EuroLIfe: Day 227

Hello again! Boy we've been remiss about writing lately. I'm determined to get better about this. Michael swears that he is going to write a post on the Lycean Trail soon, as promised :) Still, the day we spent hiking the trail was long and eventful, so I thought that we could do TWO posts on it! After all, Michael will want to tell you all about the Lyceans and the trail, while I mostly want to show you pictures and tell you about the highlight of the day:

We met a mountain turtle. "But wait!", you say, "Turtles don't live in the mountains!" Well this turtle does. (And, as it turns out, so do lots of Turtles in Turkey. Who knew?)

We nearly walked right past him! In fact, Michael did walk right past him, but I saw him there, just meandering along the side of the path. He was awesome. Michael says he was the best part of the vacation, actually, and I have to tell you it was pretty funny watching Michael play with this turtle. Right about now you're probably wondering how a person plays with a turtle. Well, once this guy spotted us, he started to chase us. (Very, very slowly...but deliberately and with great determination!) So, Michael kept climbing onto tough-to-reach spots in order to watch the turtle (slowly, methodically) follow.

That might not look like such a tough climb, but remember--he's a turtle!

He was, as I said, very determined, but he had one weakness: He couldn't get enough of these yellow flowers that grew along the trail. He had no interest in the red flowers, he was willing to eat the white ones from time to time, but he simply could not pass-up the yellow flowers.

In the end, this was the turtle's downfall. He had almost reached Michael (after a particularly arduous climb) when he came upon a big cluster of yellow flowers. He went to work, chomping the heads off of each and every yellow flower, and eventually forgot all about us. We probably spent 15 minutes or so hanging out with this turtle...it's a shame we couldn't take him home from his mountain dwelling.

I'll end with two photos, one of each of us. I sometimes hear that we do not post enough pictures of ourselves up here, so here goes:

I don't know why I always have my hand on my belly. I know that most pregnant women do, and I have tried from time time to just stand like a normal person, but I inevitably find myself with my hand back on my belly. (This is especially true now that the little guy moves around so much. I guess it's the closest I can get to snuggling him!)

I love this picture. It really gives a sense of how incredible the view was along this trail. It was a fantastic day, and surely the last mountain trek that I will make before this little guy comes to join us!