Thursday... :-)

Thursday, we slept in until around 9... The schedule for the day was to go to The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya; St. Sophia..), the Blue Mosque, and the Basilica Cistern.  We took the ferry over from the Uskudar district of Istanbul on the Asian side (where our flat was), and then took the tram to the Sultan Ahmet district (on the European side, where the Blue Mosque/ Hagia Sofia, etc is) and got off by the underground cistern.   We walked to the Hagia Sophia first, and bought museum entrance cards.. :-)  It was hard to actually believe that I was standing in front of the Hagia Sophia.... unbelievable.

This is the view from the street of the Hagia Sophia... 

And a close-up... :-)  

And me in front of... :-)

This is part of Theodosius's original Hagia Sophia... it was rebuilt later, and that's the Hagia Sophia we now know....

Explanation of Theodosius's Aya Sofya...

Melis in front of one of the Aya Sofya doors...

Aunt Sureyya (Sureyya Tesa, in Turkish :-) in front of an old column belonging to the original Aya Sofya...

The Emperor's door in the Hagia Sophia into the actual Nave...

Explanation.....

Door to the Nave...

Close-up of the mosaic over the door to the Nave - there were about three of these from the Narthex into the Nave...

The Narthex of the Hagia Sophia.... wow.... look especially at the floors...

Close-up of the ceiling of the Narthex... 

The fireplace-ish thing in the Narthex...

Close-up of the entrance door to the Nave of the Aya Sofya :-)

Another close up of the door... thought all you GK friends would love this example of the detail that Dr. G was talking about during the Medieval period... :-)

Front altar of the Aya Sofya... 

Ok guys, will finish this tomorrow... so tired, and my eyes are starting to hurt from a combo of computer screen and dark room... :-)  The Aya Sofya was REALLY amazing... but I will have to finish describing later... lol.... Love you all! :-)

 ~Bekah

Hello, everyone!  Just wanted to make sure you knew I hadn't fallen off the face of the earth!  We've been travelling and taking tours, etc... so busy!   And trying not to weaken my immune system with not enough sleep!  We're in Gureme (Kappadokya), in the Anatolian region of Turkey, staying in a cave hotel... it's beautiful, and chillier than Istanbul, even though we went south... the elevation is higher here, and it's more like desert tundra.  The "faerie chimneys" are beautiful and amazing :-)  I love it... :-)  Lots of ruins to climb around in and ancient cave churches with BEAUTIFULLY preserved frescoes, pictures of which I solemnly swear to upload as SOON as I get to Kusadasi!  Love you all!  Take care!
             ~Bekah

Btw...

By the way, everyone, my 17th birthday here in Turkey has now passed (last Wednesday) and it was wonderful... :-)  My parents gave me one of the most amazing gifts ever to go along with the whole giving life to me thing...: this trip.  It is amazing.  One of those things that you know will change the way you look at life forever.  I'll never be the same, you know?  Thank you, Mom and Dad.
        I love you
          ~Bekah... also HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! :-)

... FINALLY!

I'm sorry it's been so long!  So much has been happening!  The average time for us to go to sleep at night is around 1-2 AM... ;-) On Wednesday of last week, we went to Dolmabahce Palace in the morning.  Another thing... after a couple of days, I discovered that the covers on my bed in the flat we're staying in slide down EVERY NIGHT!  It's getting to be a little bit annoying now ;-)  but still funny!  It's just odd to wake up with two feet of bed above your head and your feet hanging off the end!  Dolmabahce (which means "stuffed" - dolma - and "garden" - bahce) Palace was large, and extremely overbearing.  It was built during the Victorian Era, and largely under European influence.  In design, it's not very Turkish, and the wooden floors, the chairs and whole design of the interior was very much reminiscent, even a copycat of the Victorian English courts and palaces.  It reminded me of the set of  "The Young Victoria", and it was kind of sad to see the traditional Ottoman art eclipsed by the stiffness and formality of the European form, which totally did not fit the geographical essence of the place itself.  Also, it was ridiculously extravagant, to the point that all of us were suffering from severe sensory overload and near disgust at the opulence by the time we got out.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior, but we do have pictures of the exterior.  This is a picture from in front of the main gate (where there is a guard as long as it's open - kind of like the Buckingham Palace guards - can't smile, etc) and another from inside the grounds (the gardens WERE stuffed!).

Front Gate (notice the guard in the middle)...

Top of the front gate...

Inside the front gate...

The changing of the guard...

Oh!  I learned another thing!  Every Turkish male is required by law to serve military duty for at least two years, and if you refuse, you either lose your citizenship (if living outside the country) or are put into jail until you do (if living inside the country).

Oictures next to an amazing water basin/ fountain/ spigot; we've begin to make a habit of taking pictures next to these!

The side gate.....

The detail of one of the palace walls...

The beautiful view of the Bosporus from Dolmabahce Palace...

Us standing next to the unmoving, unsmiling, and decidedly abused guard (I felt sorry for him, having to be in everyone's pictures... and yet, here I am, adding to said pictures!)  At any rate, we showed him the picture on the camera :-)  He deserved to know what it looked like. :-)

After that, we went to the on-grounds cafe and drank some cay (chai), which is Turkish for tea.  We took lots of pictures... hmhmhmhm... it was nice getting the Bosporus in the background, and we didn't have a lot of ourselves with the place... :-).  Most of them looked like stock photos up to that point.  :-)

The infamous and creepy "I will eat your children, MUAHAHAHAHAHA" picture :-)

And this is the picture where Melis actually saw for the first time that she looks nearly exactly like her mother... :-)

This is the funny little seagull that was hopping around on the steps down toward the Bosporus from the cafe... 

Then we took the underground tram to Taksim square, and spotted a Greek Orthodox (Armenian) church about a block away, which is apparently one of the more famous Greek Orthodox churches.  It's called Ayia Triada and was built in 1880.  When we walked up the lane of the church courtyard, we stopped to pet some of the street cats (of which there is an ABUNDANCE on EVERY [and I'm not joking!] street!).

Another of said street cats in the garden of the Armenian churches' courtyard...

This is the facade of the Armenian Church...

Us lighting candles to say prayers in the Armenian church's entrance hall... (any of my GK friends care to remind me what that's called?  It's number two on our diagram, and I remember every other one except that!  It's driving me crazy!  Any takers..??  Margrette..??)...

The inside of the Armenian church... :-)  Beautiful... 

After we left the Armenian church, we walked down the street to the Istiklal Caddesi (chaddessee - basically, it means large street).  This is one of THE fashionable places to see and be seen in the European side of Istanbul, apparently, and Aunt Sureyya used to go there as a child and eat ice cream and desserts at the Saray (a restaurant) there.  We went to eat first at Shampion (a seafood place - got it's name because the person who started it used to be a champion wrestler - but anyway, it's famous all over Turkey) and had medye (you say it like multi-media, except the "a" on the end is more of an e as in egg) which is basically muscles stuffed with seasoned rice... so good... but, as we've tried it a lot of different places by now, Melis and I agree that the best is STILL the kind the street vendors sell - much less expensive too! :-)  

The Istiklal Chaddesi ... :-)  It's all alight at night... if you look towards the northwest corner of the picture you can see a chandelier covered in lights that turns on when it gets darker.  There are ropes of lights all down the street. :-)

After Shampion, we ate at Saray - tavok gusu, which is a pudding-like dessert, but with a thicker, wierder texture, because it's made with shredded chicken breast!  Apparently, they let the chicken breast soak for a REALLy long time, to get the chicken taste and smell out of it... it's one of my FAVORITE desserts here!  After eating there, we got back on the underground to go to Annanne's (Turkish for Grandmother - Anne (annay) is mother, hence, Annanne is grandmother) house.  Annanne is Aunt Sureyya's mother.  We stayed there and visited for about 5 hours. :-)  She's 90 years old this year, born in 1920... 

This is Annanne now...

And this is Annanne at 23 years old, in 1943...

And this is Annanne, totally happy to have her family together again...  When we first got to our apartment, Aunt Sureyya called Annanne, and while Annanne put the phone down to get a pencil, we could hear her in the background talking to herself, saying, "My dear daughter, she is home!  My dear daughter is here!  My dear daughter, she has come from America!"  It was so sad and sweet... and when the whole family finally got together on Sunday, she was so happy the entire day...

Aunt Sureyya in her high school graduation picture... 

Anyway, later that night, Melis's cousin, Mehmet, and his wife Aysin, and their little son Akin (about 5) came to visit Annanne as well, but Akin slept through the whole thing (he was tired after school).  And then we went home... finally!  We got in around 1 that night, I remember.... 

Akin asleep at Annanne's.. so cute :-)

Anyway, I will continue with this tomorrow, or in a few hours, depending on how I feel!  It's taken me about 3 hours to do this post, with uploading pictures, etc... :-)  I love you all, and hope everyone's doing well!

             ~Bekah

Pictures!

This is us in the Athens airport looking at some nature pictures and museum pieces!  It was interesting... :-)  and a nice way to pass some time!

The post I've been promising...

We left for the Airport on Sunday afternoon last week around 1:30.  We got our boarding passes, checked our luggage (thank goodness!) and started for security.  We went through security really quickly, and then got to ride the underground tram-ish thing to reach our boarding deck.  The flight was to Athens, Greece, and was supposed to take around 11 hours.  Eulgh.... none of us slept more than an hour.  :-)  I learned that you can hang out in the back of the plane with the flight attendants and eat!  We were up and about in between movies (which was basically all night) and there was a fantastic movie ("Leap Year") that played with Amy Adams in it.  We got to Athens around 10 in the morning, and put our carry-ons in a secure keeping place while we gallivanted around the airport.  We couldn't actually leave the airport because our connecting flight to Istanbul left in 2 hours.  We ate lunch at the airport and also spent some time in the airport museum (which was very interesting), so much that we had to run through the airport after picking up our bags so we wouldn't miss our flight!  It was close. and we got there just in time to get a good spot in line, and then rode out to the plane in a bus-ish thing.  The lunch on the plane was AMAZING!  We had already had lunch, so we weren't that hungry, but the "airplane food" was DEFINITELY not airplane food!  The flight was only about 45 minutes, and then we were in Turkey on Monday afternoon!  We went to get a Visa (for me) and then went through passport control.  Then, downstairs to pick up our baggage, and out to find our taksi-bus.  On the way out of the airport, we stopped to buy a cell-phone, and two Turkish/ European(?) plans for while we're here so the girls (Melis and I) and Aunt Sureyya both can get in touch with each other, plus Aunt Sureyya can now get in touch with her family.  It was raining in Turkey!  Apparently, it never rains in the summer, especially in June, and everyone was asking us and telling us about it!  We were like, "Yes, we see, it IS raining!" ;-)  We arrived at the apartment and walked up three flights of very small, very curly stairs to get to our flat.  Carrying 50 pound bags while doing this is not necessarily easy or fun, but the driver of the bus helped with the really big ones, so Melis and I only had a couple of bags a piece, plus the carry-ons, and then the lady we were renting from took pity on our huffing and puffing and made us cold lemonade!  :-)  That night, we stayed up as long as we could to handle jet lag, and then pretty much passed out.  

         The next day, it was still raining. Tuesday.  We got up, had some breakfast, and Meltem (Aunt Sureyya's Niece) came and picked us up at our apartment to show us her new Studio of the Arts.  She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance, and teaches dance, exercise classes, culinary arts, guitar, and piano.  The new studio is her second one, and she is an Interior Designer by education, so it's beautiful.  Then we went and ate lunch (again, amazing!), and then to an amazing bakery, Konak, the BEST place in Istanbul (so I'm told, and so I've tasted) for éclairs.  After that, Meltem took us to the Akbank (one of the Turkish banks) so Aunt Sureyya could set up an account.  Then we took a taxi home, and went back out to the grocery store right up the street from us (they have grocery stores within walking distance of EVERY place here), called Migros, and bought food, and then stopped by a food place right next door that we are now calling "the amazing doma lady", a family business that apparently makes the best dolma Aunt Sureyya (and Melis and I, of course) have ever tasted!  Dolma is rice, seasoning, sometimes pine nuts, all wrapped up in delicious grape leaves soaked in some sort of seasoned liquid-y stuff that make the whole thing a pretty much crazy awesome experience!  We ate half a kilo of those things in the space of about 30 minutes - and that was trying to save some for the next day!  (that effort was a fail, by the way!)  At any rate, that day was done, and we pretty much crashed again.  The next day was also supposed to be rainy, so we planned to do indoor stuff.  Will finish later!  We're out, and my computer is almost out of battery, so... farewell until next time (tonight, maybe?)!  Love you all!

              ~Bekah

Again, in response to Comments....

Chewing gum, mom!?  What in the world?  Good luck on the chosen spot thing , though... lol... if she'll actually consent to being moved!  We went to Garipce today, which is a fishing village right om the edge of the Bosporus, Black sea side...  ate amazing fresh fish/ shrimp/ calamari and went to explore the ruin of an old castle from the Ottoman Empire, that was also used all the way up to World War II (as a defense).  There is an answering tower across the strait, so the two of them together strategically tried to block anyone from getting into the strait.  It was amazing.  Will post photos and more info soon!  Promise!  Love you guys!  
         ~Bekah

Response to my amazing friends (and my amazing sister ;-))

Thank you everyone for your comments!  Nanna, I love you, thank you for Jed's email, that was fun to read.  Margrette and Sarah: you guys make me feel loved!  ;-)  Really!  It's amazing and my feet hurt so, so bad!  But we've been amazing places!  We've already been to the Sultan Ahmet district, which is where the Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), the Blue Mosque, the Cistern, and Theodosius's obelisk (which I didn't much care about, really), the spice bazaar (for a few minutes), the Istiklal Caddesi in Taksim (a district of Istanbul) and a TON of amazing shops, sculptures, RESAURANTS, etc... :-)  Anyway, I'll see what I can do to fill you guys in asap on what all has happened since the flight... :-)  MUAH! :-)

Since I left my house.....

Iyi aksamlar (eeyach-sham-lar - good evening) everyone!  It's about 12-1 in the morning over here as I'm posting, but it should be around 6 or 7 your time.  Since my Uncle's internet was decidedly NOT working, I had to wait until I got to Turkey to post anything, plus I was busy helping everyone pack ;-).  I kept a little post-it note with stuff I wanted to write about, though, and so I'm working from that and my memories!

The trip down to my Uncle's house was quite lovely... Melis and I both slept most of the way, we stopped for breakfast at MacDonalds (They have amazing sausage burritos... I never knew this!!), and goofed off in the Russel Stover store in Andersonville, SC... (we played ninja, and... well... yeah... but it was worth it!)  We did not feel BAD about goofing off in said Russel Stover store because our party (names have been left out of the matter ;-) bought at least 50 dollars worth of chocolate, of not more, mostly for use as rewards in my Aunt's government -sponsored awareness workshops across the globe.

While at my Aunt's house, I discovered THE most amazing pasta ever (at least I thought so until I had this amazing Turkish pasta...) that was served with yogurt infused with garlic.  I had no idea it was going to be as good as it was!  Apparently (as I saw when I got over to Turkey), Turks eat yogurt the way we eat butter: with EVERYTHING.    The pasta was simply shell noodles, tomato paste, ground beef and some seasonings, and the yogurt was just plain yogurt with chunks (not minced - chunky) of garlic in it.  As far as the yogurt goes, all you do is chop and put in the garlic, and then the flavor leeches out of the garlic and into the yogurt.  It's not very strong, and the chunks of garlic don't actually taste like anything except for texture.  At any rate, the whole ensemble was delicious... and just an Americanized taste of real Turkish food.

While helping my cousin Melis pack, we ran across a brochure put together by high school students entitled "101 Ways to Stay Alive" (no joke).  One of them was "Don't drive if you can walk."  I stopped and said, "Almost everybody can walk, hello!"  We both cracked up.  Melis also then made the quote of the day by saying, "Well, that would severely cut down on traffic!"

I also learned that day that chain links can be turned into wire shelf hooks!  You simply take pliers and turn the top half at a 90 degree angle to the bottom half counterclockwise (so it makes kind of an s, but not all the way).  You then have hooks of all different metals (you can buy chain in about every colour), and that method is significantly cheaper than paying for weak, ugly wire shelf hangers.

One final note before I go to bed and continue the rest of this summary tomorrow night (maybe, if we're not out too late): You MUST watch The Lakehouse!  It is super twisty though (you don't know whether the guy lives or dies), and Melis and I were both dripping liberally by the end of the movie.  Even though all their technicalities as to the time difference are not worked out, it's a very good story.  So please watch it! (And tell me if you dripped too).   ;-)  Love you all!
       ~Bekah

"Cousins by blood - friends by choice." ~ Darlene Shaw

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything (jet lag is a bear), but this was a beginning of a post from around May 28th:

I've been working on my Student ID (which will help with the money aspect of the trip - discounts!).  I finally finished and it looks spiffin', complete with a watermark and a barcode (no kidding!).  Anyhow, I've been thinking about Melis (my cousin) and I, and our friendship.

I guess it wasn't easy for us to be best friends, and we weren't at first.  Living a good distance away from each other, we grew up as little kids not seeing each other very much (although for both of us, we saw each otrher pretty much more than we saw any other extended family.)  We didn't click well at first, even though we could get along.  I was a little brat at the time, and Melis was a year younger, and we both got frustrated and annoyed easily.  Our differences polarized us rather than bringing us together.

Obviously, such is not the case anymore.  Especially over the past 4 or 5 years, we've both grown up a great deal, and the two of us have both taken a lot of joy and comfort in the things we share, and have been interested in each other's differences.  We have come to learn a lot from each other, and we respect each other.  We're best friends now, yes.  But it's taken shared laughter and tears, some everyday life and learning together to get us there.  We both love to learn about other cultures, are both very driven towards education, have both been exposed to a lot of different types of everything!

By blood, we're cousins.  We spent a little bit of time together growing up.  But our backgrounds were very different.  But now, we're friends... and I'm glad. :-)

Alright guys!  Hello to Hannah (my sister ;-)): I love you, take care... and to Mom and Dad the same.  I will probably post a VERY long one soon about the actual flight, etc, and all the places we've been already in Istanbul... it's been almost 5 days since we arrived!  (I still can't hardly believe it, but my feet are protesting loudly as I write, so I must not be dreaming...)  Anyway, love you all!...
        ~Bekah