I CAN'T LEAVE TURKEY!!

Hey all, well I'm completely enamored with Turkey - so yeah we're staying a bit longer. We actually took an overnight bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia, yes the bus ride was hellish but Cappadocia is so amazing. I am not sure if I can properly translate it into words - actually I'm sure I can't, but pictures will for sure come and I can not wait for you all to see them. I'll do my best to explain the splendor of Cappadocia for you now though.

Cappadocia is in Central Turkey, a desert with amazing rock formations formed by 3 volcanos in the area. Aside from incredible formations like fairy chimneys and chasms to rival the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon, this place is also home to cave dwellings. Around the 900s AD, Greek and Roman Christians moved into the area and began building edifices - churches, monasteries, homes, storage - from/in the rocks. People still live in the cave homes all over the area. Our hostel is actually in a cave, so yeah I'm sleeping in a cave tonight. There are a dozen or so small towns in the area with about 3000 people in each. Old cave churches filled with frescoes and paintings from a thounsand years ago dot the area, many are still in incredible condition. It is so crazy, the furniture was carved out of the stone. So you walk into a dining area and see benches carved out surrounding a big table also carved from the stone. They are everywhere too. I'm not doing them justice, this is SOOOO cool. Plus there are underground cities! I can't wait to put up the pictures. Of course, most of the residents are Muslim, so there are many mosques in the area. And we still get to listen to call to prayer ring out, this time it echoes through the rocks.

Really, I love Turkey so much. We'll stay here in Gorem (Cappadocia) another day and then head to the Turkish Riviera before we jump onto the Greek Islands. Off for more traditional Turkish food! Yeah, I love Turkish Delight, you know it.

Turkish Fever

Okay this has to be super fast. We are in Turkey right now and İ am completely in love with it. FYİ İ apologize for any errors this is a foreign keyboard and a little tricky to use. Anyway we are in Istanbul. Today we headed into the courtyard of the Blue Mosque to listen to the calling to prayer. The call itself floating over the whole city from so many different mosques was already one of my most cherished memories this trip. But being in the actual mosque grounds of one of the most impressive mosques in the world and hearing the call ring out - beckoning the people, and then watching the Muslim men and women heed the call, come to kneel on rugs and pray was one of the most special, beautiful experiences of my entire life. My words do not do it justice. İ took a video, hopefully that will turn out. Anyway, since the last post we have made it from Slovakia through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. I loved Romania so much...I have never felt so completely out of my element yet at peace as İ have ın Romania. İ will definitely post more about all these places when İ get back - and of course pictures. Though we had a memory card malfunction and İ am a little scared İ may have lost about 1000 pictures :( We are off to more places in Turkey tomorrow - though we have not chosen where. Either Cappodocia ın central Turkey or Cannakle and the ruins of Troy. Then maybe more Turkey before heading to Greece to hop through the islands before maybe landing in Athens. İ can not believe how much we have seen so far and how much is still to come. Update more later.

Summer in Bratislava

Another quick post - I am LOVING Slovakia. Big surprise huh, I'll probably love everywhere I go. But so far I honestly feel like I could live here. It is so beautiful, and still has some of the fairytale aspect of Prague, but also it feels more...eh...real, like I can imagine my life here, not just visiting. It is so beautiful, everything is so green and it is so warm. I'm picking up a little Slovak, which has definitely helped as English is not as ubiquitous as in Prague. We live here so cheap, like 20 bucks a day including room and board.

Today we went to a castle ruins from the 10th century outside of Bratislava. It was so incredible - perched upon a hill, a lot of it still stands. We wandered the grounds, and the views were amazing - it overlooked the Danube, Slovakia and Austria. It was in a small town called Devín. The whole adventure, train and entrances cost as 2 euro. We're off to the Ballet right now, I'm so excited. And the clencher my ticket was 3 euro's...for a world renowned ballet in the historical downtown theater, surrounded by winding cobblestone streets, 18th century buildings and street vendors with yummy streets. Oh yeah, and the Danube bank.

We're off to Budapest tomorrow. I'm definitely excited to be getting closer to the coast. I have a feeling we might be in Turkey longer than we thought - doesn't the Turkish Riviera sound amazing. Once again, pictures to come when I get home. I'm faithfully taking like a million pictures - I'm pretty excited to look through them.

Loving Prague.

A quick update. I'M IN PRAGUE. Everything has been like a dream. We made it through London already, and yes that was awesome, so vibrant with quite a nightlife and so much history. We of course did all the touristy things, Westminster, London bridge, Parliment, Buckingham palace, Hyde park etc. We also had a pretty good time with our Frenchie friends in out hostel. Which fyi, my first hostel experience, they are definitely a good, fun, cheap experience.

So I have like a million pictures already, but as of yet no way to load them as I forgot my cord...so you'll all have to wait for those. Anyway, Prague is just too much. I fall more and more in love with it everyday. It is so interesting, a great juxtapostion of history, arts, youth and old-timey, and night-life. We have experienced much of the city, including my favorite part thus far Josefov, the Old Jewish Quarter. Specifically, I really enjoyed the Pinkasova Synagouga and the Old Jewish Cemetary. The synagouge is hundreds of years old and has been turned into a Holocaust memorial, around 80,000 names of Jews from the Czech area who died in WWII are written on the walls. As I stepped in, I was quite overcome and humbled. The Old Jewish Cemetery is the oldest jewish cemetery surviving in Europe, as all others were destroyed by Nazis. This one was spared as Hitler wanted to turn it into some sick anti-semetic museum. Anyway, the headstones pile everywhere, and there is very little room left. As the grounds filled up, they would bring in more dirt and cover the cemetary and bury more people, but they moved the headstones up. So the graves are 12 deep in some places.

A close second to my favorite, is the John Lennon wall - I got a bit emotional here too. It is a wall covered in beautiful graffiti pictures, messages and love devoted to John Lennon. I heard that as the country was fighting oppression and communism, the youth rebellion (so to speak) took Imagine as an anthem, and Lennon is quite beloved here in the Czech. I randomly had a sharpie with me, so we were able to leave our own message as well. Some of my favorite pictures come from here. I can't wait to get them up.

Europe apparently never sleeps also, people are out at all hours. Already I missed 2 nights of sleep. Also, you can drink and smoke anywhere, so everyone does. People just drink as they stroll down the street. Bummer for me though: I'm feeling a bit sick, like if I was home I'd be in bed sick...which sucks. We have made a few friends here, so tonight the agenda is a 5 story club! The largest in central europe...a good time I'm sure, I hope I'm up for it. Well, I bought a mini tripod, so I'm off to take a few lovely night pictures of the Charles bridge and the castle before the festivities start.

Okay, I'm sorry if there are spelling errors - I really am a terrible speller (mostly I spell pheonetically, which is so often wrong) and all the internet sites are in Czech...so everything comes up mis-spelled. Luckily I know this site and facebook so well so I can navigate them without knowing the language.

FYI we're off to Bratislava next, I'll keep you updated.

Na Shledanou (bye bye).

Later

I have negative time to do this...but I'm LEAVING like now. So all, I'll post as often as possible, with pictures hopefully, but definitely when I get back. Thanks for everything. See ya in August.

Technicolor

Well folks I've got more pictures for you. You may remember my last "photo shoot" around the LA river, I mentioned being uncomfortable under the overpass at a part of the LA River but vowed to go back. Well go back I did, and yup once again timing wasn't right. There were a few homeless men visible and one had a dog, not to mention kid gangsters (probably adding their work to the mass of graffiti). So, we decided against going into the concrete river. I did take a few more pictures of the area though, some areas I missed last time.

This is the underpass of the bridge, right by where you cut into the river.

Graffiti in the dry canal.

I liked this face (in the background), it was on each of those support columns in the second row.

Me scouting out some angles.

I was not going to be thwarted again though, I really wanted some river shots. Determined, we decided instead to try the 4th and 6th street bridges over the urban river (historic landmarks in LA). And BINGO!!! Though, I must say, cutting through the fence and walking down was DEFINITELY against my better judgment! I got a few great shots though. But, my adrenaline was pumping...and yes we had a run in with some homeless men...and I was scared out of my mind. But...worth it (only because I'm alive).

So we jumped on the freeway and headed downtown, to then explore the area by I guess what's considered the "bank" of a concrete river. The area was skid row meets industrial. Yes we saw someone pooping in a box (seriously), trany prostitutes and someone laying on the street bleeding a lot (probably a stab wound) police on the way (we did not linger there, yeah, it was scary!). A ways away from the bleeding man, we found this:

More of LA's concrete maze (aka freeway), some of my favorite subjects.

The street here wasn't even really a street, just pavement...I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to be there...oh well.

Finally I turn down this street, directly perpendicular to the river, right next to the fence separating...eh...the city and the river.

I saw this hole, parked and said "Let's go in." Stevie was worried, but reluctantly agreed.

It was amazing, but quite scary. However, suffice it to say, we were not alone down there.


The view the other direction. The tracks are right by the river, but we didn't feel safe enough to venture closer to the river.


Directly to the left of where I was for this...yeah some dude start stirring under a tarp. Not that big of a deal, he wasn't going to bother us. But freaked none the less, we headed to the car.

Of course, when we get inside the car and I review my shots, I decide I have to have a few more. Steven wisely says it's a bad idea. But right as I'm about to jump out and grab a few more shots, BAM, two men are about five feet in front of me (I was still in the car, thank goodness). I OMFG'd but my only reaction was to wave...yeah I waved at the homeless men coming to check out who was invading their turf. They proceeded to climb through the hole and the fence toward us...and we proceeded to swiftly drive away.


After this, we stopped by Broadway in downtown. So here's some of that.

This part of downtown is so interesting, it's a conglomerate of beautiful, old (some of the oldest in LA) edifices, every detail noted that has been neglected and now plated with grit.

The lighting was perfect today...I call this time of day happy hour (because yeah it's happy hour in the bars but the sun is setting, so you get this dramatic side lighting, I love it...it was happy hour for all the shots I have from today).

I was so fascinated by the beautiful tile; covered in dirt...cracked...wishing, hoping for before.

The Orpheum, still beautiful, still open, but a bit seedy now.

Everything still had an elaborate sign from when this was THE place, upscale theatres, shops, etc. But now it's more of a street level flea market...who knows what fills the buildings...apartments in some I guess.

This was hilarious, this guy kept leaning into Steven's space, so he would lean away.

They both realized I was snapping away at the same time...so they turned at the same time, it was perfect. Plus, he was so little, he made Steve look like a giant.


More of the unique tile work around and Steven.

Edifices downtown. Look at the detail on the buildings, it's incredible.

I'm pretty sure no matter where I am, I'll always know what time it is in LA.

Hello All! Mostly I wanted to do a short snippet today as I realized yesterday I had a post everyday this week...so why not finish it. Well, it was my birthday today, YAY right. I'm now a whole 23 years old. Don't worry, I feel crazy about it too.

Something cool I learned as I checked my email today, May 22nd was also Mary Cassatt's birthday. I flat out love her, ever since I saw this painting as a teenager:


There is something so real about her work, and relevant even now a hundred years later. Plus who isn't a sucker for the impressionists. Very neat that we share the same birthday. Anyway, it was a pretty good day...the real party will be next week, yeah in London.

Just another thought: I mentioned I would like to do a weekly music post (which started Monday I think), I just realized I probably won't be able to make good on this considering I'm leaving the country in a few...not sure I'll blog about bands I'm into if I get the chance to update this thing (who am I kidding, this will be the first place I go in those remote internet cafes, no worries). So this music post thing I hope to start will have to stay on hold until maybe after summer. Too bad, usually a lot of good shows in summer.