Randy and Alice Live in Turkey: Eğridir and City of Roses

This post rounds out the trip to Isparta. Isparta, also known as the City of Roses, is the world's largest producer of rose oils and the like. The city is also a center of fruit growing. It is surrounded by mountains and is very well located less than two hours north of the Mediterranean. The city itself is not so beautiful but there is a nice museum (which we saw on our trip there last year) and a few old buildings (churches and mosques). It is a manageable size of about 200,000 and traffic is not difficult. On Sunday we went with Gultekin to their weekly farmer's market This kilometer long outdoor market was lined with fresh vegetables, fruits, cheeses, honey, grains and other goods. The prices seems more than fair and the locals were taking full advantage of the products on offer.

Some of the vegetables at the Isparta Sunday outdoor farmer's market

My favorite - eggplant (patlican)

Randy bought a bag of oranges

Gultekin picked up a huge amount of produce including cabbages

Interesting - these are "young" almonds

A view of the street market which stretched for more than a kilometer (we did not walk it all)

Although Isparta offers some hotels, the much better place to stay is at Lake Eğirdir. This gem is the fourth largest lake in Turkey and is surrounded by mountains. It is about 30 minutes east of Isparta along a very good road (built by Suleyman Demirel when we was in charge of Turkey). The town of Eğirdir is compact and contains some historic buildings (which we have yet to see the insides of) but the most attractive aspect is the joining of two small islands by a causeway. These jut into the lake itself. The smaller island is very small and is wholly a park while the larger one (Yeşilada) was a Greek town. It contains a number of old buildings (including a church and Ottoman style houses), a variety of small pensions, two or three small hotels and a bunch of lakeside informal restaurants. It was off season and very cold so we could not enjoy the outdoors except to walk the circuit around the island each morning. We stayed at the Mavi Gol Hotel which is owned by Suleyman Demirel University (who hosted our visit). This hotel is not noteworthy except for its excellent wireless internet in the room and its extremely small and uncomfortable beds. The views are spectacular though (as they are from everywhere on this island).

View from our hotel room on Yeşilada at Lake Eğirdir

A scene on Yeşilada

Ducks were hoping for breakfast but I had to disappoint them

The glorious waters of Lake Eğirdir

This mountain and other areas nearby host the Turkish Army's Ranger training center. The town is full of young and very fit men (not a bad thing)

An inner street on the island - nearly deserted in the wintertime

The front of our hotel - our room was on the second floor of balconies on the right

The old Greek church - Saint Stefanos left over from when the island was wholly Greek

Unfortunately the church is kept locked and is unrestored

The exterior which is not in bad shape

The interior viewed from a barred window - again, not in bad shape. With a little work this church could be quite restored

Boats along the shore of the island - in the months of better weather locals will take you on a little cruise around the lake

Randy walking around the park area on the island

Close up of two ducks at the shore

The island's mosque with a nice set of pine trees

My visit to the university on Monday was wonderful. They treated me like a queen (quite undeserved!). The student association sponsored my seminar and the audience was the largest I have had (over 100 easily) and consisted mostly of undergraduate students. They seemed very appreciative of my talk and my visit, as did the gregarious Dean of Engineering and the friendly IE faculty. They loaded me with presents including their own rose skin products and sent me off with very good feelings about this university and the area of Isparta / Eğirdir.