Bir Ay Turkiye'den ayriliyorum'e var.

(One Month left until I leave Turkey)
So this post is going to be in almost exact opposite order of chronolgy b/c uploading pictures is annoying.

Anyways, the above picture is when we were getting a boat tour of the Euphrates river and all of a sudden someone turned to me and said "Dont look now but theres a kid driving the boat"... and sure enough there was... he was a good driver though.. haha... more on the tour later

These are all pictures from southeast anatolia... I place mostly inhabited by the Kurdish people of Turkey... a largely oppressed and discriminated group in Turkey as well as in neighboring countries like Northern Iraq (often called Kurdistan), Iran and Syria. Also, we were right on the border of Syria and Iraq and thus, there were many arab tribes and communities.
We went to the cities of Harran and Sanli Urfa (mostly Arab population) as well as Mardin (Arab, Kurdish, Turkish and Syrian), Halfeti and Adiyaman (mostly Kurdish). They were all amazing and some of the most beautiful places ive seen in Turkey
Above is an Assyrian Christian church we visited... they spoke arabic, aramaic and turkish..
This is us in the main area of sanliurfa where our hotel was located just getting tea and coffee as a break from shopping. I bought 4 scarves in sanliurfa.. they get all their products from syria and damascus especially b/c they are so close and thus have REALLY cheap prices
The view ffrom the amazing retaurant that where we ate... the green areas are SYRIA... cool

This is a view of Mardin... the whole city is built on one side of the hill in order to overlook Syria. At night it looks like a giant layered shimmering necklace from all the lihts of the city sprawled over the hill
The awesome mezze we got at the restaurant. The vegetarians always get the best food! haha
Another view of Mardin. While we were there we met with a youth group in the area and they gave us a tour of the city... all in turkish of course b/c they did not know english... good practice and the kids were really interesting
The view from a balcony that we sat at for lunch. The spike in the background im sure you have seen in a lot of my pictures... it is a minaret from the mosque
Here is a picture from our cruise of the Euphrates River! pretty awesome. I leanred about meopotamia in my history textbooks but I never thought I would actually visit the site of the fertile crescent!
Eveywhere we went they wanted to dress the Americans up... we bought these scarves in Harran... they are made of Camel Wool... pretty sweet
Me and my camel wool scarf in a beehive-shaped house characterisitc of Harran... pictures below
Again... we got dressed up.... this is the American women and our cool bus driver for the whole trip behind us... he was awesome
Here is the beehave-shaped housing I was taling about. These buildings are a traditional part of Harran and a big tourist attractiion.. Many families still live in them but sadly they are starting to be torn down.
At ouor hotel in snali urfa for breakfast.... Turkish breakfast is the same everywhere.. consisteing of a cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, bread, butter, yogurt, white cheese, jelly and honey.
At night we had a traditional dinner evening with floor tables and seating followed by music and dancing. This was one of the performers
We have mastered the art of Turkish dance.... not really... but were pretty good
My friends and I putting our feet in the EUPRATES!
Our beautiful hotel in sanliurfa
Peek-a-boo behind columns at a burial site. One of the ancient kings of a tribe in the area built a mountain of stones acorss from his own as a memorial burial site for his mother... looking across the land u can see the king's place of rest... engineered to face each other

An ancient roman bridge in Adiyaman
Some boys showing their soldier training at the eski kale (old castle) in adiyaman
Kurdish coffee... made from pistachio trees... delicious
Our first stop in adiyaman... we climbed the peak of Mount Nemrut! It was in the 70s on the ground but freezing and snow covered at the top of the mountain... it was beautiful... and as u can see plenty of artifacts and history at the top...

Thats all for now