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Leah

Benedicts in Turkey: Troy and Çanakkale

November 1, 2015

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After spending the night in Bergama, we drove 3.5 hours north to Troia and the ruins of Troy. (Did you know Troy is in Turkey? I thought it was in Greece!) For a time it was believed the city mentioned in Homer’s Iliad was fictional, but a British man discovered the ruins in 1863.

It was raining that morning, so it was rather miserable to be outside. We sat inside of the “replica” Trojan horse for a while to avoid the rain. Had we had a tour guide and if the weather had been clear, I might have enjoyed this stop more. We hurried through the site and I didn’t read many signs.

Theater:

This area was significant because it showed four layers of civilization:

The view from Hisarlık across the plain of Ilium to the Aegean Sea:

After Troy, we took a ferry boat across the straights to the European side of Turkey. The car ferry cost only 30TL! I was impressed by that. We saved a significant amount of travel time by taking the ferry. (We were on our way to Istanbul.)

It was nearing dark and the weather was still rainy. David really wanted to see the site of the Battle of Gallipoli (aka the Battle of Çanakkale). We drove along the water in Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park to the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial.

The battle took place April 1915 – January 2016. The Ottoman victory was a defining moment for the country. Eight years later, the Republic of Turkey was established.

The Water Diviner movie starring Russell Crowe came out last year and gives an interesting perspective of and shortly after the war. I recently finished reading Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières. The novel is another great period piece.

The memorial structure stands 41.7 meters tall. Here’s Ben standing at the base of it for scale:

It was sobering to see the graves and names of fallen soldiers. It is estimated over 100,000 men died during the Gallipoli Campaign including Turkish, British, French, New Zealander, and Australian soldiers.

After the sun set, we made our way to Gallipoli Konukevi. We were very impressed by this guesthouse! The small apartments were modern and spacious. Their breakfast was wonderful as well.

Happily Vector After

October 30, 2015

Leah

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I’ve designed illustrated portraits for a couple of projects lately. I’ve been having a lot of fun creating them, so I thought I’d open up a digital shop for the holidays!

Christmas is just around the corner! These vector portraits make great Christmas cards or gifts!

If you’re interested in a custom portrait, please check out www.happilyvectorafter.com or message me at happilyvectorafter {at} gmail {dot} com.

Benedicts in Turkey: Pergamum

October 26, 2015

Leah

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After Ephesus, we drove to ancient ruins of Pergamum (aka Pergamon) set in modern day Bergama. We considered taking the cable car up to the acropolis, but instead drove up the hill. Pergamum is one of the Seven Churches of Revelation and is mentioned in Revelation 2:12–17. Today, the location is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It was David’s and my first time visiting the hilltop fortress. The extent of the ruins are not nearly as impressive as Ephesus or Laodicea, but I’m glad we got to see the theater. The theater of Pergamum was built in the 3rd century BC directly into the side of a hill. It could seat 10,000 people and was the steepest theater in the ancient world.

Pergamum was a prosperous city. It was a political center and had the second largest library in the ancient world. It also had the Asklepion hospital and health spa. The city was especially known for its pagan worship with temples dedicated to the Roman Emperor Trajan, Athena, Dionysus, Demeter, and Zeus. Christians here faced a lot of persecution. Antipas was martyred for his faithfulness to Christ.

The foundation of a temple:

I didn’t walk down to the bottom of the theater, but the boys and Mom did:

After we finished exploring the site, we headed to Efsane Hotel for the night. Bergama was a smaller city and it felt more conservative than others we’ve visited. Dad was still on the mend from his stomach bug and turned in early, but the rest of us had dinner at a Domino’s Pizza.

Benedicts in Turkey: Ephesus

October 22, 2015

Leah

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I’m nearing the end of recapping our two week tour of Turkey! Looking through all of these photos is making me homesick. I want to drop everything and head to the Turkish coast.

After Pamukkale and Hierapolis, we drove to Kuşadası and spent the night at Sergent Hotel. It was a great hotel with a fantastic view of the beach. They were so helpful and accommodating.

Unfortunately, Dad had been battling a stomach bug for a few days, and ended up going to the hospital the next morning for antibiotics and fluids. David and Mom took him while the boys and I walked the boardwalk, peeked into the shops, and stuck our feet in the Aegean. The Turkish coast is paradise. I mean, look at all these blues:

After a few hours, they came back from the hospital. Dad was feeling a little better and we drove 18km north to Ephesus.

Ephesus was a major port of commerce in the ancient Roman world. Over the years, the waters receded so it no longer sits directly on the coast. The city was famed for its Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders. The apostle Paul spent time in Ephesus and had a heart for the believers there (Acts 18, 19, 20). It is also one of the seven churches of Revelation (Revelation 2).

Ephesus was one the first places David and I visited when we first moved to Turkey. We enjoyed showing the family the ruins, library, terrace houses (completely worth the extra entrance fee!), and theater. I can’t believe how blue the skies were this day!

Ephesus kitty with Nike Athena:

Hercules Gate:

Family photo inside the Theater of Ephesus. It can hold 25,000 people and has perfect acoustics.

After a few more Magnum bars, we drove three hours north to see our third of the Seven Churches of Revelation.

Apartment Tour: Korea

October 20, 2015

Leah

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Here’s a tour of our cozy place in Seoul. We live in a villa, which sounds quaint and romantic, but in Korea, that means a small apartment building. Most villas we’ve seen have two to six apartments.

So, flashback to July – we were in Ankara and I thought I would be efficient and pack our luggage in a way that we wouldn’t have to touch the majority of it until we got to Korea. That was wishful thinking. I had forgotten how stressful it is to pack most of your worldly possessions into a few suitcases. We went through MANY rounds of revisions and paring down. After three weeks in the States, we arrived in Seoul with five checked luggage pieces, two rolling carry-ons, one backpack, and one guitar.

This is what our home looked like the first day we arrived. I am sharing this to remind myself to rejoice in how far we’ve come since then:

We are fortunate that the school furnishes our apartment with the essential pieces. They also stocked our kitchen with new dishes, silverware, pots, and pans.

Here is our entryway. The air conditioner is on the left. We keep our shoes in the built-in dolap. The hall tree and shelf are both from IKEA. The orange sticky notes around the place are my labels of Korean words!

I killed most of my first round of succulents. I’m blaming it on the low light. We have only three small windows. Here are my succulents take two:

This is the view from the front door. The couch from IKEA (mentioned here) dominates so much space, but it’s comfortable and we live on it when we’re home. I like how it matches our Turkish rug!

The walls are concrete and are covered in a textured wallpaper. We tried every kind of Command hook out there, but nothing stuck. (The only hooks that held were from Daiso. You melt a dot of glue on the back with a lighter and stick it to the wall.) I had to get creative and hung our map tapestry (from GMarket) by sticking sewing pins through the wallpaper. Isn’t it interesting how the Americas are on the right side of the map?

Air plant in driftwood from Pida (피다):

Next to the couch is a door that opens to where our washing machine sits. We keep cleaning supplies and other storage items back here:

Behind the dining room table is the main bathroom. There’s no tub or separator wall, so we use a squeegee to push the water towards the drain after a shower:

Kitchen and dining area:

Stove and microwave:

Here’s the master bedroom. We call it the cave. There are no windows, so if we close the door, we could sleep for daaays. We are creatures of habit and purchased the same bedspread we used in Turkey from IKEA:

This is the bathroom connected to the master. (I can’t imagine anyone taking a shower in this tiny space!)

Also connected to the master is a storage room. It was really humid in here during the summer months, but we may move more things into this area once the cold weather hits.

Off of the kitchen is a spare bedroom:

This bedroom has my wardrobe closet. We use the dresser in here for things like office supplies, electronic cords, and medicine. Our suitcases are in the corner for now so they don’t mold in the storage space. This room usually serves as our laundry drying area.

While I can’t say I adore our apartment, I am very grateful for it and appreciate having our own space to call home. We have what we need and live comfortably here. I’m also thankful we live in a safe neighborhood that is conveniently located to the school, shopping, and public transportation. Our longing for natural light may push us to move next year, but that’s a ways off and we’ll see.

What do you think of our new place?

Seoraksan National Park

October 17, 2015

Leah

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We spent an afternoon of our weekend in Sokcho at Seoraksan National Park. We did some unexpected hiking and climbed to new heights.

Seoraksan National Park (설악산국립공원) is a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site. It was easy to get to the park entrance from Sokcho; we took the 7–1 bus to the end of the line. (For anyone visiting from Seoul, T-Money cards do not work on Sokcho buses. Bus fare costs ₩1,200 per person.) Park entrance cost ₩7,000 per person. The entrance gate was crowded with people visiting over the Chuseok holiday.

The bronze Jwabul Buddha Statue sits near the entrance at over 14 meters high:

The park was beautiful. The weather still felt like summer, so it was a perfect day for a hike. First, we bought tickets for the cable cars. We scheduled our tickets for the 5:00 pm ride. (Tickets cost ₩10,000 per person. Buy ahead – they do sell out!) We vaguely heard about and decided to take the Ulsanbawi (울산바위) trail. It was around 4 kilometers long, and we figured that’d be a good distance to cover and make it back in time for the cable car.

Our hike started out easy. We wandered by pretty mountain views and Buddhist temples:

We saw a lot of Koreans in hiking gear, which we thought was silly. The beginning of the path was paved and flat. There were even bathrooms along the way. After a while, the trail changed to a rocky path and our ascent really began. We understood the walking sticks after that.

In the distance, we saw the granite peaks of our destination. And then it hit me. We were hiking all the way to the TOP of Ulsanbawi. Afterwards, we found out it has an elevation of 867 m.

The Gyejoam Temple (게조암) is a good halfway marker. There were some food vendors there, but we just topped off our water bottles from a spring. Also near temple is Heundeulbawi, the “rocking rock.” No matter how hard people push it, it can never be knocked over. If you have enough force, the rock does shift a bit:

Then, we hit the stairs. The 800+ stairs that are strapped to the mountain and take you up the top. This one was of the steepest climbs I’d ever done. It didn’t help that we hadn’t eaten anything but half a muffin. Thankfully, we had some granola bars and nuts.

After about 2.5 hours (the last hour was torture), we FINALLY made it! We were surprised to find a small souvenir shop at the top. There were men selling Korean iced tea for ₩5,000. At that point, it could have cost three times that price and I would have paid it. It was the best iced tea I’d ever tasted. It was a hard climb, but the views at the top – wow!

The climb back down the mountain took only 1.5 hours. We were booking it to make it in time for our cable car ride. Funny enough, we ran into some people who worked at the school we worked at in Turkey. Our time hadn’t overlapped, but we heard about them living in Korea from mutual friends. It’s crazy we had to hike a mountain in order to meet them!

I don’t know how accurate it is, but my phone said we climbed 140 stories to get to the top. Here are the death stairs:

After we finished the trail, we had some time to spare. We climbed down to the stream and soaked our feet in the cold running water. It felt SO GOOD! A Korean man saw us, thought we were funny, and had to get a photo with us. (Us probably meaning David and his red beard.)

We (finally) got some lunch at one of the many restaurants near the entrance. And then we took the cable car up to the Gwongeumseong peak (elevation 670 m). There was a cafe at the top and we snacked on hotteok and enjoyed the view.

It’s probably for the best that we didn’t do much research on the trail before we got to the park. If you do the hike, don’t be like us and eat a meal beforehand. There are several other trails in the park that we didn’t have time to do including one that takes you to a waterfall.

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to, but I’d love to make it back to Seoraksan to see the fall colors!