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Turkey

    I Am Most Alive Among the Tall Trees

    One of my favorite places to be is in my parent’s maple woods. When I’m home, I’ll often walk or take my dad’s Gator back to enjoy the peace and quiet. It is something I’ve missed while in Turkey.

     

    METU Forest

     

    I recently took a hike in the forest with a friend of mine. It was a fairly clear day and it had been a long week. We decided to just take our cameras and see what we could see. As we walked, I slowly began to let go of the week’s tension. Just to be away from the noise and civilization for a couple hours was refreshing.

     

    Hiking in the METU forest

     

    As we moved farther down the trail, the city became more visible and soon we could see all of Ankara and the mountains beyond, but we didn’t have to hear the noise. The scenery and the outdoors were beautiful and I continued to see God’s presence in nature.

     

    View of Ankara from the METU forest

     

    View of Ankara from the Metu Forest

     

    Being outside reminds me to take time to appreciate that which he has surrounded us. I’m positive that nature and quiet will always be a comfort to me. Whether I’m in Ankara, Turkey or Vermontville, Michigan, I am sure that I will always take moments to enjoy the beauty and serenity found in God’s creation.

     

    METU Forest

     

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    Daniel Meets Our Neighbor

    Before Christmas break, David and I visited our neighbor to drop off a plate of goodies. She was excited to hear Daniel would be visiting us in Turkey. This past weekend, she asked if she could meet him. One of our friends is taking language lessons from her and offered to translate.

    We thought she coming to our house for çay (Turkish tea). Some friends told us it is traditional to serve two salty things and one sweet thing with çay. We stocked up on simit (bread with sesame seeds), a dry bread, and cookies at the grocery store. Our neighbor must have thought the plan was to meet at her place. We walked over to check if she was still coming. She invited us in, but we got things figured out and she and her husband came over shortly after. We had our çay pot on the stove and were surprised when she walked in with her pot. Little did she know these foreigners have learned how to make çay!

     

    House visit with our neighbor.

     

    Our neighbor is always a teacher. She loves to help us as we stumble through our limited Turkish. She zeroed in on Daniel when she learned he was taking a language course. She flipped through his notebook from class and gave him a mini  lesson on dishes.

    We were so glad our friend was there to translate! There was a lot less charades this visit. However, we did use a lot of our Turkish to English dictionaries.

    This was the first time we had Turks over to our apartment. It is customary for the woman of the house to serve the guests and refill glasses. And aside from a slight mishap of me dropping the lid of the çay pot, the visit went well. We all had our fill of çay and understood most of the conversation (thanks to our translator!).

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    Weekend Getaway in Bolu

    Our secondary students took their finals at school last week, and everyone got the day off on Friday. With the long weekend, we wanted to find a cheap place nearby to escape the city. Fortunately, a cabin was available at a mountain retreat in Bolu. Bolu is a two-hour bus ride northwest of Ankara. Some of our friends visited there last year and loved it.

     

    Ankara to Bolu, Turkey on a map

     

    The place we stayed at is called Sakintepe. The eight of us shared one of their four-bedroom cabins. We spent most of the time chilling in the living room and kitchenette area. The heated floors made our stay extra warm and cozy!

     

    Sakintepe in Bolu

     

    The view of the snowcapped mountains was wonderful.

     

    Bolu Scenery

     

    We also loved hanging out with Bear, their German Shepherd puppy and his mom Georgia and dad Montana.

     

    German Shepherd puppy named Bear

     

    It was a weekend of both rest and work. Our grades for the semester were due Saturday at midnight. Several of us had new classes for the spring semester and were able to get a good amount of prep work done. It was nice to work by the wood burning fireplace.

     

    Working by the fireplace

     

    We were sure to take a break and walk around the forest.

     

    Hiking in Bolu

     

    Hiking in Bolu, Turkey

     

    The dogs loved having new friends to play with. The guys spent a lot of time throwing snowballs to Georgia and Montana.

     

    Throwing snow at the Sakintepe dogs

     

    Montana was a funny dog. He carried around rocks as though they were chew toys. He also had a game where he took a rock, rolled it around to create a snowball, then pawed at it till he got back down to the rock.

     

    Sakintepe's dog Montana rolling a rock

     

    On our last night, the caretakers of Sakintepe let us borrow their projector. The ceiling was a perfectly slanted canvas. We kicked back and enjoyed a couple of movies.

     

    Sakintepe cabin

     

    We highly recommend the cabins at Sakintepe and hope to visit Bolu again.

    But for now, it’s back to school and onto the spring semester!

     

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    Hiking in Bolu

    Bolu is a two hour bus ride northwest of Ankara. We spent a long weekend there with Daniel and 5 other teachers. It was a relaxing time with beautiful scenery!

     

     Hiking in Bolu

     

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    Celebrating the New Year in Istanbul

    On our way back from Christmas in the States, we stopped in Istanbul for three nights. We stayed at Side Hotel & Pension. Especially considering the holiday, Side was fairly affordable. Although the room and the breakfast were simple, the location was perfect. The terrace offered a view of the Bosporus Strait, the Sea of Marmara, Hagia Sophia, and Sultan Ahmet Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque).

     

    The Blue Mosque at night

    Sultan Ahmet Mosque

     

    Not too far from our hotel was Topkapı Sarayı. This palace, dating back to the Ottoman Empire, was a home to several sultans over a period of several hundred years. Today it is a museum with rooms and rooms of historic items. The buildings are beautiful inside and outside. We would have liked more time to see the relics and artifacts, but the crowds were unbelievable due to the holiday. On a side note, there was a Chinese exhibit and we got to see four terracotta soldiers and a horse.

     

    Topkapı Palace Entrance

    Topkapı Palace Entrance

     

    Topkapı Palace

    Beautiful ceiling artwork in Topkapı Palace.

     

    We also visited Sultan Ahmet Mosque. It is commonly referred to as the Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles that decorate its interior. It was built by Sultan Ahmet I and is a major tourist attraction in Istanbul. Because the mosque is still in operation, Leah was required to cover her head.

     

    Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque)

    Inside the Blue Mosque

     

    On New Year’s Eve Day, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to The Grand Bazaar. (The Grand Bazaar was featured in the opening scene of Skyfall, the new James Bond movie.) The Grand Bazaar is said to be the world’s first covered shopping mall with construction dating back to 1455. It has 60 streets, 5,000 shops, and sometimes as many as 400,000 visitors a day. We did a lot of looking, got some coffee, and purchased our 2012 Christmas bulb.

     

    The Grand Bazaar

     

    The Grand Bazaar

     

    For New Year’s Eve, we decided to try the local fish. Many restaurants had all-you-can-eat New Year’s packages that ran €100 or more. After perusing around the Galata Bridge area, we found Odessa Restaurant. We were pleased with our service and the fish was tasty. We found ourselves trying to recall the deboning skills we acquired at the Wisconsin fish boil with my family. Our waiter was hospitable and offered us a complimentary dessert. We were impressed by the affordability. Since Leah doesn’t like to stare at fish heads, they even removed the head off her fish before serving.

     

    Odessa Restaurant Fish

     

    After eating, we made our way to Taksim Square. Taksim is where many Turks celebrate the New Year, kind of like Times Square in New York. After walking several blocks shoulder to shoulder with the crowd, we decided being there for a few minutes was enough and headed back near the Galata Bridge.

     

    Busy streets of Beyoğlu

     

    Beyoğlu New Year's

     

    Although the fireworks did not launch from where we thought they would, we watched other fireworks over the Golden Horn set off by some of the local restaurants. There’s no ball drop in Turkey – we had to keep an eye on our watches for the count down!

     

    Istanbul New Year's Fireworks

     

    While in Istanbul, we were also able to meet up with some friends. We were happy to fellowship with Mike and Sharon, who recently moved to Turkey. We were also excited to learn Kennie and Lizzy were visiting Istanbul. We met them this summer at training. They are teaching in Kenya and visited Turkey over their Christmas break.

    We enjoyed exploring Istanbul and getting some rest before we headed back to Ankara to resume school.

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    Iyi Bayramlar: Selçuk and Izmir

    I like what one of our friends said about travel in Turkey. Let me try to paraphrase: “Being able to travel here is like a gift from God. He knows we need the breaks from work and makes it easy and cheap for us to get around.”

    In our previous blog post, David talked about day 1 and 2 of our trip in Izmir (Smyrna!) and Ephesus. We spent the first part of day 3 in Selçuk. Selçuk has several ruins, including a Byzantine aquaduct in the center of town. We also walked up to the citadel, though we didn’t pay to go inside. The Basilica of St. John is within the walls.

     

    Byzantine Aquaduct

    Byzantine Aquaduct

     

    Selçuk Citadel

    Selçuk Citadel… a castle with palm trees!

     

    The weather was warmer than what we’d been having in Ankara. It was a beautiful place to walk with palm trees, mountains, and beautiful flowers still in bloom.

     

    Selçuk city and landscape

     

    As we explored, we came across a Turkish rug store. There was a lady weaving outside the door, and we stopped to watch. One of the store employees greeted us (in English!) and brought us in for a rug presentation. They unrolled maybe 30 rugs, talking about the different materials and patterns. Since none of us had any intentions of buying a rug, we were a little nervous and didn’t want to offend the man. I think business was slow that day and he was just being kind. The store also served us yummy apple tea.

     

    Turkish rug weaving

     

    The man told us silk on silk is the most durable rug structure and the rug outside Topkapı Palace in Istanbul is silk on silk. It was really neat to see how they “harvest” the strands of silk. A machine pulls the silk from cocoons.

     

    Machine that harvests strands of silk

     

    Once we had explored all we wanted to in Selçuk, we took a dolmuş ride to Kuşadası, another coastal town about 20 km away. Kuşadası translates to “Bird Island.”

    Kuşadası was very much a tourist area. It was fun to walk around and look in the shops. Further down the shore, there was a Venetian/Byzantine castle on an island.

     

    Kuşadası castle

     

    After walking around the castle, David and I took an hour ferry ride back and forth around the harbor. It only cost 10 TL, which is less than $6 USD! The wind was blowing, the sun was shining, and it was very relaxing.

     

    Kuşadası Boat Ride

    {Photo taken by our friend Dale.}

     

    The next morning, we took a train back to Izmir. The train was extremely packed because of everyone traveling home from the holiday. There was the cutest 6th grade Turkish girl with her dad and younger brother. One of our friends speaks Turkish, and she laughed as she heard the girl’s dad urge her on to practice her English with us. The girl had a big smile and asked us our names, how old we were, where we were from, and if we were studying or teaching.

    We stayed at the same hotel in Izmir again, and after dropping off our bags, we explored some more ruins. Izmir also has a citadel called Kadifekale Castle. There wasn’t much to see within the castle, but the view was nice. The Aegean coast was on one side and the city was on the other. We also walked down to the Agora. They had it blocked off for some renovations and excavation, but we saw it through the gate.

    For the last evening of our vacation, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

     

    Izmir sunset

    {Photo by our friend Dale.}

     

    There were many vendors on the pier selling corn, oysters, chestnuts, and seeds. We wanted to try the oysters mussels. I almost backed out last minute because I was afraid they were raw, but they ended up being cooked. The oysters mussels were stuffed with rice and the vendor squeezed fresh lemon juice on top. David also got me a rose! Did I get a keeper or what?

     

    Rose

     

    We ate a delicious dinner at Mandolin Cafe and said goodnight and goodbye to Izmir.

    It was a long 9-hour bus ride back to Ankara the next day, but so worth the trip!

     

    » Read about day 1 & 2 here.

     

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