Tasty Turkey!!!!!!! Cleopatra Pools!!!!!!!!

Today, I went to the Cleopatra pools. I put on a bathing suit under my clothes, and drove to the pools around 11:15 this morning. It was a really warm day out, so I was happy that I could fully enjoy the pools. They were pretty popular. I had to wait in a long line to get in, and once I did, I was really excited. The pools were crystal clear, and there was beautiful scenery around it. The pools were said to have healing properties, cure all kinds of diseases,and it is supposed to make people look ten years younger. I was hoping the ten years younger part wasnt true or else I would come out looking like a toddler. Thats probably why everyone else in the pools were old people or middle aged women wanting to look beautiful again The pools were incredibly relaxing. I just floated on my back in the water till I bumped into a rock. At one point I found this neat little cave where I could hide and spy on people in. I hid in there for a bit, then decided that it was about time to leave, because my hands were turning into prunes. I left feeling refreshed,pruney, and like a toddler.

Tasty Turkey!!!!!!! Turkish Coffee!!!!!!!!

Today was a very quiet day. I got up, walked around town, visited the Grand Bazaar, nothing really that exciting. But when I realized that I hadn't yet tasted the fine coffee of Turkey. I dropped everything, and ran like charlie with his golden ticket to a coffee shop. I sat down and ordered their special on the menu(still don't know how he managed to understand me). The waiter brought me a cup of coffee and walked away. It was really cool looking, and had a different texture than normal coffee. How they make it is they boil finely powdered roasted coffee beans, maybe with sugar, and serve it in a cup. Its a pretty common method of coffee making in the Middle East and Northern Africa. I sipped my coffee, and it was amazing. ahh, the warmth just trickled down my throat. I savored my coffee, which probably was not a very good idea, since the coffee started to get cold. I was sad when my coffee was gone, but promised myself I would get one tommorow. I walked out of the coffee shop with a coffee mustache, in a good mood.

Tasty Turkey!!!!!!!! Ruins of Ephesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was my Ruins of Ephesus day. I think it was one of my favorite days in Turkey.It was especially cool because while I was there I met Hannah! I was getting on the bus to drive to the ruins, walked on(ha ha I almost missed the bus!)and sat down in the seat in the back row. I saw a person next to me. Hmmmmm. Blonde hair, a little bit taller than me.......I felt as if I had known this person for around eight months, tented with on the fall trip and midyear trip , and sat next to at lunch time. Apparently she did too because she said," Do I know you?". A HA!! Detective Nicole has solved the case! ( In a timely fashion to!) It was Hannah!! We chatted for a bit until the bus arrived at the ruins. Apparently Ephesus was an ancient Greek city during the time of the Classical Greek Era. The city was famous for the Temple Of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders Of the Ancient World. Once Hannah and I got off the bus, we waited in a long line for our tickets to get into the museum. We walked around until I got bored:). There was a lot of neat artifacts in the museum. There were a lot of different sculptures and carvings in it. Once we left the museum, we went to check out the city. The city itself was amazing, there were a lot of half-crumbled homes and stores. My favorite parts were the Temple of Artemis, and lunchtime. For lunch I had Dönner Kebabs. Three. Dönner. Kebabs. A Dönner Kebab is pretty much a meat filled sandwich. Ahhhhh they were so good. While Hannah was munching away at her wimpy little lamb casserole, I was ferouciously wolfing down my Dönner Kebab. After lunch, we visited the Library Of Celsus. It was a big, old library that used to hold 12,ooo scrolls and served as a burial tomb for Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus! Hannah didn't find that interesting, and so we decided to leave. We got on the bus, and went our seperate ways again. Boy am I glad I saw Hannah that day!

Tasty Turkey!!!!!!! Skiing!!!!!!!!

Today was really fun, but painful. I decided that it was about time I got a little cold, and packed a bag with my ski coat, my phone, and my money, and headed to the airport to go skiing. I had to take a plane to Bursa, Uludag. Since the ski resort I would be skiing at was in a national park, I had to fly to the airport, and take a special bus(special as in the only bus that could go to the park) to the top of the mountain. AAHHH!!!! The mountain was REALLY steep! I couldn't look as we slowly crawled just inches away from the edge of the cliff. I started to write my will in my head" And I will leave my dogs to my parents--" and then we lurched to a stop. Apparently the bus had broken down (oh joy!) and the driver had to fix it. I was really freaking out now. He took about five minutes to fix the bus(translation to Nicole Hysteria Time: 5 hours). Once we got to the park, I rented some skis, and got a skiing lesson from a Turkish dude. He was appalled at my lack of skiing knowledge. I just got on the skis and flopped over on my butt. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was really fun. I was only able to do the really easy ones. I once got distracted with a bird, and almost crashed into a tree, too. It was really beautiful where I was skiing, and decided to get hot chocolate after I was finished skiing and walk around. I made a snowman, which I was pretty proud of, and made a snow fort so I could throw snowballs at innocent bystanders. I geuss the torturous trip up the mountain WAS w0rth it.

Tasty Turkey!!!! White water Rafting!!!!

After I had my bazaar adventure, I decided it was time for a little more action. It was time for some white water river rafting. Fortunately, it was a fairly warm day, so I didn't have to worry about freezing my butt off. I DROVE this time, remembering my feet yesterday, and after driving and driving and driving and driving for a really time, I arrived at the river. I was really scared, I had only been river rafting once in Colorado, and I was now faced with five old pros in my raft. The guide told us about the river and about how he named the big drops and twists in the river. My personal favorite was the " Chinese Wall of Death". The ride was really turbulent, I was thrown all around the raft, but it was really fun. During our ride we passed many "landmarks'. There was an old house on the hillside where an old man lived. The guide said that he had never seen the man leave his house, and we were all shocked. I was just wondering where he got his food from! Maybe he had an indoor farm... I was almost thrown out of the raft but thanks to my death grip on the handle, that didn't happen .At one point, where the water was calm, we were able to jump in the water, and I was the only one who dared to jump in the water. It was surprisingly warm, and I enjoyed my little dip. I was spaced out, I was daydreaming about cauliflower, and the guide had to poke me with his oar to De-spacify me. I was sad once it was over, it felt like it only lasted for 5 minutes, but I was tired anyway, so I changed back into my clothes, got into my car, and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove.......

p.s.

the story about the Chinese wall of death is true, so is the daydreaming and so is the story about the man who didn't leave his house.

Tasty Turkey!!!! 7 Things

1. Go to the Itsanbul Grand Bazaar!!!

2. Go skiing!!!

3. See the Cleopatra Pools!!!

4. Drink Turkish Coffee!!!

5. See the Ruins of Ephesus!!!

6. Go White Water River Rafting!!

Tasty Turkey!!!!!! Itsanbul Grand Bazaar!!

Today I boarded my plane at 5:45 a.m. I was rudely awoken by my iPhone's alarm, and almost threw it against the wall, had I not caught myself. I threw my clothes on, and started driving to the Santa Barbara Airport. The plane ride was long, and sleepless. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get to sleep(despite my early awakening). I arrived in Turkey in the night, and went to sleep in my hotel. I awoke next morning, glad I didn't have anymore flights, and started walking to Itsanbul's Grand Bazaar. Itsanbul's Grand Bazaar is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. It probably wasn't a great idea to walk to the bazaar, because by the time I got there, my feet were already tired. I walked around, and just looked at all the goods. The market itself was beautiful, and they had everything you could ever think of. I decided to get a gorgeous coin pouch from an old lady running a small stand in the corner of the market. It was beautifully woven and had sequins and gems lining it. I thanked the lady in Turkish, which by the way she thought was pretty amusing, and exited the bazaar with the coins in my pouch jingling in my hand.

Tasty Turkey!!!! Words and Phrases

Hello: Merhaba

Goodbye: Güle Güle

I don't speak Turkish!: Ben Türkçe bilmiyorum!

Good Night: Iyi Geceler

Good Morning: Günaydin

Good Afternoon: Iyi Aksamlar

This is very good: Bu çok lezzetli

Thank You: Tesekkürler

Please: Lütfen

Help Me: Yardim

I love you: Seni seviyorum

Tasty Turkey!!!! travel plans

Sun 7-Mar-10
Santa Barbara (SBA) Depart 6:12 pm	to	San Francisco (SFO) Arrive 7:32 pm Terminal 3	263 mi (423 km) Duration: 1hr 20mn	UNITED Flight: 6838 Operated by: /UNITED EXPRESS/SKYWEST AIRLINES
Economy/Coach Class, EMB-120
San Francisco(SFO) Depart 9:00 pm Terminal INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL	to	Munich (MUC) Arrive 5:15 pm +1 day Terminal 2	5,864 mi (9,437 km) Duration: 11hr 15mn	Lufthansa Flight: 459
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340-600
Mon 8-Mar-10
Munich (MUC) Depart 6:20 pm Terminal 2	to	Istanbul (IST) Arrive 9:55 pm Terminal INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL	989 mi (1,592 km) Duration: 2hr 35mn	Lufthansa Flight: 2092 Operated by: TURKISH AIRLINES
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, Boeing 737-800
Tue 9-Mar-10
Istanbul (IST) Depart 7:00 am Terminal DOMESTIC TERMINAL	to	Adana (ADA) Arrive 8:30 am	432 mi (695 km) Duration: 1hr 30mn	Turkish Airlines Flight: 454
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, Boeing 737-800
Total distance: 7,548 mi (12,147 km) Total duration: 16hr 40mn (28hr 18mn with connections)
Traveling to Santa Barbara
Mon 15-Mar-10
Adana (ADA) Depart 9:15 am	to	Istanbul (IST) Arrive 10:55 am Terminal DOMESTIC TERMINAL	432 mi (695 km) Duration: 1hr 40mn	Turkish Airlines Flight: 455
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, Boeing 737-800
Istanbul (IST) Depart 12:55 pm Terminal INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL	to	Munich (MUC) Arrive 2:35 pm Terminal 2	989 mi (1,592 km) Duration: 2hr 40mn	Lufthansa Flight: 3351
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, Airbus A320
Munich (MUC) Depart 3:35 pm Terminal 2	to	Los Angeles (LAX) Arrive 8:00 pm Terminal TOM BRADLEY INTL TERM	5,976 mi (9,617 km) Duration: 12hr 25mn	Lufthansa Flight: 452
Economy/Coach Class, Meal, AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340-600
Los Angeles (LAX) Depart 10:45 pm Terminal 8	to	Santa Barbara (SBA) Arrive 11:22 pm	89 mi (143 km) Duration: 0hr 37mn	UNITED Flight: 6363 Operated by: /UNITED EXPRESS/SKYWEST AIRLINES

Cost: 2081$