Picturessss

Precious tree in Baha'u'llah's home. He revealed a tablet under this very tree.
Baha'u'llah's home in Edirne

Selimiye Mosque in Edirne where Baha'u'llah had spent some time

more pictures to come soon...

Lots of Updates

A lot of time has passed since my last update! Sorry about that! We are a lot busier than I ever imagine we would be. Mainly we visit a lot of family, but since Istanbul is so big and crowded, it takes awhile to get from one place to the next. Hence my lack of updates.

I've decided for the sake of convenience to just do the writing first and a separate entry just with pictures.

Since my last post we have gone on a major road trip to central Anatolia. We started our journey by car at 11:00 p.m. and arrived at our destination at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, thanks to Atilla's father's ability to stay awake overnight! We all felt quite tired when we arrived, but once we stepped out of the car into the clean, fresh, crisp mountain air we were all revived. After some yummy breakfast we started our day. We check into our hotel, which was occupied only by us and then we went to visit one of the famous main attractions in the area, the underground city. The area is famous because of it's natural geologic formations which were used by Christians to escape persecution. They built entire cities and churches within these formations and it is estimated that around 1,000,000 people were living in underground and hidden communities.

Kapadokya feels more like Japan than Turkey, if only because there are more Japanese there than Turks. We weren't quite sure what the connection was, but there were entire tour groups there for Japanese and even a Family Mart (which is a Japanese convenience store). We had a really funny time in the underground city because there were groups of 30 Japanese tourists either in front of or behind us. Atilla and I both get a little claustrophobic when we are stuck in very tiny spaces with crowds, but we both made it through with no problems :)

After this we took a little drive around to see the beautiful natural surroundings and then we went to my favorite place in the whole region, called Uchisar. It is absolutely gorgeous! People have modern homes built right into the rock formations and they live on very steep hills. The view is amazing, everybody has chickens and some have goats and sheep and lots of people grow their own tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. It's an amazing place! As we were walking around I heard some nice music coming from a small building and it turned out to be a studio rented by about 4 or 5 artists. There was a man blowing glass and making exquisite jewelry, someone else makes leather goods, another does hemp and beading, and then another is a painter. Turkey has a very old, established bazaar community and unfortunately it has suffered the same fate as many other consumer institutions. You would be hard pressed to find any original goods sold in bazaars or on the streets these days, most people sell the exact same products coming from factories in other areas. The wonderful part about this artist's studio was that everything was unique and original. I bought a beautiful glass ring with a very tradition Turkish symbol (you will see it when I come home) and we found some wonderful gifts there. The people were also so lovely and they did a whole glass blowing demonstration and made a necklace charm for Atilla's little brother. They said they don't get much business which I think is extremely sad. There must be some way in this world to have a balance, so that mass production can be used where it is necessary and crafters and artisans still have a way to survive and pass on their skills.

After Uchisar we went back to our area and ate some dinner and had an early night. Atilla and I took a little walk around and then went to sleep (it had been a long trip and a long day so we were ready for sleep!).

The next day we had full khavalti (breakfast) as part of our hotel stay. It was delicious! Turkish breakfast is the best, it is healthy and delicious. After this we went to the open air museum, which was another entire city of churches and homes hidden in natural formations. Then we went on a hike in pigeon valley (appropriately named for it's massive amount of pigeons) which was quite an adventure! We took a very beautiful scenic walk along the ridge where we could see Mount Argeas (sp) towering in the distance. Afterwards we went back to the Uchisar region to walk around more and spend some time and then we went to the main attraction (the fairy chimneys).

We went back to our little area for dinner again then we went to Avanos (famous for it's pottery) and Can (Atilla's little brother) threw some pottery and we had some tea. Then we went back and slept so we could wake up early for our road trip back.

The next morning we had breakfast and set out on our way to Ankara (which was on the way back). In Ankara we went to Ataturk's masoleum and ate some pastries while there. Then we went 100 km into the old roads to get to Beypazari, a small, beautiful mountain town. We had some dinner there and then drove the rest of the way back to Istanbul through the mountains of central Anatolia. The entire landscape was stunning and we passed a huge salt lake on the way, which is where Turks get most of their salt.

After we came back we had a full schedule with family and friends. We went to visit Atilla's maternal grandma and marveled at her artwork. She is an incredible artist and quite prolific! Such a wonderful woman, down to earth and very loving! I have a habit since childhood of fascination with old photo albums. So as soon as I can get my hands on them I sit with old photos and start asking who everyone is. I have some pictures of Atilla's maternal grandmother as a young lady. We ate Iskender kebap together (which was an experience in itself). The Kebap is delicious and very deceiving. I ate nearly everything on my plate and afterwards I felt that I would not need to eat anything again for 3 days because I was so full. I learned later that there is some kind of science to eating this kebap, people usually only eat it once or twice a year and they don't eat all the bread on the bottom.

Then Atilla went to the dentist, which turned out to be an all day venture. I spent some time walking up and down Bagdat Caddesi (a famous street with lots of shops and a lot of walking space). After the dentist we went to Atilla's uncle's house for dinner (which I was dreading because I thought I might explode if I ate anymore) and to stay over in their house. I love his aunt and uncle, they are a great couple. His aunt is the general manager of BMW here and so she works like mad, but she is very happy and full of life. We watched a slide show of his uncle's time in Japan (he worked there for a year) and then also some video of their wedding.

The next day we visit Atilla's aunt Aysegul and her family in Bebek. We went to the hamam (Turkish bath) together (I had been wanting to go) and we were not disappointed. Atilla and his uncle went to the men's side and we went to the ladies. We were thoroughly scrubbed and our dead skin gone, then we were soaped and lathered and we sat in the steam for a little while. After awhile we were both quite overheated and ready to sit and cool ourselves. After our hamam experience we went to pick up Ada (their 4 year old) from school. She was so excited to have us come to her classroom and we participated in her activities at the end of the day. She goes to an English language school, so her lessons are all in English. Then we spent the rest of the day in their home for a lovely visit.

The next day we met up with Zeynep (Kocaoglu) and had some food and then Zeynep and I took a walk together and I got to meet her parents. I love Zeynep's parents!! Her dad used to be on the Turkish parliament and actually saved Baha'u'llah's home in Edirne from being torn down and used as a school. He was in charge of human rights for Turkey for a certain period and had a few instances, including that one, where he was helping the Baha'is in Turkey. We were excited to hear this news and also he is just such a sweet teddy bear. He reminds me a lot of my dad, very patient and interested in history and likes to eat and has a good sense of humor. Zeynep's mom is a gastronomist. She has a Phd in Nutrition and was teaching for many years at Bosphorous University. We had some wonderful discussions and I realized that nutrition may be a really interesting area of study for me, so I'm now looking into the field.

The next day we had kahvalti with Atilla's friend Borek who's been studying nanotechnology in Russia. After breakfast we went together to visit Nine (Atilla's great grandmother). We spent some time looking at old photos (at my request) and discovered some incredible photos with Ottoman script. Then we went to a place where Atilla could take free Ney (Turkish flute) lessons and then onto dinner with Atilla's self-proclaimed big sister (also named Zeynep).

There are a few more events that happened up until today, but this post has gotten long enough already. I will try to update once more before we leave!

All Grandparents live in Seskkinbakal

On our plane ride from Paris to Istanbul we sat next to a Turkish girl from London. She mentioned at some point that her grandparents live in Seskkinbakal and Atilla realized all of his grandparents live in that area also.

(The picture to the left is right after Atilla's paternal grandparents got married. His paternal grandfather has Russian ancestry hence the light hair, complexion and eyes.)

During our first week here we spent a day in grandparents land. It is astonishing to me that grandparents on either side of the family can live in neighboring apartment complexes. I couldn't believe how close by everyone is to each other!

First we spent the day with Atilla's paternal grandparents. Grandma and I cooked dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) together and then we went with grandfather to go to the nearby market. He is quite a foodie and so he has built strong relationships with local farmers. He goes to different people for different products. He has his milk person, his egg person, his organic veggie person, his honey person. It's pretty amazing how connected he is with the local food

culture.

Afterwards we ate a wonderful meal together and then we went to visit the Atilla's stepmom's mother and grandmother (their picture is below). The great grandmother is so old! She's an incredible woman who can barely breathe and so she sits in her chair and says, "Allah" with every breath. She was so sweet to us. She kept saying how happy she was that we were married and she wanted us to have a baby. Unfortunately, Funda's (Atilla's stepmom) mother fell two nights ago and broke her hip and had to have surgery. We visited her today and she is recovering. It would be wonderful to send your healing thoughts and prayers her way.

Upcoming posts will be of our visit to Baha'u'llah's home in Edirne (Adrianople) and the historic sites of Istanbul. We are going to take a road trip overnight in a few hours to get to a place in central Anatolia called Kapadokia. We send lots of love to all of our friends and family at home and around the world!

Food and Community

To the left are black radishes from Turkiye. After some time I realized that people in Turkey must really love their radishes because there were at least 5 or 6 varieties that I saw. Also much of the produce was labelled according to it's origin, which I thought was pretty impressive. I am, of course, very interested in learning more about how food is grown, shipped, and consumed in Turkiye. Luckily, Atilla's grandfather is very into his food so he's a good example of someone who pays attention to things like eating organic, fresh foods. I will have a whole post dedicated to our day spent with grandparents at a later time :)

Below are a few more pictures from the Tuesday Bazaar in Kadikoy. Fresh bread being made yummyyyyy... local nuts (not crazy people), Amasya apples (I LOVE these apples, they are tiny, crisp, hard, and very watery and sweet, unlike anything I've had) from Amasya in Turkiye. Fresh grape leaves are also plentiful. All of the food is so delicious and amazing!

The geography of Turkiye makes it possible for nearly every food imaginable to be grown in the country. In south western Turkiye you can grow hot weather/tropical foods like bananas, citrus, and tomatoes year round. Apples come from the central region, nuts and figs, apricots etc. seem to come from the coastal regions, radishes are plentiful as well as lettuces, spinach, cucumbers, squash, and I even saw celery root! The cucumbers here are soooooooo good. I don't know what it is but they are very small and so juicy and not bitter at all. They are also very cheap. I'd like to do as much seed saving as possible so I can have all these yummy varieties in my backyard.

It seems that there is a different mentality here about food. People still enjoy fresh food, they enjoy getting foods from nearby villagers and the demand for foreign produce is low. Domestically produced foods are certainly the norm, but they vary in terms of how local they are. Potatoes can come from as far away as Northeastern Turkey which is about 9 or so hours away (not exactly right next door). For the most part, it seems that the food education here will really be about introducing organic farming. It certainly is catching on and I have asked a number of friends here about an organic market in Sisli (an area of Istanbul) and many people seem to know about it, so things are certainly happening. I will have more posts about the food movements here as time goes by.

Atilla and I went to Feast with the Baha'is in this area on Wednesday night. It was so wonderful!! The community is dynamic, upbeat, and loving! We were invited to the Cluster Reflection Gathering on Saturday (they are having their intensive phase Jan 2-Jan 9) so we were very excited about going to experience this Baha'i community organizing elsewhere in the world. It was an amazing gathering, they are on their 19th cycle! The community is huge (750 Baha'is in Istanbul alone) and it is divided into two continents, so they have gatherings in many different places at one time (or else it's just not practical with all the traffic). They have the bounty of having many National Spiritual Assembly members in their cluster as well as 2 Continental Counsellors who live in Istanbul. We met with one of the Counsellors at the Reflection Gathering and she is such an amazing woman!! What a spirit!

We were invited to come to participate in some direct outreach in a neighborhood setting, so we went today and we had an amazing experience. Although I had to have Atilla translate things for me at certain points, I could definitely feel the love and purity of the teacher and so I could understand without really speaking the language. I'm so happy we got to be with the Baha'is here! Tomorrow we will go to Edirne to Baha'u'llah's home there and I'm anticipating it very much. It will also be my first time out of Istanbul.

I'm still learning how to work this blog thing with all the pictures and whatnot, so I am just doing separate posts to make it easier. I will post more later about our other days spent with family and friends. I hope everyone isn't too cold back home! Not to put salt in your wound, but the weather here has been beautiful and sunny, a very nice treat :)

Pazar

Olives!!

My first day here was wonderful! We visited Nine (great grandmother who's real age nobody knows, best guess is 107). She is quite a beautiful woman and you can tell she is right in the threshold of the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit. Grandma (in Turkce called babaanne) and grandpa (dede) were both in the room visiting as well so I got to meet a lot of family at once :) We had a relaxing day and I fell asleep quite early.

Tuesday we went to the Tuesday bazaar (pazar) which is pretty big, historic, and crowded :) There was a lot of fresh produce as well as a variety of clothing, art, and household wares. I wish we had more places like these in the U.S, but I guess that's the whole point of Eastern Market so it's just a matter of time before we have more and more markets as a part of life.

After the Tuesday bazaar we walked to a beautiful little street where we had some lunch. The lunch was absolutely delicious! It's a common Turkish food called Kumpir and it's a baked potato filled with your choice of toppings. The atmosphere of the place was what attracted me to it and the people. The owner's wife was there and she was such a sweet lady! The whole little cafe had a very family like feel and it was cozy. Then we went to a nargileh place (hookah tobacco) and met with a few of Atilla's old high school friends. It was a lovely evening and his friends are all so sweet and interesting!

Departure- Arrival

First of all I'd like to report that we are here in Istanbul! We made it after all!

Our adventure to get here was amazing, incredible, and quite unbelievable. If you've already been following our trip, then you know we've been delayed 1 week for our flight to Istanbul. So we can start from the following Saturday which was our 3rd attempt to fly to Istanbul. We made it into the airport, had a very easy breezy check-in, and arrived very early. Then, as we sat we realized that flights around us were being delayed and cancelled left and right due to the foggy weather. We braced ourselves for another cancellation, but tried to hold on to our hope! Our plane arrived late because of the weather and because the plane's weather radar device was malfunctioning. When the plane arrived they had to get a new weather radar device flown in from Cincinatti which delayed our plane even more. Since our plane was delayed we were going to miss our connecting flight in Paris, so we had to reschedule for a later flight.

Everything was taken care of and we took off for Paris. Our plane ride was great and we arrived to Paris ready to have a little bit of time before our next flight to get to the gate, freshen up, and leave. Our flight number was called and everyone lined up for the boarding, but no less than 1 minute after the announcement, we were told that we needed to wait 15 minutes because there was a delay. At this point it was unclear why there was a delay and how long it was going to last, so the stewardess frequently updated us. We then found out that the Air France workers decided to go on strike at that very moment, so we would have to wait. It turns out that in France you may have a strike for an hour if you please and then you continue working. So after an hour of much sleepiness in the Paris airport we boarded the plane and then landed in Turkiye.

Once we arrived I easily obtained a 90 day tourist visa, went through the passport line, collected our luggage and we met Atilla's dad (Melih) and brother (Can, pronounced Jon). We were told by them that their car broke down 5 times on the way to get us (which had never happened to them before) and so they called Atilla's uncle for help and picked us up in his uncle's car. Then we headed to home. Atilla and I pondered the spiritual reasons for such a trip and it certainly seems that our spirits needed some purification so we received our tests. I think this was a very valuable experience for us and I feel very grateful for our chance to grow :)

It is very late here right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we are here and happy. I have a lot of pictures from today and much more to share, so I will try to write again tomorrow. Tomorrow night is Feast so I'm sure I will have so much more to share after my first Feast in Istanbul.

Marisa

On the road again

So we are about to leave to spend the night with our friends Pavel, Eranda, and Marina in Philadelphia. Hopefully this time we will be on our way to Turkey tomorrow evening! Next post, hopefully, will be from Istanbul :) Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!