Turkey Highlights

Essence of the trip in one picture...

These are magnum bars... and this specific kind has white chocolate and almond outer shell with Oreo Ice Cream inside!! (I dubbed it "The Goodness", a cousin to my family's "The Good Cake") Mmmm I want one right now!!


Meet Fatih! Our tour guide for the week! He had to wear this scarf to block the microphone from the wind. He liked my "Lady Gaga" sun g's (I have no idea why he thinks they look like Lady Gaga...) so we wore them around to complete his look.

Our hotels were all very unique... this one had a medium pool, great beach front property with a dock perfect for dance parties!

I didn't have my camera to document but we JCers through the best bon fire/dance party Turkey has ever seen!! We had an incredible DJ (our own AJ Swartwood) who lead us in some synchronized dances. The hotel loved it so much, they filmed us....I wouldn't be surprised to find us on their PR page for their website.

But the most exotic hotel award goes to...

.....Aqua Fantasy!!


I guess hotel isn't the right word for this place....it was more of a mix between a water park/beach resort/Aqua Fantasy!! Right when you pull in you see the turrets of the water park kingdom with slides and lazy rivers (unfortunately, the park was only open during the day when we were out seeing the sights and closed in the evening so we never got to go on it).

(Never got a really good pic of the water park sorry)

 Then you check in and are given a map, (yes an actual map) of the resort because it is just that big! We started exploring and found a new pool around every corner, spas and tennis courts galore, a whole section dedicated to hammocks between palm trees and a path leading down to the beach. They had an amphitheater right off the beach and were putting on a live production of Ice Age

Our first night, we spent the evening on the dock and on our way back to the rooms, we saw some kind of open bar playing some kind of exotic music and playing games. Here's Rob in the final round of the hat game:

I wish I had gotten a pic of the DJ....best described as a Turkish Lucius Malfoy! "Shake it and move it!" (Said with a THICK Turkish accent)

 
Our final day in Turkey was spent back in Istanbul where we did a tour of the Hagia Sophia

I wish this place could be expressed in a better way than pictures...it is absolutely breathtaking!!

My feelings exactly!

I love Bazaars!

The famous Blue Mosque:

My new besties! :)
 

 
Basically, Turkey was excited the Cougars came to visit so they wrote it in the sky...upside down...

heh heh...

Ciao Ciao Bye Bye Turkey!! I will miss you!!

Turkey Part II

Sorry, this is kind of a long one so gear up!

Here are some recaps of our travel down the coast of the Aegean Sea:

Gallipoli
(I had never heard about this story till like the day before we visited the memorial. Big battle of World War I where thousands and thousands died on both sides. Very sad story, very solemn place. If you don't know what it is, watch the movie with Mel Gibson)

My first time at the Aegean Sea (not the Caspian....I don't know why but all week I kept wanting to sing The Little Mermaid and then remembered this was not it...)

Nicea
(Modern day Iznik) Like as in the Nicean Creeds! Here is the Hagia Sophia (not the big one in Istanbul) and the place where Constantine had his summer palace were the first and last meetings of the creeds were held.

Sardis
The boys being muscle men - this is the gymnasium at Sardis so they had some of the boys wrestle in the courtyard...it got pretty intense.

Ephesus

Library of Celsus at Ephesus

It's no HBLL...

But these cats are bein' studious at the library!

Probably one of the best parts of the trip was the re-enactment we did of Acts 19 - Paul's time in Ephesus. I didn't document it because I had to be the narrator but it was pretty cool! We divied up the parts and walked around the site and carried "Paul" into the theater and chanted about The Great Diana. All the Asians were filming us and some started in the chant too! It was so fun...I will never forget that story now :)

(They were filming some kind of video in the theater at the time so that's what the green sheet is)

The Church of St. John
(Lower right pic is where they think John the Beloved was buried)

Assos
Assos had an AMAZING view sitting on top of a huge hill. In the lower left pic, you can see all the way out to an island of Greece!

One of MANY theaters...

Pergamum

J Rowdy (aka Brother Ludlow) rockin' the pirate look at Pergamum...

Hey shout out to my Ami's (aka those who did the German exchange with me)

Remember this museum in Berlin (look behind Zach's cute face)

.....and remember this thing-a-ma-bob right at the entrance....

So at Pergamum, our tour guide was telling us about the Zeus' Alter, blah blah blah but there was nothing there to look at. I asked him where it was and he said something like "some museum in Berlin" and I thought....wait a minute.....so I looked at this sign...

....and I looked back through my Deustchland pics and sure enough 

...we had been there....

Cool right? Who would have ever thought I would see this temple in 2009 and almost exactly three years later visit the place it came from? Anyone else get chills?!

p.s. Wo Sind Die Ami's?

Istanbul...not Constantinople

I LOVE TURKEY!!! Who ever dubbed Turkey the "hidden gem of Europe" nailed it right on the head!! It has the best of all worlds (or more like the best of Europe and Asia) it's dripping with history - tons of Hellenistic ruins and churches/mosques dating back to the 3rd and 4th centuries, AMAZING landscape lots and lots of trees and beautiful beaches along the Aegean Sea. I just couldn't get enough! I will probably post about it in segments but here are some pics for now:


The Suleymaniye Mosque

The Grand Bazaar (dating back to 1461)

In the Bazaar they were having a big celebration for the Turkish Futbol team Super Lig. They were singing and chanting up and down the allies. I joined in for a little bit. The man next to me tried to teach me the song they were singing.... "something something manee habba!"

Our private boat ride around the European and Asian sides of Istanbul

My lovely room mate for the week Camilla!! Originally from Columbia, this Latina fire ball has confidence and sass galore! Construction management major at BYU-I and recently has learned how to clean a bathroom for the first time in her life (you know how third world countries are - just pamper and spoil their children!)

The Topkapi Palace where Sultans lived for 400 years till 1800 something:

Istanbul is a beautiful city! I could spend the whole 4 months here and still be astounded by its beauty!

(In the middle is the Basillica Cistern)

We visited a famous Baklava parlor (instead of frozen yogurt hang outs they have baklava hang outs...) and I had my first taste. Didn't really know what to expect becuase I had never really seen baklava before  -- but let me tell you... HEAVEN in my mouth!!

...and this was all just on the first day!!