13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
-James 4:13-17
Why were you in Turkey?
We went to Istanbul, Turkey for my high school friend's wedding. It was nice to meet up with old friends and take a break from public hospital life here in South Africa. The winter has been fairly cold because we have no heating and our cottage is poorly built, so it was pleasant to enjoy a week of smoltering summer in the middle of winter. Istanbul seemed much more developed and safer than Durban. It is a beautiful, metropolitan beach city that is always bustling from morning to late hours in the night. It is a mix of the ancient and the modern. Turkey is ideally situated between Europe and Asia, making it a bridge between the two continents, and its unique location has richly shaped its history, food, and culture.
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| Basilica Cistern |
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| View of Istanbul from the Bosphorous |
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| Dolmabahce Palace |
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| Blue Mosque |
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| Topkapi Palace |
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| Characteristic Turkish Blue Tiles |
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| Hagia Sophia |
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| Hagia Sophia |
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| View of the Bosphorous from Galata Tower |
How is the food in Turkey?
The food in Turkey was delicious. It was fresh and light. The diet was heavy in vegetables which was a nice change from the rich meat diet in Durban. The food was lightly seasoned but flavorful. Much of the food is similar to the food in Greece and Bulgaria. There are a lot of salads, kebabs, feta cheese, and fresh fish. Since it was summer, there were a lot of fruits too, including a variety of cherries that were so delicious. We would just buy a bag of cherries and munch on them while we walked down the street. We also visited the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaars, which had hundreds of vendors selling Turkish crafts, teas, spices, and more.
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| Spices |
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| Baklava |
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Turkish Delight
(Sign on left reads: Turkish Viagra- 5 times in the night.) |
South African Fact:
Boerewors, which means "farmer-sausage" in Afrikaans, is a spicy sausage that is usually made with a mixture of mutton, beef and pork.
very nice photo of the palace! I like the framing with the posture of the person in the red dress. I didn't know that Turkey had cherries too but it makes sense. Sounds delicious. Now I want to go.
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