Istanbul/Goreme

So yesterday was a quick morning in Istanbul as I had a flight at 1PM to Kayseri to head to Goreme. As I had not made it inside the Blue Mosque I looked up the hours when it was open to the public (non prayer times - 5/day) and I was good at 9AM. After breakfast I headed out the door to the Mosque and like normal when trying to time entrance into a mosque the info provided was not quite correct. I entered the queue and prayed that "in shalla" it would open in time as I needed to get on the tram about 10:30 to get to the airport. While standing in line I talked to a nice group that was from Houston. It is always fun to run into other Texans. :) I was lucky and the doors opened in time for me to have a look inside the mosque.

The Blue Mosque is very beautiful and solemn, well and as advertised, quite blue. Once again the sheer size of the building is impressive. The columns feel like they are as big as the redwoods in California. There is not a ton to actually see in the blue mosque room wise, but the space that I was allowed in was worth the wait.

After leaving the Mosque I walked a bit and then headed to grab my stuff and head to the airport. The hotel that I am staying at will pick you up and take you to the airport, so for my main arrival and departure from Istanbul I am having them take me but for my trip to Goreme I took the tram and boy is it nice and easy. It is about 45 minutes but it is really interesting to see other parts of the city. I will take a slightly different route back so I can experience a different route as the amount of time is the same.

The airport in Istanbul is split between international and domestic, but Turkish Air had a premium lounge at both (hooray for Star Alliance Gold, and I will miss you). After some confusion I found the lounge (which is in BFE). The very interesting thing about this lounge is that they bus you to the gate directly from the lounge. There is no walking through the rif raf to get on the plane. ;) It was an easy one hour flight to Kayseri followed by an ~1 hour drive to Goreme. I arrive at my hotel and discussed plans with Sedar at the front desk for today's adventures and the he drove me to the Goreme Open Air Museum.

The Open Air Museum is fascinating. It is where early Christians built churches and lived. In this one small space I believe that there were 30 churches and for all their crude simplicity they were beautiful and humbling. The work that was done to carve and decorate these spaces so that they could worship is a testimony to their faith and a wonderful showing of belief. I am glad that I went yesterday as it was something that (as cool as it was, could be fit in an hour).

That evening I walk around town and enjoyed, bought a ceramic piece and went to bed early as I had a 4:30 wake up call for a balloon ride. :)

I have to say that it is a good thing that the hotel is not sound proof as I heard some one going down the stairs over head and thought to myself "what time is it" looked at the clock and it was 4:45. AAARGH, my alarm did not go off even though it was set to do so. I will have o figure that out tonight. Thanks to my loud neighbors I was up I time to take a quick shower before heading out the door for my balloon ride.

I think that this is where I will pick up the blog tomorrow on the plane. Great day today, but tired. Early call tomorrow to get flight back to Istanbul.

Istanbul day 1

So one quick item on the flight. I am used to sitting next to men that take up more then their fair share of the space on a plane, but yesterday was the first time hat I had that problem with a woman. She kept elbowing me and just invading my space. So annoying.

(side bar, the iPad is the best tour book EVER!!!!!)

So far (and I am waiting for prayer to be over at the Blue Mosque) I have really enjoyed Istanbul. It is an old lady of a city, that has grace, charm and enough grit to keep her interesting. I started the day going or a walk along the water. It was interesting to see all the ships that were heading in or out of port. I then meandered a bit and finally entered Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia was beautiful. Not quite breathtaking like the first time I saw the David in Florence but close. The mosaic, stone and art work were amazing. Then there is the whole architectural feat of building the thing. There were two things that made me sad. First, and I have the same issues at St. Paul's at the Vatican, look at all the money that was spent on a place when it could have been helping people. Yes places of worship are important, but they did not need to be this elaborate. Then again the world would be missing great beauty if these places did not exist. The second point hat made me said was seeing a Christian church, and all the symbolism and substance overlaid by Muslim symbolism. I know that to the victors go the spoils, but it still makes me sad.

Ok, off to do more stuff..........will return.

I also went to the Cisterns. They were very cool, especially the Medusa heads. It is interesting to see how older cultures and civilizations gathered water to support its citizens.

So getting in the mosque will have to happen tomorrow. I did go to the Topkapi Palace. It was amazing but I could tell that I am/was getting tired. So I stopped for lunch and to check into the hotel. I am getting organized before I head out for more walking about as I head to Goreme tomorrow. I will say, I may avoid the red eye in the future so I do not crash mid day.

BTW, I have lived in Doha too long as I am cold. I thought traveling from Houston was bad. :)

Test run

These are flowers in my front yard

Upcoming Travel

So I think that I have the basics of this thing the way that I want it and will be making changes as I get used to the darn interface, but that will mainly be cosmetic.


So the main reason that I started this is 


1) I was being pestered by a friend for more info on my trips (Love you M)
2) I wanted something a bit more substantial then Facebook posts to remember my adventures
3) Finally, I am about to take a trip to some amazing locations and I wanted to be able to share my misadventures.


So in the next six months I have trips planned that will take me to three continents, eight countries and will compete in three marathons and four triathlons.  While I am very excited, I have a feeling that I will be very tired.


My first excursion starts on Nov 5th, way too early in the morning, when I leave Doha for Istanbul. I am very excited to be in a city that bridges Europe and Asia, along with the Christian and Muslim religions.  I am in Istanbul for one night before I head to Central Turkey for the City of Goreme.  For hiking, hot air balloon rides and any other mischief I can get into.  I return to Istanbul for two days and then I am off to Athens where I will meet up with friends from Houston, that is if a strike does not interrupt transportation.  KNOCK ON WOOD.  We are getting together to run the Athens Marathon.  As you know, no Holly vacation is complete without a race. :)


After Athens, the group splits and a few of us are heading to Santorini and last but not least Prague.


Phew!  This is going to be a great 17 days.  I plan to post my adventures along the way.


Here is to a travel, shopping, friends, food and fun.  I can not wait.  Only one more day of work and then I can escape.  


My next post should be from Istanbul!


So for now, good night from Doha!

First Post

Well, I have been meaning to start a blog for a while now and well here goes.  This will be my way to share my misadventures in regarding living in Doha, Training (Marathons, Triathlons, etc) and my Longhorns.  Here is to the adventures.