Day 1 – Gonen – Burder – Isparta

Day 1 – Tuesday July 12, 2011

So I should clarify that I am not actually staying in Isparta – I am staying in a small town about 20km away called Gonen.

We got up today and had our traditional breakfast of olives and cheese – yum yum – but more on food for another entry.

As we are new to the area we need to get residency permits and headed into Isparta to the local police station.  We waited there for several hours while the bureaucracy did their thing.  We sat outside and I showed pictures to some of the police and Paul how to use an iPad.  After a few hours they told us we could finish up tomorrow.

We then headed to Burder to the museum there to photograph and take a ‘squeeze’ of an inscription there.  This was very unusual as it is outside of the ‘region’ that the survey is in control of but they got permission because the inscription mentions this region.  Also has this inscription was been ‘published’ before I AM allowed to post photos of it.

They were very gracious at the museum, allowed us to play with the lighting and such and I was able to get the photos that Paul needed.  They require a lot of post processing as he care more about being able to read them more than they are pretty.  After I was done he got to making the “squeeze” which is done with special paper, water, and a bristle brush.  It takes a lot of time and water to get every bit of it and then it has to dry some before he can leave.

I ended up taking some photos in the museum both indoors and outdoors.  I love the outdoor gardens.  Paul pointed out a Frieze that depicts gladiators in training.  Bilge asked if I could take pictures of one of the pottery displays – just some tourist snaps for her as reference.  She said her student would show me which ones. The student took me to the display and I asked which pot she wanted and she sheepishly said “all of them”.  It didn’t take long but it was kind of funny because there were tourists in the museum and there I am shooting every pot in a display case.

The museum was partially under construction but they still let us walk around and some of the galleries were funny cause they were totally covered in plastic sheets.  Very modern.

We went back for dinner and then I went for a littler dessert but I will save that for another entry.

Images from Day 1 – Don’t forget to read the captions!

(click here if you don’t see the image thumbnails)