Advertisement
Hotel & Aya Sofya
My hotel is the Yellow one.Istanbul was my first stop from London (hit "previous journal" at the top of the page to read my brief update on that). Not traveling alone before, I was a little apprehensive to go to Turkey by myself, but I really wanted to go and see where Nihal (my sister-in-law) was from and what my niece Billur and nephew Donovan experience every summer.
I guess I thought Turkey would be so different from the states, but in many ways it's very similar. When I walked out of the airport, it reminded me of leaving the baggage claim area at Orange County Airport. The climate was similar too. Unforturnately, I didn't find Gina's Pizza or Wahoos, but I did find yummy Turkish food and very friendly people that are always more than willing to help you.
I saw all the major sites in Istanbul, then went to Cappadocia to check out all the ruins and beautiful rock formations. Then ended my trip in Selcuk on the western coast to tour Ephesus. I love Selcuk, a very laid back town.
After seeing all the sites, from Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, the underground churches in Cappadocia to Ephesus, I'm amazed
by all these sites. As you're standing there, you can actually visualize a community living in these ruins way back when.
My ultimate experience in Turkey was the day I went to AyaSofya which was the same day tour busses of local school children went there. A girl, about 10 years old, ran up to me and asked me my name. When I answered, about 5 more girls came running up. We then spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to communicate through everything from sign language, Turkish, English and the language of iPod photos. They're teacher called them back and then they came back one more time with a Nokia photo phone and took a picture with me. Then outside they came back one more time and asked for a hug and a kiss and my phone number. I told them I didn't have a phone but I gave them my address. Then one blurted out "I LOVE YOU!", and then off they ran to join up with their class again. The whole experience left a big fat smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0281s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
chad davis
non-member comment
what up
got your blog thing, you are very lucky to be doing this....enjoy it and see as much as you can...for sure a once in a lifetime oppurtunity......take care of yourself and be safe.....