Turkey - Cappadocia region

We couldn't quite work out whether we had been transported to the moon or an episode of the 80s hit "Fraggle Rock" - it turned out we were in the Cappadocia region of Turkey. It's difficult to do it justice through photos, but Cappadocia is an extremely visually striking place, especially the "moonscape" area around the towns of Ürgüp and Göreme where erosion has formed caves, clefts, "fairy chimneys" and bizarre folds in the soft volcanic rock.

We started off visiting the Göreme Valley which contains hundreds of small churches carved out of the rocks with biblical scenes sketched into the cave walls (I am guessing bibles were in short supply!). The early Christians (from 2nd century) preferred to use these churches as it helped to hide from enemies, although they were still in use up to a thousand years later.

Next we joined a tour of the region, kicking off with a short hike through the 'ice-cream' formations and then onto - our personal highlight - a visit to the underground city of Kaymakli. The phenomenon of building underground cities in the volcanic rocks was started as early as c.3000 BC, but it was the early Christians who took this to a new level and used them to escape from the persecution of the Roman Empire. These cities were HUGE - 18 storeys deep, at one time housing up to 20,000 people and they had everything they needed - ventilation chimneys, wine production places, churches, water wells, toilets ... We were blown away by the scale, ingenuity and difficulty of these living conditions (as you can see from the pictures, space was at a premium) and it was a great testament to their faith and perseverance.

We finished Cappadocia on another 'high note' - a hot air balloon ride at sunrise ... Awesome!

Turkey - Mediterranean coast

We thought we'd kick off our time in Turkey with a nice and easy region - the Mediterranean coast (also known as the Turquoise Coast and it didn't take us long to figure out why). But, with fine sandy beaches, picturesque ruins, gorgeous blue ocean and sleepy fishing villages with delicious food and friendly people, we thought we'd better give ourselves at least one challenge and signed up for.... wait for it.... a YOUTH HOSTEL!!!! With fear and trepidation we entered the place, expecting it to be attacked by a swarm of bed bugs and loud drunken Aussies as we walked through the front door, and were pleasantly to find a funky, fun place with clean loos and really helpful staff. In fact, we ended up going on a boat trip with some of the locals who ran the place and had an awesome time (Rory became like a kid in a candy shop with the high diving board and water slide on the ship).





Our other highlight (which we also found with the help of local knowledge - we're beginning to see the up-side to the youth hostel thing) was a non-touristy dinner phenomenon known as the fish market. The deal is that little restaurants are scattered all around the fish market, so you buy your fresh fish and take it straight to one of the restaurants, who will cook it just how you like it and put salad and bread on the side, all for £2! Now that's taking BYO to a whole new level.

Santor-dreamy

We are just finished 3 days in Santorini and there is really not much to say (if you want a little history, see James comment on the Athens post!), it has been very relaxing and we are fully energized for Turkey. Enjoy the pictures, after all they say more than words ever could!

P.S. We have noticed that Europeans seem eager to clap at anything (e.g. plane landing, second-rate buskers etc), however, perhaps the most surprising was the hundreds of people applauding the sun for setting …

Athens fires

Athens postscript: We were saddened to hear about the fires near Athens, news of which has probably reached the UK and Australia (despite being in Greece, and only just heard). We left a couple days before they started and wanted to let people know we're safe. Please pray for the families of those who were killed or injured.

Athens

Next stop was Athens for one-and-a-half days, were we delivered another Rory and Amy sightseeing whirlwind tour (basically the Acropolis and surrounds). We also managed to explore a little bit of Athens itself, which we really enjoyed (Athens has scrubbed up a lot post-Olympics), especially the chic Kolonaki district.

By far the most exciting Athenian moment for us was our visit to what remains of the Areopagus, a rocky outcrop and meeting spot for the ancient Greek judicial body, place of religious worship, philosophical debate and (most importantly) Paul’s famous speech to the Athenians which resulted in the spread of Christianity into Greece in 1st century AD (this also happens to be one of Amy’s favourite bible passages).

Paul had been invited to speak before the Areopagus on the basis “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas”, and Paul’s message certainly was a new and intriguing idea - see Acts 17:16-34, highly recommended reading.

It was only when we were standing in the Areopagus itself that we realised Paul would have been speaking directly in the shadows of the Acropolis (including the Parthenon of course) and overlooking the Agora and Roman Forum! This gave the powerful context to his opening statement "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious…". He then proceeded to tell them about their "unknown god" by declaring that “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands…", which I imagine would have been shocking (almost insulting) given the majesty of the surrounds! Paul went onto explain that God can be found through Christ, who will judge the world with justice and "He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead". As you can probably tell, standing in the place where these powerful words were spoken was very exciting for us!

So that’s Athens, next stop will be Santorini, followed by Turkey (so expect some more Paul-related commentary!).

Croatia

After our London splash and dash we headed to Croatia, a country we had both longed to visit. First stop was Dubrovnik, a place with a strong Italian influence owning to the fact that it was once ruled by the Venetians (and consequently had great ice-cream). Dubrovnik is pretty, but is also pretty small and one morning was enough to do the sites, which included a sweaty walk around the walls of the old town. Otherwise, we relaxed on the many rocky “beaches” nearby. Although the lack of sand was frustrating, it didn’t bother us too much as we spent most of the time in the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean including doing a few ocean swims along the coastline!

After two nights we took a day ferry to the island of Hvar and, as we watched the Dalmatian coast drift by, listened to a Dick Lucas talk on the Church in Thyatira regarding the importance of relying only on teaching from the bible and not on anything “added” by man (Revelation 2:18-29 ).

Whilst Dubrovnik could be best described as cute, Hvar was idyllic and it was the first time on the trip which felt like a proper summer holiday. We spent most of the time relaxing on rocks (again no sand), either near Hvar or on one of the many little islands nearby. We even ventured so far as to hire a small put-put boat for the day to discover lots of private little coves again all with crystal clear water- it felt like we were back on honeymoon again!

The London Splash and Dash

When we heard that our good friend and bible-study member, Fiona, decided she was going to get baptised on 12th August, we couldn’t resist re-jigging our itinerary so that we could be there (“but Italy is just around the corner” I insisted). It actually turned out to be a bit of a family reunion, as my sister-in-law Renee (one of Fiona’s closest friends from Sydney) did the same.

If the whole baptism event looks a little odd to any of you (see photos), all it is is a physical symbol of what’s happened to Fi in her heart. By being baptised Fiona is declaring that she wants to make a clean start (hence the water) with the God who created her and she trusts that Jesus’ death means that she’s been forgiven for previously ignoring God (hence why she gets dunked in the water and pulled out again – it’s like saying “I’d like to be a part of what Jesus’ death achieved “ i.e. forgiveness and being raised to eternal life - http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl). It was awesome to be there to celebrate with her and many of our other friends. A real glimpse of heaven!

Italian Lakes

We decided to explore an area of Italy that both Rory and I had never visited before – the Lakes. So we picked a small town of Lombardy called Cadenabbia, situated right of the shores of Lake Como. Our room in the small family-run hotel had views of the lake and the town of Bellagio (so we finally saw what our Las Vegas honeymoon hotel was attempting to imitate), and the bulk of our time here involved pottering around quaint Italian towns sipping Proseco and eating gelato – you know the deal.




However, just to ensure that we couldn’t be accused of spending our entire time here in a state of self-indulgent naval-gazing, we decided it would be worthwhile to struggle our way up one of the many steep inclines that hems in the Lakes (also known as the Pre-Alps). So we pitched up the tourist office and selected a map and directions for a hike (yes, I said hike). We decided not to be complete pansies and opted for one graded a “medium” level of difficulty. We reassured ourselves that we should be able to manage it no worries – we’re young (well, one of us is), I go to the gym and all that, Rory was a representative swimmer at one time or another – of course we can handle an “above average” hike. Well, after a lot of huffing, puffing, sweating, cursing and shouts of “who’s stupid idea was this anyway?!”, we made it to the Menaggio Rifugio (m. 1400). Let’s just say that if we had any idea that “rifugio” means mountain shelter, we never would have attempted it. “Medium” indeed. But the views of Lake Como and Lake Lugano were fantastic.

Needless to say it took a whole lot of gelato and an entire day by the swimming pool for our aching calves to recover.