Revisiting Turkey

About two years ago, a good buddy of mine and I got the awesome idea that it would be pretty damn rad to celebrate Turkey Day in Turkey, you know, the country with Istanbul as one of its cities. Yes, I know. We were also pretty stoked about having such an incredible idea and making it reality.

Anywho, needless to say, it was one of the best trips of my life. I kind of wish I had begun blogging about my travels a lot earlier in life. Oh well, shoulda, coulda, woulda. You can, however, check out some of the pics I took on that trip on my Flickr Photostream. In the meantime, here's another little photo-story of some good times. Enjoy!

While exploring this unforgivably harsh landscape, we see a tiny figure off in the distance.

Having no real direction in our wandering, we decide to climb toward the strange figure.

The distant figure turns out to be a stout, old Turkish man who speaks no English whatsoever dressed in a three-piece suit - in the middle of an arid desert riddled with caves. A full suit. I'm pretty sure the suit was made of wool.

The well-dressed old man proceeds to show us a ring of skeleton keys attached to a string attached to a belt loop and he beckons us to follow him. Odd as this encounter may seem, we follow him. The spritely old fellow shames us as our unaccustomed feet find much difficulty in keeping up with the nimble old man's pace across the sandy, volcanic cliff sides.

After following the jolly old fellow for an awkwardly long time, we come upon a dark hole hidden in a small corner of the sheer side of a cliff. We nervously peer into the cold blackness, half awaiting to be ambushed by desert bandits wearing sand in their hair.

As our eyes adjust, the most magnificent view materializes before our sun-ravaged eyes. An ancient basilica with vivid frescoes of antiquity suddenly jump from the bleakness of the cave. Needless to say, we stood agasp at the miraculous sight we have somehow come to behold.