Istanbul!

I have now arrived in Istanbul which means that my trip is more than half over :(  I am truly enjoying myself and don't want to leave, but I did get a little sentimental about home because of my birthday yesterday--thanks everyone for the wishes!!

I spend the last weekend traveling ALL OVER Turkey.  I was on buses for a total of 15 hours, a train for 13 hours, and several hours on minibuses (or dolmushes as they call them in Turkey)...But it was totally worth it!

Before we left Ankara, our last fieldtrip was to Ataturk's museum as I related...see me and Folke (our professor) in front of it below

I also had cocarech with the Kora girls for lunch on my last day--lamb intestines! It was in a sandwich, and kind of greasy, but not all that bad.  I ordered kofte as well though, just to be safe...

Okay so to my crazy weekend! We took an overnight train from Ankara to Izmir on Thursday night...we all had sleeper cars which was awesome! It was like having a hotel room on wheels...

When we arrived in Izmir the next morning, we took a mini bus to Selchuck to stay at the Hotel Nazar.  They drove us from there to Ephesus...a town that is just Roman ruins and nothing else.  Now I have seen Roman ruins in Italy, but Ephesus was completely different because there is literally nothing else in sight...makes you feel like you have actually stepped back into the 1st century...Below is me in front of the library, it was my favorite part of the city and the best preserved:

We also visited the last known house of the Virgin Mary--Marylemana as they say in Turkey.  It was truly awe inspiring to pray where she once resided:

Saturday morning we got up early and caught a mini bus back to Izmir, took a bus from Izmir to Ezine, took a mini bus from Ezine to the harbor, caught a ferry to the island of Bozcaada in the Aegean, and rode with someone in a truck to our BEAUTIFUL pension.  This place was truly idyllic...a 100+ year old farmhouse complete with vineyards, cherry trees, plum trees, and a quaint tree lined stone path to a private beach with a stone dock.  We spend 2 days/nights on the island, and I can't even begin to describe the amount of peace I felt.  It reminded me of Mackinac Island, but way better...hopefully the pictures help you to imagine.

After all of that ridiculous traveling, it was completely worth it.  On that score, I have learned about traveling in Turkey that things always appear when you need them to :)

We met a cool couple from Australia, the girl was 25, had quit her job and was just traveling for 5 months in Europe, Turkey, and Africa thinking about her life and having fun...it has been amazing to meet people as we travel...

The only bad thing about the weekend was that we made Folke seriously panic because it took us so long to arrive in Istanbul.  We stayed on the island enjoying the sun for a little bit too long...OOOPS hehe...we didn't arrive in Istanbul until 11pm, and we had class at 9am today. YIKES...

On that note, I am exhausted and am going to take a nap, but I wanted to catch everyone up on my amazing weekend!