Koula visits Gobekli Tepe (or Potbelly Hill)

Koula, 94.7 presenter and F&HE blogger, is loving all things food-related in her travels through Turkey, Greece, Italy and Israel…

Monday 20 August

After shooting Mardin from some of the town’s highest points we set out for our new destination, Urfa. Urfa is by far the most conservative town we’ve visited to date on this trip, with a very strong Muslim influence. Men-only coffee shops, women covered from head to toe. After we checked into our hotel, we drove out to what is believed to be the world’s oldest archaeological sanctuary at Potbelly Hill (Gobekli Tepe). The site is still being excavated. Incredible seeing an ancient village being uncovered before your eyes! From there, we ventured on to see the region’s famous beehive-shaped houses which are 150 to 200 years old. Been another long shoot day and I’ve managed to pick up either a stomach bug or food poisoning. I guess time will tell. The locals gave me a mixture of crushed coffee beans and lemon juice to try and remedy the situation but besides tasting awful, it didn’t help me much. Let’s hope tomorrow is better!

Tuesday 21 August

There was a problem with some of the audio from yesterday so we re-shot everything today! A day behind on shoot schedule now so will have to play catch up in the next few days! We leave Urfa tomorrow… And I’ll be riding a donkey up a mountainside to look at some ancient sculptures. That’s about all I know for now. Time to try sleep off this stomach bug!