visit bodrum for a week and it was fantastic!! We tried to do as much as possible while still giving her a proper relaxing vacation :)

instead of describing each day, i figured I'd touch on some of the cool things we did - like visiting ruins, eating beautiful Turkish meals, and taking in the scenery :)

One of the best meals we had together was her first full day in town. We walked to a local restaurant to have a proper turkish breakfast - or as Paris calls it "a taste explosion"! They bring you out what seems like an endless amount of jams (reçel), butter (tereyağ), honey (bal) and other spreads with a huge variety of cheese (peynir) along with a beautiful basket of breads (ekmek). Their breads are all homemade (pide breads) and some are even fried. They also make homemade cigarette börek (a turkish type of salty pastry). They also bring out a plate of fresh tomatos (domates), cucmbers (salatılık), and greens. On top of all of that you can order eggs (yumurta). My mom and Paris each got a type of scrambled egg and I opted out (not my thing).

It really was a taste explosion. combining all the different types of cheeses with jams with that tasty bread was so wonderful. I over ate and was happy i did so. Afterwards we all got some traditional turkish coffee (kahve) and digested under the sun!

fun outdoor picnic type seating!

This picture is actually from when Paris and I took Kate to the same turkish breakfast place in Nov 2013! The food layout is very similar to the one we had with my mom :) :)

oh hey cutie

traditional Turkish Kahve cups with some turkish delights (lokum) on the tray

Betul (my mother in law - kayınpeder) and I took my mom to the Halikarnassos Mausoleum in the downtown Bodrum Area. It is actually the original Mausoleum, named for whom it was dedicated to, Mausolus. He was the ruler of the Persian Empire at one point and moved the capital to Halikarnassos (modern day bodrum). His wife had it built for him. Only the basement survives today (because a lot of its stones were used for the Bodrum castle!). So we toured the basement which is still pretty impressive. There is a great indoor area that explains the history of the region and the structure (in much more detail than what I just gave you :) ). There are sketches off all the hypothesized ideas of how the structure originally appeared. They settled on what you see today in any Art History 101 class.

Mom and the replica

Betül and mom getting their learn on

original drainage system

cave dwellers

cus that's what this column drum is for

mosaic!

we're still down here, someone send help...

What a cool thing to find in your backyard... well i guess not if it means you have to leave the property....

After the Mausoleum we wanted to go tour the Bodrum Castle. The day was a little overcast and we found out that during the off-season the castle closes early so we'd only have an hour. We decided to put it off for a day and walked around the castle and downtown for a bit. Here are some pictures from that. I hope my mom doesn't mind how many photos of her are up! :)

  

It was a lot of fun exploring downtown with my mom :)

I'll put another post out later today showing some more of our adventures and food wonderfulnessessss