Exploring Turkey, chapter 4. Last days in Sivrihisar

Climbing rocks in front of the Watch Tower.

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Ciao, Hive family! ✌️

Let's complete the story of my travel in Turkey. In the previous episode, I showed you two interesting places in Sivrihisar (here).
Today, I will show you an overview of the remaining pics taken in this town: each one of them mirrors the memory of a precious moment for me, but I hope they will also give you inspiration for a future travel...

The Watch Tower (Saat Kulesi)

The Watch Tower (Saat Kulesi) is one of the most iconic places of Sivrihisar.
It was built in 1899 on a high rocky peak, in order to be visible from every part of the village. For the same reason, I was curious to reach the top and enjoy a perfect view of the whole town from above. I sat on the rocks with some friends, in silence, breathing pure freedom and losing the sense of time.

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Little curiosity about this place. Around the Watch Tower there are many other interesting points: other rocky peaks, a centenary Christian church built for the first Armenian refugees, some little bars in which you can sit and get a cold drink, and a curious park full of... stone figures!
The strangest detail is that these statues seem to move around, if you look at them distractly. But I can reassure you, in the end they are definitely motionless. Each one of them represents an important character or moment of Turkish history.

But not everything is made of stone, around there. I found at least something moving, something animated and alive, and was a wonderful surprise... This little creature warmed up my heart with his company for a while. As a lover of animals, I took care of him watching his back until he finally managed to reach a safe place. His presence in this park offers an interesting insight into how wild this area is, despite human habitation.

The House of Culture (Kültür Evi)

This very ancient building, restorated in recent years, is now a museum in which you can explore the culture of Sivrihisar, its history and customs, its food and traditional clothing.
This place is also connected to Nasreddin Hodja, a popular character of Turkish and Muslim culture. He's also represented in the garden of stone statues that I showed you earlier, but you can see even in the picture below: an old man riding his donkey, as he often does in the popular tales that have him as protagonist.
His presence hovers throughout the whole house.

Details from the House of Culture.

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M.S.Ö. Air and Space Museum

This museum is located in Yeşilköy, about 13 km on the southwest of Sivrihisar, in a kind of rocky desert area. The temperature was about 53°C, probably because of the rocks scorched by the sun, so I had a further very good reason to enter the museum as soon as possible: air conditioning!

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This is basically the end of my story in Sivrihisar. Or better saying, I thought it was the end. A couple of days later, while I was walking alone in the streets of Istanbul, a Turkish friend that I left in Sivrihisar sent me a message: "You're on the newspapers".
"Italian ones? How do you know that?".
"No no, Turkish ones"
"Eh?".
She immediately sent me pictures of some local and regional newspapers, and then I recognized this photograph. As a Leader of the Italian team in the international event I took part in, with Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish Leaders, we had actually met the mayor of Sivrihisar a couple of days before, we had shaken hands and taken a photograph together.
Just... I totally forgot it, didn't have idea that it would have been spammed on Turkish newspapers 😂

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As I said, my travel finished in Istanbul... but this is another story 😁

Finally, Istanbul, with its mosques and fishermen!

The Tower of Galata at night.

Ugly selfie 😆😅 the last picture I took in this travel. Exhausted, but happy as I hadn't feel in a long time.

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In conclusion, you can visit Sivrihisar if you're passing through this region and are looking for a slow, calm village after days spent in a hectic city. Life is so different here from Istanbul and the other big cities I saw in Turkey. Furthermore, my friendship with other foreigners and the chance to meet the authentic local people, people who weren't even able to speak English but showed me incredible care, love and respect, made all the difference.

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As always, my last thought is for you. Thank you so much for your attention and your precious time. It's a pleasure to be here again! 🙏

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See you on the road,

Alessandro