Istanbul & Munich

Jordan and I took a little vacation to Istanbul and Munich at the end of September.  We spent three days gallivanting around Istanbul and then headed to Munich to meet up with Kelly and Robby for Oktoberfest.  We saw a lot of history and drank a lot of beer.  I guess you could say it was the perfect vacation!  Here are some pictures of our journey...

ISTANBUL

We stayed at the Avicenna Hotel that was perfectly located in the Sultanhamet area of Istanbul.  We were within walking distance to all of the big site seeing spots.

View from our room.

We took a guided tour of the blue mosque which was beautiful!  The next three pictures are all of the blue mosque.

You really only had to cover your shoulders but as I walked through the security line and whipped out my scarf, the Turkish security guard felt the need to wrap me up like a hot tortilla!  I felt legit!

No shoes allowed!

We took a 2 hour boat tour and were sandwiched between Europe and Asia the whole time.

We also had a guided tour of the Istanbul hippodrome.  The hippodrome was used for chariot races and gladiator battles during the 3rd and 4th centuries.  This monument was put in the middle of the hippodrome in 390AD, however, it is not a Roman or Turkish artifact.  This monument was actually built in Egypt in 1490 BC!!!  That means it is roughly 3,500 years old!  It's a solid block of granite and is in extremely good shape!

This man made this...

This treat is like something I've never tasted before.  Jordan and I were wondering around the city when we noticed the man in the picture above making this taffy like sucker.  We had no idea what it was but couldn't resist the pretty colors.  Once we dug in to it it tasted just like melted gummy bears!!!  Delicious!  Later on in our trip we noticed that this taffy gummy bear sucker was an illegal operation.  We started observing police officers rolling by on their segweys looking for the taffy men.  When the taffy men saw police come they would pick up their trays and run out of site.  Instead of illegally selling watches and purses, they were in the hot taffy sucker business! 

MUNICH - Bring on the beer!

Welcome to the Hippodrom!  This was our first stop for Oktoberfest!

The German band that played very festive music that made you want to wave your stein high in the air to the beat!

Our waitress, Stephi, had no issues carrying ten liters of beer all at once!  I honestly don't know how she did it.  Jordan and I had bruises on our hands from drinking out of these steins...that's how heavy just one liter of beer was!

Robby and Jordan made friends with some German biker dudes.

This is pretty much the only site we saw that didn't involve beer.  I honestly couldn't tell you what its name is or any history behind it.  We just stood there waiting for the tiny dancing people to dance at the top of the hour but we missed it!

One of many that was consumed!

Day two of Oktoberfest...what a happy family!

LOVE this picture!  We had such a great time and it was so comforting seeing my sister...even if it was for only two days!

Here's what you missed...

I'm not even going to make any excuses for my lack of posts!  All I'm going to say is...here's what you missed...

Remember to click on the pictures to make them bigger!!!

Gaziantep Day Trip
Jordan and I took a day trip to Gaziantep where we went to the zoo, did some shopping at an old bazaar, and visited the largest mosaic museum in the world!

The pretty star fountain!

Meet Gabi, the Gaziantep Zoo elephant.

Read what the Gaziantep Zoo had to say about Gabi.  We got a kick out of reading all of the English translation of these signs.

Mickey Mouse's ugly step brother!

A giraffe never looked so good!

I didn't take a picture of the bizaar so I found one on google.  There were so many things to look at!

Mosaic museum.

Tarsus and Mersin Day Trip
Jordan and I also spent a day traveling to Tarsus and Mersin where we saw several historical landmarks...

The Romans built this waterfall and river in the 3rd century.

This road doesn't look like much but Julius Caesar himself walked on this Roman road that was described as being like 5th Avenue in NYC today.

The apostle Paul was born in Tarsus.  As you can see, this is St. Paul's well where he drank frequently from as it was said to contain curative properties.

Jordan getting some of that holy water! 

St. Paul's church

Tarsus is also the place where Cleopatra and Marc Antony first met.  Google says,"The Tarsus gate of Cleopatra, also called the “Sea Gate,” still stands today, though it has been significantly restored. It was believed that Cleopatra sailed up the Cydnus disguised as Aphrodite and came through this gate in 41 B.C. on her way to meet Mark Antony."

Roman ruins.  This is a picture of the Roman market where they would trade fish.

Roman ruin ampitheater.  The rows of seats to the right have been restored so you can imagine what the seats looked like when it was first built.

We also went to the chasm of heaven and the pit of hell.  We walked 450 steps down to heaven and peered over a 120 meter (394 feet) pit of hell.

Kizkalesi (Maiden's Castle)

Jordan and I celebrated our one year anniversary at Kizkalesi located on the coast of the Mediterranean.  It's about an hour and a half drive from Incirlik so it was the perfect day trip.  Our friends, Isaiah and Leone, joined us for the adventure and fun in the sun.  We all had a blast and made it back in one piece!!!

On our way there we passed this guy...

(you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

  He's carrying ceramic dogs, lambs, and geese.  Just another day at the office, huh?

We drove and drove and drove through Turkey and knew we were close to Kizkalesi when we saw this...

We parked, ate lunch, and made our way to the sweet sand...

After swimming and catching some sun for a few minutes we took this boat...

out to the castle in the sea.

We toured the castle ruins and climbed all the way to the top.  Apparently Turkey isn't big on safety because there were no railings at the top of the castle to prevent anyone from falling off.  We were brave though and hiked all the way to the top for the spectacular view.

After we explored the ruins we found this diving board and had a blast jumping into the crystal clear water.

We headed back to the mainland to dry off and walk around before dinner.

During our stroll around the shops and restaurants, Jordan made a new friend...

We enjoyed every minute of being in Kizkalesi.  It was the perfect way to celebrate our one year anniversary and to start our second year of wedded bliss!