BITTER SWEET TRAVELS!

The Blue Mosque at night. Finally bought a tripod. Stupid to wait this long as it is very handy for night photos.

Two of the brothers from Yoti Bar in Istanbul. Had a great time visiting them. The middle brother is playing an "old Turkish joke" on Hazen.

The Galata Bridge over the Bosphorus was packed with fisherman catching tiny little fish. Many were sent down the street to street vendors where they fried them up for the rush hour crowd. Sea to mouth in about 30 minutes.

Pieces of Byzantine aquaducts and a Minaret in the background. In the foreground many old Turkish men (only men) are playing backgammon and Turkish dominoes. This seems like it is an all day activity for many men.

The citadel above Selcuk. This is the view we had from our hotel terrace. The picture is of the new prime minister.

Ephesus ruins

The great theatre at Ephesus. Capacity 25,000

Again the Great Theatre shown as it was built into the hillside 1,700 years ago.

70 miles to the gallon on this hog!

We are a little lost but found some great valleys with tiny "towns". In one valley we arrived when the call to prayer was being played from the Mosque. It was amazing listening to it as it bounced around the valley. We continue to be mesmerized every time we hear it.

Views of the rugged coastline from our Moped trip.

Another Roman theatre being excavated in Fethiye. This one has no entrance fees, no tourists, and not even a fence. We climbed up and sat in the shade as it overlooks the bay.
Hazen decided to teach a few Turkish kids how to play soccer. A lot of fun as they toyed with him. They were playing on the theatre floor of the 3rd century roman theatre. Hazen stubbed his toe on some ancient stones.

Merhaba Friends and Family,

A lot has changed since our last post. Mainly our dream of finishing our trip in Egypt will not be realized. We are very sad but we were not able to find a reasonable means of traveling there from Turkey. I know that seems hard to believe as it is just a hop over the Med but we are stumped. Have pulled out all the travel tricks we know and still the best we can do is a $550/person flight from southern turkey to Egypt. At this point in our trip that is a bit steep. So...we will be staying in Turkey until the 24th (sweet part of "bitter sweet"). We were able to change our Cairo to Munich flight to Antalya to Munich with minimal penalty. It has taken a few days for the sting to wear off but now that it has we are back to business and having a great time in Turkey. Here is what we have been up to:

From Izmir we had a short journey to a small town called Selçuk. This is the homebase for exploring Ephesus. Ephesus was a remarkable place that has history dating back to 6000 BC. The ruins that remain are Roman and date to the 3rd century AD. It was another example of architectural perfection. Basically the entire city still remains and at one point it had 200,000 occupiers. The great theatre was incredible as it seated 25000 people and had unbeatable acoustics. We headed straight for the top row and were able to clearly hear converstations from anywhere in the theatre. Really a marvel. Spent a while longer in Selçuk and befriended a restaurant owner. He was from eastern Turkey and loved teaching us about why the eastern food is so much better than the western Turkey food.

On to Marmaris. A small resorty type town on the aegean coast. Were in need of a good beach because the weather has been very warm. About 108 F one day. Rented a moped a couple days ago and explored the peninsula just outside of town. It was illegal for us to rent it as we lied and said Hazen's license was motorcycle endorsed. Oh well, we were quite the sight as we were the only people in the town riding a moped that actually wore their helmets. Quickly got out of town and found some great beaches that we had all to ourselves. On one beach when we stopped swimming the small fish would swarm around your feet and bite your ankles. Our thinking was that where there are little fish that want to bite you, there are probably bigger fish nearby that also have the same idea. We headed to a new beach.

Just got to a new town called Fethiye. Just a little bit further down the coast. After three days here we will be boarding a 15 person sailboat to travel for 4 days along the southern coast. We will be stopping in all of the secluded coves and such. Aubree is really excited and Hazen just hopes he doesn't get seasick. After the boat trip we will try to visit Cyprus which is a small island just off the southern coast that is half Turkey and half Greece. From there we will hopefully have enough time to visit Cappadochia before flying to Munich. Even though we now have an entire month here it feels like we don't have nearly enough time. So many great things to explore in this country.