Istanbul-Saturday, April 4

Brian arrived in Istanbul about 2 PM after an Ulusoy bus trip from Ankara. Bus riders both on and off the bus:




And the first view of the Bosphorus Straight, looking northward (Europe on the left of the photo, and Anatolia/Asia on the right):



First impressions of the "Swissotel: The Bosphorus" hotel (which turned out to be the wrong hotel to meet Rob) included that the doorman was dressed like a Swiss guard. The front desk insisted he didn't have a reservation and told him they were "all full" but would figure something out if need be. They were very accomodating and polite in finding ways to not flat out tell Brian he was at the wrong hotel and to get lost.

He left his luggage at the luggage check and went for a walk in a nearby park (Macka Parki)--it was a nice spring day and couples were out walking and enjoying the sunshine. There were old, unused amusement park rides in one area of the park, and what appeared to be "tailgaters" for an upcoming football (soccer) match in the stadium nearby (BJK Inonu Stadium). There were also men selling shots with an air rifle, 1 lira per shot at a balloon, if you pop it you get another shot. Odd photos for a city park.



After buying a simit to munch on, he meandered his way to the campus of Istanbul Technical University, which was housed in old buildings which ironically were in surprisingly bad repair. Then he wandered through a cemetery and happened upon a group of people living there with their dogs...and they didn't seem too happy to see him.










Then it was time to check back at the hotel for Rob and a call to Cortney. Oh, new hotel, not this one at all! Rob's stuck in Paris! Hmm. Short cab ride to the Ceylan Intercontinental (the taxi driver unappreciative of the short ride and small fare), and finally a room to relax in.

There was very pretty light blue pottery with very detailed white designs all over it in the gift shop. Brian hadn't seen the design anywhere else in Turkey and took quite a liking to it, "if I had a few hundred extra hundred lira I'd bring some of that home."

Room service pizza for dinner (30 minutes late and none too warm), and an internet connection to pass the time while Rob finished his travels to Turkey. Rob arrived pretty late, and it was off to sleep for the both of them before their big day of touring tomorrow.

More pictures from today:

2009-04-04Istanbul

Sunday, April 12 Happy Easter!

Easter Bunny surprises--yep, the Easter Bunny found us in Cappadocia! He even brought American candy like M&M's, Reese's Pieces, jelly beans, and Cadbury mini eggs, plus Hannah Montana candy tins and more! What a lucky bunch we are to have such a nice Easter Bunny (thank you Easter Bunny and all those who helped with the importing of special treats!)



Sore legs are setting in for all of us! Carrying Aeden through the underground city proved to be pretty hard on my quads and arms and I'm sore! Rob and Brian went up to Uchisar, the tallest viewpoint in the area. The kids and I napped and watched Avatar and Barney in Turkish on TV for the morning and tried out the shower in our cool suite. A good morning for all!







We had Lunch in Urgup at Cirgan Han and then shopped around downtown Urgup. We showed Rob an ebru painter, stopped in at a carpet shop for the "show" of spinning the silk carpets around to see the color change from the nap of the carpet, Brian found a cool junk shop where the owner told him tales of bartering with farmers for the artifacts and treasures they find in their fields, and we all bought a few souvenirs here and there.




We drove to Sunset Point for the sunset, where one direction is a beautiful sunset on the cliffs and the opposite direction is a picture-perfect view of Mount Argeus, the tallest mountain in Anatolia.





We liked dinner at Somine so much last night that we returned again tonight. Rob and Brian had the Testi Kebap again (with Rob having the honor of breaking open the testi) and I had a Beyti Kebap that was mighty tasty. I have to say that we thought of WAY too many jokes about the special regional dish, the testi kebap (pottery or jug kebap--the meat is cooked with the vegetables sealed in a jug in the oven). Rob and I tasted Efe Raki with dinner...and a tiny sip each is all we needed. The anise flavor of it is just too strong for people who don't like black licorice. And the alcohol afterburn is delayed and then very strong, even from the tiniest of sips from a glass that was cut half and half with water. I can't believe that anyone could toss back a whole bottle in an evening (as Ataturk is reported to have done most nights toward the end of his life). But the best custard dessert we've had in Turkey was served tonight, and Rob tried the Kunefe dessert. Yum!

Saturday, April 11

Toured Cappadocia with a guide, Sarcan (Sar-jahn), and hit all the big places. We were not off to the greatest of starts though, because we started at the Kaymakli yeralti sehri(Kaymakli Underground City) and descended underground shoulder to shoulder with tourists from all the corners of the earth, rarely to have more room the entire time we were down there. We all got pretty antsy and Aeden was a bear, so we talked to the guide about making sure to see places where we wouldn't be so crowded, even if we didn't see all the "must-see" places with him...and for him not to worry about Aeden complaining. He seemed much more at ease at that point and we continued on to the Goreme Acik Hava Muzesi (Goreme Open Air Museum).

Maren and Sarcan at Goreme Open Air Museum

All 6 of us at Goreme!

The Open Air Museum was pretty full of tourists, too, except that things here were more spread out so it was a bit more manageable. Except at each of the churches, where our guide was allowed 3-4 minutes to talk to us inside before the next group's turn. Hmm. Sarcan started to just tell us what was inside and then sit back and wait for us to be done wandering around. And wander we did. Aeden and I did a lot of wandering around the paths between sites, and the rest of our group was busy ducking into cave rooms, churches, and climbing up ladders to investigate upper floors of the "buildings".

We drove to Avanos for lunch at Bizim Ev Restaurant, where our guide called ahead and ordered Rob, Brian, and me testi kebap (it takes a long time to bake). It was very tasty and the restaurant itself was amazing--we entered through the cave basement and wound our way up one set of stairs, to another set of stairs, and ate on the top floor with plenty of decorations and things to keep our eyes busy. A water pipe that was exposed in one corner was wrapped with neckties for decoration, there was an old kick-style potter's wheel, and even a "field surfboard" (my name)--a board with sharp blades embedded in it for a donkey to drag while the farmer stands on top of it to work his field.

After lunch we went to an amazing pottery workshop and showroom set inside a seemingly endless maze of caves. This was a highlight for Lacey and Maren, who got to play with clay on a wheel for a good chunk of time while the sales pitch was given to the "grown-ups"...a well-oiled sales machine. But gosh the pieces were beautiful and the tea was lovely.

On the way back to Urgup we stopped at two roadside viewpoints for more photos and exploring: Pembe Vadi (Pink Valley) and Pasabagi (I think that's where we were). At Pink Valley Aeden and I stayed in the car while he napped and I watched the ice cream vendor do his thing. I'm not in the market for taking up selling Turkish ice cream--too much work! I did enjoy watching his teasing though, when handing over the ice cream cones, flipping them upside down, serving them straight from the spade, and taking it away just as the customer was reaching for it. He made a good show. (Insert mini-video here once I figure out how to do it!)

At Pasabagi Lacey and Brian went for the top of the overlook (shown here but a split second after they disappeared from the ridgeline). Aeden and I stayed put in the van...I was pretty tired by this point and didn't want to chase him around at another stop.



We rested briefly back at our hotel and then headed back down the hill to dinner in Urgup at Somine. I had patlican kebap (eggplant kebap) which was very, very tasty--nice and smoky. Brian tried ali nazik which was very good as well, but more of a stew-type dish. Lacey, Maren, and Aeden were all pleased to find their favorites: tavuk sis, kasarli pide, and ayran. Rob tasted the Ayran and made the worst face yet...he will clearly not be wanting to share with Aeden at all. Aeden took a bug bite of beyaz peynir and turned into our table's Easter bunny:



Lots more photos:

2009-04-11Cappadocia

Friday, April 10

While Brian went to school, Rob and I and the kids went shopping at Armada and to McDonald's for lunch (had to have Rob taste the Turkish McNuggets!), then came home to pack for the adventure to Cappadocia. Just after loading up the van, I realized the tire was nearly flat again and called the rental agency. He sent out a driver to pick up the van again to have the tire fixed. We asked for a new tire, and certainly did not receive one. We asked for a different van, nope, no others available. So we went on faith that they really did do something to the tire this time to fix it, and we headed off. Clearly I'm getting too comfortable here, as there is no way I would have accepted this scenario when we were leaving for Izmir (I was petrified with "what if's" about our road trip before that trip...but everything was great).

So we were off to Cappadocia (kap-uh-dok-ee-uh), a region in central Turkey full of geographic oddities and ancient ruins. There are a handful of cities in the region, including Nigde, Urgup, Aksaray, Kayseri, and Avanos. "Cappadocia" doesn't even appear on many maps since it is an historic regional name.

The drive took us out past Brian's school atop a hill in a distance, and then along the shore of the Tuz Golu (Salt Lake) which felt like we were out on a coast because of the marshes and beaches. The lake dries to a salty shimmer in the summer, but right now it is very similar to the lake just east of Snoqualmie Pass. And the sun was setting just at that time, making the scenery pretty stunning. Add to that being out of the city, and things felt pretty good.



We arrived in Urgup without any troubles and got started inspecting our digs for the weekend: #5 at the Assiana Cave Inn (www.AssianaHouse.com). The suite was so awesome--the kids just kept wandering around discovering new things and trying out new pillows and stools to sit on. We settled into bed and were asleep in no time.

Thursday, April 9

Our rental van was delivered on time, but with a nearly flat tire. So after Brian argued with "the person on the cell phone" about getting it fixed for us, the driver took it away and brought it back 30 minutes later with more air in it, but the same tire, barely even cleaned off. Hmm. We loaded up and headed out to Gordion, only about an hour west of Ankara, for a day trip. As Brian put it, we pretended that they had done the right thing with the tire.

On our way out to the Gordion Museum and King Midas's Tomb, we turned a corner and were flagged down by an older man standing on the corner. Before we knew it, he was in the van with us and asking if we were going to Gordion. I guess we had our own little dolmus, except we had plenty of room, used our seatbelts, and the guy never did pass any money forward to pay for the trip!

Just outside the Gordion Muzesi

On the way into the tomb mound

After visiting the museum and the tomb (where the placard says it couldn't really have been King Midas's tomb because of the dates...hmm...why haven't the other mounds been excavated yet then?), we drove off into what felt like the middle of a wheat field and hiked up over the hill to see the ruins of the citadel that have been excavated. And found a turtle up there, too!





We found some lunch in Polatli at Ikbal's, where Rob had kumpir (baked potato piled high with condiments) and the rest of us had hot dogs and hamburgers. The owner posed for pictures and then asked Brian to email them to him...then a little bit later he came back with toys for the kids from the toy store nearby. I will miss this part of Turkey, for sure. The kindness of strangers exists in the US, but not like this.




When we had driven through this area on our trip to Izmir in January Brian had spotted a white monument of some kind on the hill, and then we saw it again on our approach this time. It wasn't in the guide books though, and appeared to be guarded by the military. I'm not one to approach the men with red arm bands and automatic weapons, but Brian hopped out of the car to see if we could go in. As we were going through the misunderstandings of not knowing each other's languages, I finally figured out what the monument was all about by piecing together my terrible Turkish and growing knowledge of Turkish history. It was a monument to memorialize the battle of Aksaray, the furthest point east where the Greeks were ultimately defeated and pushed back out of Turkey. The guard at the monument itself spoke slow, deep, calculated English, and told us the significance of the design features of the monument and explained the exhibits in the museum. It was a great stop...I'm glad we took the gamble on it!

Aeden took up station at the machine gun while we wandered the Aksaray Monument museum. Can you hear him saying, "Cheese!"?





After driving back to Ankara we crashed at the apartment and had a gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese and leftover pizza just in time to go to bed. We're off to Cappadocia tomorrow!

More pictures from today:

2009-04-09Gordion

Wednesday, April 8

We had a leisurely start in the morning and headed to Kocatepe Mosque to check it out and also investigate the reports of a shopping area beneath it. Aeden was a brat at the mosque, so I spent a whole split second inside (literally just long enough to sneak a peek after removing my shoes and donning a scarf over my head). But Rob and the girls were able to take a look around inside while Aeden and I explored the courtyard outside. I scored a "that was very native" comment from Rob when I dragged our group across the street through traffic I never would have thought of entering 6 months ago.



We found our way to the shopping area below, which turned out to be a very large grocery store and then many little department areas (like B&I style) for everything under the sun. We found a Nike baseball cap for Lacey that is just like the one we had gotten for Maren but with a different color scheme. They were both tickled.




After meandering and walking up a steep hill to Tunali, we stopped at Tapas for lunch and Rob and I enjoyed Yogurt Meatballs...I think my favorite Turkish dish. We did some window shopping along Tunali and then caught a cab to Anitkabir (Ataturk's Mausoleum) for a visit into the world of Ataturk. We covered the whole grounds this time, and saw Inonu's memorial across the courtyard from Ataturk's. The kids asked me who this was, and before I could even stop myself, I blurted, "the guy who did all the work." Inonu seems to be an unsung hero in Ataturk's shadow from what I've read so far. But of course their are a lot of those throughout history and always will be.








I think the highlight for the kids was running in the grass along the road out of the property and picking little flowers...it was a beautiful spring day and they were giggling and breathless on the way out.

Paul, Becky, Tim, Meggie, and Lizzie came over for Domino's Pizza Turkish style for dinner, and I accomplished my first phone order for delivery. It was cheating, since they have my phone number in their system for the address, but I did manage to get the food we were expecting. Little victories are the best.