jess & carrie's visit

this past weekend we had our first-ever visitors (from the us) come to ankara. we met jess & carrie at the airport on thursday night, and though they were exhausted, enjoyed an evening of turkish food in a beautiful garden (at our favorite restaurant, gar) and lots of catching up. the following pictures capture the rest of their stay. now they are in kapadokya enjoying a week of touring the area on horse-back. i can't wait to hear about their adventure!

on friday the first matter of business was to look at a map so that jess & carrie could determine exactly where they were (and eventually figured it out: ankara, turkey!)
after a day at the museum (and touring ulus) we had a moment of relaxation before dinner. earlier that day when we picked jess & carrie up from their tour of the museum of anatolian civilizations, i had expected to hear all about the fascinating exhibits and how much they had learned. instead? we heard all about the two handsome turks who had followed them around the museum & chatted them up. typical!

that night at dinner we made sure they got a taste of rakı, along with lots of turkish meze & meats
the next day we headed out to beypazarı, a village about 1.5 hours outside of ankara


jess & carrie shopped for souvenirs

jess did a great job of blending in & didn't look like a tourist at ALL. really.

i had to include this picture, as this is what jess looked like most of the time during our visit.
down in the village we walked around for a bit...
went in & out of shops and made a few purchases...

...and stopped to taste the local fare.
it was interesting to see how different the culture is in a small village, outside of ankara... we noted that both the women & men tended to dress more conservatively.

the architecture down in the 'old village' is entirely ottoman... really beautiful. ben told us that according to beypazarı custom, an architectural element on the upper floor of each house is left undone during the owner's lifetime (called 'çanti'), symbolizing that a life's work is never complete.

on the road back to ankara (which was under construction), we were amazed by how dramatic the landscape was
that night we relaxed at home after going out for a nice fish dinner at our favorite restaurant, kalbur.

after watching the older women hand-embroidering all day in beypazarı, carrie got inspired & hemmed jess' pants.

...one of these things is not like the other...

the next morning chaos ensued as they tried to fit everything back into their suitcases before launching for the horse-back riding adventure. i liked their approach-- notice the matching upside-down pony tails and bent-over positions. it seemed to work-- i think i'm going to try this next time i go on a trip.

we saw them off at the bus station yesterday afternoon, headed to nevsehir. i totally embarrassed them by climbing on the bus to snap this picture. we hope they're surviving their first day on horseback today. all in all, a great visit!