Kabak Valley: relaxing like kitty-cats

During our incredible home-made Turkish dinner with Asu and family, they recommended we visit a small beach town on the Mediterranean Sea near Fethiye, due south of Istanbul about 10 hours. They promised clear water and peace and seclusion. It was time for us to get out of the busy city, so we boarded a night bus from Istanbul on our way to Kabak.

Much like Southeast Asia, the main mode of travel for locals are buses. The more luxurious companies provide all the comforts of an airplane flight, with stewards providing drinks and snakcs throughout the trip. Additionally, the buses have personal TV's on seat backs as well as wi-fi. However, there is no toilet so you stop about every 2 hours for restroom and food breaks. There is a whole economy for late night bus travel as pictured below.

We had a 30 minute hike down into Kabak Valley to reach our lodgings, Shanti Garden. For about $25 a night, we had a private bungalow with breakfast and dinner provided. From our bungalow we had a 2 minute walk to the beach! Relaxing, reading, eating, laying in the sun, and swimming...I was in heaven. We had mountains surrounding us, so Cara was happy too and was able to relax. We spent 2 days and 2 nights relaxing and recharging.
















Bust stop at night. Shopping, eating, and toilets. What else could you need.















Cara on our hike down into Kabak Valley where Shanti Garden was located just off the beach.















Our private beach. :-)















Mike enjoying the crisp blue water of the Mediterranean.















Another view of Kabak beach.















Cara enjoying her book while relaxing in a hammock. We enjoyed a few hours reading under this pavillion with a beautiful view of the cove.















Nearby is "Butterfly Island" an even more secluded beach (not an island) which can only be reached by boat. I was reading Lacuna, an amazing book by Barbara Kingsolver.















On our hired boat from Kabak Valley to Butterfly Island.















View from Butterfly Island beach. The water was very calm here and made for good swimming.















The towering cliffs that enclose Butterfly Island.



















Cara hanging out by a waterfall which plunges directly into the sea from the cliff above.















The cabanas at Shanti Garden.

Istanbul, Turkey: Beyond all Expectations!

Once again, Cara has broadened my world and opened me up to new and exciting experiences. Before leaving on the trip, she insisted we visit Turkey while we are in Europe. Knowing very little about Turkey and just reading about their recent conflict with Israel over the Gaza aid ship, I wasn't too excited about going. I'm glad she insisted because Turkey provided us with an amazing opportunity to experience a Muslim culture. It also, provided me an opportunity to learn more about a country I had never really considered.

Turkey is located between the Western European mainland and the Islamic Middle East. Istanbul is the major city at this border between Europe and Asia. Because of its location, Turkey is influenced by both western and Islamic culture. While walking through the streets you will see women in western style clothes as well as full robes covering head to toe only allowing a slit for their eyes. You will also hear the hundreds of mosques located around the city blasting their call to prayer from the minaret, five times a day. The first call to prayer is around 6am and the last call to prayer is close to 10pm.

The people were friendly, and the city itself reminded us a lot of the big bustling cities of Southeast Asia. Similar smells and chaotic traffic.

Anne, our friend from Texas Ultimate days, is currently a professor and researcher of linguistics at an Istanbul college. She was able to arrange a friend's apartment for us to stay in while visiting the city. Her friend is an international teacher finishing her two year assignment in Istanbul who was traveling Europe for the summer before heading home to Canada. The first picture below will give you an idea of how amazing this hookup was. It was great to catch up with Anne and Sasha. Thank you for the hospitality, dinners, and recommendations. Good friends can really open up a new city.

We had 14 days to explore Turkey. Below are the sites we saw while in Istanbul. Enjoy!
















Sunrise over the Bosphorus Straight and Bridge. This was the view from our apartment! The east side of the straight is the Asia side of the country. We are on the European side.















The Blue Mosque with 6 minarets. The minarets are used to amplify the call to prayer 5 times a day.



















Ancient obelisks that we transported from Egypt, thousands of years ago.



















Ablution station outside of the blug mosque. Muslims clean their hands, face, and feet before entering the mosque for prayer.



















the Blue Mosque is a still a functional mosque with prayer services held 5 times a day. It is open to the public whenever services are not being conducted.



















Blue tile work inside the mosque.















Cara, infront of one of the four 'elephant columns'. As you can see these are huge columns that support the massive dome.



















Mike in front of the Blue Mosque















Hagia Sofia, just across from the Blue Mosque. Just as huge and impressive.



















Cara inside the Hagia Sofia. The Hagia Sofia is now a museum and does not conduct any religious services. It began as a huge cathedral during the Roman/Christian rule of Istanbul. After the Turks captured Istanbul, they converted it into a mosque. Instead of destroying the delicate Christrian mosaics, the Turks plastered over them and decorated on top. Historians have carefully removed some of the plaster to expose these detailed mosaics. During the mid-twentieth century, it was converted into a museum for everyone to enjoy.















A view of the Blue Mosque form within Hagia Sofia.















One of the detailed Christian mosaics.



















Inside the main prayer chamber under the massive dome in Hagia Sofia. The large black and gold circular signs are representations of different Sultans names.















The dome of Hagia Sofia.
















The Basilica Cistern. The fresh water traveled over 15 km from the forest outside of the city to be stored for use in the sultan's place, Topkapi.















Horse drawn melon cart. We didn't see many of these, but thought they were pretty awesome.















Turkish nargile (hookah or water pipe). We celebrated Cara's birthday with an apple flavored nargile and a few beers while playing Backgammon.



















Fortune telling rabbits! After picking a rabbit to tell your fortune, the man in charge places the rabbit near small pieces of paper. Whichever piece of paper the rabbit "chooses" is your fortune. These were like inserts to fortune cookies. The rabbits were extremely calm and seemed content to just hang out on top of that box.















Beach tournament on the Black Sea. Anne is sitting in the center stretching her hamstrings.















Dinner with our new friends after a day of beach ultimate. The beach tournament was Asu and friends first time to play in a tournament. After giving us a ride back to Istanbul, they invited us up for an amazing meal in their home.















Crowded streets near the Spice Bazaar.



















Huge blocks of turkish delight in the Spice Bazaar.















Spices!















The entrance to Topkapi Palace, the home of the Sultans.



















An archway in Topkapi Palace. It was extremely crowded on the day we visited this site. Very difficult to take a picture without many new friends walking through.



















Beautiful tile work in Topkapi.

Beautiful Zürich

July 26, 2010
We arrived in Zürich from Interlaken to the welcoming flat of Rem and Christi. Rem was a member of Team USA with Cara at the World Games in Taiwan this past summer. Shortly after Taiwan, they moved from San Francisco for Christi's post-doc in super smart environmental science stuff.

Switzerland is another amazingly bike friendly country. Most trains had special places to store your bike for the trip so that when you arrived in your destination you were ready to ride from the train station. Zürich also had a free bike rental program and extensive bike lanes and bike specific signs throughout the city. For 20 swiss francs you were able to borrow a bike for the whole day. Upon return, you received your deposit back and could do this as often as you wanted.

We picked up our free bikes and rode into the city center for a walking tour of the sights. Our free iPhone app (recommended by Rem) provided the route and important information on all the landmarks we visitied. This was a great way to see the city and allowed us to do it at our own pace without a tour guide. It lead us through beautiful neighborhoods, past gorgeous buildings, and most importantly to the amazing sweet shop, Sprüngli.

As we were walking around we noticed a lot of fit looking people limping through the streets. Upon further inspection of their clothes we realized they were all finishers of the IronMan triathlon staged the day before. After emailing Dave to encourage him to put this race on his future training schedule, he informed me that he had just wrecked on his bike and broke his elbow which required surgery. We are hoping for his speedy recovery.

On our second day in town, Rem joined us for a visit to the Swiss National Museum. We needed to clear our heads after about 3 hours of reading and learning, so went for a swim in the Limmat River. A canal is built to the side of the river which provides a free public "lazy river" for the locals to use during the hotter months of the year. Because it was an overcast day and a bit chilly, Cara sat out this swimming endeavor and took some photos from the deck. Two floats was enough for Rem and me. That night we played pickup with the local frisbee club.

Huge thanks to Rem and Christi for opening up this amazing city to us. We didn't quite know what to expect of Zürich and came away impressed with the city's unique charm of narrow cobblestoned alleys as well as wide modern pedestrian shopping streets. It also doesn't hurt to be located on a beautiful lake in the mountains.



The clock of St. Peter's church, the largest clock face in Europe. It surprisingly didn't look that big, but was rather comely.



A view of the Limmat River looking towards Lake Zürich with Grossmünster on the left, the largest church in Zürich where the Protestant reformer Zwinli preached.



Luxemburgerli from Sprüngli. These little treats may look like mini sliders, but they in fact are melt in your mouth meringues with flavored filling in the middle; they were incredible. My favorite was the citrus, while Cara prefered vanilla bourbon.



One of Cara's many "window" shots. She seems to have mastered this technique on this trip.



A recent political poster on display in the Swiss National Museum, used to convince the Swiss to vote for a law that would prevent the building of minarets anywhere in the country. This law did pass. It was part of a larger exhibit on how the Swiss have been and are still very protective against immigrants and new culture. Before the trip, I always thought of the Swiss as innocent and friendly neutralists, but the museum gave some interesting things to consider about the Swiss mentality.



Rem and Christi, Our wonderful hosts, preparing the handmade dough for the best pizza we had on this two month trip. While food in Switzerland is wicked expensive, groceries are not bad. We gorged on salad, four different pizzas, and wine before playing "pants down" our new favorite Swiss card game introduced to us by Flo.



The Swiss National Museum. The most interesting thing I learned was about the important role the Swiss people played in furthering The Reformation, the Protestant movement begun by Martin Luther in Germany and championed by the Swiss Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and Guillaume Farel. They also had an interesting exhibit that talked about the worlds response after WWII towards Switzerland and their choice to remain neutral. And... you could also make your own Swiss Army Knife! They had one on display that was about a foot wide!



Floating down a canal of the Limmat River with Rem. Unfortunately, the sun was hiding behind clouds this day so our swim was not too long. Shortly after we shivered on the deck before heading back to the apartment.