Vacation, Part 2: Touring the Old Town

(If you missed it, read Part 1 of our vacation series here.)

The historic district of Safranbolu is called Çarşı, and it's just a few minutes' ride on a minibus from the modern district where we were staying. It is beautiful and full of history!

Elias cheesing in front of Çarşı's main square. You can see the mosque behind him on the left, the Turkish bath on the right, and the old-style Ottoman houses in the center.

The front side of the mosque

The old Turkish bath. It's still operational, and Justin seriously considered having one, but we ran out of time.

The History Museum

We stopped for some peynir gözleme (cheese crepes) at a little cafe. Elias LOVES this Turkish food!

 

We took a golf-cart tour that had English narration, and that was awesome to be able to hear some of the stories and see things pointed out to us.

The tour took us to an amazingly beautiful overlook and it happened that the Muslim Call to Prayer started right when we were up there. Here is a video looking out over historic Çarşı with the English tour narration and the Call to Prayer in the background:

One thing the tour made sure to point out is how open and friendly the culture was, even in ancient times. (This is still true in modern Turkey - people will go to great lengths to help someone in need, even a stranger.) A few examples:

They built their homes with the corners rounded to make it easier for people to go around the corners with carts.

They also built external taps on the outside of their homes in order to share their water with anybody who happened to be outside that needed some. Here are Elias and Justin playing in one:

Çarşı, like all the rest of Turkey I've seen so far, is built right into the mountains around it, so there are hills and valleys everywhere you turn. There is also a river that runs directly under it, and so you can be going down the street and suddenly realize you're on a bridge over a 300 meter drop down to this:

Note: This picture was taken through the protective fencing. It was NOT just wide open for any dodo to fall in.

Um, yeah. That was really cool.

And then to finish up a great day, Elias had his first-ever Magnum bar:

Yum!

I had to throw that in since my parents are Magnum fanatics. :) Next up is what was my favorite part of Safranbolu - come back later!