TheStorytellersBazaar:Travel Log:Turkey: Thursday 3 August 1995
My sixth day after leaving Ankara began quite early. I was awake at 7am and after getting up slowly, washing some clothes and changing, I left the hotel at 9am. I wanted to see the new museum. It was very close. Only five minutes walk from the Ataturk monument up Yeni Sehr Caddesi. Surprisingly, It was an excellent museum with many exhibits from two main archaeological digs. One is Sos, close to Erzurum and the other in Aydintepe near Bayburt. There were even some mammoth bones on display.
After leaving the museum I decided it was time to move on. My next stop would be Bayburt. With it being mentioned so many times in the museum I was now eager to see it. I may even pay a visit to Aydintepe while I am there. It might also be possible to meet the Archaeologist from Melbourne University who has been working in collaboration with Erzurum museum to find out mire about early settlements in the area. They had started in 1988 and where still in the area this July according to the date on a set of field notes displayed in the museum.
I walked back to the hotel packed and had checked out by 11am. I arrived at the minibus station at 11.30 only to discover that the bust to Bayburt would leave at 2pm. I decided that I had time for one more visit to the Hamam but this time there was no dead skin for the hamami to scrape off so he scrubbed me with soap and left it at that.
