Black Sea Region

When my mom, sister, and Tim visited we took a day trip to the Black Sea region. On my spring break excursion I'm going to be going further east along the Black Sea (basically into a freezing cold mountainous area, happy spring break to me), but I'm excited to explore more of this area. So, here are some slightly uninteresting photos that I love from my day there.

Ciao

Ode to Streetfood: Part II

Pistachio and raspberry dondurma (Turkish ice cream that you can cut with a knife) and Arden. Kadıköy. 

Antiques that I love: Bebek

One day, when it's not illegal to bring back to the U.S., I will buy this mirror for myself.

If it's the beaches

Illica beach, outside of Çeşme, Turkey. Completely deserted in March, which made it completely perfect.

Patriarchal Church of St. George (the mother ship, people)

Magic does exist

... In Türkiye.
After a wonderfully warm day in Efes, we took a two lira bus up the side of a mountain to Şirince, a small town famous for its fruit wines. We had a delicious Turkish meal while the sun set over the mountains. Catherine was oddly amazed by the black and white goats playing in a field on a nearby mountain (she's from New York City, I have no other explanation... also she supports interracial relationships). After dinner we frolicked about the tiny town and Melissa and I bought flower crowns from an adorable babushka weaving them on the street. Maybe the flowers went to our head (HA! Get it?), but when we discovered the town's backstreets lined with the most picturesque cottages, we somehow convinced ourselves that we were characters in a Turkish fairy tale. 

I'm still convinced.                   

Ode to Street Food: Part I

Kabob sandwich, Sultanahmet. Photo courtesy of Tim Simeone 

Efes (not the beer)

The most beautiful place I have ever seen. Your feet felt ancient just by walking on its soil. This wasn't a museum, it was alive and breathing. An ancient Greek city, which was second in size only to Rome itself during the Roman period. Originally home to the Celsus Library, whose front wall still stands, and the Temple of Artemis (completed in 550 B.C.), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, before it was destroyed in 401 A.D. Ancient, ancient, ancient. I've never seen so many ancient things in my life.

“I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, “Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.” - Antipater of Siden