Chelsea's Jerusalem Adventures: Week 4: Turkey!

So this week we were in Turkey! It was a blast. We were here to follow the mission of Paul. We learned a lot of interesting things about Paul as an apostle and we also had a great time learning about the Turkish Culture! Here's a little taste of our views in Turkey

We had some beautiful views!

And not so beautiful views... yes those are the toilets and yes i used them!

Day 1. ISTANBUL
The first day was a lot of traveling so by the time we got there we were exhausted, but there was no time to waste, we went straight to our first site: the Hagia Sophia. Our tour guides name was Necep (Like Egypt with an N in front and no "t" sound) and he was the coolest guy ever. His accent was pretty strong so that was a bit difficult for us to understand but we still had an awesome time with him!! He called us "Negeptians" haha. The Hagia Sophia was so amazing! I had studied it before in some of my classes so to go there was such a treat. It was amazing and i thought, why would we do the BEST part of the trip at the very beginning and not at the end? Little did i know how many other sweet places we would go to!

Outside of the Hagia Sophia. Sophia means "Holy Wisdom"

Inside of the Hagia Sophia at the alter. All the detail and the gold is so beautiful. Above the alter you can see a depiction of Mary and Jesus, but Muslims don't put icons in any of their mosques. This is there because this mosque used to be a Christian place of Worship and they used icons, but the Muslims got control of it and plastered over ALL the mosaics. Now it's a beautiful mix of both.

I took these pictures mainly to show how intricate and amazing these mosaics are. Same piece, just zoomed in

Next we went to the Archeological Museum and got to see room #28. This was a HUGE deal because the professors here have been trying to get into this room for years and this was the first time they were allowed. You can imagine the excitement on their faces!

Jenny and I going to see the secret room #28

Statue of Hermaphroditus. half man/half woman statue. I thought it was cool!

I REALLY enjoyed the Sarcophaguses. I just can't believe people carved this out of marble! It was so amazing. The picture on the right shows what they would have looked like when they had all their color on them! Dang! i want my tomb to look like that :)

Around 8 we got to our hotel and went out of course to explore the city. This was an interesting experience... so our curfew was 10:30 and we really wanted to walk on the water so we took the tram to the Bosporus. I had Dr. Belnap's daughter so being on time was very important for me. Long story short.. and after a very crammed and busy tram ride home, filled with muslims (so us blondes stood out), we sprinted back to our hotel asking everyone on the street to help us. No one spoke english so it was like a charades game and we were 15 minutes late. We ran into the hotel, brother Belnap was standing there with a very scary look. I was in HUGE trouble because i didn't get her home on time and we were 15 minutes late.... Luckily there were others who came in after us so we didn't get punished.. phew! It was close and i haven't been late since!

The first night we stayed on a beach in Istanbul with a sweet dock. You'd think we would be exhausted after traveling for more than 20 hours but we couldn't pass up a night on the dock singing songs and just talking. Great memories

Day2. ISTANBUL

Out bright and early this day. First went to the Hippodrome (a place where Constantine used to have his horse track- this was also a community center where people would come and enjoy themselves).

Jenny and i at the hippodrome. This was a statue that represented the presence of the Egyptians, it's huge and awesome!

Next we went to the Blue Mosque! This was awesome because we got to wear head scarves in and take our shoes off. It was a very peaceful place.

Architects make the outside of the Mosques dark looking to 1. scare away the bad spirits and 2. to enhance the beauty of the inside! The builders of the Blue Mosque wanted this mosque to stand out among ALL the other mosques in the world so the builder put up 6 minaret's when the typically mosques have 5. However, the most holy mosque in Mecca (the Grand Mosque) had 6 already so they built an extra one at the Grand Mosque in Mecca to make sure that the Blue Mosque didn't surpass it.

Blue Mosque Selfie

Then we went to the Topkapi Palace and Gardens which was really awesome but i wasn't allowed to take any pictures there. Next we went to the Basilica Cistern. This is a huge underground Cistern under the Hagia Sophia which consisted of 336 different types of pillars that the people took from different sites to build it. This was a way for the people to store water.

In the Cistern they needed more stone for a pillar so they took these huge heads of Medusa. To them at the time it didn't mean anything but supplies for the cistern but now it's super cool to see that.

The Grand Bizzare was next! In other words the largest shopping mall i have ever been to! It was huge with hundreds of stores and pretty cheap! There are NO price tags so you can bargain.

The Grand Bizzare

I got fed some Turkish Delight.. yum!! (Photo bomb in the back)

Ran into Elder Johnson! Small world! :)

If you didn't think day 2 could get any better we then went on a boat ride on the Bosporus! Man it was beautiful and so much fun!

Jenny and i getting wind blown on the boat :) So fun!

After the Boat ride we went to the Whirling Dervishes. I couldn't get a picture of that but this is a show with a circle stage. it's a very tiny room. pretty much what happens is that a bunch of Muslim men spin in circles for 45 minutes as a form of prayer to God. It's a pagan tradition. Here's a picture from the internet. Because it was a session of worship there were no applauses or anything. There wasn't even a break, they spun for 45 minutes straight.

That night a bunch of us decided to venture around Turkey and find some yummy food :) And we did!!! I love trying new foods, it's probably my favorite part!

Day 3- TROY!

Bright and early the next morning we loaded the buses.. it was a long but fun bus ride. The best part about long bus ride days is that when we take breaks there are ALWAYS Magnum bars. I tried every flavor over the trip! I think all my money is going to be spent on food instead of souvenirs.. :)

Finally we got to Gallipoli Battlefield Memorial, also called ANZAC This was a special place where the spirit was very strong. This is the island where a great war between the Central powers and the Allied Powers took place. What was so special about this place was the quietness of the water as you walked down the beach and then to see all the graves there which included Muslims, Jews and Christians. I thought that was especially cool because here is Jerusalem there is so much havoc over these three religions not being able to get along.. but at ANZAC i realized that God is God, no matter what your race and that one day all of these religions will be able to Coexsist in peace.

This was the memorial there. It's cool how the community has come together for this and really understood the emotions the families must have felt at this battle

Next was the Ferry Ride across the Dardanelles. Here is where i attempted to get over my fear of birds! We would throw bread in the air and they would swoop down and catch them... freaky!

Birds

This was the horse that the Greeks brought in to Troy when they defeated them

Day 4. Perganum

A lot of driving this day!! But the main part of the trip was the cool temples at Perganum.

Here's a cat that decided to join our lecture! I was dying!!!!

Day 5. - Selcuk

Long driving day again which means more Magnum bars! We went to Assos this day, which is an acropolis or city on a hill.

Gotta love the ancient ampitheaters

You can call me Queen Bee!

Church of St. john was next. I thought these toilets were very creative, but i don't like i'd like to go in a communal bathroom where everyone can see you.. it worked for them :)

Lize and me enjoying the sunshine! Oh! And the Rocks

Next we went to Ephesus which was so awesome. I don't have time to write about all the cool history of this place, but it's amazing how much of the city is still there!!

Me, Jenny and McKenna at one of the oldest libraries!!

This is the Goddess NIKE behind me! She inspired my most favorite brand :)

That night we went to Priene which was a blast! The evening was the best though, we got to play at our own beach that was on our resort!!! jenny and i looked at each other when we got in and we're like, "Yeah we're just playing the Agean Sea in Turkey, no big deal!!"