Turkish Delight

In Turkey, I visited Izmir, Ephesus, Pamakkule and Istanbul. I think Istanbul may be my favorite city in the world. It was so interesting to me with the east meets west feel. It was just such a neat place. I went to the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Underground Cistern, Grand Bazaar, and so much more.

Ephesus was a really interesting place for me - i saw the house where the Virgin Mary lived the last twenty years of her life. I also saw the ruins of Ephesus, which is where Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians. As I walked through the city, I stopped every few hundred yards and sat and read a chapter of Ephesians. It was awesome to read as I was sitting where it had first been written. We only stayed for one day in Ephesus, but it was worth it and we got to see pretty much everything we wanted to.

The next day, we went to a place called Pamakkule. We heard about it from a man on the plane and decided to check it out. I´m glad we did. It was so beautiful. It started out as a park with ruins and things to see. We went, though, to see the tiered hot springs. They were so neat. I don´t really understand how they were made, but they were teired pooles down a hill. We climbed down the hill and into the town for lunch. Later that day, we returned to Istanbul.

I know that my family was worried about me going to Turkey, but I didn´t feel that it was dangerous at all - in the city or otherwise. I am so glad that we went there and so glad to have experienced the unique mix of the european and middle eastern culture. Istanbul was definitely very European, but the other cities showed another side to Turkey.