On two hours sleep and crunched in between two long bus rides we visited the strange geological site of Pamukkale in south-western Turkey.  The name Pamukkale means “cotton castle” in Turkish, as the ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of these weird white formations.  There are some ruins on the way, but the real attraction here is the hot springs.  The 17 springs in the area have temperatures which vary between 35°C and 100°C.  When the water, which is supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide is released and the calcium carbonate is deposited as a soft jelly, which eventually hardens into a solid.  These deposits, or travertines, create terraces from the flowing water.  It’s quite stunning and actually looks a bit like snow.  But perhaps the most entertaining part of the experience was the glamour shot photo shoots that were going on – guys in speedos telling their bikini-clad girlfriends to “look sexy”.  Okay….

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Yesterday was the anniversary of Turkey becoming a republic. Now I’m sure all of you have gathered a sense of this, but Turkish pride is pretty exceptional. For those of you coming to visit here in the future, I dare you, DARE YOU to be able to find any spot in an urban portion of this country where you can travel within in a 100ft radius (about 30 meters, yes I’m American and am pretty horrible at adjusting to being like the rest of the world) and not run into either a portrait of Atatürk or a Turkish flag. If you can manage to do this feat, I’ll be damn impressed.

Anyway, yesterday was a Turkish equivalent of the 4th of July in the U.S., and boy oh boy did we get told!

Take that rest of the world, Turkey just kicked your ass with the most amazing fireworks display I have ever seen. Ever.

October 29th is Republic Day, the day that Turkey officially became a republic and is taken about as seriously as I’ve ever seen a holiday taken.  The entire city is draped in skyscraper sized flags, and the Bosporus lights up with the largest fireworks show I’ve ever seen.  The banks of the straight were lined with people watching, but we got to just head up to the room.  Just an amazing way to end our time here.

It was bound to happen.  I was within days of leaving Turkey and not a single man up to this point had really caught my eye.  No offense to the Turkish gentlemen – they are lovely people but just not my type.  That all changed in Cappadocia.  We arrived for our second day of sightseeing and as we were introduced to our guide for the day, I felt my heartbeat speed up and my palms grow sweaty.  The man that stood before me was tall, lean, with piercing blue eyes and a goatee.  He had that look of indifference that I find totally irresistible.  And the icing on the cake was that he was wearing a castro hat, black jeans, a grey hoody and Converse sneakers.   If he had busted out an acoustic guitar, I would have proposed on the spot.  Let’s call him Nihat, for the sake of reference.  As he led us around the fairy chimneys and frescoes of this ancient world, I had difficulty concentrating on the history lesson he was trying to give us because I couldn’t stop staring at those stunning eyes.  Nihat had just graduated from university and was preparing to do his six months of mandatory military service. Damn it.

Nihat, if you’re reading this, please don’t think me creepy.  Creepy would be attaching your photo to this blog (which I briefly considered before thinking better of it).  Instead, slough off the military service and look me up in Vietnam.  I’d love to look more deeply into those eyes.

Trying to do a whirlwind tour of the major sites in Southern Turkey in just nine days was ambitious to say the least. We tried to maximize our time and money by taking overnight buses and then hitting the sites as soon as we arrived. By the time we reached Olympos, we were pretty wiped. Imagine my pleasure when, after spending each day prior at busy, touristy (though amazing) sites, we slowly winded down a long dirt road, gradually getting further and further away from civilization. The town of Olympos is found in a valley on the Southern coast of Turkey, right on the Mediterranean Sea. It had suffered from some serious flooding just two weeks before, where people were evacuated, some of their famous treehouse hostels were destroyed, and over 50 cars were swept into the Mediterranean. So our timing was fortunate. We spent our days relaxing in Bayrum Guesthouse’s cozy lounge area staring up through the orange and pomegranate trees, floating in the Mediterranean and lying on the beach, and taking turns beating Jen in backgammon. None of us wanted to leave when it came time to do so. I think the three of us are still there in spirit.

Jen learning to swim. Seriously.

Our stretch of rocky, yet practically deserted beach.

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The ladies and I spent a couple of nights hanging out in Kuşadasi on the Aegean coast, we just wanted to relax and take it easy.  We decided to go for a walk one night and we found ourselves hanging out in a local pub being entertained by a bunch of kids in the street.  We made friends with some of the staff and locals and found ourselves on Bar Street at an Irish bar called “Kitty O’ Shea’s.”  Our little walk ended back at our hotel at 5:00am…..

“Don’t drink too fast young man. You can get drunk too easily on Turkish women and Turkish raki.”

– Waiter on Büyükada.

Kris, Serene and I went and checked out the ancient city of Ephesus on the Aegean Coast.  This place is absolutely amazing still after countless earthquakes and attacks.  Check it out!

Tiyatro Theatre

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Have you ever sat down and looked at the series of events leading up to your current situation and wonder “How the hell did point A lead to point Z?”  Well, the other afternoon, I sat down and figured out that I am currently living in Istanbul because of a class I took at Los Angeles City College at the end of last year.  Here’s how:

I took a few classes at the local community college in the fall semester of ’08.  One of them was Art History from the Ancient Near Eastern to the Gothic period, and coincidentally my favorite architectural piece was the Hagia Sophia.  Also at the end of last year, I promised myself I was going to travel, I didn’t know where but I was finally going to Europe at the ripe ol’ age of 24.   I decided on Istanbul because of my strange infatuation with the Hagia Sophia, Paris because I love food, and London to go see my lovely little sister, but then even more good news!  I spoke to my friend Rob for a quick second and his show was going to be in Istanbul.   Sweet, now I have a place to stay.  Last step involved coming to Istanbul and as you all know the rest is history…

So thank you Professor Blackwell, for unknowingly playing a huge part in me now living in Turkey.  Who could have guessed?

My daydreamin' all started with a picture that looked something like this. Except this picture is way cooler because I actually took it...

I was wandering near the Grand Bazaar the other day when I heard shouting and commotion.  Naturally, I walked over to investigate.  There were a group of men standing next to a gold shop, yelling at each other and no one all at the same time and throwing their hands up in gestures that I did not understand.  When I asked the man in the video what was going on, he said that gold was going for 33,820 TRL a kilogram, when the market price was 34,000 TRL a kilogram (approx $23,400 US).

This seemed to be creating a kind of buying frenzy, and just like the stock market at home, I had absolutely no clue what was happening.  But it was pretty entertaining to see it go down on the street.