The Epic Tofurkey Adventure: The Video

After all of the blog posts with pictures and lots and lots of text, it's finally here: The Epic Tofurkey Adventure video! Enjoy!

An Amazing Picture

Courtesy: Israel Defense Forces Flickr Feed

Caption: First Picture of Gilad Shalit After 5 Years of Captivity - SFC Gilad Shalit on the phone with his parents, after arriving Israel.

Doing Business in Turkey (The Conclusion of The Epic Tofurkey Adventure of 2011, Part 12 of 12)

As we learned from a young age, everyone poops.

And we all need places to, ya know, do our business. To paraphrase David Sedaris, even when we are old and retired, we still have business. And to clarify, I am not talking about "giving someone the business," which is a 15 yard penalty in the NFL (example video below). 

In some places, it's really nice to do your business. For example, at my home synagogue, there are contoured seats. Comfy place to be if you're skipping out on a sermon (which you should never do...;)).


Doing business in Turkey is, well, an adventure. In fact, doing business in Turkey is, indeed, an epic adventure.


Let's start with the lighting.


For some reason, many places in Turkey have motion sensor lighting in the bathrooms. No switch. You just walk in, and the light comes on. In theory, cool idea. However, the timers on these lights are often set incredibly short. We're talking about 10-15 seconds in a lot of places, and if you're lucky, maybe 30 seconds. Which makes the situation really odd when you're engaging in some very important business to have to wiggle your arms around. 


Next, the toilet paper.


Sometimes it was square shaped, sometimes it was rectangular, sometimes you got it from the bathroom attendant, and sometimes, you just weren't provided any. We learned quickly that we often needed to pack for this situation in advance, just in case. Oh, and you also have to be aware if the system can take toilet paper or not. Sometimes, there's a trash can next to the toilet. Delicious.


On to washing the hands!


Sometimes the water was over the sink, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it was so misaligned, I actually had to think about what the person installing the water and the sink must have been on when they came up with the idea of where to put it. I came up with some interesting theories, but seriously...who puts a misaligned sink under a faucet?!


When it came to paper towels, sometimes there were, but often there were no towels. We got really good at the waving-your-hands-to-dry-them dance. Nevertheless, we could almost always guarantee that their would be soap. But not just any kind of soap. Foamy soap(y). It was so interesting how if they had soap, it was foamy soap(y).


Okay, I left out the big elephant in the room: the toilets themselves.


As you may know, there are two kinds of toilets: ones where you sit, and ones where you squat. Squatting toilets are EVERYWHERE. And sometimes, they're your only option. Try as we might to avoid them when possible, sometimes, they were our only option. And, inevitably, each of us had a schechianu (prayer you say after you've done something for the first time) moment with a squat-style toilet. Also, when it came to flushing said toilets (and the urinals too), you often controlled the water. Instead of a flusher, there was a pipe with a valve. You open, you close, it flushes.


Okay, I understand that this post contained a lot of information about doing business. It may have even grossed you out a bit. But the truth is that this was part of our epic adventure. Even going to the bathroom was an epic adventure.

The Epic Tofurkey Adventure of 2011 - Day 10 (Part 11 of 12)

Day 10 – Saturday, September 3, 2011 – Istanbul

We arrived back in Istanbul around 7am, and took a ferry from the Asian side back to the docks on the European side. The six of us walked back to the Istanbul hostel where we dropped our backpacks with the bags we had left there earlier in the week. The boys and girls split up, and the boys went off to have a straight razor shave while the girls did a little exploring and shopping. The boys had a great time, and the girls were successful in all the things we were still looking for. We met back up at the hostel, and took the shuttle back to the airport. After a short delay, we were on the plane (beautiful and new) and headed back to Tel Aviv. This time, we were on a plane with a 2-4-2 setup, so each of us was able to sit alone with our significant other. The entertainment system was also fantastic and, because of the plane type, also included a channel where you could view cameras placed on the front and tail of the plane, as well as a USB connection where we could charge our iPods and iPhones, which was great. Again, the service was great with a wonderful meal and drinks (however as each of the three guys ordered scotch, the attendant rolled her eyes), and Sarah passed the time by watching Water for Elephants on my personal entertainment system. While it was nice to come back to Israel, our trip to Turkey was a fantastic 10 days. Definitely an epic adventure. 

Video: Gilad Shalit Celebrations

Last night, Israel's cabinet accepted a proposal to free around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured more than 5 years ago. The joy that we shared last night celebrating outside the Gilad Shalit tent, just a few blocks from our apartment, was electric.


Here is the video:

The Epic Tofurkey Adventure of 2011 - Day 9 (Part 10 of 12)

Day 9 – Friday, September 2, 2011 – Cappadocia to Ankara

On Friday morning we all got up early and hiked back up to the lookout point from the night before to watch the sun rise. One of the main attractions in Cappadocia is the hot air balloon rides at sunset. While we decided not to do that, it was amazing to watch the sun come up over the hills with about 60 hot air balloons on the horizon. We sat there for a long time just watching the landscape and experiencing the sunrise. With a half day left in Goreme, Jeremy and I decided to take it easy and explore the town. Daniel, Leah, Abram, and Leah all rented scooters again and went off to hike in the hills. We had a lovely morning just walking around the city, exploring some shops, and learning all about Turkish rugs. We parked ourselves at the Fat Boy Café, where we played many games of backgammon, sipped tea, and took in the sites. It didn't hurt that they had incredible nachos, topped with traditional Turkish yogurt. At 2pm we were back at the bus station, waiting for our bus which would take us to Ankara (a 5 hour ride). A tiny little van showed up, and we were all a little confused and scared that we would be spending the next 5 hours crammed into this little space. Lucky for us, the can just took us to the big bus station, where we boarded a lovely coach complete with personal TV sets, drinks, and snacks. We arrived in Ankara around 8pm, and took taxis over to the train station, where we would board our overnight train to Istanbul. We had dinner in the café in the station, which is a very old restaurant with a hilarious waiter (again). On the train each couple had their own sleeper car complete with two beds, a sink, towels, and slippers. We were lulled to sleep by the moving train, and woke up 9 hours later, back in Istanbul.

The Epic Tofurkey Adventure of 2011 - Day 8 (Part 9 of 12)

Day 8 – Thursday, September 1, 2011 – Cappadocia

For our second full day in Cappadocia, the six of us went on the "green" tour, which took us outside Goreme to other beautiful parts of the region. We met Galip, our guide, at the hostel, and piled into the van to drive out to a lookout point overlooking the city. Like all of the views we had seen the previous day, we overlooked the mounts of volcanic rock and ash that have been molded by the wind into these cones and chimneys over thousands of years. From the Goreme lookout, we drove to Derinkuyu Underground City. Going 8 stories underground, this city was used to hide, and was connected to other underground cities nearby. We walked through this elaborate connection of rooms, visiting stables, cellars, storage rooms, and oil and wine press, refectories, chapels, and even a religious school. It was amazing to see what could be built 55 meters straight down into the rock.

After about an hour of driving, we then arrived at Ihlara Valley, which is a 16 km gorge cut into the rocks of Cappadocia. The entire valley, with the river flowing through it, has homes and churches cut into the rocks where the Christians would go to escape the Roman soldiers. We visited St. Daniel's church with its painted frescos, then walked 4 km down the gorge to a restaurant where we had lunch. A few of us waded in the river, which was a nice, cool refreshment on a hot day. Belisirma, where we had lunch, is a restaurant built right on the Melendiz stream. From there our van picked us up, and we made our way to the Selime Monastery. This monastery is the biggest rock-cut monastery in Cappadocia and goes straight up a hillside. We visited the cathedral, kitchen, monks quarters, stables, and lookout tower. Like most of the trip, we also had an incredible view from the monastery. On our drive back to Goreme our van driver stopped on the side of the road, got out of the van, and bought a whole bag full of strawberries from a road-side stand. We all thought it was pretty funny, but these were the most flavorful and delicious strawberries I have ever tasted. Our next stop was at Crater Lake, a beautiful blue mineral lake hidden among the mountains. Our last stop before returning to the hostel was at Pigeon Valley, where thousands of pigeon houses are carved into the rock along with caves and fairy chimneys.

After our tour, the six of us walked up to a lookout platform on the hill above our hostel. From there, we were able to watch the sunset over Goreme and the fairy chimney landscape. The clouds happened to roll in just as the sun was setting, making an absolutely beautiful view. From there we walked back into town for dinner at a restaurant called Bidek. On our bus to Pamukkale, Abram had been sitting next to a Turkish tour guide, and he told us about this restaurant where you have to make a reservation and order the day before, because they start cooking your meal about 4 hours before you arrive. We all sat and lounged on pillows while our Testi Pots were brought to the table, cracked open, and poured onto plates. Another delicious meal. We wandered back to the hostel through the streets and shops of Goreme, enjoying the atmosphere on our last night in Cappadocia.