Pictures

Here are a few pictures, we have taken over 400 so far. We have seen some incredible things...enjoy!

Marie in her headscarf in the Blue Mosque

The Aya Sofya in Istanbul

Me inside the Aya Sofya

Marie at the colorful bazaar in Istanbul

Marie and I at the Hamam, not the one we had our bath at, this one has been turned into a carpet shop

Marie loves to take the picture and then keep taking pictures long after your pose is done...Topkapi Palace, Istanbul

How about a cruise up the Bosphoros for a Sunday morning activity?

Our new friends in Selcuk, there was belly dancing, waterpipe smoking and I observed

Ephesus ruins, beautiful but the camera battery went dead before we were finished

Marie insisted I pose...this is St. John's Basilica in Selcuk, Turkey

Self portrait, those blue and green eyes seem to be drawing a lot of attention


Marie, St. John's Basilica

I think I got at least 50 of the sunset at St. John's

First night in Athens, Greece...Marie and me in front of a dark Acropolis

I love my brother and Asian Invasion!

First of all, I love my brother, well all of them actually but I am speaking today about Brandon who is on his mission in Samoa. I just read his letter, thankful for the modern convenience of internet that allows me to know how he is doing on his little island in the Pacific while I am in the near east seeing all that is amazing. He is so happy and such a great example to me. He rocks and I love him!

Second item of business and sorry there isn't much time and I don't have pictures but I wanted to update the interested about the interesting. We were in Istanbul for 4 days and I recommend it to anyone loves travel and culture. We are in Selcuk now, near the Ephesus ruins, and it is also beautiful and surprising. We spent the day at the beach yesterday (sustaining only minor sunburns) and went to Ephesus today. This is where the asian invasion comes in, wow, so many tourists and so many of them asian! I love ruins, there is so much "scope for the imagination" when you find yourself wandering around an ancient city that once housed 250,000 people. I believe I saw my first of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Artemis. Maybe it isn't on the list anymore, it was pretty cool and again, wow! We fly to Athens tomorrow for more ruins, beaches and general fun fun fun!

Bazaar...Baths!

It has been a very full day. We started out our morning going to the Aya Sofya, ıt was so beautiful! Our plan was to spend some tıme there and then head to the Bazaar for some shopping. Lonely Planet strictly instructed us to put on a smile and make sure we were ın a good mood before going. Excellent advice! We learned how to make a good bargain, even without speaking the language. Most people spoke enough English and those who didn't often spoke Romanıan surprisingly! While Marie spent a very long tıme purchasing a puzzle ring and learning how to put it together, I headed down the way to another shop. I seemed to be having a lot of luck avoiding the pressure of the shop keeper by smiling and telling them their things were beautiful. In one particular shop I could tell I might have a little trouble when the handsome young man responded, "yes, so are you!" I responded with a hearty laugh and called him a smecher, that ıs what we call those men ın Romanian. He feigned innocence but continued a more appropriate conversation with me. To make a longish story shorter, I left the store with nothing but his card (he wrote hıs name on it for me and then decided it wasn't neat enough, pulled out another one to write ıt nicer) and an invitation to have tea with hım later. I found Marie, stıll working on her ring, and hıd out in the shop with her for a while having a lovely conversation ın Romanıan with a lovely Turkısh man. At one point I stepped out of the shop for a minute and heard ın a sweet sing-songy voice, "Heelaree!" I waved and stepped right back in with Marıe. NICE! The Bazaar was everything we hoped ıt would be and more, we both spent too much money (one of us not really sure how she was manipulated into spending quite so much on something she didn't really want) and were entirely satısfıed with our experience.

After a long walk and a short tram ride we decided that a day of shopping had earned us a massage at the Turkish baths. I for one was a bit unfamiliar with what exactly a Turkish bath is and what it might entail. As Wikipedia's defınıtıon ıs not quite accurate I wıll explain a little and leave the rest to your imagination. Turkısh baths or Hamam are actually places where you are bathed. Note, I did not say places where you go to take a bath. Similar to going to get a massage, one removes ones clothing, wraps in a cloth and then the similarities pretty much end. I am stopping here sınce after several attempts I find I am at a complete loss. Again I persuade you to use your imagination and well, hmmm, would I do ıt again? Of course, ıt was amazing!

We had a wonderful Turkısh dinner that I cannot pronounce and delicious dessert! I love baklava!

(sorry no pictures but they will be coming soon!)

Istanbul was Constantinople (and its nobody's business but the Turks!)

I am surely having more fun than I deserve. Tuesday I headed up to Sinaia where Peles Castle is. Unfortunately, it was closed on Tuesdays and I had to leave before it opened on Wednesday morning. Sinaia however, is like the Park City of Romania. It is a quaint little ski town with great character, beautiful mountains and plenty of charm. In the morning I took the train back to Bucuresti where I met up with Marie.

From there we took the 19 1/2 hour train from Romania, through Bulgaria and into Turkey. Four stamps in our passport and one visa for Turkey later, we arrived in Istanbul. I love it! I could never have imagined how amazing it would be. As the train crept along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, you could see the ancient wall that used to stand as a protection and a warning. The city has simply been built around these ruins and in some cases has included them in the new structure. We spent the day wandering around Old Sultanahmet, where you can find the Bisilica Cisterna, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, various museums, great shopping, tasty food and more great shopping. We visited the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cisterna which is an underground well that I believe was once the basement of a church. It is dark and cool inside and even a little spooky because of the creative lighting and distant music they have playing.

As we came out, a turkish man we had met right before going in grabbed us and invited us to come into his shop. It was a specialty leather shop with expensive jackets and purses. He served us apple tea and despite our honesty about our budget was convinced we needed something that he could sell us. We are becoming more and more aware of the attention two american girls can draw, most of it unwanted. It is driving Marie crazy as she has been fighting the cat calls in Romania for the last year, poor girl.

The Blue Mosque is beautiful, crowded and not what I expected. It is so great to go into a building that is specifically set apart for the worship of God it commands a reverence that not all choose to observe. So many tourists!

We also went to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and of course, did some shopping. We are staying in Istanbul until Sunday night when we will head for the coast and the ruins at Ephesus. More to come...

Some funny stuff I've seen and heard...so far!

1) Hot guy at the airport in hot pink and bright orange camo capris and a horizontal striped (in various colors of green) shirt.

2) Road work. Why is that funny you ask? It's Romania, they do everything by hand and it is not always so improved when they finish.

3) This sign and then another, the other said: SORRY WE ARE NOT CLOSED!

4)Woman walking down the street in normal pants and shoes and a knee length, hot pink bath robe.

5) That man coming out of the bushes, pretty sure he had just gone to the bathroom.

6) Not so hot man in jeans and a bright yellow shirt with bright yellow matching leather jacket and pointy toed ankle boots.

7) The look on my face and squeel that came out of my mouth when I was walking back to my pensiune in Sinaia by myself in the dark and a dog started chasing me. Natalie, I put you to shame!

8) On the train this woman said to her son (all in Romanian), "come back here or the gypsies will take you. Don't you know that they steal kids?"

9) Turkish salesmans was being pushy so Marie and I started speaking Romanian. As we were leaving he said to us, "Te iubesc, girls!" (Romanian translation, I love you girls)

10) And finally, yes ladies and gentlemen, that is a vending machine for BEER!

Something about the smell...

This city probably smells like garbage the ordinary nose but those who know and love Bucharest will roll down their windows in the car as soon as they leave the airport. Let me back up a little. I had a very uneventful trip and despite two layovers, one in Houston and the other in Paris, I didn't have even one extra minute between flights and slept the entire flight from Houston to Paris since no one was in the seat next to me, NICE! The office elders picked me up in Buc and after dropping off 80 lbs worth of goods from my luggage for missionaries at the mission presidents home we headed toward Unirii where I would be staying. Courtesy one wonderful sleeping pill I slept like a baby until church the next morning. Though I tried to keep my expectations realistic I was still so sad at how few faces I recognized. I was also sad about how much of the language I have lost but I am improving each time I open my mouth, hooray! I am still looking forward to some of my favorite foods and a taste of Transylvania. Marie will be here tomorrow night and off we go to either Athens or Istanbul, itinerary still in the works...For now, la revedere si va iubesc!

3 Days!

I feel like a five year old on Christmas Eve! I have jumped up and down while clapping enough times in the last few days to be really embarrassed but I have a good reason. I leave in 3 days! I already have it all planned out...stay up all night Thursday packing, work till 2 on Friday, be at the airport by 3pm for my 5pm flight, read for as long as I can on the plane to stay awake and then sleep for the remainder of the 21 hours! Sounds good eh? I actually have 2 connecting flights that will interrupt my nap, one in Houston and the other in Paris, not a fan of either airport but it is a means to an end. I also have sleeping pills!

I get to Bucharest at 2:30 Saturday and will be in Romania till Wednesday, seeing all Transylvania has to offer! Wednesday we're off to Athens and several days of Greek Isles! We'll hop all the way over to Ephesus, Turkey and then we'll be on a train to Istanbul! A few days in Istanbul and then we fly back to Buc. Two weeks of pure bliss (and hopefully no pickpockets)!

Jessie's mom advises, "kiss a man in every country you go to!"

My mom advises, "be careful , and watch out for pickpockets!"

Natalie advises, "watch out for vampires."

Thanks for the good advise ladies, I'll see what I can do!