Alive and Well in the Land of the Mighty

We're excited to leave tomorrow on our next adventure! Linda Danforth, Beth Willis and Michelle Merritt were invited on a cultural tour of Turkey by the Acacia Foundation. The Acacia Foundation's mission is to promote cross–cultural dialogue by emphasizing universal values such as love, truth, faith, brotherhood, solidarity, and sharing; to encourage strong family values, high morals, and ethics among community; and to help establish a society where individuals love, respect, and accept each other as they are. Learn more at:http://www.acaciafoundation.org/web

June 15, 2010 We made it to Istanbul! Rick Steves was on our same connecting flight to Germany! Rounding out our group are fellow travelers from Seattle: Kevin Rycka and Jannette Rodriguez from Seattle University and Jessie Dye of Earth Ministry. Our Acacia guide who flew out from Renton, Ali, met us at the airport and helped us get into our hotel and took us to Pirpirim for a traditional Turkish meal. An educator from Istanbul, Hasan, joined us and will be our local guide for our time in Istanbul.

Our hotel, Barcelo Eresin Topkapi is right near the wall to the city built by the Byzantine Empire.

June 16, 2010This morning we are off to: Topkapi palace, Hagia Sofia, Bazalica Cistern, Turkish & Islamic Art Museum, Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, the Egyptian Bazaar. 

 

Hagia Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia) is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque and now    a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was the cathedral of the Latin empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1934, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.

The Blue Mosque.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior.

It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. While still used as a mosque, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque has also become a popular tourist attraction.

Here's a picture of our group, with our Acacia guide Ali, overlooking the Bosphorus, a 20-mile-long strait which joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea in Istanbul, and separates the continents of Europe and Asia.