travels in turkey

After finally and officially leaving Morocco after 27 months of service, you could say it was time for a vacation. I needed some time to adjust to the departure, to miss morocco like crazy, and to really feel ready to come back to the States.

My friend Mandy and I thought that Turkey would be a great place to end our Peace Corps chapter, and begin our new one.


Turkey is a pretty incredible country. It's 99 percent Muslim, but it's secular government creates an entirely different atmosphere. I always thought Morocco was pretty liberal, and in a way it is, but it has nothing on Turkey. In Istanbul especially, you could have convinced me were in in the Middle of Western Europe.


This is me at the Topkapi Palace overlooking the Bosphorus River. Istanbul is located on 3 different banks, and is the bridge between Europe and Asia. It's no wonder this land was so highly sought after throughout history. And you can see remnents from just about every empire somewhere in Istanbul or throughout the country.

In the Grand Bazaar i found the most similarities to Morocco. Merchants yelling for us to buy things and trying to pull us in to their shops. And of course the bargaining. I'd like to thank Morocco for my great skill at this and for the good prices I received here!

This is the front of the Aya Sofia. It was built a Church by the Emporer Justinian (i think) and later converted to a mosque by a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Now it is a museum and the inside is just as incredible as the outside!



Wow! I've always wanted a Genuine Fake Watch!!





This is a shot of the Blue Mosaue, another incredibly famous building in Istanbul.



Inside the Blue Mosque. This mosque is actually still open for prayer. Tourists wait until after the time of prayer to go in and look around. so beautiful!



This is probably the best meal i ate in Turkey. It was incredibly good! I know what you're thinking, it looks so simple! This was eaten upon our arrival to the beautiful Selcuk in southwest Turkey.



In Selcuk you can find the tomb of St. John located in the ruins of his Basilica. The story goes that after the death of Jesus, St. John and Mary came to the ancient city of Ephesus to spread the gospel. We're pretty convinced that this dog (nicknamed Dudley) is actually the spirit of St. John still around to stand gaurd at the tomb.



These are the ancient ruins of Ephesus. A once thriving city during the Roman and many other empires. It was pretty incredible.



These are the toilets of the ancient city. Apparently they weren't very shy.

This is the incredible well preserved facade of the Library. It's absolutely huge and once held 10,000 scrolls. We took shelter here when it started to downpour.

After the rain we walked to the remains of Mary's church. I have never seen such an incredibly brilliant rainbow in my life.

This is the alter of Mary's church.

This region is called Kapadokya and is located in the center of Turkey. Due to volcanic eruptions, the entire region looks like it could be the moon and people once lived inside the rocks. Our hotel room was a cave built into the side of one.

This structure was once a Monestary. Complete with kitchen, church, and tons of other rooms.

Here we saw the Whirling Dervishes, and some traditional turkish dance.

During my two weeks in Turkey I took over 500 pictures, so obviously this post doesnt do it justice! But I hope you enjoyed a small taste of the incredible things I was lucky to see.

As for now, I'm back in America and ready to enjoy the Holidays with friends and family after missing two during my service. Then the job search really begins and where i'll end up....who knows.