Turkey Trip

Gunaydin!

Gear up for a nice long read about my week in Turkey! I love this country and I definitely want to go back some day. This wonderful place happens to lie halfway in Europe and halfway in Asia. So yes, of course I went to both sides. Even though I didn't necessarily experience Asian culture, you can bet that I'm checking it off as a continent I've stood on. No big deal. While in Turkey, we visited a lot of other places. We went to 18 different sites in 6 days... so we were busy busy busy. But we had fun fun fun.

We're in the big city now

The view out my window at our first hotel in Istanbul.

I have hundreds of pictures to show for this fun week. So I'm going to have to do a lot of weeding... Here we go.

------------------------------------------

We started off in Istanbul. This was my favorite place. It was colorful and busy and beautiful and the people were so nice. We went to the Blue Mosque, a cistern, and the Grand Bazaar and then ended the day with a mini cruise along the coast line and a nice dinner. It was a great, beautiful, exhausting day.

Blue Mosque

Me and Tess spent a lot of time together on this day

Okay. All you Bachelorette watchers. Remember that time when the chosen bachelorette (I think it was Ashley's season) had dinner with her date in the cistern?? We reenacted it! Cracked ourselves up. 

CASTLE

Ferry ride

The next day we went to Gallipoli and Troy. Gallipoli is the place of a World War I battle between the Austrailians and the New Zelanders, and the Turks, and it is a beautiful place. It was sad to think about the events that took place there and kind of nice to study a World War I battle from the perspective of different countries. There was an older Turkish couple there that was so touched to see American students paying tribute to the Australians, New Zelanders, and Turks that were killed in the battle.

From there we went on a ferry ride to the Asian side of Turkey. That's where Troy and a lot of other sites were.

We were all really excited to go to Troy so we could take pictures in front of the giant replica horse from the movie Troy. But wouldn't you know it, when we pulled up the first thing we saw was a giant black tarp covering the horse that was currently being repaired. We still got to look at the ruins. Which was cool. I guess.

Then we went to our hotel.

We watched the sunset, ate dinner, and then headed out to the dock to watch the stars (there were millions.) It was a perfect night. After star gazing, I stumbled upon a room full of girls.

While we were all in there talking and laughing, one of the girls randomly stopped and said, "You guys, I don't think I've ever had this many close friends." We all just kind of nodded in agreement and then continued talking. I love these girls.

The next morning we went to Assos, which is a place where Paul taught. This place was absolutely beautiful. It overlooked the Sea and we could see the Greek Islands in the distance. It was very peaceful to be up there.

It is very likely that Paul walked through these pillars

Next we hopped on a little gondolas and rode up to Pergamum...aka the windiest place I've ever been to. Once again, very pretty. Lots of ruins. A really big theater (biggest in the world at the time).
Amazing View. Lots of wind. Purchased a ring.

The next day we went to Ephesus. This place dates back to 1400 BC and lots of cool significant things happened there. Lots. So much that I can't remember even one of them. Whoops. It's fine, I'm just tired.

After that we drove to Priene and Miletus and looked at more pretty rocks and sat in chairs that made us feel like kings and queens.

The next day it was cold and rainy and we went to Sardis. It was admittedly a little chilly, but I loved the rain! It made everything so much prettier. It was all green with the ruins so clear in the distance. Amazing.

I felt like I was in Scotland 

We also spent some time in the Bursa Mosque and then got to go shopping for a while. We were quite disappointed and couldn't find anything that we loved to buy. So instead, we bought all natural toothbrushes (a packaged stick) and some henna. Just call us a bunch of hippies.

The next day we went to Nicea, the place of the Council of Nicea and the Nicean Creed. It was freezing cold. Like 39 degrees or something ridiculous like that.

Then we went on another ferry ride and ventured to the Hagia Sophia back in Istanbul. It's now a museum so we walked around for a minute and then booked it to a mini bazaar close by. There were lots of awesome rugs and vases and stuff. My favorite thing of the whole night, however, were these little tiny cutest ever baby shoes. I was all geared up to by some for my nieces and nephews when the man told me the price and I dropped them like a hot potato. A picture will have to suffice. Just know that they are ten times cuter in real life.

Ferry ride

They are soooo cute!

Hagia Sophia

After the baby shoe disappointment we were freezing our body parts off, so we ran to a little narrow street in search of a Cafe and we found one. It was little and quaint and we got yummy hot chocolate and baclava right before sprinting to the bus which whisked us away to a fish dinner and then the airport to head back to Jerusalem.

It was a whirlwind of a week. Full of lentil soup, gorgeous bus rides, lots of cool history, beautiful ruins, good conversations, funny moments, and life long memories.

Whooo-eee.
Love you all.