Christmas and New Years, 2006

We spent Christmas around here as I didn't have as much leave as I would have liked but we got to to to Brussels, Belgium for New Years. We came the closest to running out of gas as I have come in Europe, but that is a story for another day. Make sure you ask me about it, not Lisa.

The Duncans

Some of our really good friends, the Duncans, are leaving us for pretty St. Louis fairly soon. As you can see, we spent Christmas with them.

Self Portrait

We need to get a tripod, or a friend.

Best. Waffle. Ever.

Good Firework Show

Lisa in front of the fireworks

Beaucoup des gens

Beaucoup des gens means" crapload of people" in French. There were a ton of people in the Brussels city square that night. We were lucky to get into a restaurant. I ate a 5 gallon bucket of mussels and Lisa had some pork something. It is lucky to eat fish on New Years, especially shellfish.

Urinating Statue

This is the "Manneken Pis" that is the most famous thing in Brussels. When your most famous tourist attraction is a urinating statue, you need to ask your city council some questions.

The ole Tannenbaum

Since being here in Germany, I found out that Tannenbaum is a real word (German one) meaning Christmas Tree. I thought it was the words to "Oh Christmas Tree" if you were really, really drunk.

Great Minds think alike

So I found out Christmas morning that we got each other the same thing. I ended up taking mine back since "we don't need two". Lisa uses hers a alot. So much in fact that she had to have the earphones surgically removed (just kidding).

"Donald Duck" Biscuit

Whenever my mom would make biscuits, she would always take the leftover dough and make one last biscuit. This was called the "Donald Duck" biscuit. It was either misfortune or fortune depending on if you got it. Not so good for gravy, but really good for "sopping up".

Sausage Pinwheels

I always get homesick around Christmas and Lisa does her best to make it not so. This is the traditional Christmas breakfast around the Odom household. Not vegetarian fare but not bad either.

Turkey!

This trip, I got to go to Adana, Turkey. This is down near the Syrian border. On the way, I got to stop through Istanbul (Constantinople) and on the way back I got to go through the capital of Ankara. It was a great trip, even though I was a little nervous when I found out I had to go. The Turkish people were very hospitable and I wouldn't hesitate to go back. Enjoy!

Ataturk

The "George Washington" of Turkey was a man named Ataturk. He was a great leader who basically set up modern Turkey. This was a park outside of Tarsus that had statues of all the famous Turkish leaders. He had the spot of prominence.

Tarsus

Adana was pretty near to Tarsus, where St. Paul was from. We were in a cab and Tammy went in to get something and I was chatting with the Taxi driver about how much it would cost to go. For 80 bucks he would take us. Tarsus is still called Tarsus. There are business like "Tarsus Hot Wings" and "Tarsus Car Wash" there. Anyway, he took us into old town where we went in increasingly narrow and winding streets. The Muslim call to prayer was being announced and we were stopping people and asking for directions to St. Paul's house. People were very nice and we finally found it. It is an dig site now but his well is still working. They will let you drink out of it which we did. It is probably not the best idea to drink untreated groundwater in a foreign country at a tourist location, but we didn't get sick. If you want to see a video of us drinking from the well, here is a link to one. It's two minutes long, so be patient.

Large Mosque

In downtown Adana, there was a really large Mosque. These pictures were taken from moving vehicles, in case you can't tell.

Turkish Grub

The food in Turkey was incredible. It was all very fresh, even what you got at the bowling alley. Four of us ate at a restaurant and pigged out and the total bill was less than 20 bucks. There was always a restaurant called the Red Onion that had specials named after people. We had the Tammy special and Tammy Salad.

Plates

Everywhere you look in Turkey, they are selling hand painted pottery. Lisa really digs this pottery even though you can't eat off of it. You just hang it on the wall in places where I'm likely to knock it off and break it. I knew this was a trap.

Rugs

If you go to Turkey, they'll show you lots of rugs. Whenever you go into a shop, they'll serve you a drink (tea, coffee, beer, etc) and talk to you. It is against the rules (Turkish hospitality) to refuse the drink, even if you don't buy anything. I couldn't bring myself to buy a rug without wife-al approval, so I just took a bunch of pictures.

Sweden here we come!