Istanbul Pictures

Thought I'd surprise everyone by actually posting the pictures the same day that Barb blogged about the trip. Don't get used to it.

I feel like we should start taking pictures of the food we eat, though, to better match Barb's exposition.

Istanbul March 2010

Istanbul, Round II

It's been awhile since we were in Istanbul. About nine months, actually. So Chris and I decided it was definitely time to go back and see all the places we missed in Round I. My boss, who is desperately trying to convince us to move to Istanbul and stay another year in Turkey, offered to pay for the airfare up there if I would come into the office and work part of the day on Saturday, March 6. Hmm, let me think about th...uh, YES?! So after Chris finished with work on Friday, we headed to the airport.

I hate airports and I hate flying. Let's get that out of the way first. Now, let me add that I also hate flight delays, particularly when I'm hungry (I hate everything and everybody when I'm hungry though, so take that into consideration). You get the idea of our experience there, although I must add that when we checked in, they were kind enough to put us in the emergency row exit so Chris could actually sit in the seat like a normal person.

We got to Istanbul and took a taxi to a shopping center where we were supposed to meet my boss. When we got there, she had a surprise for us- Mongolian Barbeque!!! Omg, can it be?! ETHNIC FOOD?! What a concept! For those of you not familiar with Mongolian BBQ, you go up to a buffet with raw food (meat, veggies, etc) and pile as much as you can get into a bowl. I usually choose seafood and chicken, while Chris usually heads for the beef. At the end of the buffet, you also get noodles, then add spices and sauces. Then you take your bowl of goodies to the grill, which is a huge (HUGE) circular grill and they grill it for you. Absolutely divine, and no two things ever taste the same. This restaurant was even better than usual, since they had an employee who, after looking at what choices you had made as far as meat and vegetables, would then suggest sauces and spices to accompany it. MUCH better than I could have ever done (who thought oyster sauce was so good?!). So basically the best food I've tasted in months. Add to that a glass of red wine that actually tasted like wine (was that OAK I taste?) and Yeşim knows how to convince ME to move to Istanbul...

The next morning, Chris woke up ungodly early with me (what a trooper, and on one of his two days to sleep in too!) and we headed to the Istanbul Arlin office. Wow. They have multiple teachers, many classrooms....I'm impressed! I discussed TOEFL strategies with the teachers there and got new ideas. I also got to see Jaime, my friend who moved to Istanbul a few weeks ago. We left the office a little after 2PM and headed to Sultanhamet, the old part of Istanbul and also where Jaime lives. Chris and I were, surprise surprise, super tired, so when we checked into our hotel (The Agora Guesthouse, absolutely DIVINE!), we took a nap, agreeing that we'd meet Jaime for dinner later.

Dinner was... wait for it .... INDIAN FOOD!!! Our waiter was a little taken aback, I think, when we just kept ordering more and more food. We had lamb samosas to start, along with mango lassis, then Chris had chicken korma, I had butter chicken, and Jaime had a vegetarian dish with white beans in a red sauce that I couldn't pronounce, let alone write!

Let me tell you about each dish. Chris' was the most memorable, at least for me. Although the chicken was on the bone, which made eating it a little bit of a pain, the sauce is what was amazing. First, let me just say that Turks don't do sauce. Pizza comes with about one tablespoon of sauce on it. Sandwiches are usually rather dry unless you add your own condiments. Pasta is served with 1/4 cup of sauce. Just not really done here. Which is why the creamy, nutty flavored sauce with cinnamon tasted SO good with the naan we ordered. And the rice. By far the best chicken korma I've ever eaten (Sorry, Bombay Cuisine)! My butter chicken was also good, and thankfully the chicken was off the bone, so I didn't have to deal with that. My sauce was the typical butter chicken sauce, with lots of spices and flavorings. In other words, delightful. Jaime's entree was good as well, but I was so busy stuffing my face with Chris' that I didn't taste much of hers. However, I'm always amazed at how good Indian chefs can make vegetables and beans.

After taking almost 3 hours at the restaurant, there really wasn't much time to do anything else, so we headed back. On the way back, however, I made room for some roasted chestnuts, which are sold by street vendors everywhere. I hadn't tried them before, but omg, I am making up for lost time now! The shells flake off easily, and the nuts inside are soft, sweet and very good while they're still warm from the pan. I could eat those all day, seriously.

The next day, after a huge breakfast on the rooftop terrace, we went to Topkapı Palace. Chris took some pictures, although some of the coolest things we saw you couldn't take pictures of. For example, we saw sultan's clothing, dating from the 16th century onwards. We also saw several thrones, weapons, religious relics (John the Baptist's hand- gross) and an 80+ carat diamond!!!! (I want one.) The palace also had several courtyards and stunning views. Chris took pictures, he'll put them up one of these days. :)

Next, we went to the underground cistern. It didn't take long for us to walk through, probably only 20-25 minutes. But also probably one of my favorite things. Maybe because there were fewer tourists jostling me and pushing me along? But basically it's this huge underground cavern held up by 336 pillars, built by Justinius in the 6th century and forgotten until the 18th century, when it was restored. Also, there are two Medusa heads holding up pillars in the back corner. Pretty cool, esp considering their size, location, and position (one is upside down, the other turned sideways). Chris has pictures of this too, and you'll see why I liked it.

But, let's talk about our next meal. We were (predictably) starving by the time we were finished with the cistern, so we met up with Jaime and headed to Taksim (in the modern part of Istanbul) for Chinese. Ahhhh, Chinese. We orderd spring rolls and dumplings for appetizers. Those were the biggest spring rolls I'd ever seen! Chris ordered General Tso's chicken, I had crispy spicy ginger chicken and Jaime had...noodles. Made us look bad. But the food....I don't think any of you can understand how good it tasted unless you've been deprived for months. Think of how good that first slice of pumpkin pie tastes on Thanksgiving when you haven't had it since last Thanksgiving. Or your Mom's cooking if you haven't been home in awhile. It's a little like that.

Afterwards, we waddled out, and Jaime informed us that just 5 minutes away was a place that did a Bailey's-soaked brownie. Well, really, who can turn down brownies, let alone ones with Baileys?! So off we went. Crowded restaurant, rude waiters, but oh, that was a gorgeous brownie.

It was time to get back, pick up our luggage, and get to the airport. The flight back was uneventful (and on time!) although they weren't quite so considerate with the seats and Chris ended up contorting himself to wedge his knees in. Good thing it's only a 45 minute flight... And we'll keep that short flight time in mind. I think I'm getting a craving for Pad Thai...

Call to Prayer Video

So, this is really more for the audio than the video. I was on the rooftop terrace of our hotel in Istanbul when the Muslim call to prayer started. I had our mini camcorder with me, so I decided to record it so that everyone could hear what it sounds like. I panned around showing the view from the hotel, just so you have something to look at while listening.

The video is pretty big (25MB) so if you have a slow connection, you could be waiting a long, long time.

From Videos

P.S. Thanks to the Corporate Color crew for the camcorder. The original video is HD and looks much sharper, but it's also 190MB. It compresses it down for sharing on the web.

More pictures

OK, here are a few more picture albums that I've set up:

Blue Mosque in Istanbul

Barb and Chris in Istanbul

Misc Istanbul

Hagia Sophia

Izmir

Fun in the Big City

Since tomorrow Chris and I have to catch the ferry at 7:00AM, luggage in tow, I thought I'd better update our blog now since I won't be doing it tomorrow. And just when our sleeping schedule was getting back on track. (We slept the night through last night for the first time! Sad the things I get excited about these days when I'm sleep deprived...)

Chris and I had a fun day today, as well as yesterday. I know he already posted comments about the Mosaic museum, so I'll skip that. After coming back for a quick nap that turned into a lengthy nap, we got up and got ready to go over the Galata Bridge to the New Town side of Istanbul. We have been staying in Old Town, which is where most of the ancient historical sites are located, and also where most of the tourists are located. New Town is the modern section of Turkey, and also the more heavily populated. (These are both on the European side; the Asian side of Istanbul is mostly residential, with most people commuting across the bridge to New Town to work.) Before leaving the Sultanahmet area where we've been staying, we stopped at a little cafe for a döner sandwich. Yes, I'm going to wax on about how wonderful it was-skip to the next paragraph if you don't feel like reading about it or if you are hungry at all. Made completely of lamb (they have a chicken one too, but chicken döner is cheating) , they slice it off the spit in much thinner slices than restaurants in GR. You can get it wrapped in a fresh pita, or put into a sliced baguette, and topped with lettuce and fresh tomato. YUM! I could so live on them. Fish sandwiches for lunch, döner for dinner. I'd be set!

We headed to Taksim Square, a popular location that would be similar to Times Square in NYC, to meet with a couple contacts we had made before coming here. Umm, if I had known how INSANE that place was going to be, I may have suggested an alternative meeting spot. I'm still not sure how we managed to meet up, since all I could see everywhere were heads. The pictures you see of NYC sidewalks clogged with people? Now picture them all talking Turkish, and that's basically what the Square was like. We ended up having a blast though. Apparently the love of shoes, shopping, and wine is pretty universal with women, because I made friends quickly with the girls we were meeting. We went for some Turkish coffee (I still can't get over how good that stuff is!) and desserts. I lied- I'm going to talk about food again. I had a couple very good things. First was a pistachio roll, which was basically pistachios held together with honey inside of shredded wheat, also soaked in honey. They were then sliced so you could see the green pistachios inside. Very good, but also very rich. Chris had to finish the last half. I also ordered some delicious thing that I don't remember the name of. It was a hard chocolate cylinder filled with brownie w/ chocolate chunks, another layer of something else, and topped with cherries, with cherry sherbet on the side. Pretty sinful.

To work off all that sweet food, we decided to take a walk. The best shoe and clothing stores were pointed out to me, and after navigating various side streets and alleys (alleys that my whole hometown could fit in to!) that were completely filled with people, we ended up at a fun little bar where we rested our feet for a bit. Such a small bar and w/ no empty tables we ended up being seated by the waiter at a table with 3 other people. Kind of weird, I am not used to that. They just talked amongst themselves, we talked to each other, and it was like 2 separate tables except that we were sitting thigh to thigh with them. It was also getting pretty late by then and we decided to head home.

Between yesterday and Friday we've managed to try out most of Istanbul's public transportation. A little confusing at times, but we managed, and it was much cheaper than taxis!

Ok, just realized this is getting REALLY long. So I'll summarize today quickly. We went to the Blue Mosque, very cool but because we're visitors they have you stand behind a wooden railing, so we couldn't really get up close and personal with the blue tiles and other cool things they have there. But yeah, huge and awesome. I had another döner sandwich today b/c I am obsessed, and then had Turkish ice cream, which is not like any ice cream I've ever had. Almost elastic-y, I think Chris has a video where you can see someone in the background with it. Expensive too, but good for a warm day! Other than that, just getting re-packed and ready for our early morning tomorrow. Cross your fingers for us that our traveling goes as well as the traveling over here. Because I'm so ready to NOT haul around 160 lbs of luggage!

Hope you all are doing well. Keep commenting, it makes our day to hear from you all!

Mosaic Museum pictures

OK, here are some more pictures. They are from the Mosaic Museum in Istanbul. These mosaics are all from the Byzantine imperial palace, and are believed to date from the time of Justinian (6th century AD). The museum basically just roofed over the mosaics where they were found, so they are on the site of the actual palace. (Although there was a huge amount of preservation work done to the mosaics.)

These mosaics aren't quite as spectacular as the ones from the Chora Church with all the gold, and the colors aren't as vibrant (they are 700 years older), but I have always loved this kind of Roman-style mosaic. The subject matter is very different. The Chora church is all religious subjects, whereas the palace mosaics are more scenes from life and a few from pagan mythology. There are lots of animals and hunting scenes. It is amazing to think that what remains is only a fraction of the originals; the palace floor would have been covered with this kind of mosaic. Cool to think we can look down today at the same floors that Justinian walked on 1400 years ago.

One last note: Barb has a headscarf on in these pictures. No, she hasn't converted to Islam. We were planning to go to the Blue Mosque after the Mosaics Museum. It is still a functioning mosque, so she was wearing the scarf to be respectful.

Mosaic Museum in Istanbul

Chora Church pictures

So, apparently Barb is in charge of writing, and I'm in charge of taking and posting pictures for the blog. I feel like I've been slacking, since there's a lot more text than pictures posted so far. I will probably do some writing in the future, as well, but so far I haven't found the time. Plus, Barb is doing a pretty thorough job of covering what we've been up to.

Rather than posting the pictures directly to the blog, I'm going to try out Picasa web albums (Picasa and Blogger are both Google products, so theoretically they should work well together).

Here is a link to the web album with pictures of the Chora church:

Chora Church in Istanbul

Hansel & Gretel in Istanbul

Well, we got lost for the first time yesterday. Ok, so I was lost, apparently Chris knew (kind of) where we were. Since I'm posting, you can tell that we made it to the hotel ok, and I didn't have to be sedated for hysteria, so it all turned out ok. But not necessarily my most fun experience so far. You all know my complete lack of any sense of direction, and the tall buildings and narrow streets w/o street names made it impossible for me to figure out which direction we were headed or anything. Thank goodness for Chris, but I miss my Garmin!

Anyways, it WAS an awesome day yesterday. I got my fish sandwiches, and OMG, i hope they have them in Izmir! Very simple, just fresh fish, cleaned and grilled right on the boat, put in a sliced baguette with lettuce and onion on top. Absolutely delicious, and only about $3! It was packed all around where the boats are, so we knew it had to be good! I could have that for lunch every day, cheap, filling, and healthy.

I guess I should start at the beginning of our day though, instead of jumping ahead to our yummy fish dinner. We started the day walking to the bus hub (maybe a mile away?) to go to the Chora Church Museum. The bus was pretty typical of any bus, nothing really exceptional. (Except that when I got on to the full bus on the way back, a gentleman actually gave his seat to me. Whoa. Chivalry is not dead everywhere...)

The Chora Church was exceptional. Actually, probably my favorite thing we've done so far. It's a church built in approx 1100 with later mosaics and frescos EVERYWHERE. I mean, thousands upon thousands, in excellent condition! Our necks were sore from gawking at the ceilings. I'm hoping Chris will have time within the next couple days to post some of the pictures that we took. Really really amazing. Oooh, I see he's working on sizing and editing them now :)

We also saw some of the old city wall, which was pretty cool, although not as cool as the remains of a Roman aqueduct that our bus drove under. Totally awesome, kind of hard to wrap my mind around even now. It's kind of crazy how they inter-twine the very ancient with the modern. For example, the city walls had some small portals, and they use them as parking spaces for cars. The aqueduct goes right over a major road, so they built a lane of the road to go through each arch between the support beams. I love that they work with the ancient sites instead of destroying them for modern improvements.

We got back, had our fish sandwiches, and then, because we were RIGHT across the street from it, we headed over to the Spice Bazaar. The Australian couple I met on Thursday (I think it was Thurs? My days are completely screwed up at this point) recommended it over the Grand Bazaar, saying it was a cooler experience and with less pushy salesmen. Mom, you would have had a heart attack with all of the awesome spices heaped EVERYWHERE! Every time I turned my head, there were spices, dried fruit, cheeses (I about had the heart attack there!), Turkish delight (just for you, Bob) and other candies, fish, food vendors (I can have my doner kabop whenever I want, they're everywhere!), in addition to non-food items such as cooking utinsels, fabric stores, clothing stores, SHOE stores (here was Chris' heart attack moment, he hustled me past those so fast!), and pretty much anything else you could ever possibly need. It was because I was so excited about all the shopping opportunities that I forgot to mentally map which turns I had made where, and so when we were ready to go, uhhhh...

So we spent a little time wandering, but Chris figured out where we were and it actually ended up being a much shorter walk back to the hotel than if we had gone back to the bus hub and walked from there. So it all ended up ok. And I didn't even cry. :)

Today we went to a mosaic museum, these were from the Roman times, and less religious. Very very cool, but since it was Chris' favorite, I'll let him tell you about it. I'm headed to go get a snack and some coffee, and enjoy the sunshine.

Just a Couple Random Thoughts

So apparently 3:00 AM is my new wake-up time. For those of you who know me well, this means I'm not getting my full 9 hours, and it is starting to show... Wow, if you could only be here and have seen me staring into space for the last 5 min trying to think of what I was going to type in here, you would laugh. For those of you who have had to listen to me whine about being tired the last 2 weeks, sorry. But you haven't heard the last of it :D

The Australian couple I lent my computer to yesterday turned out to be awesome, and we had a great time talking. Perhaps Australia will be next on our list of places to visit. (Although I think the demand for English teachers there may be quite low, ya think?)

I have a new favorite beverage (well, besides wine, of course, that still remains the ultimate favorite!). The apple tea, which I mentioned in my first foodie post, is now my drink of choice for non-caffeinated beverages. Absolutely amazing! I've seen orange tea on the menu as well, but haven't had a chance to try it. Chris and I are going to attempt to try the famous fish sandwiches (I'll have the proper name later) today. You go the pier and the fisherman come in, grill their fish, sometimes still on the boat, slap it btwn bread, and apparently it's one of the best tasting things you can get. I can't wait! And if it turns out that we have to get there early, well, I'm up @ 3 AM....

More to come later :)

First Pictures

Well, Barb and I promised pictures on this blog, so I thought it was time to deliver. The first picture is a photo I took of the Blue Mosque from the rooftop terrace of our hotel at night. The streaks in the air are gulls that fly around the minarets.

Second picture is the Blue Mosque, taken from inside Hagia Sophia.

Third is a picture of the restaurant across the street from our hotel. This is the one Barb mentioned in her post (Seven Dreams).


The rest are mosaics from inside Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia

Today we walked the whole 1 block to Hagia Sophia (pronounced aya sophia, btw) to check it out. This has been a place I have wanted to visit ever since becoming interested in ancient history. Having it so close to our hotel is completely awesome, I kind of can't wrap my mind around it.

First, just a little history for those of you who don't know the significance of this building. (And I'm just going from memory here, so there aren't any definitive dates or anything here.) It has been built 4 times, the most recent during the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian as a place of worship for Christians. (Folklore says he looked at it when it was finished and declared he had outdone Soloman.) When the Muslims conquered Constantinople, they were so impressed by the structure that they spared it, adding minarets and converting it to a mosque. Christian symbols and mosaics are alongside Islamic caligraphy and art (after they've been uncovered, of course). For over a thousand years it was the largest place of worship in the world. It's main dome (there are several all over the structure) has become the face of Istanbul. So basically it's a very cool, very ancient place.

Ok, enough facts, now my impressions. (I'm pretty sure Chris will post later with his.) I was a little let down, to be honest, and I felt terrible for that feeling. It seemed to me that while having some very very beautiful features, it had an empty feeling. (NOT for lack of tourists there, trust me!) There were a lot of bare walls, and really nothing there except walls, pillars, and tourists. It would almost be similar to ancient ruins, except that they're working so hard to preserve it. A bit of a different feel. The main dome which I had read so much about was under renovation, with scaffolding going up the several stories to the top. While I am definitely glad that they are working to preserve this building, it did impede our full appreciation for it.

I wasn't completely UN-impressed though, please let me assure you! There are mosaics on some of the upper story walls that are thousands of years old and absolutely gorgeous! The stone in the building is also absolutely beautiful. Slab after gigantic slab of marble, granite, and other stones that I have no idea what they were but even prettier than marble. And it just went on and on and on. We also were able to see the Emperor's door, which during Byzantine times, only the Emperor was able to use. We saw where the Empress would have observed the religious proceedings from her specific location. The caligraphy and designs decorating walls, ceilings, and carving on pillars were exquisite. I was in awe and can finally understand how skilled workers could have spent their whole careers constructing and decorating this building. I would still strongly recommend anyone visiting here to take the time and see it. It is like nothing else you will see in your life.

After a nap, I am ready to go and find some food. I haven't eaten since breakfast at 11, and it is now almost 5. Breakfast was fun though, it was on the roof of our hotel, surrounded by potted plants, and consisted of bread with butter, jam, and a soft cheese, fresh FRESH tomatoes (Mom, you would LOVE them!) and cucumbers, a hard boiled egg, and fresh black olives, complete with black tea. Absolutely delicious and light.

Ok, there are an Australian couple who needs to use a computer and I have offered mine. I will try to get Chris to try to upload pictures tonight and I will post again tomorrow.

We're here!

Whew, where to begin? We're here, and ummm, wow. (Hey, I can say ummm when I'm talking to you all!) I'll try to start at the beginning and fill you all in w/o making this post a novel (which yes, will be difficult for me).

Thanks again, Daddy, for driving us to the airport. Things actually went well. O'Hare isn't too bad as far as airports go. We were CLOSE on luggage though! 2 of our bags weighed exactly 49.5 lbs (the max is 50 before you have to pay $150 extra!) so there was a sigh of relief. (Becky, sorry about the huge mess we left at your house while whittling my bag down from 65 lbs to 50!) We also actually did pretty good for the plane! They did an upgrade for us, so Chris actually had leg room. And then I could relax :) The flight went pretty well, I guess we had strong tailwinds so it went faster? sure, sounds good. all I know is that apparently I don't sleep well on planes. talk about a loooong night.

Heathrow was ok, I guess. I was such a little zombie that I pretty much wasn't aware of anything going on around us. Thank goodness for Chris :) The flight to Istanbul went well too, and we had GREAT seats! (Not quite first class, but hey.) I do believe we have both picked up colds from the planes though.

Istanbul is insane. Really. For a farm girl from a town of less than 2000, quite overwhelming. Probably not so much so for anyone from NYC or something. Lots of traffic (of which they make their own lanes), pedestrians going wherever they want, little streets that should be one-way but are two (cars have to back up or go onto the sidewalk to let opposing cars pass), and so many ancient buildings, walls, and monuments it makes my head want to explode and my eyes pop out. I definitely stand out as a tourist here :)

We ate across the street at a place called Seven Dreams and had the most helpful host! I understood his English, and he was extremely helpful with directions (and with chatting, which endeared him to me right away). I think we'll be eating a few more meals there. We have to tomorrow, b/c we didn't know whether to leave a tip or not, and so we didn't, and ooops, apparently we were supposed to. However, for all of you wondering, NO, I have NOT said "ummmm" yet (at least not that I know of...), and YES, I have been picking up a couple Turkish words. Mostly having to do with food and apologizing. :)

Speaking of food, foodies read on. Those of you who don't care, you can stop here. I had one amazing meal today! Since I slept through breakfast and lunch (and only had breakfast yesterday), I was STARVING when we finally got food today. It is typical for a large meal to order a cold appetizer, and hot one, and then your meal. Chris and I ordered hummus, stuffed grape leaves, "cigar-shaped pastries filled with cheese" (I swear, that's the name of it on the menu!), and then he ordered lamb kebabs and I ordered Adana Kebabs (which our host promptly changed to adana wrapped in filo dough and fried crisp, assuring me it was better). I also ordered Turkish tea and coffee, and Chris ordered an apple tea, which basically tastes like hot apple juice with a splash of tea. Yum! Zeytin restaurant in Ada is actually pretty authentic, for those of you wondering. Many of the spices and flavors were the same, as well as menu items. Even if NOTHING else goes right on this trip, I can deal with it b/c the food will make it all better :)

Anyways, I am sure I have more to say, but believe it or not, I am tired after being up a whole 8 hours! I will try to post more soon. And make it more fun, this felt like I was just touching the surface. Miss you all!