The Boswells in Europe

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August 2006 - Ataturks 125th Birthday

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Earlier in our stay we had seen an ad for a concert to celebrate Mustafa Kemal Ataturks 125th birthday, but what really caught our attention was the fact a concert was being held in an ancient amphitheater that was over 2000 years old!
We had got to the amphitheater early so as to get the good seats because the kids were looking forward to seeing the lions being released :)
The orchestra was from the Mugla University (a city near Dalyan) and played a selection of Ataturks favourite classical music.
However before the concert could begin we had to sit through 40 minutes of speaches...in Turkish! The reverence and genuine love the Turks feel for Ataturk is still plainly visible all these years after his death.
After a while though, the hard stone seats had us wondering if the ancient people had hard arses? :)
One of the really cool things about the people we met in Turkey was that as soon as they found out we were from New Zealand they would start talking about Galiboli (Gallipoli), Ataturk and how one second people could be trying to do each other in and then the next we are the best of friends!