Bellydancing in the Living room

Last post for June 2012!

Welcome July!

Recap of last night's events.

After the tour and exploring Urgup, Michael and I headed to the bus station, back to Metro.

There were three buses for Metro lined up.  Two really nice Mercedes and the last one was, of course, the one that broke down a million times.

Guess which bus we were told to get on.

Our seats were also broken and the tv's wouldn't turn on.

LUCKILY

We were transferred to another bus.

to add to this... luck of ours
The nice bus's tv's didn't work either.

Oof.

When we got back to Izmir I passed out and slept almost all day.

When I finally rose from the dead, Emily was waiting impatiently.

"I Cok Bored!"

Apparently this inspired Michael to teach me to belly dance.

There is a video too, but I'm not allowed to post it apparently.

We hung around the rest of the day putting cucumbers on my sunburn and playing Go Fish with Mo.

Perfect day back home in Izmir :)

Cappadocia - Day 2

Instead of wandering around again and walking, God only knows how many miles, we decided to take a tour.

We really didn't know much about it when we signed up... just that it would go to an underground city that I wanted to see.

First stop, a view of Goreme and the "fairy chimneys"

(Below)

Back on the bus and we drove to Derinkuyu, the deepest undergound city out of 36.

There were 11 floors total, only 10% of the city has been excavated, and each floor was built to be closed off from the inside.  It is believed that this was to keep people in for months to guard them from an enemies attack.

The entire city could comfortably fit 35,000-50,000 people.

On the first floor we found a kitchen (mutfak) and a wine press.  Throughout the city there are also oil presses, storage areas, chapels, and stables.  Derinkuyu is connected to several other cities underground.  Some of those cities were used by Christians to escape persecution.

The city dates back to 7th & 8th century in the Bronze age.

During the 10th century, it is believed that the city was expanded in order to hold more refugees for religious purposes.

(Below)

The oldest part of the undergroung city and closest to the surface.  The kitchen.

I'm underground!

After the adventures underground we jumped on the bus for 45 minutes and drove to Ihlara Valley.  I seem to be visiting a lot of places where there is a serious chance of me falling... far.  Especially with how clumsy I am.

On that note, this trip has really shown me just how much of a clutz I can be.

Katrina's list of accidents (so far):

Times Tripped...dramatically - 5

Times broken something - 3

Times slammed doors - 4

Times hit head on something hard - 9... +

Times bumped into someone - 2

Times tripping down stairs - 2

Times dropping food on myself - 3

Times knocking someone with my backback - 1

... more to come im sure.

Back on topic.

Ihlara Valley

This valley is made from volcanic rock.  The carvings along the Melendiz River were done by early Christians.  This canyon is 450 feet deep.  Throughout, there are more than 150 caves and churches.

One church that we visited was Agacalti Church.

(Below)

At the end of the long hike through the valley we stopped and ate lunch.

Chicken Kabobs and rice.

After lunch it was back on the bus again and we drove up the canyon and to Selime.

Selime was my favorite place that we visited in Cappadocia.

The Selime Cathedrale

Selime was built in the 19th century and was named for the sultan.

The rock formations are full of churchs and a school monastary.

Christian monks carved it out.

We climbed as high as we could go.  The section that was the highest had a winding staircase.  I ran up the narrow stair case and stopped abruptly since it dropped off, oh I don't know...  150 feet.  We inched across the little bit of stone left and were able to climb upstairs.  Terrifying is one way to word it... but climbing down was much worse.  I was so scared I yelled to Michael, "I am NEVER doing this again!"  An old gentleman from a crowd of people yelled back, "Yes, honey, you're probably right.  You'll never get a chance to do anything like this again."
Good point.

We went back to the bus for another hour of driving and ended up at Pigeon Valley, the same valley that we visited yesterday and we also went to a jewelry store where they carved some Onyx stone and gave it to me.

When we got back to Urgup we grabbed our bags and walked around town where I bought some interesting items.  Couldn't resist... I am a tourist after all.

Good bye Urgup!

Good bye Cappadocia!

Cappadocia - Day 1

After an exhausting day of traveling and site seeing
I still managed to wake up bright and early to eat (yemek) breakfast.

Good-Morning (Gunaydin) Urgup!

In Urgup

(Above)

Yesterday we were very tired of walking... but it was nothing compared to how much we walked today.  I'm pretty sure that this street sign stands for "legs breaking".

(below)

First stop in Cappadocia,

Goreme Open Air Museum

This 7 story rock was the nunnery and monastery in Goreme.

The bottom floor has a kitchen (mutfak) and dining hall

The many other floors included tunnels that led to several churches.  Many tunnels collapsed since.

Notice how tall it is.

(above)

Church entrance in Goreme

(above)

Carikli (Sandals) Church

(below)

The church is named for two footprints that are below the ascentation of Jesus.

The rumors are that they are Jesus's foot prints, but that is not accurate.

Carikli has two floors.  Throughout the church there are many scenes, 12 of them being stages in Jesus' life.

3 from His childhood, 2 in maturity, and 7 while suffering and ascending into heaven.

Fresco painting of the angel Gabriel

(Above)

In the center of the dome is Jesus.

Above him are angels.  Below him are the authors of the Bible; Matta, Lucas, John the baptist and Marcus.

(Above)

Written in one of the frescoes is "I am the light of the World, who follows me will not be left in the dark." - Jesus Christ

Other paintings include Virgin Mary and angels Michael and Uriel.

Table (Masa) and seating around it

(Above)

Walking through tunnels

(Above)

A view of Goreme

(Above)

After Goreme, we began walking when we ran into a pottery shop and stable with horses.  Horse back rides through Goreme?  Sounds great, but we decided we still had a list of things we wanted to see before the day ended.

We did stop and take a few photos, though.

(Below)

We then walked through modern day Goreme and took a bus to Uchisar.

More walking through that town till we came to the castle ruins.

This was the most populated area in Uchisar until it became dangerous and people started moving away.

(Below)

After our climb to the very top of the castle (that big rock mass in the picture above) we then carefully went back down and walked through the town and marketplace, took a road that we guessed would lead us to a bus, and began walking again.

On our walk we ran into the World's largest rooster... at least by our standards.

(Below)

In the middle of our walk we passed a large area where we later found out was called Pigeon Valley.

The valley had holes and doors and rooms carved out for pigeons!

Of course we ran into a ton of the birds too.

(Below)

We finally found a bus station...bench and sat.

The Dolmus came and we went back to Urgup for some dinner...

After all the walking I figured we deserved some junk food.

Snickers!!

Tomorrow is the last day in Urgup and still many more places to see before heading back to Izmir!

How an 11 hour trip turned into a 20 hour trip.

Yesterday we packed up and left for Cappadocia!

We jumped on an evening bus (otobus) ready to have some real adventures.

The bus ride was scheduled to be 11 (on bir) hours (saat).

Luckily the buses are really nice with tvs (televizyonler), right?

2 hours in we stopped in the middle of the highway.  There was an accident.  An animal ran into the road and a car filled with people hit it, flipping three times.  I felt sick to my stomache and prayed to God that those people were okay...

I don't know how possible that would be though.  Especially since most Turks don't wear seatbelts...

We drove again passing a ton of mountains and I couldn't help but be amazed at how beautiful the scenery was.  I realized that Noah's ark was found about 200 miles from where I was at.  That made me remember that the whole World had been flooded.  It is really amazing to look up at a mountain that high and know that Noah and his family may have passed over it.  God really is amazing!

8 hours in.  Our bus broke down.

The wonderful employees apparently felt that it was none of out concern so they didn't share much information with any of the passengers...

until the 3rd time we broke down at a gas station.

We then broke down a 4th time in the middle of no where.  When I say no where, I mean it.

I should be taking photos of underground tunnels right now, instead I am photographing a broken Metro bus.

They told us they fixed it.

We broke down a 5th time at a rest stop... where we sat with no news for over an hour.

We are officially 4 hours late.

Damper... yes.

But Michael and I continued to have fun, kind of.

A lack of sleep tends to put everyone a little on edge. (speaking for myself)

"Cay! Cay!"

(Tea! Tea!)

The waiters walked around serving tea while we waited.  I sincerely felt bad for them having to deal with 40 cranky customers.

Finally we were able to load back on the bus and continue on our... adventure.

We finally made it, just 6 hours late.

We realized that people in the area apparently don't know what they are talking about because they said that the area we would be staying in would have nothing around for miles except bars.  They also said that there would be no way for us to get to any attractions.

Hmph.

Well that is quite the trip ruiner.

Good thing they were completely WRONG.

After our bus breaking down 5 times, a shuttle, and a domus (another type of bus) later

We finally made it to our desintation.

Unfortunetly, our spirits did not make it at the same time.

We were nearing 8 hours past our original arrival time, exhausted, hungry, and carrying some very heavy back packs.

There was not too much in the cards for the day anymore since most of the tourist attractions were nearing closing time.

I can say that the area we stayed in was honestly one of the most beautiful places EVER.

My pictures can't really capture the view.

Everywhere you turned there was something else interesting to look at.

The town was so cute and a ton of interesting shops to look in.

The only thing it lacked was some water to go swimming in.

I still have yet to go swimming... I NEED TO SWIM.

For the rest of the day we walked around exploring Urgup (the town we stayed in) and we ate some yummy food.  We were between mountains so we climbed to the top of the middle of them (very steep hill) luckily it was paved.

When we got to the top we walked down the road... even further (we walked a total of 2.5 miles to get there and back).

once near the top of the first road we saw, what I thought was, a bunch of sand.  Sand = water right?

We climbed the mountain of "sand" to find it was solid rock.

Once we got to the top, we realized that there were some very interesting stones further up the mountain... climb we did.

What did we find?  I'll let the photos explain.

Uc Guzeller (Three Beautifuls)

Mom, Pop, and Child

It is really...really high up.  If you look to my left at that road and down between those hills/mountains, that is where we walked from.  I was, quite literally, on top of the World.

Camel!!!

Me: "It's a camel!"

Michael: "No. It's fake."

Me: "No... I saw it move, why would they have a fake camel?"

Michael: "It's fake."

*Camel moves head*

Michael: "AH! Look it's a camel!"

Me: "Oofah!"

End of day 1 in Cappadocia/Urgup

Yes, I eat ships... don't you?!

Today was project: get out and have some fun.

Challenge Accepted.

Emily (Michael's sister (abla) came with us.  She is too fun!

We went to a street where they sold jewlery, books (kitaplar), and spices.

I checked out some of the jewlery and bought a few little knick knacks for my brothers.

Michael thought it was funny that there were stars on the path "just like Hollywood!"

We all walked around, visted some stores and ended up, like always, at the sea.

:)

We listened to some live music (musik) and watched the sun (gunes) go down.

We also had some fun taking photos.

I'll write back soon!

Terrible Tourist

June 24th -

It has been a few days since I ventured out into the heat for more then a walk.  But today we finally decided that an adventure was needed.

We began by bowling.

To me, this is an adventure.

I have only gotten over 100 once in my life.

This is the sad truth.

The bowling here is the same although the balls were not smooth which (I SERIOUSLY BELIEVE) caused them to curve more then they should have.  I mean, how can I throw so many straight down the middle just to have them magically end up in the gutter just before they meet the pins?

Michael won.  He adds a "Woo-Hoo!" to that statement.

At least someone passed the 100 mark...

After bowling we got our favorite drink, lemonade poweraid, and made our way to the sea.

We sat on large rocks and enjoyed it whenever a random wave was able to splash enough to make a slight mist.

There are many people who try to sell things

it becomes quite irritating.

Any time we sit by the sea we are surrounded by women selling roses, complimenting Michaels "rose" (me) and when we say no (yok sal), about 6 times, they always stop and stare and click their tongues at us as if we came there that day planning to dissapoint them by not paying an outrageous amount for a single wilted rose.

This time we had a man (adam) who was selling kleenax...

while we were sitting he pushed himself in between Michael and myself and threw the tissues on my lap.

He apprently didn't realize that this was only going to make us upset.

I really don't understand why it's okay to do such a thing.  Besides, he looked much better fed and dressed then some of the people around him.

Rant over.

We decided to randomly hop on a ferry boat and head to the other side of Izmir, which I have never been to.

How fun!

There wasn't much to see on the other side and Michael's side was obviously nicer but there was a very busy street that was fun to walk down.  We ended up just walking around until we were tired and then we stopped for dinner at KFC... I'm a bad tourist (turist).

Once we were back on our side of Izmir, we stopped an got a soft serve ice cream cone.

Very nice evening over all.

We have begun making plans for a trip, as well!

Another Sick Day

I think all this travelling caught up to me.

I was sick in bed again today.

Exciting news is, Emily, Michaels sister, came home today!

She is learning english, I am learning turkish... this works out well.

Today I studied a lot and found out that I now know a total of 78 words/phrases and I have learned to count.  Michael also taught me how to use words plural (not as easy as it is for us to just add an "S") and I'm beginning to learn verbs. 

Oof.  This isn't easy.

I didn't take any pictures today... sorry!

But please enjoy this diagram that explains how to brush your teeth... like a man.

Life now makes sense.

Have a nice night! <3

New for Bucket List: Learn to make Lentil Meatballs

There isn't much to say about today.

I woke up, ate breakfast, studied my Turkish and cleaned up for the day.

Plan: go to zoo

Reality: Katrina feels sick

Michael was so sweet and brought me a wonderful meal home from work

(I ate (yemek) most of it before I took the picture)

Lentil "meat"balls, "chicken stew", rice, and salad (salud).

With a side of lemonade (Limon).

We then spent the afternoon by my mini fan playing Farkle and I read a new book (kitap), "Branded"

I did manage to get some laundry done, though

And for dinner we went to, where else for an American, McDonalds!

Bebek Bunny

Breakfast time!

"Cicek Ekmek" - flower bread, as we called it.

It has been a very hot day, as usual.  I'm getting used to it now but we could definitely use some rain!

Today was a day for air conditioning so Michael and I went to a archaeology museum.

A lot of people might find this boring, but that is my place to be!

This is a statue of a man, it was found in Ephesos. Roman period. Second century A.D.

Look at the amazing detail!  It looks as if they draped fabric rather than stone!

I don't know much about this piece but I could swear someone went to town with it with a sword or knife.  If you look close, there appears to be slash marks across the whole face, only three even stroke across the neck, and multiple going downwards on the chest.  Also, on the upper and lower forehead there are two slightly deeper gashes that are, to me, shaped like a cross.  I walked around the statue and found these marks were no where else but the face and chest.

This is a statue of the Priest of the Imperial Cult.  Roman period. Second century A.D.

This was also found in Ephesos.

The detail on this statue is just amazing.  So smooth and beautiful!

He even still had his ring in perfect condition.  The only park of this statue that didn't make it all the way to the museum were parts of this priests face.

I was a little freaked out to go near this exhibit.  There were a bunch of tombs and when we saw this, we realized that it is a newborn babies tomb.  If you look closely, you can see all the little bones, almost perfectly preserved.  It is from the Byzantine Necropolis, on the left side of the Athena Temple.  8th Century A.D.

We then went into a museum with artifacts such as clothing, fabrics, and weapons.  This specific exhibit made me laugh.out.loud.  Look at the little boys face!  I am not sure why they had an exhibit to show the circumcision room... but I couldn't resist!

And I may have had a little too much fun playing with the statues!

Michael and I then walked around the city and shopped a little, got subway for dinner, and headed home.

He has a picture of me as a toddler on his wall where I was dressed as a bunny for Halloween...

DRESS UP TIME!

His family had a laugh.

Goodnight!