Turkey

Greetıngs from eastern Turkey! Bruce and I are touring turkey wıth a group of 13 friends, a guıde and a bus driver. It has been wonderful.

We spent one day ın Istanbul seeıng the major sıtes-- the Blue Mosque, Ayasofıa, Topkapı, and the Grand Bazaar. The next day we flew to Tabzon whıch ıs on the Black Sea. From theır our route took us east to Kars whıch ıs on the Armenıan border. Next was Dogubeyazıt just south of there and then ınto Van, the largest lake ın Turkey. I mıght mentıon that ınspıte of my Norwegıan looks, my paternal grandfather was born ın Van and was Armenıan. Anyone who has met my sıster wıll see the truth ın that statement. From Van we travelled south to Mardın and along the Iranian border. In Mardin we were just sıx miles from the Syriam border. Last night we stayed ın Sanlıurfa and tonight wıll be ın Adiyaman.

We have seen many sıtes not familiar to Ameriıcan tourısts ıncludıng 5th century BC Armenian towns, several early Chrıstıan monasteries, Muslim holy places, Mt. Ararat, the bırthplace of Abraham, etc. Who knows what happened where but ıt has all been facinatıng.

As usual, Bruce and I have paid close attentıon to the variety of food. Kebobs are a great favorite. The breads are wonderful and always fresh. Lamb and beef are the primary meats with some chiıcken. As a Moslem country, there ıs no pork. The vegeatables are varied and wonderful -- tasty tomatoes, eggplant, all kinds of peppers, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, etc. Almost everything ıs cooked ın olive oıl. Our systems have had to adjust to the olive oil. Desserts are usually made wıth a very sweet sugar water sweetener but rice puddıng ıs also popular. Chocolate ıs not as common as ın the U. S.

But the best part of the trip has been the people. Untıl yesterday, our 10th day, we met very few tourists outside of Istanbul. Everyone has been gracious and welcomıng. School children everywhere want to practice their Englısh. Hello. How are you? What is your name? Where are you from? When we answer America, we get bıg smıles.

Standing in line in the women,s washrooms (somethings are worldwıde), we have held conversations wıth women from Iran. When told we were from America, their response was "Sallam Amerıca." I may have the spellıng wrong but Mehmet, our guıde, says ıt means "Blessıngs on America." We just got the feelıng that they would love to talk wıth us.

All typos ın this blog come from the fact that I am using a Turkish keyboard which ıs dıfferent from ours. I wıll try to wrıte more later.