Thanksgiving in TURKEY

Turkey

The 14^th of Nov we went for a Christmas holiday to see Conor who is studying in Turkey.

 Katie joined us for a week. Tom and I left on the 14^th and ate everything on our plate of airline food, and it was GOOD. We flew Emirates with a 12 hour layover in Dubai. We heard we could get a free room for a layover of more them 8 hours. I bought the ticket and then I looked at the web site nothing showed up so I finally called. You only get that if your ticket is more then $1100.00. Ours wasn’t. So the cheap ticket is getting more expensive in time that could be spent doing other things. We booked a room at a hostel and it ended up being full but they found a room for us that they went and cleaned at 12midnight. A few soccer teams were staying there too. Next AM no hot water, that was why the room was available. No discount and the room was $75. That is not a hostel rate if you ask me, but for Dubai it is. (It is the 2^nd most expensive city in the world) The room did have a lovely breakfast buffet included. (When on vacation I seem to have no satiety, I think this is called gluttony. Since I am home I am repenting) We slept on a chaise lounge in the terminal on the way home.

Dubai’s airport terminals are the size of a football stadium the terminals are very busy. The amazing thing to me was seeing no one from Dubai. Like the locals. I saw 3 Arabs in the airport. Since Dubai is a new city the builders of it are sheiks. They had to hire all the help from outside the country and many people stayed to work. A lot of Southern Asian workers and English is the language spoken. Seeing Dubai from the plane it goes on and on and on. We flew over it for ½ hour at night. The county side I saw from the taxi ride from the hostel was, tall buildings or pale gray sand, I didn't see green.

 Next stop Istanbul……

We connected and went on to Izmir (Smyrna) where Conor met us. I didn’t recognize him- He’s bought some new clothes and looking pretty handsome. Izmir is on the coast of the Aegean and it was like Duluth in Nov. We were cold! I had bought some clothes in the market before I left Arua, but, when it’s 90degrees in the sun, it is hard to imagine cold. Trying on coats and hats seems foolish, so we were underdressed… We stayed with Miri, a young man (22) that invited us on Couchsurfers. 

 He is Turkish and lives in his father’s apartment in the city and goes to the same school Conor does. His Father lives in his home village so he has the whole apartment which overlooks the sea. It was beautiful. But, the Turks are very hot blooded and don’t turn on the heat till cold, cold, cold and they keep windows open so their houses don’t smell like smoke from the 40 cigarettes that they each smoke a day. They also don’t speak English. Miri had worked in the summer in US and spoke English well and did not smoke. He didn’t turn on heat either. We had a great hot shower and heavy quilt to sleep under so we were ok. Miri was a very gracious host. He was attentive showed us thing we wouldn’t have known about, told us about food, helped us with transportation and prepared a wonderful meal for us of pasta with yogurt, garlic, butter and hot sauce. It was the best food I had in Turkey.

 Turkey has fresh fruits, quince, persimmon, pears, mulberries, figs, apricots, and oranges and pomegranates are in season right not so street vendors sell fresh squeezed juice. The veggies they use a lot of are eggplant, okra, carrots, tomatoes potatoes red peppers and olives lots of olives. Turks are also meat lovers so cow or lamb is served the most. This was breakfast served with a large basket of bread for dipping.  I loved it...
You can chew there meat too! 

3 days with

 Conor, Miri, and Kate, a fellow student with Conor from Nebraska. Tom and I got on the bus Monday to travel for a week and we headed S. 









We went to Selcuk the town outside old Ephesus. It was fascinating.

  Then we traveled 3 miles to Ephasus and spent the afternoon. 

The front of the  Ephesus library, notice the God and Goddess statues on the bottom row

This is Tom listening to St. Paul talk to the Ephesian in the amphitheater

 We took our Bible and would read from it and go find the places Paul or Silas had been. We also found that there is a church of Mary and John there. They came to avoid the persecution from Rome in Israel and they died there.

We also met Osmondo there, the Turkish rug sales man who had his own shop and many, many, rugs which, he showed us. He gave us apple tea and wanted to give us a rug, but we didn’t bite. (It felt a bit like time share). 

We were treated to fresh doughnuts. A man and his wife were making fresh ones and giving them away. We asked about why free and were told that the Muslims remember their loved ones who have died on the anniversary by giving away treats and the doughnuts are the usual treat. I thought my mom and aunts could survive forever just going to memorials in Turkey.

The bus the next day took us to Pamukkale and old Roman city of Hierapolis.

Last photo before the plunge....
 REVELATIONS am I hot or cold for GOD?
This is the hot  place talked about.

They were built around the mineral springs. The water flows out the side of the hill and has formed beautiful white calcium pools that hold the warm water. You can swim/soak in them but we hadn’t brought our suits so we just walked in them. They are however slippery and I fell in with my camera so that is why this is late being posted. I am waiting for Tom to get home with a new camera so I can load pictures. Since I was soaked and the ticket only bought one entrance our tour was very short. We did have a room that night that was heated by the water and had a huge pool/tub in the room that we filled with the mineral water to our necks and soaked in.

 Next day we kept going south through the mountains to the Mediterranean Sea at Antalya. 

We met a young Dutch couple and they invited (we just didn’t leave their side) us to join them. They had a copy of lonely planet and we didn’t. 

They were going into the old city and we went too, stayed and hung out with them. They had GPS and we were never lost. The Med was warm enough to swim in but I left my suit in the room or I would have jumped in. Antalya was warm and a beautiful city by the sea.

 More museums, more ruins, more statues, more fresh pomegranate/orange juice. We spent 3 days there and flew to Cappadocia where we were all meeting up.









 We rented a car with GPS and went to get Conor at the other airport. For such fertile country side the place was bleak with very few trees. The country side was like Arizona and New Mexico. Where we stayed in Goreme it was like Canyon de Shea in Arizona. We picked Kate up late at night and enjoyed the beautiful sky on the ride to the cave hotel the kids rented.

 The Christians fled to this area when the Muslims took over the country. Like I said there are few trees so they built or dug their homes out of the soft limestone rocks of the area. We stayed in one of the cave rooms. The hosts were wonderful and drew us maps every day t breakfast of the hikes we could take around Goreme. Everyday we were out by 10 and lost by 11 but found our way back by 5 when the sun went down. Good company, good food, leisurely walks warm days, lovely scenery; it was a great way to reconnect. Since this was the only time we have seen each other we celebrated birthdays and Christmas so Sunday was Christmas.

 We woke up at 5:30am to go for our presents. We took a hot air balloon ride over the valley with a champagne (juice) celebration at the end. It was magic. We toured a small cave church in the afternoon that someone was singing in so when she left we went in and sang Christmas songs. It had acoustics that let you hear the music more than once. I am the only family member that can’t carry a tune. The others helped me out and I keep the sound in my head of Silent Night. Christmas in the Peace Corps what a memory… We left Kayseri by air with a problem. I had booked our flight for the day before… fortunately a credit card helped get us on the flight and they had room for us.

On to Istanbul and all the history it offers. We stayed in someone’s apartment, who moved out to rent it. Istanbul is built in 7 miles of rolling large hills.
13 million people live there. 

 The most historic site is a peninsula on the Europe side called Sultanhamed. We toured the

 Blue Mosque,  The Muslims try very hard to convince us that Jesus was a prophet and show all that both religions have in common but that Islam is the right way. It gave us pause and much to l about with each other and others who would see us pray before meals.

 Aga Sofia an old Christian church that the Ottoman Muslims took over and painted over the beautiful paintings. It is in the process of being restored to the Christian décor now, the Topkopek museum where Moses staff and David’s sword (looked like a branch from a tree for a short guy and anyone sword) and a lot of jewels are kept there. The Turkish people who speak English were very helpful at telling of other places to see on the Asia side of the river. We took a few ferry rides and saw the area from high high hills.

 The trip was over too soon and we were all on a flight to different spots with Conor remaining in this great country. Katie is off to DC and then California for Christmas with Dylan and his family, I am back home, Tom, after seeing the airports of the US, is back, and we will host the new education volunteers to Arua for Christmas. We will enjoy another year here celebrating. The trip is now a cherished memory. I hope that you too have many cherished memories of your Christmas together or apart.
 Our Love this advent as you prepare for the birthday party of Jesus.     IN HIM,  Marc