Travel – Page 12 – Travel with Jane & Jeff

The wheels on the bus

Saturday, September 7, 2013

I apologize for missing my post last night…the need for sleep was greater than my need to write!

Let’s start by announcing who were the first to correctly answer my contest questions. The first question asked the source of the “posh, posh traveling” song posted on September 3^rd –the song is from that classic musical “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and the winner is my sister-in-law, Janet. She was the first respondent and had the correct answer. The second challenge was to name the book and author that had the line “Please sir, I want some more”. Several folks answered very quickly and accurately, but the winner was my cousin Lawson. Of course that quotation is from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

“The wheels on the bus go ’round and ‘round, ‘round and ‘round, ‘round and ‘round…” Now that you have that annoying children’s song in your head (you can thank me later) let’s see if I can make yesterday’s 6+ hour bus ride interesting.

Our travels from Istanbul to Ankara was not only relaxing but also wonderfully informative. Our guide, whom I’ve completely neglected to mention, is Ender.
Ender is incredible! His information about his country, the sights, culture, the history (which, in Turkey, borders on eons of history) is amazing. But, even more impressive is his ability to relay this information in an understandable way. My favorite aspect of Ender’s openness is his ability to draw us into dialogue and provide thought provoking discussions. In my guided tour experiences, this has proven a rare quality and is one in which he excels.

Along our route we stopped for tea (and to pee) and for lunch (and to pee) – you get the idea. Below is a photo of a Turkish rest area – totally modern and not a camel in sight.

Upon reaching Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey, we visited the Ataturk Mausoleum. General Ataturk was the founder and first president of Turkey and was the dynamic force that designed Turkey more as a European, as opposed to Islamic, city-state. Ataturk is very highly revered in Turkey. His emphasis on the secular state, on Turkey becoming a multi-party democracy. In an effort to distance Turkey from the Islamic influence he not only designed a new language, he eliminated the Ottoman script and adopted the Latin alphabet, and also changed the calendar from the Islamic calendar to the Julian. Can you imagine attempting any of these changes, much less accomplishing them??

The Ataturk Mausoleum is imposing to say the least. It sits on a high hill and the walkway up to the structure is flanked by 24 stone lions.The building sits on a vast courtyard that enhances the feeling of grandeur.

When we were visiting, a short ceremony took place and if I could remember how to use the video on my camera I would have had some great footage for you. I have 3 cameras and never seem to have the right one at the right time. Alas.

A small group began in the center of the courtyard and walked toward and into the mausoleum carrying a large flower wreath. There were swarms of people on the courtyard and not much notice was taken with this procession. But, a short while later, the sound of two bugles playing Taps floated over the expanse and to my incredible amazement the hordes of people fell completely silent and everyone stood straight up, statue-like with their arms down at their sides. It was one of the most powerful things I’ve experienced.

The tribute paid to and respect garnered by this past leader was moving. I think those wishing for Ataturk’s secular vision to continue and to thrive may be worried about the growing Islamic influence in law that is creeping into their society. Next year’s elections may signal a new future for this young Turkish girl.

Eyes wide open

As we are riding to Ankara and the drive is several hours, I thought it a good time to talk about the political or social climate currently inTurkey. Many of my friends expressed concern about my coming to Turkey given the large protests and unrest in Istanbul three months ago and the current saber rattling going on between Syria and the rest of the world – most notably the U.S. And since I’m thinking some of you might have seen the U.S State Department’s warning to non-essential personnel and tourists traveling in Turkey that came out yesterday, figured this would be a good time to address some of those concerns.

First, the warning from the State Department is for an area of Turkey that we will not be visiting. It is, as you may have guessed, for an area around the Syrian border. Think of it this way, it would be like a warning for NYC and you live in Wyoming. You would be concerned for friends and family in the affected area and for the potential trauma to your national psyche, but you wouldn’t freak out in Worland, WY.

Regarding the large protests in Taksim Square in Istanbul a couple of months ago…we in the US support our right to protest and that is a right Turks also enjoy. Yet, overreactions, some with tragic results, do occur regardless of geographic locale. Any tourist with an ounce of common sense steers clear of even ‘peaceful’ demonstrations and any gatherings of large groups simply because of the potential for unpredictable group mentality/activity.

Last night there was a VERY large police presence in Taksim Square and when we asked about it, learned that there have been some growing protests in Ankara (to where we’re driving right now) by Middle Eastern Technical University students. There is concern of more protests in support of those students occurring in other cities. In the case of Istanbul, that would naturally occur in Taksim Square. The power of social media!

What are the students protesting? The local government decided to cut a road through campus – a project that involved cutting down a lot of trees. And they decided to remove the trees while the students were away for the summer. The university is just starting its new semester and students are returning to campus to find the trees gone. They are angry that this perceived power play had taken place in their absence. (In my opinion, the protests are symbolic of deeper concerns.)

So, yes, you might hear on the news or online about “growing protests or unrest” in Turkey and when you do remember that it is a large country and innocuous events can be spun into great headlines in the current climate of ‘terro-journalism.’

Also, I (and probably Eve, Leroy, Mary and Elaine as well) am registered with the US Consulate/Embassy so they know we’re traveling here and I am on the State Department’s email list for any updates or warnings regarding Turkey.

We have our eyes open, our brains switched on and have had/will continue to have an awesome trip! Later today look for my post about today’s fun – lets see if I can make an almost all day bus ride remotely interesting…

Betwixt and Between

Friday, September 6, 2013

Today was the first day of our “official” Turkey tour – and I promise not to talk about food! There are 27 people in our tour group and we are traveling in one of those huge tour buses – lots and lots of room to spread out and everyone gets a window seat. 🙂

Did you notice the new photo that is the cover for this blog? That is the Turkish flag and I thought it would add pizzazz to the blog.

I’m a little afraid today’s post is going to sound too traveloguey. Tonight I’m not physically tired, but my brain is exhausted. I learned so much and really wish I could share it with you. Information about architecture, religion, commerce, politics and more. For instance, did you know that Istanbul is the meeting point of Europe and Asia? The Bosphorus (more on it later) runs through Istanbul…one shore is in Europe…one shore is in Asia. And at one point the two shores are only 800 yards apart. The city is an amazing blend of East and West – hence today’s title “Betwixt and Between.”

This morning we started by visiting Hagia Sophia (Greek for “church of holy wisdom”). Hagia Sophia is about 14 centuries old, built at the height of the Byzantine empire. Think about that…1,400 years ago the building I was standing in, was walking around in was built. I stopped once and put my hand on the wall just to try and feel the past. To feel marble and the wooden door that represents those years and years of humankind, of faith and of politics.
It was initially built as an Orthodox Christian basilica and was the largest cathedral in the world for 1,000 years. Interestingly,during the Ottoman conquest Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque (in like 3 days). Their takeover of Hagia Sophia was political rather than religious…with Hagia Sophia a mosque, the Christian dominance in the world ended. Today, Hagia Sophia is a museum.

I could go on and on about the amazing 6th century ceiling decorations. I took this photo of one.

I thought it might make a nice quilt pattern. Anyone interested in trying that? I have a couple of photos of closer details.
Hagia Sophia is known for it’s incredible mosaics…and trust me, it was tough to get a decent photo of those. I might go back through my pictures tomorrow and see if I can find a halfway decent one to pop in.

After Hagia Sophia, we traveled to the Grand Bazaar. This is a VERY famous shopping mall that was set up in 1453…so 30 some years before Christopher Columbus set sail and discovered America.
There are 21 gates (entrances) to the Grand Bazaar, 12 inns and 66 streets. Over 30,000 people work in the (4,000!) shops – and they all want you to shop in their store!
“Gate 1” is considered the front door of the Grand Bazaar. Look at the huge entrance and that amazing door. And here is a shot of one of the 66 halls inside.

Unfortunately for all those vendors none of the five of us was interested in shopping, but we were interested in lunch! We wander outside through a madhouse of sidewalk restaurants and street stall food and pick the restaurant with the comfy-ist seats! I said I’m not going to talk about food today, so…after lunch we made our way back to our bus getting lost only once or twice.

This afternoon was at our leisure or we could take a Bosphorous cruise…hey, when will I be in Turkey again? And anyone who knows me, knows I love cruises! hahaha! Mary and I had a discussion on what exactly the Bosphorus is – a river? a strait? We have no idea, but decided it is a strait.
Out of the 27 tour participants, 9 took the river excursion and we were 5 of the 9. The tour boat sat probably 150-200 people, and we had it all to ourselves.

The weather was gorgeous, the river goes all the way to the Black Sea, though we didn’t go that far. On either side of the river there is a fortress. The Fortress of Europe in on the narrowest part of the Bosphorus and was built in 1452. This was right before the invasion of Constantinople. The Fortress of Asia was built 50 years earlier just before the Ottomans tried to seize Constantinople in 1396 – I didn’t get a very good photo of those ruins. Poor Constantinople…under siege over and over again.

It’s amazing to me that these fortresses still stand!

There were a bunch of palaces along the Bosphorus…those sultans and such liked their beachfront properties. I can’t remember the name of this palace, but do remember that it was designed to look like Versailles…and it was completed about 3 years (or maybe months?) before WWI and the palace person never really got to live in it.
While the history of Turkey goes back before Christ, there is equally interesting history in the present as well. In fact, last week several Russian warships sailed down the Bosphorus through Istanbul on their way to stand off in the waters by Syria. This river was important in the past and may be more so now.
Can you see why my brain hurts?

After the cruise, which was so relaxing and wonderful, we headed back to the hotel. We decided to skip dinner, though Elaine, Eve, Leroy and I walked out to find a grocery store. We’re leaving on a long bus ride to Ankara tomorrow and wanted to stock up on provisions. We leave at 7am and I am going to be grumpy. (Not really). We got some fruit, bread, water, tomatoes and yogurt. Mary napped while we were gone. As I started to relax on my bed, Mary headed for the shower, when Eve and Leroy knocked to come in. They came in toting stuff…Eve sat on my bed and Leroy on the chair. A little puzzled, I asked “what are you guys doing?”. Turns out we were having a picnic dinner in our room! Elaine showed up shortly afterwards and we sliced apples, peeled bananas, washed grapes, sliced the loaf of crusty bread and topped it with fresh tomatoes and talked about our wonderful day.
Yikes! I’m talking about food – a sign that it’s time for me to stop.

Here, one last thing, is a photo of the five of us on the Bosphorus. From your left: me, in the sari, Elaine, Eve, Leroy and Mary.

Cheers,
Jane

Please sir, I want some more…

I swear that eating is not all I’ve done since arriving in Istanbul. I would swear that but it would be a total and utter lie. Yesterday afternoon, Eve and Leroy were standing on the curb outside the hotel as Mary and I arrived from the airport. With quick hugs all around (well, we didn’t hug Eve because she has a terrible cold) we drop our bags in our room and headed out for a walk. It was a lovely night and relaxing to walk in the fresh air amid all of the city hustle and bustle. We ended up in a coffee cafe. What was my first Turkish meal?? Chai and a grilled cheese sandwich! Pathetic choice but it wasn’t overwhelming and I did finish it all. 🙂

This morning we headed for our “Istanbul Eats: Exploring the Culinary Backstreets” adventure.
Oh, adventure doesn’t begin to cover it. We arrived at the meeting place 20 minutes early so had a chance to walk through the nearby open market. Mary had never been to an open market and it was fun to see her reaction as we walked by some of the displays – legs of lamb hanging in the open air, freshly gutted fish, a myriad of olives, spices, fruit, tomatoes the size of grapefruits, grapes the size of lemons (well, that might be an exaggeration), strings of dried eggplant. There was a lot to see and smell.

Our tour began at 9:30 and we did, indeed explore the back streets. I could easily write pages and pages and pages of descriptions of the foods, tastes and post way more pictures than anyone would be interested in, but in the interest of highlights, I’ve picked few things that stood out for me.

We started first with a simple breakfast of Turkish coffee, simik (sesame seed encrusted bread), fresh figs, cheese and kaymak.
Kaymak is a wonderful mix of clotted cream and honey and on the simik it was heavenly.

Our next stop was a local street food vendor. This wrap is cooked rotisserie style for quite a long time.

Making it is an art…and there are not many places in Istanbul that still take the time to do it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the dish, but I do remember the ingredients: sweet breads (sheep kidneys/brains) wrapped in sheep intestines basted with sheep tail fat. We were brave, chewed, swallowed and lived to tell the tale.

Walking on a bit further on, we stopped in the courtyard of what used to be a caravan stop. The ground floor used to have room for wares and the camels carrying them; the upper level was rooming for the vendors. The building has been redone slightly and now there are only two metal workers with shops and the main courtyard is being used for poetry readings and cultural gatherings. Here is our little group enjoying tea and tahini helva (a sesame seed paste dessert) in the courtyard.

Of course no culinary trip would miss a chance to show off the famous Turkish Delight candy or Baklava. Hooray for these stops. The Turkish Delight and almost all of the candy in Altan Sekerleme is handcrafted…four generations (since 1865) have created these confections.

Here’s something that I learned today that I wonder if you know? Proper baklava is not made with honey. No, no, no! Proper baklava is made with a sugar syrup. Who knew? We had samples of three different varieties of this sweet…this shop (which I can’t remember the name of) makes their own phyllo dough. And their baklava has 60-85 layers depending on the type. But, you don’t have to know any of this to enjoy the pistachio rich, wafer thin layers that truly melt in your mouth.

I did warn you earlier that I could go on and on about today’s walk! I won’t. I’ll close by mentioning one other yummy experience. We went to a shop, “Vefa Boracisi,” and had glasses of boza. Wonderful! Boza,is a fermented beverage, kind of like a milkshake, but without the milk. It is made of fermented millet and the sugar that is created in fermentation process. It’s served with a spoon, with cinnamon sprinkled on top and then topped with roasted chickpeas. Sounds weird but the contrast between the chickpeas and the boza was striking and very good. I said the drink is fermented, but the alcohol content is watched closely and it is only about 1%.
Vefa Boracisi is run by the great-grandson of the founder who opened this shop in 1876.

Some Turks believe that boza is a winter drink, like we drink hot chocolate, and to drink it in the summer is just ‘not right’. Well, they are wrong! I think you can drink boza anytime you want, and I would if I could.

Finally, here’s something we did NOT have today!
HAHA!

That’s our culinary trek for today in a nutshell (have I mentioned the HUGE walnuts?). I hope you enjoyed the descriptions and photos in today’s post.

Here’s another contest (if you’ve already won, you can’t win again…): Send me the name of the novel and the author to which the title of this post can be attributed. First one to post to my Facebook wins.

Tomorrow begins our first real day of our Turkey tour…we will be 5 of a group of 27. Should be fun! Hope you stay tuned…

Great TRYP

We’re here! We’re here!
After a great flight from Dulles we landed in Istanbul this afternoon. Let me tell you a little about our flight…

In Dulles we had to exchange our boarding passes from United for Turkish Air boarding passes. No big deal there, but in doing that we were given access to their First Class lounge and some little “express passport” paper. Of course, eager to make the most of Eve and Leroy’s generosity in arranging our first class transport, we headed right off to the lounge. Oh, good golly. So very relaxing and pleasant…though Mary did mention that it looked like it had been decorated by Elvis. OOOKKKK – maybe she’s a little tired.

We enjoyed an excellent cup of coffee, I had some yummy lentil soup and we both finished with strawberry sorbet in which you could see big chunks of strawberries. All too soon it was time to go back to our gate for our 10+ hour flight.

This is the first flight I’ve ever been on where the chef greets you as you take your seat. Hmmm…this is going to be more interesting than I thought.

We were thrilled to see that our seats would lie flat; our amenities bag included not only the usual eye mask, slippers and earplugs, but toothpaste, toothbrush, hand cream, lip gloss, bottled water, and a shoe horn. (Really, a shoe horn?)
Being the bumpkins that we are, it took Mary and I about 45 minutes to figure out how to use the remote controls for our individual TVs. I spent 10 minutes viewing the different styles of cargo planes used by Turkish Airlines (all dimensions and descriptions helpfully in Turkish) before I figured out how to change the channel. If I could read Turkish I would be well versed for any Jeopardy questions involving cargo planes.

Soon, though the evening’s entertainment was starting. It was a food fest of the highest degree. At one point, I said “But I didn’t order this” and was told “is included” so I shut up and ate my Godiva chocolates.

After our hot towels arrived some canapes. Grilled salmon on a stick (to die for!), herbed chicken breast on a little biscuit and a wee bitty eggroll.

Following the canapes, came our appetizers. Mine was buffalo mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and pesto with salad; small side dishes of tabbouleh, cucumbers and yoghurt and chilled green beans.

THEN they brought dinner. We each ate about 1/2 of our goat cheese ravioli and sides.
It was all completely delicious.

Mary was asleep before the dessert cart arrived and I just shook my head fearing an exploding tummy would cause an international incident.

We both slept well. When we awoke about 6 hours later, lo and behold, it was time for breakfast. You have GOT to be kidding me! But before breakfast a little “lite fare” to awaken your taste buds.
Fresh fruit, a mango/lime smoothie, coffee, and fresh cheeses with a roll.
Then they brought breakfast.
It was like being on a cruise ship but you had no place to run and no place to hide. What a great flight.

We deplaned rested and satiated. Walked down the stairs to deplane and got on buses to the terminal building. The lines at passport control were HUGE. At least an hour wait to get through (we had gotten our visas electronically before leaving the U.S. so didn’t have to stand in that line. Well, remember those “passport express” cards we were handed in Dulles? Magic! Those cards took us to a special passport line where we waited maybe 10 minutes. Through passport control, stopped at the ATM for Turkish Lira ($1 USD = $2TL – hooray), grabbed our luggage and then caught our prearranged shuttle to the hotel.

What an easy and fun trip we’ve had so far. I hope you’re enjoying my blog and will tune in again soon. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about meeting up with Eve and Leroy at the hotel and about our “Istanbul Eats” walking tour. (Food again??)

Posh posh traveling life

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

“This is livin’, this is style, this is elegance by the mile
Oh the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me
Whenever I’m bored I travel abroad but ever so properly….”

Yes, indeed, we are traveling the posh life. Eve and Leroy Measner were very generous with their frequent flier miles and Mary and I are traveling first class from Denver to Istanbul (and back). Here’s a photo of us in our roomy spots on United Airlines.

Now, for a short hop to Washington DC (Dulles) and onward for a nice 10 hour nap…

During our short (3+ hour) flight to Dulles, Mary napped. She missed the hot towels and complimentary toasted almonds and cashews…oh, and she missed our “snack” but I ordered for her and when she awoke they delivered hers. Here’s a photo of our snack

…a very tasty chicken/cheese soup; a shrimp salad; dinner roll and wine. It was more that I usually eat at a meal!

Later in the flight, hot chocolate chip cookies were delivered to our seats. Oh, we’re going to be spoiled…

CONTEST! If you can tell me where the lyrics of the song quoted in this post are from, I’ll bring you a little gift from Turkey. Winner is whoever posts first to my Facebook account with the correct answer.

“I’m on my way to far away tah tah and toodle-oo
And fare thee well, and Bon Voyage, Arrivederci too.
Oh the posh posh traveling life, the traveling life for me!”

T minus 7 (Turkey minus 7)

This it Turkey minus 7 days!
A week from right now I’ll be at Denver International Airport. The requisite 3 hours before my international flight.

Let’s see, am I organized? Pretty much, though I still need to print my postcard address labels. It is much lighter to carry a sheet of pre-printed address labels than my entire address book. Need to make my money cheat sheet – a 3×5 or 4×6 card with one side showing Dollars to Turkish Lira to Euros in a variety of amounts and in that order, the other side going from Lira to Dollars to Euros. A handy on the fly currency conversion.
Tomorrow I will pack (yes, seriously) and then spend the rest of the week trying not to put anything else into my bag! And ironing is on the list as well.

Last night I downloaded 5 new books to my Kindle.
Snacks…oh, I should think about some snacks…