Travel Memories

Here is an entry I posted on Xanga on June 25, 2006:

Josh I must say it, "I am extremely proud of my husband!"  Before this trip the only place he'd been outside of the country was Trinidad (and Canada).  But, he has been AMAZING to travel with.  I mean, we drive up to Minneapolis for Gina's wedding and the day after that we hop on a plane.  We fly clear to Jordan, rush to my parents' house for four hours (for showers and naps) then back to the airport to fly to Turkey.  Josh insists that we miss our connecting flight in Istanbul on purpose so that we can see the city.  We leave the airport and hop in a taxi.  The driver, who barely speaks English, tells us that he knows this great hotel named Santa Sophia, so we tell him to take us there.  It turns out to be a great place, actually, within walking distance of Aya Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar and several other cool places.  So we spend the day seeing the sights, then catch some sleep.  The next day we go shopping in the Grand Bazaar. (Here I must say something about my own travel skills... I had to take an emergency bathroom break... I paid a guy 400,000 Turkish Lira to use the restroom only to find out it was a squatty-potty.  It was an emergency, though, so I made it work.) Anyhow, we took two trains to get back to the airport, which in Turkish is something like Havilavar (just in case you are ever there).  We then flew to Izmir, but still had to get to Kusadasi.  So, we took a bus into downtown Izmir, then caught a shuttle bus to the main bus terminal.  From there we caught another bus into downtown Kusadasi.  We arrived there at three in the morning and had to go wake up this taxi driver to take us to our hotel.  And the whole time it was me who was sort of freaking out and Josh who was cool about everything.  He changed money, bought our visas, found the bus station, figured out which bus we were on (with the help of this great Dutch lady we met), warded off over-zealous shopkeepers, and greatly impressed his wife.  I'm SO blessed to have married someone who will hop on a plane with me and go half-way around the world without really knowing where we will end up.  He is the most amazing man I know, and I LOVE him. Here are some pictures from that trip: