This post is going to divert from my current location but it is
something that I wish I could be doing here.
Even with China being so big there aren’t really any chance to do one of
these activities I will talk about on an older trip. A couple weeks ago I did visit a coastal town
that is named Yantai. It was a great
trip and beautiful area but I still wasn’t able to get into the water and blow
some bubbles. So as I write this post I
wish I could be somewhere with the chance to go blow some bubbles. Okay enough for an in introduction . . .about
a year ago I was able to take a vacation.
This vacation was to the very interesting country of Turkey. I never blogged about it at that time because
I was busy in Yemen and was unable to blog much while living in Yemen. So here is a little bit about what I did
while in Turkey.
I took a flight to Istanbul and ended up staying in Istanbul for two
nights. Istanbul is a very lively city
that does have some neat historical places to see. I was staying in a hostel near Taksim Square
which is a main square that has a few streets meet up at this location. One of these streets is called Istiklal
Caddesi (Independence Avenue) which is a very art influenced area. During the day the shops and street had
people selling handmade items and then at night this street turned into a place
for many people to visit. During the day
I did make my way to where the big tourist attractions are located such as
Hagia Sophia and Sultahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque).
I took a walk to these locations
which ended up being right next to each other.
I first went to the Sultahmed Mosque which most people know it as the
Blue Mosque because of the blue tiles along the top of the mosque. I have been in a few mosques before but this
one was real neat to see. It was a good
size mosque that could hold a lot of people for services and prayers and since
it is still a functioning mosque you can’t visit it during prayer times. Once inside you do see the typical items that
are found in a mosque but also a key part to this mosque is the intricate blue
tile work toward the top of the mosque.
The next thing to see is the Hagia
Sophia. This building had an interesting
history behind it and it also does reflect how Turkey changed depending on who
was in charge. At certain points in
history this building was a church and then it was changed to a mosque and now
currently is simply a museum. Inside it
now it is probably one of the only places in the world where you will see
flowing Arabic script (99 names of Allah, scriptures, etc.) right next to
mosaics. This is because in mosques
there aren’t supposed to be any depictions of living things. Luckily when this building was changed into a
Mosque they simply didn’t destroy the mosaics but instead covered them with
plaster. So when the building was
changed into a museum they could start the process of recovering and showing
the mosaics. Overall a very interesting
building with a lot of history inside.
Besides these two very amazing
building in Istanbul I did walk around and see some more historical sites. This country has a very long history with a
lot of different cultures, religions, beliefs, customs, etc. that have had
influence. So it would take a long time
lay it all out and to see everything.
Plus my main reason for going to Turkey was to get to the coast and
relax.
After Istanbul I did fly down south
and ended up in a city known as Kas. My
main reason for starting at this spot was of hearing that the scuba diving is
great here. Before going on this
particular trip my main goal for my vacation was to get under the water and do
some scuba diving. It was some pretty
neat diving and also at times a little strange.
There isn’t a bunch of life to see or a bunch of coral but instead the
diving here was different. Each dive
seemed to offer its own unique thing and some of these include: airplane wreck,
underwater canyon, underwater archaeology sites, different shipwrecks (including
a wooden one), and underwater sculpture area.
They were all fun and interesting dives that I was never bored with but
it is hard to describe exactly what type of diving was most common. I ended up doing a lot of dives over about a six day time span. I could go
on and on about the diving but instead I will just post some pictures below and
share what else I did in Turkey.
I figured I would move inland Turkey
next and go see some neat mountains and caves.
I took a bus to another city along the water and while staying there I
found out about a cruise on a sailing type boat. With my love of the coast and water I decided
to do this instead and so I spent the next three nights and four days sailing
along the coast. It was a fun boat trip
and the people on the boat were all pretty neat and we all got along well. We did visit about two cities and one of them
happened to be Kas, the one that I had just come. Besides that we were mainly out along the
coast and seeing some interesting spots.
A neat thing about this trip is for the most part we simple slept on the
deck of the boat under the stars. The
boat was parked at night and would usually take off in the early morning to
make it to a new destination but it was pretty neat sleeping under the stars
like that and hearing the water along the sides of the boat. Besides visiting other sites during the day
we would swim a lot as well when the boat was parked. Overall it was well worth it and a fun trip
on the boat.
After that I had to fly back up to
Istanbul in order to catch my plane within the next couple days to make it back
to Yemen for work. In Istanbul I did go
visit the area near Hagia Sophia and Sultahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) again
simply to see the atmosphere. This whole
trip was during Ramadan and with a lot of Turkish citizens being Muslim it
meant they were fasting during the day.
So around the time when they were going to break their fast it basically
was a big party like atmosphere around these very historical buildings amongst
all of the grass in the area. Families
were out getting ready to break the fast and going to have a picnic but along
with a lot of their friends as well.
Needless to say it was a neat thing to see and be in that sort of
atmosphere. I eventually did have to
leave and did make my way back to Yemen where there I was able to finish seeing
the end of Ramadan also known as Eid al-Fitr.
Here in China I have
been busy with work and doing a little bit of travelling. I figured I would share this trip since I
realized I never did blog about it and since I don’t have any plans for any
diving soon this writing will have to do for now. Next few weeks are normal classes and nothing
special in the works. Of course I am
still practicing my Chinese. These last
two weeks I haven’t had many actual Chinese classes because one of my teachers
is gone for her wedding and honeymoon. I
have started preparing to eventually blog about Chinese food since I know some
people are curious what I have been eating. So one of my upcoming posts I will start to tackle Chinese food. I will write later.
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| Hagia Sophia |
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| 40 meters (about 131 feet) deep; I wonder what the charge would be for a call? |
