Turkish Delight

Ahhh the beautiful coast of Turkey. So this past week has been amazing, and has been filled with adventure after adventure. I arrived last night in Jerusalem around 3 am but luckily today is a free day so we are able to catch up on some much needed sleep. This may be a very long post so sit down, relax, and enjoy my week in Turkey.

The first picture is a group of us in front of the Blue Mosque and then the second is a picture of me and Lindsey inside the Mosque. Turkey is around 97% Muslim which means that there are Mosques on every corner, we kept joking that there are as many mosques in Turkey as chapels in Utah. The Mosques are very simple and the only decoration is stain glass and calligraphy. After that we went to the Topkapi Castle which is where the Royal family used to live and now it has converted into a Museum. This museum holds the Topakpi Dagger (the same one in Prince of Persia and apparently a movie with Angelina Jolie is supposedly coming out soon that is filmed here), an 86 Carat diamond, the remains of St. John, and also hair and teeth from Muhammed.

These are pictures from the underground cisterns. Turkey used the Roman aqueducts and built these underground cisterns that held the water for storage. It is no longer in use today but it was a cool relief from the hot sun. After shopping at the Grand Bazaar our group went on a private boat on the Bosphorus! After the boat ride it made me want to move to Turkey and buy a house on the river with the excess millions of dollars that I have. Everyday I was shocked on how beautiful Turkey was, I was expecting more of a deserty place but it was so lush and green. Some parts reminded me of a mix  between Switzerland and Slovenia.

DAY 2:
Every morning we woke up at 6 am so we could eat breakfast and load up on the bus and head out to the next stop. Today the bus ride was a fairly long (around 6 hours) because we had to cross the sea and then drive to Troy. We stopped in the ancient city, read the Iliad, and climbed in the infamous Trojan horse.

The city of Troas is right on the ocean and it has a magnificent pier. So after dinner we all got some Turkish ice cream and walked around the pier. The city was hoppin at night and there was a basketball court on the pier so a group of guys from our group challenged the Turkish guys to a game. It was a brawl and people were gathering around and they were cheering for their team but the American team prevailed. USA USA

DAY 3:
The next day we drove to Pergamum to see the Temple of Athena, the theater, and the Altar of Zeus. While we were in the theater we read from Rev 2 to read about Paul's letter to Ephesus. Where ever we went we always read the scriptures that applied to the sites which made the whole experience that much better because we were able to experience the exact location as biblical prophets. It really changed my perspective on the stories and made them more personable.

I was taken back by the amazing view on top of Pergamum. We walked through this ancient city to the top of the ruins. There was this amazing overlook of the sea. The Acropolis of Pergamum held the theater and also the altar of Zeus. The Altar of Zeus is where Paul said that the throne of Satan was so of course we had to take a this picture......

The last stop of the day was at the Asclepion, which is considered the World's first health center. It was a culmination of different temples that were dedicated to Asclepious, the Goddess of Health. This is also where we see the first symbols of the wrapping snakes which we see today on the Red Cross and most hospital symbols. They believed in the magic healing water that was there. Ironically a few girls thought it would be funny to drink from these waterfalls to cure an illness but the next day all of them were throwing up. Not the best idea.

DAY 4:
Today was our visit to Ephesus! Now my experience was radically different from Rob and Kat's. It was around 60 degrees, not a whole lot of tourists, and the food we had was great. We toured around the ruins and me and lindsey reenacted what was happening at each temple so you guys can guess what the purpose of the temple was by Lindsey's poses.......

 

Ok so #1- The Temple of Medusa. I am Medusa and Lindsey is turning into stone. 

#2- Roman Baths 

#3- Asclepion: Lindsey is throwing up and acting ill. 

We had an amazing devotional in the theater our group performed a song in front of the whole crowd. I didn't think it was very good but we got a standing ovation so apparently it was decent. The theater was magnificent and the I was overwhelmed by its size. 

The Library was my favorite and I could not get over how well put together it was. 

 

Day #4:

This day we were in Pamukkale or the "cotton castles" These are natural hot springs. I didn't get the greatest pictures but you should google it to see what they look like. The picture above is at the Hierapolis, a large theater, during this trip we went to multiple theaters and while we were there we would try to reenact the gladiator fights that would occur there. This is one of my favs and it brings me back to James Bond Island!  

 

Day 5:

The night before we drove to Bursa and enjoyed the most delicious kebabs and walked around the city. BUrsa is not a big tourist spot so no one spoke English and no one would accept american dollars which was a downer when we tried to go through the McDonald's ice cream walk-through. In Bursa there is a beautiful mosque that we toured through and we had a muslim couple that gave us the run-down of the Muslim faith. 

After the Bursa trip we voyaged back to Istanbul and took the ferry back to the Asian side. Once arriving we immediately went to the Hagia Sophia. This is the most famous mosque in Turkey and after seeing I understand why. It was such a large mosque, the statue of liberty could fit inside of the mosque. This is also the location of the famous tile works and where Justinian is presenting the Hagia Sophia to St. Mary.

Well that is the quickest summary of the whole trip that I could think of. Over the next few days I will continue to post facts and pictures from the trip!