Thirty-Fourth Post From Türkiye: Sinop, Istanbul and Random Stuff From this Fall

This fall we took two quick trips within Turkey. The first trip was to Sinop. Which is a great little town on the Black Sea. We have been wanting to get up to see the Black Sea so we took advantage of a long holiday weekend and drove up there.

It seems like, to get to any large body of water in Turkey you have to pass through a mountain range. These mountain ranges are filled with beautiful forests and once you are over them you enter into an entirely different environment. From the desert to lush greenery. I love it every time.

 Forested Mountains & a gratuitous logging photo for my dad's enjoyment.

 Green hills surrounding the sea. Looks like we are in Europe.

Sinop is a city on the isthmus of İnce Burun, near Cape Sinope which is situated on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of the Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia.

As with almost every town in Turkey, Sinop has a long and interesting history. From being a Hittite Port all the way to having a US base during the Cold War. 

It has a fortress, marina and cool churches & Mosques. Plus it is in a beautiful location.

Fishing off the Quay. 

Fortress Walls

You gotta eat some fish on a boat restaurant. Well, at least Jack ate some fish on a boat restaurant.

The second day we were there, we took a drive around the Cape.

"Hello! Donkeys! I don't think they understand English."

Gorgeous Coast!

Another fun fact: Diogenes was born here!

From Sinop we took a scenic road trip home. We drove along the beautiful Kızılırmak River (Red River) for a while.

We spotted some Turkeys in a farm yard and we had to stop for a picture. Nothing gets us more excited than seeing Turkeys in Turkey!

We stopped off to tour around Amasya and visit the Pontic Greek Tombs in the mountains there.

Amasya is located in a narrow cleft of the Yesilirmak (Iris) river, it has a long history of 7,500 years.

 Along one bank of the river is an old section of town with terrific Ottoman style houses and buildings.

 Here is where Jack is like, "We're hiking up to those tombs." and I'm like, "I'll see you when you get back.". But then I always end up making the trek. He just likes to spring these events on me with no warning. Fun!

 He thinks he is so smart for taking us up this hill.

Best statue ever! Ottoman Turk selfie.

Random Stuff Alert!

 A cool thing that you see around Turkey is these produce stands set up along highways. They sell whatever is in season. At this point it was gourds. Lots of gourds.

 View from one of the steepest streets I have ever seen. This picture doesn't do it justice. I literally have to put my car in it's lowest gear and gun it to get up the hill. And I totally avoid it in winter.

 Look what came in the mail!

 The boy, off to scouts in his dad's old scout shirt.

 Pumpkin Carving! Jack was thrilled!

Zombie Boy.

Istanbul

We went to Istanbul for a weekend to attend a special church meeting where one the apostles from our church spoke. It was such an awesome experience and we felt so blessed to be with Elder Holland in such a small meeting. But as we didn't take any pictures of that I will show the pictures of other stuff we did in Istanbul that weekend.

The first night we got into town we made a mad dash down to the Grand Bazaar so we could get there before it closed. Jack's friend at work told him about a shop that would make a custom leather jacket for him at a special price. We just made it and it was totally worth it. He made it just how Jack wanted and even sent it to him via courier without taking any payment until it was delivered. Pretty sweet deal. Anyway, after that adventure we decided to take a walk down İstiklal Avenue.

Blurry Picture of the busy street.

Jack's favorite cafeteria style restaurant. It is pretty good.

Chestnut Cart.

 I love the Flower Passage. It is full of fun shops and restaurants and lots of people.

Watching the game.

There are fun stands like this all around Turkey. They fry up fresh fish. It looks like this guy has some calamari going. How about that giant tub of Ketçap (ketchup) for the fries.

Look what a groovy picture I took!

Eyup

We decided to explore a neighborhood we had never visited before so we headed over to Eyup.

It is the home of the Eyüp Sultan Mosque and a mausoleum marking the spot where Eyüp (Job) al-Ansari, the standard-bearer and friend of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, is said to have been buried.

Jack loves to get a picture of me with a scarf on.

The mosque and tomb are quite beautiful.

 We took a cable car to the top of the hill and walked down through the lovely old cemetery.

Twisty tater on a stick and some popcorn. So nutritious!

Around Eyup.

It's such a special day! You get to wear a special suit and have a balloon and we all dote on you, but then you get circumcised! Poor kid doesn't know what's coming his way.

Strings of varios dried produce, like peppers and mushrooms and what not.

Little rope salesman.

Garden center.

One last stop in Istanbul to see the Süleymaniye Mosque. It is an Ottoman imperial mosque and is the largest mosque in the city. It opened in 1558.

 So proud! One of my best "Turkish" parking jobs! Look how far onto the sidewalk I got. I am really skilled at driving "Turkish Style". 

Portico above the entrance.

Various ceiling decorations.

Ottoman Cemetery

Another view of my most excellent parking job!

A few more random things to share.

 When you stop at a rest stop area here, you see these guys washing the parked cars. If you want your car washed it's great. They only take about 5-10 lire. But if you don't want to have your car washed you have to know the signal, which is to put up your wipers. We didn't know this for a bit and Jack always refused to pay for an unsolicited car wash. Awkward.

 Trum's first semester elective was home economics, it was sneakily paired up with computers in second semester. It has been fun to have him excited to try out his new cooking abilities for us.

 On a street by our church is an old abandoned van, aka vine van. The city just paves around it when the street needs refinished. It's a crazy site. One week a cat came tearing out from under it and scared Trum and I half to death.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner. 

Our most fabulous friends, the Porters, had us over for Thanksgiving Dinner at their house before we all left for trips to more Christmas-y areas of the world. 

We are so glad to have such awesome friends and fun times here!