Fifteenth Post From Türkiye: Winter Break

 Well, it's almost time for Spring Break so I figured I had better post our pictures from the trip we took for Winter Break. Come on, it hasn't been that long. Only about 3 months and our computer had issues during that time, so obviously I am not a slacker.

 Right?

Well, anyway, we loaded up the car the day after Christmas and headed out. Our first stop was Gallipoli. For those of you who are WWI buffs, you will know that Gallipoli is a peninsula where the Ottoman's defended against the invasion of the allies (Britain and France) as they were trying to get a more direct route to Russia through the Dardanelles. I may be getting this totally wrong, but since this is just a blog of my ramblings & pictures, I doubt anyone is reading this to actually learn about history. Anyway, the Ottomans were successful at keeping the British & French from invading and the battle was the proving Ground for Ataturk's leadership. So, of course, Turk's love it. Strangely so do Australians and Brits, you would think they wouldn't, but lots visit the area all the time. Plenty were in our hotel, being all Britishy and Australiany (those are words!). This summer will be the 100th anniversary of the campaign so we figured we better beat the crowds. 

Ferry to Eceabat.

Kilitbahir Castle

Giant Map of the Campaign.

Recreation of the trenches.

Bunker

Beautiful Turkish coast.

Lone Pine Memorial

Truman in the Turkish trenches.

From Gallipoli we headed to Thessaloniki, Greece. Thessaloniki is a great city and the Apostle Paul wrote two letters to early Christians there (New Testament, First & Second Thessalonians). We had a great time exploring the city and ate some truly terrific food. We have a tendency to eat a lot of pork when outside of Turkey and the Greeks didn't let us down. I should have taken a picture of the pork steak I had for dinner one night as it stands out in my memories of the town, but alas, I did not. You will just have to take my word for it, awesome.

Ano Poli, or the upper city.

View from the hill.

Old City Walls

Walking tour through Old Town.

Churches along our route.

Vlatodon Monastery

The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Hagios Demetrios.

Rotunda of Galerius 

Kitty

 Arch of Galerius

 Ataturk's Birthplace

 Tasty Treats: Pastry & Souvlaki...mmmm.

They don't look like it, but they were very happy.

Roman Forum

The White Tower

Climbing the White Tower

View from the top of the White Tower.

From Thessaloniki we headed through the mountains to Macedonia or The Republic of Macedonia or"the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" or FYROM. We're just going to refer to the country as Macedonia, okay? Guess what happened as we traveled from Greece to Macedonia....a giant snow storm!!! Hurray! And as this area is usually moderate in temperature it kind of brought everything to a stand still. 

Oh, man was it fun! When we got to Ohrid, our hotel was full, because people couldn't leave. So we were moved to a different hotel, where Jack had to stay in a different room and there was no gas for the heat so they had to bring in electric heaters. But as we are hardy westerners we still ventured out to see the sights!!!

Dinner in a restaurant where we are the only customers. Everyone else, wisely stayed indoors.

Our new hotel. It was actually really nice. I would stay there again.

It was so cold that at first we thought we would just drive around to the sights. Wrong! Jack tried to drive up this street but it was so icy that he slid back into this drain pipe. We offered the lady who lived there money to fix it but she took pity on us.

View from the hotel.

 Church of Saint Sofia, frescoes from the 11th century.

Church of St. John at Kaneo, on Lake Ohrid. 13th Century.

Roman Theater

Macedonian philosopher who stopped us on our hike up to the fortress to offer us his services as a guide and to share his views as to why this was such a religious spot throughout history. Who could pass that up? We gladly gave him a tip for his philosophical lecture in the snow. I can't remember his name. I'm sure Jack does.

Did I mention it was FREEZING? Especially up on top of the castle!

From Ohrid we headed out to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. That trip was epic. Most of the road hadn't been cleared and we were ever so grateful for our snow tires. We were bustin' through drifts and swerving around cars stuck in the snow. It was crazy! But we made it and we had a great time celebrating the New Year in Skopje.

 Cifte hammam in the Old Bazaar, now an art museum.

 Mustafa Pasha Mosque

 Skopje Kale Fortress. Doesn't it look like fun, sightseeing in the snow??

 We walked through the bazaar and the streets were lined with people selling fireworks for New Years. I am no expert but it seemed that most of these shouldn't be handled by the average citizen. It goes without saying that it sounded like we were in a war zone all night.

 Holy Savior Church

 The Stone Bridge

The streets were starting to get packed and our toes were getting cold so we stopped for some dinner and hot chocolate. You know the hot chocolate is good when you can eat it with a spoon. Almost like warm chocolate pudding. 

New Year's Festivities.

New Year's Day we headed back to Turkey and stayed the night in one of our favorite towns, Edirne. Spending some time the next day walking around the town.

 Eski Camii Mosque

Jack always likes to get a picture of me with my scarf on my head.

 Üç Şerefeli Mosque. It has one of the largest domes. They were changing the light bulbs while we were there.

Side dome.

Courtyard

 Shopping in the Bazaars.

It was a really fun trip, even with all the crazy weather!

PS: We saw some really terrific graffiti, especially in Thessaloniki, that town was covered in it. So here is our graffiti gallery. 

Oh and a picture for all of the people who would rather have us meet them in Greece instead of coming to Turkey, because they have heard Greece is so beautiful. Well it is, but you also get to see sights like THIS as well.