One week down...

November 8, 2009

Now I am writing from Damascus, Syria. Two days ago, we flew from Ankara to the border and then drove over the border into Syria. Then we drove to Antioch where we switched busses and then we drove to a city called Hama, where we spent the night. Hama is a city that has these awesome waterwheels that are 600 years old, made out of wood and are still working. The river Hamath runs through the city; this is one of the rivers that is mentioned in the Old Testament. Let me catch up with whats gone on:

The first day we flew into Istanbul and then took a bus to through the city to the Bosporus River and we had a river cruise. Then we got lunch, which consisted of a baked potato with so much stuff on it that I had no clue exactly what all it was. After the cruise, we headed to our hotel and then we had a free day to explore a little bit. Our hotel is right on the main square of the modern part of the city. We are right on one of the biggest shopping streets in all of Istanbul. I went out to dinner and we found this pretty sweet little Turkish style restaurant. The popular type of restaurant is a cafeteria style where you go through a line and point to what you want and then the guy will dish it and put it on a tray for you. It is extremely cheap though and pretty fun. Then we went and had an awesome cup of apple tea, which Turkey is known for, at a little outdoor café while we played checkers and backgammon.

The next day we heard from a journalist in the morning and after we went out to the old palace of the Ottoman Empire and did some touring around there. It was an amazing palace with so much space and so much detail. It was the palace for about 600 years and it housed anywhere from 4,000-5,000 people at one time. Afterwards, we just had free time, so I went over to the Blue Mosque and got to witness a Muslim prayer time in the Blue Mosque, which was really cool. Then I met up with some of rest of the group and we started to make our way back to our hotel, which was only supposed to be an hour walk but we were able to turn it into a 3 hour ordeal. It was really cool to see some of the city, though.

Friday, we went and met with a representative of the AKP of Turkey. This was a really cool speaker. First of all, we were shown into a conference room and served some tea and cookies. Then the representative came and started to speak and he was really cool. He joked with us and was really laid back.. They served us tea twice more during the session and then we all got AKP pins on our way out, after of course photos with the rep. I think that one of the things that made it all the better was that we went to the US consulate right after and we met with the general consulate of Istanbul. It was pretty cool, but it was the US so we weren’t real impressed.

Saturday, we met with a journalist and then we went to tour the Aya Sophis. It was a miserable day because it was freezing and it was pouring down rain. But the Aya itself is absolutely amazing. It was so huge and to think that it was built with 10000 workers was just ridiculous. I loved just walking around and getting pictures. After the Aya Sophia, we went to the grand bazaar of Istanbul, which is just a ton of shops crammed together in this tiny little space with guys hawking so many different things at you.

The next day I decided to go out by myself for the day and just explore some of the city that was around the hotel. I did find some sweet shops and stuff. That night I went out to dinner and after dinner we suggested karaoke. We had seen a couple of karaoke bars, and we got back to one that was open. Thankfully it was a Sunday night and so it wasn’t busy at all. It was awesome. We decided at the place that we should come back the next day and bring a big group.

Monday we went to Koc University, which is on the outskirts of Istanbul and overlooks the Black Sea. It is an amazing campus that was built only about 15 years ago, so it is still really new. We got a lecture from one of professors about some of the history of the politics of Turkey and then we met with students from the international relations department of the school. It was cool just to sit and talk with them for a while. We had free time after that and so there was a group of us that got dropped off in the old city and walked back to the hotel. That was cool because we got to see even more of the city. That night we heard from a pastor of an evangelical church in Istanbul about some of situations that the Christians of Turkey were facing. This was very interesting because we were able to compare all of this to the situations that we had seen in Egypt and what we would see in all the other countries.

After this, it was Karaoke time again. This time we went with a group of about 15 people and we had the entire place to ourselves. There were some awesome songs that came up. The guys did a Backstreet Boys song, there were some good dancing ones as well. But the best one by far was our finale. We sang “A Whole New World” from Aladdin as our last song, and it was awesome because all the girls were on one mic and the guys were on the other and we split the parts up perfectly. All in all it was an amazing last night in Istanbul.

The next morning we left Istanbul and had a 7 hour bus ride to the capital city of Ankara. Ankara wasn’t really that impressive because it is only a quarter of the size of Istanbul and doesn’t have that much to do. That night was a free night and so I just went out and explored the city by myself for a little bit.

The day after was Wednesday and we had an appointment with a representative from the ministry of foreign affairs. Afterwards, we went to Anit Kaber, the mausoleum of Ataturk. This was pretty sweet because it gave us an idea of just how much they revere Mustafa Kemal. I got to see the changing of the guards, which was really cool to see. They also had this museum type of thing with a history of the war of independence and a bunch of Ataturk’s old stuff.

The next morning we had a speaker then we drove out to the airport and got on our flight out to Hatay, a tiny Turkish town on the border of Turkey and Syria. This is where we got on our bus and drove through Antioch to the town of Hama, where we stayed the night. Hama has been pretty important politically in recent years because of the uprisings that have taken place and been put down there.

So Friday, two days ago, we left Hama and drove for about two hours until we got to the Krak de Chevaliers. The Krak is a crusader castle from the 11^th century that is still in pristine condition and overlooks all land around. It is cool because from the top we were able to see Lebanon and the Lebanese Mountains. But the castle itself was cool just because it has secret passage ways and places that you have to have a flashlight in order to get to (Thankfully, our cell phones have flashlights). There was also this really sweet room with just a single beam of light coming through a window. This place was so freakin sweet that I could have stayed there for hours just walking around and climbing all over it.

After the Krak, we drove to this little town called Ma’aloula. Ma’aloula is one of only three towns left in the world that stills speaks only Aramaic, the language that Jesus would have spoken. Aramaic is only a spoken language and is passed on orally to children. Only recently have they developed a written part with the hopes that this will help preserve the language. We were able to see a convent and then a monastery and we were able to hear the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic from a lady there. This was a pretty cool little town.

We got into Damascus and did just a little walk around to find some food. We walked down the Straight Street, where Paul stayed until Ananias came to visit him. We found a pretty sweet restaurant and ate there. I had something called kobbeh in boiled yogurt. It wasn’t the best thing ever, but not awful. Then we came back and had some of the best ice cream that I have ever had.

Now, finally, yesterday. We ate breakfast here at the monastery that we are staying at and had devotions here. Then we met our guide at the Eastern Gate of the Old City and he took us to the original site of the house of Ananias. This was cool because they still have the church there that is from the third century. Then we walked to the Umayyad Mosque. This use to be the site of the temple of Damascus and then was converted to a church and then finally changed a mosque by Salah Hadin, the leader of the Muslims during the Crusades. We got to see the tomb of Salah Hadin, which is in its own little shrine. Inside the mosque itself was absolutely beautiful. There were mosaics like I have never seen and there was also the tomb of John the Baptist. It was really cool walking through all of these places and thinking that the people of the New Testament were walking these same streets two thousand years ago.

So that is what we have been up to on travel component. In shah Allah, my next update will be from Jerusalem…