Fam Jam, April 2012

Man oh man, I haven't written anything on this blog in forever. To be honest, I completely forgot, and that's my bad. I've been trying to pack in as many last minute travel plans, last classes, last everything (!!!) in the last few weeks. I'll give you a run down of my month of April, I guess. Zoinks! It has been forever. So, I guess my next few blog posts will be fairly rushed, seeing as I'm finally at my two-week mark in Turkey! (More on that later.)

Anyways, my wonderful mother and my wonderful aunt came to visit in the beginning of April. I met them in Istanbul and showed them the sites for a few days. We hit all the major sites like Topkapı and the Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque. We actually saw dolphins from the terrace of Topkapı... nice spot, momzo!

Following our excursions through Istanbul, I introduced them to my magical world of Balıkesir in my corner of Turkey. My mom took a lot of pictures, since she doesn't live here, so I'll have to steal them from her once I teach her how to get them off her camera... once I get home in two weeks (!!!). I introduced them to real-deal simit (they had a bad experience in Istanbul) and Mersin Tantuni (the best of all things to eat in terms of fast food), as well as where I teach and the bazaar. We got some funny looks as we walked around town, especially when they started taking pictures of things, but oh well. It was pretty amusing in my opinion.

Oh, by the way-- my mom and aunt rode the bus from Istanbul to Balıkesir, and then again from Balıkesir to Izmir. Because they are champs.

So, we hustled our way down to Izmir, which was the first time I had every done that journey during sunlight hours. Pretty drive, let me tell you. We stayed at the SwissOtel Grand Efes, which was the bomb, as to be expected. The best parts (in my opinion) included English television in addition to BBC, lots of free pens and toiletries, and mad free snacks. No lie! They had a free snack time/ happy hour and it was delightful. All the hummus one could hope for. Spectacular.

We also made our rounds around Izmir, like around Konak and Kemeraltı and whatnot. We actually saw The Hunger Games at Konak Pier, since I can rarely get my mom to read books that I want her to read, let alone see the movie with me. I had a minor panic attack when I realized it had been in theaters in Turkey for nearly a month and might not be in English any longer... but not to worry, it was in English.

Thank the lord. My mother would have killed me.

From Izmir, we also visited Ephesus and Pamukkale. For posterity's sake, let's discuss Ephesus first, shall we?

So, Ephesus. One of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek period, later an extremely important port in the Roman period. Its no longer standing Temple of Artemis is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Also, one of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Still pretty famous for the Library of Celsus. All in all, not a bad resume.

Life at the site of Ephesus dates back to, like, 6000 BCE or something, but in my experience on this tour (as well as our tour of Pamukkale) is that tour guides think that no one cares about anything that happens before the Greeks. Well, I care, because it's important.

But, I'll concede that, often times, things don't get real interesting until the Greeks come on stage. Like, for example, in respects to who and by how Ephesus in founded in historical records: some say a prince-turned-badass-king named Androklos founds the city and unites the Ionion League, Herodotos says that the Amazons found it, which is why you fight statues and reliefs of half-boobed women all over the place.

Not a half-boobed woman, but Nike, the goddess of victory.

What else is there to know about Ephesus? Alexander the Great passed through here, Hadrian has some stuff dedicated to him here (since everyone was literally terrified of him), and the city began to decline in the 3rd century CE after it had been sieged by the Goths. Finally, in the 7th century during the Byzantine era, a major earthquake caused its port and sea access to silt up, which sealed the deal of the end of  Ephesus. Womp womp.

Still, it's a pretty impressive and crucial historical site for a number of reasons, if not only for an abundance of photo ops.

This mini-amphitheater was used for town council meetings.

Mosaic floors of the rich and fabulous upper echelons
of the Ephesus social scene.

Library of Celsus!

Oh, and each year Ephesus hosts concerts in its amphitheater (capable of holding 25,000 people) and has had people like Elton John play here...

... without sound equipment, because that's how on-point those ancient civilizations were with their science.

Artemis? I can't remember. My bad.

After Ephesus, we visited the Church of Mary and a carpet cooperative/restaurant, where I have had the best köfte to date in my entire eight months and two weeks in Turkey. No lie.

Sacrilege. Whatevs.

Not kidding about that köfte, boys and girls.

This looks sooo hard.

After Ephesus and a day of exploring Izmir (and also seeing The Hunger Games!), we visited Pamukkale! I  knew my momzo, with her inner geologist, would really like Pamukkale and its fancy travertine terraces. There was also some Hierapolis ruins to visit as well, which was history-tastic (Greco-Roman city in Phrygia. UNESCO site. Bam.).

It's kind of hard to take pictures of Pamukkale, because it's so damn big. But, more importantly, the pictures don't really do it justice anyway.

So glad she came to Turkey!

Finally, after our Aegean adventures, we flew back to Istanbul and spent one more night on the town. Super cool: we had dinner at a restaurant (that I have passed a ton of times and never been to) that actually sits on the foundations of the former Great Palace of Constantinople... which has also been featured on Cities of the the Underworld... which is the second Cities of the Underworld site that I have been to! On point!

It kind of sucked that my mom and aunt were only here for such a short time, but man, has my remaining time here flew by! Can't wait to get home and enjoy more pork products.

Thank the lord for bacon... and ham... and all
things made of pork.