Turkey Archives • Page 3 of 3 • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

Key Automobile museum near Selçuk

Key Automobile museum near Selçuk, Turkey is kind of an interesting presentation of fairly recent antique and very interesting automobiles and motorcycles. I think it’s worth you visiting if you have an interest in cars. There was some extensive displays of BMW motorcycles and cars. When I saw the attraction on Google maps I thought it might be interesting but then it showed the Batmobile and that meant I had to visit. I backtracked on my journey for about 40 minutes since it was closed the day before. I’m very glad I got to see it. Enjoy the photos.

There were a couple interesting things about this car. The front is very unusual and the doors don’t open out, they slide forward to let you out.

Triumph of TR series — We used to see these fairly often on the roads in California. A friend of ours even had this vintage triumph which they never drove due to some problems with getting the right parts to fix it.

Austin Healey — If this was completely white it would be the same color as my sixth grade teacher’s Austin Healy, Ms.. Dicarlo”s car she drove from San Francisco which was quite a ways.

MG A — This MGA was one year earlier than the one my dad bought. He arranged to have the wall between the seats and the trunk taken out and two seat seats put in facing backwards for us kids which was great fun because we could see where we had been. The story was, my dad wanted a sports car and my mom said it was OK if the whole family could ride in it. You will notice there are no door handles. You had to reach inside the car and pull a cable to open the door. This meant you couldn’t really lock the door which was an interesting idea?

Museum coffee shop — The coffee shop (Coca-Cola) inside the museum

Ford Mustang pool table — A replica of a 1965 Ford Mustang as a pool table

MG roadster — I love this design and it kind of reminds me of the TV show “the avengers” but I think that John Steed’s car was a Bentley.

Thunderbird at the key museum — This Thunderbird was definitely worth buying. After that series Ford decided to make it less sporty looking and not very interesting

Amphibious car — I had a matchbox version of this car and thought it was so cool. You could drive it on lakes

Corvette stingray — This car started quite a revolution for Chevrolet and for kids as well. Just after this car came out bicycle manufacturers started making the stingray bicycle which had very high handlebars and was very sporty looking.

The original Corvette — This was the style Corvette used for the TV show “Route 66”

Nude Mercedes hood ornament — This was an interesting Mercedes hood ornament

Old Renault — This old Renault has the typical sloping front and that’s how you tell the old Renault

Bread delivery truck — This is kind of a funny looking bakery truck. Remember in those days they used to deliver bread and milk

Gangster car — This is such a typical 1930s gangster car. Look at the running boards

Old pump calculating price — I found this fascinating. On the pump above you can see this price per gallon and then a chart for what the price is for how many gallons. If the price changed it would be quite a job to switch all of these out

The old barbershop — An old barbershop. On the very right you can see a display stand and inside they have collars with collar buttons which you could buy

Ford Edsel — The one car that I totally loved when I was a kid and was not on display in real size, only in miniature, was this Edsel

Country leaders limousine minus a bodyguard — This is probably a limousine for a liter of a country and it looks like somebody has already taken out one of the bodyguards

Old gas pumps — The reason we call these things at gas stations “gas pumps” is because they actually had to pump the gas up into the cylinder above to fill the cylinder with the amount of gas the customer wanted. Then gravity would pour the gas into the gas tank.

Visible measuring canister — This visible measure concept was introduced to avoid suspected scamming by the gas station. You could see exactly how much gas was going to be put into your car through the glass measuring container above.

Blue ring octopus Jeep — The blue ring octopus is deadly and this looks like the markings of a blue ring octopus. I decided not to touch theJeep.

Tire pressure pump — Tire pressure gauge and air pump

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

The Basilica cistern Istanbul with Bill Smale Adventures.

the basilica cistern Istanbul is one of the main attractions which is not inexpensive to enter, something like €27, but they have fixed it up so it does create an interesting tourist attraction that you might be interested in seeing. I didn’t find any more fish here so I guess they cleaned them out.

me in the cistern — Just to prove I was here

Orientation for cistern touristS — There are quite a few groups entering. From the exit you can see them getting an orientation

Water provider architecture — With the series of lights and reinforcements the government has really created something interesting out of a long forgotten underground structure for providing water to various large structures such as the main Christian Church turned mosque and the Topkapi palace.

An added sculpture — They added a sculpture in the center

Reinforcement of the basilica cistern — Turkey is subject to earthquakes so this reinforcement and preservation is necessary

Inscribed column — Some of the columns have inscriptions

Ceiling design — The ceiling is a very interesting structure and design

Basilica cistern Istanbul — More of the ceiling from farther away

Reconstruction on the cistern — There was a lot of repair necessary

Green lighting — Here you see one type of lighting which will change

Creating a shadow — And see how it changes to another light and an interesting shadow

A funny skeletal sculpture — This kind of looks like Medusa’s skeleton

A lot of money — This is all over the cistern so I wonder if they clean out all this cash. I suspect many of these coins are donated by visitors who don’t want to take coins back to their country

Blue green lighting — Interesting lighting

Time to leave — This was the end so time to leave

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Istanbul in an afternoon with Bill Smale Adventures.

Istanbul in the afternoon should start off in the Egyptian bazaar which really doesn’t have anything to do with Egypt, it is the spice market but of course it has other things in there like Turkish delights and other stuff. You get there by going to Eminönü station and wandering around behind the mosque.

Spice variety in the Egyptian bazaar — There is such a wide range of spices and every shop seems to have the same products available so you can browse and find a good price and exactly what you want. Why don’t you pick something you’ve never tried, take it home and see how it works.

A shop in front in Istanbul — This is one shop I visited which had fairly reasonable prices just in front of the main bazaar

Investigate spices in the afternoon — The shops are very interesting to visit. Talk to the proprietors and see what they have.

A beautiful building — It’s a very nice beautiful place

Some local shops in the area — This area is just behind the main bazaar building where they have a lot more variety of things and definitely worth walking around. It is not just for tourists. Many local people are shopping here.

Old building in Istanbul — The building itself is very

Turkish coffee and tea — This is where I had my first Turkish coffee sitting outside in the cold

Istanbul corn sellers — You will see these corn sellers all over Istanbul

Banking Museum document — After the bazaar I visited the banking museum which was free to enter and kind of interesting

Old bank equipment — This set up really takes me back to my grandmother’s house and my father’s typewriter

Piggy banks — These are old piggy banks that are meant to be opened only by the bank

Account manager desk — One account managers desk

Tram sign — The signage is pretty good. Here you know where to get on the tram

Coffee and cake in Istanbul — This was actually next day at a coffee shop and it was very delicious fruit with cake below

The tip box — You can see the tip box at the checkout counter. I asked a Turkish friend if tipping was customary and he said, “you can give a tip if you like”.

A roll with meat and garnishes — Meat and vegetables inside the roll of dough which was very delicious. The green cucumber pickles were nice and the yellow peppers are the very spicy, salty vinegar flavored ones which I really enjoy.

Dress up clothing mall — One downstairs shopping mall was almost exclusively fancy male and female dress up clothing. This is right near the station at the spice bazaar

A local laundry — This laundry near my hotel didn’t seem to be getting very much business

Pigeon feeding — It’s very often you see people feeding the pigeons in these squares

Interesting display — An interesting display

Older building in Istanbul in the afternoon — An older building with some artwork

Hors d'oeuvre dip Turkish style — The hors d’oeuvre dips which is a very famous Turkish offering. This was enough for three or four people so I took a lot of of it back to the hotel

"Egyptian" obelisk — I didn’t check to see if this obelisk is really one that was stolen from Egypt

Walking area — This was just a walking area with a few shops at the end

Salad without dressing — There was no dressing on the salad. And that seems to be very common but a little bit disappointing

Old fortress wall — The old Fortress wall

January 30, 2025January 30, 2025

Beautiful Topkapi Calligraphy with Bill Smale Adventures.

The beautiful Topkapi calligraphy area of the museum at the Topkapi palace is something not to be missed. I have never seen words used in such beautiful ways to create amazing works of art. All of these photos you have here are calligraphy, they are words shaped into things that are of course imagined. Take your time when you go there to imagine how carefully they must’ve created these to present to the sultans in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. Enjoy these photos with Bill Smale Adventures.

Protective words — The words on these pieces of clothing are to bless and protect the wearer

Calligraphy up close on clothing — of course you can see the word more clearly

January 20, 2025January 20, 2025

Investigating the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Investigating the Blue Mosque in Istanbul is one of the top things on the list of tourist attractions you really need to see. It is free to enter and you might really enjoy just finding a place to sit and looking at all the beautiful artwork and calligraphy for which mosques are famous. You can visit here now with Bill Smale Adventures.

Nighttime view in Istanbul — At night time the lighting is pretty dramatic

Gate script — Beautiful script on the gate

Scripted circle in blue mosque — Arabic can certainly be used very artistically

Arab script — Look how the script is used here

Beautiful window in blue mosque — A beautiful window

The inside lighting — Proof I was inside also

Next to the praying area — The circle area with lights is where believers come to pray

Center dome — Looking up the center dome

Investigating touristS — People just keep floating in

January 12, 2025January 12, 2025

Walking around fascinating Istanbul with Bill Smale Adventures.

Walking around fascinating Istanbul on my first two daysI thought was going to be a little bit complicated but the transport system, once you figure it out, is actually pretty easy so it helps with the walking tour. You can easily get to the attractions you want by yourself if you have time. Of course you want to go to the main attractions but just walking around people will talk to you trying to get you to buy things but in a pleasant way and if you could pass for someone who lives here people will ask you for directions or some kind of assistance. so you can just take your time and just relax, stop and have a cup of coffee, get something to eat, etc.

Istanbul city walls — You can see the old city walls in different parts of Istanbul

Walking at the Bosphorus strait — This is the Bosphorus strait where all the black sea ships need to pass. And you can see the cats are guarding the city. People here love cats and wild they seem to be everywhere walking around they are clean and they generally behave themselves but they get fed by everybody

Seabream Dinner — Seabream with nothing but part of an orange for sauce so not much character. But it was good quality food. I wasn’t quite sure about that quarter of an onion but it was actually much sweeter than most onions, almost as sweet as a Maui onion.

The restaurant by the strait — This was the restaurant which seems to be frequented by local people

Cats control the cars — It seems pretty clear cats are the preferred automobile alarm system and of course they control car parking

Walking street view — Nice buildings in the area nearSuktanahmet

Old building — Maybe not worth refurbishing

Building art — A local art display on a building

German fountain in Istanbul — German fountain near the blue mosque

A restaurant I want to try — I wanted to go here in the Fatih area of town but it opened up 30 minutes later than when I wanted to eat

UYGHUR/chinese food — So I tried this one instead because it was open and recommended. This is fried noodles with vegetables YAKISOBA (焼きそば). This is in the UYGHUR section of the city where half of the restaurants are considered UYGHUR cuisine and the other half are presenting themselves as Chinese food restaurants. The people at this restaurant seem to be a mixture of Chinese and tutkic peoples features while others looked just Turkic. The language spoken didn’t seem to be all Chinese but it was a language I’ve never heard. The food was very good.

Coffee and pastry — After the noodle lunch I came to this coffee shop for a cup of coffee and a pastry which was not sweet and had cheese in the middle. It was very tasty.

Farting building — You can see the large black tube coming out of the green mesh on the lower left side which attracted my attention and I was thinking to myself maybe it is so the building can fart.

The fish market — In the morning I went to this fish market to eat something at a highly recommended restaurant right there but it wasn’t open. But of course the cats were in control and under control, if you can figure out what that means.

Exchanged €400 — I exchanged €400 and look what I got.

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