A TALE FROM A TURKISH BATH...and other adventures in Turkey!

Cappadocia Ride

2008-01-01T02:59:00.000+02:00

Here is a video I made from our bike trip to Cappadocia. We figured out the best way to shuttle...rent scooters from OZ Cappadocia at $20 for the weekend.

I mapped out most of the trails on Google Map.

Climbing Trail: Smoothest/Easiest Trail to Climb for a loop.

Love Valley Trail: Awesome trail at the top w/ a bobsled section. A little sandy at the bottom.

Vegetation Trail: Fun trail through the trees, but without arm protection you'll get cut up...a little overgrown.

Mountain Peak Trail: My favorite trail includes the big drop and the land bridge shot.

All of these trails end in Goreme where you can rent a schooter to drive back up to the truck (if you aren't looping).

International Track w/ Broken Collar Bone

2008-01-01T02:54:00.000+02:00

In the last wreck, I meant to drop the first section and run it out. I got off-balanced and veered over the second drop. The impact broke my collar bone.

Mountain Biking in Turkey '07

2007-12-25T12:09:00.000+02:00

Here is a video I put together from all of my pics and vids from the summer and fall mountain biking trips around Adana.

Boar Hunting in Turkey

2007-05-28T00:34:00.000+03:00

My buddy John and I went Boar Hunting with one of the Gun shop owners off base. Actually he hooked us up with his buddies who owns one of the massage parlors. We've now gone out twice. The first time we went out in Mar and froze. This time was a lot more comfortable and I had my new gun with me.

The place we hunt the boars is about 45 mins from base. The hunting spot is in a dump next to the town that the guy grew up in. No joke, we literally drove through the dump until we found were the garbage was recently dumped...John said, "that smells fresh" and the guy said "ok abbi this is good".

Here is the gun shop owner and the massage parlor owner getting the pressure switch hooked up to the flashlight on the gun.

Here is the spot...luckily I have a horrible sense of smell because we set up over the freshest garbage!

My first shot with my new gun...I let the Turk fire the very first shot. The first shot is always a little anxious knowing the lack of quality control in Turkey.

Our "blind" and yes the tarp and blanket were pulled out of the dump.

At the end of the night (about midnight) we fired off some shots. Lots of bottles to shoot...and no need for cleanup after you're done!

Unfortunately no luck this time. I've got a flashlight w/ pressure switch that I'm mounting on my shotgun. I'm determined to get one and I have another year here. If I do finally get one, I'm thinking about throwing a BBQ, the only problem is that I'm sure that the pig will have trichinosis after eating human garbage its whole life. I guess if you cook it long enough you're good...we'll see I have to get one first.

Cappadocia Mtn Biking Trip w/ FTA

2007-05-27T23:57:00.000+03:00

I went up to Cappadocia with some guys from the "Fattireaddicts" group on base. Seven of us went up there for two days of awesome riding. We did three sessions w/ about 6K feet in climbing for the weekend.

Goreme

Goreme

Corey

Alex

Corey, Steve, Isaac

Casey

Casey

Alex

Corey after his yard sale

The group inside one of the cave churches

Alex lounging on the beam

Steve dropping some stairs in Goreme

which vehicle turned more heads on the Turkish highway? ...the folks with the weird bikes on the roof of course!

Weekend in May (BBQ, Mtn Biking, and the Beach)

2007-05-12T08:04:00.000+03:00

We just finished a big project at work that we had been working on for about 8 months. It's a pretty big relief to finally be done. Right after we were done, my office had a little BBQ. Later that weekend I went Mountain Biking with the club on base and then went down to Kiz Kalezi with a bunch of my friends.

Here I am at the BBQ with some of the guys from my office.

I went up with some guys with the fattireaddicts club on base. The trail is known as the "International Track". Turkey is pretty well known for Mountain Biking. In fact the European Championship will be here in July. This trail is where a lot of their world class mountain bikers train.

It starts off with a big hill on a dirt road. One of these days I'm just going to shuttle it, but it's about a 15-20 min continuous climb.

Once you get to the top, the first downhill section is sidehill which unfortunately is a little washed out. This is one of the guys in my office. He just got this bike, so he's still getting used to it.

After the sidehill, there is a big open descent.

The downhill finishes up with a steep drop on single-track that is a little rutted out.

Here we are packing up after a great ride.

The next day I went down to the beach with a bunch of my buddies. We rented paddle boats and swam around. The three of us on the right (Dennis, John, and I) swam out to the castle.

Then we met up with some of our other friends.

Dennis and then John doing their Baywatch impersonations...amazingly as they dove in the theme song started playing out of nowwhere...it was magical.

They whipped the people in the parachute right over the castle. Are they concerned about catching the rope on the top of the caste? ...not in Turkey.

Pete spent about an hour digging this thing out. He was determined to find water.

And finally, the whole group in front of the castle.

Mount Nemrut (Repost with Pics/Video)

2007-04-20T21:50:00.000+03:00

I went with my buddies John and Mike to Mount Nemrut last summer. This is the story John emailed to his family. I have finally got around to adding the videos/pics.
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This weekend me and my two mountain biking buddies decided to go to a place called Mt Nemrut. Mt Nemrut is a mountain about 5 hours north east of the base. On the top of the roughly 7000 foot mountain (the only high peek around), there are a half dozen statues. The heads of the statues are about 6 feet tall, and the monument is about 2500 years old.

We left Friday night after work and drove for about 2 hours before stopping in a major town called Gaziantep. Along the way we tested the tolerance of the Turkish Polis.

We drove there without reservations or even any knowledge of the area the hotels were in. Once we got close, we just decided to exit the freeway and head to the tall buildings which ended up being a neighborhood of apartment towers. We kept going past them and ended up in a village on dirt road full of tractors and livestock. This was at about 08:00 pm, so it was completely dark. All of a sudden we popped out into a small city and there were a few decent looking hotels around.

We decided to try out a nice British looking place. The price was $100 for 3 people so that's where we stayed.

We had 2 single beds and a couch that folded out into a bed, so it was a good choice to stay. While driving to the hotel we noticed a party going on in one of the alleys about a block away from the hotel so we decide to check it out.

Right after we shot this video, someone on a roof near by sent up a bunch of fire works to add to the party; and a young man in his late 20s pulled out a pistol and fired a few rounds into the air to add to the celebration. We decide to go grab dinner at that point. We found a local joint about two blocks away and around the corner.

On the way back to the hotel we heard some music coming from behind the hotel and after a quick investigation we noticed a bar and a disco in the back basement of the hotel. The "disco" had one girl dancing in the center and a few groups of guys sitting around at he tables. We sat down and the waitress brought us some chips and peanuts...we thought sweet, free food. Later we found out that they were $10 a piece-for a small bowl of imitation Lays! The "disco" wasn't really happening (two girls just kept switching out), so we decided to check out the bar.

It was a nice place with a singer and band and everything. After grabbing a table near the side, we started noticed that the guys and girls were segregated at this place. The tables consisted of 4 or 5 guys sitting at a table with groups of 4-5 girls sitting at other tables. After closer observation we noticed that about half of the tables with girls at them had candles lit; none of the tables with guys at them had candles. We also noticed that there was a guy sitting at a corner near the door in a very nice white suit sitting alone and watching the crowd, not the show. Axel used what little Turkish he knew to confirm our suspicions; that yes, in fact, the girls were for 'sale' (we later learned that at this place you bought companionship and it wasn't a full brothel). We finished our drinks and called it a night. (BTW, I am fired up because I was sure that I had video of the lady singing...I'll have to see if Jon has it.)

We got up around 8 the next morning and feasted on the hotel breakfast; lots of bread, cheese, meat, eggs, and other good things. By 9 we were on the road again.

After about 3 hours on the road and a little "I think its in that direction;" we arrived at Mt Nemrut.

We hiked up the hill, took some pictures, froze our buts off, and headed back down the hill. The view was cool and it was pretty amazing that those huge statues were somehow brought up there.

On the way back, I (Jon) noticed an alternate road down the hill, and after a little convincing (because we were low on gas and out of gas coupons), we headed down that way. We found the old capitol of the builders of Nemrut (along with a bunch of tour buses).

At the bottom of the hill we found a Roman (there was a sign) bridge over a large stream. On the other side of the stream, and on top of a large rock formation (about 1000 ft tall) was a large castle. We drove up around the hill to the entrance. That castle was worth the entire trip. It was mostly intact so we climbed around it for about a half hour.

We found a path down the back side towards the river. The stairway down to the river looked a little rough but doable.

Most of the stairway was covered with a few windows for light, but some of it had fallen onto the path making it slippery at times. The stairway degraded fast and kept getting worse. But we where committed to finding the bottom so we kept going. After a while we started having to take turns going down because of the rocks that got kicked loose.

We got to one point where the shelter around the stairs had been totally destroyed and new steps had been cut into the smooth rock cliff. Luckily there was a cable that we were able to use for support.

About 100 feet from the river we noticed the path ahead get very dark. My friend climbed as far down as he could see and took a picture to see if there was a path down. It was blocked. At the lowest window, we noticed a place to tie ropes to and a few broken steps before a drop to the stream.

We were still too high to get down; so we climbed back up the stairs. After turning around, we realized just how bad the stairs were (imagine Frodo and Sam climbing the stairs in Lord of the Rings). About 2 hours after we found the stairs, we made it back up to the top again. When we got back to the road, we took some pictures from the bridge back up to the castle.

We hoped in the car and drove to the nearest town. Here is another bridge we saw along the way.

Once we got to the town we were starving and ate as much as we could get our hands on.

The ride home was about a 5 hour trip and we did it on an empty tank of gas, the air off and the windows rolled up. We added the last 20 Turkish dollars we had left to the tank and prayed… we made it back to the base at 11 pm after driving the last dozen miles with the gas light on, tired and covered in dust. Luckily we had Sunday to recover and rest up.

Sand Dunes Video

2007-04-16T22:06:00.000+03:00

Here is the video when John and I took our trucks down to the dunes.

Tarsus (No-Train) Half Marathon

2007-04-14T10:29:00.000+03:00

Last Saturday afternoon I was talking with my buddy Pete. He told me that earlier that day he had signed up for the Tarsus Half Marathon. I had heard about it, but I hadn't trained at all. In addition, the farthest I had ever ran was a 10K and I only went over 4 about 5 other times in my life. But we were talking and he said it was free and you get a free t-shirt, so I figured what the heck. He hadn't trained much either. He was running 5 miles pretty regularly, but he also had never gone over 10K.

We started talking about how to prepare. The main discussion was about whether to use vaseline to keep your thighs and gluts (butt) from getting rubbed raw. Of course all of my other friends were encouraging Pete and I to lube up. Another question was whether to tape up our nipples so they didn't get chaffed. I basically got too lazy to get the stuff together, so I decided that if everyone else was doing it the next day I would just borrow.

That night I started thinking about what I should eat/drink. I didn't know what you were supposed to do except drink water, so I drank water and just at normally. I think I had some meat and vegetables.

The next morning I had an omelette and bought some peanuts for a prerace snack. That was the extent of my preparation.

I met John and Pete to head out at about 0750. John was going to watch. I told him that by the end of the drive we were going to guilt him into running so he better bring some running shoes (he had on hiking shoes). I had stashed some extra shorts and a shirt for him just in case. He didn't change is shoes, but on the way we reminded him that this was Turkey and there would be people running it in dress shoes, so he didn't have an excuse. Then when we pulled up some of the kids with numbers on had shoes almost exactly like his, but he wouldn't be talked in to it.

Here are the runners warming up. (Me, Pete, Kimberly, Paul, Jessica)

Jessica is a regular marathon/half marathon runner. Paul and Kimberly had been training for a month or two. Pete and I work out regularly, but no long distance training.

Here we are signing up and getting our numbers.

Pete and I strething before the run.

Here are the pictures John took at the start. It was pretty cool. They played the Turkish National Anthem and said a bunch in Turkish before firing the gun. I think there were about 700 runners.

You can see us to the right of the flag. Paul has a blue shirt and a camelback. Paul and Jessica were the only ones with camelbacks on that I saw.

This guy did the 10K which started right after the half marathon. Two guys in wheel chairs did the half marathon...one of them smoked me.

These guys were the pros. There were people from all over the world there: Kenya, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, etc. I think the winner did it in just over an hour.

During the race Pete and I ran together. We had a pretty good pace going and were at the front of our group. Most of the people around us were older guys from the running clubs. The race went by St. Paul's Well and Cleopatra's Gate. Then it went to a long straight away. It was cool because you got to see the other runners, but it made it a little difficult. There were a bunch of people at the turn, so I shouted "MERHABA!" (HI!) and the 20 people there all started cheering.

Pete and I were going good until about mile 8. His legs just completely died. While I wasn't dead, mine weren't doing that great either. I did get to slap some of the Turkish kids hands as we ran through the neighborhoods. They were very friendly and Pete got some offers for his sunglasses. Some of them would put out their hand and then pull a "too slow" move and I was like come on man I'm dying, but it was cool.

At about mile 10,(I didn't know it at the time. The only time I had a clue how far I had gone was when a lady told me 2K left. Nothing was marked that I saw.) I turned a corner thinking we were almost done and then saw another huge straght away. At that time I was thinking "screw it, I'm walking", but Pete didn't stop and a there was a band playing around the corner. The band really kept me going.

A little after that Jessica went cruising past us. I like to joke now that she kicked dirt in a face and talked some trash, but she gave us some encouragement and kept going at her steady pace.

At mile 12, we hit cobblestones which were a pain to run on (see picture of pro above). This was the low point. I think we were going slower than a walk, but we kept running.

Here is Jessica coming in for the finish.

1:52!

Pete and I coming in...

Here we are with our medals...top 3?!? That's what I'll tell me kids:)

Both of us already had monster blisters on our feet.

Here is Paul and Kimberly. Paul ran it in like 1:39 last year, so this year he was running with Kimberly for encouragement.

Paul had his little cheering section. He talked to them before the race and then they were waiting for him at the end. One of the girls asked him for a kiss...right in front of his girlfriend. He declined..Pete offered to take his place, but there were no takers.

Here is my little clan.

After the race there were a bunch of booths to buy food at. No deep fried twinkies, but a lot of good turkish food. It actually felt like a fair back in the states.

Once the race was all over, the Turkish kids were running around popping the balloons.

Here we are taking off...everyone had finished! Here is a link to the results. You have to scroll down to 428. The second list is the females. Jessica ended up getting 26th.

Pete and I successfully did the No-Train/No Walk Half Marathon. It was a good time. I finally got over my soreness on Thursday. For a while I could barely walk with my blisters and sore calves and quads. I had a great time. I'm going to have to train for the full one of these days. I think the no-train full marathon might be a little tough!

Erciyes Ski Trip

2007-03-10T22:02:00.000+02:00

Here is the video from my ski trip up to Erciyes Mountain in Central Turkey.

Eryces Ski Trip

Skiing Wrecks Video

2007-03-01T17:44:00.000+02:00

In anticipation of my first Turkish ski trip this weekend I put together a video of my best wrecks over the last two years at Squaw Valley.

Istanbul Part 3

2007-02-19T20:57:00.000+02:00

So after checking out Sultanahmet and then Beyoglu, we were back in the Sultanahmet district. I had changed my haircut, forgoing the shave for some hair. I had forgotten that hair requires product (gel or mousse). This became a pain (I didn't have any), so I decided to go back to the shave.

Here is the place I went...IMAJ.

The barber, who was about 18, also gave me a shave, which I was not expecting. It was quite smooth using the straight razor. He had some Euro Tecno music going. About half way through he started smoking a cigarette. He had an ash tray on each side of me. He knocked some ash on the counter. He was in the process of wiping the hair off my neck, so he conveniently reached over and used the brush to wipe the ash on the floor. Then he went back to wiping the hair off my neck. It was actually a nice haircut, but a classic Turkey experience.

After the haircut we headed out on a walk for a church and a mosque outside of the main tourist areas northwest of the Grand Bazaar. Here is a Roman Acqeduct that we found.

In a park near the Acqueduct there was a group of about 10 chickens. This rooster was crowing away.

Here I am in a bakery near the Fatih Mosque.

We saw some cool signs along the way.

Two Smiling Faces

Our search for the Church of the Pammakaristos brought us into one the more conservative areas of the city.

The vendor let Kristi try one of these treats for free. The area was conservative, but still relatively friendly.

We finally found the first church on our journey (3 hours later it was a journey, not a walk). The Church of Pammakaristos is a hidden secret of Istanbul. I think its location may have something to do with that. I'm pretty sure we were the first people there all day. The guy working the gate gave me my change out of his own pocket.

Location aside it did have some cool mosaics.

Church of Pammakaristos

Church of Pammakaristos

Church of Pammakaristos

The final destination was the Church of St Saviour in Chora which was next to the Kariye Hotel. About a block from the Hotel I told Kristi that she might be bringing me to the sketchiest hotel I've ever stayed at in Turkey. She assured me that it would be great.

When we got there the room was pretty good, but nothing great. We dropped off our stuff and went to the Church. It had some of the best mosaics and frescos that we saw.

Church of St Saviour in Chora fresco

Church of St Saviour in Chora fresco

Church of St Saviour in Chora mosaics

Church of St Saviour in Chora mosaics

The book we had had a clear layout of what each mosaic represented.

Here is what the book showed for the room. Our room was about half that so we decided to head back to the Beyoglu and stay in a place with "fluffy pillows". We ended up picking the Hilton, so we hailed a taxi and were off.

As we headed back, we passed back under the Acqueduct.

Right after crossing the Golden Horn.

After dropping off our stuff at the Hilton, we headed back to the Fish Market and our favorite restaurant. This was a fish casserole which was awesome.

This is an attempt to make an Irish Coffee with Nescafe.

Two "Oregon" CDs.

The view from our room in the Hilton...

Bosphorous

Bosphorous

The Hilton had an superb breakfast buffet. I treated myself to a couple of portions of their great bacon. It is a little difficult to get good bacon on the base and especially in Adana.

We decided to walk down to the Dolmahbace Palace before we checked out and headed to the airport. I saw this setup in one of the parks. At the time I had no clue what it was. I read something yesterday that it was targets for an airgun that the "vendor/bum" set up.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Gondola which was part of Istanbul's public transportation. I thought it was for tourists, but it was mostly college kids on it.

Here is the entrance to Dolmahbace Palace. We were running low on time, so we didn't take the guided tour. We had coffee in a cafe instead.

We took a few more pictures of us on the Bosphorous.

Bosphorous looking North

Bosphorous looking South

After that we stopped in at the Spice Market to get some pistachios for Kristi's dad (he asked for 2 lbs and got 2 kg!) and a coffee grinder. I wanted to try some caviar, but they wouldn't let me taste and 35 YTL is a bit much just to taste. Maybe next time.

Here were are at the terminal before we departed for our flights.

It was an awesome trip full of sites and culture. Now that I know the area a little better, hopefully I'll be able to meet some of my friends and family there and show them around.

Istanbul Part 2

2007-02-18T20:04:00.000+02:00

This is the part 2 of my Istanbul trip. We had visited most of the sites around Sultanahment and were headed over to the Beyoglu district. Before we headed over there, we stopped at the Pudding Shop to eat.

Like many of the places in the area you picked out your food from the trays in the window.

We were getting a quick bite, so Kristi got the Spinach with Egg which was actually pretty good.

We made it over to the Beyoglu district via in a Taxi. We decided to find the Sed Hotel which had a great view of the Bosphorous.

We dropped off our stuff and headed to Taksim Square. On the way we ran into this collection of animals. Turkey has tons of wild dogs and cats because euthanasia for animals is illegal, so the animal control basically does catch (vaccinate) and release.

China Town in Turkey?

Small China Town in Istanbul

There is this large monument with the founding fathers of Turkey in Taksim Square.

The street was packed and it was during the down season.

One of Kristi's favorite store is the United Colors of Benetton. Personally I just like the coordinated outfit of the the old guy at the checkout.

I tried my hand at the old man's style

Kristi showing off her first jean jacket!

We were walking down one of the back alleys and found this...

Turkish Graffiti

We found the Church of St Anthony, a Catholic Church. This area had many of the other religions and nationalities

In the Taksim area is the Galatasary Fish Mkt, which turned out to be one of our favorite places in Istanbul.

Galatasary Fish Mkt

One of the butchers had a case full of cooked lamb heads. I was asking him questions about them when said, "why don't you try one it is only 6 YTL and it is very delicious." He said you eat the tongue, cheek, and brain. I was going to try brain in Abu Dhabi and panzied out, so I figured I better redeem myself.

The tongue was good, the cheek was ok. The brain had an aftertaste kind of like liver and was mushy as you would expect. I would go for tongue again, but that's it. The coolest part was watching how adept he was at chopping it up.

After the lamb head appetizer I was ready for the main course so we found a fish restaurant to eat at.

What a selection!

We got two types of fish and an octopus. My favorite fish was the Sea Bass (Levrek). The Octopus was great too!

Our second greeter turned buddy. Vesta was a really fun place.

I took these pictures of the Turkish Delight to see if I could talk my sister Amity into coming out.

Turkish Delight

More Turkish Delight

The next morning we got up and walked around Taksim a little more before heading to the Spice Bazaar. The Spice Bazaar was another one of my favorite places. I'm more interesting in the people and culture than the monuments...or maybe it's just the food.

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

Spice Bazaar

After the Spice Bazaar we head back to Sultanahmet. This column is one of the few things remaining from the Hippodrome, which was huge stadium built by the Byzantines in the 3rd Century.

We got another Hotel which had this few of the Sea of Marmara.

On the way to dinner I found a place to pick your snack right off the tree!

Forbidden Garden

This restaurant served Gozleme which was like a flour tortilla. The lady in the front was in the process of making them.

The waiter brought us these ridiculous hats after I went to the front to take the picture. To prove a point, I had him take the picture and then we wore them the rest of dinner.

I had to poke fun at Kristi because the Raki we drank with the fish had given her a slight hangover that morning.

I told her the answer was a Turkish Bath, but she was a no go.

After taking our pictures in the Hamam, we headed down to the Metro and headed home for the night.

Istanbul Part 1

2007-02-17T23:03:00.000+02:00

I met Kristi in Istanbul for a 5 day vacation. It was my first trip outside of the Istanbul Airport. We met at the airport and took a train to the Sultanahmet district. This district is central to 5 of the main historical sites in Istanbul-Grand Bazaar, Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque, Basilica Sistern, and Topkapi Palace.

As soon as we got off the Metro, we found a place to eat. The man below was our first friend in Istanbul.

They had a bunch of dishes in the window. Kristi's favorite was the pancake wrapped stew.

What a feast!

We didn't have a hotel when we got there. I was getting directions to the Apricot House when we came across the Blue House which was also recommended by a friend.

Blue House Hotel

After we checked in, we went searching for a coat for Kristi. On the way we found my store.

After we got Kristi a jacket, we stopped at a cafe for tea and a nargile.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in this shop. The shop owner told us some stories about how the border of the carpet tell you where the carpet was made, which family, and which girl made it. He gave me a soldier's chest protector, which later was changed to a bread basket that was used to feed soldiers. He did show us some cool pictures of his shop in the 70s which used to be a bar in which his father's rock band played.

First thing the next day, Kristi took me on a 4 mile run from our hotel down to the Sea and around to another section of town. I reeled in a catch of 12 fish off of the bridge over the Golden Horn. It was actually a great run. I had to talk Kristi out of turning it into a 20 mile run with a 2 mile swim across the Bosphorous.

After we showered, we headed out to the sights. This guy was pouring cherry juice out of his backpack. Behind me is the Blue Mosque.

The first place we went inside was Topkapi Palace. It was built in the mid 1400's and served as the Ottoman Empire's palace until the mid 1800s when it was moved to Dolmabahce Palace (which we visited later). It is now a museum. The two main things to see are the harem and the treasury (collection of jewelry and precious objects...no pics)

The main entrance

Palace Guns

Local Style from some of the girls on the tour

Our tour guide through the harem (home to over 1000 of the Sultan's concubines).

That evening we went to the Grand Bazaar which is a huge collection of shops (leather, denim, carpets, jewelry, furniture, etc.). The Grand Bazaar has been there since the mid 1400s.

Dinner at Havuzlu

Kristi trying on purses with the shopkeeper

An elegant cigarette holder

Some more local style

The guy behind me was brushing his teeth in this central fountain. All I did was wash my hands.

The next morning we went to the Blue Mosque. The mosque was built in the 1600s.

Cascade of Domes

Blue Mosque Entrance

Women's Prayer Area

You can see some of the tile work behind me.

Inside the Blue Mosque

After the Blue Mosque, we went across the square to the Aya Sofya.

Turkish Mullet

Aya Sofya

The Aya Sofya was built in the 6th century by the Byzantines. In the 15th Century it was converted to a mosque by the Ottomans (this is a recurring theme in Istanbul).

Christian Mosaics

Ottoman Additions

Mirhab, which indicated the direction to Mecca. Off-center since it was originally a church.

View up to the ceiling

Christian mosaic

View from the Gallery

Another mosaic

View down from the Gallery

Finally we visited the Basilica Sistern, built by the Byzantines. The Ottomans did not know it existed for a century after their conquest. It was rediscovered after people were pulling water and even fish out of holes in their basements.

The lights are pillars. It pretty much felt like something built for Disneyland.

Fish in the Cistern

Upside Down Medusa Head

Sideways Medusa Head

I bought some roasted chestnuts from one of the many street vendors.

That afternoon we check out of our hotel and were headed off to the Beyoglu district.

Black Castle

2007-02-10T23:28:00.000+02:00

Here are my pictures from our trip to Black Castle today. John(2), Rose, Jill, and I were planning on going to Snake Castle, but went looking for this one instead.

"Black" Castle for all the Americans

Overlooking his kingdom

King of the Arch...to the death!

Jill and Rose

Jill with our two tour guides

John, Jill, Rose, and John

The tour guide in training needs a little work on his attitude

Only about 50 ft down

Jill giving out orders in the "Commander's Seat"

Rose taking her turn on the throne

John getting pulled out of the escape tunnel

Peaking down on the bathroom

Jill with her new boyfriend

Inside the stables

Someone had a fire going in there

The group on top of the castle

Road Trip to Syria

2007-02-10T07:43:00.000+02:00

UP Buddies Visit Turkey

2007-01-04T22:39:00.000+02:00

My buddy Jeff has deployed here and David stopped by in his C-130. First we went out to dinner at a traditional restaurant.

After we ate I took them to Dilber Cafe for a Nargile.

This waiter (who couldn't speak English) tried to say Jake was smoking like a puss and showed him how to do it.

Jeff one upped the waiter!

We finally learned how to play Okey! I whupped 'em four straight games.

Here is the owner who was an Olympic boxing Gold Medalist in 1984.

All the waiters and us. Go Turkey!

Our old beer pong team!

I found out that I wasn't 86'd at the bar that we sang at.

At the end of the night, all those guys tried some Raki (tastes kind of like strong southern comfort and doesn't turn white until you pour water into it.)

The next day John, Mike, and I took them offroading. John and Mike in the Toyota popped over the hill to find a family having a picnic.

A little dance party on the side of the road!

A bit of a surpise to find Santa off base!

Finished off the trip with a meal at one of the nicer restaurants along the lake.

Adana Bar

2006-11-24T22:32:00.000+02:00

A bunch of us went out to a bar in Adana that plays live music. The band that was there covered some American and Turkish songs.

Here are some of my buddies before we went in.

John, Chris, and Charles

We started to get pumped hearing some of the American rock songs before the band came out...

When ACDC Thunderstruck came on, someone decided that we ought to do a little air guitar/drum/singing.

Dennis - Air Guitar, Pete - Vocals, Axel - Drums

Once I sat down I saw the drumstick and with the distinct drum beat of Thunderstreak inspiring me, I started adding to the beat. We lasted about 2/3 of the way through the song before the manager came down and kicked us off the stage. The Turks thought it was in good fun and didn't kick us out of he bar.

Still pumped..

The real band...

I felt like the opening band outplayed the headliners, but I may be a little biased.

Adana Fish Market

2006-11-24T22:22:00.000+02:00

While John and I were wandering around Old Adana, we found the fish market. I picked up 2 kg and grilled them up that night. I couldn't figure out exactly how the Turks cut them right down the center, but I just cut them in half and threw them on the grill.

Tower of Beer and Go-Cart racing in Gemany

2006-11-24T21:49:00.000+02:00

I had a class up in Germany, so I got a chance to hang out with my buddy David. We went out to some bars with some of his buddies. At the first bar we had a pretty good smoked beer in a "Tower of Beer".

Tower of Beer

Next was the "Meter of Beer"...

Meter of Beer

Finally we ended up in a bar at the top of one of the hotels

Bar 21

The next day we tried out some go cart racing. The carts went 35 miles an hr, fast as hell. Of course since it was Europe, we didn't sign any release forms. The European theory is if you don't want to get hurt driving fast go-carts, DON'T DRIVE FAST GO-CARTS!

The track kept kept a scoreboard that showed what place you are in and your fastest lap. We ended early and were 4th and 6th when we stopped. Some of these guys had racing gloves and obviously had been there a few times before.

Just before the medal presentation...

It was a great time. I recommend going if you are ever in the Ramstein area. Oh, and I almost forgot, there is a bar there so you can get have a few drinks while you are waiting for your heat...I'm not joking!

Here are some pictures I took on the Autobahn on my way back up to Frankfurt.

Street Meat

2006-11-24T21:11:00.000+02:00

Outside of the front gate, there are vendors that cook up meat and put it in a roll. When people first get there, the inbriefing includes a recommendation not to eat it because there is no refrigeration on the carts. Basically there is a good chance that you'll get food poisoning (aka "The Turkish Tease"). My buddy Matt decided that he would decrease his risk by making his own. This is after he saw the guy smoking a cigarette, tying his shoes, and then using his bare hands to make the wrap.

Here I am making mine. I'm not scared off a little Turkish bacteria, so I made mine medium rare. Matt went for well done on his.

Flipping the kofte patties.

Well done...what a pansy.

Here you can see the vendor reaching to help him roll it, which largely defeated Matt's quest to keep the vendor's hands off of his food.

It's a success!

Looks like Matt can add "street meat vendor" to his list of options if the Air Force doesn't work out.

Yumartalik Beach Trip

2006-10-30T20:00:00.000+02:00

My buddies and I took a trip south of Adana to Yumartalik to stay on the beach. On the way down, we passed by some gypsies

A guy where we were staying came into town to pick us up. Before we left the town, we picked up 2 kg of shrimp...tasty!

Here is a picture where we bought the shrimp. I like the incorporation of the ancient ruin into their pier.

After we snagged the shrimp and got settled where we were staying, we headed down to the beach. We stayed at a small AF facility, so that's why the fence has some barbed wire on it.

I thought the water would be filthy because it is in the corner of the mediterranean, so the garbage and sludge flows that way. It was actually pretty nice. Not a whole lot of trash since it was away from civilization. There was a lot of silt, but it was nice, warm water. First we started off swimming around and then we played a little frisbee in the Med.

After the swim we played some volleyball with a couple of kids from the village. We started of pretty bad, but by the third game we were getting some good rallies.

After volleyball, we took the boat out for a spin.

Pete smoking a stogie

John, who grew up on lakes in MN, tried his hand as the captain!

Some of the guys went for a swim!

Right before this, some weird white creatures surfaced after everyone went underwater but I wasn't quick enough with the photo.

Dennis living out his David Hasselhoff fantasy.

Earlier...

Twins! The singing would come later.

Here is the whole crew as we headed back to shore.

Once we got back, we started up the campfire and Dave showed his mad guitar skills.

Here is the english bulldog that came along.

We started BBQ'ing the shrimp that we bought.

One in the mouth, one on the skewer!

Multi-tasking!

The next day we ate at a fish restaurant. Matt claimed the mountains behind us are 5000 ft. We set a $1 wager--3 said more, 3 said less.

Here is a google earth screenshot. I labeled the point "5000 ft mountains" however it looks like the elevation is only 2640 ft. Looks like John owes me a buck!

Dilber's Cafe

2006-10-21T11:07:00.000+03:00

We took Tom out for the first time last night. We took him to a traditional kebap restaurant in Old Adana, a nargile cafe on the water, and out for ice cream in New Adana. He tried some Salgram (beet juice) and

Here we took some pictures of the city from the patio at Dilber's Cafe.

We started off with some backgammon.

I wanted to learn to play the Dominoes game, so I asked the waiter who spoke some English to teach us how.

We attempted to play Okey, but it was too difficult learn so we played a variation of hold 'em and built some bridges.

At the end of the night I found an Oregon sweatshirt in one of the shops in New Adana.

Stuck!

2006-10-17T20:17:00.000+03:00

STUCK!

We had quite a fiasco last weekend! Mike and John took John's truck up where we go mtn biking. They started off doing some nice, easy rock crawling.

As John's confidence grew, they decided to take it down next to the lake.

John got a little cocky and bit off a little(lot) more than he could chew, getting stuck next to the lake at about 1600. After it was stuck Mike (who has more mudding experience) can be heard on the video saying, "Do you want me to try? We don't want to dig to China!" If only he knew! And John's smile wouldn't be quite as big!

They tried to dig it out for an hour...

with no luck and called me at 1700 to bring out a tow rope to pull them out. I ended up going to the M1 Mall in Adana to buy a chain, shovel, and flashlight because the base didn't have any tow ropes/chains. It was an interesting challenge trying to explain to a Turk that I needed 15m of chain, getting the right hook on it and finding the rest of my supplies. About $250 later (the chain wasn't cheap) I was off to the lake. I finally made it out to them at about 1900.

It was dark, but we tried digging it out and then using my truck to pull it out. It was right next to the water and the water rose a couple feet to where the left side of the truck was in a couple of feet of water.

We finally gave that up at about 2100...

but as we were leaving, a Turk pulled up on a motorcycle/moped and I asked if he could get a tractor from the village tonight. He agreed and took off to the village. He finally came back about an hour later. In the meantime, a lightning storm was coming our way which made for some cool pictures, but we really didn't need any more rain to soften the dirt/mud.

He came back and said he had a guy that would do it for 20 TL ($15) (a steal we would have paid $100). So we went for it. Once again, more pictures of the looming lightning storm.

Two guys pulled up an hour later. One held a spotlight, the other a over/under shotgun (not sure if the purpose was security or hunting, but he put it down once he saw that the truck was buried.)

So now its about 2300. We gave it a try with the tractor, but we kept snapping the rope that they brought (They added their rope to our chain to get the tractor onto better ground.) Even though the rope was breaking, the one guy stood right next to the front of John's truck, pretty much in line for the snap of the rope. After about an hour, his 87 Toyota truck with a 6 in lift and 35's was in water up to the rear bumper

Finally they quadrupled the rope and one of the Turks took his pants off and started pulling the mud out from under the truck. At about 0100 the tractor pulled it out. John ended up paying them 90 TL for their efforts which was a steal.

So we got back to the base at about 0200 which was past our curfew of 0100. The SFS guys were going to let us on without incident, but the Turks wouldn't let his truck on because it was completely covered in mud. Here are some pictures from the next day.

After the Turks made the stink, the US gate guards had to write us up for the curfew violation which ended up in the blotter. Plus they called our commanders at 0300. It ended up that we should have called our commanders when we knew we weren't going to make it, but we didn't get in any trouble.

What craziness! 3 Americans, 3 Turks, a Tacoma, a Tractor,a chain, 6 ropes, a shovel, and a flashlight and 9 hours later we were out!

Winefest

2006-10-11T03:00:00.000+03:00

I was going to write about my winefest trip, but my buddy Dave beat me to it...and did a bitchin' job. Plus my memory is a little foggy after about 3:00 pm (about the time we met Bono's dad).

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=27260693&blogID=178545020&MyToken=60ddba99-f814-48a1-accd-7dec26484771

I've added some pics of a beer pong game we played at one of Dave's buddies...needless to say, the UP alumns went 3-0.

Adana Soccer

2006-10-10T01:13:00.000+03:00

I asked one of the Turkish Nationals (TN) in my office to take me to an Adana soccer game. I was interested to see how wild the fans where and how good the teams are. John and Mike came along with me. The first thing I noticed was that the concession stand was a little different...not hot dogs, hamburgers or nachos. I had a soda and sunflower seeds.

Adana's 3rd tier team was playing a town near the Iraq border. The game was pretty good. Adana was leading 1-0 when we left after halftime (it was late on a weeknight and we just went to get a flavor of stadium/crowd). Adana is in the orange.

We sat right next to the crazy fans. There were two sections that cheered and sang the whole game. You can see John in the picture. They kept yelling at him to sing and stand. We finally figured out the "Adana! Adana! Adana!" cheer but that is about it.

This is the entrance turnstile. Mike and John had to go through it with some police who were behind us. They both pushed it forward without walking into it and their tickets wouldn't make it move again. Mike and his police guy were walking forward, but John's guy turned around and they were facing each other. The ended up having to shuffle awkwardly to get inside. Then on the way out my TN and John went out and found that the outside door was locked. My TN was able to find a ticket on the floor that opened it, but John was stuck in there. We went looking for someone to open it up. While we were searching, a crazy Turk started pounding on the door yelling at John. If the guy would have made it in, John would have been stuck in the space with him. The look of fear on John's face was priceless. Luckily a police officer let him out before the guy broke the door down.

It was a good time. I'll probably go back with a bigger group and stay for the entire game. I'd like to see the celebration/demonstration after it is over.

Mountain Biking with Mustafa

2006-09-06T20:33:00.000+03:00

Last weekend, John and I went riding on the bike trails in Adana. After we got done, we were trying to descend some stairs on our bikes. A turk named Mustafa stopped to watch. He was impressed with our bikes and thought we were crazy to try the stairs. He seemed like a nice guy so we decided to meet him again to go "make exercise in the park."

John, Mike and I met Mustafa in the park a couple days later. We rode the trails and B.S.'d with him. He is studying electronics at a local community college. After we rode in the park, we were going to go shuttle some dirt roads in the mountains north of Adana. We figured, "what the heck? Let's just invite him along." So we invited him and he decided to come with us. On the way to the truck we found an interesting site...a random cow bathing in the lake in the midde of the city park. Really, it's not that uncommon to see cows and goats everywhere, but we took a picture because at this point it's still a novelty.

Mustafa ended up being pretty good. At least in good shape. He was a little hesistant to get too crazy which was a little surprising given our past experience with Turks' driving habits and ability to jump out of a 10 ft ledge onto uneven ground at a local castle. It was good times.

Turks have no concept of littering, we got done with a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi and he said, "I'll take care of the box" and took it to the bushes. We all said not to worry about it and to just throw it in the truck. He looked at us like we were crazy and threw it in the bushes anyway. Maybe we'll pick it up the next time we are up there.

Not our trash, but you get the picture.

At the end of the day, we didn't destroy his bike like we thought. The roads are pretty rocky and when you start flying down them, it can do a number on a cheap bike rim. Just one flat which we fixed with slime-it was a godsend because he didn't have quick release and we didn't have a wrench.

After mountian biking we went for Kebaps. Mustafa ordered us Adana kebaps which are the regional specialty. We got a ton of good food and "made conversation" as Mustafa likes to say.

We ended up paying 43 Turkish Lira (TL) (about $28) total which was a little steap for Turkey but it was a nice place and we all tried some Baklava...nice enough for a few couples to have their wedding receptions there.

On the way home we had a great turkish moment. We needed to make a left at but there was a concrete median. Mustafa nonchalantly said, "You'll have to go around that way." And pointed into the oncoming lane. It was about a 50 meter drive and I would have had to weave through cars. I have to admit I considered it (damn near anything goes in Turkey), but I decided to make a left. So we pulled through the parking lot and only went 25 meters the wrong way. The best part was that he said, "we'll this works, but I usually just cut straight through." I'm still a Turkish driver in training, but I'm getting there.

Old Adana

2006-09-06T00:37:00.000+03:00

Dinner in Old Adana

We decided to try a new place off base. I was talking to one of the local contractors and he said he knew of a good place in Old Adana. I had a general idea about where that area of Adana is, but he said it was under a big clock. John, Mike, and I have found that we tend to say yes even if we don't know where things are or can't understand the Turkish. So I didn't know exactly where we were going, but hey, what's new?

Right out of the gate we saw a guy riding a donkey leading a camel with a halter. Guys on donkeys are nothing new, but we had never seen a camel. I pulled a U-turn and we got some pictures. Unfortunately this is the only one that came out.

We ended up parking far away and had to walk and figure out where this clock tower was. I had no idea how to say clock tower, but I asked a Turk "Nerede?" as I pointed to my watch and held it up above my head. He seemed to understand and pointed us down the street. I asked a couple more guys using the same strategy, but we only found a tiny clock in the middle of an intesection.

It wasn't the right place, but we found a cafe with kebaps. We sat down and checked out the view from the balcony. We found an interesting sign across the street.

We were looking for Kebaps, so when the waiter came we all ordered them.
We started looking for sides and when I saw that Yengen translated as "your aunt" I had to get it. I didn't have a clue what it was, but how could I pass it up?

We sat and chatted for a while. While we waited for our food. There was a pretty good view out into the street. We'll have to come back sometime and check out the shops.

The kebaps were pretty good. "Your Aunt" turned out to be a grilled cheese sandwich with slices of sausage and dill pickle in it. John is pointing at it.

After we ate, we sipped some Chay and headed home. We didn't find the place we were looking for, but it was a good time. Next time we are going to scout out the place in the truck before we park. The rest of the photos are at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/axelclark2#page1