Ancient Civilizations!!!!!

This is my roommate Betsy and my dear friend Kathryn (l to r).



And THIS is where I got into trouble. Not for the first or last time, but it was among the most memorable. :o) After our first night in Ankara, Arzu took us to the Museum of Anatolian Civilization. It was very interesting, and among its nifty objects were two rows of headless statues (poor things) flanking the courtyard. Well, some of us decided that it would be funny to pose behind the statues. And since I'm short, I put my hands on one statue's shoulders and hoisted myself up over it. Whoops. It probably weighed three times as much as I did, but yeah...the security guard wasn't very pleased with me. Joy, however, got a picture before he walked over to us. This earned me the Turkey Baster.


OK, safely inside the museum. Hot Hittite jewelry!


This was the best part of Ankara: the ancient Roman citadel. We hiked all over the mountain that afternoon (in the rain! it's so cool to see a thunderstorm rolling in from the top of a mountain!).



Another view of the citadel.

Good thing we aren't afraid of heights.

Me being cold, but loving every minute of it (not the coldness, the way-up-high-ness).

Craig fell in love with this little Turkish girl in the citadel and decided that he was going to buy something from her just because she was so cute. So Betsy, who knows some Turkish, translated for him. Then Craig carried around a bright blue purse all day. ;o)

Good. Breakfast. Yogurt, cheese, ham, bread, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers. I love Middle Eastern food! This was a very hospitable hotel, though they had a very bad plan for electricity: solar power. Ergo, cloudy days result in No Hot Water. They tried to make up for it by lavishing us with apple tea, a roaring fireplace, and great food. But I still practically froze that night (would have, if not for kind male friends lending their fuzzy sweatshirts), and Betsy and I decided that taking an ice shower was definitely not worth it. As Jody puts it, "Only Americans need showers every day."

OK, it's cold. But we can still wear yellow! Cameron and Hannah brave it out against the unseasonable chill. This is at one of our many many rest stops, I suppose.

Triumph! After the dreadfully cold night, this was amazing. We went to the ancient Hittite capital, Hattusha, and climbed our little hearts out. Oh, that's the Turkey Baster in my hand. We thought it was appropriately noble.

The Hittites spoke one of the first Indo-European languages and were an incredibly powerful nation. Their empire was forgotten for thousands of years, however, because it disentigrated from within (nasty civil war) and they just headed back where they came from, the Black Sea area. Archaeologists found Hattusha hidden away up in these Turkish mountains and were shocked to discover that a fourth great empire had existed along with Egypt, Babylon, and...oh wait, let me think...Assyria.

Chris and the Hittite woman-man. It's definitely a guy, but some of us were convinced that it was a woman...he does have awfully big hips...

Walter meditates atop the Sphinx Gate.

Joy and I hug Aslan. No, really! "Aslan" is the Turkish word for "lion." This is the Lion Gate in Hattusha.

On to another culture; that afternoon, we visited the caves in Cappadocia. The Christians built churches here in the 1st century, and later, the native inhabitants enlarged them to defend against Turkish invaders. Too cool for words, but I'll try. There are eighteen levels in this underground city, and that includes chapels, kitchens, bathrooms, wells, baptistries, schools, wineries, communication shafts, winding staircases, and everything to make a spelunker's heart happy. I got so dirty climbing around, but it was worth every clay stain. We (Joy, Walter, Chris, Jody, David, Betsy, and I) sang hymns in one of the domed chapels (great acoustics) using Walter's ever-ready Lutheran Hymnal. It's come in handy several times, in fact; seems every place we go has some vault perfect for singing.


I LOVE CARBS.