Turkey Lurkey -- UPDATED

So, we busted out of Kyrgyzstan because the Uzbek visa was taking too long, the weather was getting cold, and there was almost nothing to do in Bishkek. Thus, we booked a flight to Turkey and decided to start from the other end of the continent. But what a mistake!! It's been ridiculously expensive! Of course we're having fun, but we're talking prices above and beyond western Europe! Yesterday we visited some Roman ruins and the entry fee was over $20! Wow!! Anyway, here are some photos. It's taken me HOURS to upload them and people are waiting to use the computer so I'll just have to explain them later. Enjoy for now!!

These are the ruins at Heropolis--a city mentioned in the Bible, final resting place of St. Philip, known for it's healers, and home to the temple of Apollo. Above is the Roman amphitheater.

Jeremy doing some serious ruin climbing.

This was taken on our way to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Unfortunately I was pretty sick when we arrived and wasn't feeling up for too much adventuring. Good thing too. Istanbul is ridiculously expensive. We paid $23 to stay in a dorm room.

The beautiful harbor and ferries in Istanbul.

The inside of Istanbul's Blue Mosque. (I think it's the world's largest indoor mosque.)

More ruins from Heropolis. This is an old church where the remains of St. Philip are supposed to have once been kept... but probably are not anymore.

One reason why Heropolis was known as a healing town is because of the large calcium enriched waters that flowed from the high cliffs, through the city and into natural pools on the cliff side called taverntines. Unfortunately, today's local government has diverted the water away from the taverntines and funnelled it through man made channels to go down the cliffs to the city below. This may not sound so bad, but the taverntines are dying up and slowly deteriorating and some are becoming mold and algae infested because standing rain water gets stuck in the pools. It's also dramatically ruined the natural beauty of the site...

Hello there!

Luckily though, some taverntines have been left with running water and we were able to catch a GORGEOUS sunset over the small pools. Love that sun.

And this is just a little more from the ruins. I think this photo is from the Agora or market place which was at one time the largest market in all of Asia!

Sorry for the random mix of photos. They weren't really posted in order but oh well. We had a nice stay in Pummakale (where the ruins were) but were a little happy to get out because the food wasn't too good and NO ONE was there. It was practically a deserted tourist town. Most restaurants were closed for the off season. Getting a ticket out was interesting. Turks are very persistent in their attempts to sell you things. We walked around a bit checking prices to Goreme in Cappadocia finding that most were a staggering $45! One guy tried to trick us into buying his tickets so we walked away and the guy next door, also selling tickets said, "Where you go? Cappadocia? I give you ticket. Fortyyyyyyyy..... three." lol. We laughed so hard because he was trying to beat the price next door but really wasn't willing to go down much. A few shops down we found a ticket for $40--the best we could do. So here we are in Cappadocia, plotting a route out of Turkey. Pictures to follow.