Thanksgiving

Tomorrow I head off to my homestate of Ohio for the beginning of a Thanksgiving celebration. My sister and her fiancee are driving back to Cleveland so the boyfriend and I are hitching a ride with them. This is the 1st time the boyfriend is coming home for an actual holiday, which I am very excited about. We will be in the car for most of Wednesday, since it takes about 6 1/2 hours to get there but there is usually a lot of traffic around the holidays.

My aunt is hosting Thanksgiving this year at her house which I am excited about. She makes really good food and lots of it! I think this year we will have 20 adults and 1 kid. My Grandparents are coming, my whole family, my Mom's sister's family and most of my Mom's brother's family. My sister is bringing her fiancee, I'm bringing my boyfriend, and last I heard my little sister is also bringing her boyfriend as well.

Friday early afternoon is a wedding shower for my sister that my Aunts are throwing her. I'm very excited and hope she likes my gift! Saturday morning the boyfriend and I have an early morning flight to St. Louis, where we will then spend the weekend with his family and celebrate Thanksgiving part 2. I have never been to his house for Thanksgiving, in fact, I have only ever been to Thanksgiving hosted by my mom or her sister, so this will be a big change for me. I just hope I'm not Turkey-ed out for part 2. We will spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday in St. Louis.

Once I get back, it'll be less than 3 weeks until Christmas. I better get shopping!

Turkey - Part 2

After seeing the Blue Mosque we went across the street to see Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque was free whereas the Hagia Sophia cost 20 lira to get in (roughly $12).

The Hagia Sophia was built as a Cathedral in 437 (1,437 years ago), and was later converted to a mosque and then to a museum. It is very famous architecturally (or so the boyfriend says) but it was absolutely spectacular inside. And massive! The pictures don't do it justice.

After the Hagia Sophia we had dinner at this place right around the corner from our hotel

Then we walked around the Hippodrome, which is a rectangular area where they used to horse and chariot racing in the Constantinople era.

The next day we went to the Basilica Cistern, which is where they caught and stored rainwater which the city used for their water supply. The cistern was built by Constantinople in the year 532. It was very dark and dreary down there, with beautiful columns supporting the structure.

We got our picture taken where we dressed up like a Sultan and a Princess

After the Cistern we went to the Grand Bazaar which is a very old covered shopping mall. It was so crazy inside - vendors trying to get you to come to their stand, tiny little alley-way type streets inside there making it impossible to navigate your way around, and any type of souvenir you could possibly think of.

After the Bazaar (I bought a lot of stuff)

 

Then we wandered over to the Spice Bazaar which was just like the Grand Bazaar but all the stands were selling food, spices, or food related items.

I was pretty Bazaar-ed out by the time we got to the Spice Bazaar so we didn't buy too much stuff there. After the Bazaars, we went for a walk by the bridge, which was busy with fisherman trying to catch fish.

We stumbled upon Topkapi Palace on our way back to the hotel

Once we got back to the hotel we had to pack because the next morning we were leaving for Cappadocia

Packing

We found a Starbucks at the Istanbul Airport

 

Boarding our plane

Stay tuned for more!

Turkey - Part 1

It's the time you have all been waiting for! Turkey updates! Hooray!

The boyfriend and I left on a Friday night and flew for over 10 hours on a direct flight to Istanbul. We flew Turkish Airlines and the flight went great. I slept for a lot of it and we got food galore on the flight along with our own personal TV stocked full of movies, TV shows, and games. I watched Soul Surfer and I cannot recommend this movie enough. Even though you know the story (girl gets her arm bit off by a shark while surfing) it is so well done and emotional. Anyways, we finally land in Istanbul and take the metro to the tram to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel called Side Pension and Hotel and it was located right in the heart of the tourist area, which worked out great since we were super close to all the tourist attractions.

Our hotel room at Side

We got dinner at a restaurant called Palatium where we tried Turkish coffee. 

I had never tried Turkish coffee before but I figured I like coffee, it has to be good, right? Oh how wrong I was. Turkish coffee is like espresso but even more intense and gritty (like stuck to your teeth gritty) and has all this nasty sludge stuff at the bottom. Basically it was one of the worst things I've ever tasted in my life. But now I can say I have tried it. Plus it is served in these super cool cups.

After dinner we walked around a bit and took some pictures in front of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia at night.

I'm in Turkey!

Blue Mosque

Our hotel was next to the Four Seasons, which used to be a prison

 The next morning we woke up and had free breakfast at the hotel out on the terrace. A typical Turkish breakfast consisted of fresh bread, butter, white cheese and jam for the bread, a hard-boiled egg, black olives, and slices of cucumber and tomatoes.

The view from the terrace of our hotel

You could see the Hagia Sophia

And the Blue Mosque

After breakfast we headed over to the Blue Mosque. Outside of it I ran into a stray cat (they were EVERYWHERE) who was super friendly. I sat down and she/he immediately jumped onto my lap.

You had to take off your shoes to enter and women were supposed to have their heads covered. Women were also supposed to dress "conservatively" but since it was cold out that wasn't a problem at all.

The inside was full of intricate tiling and was beautiful

This is where they pray at 5 times a day

The ceiling of the Blue Mosque

Me with my head covered while inside

I think that's enough pictures for now. Stay tuned for more!

I'm Back!

Well it's official - I am back from Turkey! It was such a fabulous vacation, I can't even describe how much fun it was. I'm still working on compiling the pictures from it, but here is a sneak peek of a few:

We arrived back in the states on Monday early evening and I have done a good job of adjusting back to the time here. The initial jet-lag has caused me to get up earlier in the morning so I'm trying to keep up that schedule since its been working out so nicely.

Here are some random facts about the trip:

• Turkish people are the nicest people you will ever meet. They are so friendly and helpful.
• I learned a few Turkish words including "Mehrhaba" (hello), "Ne kadar" (how much), "Güle Güle" (goodbye), and "Teşekkür" (thank you), and how to count to 10.
• I had a tomato served with just about every meal I ate. 
• A typical Turkish breakfast consists of fresh bread, butter, cheese and jam for the bread, a hard-boiled egg, black olives and slices of tomatoes and cucumbers.
• Pomegranates grow in Turkey and fresh squeezed Pomegranate juice is very popular (and delicious) there.
• The drink of Turkey is something called Apple Tea which is served in something a bit bigger than a shot glass. It's delicious, doesn't have a strong apple taste, and is always served hot. 
• Turkish coffee is absolutely disgusting. Turkish Delights are delicious and are a candy that is marshmallow-like with pistachios in it.
• Turkey is a mostly Muslim country but it is very modern and felt just like any other European city.
• I was in Asia for the first time ever! 
• Turkey is one of only 6 countries that spans over two continents.
• Muslims pray 5 times a day. Clean feet is very important in their religion so you have to remove your shoes before you enter in a mosque. There are even fountains outside of the mosques where you can wash your feet if you want. Women are supposed to cover their heads as well out of respect. 
• Turkey used to be called Constantinople and the Trojan Horse took place in Turkey.

Hope you enjoyed learning more about Turkey! And look forward to more pictures coming soon.

Updates

A week from today I will be off to Turkey! I am beyond excited but also a bit nervous - what to pack? what is appropriate to wear? will I like the food? how will I do my hair without using a plug?

When I get back from Turkey, it will only be 2 weeks until Thanksgiving, then the next week is my birthday, and then it will already be December. How is 2011 nearly over? I feel like it was just a month or two ago that I was in London. How time flies!

I've been running about 2-3 times a week, and I'm up to 4 1/2 miles. However, I just can't seem to seem to get over this cold (which I'm pretty sure is from allergies) which is really putting a damper on my training. My legs feel great but my chest and throat don't seem to want to cooperate.

I am so excited it's the weekend. The boyfriend and I have nothing really planned but I'm super excited for the Fall weather and some relaxation.

My mom sends me a pumpkin full of candy every year, and she even included the boyfriend as well. Now I just need to figure out what I'm wearing for Halloween (I will actually be in Turkey on Halloween (do they celebrate Halloween there?) but my office is celebrating Halloween on Friday the 28th, and the winner of the best costume gets a PTO day which I would LOVE to have!

Weekend Recap

Today I am wearing my Cardinals shirt since they are in the World Series, which starts tonight! Go Cardinals!

This past weekend was fun-filled and jam-packed. The boyfriend left me to go to a work retreat that was focused on team building activities. Only 50 people were selected to go (out of thousands who applied) and the boyfriend was chosen! He had a really nice time and made some new friends, which is always great.

While he was gone, I luckily had lots of things planned so I wouldn't be too lonely. Friday night I went to dinner with some co-workers and friends. It was a nice time - we went to a Lebanese tapas place and ended up being there for almost 3 hours.

Saturday the weather was absolutely perfect so I went for a nice walk up to Clarendon to get a birthday present for Trinity's 1st birthday party which was later that day. On the way there I saw 2 different signs for yard sales. One wasn't anything special, but the other one was a treasure chest full of goodies. The couple there were so old and cute and adorable. I bought a Van Gogh book for $1 and a swivel mirror for my bathroom for $3.

I bought Trinity a machine called Twilight Turtle which glows and makes stars on the ceiling for bedtime, as well as 2 goodnight books for a complete goodnight themed gift. I also made her a card since her parents love my cards. I met up with my friend Jesica who agreed to be my date to the party. Here are some pictures from the party:

Jesica holding Trinity

Trinity clapping for her cake. She didn't like it and spit it out - adorable!

Sunday morning started off super as we left before sunrise for hiking out in the Shenandoah Valley. My sister picked me up, we got some Starbucks, gas, picked up our friends, loaded the car, headed to the other friends house who was driving, and then we were off! It took us about 2 hours to drive out there, and we stopped at a roadside antiques and fresh produce store where we bought an apple pie to munch on.

We decided to do the Rose River Trail, which was a 4.6 mile loop where we saw 2 waterfalls. It was ideal weather out and the leaves had just started to turn - couldn't have picked a better day to go! Our hiking group was my sister Amy, my friend Lara, and 4 of her friends, so 7 in total. Everyone was super nice and friendly. Here are some pictures: