Kurban Bayram and a Vacation

This week is Kurban Bayram or Eid al-Adha, the second religious holiday after Ramadan.  It is a festival of sacrifice, and charity.  Animals, usually sheep and cows, are sacrificed to represent Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.  After the sacrifice a certain percentage of the meat is donated to the poor.  The rest is divided among the family.  Usually during this time your time is spent doing family visits and memorial visits.  Usually the first or second day of Bayram the family visits the cemetery and pays respect to their dead. 

The visits start out at the oldest relatives home, and progress down the line.  At the visits tea and snacks are served, usually one salty and one sweet.  You can not refuse.  So Bayram becomes a time of visiting and eating, and eating and visiting.  And then later feeling slightly ill due to the amount of sugar and tea you have consumed. 

But not this year!!!  This year the calendar aligned so Bayram started Monday at 12pm and ended Friday.  The government decided to give us all of Monday off which means we have the whole week off! YAY! 

We decided to drive down to Marmaris, a 10 hour drive and spend the week at the summer house.  It has been great.  It is cool, about 60 and a little rainy but incredibly gorgeous.  During the summer it is usually about 100 degrees so it is so nice to take walks along the sea or in the mountain without seriously worrying  about heat stroke and death. 

As I write this I am sitting in the garden, under a lush canopy of green, smelling the jasmine in the air moist and rich from the rain. I can even hear the crickets and frogs.  A vast difference from sitting here in the sweltering heat listening to the loud techno music from the bar down the streets and the drunk tourists swearing while they stumble on the road behind me after a night of clubbing. 

Kapadokya with the FamFam

The trip to Kapadokya with my family was fantastic!  We stayed at an adorable little place in Goreme.   The owner was incredible helpful.  He steered us to some really wonderful small family owned restaurants where we had some truly incredible food.  I even went back to one of them later and learned how to make Turkish Manti (ravioli).

Showing my parents the incredible rock formations, with their amazing natural properties and unbelievable carvings and churches was really wonderful.  I was so excited to share my favorite parts of my new country with my Famfam. 

We stayed in a lovely hotel which had a great view of the valley of Goreme. 

We had two rooms on slightly different levels.  The rooms themselves were carved into the rock walls of the fairy chimneys.

We shared a balcony which worked out very nicely for post hiking cocktails. 

My parents were game for all kinds of hiking and tromping.  We climbed hills and rocks, looking for the best views. 

This visit to Kapadokya we actually had time to hike in Ihlara valley.  This is a valley about 45 minutes away from Goreme.  To enter the valley you have to climb down about 400 steps because the valley walls are made of sheer rock cliffs.  Into these cliffs thousands of year ago people had carved large and elaborately decorated churches complete with vivid frescos.  There are also many cave-dwellings carved into the rock as well.  

We hiked from the halfway down the valley to the end and saw several lovely churches and lots of cave dwellings. 

  A stream ran through the middle of the valley separating the two sides.  At the end of the valley we wanted to walk back on the other side to see different scenery but there was no bridge.  We intrepid explorers found a shallow spot to cross and trudged through.  The effort to get to the other side was rewarded as the path was beautiful and there were several more churches on that side.  

We also managed to visit a few wineries and take advantage of the regions other natural attractions. 

Negligent Blogger Backlog…

Since I have been back in NH I have been running around like crazy.  I have been seeing friends, cleaning and polishing the house along with all the regular pre-wedding stuff.  A quick run down…

Bacon.  Pork.  Pork chops, pork loin, eggs and bacon, BLTs, etc.

The first morning I was in the States I went out for breakfast with a friend.  BACON!!!

Also my mom makes the BEST dirty vodka martinis! I have been practicing since I have been home.  Practice makes perfect, and also is tasty!

 

Bachelorette party in New York with my aunt and cousins!

I also took this opportunity to stock up on ridiculously expensive make-up for my wedding.  ‘

BT DUB—Totally worth it!

 

 

And a bridal shower.   I can’t carry much back with me to Turkey so my friends organized a lingerie bridal shower.  I will be the best dressed women who has ever gone to bed.

And then on July 24th, I got married!

Bulent’s parents are in town for a week, so I will try to update on the upcoming New England adventures. 

Family Times Ahead

I looked at the Calendar and all of a sudden we are way into January.  Crazy!  Where did the year go?  January means two things, the first is that my awesome cousin Elizabeth and her husband, Jake, are coming to visit.  It will be amazing and it will be Turkish Foodapaloza.  Jake is totally into food, so I will be using that as an excuse to eat my own weight in just about everything, of course while introducing him to the best and tastiest of Turkish foods.  I will try to record it. 

The second Family Event that January brings is a visit HOME! I will be going home for two AMAZING, WONDERFUL weeks.   I love being with my family, and cannot wait to go home. 

PS: Family I will be wanting Pork. Ham. Bacon. Bacon. Ham.  PORK!  Weird how you always want what you can’t have. 

Amazing Travels: Istanbul

I have just been on a one in a lifetime trip. Thank you Mom and Dad. Now, I know people out there are thinking, "Sure, tell us about your sponsored vacation, Little Rich Girl." Totally not the case. The last time I was in Europe I went with a girl friend, low budget backpaking. We stayed in hostels to save money, would eat the provided rolls and Tang for breakfast, sneak a couple of rolls in our pockets for lunch and for dinner eat whatever was cheapest, that we didn't think would kill us. It was winter, so we would go to the grocery store, buy cheese and bread, and hang it in a plastic bag out the hostel window at night to stay fresh. Back to the current vacation.

I got engaged in February and have been with Bulent for almost 5 years. We thought it was time for "Meet the Parents" Transcontinental style. Since my parents were planning on flying all the way to Turkey, they thought it would be fun to visit several places in Turkey and Greece. Bulent and I drove up from Marmaris to join them in Istanbul, a city I have not yet visited.

We stayed in a charming apartment with a view of the Bosphorous very close to Taksim Square, Istanbul's version of Times Square. Lively with pazars, and bars and pedestrian streets, it was a blast.

The view from the apartment was lovely

We visited Dolmabahce Sarayi (“Doll-ma-bah-che Saw-rye-i”). Dolmabahce was an opulent seafront Ottoman palace used during the empire’s last 80 years. It had a tremendous amount of European artistic influence. The palace was incredible and boasts 14 tons of gold in decoration. Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish republic spent his last days there.

Later we went to Kapalicarsi (“Cup-uli-chur-shi”). It is an Ottoman-style covered tunnel with carpet, jewelry and leather shops. It was a maze of shops, ranging from swords and shoes to jewley and carpets. The vareity was truly amazing as were the negotionations. I speak a little Turkish now, and it was suprising how much it counted when haggling about the price. All the shopkeepers would bust out smiling when they heard it, and knock down the price right away. The beggining price offered to me was usually less than my mother could bargain down to on the same item.

The third day we had a packed schedule, the problem with Istanbul is that it is such an amazing city with so much beauty and history. I think that you could live in Istanbul your whole life and not be able to see all it has to offer. On the day of the championship sight seeing we hit up three amazing places, Topkapi Sarayi, Sultanahmet Cami and the Ayasofya.

Topkapi Sarayi (“Top-cup-i Sorr-I-i”): An Ottoman palace from 1400s used as the Ottomans’ adminstration building for 400 yrs. It was filled with artifacts and riches from the Ottomans' reign.

Photo by sl4mmy

Sultanahmet Cami (“Sull-ton-uh-met Jum-ee”): An Ottoman mosque built in 1600s. It is also known as “Blue Mosque” because of the beautiful hand painted tiles that adorn its walls. It is still a mosque currently, and so you can only visit during non prayer times of the day. Even then, speaking is restricted as people do pray during those times as well.

Ayasofya (“I-yah-sophia”)or Hagia Sophia, a church-turned-mosque-turned-museum. It was built as a cathedral between the years 532 AD and 537 AD(Hagia Sophia). When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in the 1450's the cathedral was converted into a mosque(Ayasofya). This building was truly amazing in its beauty and sheer size.

To give you an idea of the immensness, this is the stone stair case to reach the top.

It is at least a 10 minute walk.

Origionally, when it was a church the ceilings were covered with mosaics, but when it was converted into a mosque the mosacis were plastered over. It has been under renovations for many years, as you can see there is alot of resortation needed. Slowly the plaster is being removed to reveal the underlaying mosaics. However, the issue is, that in reomving the plaster to unover the mosaics, important and historic Islamic art would have to be reoved or destoryed. For example the Islamic calligraphy below.

The next day we left for Efes the ancient Greek city. After all the sightseeing we were a little tired. However, we knew Efes was going to be amazing. So we hopped in the van, and started our roadtrip south. This is my brother. I had just told him how long the trip would be, you can tell he is thrilled.

Tomorrow: Efes