beach | My Gnome Little World

Posts Tagged ‘beach’

Sailing Along the Silk Road, Swimming in Hot Springs and Swerving Over Mountain Curves

Posted: May 20, 2024 in Art
Tags: adventure, beach, Blue Lagoon, Cotton Castle, Explore, Hieropolos, Konya, mountains, Oludeniz, Pamukkale, paragliding, Road Trips, Silk Road, Travel, Travertine, Turkey, Whirling Dervish

Good-bye enchanted beautiful Fairy Chimneys, amazing valleys and colorful balloon clouds in the sky.

Hello high desert, Silk Road Caravan Stops, Dirt Roads, Romani Camps, Rumi and Whirling Dervishes!

First pull over is a ancient caravan stop along the Silk Road from China to Europe. The history, the the adventure, the dangers, oh my! The trails from the US East to the West is nothing compared to this.

ADVICE: Do stop at the Silk Road Caravan Stops. Unless you have unlimited time, don’t go off roads looking for more history.

Looking for another ancient Silk Road Caravan Stop got us off road, a wee bit lost and on an adventure.

We finally found it! Ha, no we did not. But we did find one in a small town!

We reached Konya, home of the Whirling Dervish and its creator, who lies in death there too.

I always associated Rumi with the yoga/self help/hippy seen, but he was a Sufi muslim, which is kind of a hippy sector of Islam.

We went to the museum/mosque where the Whirling Dervishes do their ceremony, but unfortunately we were not there on a night they do it. Sad to miss them, but visited Rumi’s resting spot.

ADVICE:

Try to go to Konya on a weekend to see the real Whirling Dervish ceremony. Do stop at roadside fruit stands to buy a kilo of strawberries for $2.50 (do wash before eating though). And definitely help tortoise safely cross the road.

We walked around the city center and turned in for the night for a long road trip the next day.

The drive where I bought strawberries from the farm, opium poppies grew, and I saved 2 Greek Tortoise to boot!

And then came Pamukkale, aka the Cotton Castle, which is a hard calcium buildup dripping down a mountain side for 1000s of years from the natural hot mineral springs. And let me not forget Hieropolos, an ancient Roman town, which was smartly built by said hot springs.

ADVICE:

The travertine (cotton castle), Cleopatra’s pool and the Hieropolos ruins are all in one 30 Euro fee. No wait, Cleopatra’s pool is extra, but it is in the same park. Carry towels, bathing suit, and water in with you. We did not know this.

The warm spring water “pools” at the top of the travertine are beautiful but just wear shorts to go in, they are very shallow, not very warm and the bottom is weird to sit on.

And do all three, including the hike up to the theater at Hieropolos.

We packed in a lot that day, the ruins, and a swim in Cleopatra’s pool, which was another hot spring (immediately above) where ruins are tossed about the bottom. She never went, but the water was brought to her to bathe in upon reaching the shores of Turkey. And also, we slightly bathed in the cotton Castle’s very shallow pools of hot mineral spring water at the top of the mountain.

It was another early night for an over the mountain road trip to the beach the next day, with a stop at a farmers market and a quick stop to save another turtle!

And we made it to the sea, the coast, the Blue Lagoon, Baby! We are having a nice rest for 1.5 days before we head to Rhodes, Greece!

ADVICE:

If you want a quite very chill stay, get a hotel on the Blue Lagoon. If you want party and action, stay in the beach area of Oludeniz. Do hang out and do activities in the Oludeniz beach area. The pirate ship cruises, the sky dotted with paragliders and the all around festivity is appreciated.

Beach Time, Eating, Drinking, a great massage and then we jumped off the top of a 5000 mountain!

ADVICE:

Do go paragliding here if you want to. It is scary before the take off, but so beautiful and relaxing once you are in the air. Other than that enjoy the many colorful parachutes in the sky all day. Also we went in May, so it was mellow and the water was chilly.

It was amazing, but honestly it scared the caca out of me before we took off. I mean, who purposely walks to the very edge of a 5000ft high mountain with a kite on their back. Um, me, I guess, with weak knees, fear in my heart and my brain exploding. But I did it, we both did it.

I’m 60 Damnit!

This was a long one, will go shorter next time.

Thanks for visiting My Gnome Little World.

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Us Gnomads on the way to Rhodes Greece!

TRASHION

Posted: July 17, 2023 in Art, Found Items, Travel
Tags: art, beach, beachcombing, garbage, junk art, maximalismart, maximalist, plastics, save the earth, TRASHION, upcycle, upcycled art

I just learned that word. Trash and fashion=Art? Another phrase for it is Junk Art. Whatever you want to call it, it is art made from what most people would call garbage.

A lot of my art is made with stuff I found for free or thrifted or gifted….but some of the stuff for these projects are downright trashy garbage. The worst of all worse garbage, plastics found on a beach where I wish all Sea Plastics went to die.

(PHOTO: One particular bad plastic garbage day at what I now call “Plastics Beach”.

Last month my hub and I went for a drive and without our knowledge we ended up on what may be the most sea garbage filled beach on the island. It’s in a corner of a bay and the wind and tide seem to go straight to the particular area of the beach. I was overwhelmed with the amount of it all. I didn’t just see garbage. I saw color and I saw childhood laughter. And even though I didn’t know it at the time, I saw potential. That place never left my mind, so much so, we we went back. This time, I was prepared mentally and with reusable shopping bags.

(PHOTO: My sweet husband collecting plastics and beachcombing)

This time to “Plastics Beach” it wasn’t as bad, by “not as bad”, I mean there was less bigger pieces. It was still very bad. I focused on collecting the most colorful plastics. While I was on the hunt, I noticed some big black bags at the edge of the beach in the trees. I assumed they were filled with the beach garbage. This made me feel good, but I also wondered what colorful fun things could I find inside them. Don’t worry, I did not open them. They are destined for the dump for the rest of their long plastic life.

(PHOTO: This is what we brought home in our 4 large reusable shopping bags)

I cleaned every single piece, a lot to be cleaned again. While doing this, I thought of the price of art, even art made from free stuff. It took hours to do the initial clean. I can use old, scratched, marked, broken things for art, but I can’t use dirty stuff with sand embeddeded in it with the potential to smell over time. A lot of this time consuming. Even though, I’m not big on selling my art, I support artists that do and their prices. Oh, I will sell my art, just ask me. Anyway, I recently picked an old frame out of the trash area of my apartment building. Do you see the trashy thing going here? And here is me playing with my idea of art.

(PHOTO: The first juxtaposition of pieces inside of the frame.)

(PHOTO: I almost love this view of the piece better)

I really like it. I go through many processes with my pieces. Here is where I was before creating the one above (mind you it is not done…the things are in a box now), I recently went on a trip to where I got things for cheap or were gifted them. Fun, bright, cheerful things, including beads, miniature stuff, and vintage cabochons, but not limited to that. Here is where I went with those items when I got home.

(PHOTO: I put all the stuffy things together, added items I had already and this is what I got.)

(PHOTO: I love the neon and brightness of this piece and I will make smaller versions of it when I can thrift some fun frames.)

If you haven’t seen my art, besides using upcycled materials, I love texture for the eyes and hands. I love surprises to be found. I love that I see art when others see magazines, belts, twine, and garbage. I love that I can see how to use things in unconventional ways, like beads not beaded, a belt buckled around a canvas, old rough twine in macrame, and torn maps not used for directions.

Here are other versions of pieces I may do with my plastic beach finds….

(PHOTO: I love the idea of one or two bold colors. So, yes, I love this small 5×7 piece, but if I do it I will paint the frame a brighter blue.)

(PHOTO: So, I love anything round, circular, spherical, and globular including balls, orbs, globes sport supplies, decor, plastic caps and so on. This piece is a mixture of all found or saved round things. Honestly, I’m notot as fond of this piece.)

Since I’m on this maximalism, lots of stuff in one piece journey, yesterday I was playing more with some of the beads and cabochons I got at General Bead in SF recently (and vintage plastics from a friend there too). Also, I recently have been enamored with miniatures, and bought some while traveling and at a store near my apartment. Yes, new stuff. Ack, but give me a break, they are so cute. Look!