Ephesus used to be a Roman city and it's theater dates back from around 700 BC. It took 70 years and 75000 slave labours to build it. It holds in total 24000 people. Till this day the acoustics are still great. Denes, our famous Hungarian singer and his girlfriend Aga proofed it bye singing a song together.

Ephesus was a powerful and city of great influence. Offcourse the great theater was the big atraction for wealthy Romans. Thousands gathered to watch plays and to watch gladiators fighting.

Another big attraction is the old library which used to contain 10.000 books in Roman times. You can also see in Ephesus how the upper class of them used to live in the 'terraced houses'. It costs ten Lihra extra (allthough we went in for free, including the entrance fee for the city itself) but it's deffinitly worth it! You can even still the ancient floorheating system which was also used as the cooling system in the summer.

In Izmir we went to Kadifekale. From here you have a great view over the city and its harbour. On the top of 'mt pagus' here, some ruins remain of old Smyrna on Kadifele (mt Pagus), which was founded by Alexander the Great. Within the walls that remain migrant women from Mardin (a city in the far south east) are hard at work making on horizontal carpet looms..Apperantly this is an increasing rare sight (see photo 5 and 6).

The added photos in the blog are:

Photo 1: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 2: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 3: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 4: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 5: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 6: Izmir, Kadifekale

Photo 7: Ephesus, Aga with library background

Photo 8: Ephesus, Denes on a Romanian toilet

Photo 9: Ephesus, old library

Photo 10: Ephesus

Photo 11: Ephesus

Photo 12: Ephesus

Photo 13: Selcuk, Denes & Aga, St. John's view point

Photo 14: Pamukkale

Photo 15: Pamukkale

Photo 16: Pamukkale

Photo 17: Selcuk

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Instead of writing about Kuthaya to much, I prefer showing you the photo's, just to give you some idea of this place is like, stationed between some mountains with a castle on top..I'll come back to this city for sure!

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We allready chose the medium though..It will be a documentary. We chose this because Turkey is a fantastic country to make a documentary and we are allready doing a TV program at the moment..A short fiction movie would be really cool too, but it can be done basicly anywhere in the world..A documentary was prefered by the entire group!

Some classes I've chosen are still (in my eyes) a bit useless, others are really interesting. I'm finally getting to know the system better and starting get used the daily life or Turkish people, which is far more relaxed then the way we live in Holland..In the beginning the more relaxing life here didn't made me relaxed at all..the exact to be honest..There are so many things I've learned during class, but even more outside the classes..Conversations you have with Turkish people or other Erasmus students are the most meaningful and the biggest way to spread your horizon, your perspective on things, how the world works et cetera..They can't teach you things like that in school..

I'm having doubts of what my final goal will be..I used to be pretty sure I would love to work in the TV/documentary business, but I'm more and more starting to like making short movies and/or commercials...Working on the set with a really good crew, being a director or cameraman truly gives me energy!

I've also been asked for an interview on Turkish television a little while ago (unfortanatly I didn't see it myself, but I'll try to get my hands on it). It was about beging an erasmus student, talk about my school in Holland, the University here in Turkey and about some cultural differences. It was a nice interview but I have to say that I prefer being behind the camera instead of in front of it! They told me they would contact me later on again to film me and other Erasmus in daily life..Haven't heard something yet though..we'll see :) It was fun being part of it.

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As I told you before Konya is a conservative city, and you feel it everywhere you go. Scarved women on the streets, no clubs and bars but none theless very interesting..We even saw the 'dancing of the Dervishes'. it's a dance thats comes from Konya and was banned by Ataturk. It is performed by the Mevlevi cult. they do this dance to get to union with god. they whirl around in circles (watch the first 2 photo's I added in this blog).

We also visited several museums. One of them, the Mevlana museum, contains a casket with hair from the beard of Mohammed. ('bij de baard van Mohammed').

Ever since film and pictures usually say more than words, Pina made a short 'photography movie' of our trip to Konya..Enjoy :)

Watch the movie here (you tube).

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Last night we had a 'hippy party'(it was great) and during that party we celebrated Tjasa's birthday by throwing her in the air and buying her cakes and this night we are taking the night train with a small group of Erasmus (Pina, Tjasa, Sigrun, Baukje, Willeke, Denes, Stefan, Arne and me) to (conservative) Konya. Most travellers don't even bother to go to this city, but one of Turkeys most characteristic sites (according to the lonely planet), the wonderful shrine of Mevlana is to be seen here.

Maybe, if we have time we can travel from Konya to Isparta as wel..but we'll see :)

I put a link at the end of this blog. It contains all photo's so far.

Most important section for school is the 'Shots across Turkey'. In the end I will make a slection of the photo's in this folder for my photography portfolio. The other albums are Erasmus trips, parties et cetera.

Photo's on Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JRuurd01

p.s. the photo's added in this journyl blog are taken in Seyitgazi, which is around Eskisehir.

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The new plan is that I will fly to India from Turkey (much, much cheaper then from the Netherlands) and from there travel to 'Little Lhasa', the place where the Dalai Lama lives (it is actually possible to meet him here).

From there I want to travel furhter up north to Nepal and to Tibet to end up in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. On the way I want to visit all the places (or at least some) areas the Dalai Lama passed when he fled Tibet for the Chinese soldiers back in 1957. All those places are now pilgrimige places, holy places for the Tibetan people. I want to visit these places and make photography documentary about it.

The only problem on my way is the bad weather during that time of year (after 25th of june). It will be so poor that sometimes you can not even see the difference between night and day in Nepal..

I will have to do some more research about the monsoon rain before I go, but If I go, it will be a real challenge!

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My definitive list is:

• Producing and Directing
• For this course we will make two projects. One is a TV program, the other one is free of choice. It could be a documentary or a small movie for example. It's a very tough course and for the Turkish students of Cinema & Television it is a graduation project.
• Basic Photography
• I decided to take class after all because we'll also work with analoque cameras and develope the films ourselves..that last part is something I'm not familliar with, so it should be interesting!
• Visual Composition
• I love this course. Nezih teaches it and we will be making 4 short movies. the first is one is with two persons. I allready have an idea and I'm thinking of starting it on my own because I will be very busy with other projects as well.
• Television project
• Denes Tozser has to find 100 interesting things of Eskisehir and show this in anyway he can for his internship for his university in Hungary. He decided to use film as the medium and asked me to help him. I agreed on it and Nezih Ohrun told me I can put in the Television project course..We will have to make a list of the top 10 or 20 for example and make one movie or several short ones about this top 10 or 20.
• Turkish language
• I'm not sure I will be taking this class any longer..I do like it but it will be to busy for me doing all those projects and learn Turkish grammar as well..I'll let you know if I decide to drop it or not.
• Cultural Diversity
• Cultural Diversity is very nice as well and I will not be dropping this one. It's very interesting and fun at the same time. The course is a mix between theory and games. It is a nice way of learning about cultural differences because the class is filled with Erasmus students and Turkish..It is a multicultural class and in that way we have the whole world right next to us.

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So this blog is to all of those who helped organize it and to thank them for doing so. 'Cok tessekur ederim' for the card everyone wrote something on (see the photo section of the blog), the gifts and the cake and your friendship. thanks again and see you soon!

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finally a new blog after a few weeks of not being able to write anything at all..at home I had no internet, and at the campus the computers and internet are just too slow to type.

So, this blog is just to let you know I'm back online every once in a while to write new topics on the blog.

See you around!

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Photography project course

you can choose your own photography subject here

Documentary Photography

Artisque way of photography

Photojournalism

more technical

Basic Photography

even when you allready know the basics, they advise us to take this course

Basic foundation of Cinema & Television

given by one of the top professors in all of Turkey

Producing and Directing

A very heavy course consisting of 2 parts. The making of a Television Program and the making of a documentary

Cultural diversity and communication

An interesting and fun course, so we’ve heard

Learning Turkish

Practically all Erasmus students will be taking this course. A good way to get to know each other. Quite handy to learn some Turkish as well

Afterwards Nezih took us to lunch and explained some things about Eskisehir and it’s people. There’s this car that sells water on the streets of Eskisehir. It makes a catchy tune to let you know the car has arrived. It is said that once you’ve tasted this water, you don’t want to leave Eskisehir.

Pina, the Slovenian girl walked into the restaurant and notices us. She joined us at lunch and later she showed us a store across the street where you can buy handy things for your house. They literally had everything here for very little money! When we left the store we went home. Pina ran into some friends along the way and we greeted them as well. One of them, Ferdy, used to study Journalism at Anadolu and told us he can help us with some photography courses. He knows the Old Part of Eskisehir very well (apparently there actually IS an Old Part of the city after all!) where you can take fantastic photo’s he said. Once our classes will begin and our assignments have started we’ll give him a call.

On the 16th of February we have another appointment with Nezih Orhon. This time we will be checking our courses with him (what’s possible, and what’s not?) before making our definitive choice.

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In this case scenario we had to say goodbye to Pinar Celik, our special Turkish friend who’s been our friend for about 6 months now. She’s going back to Holland for another 6 months today, on the 8th of February.

With a group of friends of Fiko and Pinar we went to Varuna Gegzin, a great place! It’s a backpackers café. They don’t serve alcohol here, just coffee, thea, hot chocolate et cetera. The place is filled with photos from all around the world, Lonely Planet guides and other books, and lots and lots of travellers (and lots and lots of locals as well) having a good time playing a game of chess or backgammon, studying or just reading a (Lonely Planet) book. The place is actually run by people who do tours all around the world.

It was the perfect place to say goodbye to Pinar, since we all love to travel. But it wasn’t a real goodbye because we made a pact that someday we’ll meet again. Everyone left a message on the video camera for Pinar. She’ll be taking the tape to Holland.

After this we went back to Fiko’s house to celebrate her boyfriends birthday. It was a surprise for him. We had some cake and beer and after a while Pinar and her boyfriend had to leave to visit her boyfriends sister and husband. Pinar asked us to come with them, for one last time. We went to a beautiful house with an interior of a (very modern) Japanese styled house. After a cup of kavhe we talked a little and we learned that the sister of Pinar’s boyfriend and her husband were having a architect bureau (this explains there beautiful house). We got there card and they let us know they needed a website for there company. We told them we’d stay in touch before we left. You can get assignments anywhere in Turkey!

Pinar and her boyfriend walked with us in the direction of our guesthouse (we were still staying there at that time) and halfway there they had to go in to another direction. This time we truly had to say goodbye to them. Afterwards we didn’t really knew what we felt. Pinar was actually going back to Holland for another 6 months.  We’d miss her a lot. She didn’t want to go, but she also knew that once she’s there everything would be alright soon after it.

Pinar, we all hope you will have a great next 6 months in Holland, having fun at the NHL and making many new friends over there. Don’t worry, be happy. Seni yakinda tekrar gormeyi umit ediyorum, dostum. Goodbye, until we meet again ;)

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One way or the other, we had to check out from the guesthouse anyway. The Anadolu University has an agreement with the guesthouse that Erasmus students can stay in the guesthouse for free during the first 5 days. We stayed for 4 nights and the next day we packed and went to Jelmers new place.

Volkan, Jelmers new housemate picked us up from the guesthouse and and he offered Arne and me a sleeping place as well untill we find a place for ourselves. Hopefully this will be resolved soon! We’re having fun though :)

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We have been staying in Eskisehir for a few days now. It’s still pretty quiet but you can already notice it’s a real student city. We hooked up with two Erasmus girls. Aga from Poland and Pina from Slovenia. They actually knew the previous ‘Dutchies’ Mathijs, JB and Erwin. We went out several times now and had a lot of fun. It’s amazingly nice meeting all kinds of people from different countries all combined in one city. Everyone - including a lot of Turks as well - is internationally orientated. This is something I really miss at the NHL. It’s such an eye opener to stay in another country for a while. Only for this reason everyone should do it once during their studies or afterwards.

This week I shot a panoramic view of Eskisehir. I added the Panorama to the photo section in the blog. It will give you some idea of what the landscape in and around Eskisehir looks like. I’ll also ad some typical city images of Eskisehir in this blog later.

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Our train departed from Haydarpasa at 13:30 and arrived around 19:30 (45 minutes late). Taking the train from Istanbul to Eskisehir shows you some nice views of Turkey. The landscapes, villages and cities you pass never look alike which makes the train ride very interesting to say the least. To kill some more time I learned some new Turkish words and sentences and an elderly Turkish couple started helping me pronouncing some of the words for a while. Later Erdeniz got in the train on Izmit station. Erdeniz is Arne’s future flat mate and he offered us to show us around in Eskisehir and the Anadolu University the next day.

When we arrived at 19:30 Pinar, Fiko and some of their friends picked us up at Eskisehir train station. The first night we were going to stay at Fiko’s house. That night we went to Glow, a nice bar with live music after having dinner in the city and getting to know Fiko and Pinar’s friends a little better. Once again the hospitality of Turkish people came in to place.

The next day we met again with Erdeniz who showed us the campus of the Anadolu University (it really is a city all by itself) and helped us finding the guesthouse where we were allowed to stay for free for the next 5 nights.

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After exploring Instabul for a few days (as written in ‘04 Introducing Istanbul’) we met with Pinar, our Turkish friend at Haydarpasa station in Istanbul. We took the ferry from Emoninu and went to Kadikoy on the Asian shore of Istanbul along the Bosphorus. From there it’s about a ten minute walk to Haydarpasa station. After buying train tickets for our journey to Eskisehir the next day, we went for a walk along the Bosphorus, ate something and bought a Turkish SIM card for our phones. Later we took the bus with Pinar to her sisters house. But first Arne and me bought flowers for Pinar and for her family.

We had dinner at her house, and it was delicious. Her family is incredibly hospitable (as are practically all Turks) and we had a really great time. To all of us it was a very special day. One of Pinar’s sisters was going to predict our futures by looking in our Turkish kavhe cup after we had finished it. It’s called ‘Kavhe Fali’ and apparently, especially in Istanbul, it’s done for many tourists on the streets nowadays. But this was somewhat different. It had a more mystic feeling about it because in our case it wasn’t a tourist trap. In a nutshell, truthfully or not, all our futures were bright.

In my own case Pinar’s sister told me that before I went to Turkey there were some problems with something or someone but they got resolved right before I left for Turkey. She also told me I had three roads I could take, and all were good. It was even possible that all roads would come together at a certain time. Next she told me that I would travel to a lot of places, and visit many ancient temples et cetera. Finally she told me that by the end of these six months I will be feeling sad for leaving Turkey. The strange thing is that there was no way she could really know about all these things. Real magic or not, it was very fun and interesting to be part of this. It made our day even more special then we could have ever imagined. I would like to thank Pinar and her family (Pinar, tell them I said hi. Especially you little nephew). Tesekur iderim, dostum. For everything.

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With it’s twenty million people the city is alive in all it’s aspects. It invites you, it excites you. The city inhales and exhales. It truly breathes and the people are the blood that’s pumping through her veins and gigantic heart.

Istanbul is a city to discover and never to forget. So by all means: go out and walk the streets where crusaders marched long ago. Bargain in the bazaar district where things haven’t changed all that much in over 2000 years. Wander amongst the most tremendous buildings in the world with your mouth wide open making you unable to speak for quite some time. Cross the Galata bridge which is like a city all on its own and meet the most interesting, friendly and hardest people of the city here. Get off the tram at a place you’ve never even heard off and spend that day getting lost to find your own Istanbul. And last but not least: every once in a while, just sit back with a cup of ‘kahve’ and watch Istanbul pass by.

Then, and only then, you might have gotten some idea of what Napoleon was talking about and the oldest of memories will meet the new.

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But firstly I should also tell you that during my stay in Turkey

I’m not all on my own. Off course I’ll be meeting plenty of new people in Turkeyas well, but Jelmer de Jong en Arne Mulder, two good friends of mine who study at the same faculty as myself came along.

And about six months ago we started to become friends with Fikeriye Dedeoglu and Pinar Celik, two Turkish girls who study in Eskisehir at the Anadolu University. They came to Holland as Erasmus students from Turkey to study at our faculty. During these six months we went to Paris and some other places and the friendship of our little group became stronger.

And now, six months later Jelmer, Arne and me decided to go to Turkey for our own studies. Fikeriye and Pinar are now back in Turkey as well. They are visiting family and friends and will travel by train to Eskisehir after a few days. Jelmer, Arne and me will probably be taking the same train to Eskisehiras well, or maybe a day or two later. 

In Eskisehir we’ll have to say goodbye to Pinar because she will be going back to Holland for another six months to study ‘Crossmedia’ at our faculty.

Jelmer, Arne and I hope you will like those six months in Holland just as much as you liked the previous months. Good luck, ‘canim dostum’ :)

So, now to continue our arrival story: at 0:00 the bus from the airport dropped us off near the blue mosque and from there it’s about a 5 minute walk to most of the hostels in the area. We went to ‘Istanbul Hostel’ and after checking in and dropping our bags we decided to eat something in the city.

We left Sulthanamet and went on our way to Eminonu to look for a place to eat. A Turkish waiter asked us in, we agreed and we ordered ‘something with kebab’. The waiter asked us where we were from. ‘Holland ’ we said, and the waiter starts (as do many Istanbulus once they know where we are from) to talk Dutch to us. ‘Goedenavond’ en ‘hoe gaat het?’ We laugh and the waiter starts to talk in English again. He tells us his name is Rajin, that he has nine sisters and six brothers. He’s 30 years old and lives with his family. He explains to us that family is very important to the Turkish people.

After our late night dinner we went back to the hostel to finally get some sleep.

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I’m a second year student and from the 27th of January I will be studying in Eskisehir, Turkey at the 'Anadolu University' for about five months. This is the 4th biggest university in the world. I will be studying at the 'Faculty of Communication Sciences' at the Department of 'Cinema and Television'. I will also be taking some classes like Photojournalism at the 'Department of Journalism'.

Travelling is my passion and throughout the upcoming five months I will try and visit various places in Turkey. School ends around the end of June and from then on I will travel more for a month or so throughout Turkey and beyond. Most likely Georgia and/or Armenia.

During school I hope to have some time off to visit Bulgaria as well. I've travelled throughout the country in 2005 with a friend of mine and loved it! It really is an amazing country and I'd like to go back there whenever I have the chance!

I've added some of the photo's I took on my journey in Bulgaria. The cat and the two photo's with the women are made in Bansko. The old priest was near a village named Veliko Turnovo.

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Secondly, it’s a blog for my friends, family and teachers back home and from other parts of the world to stay updated on all my school and travel activities. And finally this blog is for anyone who likes to sit back and read stories.

My story will begin on the 27th of January. See you then!

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