Riga Airport

I spent a bit too much time in the airport in Riga...and they wouldn't let me sleep anywhere. The blog made me decrease the video quality. That doesn't seem right to me.

Ephesus, Pamukkale

I'm gonna be pretty honest here...ready? I'm tired of writing this all down, and there's no way a normal human being could keep interest in it for this long. Therefore, I'm going to give the super short rest of the trip version. Then we went to Pamukkale (awesome). Then we went to Ephesus (also quite cool). Then I took an overnight bus next to a very fat man (no sleep), and took a plane to Riga. It was poring rain, so I had to stay in the airport for 10 hours (also no sleep). At long last, I made it home to Moscow, and stuffed my face with сырки (little cheesecake things that are my life, my love, my everything).

Here is a hodgepodge of pictures/videos from all of that:

 Wes, trying to win skymiles through Sky magazine.

 Me and my bad self

 Who says I don't have culture? I go to the theater when it suits me

 Me being sexy at the temple where Phillip was martyred. It was accidental sexy, I swear

 Can you find me in the crowd at the library?

Yay! There I am with the cat and the old man. Bueno.

The workout equipment was pretty intense to say the least.

That night in Fethiye was...let's say culturally enlightening. There was a football match between two teams based in Istanbul, and Wes and I joined a large gathering along the bay to watch it. The fans from each team were separated by a thin line of police, and I thought at any moment, pandemonium would ensue. Then, at the end of the game, as should have been expected, it did. Fire, yelling, body paint, and mopeds were all present in the absence of shirts and sanity. It was a blast.

Fethiye

Next on our trip was Fethiye, a small city on the southern coast. We wanted a place where we could just relax, and take in the natural beauty of the southern seas. We stopped off in the even smaller town Ölüdeniz, where there are supposedly the best beaches in Turkey. I was pretty pleased with what I saw there. It's the start of the Lycean Way, one of the most scenic hiking trails in the world. We did the first leg, and I think it's settled, I'm going back some day to do this trail.

 The only animal life we saw was this random dead boar. It picked a great place to die though.

Paragliding is huge here, and I really wanted to go, but with a double-sprained ankle, it wasn't an option. I was cursing my bad luck all day. Some of you may ask how I was able to do this hike, climb in Cappadocia, and do other stupid things...the answer is that it really hurt, but it was worth it.

The Ancient Cave City of Cappadocia

Cappadocia was next on our list of things to do. We took an overnight bus there, and stayed in a cave hostel. The funnest part was just playing around in all the thousands of cave dwellings and touching the thousand year old paintings.

 

 
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We then found a large mountain of these caves off the beaten path that was completely abandoned. Keep in mind that I had a sprained ankle, but decided to climb this anyway (probably not the best decision I've ever made). At the top of the cliff, immediately after having scaled across a precarious ledge, disaster struck. I resprained my ankle. Wes ended up carrying me down the mountain (don't do stupid things, unless you have a great friend to save you). Then we had to bike back to the hostel, about 10k. Thankfully, the next day my ankle felt great...my theory is that I sprained it the opposite way, giving it some sort of balance.

Sneak peak at what's coming next...Cappadocia

I am listening to Istanbul, intent, my eyes closed…

Istanbul: Alone (best if read by David Attenborough) 

If ever there was a city that held its history in every step, it is Istanbul. Here, at the crossroads of cultures, continents, and climates, one cannot help but feel the importance of the place seeping through cracks in the skin with every gust of wind from the Bosphorus. Even the historically inept (speaking from personal experience) are brought to wonder at the significance of Istanbul. The taste of apple tea blends with the aroma of the breeze from Black and Marmara seas, the budding trees at Topkapi, and of course the kebaps.

The trip started with me flying to Riga with my friend, Shine. 

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Next day, we parted ways and I was off to Istanbul alone. I wandered the streets, trying to just soak up as much of the strange new city as possible. 

We couldn't decide, so we just dropped it altogether. I suggest you do too.

 I got lost, then remembered my boy scout training, "if you're ever lost, just find the aqueducts and follow them downhill."

I chatted it up with some guy fishing on the bridge. Not a whole lot you can say when all you know is merhaba (hi) and how to count...then again, count chocula gets by with less.

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The next morning I walked the length of the old city wall...pretty incredible

"Itinerant gypsies...there are those who find no music in the broken rhythm, the mounting minor...For myself, I can listen as long as the musicians will play." Little gypsy kids would play pipe music all around the city. Apparently when they're not working, they play like normal kids.

This man randomly grabbed me off the street and bought me some apple tea (so good) at a local old-man-tea-drinking-place. He then started showing me how to get to a temple in the depths of Istanbul, and his little daughter came running out to greet us. I was shocked at the almost creepy niceties of people here. He eventually led me to the Chora Church, with it's amazing frescos (go to Istanbul if you want to see them). 

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The Arrival of One Master Wesley

My good friend Wes joined me that afternoon, and we began the big tourist things in Istanbul. This made it so much easier to take pictures with me in them (making them better, right?)

The cisterns were first, and incredible...more than 9000 sq meters of video-game-level worthy columns.

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The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) came next. This was likely my favorite place in Istanbul. So peaceful, so comfortable (especially for my sprained ankle), and so incredibly beautiful.

 

 See how great it is? Wes certainly seems to be enjoying himself.

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Not pictured: Aya Sophia. That's what you get for being expensive. Now think about what you've done.

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I've wanted to visit the grand bazaar for as long as I've known it existed. It's the oldest bazaar in the world (arguably), and I've always been fascinated that it has pretty much stuck to selling the same things generation after generation. It leads directly to the spice bazaar, which is equally impressive.

 

We spent hours and hours wandering the catacombs of this ancient bazaar. Most of these people have been doing the same thing for generations, growing up around their trade, knowing the ins and outs of a carpet weaving business. Later, Wes and I met a man we labeled "the most interesting man in the world." He wore his already gray hair long, and he dressed very fashionably. He spent money buying drinks and cigars for instant friends (I missed out on the spending spree here, but that's alright I guess). His mannerisms were so extravagant it was hard to believe they were sincere--but mind you, they were. He had a character that you only read about in books, and never believe. Travelling the world off the profits of his carpet shop, he searched for rare and exotic fabrics that could improve the business he grew up in...looking for adventures at every stop. 

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Definitely the most intriguing part of Istanbul was the archaeological museum. It's likely the most extensive collection I've ever seen, full of really great byzantine sculptures and sarcophagi (I'll save these for a later post, they were super interesting), remnants from Troy, the Kadesh Peace Treaty (oldest one in the world), and endless other treasures.

Wes, appreciating good things

 Zeus and I

 I'm not sure if Hayley reads this, but that's our face. 

 Raise the chain!

Really beautiful Ottoman tiling with an even more beautiful foreground...

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The time finally came to bid dear Istanbul farewell, for the time at least. 

 
 Wes enjoyed a glass of pickle juice on the bosphorus

 View 1 from breakfast site 

View 2 from our hostel. Incredible really.

Protect your picinic baskets

It's the moments like this that make up my memories of a place. When I try to remember what it was like to live in city x, or country y, I generally don't remember some of the best parts like the conversations I had, the one time jokes that flopped (but I'm still secretly proud of), or the short-term friends I made. I have an event based memory, for better or worse. It's the trips, the picnics, the race days that I had to plan for that I remember. While it's most definitely a flaw in my memory, I feel like it can be overcome, and used to my benefit. By remembering the events, I can fill in the gaps more easily. Well this picnic/shashlik roast was just such an event...

 Shine, Nastya, Kerry, Wes, and Yulia all ready to eat.

 Everyone has a ridiculous look on their face (as opposed to normally?)

 As you can see, we were all having a pretty wild time...

 It was freezing, and you can tell by my face that I'm suffering.

Sophie, Helen, and Yulia huddling in the blanket.

That's my guitar, but that's not my hand! Creepy

And the best part of every bbq, staring into the fire afterward for hours on end.

*Not pictured: Sophie absolutely losing her mind and running around like a butterfly, Ivan and Ilya beating some local kids (in soccer...and otherwise), and Olga totally losing it after finding out she ate 11 ruble meat.