Europe v. Asia

This week I was so excited to host some of my co-workers in Istanbul.  I always love showing off a bit of my new hometown.

They were staying on the Asian side, which I will say I have not had much experience visiting before.  Yes, sure we got off on a stop on the Bosphorous scenic cruise, but I wouldn't REALLY call that a jaunt into Asia.

So we decided to be adventurous. We hopped on the ferry to head over to Kadıköy and wandered the cobbled streets a bit before finally landing upon our destination. Because I had no idea where to eat, I had done some research before we left and turned to good old google to find a good recommendation. One restaurant showed up in several of the search results and blogs, so we decided to give it a try.

Everyone was right. It was delicious, authentic Turkish food. Unlike a usual restaurant, they have almost a buffet downstairs where you can see the food for the day and then pick what you want in either regular or large size.  We decided to split all kinds of things among the four of us and once it was set on the table, we realized it was quite the spread: beef and artichoke, turkish meatballs breaded and fried, rice, Brussels sprouts with something else, a garlic and vegetable dish, stuffed eggplant, and more.

Hi! We welcome you to Istanbul with large amounts of food

We maybe needed a bigger table!

Looks delicious, huh? Want to give it a try?

Çiya Sofrası
Guneslibahce Sokak 43
Kadikoy, Istanbul 
+90 (0) 216 330 3190

2012 Trip #2.5 - Romania

I would like to call this trip from last weekend trip 2.5. Yes, only a half trip because only I went, no Paul. So while I won't necessarily count it as number 3 (unless we get all the way to 9 and this trip puts me over the edge), I still wanted to share it with you all.

In case anyone was thinking that I was an adventurous traveler, heading out into the great unknown alone, do not fret, or think me more courageous than I am. My friend from college Katy came and spent a week with me in Istanbul before heading to Prague, so we decided Bucharest was a perfect middle point between the two. Plus it was one of the few places that was cheap and easy to get to and neither of us had visited before.

Week before we leave, we check the weather - rainy forecast. Great.

Day before we leave, Katy researches things to do. Bucharest pops up on Rick Steve's list of worst places in Europe. Even greater.

Needless to say, we went into the whole thing with pretty low expectations.

Perhaps it was these low expectations that made the trip so pleasantly surprising. Or perhaps it was that we acted like Europeans and besides a walking tour and day excursion, we mostly randomly wandered side streets, ate and drank at little cafes and caught up on old times.

Bucharest probably gets a bad wrap because of its architecture.  After being part of a communist nation, you have lots of grey, block concrete buildings to look at.  But, despite that, there are tons of lovely things to see too.  Somewhere I read that Bucharest was a mini-Paris (although maybe that was actually Budapest), and you can see that in some places.  Narrow streets, steeped roofs, little cafes can be found interspersed throughout the not so lovely block buildings.

People's House (Romanian Parliament) - this building is the second largest building by surface area, after the Pentagon. It is so large that some of the people from Top Gear raced in the basement during an episode 

 St. Nicholas Russian Church - we attended a midnight Easter service here. Or rather stood outside. It gets so crowded that everyone lines up outside to have their candles lit just after midnight.  The service can run for several hours.  Seeing that it was raining and in Romanian, we lasted 30 minutes.

While my hands were full with a candle and an umbrella, I missed a photo op. Luckily I found this one on the Bucharest Life blog. And yes, as mostly Orthodox Christians, Romania celebrates Easter a week later later using the Julian calendar.

After exploring Bucharest, we wanted to visit the mysterious Transylvania region of Romania. This is the supposed home of Dracula according to Bram Stoker. The character Dracula is based off the Romanian leader Vlad the Impaler (known as such because of his cruel treatment of the Turks). Common myth however, and tourist trap, because Vlad lived in the Wallachia region which is to the south of Transylvania and includes Bucharest.

Our first stop on the Transylvania tour was Peleș Castle in Sinai, the summer residence of the royals of Romania. This is their version of Dolmabahçe Palace, built between 1873 and 1914 by Carol I, the president from Germany.  It is almost so over the top that you can't believe it was really used.  A sliding ceiling? Vacuum sockets throughout the palace? Or maybe we just had a tour guide who enjoys tall tales.

 Exterior of Peleș Castle

Next stop, Dracula's Castle or more appropriately Bran's Castle. This was a medieval castle that was a stop on the Silk Road and housed traders and government tax collectors. Once Romania became unified, the people of Brad gifted the castle to Queen Marie. It is most famous though for its associations with Dracula.  While it isn't really Dracula's Castle (see above, and yes really even though the guide may deny this and says vampires are real), it could have perhaps been what inspired Stoker's description of Dracula's castle in the books.

 Dracula's Castle - ooooh, creepy!

 View of the castle from the watch tower. 

 View of the town of Bran from the watch tower.

Last stop was the nearby town of Braşov. After a great lunch, including some goulash which show the Hungarian influence in the area, we wandered around the quaint city. It was such a cute little town, but impending storms took us home.

Braşov

Moral of the story - don't judge a book by it's (communist) cover. 

Istanbul Tulip (Lale) Festival

When I bought my first guide to Turkey and was looking at things to do around the country, one of the things that caught my eye was the Istanbul Tulip Festival.

First, who doesn't love tulips? They come in all shapes and sizes and colors. Maybe not ALL shapes and sizes and colors, but there is quite a large variety of different tulips out there.

Two, unlike most people think, tulips (or lale) did not come from the Netherlands, but actually originated from the Ottoman Empire (or old day Turkey).  Who woulda thunk it?

Turkey celebrates this history and the tulip every April. Tulips pop up in every park in the city and it makes for a beautiful display. We came across some of these in the park near Topkapi this weekend and had to get a photo shoot in honor of Easter.

To sum it up: Texas + Bluebonnets = Tulips + Istanbul

Dinner Anyone?

One of the questions I get all the time from family and friends about living in Istanbul is 'How's the food?'

While my response may vary based upon my mood (or last meal), I almost always have a positive response. That is, as long as we forget that one time, where I may have said something along the lines of if I have to eat one more doner....

Like I said, almost always. Normally, I'm down for a good durum, kumpir, or especially a waffle! Waffles are my absolute favorite - it's like an ice cream store where you pick out toppings and sauces, but it all goes on a waffle.  Carbs are my friend.

Waffles - our new drinking food. Take that Wendy's Dollar Menu! I like to top my waffle with Nutella, banana, strawberries, kiwis, chocolate chips and pistachios.

We are just getting to the best part of Istanbul food though. You can get almost ANYTHING delivered.  Not just your normal pizza, but doners, McDonalds, Italian, or even beer. The corner store definitely knows us when we call now. Perhaps it is that we always order the same thing, or perhaps our rudimentary Turkish.  I'll go with the same order though and hope that they think we just like to order 19 beers every time we have a party, instead of the fact that we can't count to 20 yet.

Anyways, back on track. This is the best service. As much as I like to cook and have enjoyed having more time to do so over here, there are always those days where you just didn't make it - or want to make it - to the grocery store. And on those days, I am happy to know I don't have to scrounge the fridge to eat well!

Watch out for delivery scooters zipping around the city!

2012 Trip #2 Ephesus, Turkey

This weekend we took a plane ride that was supposed to be a hop, skip and a jump away, although what with it being Istanbul airport and it raining like the dickens, it was more of a short jog away. Our weekend retreat destination?  Selçuk and Ephesus.

It was the perfect weekend to get away - escaping the rain and bustle of Istanbul for the sun and small town.

A little background - these area was first inhabited by ancient Greeks. Ephesus was founded when a royal from Greece had to escape from his hometown. When he asked a oracle where he should build his new city, she told him where he found fish, fire and a boar.  When the royal party stopped, they were frying a fish which was apparently so fresh it jumped from the pan, got in the coals, caught the woods on fire, when a boar ran out to escape the fire.  Ephesus was built upon the site where the boar was killed.

Ephesus is thought to have been one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean, with more than 250,000 inhabitants. This guess comes from the fact that the arena/town hall area holds 25,000 people (so they multiply this by 10 to get a 'guesstimate' of the towns population - definitely scientific, huh?). Ephesus once boasted the Temple of Artemis, which is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  While the temple itself is still gone, one lone column remains in Selçuk. There are still a lot of other remains still standing in Ephesus and surprisingly, for the end of March, tons of tourists already!

A few of the key attractions:

Ephesus - Temple of Hadrian

Ephesus - Library of Celsus - built by Celsus' son; it once housed 12,000 scrolls

Aquaducts in Selçuk - March - September is apparently stork season, which is fitting since this is home to the Temple of Artemis, god of fertility. Storks make nests on the aquaducts and other ruins during this time.

House of the Virgin Mary - supposedly Mary lived her during some of the last years of her life, although it has never been formally authenticated by the church. The house was discovered after a nun from Germany described it from a vision even though she had never visited the site.  

Belle's Life in Turkey

I will preface this post by saying that I started to write it from the dog's perspective.  Yes, you heard me right, a post from Belle.  After about a paragraph, I decided I just couldn't do it. I may talk to Belle, but she doesn't talk back, so who knows what she's really thinking? That and I thought it may be the first step to becoming crazy dog lady.  You're welcome Belle (and readers).

In Texas, Belle had a nice yard, lounged around all day while we were away, got excited when we got home, played and sometimes (probably not as often as she should have) got a nice walk around the block in the evenings. It was the life.

Or was it?


At first, when she got to Turkey, she wasn't so sure.  Grass? Steps? No other puppies? I think that Turkey has won her over though.  It's a dog's life.

She loves the balcony, the queen of her domain, watching over the birds and cats and water below.

Luckily for Belle, there is a cat lady who lives in the apartment next to us.
This provides hours of entertainment from her perch on the balcony

She loves the cats. I hate that she loves the cats, but she loves them nonetheless.  Every walk she is trying to sniff them out under cars, under trash cans, in the park. The other night, I sat and watched her in a 5 minute stare down with a calico cat in front of our apartment.  Someday perhaps she will finally make a cat friend.

She loves all the exercise. She gets more walking now than she ever did in Texas. I mean, the walk up to the street is enough to make me tired, not to mention the walks to soccer games, the park, the water. Pretty much walk everywhere since we have no car!

Pass it to me! I have been working out to become the next Air Bud!

She loves the people.  They may not all love her yet, but she is slowly winning them over and it gets better every day as people start to recognize her, or notice that she wags her tail, not barks to attack.  A few of my favorite stories of her new friends:

• The Valets - we walk sometimes with Paul to work or meet him over at his office building; as we walk, we pass a lot of valets. People tend to shy away but one of the valet beckoned her over to him. As Paul loves to show off her tricks, he said BANG and down she went to play dead. They loved it. That may be an understatement because they still say BANG whenever I walk by, whether or not Belle is accompanying me.  And yes, I probably walk this way at least 4 times a week. 
• The Park Manager - we take Belle everyday to our neighborhood park to play or take care of business.  If there are not many people there, we let her off the leash and sometimes there are other dogs that she can run around with.  The Park Manager seems to know these other dogs by name and one day asked me a question in Turkish. There was some shrugging on my end and pointing on his end, and finally I decided that I thought he was asking for the dog's name.  To help clarify, I answered in English "Her name is Belle." Now, he calls her "Hernameisbelle". 
• The Neighborhood Men - this may be my favorite story yet. Yesterday during our jaunt to the park, she caught some of the men's attention as she almost literally inhaled the little pieces of bread they were throwing for the birds. I was embarrassed, thinking they thought she was an out of control dog (which she sometimes acts like in the park). Instead of getting mad, they got more bread. They just threw more and more bread at her and laughed as she ran around with giant pieces of bread in her mouth. As much as I did not want her eating more bread, I couldn't help it and just laughed with them.  Goofball/spazz dog? Absolutely.

Ropes AND hot dogs? Awesome.  
Note: this toy now is just a rope.  Hot dogs have been destroyed!

Spring is Here

Let me just say that barring some strange interference from Mother Nature, I think that Spring is finally here! We had a beautiful weekend here with sun and warmer weather.  I cannot wait to do more exploring around Istanbul, Turkey and Eastern Europe.


Despite the less than Spring weather, my friend Katie and I were able to do lots of exploring during her visit a couple of weeks ago.  Without it being a crazy week (she was here for 5 days), we were able to be the MOST productive tourists EVER. At least in my humble opinion :)

During those 5 days we visited Ortakoy, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, Eminönü,, Galata Bridge, Taksim, Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cisterns, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, the city walls, St. Chora Church, Aquaducts, Süleymaniye Mosque, Dolmabahçe, Taksim (again, via tram), Galata Tower, Bosphorus cruise to Anadolu Kavağı where we saw Yoros Castle.

Yes, most productive tourists. EVER. Well, except for perhaps someone like Rick Steve's who wrote the book on Istanbul.

Anyways, her trip gave me an opportunity to see lots of new things that I hadn't ventured out to in Istanbul and we became experts on the bus system. I personally love this because for 2 lira, I can just sit on the bus, ride into Taksim and not have to worry about the traffic, versus sitting in the cab watching the fare tick up. It has made me much more confident to get around Istanbul too.

Here are a few pictures of my new favorite spots we tried out on her trip:

Inside the St. Chora Church - the halls were covered with these beautiful mosaic tiles. Too bad it wasn't a sunny day to get some better pictures!

Close up of tiled ceiling in St. Chora Church

Süleymaniye Mosque built for Süleymaniye I by Mimar Sinan. We got a little lost getting there, but it was worth it. 

 Süleymaniye Mosque

 View of the Bosphorus from the Galata Tower. It may be the best view in the city.