Fourteenth Post From Türkiye: Christmas Season in Ankara!

1,2,3 Wise-men!

The kids at church acted out the Nativity at the Christmas party. Our branch here in Ankara has a pretty good sized primary, but there are only 5 boys. One of them is only three so he was a shepherd, one was Joseph and so that left these three goofs to be the wise-men. They had excellent costumes though!

 Our Cub-scout Pack held the annual rain-gutter regatta. Trum made a good boat, he probably came in 4th. We can't be sure as there were some objections from some of the other entrants and their crews (parents) as to how many races you had to lose to be eliminated. Frankly, I'd like to eliminate the rain-gutter regatta. It is way too messy to clean up and surely the pinewood derby is plenty to get everybody riled up about each year. Ah, well, this is why I am not in charge of things.

I took my life in my hands in order to take this picture while driving. But I had to! I see these trucks all over. They come to your neighborhood and sell fresh fruit and vegetables. They are great! I just never knew that they drive around with everything just hanging off the back like that. Side-note: look at the size of those leeks! Enormous!

 I was so surprised by how there were Christmas decorations up all over town. It just didn't make sense to me, because obviously the vast majority of Turks don't celebrate Christmas. I was very confused until Jack explained that they were really for New Year and the tradition probably bled into the culture from places like Russia, Macedonia & Bulgaria where they go to church on Christmas and then put the tree up and give presents on New Years. You can read more about a Turkish New Year tree on good ol' wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year_tree 

This is the mall by our house. Notice the angels lining the street. 

This is way blurry, but it's the only picture I got of this enormous reindeer.

Insanely tall tree.

Truman by a creepy robot Santa.

Field trip to the aquarium.

 Annual Rowe Christmas party where we give people good food and then force them to take part in a sing-along (even if English is their second language) and make ginger-bread houses.

Truman's annual insane ginger-bread house. At least this year it looks vaguely like a house. 

View from our apartment with a bit of snow on the ground.

All-in-all a great Holiday Season!

Thirteenth Post From Türkiye: Bulgaria = Thanksgiving

Listen, if you know me at all you know I have spent my whole life dreaming about spending Thanksgiving in Bulgaria! Or not. We have actually been to Bulgaria one other time. When Jack and I were first married we traveled from Budapest to Istanbul on the night train through Bulgaria. That trip didn't leave a very good impression of the country with me as we were awakened at the border by men with BIG guns who checked our luggage. Fun times! But times have changed and although it wasn't exactly on my must see list, we had a great time and now we have fond feelings for BULGARIA!

We actually started our trip with an overnight stay in Edirne, Turkey. It is right by the border and a good place to stay on our way west. Edirne was the capitol of the Ottoman Empire for a time and though a small city it is full of historic sites. We had time for a quick visit to the Selimiye Mosque. It was built in 1575 and is one of the most beautiful Mosques I have ever seen. Really cool.

How would you like to have this lady's job? Vacuuming an enormous carpet? She does a good job, very clean!

 

We spent the first few days of our trip in the capital of  Bulgaria, Sophia. Like most former communist cities there are plenty of boxy, gray buildings but the old downtown area was great, full of beautiful old churches, squares and parks.

The Largo

Apparently these guys were all lined up to greet the president of Bulgaria.
We didn't have time to hang around so we just took this picture.

Russian Church. So gorgeous! Built in 1914 it has a sort of Art Nouveau style

 St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a Bulgarian Orthodox Church built in 1912. It was enormous! And in the crypt they had a great Icon exhibit.

Lion!

What's up with this cat? Do Bulgarians shop on Black Friday as well??

  

Sofia Synagogue the largest synagogue in Southeastern Europe, one of two functioning in Bulgaria and the third-largest in Europe. It opened in 1909 and it also has a sort of Art Nouveau style that I love.

 

It is just such statues as this that bring Jack joy. Communist era, everyone working together to create the idyll!

A tiny Christmas market with sausages and potatoes! Yes, please!

I think the choice is obvious. Why walk 150 meters to McDonald's when you can walk in the other direction and reach one in only 100 meters?

Inside a former mosque The National Archaeology Museum. 

 

From Sophia we headed into the mountains to visit Rila Monastery.

Unknown (to us) lake in the mountains.

 

Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, Founded in the 10th century,named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila. It is truly amazing! 

 

From the monastery we headed to Plovdiv. Plovdiv has an amazing Old Town, with half-timbered houses along cobbled streets, Roman ruins and the remains of a castle. What more could you want? We even had an amazing pizza there. We unexpectedly were surrounded by other tourists in Skopje as they were holding a wine festival and so there were plenty of Hipster Americans there wandering the streets with us.

Roman Theater

 

The charming Djumaya Mosque.

 

Jack loves graffiti!

Here is a common sight in this part of the world (Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia). Horse and cart.

Changing of the guard in Sophia.