Eating Turkey, and having it too!

             Helllllllllooooooooo readers! Little surprise fact for you today. If I had got someone pregnant the day I left, I would have a baby by today (in theory). That's right folks! Today is my 9 month anniversary of being on this Magellan-esk excursion! Break out the party balloons and celebrate while you still can, because I'll be home in a little less than 3 months. Comparatively, that's not all that much longer if you really think about it. Sigh - everyday I ask myself where the time went, but I suppose most everyone asks themselves the same thing when looking at the past.



Hagia Sofia, Istanbul

 Speaking of past, let's talk about mine as it relates to the last time I wrote something on this blog. Break out your maps of Turkey (or look it up on google maps), because I'm taking you on a magic carpet ride around the country. For 10 days, I toured around Turkey with a friend from my former glory days in Graduate school. Starting off in Istanbul for 2 days, we saw amazing sites (to name only a few of the many) such as the Hagia Sofia, The Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, and the Basilica Cistern. Of all these places, I was most impressed by the Hagia Sofia. Originally built as a Christian church (some 3 odd times), it was later converted into an Islamic Mosque. Today it is neither. Now, it's a "museum" or more appropriately, an incredible site that can now charge you an entrance fee seeing as it is no longer used for religious purposes. Either way, the iconic site is one of the many reminders of the amazing history in Istanbul and this area of the world. From the Byzantines, Ottomans, Romans, etc. the area has undergone quite a few changes in the last couple 1,000's of years. Similar to Israel (perhaps with less religious importance), Turkey's history, especially surrounding Istanbul, is enough to knock your socks off and delight your senses.

Area around Goreme, Turkey

After 2 days in Istanbul, hop on a bus to Goreme (a small town in a central area of Turkey known as Cappadocia)! Before arriving there, Turkey's buses deserve some worthy time in the spotlight of my blog. Maybe I'm easily impressed, maybe I'm conditioned to the "break-down" and "chicken" buses of SE Asia -I can't exactly say...but in my humble opinion, phenomenal is the only way to describe the buses here. Each seat has a t.v. monitor in the back of it, they serve you tea, coffee, pop, or juice every other 3 hours, and almost all of the buses have wifi on them! The only thing still lacking was a bus company that discriminated against crying babies. Goreme though is a small town surrounded by chimney rocks, sometimes called fairy chimneys, that closely resemble the landscape of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Only these ones are 10x cooler because historically many of them were carved out and used as homes and most often as churches. The scene looks like something out of a fantasy. In winter, the area can get pretty dang cold at night (but from what the weather looks like for where I'll be going in Finland, it doesn't even scratch the surface of "cold"). With snow partially covering the ground, clear blue skies, and small patches of green grass or other forbs, the scene was breathtaking. My friend and I hiked around on our own for a good portion of one day - we explored inside some of the carved out dwellings, really hard to describe. I feel like I've exhausted and/or overused all the adjectives to describe all these places.

Remnant Pigeon cages

One cool thing about these homes is that they had a pigeon room where they kept them in cages - the more pigeons you had, the greater your stock in getting a wife. Apparently some people still keep pigeons, but I'm unsure whether or not they use them in a similar fashion. (by the way, pigeons are not just used as messengers, they're also bred and treated as a delicacy). One other major highlight of Goreme was a hot air balloon ride! If hiking around such a spectacular place wasn't enough to make you wet your pants (and then have it freeze - quite miserable), the hot air balloon ride would definitely put you over the edge. Seeing the whole place at sunrise with about 30 other hot air balloons in the sky - you would think you were in a dream (although on average I only remember 1 a year, so maybe that's not quite a valid statement coming from me).

Area of Goreme from the Sky!

I hope you didn't put your maps away yet, because we still have quite a few places to go! Now, find Antalya, on the south coast of Turkey - go a tad bit west along the coast and find "Olympos" - a small beach town along the Mediterranean back dropped by mountains marking the end of the Lycian way. A completely different landscape, equally stunning. This area, besides being gorgeous, also had some Roman ruins and natural fires spewing from the Earth. Sounds absurd, but it's very much the truth. For 1,000's of years the fires, called the "chimaera" have been burning. An eternal flame (although there are several), fueled by natural gas (largely methane) leaks out of the Earth. Another magical place, especially at night. Also, to keep the education lesson going, the Chimaera was a mythical monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent that breathed fire - if you were a nerd and played video games like Final Fantasy you probably already knew this. : )

 Travertines of Pamukkale, Turkey

After Olympos, we journeyed to Ephesus (west coast of Turkey), a place with some very well preserved Roman ruins in addition to being the place where Paul wrote Ephesians (some of his post-it notes are still preserved in a museum there). I have to be completely honest here, if you've seen 3 Roman ruin sites you'll probably feel as if you've seen them all. Roman cities were all pretty much designed in a very similar fashion, so after 3 of them, you get the general idea. A Cardio Maximus (main avenue typically running North-South), Agora (large open market place), Amphitheater and waaaaa-la! You have a Roman site you can charge tourists to come visit! OK, so there's more to it than that, but for the commoner such as myself with no expertise in archaeology or Roman History this is pretty much what you can expect. In addition to the ruins of Ephesus, the area is also home to a rather surprising gem. THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS! 1 of the 7 ancient wonders of the world!!!!! Haha, it's pretty hilarious, because all that stands today is 1 pillar with a stork nest resting on top of it. Amazingly enough, they did not charge an admittance fee to see this ancient wonder (or what was once wonder).

Sunset at Pamukkale

Last stop...Pamukkale (east of Ephesus)! Pamukkale is another geological treat for the eyes. Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish and the small town is known for its hot springs and travertines, calcium carbonate terraces left behind by the flowing water of the hot springs. Besides having to take our shoes off to walk across the carbonate so as not to dirty or damage the site, the entire place was incredible. Sunset here was one of the best I've ever witnessed because as you looked out towards the sun across the water filled terraces it appeared as if you were looking across an infinity pool that dropped off the edge of the Earth - not only that, but the sun reflected off all the terraced pools making for an even more dramatic scene.

After 10 days, 6 nights in different hostels (nearly) every night, 4 nights buses, and very little sleep, my friend and I explored a huge part of Turkey in a very short amount of time. In 10 days, I managed to fire off about 1,300 pictures. I have quite a bit of sorting to do. After coming back to Istanbul, I now find myself relaxing and catching up on e-mails, while also trying to plan out some of the remainder or my trip. Essentially, I have 2 whole weeks to relax and catch my breath. To many, this may sound like a crime to sit in one place and and really have nothing planned....I can assure you, it is one of the greatest things possible to do while travelling/being on vacation. More on this later.

Spice Guys - they're
a big deal in Istanbul

Before I sign off on this post, I feel like telling a more personalized story. In the Bazaars here, the shop owners are very creative and fun in trying to get potential customers into their shops or at minimum to stop and chat for a little while. It can be annoying at times, but if in the right mood, it can also be very entertaining. Besides reminding me of the opening scene in Aladdin ("sugar dates! sugar dates!"), they'll yell out greetings in several different languages to see which one you will respond to - "Hello, how are you?" Konnichiwa! Hola! - they run through the whole gambit - from there they always ask where you are from or what you are looking for. If you say you're just looking, many will respond "sure, I'm just selling, no problem" or maybe they'll say "of course, I'm here to help you spend your money." My personal favorite, which I did not get to witness, was my friend who had a some guy serenade her with a song that went something along the lines of "OOOOOOOO-MMMMMM-GGGGGG! OHHHHH MY GOOOOOODNESS, you are sooooooo beautiful!" Hahaha, if only I could have been there. The other best experience was inside the Spice Bazaar. If you bother having a free tea and talking with some of the shop owners you'll get some great explanations about the spices and teas. I'll save you the trouble and tell you what they all do. Every other tea or spice does one of three things - helps with digestion, a cold, or makes you smarter. If you really want to have some fun though, start asking questions like, "I'm looking for a tea that will make my toenails grow faster, do you have that?" Or, "which tea do I need to buy to get a unibrow like yours?!" OK, so I didn't ask that last one - but try having fun with it and more often than not the guys will laugh and happily offer you one of the more expensive teas, informing you that it ALSO helps your toe nails grow faster. Of course it does.

Before I sign off, I must inform you about one other thing. Get to Istanbul as fast as you can because from the 21st to the 27th - Domino's Pizza (Located directly below my room at my current hostel) is having a promotion of a lifetime. Buy 1 medium pizza, get 3 free!!!!! I'll be on a pizza diet very soon, and probably a little bit past that because I have quite a bit of spare room in my bag with more on the way as I'll more than likely be wearing all my clothes at once while attempting to survive in Finland. Current Temperatures in Rovaniemi, Finland (place where I will be going to in order to try and see the Northern Lights) is -35 Celsius. Pray for my fingers, toes, and nose.