The early mornings are starting to get easier, thank God! The first place we went today was Topkapi Palace. It stands today as it did when Mehemet II built it in 1460. This palace housed a traditional harem. A harem is a place in the palace where the Sultan would invite girls to come live with him and he would have affairs with them. Much to my surprise like the movie The Other Boelyn Girl, which I love and am so fascinated by! The Harem cost extra to get in and I was going to go see it because we heard it was beautiful but we got lost trying to get back to it! The palace was very big and beautiful. We saw his bed, which would fit several people in it, how ironic! We also saw the sword of David, the rod of Moses, the saucepan of Abraham, the turban of Joseph, the skull and right hand of John the Baptist, the footprint of Mehemet, and sword of Ja'far. Now, I know that we will never know if any of these are actually real but the idea that maybe they are is really a one of a kind experience, especially because we weren't expecting to see any of this stuff. We went to the Egyptian Bazaar, which is a world market place. It was built with Egyptian money from their imports. It was literally mad chaos!! People were everywhere shouting at you to come buy things in their store. Shouting comments like "pretty ladies" "spice girls" just to grab your attention and as soon as you make even the slightest eye contact with them they wanted you to come in! Our tour guide guide warned us not to believe the sellers when they say their product is of excellent quality or their jewels are real. All they want is your $$$!!! We also took a boat ride on the Bosphorous. It was very cold and windy but completely AMAZING!!! You could see both the European side and the Asian side, I have never experienced that before thinking about seeing a whole other continent from the other was astonishing! The buildings on the Europe side are small and built up the hill. I like that they do that I think it adds a lot of character and charm. I also think it is neat how they conform to their surroundings, we don't do that in America. We'd bulldoze whatever was in our way before we would work with it. I've started to notice that people drive very crazy here, and that all goes back to the Islamic belief of "God's will", if God wills it then it will happen. If they crash that was God's will for them. They also don't wear seat belts and their children don't sit in car seats or the backseat necessarily! That is so crazy to me and so totally different to what we are use to in America. Our last place we went to was Camlica hill. I didn't get to see the view of Istanbul because we got there later than what we were supposed to, but the sunset was beautiful...go figure right?? That night we also rode the sleeper train. Erica and I shared a room. They were so small that if I stretched my arms out I could touch both sides of the walls! However, it was also very interesting how it was set up. You went in and sat in two chairs in front of you was a little storage compartment and to the right of that was a single sink. The chairs folded down into a bed and then there was a hide-away above that. When the beds were folded out they were just big enough for you suitcases to fit...no extra room! The ride was pretty bumpy and kind of noisy which I wasn't expecting. Today I also used my first "traditional toilet" aka a hole in the floor you squat over...good thing all those years camping prepared me for this!! The train also had a traditional toilets and I hear this is only the beginning! We rode the train from Istanbul to Ankara.
I woke up on the sleeper train to Ankara walked out my little sliding door and for the first time saw the Turkey I expected to see. The beautiful country side with rolling meadows and green pastures. Truly a site to see and much different than busy Istanbul. We stopped in Ankara at the train station and had breakfast, which consisted of olives, cucumber, tomato, eggs and of course BREAD!!! I cannot tell you how much bread I have eaten on this trip but lets just say I will probably have to go on a diet when I get home!! From there we went to the Anatolian Ancient Civilization Museum. It had remnants from the Stone Age, Neolithic Age, Hittites, Urartians, Phrygians just to name a few. we saw painting, statues, pottery, and various other items similar to that. We also went to the Mausoleum of Ataturk, which is where he is buried. He was the national founder of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1922. He also gave women equal rights to men. Surprisingly this was my favorite thing of the day, because something amazing happened while we were there. So May 19 (the day we were there, Day 3) marked the national holiday known as Youth Day and while we were there we saw crowds of young Turkish boys and girls come in carrying enormous flags with Ataturk's picture on it and they went into the Mausoleum and showed their appreciation to Ataturk. I don't think I would ever see this happen in America. That wasn't the amazing part though, there were these two old men that came to visit Ataturk and at the time we didn't know who they were but they were in front of his grave speaking loudly to the grave and there were guards everywhere and a camera crew, so we figured they were someone very important. We followed them out secretly trying to sneak a picture so say we saw someone important when we see this very young boy probably no older than 8 years old go up grab the man's hand and kiss it. The old man responded by kissing the boy on his forehead and his cheeks. We later found out that those old men were veteran soldiers who served for Ataturk. This completely blew me away, especially because in Turkey every man is required to be in the military for 1 year. So to see a young boy so appreciative of these veterans brought tears to my eyes. It touched me so deeply and made me realize how little we actually appreciate our veterans. I mean we have veterans day but everyday should be veterans. I mean our men and women volunteer their time and you don't see anyone running up to kiss their hands! So to all the men and women out there who have fought for my country I owe all of you a kiss on the hand or better yet the biggest, deepest, most sincere thank you that I could ever give to anyone! You are truly hero's in my eyes! As we were leaving Ataturk's Mausoleum we got to see the changing of the guards which Sevim, our tour guide, said only happens at there at the Mausoleum. It was really cool and when they march they kick their legs up to 90 degrees and have to walk the whole way like that..CRAZY!!! Then we had the longest bus ride ever to Cappadocia. we made two stops along the way, which was nice. We first stopped at the Salt Lake which is ironically a like that is drying up and leaving salt deposits behind! I walked in the water and it really hurt my feet! The salt was so hard but made my feet really smooth. The water felt so nice, it was warm. Then we stopped at a Caravan Palace along the silk road, where merchants stayed the night under protection. This place was very cool. the aroma of the place made you feel like you could of actually been there with them or maybe that was just the methane getting to my head since there were a lot of cow poop outside! Still, it was very cool! We finally made it to our hotel where I ate and showered for first time in two day, the shower part not the eating I couldn't go that long without eating! The warm water of the shower felt so nice and the fact that I was actually clean felt so so good!!
p.s. sorry I am a little behind on my blogging but I will catch up...eventually!
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