Yesterday was a really interesting day. There is a really old castle, called Afyon Castle, that was built in about 1500 B.C. that sits on a mountain overlooking Afyon. Fatma and Bora invited me to go to the castle with them. Bora's cousin, Oğuz and his uncle, Anan, who are visiting from İzmir, came with us. We climbed up 650 steps (I counted) to get to the top, which was a hard work-out, but the view from the top of the mountain was completely worth it. I could see all of Afyon below me and it was beautiful.

Fatma also invited me to a village wedding party that took place last night. Fatma was going because she owns a pharmacy and the sister of the groom works there. This was a really interesting experience. I found out that the marriage had been arranged by the bride's and groom's families, but with their consent. I also found out that the groom is 19 and the bride is 17.
When we got there, Fatma and I went into the house, looking for Emine, who works for Fatma. Inside the house, there were at least 40 women sitting all over the house. Some of them were cooking, but most of them were talking. We found Emine and talked to her for a while and then we went outside because it was time to eat. There were rows and rows of tables set up outside and there were at least 100 people sitting and eating. It looked as though the entire village had been invited. There were babies and young children running around and teenagers and parents and grandparents all over the place.
Dinner was served and we ate çorba (soup) and ekmek (bread) and there was also pilav (rice) with et (meat).
Then, all the men stayed outside and danced and the women all went back into the house and danced there. People also set off fireworks during the party, which is a custom in weddings. There is also another custom among the men, and that is to have guns at weddings. They take their guns and fire them into the air during these parties.
This wedding party was a groom's house and I was told that there is another wedding party at the bride's house and the actual ceremony will be on another day. The entire wedding will take 3 days.
It was a really incredible experience to be able to go to this kind of wedding. I was told that 40 years ago, this type of wedding was common in Turkey, but this kind of wedding is unusual nowadays.

Two days ago, we also celebrated Ece's 9th birthday. We went over to her house and joined her parents, grandmothers, her brother Yilmaz, and two other 5 year old boys who I think are cousins. We ate (of course), sang to her, and gave her presents, it was really cute.
Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!