Turkey was awesome! We got to stay for a whole month and it was definitely worth it. We went to a lot of cool places and did some amazing things! I really enjoyed seeing their flag around so much and I wish we had ours around more at home. They have a lot of parades and a ton of rugs! I enjoyed Turkey a lot !
Our first stop in Turkey was Istanbul. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when our plane landed, but when our shuttle picked us up to drive us to our hotel I was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful flower displays and busy people. I didn't feel afraid at all when we were in Turkey. There was a few things that we had to get used to, like the prayers that were shouted out three times a day or how every other shop you walked by sold rugs and only rugs! Every person we met wanted to help us... maybe to get you to buy their rugs! We ate wonderful Turkish food, which means a lot of shish kababs, and a lot of ladies there dress in traditional robes and head coverings.
When we toured the Blue Mousqe mom and I had to put on scarfs and long cloaks so we didnt show our skin, and no shoes were allowed! The next mousqe we went to was Ayaspophia. It was originally a church but was burnt down, then was rebuilt with beautiful mosaics. In about 450 BC it was made into a mousqe, but inside a mosque they cannot depict faces so the mosaics on the walls had to be plastered over. In Roman times it was made back into a church, so off came the plaaster. In about 1500 it became a mosque again... so more plaster! In the 1930 the Turk's beloved leader, Ataturk, made the mosque into a museum and some of the mosaics were un covered. In the center of the mosque there was a big dome, so on the floor they put little X marks to show where the dome started and ended. It was huge!
One of my favourite places was the spice market. Most of it was inside running through hallways, and boy did it smell good in there! Lots of spices, lamps, rugs and Turkish delight! I bought some pillow cases that I really love! The funny thing is that a man had to tell us where the spice market was, when we were right beside it! You couldn't even tell it was there from the outside! Istanbul was great but I also toured a lot of other awesome places, like Capadocia!
In Turkish, Capadocia means land of the beautiful horses. Capadocia (cap a DOE kee ah)is famous for its under ground caves and fairy chimneys. Fairy chimneys are like the hoodoos in Drumheller, Alberta. In the time when Romans ruled they would come to Capadocia to persecute the Christians, who built under ground cities to hide in. The under ground cities could hold about 50 thousand people at a time but they would only stay there for a few days, or until the Romans left. The people made a well, wine cellar and pantries. They would bring everyone down, even the animals! If the Romans did find the passage way to their city the people made booby traps like giant holes in the floor and huge stone barricades they could roll into place. It felt like being in an Indiana Jones movie!
That wasn't even the coolest part about Capadocia! My favorite thing we did in Capadocia was go on a hot air balloon ride! We got up really early in the morning and a car came to pick us up. It looked so beautiful with all the other balloons illuminated in the dark. We were one of the first ones up. We went really high and dipped in and out of the fairy chimneys. The sunrise was beautiful and the landing was perfect. The pilot had to land on the back of a truck! Then we drove on the back of the truck in the hot air balloon basket! later we had champane and juice. A beautiful start to a day!
Next up came Ephesus. My favorite part was the Library of Celsus. The library was built by the son of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus. His son built the library to honour his father and when Tiberius died he was buried under the library. The Library could hold 12 000 scrolls! Sadly, it was destroyed first by a large fire and then a massive earthquake. The libray is still in fairly good condition considering what happened to it! Ephesus itself was a harbour city that housed about 56 000 people! But after the devastating earthquake the harbour filled up with silt and could no longer be used so the city was abandoned. The very famous temple of Artemis was also in Ephesus, but it was destroyed many times by both natural and human causes. Only one of the original 121 columns still stands. The temple was named one of the 7 wonders of the aincent world. Ephesus, with its beautiful mosaics and sculptures was a really unique way to get a glimpse at what life was like for these ancient people.
While we were in Selcuk (SELL chuck) we visited Pamukkale (pam oo CALL eh) That was my favourite place even though the hot air balloon ride was tough to beat! We had to drive pretty far to get to Pamukkale and when we got there it was not what I was expecting. At first glance it looked like a mountain of snow but it was actually a giant calcium deposit! We had to take our shoes off to walk up to the top because there was a thin weaterfall flowing all the way down! When we got higher up the water got warmer because under neath the deposit is a naturall hot spring! Once you reach the top you can swim in a man made pool. The pool and area around it was built by the Romans as a spa. At the bottom of the pool are ancient pillars you can swim over, or sit on! Behind the pool there was also a really neat old theater that you could go sit in and pretend to wach a play. This was my favorite thing we did in Turkey and if you are planning on going I would strongly suggest you visit Pamukkale.
Turkey was a fantastic adventure. I love the rugs, flags and tea that you can get and see everywhere! The food was excellent and the people were so kind to us. I had a wonderfull time in Turkey and learned a whole bunch about the sites and culture.
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