Last pics from Turkey!

A woman making a silk rug

Right before the duck attacked mom!

More pics from Turkey!

Hot Air Ballooning in Cappadocia - the most breathtaking way to see Cappadocia.  We had to wake up at 5am after a late night of seeing the Swirling Dervishes.  The Swirling Dervishes are a group of men who devote their Muslim lives to an ideal based on love.  They do a unique ritual of "dance" where they dress in robes and swirl, literally, to music.  My mom and I went to a performance by a group of them near Cappadocia.  They wear these interesting looking hats, I compared them to the Cappadocian mountains because they are cone-like, but flat at the top.  When they swirl they are almost in a trance and hold one hand up to the sky and the other down to the floor in a representation of accepting God's love and passing it on to the world.  They were interesting to see but it was quite a challenge to stay awake.  Waking up the next morning for the balloons was always on my mind.  Flying over Cappadocia really emphasizes its beauty.  We were packed into a basket with 17 other people!  My dad fighting for position with his video camera.  It was awesome but the most exciting part was landing.  My dad was estimating our "pilot's" every move and was trying to stay two steps ahead of him so when he though he was about to land, and my dad was sure it was going to be a crash landing based on the trajectory, speed and angle from which we were entering, he started to yell at my mom and I to take landing position!  He was very insistent even though I was sure the pilot knew what he was doing and I wasn't convinced we were going to land quite yet....I knew we would get some kind of warning, but I grabbed the handle to appease my father.  Sure enough, we didn't land then but we did land on some farm, on some bushes, feet from a hill that we would have surely tumbled down had we not had the help of about 5 men on the ground pushing and pulling the basket to the most desired location.  After we landed and exited the air craft we were greeted with champagne and oj, what a treat!

A man still utilizes one Cappadocian rock by serving tea to the travelers that pass through.  His tea (they call it chai) shop is three stories reached by ladders and squeaky metal stairs.  He was the nicest man and doesn't make people pay for their tea.  He has quite an impressive kitchen in the rock and it is decorated so comfortably that you really don't think twice about having chai on the second story of a hollowed out rock!  His name is Recep Erkan, the Peri Kafe Cave Man.  If you are ever in Cappadocia, check him out :-).

Here you can kind of see some of the structures built into the rocks of Cappadocia.  There were people living in these holes up until the 195o's!  The years have taken their toll on the rocks and the rock slides became too dangerous after a man and his son were killed by one so the government made the people move into the nearby towns.

An underground city was created by the people of Cappadocia for even more protection from the numerous armies who traveled through that land.  The underground city was built to hold thousands of people for weeks, or even months, while armies occupied their lands up above.  There were floors and floors of rooms with specific purposes, like kitchens, storage facilities, and places to keep animals.  There were giant round stones with holes in the middle engineered to slide in front of doors in case of an attack.  The holes being there to slide spears through.  An ingenious contraption really.  We could only imagine being stuck down there for months at a time.  My mom particularly got a little panicky at the thought.

Camels are used as a tourist attraction, and that's about it.  Where they once were prized for travel they are now used for rides and photos.  This particular camel was enjoying his meal :-).

 Cappadocia was my most favorite thing we saw in Turkey.  Because of its location between two volcanoes ash and other types of volcanic rock and material has accumulated in the area.  After years and years of rain, snow, wind etc. the ash and rock has uniquely been chipped away to create these magnificent creations.  People have utilized these tall solid, yet easily manipulated, formations and built cities inside them.  From a distance they are barely noticeable, thus their power against invasions, but once you go near you see where homes and churches have been built into the rock.  

An ancient Hittite city - this city is called Hattusas, the capital of a very old Anatolian city.  This city sits on a very picturesque spot.  Little is left, understandably, but this gate was one of the most well preserved and most impressive.  We walked around the site for a bit, including walking through a tunnel that was built through their city wall.  As were most ancient cities in this volatile country, Hattusas was once very well fortified to protect itself from the many people trekking across Anatolia.  Their homes were built with doors in the ceiling that they reached via ladders that were pulled up during any threats.

Mausoleum of Ataturk, the father of Turkey - this day we drove to the capital of Turkey, Ankara.  Zafer decided to take us to the mausoleum kind of last minute, but we were so glad he did b/c it was very impressive, as you can see.  Attiturk really played the most important role in Turkey's independence and growth as a modern country.  This mausoleum was built in his honor and it represents his leadership and the importance he placed on defending the country.  He instilled in young Turks that every one is born a soldier.  Zafer reiterates this statement, and it is apparent that they take it seriously even to this day.  There was also a very interesting museum with articles from Ataturks reign.  He was instrumental in women's rights and modernized the alphabet in Turkey, to name just a couple of things that he accomplished.  You see his face on flags, his statue and his presence in many places around the country.  According to Zafer it was quite unfortunate that he died young b/c he accomplished so much in such a short time and he could have accomplished even more if given the time.

Istanbul Day 2 - Haghia Sophia & Grand Bazaar

In front of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

The Blue Mosque as seen from a window in the Haghia Sophia

Me in front of the Haghia Sophia, Istanbul

I am wearing a sling from irritating my shoulder on the healing wall in the haghia sophia, go figure.  So typing has become quite a challenge and I don't think I can stay updated.  We are seeing so much everyday.  I will at least try to update pictures and fill in the rest when I get back full usage of my arm.

Istanbul Day 2 - Blue Mosque & Topkapi Palace

Part II - Blue Mosque

From the Hippodrome we walked to the Blue Mosque.  This mosque is one of the most beautiful I have seen.  In the picture above my parents are standing in front of the entrance which has two huge bronze doors that lead into a courtyard.  This courtyard is where you are supposed to take your time, as a Muslim, to abolish thoughts of the outside world and prepare yourself for prayer.  From here you walk up some steps and go through another entrance, which I am standing in front of, to enter another courtyard.  At the bottom of these steps are numerous faucets where Muslims are supposed to do the ritual ablutions by washing their feet, hands, face and mouth as a purification before entering the holy mosque.  As you enter the actual mosque you can see where it gets it's name from.  The inside is adorned with blue mosaic tiles and beautiful stained glass windows with blue as the predominant color, giving the inside of the mosque a blue hue.  This mosque is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world.  Sultan Ahmet I commissioned the mosque during a period of declining Ottoman fortunes, and it was built between 1609-16 by Mehmet Aga, the imperial architect.  The splendour of the plans provoked great hostility at the time, especially because a mosque with six minarets was considered a sacrilegious attempt to rival the architecture of Mecca itself.  From the picture above you can see the floating lanterns but you do not get a sense of the blueness that associates it with it's name.  From here we walked to the Topkapi Palace.

Part III - Topkapi Palace

Between 1459 and 1465, shortly after his conquest of Constantinople, Mehmet II built Topkapi Palace as his principal residence.  Rather than a single building, it was conceived as a series of pavilions contained by four enormous courtyards, a stone version of the tented encampments from which the nomadic Ottomans had emerged.  Initially, the palace served as the seat of government and contained a school in which civil servants and soldiers were trained.  In the 16th century, however, the government was moved to the Sublime Porte.  Sultan Abdul Mecit I abandoned Topkapi in 1853 in favour of another palace.  The palace is a city within itself.  The kitchen alone was made to be able to cook enough food for thousands of people and has around 10 giant smoke stacks just for itself.  The grounds sit atop a hill and have the most beautiful view of the city and the Golden Horn.  We started our tour seeing the exhibition of the imperial costumes.  They were mostly kaftans for the Sultan and were made from the most beautiful silk prints.  It was a palace tradition that on the death of a sultan his clothes were carefully folded and placed in sealed bags.  As a result, it is possible to see a perfectly preserved kaftan worn by the sultan as an adult and child.  

From here we moved on to the Treasury.  For some reason there was an exuberant number of children visiting this day.  It must have been field trip day and we were crammed into the small rooms peeking into the small cases to look at the extravagant jewels with little munchkins stepping on our toes.  It hurried us along but the palace holds an impressive amount of treasure and we were sure to see every bit.  Some of the most impressive stones were giant emeralds that adorned swords,thrones and aigrettes, which adorned imperial turbans.  What is interesting is that there are so few women's jewels on display.  Whereas the treasures of the sultans and viziers were owned by the state and reverted to the palace on their deaths, those belonging to the women of the court did not and they were able to keep theirs.  The most impressive of all stones there and probably in the world is that of an 86 carat diamond, called the Spoonmaker's diamond.  It is said to have been discovered in a rubbish heap in Istanbul in the 17th century, and bought from a scrap merchant for three spoons.  

After the treasury we walked through the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle.  Some of the holiest relics of Islam are displayed in these five domed rooms, which are a place of pilgrimage for Muslims.  Most of the relics found their way to Istanbul as a result of the conquest by Selim the Grim of Egypt and Arabia, and his assumption of the caliphate in 1517.  When you walk in you notice the reading of the Qu'ran (Koran), which is chanted 24hrs a day, 7 days a week in these rooms.  The most sacred treasure is the mantle once worn by the Prophet Mohammed.  There are also other important relics, including locks of hair, teeth, parts of a skull and hand of other prophets, including their most important Mohammed.  There are also on display locks and keys to the holy Kaaba, the first sacred shine built in Mecca, and also the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed where Muslims, if they can afford it and are healthy enough, should make their pilgrimage once in their lifetime.  There are also four other basic duties for Muslims.  These include the profession of their faith: "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet."  They are enjoined to pray five times a day (the first being at 5AM, which we can brightly hear from our hotel), give alms to the poor, and fast during the month of Ramazan.  It is a religion defined by ritual which the people follow strictly.

The one part of the palace which we did not see, which I wish we had, was the Harem.  Sultans were known to have hundreds of wives and concubines which lived in these parts of the palace.  I can only imagine what those quarters must have been like.  Unfortunately we did not have time to see them and from here we moved on to our next stop.  The Haghia Sophia.

Istanbul Day 2 - Hippodrome

Part I - Hippodrome

As you can see from my titles we saw A LOT today.  We started the morning off at the Hippodrome.  Here once stood the heart of the Byzantine city of Constantinople.  It was originally laid out by Emperor Septimus Severus during his rebuilding of the city in the 3rd century AD.  It is thought that the stadium held up to 100,000 people but there is little left of what once stood.  Now the site is an elongated public garden and the only original fixture left is what was once the chariot track, now paved over and used as a road.  Constantine enlarged the Hippodrome and adorned the "spina," the central line of the stadium, with obelisks and columns from Ancient Egypt and Greece, importing a sense of history to his new capital.  Three of these adornments still stand including two that you see in the above picture.  Here you see the Egyptian Obelisk, which was built in 1500 BC, and which once stood outside Luxor until Constantine had it brought to his city.  It is obviously shortened and sits on four bronze stands to protect it from earthquakes.  These bronze blocks sit atop a marble base made in the 4th century AD showing Theodosius I and his family in the "kathisma" watching various events, including one of the erection of the obelisk itself.  The other obelisk you see in the picture in the distance is the Column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.  It is thought to have once been sheathed in a case of bronze.  The third column not in the picture is the Serpentine Column, believed to date from 479 BC, which was shipped here from Delphi where it once stood.  It is missing it's top ornament of gold serpents.  The heads of the serpents were knocked off in the 18th century by a drunken Polish nobleman.  The Hippodrome was the scene of one of the bloodiest events in Istanbul's history.  In 532 a brawl between rival chariot-racing teams developed into the Nika Revolt, during which much of the city was destroyed, specifically the Hagia Sophia.  The end of the revolt came when an army of mercenaries, under the command of Justinian's general Belisarius, massacred an estimated 30,000 people trapped in the Hippodrome.

As we were standing in the middle of the park listening to Zafer tell about the history of the place we hear what sounds like a band in the distance.  We weren't sure if it was live or not and then we see in the distance a marching band coming down the street.  My dad immediately takes off running after them with his video camera held up high.  We are hardly misjudged as locals in this country.  The band ended up coming right down the street in front of us and as you can see in the picture they were dressed in traditional Turkish ceremonial dress followed by young children and then students.  Zafer said this march was customarily done to encourage the troops to go into battle.  My favorite part were the fake mustaches they wore.  Later on we saw the young kids doing typical Turkish dances in front of the Hagia Sophia dressed in their little Turkish outfits.  My dad got some good video of that as well :-).

Istanbul Day 1

Last night I arrived in Istanbul, Turkey.  It was amazing to travel only 45min. and be in Turkey.  I was greeted by our tour leader, Zafer and our driver Mustafa.  They took me to the hotel to meet my parents who had just traveled about 15hrs. to meet me.  I couldn't have been more excited for this trip.  I really had no idea what to expect arriving in this country.  I ignorantly know very little and what I have learned recently is from the point of view of the Greeks, probably not the best lime light given their rocky history.  After our first day I am more then pleasantly surprised by the beauty and character of this city.  We had dinner on the rooftop of our lovely hotel last night.  The view is of the entire city from the Hagia Sophia down the Bosphorus.  This morning we started our day on a ferry ride down this important body of water.  The Bosphorus is a strait of water separating Europe and Asia and which joins the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.  The shores of the Bosphorus are lined with beautiful palaces and mansions once owned by Sultans and now occupied by the wealthiest of Turks.  We exited in a town named YENIKOY and drove back towards where we came.  

We stopped atop a hill in one of the most picturesque spots in Istanbul.  From here you can see the city on both sides of the Bosphorus and far into the distance.  At this spot we had a nice lunch and some Turkish tea (my mom and I are drinking it in the picture above).  They use a lot of chili peppers in the food here making it spicy and I love it!  As you can also see in the picture above there are thousands of Tulips around the city.  They are so beautiful.  Apparently tulips originated from Turkey and were brought to Holland many many years ago.  Turkey is now trying to bring them back to their homeland and there is a tulip festival going on right now. After lunch we headed back towards the inner city.  We were dropped off in front of the New Mosque and the Spice Bazaar.  Before walking through the Bazaar we stopped at the Rustem Pasa Mosque, built in 1561 by the great architect Sinan for Rustem Pasa, son-in-law of and grand vizier to Suleyman I.  Rents from the businesses in the bazaar were intended to pay for the upkeep of the mosque.  My mother and I were asked to cover our heads and luckily we were wearing jackets with hoods and were able to throw those over.  We all had to remove our shoes and step on a carpet before entering the mosque.  The inside is beautifully adorned with Iznik tile mosaics, showing the wealth of the corrupt Rustem.  It was a very interesting place to be.  Zafer explained to us the rituals of the Muslim prayer.  He told us that the reason men and women have to be separated in a mosque during prayer is so that the men do not get distracted from their prayers if a women bends down in the traditional prayer movement in front of them.....as men so easily do.  He told us that all people are seen as equals inside a mosque regardless of class or sex.  Muslims pray five times a day and we hear the prayer chants from almost anywhere the city during these hours as they are projected from each mosque via speakers.  It interests me so much to learn about the religion and this culture from one of their own.  I feel very lucky to be experiencing this.

As we were speaking inside the mosque Zafer noticed that someone grabbed his shoes outside and he ran outside to confront them.  I immediately thought of Slumdog Millionaire!  Luckily the shoe thief was only a tourist who accidently grabbed the wrong shoes and he embarrassingly handed them over.  Sure enough Zafer told us that many shoes are stolen and as we walked back through the streets to our car we saw men selling shoes that were definitely not new, maybe just wiped down, lying on sheets.  Afterwards we headed to the spice market.  This cavernous, L-shaped market was built in the early 17th century as an extension of the New Mosque complex.  In Turkish the market is named the Misir Carsisi - the Egyptian Bazaar - because it was built with money paid as duty on Egyptian imports.  From medieval times spices were a vital and expensive part of cooking and they became the market's main produce.  The bazaar came to specialize in spices from the orient, taking advantage of Istanbul's site on the trade route between the East (where most spices were grown) and Europe.  Today an extensive amount of things can be found within the market, including everything from household goods, toys and clothes, to exotic aphrodisiacs.  The very first picture above is from this market.  

After the spice market we went back to the hotel and Zafer and my mom and I took a stroll down one of the most popular streets in Istanbul.  It is called Istiklal Caddesi and it is a wide walking street that is lined by modern shops and restaurants.  There were so many people walking down it that you had to maneuver your way through the people and the occasional trolley that went by.  It was a lively bustling street and Zafer said that there is always tons of people.  After our walk we just had a quick dinner at a nearby cafe and then went to bed, gearing up for another full day.

Kiki's Visit

First things first.  I have to write about Kiki's visit!  On Monday the 6th Brian and I drove to Athens to meet Kiki.  It was perfect timing b/c Brian had the next few days off after a great win against Faliro.  It was Brian's first game back after his "injury" and he played great scoring 3 goals.  We took advantage of his short break and grabbed Marco and headed to Athens.  Kiki wasn't arriving until that evening and we got on the road early, initially having planned to stop at Mycenae and maybe Epidavros on the way.  It ended up raining though and we just decided to head straight to Athens early.  As we were maneuvering our way through the crazy traffic packed streets of the city I see a Taxi out of the corner of my eye inching closer and closer to our car.  In my head I thought, "he's going to stop before he hits us," and to Brian I just said...."Brian," but it was too late.  Sure enough, the Taxi DID NOT stop and just plowed right into the corner of our car and kept on driving with a little smile on his face.  We both just kind of sat there, mouths agape, not really believing what just happened.  I jumped out of the car to take a look at the damage and saw another Taxi driver kind of looking at us in disbelief and pointing in the direction of the cab, like, why aren't you going after him?  But what were we to do?  Run the Taxi over and yell at him in English?  So in an empty attempt at revenge I wrote down his license plate and we moved on.  Brian kind of wiped up the scratch later and that was the last of that.  After all, it is just a rental.

When we got to the hotel I went to the counter to check in and was kind of hoping Brian would hide somewhere with Marco so we didn't have to deal with all the attention he draws, and possibly a problem with the staff.  I booked that particular hotel, Divanis Palace Acropolis, for the sole reason that we had read they allowed dogs but knowing the way Greece works, you never know.  Sure enough, once the women saw him sitting there she asked me, is that dog staying with you?  I knew there was going to be a problem.  She said, "we do not allow dogs over 5 kilos (Marco is about 12.5kg).  I gave her the "oh no, I had no idea" puppy dog face and she kindly called her manager and he made an exception.  I honestly don't think they would have made one if Marco wasn't as cute.  They just asked us to make sure he stayed quite, ha, since there were other people on our floor.  This meant we could NEVER leave him in the hotel room alone, so Marco came with us everywhere.

After we picked Kiki up from the airport we dropped her stuff off at the hotel and walked into the old part of town for dinner.  The hotel was very near the Acropolis and as we walked we had it shining above us, an always impressive site.  Just like when Michelle and Nico were visiting there was no one around.  I still don't understand the schedules of the people in Greece but we found a nice quiet restaurant to sit and have a good meal and that was all we needed.  The next day we set out for the island of Hydra.  We got on one of the "Flying Dolphins" and about 1 1/2 hrs. later we landed.   Hydra is a charming small island just off the coast of the mainland.  What makes it so charming is that they do not allow cars and the only way to get around is via donkey.  Kiki was especially excited about this and getting a donkey ride so that was the first thing we looked for when we got off our FD.  My intentions were to take a pic of Kiki with, or maybe even on, a donkey but the minute we paid any attention to the animal his handler came up to me, grabbed my purse, and practically threw me on the animal....so we were off on our donkey ride.  I don't even think those donkeys are meant for rides b/c they contain wood saddle-like boards atop their backs meant to carry luggage to the hotels.  Well these wood boards held Kiki and I regardless of their purpose and Brian and Marco trotted on foot behind us trying to take pictures.  It was fun and I'm glad we did it.  Hydra is small and we saw most of it within the hour but we found a really delicious cafe right by the water where after our fabulous lunch we decided to go to for dinner as well.  We also walked to the Lazaros Koundouriotis Historical Mansion, former home of one of the major players in the Greek Independence struggle.  We saw that, despite the hours it showed in our travel book, it was closed for the afternoon.  We decided to walk around the island some more, took in more of the sights and the scenery, let Marco run and play with another random dog, and then headed back.  After climbing the hill once more to get to the mansion we were anxious to get inside but to true Greek fashion the doors did not open at the proposed hour it said on the wall and we even waited about 20min. past but they never did open so we gave up on our mission.  After our delicious dinner we headed back to Athens and to bed.  On Wed. we went to Vouliagmeni and Glyfada for some shopping while Brian was at practice.  Unfortunately none of the shops would let Marco in so we had to take turns.  Afterwards we hit up all the Athens sites like the Acropolis and the ancient forum, rested a little in the hotel and then went back out to dinner.  On Thurs. morning we dropped Kiki off at the airport (:-() and Brian and I headed back to Patra.  

From now on my blog will be coming from Turkey as I left Greece yesterday to meet my parents in Istanbul!  I will be here for the next two weeks on a Turkish adventure, stay tuned!