Turkey Sightseeing

When my parents told me we were going to Istanbul for two weeks I thought to myself...

"What is there to possible do in Istanbul for two weeks? There can't be that much to do."

Boy was I wrong.

Our two weeks were spent exploring this great city and seeing sight after sight.

Self explanatory.. Turkish and Islamic Art museum

Sultanahmet Camii (a.k.a. The Blue Mosque)

Topkapi Palace

Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent 

Grand Bazaar

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

Underground Cistern

Beautiful Mosaics at the Chora Church

Greek Orthodox Church

Taksim Square

Istiklal Street

Turkish Shopping Mall

Bosphorus Cruise

Spice Bazaar

Gold Shops

Istanbul Archeological Museum

Gulhane Park

Pera Palas Hotel

Pera Museum

Rumeli Fortress

Dolmanche Palace

Suada Club

Asian side of the city

Overall, it was an amazing trip!

P.S. I got 4 stamps in my brand new passport!

You are the weakest link

If you know me, you know I'm not an outdoorsy person. 

But this weekend I went on a camping trip with a class to Goblin Valley. 

Thursday night we played capture the flag in the valley

and

Friday we hiked Ding and Dang Canyon. 

I'm not much of a hiker so I definitely struggled over the many obstacles and was the slowest one of the group.... and I may have cried......but I had a lot of fun!

 I'm just proud of myself for surviving.  :)

Goblin Valley

Reasons to travel

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

– St. Augustine

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

-Mark Twain

Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. 

– Cesare Pavese

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. 

– Miriam Beard

 Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson