High Lights

The Grand Bazaar and Spice Market in Istanbul were overwhelming! Every inch was filled with sellers - very colorful, noisy and confusing. I decided I'd look at wooden spoons. At one stall they were marked 7.5 lira I offered 5 and he said " fine." At another stall the wooden spoons were 5 lira each. I asked how much 2 spoons would be and they said, "9". So I bought 2 there- feeling a little smug- only to find them at another market for 3. They got the last laugh!

At the Cora Church the mosaics were amazing and the stories they told had Joseph having a first wife and going off to do carpentery with one of his sons.

Helen, Constantine's mother, was very Christian and went in search and brought back to this church part of the cross Christ was crusified on and the Holy Grail. They are said to be buried there.

The boatride on the Bospherous Straits took us by old and new palatial structures - a very kept up shoreline. The Straits connect Istanbul with the Black Sea

When one of our group asked an older lady to take her picture, the lady wanted her picture taken with our friend. So she gave her camera to someone to take their picture and the older Turkish lady put her arm around her and made the peace sign with her other hand. When asked if she could send her a copy of the print, she learned the woman had no address - many people here don't.

The average age in Turkey is 28....

The countryside getting to Cappadocia is poor volcanic ash. It's a vast, rather desolate, treeless plain with mountains in the distance. Here in CappDocia the people grow peppers, tomatoes, and flowers in manure filled pots as the soil is so poor.

We saw fields of pumpkins and squash and on our walk in town we saw a woman with a plasitic glove scooping out the seeds to be toasted and leaving the rest to be fed to animals.

Yesterday I saw my first hand knit sox, hats and gloves at a roadside stand.

We've seen a few camels and a couple donkeys and millions of cats!

The landscape around Cappadocia is much like our Bad Lands with huge rock formations sculpted by the wind. In one vast area the mountains provided caves in which the early Christians hid and later created monestaries. The rock could be easily carved, so many rooms could be made inside the mountains At one time 3 - 4 thousand people lived like our Native American Cliff Dwellers did. These dwellings date back to the first century AD. Later in 1100, pictures were painted telling the gospel story - remnants of which we could still view. I felt like a tiny dot in the earth's timeline.

A Delightful Turkish lady had our group for lunch. She wore a fancy top with pants that had elastic at the waist and ankles and extra material so it appeared she had a skirt on. She answered any question we might ask. We learned she had worked making carpets for 20 years; had a daughter who married for love and moved away, a son who lived nearby and brought his 7 year old grandson over before school. He came there after school as well and was supposed to do his homework. She didn't like making him do it - she wanted to have fun with him! She would love to know how to drive Her favorite TV program was "Law and Punishment" She put plastic bags over her grapes so the birds wouldn't get them. She would boil grape juice over an outdoor fire until it was thick as molasses to have during the winter when the snow was deep. She was a most exceptional hostess.

Would enjoy learnning who is with us on our trip and any news from home via our emails