Turkey!

Our week in Turkey was great! We spent a couple days in Istanbul and then traveled up and down the west coast of Turkey while studying the New Testament accounts of Paul's ministry. Every day was scheduled to the max in order to get to so many important sites.  The bus rides were long but very bonding for the group. In sum, I came into Turkey knowing next to nothing about the country, and I left thinking it was one of the coolest places in the world.  Turkey is packed with history, beautiful ruins and buildings, religion, and millions of people.  It was a great week.
                                        
                                          
                           Sarah and I in the Hippodrome (Roman horse track) in Istanbul

                                                         Outside the Blue Mosque
                                                                                                                                     

                                          Inside the Blue Mosque- The Turkish tile was so pretty!

                                              Entrance to Topkapi Palace-Disneyland anyone?
                                                     

                                            Shopping at the Grand Bazaar- So many shops!

 

Cruising along the Bosporus Strait- we could see both the Asian and European parts of Turkey

             The food in Turkey was pretty good (besides an eggplant mush that made everyone sick)

                                                           Gallipoli Battlefield Memorial
                         

                                                Hanging out in the Trojan Horse at Troy

                                        Playing in the Aegean Sea, right outside our hotel

Assos- contains large temple to Athena, also one of the cities Paul wrote letters to and visited 

                        
                                                                                
Pergamon Acropolis- site of an ancient Roman city. It was built on a hill (acropolis) so we had to ride a tram up.  It had remains of many temples (to Gods and emperors), a huge theater, and incredible views.  The sky was beautiful that day.

                                                                  Library at Ephesus

                             Ephesus was awesome- Much of the city was excavated and you could almost visualize the thriving Roman civilization that lived there during the time of the early church.

 This is the theater at Miletus. Here Paul gave his farewell speech before returning to Jerusalem (and his eventual death)


Wow. So I just realized how many pictures I have already put up, and there are still three days worth of the trip left... I will put up another post with the rest of the Turkey pics, but right now I need to study for my Old Testament midterm tomorrow!