Western Turkey

Urfa was a very pretty city. Clean and probably the touristy city of the East. They like to claim they are the oldest known city in the world (Jericho's not the only one to say they are). We didn't stay long because, well, our mouths were happy if our stomachs weren't...


We stayed at Lizbon Guest House, which had the unique distinction of being run by two former nomads. Why did they leave the mountains to come to Urfa? They say it's too hard to be a nomad anymore. The nomads fight over the land they can have, the government tries to regulate them, and there's not many Kurdish nomads left.

It was interesting to have them regale us with tales of living in a huge tent for 50 (different families travel together) and the fact that Aziz and Farida had grown up together. They married when she was 14 and he was 18 (but no sex before then, Aziz assured us). Both have tattoos made from the juice of cat's liver and other ingredients, symbolizing the sun, etc. They were a cute, conniving pair, the two of them: partners in crime, but a lot of fun.

I say partners in crime because Aziz offered us lunch. After we finished eating he said, "The price is not included in your stay. But don't worry, it's not so much. I give you a good deal: 5 lira per person." Jacob got a little angry at his sneakiness, then decided to play a joke. We offered to bring them back ice cream that night. We had a great time talking together and playing backgammon, and then Jacob said, "The ice cream was not free. Five lira!" Farida literally rolled on the floor laughing. She laughed too hard not to know her husband's little trick he plays on tourists. Aziz sheepishly wouldn't look at Jacob and said, "Good joke." I think he got the point.

Aziz did take us on a tour of the city, which is holy to Muslims because they believe here is the cave where Abraham was born. There is holy water in the cave and some women take water bottles and fill them up to save. This was one attraction that, for whatever reason, the women's side was way bigger and more interesting than the men's. But Jacob had the camera.

The lake of fishes also has a lot of legends associated with it. My favorite is that if you eat Abraham's holy fishes, your eyes will fall out. Here is a painting in a church illustrating this:


We debated about going to Harran, where Jacob and Rachel met at the well. Due to the fact that there was no wireless, and Urfa wasn't cheap to visit, we decided to skip it. We also missed Gobekli Tepe, the oldest temple site ever found. It'll be on our list of things to do when we return. For your viewing pleasure, here is your typical Turkish toilet:


We spent a day on a bus leaving the East and returning back to western ways. I was quite looking forward to Cappadocia, because my guide book describes it as the closest you'll ever get to Mars. Essentially an alien landscape. What I experienced, though, was truly an alien feeling after being in the East. It felt like...something familiar...was it...America? There were actually large houses with backyards, no animals, and American-looking stores. Truly strange. It was very touristy in this city, but the landscape really was fantastic.

Our hostel owners were a Turkish man and Miriam, from the Netherlands. Talk about a leave from Turkish hospitality...we were scolded for staying in the wrong room when it was the room we were shown to stay in. True, we showed up a day early, but sometimes we miss America where the "customer is always right." The breakfasts here were great...French toast every morning after daily breakfasts for three months of tomatoes, bread and jam, and eggs was a treat.

We took a scooter for a day which was a blast. And we took our first hot air balloon ride. I felt like my heart was going to stop the whole way through. When it wasn't the blinding fog, bursting blasts of fire above your head, the pilot yelling to brace yourself for landing, or veering among sheer cliffs of rock, it was serene views, the highest up I've ever been without a window to block the way, beautiful balloons all around, and a romantic way to celebrate an anniversary with my favorite person :) Jacob's parents gave us the ride as an anniversary gift, which was beyond thoughtful.






People actually live in these phallic (I learned a new word, ;) bizarre formations:


And then we were off to Pamukkale, or Cotton Castle, with a new gift: Miriam let us have the Lonely Planet's Shoestring Guide to Europe after Jacob asked four times. Sometimes it's nice to be married to a persistent man :) It's a handy book for people who are likely to hit many of the countries...

Pamukkale was the least friendly out of all the places we'd been. We did a daring thing, too: we left Cappadocia without arranging a hostel, because we didn't have time after our tour of Ilhara Valley, Underground City, and jewelry shop (Pictures below)



When we arrived, we got a shuttle into town by a man who asked us if we had a place to stay. He told us Koray Otel was "very nice. I love it so much. It has a garden... beautiful." When we asked if we needed to pay for the shuttle, he said, "I hate money!" Then he drove everyone in the shuttle to Koray Hotel, where he happened to be owner. Wow. We stayed there though, the rooms were nice but there was no hot water, not so uncommon in Turkey.

That night we walked in front of the travertines and enjoyed the frog chorus.



Pamukkale was a long walk up (and you have to take off your shoes) what looks like a snow covered mountain but what is actually calcium deposits. It's really a pretty view. The blue water is the coldest, and the muddy water the warmest...Jacob had been looking forward to swimming in the pool with Roman ruins, but when we saw it was basically a swimming pool (albeit with warm spring water) behind a huge restaurant that cost 24 lira per person we decided not to go.





And guess what! I've found a great new way to annoy people! The guys at the touristy restaurant there served us food that looked way different than the picture. As in a huge fat sandwich photo compared to cheese on a hot dog bun. So Jacob said he wanted his money back. He gave his money back for his but he wouldn't for my burek, which was also a very small portion. He was just doing it to be rude, because it would be easy to just put it back where he got it. So, I started taking photos of him. He tried to hide behind the glass so I shot pictures behind the glass. I continued to do that before we left. It was funny! And the burek was even pretty tasty!


Hierapolis is an ancient Roman city up on the hill. I think it's mentioned in the Bible once... Crazy to think there were actually people living here at one time...

Waiting for our bus to Selcuk...

Istanbul

Since our 6 week stint in Istanbul will likely be coming to a close soon, I thought I would make a list of Do's and Don'ts if and when you come to the city...and you really should. We loved it here!
DO Visit...







The Kariye Church. It's called the Chora Church in English. It's a little out of the way... had to take a bus from Eminounu to Edirnekapi, but people will be happy to point you the way from there. It's just about the oldest church you can find around here, and the art is quite beautiful. Since Turkey is the foundation of the growth of the Christian church, it's very interesting to see. Then nearby there you can climb the Ottoman walls like I did. I felt like I was doing something illegal, but nobody stopped me, so it was fine! It was a gorgeous view. The steps are super skinny to get up, as you can see:
















The Basilica Cistern: An underground cistern they discovered, then added really cool lighting and lots of fish. A legend about the Medusa's heads found here is that they turned them on their sides or upside down to avoid having to look them in the eye and get turned into stone.










Any and all mosques that you get a chance! You will be surprised at their variety and vastness. This one was nicknamed R2D2 by Jacob.














A Whirling Dervish performance. Sufis are a mystical sect of Islam. They believe by whirling around they will achieve oneness with God. We listened to Islamic music before the dervishes started whirling. Jacob and I had different impressions of this however; I thought the flute added a lot to the performance, while he thought the flutist was making tons of mistakes and the other players were getting frustrated with him! Who knows? We saw it at the Hodjapasha Cultural Center.

Miniaturk. They've got miniature versions of all the beautiful sites in Turkey, as well as some abroad, such as the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Plus there's info on Ataturk, who truly changed the focus of Turkey from one of conquering and imperialism to that of economy and secularization from Islam. And these people worship this guy. His image is everywhere.
Hagia Sophia: Bridge to the Asian Side





Don't Stay at the Budget Hostel unless you're no more than two people! It's really very small. But we lived here quite comfortably for 6 weeks. And made some great friends. Umer is a humble, helpful, happy guy who can't speak English and is kind of a secondary housekeeper. And then this other guy has a name I can't pronounce let alone spell, and he loves to insistently converse with us with only three phrases that can mean everything: "finish" "problem" and "very good."

Do Attend the Istanbul LDS Branch! You'll meet some very kind people. We were invited to dinner with two families. Both had very small children who we enjoyed hanging out with! But Babil Sokak can be hard to find. It's a little street near a main tourist hub, Taksim Square. It took us three weeks to find it. Last Sunday we got to work in the nursery and Jacob had little girls climbing all over him like a jungle gym. Very cute :)







Jacob had aspirations of growing up to be a squirrel when he was young, so he was excited to meet another young guy who believes he is currently a squirrel! Allison, the youngest, was mesmerized by Barney.









This family has three little boys all 5 and under! We admire Christine for staying at home with these three little energy balls: Atticus, Sherman, and Sincy. And as a side note, we saw dolphins jumping in the Bosphorus on the ferry to their apartment. Very cool!









Don't order "steved" fish! Or eat at any of the fish restaurants along the Marmara near Sultanahmet. They are tourist traps. They told us "Turkish music" to lure us in as we perused the menu. When we got inside, we realized it was just a guy pretending to play cheesy pop songs along on a player piano with some of his own additions totally off-key. It was actually pretty hilarious. It sounded horrible. At the same time, there were actually no other tourists there, but a bunch of Turkish people dressed up to the nines. Was this their idea of classy? We decided a better way to celebrate Friday the 13th (always a good day for us because it was our first date) was to buy a Dido bar and play some SkipBo.

Do get a Turkish haircut! Although admittedly I felt queasy as I got my hair done--because the people working frantically on my hair couldn't speak English and the girl didn't use scissors but a razor thing that literally shaved layers off of my hair, so much so that I feared I would go bald, and I even stopped her, which I have never done, to say, "Don't you think it's getting a little thin?" but of course she didn't understand and just kept going-- I was very pleased once it was finished! And you get spoiled for only 15 Turkish lira, which is like 9 bucks.

Don't Visit...
The Pera Palas Hotel unless you are obsessed like I was to see the place where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express. It's currently being renovated. On the other hand, maybe when you all come out here to visit it will be finished and you can go inside to see the room where it was written! Kai, this is for you... since you liked the movie so much:







Or don't visit the Hagia Sophia or Topkapi Palace Harem without a tour guide. I can't say that for certain, because we didn't get one, but without a tour guide you're just looking at stuff without knowing the significance of it, which can be confusing/boring even if very cool-looking/important.

Do just go out exploring--you never know what you'll find. My last venture I discovered a lovely view of the Olympic stadium, for example:

Some say Istanbul is overpopulated with 15 million residents, but I'm a city girl at heart, so I appreciate this:







The end.