Food in Turkey

No, they do not have a lot of turkey in Turkey.   Most of the food I really liked, but some was too sweet. I really liked the fruit. For instance the peaches in Turkey are better, and no I cannot bring you any. The breakfast in Turkey are big, with lots lots of different stuff like olives, cheese, pastries, vegetables and fruit.

I liked the cucumbers best.

They cook food in a clay pot with bread on top. The bread was the best part.

My family in Izmir owns a factory that dries and packages fruit.

I had to wear a hairnet and a special jacket.

They package figs. Turkey has lots of figs.

Questions that need answers

1.Girls in Turkey do not have to wear headscarves all the time unless they are observant Muslims. The Blue Mosque requires that all visitors follow these rules while they are visiting. Everyone also has to cover their legs if they are wearing shorts.
2. Brownie is more snuggly than playful.
3. Jeff is 11 years old and hopes to visit the United States next year to improve his English.
4. Some of the foods they eat here are fruit, stuffed grape leaves (dolma), and of course ICE CREAM!
5. It is not like the USA in some ways, and in other ways it is!

Izmir Adventures

We landed in Izmir. It's kind of dry. It's also on the Aegean sea.

The first night I met my cousins Joe and Rakel. Rakel is "Rachel" in Turkish.

The next day we went to the ancient city of Ephesus. 

There was amphitheater where lions battled gladiators. This is the tunnel the lions came out of.

 

After Ephesus we went to a village named Sirince, which means "cute" in Turkish. Judging by the cat population the town lives up to its name.

Topkapi Palace and more cats

It was a dark and scary morning, actually it was kind of nice out, until it rain. In the morning we went  to the Sultan's Palace. The Sultan, we learned, wore big clothes to make him look strong. There was a time that he was the most powerful man on earth.

The palace is full of blue tiles, like the ones behind me.

The best part of the day though was hanging out with my new bunny friend that I named Snow.

In the morning we went to the Blue Mosque. To get inside a head-scarf is required for girls, and everyone has to take their shoes off.

After the the Blue Mosque we went to the Grand Bazaar.

It was both grand and bazaar

After shopping it was time for ice cream. Getting ice cream in Istanbul is also grand and bazaar.

The evening with meeting a cousin that was new to meet. Like all my other cousins he is awesome. Plus he speaks both English and Minecraft.

Greetings from Turkey where Rachel's adventures continue.....Many journeys  have started and ended since the last blog post, but this adventure, well this one is different. For one thing Rachel's school assignment is to update her classmates on what she learns while in Turkey. So her voice will be the main voice of this blog, at least for the week. For another, this trip involves family roots, so this time it's personal. With that I turn it over to Rachel.

Merhaba, that means hello in Turkish

We just arrive in Turkey and walked off the plane.

There are a lot of cats in Istanbul, which is one of the places we are staying. I named this kitty Brownie.

We can see Asia from where we are eating breakfast. Now off for adventures!

Climb Every Volcano Search High and Low

Rangitoto looms majestically over Auckland's harbor. With a symmetrical shield cone, Rangitoto looks like one would think that a volcano should look like; almost like something out of a school science fair. Since we see the volcano just about everyday, our curiosity about what the island looks like close-up kept growing stronger. We finally could stand it no longer, so we hopped on a ferry and made our way across the harbor.

Rangitoto is only about 600 years old. This means people were in New Zealand to witness its creation, and it is a part of The Maori oral history. There is also footprints on the neighboring island that date back to creation of Rangitoto.

The shoreline of the island consists of old lava flows. In many areas, it looks like the flows just cooled.

Rangitoto rises to an altitude of 850 feet. The trek up the mountain is about 1.5 miles. Here is Rachel powering up the trail.

In many areas, the elements and plants have not had time to break up the volcanic rock.

The view is fantastic.


We didn't make it to the top because we decided to use our dwindling time to explore caves. The caves were created by the lava flows.

As we said goodbye, we knew more about volcanoes and had climbed one more of Auckland's 50 or so volcanic cones.