Turkey Day 5

Again I am out of greetings...

Our fifth day was pretty cold and rainy...

This is the temple at Sardis 

Sawyer is a champion. My jacket was in my bag under the bus, so he lent me his spare jacket and he lent Lexie his hat... what a good guy :-)

at Sardis in front of the temple...

Van Swag is little compared to this pillar...

I love Rachel.

at lunch, we tried some "apple tea" which was actually pretty good!

the apple tea tasted like warm apple cider, but better.

the other part of Sardis was this town-structure that included this Gymnasium, which would have been a place where boys would learn and wrestle (fun fact: when they wrestled, they were naked and covered in olive oil...) So here are the guys in our group (thankfully with clothing on) pretending to wrestle at the gymnasium

swim races in the frigidarium (cold pool)

swimming race :-)

We had a long bus ride for most of the day, but Rachel and I were set with our chocolate and chick-flics! 

Kate is wearing one colored contact and one regular one, so her eyes don't quite match... :-)

We spent our evening in Bursa. We started out at the Grand Mosque in Bursa--it has 20 domes because the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid promised the building of 20 mosques if they won the battle of Nicopolis in 1396, but when they won, he decided to build a mosque with 20 domes instead.

inside the mosque

beautiful :-)

outside the Grand Mosque in Bursa

we went shopping in Bursa, and it was pretty cool...

Bursa wasn't super touristy, so I really enjoyed getting a feel for the local culture without being treated like a tourist everwhere...

Possibly my favorite moment of the trip: Chaille and I had to use the ladies room, and when we paid our money at the entrance and went in, there were only two squatter toilets (as in, no seats). For me, not such a problem (actually, I really like the squatters because no one else wants them, so you can skip to the front of the line if you use the squatter--which is great when you are traveling with 60ish women who all need to pee at every rest stop). Anyway. Chaille had a little freak out and I ended up talking her through the mechanics of how exactly to use a squatter... it took about 20 minutes... when we left the restroom, some people across the street clapped ;-)

Chaille and her squatter toilet...

yet another beautiful day in paradise.

-E