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...

African Encounter

I thought for once that I'd write something on the blog and give Barb a break.

Anyway, we've now seen the sands of North Africa. We didn't visit Africa, however. It visited us.

I got out of work on Monday and noticed that the cars all had mud sprinkled on them. It had been raining, and I figured a bus had driven by and gone through a mud puddle or something. Then I noticed that ALL the cars were covered with mud. Then I noticed that it was still sprinkling rain, and that my coat was flecked with mud, too.

Apparently on a fairly frequent basis, there are big sand storms in North Africa and the Middle East and the clouds of sand make their way around the entire Mediterranean. So when it rains, the sand comes down in the raindrops. It literally rains mud. You learn something new every day.

Long, long overdue videos

So, remember when Barb wrote about our Pamukkale trip and said there were videos from the trip? No? You don't? That might be because it was in November. Sorry about that. But I have spliced the videos together, compressed them, and put them online, and now I am finally getting around to linking to them in the blog. So here you go. There are three, one from each of the ancient sites we visited in November: Aphrodisias, Pamukkale/Hierapolis, and Laodicea. Enjoy!

From Videos

From Videos

From Videos

Velvet Castle Pictures

Here are the promised pictures from our trip to the Velvet Castle (Kadifekale):

Velvet Castle

Things That Make Us Giggle Every Time

A. Thunderstorms and car alarms:

So we had a thunderstorm Thursday night, a really loud one. Each time there was a clap of thunder, two car alarms would go off, pretty much only until the thunderclap was finished, then they'd quiet down. As soon as we got another clap, the alarms would go off again. It could have been annoying, but I think we were so overtired that it was just funny.

B. "Fashion," especially women's fashion:

I will try to get pictures to back up my statements/accusations on here. But it won't be easy because usually by the time I've finished gawking and asking Chris, "Did you SEE that?!" the object of my incredulous staring has disappeared. I will describe some recent sitings:

1) Chris saw this and wants to offer all of you ladies back home some advice- animal print, especially leopard, does NOT work on stockings! Instead of looking sexy, you simply appear to have a skin disease.

2) Never mix animal prints or mix colors of the same animal print. Please. Tiger stripes on a shirt do not go with giraffe patches on the jacket and leopard spots on the purse, nor do black and white tiger striped pants go with brown and gold tiger stripes on the shirt.

3) Unless you're a bird, you should not wear feathered headbands with feathers that stick up like a Native American headdress.

4) Unless you don't plan on sitting down for the entire night, sequined pants don't really make much sense. But they are fun to laugh at, so continue wearing them for people like me.

5) If you're over 25, you shouldn't have pink, purple, green, or blue streaks in your hair. And if you are over 25 and wearing a business suit while simultaneously sporting those streaks, don't be surprised when you hear snickers in your wake.

6) Actually, if you're over 25, you shouldn't wear backless shirts (75 year old with leather for skin, I'm talking to you!), skinny jeans, pigtails, or micro-mini skirts outside of clubs (and maybe not even then...)

7) If you dye your hair bleach blond from dark brown or black, PLEASE, PLEASE, continue to dye your roots!! You already look silly enough with that shade of hair, having 6 inches of roots showing isn't helping your image. Especially if those roots are salt and pepper colored.

8) Easy on the pink blusher...

9) Guys, easy on the hair gel. A little goes a long way.

10) And for heaven's sake, please leave the man-purses at home! Chris is pestering me to let HIM get one! (He's just kidding...I think.)

C. Alcohol Selection

"If you want beer, you may have Efes. I hope you like Efes, because it is the default beer in Turkey. If you're lucky we may have some Tuborg. Enjoy your beer.

Oh, you want wine! Well, would you like red or white? What do you mean, what kind of red? There is red wine. You know, kırmızı şarap? Well, if you want SELECTION, go to a store!"

"Hello, welcome! What can I get you? Wine you say? Well, I have a small selection. Only the supermarkets have bigger selections and the ones close to you close at 9 PM. I have 3 varieties, all for 6TL (that's about $4) or under! Which can I get you? OF COURSE it is undrinkably bad! It's 6TL !!!! What do you expect?!"

D. Asking a question and expecting a useful response:

This used to annoy us. Now we just don't ask questions, or, if we can't avoid it, we ask as many people as possible and see if there are ANY answers that are the same. We'll go with that answer. You see, it's an embarassment to admit that they don't know something, so even if they don't have a clue, they will make something up as an answer. This is problematic when we're asking for directions. One person says, "Yes, go down this street 5 min," while another person says, "No, you are going the wrong way," while still another says that our destination is a 15 min walk in a third direction. That is assuming, of course, that we can understand them.

Asking yes/no questions has it's own issue: people never just say yes or no. They launch into a whole story, which I can't understand, and when I explain that I don't understand because my Turkish is non-existent (literally, Turkçem yok = my Turkish doesn't exist), they seem confused as to how they are supposed to communicate with me if they can't tell a story. Just "evet" or "hayır" will do, sir.

Bus drivers have their own language. Even Turks have no idea how to communicate or understand bus drivers.

E. "Five minutes"

This means anywhere from two minutes (not often) to 25+ (frequently). Literally. Other numbers are a little more accurate, but if an Izmir Turk tells you "five minutes," plan on waiting for awhile. Pull up a chair, order a tea, and relax.

I'm sure I'll come up with more. Hopefully this will just be Part I of many such posts.

Ahhh, fresh air

So we made it out of the apartment last Sunday. Finally. You know how even when the weather turns awesome, it's so easy to comment on how awesome it is while you sit inside your apartment/house/office? Well, that has been us for the last week. So we decided we'd visit Kadifekale, or the Velvet Castle. We can see it from our apartment (I think most of Izmir can see it, since it's on a mountain) and have been thinking since July that we should see it. The most interesting things there are (a) the walls, which were constructed in Hellenistic times, (b) the views of Izmir and (c)...well, actually, I think it's just a and b.

It was fun, although I have kind of gotten used to fitting in and not being noticed so much in downtown Izmir, and apparently the kids there can pick out tourists from a mile away, because we were hassled every step of our way. It's difficult because you don't know if the kids just want to practice their English, are asking for money, are trying to sell you stuff, or are trying to pick your pockets. And I hate being mean or rude to anyone, so I think that I encourage them by acknowledging them. Sorry, Chris.

Ooooh, funny (and kind of gross) story of our trip there. Pretty easy trip, just 2 buses. But anyways, we're on the second bus and Chris had gotten up to give his seat to a really sweet old man who had been shopping for fruits and vegetables at the bazaar. Suddenly, I feel something crawling up my calf. I kept thinking (hoping!) that it was just my jeans brushing against my legs as the bus went over bumps, but no. The seats are really crowded, so I couldn't move much, but I manage to pinch my jeans between my fingers, and something totally smushed, then oozed. EEEEEEEEE! I seriously had to consciously force myself not to start shrieking, since I didn't want to have everyone look at me. But OMG, gross!!!! I kept my feet off the floor for the rest of the trip. Worse yet, when I got off the bus (on wobbly legs b/c I had had them lifted up for 10 minutes) and rolled up my pant leg, there was no sign of the bug! Ewww, ewww, ewwww.

Ok, now that your skin is crawling, let's get back to the castle. Just a few more random details, then I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Oh wait, you all will have to nag Chris to get pictures put up. So, the castle was constructed during the Hellenistic period, the cistern system (way cool) was constructed during the Roman era and then renovated during the Byzantine period, and there are also ruins of a Byzantine chapel. The most exciting and impressive part was the view though, as you will see.

Otherwise, things are going well, although work is picking up for both of us and we haven't had much time to travel. Work and the rain. At least the temperature is warmer, and we don't have bedbugs anymore *knocking on wood* so life is looking up. We'll be going to Istanbul for the first weekend in March, and hopefully more pictures and blogging will follow.

As usual, we miss you all! Keep in touch!