Truckin' Around In Turkey: The First Installment

Yes, it's been ages since I have had the privilege to expound life's adventures in this here social networking realm. But, now my heart is filled with joy because I once again am able to do so. Any complaints as to the ratio of pictures to text must be filed with my secretary and will be responded to within 4-5 business years.

On to the meat of the matter: Turkey

I feel as though after the ordeal in getting to Israel, airports are either a) one of my least favorite places on the planet or b) a good opportunity to get in touch with my inner zen while waiting in lines. But, gladly the group proceeded through all of the security checkpoints without much ado and boarded our plane bound for Istanbul.

Our first glimpse of Istanbul was as we drove around the Sea of Marmara on our way to the acclaimed 'Cartoon Hotel'. My face was glued to the bus window soaking in the view of all of the harbors and countless family barbecues on the grass surrounding them.

We reached the hotel and to it's name, a platoon of cartoon network classics greeted us from the corners of the lobby. Due to our late arrival, dinner was ready when we arrived and so we ascended the narrow 8 flights of stairs and came upon a ritzy (we think) restaurant atop the hotel, overlooking the whole of Istanbul.

Dinner was a barrage of courses culminating in this little masterpiece. Despite warnings of eating the fruit in Turkey, caution was thrown to the wind. Who can resist the lure of the strawberry? No one. Then a humid night was spent in an abnormally cramped room compared to some of the other honeymoon suites that of few of our group found themselves in. 

Morning dawned and with it was a Turkish breakfast consisting of bread, cheese, meat, room-temp milk, and bread (among other things). Our first stop in Istanbul was the Topkapi Palace from the Ottoman Empire. Numerous little gems are within its walls. (Actually a lot of gems, because the Ottoman sultans enjoyed that sort of thing, especially when it involved being embroidered into overly-large night gowns and ridiculous looking chamber pots. I'll spare you the pictures).

Next stop was the Blue Mosque. Scattered around Istanbul and all of Turkey are mosque's with the tell-tale minarets marking the spot as a Muslim religious building.

I find it amazing that the architecture of hundreds of years ago can strike awe in ones heart more effectively than the buildings of our modern age. Looking up to the ceiling it was easy to feel small (which doesn't happen very often...) and insignificant in comparison to the large scale construction.

Next, if this was a new post I would entitle it: My Dear Brethren and Cistern. But as it isn't, I will just explain that we visited the old basilica cistern which used to provide water to the whole of Constantinople. Today it acts as an eerie water filled cavern, attracting curious tourists from around the globe.

Onward to the Grand Bazaar, which is one of the largest and oldest covered markets known to man (and any other sentient form of life on the planet). The twenty minutes of free time granted to us gave us the chance to scratch the surface of the surprisingly redundant shops in hopes of finding 'that special something' to take back from Turkey. Three of us frantically searched in vain and eventually grabbed a few authentic Turkish Delights. And indeed, it was a delight.

The afternoon was spent on a ferry up the Bosporus Strait which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. The scenery was breathtaking and everyone soaked in the sun to their hearts content.

There was plenty of time to take pictures of ourselves and of others. What else do you do on a three hour boat ride?

We disembarked and ate lunch right along side the seashore. Those in Turkey are a fan of the family style dinners where there are a bunch of different plates of appetizers on the table and you try the ones that look less potent than the others. You can guess which one of the following was a big hit.

Onward to Troy. We were greeted by a full-scale model of the famous Trojan Horse and entered in order to fully appreciate what it was like (if it actually happened... but we decided that it did).

With 8-9 different 'Troys' excavated, there were plenty of photo ops.

While walking around, we found a little theater—perfect for acting out the pertinent scenes of the Iliad. Achilles and Hector voices were heard once again across the now dilapidated city. But, this time, things ended with

If any was wondering if the Trojan Horse used in the epic movie, Troy, it was. And it was chilling a couple blocks from our hotel, a few minutes from Troy.

It causes all who look at it to gain an extra burst of courage and heroism, as seen in the depiction below.

There's nothing like ending a day with walking along the boardwalk, eating a little bit of ice-cream, and sitting out on the 'beach' and watching the sunset. Hard to beat an evening spent pondering about life with Turkish scenery surround you. In comparison with traveling the world—who would want to stay in Utah?

This blog post was made possible (or worthwhile) by viewers like you.

This Is the Traditional Site Where ______ Happened

Periodically, different people visit the Jerusalem Center on their travels around the Holy Land. Our first taste of this was Paul Piper, a member of the Seventy. We had the chance to eat dinner and then listen and ask him questions for an hour or so. He had some great comments about the work in Asia and gave us some really good advice to follow in our lives. I'm always amazed concerning the spiritual depth that some people have and their ability to express that to bless others. 

Intently listening to Paul Piper.

Excursion number eight (or something like that...) — A group of us made the journey from the Center, around the East side of the Old City, past the South end of the Temple Mount, on around to supposed Room of the Last Supper. Walking up the stairs and stepping into the dim room, I was expecting to see a small room resembling something like the well-known paintings. Instead, upon entering I saw a large room with pillars, stain-glass windows and bare floors. It's difficult to imagine what the real event looked like and whether or not it really occurred at that particular place. One thing I'm coming to realize is that although the real locations of certain sites are not completely agreed on, one can rely on the accounts found in the Bible and know that those are true.

View from within the Room of the Last Supper

Tomb of the Virgin Mary

A small group of us (Tyson, Becca, Dan, Christy, and me) found time one afternoon to change some money at Aladdin's (all of you Disney lovers--- it's pronounced all-uh-deans) and set off to somewhere where I have been looking forward to going since I got here—the Garden Tomb.

It's beautifully kept by an organization which makes it one of the more visited places by Christians around the world. As I gazed upon where Golgotha perhaps once stood, I couldn't help think of the jeering crowd that stood and watched as the Savior hung in agony. The site resides at the spot where two ancient roads intersected and such was a place of high traffic. It's fairly fitting that now a bus station has taken it's place, but preserving the memory.

The crosses are said to have been not at the top of the hill, but on the lower part

The hill of Golgotha

The place of the skull

 As we rounded the corner I caught a glimpse of the tomb up ahead and down the hill. As we approached, we noticed that we had walked up right as there was a break between tour groups. So we took advantage of the opportunity and stooped in through the doorway and into the dark musty tomb. As we took a moment to imagine Christ's body lying in rest, the angels statement came to mind, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." (Luke 24:6) The empty tomb remains as a testimony of that reality. What a lesson for our lives: although some things seem missing in our lives, it is all for a greater design and plan. Interesting how the absence of something can also teach us powerful principles.   

"... a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never a man before was laid."  (Luke 23:53)

PS. — Our company will embark on our journey to Turkey tomorrow and will return in circa 8 days. Until then, blog posts and emails will be left to the mercy of junk mail and advertisement hacks etc... But, in visiting Ephesus, Troy, and a variety of other cities visited by Paul on his missionary journeys, I'm confident there will be an abundance of juicy things to iterate upon my return to the Holy Land. Until then.

Independence Day in Israel and Where Dead Men Lie

One of the few times we'll have to 'take a night out on the town': celebrating Israel's Independence Day with the jubilant Israelis. The whole 80 of us, (hitherto referred to as 'we' or 'the company') ventured out into West Jerusalem, just as the sun hit the horizon. In comparing what the streets looked like at around 8:00pm to about 11:30pm (as seen below) we began to realize that those that attended felt as strongly about their independence as we do ours. With all of the noisemakers, silly-string attacks, and smiling faces we felt like we would join in the festivities as well. Granted, in the beginning, our company made pretty much the bulk of the celebration (not an exaggeration) and all of the tourists/locals took the opportunity to snap pictures of the crazy kids dancing to the music. But, finally 'normal' people started to join us and dance as well.

An estimated 7,000,080 people showed up for the celebration.

After a while we even ventured into the more packed concerts that were going on and participated with all of the Israelis in dance and song. The music was surprisingly catchy and there was even a dancer on the stage to demonstrate what real dancing looks like. After a few more minutes of joining hands and dancing in circles etc... we took our leave in order to watch the supposed fireworks display.

All of us waiting in the chilly air.

 Although a little bit late, the fireworks finally came—but the wait was our trial of faith and in the end, things worked out alright. Albeit they might want to work on their finalé... because two mis-timed fireworks leave a sort of longing in the soul for more. But it's just not going to come. There's probably a pessimistic lesson of life somewhere in there but I'm not going to spend the time to find it...

The more fancy shmancy mall, decked out in festive lights

 We returned back to the Center without any incident and after having quite an enjoyable evening.

Continuing onward... on one of our recent free afternoons, there was a few of us that decided to venture off into the unknown/more sketchy places on our list given to us from our field trip class. Two of them were the Tomb of the Kings (that's got a nice ominous ring to it) and Zedekiah's Cave. We strapped our headlights to our hips and headed on our adventure.

I'm going to explain this from a third/second person perspective in order for everyone to gain the most from this account. Ahem.

You walk along a side road outside of the Old City until you approach a random green door set in a rock wall. The door is too short for any normal person to comfortably enter into, but you ignore that fact and push the call button on the little intercom to the left. A voice says something unintelligible to which you reply, "Can we come in? 10 shekels?" Another muffled response. Then the door clicks open and you enter, give the 'owner' your ten sheks and continue down the stairs into an open courtyard. To the untrained eye you might just wander around and see some open caverns filled with tepid water. But to the adventurers akin to Indiana Jones, one cannot stop with such dissatisfactory results. After a quick glance, you hone in on an odd looking wooden palette covering a hole in the rock. Some further investigation reveals that one can actually physically get into the hole without too much trouble. Then you happen onto something like this: 

Now, let's be honest, crawling around and exploring a maze of old tomb which once house the 'noble and great ones' is perhaps one of the coolest things one can do in Jerusalem. I'm a fan. Ten shekels? A steal. I would have paid twenty. (hopefully the owner doesn't happen onto the previous comment) We took the opportunity to take some eerie yet fitting photo's of the musty rooms that we were finding. 

From left to right (Becca, Tyson, Me, Jennessa, Megan, and Alyse) 

And some other kodak moments ended our experience and we walked back outside of the walls, quite pleased with ourselves.  It wasn't until afterwards that I noticed that my headlight was missing. But, I made sure that that unpleasant development didn't mar the whole experience. It's just a flashlight.   

A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures

For those of you who are visual learners, you will be pleased to enjoy the following smattering of pictures, chosen to increase spirituality and decrease boredom. A variety of events and places are encompassed.

Dome of the Rock

Kidron Valley

Damascus Gate shops

The Garden of Gethsemane

Gibeon

Consider the lilies of the field (red flowers)

Hurrah for Israel!

The road to Jericho

And the Walls Came Tumblin' Down

"And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city..."


It seems fitting that the only remains from the ancient city of Jericho is a few excavations of it's once-standing walls. But, despite that fact, in standing at the top of hill and gazing upon the surrounding land, one can almost see in minds eye Joshua and his army camped at Gilgal. After his famous march and with rousing shout, they climbed up the shattered walls and destroyed all of the inhabitants except for Rahab and her family. Pretty cool for them. (Rahab... not all of the others...)


For those that would also like to experience this grandiose story first hand, lend your ears---- Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

A neolithic tower dated to around 8000 BCE. The oldest known man-made structure in the world. We stayed a few minutes to look at it, but it got a little old after a while.

In addition to Tel (Hill of) Jericho, we made a little stop at Herod's Winter Palace a few miles out of Jericho. Here the infamous Herod the Great accomplished his abhorrent deeds i.e. murdering his sons and bro-in-law, attempted poisoning of Cleopatra, and a variety of other colorful trophy's to his darkened past. It was also here where he took his last breaths in this life, journeying on to a ... better world. 

An overlook of the once great Winter Palace.

Our final yet culminating stop came after venturing a few miles into the wilderness and ascending a rocky face. Once we had arrived, an awe-inspiring view burst upon us. From the haze we made out the tower from Jerusalem, and there followed the road to Jericho, and our eyes finally rested on modern day Jericho.


A taste-tester of how delightful this view was:

Click on the picture for the full effect.

  
The canyon below, known as the Wadi Qelt, is the location for many scripture stories. It was here that the Savior made His last journey to Jerusalem prefacing the last week of His mortal ministry. It was here where Levites and priests made the journey from Jericho to the temple. It was here where the Savior mentioned in his parable of the Good Samaritan, encouraging all of us to let the 'better' things take precedence over the 'good' things. We internalized the reminder as we gazed over the road to Jericho.

St. George's Monastery

The road to Jericho