Gideon and I visited one of the oldest monasteries in the world, the Stavrovouni Monastery (built in AD 327 by Constantine’s mother Helena), and was welcomed by an Orthodox monk named Makarius, who explained all the frescos inside the church (no photos allowed) and also let us see the Silver Cross which contains a minute […]
Category: Travel
Nicosia, Northern Cyprus
There was a civil wars in Cyprus in the 1970s which split Cyprus into the Northern Cyprus, which is called the Turkey side, and Southern Cyprus, called the Greek side. While we used the Southern Cyprus as our base, we crossed over to Northern Cyprus twice.
Larnaca, Sea Caves
We have arrived safely in Larnaca, Cyprus. Just a 45-min flight from Beirut, Lebanon. We checked into our hotel which is next to the 9th-century Church of St Lazarus, the one whom Jesus raised from the dead in Bethany after having been dead for four days.
Lebanon
We were invited to attend Fady and Grace’s wedding in Syria on August 21, 2022. Unfortunately, our visa applications were rejected as US citizens were not allowed into Syria because of the ongoing civil war. So we decided to celebrate their wedding with them in Lebanon in the week of Aug 28 – Sept 4. […]
The Turkish Riviera
We went out to the middle of the Blue Lagoon in Oludeniz and saw a green turtle with two remoras hitch hiking underneath it (not seen in Hawaii). Kids had fun playing soccer with some local Turkish kids who don’t speak English (so they sign). A seven-year-old boy had tears on his eyes when we […]
Ephesus, Akyaka, Dalyan
We woke up in our sleeper train and by 7:30am we have arrived in Izmir, a big modern Turkish city that is on the Aegean coast. This is the part of the journey that we will be taking a lot of local trains. Our plan is to first see the ancient Smyrna in the morning, […]
Konya and Sleeper Train
I have always wanted to do more travel by railway. Besides being eco-friendly, one can also relax and even lay down to sleep on a sleeper train. With some good researching and pre-booking tickets through a travel agent in Istanbul, we secured two cabins on the Konya-Izmir train. We drove 2.5 hours to Konya and […]
Cappadocia
We have arrived safely in Cappadocia and had an amazing time seeing the Cave Churches, the Underground City, and riding camels in the Red Valley! Kaymakli Underground City We visited the Monks Valley on our last day in Cappadocia. This is the site where St Simeon stayed as a hermit.
Istanbul
We began our 5-week journey in Istanbul. Here is an overview of our 5-week itinerary: 3 weeks in Turkey, 1 week in Lebanon, 1 week in Cyprus, and last few days hopping through Athens, Naples, Pompei, and Rome. Sultanahmet Why do we begin our journey in Istanbul, and why spend three weeks in Turkey? I […]
Paris Airport
We are at SFO and are boarding our 17-hour flight to Istanbul en route CDG.