The Death March

 No it wasn't, Danielle.


Alan and I have been wanting to climb down from the castle via castle wall for quite a while.  Danielle and Bryan have been wanting to hike ever since moving to the incredibly flat Netherlands. Sounds like the perfect equation huh?

See the wall snaking down the mountain?

Bryan: "Yeah, right around this corner is a side walk, don't worry."
Danielle: "I can't breath.  We're all going to die."

Bryan and Danielle sharing a tender moment.  Probably something about plunging to her death. 

The picture doesn't do it justice, but my hiking outfit consists of leggings, a sweater dress, a peacoat, ballet flats, and an umbrella that came in handy for pushing massive prickle bushes out of the way. 

Sign at the bottom of the "trail."  It might translate to "tripping may result in death."

Luckily no one tripped.  And the rain held out long enough to make it all the way down. And we didn't have to have Danielle airlifted out of there.

Into the Looking Glass

OK. It's a cistern. Or maybe a well.

Alanya Castle. New Year's Eve 2011.

Kuşadası: Bird Island

Cave of the Seven Sleepers

Ok... so I'm a skeptic.  But one who LOVES a good story.  I love the shivery tingle of goose bumps I get when reading about ghosts, aliens, magic, witches... etc.  Unfortunately sometimes miracle stories fall into this category for me.  It isn't that I don't want to believe... I desperately do, but sometimes I can't.  Who knows whether these stories are fables told to children as a teaching tool, or by people experiencing hallucinations, or as accounts of actual experiences, but whether I believe or not, I love them.  Reading about them. Watching documentaries about them. VISITING THE ACTUAL SITES! OMG we are SO lucky.

According to legend, seven Christians hid in caves outside of Ephesus in 250AD, escaping persecution and execution by Roman rulers. These men fell asleep and slept for somewhere between 150 and 200 years, and awoke in a much safer era for Christians.  (Around the same time Mary and John escaped to Ephesus from Jerusalem.)  Muslims also believe in this legend, featuring a slightly different story in the Qur'an.

Alan needed a nap.  He was NOT trying to escape the grumpy persecution of his wife. 

Legend or true miracle, I love this story.

Christmas Mass at Mary's House

We've wanted to visit Ephesus and Selçuk ever since we decided to move to Turkey.  This year we decided to make it our Christmas trip, because there are so many historically Christian sites here. We really lucked out, and planned our trip in a way that allowed us to visit The Virgin Mary's Home on Christmas day, and celebrate Christmas morning mass right there.

 

While there are some questions around the legitimacy of this site, what was some German nun's vision, has become a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims alike.

Prayers 

Muslims believe in the Virgin birth, and that Jesus was a miracle worker whose birth was a result of God's breath upon Mary. They don't believe either God or Mary are divine.

Lighting candles in honor of people who might need a little extra right now.  I prayed for a lot of people.  You may have been one of them. 

The service was so joyful.  There were readings in English, Turkish, French, and German, with worshipers from Italy and China. The priest was welcoming and funny, and a little girl with punk-rocker red clip-on bangs sang "Away in the Manger." When she stumbled and forgot the lines the congregation of people from far flung parts of the globe joined in to help her find her way. Whatever your views on religion, something that brings us all together with a sense of community and brotherhood, can't be bad. 

Şirince: the Los Olivos of Western Turkey

  We found Wine Country. And LOVED it.  Not the wine so much.  But the village.

Beautiful architecture.

Lovely view. 

Super cute tasting glasses.

Perfect bed-and-breakfast location for sale.  

Mind Boggling Architecture

Have you ever wondered how ancient civilizations managed to build amazing structures like the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or the Acropolis without the aid of cranes and jackhammers, and other modern tools?  Besides the sheer feat of lifting multiple tons of marble and stone high into the air (on their backs?  On the backs of camels?  With magic?) the part that always amazes me the most is the beautiful attention to detail.

All I can think while walking through Ephesus is, "Wait a minute.  You want a temple, but it isn't enough that I turn tons and tons of stone into a perfectly balanced arch way? You want me to carve the stone into the the face of a woman.  With my hammer."  I would have walked off that job in a heart beat.

Thanks to Ms. Ostrander's 6th grade history, I can identify this as an Ionic column.  

Laws and orders of execution carved into hundreds of marble slabs.  

And THEN! After all that hammering. Someone. Cut. His. Head. Off!  

Alan pretends he doesn't like cats.  He's fooling no one.

The Library.  I hate to say it girls.  THIS is the new coolest library I've ever been to. 

Temple of Artemis

It's really just one lone pillar now, but it used to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  You know where the rest of it went?  Museums all over the world.  France, England... not even in Turkey.  Now the once magnificent Temple of Artemis is a "waste of time" according to most people on Trip Advisor.  Çok Ayıp.

John, but not the Baptist

The first stop on our trip to Selçuk/Ephesus: St. John's Basilica.

So the story is, that after Jesus was crucified, John the Apostle was entrusted with caring for and looking after Mary. So together they moved to Ephesus (because Turkey is pretty much paradise) where they lived out the rest of their years.  During his time in Ephesus John wrote the Gospels and the Apocalypse. 

 According to Wikipedia, God himself also enjoyed a trip to Turkey.

St. John's Basilica was built atop his burial sight in the 6th century.  (For those of you rusty on math skills that's about 1500 years ago.  Pretty amazing architecture for such an old building.)

This Baptismal Font was SOOO exciting to me when I thought that this John was the same John as John the Baptist.  As it turns out, they aren't the same.

A Very Bieber Christmas

As you may know already from reading last year's Christmas post Christmas in Turkey is nothing like the in-your-face-can't-escape-it-as-hard-as-I-try Christmas in America.  No.  Christmas in Turkey is elusive.  It's subtle.  It's something to be celebrated and enjoyed when you come across it.  Sonya, Alan and I actually took holiday pictures at a local home furnishings store, because they had Santas and trees on display, because that doesn't exist anywhere else in Alanya.

But it's something the city is working on.  For the sake of the massive amount of European ex-pats living in Alanya, they're trying to step up their game and get a bit more festive.  For two years running they've held a Christmas Festival down in the harbour. And for two years running our school's 2nd and 3rd grades have been asked to preform holiday songs at the festival.  It's a challenging proposition, because they don't want us to sing anything TOO Christmas-y, and definitely nothing referring to a God that most Muslims don't believe it, but they want us to sing something... So we went with the Biebs.  'Cus even if you can't admit it, we all secretly love him and his super cute hair.

Enjoy:

Also we sang some Lady Gaga, 'cus we love her too.

New Photos from the Holiday Season

Happy New Years Loyal Readers,

I know you are a loyal reader because we haven't posted in so long that you must be loyal if you are still reading this. Our holiday season has felt just as busy as it would have in America but you can add in working.

We jumped on some planes, trains and automobiles for a quick trip to Efe (Ephesus as it is referred to in most historical accounts). We also went to see the final residence of the Virgin Mary and went to mass in a small chapel on the grounds for our Christmas morning celebrations.

2 days later we had our Day o' Fun companions arrive from Holland to continue 2011's most awesome version of our annual get together. You may remember Erin posting about it for our trip to The Netherlands (it took alot of will power to refrain from ending that with regions instead). We will surely update you on the exciting, terrifying and death-defying events of this most recent episode in the days to come. Regardless, I have uploaded most of the photos from those two events to my picasa page and you can get to them from the links below and in the Our Pictures section on the left of the page.

Ephesus

New Years Eve 2011

Looking back it has been a fantastic year with all of our travels and of course our wedding. It is extremely exciting to think of what will be instore for us in 2012. So as they say in Turkey:

"Mutlu ve sağalık yillar" or "Happy and Healthy year!!!"

Black Sunday is the new Black Friday

So... When you live in Turkey, and you celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday, you go out and celebrate Black Friday on Sunday.  We considered going to sit out in front of our favourite stores at midnight, not because we have ever done that in America, nor have we ever had the urge, but because Black Sunday isn't a thing, and it would be silly to pretend it was.

Instead we celebrated a much more relaxing, comfortable, and pepper-spray free Black Sunday.  We slept in, ate a pie-filled breakfast, and sauntered over to the local Sunday Bazaar. (BTW Sunday in Turkish is Pazar.  Also market is Pazar.  Pazar Bazaar, or Pazar Pazar, either way it's fun to talk about.)

We didn't go with our sights set on a flat screen TV, a new lap top, or anything else big and expensive. We looked for and found some fairly basic and boring things: probably-fake-but-who-really-cares-Adidas track pants, fuzzy slippers, dried fruit, socks... I know.  Wondering why this is blog worthy? Me too.  But hang in there. 'Cus all of a sudden Black Sunday craziness took over, we ended up buying the most expensive thing we've owned since leaving America.  Something we didn't even know we wanted until we saw it.  Or more specifically, it's price.

Can you tell what it is?

Fringe...

Intricate patterning...

That's right.  We scored our very own, very beautiful, very handmade Turkish Rug.  For easily a quarter of what it's worth.  WooHoo! (Alan would be so bummed if I didn't mention that he talked the guy down 15 lira.  What a haggler.)

This rug is big. And heavy.  It is very likely that it will stay here in Turkey when we leave.  But then again, it may find a safe home in an extra suitcase sent home with some of our loving family members.  (hint hint)

Who will stuff me in their suitcase?

Pass the Gravy; and Other Things We're Thankful For

Oh Thanksgiving! What a wonderful holiday.  Though not every country and culture has a day dedicated to family, food, and being grateful for all of our blessings, it is a concept easy enough for everyone to get behind.  And this year we have so much to be thankful for.

1. Google:  Did you know that Google celebrates the holidays of many nations on it's home page? While you were probably all seeing a turkey or some pilgrims on yours, our home page was decorated with a classroom that had flowers and gifts on the teacher's desk. This year Öğretmenler Günü (Teachers' Day) fell on Thanksgiving Day.  It took me a while to figure out why Google was dressed up that way for Thanksgiving, but when I realized that Googlers don't only care about American holidays, my heart felt so happy.

Sonya receiving flowers and chocolates for Teachers' Day.

2. Öğretmenler Günü:  Walking into school on a day when all of our friends and family members are sleeping in or preparing for a day of feasting and fun was a bummer.  But we had no choice but to be happy on a day filled with so many treats.  The entrance of the school was transformed by a flower arch, violin and flute players serenading us, and the parent committee passing out chocolates and flowers.  Children arrived carrying even more flowers, and the school was decorated with portraits the students had done of us, poems they had written about us, and (best of all) movie posters they had photo-shopped our faces onto.

The Governator and Alan Stehli star in everyone's favourite classic...

 

Erin Moschetti is caught in a love triangle with a vampire and a werewolf... whose baby will she have??

3.  Being married:  Our first year of planning, cooking, baking, and decorating for Thanksgiving was delightful.  We are both so lucky to be married to such a great teammate. (Sorry: Gag stamp)

4.  In-laws/ parents (Stehli's):  Thank you for raising a boy who bakes, and cooks, and cleans.  I can't tell you how much it means to me to not be married to a man who thinks those are "girl jobs."  Being my Grandmother must have been EXHAUSTING.

5. In-laws/ parents (Moschetti's):  Thank you for teaching me the importance of tradition, but even more, the value of flexibility/adventurousness. Baking a turkey dinner in Turkey (where there are no turkey's, no cranberries, no yams, and no canned pumpkin) would have been impossible for an inflexible foodie.  But the 4 whole chickens, pomegranate/quince sauce, and whole pumpkin-turned-pie, turned out delish. 


6. Friends to act as our stand in family:  When we announced that we would be hosting Thanksgiving with out other American friend Sonya, ALL of our coworkers promised to be there. No questions asked.  "We don't want you to be alone on your special day."  Thank you all for being such wonderful friends.  Even with both our table and Sonya's, with the leaves fully extended on both of them, and every chair and stool we have in our combined apartments, we still had to seat people on the couches.  18 guests in total, including 4 children.  It really felt like Thanksgiving.

















7. Gravy: All of our Turkish friends politely tried our "meat sauce,"  and then politely helped themselves to seconds, and politely asked for the recipe while politely pouring thirds straight into their glasses. "It's not exactly a health food," we warned.  "Yes.  Is there oil in it?  Butter?" "Well... so you cook the chicken, and then when it's finished you take the pan it was cooking in and pour all the fatty goodness into --" "Stop, don't say anymore. I don't want to know." (licking plate)

Cansu and Gözde: "We're not drinking gravy, we're drinking wine."

The Netheregions (Part 4): My New Windmill House

Does any one know what the job of "wind-farmer" entails?  I may be down for a career change if it means getting to live in one of these bad-boys.

On another note: after hangin' with the Windmills we headed to "The Best Bar In The World" (according to... someone in some book, I think).  Now we're famous by association.