Cappadocia 2012

This is my 4th trip to Cappadocia, Turkey. It is a fabulous place to go visit... lots of places to see and I love the interaction you can have with the Turkish people. They speak more English than most Turkish, since it is such a tourist location for European people. One guy we met knew Turkish, English, Italian, Chinese, Spanish and I'm not sure what else. 

The man on the right was the one who could talk all those languages... he owned an amazing store with antiques, jewelry, musical instruments and tons more. I could spend way too much money in his little place.

This was the nunnery and the sign to describe what we were looking at. 

 This is the outside of one of the cave churches we got to see... you can see the painting that was done on the outside as well as the carvings. 

Over my head in this picture is what is left of paintings of Jesus and someone else...

The carvings outside another church - I like the cross

A picture of one of the paintings in a church - this is the last supper scene

The crucifix scene in a different church

A tunnel to another church 

A picture of my friend Stephanie (on the left) that I went on this trip with.

On the right is a picture of a random man who had an interesting head covering... I really enjoyed people watching during this trip.

An interesting sign... anyone want a camel ride?

Go-karting

A bunch of my friends and I went into Adana to a Go-kart place. It's about 8 TL for 10 minutes, if I remember correctly. I wanted to see other people ride before I go, so I may do it next time. I wanted to make sure it was safe and didn't want to find out it wasn't when I was in the kart  : D

Here's Walt getting ready. Since everyone who comes uses the same helmets, they give you a shower cap like thing to protect your head.

It's really funny seeing the guys with them on. Ben is showing it off here.

Here's Deanna with her helmet on. 

Everyone getting in and getting ready.

Buckling their seatbelts. 

To go, the assistants turn it on and then give you a push to get you started. 

Beth waving as she goes by. 

Racing past us

They decided to race... this is the order in which they won, with the right being the winner and the left the losers

Market Sights

Some of the local sights around the market.

The produce store... all fresh vegetables and fruits. Delicious!!

The meat shop... choose which body you want  :) 

Pools, bikes, plastic chair and many other odds & ends... 

what else can you find?

Want one of these?

When the young boys become of age (I think around 7 or 8), they get circumcised. Before the actual event, there is a party thrown for them. They have a a special outfit to wear and the party, and then are escorted off for the circumcision. The hat & jacket below belong to the special outfit they wear.

The ruffles appear to be a popular choice in fashion here in Turkey. 

...The End   :)

Spring Fed Pool

The beach and pool is almost a necessity on hot summer days (at least if you're not going to be inside). Thus, a group of us got together and went to a pool that is fed from a spring that is nearby. This means that the pool is about 67* - or you can say perfect on a hot humid Turkey summer day. We all had a blast.

You could jump off the ledge where the waterfall is at. Lots of fun!

                                     

  This picture is of 2 of the local Turkish men that were there... they were playing together and either trying to do tricks or get the other one in.

My friend Deanna and her little one Isabelle. I love this little munchkin

One of my friends who hates his picture taken... he prefers to be the photographer, which is usually the best situation for all. But I did manage to get this picture  : D
He said if I put it on facebook he'd deny the tag

We had to laugh at Lance - Don't you love his skin colored t-shirt?

 

We got to have lunch right next to the pool. Turkish food tastes so good!

What we had for lunch. Yum!

We def had tons of fun!!  What a great day with friends!