Gaziantep and Mount Nemrut road trip

This blog has been collecting dust for the past seven months or so.  I never did get to blogging about the rest of the weekend trips I took with pals over the last few months of my time in Turkey.  And lately I've been missing my time in Turkey, due mostly to the TimeHop app on my phone that reminds me of all the cool trips that I took while over there.  So this blog post is dedicated to my most adventurous and crazy Turkish traveling experience.  My partners in crime, Donna Johnson and Lauren DeVries, can testify to that statement.

A little background about Gaziantep and Mount Nemrut:

• Gaziantep is a rapidly growing city about two and a half hours east of Tarsus.  It is famous for it's world class pistachios that they use to make the best baklava in Turkey, and maybe the world.  Gaziantep is also known for it's delicious food, Zeugma mosaic museum, and copper bazaar.  
• Mount Nemrut is an UNESCO heritage site about two and half hours northeast of Gaziantep.  It was very hard to plan how to get there and where to stay because it's pretty remote.  But it was a must see for the three of us because 'it's on the Turkey Starbucks mug'.  King Antiochus of Commagene (a small empire that was around in the 1st century B.C.) built a sanctuary on top of a mountain.  On Wikipedia, it is referred to as the 'pantheon of the Armenian gods'.  

We planned this road trip over a three day weekend.  Donna took the wheel, I had the Google Maps directions, and Lauren had the homemade kettle corn in the backseat.  We left on Friday after school and did a good job of almost getting to Gaziantep.  We did not do a good job of getting to our hotel.  What we didn't realize is that Gaziantep is a much bigger city than we were anticipating.  Our Google directions with Turkish road names and exits did little to help us navigate the city to get to our hotel.  After driving around for a while, getting turned around, and ending up in a parking lot trying to ask random Turks where our hotel was, Lauren finally got us some help.  One of her high school students was visiting his family in Gaziantep and his mom came to find us in our parking lot spot.  To this day, I still have no idea how Ziya's mom found us.  But she did and we were able to follow her to our hotel---Turkish hospitality at it's finest!

The next day, we went to the Zeugma mosaic museum.  The museum houses dozens of beautiful mosaics featuring Greek gods that were found in an archaeological site in the area.  The rich Romans had these mosaics in their villas.  Many of them were excavated during construction of a dam.  I read an article recently about more excavations taking place there, so maybe more mosaics will surface.  It is the best museum I have ever been to.  They did an amazing job of recreating what the mosaics would have looked like in the Roman villas.  Looking back at my photos, they don't do the artwork justice by any means.  But here's a few to get an idea of what makes them so special.

Camel statues in front of the museum :)

One of the statues found at the archaeological site

After the museum, we were feeling pretty hungry and in dire straits for some baklava.  Everyone recommended going to the same restaurant in old town Gaziantep.  Lauren's student, Ziya, was going to meet us so we could buy him some baklava and kebab for saving us the night before.  We finally found the restaurant...

Then walked inside and saw that it was JAM-PACKED with people.  

So clearly this was a good place to eat, but we had no idea what to do at this point.  There was no waiting list and it seemed like a big free for all as to finding a seat.  We must have looked confused/hungry enough because a very nice waiter finally found us some spots.  The menu consisted of about a dozen or so different kinds of kebap, which was making my stomach nervous already.  But this was hands down the best kebap I had in Turkey. 

Eggplant kebap and ayran (water, salt, and yogurt) in the silver dish

And when you are in Gaziantep, you have to save room for baklava.  While walking around, we thought it would be fun to start counting the baklava shops.  We gave up after 15 or so.  It's everywhere, and the people of Gaziantep can be proud of their treat.  I certainly treated myself to three little pieces of baklava...

And then one more huge pie sized piece...

What can I say, except that it was delicious.  I know baklava is generally thought of as a Greek dessert.  I've had it in Greece and in Turkey....Turkish baklava wins, hands down.  And what I wouldn't give for a piece of that Gaziantep baklava pie right about now.  

After that amazing Turkish lunch, we walked down the street to the copper bazaar.  We knew we were close when we heard the banging and hammering of metal on metal.  While some of the copper plates and bowls are machine designed, you can find some where the designs are handmade.  It was really cool to see these guys banging out their pots, pans, and plates, and hammering out the beautiful designs. I put down my deposit on my copper plate, which is now sitting on my coffee table and one of my most prized Turkish treasures.

Just another day in the copper bazaar.

In the early evening, we got back in the car to drive to Adiyaman, where we would be staying that night before going to Mount Nemrut.  We actually got to the small town without any problem and were able to find the hotel without someone's mom having to provide an escort.  Donna went to her room to do some grading, and Lauren and I went to our room to turn in for the night.  We got to our room and just started commenting on how cute it was that the staff left little flowers for us on the sheets....

Exhausted after a long day and excited for Mount Nemrut the next day, we started getting ready for bed.  Lauren went into the bathroom and asked why there was something on the ground.  I yelled back that I had no idea.  She kicked whatever was on the ground and then started screaming, "RAT, RAT, RAT!"  and ran out of the bathroom.  Initially, I tried not to panic and told myself that Lauren was crazy and imagining it.  Until I saw a RAT run out of the bathroom.  Panic and screaming ensued.  I jumped up on the bed and screamed in terror.  Lauren ran out of the room, leaving me alone with the RAT.  I watched it run under the bed I was standing on, then made a massive long jump out of the room and nearly knocked Lauren down the stairs running after her.  Donna was downstairs talking to the guys who worked at the hotel (or trying to, they only spoke Turkish and French).  As Lauren was pantomiming RAT and I was having a panic attack, Donna managed to pull up her Google translate and show the guys the Turkish word for RAT.  Their eyes got huge and they ran upstairs to do something....I am not sure what they did, but I do know that they moved our stuff to another room.  By this point it was about 10:30, we were exhausted, and after considering sleeping in the car but then thinking the rats would get in there too, Lauren and I ended up sleeping in the rat hotel.  I wish I had a picture of Lauren wearing all of her clothes to bed to avoid touching the bedding.   Needless to say, I got little to no sleep that night.  And we were more than happy to get the hell away from the rat motel the next day to go see Mount Nemrut.  

**Note:  This is the ONLY rat I ever saw in Turkey.  Most of the other places I stayed at over the two years I lived there were extremely clean and very satisfactory.  I highly recommend travel to Turkey.  Just don't stay at the two star hotels in remote Turkey and I'm sure you'll be fine.

Next blog post will be about our awesome trip to Mount Nemrut :)

Munich and some Royal Castles

On our first full day in Munich (after going to Dachau), we did some exploring of the historical part of the city.  Once again, I used one of Rick Steves' walking tours.  His Munich city tour was awesome and informative.  Most of the buildings were destroyed during WWII, but were rebuilt to be exact replicas.  We saw a variety of churches (Munich and Bavaria holds the most Christian relics outside of the Vatican, who knew!), beer houses, royal compounds, and some other cool stuff.

Marienplatz building in the heart of historic Munich.  It's the only building that wasn't destroyed during WWII. 

Glockenspiel on the clock tower of the Marienplatz.

Mary's column in the square built to celebrate the end of the Swedish occupation 

Outside St. Peter's Church.  They use old tombstones on the outside of the building.

Inside St. Peter's church

People enjoying some beers under the chestnut trees at Viktualienmarkt 

A Jewish synagogue built as a memorial after the war 

The Asam church, a "show" church for people who were designing churches back in the day. 

The elaborate Asam church (it's all fake and for show)

Outside of St. Michael's church (one of the many Catholic churches in Munich),
located right on one of the first pedestrian walkways in Europe. 

Cool barrel-vaulted inside of the church.

The Frauenkirche, the Cathedral of Munich with it's twin onion domes (many churches in Bavaria have an onion dome).  This is where Pope Benedict served as a cardinal before moving to the Vatican.

The famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall.  We came back here many times for the awesome beer and food.

Max-Joseph Platz and Residenz, the Munich royal compound of Wittelsbach family

Residenz Treasury 

The shiny cobbles on Viscardigasse mark where rebels would walk to avoid
having to do the Heil Hitler prior to WWII 

The Hofgarten, behind the Residenz Museum. 

Enjoying some liter brews with dad at the Hofbrauhaus, delicious! 

Hearty and delicious Bavarian food

The next day we did a day tour to two of Mad King Ludwig's castles, Linderhof and Neuschwanstein.  King Ludwig is the most notorious of all the Vittelsbach monarchs.  He was extremely reclusive and had grand notions of recreating the Renaissance past.  He died an untimely death, maybe suicide, maybe murder?  No one really knows for sure.  But his palaces are incredible, ornate, and over the top.  The first stop was Linderhof Palace, where he spent most of his time.  No photos were allowed inside the castle.

Grounds of Linderhof 

Outside of Linderhof Palace 

Pretty neat little castle!

After our tour of Linderhof, we stopped in Obberamergau, the village that hosts the Passion play every ten years.  This play started centuries ago as a way to ward off the plague.  It worked, and now the city continues to do the play.  It's world famous and people come from all over the world to see it performed.

The Passion theater 

The houses and buildings in Oberammergau are famous for their paintings

More house paintings

Our final stop on the tour was the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  This was King Ludwig's dream home, and actually was never completed during his lifetime.  He didn't live here for a very long time, but it lives on as one of the most famous castles in the world.  Walt Disney used it as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle.  Again, no photos were allowed in the castle, but we did get some pretty cool ones of the grounds.

View of the castle from a bridge.  Amazing!

Another view of the castle.  

Entrance to Neuschwanstein Palace 

Outside of the castle

A spectacular place to build a dream castle.

All in all, another great day in Bavaria.  We really enjoyed touring the castles and seeing the beautiful scenery.  We found a really cool place that evening to get our beers and food.  When we asked what kind of beer they had, the server mentioned two kinds and said that the wheat beer was crap!  Love that no-nonsense attitudes these Bavarian girls have.

Live entertainment at the restaurant 

Stroganoff and schnitzel for dinner.  Don't mind us overdoing it (every single night!).

Spring Break--Istanbul and Germany

From Tarsus, my parents and I spent a weekend in Istanbul before flying to Munich.  We stayed in Sultanahmet and once again I took them to the main sight-seeing spots.  On Friday night after we arrived, I took them to the main square to see the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque lit up at night.  I've seen it so many times over the past two years, but it will always be an incredible sight for me.

Sultan Ahmet mosque (Blue Mosque)

Hagia Sophia

On Saturday we took on Istanbul with an epic day of sightseeing.  First we went to the Hagia Sophia.  This was my fourth trip to the church.  If you are a resident in Turkey, you can get an awesome Muze card that allows you two free trips to most of the museums in the country and is good for one year.  The card cost me 30 TL and one trip to the Hagia Sophia is 25 TL so it's definitely worth getting.  I found a connection to Tarsus at the Hagia Sophia during this trip.  There is a massive door in one of the wings of the church that is from the old Roman temple in Tarsus.  The temple has been destroyed and all you can see of it now is the massive foundation.  Having just seen the foundations of the temple and then a few days later seeing the door at the world's first cathedral puts into perspective just how important that temple must have been.

Door from the Roman temple in Tarsus

A beautiful Greek mosaic

We also went to Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, and the Basilica cisterns.  We rounded out the afternoon by going on a Bosphorus cruise, checking out the Egyptian spice market, and then finally enjoying a relaxing dinner at a traditional Ottoman-inspired restaurant.  

Fortress on the Bosphorus

Mom and Dad enjoying some drinks at the end of their epic sightseeing day

Enjoying our Ottoman dinner

The next day we flew to Munich to stay for the rest of the week.  While on the airplane, a pretty severe allergic reaction flared up and by the time I landed I was looking pretty frightening with red eyes and a swollen lip.  So unfortunately the first order of business in Munich was not exploring or enjoying a beer in a biergarten, but trying to find a pharmacy and then a doctor to get a prescription.  Once I got the right meds in me, things started calming down with my face but I had other symptoms flaring up throughout the rest of my time in Munich.  But we did still get around to all the places we wanted to go to.  Take note that there's not going to be many photos of me in Munich (just too scary :) ).  

We were supposed to go on a castle tour our first day but rescheduled just in case I had another allergy attack.  We took the train to Dachau to visit the concentration camp instead.  Dachau was the first concentration camp in Germany.  It was used as a sort of training facility for the Nazis, many of whom were sent on to Auschwitz and other larger camps.  The majority of the prisoners at Dachau were men; some journalists and activists who were outspoken against the Nazis, others priests and members of the clergy.  Today the camp is home to a museum that chronicles the history of the camp.  You can also walk around the barracks where high profile prisoners were kept, the bunks where the majority of prisoners stayed, as well as the memorial and a few churches that have been built on the site.  

Sign at the entrance gate that translates to "Work makes you free"

Barracks for the high profile prisoners

Sleeping area in the bunkers

Catholic church built as a memorial

Synagogue on site

Protestant church built on site 

Russian orthodox church

Dachau was an uncomfortable place to visit, yet I am really glad that I had the experience of visiting.  World War II has been a topic we have all learned about and seen in movies, books, documentaries, etc.  To be able to visit a place where some of the biggest human atrocities took place was a humbling and chilling experience.