Day 3/4

I've combined Day 3 and Day 4 of my Turkey Trip because both of these days involved a whole lot of driving.

Day 3 began with a visit to the Gallipolli battlefield where the Allie troops were unfortunately slaughtered during World War I, but it was significant because it was the time that New Zealand and Australians began to identify themselves as their own entity rather than extension of Britain...at least that's what I was told.

We then went to ancient Troy!!! It is not as exciting I think we were all hoping it would be, but how amazing is it to visit a place that I always associated with story books. I found it especially neat, because I was able to study the Iliad in Fall semester in the Classical Civilization class, so the siege of Troy had some meaning to me. In the below photo, I am in front of an ancient ramp leading up to what used to be a city gate. I also have photos in the horse that was used in the movie Troy. They're on my facebook if you want to check those out there. It's a just a big horse with windows for all of us to stick our heads out of.

Troy! Ancient Ramp.

Our evening ended at our hotel, with a bit of swimming in the pool, walks along the beach, and an awesome bon fire and dance party on the beach--helped out by the hotel! Really thanks to them for providing an awesome speaker system. Our original plan was to have everyone bring their field trip headsets to the dock and have an Ipod dance party--but the hotels speaker system was a much better alternative.
 
Then on Day 4 we went to Assoss. Which I'm not sure I could truly commit and say that this was my favorite site...but it might have been my favorite site! The ruins were ruins, but the most amazing part was when we sat top of the hill learning about the journey of the apostle of Paul and as we looked over the sea, we could see a storm off in the distance of the sea. It was so majestic to see this storm heading toward us with the sun break it up in some parts, and then breaking up before it came to land. Which in itself was a blessing! It would not have been as fun to explore these ruins with the rain pounding on us.

Rachel and I putting on our adventure exploring faces as we look over the Aegean Sea.

Then afterward we did stop at Pergamon where we explored the temple of Dionysis and a large Greek theater. And we ended our evening at Aqua Fantasy! That's really what our "hotel" was called. It was basically a resort-- it had its own water park(--no extra cost for guests..not that I used it all), 7 different pools, a beach, we each got our own queen size bed, and a porch, and a giant buffet for every meal. It was kind of a big deal. Truly though it was ridiculous! I have feeling none of us will be staying at any sort of equivalent anytime soon.

"aaaaquaa faannntassy" slogan of the week.

Anyway, here's another update of why in Turkey my life is an adventure!

Day 2: Istanbul

On our second day in Turkey we stayed in Istanbul. We started out on a walking tour and began our day at the Süleymaniye Mosque. It's not as famous as the Blue Mosque, but it still fantastically large and way less ridden with tourists. When we entered we took off our shoes and us ladies covered our heads with scarfs. But as you can see its a gigantic mosque which surprisingly only took eight years to build, which three of those years was just waiting for the foundation to settle so really only five years!



Becca and I in one of the large doorways
in the mosque's courtyards.

 

One of the domes from inside

The Süleymaniye Mosque

Our tour guide told us that they make the mosques comfortable and more homelike, because that way people would feel welcome and more willing to pray, so the carpets-- so soft and comfortable!

The low hanging chandeliers help give the mosque a
more homey feel. It was also a practicality feature when
in ancient times they used oil lamps

Next we went to the Grand Bazaar, which has over 4000 stores. It was huge! And I was completely overwhelmed so I didn't buy anything, but I had a grandtime just looking at the scarfs and jewelry- absolutely beautiful! Here's me and my roommate Whit hanging out in front of a scarf shop.

We then went on a boat ride on the Bosphorus Strait.

Here we are going along the straight. Whitney and Jay are behind,
and then in the front from right to left is me Becca and Nathan.

After lunch we then headed to the Roman Cistern which is just an ancient roman water storage area. All the columns are  actually recycled from more ancient roman buildings so some pillars are consistent but most were not and so it was fun to see all the different shapes of the pillars be all mismatched 'cause no one is supposed to see it anyway!

This one's for you dad! This is me with a Medusa head that
is used to make one of the pillars the right height to actually be useful.

Roman Cistern romantically lit.

And that is why my life is an adventure!!!

Day 1: Turkey style- planes, food, and hotels

Sorry friends...I had a midterm this week so I did not stick with my one Turkey update a day at all. And I have still not hopped over to Hebrew University so I don't have any photos to put up yet, but I will...sometime.

Just messin' around during our many hours of sitting in the Tel Aviv Airport!

So Turkey was amazing!!! We started our day with a trip to the airport. It is easier to leave Israel than to enter it but our teachers adequately prepared us for the onslaught of questions we receive in one of the highest security airports in the world. We ended up hanging out at the airport for a few extra hours and we found ways to entertain ourselves. Once I actually add my photos you will see me and a friend recreating some of the silhouettes found along the walls, dancing in the halls and playing loud somewhat obnoxious games.

I wish Ian would always greet me like this when I headed towards him.

The first I was to learn about Turkey...there's not a rush when it comes to traveling (our American teachers of course had a different opinion of course...), but we started off our travels by beginning to board our flight when our flight was supposed to be taking off. The many Turkish passengers leisurely loaded the plane and found their seats. We took off flying and to our great surprise...and delight!...we received a complementary meal in our short, but sweet two hour flight. Who knew!? I'm flying Turkish Air every time I can from now on.

Gonna be honest...still don't know what these
things are called, but man are they caked in

Man, you can tell its gonna be a great trip when you are already amazed...and you haven't even entered the airport yet. Anyway...entering Turkey and finding our tour guide, Nejep, was a breeze for most of us-- two girls' luggage failed to make it onto the plane...which led to an interesting week of borrowed clothes and new toothbrushes for them. We loaded up the bus and went straight to dinner. We were served (another) delicious Turkish meal complete with an initial course of lentil soup (which I'm pretty sure I then consumed at every consecutive meal following) and a whole lot of eggplant. We ended our meal with an assortment of desserts carefully drenched in a syrupy concoction. Good--but over powerfully sweet.

Then it was off to our...pleasant...perhaps subpar....perhaps hadn't even been vacuumed and I stopped looking-at-the-cleanliness-before-I-climbed-into-bed-so-I wouldn't-be-even-more-disgusted hotel. It actually wasn't that bad, but as the week continued our lodging arrangements could only be improved.

So that was my first day in Turkey, and let's be honest...I was just in Turkey! And that is why my life is an adventure.

Turkey Overview...just a preview

I made it through Turkey! It was absolutely amazing. In seven days we traveled up and down the west coast of Turkey and stopped at so many ancient cities that unfortunately it's all a bit of a blur. My game plan (though this will probably change...) is to hopefully post everyday this week about everyday in Turkey. We will see how that goes...but hopefully something to look forward to!

A couple things I noticed, I was surprised by how green Turkey was. It reminded me of my wonderful Oregon home and its lusciously green landscape, even when we were in the city it was still so green! Granted Istanbul, was not as green as the countryside, but it was still loads greener than anything I've seen in the Middle East thus far.

We had loads of fun discovering Turkey and having delicious food for every meal! I'm sure we all gained 10lbs during this trip, because we sat in a nice restaurant with a 4 course meal-- every meal. A little recommendation: Lentil soup--a new a favorite. I could continue to eat it every meal of my life. And I discovered eggplant is actually quite delicious, 'meatballs' are general standard at every meal, and that olives and anchoives together are not as bad as I imagined it would be.

Okay, there's a tiny taste of my Turkey experience, get ready for more later this week. But this is why my life is an adventure

Week run down, before I head off to Turkey!

I never seem to have enough time to say everything I want to say. A little run down of my week though (I'll try and add pictures in a week or two).....

We went to the Garden tomb this week, which is where the protestants believe that Christ was crucified and then later buried. It is maintained by a British group so our little British tour guide was a hoot. I've never seen a Brit so enthusiastic (not that I know very many British people), but he had us praising all sorts of Amens! and Hallejulas! It was wonderful to meet someone so excited about Christ and his life, and most importantly about how He has risen and lives now ready to redeem us.

We were also able to go to the pool of Bethesda earlier this week. In John 5:2, Jesus came to the pool and met a man "with infirmity" who had been sitting by the pool, waiting for when the pool would be troubled and enter in the pool to be healed. He however has no one to help him and he was never able to be the first in. Jesus then healed the man and sent him on his way. It is very neat to see this locations and try to imagine what it would have been like. Was there a crowd around the pool and bustling city life? Or was it this man sitting all alone in a desolate part of the city? I appreciate that these stories from Sunday School, have been coming alive and becoming little moments of life recorded not just a story we hear at bed time. It's really been helping me to appreciate the scriptures and the teachings found in them.

This week, we were also able to visit the mosque in the neighborhood nearby. It was very cool to be able to come inside and have a daily visitor to the mosque tell us about it and about how prayers work and some of the cultural aspects. I learned that there is very little decoration in a mosque and it is purposely bare. There is the cove at the front of the room that directs people to know which direction Mecca is, but other than that and the prayer times posted on the walls nothing is else is there. The women's room to pray was on the floor below and had a TV and speakers so they could follow along with the men upstairs. I am grateful that we were able to learn a bit more, because we hear the call to prayer everyday five times a day so it was great to put some real context in what the call means.

Okay this is all I have time to retell for now, because today we head off for Turkey!!! Where I really won't have internet access, but once I get back I will have explosion of pictures to put I'm sure!

Anyway, this is why my life is an adventure!

Free Day number one: Exploring Jerusalem

This was actually from a Sunday, which is our free day here, but I haven't had time to post it until today. We all left in the morning to go the Rampart walks, which is where we get to walk on top of the Old City walls around the city.

Me and Kenzie hanging by Damascus gate waiting for the rest of our group.

Lauren, Natalie, Jay, me and Sarah at the beginning of the Ramparts. The walk started underneath the city walls, where it felt like a scene out of Indiana Jones, but less spider webs. I also just wished I could have had a firey torch to light our way through the ancient Roman like tunnels.

McKenzie, Jon and I under one of the arches on the Old City Walls.

 After the Rampart walk with the big group we broke off into smaller groups. We went over toward the Western Wall (incorrectly called the Wailing wall) but we didn't go in this time, but we did hang out in the Jewish quarter of the old city for a while. It's actually quite amazing to see the stark difference between the Jewish quarter and Muslim quarter of the city. The Jewish quarter is much cleaner in comparison and where we were at least had a larger walk ways.

In the Jewish quarter we sat outside this synagogue to eat our lunch. In corner of the square there was a  man playing guitar which Bekah and Jon were able to show off their ballroom dancing skills.

After wandering the Jewish quarter a few times over, we pulled out the map and decided to pick a location to go to. I got to choose and so I pointed to the tiny landmark sign on the map that said "Pool of Siloam" and so that's where we went! The Pool of Siloam is not exactly a happening tourist spot so we're wandering through these neighborhoods, where all the people just star at you as we walk by. The map was somewhat vague about its locations, but everytime we asked for directions, people said oh just keep walking. Down through the neighborhoods, to our right was a narrow staircase we walked down and found some what sketchy signs that say "Pool of Siloam". There we met a wonderful shopkeeper named Abraham who brought us into his shop and showed off many antique pots and coins.

The Pool of Siloam may sound familar to you from the scriptures! In John 9:1-11, we hear the story of a man blind from birth where people were questioning who was at fault--the man or his parents. Jesus clarifys that neither have sinned, but it is an opporunity for the miracles of God be shown. Jesus spits on the ground and makes some clay places it on the blind man's eyes and directs him to wash in the pool of Siloam. After the man went and washed his eyes he was able to see! I am so grateful that I've had the opportunity to visit a site of one of Christ's miracles. I know Jesus Christ walked these same streets and has provided me with map of how I can direct my own life in order to follow him.

Susan, Jon, Bekah and Jay all around the Pool of Siloam.

Me by the pool of Siloam. This spring is no longer in its former glory but is still very cool to see. It is also the exit for those going through Hezekiah's tunnel--which I haven't done yet, but I believe we are doing on a fieldtrip.

 After our excursion to the pool of Siloam we hiked back up the hill and we knew we had a couple more valleys and mountains to cross before we made it home. So when we saw a nice stone pathway in the valley running along side of us, we decided to trek our way down the side of the hill along a trail that was not as nice as the one we were headed towards. It was only half way down we started to run into some thistle filled bushes that we thought to worry about snakes. No worries. This time no snake encounters, and I hope to keep it that way, but those thistles did attempt to take a number on my legs.

Anyway once we made it to the nice path, we're walking along and see these ruins that you see in the photo below. At the base of these ruins we met a guy named Mordecai who was playing a traditional Turkish stringed instrument called a saz-- it only had two strings! You should know that this path had absolutely no one on it, but all the sudden we round this corner and here's this man playing his little Saz. Jay became buds with guy and took over the Saz while Mordecai pulled out another Turkish instrument (I don't know what the second one was called) and they had a little jam session in the middle of no where.

Jay, Susan, Bekah, and Jon (and me not pictured) by the Pillars of Absolam where we ran into Mordecai.

Anyway, that basically concludes my days highlights, but as you can see...this is why my life is an adventure.