Before heading to Turkey

   Turkey always has been the one country that I wanted to to visit. I heard many things about Turkey. Turkey has wonderful landscapes, amazing foods, and rich culture and history. This is due to its unique geological location. Turkey is situated in Anatolia and the Balkans, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria. Because it lies between the Asian and the European continent, and borders Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey has a diverse history/culture and amazing landscapes. Here is a general geological location of Turkey. As you can see in this map Turkey is between Europe and Asia and touches the Aegean Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.
   The day before my flight to Turkey I was very anxious of what I was about to experience. There were couple of questions that I had in mind: what is the culture of turkey like?: how does the food in Turkey taste like?: what is the landscape going to be like? As I was doing my final preparation for my vacation, I was very exited about what I might see and learn from this country.

First Two Days In SELÇUK

   On my first day, I arrived in Turkey, at Izmir's Adnan Menderes Airport. As I exited the airplane was, the airport seemed ordinary. However, as I left the airport to buy a ticket for my train ride to Selçuk, I realized the definite difference between Turkey and other countries: people their were so nice. I asked couple of questions for directions and everyone answered them with pleasure. As arrived at Selçuk by train, my eyes were opened with delightful and antique buildings. As soon as I reached Selçuk, I went to the little Ephesus museum. This museum explains the origin of Ephesus. It also exhibit the statue of Artemis retrieved from the temple of the goddess in Ephesus. Each statue was so detailed that if it were to be painted, it would have seemed like a real person. I realized the dedication of the ancient citizens to their gods.

   After I was done with the tour in Ephesus museum, I finally settled in at my hotel called Nilya. Even this place was an art. The scene from this hotel combined the green natural habitat and the well organized architect. In was a collaboration of nature and human. As I rested in my hotel, I got hungry, so I went out to get dinner at Mehmet and Ali Baba Kebab House. I order Kofte - Meat Balls, one of their specials. I was able to experience the wonderful fusion of two cultural foods. Wonderful fusion of asian and european food was perfected in this Turkish dish. After this wonderful meal I headed back to my hotel, and rested for my second day.


  On my second day in Turkey, I wanted to see the ancient Greek city Ephesus. The shape of each structures was very simple, yet very delicate. Everything was built out of rock but each shape gave each structure different flavor. It was hard to believe that ancient people were able to build these. Then I came across the Temple of Artemis. It was a totally different level of technology in architecture. How in the world did people do that without cranes or modern technology? It was just amazing to actually see the Temple of Artemis. Even though it most of the structure was destroyed, it was just amazing to see that some part of Temple of Artemis remains today.
 

After I was done with my tour, I went back to Izmir's Airport for my next flight to Kayseri. After I arrived ar Kayseri, I rode the shuttle bus from the airport to the Cappadocian town where I stayed at a hotel,Upper Greek House. It was very different from a typical hotel you find in many countries. The hotel had many dome structures made from stone. It was a very unique experience.

Part 2 of my Journey in Cappadocia

   For my 2nd part of my journey, I wanted to

explore Cappadocia. I woke up early in the morning and went out to get tickets for hot-air balloons. On the balloon I was able to see the awesome landscape of Turkey. It was very delighting scene. It was beyond what I was expecting. The landscape was covered mostly with huge rocks, but each was very smooth and curved. It was an art to my eyes. Since it is always better to see than to hear, here is a video of a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia. After viewing the landscape, I visited the Göreme Open-Air Museum. This museum has many collection of painted cave church. This antique church was very unique. These caves were carved Medieval orthodox Christian monks (1000-1200 AD) from the soft volcanic stone.

Growing up in a christian based family, I was very intrigued by this kind of church. I've never heard or seen a cave church. The fact that people carved stone caves to make church was very new to me. Some of these caves were here for a thousand year. And because of the wind, water, weather, earthquake, and shepherd boys who sought refuge in the caves and used the faces of the figures as targets for pebble attacks, many parts of the cave were damaged. However the beauty of the church was still present inside and outside the church. As I was touring I realized how religion changed over time. Even though Turkey is 

not a christian country today, it used be very christian based country in the past.




   The next day, I visited Kaymaklı's underground cities. The houses built here are constructed around nearly one hundred tunnels of underground city. This is also one of the things that surprised me. How did the people build this without modern tool. I mean it would be pretty hard to build this tunnel even with modern tools. In these caves there is also a church.

Lastly to Istanbul, a place with many religious history.

   On my 5th day in Turkey, I visited Istanbal, the largest city in Turkey. From there I visited Topkapı Sarayı. This is home of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, Topkapı Sarayı ("Palace of the Cannon Gate"—map) was the seraglio, the heart of the vast Ottoman Empire, ruled by the monarch who lived in Topkapı's hundreds of rooms with hundreds of concubines, children, and white and black servants. This palace overwhelmed me. The structure was very beautiful and huge.

   After noon I visited Hagia Sophia. This place is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum. This is an another example of an awesome architecture. It was hard to believe that this building was standing from 1453. This was just a treasure of history. It was first built to serve as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, and changed to Roman Catholic cathedral. This is cathedral is just a history of Turkey's religion. 

   After a long day spending time touring, I went to eat dinner. I had Testi Kebab(Pottery Kebab) this time. This food is a turkish traditional food. This dish is very special because this kebab is cooked in a pottery and when served, the pottery has to be opened up. I'll show you a video to demonstrate what I mean. This dish was not only unique in cooking, but also flavorful. The ingredients of vegetables and meat were dancing in my mouth and went down my thought as if ballerina was skiping across the stage.

   On my very last day in Turkey, I decided to just enjoy viewing the city. I did that by Bosphorus cruise boat. This tour cruised in the Bosphorus, which is a strait that form a boundary between Asia and Europe. It was just interesting that the left side of me was Europe and the right side of me was Asia. Afternoon I enjoyed just walking, eating, and buying souvenir along the city streets. One of the favor street food was Dürüm. To me this was a very familiar food but with Turkish twist to it.  

After Traveling As a Political Act

   Now that's just a summery of my 6day trip trip to Turkey. After the vacation I realized how short the time was. I wished I had more time to explore Turkish culture. The whole trip(including air transportation) cost about $3400, but every penny was worth every experience. Today we hear many terrible news about Turkey. For example,http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Yaalon-slams-Turkey-for-harboring-terrorism-379456 , after reading this article, one might have a negative opinion about Turkey for supporting Hamas ideals.  However, some people have a positive view of Turkey, such is shown in such articles http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/yes-turkey-is-a-safe-haven/article21133536/. After traveling to Turkey my-self, I now no 1 thing for sure. Turkey is absolutely a wonderful world. Turkey has such a diverse and rich history. And this is demonstrated in their cities, food, people and buildings. If you want to know what actually is going on in the world, you should travel as a political act, not as a third person viewing a situation.

   Overall this trip gave me the chance to observe the country as a 2nd person. I was able to see the historical background of this Europe and Asia bordering country. I was able to learn things like that even though Turkey is Islamic today, it used to be Catholic/christian based country. Those small yet interesting things kept me wanting to know more about the country. And someday I will visit Turkey again with more hunger for their culture and history.