Turkey Study Tour 2008/09

Student Jessica Ledbetter describes the School's first ever Study tour to Turkey

Jessica Ledbetter
MA in Creative Writing

 

What stands out the most in my memory about the 12 days I spent in Turkey with the Religious Studies programme, now that I’m safely back indoors in rainy Wales, is the heat. It was intense when we arrived in Istanbul but was nothing compared to what developed the further south we went; it was a force beating down on your shoulders, enough so that if you stood in the sun for too long you almost felt your body begin to ache because the pressure of the heat was so heavy. The shade, an oasis of cool, was sporadic and hard to find. 

But memories like this always fade and fade quickly because what over powers the memories of the heat in Turkey are the people, the food, the colors and noise; I have images of the streets of Turkey, overrun by stray cats, the sound of the calling of prayer that happened five times a day, the Roman temples hidden behind cattle sheds, the bumpy roads that wound in and out of the heart of the country, the temples and churches, mosques and synagogues. Turkey was unlike any other country I’d ever been to and the surprises were unique and always  brought new understanding as well as new enjoyment.Istanbul is a city alive with energy and feels like it’s on the cusp of everything. The people are modern, mobile phones in hand, sunglasses firmly in place, yet retain some of the hospitality, joy, and exuberance of their culture. In between office buildings, apartment blocks, and convenience stores stood some of the most beautiful sites in the world: the Blue Mosque, with its 20,000 blue tiles, was a quiet respite from the bustle of the city, and the Hagia Sophia dome was enough to have my jaw dropping. Topkapi Palace brought images of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights to mind and the mystery and exoticness of the sultans made the place come alive.

  

  

Our trek across Turkey was not a small one; we travelled from tip to tip, covering hundreds of miles of rough roads through some of the most beautiful landscape I’d ever seen. The Seven Churches of Revelation, the Temples of Apollo and Artemis, and St. Polycarp Church were only a few of the hundreds of religious sites in Turkey that we visited; it became clear the farther we went into Turkey how vitally important to the development of the world’s religions Turkey had been and still is today; three of the world’s largest religions all have history within this country’s borders Ephesus was perhaps my favourite part of our time in Turkey. The streets of this ancient Roman city are littered with the remains of buildings where people once thrived. Thousands of marble columns, frescoes and figments of this long ago metropolis lead the visitor down into the heart of the city where the most famous structure of the city still stands: the library. Beautiful, serene, majestic- it was everything I had expected and yet so much more than I’d assumed. I could have spent all day admiring this beautiful testament of time.

  

We rounded out our trip through Turkey in Isparta at the Suleyman Demirel University with lectures and a tour of the campus. What a warm welcome we all received and what a beautiful campus- many of my fellow students are already planning to spend a semester there.

 

    

Turkey was an experience of a lifetime. It was two amazing weeks spent in a beautiful country with some of the best people I’ve ever travelled with; I certainly would encourage anybody thinking about Turkey to jump on the next plane and go.