This week Bruce passed away from a brain hemorrhage in Canakkale Turkey.

He was having the holiday of a lifetime and was able to have his family with him here in Turkey at the end.

As a final act of thanks, as per Dad’s wishes, we have offered his organs to be donated. 

The linked story shows how, even in death Dad is as generous as he was in life.

xx

9:05AM 10 November each year, Turkey stops to commemorate the death of the founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The same Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who drove the ANZACS off the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915, leaving my uncle Will at Walker’s Ridge Cemetery - Lance Sargeant William Alexander Hamilton - my father’s eldest brother.

and on Armistice Day 11/11/11 at the eleventh hour at Quinn’s Post at Gallipoli, we reflected on the war that was to end all wars.

No crowds here at all largely because the best part of Pergamum ie the altar of Zeus was controversially shipped off to Berlin in the 19th century.

View of the Acropolis from the main street of nearby Bergama (another little farming centre with tractors buzzing about).

Bruce at the ruins of the vast Permamon Medical Centre (the Asclepion).

Crazy crowds at Ephesus. They just appeared in buses (& buses & buses) from Izmir and Kusadasi. They certainly didn’t stay in the nearby town of Selcuk. It is a market town with tractors driving down the main street - a bit like having Ephesus next to Dalby or Young in Australia. The town goes about its business and pretty much ignores this World Heritage site.

A white Turkish city from the castle built by the Knights Hospitaller, the Crusader Knights of Rhodes.

and for dinner we sampled the fish and raki at the fish markets.

The delights of the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

Well, it was going to be a Turkish Delight, but we settles on Turkish baklava instead.

Perfect weather - Antalya averages 300 fine days per year.

It is a city of Roman ruins, minerets and Ottaman houses.

and there is always a Turkish moon in the sky….or so I’ve been told.

After a quick visit back to Baambrugge from Dublin

to visit the sartorially elegant Ruben Boezaart

we changed into clothes suitable for the Mediterranean and took off for Turkey where we are enjoying Konyaalti Beach, with Cairo across the Med and close to Syria at the end of the Med.

Deep in rural southern Ireland.

The weather turned and gave us wild seascapes.

Was this Reardon Castle?

and of course we went to the Waterford Crystal factory and showroom.

The Dunmore East village and the Strand Hotel on the beach.

Another highlight of our travels was Sean O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock” at the Abbey Theatre, where the play was first performed in 1924. Stunningly good acting and realism which could only be captured by Irish actors.

 http://dublintheatrefestival.com/programme/display.asp?Eventid=593