Our Trip Home 1963, June 26-30

Ankara to Istanbul to the Turkish border with Greece

June 26, 1963

We got up early so we wouldn’t be discovered, hungry and dirty. We walked up on the platform and got some Gasos (pop) and cheese sandwiches and buns. Then we pushed the car out of the freight yard and immediately a swarm of truck drivers descended on us, ready to help. We were towed in proper fashion to the VW garage.

There was a cute little pink faced German technician and a tremendously fast crew of workmen who had the engine out in no time. They diagnosed the trouble – valves burned out and crusted with dirt and carbon. We could have the car at 4 PM. We had anticipated a week but things work faster in Turkey than in India. We found some kittens while we were waiting and had fun playing with them, one tiger and one marmalade. We went and got fruit to as we waited. About 10 AM we finally were allowed to go and got a taxi to the Cihan Palace.

We all took baths and rested a bit, went out for lunch and got a horrible meal, greasy meat, rice and queer eggplant. There were white tablecloths on the tables, pictures of horses on the walls, loud popular music playing. We were all slugged and fell into bed for some sleep. We wash clothes, wrote letters and diaries and leaned out the window watching the world go by. It was hot. We went for the car at 5 PM but it was not ready tell 6 PM. We sat around and watched the slaphappy mechanics running around. Then we drove around the city a bit, explored a big sort of arcade department store and bought Patty some good shoes. We found a little milk bar which was clean and you could point to what you wanted in the showcase. We had good soup, milk, cheese sandwiches and ice cream.

The middle of the night we were awakened and hung out the window watching a “drunk opera” across the way. There was a crowd shouting and arguing, police bustled in and dragged some drunks out, ladies leaned out of upper windows and talked it over. It was most amusing and there were all the standard opera types. It even looked like a Porgy and Bess set.

June 27, 1963

We got up at 6 AM and got off quickly, had hot sweet milk and rolls at our milk bar before getting off. The road was very good. The countryside is pretty, good fields and rustic villages. We had lunch in a grape orchard sitting on rosebush thorns and all sorts of grasshoppers and bugs. It was hot and steamy. This is Bythinia where Paul was held back by the Holy Spirit from visiting so he turned to Macedonia and Europe instead. Before we got down into the low country we passed some high timber country with sawmills in evidence.

Then we drove for miles along the Sea of Marmara, past Ismit, which mother remembered from stopping there as a little girl in 1937. We drove past the harbor there and saw a submarine and lots of other ships. Real exciting! But the streets were cobbled and it was nice to get out on the highway to Istanbul again. We really drove fast that last stretch.

We got right down to the ferry and had to get directions for the Mission. It was right up the hill overlooking the Straits. We arrived about 4:30 PM. Everyone was getting ready for a big alumni dinner party on the basketball court. It is a lovely campus in a small compound with lots of walks and trees and well-kept lawn being sprinkled.  The main teachers building is three or four stories with a huge wisteria vine across the front, big staircases and all sorts of halls and rooms like a maze. We went there for baths and meals but stayed in a modern lovely dispensary building. Everyone was so kind and welcomed us beautifully. We ate and got to bed immediately, listening to the dance band and happy sounds of the party on the lawn right under our windows.

June 28, 1963

In the morning Mrs. Eaton got mother washing clothes in her wash machine in the big laundry. Daddy and John took the car to the garage for servicing. We wrote a lot of letters and got them off. At noon we ate in the dining room with teachers and girls. The girls were taking their final exams. This is the girls school to match the boys school in Talas. The girls are from wealthy homes and are very Schick and sophisticated. Lunch was served on the tables, we took our own dishes to the kitchen.

Jenny and Betty took us swimming after lunch. The water was cold but so clear and lovely. We had to get a dinghy and row out as there are no beaches. John got a nail in his hand from the boat.

Then we had tea and met a bunch of young teachers from Izmir. One big tall blonde we really like, Meg Hansen whose father is superintendent of schools in Pine Island, Minnesota, right on the way to Byron from the Twin Cities. We had a lovely supper at the Eaton’s and sat visiting with them on the front porch which is shaded by old grapevines making a little room all twisted around the railings.

June 29, 1963

We got up early to go sightseeing. After a good breakfast, lots of strawberries and that same soft mild white cheese and all the usual things, we went off and crossed the Bosporus into Europe for the first time in six years. The ferry is fun, and Bobby was thrilled with it. We drove to the Hilton Hotel after we picked up the car. There is still something wrong with it but they don’t seem to know what.

Our guide was an interesting little blonde lady. We met her at the Istanbul Hilton. Mother went and got a peek inside but it doesn’t look like much. First we drove into the old part of the city to see the Bible house on some business, to get our money. We had to get out and walk through the spice bazaar, like New Market in Calcutta. It was inside of an old building and there was shop after shop of everything imaginable, plastic products, meat, baloney, glassware and dishes, hats, purses, toys, snack bars, grocery items like a bunny a it was really interesting. The Bible House was closed! It was Saturday and we hadn’t remembered.

She showed us a huge underground cistern that had been built for use if the city was besieged in Roman times. It was very cool down there and tremendous, 400 Roman pillars. The only water now is from seepage but it is 2 feet are so deep and the old brick work is nicely preserved. The bricks each had a stamp on them with the name of the cistern.

Next we visited the Seraglio. The old palace of the Kings. It is huge, each king added to it according to his need or whim. There was courtyard after courtyard and huge wooden doors, fancy scrollwork, decorations on the wood and marble. There were lovely roses and daddy took some pictures. We saw the treasury and collection of crown jewels, which are older but not nearly as many or as impressive as the ones in Tehran. There are cloaks with seed pearls, jeweled swords, cups and dishes in the Peacock throne which also was not as impressive.

Then we went to St. Sophia which was the most beautiful building I have ever seen. There were tremendous gold mosaics in the small antechamber. She showed us beautiful green marble variegated colored pillars from the Temple of Diana, huge alabaster earns from Rome, etc. pretty. Many old temples had been robbed of beautiful building materials to make this church. The delicate carving on the arches looks like lace but it is all in marble. We were shown some pillars from Egypt carved with beautiful figures and hieroglyphics. Another was an old monument that had been covered with brass. When some conqueror came they thought it was gold and ripped it all off, ruining the beauty of it. It is been turned into a mosque and there were huge circular signs and beautiful Persian or Arabic script that look like big round Coca-Cola signs.

We went next to the blue Mosque it was interesting but not nearly so interesting. It really is blue inside with low chandeliers so the Muslims can see as they worship. We sat on the soft Persian carpets in the cool dark while she told us about it and let us meditate quietly for a bit.

We took quite a long ride along the Bosporus past what seemed like miles of walls of the present palace which of course is not in use as there is no king but has museums, etc. We ate lunch in a swank sidewalk restaurant where everything was too expensive. The service was elegant, waiters and tuxes, wine lists, lots of white tablecloths, and the view of the Bosporus across the street. We had company of an American family with two girls we made friends with.

It was time to leave our guide and go home. We really loved her. John went with daddy to get a tetanus shot for his nail puncture. Mother ironed and put away all the dishes she had washed and cleaned up. After supper and a view of the Bosporus from the roof we showed our slides to the “family.” They were all impressed and asked questions

 June 30, 1963

Up bright and early as possible and got all packed up and over the Bosporus by 9:30 AM. We took the Eaton’s to church with us. Oh, the afternoon before or sometime we went with Jenny down the cobbles steep street outside the school compound and mother had her hair cut. It was fun walking back through the picturesque streets, cobbled and narrow.

We went to church with the Eaton’s at the little Dutch chapel in the embassy which is used by all the Protestants for English services. It was very small and crowded. We enjoyed the music. There was a simple lovely wedding after the service with the reception outside in the tiny garden. We wiggled through and kissed the bride, got our angel cake and punch and beat it to the car. We dropped the Eaton’s office the ferry and said our farewells.

 It didn’t take long to get out of Istanbul. We drove along the sea and kept passing likely looking swimming places. We had a hard time finding a place for lunch as everyone else was out picnicking anywhere there was shade. The road was quite good. We finally stopped at a place where many others were parked. Someone came over and shared their lunch with us, stuffed peppers, pastry and some eggplant. We could not talk with them but their gracious friendliness was heartwarming. We took them plate full of plums.

W

e finally found a beach where we turned in and swam. No that was the next day! We drove past a lot of little towns with big squared, quaint old houses, dutiful feels. At tea we stopped for lemonade at a little place and got some chocolate, Tekirdag. From there the paved superhighway goes off towards Edrine and we took a dirt road for the Greek border. They are building a tremendous big road that didn’t do us any good. We passed a lot of heavy road making equipment.

Our watches said 6 PM but it was still light so we kept driving till we knew the border was close we camped on top of the hill and found it was alive with big turtles. John and Bobby collected some and had fun teasing them by turning them on their backs. Then they let them go and they all went gravely lumbering off. We were very tired from the long drive and the heat.

Our Trip Home 1963, June 23-25

June 23, 1963

When we got up there was a man with a pair of bullocks looking sulky and saying things we couldn’t understand in Turkish.   We ate and packed as we figured he wanted us to move and then sure enough here came some more plows, this was his field he was fixing to plow! The people are interesting, they look very fair and a lot have light hair.   The cold air makes them ready complexioned.   The women wear long flowing dresses with little tunics and headscarves.   The men look Irish with Ivy League golf caps, waistcoats and baggy pants.   About noon we realized it was Sunday but it certainly didn’t change our program at all.   We didn’t make very good time with the bad road.   It has been cloudy with scattered son.   It is mostly rolling hills but high, snow on the near peaks.   The road is so bad.   We lurched along up and down, through streambeds and meeting a bus or truck every now and then.   It was desolate, few trees but green grass.   Roads are under construction here. 

 By noon we had only gone 170 km.   We ate on a rocky slope by a rushing stream, we could see it had been flooded with the flotsam still clinging to the trees.   Children on the road offered larkspur and poppies, for sale? We didn’t stop.   People hailed us as the bus too.   Again we found water from a spring high up and filled up our water as it was pure.   At Krafakaye we turned into the town to get vegetables and saw an army convoy they were parked and eating at a field kitchen, waved at us.   In the afternoon we went through a lovely valley full of trees, evergreens and cypress, lush fields.  Susheri a charming little town on the side of a mountain, up over the top and along the spine of the mountain until we got to Zara.   We tried for a hotel room but it looked too dirty so we went on.   Then when we were tired out we turned off the main road and found a lovely little lake where we camped in the field.   We had baths though the lake was salt water.   Mother took hers behind the camp cots standing up on their ends to form half a room and got dressed just before a donkey train came by.   John stepped on a “rock” at the bridge and stepped into a foot of oily mud instead! Curry and rice for supper. 

June 24, 1963

            Daddy got up and made mother a cup of coffee and woke her up waving the cup under her nose. A man came by with the plow and donkey. He bowed formally and put his hand on his heart. Then he motioned “I am a farmer.” Daddy also use the same gesture “I am a farmer.” We all bowed and smiled and felt we had contributed to international friendship

We saw lots of gophers on the way. We were trying for Sivis and Tollis for lunch.  Sivis was a big modern city after what we’d seen. There was sort of a café in the square with little tables and umbrellas we saw children and nice black short pleated smocks. One little boy took off his cap and bowed. People saw us and said Salaam Allehkum. We stopped for bread, black olives, soft cheese, cherries.

They were haying everywhere. We passed many wheat fields, lots of flowers all along the way. There are springs with elaborate back walls and basins, logs used as watering troughs. Along way before Kayseri we began to see the volcanic mountain that dominates the countryside. The valleys are 3 to 4000 feet here and no point is higher than 7000, this one is 12,850. We got a good picture of it (turned out to be overexposed) and came into town.  It is an ancient city with crumbling fortresses, castles, cobbled streets. We found a policeman to help us and he drove with us to the road that turns off to Malan. It is behind a little round bald hill.

                We went winding up the mountain following Al’s map he’d sent and got to the school to a very cool reception. People were hurrying about but no one would speak to us. We felt queer. It was the last day of school and the boys were leaving. Finally Carol Forsythe came down and welcomed us. We had our lunch in the school garden, it was cool and peaceful looking down over the city. Then they took us upstairs to their pretty little apartment. We wash clothes and all had ads. We listen to the Kingston Trio all afternoon. 

 

Mother, daddy and the Forsythes went downtown to get groceries. They had just come from their vacation and had no food in the house. Mom and dad bought a brass vase shaped like the milk pails everyone carries and two saddlebags and a goat hair rug. We had broiled shish kebab salad for supper. It was sparse but good. We went right to bed, top floor dorm on student beds. It was hot up there.

June 25, 1963

We packed before breakfast. They enjoyed sharing our cornflakes and gave us you ban coffee, milk for the kids. We had trouble getting out as people were bringing their kids in for entrance exams. Got fruit, strawberries and other supplies and headed out. We soon began to climb up into the mountains heading for her group and the caves at Goreme. 

We enjoyed the caves and would have liked to look more but had to hurry on. It was very hot there. We had to walk up the steep incline. At Aksaray we had come down a long twisting incline out of the mountains with the oil warning light flashing but could coast down hill. In town we got oil, olives, cheese, Turkish delight. We found a spot on the edge of town by a ditch and picnicked on the grass, big cars going by as we ate.

Then we set out across what the guidebook called a “dismal desert” passed a huge Salt Lake and we were expecting the worst. Well, the roads were rather dismal but the desert was nothing compared to what we had seen. It was interesting to see the Salt Lake, feels, plenty of traffic on the road and it was quite cool.  We had to dodge big holes in the road, no trees but not so bad.

Then the fun began. All day daddy had been noticing a decrease in power and we’d had that warning light about the oil pressure. About 5 PM we came to a crossroads with some gas stations so daddy stopped and changed the oil and clean the air filter. Then we just couldn’t get started. Compression was just gone. There were some mechanic standing around fiddling with the tractor and they took a look at the car. Under their ministrations it got so it wouldn’t even start anymore. We were stuck for fair. There was a greasy looking little eatery there so we went into the kitchen in the time honored technique and looked in all the pots on the stove. Nothing looked appetizing but we finally settled on boiled eggs and some tea with our own bread and some wickedly rich pastry we had bought in Kaysery that morning. We couldn’t find a soul who could speak a word of English but finally my seemingly pointless hours with Fergie came to some use as we found a boy who could speak some French in the restaurant.

Dad was haggling with the men and thought he’d made arrangements to have us towed into Ankara, 30 miles. They dug up an ancient real India-type truck and towed it away with the tractor – that was to get it started. It came back firing and sputtering back and backed up to a sort of ramp. We were motioned into the car and loaded up on the back and roped in tight - we were all terrified. We were perched up so high, couldn’t see the truck, just 10 feet to the ground. This terrible vehicle seem to have no breaks, terrible steering and the engine was so poorly adjusted it kept backfiring all the way to town on Cara. The road went up and down hill after hill so we did a lot of careening down hill at breakneck speed with the truck creaking ominously in the little VW champing at its ropes to catapult off the top of the truck!

The sun was just setting and it was beautiful with the glow of the sunset over the clouds over the rolling hills with little farmsteads in front but we were too preoccupied to enjoy it. Daddy kept clowning to relieve his tension, pretending to steer.  Ankara is a big modern city with wide roads, traffic lights and tall buildings. The driver took us to the railway station where there was a ramp we could be unloaded from. They help push the car off and were real sweet, shook hands all around, smiled and bowed and wished us luck in Turkish and drove off into the gloom. Too bad we did not get a picture of this historic event!

We set up our cots on the station platform behind some crates.  The watchmen very kindly let us stay though we were not supposed to. We could’ve left the car and gone to a hotel but hated to spend the money and were too tired out to make the effort. We walked up to use the station bathrooms and then just crawled under some blankets. It was cold and windy. We slept through the tooting trains and shunt engine noises.  All of us were exhausted with nerves.

Our Trip Home 1963, June 20-22

June 20, 1963

Northern Iran

We woke up tired and cross after all the wind of the night.     Followed a winding overgrown road, very patched, past many little villages at the mouths of little rivers emptying into the sea, women in the fields wore black waistcoats and big long skirts.     Visited the beach at Astera which is very small.     We showed our papers at the police station and had a young soldier with a rifle and bandoliers of bullets sent with us for part of the way.     We could see across the ravine we were climbing to the strip of cut jungle, no man’s land with fences on both sides and watchtowers often on the Russian side.   

  Our young guide got off at a little settlement.     We stopped for tea and cookies in a ravine with ferns, running water, thick woods like Landour in the rains.     The road was very steep and poor.     As we got higher we came out of the woods and went over high barren domes, frighteningly narrow curving road.     There were fields here and there, all different colors and making a very pretty picture.     We could see sheep grazing too.     There was a big cloud bank boiling up over the sea with but we got up over the top and into 4 to 5000 feet plateau.     The other side of the mountain was beautiful pastures with all the wildflowers you could imagine, like the scenery in Heidi.     The fields were rippling in the wind from the storm behind us and the air was crisp and cool after the heavy wet air of the seaside.   We had lunch on a beautiful little meadow by a twisting stream.     We were pushing hard.   The road had been dreadful and now it got slightly worse.   We passed Ardabil and climbed up into rolling mountains.     There was a little spatter of rain and high wind and dust.     We passed lots of wheat fields.   Could see snow peaks on both sides 10, 12, 15,000 feet.    

We joined the new road about 5 PM.    We saw two German license plates, people out looking at the view.   They waved at us.   We got into Tabriz at 6:30 PM.   We had wired to other Presbyterian missionaries, Marge and Jim Kiesling.   The business manager of the hospital was Stewart, they had big kids but no room for us.   Kiesling’s were going out.   They had a very skimpy supper ready for us, a casserole, dry bread, cherries for dessert.     We slept in a row on their living room floor, hot baths anyway.   We left them two tins of catchup.     There were three cute visiting English nurses who were buying lovely Irani silver spoons, mother wished for some too.     Mrs.    K gave us all some delicious nougat, it is an Irani specialty.     Their children were Susie, 4 and John, 6. 

June 21, 1963

                We kids had breakfast at Stewart’s, enjoyed the kids there.    A boy 17, boy 15, girl, peg, 12, Billy 10 and Louise and Ruthie were little.   They were disappointed we couldn’t stay to play.   Kiesling served grape sugar, tasted like mild ghur and had very soft tender nan -like Mrs.   T served in Isfahan.   We got off at 8:30 AM.   The countryside was lovely and green, fields, groves of trees, snow peaks on both sides.   As we drove along the surhai holder disintegrated, one bump to many.   We nursed the surhai along for a good bit further. 

At Khowy we saw a tower with a tremendous stork nest on top.   We could see the storks and babies.   We stopped for lunch in a high field on the hillside full of poppies, lovely flowers everywhere – poppies, Larkspur, Queen Anne’s lace, huge clover, sweet Sultana, daisies.  

  We got water from springs high in the mountains.   As we got near the border ( Iran Turkey ) we passed an impressive place, Maku, where the town was nestled at the foot of tall towering cliffs, the town was dark it was so deep inside the Gorge.   The houses there were all of stone. 

Daddy discovered mother had cut off a little bit of string with the seal on it in Nain that was for customs.   We got to the border at 4 PM.   There was no trouble getting out of Iran.   We needed the papers we had gotten for Astara although we had been told we would not need anything.   Lucky we had it.   We had to wait a long time on the Turkey side as there was a visiting official.   The customs official was very kind and very apologetic.   The gravel roads seemed better right away in Turkey.   We got good views of Mount Ararat as we drove near, it is a twin peak, lots of snow.    

  The clouds were building up and we never did see the higher summit.   It was cold and threatening as we got supper.   We pitched the tent.   Mother stepped on her glasses.   We kids found 28 different wildflowers and 15 or 20 minutes.   We knew we would be cold in bed and piled on everything we could.   Supper was instant mashed potatoes and sausage. 

June 22, 1963

Soon after we went to bed there was a shower.   About 1:30 AM it began to rain again and something told us to get going.   We pitched the bedding in any old way and just in time, a huge lake of water spilled through the tent top right where John’s bed had been two minutes before.   The meadow was becoming a mudhole.   Hard to get the tent down in the rain with a lantern.   John’s hands were wet and raw.   Bobby never woke up.   Patty and I wiggled in the back, John and Bobby in the middle.   Dad drove until 3:30 AM and then dozed a little till 4 AM.   We soon drove out of the heavy rain but it kept on spattering a bit.   The country showed there had been heavy rain recently.   People seemed sullen and unshaven.   There were milk man out with their cans.   We saw many animals, cows and bullocks.   There were square cakes of cow dung.   Women unveiled but wearing kerchief’s.   They looked  European.    It was a military area and we saw lots of military camps, soldiers, etc.   Trees and grass, everything green.   We stopped from 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM to dry the tent and fix breakfast.   Daddy dozed.   We were camped by a swift cold muddy stream a few shepherds came by with their animals and big bully white dogs.   We tried to make friends with the dogs. 

At Erzurum we stopped for food and bought six loaves of white bread, the first time we could get it.   Also eggs, fruit and cashed $80 in Turkish money.   We had lunch by the road on the edge of town.   It was beastly cold.   We drove on till late afternoon.   

 The scenery was breathtaking, beautiful little valleys, herds of cows, snow on the mountains all around, quaint houses, terrible roads.   Just past a cute little town with a boarding school or something, we saw lots of boys and they were curious about us.   We are following the Aras River which was quite big further back on the border between Turkey and USSR.   We camped by the river in the field.   Spaghetti for supper.   It was very cold and John slept in the car.