A Trip to the Ottoman Empire

Final thoughts on Turkey

2009-05-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

I believe that it is impossible to see much of a country in a couple of weeks. You can visit some cities, see some interesting sight, eat some good food, and in general have a nice vacation. But in a country as big as, and with a culture as diverse as, and a terrain as variable as Turkey enjoys, it would be hubris to say that we did anything but scratch the surface of the country. I can say that I went in reluctantly (much like I did a year or so ago to Cambodia) and my expectations were wildly exceeded.

There were certainly some things that really annoyed me. The relentless touting in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, the obvious price gouging of westerners, the bonhomie that had to be forced in various places.

And because there were not really too many Americans visiting Turkey these days, I was often approached in Dutch, German, or French. Usually in that order.

But on the good side, we did meet up with some genuinely nice, friendly, and generous people. We ate some outstanding food. And we saw some remnants of a history that is important to everyone in the world.

The Hagia Sofia in Istanbul was started in the 5th or 6th century. It is tired and worn out, but it is also something of a miracle that it is still standing. It has seen horrible things happen within its walls, and in the nearby neighborhoods. Read anything about The Fourth Crusade, or read Baudolino by Umberto Eco. All of mankind's history is here.

The painted churches of Cappidocia. One could argue that Christianity found its first widespread acceptance in Turkey. You can see the result of this in any one of the 600 or so painted rock churches here. (I think we saw 580 of those 600 churches)

When we were leaving Cappidocia, we talked with one of the owners of our hotel. I said we would tell our friends how much we liked being there, and said we would talk to our friends about visiting. She said that she would look for the. I replied that many of our friends are adventuresome enough to make a trip to Cappidocia. She laughed and said "Cappadocia is adventurous?" and from her standpoint, I guess it is not.

To her, it is just home.

The ancient ruins. Some say the first city in the world is Çatalhöyük in south central Anatolia. Cities are what made people people. So as I said above, the history of Turkey is all of our history.

and oddly enough, the animal life. We saw all these storks, we saw several Hoopoes, foxes, and also plenty of local dogs and cats.

During this trip I read Birds without Wings, a book by Louis de Bernieres. I could not have picked a better book for the last part of the trip. It really helped me to understand the sad recent history of the country.

In every city we visited, the muezzin called from the mosques the required five times a day. It always caught me up a little bit when I heard it. When we were in Istanbul, we were close enough to the Blue Mosque to hear their call to prayer. From a smaller, closer mosque, we heard another. It was like a call and response. Neither one stepped on the other. It was very exotic, and delightful to listen to.

While in Sirince, the call to prayer was inevitably greeted by the howl of all the street dogs. I am not sure if they just did not like that particular muezzin, or if they were raising their voices to God, but it was an interesting sound. Unforgettable, and it reminded you that we are not alone in this world.

It was an excellent trip. I would recommend a trip to Turkey for anyone ambulatory enough to do so. And for anyone interested in history, rugs, food, architecture, religion, or people.

A shave, baking bread, and a bus ride

2009-05-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

My brother Matthew and his wife Laurie visited Turkey a couple of years ago. We visited some of the same places that they did, and it was nice to have someone recommend the place. He spoke longingly about the shaves that he would get at the Turkish barbers.

So I was looking forward to getting a real shave. This would be the first time I had outsources my shaving.

It is really quite nice. You could get use to this sort of treatment.

First, they lather you up luxuriously with a soft badger brush and warm suds. They lathered, and lathered, and lathered. I use a "wet shave" myself, but never have I lathered as long as they do. So that was nice.

Then they shave you with a straight razor. One of the guys squirted the blade with alcohol, and they lit it on fire. (Fire seems to be an integral part of shaving here)

It is great being shaved with a straight razor. They pull your nose and lips this way and that. When they are done, they start all over again. The second time, they don't lather quiet as long.

After the shave, they make a cotton ball wet with alcohol, light it on fire, and dab it around your ears to burn off you ear hair. Oh well...

After a certain amount of trimming with scissors and the blade, the strangest thing happened.

The barber grabbed what looked like a long piece of dental floss, held it in each hand and his mouth, making a triangle, and snapped it all over my face, pulling out all the small, stray hairs you have. Like between your eyebrows. He also shaped my eyebrows in the same manner.

That wasn't so much fun. I had to participate by pulling the skin on my face tight. Yipes!

Finally, you get a nice shoulder, arm, and hand massage.

And then you look like this:

We had some great bread in Sirince. Here are the women baking some in an outdoor, wood fired oven. I am sure it has a name, but I don't know what it is.

We did not take much public transportation while in Turkey. But the little buses that we did take were pretty nice. This one cost about YTL 2.5 per each, and we enjoyed it.

They almost never use the air conditioning or open the windows in the Turkish buses. That is because there is a superstition that you can die from the wind.

So I did not have to worry about my hat blowing off.

Toilets in Turkey

2009-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

Many people have asked about toilet facilities in Turkey. There are a lot of stories about "squatters" or toilets that are not much more than holes in the floor with a place for each foot on either side of the hole.

But during our trip, we only saw three squatters the whole time. (two were at the airport)

But every toilet we say had these interesting nozzles:

Here is a close up:

The use is really obvious when you think about it.

Toilet paper is not used so much in Turkey. But these things are.

Here is how they work:

I guess you just turn it on, and clean yourself up.

A friend of mine, who has traveled a bit in Asia, is quite fond of these. He even wrote a polemic about them a while back. (cleaner, more efficient, less waste)

Myself, I like the standard western toilets.

Ancient Rome in Turkey

2009-05-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Little did I know that when we were going to visit Turkey that we were going to see such fantastic Greek and Roman ruins. I had a pretty good understanding of the region's history from about 1204, but before that I really had no clue. So it was fantastic to see some of the ruins that exist in Aegean Turkey.

I have photos to the right of Ephesus, (and here and here), Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. They were all fantastic - we drove from Sirince to the last three places in one day (we left about 10:00 and returned about 6:00). The driving, as the driving was in Cappadocia, was easy and uneventful. The gas was expensive, but that was about the most exciting thing about it.

Outside of Ephesus, which is an easy bus ride for the Cruise ships to get to, there were almost no people in these ruins. Even in Ephesus there were not too many people. We only had to wait a couple of minutes to have any one particular area to ourselves. The history in these places is truly astounding.

Doreen wondered aloud more that once what history was being taught in the schools in Turkey. We speculated that they are being taught that this is the history of the area, but not the history of their people. It may be that this is not being taught much at all. The driver who took us to and from the airport had never been to these ruins before he carted one of the other couples at the hotel on the same route we drove ourselves. That is sad, in a way.

Also, as you can see in many of the photos, a lot of the "stuff" is just lying around. It would have been extremely easy to put a small carved capital, or another piece into a backpack and walk out undisturbed. I would imagine that the Turks are losing many pieces this way. There is nobody watching too closely, nor does there seem to be anyone at the airport preventing the wholesale removal of antiquates. It is sort of sad.

In Selcuk, there are the remnants of an ancient aqueduct right in town. On top of each column was a nesting pair of storks:

When we ate in Selcuk, we went to a place recommended in one of the guide books. I thought it would be packed, but there was only one other couple (an older couple from Tucson) eating there. It is called Ejders, and the food was great.

Here is a photo of my "mixed grill":

There is a small museum in Selcuk that has some wonderful pieces, including bits of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World:

The only thing standing from that temple is one column in a lonely, muddy field. We did not walk out to it, but you can see it in my photos. There is a pair of storks nesting on top if it as well.

We did, of course, have to buy a rug. Below is the rug shop (owned by the cousin of the driver I mentioned above) where we stopped. When we walked in, the owned (the one on crutches) and his two helpers (one is sitting there next to Doreen. The other, his brother, had left to get tea) were lounging around on the rugs (inside). I don't think that they believed me when I said we were coming back.

I started off by telling him we were not interested in buying any rugs. He said fine, but wanted to show me some anyway. After about an hour or so were were getting ready to leave, as we really didn't want to buy any rugs. But he kept trying to find out which rugs we likes best. Needless to say, after a long and good natured set of negotiations, we did but a couple of small rugs.

the Onions takes on Gov Perry

2009-05-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Texas Constructs U.S. Border Wall To Keep Out Unwanted Americans | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Don't give him any ideas, for goodness sake!

Hitchhikers

2009-05-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

I think that I mentioned that when we were visiting the Songali painted churches that it started pouting down rain.

We had a rental car, and as we were getting in it to leave, these two women:

Stood by the car and asked (or rather gestured) for a ride.

Who could say no?

The younger one called her husband from her cell phone on the way home.

Now, isn't that something?

Avanos and Goreme

2009-05-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Avanos and Goreme were two cities not too far apart. But they have a much different feel to them. Avanos is a center for pottery (red clay pottery, we were told pointedly in Sirince)

Many of the shops were built into the rock, just as the homes were. Doreen wanted a couple of plates, so we bought them from this fellow:

Driving back, we had this great view of Uchisar:

Down in Goreme, we were told to eat at the Local Restaurant. Yes, that is the name.

We had a lamb braise:

And yes, it was really called the Local Restaurant:

After we finished lunch we went to the Goreme Open Air Museum. The owner of the Local Restaurant then gave us a ride back to Uchisar for our last evening.

Hiking the Pigeon Valley

2009-05-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

The Pigeon Valley leads from Uchisar to Goreme. As Uchisar is the highest point around, our hike was downhill. Everyone we saw was walking the other way. It turns out that Goreme is a very popular place for backpacking travelers, as it has many cheap pensiones.

We started the hike down from our place - it was about a 2 K walk. Very pleasant.

Here Doreen is at the start of the trail:

The odd rock formations were everywhere. So were wild Lilacs. As we live in Houston, we seldom see lilacs. They bring back memories of my childhood in Wisconsin.

I did not know that they were native to Cappidocia. (I really still don't know that. But I am assuming it from there presence here)

The walk had two tunnels that had been carved by the little stream:

We saw many people heading up. So sad to be them!

Heading home

2009-05-29T23:48:00.001-07:00

This post will be out of order. I still need to write a little more about Cappadocia and the Turkish Agean. But this is our flight home. We should be boarding in about half an hour.

A great trip.

More driving in Anatolia

2009-05-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

After we left Sobesos, where the Roman village was being uncovered, we came across a sign for the Keyserik Monastery. We had not heard of it, and it was not on our map. But we stopped, as this is the sort of thing you rent a car for.

There was another car with Tourists there, and their guide/driver was sitting down with the woman who was selling tickets to enter. It looked as if she lived in the caves still, as she had all her stuff there in front of her. For our YTL3 ticket entrance fee, we also got a cookie. She was very nice.

These were gorgous churches. There were no people there, though there had been many in the past. There was a lot of Greek graffitti, much if it with dates from the late 19th or early 20th century.

This room in particular was moving, just because the colors were so vivid:

You can see some of the frescoes, with the graffitti here:

We then drove down to Solangi to see several more, and much more famous painted churches. (many photos in my Picasa album to the right ---->)

But it started pouring down rain. We had to hide in this cave until it stopped.

We really felt isolated. There were NO people in this area where we stopped. There was a French couple we saw originally, but they skedaddled when it started raining.

A Turk jumped into our cave, apparently from nowhere. He was telling us that he owned the apricot trees on the grounds. We had no reason to disbelieve him. He told us that he sold dolls down in the village. We said we would stop by.

Then he walked with us to this church:

and promptly disappeared.

We did go to his doll shop later. More about that by and by.

Driving in Anatolia

2009-05-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

After much angst, (almost all on my part, I assure you) we decided to rent a car and drive around Cappadocia. It proved to be a wonderful decision. The only thing I gave up was beer or wine at lunch, and since the beer is just OK and the wine is expensive here, that hardly seemed like much of a sacrifice.

We had a small Japanese car, with a manual transmission. Everyone was very concerned to know if I could drive a standard. I assured them that I have owned many manual transmission cars, and this would not be a problem.

So we got into the Uchisar town center, and tried to figure out were to go. The roads are all very well marked, and with Doreen as navigator, and a small, not to scale, almost hand-drawn map, we started out.

People don't really drive a lot here. I don't think that many people have cars. And gas is VERY expensive. So we were treated with many views like this one:

where we were essentially the only car on the road. In this particular case, this road was not even on our map. It had signage telling us we were heading in the correct direction, though. So we kept going.

The first place we stopped was the underground city of Kayseri. As I had mentioned earlier, this rock is very easy to work. And the ancient citizens took advantage of this to create cities that dropped up to eight stories underground. The one we went into has been excavated to six stories, and open to four. The ceiling (or roof, or back, if you prefer mining terms) was generally very low. Getting into the place there was one very long, skinny, narrow passageway that was no more that 3.5' tall the whole way. I am guessing it was about 100 m long, and you had to duck walk the whole way. Oddly enough, I (at 6'6") did not bonk my head once. Doreen, (at 5'8") could have used a hard hat. I guess I am just used to being closer to the ceiling.

It was uncomfortable and rather unpleasant once we got through. But the women behind us really freaked out. My guess is that the younger one was 50, the older one 70. (give or take 5 years). The younger one started crying "Mamma, I can't get through! Mamma, I don't like this! Mamma, I want to go back!". Their guide talked her down.

(as an aside, we never used guides in any of these places. When we would overhear them, we were happy we did not. They would sometimes have useful information, but more likely it was just non-sense. We had a Blue Guide, and some other books. It is better to do your homework, I guess. The guides, though, did not like us. Nor did they hide it)

We kept following the red arrows (inbound) until we saw a group of about 40 Japanese tourists coming out the wrong way. I guess they couldn't finish the trip.

You can see here how low it was:

It was worth the trip. It was crazy imagining 20,000 bodies underground waiting for the Huns to leave.

When we got out, we drove through a small town and stopped to take a photo of the scenery. This boys came up to the car and started asking our names, (in English):

We replied and chatted a bit. They did not speak much English other than "What's your name?". Look at the eyes on that one on the right. Many of these Turks have these crazy green/blue eyes.

As we started getting back into the car, the one in the middle started shouting "Donkey! Monkey! Donkey! Monkey! Donkey! Monkey!" I imagine that those are about the only "bad" English words he knew. Then as we were driving away, he spit at the car.

I attributed this more to having three 9-11 year old boys in one place. Doreen pointed out that we have never been spit at before.

We then drove down to a new discovery of an old Roman village. They would not let us take photos, but it was a heck of a thing to see.

More Uchisar and the White Valley

2009-05-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

This terrain is really amazing. It seems like an impossible, other worldly environment. Considering that people lived in all of these "Fairy Chimneys" I guess you could say that it is like another world.

Many people still live in these places, but they tend to want to have indoor plumbing and electricity. Imagine that! But the tuft is still impressive.

Now, many of the fairy chimneys are used to raise pigeons. One of the books says that they are raised for the droppings, which make good fertilizer. Personally, I think that they are raised for the squabs.

This is the inside of one of the houses. This one is pretty tall - many of them I have to squat to get into. When I get down to the undergournd city, you will see some REALLY small spaces. I think that many tourists freak-out when they get underground. I was not too happy myself, but mainly because I was duck-walking for about 200 m. Yipes! Not too much fun.

Kocabag is the big winery in Cappadocia. We bought some, and enjoyed it. They even gave us a Kocabag bag to carry the wine home.

Uchisar

2009-05-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

We made the easy flight to Uchisar relatively late in the day. We did go and see the Hagia Sofia one more time, there are more photos listed over to the right---->

This is what the landscape looks like around Uchisar. It is a soft volcanic Tuft covered up by some lava flows. As the lava flows erode off, the tuft is easy pickings for wind and rain. And cave builders.

This is our little house.

This is our porch.

Every morning at about 5:00 AM balloons take off to view the Goreme valley. Very pretty.

Archeological Museum

2009-05-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a guy who is telling fortunes with rabbits and a chicken.

You pick which animal you want, and for one YTL you it will pick your fortune. Doreen did this when we were at Ortokay. It said that she would meet the man of her dreams, and her life would be perfect.

And it all came true!

Not for poor Marcellus, though. He was being flayed alive for challenging Zeus (or was it Apollo?) to a musical contest. I think he won, and so, he lost.

Pick your battles wisely.

All those boxes contain pot shards. This is like that last scene in the first Indiana Jones movie, where you see all the boxes stored in a government warehouse.

They are all waiting for grad students to put them back together.

Beyoglu

2009-05-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

We didn't buy anything in the Spice Market. We didn't really buy too much of anything in Istanbul at all, but we took a lot of photos.

This is a self-portrait of us as we came out of the Spice Market.

Our old camera had a flip around monitor that let us see the image before we snapped it. The new camera (which we love except for two features - this and there is no viewfinder) does not let us see the image when we snap it. So sometimes I may look sort of serious as we are trying to figure out what, exactly is in the image. It usually turns out.

We walked over the Golden Horn on the Galata Bridge. It was an interesting walk, and we ended up just near a small "Tunnel" transport that took us up to Beyoglu.

Beyoglu is a part 0f town where all the embassies used to be when Istanbul was the capitol. Now, there are shops and bars. They have their own little streetcar that runs the few blocks of the area. We did not ride on it.

There are many cats in Turkey. They are indulged and allowed the run of almost every store and restaurant.

Here is one helping sell LPs

After a nice lunch at a Kebap stand (we had a donner kabap and some other, spicy kebap) we walked back over the Galata bridge.

I forgot to mention that people are always fishing off this bridge.

And there are restaurants down below. It was funny to see all the fishing lines. We even saw one or two folks catch fish. They were tiny fish - no more than 5" long. I don't know if they ate them or not.

A walk to the Spice Market

2009-05-25T03:23:00.000-07:00

After we left that little church/mosque, we walked up past the old Hippodrome that was right alongside the Blue Mosque. There is very little left of the Hippodrome. Just a couple of columns. One is this Egyptian Obelisk. It makes you wonder if there are any Obelisks left in Egypt at all.

The walk to the Spice Market was nice, as was most of the walking in Istanbul. It is an extremely crowded city, though. If you have a choice to walk to to take a taxi, it is almost always better to walk. You get there faster.

The Spice Market is just what you would have expected. Lots of spices, food, and even...

Fezzes!

Doreen wouldn't let me buy one, though. She said that since Ataturk had banned them in 1923 that I could not buy one here. If I wanted to buy one, I would have to wait until we go to Fez, Morocco.

SS Surgus and Bachus

2009-05-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

The next morning we decided to do a little more exploring in Istanbul. We started near the hotel, and walked down to the Saints Surgus and Bachus church.

It is a small church (now a mosque, of course) that was built in the 6th or 7th century.

It is mostly round, and has pleasing proportions

There is Greek lettering around the molding on top

and on one of the walls, the plaster has been pulled away to show brickwork and stone work. There are nails pounded in a regular intervals. I am not sure why. I'll bet my nephew, the Stonemason, would know

Down the Bosporus

2009-05-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Doreen eating a Kafka World ice cream cone

SP on the boat

That is the castle we walked to earlier. It wasn't really that bad a walk. It took about 20 minutes

This is the new castle. It compares poorly with the old one.

Then we got back into town. The view of the Golden Horn was the same as earlier (in any case, you can click on the "photos" link to the right and see many more pictures.

An old castle, and more

2009-05-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

That is the old castle in the background.

You could see all the way to the Black Sea. It wasn't black, but it sure was cold! The winds were whipping all the way in from Russia.

I mentioned on an earlier post how people fought to get a seat top-side. By the time we got here, everyone was pushing to get inside the cabin! Doreen chose wisely.

This is an interesting element in the castle. It is a Greek Cross with lettering on it. Most crosses were destroyed when Mehmet II took over. This castle had several stones like this with the crosses still surviving.

Dogs are well liked, and well treated everywhere in Turkey that I have seen. These two are using phone booths to nap. But they would be napping everywhere you look.

Many of them have tags in their ears. I am not sure if they designate ownership (doubtful, as dogs are "unclean" to Muslims) or the fact that they have had their shots.

Many of the dogs were very good looking.

A trip up the Bosporus

2009-05-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of interesting little villages on the shore - mostly on the European shore. (As you all know, the Bosporus separates Asia from Europe) Whenever we would pass something like this:

everyone would move to that side of the boat. I was always worried it would tip over. You always read about those ferries capsizing.

But we didn't. Here we are, getting off the boat in Andalu Kavagi:

And we wandered around the town for a while.

This was the best thing we saw, and we came back later:

and then we walked up to an acient castle on the hill. They call it "The Genoese Castle" but I could find no proof of that provenance.

It was quite a place.

North on the Bosporus

2009-05-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

There is a publicly run ferry that goes all the way up the Bosporus to Andalou Kavagi. The boat was pretty big, with three main levels of seating. Down below, with no windows that open, Mid-decks, where half the windows are open, and up top, with no windows (but a hard roof) at all.

When we got on it all the up top seating was full. The below part was all empty, and we chose to side at mid-decks. It was mighty windy:

As the boat left there was a great view of the Golden Horn:

(That is the Hagia Sofia up top) and it made me think about what the Crusaders saw as they were attempting to invest the city. Of course, there would have been a great wall around the city at that time.

We kept heading north, and saw the Orakoy Mosque from the water:

We even saw the little restaurant where we ate. It was a nice trip.

A bit farther north we steamed by Mehmet II's "Castle of Europe" that he built (in only 6 months!) in 1452 as he was getting ready to take Istanbul from the Byzantines:

We never got inside that castle. That was OK, too.

Lunch in Ortakoy

2009-05-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

I think this was a sea bass

and this was a sea bream

It doesn't matter what they were. We ate them both.

Then we relaxed and watched the view

Ortakoy

2009-05-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

We were talking to some folks who mentioned that there was a street market in Ortakoy, on the other side of the Golden Horn from where we were staying. We thought that would make a nice day trip, so we jumped in a cab and took a slow and traffic clogged ride (is there any other sort in Istanbul?) there.

We found a very nice little area right close to the University. As with most waterside communities, there was plenty of seating and some nice little restaurants there.

This is a view of the Bosporus and the Ortakoy Mosque. It was a very nice, warm day and the area was teeming with people.

The vendors were selling mostly junk, as in almost all street markets. Lots of stuff made in India and China. Some things (geegaws) made locally. But you don't go to these places for the buying, you go for the fun. (and the beer)

We found a nice little place with some tables outside. We sat there and ate some fish (see next entry) and enjoyed the day.

Here is Doreen.

Topkapi Palace

2009-05-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

The Topkapi Palace is just a short walk from our hotel as well. They charge YTL 20 (about $15 or so) to get in, and it is well worth it. This palace was originally used by the Byzantine Emperors, and then greatly expanded by Mehmet II after he took the city in 1453.

One of the very few churches that was never converted into a mosque, Hagia Eirene, is on the grounds. It is seldom open, and then only for performances:

The palace grounds has a ton of buildings, most of which are tiled and arcaded

The whole scale of the place is approachable and pleasant. It was a nice time spent in and out of the buildings.

There are also some of the remaining Justinian (or were they Constantinian?) walls visible from the palace:

A relaxing morning

The Grand Bazaar and The Blue Mosque

2009-05-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

No trip to Istanbul is complete without getting your sleeve tugged about 50 times as you walk by rug dealers who say, "Let me show you two - just two! No cost to look!" as you walk by their shop in the Grand Bazaar.

So we walked down to the Grand Bazaar in the afternoon to take a look.

It is not hard to find, and it is HUGE! It was founded to help pay for the Blue Mosque (below). It is divided into sections (antiques, jewelry, rugs, etc) and is a rambling place.

It feels both ancient and modern as you walk in and are acccosted at all sides by people trying to sell you their stuff. We went into a couple of shops (Doreen was particularly interested in some old tiles) but we left without buying anything.

Then we walked back to the Blue Mosque. This is an active Mosque, and you have to take your shoes off to get in. It was a nice, big, open space.

There were no prayers going on at the time, and we were able to wander around at will.

After that long day, we ate at Milka, a modern restaurant on top of a new hotel in Beyoglu, just across the street from the famous Pera Palace.

The food was outstanding (mostly local. We had the tasting menu, which included wine) and the local wines were not too bad. (They won't be replacing South Africa as the new source of fine wines in the US, but they are quiet enjoyable). If I have the energy, I will describe that meal later.

More inside the Hagia Sofia

2009-05-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

We wanted a place to sit down so we chose this short step.

At least four couples came by and had to step around us to look out the window.

That is the view from the window. It is the Blue Mosque. The view from an adjacent window was almost identical.

More capitals

It is hard to see in this photo, but the floor is collapsing. It dropped at least 6" from the wall. A good structural engineer would be able to fix this problem.

Mosaics in the Hagia Sofia

2009-05-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Jesus

St John the Baptist

Mary

Mary with Jesus, Constantine and Theodora

Inside the Hagia Sofia

2009-05-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the scafolding going up to the ceiling. It gives me the heebie jeebies just looking at that open stairway going all the way up there. They are trying to save some more of the mosaics.

Islamic law forbids the display of images, so in 1453 all of the mosaics were either plastered over or chipped out. Now that it is a museum, they are trying to restore some of them.

St Gabriel

SP in the HS

Some details, a Justinian Capital

Hagia Sofia

2009-05-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

We started in the Hagia Sofia our first full day here. It is one of the oldest churches in the world. It was turned into a Mosque in 1453 when the Ottomans captured Constantinople and turned it into Istanbul.

It is simply falling apart. But it was started in something like 330 AD, so that should not be too much of a surprise.

Don't blame the Ottomans for all its problems, either. In 1204 the Crusaders (from the 4th Crusade) captured and sacked Constantinople. And they were Christians.

They hauled off all sorts of treasure (from the four horsed that were placed atop St Marks in Venice to the Crown of Thorns and many pieces of the True Cross. But mostly it was gold and jewels)

Here is Doreen around some of the ruins on the grounds of the Hagia Sofia. It disturbed her greatly that no care was being taken with these things. People were sitting on the, touching them, using them for tables. And as you will see in a future photo, a cleaning woman even used one to lean her mop us against when she washed it. Oh well, they lasted almost 2,000 years. They can take a little water.

This is a font inside the Hagia Sofia. It is carved out of one piece of marble

This ceiling still has much of the mosaic tile work on it. They say that in the 19th century you could hear the tiles falling from the ceiling constantly.

The roundels are scripts of the Koran. The place is no longer a Mosque, just a museum,\.

Our dinner on day one in Istanbul

2009-05-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Doreen had found a famous Turkish food place called Hamdi, and we decided to walk there.

While walking past a large Mosque, a shoeshine guy dropped a brush. I told him about it and he was very grateful.

So grateful that he wanted to shine my shoes. After a pitifully desultory attempt at a shine, he wanted 10 YLT (almost US$7!) I said no, and besides, I only had a YLT20 and 50 notes. He kept trying to grab my 50, and say he would give me change. We ultimately walked away without giving him anyway. He was bringing down the curses of his ancestors on our heads.

The food at Hamdi was great. We started with a couple of Kibbe and some Artichoke hearts, and then had some sort of ground meat on skewers. One had paprika, and one had pistachios as the flavoring (the doner kabob was finished)

Then we walked back to the hotel, and almost got lost.

Istanbul

2009-05-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

I used my ATM card to get a couple hundred Turkish Lira (YTL) and grabbed a cab to the hotel.

There are two Four Season hotels in Istanbul, and I did manage to get to the right one. Doreen was waiting in the room, and showed me the great view of the Hagia Sofia we have from our room.

We then went to the roof terrace and had a drink. You can see the Blue Mosque as well as the Hagia Sofia from the terrace

Sp in fron the of the Hagia Sofia

A view of the Blue Mosque

The Hagia Sofia at night.

Nice view of Istanbul

2009-05-17T02:21:00.000-07:00

Flying into Istanbul

2009-05-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

A view out of the airplane window

I need to check, but this may be the spit that leads up to Memel

SP of me. I was alone

The Bosporus

The Oslo Airport

2009-05-15T02:39:00.001-07:00

This is quite a nice airport, which may not be evident from this photo,

View from the Hotel Room in Oslo

2009-05-13T03:14:00.000-07:00

It is a beautiful day here.

2009-05-13T01:10:00.001-07:00

I am in Oslo until Friday. The weather is beautiful.

Better pic of co 38

2009-05-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Lots of planes in Newark

2009-05-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

CO 38 to olso

2009-05-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

A little 757.

They put us down at the end of the concourse with all the little planes

In Newark

2009-05-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have a three hour wait here in Newark. I think I will go walk around in a bit.

On the plane

2009-05-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

A Boeing 767

I may just watch a movie. I have my Kindle as well. I bought a bunch of books just for this trip. I may start the Eric Ambler book.

Flight to newark

2009-05-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Not much of a photo, but you can see the tail.

CO 152

Cleaning off desk

2009-05-08T16:07:00.001-07:00

I am cleaning my desk so it won't be a mess when I get home

A Panama for Turkey

2009-05-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

I got a new Monticristi Fino for the trip.

Look for it in future photos

Getting ready

2009-05-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready for our trip to Turkey next week