Yo yo yo!
It's September 30th today and I am in Turkey in a city called Selçuk (sell-chook). I'll start from today how bout? Work backwards? You know... change it up a little? heehee I'm so crazy, I know.
SO TODAY:
We got to this city and our hostel at about 12:30am and crashed out til about 10 this morning but didn't actually leave the place til about 1:30 pm. At which point we went to visit one of the Womders of the World: Ephesus, a once formidable Roman Empire constructed of mostly marble. AMAZING experience dudes. Truly. We got to walk around amongst the ruins, touched them and tried to imagine what life was like back then. So cool!!! I can't wait to upload these pictures cuz you will never see anything like this in your lives! It was an ENTIRE CITY unearthed and we were walking around in it! The Theatre was gigantic and the acoustics were so clear... It seated 25,000 people! HUGE! Oh man it was the coolest site I've seen (except for the Basilica in Istanbul but I'll get to that later). After that, we walked the 30kms back to town and ate some grub at this cute little restaurant where we were served by some roid-infused waiter. Seriously. He was huge and so was the other
waiter. heehee Now we're at an internet cafe and I'm doing this. ;-)
YESTURDAY:
I SAW THE RUINS OF TROY!! WOWZERS! We took a tour and left from the city of Çanakalle (cha-na-ka-lai) to the ancient city of Troy. We took pictures from inside the replica of the Trojan Horse: hilarious. (btw, the Trojan Horse built for the Hollywood film Troy resides in Çanakalle. I'll post a pic of that for sure.) It was so funny cuz that's pretty much the only thing you're goin up in there
to do and it doesn't look anything like what the actual horse would have looked like since this one had holes for people to look out of AND an upper deck. heehee You'll see what I mean. It was so funny. So ya. TROY! There were 9 cities built on top of the one before it after the previous one was wrecked from fire or destroyed by an invading land. So you can see the different crafts made and
the different techniques used to build the walls and the homes and such. Alexander came in, demolished the old Temple of Aphrodite and built another - more beautiful - of marble and so you can see the awesome detail work on the marble as compared to the older ruins. It was pretty neat. Our tour guide had us all sit on the steps of
the theatre while he told us of the ancient legend of how Paris took Hellen from her home and brought her to Troy which started the war of Homer's The Odyssey that lasted for 10 years. He had us sit there and the girls sat on the marble steps at the top where King Priam and his Queen Hecuba once sat to watch the theatre... It was surreal. A great tour.
The day before yesturday:
We left for Çanakalle from Istanbul on a morning bus ride so this
day wasn't that interesting.
3 days ago:
We - Monique, her bro Jean-Paul, and I - visited the BLUE MOSQUE, Ayasofya (a famed Christian church), and the Basilica Cisterns. So. The Blue Mosque was so friggen cool that I don't even know how to explain it. It was HUGE and MAGESTIC and BEAUTIFUL. The outside is one thing - 6 minerttes instead of the standard 2, blue (duh!), and much bigger than all the other mosques and not to mention the
oldest - but the inside is beyond words. I wish I had my notebook here with me so I could share with you my initial thoughts. I just remember walking in and my eyes welling up with tears. Such a crazy feeling upon entering such a sacred place!! I just sat down on the lustrious carpets and took it in. If you could have seen the detail work on every single area of the place!! The ceiling, the blue-
tiled walls, the curves of the walls, the columns, the stained glass windows... every single part had something written on it or some sort of beautiful design painted there. AMAZING. We got to stay during the afternoon closing and watch the prayer!! Monique and I had to cover our heads and necks with a sheet... I can't explain how I felt at that time... watching these people pray and sing and stand up and then kneal right down to the ground, placing their foreheads there. Pretty neat. Not something I'd ever done before nor had ever thought I'd do.
The Ayasofya was built in the 4th or 5th Century A.D. and so that was something pretty cool to see considering it's catholic and stands directly across from the Mosque. The inside was under construction right down the middle so we didn't get the full effect, but trust me: we got a pretty vivid idea since everything was so imaculately preserved or restored. There's this one mosaic above the alter I was truly impressed with since because of the rounded area of the ceiling on which it was located, you can see it perfectly from all angles no matter where you are in the church! So neat!
The Basilica Cisterns was a place I never thought would be cool since what it was essentially was a sewage area with aqueducts and such. Not something you would imagine would be beautiful... but 'au contraire mes amis'! It was THE COOLEST place I've ever seen and I will venture to say, I have EVER seen. The way they have it set up is so eery and dark, but the lighting just makes you feel like you
are there in ancient times with the candles as your lights... I can't wait to show you all the pictures so you can see what I'm not explaining very well... Nothing I can say here will do it justice so I whole-heartedly reccomend that if you ever go to Istanbul, this place should be at the TOP of your list of places to go. AMAZING.
THE FOOD
YUMMY. We are definitly not on our starvation diet anymore. heehee But, a donaýre here isn't a donaire back home... for all you fort mac folks: It ain't no Jomaa's. But it's still really tasty and we've been making the effort to try some of what the locals eat and it has been paying off. Be prepared to eat A LOT of bread in not only Turkey but Greece as well.
Ahhh... what else can I tell you? I think that's it so far. We are on our way to Pamucalla to visit the famous Calcium Deposits I've been dreaming of visiting for so long now!! And from there we're headed to Butterfly Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth. Next we plan to hýt up a place called Olympos and stay in a treehouse for a few nights! Apparently it's a backpacker's favorite
place to go and I am so friggen excited for that! We'll move on to Cappadocia from there where we'll visit an ancient city built on the face of a mountain... literally! This will take us to the end of our Turkish tour and we'll be heading back to Istanbul where we'll have a couple days to visit the Grand Bizarre, the Spice Bizarre and the Asian side of the city. We then leave for Amsterdam on Friday, October 14th!! Crazy and wonderful stories are coming up next so be sure to check your emails regularily!!! YAY!!
I'm loving this travelling thing... who knew? ;-)
It's September 30th today and I am in Turkey in a city called Selçuk (sell-chook). I'll start from today how bout? Work backwards? You know... change it up a little? heehee I'm so crazy, I know.
SO TODAY:
We got to this city and our hostel at about 12:30am and crashed out til about 10 this morning but didn't actually leave the place til about 1:30 pm. At which point we went to visit one of the Womders of the World: Ephesus, a once formidable Roman Empire constructed of mostly marble. AMAZING experience dudes. Truly. We got to walk around amongst the ruins, touched them and tried to imagine what life was like back then. So cool!!! I can't wait to upload these pictures cuz you will never see anything like this in your lives! It was an ENTIRE CITY unearthed and we were walking around in it! The Theatre was gigantic and the acoustics were so clear... It seated 25,000 people! HUGE! Oh man it was the coolest site I've seen (except for the Basilica in Istanbul but I'll get to that later). After that, we walked the 30kms back to town and ate some grub at this cute little restaurant where we were served by some roid-infused waiter. Seriously. He was huge and so was the other
waiter. heehee Now we're at an internet cafe and I'm doing this. ;-)
YESTURDAY:
I SAW THE RUINS OF TROY!! WOWZERS! We took a tour and left from the city of Çanakalle (cha-na-ka-lai) to the ancient city of Troy. We took pictures from inside the replica of the Trojan Horse: hilarious. (btw, the Trojan Horse built for the Hollywood film Troy resides in Çanakalle. I'll post a pic of that for sure.) It was so funny cuz that's pretty much the only thing you're goin up in there
to do and it doesn't look anything like what the actual horse would have looked like since this one had holes for people to look out of AND an upper deck. heehee You'll see what I mean. It was so funny. So ya. TROY! There were 9 cities built on top of the one before it after the previous one was wrecked from fire or destroyed by an invading land. So you can see the different crafts made and
the different techniques used to build the walls and the homes and such. Alexander came in, demolished the old Temple of Aphrodite and built another - more beautiful - of marble and so you can see the awesome detail work on the marble as compared to the older ruins. It was pretty neat. Our tour guide had us all sit on the steps of
the theatre while he told us of the ancient legend of how Paris took Hellen from her home and brought her to Troy which started the war of Homer's The Odyssey that lasted for 10 years. He had us sit there and the girls sat on the marble steps at the top where King Priam and his Queen Hecuba once sat to watch the theatre... It was surreal. A great tour.
The day before yesturday:
We left for Çanakalle from Istanbul on a morning bus ride so this
day wasn't that interesting.
3 days ago:
We - Monique, her bro Jean-Paul, and I - visited the BLUE MOSQUE, Ayasofya (a famed Christian church), and the Basilica Cisterns. So. The Blue Mosque was so friggen cool that I don't even know how to explain it. It was HUGE and MAGESTIC and BEAUTIFUL. The outside is one thing - 6 minerttes instead of the standard 2, blue (duh!), and much bigger than all the other mosques and not to mention the
oldest - but the inside is beyond words. I wish I had my notebook here with me so I could share with you my initial thoughts. I just remember walking in and my eyes welling up with tears. Such a crazy feeling upon entering such a sacred place!! I just sat down on the lustrious carpets and took it in. If you could have seen the detail work on every single area of the place!! The ceiling, the blue-
tiled walls, the curves of the walls, the columns, the stained glass windows... every single part had something written on it or some sort of beautiful design painted there. AMAZING. We got to stay during the afternoon closing and watch the prayer!! Monique and I had to cover our heads and necks with a sheet... I can't explain how I felt at that time... watching these people pray and sing and stand up and then kneal right down to the ground, placing their foreheads there. Pretty neat. Not something I'd ever done before nor had ever thought I'd do.
The Ayasofya was built in the 4th or 5th Century A.D. and so that was something pretty cool to see considering it's catholic and stands directly across from the Mosque. The inside was under construction right down the middle so we didn't get the full effect, but trust me: we got a pretty vivid idea since everything was so imaculately preserved or restored. There's this one mosaic above the alter I was truly impressed with since because of the rounded area of the ceiling on which it was located, you can see it perfectly from all angles no matter where you are in the church! So neat!
The Basilica Cisterns was a place I never thought would be cool since what it was essentially was a sewage area with aqueducts and such. Not something you would imagine would be beautiful... but 'au contraire mes amis'! It was THE COOLEST place I've ever seen and I will venture to say, I have EVER seen. The way they have it set up is so eery and dark, but the lighting just makes you feel like you
are there in ancient times with the candles as your lights... I can't wait to show you all the pictures so you can see what I'm not explaining very well... Nothing I can say here will do it justice so I whole-heartedly reccomend that if you ever go to Istanbul, this place should be at the TOP of your list of places to go. AMAZING.
THE FOOD
YUMMY. We are definitly not on our starvation diet anymore. heehee But, a donaýre here isn't a donaire back home... for all you fort mac folks: It ain't no Jomaa's. But it's still really tasty and we've been making the effort to try some of what the locals eat and it has been paying off. Be prepared to eat A LOT of bread in not only Turkey but Greece as well.
Ahhh... what else can I tell you? I think that's it so far. We are on our way to Pamucalla to visit the famous Calcium Deposits I've been dreaming of visiting for so long now!! And from there we're headed to Butterfly Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth. Next we plan to hýt up a place called Olympos and stay in a treehouse for a few nights! Apparently it's a backpacker's favorite
place to go and I am so friggen excited for that! We'll move on to Cappadocia from there where we'll visit an ancient city built on the face of a mountain... literally! This will take us to the end of our Turkish tour and we'll be heading back to Istanbul where we'll have a couple days to visit the Grand Bizarre, the Spice Bizarre and the Asian side of the city. We then leave for Amsterdam on Friday, October 14th!! Crazy and wonderful stories are coming up next so be sure to check your emails regularily!!! YAY!!
I'm loving this travelling thing... who knew? ;-)
