Cappadocia, where we cheated the DEATH

Our tour guide (who also served as a guide for Hillary and Chelsea Clinton as well as Supreme Court Justice Scalia and his wife) took us all around the wonder-filled Cappadocia region: camel rides, mimicking rock structures, tours through ancient underground housing complexes, nights on the town, hot air balloon rides, stunning hikes...this is an area that we could spend a long time in!

These mushroom-looking structures are believed to be straight out of the fairy-tales. When climbing, make sure to duck your head!

Like mother, like daughter.

Feel free to cast a vote: Which mother-daughter duo truly captures the rock structure?

Our hike through the Rose Valley, or a valley nearby, was filled with fruit-eating. We really felt like, if there was any place to be lost (or abandoned)...this was it. The fruit truly abounds in this region!

And we think we have discovered why the fruit abounds: While walking through the valley, we would look up and see many little holes carved into the stone. Apparently the farmers chisel tons of these little holes (one foot by one foot, give or take a little) into the rock formations so that the pigeons in the area will come and rest in the safety and security of the holes. The farmers then gather their excrement and use it for fertilization. How innovative!

Eating in the dining hall of an ancient greek-orthodox monastery, home of devout monks of age old. Walking through the rock-hewn churches and dining halls, we caught a little glimpse of what life would have been like many, many years ago.

We decided to take a day trip to the Greek island of Samos, where we spent the day lounging outside of beautiful restaurants and drinking some of the good wine and the delicious cocktails that they had to offer. After our feasting, we decided to look at the sites: a statue of Pythagoras, an influential mathematician, mystic, and scientist from the 6th century BC.

Greece. (I think Tessa is really perfecting her photography skills!) This is what Pythagoras would wake up to everyday. With inspiration like this, we would expect nothing less than the Pythagorean theorem.

Janet and Alisa overlooking the beautiful island of Samos.

Surprise! The one and only Trisha Hall, as well as her two Turkish friends (which she often refers to as her bodyguards), just happened to be in the exact same city at the exact same time as us. (Thanks to Facebook, and crazy Turkish keyboards, Trisha was able to ascertain that we were both in Turkey. From there it was just a matter of meeting up! Luckily, she was traveling around the country the same time we were!)

This is to a night of wild and crazy dancing, cocktails complete with bursting fireworks, a spirited Iraqi woman who came to Turkey to escape the constant pressure of working for the US military in Baghdad, glamorous dresses, rides in little cars with hotel managers, and Trisha's guitar and singing career. This night was unforgettable.

And yeah, we were ready for the 4:30 am morning that awaited us.


Up, up, and away. Our mother's treated us to an early morning hot air balloon ride, something that Alisa has spent her whole life dreaming about. With cookies and tea in hand, we all anxiously awaited the lift off. Who would have known that hot air balloons really are hot? At some points, it felt like we would burn. We flew up and away, over the Red Valley and rock-hewn churches, over fields, and homes...

When people say that it was a crash landing, they really mean it.

"Brace yourself. Brace yourself." And then we crash, full force ahead. Afterward our hot air balloon pilot wiped the sweat off of his face and pronounced, rather shakenly (which might not be a word, but we like it!), "We cheated the DEATH."

We are always comforted when our guides, pilots, and drivers reflect on how little control they actually had. At least we have a great story for the grandchildren!

A champagne toast to life! To living!

After the rather stress-filled week (just kidding!), we treated ourselves to a Turkish bath. We entered the bathing facility, wrapped ourselves in these sarongs and then proceeded into the bathing room: a huge steam room complete with side rooms housing cool water showers and little benches. In the center of the main room was a huge elevated circular slab, upon which we laid. To the back of the room was another, more intense steam room.

After a thorough steam treatment we waited in line for the Turkish scrub down. Yes, that is the official terminology: scrub (and rub) down. It was the most wonderful, pressure-filled massage/ wash down that we have ever received. One person would be on the rectangular slab lying down receiving the full body massage treatment, complete with a sudsy bath. The other person was receiving an exfoliation treatment from a young Turkish man.

We wish we could receive these daily.

Walking in Famous Footsteps: The Ancient City of Ephesus

Our second stop in Turkey was Ephesus and on our way to the city we stopped by the last home of Mother Mary. St. John reportedly brought Mary to this small house atop a lovely tree-covered hill to safely spend her final days. The setting is very serene and nearby the house there is holy water and a nice wall for leaving prayers. This modern statue greets you on the way up the hill.

Ephesus is an ancient Greco-Roman city that was once an important port city. With such a long history, the streets of this city have been graced by many a famous footstep - including (supposedly) those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Augustus Caesar, St. Paul, and St. John.

Here we are, learning our history, in front of the Celsus Library.

Celsus Library again, artistic style.

This is the theater where Saint Paul gave his last sermon before being executed. This massive theater can seat 25,000!

Obligatory photo of us using ancient Roman toilets.

Then we learned how to make a Turkish carpet. What a piece of cake - it's just knots . . . and more knots . . . and more knots . . . and endless, endless knots. Those things take forever - sometimes years! The patience of those women (apparently Turkish carpets are only made by women and prisoners . . .) is astounding.

And did we forget to mention that this is where we stayed? Our hotel was literally on the Aegean Sea. We ate huge, amazing buffet dinners as we drank wine and watched the sun set over the sea. And then Alisa did interpretive dance to traditional Turkish music and . . . butta bing butta boom, got proposed to (ring and all) 2 days later. Awkward . . . but Mother Bright was so happy to be present at her daughter's first - albeit shortlived - engagement.

Turkey: Our Vacation From Vacation

We have found, at various points on our trip, that our travel feels a lot more like work than it feels like vacation. Like when we get off at the wrong stop in Amman and have to carry our backpacks 2 kilometers along the highway to get to our next bus or when we have to strategize how we can make our last couple shekel (just a few dollars and Israel is pretty expensive) stretch another 48 hours or when we pratically fight our way through touts and rickshaw drivers and then find ourselves walking nearly an hour, with our loaded backpacks, to find the metro. At some point in Israel or Jordan, Turkey became like the beacon of light at the end of the tunnel, a Friday night after an endless string of Mondays. Both our mothers would be flying together to meet us at the Istanbul airport and from then on we would not have to think about a thing - a vacation from our vacation.

Our time in Turkey was unlike any other portion of our trip: beautiful hotels, delicious meals, news clothes, daily showers, and all kinds of luxuries we had not had over the past 6 months. And more than anything else, we got to spend time with our mothers. Time with our mothers would have been enough to re-energize us for our travels even if we had stayed in $2 a night hostels . . . but being spoiled for 2 weeks wasn't bad either :)

The beautiful city of Istanbul. We think this is one of the best cities we have encountered - a fantastic mix of beautiful architecture, lovely waterways, traditional culture, and modern fashion.

A birthday celebration dinner for Tessa. You can't tell but we had a gorgeous view looking out over the Straight of Bosphorus. We are sitting on the European side of Istanbul and we could see the Asian side across the water.

Just a great way to cut an apple.

We spent two days sight-seeing and exploring the city. This is a medusa head used as a base for one of the pillars in the underground cistern.

We spent our last day in Istanbul in between two continents, cruising up and down the Straight of Bosphorus. It was a perfect sunny day and we stopped on the Asian side of the straight for lunch and jewelry shopping. Then on our walk back to our hotel, we couldn't resist stopping for baklava - and then we of course had to sample every different type . . .