There are things I miss for of the holidays, especially you guys, friends and family. But being away for the holidays has been a bit insightful. With out all the rushing, hustling, shopping, decorating, sending cards, pressure to buy for people stuff they don't need, buying, buying, buying- it makes you focus on the good side of the holidays. I realize it is the time of the year to slow down and think of loved ones and what you are grateful of, a time of the year to reflect on the year behind us and set goals for the one that's coming.
This is my first time spending Christmas in a non-Christian country and I have to say it has been interesting and enlightening.
Interesting in the sense that when we kind of shared our traditions (non- religious history) of Christmas with Muslim student's in our class. It went kind of like this..."so we believe that there is a fat old guy who lives in the North Pole and he has a bunch of elves that make toys for the kids. On Christmas eve loads up a shit ton of toys in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and flies into the night. Then he comes into our houses via the chimney and leaves toys under a tree that we cut down and decorated." First question....what's a chimney? Second question...What if your house doesn't have a chimney? Then I stopped questions and read The Polar Express.
Enlightening in the sense that I realize that you can even celebrate the feeling of Christmas with non-Christmas celebraters and it still feels special and that is perhaps because around this time of year we just want things to be special. We want to be kind and reflective. The friends that we celebrated with before leaving are Syrian. In with the situation in Syria being on the verge of a massacre they were feeling a bit reflective too, and perhaps somber. I have never spent time with people whose whole family, friends and country were in midst of terror. It is sobering and made me realize my problems are so very small. Everyone they love is in a land that is too unsafe for them to visit and minutes away from destruction and they have come to the point were they have had to reach out to the Syrian people here and make a kind of support group- I guess that is what you do when you whole sense of security is taken from you. A strange way to celebrate the holiday, but really made me think of how we need to be grateful for what we have and with this is in mind it was nice to be away from the commercialism of the western Christmas.
The next morning we were off to Turkey where we would spend 2 weeks traveling with our close friend Raph.
When we arrived at the Qatar airport we realized it was their national day and the airport was in celebration mode..
Then we landed in Istanbul.....and a memorable landing it was. I have flown a lot and though I don't love it, I have learned to accept it. There was a stint where I hated it and couldn't handle not being in control; saying things like "don't you think the pilot should slow down." Or, "what was that noise?" But really I am much more chill now. Well, that was until our landing in Istanbul. As we approached the landing strip our plan jolted with turbulence that made it appear as we were going to smash into the ground. The whole plane was silent except for the screaming child, we all gripped our arm rests with pure panic. Then the plane seemed to accelerate an the turbulence worsened as we got closer....and I may have screamed out in the silence....ARE WE GOING TO CRASH? Aaron just looked at me like are you freaken serious and the Turkish guy beside me try to calm me, all he said was "okay, okay" trying to convey a message like "this is normal" but the look on his face and his white knuckles said otherwise. We did somehow land in one piece but I was pretty shook.
Turkey...know anything about it? I didn't, and the truth is we just chose it because Raph is on a cross continental bike trip and this is where he was for Christmas. So Turkey seems like a kind of an in-between country. It is not Europe and it is not Arab. It's capital is the only city in the world that spans two continents. You can actually just cross the straight and be in Asia or Europe. So from my perspective it seemed very Eastern European but it is a Muslim country. And, it is by far the richest historical place I have ever been. Most of the dates of places were from way BC and I couldn't even wrap my brain around how old things were. It went through the Ottoman Empire when it was Constantinople, it was Christian, then Muslim and now secular and it is rich with culture.
The markets of Istanbul are bustling places full of people, sounds, color and rich scents.
This is pretty much what every Turkish guy looks and dresses like. Look closely at the beads in the man on the lefts hand. I found these quite fascinating. They are a small ring of beads that most men carry all day in their hand. They are not religous or meant for praying. Rather, they are for playing. When I asked a man on the bus about them he said this.."It is healthy for the mind for the fingers to be moving, most men start with them when they are in their early 20's." Then he showed me some moves. If you ever go to Turkey (and Greece) you will be amazed how all men are playing with these beads. Notice how I said it is just men. That pretty much says it all. It is just men who go to the tea shops, it is just men who work in the shops and restaurants, just men that are found in the main areas of the mosques and well it's just men for about everything. And, being a woman there and doing all the men things with Aaron and Raph like smoking sheesha and drinking tea in the tea houses and playing cards, I got a lot stares. Not a lot of wow check her out, more like wow that is strange that a women is here. The bathrooms were not that welcoming.....
Before entering the mosque one must wash their feet and these stations are found outside of the mosques. (I should mention it is very cold out and I don't think, that even by the strongest faith, I could be talked into removing my thick wool socks and washing my feet in cold water out in the cold.)
A house in Istanbul that captures the dress of the woman. It is customary to cover your head with a colorful silk scarf. Apparently it is customary as well to gain an extra 30lbs if you are a woman above the age of 50. This may be a good time as well to mention the pants. You know those pants that look like a skirt but they have feet in them. The ones that have become hip in some circles and they kind of make you look like you crapped your pants? Yeah, those ones. Well I guess they came from Turkey because in the country side this is what all the woman wear.
Aaron and Raph seaside in Istanbul as the many ships in the foreground wait for the strait to the black sea to be opened for north bound traffic.
A man praying in the blue Mosque, an extremely old and impressive structure
Courtyard of the blue Mosque, notice the shiny marble floor? Istanbul was a bit cold and wet.
I hate cats and have no idea why I took this photo.
Tree, dog, chair, boat.....unique title no?
Throughout the city there are all these outside gyms. Which reminds me to inform you that I think 8 out of 10 Turkish people smoke cigarettes- it is by far the smokiest place I have ever been.
From Istanbul we took a 12 hour bus ride to a region called Kapadocia. Where a unique landscape of sandstone pillars decorate the high plateau and with in this pillars are caves where people have been living for 100's of years.
This was an outside playground where we were free to roam around and explore. If a place like this existed in the states or even Europe it would all be protected and only allowed to be seen from a safe distance. But amazingly enough we were able to freely climb into places where Christians once built hidden churches and hid from the Muslims.
All the wholes high on the cliffs are pigeon houses, made by people long ago to collect pigeons for food. It is a mystery how they climbed so high.
Then we traveled to another village where we went to a underground city that was once the home to over 10,000 people. It would down four stories and it was pretty amazing.
And then there was the highlight of the trip, not a museum, or going to the Mediterranean, or some ancient mosque nor going to the town where the actual Santa Claus is from no, no,no. It would be renting cheap mopeds and doing a mini-road trip. Freezing cold and a bit dangerous but loads of fun! I see a possible motorcycle trip in my future.
Hamam is a turkish bath which is a steam room. These are common in Turkey and a tradition for the Turks. The day we went we had the place to ourselves.
We rode bikes to the town with the Turkish Bath and on the way home Raph said to Aaron that he should jump off some mini dirt cliff and so Aaron did....and this is what happened. Luckily they were even because the day before Aaron talked Raph into doing a trick on his moped which he did and the outcome was the same......boys.
Christmas Eve crew, we had a gift exchange and played lots of games. It was nice to be with a big group of people on Christmas.
Christmas Morning!
Where we were Christmas evening....the Mediterranean
Olympus - the seaside village we visited was once ruled by the Greek and there were many Greek Ruins including this Greek Mosiac.
In this town of Olympus there is a place where gas exudes from the ground and there is always flame. This is where the first Olympics took place and the idea of the eternal flame that now represents the Olympics. Pretty cool and worth the hike in the dark and the cold.
Notice the large Turkish Flag above and the many small ones below? The Turks are more patriotic than any country I have ever been. If there is a way they WILL put a flag on it. And, in edition to the flag there is the worshiped leader of Atatruk. A man famed for taking Turkey away from their muslim ways, away from the Ottoman Empire and creating the Turkey we know today. Turning the country secular, removing the arabic language and changing Turkey to a more western country. I believe it was in the 1920's. Well he has distinguished look about him that is very reminescent of The Wizard of Oz. You cannot make a move in Turkey with out seeing his face. His photos is hung in every home, business and restaurant. His face can be diplayed as a door knocker, a sticker, and the list goes on.
We rang in the new year in the Istanbul's city center and eclectic night of heavy metal, electronica, gay bars, Turkish music, belly dancing and rain. It lasted till 5am, making the end of the holiday even that much harder when we had to rise at 8:00 for the plane. The pleasure was worth the pain.
Well Happy New Year to you all. Hoping the best for everyone in 2012.
It seems surprisingly nice to be back and for some strange reason more homey than Colombia, it may be because our house in Colombia always felt like a hotel waiting room. But with the New Year here I feel re-energized and fired up about starting in on some goals.
This is my first time spending Christmas in a non-Christian country and I have to say it has been interesting and enlightening.
Interesting in the sense that when we kind of shared our traditions (non- religious history) of Christmas with Muslim student's in our class. It went kind of like this..."so we believe that there is a fat old guy who lives in the North Pole and he has a bunch of elves that make toys for the kids. On Christmas eve loads up a shit ton of toys in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and flies into the night. Then he comes into our houses via the chimney and leaves toys under a tree that we cut down and decorated." First question....what's a chimney? Second question...What if your house doesn't have a chimney? Then I stopped questions and read The Polar Express.
Enlightening in the sense that I realize that you can even celebrate the feeling of Christmas with non-Christmas celebraters and it still feels special and that is perhaps because around this time of year we just want things to be special. We want to be kind and reflective. The friends that we celebrated with before leaving are Syrian. In with the situation in Syria being on the verge of a massacre they were feeling a bit reflective too, and perhaps somber. I have never spent time with people whose whole family, friends and country were in midst of terror. It is sobering and made me realize my problems are so very small. Everyone they love is in a land that is too unsafe for them to visit and minutes away from destruction and they have come to the point were they have had to reach out to the Syrian people here and make a kind of support group- I guess that is what you do when you whole sense of security is taken from you. A strange way to celebrate the holiday, but really made me think of how we need to be grateful for what we have and with this is in mind it was nice to be away from the commercialism of the western Christmas.
The next morning we were off to Turkey where we would spend 2 weeks traveling with our close friend Raph.
When we arrived at the Qatar airport we realized it was their national day and the airport was in celebration mode..
Then we landed in Istanbul.....and a memorable landing it was. I have flown a lot and though I don't love it, I have learned to accept it. There was a stint where I hated it and couldn't handle not being in control; saying things like "don't you think the pilot should slow down." Or, "what was that noise?" But really I am much more chill now. Well, that was until our landing in Istanbul. As we approached the landing strip our plan jolted with turbulence that made it appear as we were going to smash into the ground. The whole plane was silent except for the screaming child, we all gripped our arm rests with pure panic. Then the plane seemed to accelerate an the turbulence worsened as we got closer....and I may have screamed out in the silence....ARE WE GOING TO CRASH? Aaron just looked at me like are you freaken serious and the Turkish guy beside me try to calm me, all he said was "okay, okay" trying to convey a message like "this is normal" but the look on his face and his white knuckles said otherwise. We did somehow land in one piece but I was pretty shook.
Turkey...know anything about it? I didn't, and the truth is we just chose it because Raph is on a cross continental bike trip and this is where he was for Christmas. So Turkey seems like a kind of an in-between country. It is not Europe and it is not Arab. It's capital is the only city in the world that spans two continents. You can actually just cross the straight and be in Asia or Europe. So from my perspective it seemed very Eastern European but it is a Muslim country. And, it is by far the richest historical place I have ever been. Most of the dates of places were from way BC and I couldn't even wrap my brain around how old things were. It went through the Ottoman Empire when it was Constantinople, it was Christian, then Muslim and now secular and it is rich with culture.
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| Food: Turkey is famous for it's sweets called Turkish delights many which are similar to Baklava. We drank a lot of that white stuff that is called Ayran, a sour yogurt drink that is surprisingly tasty. But for sure, Chai (black tea) is the national drink. It is found everywhere and pretty much what most people spend their time doing- and we spent a lot of time drinking chai. |
Markets are also really into selling spices, tea and dried fruit.
Throughout the city there are all these outside gyms. Which reminds me to inform you that I think 8 out of 10 Turkish people smoke cigarettes- it is by far the smokiest place I have ever been.
From Istanbul we took a 12 hour bus ride to a region called Kapadocia. Where a unique landscape of sandstone pillars decorate the high plateau and with in this pillars are caves where people have been living for 100's of years.
This was an outside playground where we were free to roam around and explore. If a place like this existed in the states or even Europe it would all be protected and only allowed to be seen from a safe distance. But amazingly enough we were able to freely climb into places where Christians once built hidden churches and hid from the Muslims.
All the wholes high on the cliffs are pigeon houses, made by people long ago to collect pigeons for food. It is a mystery how they climbed so high.
Then we traveled to another village where we went to a underground city that was once the home to over 10,000 people. It would down four stories and it was pretty amazing.
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| And as if being three stories below the ground wasn't enough we had to slip through this crack int he door and explore more. I went until we had to do less than crawl, I guess you could call it slither. I backed out and the boys went on, but even they had their limits and turned around when true claustrophobia set in. |
And then there was the highlight of the trip, not a museum, or going to the Mediterranean, or some ancient mosque nor going to the town where the actual Santa Claus is from no, no,no. It would be renting cheap mopeds and doing a mini-road trip. Freezing cold and a bit dangerous but loads of fun! I see a possible motorcycle trip in my future.
Hamam is a turkish bath which is a steam room. These are common in Turkey and a tradition for the Turks. The day we went we had the place to ourselves.
In this town of Olympus there is a place where gas exudes from the ground and there is always flame. This is where the first Olympics took place and the idea of the eternal flame that now represents the Olympics. Pretty cool and worth the hike in the dark and the cold.
One of our last and most Serendipidous spots was the seaside town of Antanlaya. The birth place of Santa Claus and with a touristy European walled city by the sea. We had no plans to visit this place but it made for a good place to spend the night before going to the airport to head back to Istanbul. A great town for strolling and watching the sunset but as it turns out is was a also a great place to bond with eachother, smoke sheesha (flavored tobacco) from a huka, hang out by a fire pit with a bunch of locals, one of which played a funky arabic guitar and dance and laugh and dance and laugh.
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| Ataturk |
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| The hovering duo, on the verge of taking over the world with their geeky quotes that may someday (despite my opinion) adorn sought after t-shirts. Despite their dorkyness I really love these guys and the great trip we had. |
We rang in the new year in the Istanbul's city center and eclectic night of heavy metal, electronica, gay bars, Turkish music, belly dancing and rain. It lasted till 5am, making the end of the holiday even that much harder when we had to rise at 8:00 for the plane. The pleasure was worth the pain.
Well Happy New Year to you all. Hoping the best for everyone in 2012.
It seems surprisingly nice to be back and for some strange reason more homey than Colombia, it may be because our house in Colombia always felt like a hotel waiting room. But with the New Year here I feel re-energized and fired up about starting in on some goals.
