Turkish Animals!

Oh boy, did we see some cool animals roaming around!

Seagulls:

Dolphins - lots and lots and lots of dolphins (I think I counted more than 60 over the two-hour-ish ferry ride from Mytilene back to Turkey):

 A butterfly:

Horses:

A donkey:

A frog:

And turtles (tortoises?)!

And then... I actually don't know what was here:

Don't worry, still more to come! 

Turkish Scenery

I gave one post to Assos for its beautiful scenery, but there was a lot of gorgeous hiking and beautiful vistas we saw. In no particular order, here are some of my favorites.

From the boat to and from Mytilene:

From the hike from Troas to Assos:

From the road-searching:

I think this was a mine

If I remember correctly, this was Obam Lake

This was right in Izmir

Thyatira

I managed to forget about this city, somehow.

Thyatira was one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. It was also the city where Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe, lived (she was a merchant, so I assume that means she was visiting Philippi in Macedonia on business). The city was probably founded by the Lydians, who I remember as being the first group of people to mint coins.

Here are some pictures (they're all kind of vague, deliberately so) from the ruins. I should mention that we don't know what all the buildings here are:

I honestly don't think anyone knows what this is. I just thought it was pretty!

This was part of the arches between pillars. It made me think of some of the graphics in the Dwarven cities in Battle for Middle-Earth II. 

Alpha, I think