October 6th, 2013
Finally we are off for an amazing, once in a lifetime vacation in Turkey, a whole week I can't imagine! I thought this day would never come, but breakfast at 3:30 a.m. has a way of shocking me into reality! I have to admit needing at least 3 hours to make it through security at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv made me nervous. Not that I have anything to hide but I'm sure if they ask me too many questions they will just want to keep me all to themselves ;) Don't worry it wasn't too extensive. I didn't get padded down, no one-on-one interviews where I needed to sing "God Bless America" to prove I'm a young stupid American who just loves chick flicks (for all you who haven't seen The Proposal, look it up!) and no one stealing my bag because they could still reach it underneath the bathroom stall door. Let me tell you though, the airport is one busy place even early in the morning, granted adding 80 students to the mix doesn't help at all. Anyways, guess how I flew to Turkey?!? PEGASUS!!! Can you believe it? Okay not a great play on words but it was fun to fly with Pegasus airlines. Even though it was a 2 hour flight they still managed to squeeze in a barely edible breakfast of egg surprise and a 5 year old biscuit, not my favorite but it will do.
After arriving at Istanbul we met our tour guide named Nicep (sounded like Egypt with an N, Negypt) who was hilarious! I knew right off the bat I would love our guide! He kinda reminded me of a friend from high school, Francisco (for those of you who might know). He was somewhat shorter, with a birthmark on his neck that would go super red when he was embarrassed or nervous. He had a thick accent which really added to his message and jokes. For example he was telling us that many elderly couples after retirement buy homes in this certain area, instead of saying retirement he said something like "retardment age" which made everyone laugh!
Our first stop was at the Hagia Sophia Mosque! This mosque was absolutely stunning, seriously felt like I was in a land of Castles with all the huge mosques littering the land. It was a huge open Mosque and since it isn't an active mosque anymore it was a very busy tourist attraction. Notice the Calligraphy on the walls of the building in Arabic, they really added to the building. In most Muslim mosques today calligraphy is used as decoration instead of pictures or mosaics. After its construction in the mid 6th century A.D. the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world for nearly a thousand years. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453 they converted the Hagia Sophia church into a mosque, adding four minarets to the exterior. At this conversion time they covered the Christian art with plaster which ironically preserved the mosaics rather than destroying it, trying not to expose human images (common in Muslim religious buildings). They also told a story of one of the mosaics and how the visitors of the mosque were taking bits and pieces of the mosaic as keepsakes. This was super sad to see the effects of such selfish acts, even though we all wanted to take pottery shards and had to have a huge lecture-Now I understand why.
(insert Hagia Sophia Mosque here) I don't have the internet capacity to do so now, but I will update as soon as I can!
We also went to the Archeological Museum. I have to be honest and say that Museums aren't my favorite because many times I can't touch or even take pictures, but it still was really neat. This museum had the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great among many others, even from Egypt! There was also the oldest peace treaty found from Mesopotamia. As you can imagine there were mounds of pottery, jewelry, and other random findings from Troy and the Harbor.
Can I just say I love the atmosphere of Turkey! Just driving to and from the hotel caught my eye, which is saying something since I'd been up since the weeee hours of the morning! I love the feeling of adventure you have traveling to countries all across the world. I'm still in awe that I made it away for this long and so far away! I absolutely love all the beautiful mosques that litter the land. It really made me think of what will last from our age. What buildings will the future use to learn and honor the 21st century? Then the thought came to me....TEMPLES!!!! Mosques are holy places of worship and prayer for the Muslims but temples and church houses are our holy places where we connect and talk with our Father in Heaven. I love seeing the dome tops of the mosques everywhere I look! Oh how I wish the temples will become as populated as mosques, and not just in Utah!
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