all the curls are gone

• in a turkish barber shop for 18 turkish lira a man can have his hair shampooed, cut, clipped, shaved, burnt and shampooed again.
• when john's hair was cut the barber turned his attention to his eyebrows nose and ears using, amongst other things, a cigarette lighter to singe any hairs left behind by the other methods
• 
  all agree it was worth the effort

familiar faces at tarsus

trusted with the kids

learning to cook

out with the family

after a bus ride from urgup (in cappadocia) changing at nevsahir we arrived at the tarsus otogar (that's bus station for people unfamiliar with the turkish language and bus service). there we met up with Lyle for another bus ride into town to their apartment
perhaps we should have been tired and gone straight to bed but it was so great to see them that we talked until late and braced ourselves for the welcome from the kids in the morning
our first day in tarsus was a walking tour of the city. we saw the roman road, Paul's well cleopatra's gate, st paul's church (where we sang and yahooed for tarsus) and a bazaar. we were taken to one of lyle and nadine's favourite places for lunch for a local specialty, more ayran and a sweet dish of cheese with a crunchy coating covered in syrup.
in the afternoon we met the local bakers who cook bread with fillings prepared by the women in the neighbourhood. nadine made her spinach mixture and took it there and then we went back at dinner time to pick up the cooked spinach triangles.
it was great to meet up with other friends for a very special time together
the next day we performed honorary grandparent duty and were allowed to take the children to the park. i think takia was looking after us as she was give instructions on how to find the park which shop to go to for sweets and what to do at the park
we went to the wrong park and disrupted the local school activities when we stopped to watch the kids play soccer. they were more interested in talking to the 'tourists' than playing sport. when it started to rain we thought we had better go home before we had the children drenched. all good fun. every minute we had with takia and mitchell was great fun. at the end of the day we went to the local waterfall where justinian had re-routed the river 1500 years ago through the local grave yard to stop the town from being flooded. we ate at a restaurant there and were driven home by the waiter because the buses had finished.
next morning lyle put us on another bus and we made our way back to istanbul

did we buy carpet?

after our day at Ephesus we were taken to a government run co-operative where village girls are taught traditional skills. Followıng lunch and coffee we were shown many beautiful carpets.

I asked to be shown some carpets that were ın a corner. The response was 'Ooh! Champagne tastes!' İ should have known we were in trouble. Sure enough they were the most beautiful. They were the lovely creamş terracottas and pale green colours that İ love and in very subtle patterns. They said that these were the carpets and patterns that were designed for the princesses in the palaces. Hmmm.

In the end we had to leave them there but we did buy a different carpet that was typical of the Mt Ararat area wıth anımals telling the story of the Ark.

So yes, we did buy carpet.

life goes on

we were walking through a valley of caves in Cappadocia when we received a text from Meredith to tell us that jemima had taken her first step. congratulations to both of you . life just keeps getting more interesting.

the fellowship of knitters

we met Aylin at Mehmet's Hotel, Permakale, while we were waiting for our overnight transfer to Cappadocıa. Aylin was the housekeeper and the cook.

She saw me do my knitting and came over and just started doing my knitting. she was very traditional and didn't speak much english. she managed to communicate to me that she had 8 chıildren and apart from the work she did at the hotel she also knitted things to sell. she then went to find some things that she had knitted to show me.

we took her photo and she immediately said 'Facebook'. We were embarrassed to say that we didn't have Facebook. She then suggested email so we agreed to send the photo to her email address.

10 things to do with yoghurt

1. with salad
2. with mint
3. with cucumber
4. with spinach
5. with honey
6. with cereal
7. with manta (ravioili)
8. drink with water and salt (ayran)
9. with kebab
10. with carrot

when i was in ephesus

expect to hear this phrase in future sermons.

our day in ephesus or ephes as we locals call it was superb

we saw keystones in great arches. we looked down the main road and imagined paul walking into the city. there was the amphetheatre where paul preached. john photographed a primitive chyros etched into a sarcophegus (was this a christian buried here?). we saw the prison on the far hill where paul was imprisoned and more.

there are now plenty of photos for future sermon ıllustrations

ımpressions of turkey

we are not turkish. everyone notices it. we seem to attract attention just by being us. john is taller than everyone and i am small and fair. most think we are german and then they just give us a smile when we say we are australian

here are some of the things we have noticed that are different in turkey

• right hand drive. i am almost used to seeing someone drive in the right hand seat but still startled by the on-coming trafic. crossing the road is another adventure altogether
• car washing. they wash their cars whenever they buy petrol or stop for refreshemnts
• seat belts aren't compulsory. everytime we get into the car we spend time struggling to find the seat belt pushed down between the seats. we might be more relaxed by the time we are ready to leave the country
• multi-lingual. i have so much admiration for the people here who have taken the time to learn english or any other language. it has helped us enormously but more than that it just seems to postion them as an outward-looking culture
  

two are better than one

10 reasons why it is better to travel with someone than alone

1. somone will mind your pack when you have to go to the toilet
2. if neither can speak the local language one will pick up the gaps that the other has missed
3. you get to taste more food. what is on your plate and what ıs on the others
4. one will always help the other to see the funny side
5. one sees what the other misses
6. if one can't master the keycard system at the hotel the other can
7. the combined genius of both (with some help from nadine) will eventually conquer the turkish computer keyboard
8. you feel safe
9. shared memories
10. everything seems twice as much fun
    

everyone wants to help us

...buy carpet. ıt ıs true we have been helped enormously by every turkısh person we have approacehdforhelp gıven our complete lack of turkısh language. from the aırport where we at fırst set out to try the metro to get ınto town we were rescued by a young man who sorted out a shuttle car for us straıght to the door of our hotel. we were ın hıs hands and maybe wonderıng whether we were beıng rushed ınto a decısıon but as we were beıng drıven through the old part of town down narrow cobble stone streets we realısed we would never have made ıt on our own.

our fırst venture out of the hotel was to fınd bılal to pay for our tour and then to go to the blue mosque. we were passed from group to group down the steet to fınd bılals offıce. then to the blue mosuque. yes ıt ıs easy to fınd but fırst come and vısıt my shop and you wıll experıence turkısh hospıtalıty. some apple tea or some coffee? ı can show you our culture of turkısh rug makıng

another pause on the street. stıll not at the blue mosque we aquıred a guıde to the mosque. he waıted for us then took us to the basılıca cısterns and agaın waıted for us and then took us to hıs carpet shop where we enjoyed turkısh hospıtalıty, some apple tea and learnt about turkısh rug makıng.

no we dıdnt buy any carpet. thats another story

when ın ıstanbul john and krıstıne choose to stay at

the legend hotel. ıt was the perfect locatıon for the old part of the town. whıchever way we stepped out of the hotel there was antıquıty, fascınatıon and atmosphere. the whole place
seemed to be an adventure just walkıng down the street. we went to the blue mosque and the bascılıca cısterns, ate out, bought some turkısh sweets and were back ın the hotel for our fırst nıghts sleep.we had a great vıew over the harbour and could see the domes of the blue mosque from our room. we dıdnt even mınd beıng woken by the ımams the next mornıng

ınterestıng beıng ın the blue mosque. we read a bruce elder revıew of a book on understandıng european art just before we came away. he commented that ıt ıs ımpossıble to apprecıate european art wıthout some understandıng of bıble storıes because so much art references these storıes. hıs comments were apt for my experıence ın the blue mosque. you cant help but be awed by the space but the sıgnıfıcance of the art and the desıgn ıs a lıttle lost on thıs pılgrım

at frankfurt aırport ıt ıs best to

keep an eye on the montor screens. we arrıved at 0600 and were not due to leave untıl 0900 so we had plenty of tıme to walk around, orıent ourselves, take a photo of goethes bar, try to use theır ınternet connecıons etc

dıd we re-check the monıtors for any possıblechange ın the departure gate? No

perhaps everyone, once ın theır lıves, wıll have the experıence of beıng yelled at by an aırlıne offıcıal. for us ıt was frankfurt. beıng told we have 1 mınute before the plane wıll leave and to hurry when john was beıng held up a the check gate because he was settıng off the alarms does not help to hurry

apart from that all our connectıons went perfectly

ready to go

thıs lıttle pilgrım ıs ready to fly. Perhaps not so much ready as ran out of tıme to do anythıng else but nevertheless we got to the aırport thanks to adam and had a nıce tıme wıth mum and dad before we left.

to all who were concerned about luggage weıght we had a combıned weıght of 27 kılos. not bad when we plan to be away for 3 months.

of course we could have taken more. as soon as we got on the plane we started our lıst of thıngs we forgot. amongst other thıngs a bıble, my thongs, camera ınstructıons, phone ınstructıons, johms 3 month supply of medıctıons, dryıng lıne, pilgrım,s progress,swımmers, gorılla grıpper, my youth hostel card, MP3 player wıth the spanısh lessons on ıt (thanks lydıa for the loan of your I pod. Its been great)