Turkey (Part 2 of 2)

**WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD... AGAIN**

Here is a quick recap of the rest of our trip:

This is during a street performance in Istanbul.
They are always fun as the crowd is face to face with you
and you can interact and take pictures with them easily.
This is Elif, our festival guide, and our bus driver.
He was THE BEST bus driver EVER!
The festival took us to a place called Miniaturk.
It had all the famous sites in Istanbul in 1/25th scale.
This is what the Blue Mosque looks like.
Crazy.
This is Hagia Sohpia.
Both festivals had the stage right by a lake.
One night there was a beautiful sunset.
Nice shot Fez!
This is my friend from Taiwan!
She was so sweet and would get so excited
whenever she saw me.
I miss her already.
We did humanitarian service at a school for
children with handicaps. We performed for them
and gave them each their own goodies
(sunglasses, coloring books, hats, skittles, etc etc)
This was some of the children and the school owner.
We're so cute!
This is Hagia Sophia.
Basically an amazing building.
There is a rich history with this building.
It was built in 537 AD and has been 3 different churches.
The original doors to enter Hagia Sophia.
AMAZING.
This is from the second floor.
You can see Muslim and Christian remainings
throughout the building.
So much detail!
I love it!

I never thought we would have the chance to go to Greece or Turkey and I can't believe that we have been to both now. They were amazing and I hope that maybe one day we can make it back.

Congratulations on a great tour Clog America!
U-S-A, CLOG AMERICA!!!

Turkey (Part 1 of 2)

Getting into Turkey was an adventure to say the least.
A 15 hour bus ride with an hour delay at the border
because we all had to pay for 'travel visas' to enter the country.

Needless to say I was not a fan of Turkey
by the time we reached the hotel at 6:00 am...
But it quickly redeemed itself.

The first festival we were a part of was the
Kucukcemece Lake Festival.
The countries performing were USA, Portugal, England,
Tawain, Georgia, Belgium and Turkey.

It is always fun to see the other groups perform
and get to know them as the festival goes on.

Here are some pictures of the festival and our travels:

***WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD***

Here is Clog America with the Mayor of Kucukcemce.
I'm pretty sure this guy was running to be
President of Turkey because his face was everywhere!
He was doing a great job at campaigning.

During a parade in the streets of Istanbul.

Yeah America!

The festival took all the countries
on a boat ride on the Bosphorus Strait.
The bridge behind us connects the Asia side of Istanbul
with the Europe side of Istanbul.
Who knew Istanbul was part of 2 continents???

Asia is behind us.

Europe is behind us.

This is the Basilica Cistern.
It is the largest cistern in the world.

I know the story of Medusa, but I can't remember now
why she was carved in these columns, especially
upside down. There is one of her sideways as well
just around the corner.

Some of us girls at the Topkapi Palace.
This is where the Sultans lived and ruled.
It was HUGE. Four gardens. Giant kitchen.
The 2nd largest diamond in the world is displayed there.
86 carats.
Wowsers!

View of Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait
from one of the gardens at Topkapi Palace.

The Grand Bazaar.
They sell just about everything for ridiculous prices.
Haggling was a bit of a challenge
but we got it down and came out with some great stuff!

The outside streets of the Grand Bazaar.

Inside the court of the Blue Mosque.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
These pictures don't do it justice.
I couldn't believe it was one massive room
and the painting detail was incredible.
Breathtaking...

Outside the Blue Mosque.

That's all for today.
More of Turkey to come tomorrow!

Greece

Tour this year was great!!!

Well, it is every year but it was just so fun!

Greece was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
Sooo much history. Friendly people. Beautiful waters.
Missionaries. Yummy food.
I can hardly wait to go back!

Fez was the best photographer the whole trip and took lots of pictures.
The next few posts are just going to be picture overload.
Bear with me; I will try to explain what I can...


The view of the Acropolis from Mars Hill, or Aeropagus.
It is where Paul testified to the Greek philosophers of the day.
Read it in Acts 17.
Pretty neat.

We took a ferry to Aegina which is the closest island.
We went swimming in the Aegean Sea,
rented scooters and rode around the island.
Best way to experience the island!

The water was incredible!!!

Performance at American Community School.
We gave school supplies to the students and a
bunch of quilts to an Armenian kid shelter.

The Theater of Dionysus

The Parthenon.
Just Amazing...

The view of Mars Hill (Aeropagus) from the Acropolis.
Also view of Athens, city of 5 million people.

The Temple of Zeus. It took like 600 years to build, was completed for one year and then someone came and destroyed it! Only 15 columns remain out of 106.

The Acropolis at night from Mars Hill.
Awesome.

We stopped at a port for dinner about an hour away from the Turkey border. It was a beautiful, cool night!

That's all for Greece!
Our adventures in Turkey will be coming soon!

ATTACK!!!

We're baaaack!!!

We've been home for about a week now but there were so many pictures to go through, loads of laundry and a mess of a house to clean up I decided the trip report would have to be last. So now that I'm about done I'm working on the posts. They are soon to come...

Since we missed the 4th of July Fireworks we decided we had to see some 24th of July fireworks. We met up with some friends that had laid out blankets right where they set the fireworks off so they really were the best seats in the house!

It was an awesome show until one went off on the ground a little too close to where we were sitting. One more went off a little closer and then another went off kiddie-corner behind us in front of a house!

People had started to gather up their stuff so we started to do the same when another went off right at the gate of the ball field about 30 feet away! EVERYONE instantly started scrambling for shoes, purses, blankets, children, etc. It was complete chaos for a couple seconds. The fireworks resumed shooting off in the sky, the way they are supposed to, but none of us really seemed to watch the rest of the show.

There were fire trucks and ambulances at the house when we left and have found out now from the news that some people had been injured from the fireworks or being trampled. It was definitely a scary moment and quite an adrenaline rush, but grateful we were all ok.

Thanks for a great show Liberty Park! We'll be there next year to see your show!

So long... Farewell...

See you in 3 weeks!!!

Not too shabby

This week has been pretty eventful...

* Went swimming and got my first sunburn of the summer

*Went to the Eclipse party with some awesome women, got glitter hair, ugly nail polish, crazy photobooth pictures, and just had a blast

*Saw Eclipse. MUCH better than the first two movies

*Family left us to go to Jackson Hole for family reunion. Tear...

*Saw Toy Story 3... LOVED. IT.

*Packed Fez and I into one suitcase for 3 weeks. Miracle.

*Ate a yummy meal at Cheesecake Factory because I'm not sure when my next really yummy meal will be

*Did sealings at Draper Temple. BEAUTIFUL.

*Leaving tomorrow morning for Greece
:)