impressions

i breathe, feel, open to what is, find a smile

releasing resistance, judgment, story, again, again, again…

traveling in mind and body

strange places indeed

maryland

dementia has brought my father to that place so many seek

living content in the moment

no pain from the past or anxiety for the future

no memory to sustain a story

am I really in turkey?!

istanbul

feels like a dream

soaring sacred spaces

crazy market scenes with very cool corners

big city energy

a relief to leave

göreme, cappadocia

wow

amazing interplay of Gaia and human, Mother and child

crazy beautiful natural stone formations

thousands of carved out rooms

sleeping in a hotel cave room carved thousands of years ago (perhaps 10,000)

tasty affordable food (finally)

a glorious down day (more, please)

konya

two hotel rooms!

sacred mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi

lovingly known as Mevlana (Our Guide)

beautiful honored in his mausoleum

his words from the thirteenth century remind me:

Don’t worry about saving these songs!

And if one of our instruments breaks,

It doesn’t matter.

We have fallen into the place

where everything is music.

…

Stop the words now.

Open the window in the center of your chest,

And let the spirits fly in and out

Rumi's Tomb in Konya, Turkey

View from courtyard of Rumi's Tomb
Beautiful turquoise minaret

Entrance to Rumi's Tomb

Veronica in front of ablution fountain 

Avi & Isaac cuddling a furry friend

Veronica & Brad at entrance to Rumi's Tomb

The Fairy Chimneys of Göreme

Fairy Chimneys

Hoodoos at Night; use your imagination ;)

One of the most amazing things about Göreme, as well as the entire region of Cappadocia, are the fairy chimneys. Fairy chimneys, or hoodoos are formed in an area comprised mainly of compressed volcanic ash, also called tuff. Eventually cracks in the soil allow most of the tuff to be eroded, except for where a more erosion-resistant boulder is. These boulders protect an amount of tuff below from the rain (almost like an umbrella). This causes a totem-pole like mound of ash to form. This is called a hoodoo, or fairy chimney. Eventually the ash is eroded so much that the boulder above falls off and the rest of the hoodoo ultimately erodes away. Hoodoos appear all over the world, including Moab in Utah, Taiwan, France, and the Siberian hoodoos in Đavolja Varoš (Devil's Town) are nominees for the Seven Wonders of the Natural World campaign.

Even as I write this, I am surrounded by fairy chimneys. A particularly astounding thing about all of these fairy chimneys is that carved into the face of all of them you can see little windows and openings, created by the people of this area a long time ago.

A hoodoo house as seen from our hotel

Göreme

It feels weird being in Turkey because I am so used to hearing English but the main language that is heard here is Turkish. Whenever I listen to myself talk, it sounds harsh and loud, but whenever I hear other tourists speaking English, it sounds comforting and pleasant.

A thing I am not used to seeing is all of the street animals here. In Göreme, there are a very large number of homeless dogs and cats. Almost every time we go to a restaurant, we get a dog or cat begging for food. It is very hard to see them because a lot of them look unhealthily thin and some of them have injuries inflicted by other animals.

The Bus Ride from Hell & the ATV Tour from Heaven

When at first I heard my dad’s description of the bus we would have to ride for 12 hours it made me excited; he explained how there was a personal entertainment system and how we could sleep most of the way because it was an overnight ride-- that got my hopes up.

 As I got on the bus I looked around and everything seemed to reach my expectations until I pressed the on button on the entertainment system and it wouldn’t turn on. My dad got help but we were told it was only in Turkish and we wouldn’t want to use it. That started my ride off bad. They did turn it on later, and after a desperate viewing of the new Karate Kid in Turkish I tried to fall asleep, which I found almost impossible with all the bumps and noise. I hated the juice I got so I got some of my mom’s tea and then kind of succeeded by getting about five hours of sleep. Shortly after I woke up we stopped at a bathroom (water closet as they call it) break area that actually costs money to use in Turkey. A couple hours later, I finally reached my destination and crawled off the bus into Göreme.

Today I had to get up at nine in the morning; back home that would be a miracle, but 10 hours of jet lag is still affecting me. The good part about getting up early was that I got to go on an ATV (ATM as my dad would say) tour with my family. As I reached the rental place I saw the two ATVs my family were going to ride, parked on the side of the road, their black coating shimmering in the sun. Soon our tour guide Isa rode up on his electric scooter with his dog Ugly and my family and I headed out. Ugly was riding on the floorboard of Isa’s motorbike, which gave my group all quite a laugh. My mom and I decided that it was best she got used to the ATV’s controls before me so I could examine how to operate it and so we could start out with one trust worthy driver.

            Our group’s first stop was a basic village of cave houses, which are carved-out rocks turned into living areas with shelves and whatever other things you would want. The last time people lived in most of the cave houses was in 1965 because a law was passed with the thought that the houses would collapse, maiming or killing the residents inside. You can get a permit to live in them now as long as they are modified to a certain extent.

The second stop appeared to be almost the same as the previous one, but once I learned more I found it a little bit more interesting. This area had churches from decades ago carved out of pure rock, but that wasn’t the coolest part. When I was in another cave house my guide explained how this stone creation had seven stories and was about three rooms wide, the Mansion of the Rock as I called it. One challenge to it was you had to use small handholds in the wall to climb up to the next room, and the wall was more than vertical.

            When my family and I reached our last destination, it seemed that there was nothing to do until Isa showed us the ruins of a village-like castle towering above the community. I got my dad to buy me ice cream to fight the heat and began to ascend the fortress. It seemed to take hours to reach the top of the citadel, which it probably did, but it paid off with an amazing view. After my brother and I struggled to get my parents to come down, we waited for Isa to return and once he came back I hopped onto the ATV and got to drive all the way back to the rental shop.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Today I went to Hagia Sophia. Built in the sixth century CE, it was originally a church, but when the Ottomans took Istanbul (then Constantinople) over in 1453, they added the four minarets and turned it into Istanbul’s largest mosque. In 1934 it was turned into a public museum. Upon entering the basilica I was immediately dumbstruck with the grandeur and magnificence of the gigantic domes that make up the ceiling. The building is one 270 foot long and 240 foot wide room. There is a massive, 185 foot high. 105 foot long dome that is the crown jewel of the building. The whole building is built on a scale so gigantic that it is hard to comprehend. I was a little disappointed I didn’t run into hidden passageways or trapdoors triggered by that perfect combination of pressed cobblestones, but the setting was perfect.

Posted by Isaac ;)

The Hagia Sophia nave

Avi's Last First Blog!

Blue Mosque at Night

Today I started to visit the main tourist attractions in Istanbul, Turkey. My family and I found out a lot about the history of Turkey and discovered some amazing facts about what happened. One of the most outstanding examples of skillful architecture was the Blue Mosque which was built in 1616 and is one of the world’s finest mosques. It is a humongous temple for Islamic worship named after its giant colorful tiles. It has one large room with many stain glass windows, chandeliers, and wonderful tiles in geometric patterns on the walls. There is area farther to the back for female worship and a place in the front for male worship. In the Blue Mosque you are required to remove your shoes, the women must covers their heads with scarves, and you should only talk in hushed whispers. Because the women were brought to the back to worship it brings up some thoughts for me if Muslims felt that men are more important than women but I don’t know much about Muslim beliefs so I can’t be sure. I plan to find out later.

Another beautiful piece of architecture was the Underground Cistern, which was constructed in the sixth century A.D. for storing fresh drinking water when the city folk ran out. It is the size of two football fields. There are 336 pillars made from ancient buildings shooting up and a new platform to walk on so you don’t become wet. The Cistern used to have water twenty feet deep but now it’s only about a foot deep because the locals stopped using it; they also added fish for decoration.

Posted by Avi

Underground Cistern

Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Sultanahmet Park with Hagia Sophia in background

The Turkish Flag

Here are some images from our first real day of our journey!