Hi All! Two days to explain here: two days in the hot country of Turkey. First off, I'd like to say that since part of Turkey is in the Asian continent, we've now been to three continents. WOOHOO!

Yesterday, Istanbul, was an experience. We started off the day with the Blue Mosque (which is actually only called that by tourists- it's name is Sultan Ahmed Mosque or Sultanahmet Camii). It was very interesting, and only one of many mosques around the world that are termed 'Blue Mosque' because of the blue tiles used to decorate the inside of the Islamic place of worship. Interestingly, and I never knew this, no human or animal depictions are allowed in Islamic places of worship, so there are beautiful, geometric designs with these blue tiles all over the mosque.

Next, we hoofed it on over to the hypodrome, where there was a 2500 year old single marble column (with decorations) that had outlasted 3 other newer columns. Amazing! The marble column was a gift from the Egyptians... no wonder it has lasted so long.

After that, we went over to Saint Sophia's which began as one of the earliest Christian churches, dedicated to Mary, Mother of God. It was destroyed by earthquake, fire, and rebuilt 2 times out of the rubble. However, the mosaics were plastered over and stained glass destroyed when it became an Islamic house of worship. Turkey is in around the 90% range of all citizens being muslim, with small minorities of jewish and christian.

After visiting Saint Sophia's (which is no longer a house of worship for any religion- in the late 1920's it was made a museum to end the conflict over it), we headed up towards the bazaar to view a wonderful turkish carpet demonstration. Following which we had free time to window shop and visit the bazaar (which was packed with people and thus avoided like plague by Genny and I).

Then, we were off to Topkapi palace, where we also ate lunch. Lunch wasn't my favorite style of food (mashed eggplant?!), but the view was gorgeous. Later, Topkapi was interesting, but not as awe-inspiring as I thought it would be. I did see the 5th largest diamond in the world, though.

Today, we were docked in Kusadasi, Turkey. A 20 minute drive from there is Ephesus, the ruins of a city dating back to 400BC. Very beautiful and much less sad.

Speaking of sad, I overheard at dinner that one tour group unfortunately saw a man who had suffered some sort of catastrophic injury on the side of the road today. It all sounded very sad and upsetting to the group who saw this young man out their windows. I sincerely hope there were no children in that group.

After leaving Ephesus (which will need to be explained in pictures, much like Pompeii) we went back to the port of Kusadasi and enjoyed another Turkish rug weaving demonstration.

Well, Genny and I tried our hands at bartering today in Kusadasi and got a remarkable discount on a couple of things... Which I won't say what they are since the soon-to-be owners read this blog occasionally ;)

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has been taking time to read these travel blog entries!!! We've really been enjoying all of the comments, and emails, as well as hearing about all of the phone calls coming in to our Mom. We love you all! Can't wait to talk to everyone and share photos when we're back.