Had decided the night before I preferred to visit other places near Ankara than the city itself I hear the proposition made by the tour guide attentively: “What about we visit another place. Ankara is not my favourite city.” This conversation came during breakfast.

“What kind of place?”

“It’s a town, Safranbolu. It’s gorgeous. You will see if we go.”

“It’s far?”

“A little, but not that far.” I agreed.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2020/05/22/saffran-stone-bird-and-the-black-sea/

Who would want to leave a fairy-tale place to go to a bureaucratic full of politicians’ city? Certainly not me. I was refusing to leave Cappadocia, the guide insisted we have to leave since there were lots of things to see and places to visit. “We have to see more nine places. Come on!”

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2020/05/20/ankara-the-capital/

Around the world, people are complaining about today, after all, is Monday. You can see on Twitter, and Facebook things like “Monday should be optional.”; “Good morning. Keep calm and pretend it’s not Monday.” or “May your coffee be strong and your Monday productive.” In Konya, I was staring at the city from the top of my hotel room. I was excited and ready to face the Monday as it was Friday only because I was heading to a place that was responsible for me fell in love with Turkey. My destination was Kapadokya (Cappadocia). The valleys, fairy chimneys, and the subterranean cities were calling, that was a call I could refuse.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2020/05/20/caravansvalleys-and-underground-cities/

Religion wasn’t a mystery to me. My mother was a devoted catholic. However, she never was shy to experience other spiritual ways. After observing her approach and the results I decided not to have a religion, later, already an adult, I went far. All data and facts around me proved God was a human creation, something born from our fears and prejudices. So, no God and no religion was part of my life. When Konya came to be one of my stops, I thought it would be another conflict between my scientific mind and the people, particularly the tour guide, beliefs.  I was right.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2020/05/04/snow-mevlana-and-schools/

Aphrodite is known as the goddess of beauty, love and sexuality. The Romans called her Venus. It is believed the origin of Aphrodite name is Phoenician, and certainly the cult of beauty is not new for us in this world of appearances. The legend says Zeus, the might god of Olympus, married her to Hephaestus – the god of forges, fire, technology, craftsmen, sculptures, and blacksmiths – to avoid a war between the gods. However, as in our days, marry did not solved the problem. Aphrodite consistently had relationship with other gods and mortals.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2019/09/24/the-goddess-of-beauty-and-two-ispartans-girls/

The amulet is an ornament or small piece of jewellery thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease, that’s the meaning of the word amulet. It’;s synonyms are lucky charm, char, talisman, fetish, mascot, totem, idol, juju, phylactery, archaicpriapt. Many amulets are related to religion or some kind of folkloric tale.

One of the most common of those beliefs is the ‘evil eyes’. The ’evil eye’ is a curse to be cast by a malevolent glare, usually given to a person when they are unaware. It’s a legend present in many cultures where receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury. The idea lead many cultures to persuade protective measures against the ‘evil eye’.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2019/05/03/evil-eye/

My tour guide said it would be great to visit an ancient city nearby. Our final destination was to be Pamukkale, but he emphasised that this nearer city also had a very interesting history although it was missed off by most tours because the path to it was very challenging. I said that if he thought the city was worth a visit then we should go to.

My experience of sites hidden in the wilds, where few visitors dare to go, was first inspired when we visited Pinara. There, the wildness, the simplicity, the way the city was hidden in the middle of the vegetation, quietly waiting for someone to come back and embrace her again, giving her life—it made me feel in love too. I had been talking about Pinara ever since; every time Firat asked what was my favourite place so far, Pinara was my answe

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2019/04/17/a-breattaking-theatre-a-city-destroyed-by-an-earthquake-and-the-magnificents-traventine-terraces/

There are sunny days and grey days; even when you are in a adventure, the grey days come changing the mood, making all dull. That was one of those days. It was cloudy, the wind colder than usual, and no word was coming from me or the guide. I had no idea why that inexplicable silence took us since the breakfast, I wondered if he was missing his family and friend, probably I was missing my son. We were on the road an hour at least when suddenly, we arrived in a very nice place. There was some tour buses parked and people coming and going from the caffe and the ticket office. “A touristic place.”; I thought.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2019/02/19/waterfalls-mathematics-and-a-museum/

Alanya (Antalya) is 140 km from here, we should get there in about two and a half hours.” I nodded my head in agreement as if I accepted what he was telling me, but silently I thought: “Why so long?” In Brazil, São Paulo is 325km away from Ribeirao Preto and I could make it in 3 hours!” I turned my eyes for the distant horizon, the sun was bright and the air cold, the only option I had was to enjoy the ride. Without asking permission this time, I plugged the pen drive with my favourite songs into the car radio, and we hit the road. I asked Firat if the road was good, he said “Yes”. Then I relaxed and started to enjoy the tracks I had selected. It was Turkish music at that moment–to be exact: Tarkan, Öp. I wanted to sing along, but my preference only to do what I can do well made me keep my lips silent. However, this did not stop my body from dancing, and that annoyed Firat somewhat. “Good”, I thought!

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://helenycampoy.com/2018/08/25/alanya-manavgat-side-aspendus/

That morning, the cloudy skies made me rethink how much I was missing the sun in winter. The light was pale; the cold wind made all of nature huddle away in a silent embrace, as if to allow the different embers of life to warm and comfort each other, while, all around, the fine drops of winter rain wetted the land. It was still raining lightly when I went to the window and looked out at the port. In Finike, the boats were waiting for summer, patiently anchored. Finding a hotel had been hard, we had driven many kilometers and tried several different towns until we found this place to rest. Read it here