Roman Ruins

After a smooth trip back to the States and a week of recovery, I'm posting from home now. Here's a collection of Roman sites we visited in southern Turkey before heading west to the Aegean coast.

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t9esz-roman-ruins

Cave Dwellings, finally!

Cave Dwellings: Capadokya
by Rachel

https://www.storehouse.co/stories/t6rho-cave-dwellings

Cave Dwellings

We've landed in Pamukkale next to the Roman ruins of Heiropolis in the Agean region of Turkey. I've started to pull photos together by theme, like Cave Dwellings in Capadokya, rather than by day because we've had some long traveling days with nothing interesting to post about. Today, our bus left Antalya at 7:30am and took the long way to Pamukkale to swing by the Antioch of Pisidia ruins, and we arrived at 7pm.  The crummy internet connection here means I can't upload photos for now, but I'll try again at the next hotel in 2 days.

Floating over Capadokya

Best reason to wake up at 3:30am ever!

Floating over Capadokya: Day 12
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t9ofx-floating-over-capadokya

The Mediterranean at last!

We woke up in Antakya - Antioch and drove out to the beach first thing this morning. I dipped my toes in at the ancient port of Seleucia, then walked through a tunnel built in the 1st Century to move the entire river north, so it would stop silting up the harbor. Back in Antioch, we visited a museum of Greek mosaics and drove by what's considered the first Christian church in history (it was closed for restoration).

Antakya - Antioch: Day 10

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t3o6q-antakya-antioch

Bazaar Shopping

We spent our last day in Istanbul exploring bazaars and a church full of glittering mosaics. We wandered through both the Grand Bazaar, which is very touristy, and the Spice Bazaar, full of fresh food and local shoppers. In the evening, we took a flight to the Hatay province in the southern-most part of Turkey.

How Bazaar: Day 9
by Rachel

https://www.storehouse.co/stories/t8odw-how-bazaar

Istanbul to Iznik-Nicaea

Driving out of Istanbul into the Turkish countryside was such a pleasure today. We drove about 150 km to the south east to visit the city of Iznik, where the famous blue tiles of the Blue Mosque were produced. It's built on the foundations of the ancient city of Nicaea, which has a significant Byzantine history. It was the site of Emperor Constantine's Council of Nicaea, where 270 church fathers wrote the Nicean Creed, still used in many Christian denominations today. It was temporarily the capital of the Byzantine Empire in the 1200s when the Crusaders got a little zealous and sacked their fellow-Christian city, Constantinople. It was also home to Orhan, the original patriarch of the Ottoman dynasty that conquered the Byzantine Empire in the late 1400s.

Iznik-Nicaea: Day 8
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t7ovn-iznik-nicaea

Istanbul's Old City

On our first day of the tour, we bussed into the Old City and hit the main attractions: Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Church, and the Archaeology Museum.  History overload!

Sultanahmet - Old City: Day 7
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t6oqv-sultanahmet-old-city

Afternoon in Galata

Galata is part of the "New District" of Istanbul. The name refers to the Galatians, an ancient group of people in Anatolia that settled here. The Genoese and Venetians also lived here in the fifteenth century, and when the Ottomans took over, they allowed Galata to remain independent. The Galata Tower was one anchor of a huge chain that literally stretched across the Golden Horn and stopped enemy ships from sailing inland. The last Byzantine emperor tried to keep out the Ottomans this way, but Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror cleverly portaged his ships over land behind the tower at night, and the emperor woke up to a successful siege. I'd like to have seen that!

Afternoon in Galata: Day 6
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t9o8x-afternoon-in-galata

Cooking Like a Turk

Sometimes you just need to cook. In fact, it's a luxury when you're traveling to be able to hang out in a kitchen. I've intentionally rented apartments in the past to enjoy the process of shopping for groceries and cooking for myself and friends even in a foreign country. Today, Mom and I learned to cook in a Turkish kitchen. The star ingredients were lamb, eggplants, figs, and sun dried bell pepper paste.

Cooking Like a Turk: Day 5
by Rachel

http://www.storehouse.co/stories/t0on4-cooking-like-a-turk