Turkey May 18, 2011: Pergamum/ Kusadasi

Here are the highlights of day 3 in Turkey. Pergamum is another one of the 7 churches that John visited, spoken of in Revelation. We visited the Acropolis at Pergamum and later went on to the Asclepion known as hte world's first health center, a sanctuary to the God of Medicine, Asclepios. It was neat being here because it talks of messages being delivered to the Christians, by John, in the book of Revelation. This is the place of the "seat of Satan." 

Deids and I. 

Slice and I. 

Oh ya know...

Deidra, Lauren and I. 

Deids and I. 

Angela, Ashton and I. 

Just contemplating a little at Pergamum. 

Me at Pergamum. 

Group at Pergamum. 

Angela and I. 

Turkish Carpet Factory. 

Beautiful Turkish rugs.... I wanted to buy one for my parents soo bad. 

Turkey May 17, 2011: Canakkale/Troy

The third day in Turkey was one of my favorites. After breakfast and packing up in Istanbul, we loaded the busses for a long drive down to Canakkale aka Troy. The drive was several hours long but it was nice to get in some extra sleep, listen to music and just hang out with people on the bus. Oh, and we also got to hear the stories of how the Muhlesteins met. Best. Story. Ever. We all feel so blessed to have such great leaders here at the Jerusalem Center. It's been great to see how much they care about us. What a great experience it is for me to be here. I'm learning so much and it has most definitely increased my testimony in many ways. 

Our first stop was to the ancient town of Troy to visit the legendary wooden horse. Despite the story being true or not it was a neat experience. We all hung around and took pictures in the horse (I'm the one   on the bottom level, in the box to the far right). Then we looked around the ruins of the ancient city. The remains of the city were excavated by a man who used Homer’s Illiad to locate the site, and who also took many of the valuable treasures he found there back to Germany with him. The ruins include a temple a temple, theater, and foundations. Today, recent wooden copy of the famous Trojan Horse symbolically stands on the site to recall its legendary original since long vanished. Our class acted out part of Homer's Iliad, which was really funny to watch. I was Hector's wife. It was really fun to act it out with the class. 

This was the only site we went to that day but it was great. On our way to our hotel we stopped along the Agean Sea and got to dip our feet in and play in the water. I love the water soo much so it was not only great to get out and stretch, but also to be in the water with everyone. 

Epic trojan horse! 

Me in front of a Troy I ruin! 

Group at Troy. 

Room slices enjoying Troy! 

That night we stayed in a hotel in Cannakale. The hotel was a little interesting but the town was amazing. The hotel was right on the water so we went and hung out for a few hours. There were a bunch of cute shops run by some of the local people. We also watched the sunset on the boardwalk, as a group. It was soo beautiful and so fun to watch together. We took fun and crazy pictures and just had a blast. I got some earrings as gifts to friends and family back home. It was just a fun night I'll always remember from this Turkey trip. What a good day :) 

Group out in the town at night. 

Watching the beautiful sunset. 

Me and slice!

:) 

Me, Jeehee and Angela. 

We were in love with this town. 

Turkey May 16, 2011: Istanbul

Sorry again for me stinking at blogging, but here's goes my Turkey trip. Let me tell you, Turkey is beautiful. I think we were all a little surprised on how pretty it was. Now I know why it is such a popular tourist place. I thought it was going to look more like Jerusalem in Israel. Israel is gorgeous but is turning a little brown, so it was nice to see a little greenery. It kind of reminded me of the coat in Georgia.... really green and  gorgeous along the water. Our trip was down the west coast of Turkey. Oh, and the sunset when we flew in was just gorgeous.

 We flew in to Istanbul on the 15th and on the 16th, so began our adventures in Turkey. On the 16th we went around the city of Istanbul. Istanbul is right along the Agean sea so it's this  city.  While driving around I was amazed of how gorgeous of a place Turkey is. Our first stop was to Topkapi Palace, which was built by Sultan Mehmet II after the conquest of Istanbul in the 15th century. This palace housed the sultans and their exotic entourage until the mid 19th century. The palace was very beautiful with a lot of gold architecture and interesting artifacts, like treasure, Chinese porcelain, and traditional clothing that the sultans and his family wore. The buildings are a group of structures with different works from successive periods of Ottoman reign. It was also neat to see preserved relics of the Prophet Mohammed.

Brother and Sister Muhlestein and I in front of the palace!

Look at the beautiful architecture! 

Model of what the Palace used to look like. 

Canton and I. 

Muhlestein bus group... Slytherin. 

Angela, Erica and I. 

Group outside the walls of the palace. 

View of the Bosphorus Straight off of one of the palace balconies. 

Next we stopped at the Blue Mosque, which was gorgeous! It's called the Blue Mosque because of its beautiful Iznik tiles on the inside. It was amazing and interesting to learn about.

Outside! 

Beautiful interior. 

Deidra, Angela & I. 

Matt and I. 

BJ, Josiah, Me, Josh & Angela. 

Girls in our scarves. 

:) 

Before lunch, we went to the Basilica Underground Cistern, a place built hundreds of years ago, which was used as an underground water storage unit.

Cool, huh? 

After lunch, we took a boat ride along the Bosphorus Straight. All of us really enjoyed the boat ride. It was kind of like being in 2 places at once because land on one side of the straight is a part of Asia and the other is a part of Europe. It was really fun hanging out with everyone. I got a little sea sick, but overall it was a great trip.

Jeehee, Ashton, Erica, Deidra, Me & Angela. 

Group enjoying the boat ride. 

Deids and I. 

Enjoying the cruise. 

Wayna and I. 

Kim Slice and I. 

Dinner was interesting too. It was right off of the Bosphorus Straight so we had an amazing view. It was a fish restaurant. I tried a nasty, super salty sardine and then our main meal was an entire fish- the skin, bones, eye balls and all. I loved the fish but it was funny to see the reactions of my friends who don't like fish at all.

worst. fish. ever. 

Our lovely dinner... haha, Angela hated it. 

Yummmm. 

It actually tasted pretty good. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that we also went to the Grand Bazaar, the largest street market in the entire world. It was interesting but we only got a half hour or so to shop around. On the positive side I got a cute scarf that I wear all the time now.

After checking into our hotel, we went into the city with our tour guide, Faati, to get some delicious baklava. It was great getting out and we got to ride the subway in Istanbul. I always love fun little experiences like this. Great day? I THINK SO.

Obama pan of baklava. 

Drew, Adam, Canton & I. 

Just enjoying us some yummy baklava.