Fishing boat tied up just before sunset.
Steve, Sandra and Mason exploring the grassy hills that flowed between the peninsula's two shores.
The peninsula was full of saltwater marshes. 
Towards the entrance to the park there was an old watch tower. Mason and Steve climbed up to get a better view of the sunset.
Liz Whiteman! Thank you so much for coming half way around the world to meet me in Turkey! Marie, Liz and I had the best time of our lives in Turkey! read on :)
Marie and I took the train from Bulgaria and had a day before Liz fly in from the states. We spent the extra time to explore Burgaz Ada, one of the "Kizil Adalari" or Red Islands, which we call the Prince's Islands. 
We ate seafood and went swimming and simply fell in love with the quant little island. It's only 20 km from Istanbul and a short ferry ride away. No cars are allowed on the island, only horse drawn carriages and bicycles. 
When Liz finally arrived we went and did the major but necessary tourist sites.
The outside of the Blue Mosque, so called for the beautifully ornate blue tile decorating the inside.
Going out in the popular "Istiklal" area that night with our new friend Justin after the four of us took in a Whirling Dervish show.
There was so much seafood in Turkey! And on the street you could get fried muscles, fried muscle sandwiches, fried sardines, muscle and rice called "dolma" the list goes on! SO TASTY
We made friends with these guys selling the fried delicacies and continued to go back to them.
I have always had a love for the stories of Troy. I finally got to be Helen of Troy in real life.
Liz and Marie were my beautiful maidens. 
To visit Troy you must stay in the city of Chanakkale. That is where I introduced Liz to the perfection of fresh figs.
Klaros Beach near Selchuk. You can imagine Marie, Liz and I swimming and playing in the sand and water all day. The Aegean Sea is gorgeous! 
Liz couldn't get enough of those figs and bought more from this local woman selling fruit on the street.
The next day we went to the House of the Virgin Mary, as just outside of Selchuk city. The are some stories that say Mary lived out her last days here (not this house, but a house of the same shape on this exact spot).
After walking through the house and lighting a candle you could tie a note on to this wall of prayers like Liz is doing here.
From Mary's house we made our way down to Ephesus. One of the most amazing site of ancient ruins I have ever seen. Only 20% of it is uncovered for the eye to see, yet that took us 4 hours to do. Ephesus was once the second largest Roman city, next to Rome itself. 
People are constantly there working on reconstructing what has been found and finding new parts.
The three of us in front of the Grand Theater.
And so we made our way west, south and back north to Istanbul with the help of Turkey's amazing bus line. We spent our one day back in Istanbul cramming lots in! Here we are inside Aya Sophia. Marie shared with us that the Statue of Liberty coud do jumping jacks inside without touching the walls, basically it was HUGE. Once a church and then a mosque, it has a lot of history to offer.
The Grand Bazaar!
Spice Bazaar!
We could not have a better time. This trip all together, Marie and I making our way from Ukraine to Turkey and then Liz coming to spend time in Turkey with me, was magical!
St Sophia's Cathedral. Marie and I are in the bell tower and if you look closely you can see St Michael's Monastery over my shoulder.
St Michael's Monastery.
We just couldn't help ourselves, this girl was so adorably sweet we had to buy honey from her. She was selling it right outside of the chruch.
Entrance to the Cave Monastery Complex-you have to cover your head in Orthodox holy places. 
Marie looking around in one of the many churches in the complex.
This man, sanding just outside one of the churches, was desperately trying to convince us he had drawn these photo copied pictures himself.
Marie and I in Ploscha Rynok, one of the cities main squares.
The view from the top of the town hall building's tower in Ploscha Rynok.
Marie sitting by the beautiful, but dirty, fountains that start one of the main squares, Piata Unirii.
Some of the old alleyways and walk ways were filled with vendors selling this and that. I bought a hand painted picture of Mary here.
This was Andrew, our Bulgarian tour guide for the free walking tour. He was just too much fun not to share.
We also spend one of our days away from the main city in the huge Herastrau Park. We rented bikes and made our way around the lake.
Making our way to Plovdiv in the morning.
Plovdiv's old town is full of well preserved old, traditional, houses. This is the Hindliyan House, built in 1835.
The tower of the Church of St Constantine and Elena. The old town was just full of fun cobblestoned streets with something hiding around every corner.
Like this arch.
Exploring Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria was such an amazing experience. Every city we went to and hostel we stayed in brought new friends. That was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip-simply meeting people from all over the world doing the same sort of exploring that Marie and I were doing and spending the day or evening or both with them. We had an amazing time.
Stay tuned for the next blog post all about Turkey with Liz in the next couple days!
We did play kick ball and frisbee of course. But we also did an arts and crafts station day, another PCV, Jess, came up for a day to teach some fun dancing to my kids which we then followed up with a dance competition and I did a day of gym games and relay races.
All in all it was fabulous! I had 22 kids coming some of the days! Now I'm in Gusar, another region of Azerbaijan, to do some exploring before everyone in my AZ7 group meets up in Baku for our Close of Service (COS) Conference. Then I'm off to Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and meeting Liz in Turkey! I can't wait!!
Can you find me?! ;)
Thanks to Grandma Scott and mom for sending the glow sticks for "Disco GLOW," the gils thought they were SO cool and wore them as jewelry even after the glow went out.
On the talent show night there was a really special moment where the Azerbaijani trainers wanted to sing the Americans a song. It was in Azerbaijani and about friendship, it gets me chocked up now just thinking about it again. They brought out this Azeri flag and a picture they had drawn of an American flag and told us how much it meant to all of them that we came here to help them through a beautiful song. Everyone got up and danced along, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
We made tie-dye and had special markers to write all over them. They girls had a blast with that. This was an awesome spot right out on the lake where we had a bonfire the last night.
GLOW Azerbaijan is a mix of doing fun, creative games, crafts and what not, normal American summer camp fun as well having an empowering theme for two work sessions and a guest speaker each day. This years themes were Leadership, Gender, Career Sacrifices of Women (in Azerbaijan) and Goal Setting. The Azeri trainers were the leaders of these sessions and a special Azeri woman was brought in as a guest speaker each day. This camp is about showing these Azeri girls that there can be more to their life then being a housewife (if they wish to do something different that is). It also just gives them an experience they may never have again-a week away from their family, in a region they may never see again, with girls their own age and the freedom and space to be absolutely themselves in. Most of these girls probably had never left their own town/village before this and unless they go to Baku sometimes (everyone seems to have family there!) they may never again. They will also live with their own family and soon their husbands family in a confined space where there is no room to be independent or individual. I hope that their time at GLOW gave them freedom, at least for a week, and that they will never forget it. I myself feel so lucky that I was able to work so closely with GLOW for the past two years. It was a major part of my Peace Corps Service and it is something I know I will never forget.