The Road is Life: Mom's Visit

It was a busy last month of summer, with the highlight being my mom's visit to Georgia, and even better our trip to Turkey!

mom with the host family

Our time in Georgia was pretty similar to what I did with my friend Jessie. We spent some time in Tbilisi, I ate the food brought to me from America and then we were in my village and my training village with a day trip to Vardzia. It was fun seeing how excited my two families were to meet my mom, and they went all out with the food, including a supra in Kortaneti with all the neighbors and family.

Christopher was nice enough to come and help out with translation and socializing. It's amazing how much less pressure there is when there are extra Americans at the supra table.

Sapara Monastery

Ananuri

Where we sat for a few hours at Ananuri, waiting for a taxi to come because all the marshrutkas coming by were full

And now....Turkey!

We flew out of Tbilisi around 4am and landed in Izmir around 11am, rented a car, and got on our way. Except that since it was Eid, the last day of Ramadan, the place at the airport that usually carries the regional map was closed. So we were left in our sleepy haze with a general map of the entire country, a lonely planet guide book map, a city map of Izmir (where we were not going) and a small regional map marked with all the shopping centers. None of these maps really had what we needed, but luckily I am an amazing multi-tasker of 4 maps and we managed to get ourselves on the right road, passing all the correctly marked malls and shopping centers. Note the pasing and not stopping, sigh.

Our first stop was Cesme, and we had pretty bad directions to our hotel and really had no idea waht to expect from it, so when we found it through some stroke of luck and drove up the hill, our jaws dropped and all tiredness vanished. It was a beautiful hotel with cabanas, pools, beach, and the beautiful turquoise Aegean Sea stretching out before it. We had wanted to go exploring some nearby villages, but opted to stick around and spend the day drinking beers under an umbrella lounging on pillows and taking periodic dips in the water. AMAZING!

at our hotel

the village of Cesme

mom liked these bowls

never wanted to leave this place!

houses in Sirince

Next stop was Selcuk, a small town further south. We spent the first day at a nearby village called Sirince, which is really now just a huge tourist trap and full of well, tourists, and people selling things to tourists. It was fun to walk around though, and we ended up finding soem more hidden walkways away from the crowds, as well as a beautiful winery to have dinner at overlooking the valley and village.

I like taking pictures of windows....

This region has a superstition and you see eyes everywhere. It's mostly with trinkets that are shades of blue, but the story is that it is meant to ward off the evil eye and any harm wished upon you by others.

The next day was probably one of the highlights. Ephesus! This is one of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world, and this city was once of the largest, second only to Rome. Nearby is one of the sites of the Seven Wonders of the World, Artemis' Temple, though only a few pieces of column remain from that. Walking around Ephesus was really interesting though, the library was beautiful, they had sit down toilets way back in the day and walking into the huge theater and hearing a small clap echo across the huge arena was really impressive. A lot of history happened there too, and nearby is the supposed home of the Mother Mary as well as a cathedral built in honor of the apostle John, who lived there on various occasions. I definitely recommend reading more about it on your own though.

at Ephesus there were so many columns just laid out haphazardly

the library

walking down one of the main roads


the nice sit down public toilets...I should show you pictures of the public toilets I have to deal with here, ugh.

We spent the rest of the day with a short lunch trip to Kusadasi, a port town nearby, and then the evening we spent wandering around Selcuk itself, and walking over the ruins of Artemis and the temple for the apostle John. And having an interesting traditional Aegean dish in the middle of a random garden.

Basilica of John

our hotel courtyard...it was super cute

Basilica again

the only 'column' left from the Temple of Artemis has been taken over by storks

scratch that...only two columns...

chicken in a spicy sauce, potatoes, and Turkish yogurt

next stop was Istanbul! Our hotel was amazing! We also had a rooftop terrace that overlooked the Bosphorus, and had views of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. A few times a day we heard the calls to prayer loud and clear (we heard them at all of our stops actually, and it is quite beautiful) but in Istanbul it seems like there is a small mosque on every block, with its minarets sticking out amongst the apartment buildings and dotting the landscape.

not only did I get a shower but a nice little window perch and a comfy robe! what more can a Peace Corps volunteer ask for?

a street near the hotel

this kitty was a bit bold and tried to take our food from the table

view from our hotel terrace...Blue Mosque

bazaar near the hotel

our hotel terrace at sunset...Hagia Sophia in the background

The Blue Mosque was beautiful inside, covered completely with Iznik tiles, a tradional Turkish tile often with blue floral decoration. I almost felt bad being there though since it was still an operational mosque, and basically has a 24/7 herd of tourists going through. The Hagia Sophia was also amazing, though a lot of the original Byzantine art is gone, it is still beautiful and has quite the atmosphere.

Blue Mosque at night....a lot of people (and cats) congregate on a group of benches here

the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

the ceiling

one of my new scarves!

and one of mom's new scarves! Hagia Sophia in the background

hagia sophia...buttresses

one of the Byzantine mosaics in Hagia Sophia...they were way up there and you had to really crane your neck...which resulted in a sort of tourist bumper car area

so many people!

this was all inlaid stone. super cool.

a wishing...thing. if you could spin your hand all the way around your wish came true. I managed it, but forgot to make a wish with all the pressure of tourists watching and commenting

from the upper gallery

a side courtyard

yeah yeah yeah me and my windows again

We then went to the Topkapi Palace, and it was so big that we really only went into the Harem (the royal family's quarters). We learned a lot about the concubines, wives, and eunuchs of the court, and it was fun to just walk around and explore a bit. We also visited the Cistern, which was an underground water source built back in the Byzantine times and later forgotten about for hundreds of years.

Iznik tiles

Harem courtyard

cabinet

cistern

The rest of our time was spent on a boat trip up the Bosphorus, eating at restaurants, most of which have terrace tops overlooking the city and water, and taking photos of cats, which seem to make cute appearances everywhere in Turkey. Oh, and at one said restaurant the waiter made an offer to my mom. 25 camels, 75 cattle, and and 100 sheep for me. ha.

Istanbul has an amazing transport system, including light rail

we're on a boat!

boats...though i guess that was obvious

me and the guy next to me were getting a little seasick. I'm an Arizona girl, I don't do boats well.

our boat

view from our restaurant one night

moon!

this cat made himself at home in a store

fountain outside of Hagia Sophia

Oh, and the bazaars. Mom sent me off to the Grand Bazaar alone, which meant that I was left to my own devices amongst all the shiny and colorful things to buy. lanterns, scarves, tea, plates, jewelry, and more!

the structure of the Grand Bazaar is mostly the original. But shopkeepers don't like when you take pictures so I didn't get many, just at places where I bought stuff