Eurotravel

These were taken with cheap disposables I got. Only half of my photos on each came out, and one set has these red marks down the middle of all the photos.

From Rhodes we went to Athens, I'll try to find a link to my friends photos of that cause there were some good ones. Two days there and on to London. Paul took me to Oxford and I took him to Chelsea where I met Sandy and her friend Michael, and Chris popped in to say hi, which was good. Then we went back north to Holborn to find a bar, and around 2 am, Sandy, Michael, and I left for Oxford, and arrived two hours later. In Oxford I relaxed, drank, went punting, and watched a vampire movie.

Went to Rome June 4th, didn't find Aerin, went to Viterbo. Later I Came back to Rome and saw the Ara Pacis, and the sites with Woody.

In Viterbo, I met Nicola's girlfriend, Julia and my old school, but mostly relaxed at the Zagaris and worried about my luggage.

Then I went with Nicola as far as Bologna and I continued on to Ravenna, which we had just studied. Six UNESCO sites there, and I got them all. Had to stay in a hostel for a night though.

Symi, Rhodes Night Out

Yesterday we went to nearby Symi island. Undeniably pretty. See also Amanda's Photos.

These photos are from two successive night. First, we found a playground. Awesome. The next night we went out dancing in the bars. Took some good shots, but THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK. My camera took a spill. The lense came off in my hands. It's out. Kaput. Not sure what I'll do next. Certainly this is my last post for a while, probably till I get back to the States on the 13th. Looks like this page is done.

End Days... on to Rhodes

These photos are unedited, so I immediately apologize for the quality. Right now I'm at the hotel in Rhodes and I'm trying to keep up. Our final test came and went. My distinct detachment from reality kept me sane. Immediately afterward we hit the Efes. Big family photo time. Then we finally hit the waves, a long held out goal of the semester. Beautiful. At the villa we brought together the whole cast of characters for a final dinner outside. This whole time it was Monique's birthday, so that night we threw down one last time in Apartment 3. With oh so little sleep, we hit the bars around 11. Sky Bar again was the first stop. Monique had 15 drinks that night. At Sky Bar she did this dance with her skirt while she was standing on the table.

I stayed with Andrea and Ayse because Ayse had a thing with bartenders. She kinda likes them and it created problems. Then she lost her purse, and wandering around looking for it at 4 am gave me a real sour last taste for Turks. At least Turkish men. My host family on the other had rocks. The came to see me off from the bus station before I left on this adventure, and gave me a bracelet that I'm still wearing.

Amanda, Arvand, Ayse, Alana, Aerin, and I caught a bus leaving Alanya at 8:30 pm, got to Antalya at 11:30 pm, Marmaris at 5:30 am, and into Rhodes at about 11. We saw the sights yesterday. Today we hired a sailboat to take us around. Lots of fun. DPE boys will get a kick out of some of these.

Alanya News Roundup

In recent events: I wrote 3 papers, and have take one out of three finals. I plan to leave on Friday, but my plane tickets are still even now up in the air. I have precious little time to deal. I finished my volunteering with the local school, though I've yet to complete my essays on the experience. Here are two photos we took with out class. Jinnyn came for the day too, and she's included.

Then it was Nili Hanım's birthday, so we went to Hotel Elisée which has a very nice infinity pool there by the water.

Then, last Friday, I hung out with my host family again. We went to watch the beach volleyball championship which happen in Alanya every year. Here's two from Ukraine playing two from Greece. There were Alanya Beach Wollyball Girls dancing in the breaks. Since the whole think was sponsored by Smart Car, they had those there, and here Celile and I are chilling in one.

Study Break

Saturday, May 13th. We've been doing essays for some time now, and we'll be doing them for the rest of the foreseeable future. This was intense collective stress release. We drank in the apartment, Arvand opened made friends with Johnny Walker, and Rob opened up the Beefeaters he'd brought from the Cairo airport. Monique for the first time went down the sketchy path the rest of us have been using this whole time. I ran into my host family at Skybar, which was great. I got kissed by the waiter at Skybar, which was offputting. I knocked over some teqila at Janus, which was stupid, and felt sick most of Sunday which was terrible for those papers.

No one is spared in these photos. Aerin has been decided among us to be the one who looks good here.

Also, I've been assured that hoya.georgetown.edu will be back up this week, now that the seniors running it are done with thier finals, so I may not have to invest in a dot com quite yet.

Konya, final fieldtrip

I've been taking less photos these last weeks. These last two field trips I've been using Monique's video camera to shoot footage, hopefully something will come out of that. I presented for architecture class on caravanseray. Zazadin was my site. I brought honey and got Scott Bey to buy us halva because my book on caravanseray said that many gave out halva honey free to residents on Fridays. After climing up to the second story, Rob and I had some trouble coming down. I found out one side of the building is held up by wet mud when some rocks fell out from under me. Then we saw Rumi's tomb. Woody the Gnome is actually a dervish, so he found it quite spiritually fulfilling. Note that's he's received some work since Damascus took its toll on him.

Meanwhile, new in pooping, Alanya's water has been cut off. For three days. At the least. I seriously have no idea how to cope. What a shitty situation. Oh and they're turning off electricity tomorrow... cause it has something to do with the water? City of 100,000+ pooping in buckets? Turks. All I can say is Turks.

Hookah Bubbles

Andrea had us blowing bubbles. Rob had us drinking vodka. More good times in Apartment 3.

Spring Break

My parents came for spring break. It's the only 5 days off I'll get all semester. And I spent two in Alanya. I'm not bitter that they came, but that we get no time off, when everyone else is hitting up the extended eurotrip. Here's me and my sister around town, and some goats in Perge.

After we saw Aspendos and Perge, we flew to Izmir, got a car, and drove south to Ephesus/Selcuk. There I checked off my first Ancient World Wonder. Check the temple! Ephesus was big. Tourists. Library. Saw the original Church of Mary and the house where she died, The Meryemana.

Driving further south to Bodrum/Halikanarses we checked off a second world wonder, The Mausoleum. Check out the wind.

Out the Bodrum peninsula we got to Turgutreis, who was such a cool Ottoman admiral that they renamed his hometown after him. There are pretty sunsets over the Aegean there. Next day to Myndos/Gumusluk, not to far from where our hotel was. The Greek city is underwater, and we walked over some of it out to Rabbit Island but didn't see any rabbits.

Also, my regular website is down it seems. Not sure how to fix it. Till then, sorry for the uglyness.

Side and West Virginia City

Side (pronounced Sea-day) was a dump. We've seen much nicer places. After Side we went to a Dude Ranch outside of the city oddly named West Virginia City. Though we were promised that we'd be on the beach, and non-riders would be able to go swimming, and riders could ride on the beach, we were quite far from it. Instead they had a mock wild west town, and tepees. So being bored there I went riding too. My camera is progressively breaking, note the increase in light, blurry spots on the photos, and the shots I took from on top the horse didn't come out. But I galloped ahead a bunch of times, had fun bouncing, and now today standing vertical is a real challenge for my back. See Aylin's photos here.

Arvand turns 21

Never have I had such an explosive and immediate response to photo as I had when I put photos of Arvand's birthday (yesterday) up on facebook earlier today. I mean, I've had to take photos down before, but I couldn't even get through dinner this time. It shows a disappointing trend, that my friends now see my photos primarily through the facebook and not through this site. I had intended facebook to be a way of archiving my photos, with their unlimited uploads, and to continue to use my website, and by extension, these blogs, which I spend so much time on, as the main place to show off photos. Here are the good photos, where I don't upload the bad photos, whereas there I upload all the photos, without bothering to comment or censor them. Now my friends make me take down the photos they don't like from facebook, which means they don't get archived.

On the plus side, that means they're not checking this site, so I'll put the gorgeous and hilarious photos I took yesterday up here.

I brought two bottles of wine up to the villa with me, and after class we opened on with the boys on the badminton court (we play most every day now) and then we went down to the beach (we go every other day now) and opened another with the girls. I have, by the way, a burn on my back somewhat in the shape of Azerbaijan, or is it Armenia.

They got him a shuttle cock shaped cake. Hilarious. That night, we had planned on going out, but surprise surprise, just partied in my living room. Still, it was the first real dance party we had. Highlights include Aylin's first shot and fitting her into a revealing shirt, which is progress. I had hoped to get Rob and Aerin's first kiss on film, but shortly after that I got the hint to exit stage left, but I felt I had helped it along.

Anyway, again, don't blame me, I'm just the photographer.

The Taking of the Sun

On March 29th, 1:55pm, in Alanya, Turkey, the sun disappeared. Check it. Here's video proof, watch the shadow descend!

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Back in Alanya

Castles, Etc

Crusader Castles was the focus of Scott Bey's Syrian trip. We happened to be on Scott Bey's trip. Here's the cream of the crop. See Aerin's Syria photos here.

Damascus!

To be able to say I had indeed seen Damascus was one of the main reasons I came on this trip. True to reports, it is a dirty city. One has to constantly was the city off out of their eyes, their hands and off their lips. Centuries of dust hang from each surface. The Souk was plowed through centuries ago. Proof of dictatorship is everywhere. Holes in the roof are apparently from RAF strafing during WWI. Among the crafts bazaar we found these hookah tables. $30. Oh how would I have ever got it home! Alas!



Father Sloyan, I visited the street called straight! Here's St. Annaias' house, he bapstised Paul. And here's the tomb of St. John the Baptist.

St. Symeon Stylites sat here

On top of a 60 ft. Column, St. Symeon sat. The smell of the rope tied around his flesh was atrocious. People flocked for centuries to be here, and the chipped away at his column for souvenirs, you can see the final remains of it to the left of Arvand. Four connected basilicas were build to house the crowds. Little remains.

And then on to Damascus. Not much to see on the way. Lebanon is over those mountains. And the old dictator's statue.

Allepian Bachelorettes Rock

Crossing the boarder into Syria was its own day. We arrived in the ancient city of Aleppo in time to smoke some nargile in a cafe dominated by the citadel behind it. The next day, when we actually went to the place, it poured on us. There's a Hittie temple under that mound, and countless other things dating back to about 9000 BC, including a small gnome there. I got a video with lightning!

Then to the medieval mental hospital, where we practiced lobotomies on each other. Shopping in the souk. Aerin wore the robes Danny got. We stayed in the same hotel as T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), which I was flipped about. We watched my DVD there, and I drank lemonade, which was what he had there, according to the meticulously preserved bill of his in the lobby.

That evening Hacop, our Syrian minder/tour guide, took us to an awesome bar in an ancient tunnel carved out of the rock. We ran into a bachelorette party and danced with them for a bit. They were all our age, which was kind of crazy, being from such different worlds and still grinding to 50 Cent. I left early cause I was feeling peckish, but a good time.

Also, I've started using lightbox to display my images in a fancier fashion, hope you like it, just click to get away from it, and if it's got a magnifying glass, click that to make the image even bigger.

Antioch

Before I could have time to put Perge photos up online, I was packing for our 10 day long excursion to the Lavant, which started with our 12 hour bus ride to Antioch. We had some good views from the citidel over the city, and of mosaics in their museum.


Later we went, on Jinnyn's insistance to the Tunnel of Titus and Vespasian. Which was fun but dangerous. Not everyone escaped dry. Here's video of the seaside.

Perge

Just got back from Syria, wild. More later. I can just now get started on pushing photos up online. These are from way back, the 10th, but I'm starting in order. Expect a tidal wave to make up for three weeks absent of posts.

Perge is a well preserved and well excavated Greco-Roman site. Lots of pretty wildlife within the ruins. Alyin was a great water nymph. Ben, Monique's boyfriend arrived while we were eating lunch, she was giddy. See also Aylin's photos here.

Nili Hanım's

Despite hedging for days, we all had an agreeable time out at Nili Hanım's house. She's got a private seaside, and made some wonderful cooking. Too bad we have all this work, it would have been much more fun. Isn't Amanda pretty? Notice an obsession with the rule of thirds in these. Amanda's photos are here, Monique's got some on facebook here, as does Aylin here.

Termessos

Latest field trip photos. Termessos is a giant playground. It seems to bring out the kindergardener in all of us. Scott Bey plays the kindergarden teacher, which he seems best suited for. Timor is our fearless leader! Also see Aylin's photos.

Chill Pill

Last time we went out we made two local newspapers. We made sure no one took our picture this time. Pregaming, and at the restaurant. Amanda's host sister and her friend came with. Played jenga, watch it fall, and fall again. Scott Bey walked by while we were out, without stopping, and it provided us with hours of maniacal laugher.

Night Out

We hit the streets Friday night, and checked what Alanya had to offer. I for one was glad to get out of the apartment. We only got to two bars, but that was enough. The live music at Cello got us groving out of our seats, and Ayse got the old German women up too. Crazy. I tried to dance like a Turk, which is really quite easy, just put your arms up in the air and rotate back and forth, maybe snapping sometimes. We celebrated Alana Esposito's 21st birthday, and she's the one I'm dancing (badly) with.

Host Family

So, I'm somewhat settled. On our first (real) Saturday in Alanya, we had a cocktail party for ourselves, were most of us met our host families for the first time. Mine is Nori and Jelile, two divorcees who despite constantly insulting each other's weight, are deeply in love.

New Hookah

Finally found a hookah dealer that could sell me a case yesterday. I wanted a really nice one, I offered 60, he wanted 119, he tried to give me a crummy one, but since it needed to be able to unscrew to get into the case, he had to give me a better, middle of the road hookah, and I'm happy with it. I also got string lights and red lights to accent my new hookah pad. I can't wait till there are burn marks on the carpet. Some things never change. Though you can't tell in this first photo, the hookah is blue.

I've named her Deirdre. Deirdre- I hope you don't mind, or think I'm overly psycho. Chris nixed Heather and Amanda nixed Danielle, not to say that your name wasn't my first choice. I just hope Tereza, my green hookah, doesn't get jealous.

The Castle

On our first morning in Alanya, Prof. Redford got us up at 9 am to climb the castle, and see the town. It's divided by a huge rocky peninsula that we live on. At the tip of the peninsula, is a large area walled off by the Seljuks, in the ruins of which many villas were build by Ottoman princes in the 18th and 19th century. One is our school. Here's a gate to get in to the castle walls. Theres also a more used tunnel for tour buses that's not as pretty. We had to climb down the walls to the Red Tower that is the symbol of Alanya. Check the video to see a panorama of the west half of the penisula.

To Alanya

The crossing to Alanya was seriously trecherous. Chains on the tires took an hour and a half. I gave the poor, hapless, assistant my cap. And see this ace, that means I got a single for the semester. Danny, behind me, didn't.

Turkish Parliament

The next day we hit up the American embassy and the Parliament building. Comfy seats. Great food. Then to the State Minister's office, not to be confused with the Minister of State, this guy is serious politician, not a career bureaucrat. Let me introduce to you Timor, the son of Professor Sylvia Onder, who accompanies us most everywhere, and makes every visit a little more light hearted. And Woody the Gnome with the symbol of Ankara, which is a giant model of a Hitite family crest that we saw the original of in the Anatolian Museum yesterday.

Atatürk's Mausoleum & dinner

Arriving in Ankara, we chilled out, and in the morning of the 9th we visited Atatürk's memorial slash mausoleum. If you don't know who he is, look him up, he a bit of a big deal over here, as the authoritarian founder of modern Turkish Republic. Then we went to the Ministry of State and talked to the Minister. Pretty sweet. That evening we went to a lovely dinner with a Georgetown graduate (SFS '73) who is now selling arms to the Turkish military. He furnished us with wonderful drinks, discussion, and Cuban cigars. We all got dresses up, and there are many good photos that I hopefully will be able to link to later.

Goodbye Istanbul

One last room party before we went to Ankara.

Hagia Sophia

A few last photos from Istanbul. Finally one of Woody and the Hagia Sophia. Let me take a second and mention the weather. I am not in the sun on the beach, despite what I or other may have informed you. The weather in Istanbul is almost identical to that of DC, and Alanya will be like that of Virginia Beach. Brrr.

Edirne

On the 5th, we boarded our bus, lovingly named Turquaz, and drove deep into the European side, all the way to Edirne, just across from both Greece and Bulgaria. We saw a Ottoman hospital we fun mannequins with various mental diseases. The Selim mosque was gorgious. It really started snowing hard around noon, and didn't let up.

The Patriarchate

The seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the foremost position in the Orthodox Church, is in a sorry state. There are no Orthodox in Istanbul. They've all been systematically driven out. Last year the got to meet his High Holiness. The church is small and empty, completely the opposite of it's sister, The Vatican. Here's the Patriarch's throne, and then Caitlin with the column that Christ was tied to and beaten on.

Süleymaniye Mosque

My favorite mosque so far. We've seen quite a few.

Night Out

I'll get photos of our night out to Taksim from the other kids. But right now I have photos of our before hand, in our (mine, Rob's, and Arvand's) hotel room here at The Nomade.

Galata

Up Galata Tower in the old Genovese part of town. That's Sultanahmet, the old city where our hotel is, with, from left to right, Topkapi palace tower, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque.

Topkapı Palace

Topkapı is the Ottoman palace in Istanbul at the intersection of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Golden Horn. It is home to the Harem and the Divan. What was once the school Devshirmeh now holds medieval armor, very cool. In the museum is the supposed sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, and a bunch of Greco-Roman relics.

Bursa

Bursa was the first Ottoman capital. About three hours by bus, it's actually a lot longer with traffic. Woody shows up in Turkey. The iskander kabob is covered in melted butter and is terrific.

Basilica Cistern

For our first day touring Istanbul we went to the Hippodrome, the ancient racetrack where teams would compete and sports rioters burnt down the surounding churches. Because the mosaic museum was closed, we went to the Basilica Cistern which was beautiful, and what lighting!

Bosporus Tour

After getting to know each other just a little, we took a ferry up the Bosporus to a castle on the Asian side. Note mine and Amanda's first step onto the Asian contentent. Just 4 more to go. Monique still hadn't arived so she's missing from the girls photo.

Arival in Istanbul

I barely made my flight from London after that night. I had to run to the front of security with my luggage and take it right to the plane myself. The hotel is amazing, right next to the Haiga Sofia and the Blue Mosque, and they have a terrace bar.

Pub Boys

Anthony, Christian, Gene, and I went a'pubbing around Trafalger. See also Anthony's photos.

London

Woody in London. His stick broke.

Home

We start at home. Woody and I.