Serefe!

Well, I guess it's next time. Since my last post, we have celebrated a birthday, swam at Kent Park, played futbol with some or our new Turkish friends and classmates, and visited some ancient ruins.

I continue to be amazed at the hospitality and generosity of the Turkish people that we have met thus far and cannot stress it enough. A great example of this was last week when we went out for Caroline's birthday. Baris (who is in our hydrology class) and his neighbor made her a cake, Metehan (who is in our transportation class) gave her a book titled "Tears of Love," and Mehmet gave her some candy. Really nice gestures having only known her (and us) for a few days.

The next day after the celebration, the majority of us went to Kent Park where we swam and laid out on the man-made beach. It was not like the beaches in America or any that I have heard of before because one side of the beach was for families or anyone that came with a female and the other side was all men. I thought this was pretty strange especially since Eskisehir is more of a student city with younger inhabitants and a more western culture. Nevertheless, it was still a good time with some beautiful scenery.

Kent Park

Man-made beach and swimming area at Kent Park

We ended up playing round 2 of Turkey vs. America futbol, but this time it was with our classmates. They were really good and I think even had a professional on their team, but we ended up holding our own against them (even though we did lose). I guess round 3 is going to be sometime this week, either tonight or tomorrow night.

Turf field that we played on under the lights at 1a.m. Sunday morning

After tiring ourselves out playing soccer, we managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before we boarded a bus headed for Seyitgazi Tomb and Mosque, Gerdekkaya Tomb, and Yazilikaya. All of these places were on top of hills or mountains with breathtaking views of the surrounding area (and the places themselves weren't bad either). They also were all thousands of years old many dating back to the BC era. Our first stop was at the Seyitgazi Tomb and Mosque where there were many tombs, some of important Islamic heroes. Adjacent to the mosque was a cathedral built during the Byzantine empire along with various buildings for education and housing.

Part of the mosque

The large tomb is an Islamic hero and the smaller one to the right is his wife.

Next we went to Gerdekkaya Tomb, where people had removed everything from the tombs in search of gold. We ended up just climbing all over. 

Climbing up to where the tombs are located.

View from on top of the above picture.

Our last stop was to Yazilikaya, an ancient ruin with a lot of religious and historical history. Here we walked for probably 2-3 hours looking at all of the ancient carvings, sacrificial alters, giant cisterns, and everything in between. From the top of Yazilikaya, you could see for hundreds of miles in each direction.

We climbed all over this (I think it used to be a dwelling of some sort).

View from the top

In the winter the holes in the side  of this cliff would fill with ice, then melt in the spring, and poviding the people with water.

I think that pretty much sums up everything since my last post. Our next trip is this Friday to Istanbul so I will be sure to keep everyone 'posted' on how that goes. Also, I tried to make the pictures bigger but please comment if it's still hard to see them.