E-postcard #1
As always, excuse my inability to deal with the remapped Spanish keyboard.
The
best laid plans and all that. The rainy season has been especially bad
this year. We arrived in San Jose to find that the bridge to where we
had planned on spending the first few days of our trip was washed out.
Daughter-in-law Terri's and David's place. So a bit of a jumble and we
found a hotel in San Jose. Yesterday we spent a morning in the hotel
spa getting the flight kinks out and getting ready for the 3 hour drive
to the house, only to find that we could get to a small town, Jaco,
about halfway only. Anyway, we booked into a hotel here (Jaco) and
arrived yesterday early afternoon.
Heavy rain is pretty near
continuous. There were landslides on the way here, one quite large.
Clearing them seems to be a continuous process. Cars are waved through
one at a time; I think to reduce the deaths if it starts up again.
There's a spotter placed on the road who gauges the condition of the
mountainside above the road and waves you through. Our taxivan driver
booted it across and we got here.
Though we can't go any
further and judging by the condition of the river on the edge of town
may have some difficulty getting out in any direction. The rivers are
all HUGE and brown when normally they are tiny and clear. One river we
crossed was solidly 500m wider than the bridge over it and 2 to 3km away
the land was still underwater in spots. Crocs in short supply, just
hope none washed into a village. TV is nothing but news about the
emergency and shots of buses sliding down hills and bodies coming out of
flooded homes, villages under mud and water. Boulders washing down
hillsides and taking out cars and buses.
General
observations> good roads, way better than Nicaragua. Obvious wealth
disparity. Lots of walled compounds for mostly US residents. The
countryside no more prosperous looking than Cuba we think, though more
people have cars and there are higher/end shops for tourists and US
residents. Cleaner and way more prosperous than Nicaragua. Clean
generally. Little roadside garbage and little sold in plastic. Lots of
glass bottles, including for water. Lots of obvious sex tourism.
Checkout at the San Jose hotel, fairly high/end, was a line up of
middle/aged men with very young women.
Jaco is a tourist trap,
all tawdry and wall/to/wall surf shops filled with stoned young
Americans in bare feet, even in the rain. In other words a wonderful
spot to be stuck in. Am quite enjoying this bit of mild adventure.
Terri travels a little more towards the high end than we do; she's being
a great sport about it though. Just a bit of panic and some reluctance
to get out of the van when we arrived *we're staying at the hotel Geri
and I picked out for when we had actually planned to be in Jaco later in
the trip. The Poseidon Hotel a bit above a backpackers spot, though
they do have a dorm section for the younger crowd. Much fun and I think
Terri has started to quite like it. It helps that she has hit it off
with the bartender. Cute tiny pool. Have literally seen bigger hot
tubs, but it has a three/seat swim-up bar. LOL. And we had fun last
night naming and playing with David's huge skin tag at the bar. His
'mini me'. Made an impression I think.
The Bible *otherwise
known as the Lonely Planet( describes Jaco this way "something of a
wasteland in regard to cultural offerings, but it’s a great place to get
hammered and do something you'll most likely regret in the morning".
Kinda sums it up and make for great people/watching.
Losing
Hydro now and then a bit of a concern if we're here for an extended
stay. The power lines over the river on the edge of town were under
pressure from a large tree that had been washed off the riverbank In
fact a big chunk of the retaining wall was peeling away from the river
bank. If it comes downstream in one chunk we'll lose hydro and the
bridge at the same time I think.
But the extra moving of the
luggage without benefit of hotel assistance has David and me vying for
the right to title our memoirs My Life as a Bellhop.
The beer
tasting is going well. Pilsen is tops to date. Imperial the most
popular local beer but a bit heavy and no aftertaste to speak of, so a
second choice. This stop is kinda like a snow day for grown/ups. We
can hang, read, drink beer and eat really wonderful fruit and seafood
guilt/free because there's nothing we can do about it. The math test
will just be rescheduled. LOL
For the folks who live here
though this looks to be something of a major disaster. Hard to describe
the rain. Mostly a steady rain it now and then suddenly turns into a
downpour. Woke at 0200 this am to the sounds of rain 'drops' the size
of golf balls bouncing around. Thought it was continuous thunder.
Today's
plan> walk in the rain long enough to wash yesterday's clothing,
hang it to dry and then have a fish lunch, retire for a movie and then
try the hotel's rooftop bar as there may be folks who hang there who
haven't yet seen our little show with David's skin tag.
They deserve to, of course. And so they shall.
#2
Starting
to see lighter clouds and it hasn't rained in a few hours, so there's
some hope. At least with the rain stopped there's a chance for some
work to be done on the bridge we need to cross to get to the house, or,
conversely, less of a worry about landslides if we decide to head back
to San Jose.
Even if the bridge gets done soon there's no hydro or water at the house so plans remain a bit up in the air.
One
thing for sure, being unable to walk around in the evening because
we're tired of being rained on by then and having only a choice between a
hotel room and a bar is having an effect both on our budget and our
livers. When we have a better sense of whether the house is still an
option we'll have to look at how to plan out the rest of the trip.
Returning home early might be an option, but we of course took the
cheapest tickets we could buy and so at the very least we'd be looking
at an extra charge for the change. And with the tourists still
apparently leaving in droves there might not be seats available in any
case.
Some entertainment last night from a young US man down the
outdoor corridor/balcony from us. He was going on at length to a Tica
*female Costa Rican ( about how crude Americans are when shaving their
nether regions, at least in comparison with Ticas/Ticas. It all seemed
kind of innocent, not at all as if he was trying to get into her pants.
Kinda cute really.
Fingers crossed please...
#3
Since
last I bored you all to tears we checked out of our hotel and, thanks
to Terri and David, moved to the condo spot they had planned for their
visit here next week. This will be a great help to us in trying to keep
the damage to our budget under control as they've graciously and
generously given us one of the bedrooms. The up side to the cost of this
trip as it has developed is that we need no longer worry about having
to fuss over whether we can afford to head to Cuba for x-mas. We can't.
Much
different experience in the new spot. Modern condo overlooking the
beach. All mod-cons and such, the washer and dryer being particular
treats as when travelling we normally do laundry in a sink and hang our
unmentionables all about our room. Adds a homey feel when far from the
nest. :-) Something which at least a few of our fellow castaways don't
do much of, judging by the stink of them a few days after the bridge and
highway were washed away. Or perhaps they had sent their luggage ahead
and were stranded with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I
should have asked. :-)
Pools and an attached casino. An OK but
rather pricey restaurant as well. But with a view across a garden and
onto the beach which would make it worthwhile on a nice day. Clearly
meant for US tourists as the prices are in USD, the thermostats in F,
the TV channels mostly US, and all instructions etc. in English.
We
went shopping yesterday to stock the fridge here. Two things worth
noting. One an orange-flavoured beer (which I am ashamed to say I quite
like), the other the prices. Not much less than what we would expect
to pay at home except for the meat which was more expensive. Tourists
and ticas with shopping lists in English at the Super Mercado. An
open-air market at the south end of town that's clothes and fresh fruit
and veg that we walked through but didn't shop at.
A shame we
never got up to the roof bar at our last hotel as I'd plans for using a
pen to add a face around David's skin tag and introduce it as Jimmy
Durante (really his idea, though he has been talking about a tattoo for
the same effect, only permanent).
Speaking of tattoos, it goes
with the 20-something tourist population here I suppose, but the town
has a number of tattoo/piercing joints. Even the middle-aged surfer
chicks and dudes, of which there are many, are well-decorated. Also
over-tanned and looking generally dissipated. Enervated. Dehydrated.
Well-toasted. Under-embalmed.
The younger set is seen early in
the day lying about or sitting on curbs clearly suffering from ecstasy
hangovers. Until about noon there are almost as many of them as there
are stray dogs roaming the streets. Which is saying something.
The
older folks seem to go for different drugs as there are signs at every
pharmacy (many of them here, way too many for a town of perhaps 4,000,
half that permanent at most I should think) advertizing the fact that
Viagra and it's various imitators can be purchased here in volume, at
low, low, low (or so they say) prices, and all without a prescription.
No one has offered to sell me any weed. Unusual I understand.
The
weather is supposed to brighten somewhat and a day by the pool with an
audio book would be a very pleasant way to get some vitamin D. Which
given the weather is one medicine in short supply.
Did I mention
the sex shops? Do I need to? Or the razor wire. Most especially the
razor wire around the daycare centres (several, must be free or
subsidized or intended for tourist families; the former I suspect).
Normally I find signs of that kind of security unpleasant, but if that's
what it takes to keep the little buggers inside the fence, I'm all for
it.
On a brighter note, there are a fair number of electric cars
rolling around and at least two places that rent them. And the largest
and largest number of election signs about the place are for the
Greens. Lots of hummingbirds all over the place. Great cheap food at
simple roadside stands/restaurants called sodas.
Worst news: the
water remains brown and rescue operations continue across the country
in spots. Still looks like we have little or no chance of getting to
the house. Jaco has its tawdry charms, but even I will have exhausted
them in another day or two I think. My iPod is loaded and we've some
books with us, but if we remain stuck here for too much longer without
pool/tanning/reading opportunities I expect we'll either have to pack up
and head back to San Jose early or we will find ourselves reduced to
simple card games and funny-noises-using-body-parts contests.
Something to look forward to. I've always been a dab hand with a moist armpit and a supple palm. !Hasta la victoria!
Best
news of the week: Geri bought a baseball cap during the momentary
appearance of the sun yesterday. It has a bottle-opener built into the
brim.
Bought a Costa Rican cigar. Very nice. The Cubans I
normally smoke are more expensive here than in metro Cobourg. Priced
for US tourists I suppose. Sit still in a bar long enough and a nice
man will try and sell you a box or ten of Cubans. Well, something
resembling a cigar in a Cuban box at least.
Bye for now. If this is annoying any of you and you want off the list, do feel free to say so.
#4
Bit of a gap there that you all likely appreciated. Terri´s house had no internet access.
We
checked out of the condo complex in Jaco and headed to the house,
passed a lot of road and village damage on the way. In some places the
road was closed for several days because a landslide came across it on
the way to inundating a village. Mud to mebbe waist height in people´s
houses. Though on the way back in the same places the cleanup looked
nearly done and furniture etc was up on roofs drying.
Some pretty
serious road washouts, one near the house left a telephone pole hanging
in space and required a significant shift of the road to one side.
The
house great, very comfortable and all, but we got perhaps an hour of
sun all week, right up to the day we left when of course it was bright
and clear. Lots of hummingbirds, the odd toucan, iguanas and best of
all, one litre bottles of beer. Best feature: plastic thatch on the
rancho by the pool.
David and Terri drove us back to Jaco and we
hopped a bus from there. Met a nice Dutch fellow who helped out, not
least by letting Geri have his seat at the front of the bus to help with
motion sickness.
Bus had no AC but the windows opened and the
driver kept the door open most of the way. Better than AC really. Food
vendors got on and off along the way, walking the aisle with a cooler
and bagged goodies. Occasional reminders of Cliffside trips by bus in
Italy when driver mopping sweat, drinking water, talking to friends,
and, oh yes, driving. Lots of babies crying too, including me when we
teetered on the edges of cliffs. Tica friend of the driver was I think
making fun of me, not realizing that me leaning out to the left and well
into the aisle was all that was keeping us from falling a zillion
metres to the bottom of the cliff on our right. lol
With so long passing since my last postcard I am reduced to random notes:
1.
Muni and cantonal elections under way. Seems like about 50% women
candidates. Most signs are for the eco party and the libertarian party.
2. Lots of religious signage and big new prod churches.
3. Garage at Jaco condo had almost as many Hummers and Range Rovers as hookers.
4. David´s driving has improved.
5. Ceviche, apparently the national dish, is addictive (raw fish marinated in citrus, herbs added).
6. Canadian colony near Terri’s house. Surprised how much of a strain an English-French-Spanish conversation was.
7. Bus did 105km in 2:45. Very scenic, much fun, highly recommended.
8. Howdy honking not as du rigueur here as Cuba but still pretty common.
9. Kids sell fish by roadside like kids sell lemonade at home.
First
impressions of San Jose (last time here were in the Best Western): it´s
a hopping town. Lots of street vendors. And if Jaco a tawdry bordello
kind of town, San Jose is like something out of film noir.
More on that later though.
Last
bit: thanks Shelly for the suggested great little hotel. We have a
mango tree right outside our door. Only problem is getting lost on the
way to breakfast. 35 room hotel but many windy corridors with little
gardens and common rooms all over the place Best $35 a night hotel
since India I think.
Bye...
#5
Dying for a nap, so again in point form:
1.
Fine debate yesterday re. the pros and cons of various guide books in
the hotel´s internet cafe. LP wins again. Steves’ got toasted for
being too US-centric (even the Americans found it hard to use re
measurements and such. Book says miles, road signs say klicks).
Frommers gets pooh-poohed for suggesting Quality Inns and Motel 6s.
2.
Couple from Perry Sound made the mistake of driving into town. Older
folks, find buses etc. intimidating. Kid on motorcycle rides alongside
for a few blocks, stays right with them. Then leaves. Suspect number
two then shouts from a car that the kid slashed their tires. They stop
and get out to look at the tires and suspect 3 really does slash the
tires. Suspect four plays the good samaritan while the car is emptied
as she distracts them. Passports and all, and they go home tomorrow.
Mebbe. After they got to hotel had to park on street and now have more
damage. Another reason to get some fun from the bus.
3. Hotel
breakfast fab, setting, in a courtyard garden, really nice. Homemade
jams etc. really good. $9 extra over basic room charge to have two.
Carambola (starfruit) juice to die for.
4. Geri peeked in the
higher end rooms that were vacated today. Next time, if there is one,
that´s what we´ll shoot for. Not that there was anything wrong with the
one we got. But these like garden suites.
5. Hotel crowd are
mostly LP types. Surfers through to seniors with multipocket vests.
Mostly Scandinavian, bunch of Canadians, one or two US couples. Lots of
birdwatchers. Can birdwatch over breakfast or in several of the hotel
common areas. Funky mini rainforest run by retired hippies a few blocks
away. Bizarre. Urban weird. Blotter acid has a lot to answer for,
though this actually quite nice.
6. May have to trash my ´CR-no
army since 1948´shirt as a border fuss with Nicaragua has ´cops´out
looking a lot like infantry and arriving with their own helicopter
gunships and artillery. Too bad, one nice myth gone...
7. No booze in three days now. No DTs either, so guess I´m good.
8. Holiday Inn on a nice plaza. Chock-full of middle-aged men from the US looking for sex. Sad.
9. Noticeably cooler here compared to the coast. Nice mornings, rainy afternoons.
10.
Shopping fun, but abysmally so in the touristy bits. Cheesy. CR snow
globes, t-shirts made in China etc. Regular shopping more expensive
that I would have thought. No artisans in the artisan market. Just
guys hawking Cuban cigars to Americans for twice what I pay at home.
11. Tica/Tico goths kinda fun to look at. Sweaty. Spoils the effect.
12. Lots of beggars.
13. Local bakery fab. Great pastries, sweet and savoury. Lots like it around.
14.
Pensions discussion post-breakfast. US now at 72 for full benefits.
>Didn´t realize. Oddly, same person lamenting this then trashes
French for protesting increase in their retirement age.
15. Areas
around the Mercado Centrale and the bus terminal are just hopping.
Lots of street vendors etc. Smells a little off-putting though. But
best part of central SJ for camera work.
16. Cast iron school building from the late 1800s.
17 Lots of razor wire, but beats Nicaragua in that there are no or few guns. And only cops have them.
18. Lots of ´great man´ statues and parks. No women.
19. Street-level air pollution a killer.
20. Whopper houses with whopper walls, lots of rag-pickers with carts with bike wheels with no rubber on them.
21. TV offerings on local channels a global collection of shows featuring breasts and old men. Old men with bad dye jobs.
22.
Our corner store has a corner within it where the family running it
lives and eats etc. Kinda of odd to be looking for beer (hey, I said I
hadn´t drunk any, not that I hadn´t wanted to, it’s HOT here kids) and
walking down an aisle and finding yourself in some one´s kitchen as they
are having Sunday soup.
Bye. That´s it from CR
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Istanbul Nov-Dec 2011
After the LabourStart 2011 conference Geri joined me and we holidayed
in Istanbul for 10 days. What follows are vacation e-postcards to
friends and family.
Some of you all find this repetitive because you're 'friends' with my personal Facebook account. sorry. There won't be one of these every day.
I was late getting to our hotel from the post-conference LabourStart meetings but Geri had a chance to sleep-off her jet lag and was ready to go. We found a nice simple restaurant not too far from our hotel and had a great dinner. Our hotel is inside the old city walls, in Sultanahmet. Makes for a fun neighbourhood, but there is one down side: despite the room having all mod cons in it the sewers in the old city are a bit restrictive and so you can't flush paper. Quite a problem, overcoming 50+ years of training. :-)
Today we spent wandering around. All the major sites we wanted to see were closed on Mondays, but still it was fun to see the city from a quick bus tour and get a sense of how everything is oriented, how far we are from what we want to see etc. And at the Blue Mosque we ran into a small crowd from my conference, while on the way to Hagia Sofia we bumped into some more. A small world...
Just randomly walking we came across:
1. A street of shoemakers. In the dark, when it was quiet, we could hear dozens of cobblers tapping nails into shoes. Very cool.
2. Pomegranite juice may be my favourite drink, surpassing beer.
3. A restaurant serving a very nice lamb stew done in clay pots that are then, in high tourist fashion, tapped until the top pops off and it can be served. Ours went fine but another couple had a problem. Waiter-in-training hacked instead of tapping and the resulting explosion pretty impressive. No one hurt but much laughter and bits of lamb and pot all over.
4. Globalization: African footballer on TV flogging KFC in Turkish.
5. This place hops after dark. Most everything, including museums, open to midnight.
6. Chess set for sale: pieces are the players in the Gulf Wars and the 'War on Terror'. The Bushs, Blair et al on one side, Saddam, bin Laden et al on the other. Very well done too.
7. Very impressive transit system everywhere except the old city.
8. Old city also falls down sewage-wise. We can't flush paper, have a little bin instead. Otherwise hotel like the one I had for the conference: all mod cons but small.
9. The cult of Ataturk is alive and well.
10. There really are only 500 people in the world. Yesterday we twice ran into comrades from the conference. Some Egyptian folks at the Blue Mosque, some Taiwanese and a Canadian at the Hagia Sofia.
11. We could live here as long as we could eat in the restaurants. So far the worst was OK, the other very good and very, very cheap.
12. One out of town day booked: to Pamukkale (Google it). Looking at Cappadocia too.
13. Turkish bath/scrub (large hairy man beats you up with rough scrubs and towels, then steams you to mush) in a hamman tomorrow.
More to come, but internet connection unreliable and my mailer seems not to like the homemade batch uploader that sends photos to Flickr. But am trying to clear photos from camera regularly, so here is the link to the photos of this trip (post-conference, if you want the conference stuff for some reason let me know): http://www.flickr.com/photos/dblackadder/collections/
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So today was a High Tourist Day. All that was missing a High Group Tour Guide and a sensor in which was burning a huge wad of cash.
Might as well just come out and say it: we bought a carpet. We like it, it is carry-able and it works with a space we have that has been dying for a rug other than the rag rug we have there now for a long while. So no apologies, no embarrassment, and does anyone want a cat prone to hairballs?
Second, I must have inadvertently stepped on some important and mobbed-up toes, because there I was this afternoon, recovering from having bought a carpet from a nice man whose brother is a close personal friend of Paul Martin's, enjoying a steam bath, when a very large bald hairy man wearing an odd plaid skirt came over to me and started whaling away on me.
Having reduced my legs to uselessness, he punched me repeatedly in the stomach, chopped at my upper body until I was pretty much paralyzed, then gave me two simultaneous 360-degree titty twisters, flipped me over, tried to stick each big toe in an ear to the tune of 'Cracking Spine', leaning on me with his considerable weight concentrated at the point of his elbows, and when I wouldn't (couldn't really, all I had on was a goofy plaid towel with tassels) pay up he threw me in a corner and tossed scalding water on me. Having peeled-off two layers of skin he then worked me over with a sheet of sandpaper before soaping all his fingerprints off my body (evidence doncha know) and sticking a thumb in each ear and doing his best to make them meet in the centre of my heard.
If you ever have a steam bath here I'd suggest that you learn the Turkish phrases for "I'll pay, I'l pay" and "what's the vig?"
OK, enough stupid. It was a Turkish bath and it was fun and the bath we went to has been in business for just over 600 years. And it was painful at the time but you can have a beer after and I am thinking I might just have one (massage, not beer...well, perhaps both) a day until we leave. And mebbe come back for one on a regular basis. And pay to get my assailant...errr...masseuse...a registration number as a RMT in Canada so I can claim the whole thing on my benefits plan. :-)
It was fabulous.
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Bit of minor catch-up now that we're getting ready to pop out for dinner:
1. Burma has a 'right of return' citizenship law, meaning I can take out citizenship if I want to.
2. Geri had fun and you will soon be able to see the photographic proof of it, in the shoe district. $16USD for fab shoes.
3. Silver and pearls district right next to the shoe bit.
4. The grand bazaar fun but mostly touristy stuff or the equivalent of a dollar store The exception being the antiques section. Which was full of stuff from North africa and India. I should have said 'we think' as the thing is immense and we covered only a very small portion.
5. Most shopkeepers in the GT have a prett ydetailed knowledge of Canadian geography. impressive really. Probably better than most Canadians.
6. Only thing we bought was a scarf which Geri got down to 18 from 35 Lira. Much fun.
7. There is a corset shop in the GT for both genders. Frightening.
8. After we bought our carpet and I was carrying it I thought we'd be left alone by the touts, but not so: "Sir, that looks painful, you need another just like it to balance you out." :-) I like the touts here. They have a sense of humour about their work and don't take it too seriously, don't expect you to either.
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Budget-wise, we found it fairly easy. We used points for the flights and the hotel we're in is 30 Euros (it's not as official as Cuba, but tourists are encouraged by merchants to pay in Euros though you can also use Turkish lira, in fact if you do there's a roughly 10% discount) a night. As you can hopefully tell from the photos it is small but comfortable and modern. I was in a smaller room for my conference in the modern part of the city and it was 6-7 times as much I think.
Getting around outside the old city is easy. The transit system is very modern though the subway needs to have about 100 more stations to fully cover the city. There is a tram line that crosses much of the European side of the city with trains coming very frequently. There are buses, some of which have dedicated lanes they don't have to share, even with taxis. And there are tonnes of taxis.
We're not finding walking a problem at all. Lots of hills but none huge. And the sidewalks become stairs where needed.
The only problem I could foresee would be in getting around the old city. It's not accessible and there's no public transport worth mentioning, nor could any fit on the surface. Walking or taxis are the way to go here. Or stay outside this area and take group bus tours into the area now and then (there's lots to see and do in the rest of the city).
Photos are being added as we go along.
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Ours is a strange tribe. Secret signs and rituals, displaying our rank in dress. Today at breakfast each and every table had a bible on it (Lonely Planet I mean). German, English and French. The newbies in cargo pants and hiking boots and quick-dry hoodies. The rest, inevitably going to the same places and doing the same things, in grown-up clothes.
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I think you all may get stuck with more of these missives than you bargained for. Feel free to ask to be taken off the list. Trouble is, we walk and we walk and we walk, then we have lunch and walk some more, but we don't seem to be hungry most days when dinner time rolls around. As with today when we decided to skip it, stay in and watch the rain, up load photos, deal with e-mail and, you guessed it, do postcards, digital and paper.
Hit the Little Hagia Sofia today. Along with the larger edition pretty much one of the five or ten oldest christian churches around, though the Littler is currently in use as a mosque. Very simple, very nice, well worth the 200m walk from our hotel. :-) Plus it still has its bazaar (churches and mosques were often endowed with a bazaar for income from shop rentals) intact and operating after 1500 years (assuming it was built with the church). Some nice little shops, the whole well out of the way. Wonder it's not more popular.
Spent most of today, about 6 hours, at the Topkapi Palace. Much fun, great architecture. Wildly expensive lunch, but it was cold and windy so... Great views from the restaurant. Best bits the jewels and such and the harem. Emeralds the size of baseballs Diamonds the size of ping pong balls. Some wonderfully worked gold (the Topkapi dagger spectacular but not the most so). Candlesticks each of 48kgs of 22 carat gold and covered with literally 1,000s of diamonds. Worker rock crystal that was so fine and so thin that you could mistake it for glass.
Harem fun too. Would love to see the sections closed-off. You can get a peek every now and then and they look fantastic, and well-maintained.
The other fun bit was the relic collection that the Sultans built up over the years. The walking stick Moses used. Probably when he parted the sea, almost certainly he had it under his arm when he was handed the tablets (tho I have always had a problem with the 10 Commandments story. No ratification vote...). The finger of John the Baptist. The Beard of Muhammed, his gold and jewel encrusted sword from a period when he and his followers didn't have a post to piss in. A piece of the cross JC was crucified on. Best of all, the sword David used to kill Golaith. All labeled as though they had just been carbon dated. :-) I guess if the Sultan paid a pile for it, it pretty much has to be genueine, no? Only if it was free or cheap could it be challenged I guess. Would you want to be the one to say "Err, excuse me, but I think Your Highness just dropped a bundle on some chicken bones, wood chips and barber shop sweepings."?
We're off to Pamukkale next Tuesday for the day. Flights were stupid cheap, compared with a 10 hour bus ride it was a no-brainer. One hour flight out about $60 all-in, back about twice that.
Most exciting news of all and every travellers Holy Grail: we found a ritzy hotel not far from ours which has a happy hour hors d'oeuvres buffet that is free. We'll make it a stop each day on our way home for a drink and a free dinner.
Which means I can send even more of these! :-)
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We're close to the mid-point of the holiday portion of the trip and Geri's toe and back could use a break so we're taking a day to hang at the hotel and things nearby, enjoy a bit of sun on the terrace, read, and, yes, do postcards. Beautiful day. I am sitting here watching a steady stream of ships heading from the Med through to the Black Sea. Hardly any coming the other way, I wonder if there are timed traffic patterns? Morning traffic eastbound, afternoons west?
I've lost at least one prior e-postcard that I think was sent, but have also had some get stuck and not go anywhere as the CUPE mail server seems to occasionally decide I am a security risk while here. Apologies for any duplication, the last time it took days for the 'not sent' notification to get to me so I'm going to include some stuff that may have been in a previous message.
1. Love the transit system here. We used the tram (streetcar) yesterday several times and it is up there with Vienna's I think. Toronto's new streetcars should be so good. Under Ford of course it won't matter since they will be sharing what should be an exclusive right of way with cars. Which happens here only in the old part of the city where the streets are narrow. These lovely even down to the multi-lingual stop announcements. We also spent some time on and round Taksim Sq. and so took the funicular that connects the tram line down on the waterfront to the metro station up on the hill at the square. No tourist antiquity, it's a driverless high-tech thingee. Too bad it goes up in a tunnel instead of on the surface though. Nice view of the Bosphorous if it did. There are also commuter trains to the outer suburbs (this a city of 12 million I think). Also almost all very new looking. And electric.
2. I'm never going to develop the ability to speak more than a dozen standard phrases of Turkish. This language right up there with Czech and all the tonal languages as far as difficulty is concerned. But it can be fun to see the Arabic/Moor/Romance/Persian influences and realize that if you speak the word in Urdu or in Spanish or in Italian you suddenly know what it means. Maidan to Meydani for example or Cadde to Calle.
3. Stopped on the main high-end shopping drag, Istklal, for coffee. Facing the windows in comfortable little chairs and suddenly a weird gaggle of Japanese tourists all dressed in electric plastic walked by. Dayglow orange and green and red and whatever coloured plastic clothing and boots. Electric green coat with gold boots just about made me gag. A family/ A club? Street theatre? Then a few minutes later an elderly man came along, re-arranged the flower pots on our window sill to better suit him, smiled at us and walked off.
4. You realize just how clean the city is when in the modern bits. Way cleaner than Toronto for example. Lots of uniformed street cleaners everywhere. Old city has no litter, but is old. But the modern bits sparkle.
5. Nice man showed us how to buy transit tokens yesterday. Everyone like that. You can stop a shopkeeper or tout from trying to take you somewhere or sell you something by asking them directions or how to do something. The pitch stops, they help, everybody smiles, and you can walk off before they get back into sales mode. Very nice.
6. Street food here mostly Turkey's version of bagels, roast corn and roast chestnuts.
7. Just noticed a few days ago that our toilet, and most I have seen, has a nozzle/faucet built-in to the back rim I presume this is the mod con version of the bucket-and-cup substitute for toilet paper that I last ran into in India. Faucet knob on the wall. If pressure sufficient and faucet control fine enough, I could put on a puppet show for myself. Mebbe take photos. :-)
8. Had lunch at Altin Balik on Turnaci just off Istiklal. Wow. Best calamari we ever tasted with an very nice sauce they whipped-up and the local sea bass wonderful. Plus they bring a selection of fresh fish to your table, you pick the beastie you want and tell them how you want it prepared. One very fine meal.
9. Across the street from the second floor of the restaurant was a window either covered with sawdust or containing a room full of sawdust, and some homemade electrical connections worthy of Delhi. So come, eat at this place before it disappears in the fire to come.
10. A shop just off Istiklal sells nothing but booze and potato chips. Reasonable selection of both considering the shop is mebbe 10sm at most. Why go anywhere else?
11. Lots of 'subtle' sexism. As at a restaurant table when I get to taste the wine, I get the bigger pieces of everything and am clearly expected to order for Geri. But some of the complaints I heard at the conference from a young woman travelling outside Canada for the first time may be more about commercial harassment than sexual or gender.
12. Here on our hotel terrace I can see 30+ ships lined-up either for the Bosporus or for one of Istanbul's ports. To my left is Little Hagia Sofia (Little St. Sophia), a 1500 year-old church now a mosque. A little further left are the minarets of the Blue Mosque, and in between is an Ottoman palace on the Asian waterfront of the city. Some kids are playing football on the sports field/community centre across the road, and a nice man is pushing a cart down the street bellowing something that invites folks in the neighbourhood to give him recyclables that he then sells. I wouldn't need to win a whole lot to be able to live like this the rest of my life...
13. I'm keeping pretty much up to date with photo uploading. So if anyone is bothering to look, there are a bunch of new sets. I wish I could convince myself that the photos of buildings like the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi or especially the Hagia Sofia in any way convey how impressive the buildings are, but I can't. Sigh.
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Had lunch in a ritzy restaurant under the Galata Bridge in Istanbul. Way out of our price range, but pretty good, plus it was raining, so...sitting there, watching fishing lines with a half dozen sardines each come up out of the water and disappear up above as the fishers on the roadway pulled in their catch. If it had been warm enough we would have been on the terrace out front, ducking the wriggling fish and the weights at the end of the lines. And there are LOTS of lines. Every metre of waterfront has at least 2 fishers. Later found a bar on the other side of the bridge, beer and a water pipe.
Good thing lunch was first as otherwise watching the fish 'flying' straight up while working the water pipe would have suggested something other than dried apples in it.
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Just quickly (we're both awake in the middleof our night for some reason)...
It was about 8 hours from Toronto to Munich and then about 3 to Istanbul after a change to a Lufthansa flight. We came on points and so had exec class seats. Pods to Munich, the disappointing Lufthansa Business Class from there onwards.
The return flight is through Frankfurt. Unfortunately not ebough of a stop there to justify any time in the Star Alliance exec class lounge. Last time there the 'car wash' toilet seat feature made the extra travel time well worthwhile.
Never felt unsafe. Doesn't mean we weren't of course.
I think all I can say is that no one has shown any hostility in any way. Most actively friendly, and not just folks trying to sell us stuff, but people like the fellow who approached me on the tram platform yesterday when he noticed me taking photos of the New Mosque (new because only 600 years old).
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Now that I'm awake, here are a few more answers:
1. Tipping in taxis is to just round up to the nearest lira. Otherwise a few coins, though at higher-end restaurants 10% is about right and sometimes included in the charge anyway.
2. Weather has been near-identical to Cobourg's.
3. Credit cards everywhere, and better than the US (where we were in September) becuase chip cards are standard here. In this as in many regards, you should expect what you would in any other European country.
4. Better to exchange money at a Cambio than a bank as the charges are less. Banking machines everywhere too
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Odd notes and such this time. Every time??? Geri has a bit of a cold so I am hoping we'll take it easy today and not venture too far from home. So some post-breakfast scribbling on the terrace would seem to be in order. Yesterday was a bit dismal and rained a bit on and off after a few hours of blue skies in the morning. Today the blue seems to be holding. The Sultanahmet area goes from looking washed-out and dingy to pretty in the sun.
1. Only once in all our rides on public transit was Geri not offered a seat by a youngish man. and this without her (mis?)using her cane. :-) But when she has used her cane as when we've had a flu day of hiking around, she has had repeated comments from everywhere from shopkeepers to museum staff about it. Cuban of course, and quite intricately carved.
2. Yesterday in the morning we took a cheap (unguided) cruise up the Bosphorus to the second bridge, not quite to the Black Sea, and back.
3. Fishers really are everywhere along the water. Christopher would fit right in.
4. There's an island not far from the first bridge which is entirely devoted to a couple of restaurants and a cafe. And right next to it is a floating doghouse. Photo to prove, complete with a bird on the doghouse.
5. After, we had lunch in a ritzy restaurant under the Galata Bridge in Istanbul. Way out of our price range, but pretty good, plus it was raining, so...sitting there, watching fishing lines with a half dozen sardines each come up out of the water and disappear up above as the fishers on the roadway pulled in their catch. If it had been warm enough we would have been on the terrace out front, ducking the wriggling fish and the weights at the end of the lines. And there are LOTS of lines. Every metre of waterfront has at least 2 fishers. Later found a bar on the other side of the bridge, beer and a water pipe. Good thing lunch was first as otherwise watching the fish 'flying' straight up while working the water pipe would have suggested something other than dried apples in it. We both quite liked the 'hubble-bubble'. Pleasant apple flavour.
6. We think the anti-smoking laws must be new. Yesterday we could hardly see the no-smoking sign in the bar for all the cigarette, cigar and water pipe smoke. :-)
7. The bar and restaurant (on opposite sides of the bridge but both on the lower level) had fab views of the ferry landings. Quite a show. Continuous and fast.
8. In the bar Swansea vs. A. Villa was on. Swansea getting more cheers. Perhaps out of sympathy: no matter what the game's outcome the team has to return to Swansea. :-)
9. Reading a bit of the local English language papers in our 'free hors d'oeuvres bar'. Parliament just enacted a Council of Europe convention on violence against women Wildly progressive in comparison with our laws. For example arranged marriages are now illegal. Parents can be charged and the marriage itself reversed. But I can't find a definition of 'economic violence' against women. In any case it is now a crime here.
10. Also in the process of amending their constitution. Have to say in many respects their current one, while it has some serious flaws (making the military a kind of constitutional court with the right to stage a coup being one small example), also has some enviable bits. Being secular and so for almost 90 years is one. I find it irksome that I live in a country where a large minority have some other religious belief or none at all but where we all, and our laws, are subject to compliance with the Christian god's rules and regs. Especially while we have a Prime Minister who thinks that The Flintstones was a documentary. It must also be nice to have a head of state who's not only elected but a citizen of the country s/he runs. Oh, and all the legislative bodies of government here are elected...and awake, as far as I can tell. Unlike a certain senate. :-)
11. Where was I before I got all preachy? Ah, yes, the Turkish Constitution. Anyway, the military bit, there since the War of Liberation, is going. And while it will remain secular (it looks like anyway), the current prohibition on any religious display or activity or dress while on public property looks to be going. There will be some provision supportive of religious freedom etc. It recently became possible in law for women to attend university while wearing islamic head scarfs, though not, I think, the full near-purdah clothing. But apparently this change was challenged and it's constitutionality is in doubt so something explicit is to appear in the Constitution.
12. Too bad recognition of minority ethnic rights not in the cards as far as I can tell. Kurds treated like shit here and Kurdish organizations of any kind all appear to be labelled as 'terrorist'. Ditto journos critical of the government. Turkey has more of them in jail than any other country I think. Glad I left my IFJ card at home. :-)
13. Taking photos here starts conversations. Mostly people just smile and say 'welcome'. Probably because that would the limit of their English. But sometimes, as yesterday at the Eminou tram stop, you come across someone with a fair bit of the language and you have a nice chat.
14. The Hippodrome, the Roman horse track, near the Blue Mosque, is closed to most traffic. At the entrances are remote-controlled stainless posts that sink into or rise up from the cobbles when a parking attendant presses a wireless remote button. Stupid I know, but I thought much fun. I used to be a parking lot attendant, bored it would be fun to see if the post motors are powerful enough to lift, oh, say, a garbage truck. A taxi? Or whether they are fast moving enough for a game of chicken with a tour bus. :-)
15. Huge wine industry here. Government can't ban alcohol (see secular constitution above) but does heavily tax all but beer. Some nice wines and some varietals that we have never heard of before. Local only?
16. From the water we got a chance to see the huge Rita-Carleton development in its entirety. Hotel and condos, as in Toronto I think. In the new part of the city's European side it completely dominates the skyline in an area not short of skyscrapers. Remarkably ugly.
Off to walk the area around the spice bazaar, supposed to be the last bit of the old city untouched since the 1950's tourism-wise at least, then our free food bar (the waiter deserves his own entry in one of these e-cards and will get it), then an early night as we're being picked-up around 0500 tomorrow to make our flight to Pamukkale.
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Added a few new folks to the thread. Few of you just slipped through the cracks, another one or two we left off thinking a spouse would pass them along, but then you never know, so....
Getting towards the end of the trip (I can tell because we always through our restaurant budget to the wind and just go for a comfortable spot, regardless if there is a cheaper and possibly even better bit of street food available just outside). :-)
17:45 call to prayer just starting as I write this. Kinda nice, hits us from 3 or more mosques here Not that anybody except the tourists pays attention any more than everyone rushes off to church when the bells ring on Sunday at home.
1. Parks here have lots of clean benches. LOTS. And I think I have yet to see one without a kiddies play area and at least one muni worker sweeping or brushing or washing.
2. On a not-unrelated note, solid waste trucks have 3-man (always men) crews. Nice uniforms too. The Sultanahmet uniform is a nice bright green.
3. In the older parts of town fruit and veg carts are common. Vendor pushes it along, shouting out (I presume) what he has for sale).
4. Lots and lots and lots of cats. And everyone feeds them.
5. Has to be 20+ daily newspapers. Lively, despite the threat of imprisonment under the bizarre (almost as much so as the British) laws re. libel and the rather unique crime of 'insulting Turkishness'.
6. Got a peek at an empty tram car driver's compartment Very star Trek. when I grow up I want to be an Istanbul transit driver.
7. In the old city parking is a world-class sport. People park where and how they can, the city responds with various devices meant to keep cars off curbs and sidewalks etc. But the drivers are both skilled and creative (and on steep hills don't turn their wheels in as it causes the to take up more space). Can also lead to pedestrian traffic jams as tight spaces between parked cars and traffic combines with Turkish politeness ("No, after you...no, after YOU...no...").
8. Stiff climb up to and then part way just up the Galata Tower. 70m or so. Nice view. Sitting inside with a window having tea I could pick out my fellow acrophobes as they slid along the wall and into the window niches when they got to them. Looking very stressed too I should say. I gave it a try but the open railing and narrow deck under my feet was too much. Would have been able to manage it if they had proper safety netting, air bags on the ground, safety harness and ropes, chicken wire wrapping the deck circling the tower, guards along the railing, their arms linked, and a helicopter circling over the waiting ambulances.
9. Only 2 full days here in Istanbul left as tomorrow is out trip to Pammukkale. . Thurs and Fri. The Chora Church's Byzantine mosaics supposed to be spectacular, but after 3 trips to Italy, churches kinda pale. More so after easy-on-the-aye mosques with their geometric decorative designs. The prospect of diabetes-inducing gilt and such not too enticing right now
10. Huge seagull hovering outside our window as we have lunch in the Tower cafe. Muzac system playing 'Three Times a Lady' and 'Can't Stop Loving You'.
11. Istanbul is where tulips came from. Netherlands just controlled the trade. This place in spring makes Ottawa look like a plain lawn.
12. Disappointment: no sufi shrines and all the dervish stuff is faked for tourists.
13. No skateboard or rollerblades seen. Nice!
14. Grand total of two beggars seen, one of them a kid who was rather well-dressed for what he was doing and so may just have been trying it on.
15. Next time we're here: summer, so we can spend more time on terraces. And we'll book cooking classes in advance.
Bye. We need to be up at 0400, so having an early night with the assistance of a couple of large Efes. Some Beyaz white in Geri's case.
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This is likely the second-to-last postcard.
1. Monday night we found a nice little neighbourhood water pipe cafe that may never have seen a tourist before. No alcohol, just a couple of for items, lots of tea and a water pipe for every table. A very nice little cozy spot, if it served beer I'd move in. Server an awkward teenager in leggings who moved like a newborn horse, spoke excellent English. Her parents own the place. Goofy Turkish comedy films on the TV. Lovely spot just outside one of the entrances to the Little Hagia Sofia.
2. The flight out to Denezili went well. The Ataturk airport domestic terminal is dandy, lots of staff for everything and even though they have more security checks, you get through faster because there are more stations. And the security types aren't rent-a-cops, and are mostly women. :-) All spoke English, including the cafe staff.
3. My cold has migrated to Geri.
4. If your ticket and boarding pass say 'be at the gate 45 minutes before departure', do that. A lot of the gates just lead to a bus transfer. Miss the bus and...
5. Men, wear tightish pants when travelling through Ataturk as all belts must come off and a bit of slack can take your pants a long way.
6. Turkish Airlines uses a bunch of Manchester United stars for their safety video. Different.
7. Ataturk's a CAT III airport. Too bad Denezili isn't (see below).
8. We were on an early model A319. New seats and all but the spacing was a reminder of why the 'good old days' are the good old days There was so much knee room people could get the aisle to the window seat without anyone even standing up, let alone having to get out into the aisle and completely out of the way.
9. The flight was early morning. Landscape rugged, small mountains, barren because the wheat and corn harvest is done. Small villages in valleys. Not much water aside from a few large lakes. And some of the lakes appeared to have either salt pans or fish corrals. The former seems more likely to me for some reason.
10. Like most airports here, Denezili's is both civilian and military.
11. The area's big industries appear to be marble/stone works and textiles. Huge textile factories.
12. Our airport transfer took us to the Koray Hotel to wait for the tour start. I would avoid. By Cuban standards a 1.5 star I should think. Heating in the dining...well, really, the everything room...was provided by a wood stove with an over-long horizontal pipe leading to a homemade (and badly) hole in the wall. The hotel also has a door from the third floor bar that leads to nothing more than a three-floor drop. Look for the photo of the door swinging in the breeze.
13. Rural Turkey very, very, very clearly not nearly as prosperous as urban Turkey. Not just Istanbul: the cities and large towns we drove through showed this too.
14. Apartment buildings clearly take some time to complete in rural Turkey as buildings are occupied on the ground floors and up as the upper floors are still under construction.
15. In villages could still see large groups of women getting together to do things to crops to prepare them for eating or storage. All by hand. Regret: driver too fast, couldn't get decent photos
16. First stage of our tour: the Pamkkale necropolis. Cemetery going back to the Greek period. Through Roman, Byzantine periods to 1334 when an earthquake meant it was abandoned. Jewish section from the Roman period. Loved it, but not much to say. See the photos when I get them uploaded (hopefully later today).
17. Ditto the city itself.
18. Small spa-like centre in the national park where an agora (marketplace) sunk in an early earthquake and flooded with hot spring water. Now used as a pool, complete with fallen columns etc. from the Roman period at the bottom.
19. Quite a high-end little place. 25lira just to swim. Plus they have goofy but expensive things like 'doctor fish' treatments wherein you sit in a tank with a bunch of remora-like fish that nibble-off all your dead skin etc. It's the 'etc' that worries me.
20. Full of desiccated German women of a certain age, desiccated German men of a certain age who can be distinguished from the desiccated German women of a certain age only by the fact that they use carbon-fibre walking sticks to go anywhere and everywhere.
21.The calcium deposit cliffs and pools and the walk down the terraces is just amazing. See the photos, but know that they do nothing like justice to the experience. Plus by walking down you feel like the soles of your feet have been exfoliated. Which they have. And scaled by the ater rushing down at the top, frozen by that same water by the time you get to the bottom.
22. While there really was no way around doing a group tour unless we were prepared to spend at least one night out of Istanbul (but then again, see below), we were again reminded why we don't like group tours. There was a museum we would have spent time at if we were on our own, we got stuck in the obligatory visit to an 'onyx factory' which was a sales stop and nothing more, and got to live with other people's enthusiasm for delay.
23. Beer of the day was Efes Dark. Indulged while playing with the cats and watching them go to sleep on my jacket at the spa.
24. Geri's folding stool again proved it's worth. She could rest her back anytime, anywhere. Thing just hangs off my shoulder bag when not in use and folded. Can't weigh much more than and possibly less than 500g.
25. One nice thing about the group tour was meeting a Brit couple. Both a little off-centre. She recently got a free trip to Mexico by volunteering to be a test subject for a drug company with a cholera patch it hopes will replace the shot. I was mildly surprised to find that I am not interested in that kind of free travel. I amy be brighter than I think.
26. There is a town named Batman in Turkey.
27. The restaurant the tour took us to for the included lunch served something that I think can only be described as "dismal food".
24 Back at the Carpak/Denezili airport, which is new and vast and empty, we were told that fog had resulted in our flight being cancelled and we could either get a night in a hotel or a bus ride to an airport 4 hours away at Izmir(ly 4 hours drive away). We took the drive, tried to sleep, made friends with a young Indian couple and sisters from the US, survived, but collapsed into bed when we got to our Istanbul hotel having been up (some bus naps excepted) for something like 28 hours. Izmir airport older but very efficient Interesting, and I think this is true at Ataturk in Istanbul too, there's not much by way of a closed period for flights. Even though residences are visible from the runways.
25. Our second last day: perfect weather but we have low energy. And Geri's cold means she's leaning towards staying in and vegging with her iPad.
26. Red lights in some urban areas have a countdown the way pedestrian crossing lights at home do. A chance to get ready to stomp on it at the earliest opportunity. Not that everyone, including our bus driver on the road to Izmir last night, pays attention to red lights late at night. And drivers in rural areas don't pay a lot of attention to white lines, solid or not.
27. Bus played a Turkish potboiler soap the whole time. By the end I was kinda interested...
28. Turkish politics interesting. AKP religious and extremely right-wing, but really wants into the EU so tidying-up its human rights record. Also clearly plans on replacing the US as it withdraws from the region. Some goofy regional imperial ambitions. References to Cyprus (or the northern bit anyway) as 'our foster-land'.
Ta-ta. Will send on something else if any interesting happens (by my definition, obviously :-) ) before we leave, otherwise just look for a 'home safe and sound' message when we get there and can say that.
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Now in Franfurt in the Lufthansa Biz Class lounge (they have an even ritzier First Class lounge). Nice, as always, and I do enjoy the 'mini car-wash' toilet seats. Been a couple of years since we were last here, good to see they haven't disppeared. Always a bit awkward taking photos though
, so may have to rely on the old ones already on Flickr.
This lounge nothing on the Turkish Airlines lounge at Ataturk. Best we've ever seen. Grand piano (with player), pool table, lending library, cinema with mebbe 30 seats, architecturally interesting design...worth the flight on its own.
I added photos of the Ataturk lounge to our Istanbul photo collection.
Anyway, I guess that's about it. Another couple of glasses of champers before we head to the gate. Geri's gagging for some toast, will have to see if they can rustle something up.
Hope somebody got something from all these. Remember most of the posts above were family/friend postcards, so if you can't figure something out or want some further info just ask.
Some of you all find this repetitive because you're 'friends' with my personal Facebook account. sorry. There won't be one of these every day.
I was late getting to our hotel from the post-conference LabourStart meetings but Geri had a chance to sleep-off her jet lag and was ready to go. We found a nice simple restaurant not too far from our hotel and had a great dinner. Our hotel is inside the old city walls, in Sultanahmet. Makes for a fun neighbourhood, but there is one down side: despite the room having all mod cons in it the sewers in the old city are a bit restrictive and so you can't flush paper. Quite a problem, overcoming 50+ years of training. :-)
Today we spent wandering around. All the major sites we wanted to see were closed on Mondays, but still it was fun to see the city from a quick bus tour and get a sense of how everything is oriented, how far we are from what we want to see etc. And at the Blue Mosque we ran into a small crowd from my conference, while on the way to Hagia Sofia we bumped into some more. A small world...
Just randomly walking we came across:
1. A street of shoemakers. In the dark, when it was quiet, we could hear dozens of cobblers tapping nails into shoes. Very cool.
2. Pomegranite juice may be my favourite drink, surpassing beer.
3. A restaurant serving a very nice lamb stew done in clay pots that are then, in high tourist fashion, tapped until the top pops off and it can be served. Ours went fine but another couple had a problem. Waiter-in-training hacked instead of tapping and the resulting explosion pretty impressive. No one hurt but much laughter and bits of lamb and pot all over.
4. Globalization: African footballer on TV flogging KFC in Turkish.
5. This place hops after dark. Most everything, including museums, open to midnight.
6. Chess set for sale: pieces are the players in the Gulf Wars and the 'War on Terror'. The Bushs, Blair et al on one side, Saddam, bin Laden et al on the other. Very well done too.
7. Very impressive transit system everywhere except the old city.
8. Old city also falls down sewage-wise. We can't flush paper, have a little bin instead. Otherwise hotel like the one I had for the conference: all mod cons but small.
9. The cult of Ataturk is alive and well.
10. There really are only 500 people in the world. Yesterday we twice ran into comrades from the conference. Some Egyptian folks at the Blue Mosque, some Taiwanese and a Canadian at the Hagia Sofia.
11. We could live here as long as we could eat in the restaurants. So far the worst was OK, the other very good and very, very cheap.
12. One out of town day booked: to Pamukkale (Google it). Looking at Cappadocia too.
13. Turkish bath/scrub (large hairy man beats you up with rough scrubs and towels, then steams you to mush) in a hamman tomorrow.
More to come, but internet connection unreliable and my mailer seems not to like the homemade batch uploader that sends photos to Flickr. But am trying to clear photos from camera regularly, so here is the link to the photos of this trip (post-conference, if you want the conference stuff for some reason let me know): http://www.flickr.com/photos/dblackadder/collections/
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So today was a High Tourist Day. All that was missing a High Group Tour Guide and a sensor in which was burning a huge wad of cash.
Might as well just come out and say it: we bought a carpet. We like it, it is carry-able and it works with a space we have that has been dying for a rug other than the rag rug we have there now for a long while. So no apologies, no embarrassment, and does anyone want a cat prone to hairballs?
Second, I must have inadvertently stepped on some important and mobbed-up toes, because there I was this afternoon, recovering from having bought a carpet from a nice man whose brother is a close personal friend of Paul Martin's, enjoying a steam bath, when a very large bald hairy man wearing an odd plaid skirt came over to me and started whaling away on me.
Having reduced my legs to uselessness, he punched me repeatedly in the stomach, chopped at my upper body until I was pretty much paralyzed, then gave me two simultaneous 360-degree titty twisters, flipped me over, tried to stick each big toe in an ear to the tune of 'Cracking Spine', leaning on me with his considerable weight concentrated at the point of his elbows, and when I wouldn't (couldn't really, all I had on was a goofy plaid towel with tassels) pay up he threw me in a corner and tossed scalding water on me. Having peeled-off two layers of skin he then worked me over with a sheet of sandpaper before soaping all his fingerprints off my body (evidence doncha know) and sticking a thumb in each ear and doing his best to make them meet in the centre of my heard.
If you ever have a steam bath here I'd suggest that you learn the Turkish phrases for "I'll pay, I'l pay" and "what's the vig?"
OK, enough stupid. It was a Turkish bath and it was fun and the bath we went to has been in business for just over 600 years. And it was painful at the time but you can have a beer after and I am thinking I might just have one (massage, not beer...well, perhaps both) a day until we leave. And mebbe come back for one on a regular basis. And pay to get my assailant...errr...masseuse...a registration number as a RMT in Canada so I can claim the whole thing on my benefits plan. :-)
It was fabulous.
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Bit of minor catch-up now that we're getting ready to pop out for dinner:
1. Burma has a 'right of return' citizenship law, meaning I can take out citizenship if I want to.
2. Geri had fun and you will soon be able to see the photographic proof of it, in the shoe district. $16USD for fab shoes.
3. Silver and pearls district right next to the shoe bit.
4. The grand bazaar fun but mostly touristy stuff or the equivalent of a dollar store The exception being the antiques section. Which was full of stuff from North africa and India. I should have said 'we think' as the thing is immense and we covered only a very small portion.
5. Most shopkeepers in the GT have a prett ydetailed knowledge of Canadian geography. impressive really. Probably better than most Canadians.
6. Only thing we bought was a scarf which Geri got down to 18 from 35 Lira. Much fun.
7. There is a corset shop in the GT for both genders. Frightening.
8. After we bought our carpet and I was carrying it I thought we'd be left alone by the touts, but not so: "Sir, that looks painful, you need another just like it to balance you out." :-) I like the touts here. They have a sense of humour about their work and don't take it too seriously, don't expect you to either.
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Budget-wise, we found it fairly easy. We used points for the flights and the hotel we're in is 30 Euros (it's not as official as Cuba, but tourists are encouraged by merchants to pay in Euros though you can also use Turkish lira, in fact if you do there's a roughly 10% discount) a night. As you can hopefully tell from the photos it is small but comfortable and modern. I was in a smaller room for my conference in the modern part of the city and it was 6-7 times as much I think.
Getting around outside the old city is easy. The transit system is very modern though the subway needs to have about 100 more stations to fully cover the city. There is a tram line that crosses much of the European side of the city with trains coming very frequently. There are buses, some of which have dedicated lanes they don't have to share, even with taxis. And there are tonnes of taxis.
We're not finding walking a problem at all. Lots of hills but none huge. And the sidewalks become stairs where needed.
The only problem I could foresee would be in getting around the old city. It's not accessible and there's no public transport worth mentioning, nor could any fit on the surface. Walking or taxis are the way to go here. Or stay outside this area and take group bus tours into the area now and then (there's lots to see and do in the rest of the city).
Photos are being added as we go along.
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Ours is a strange tribe. Secret signs and rituals, displaying our rank in dress. Today at breakfast each and every table had a bible on it (Lonely Planet I mean). German, English and French. The newbies in cargo pants and hiking boots and quick-dry hoodies. The rest, inevitably going to the same places and doing the same things, in grown-up clothes.
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I think you all may get stuck with more of these missives than you bargained for. Feel free to ask to be taken off the list. Trouble is, we walk and we walk and we walk, then we have lunch and walk some more, but we don't seem to be hungry most days when dinner time rolls around. As with today when we decided to skip it, stay in and watch the rain, up load photos, deal with e-mail and, you guessed it, do postcards, digital and paper.
Hit the Little Hagia Sofia today. Along with the larger edition pretty much one of the five or ten oldest christian churches around, though the Littler is currently in use as a mosque. Very simple, very nice, well worth the 200m walk from our hotel. :-) Plus it still has its bazaar (churches and mosques were often endowed with a bazaar for income from shop rentals) intact and operating after 1500 years (assuming it was built with the church). Some nice little shops, the whole well out of the way. Wonder it's not more popular.
Spent most of today, about 6 hours, at the Topkapi Palace. Much fun, great architecture. Wildly expensive lunch, but it was cold and windy so... Great views from the restaurant. Best bits the jewels and such and the harem. Emeralds the size of baseballs Diamonds the size of ping pong balls. Some wonderfully worked gold (the Topkapi dagger spectacular but not the most so). Candlesticks each of 48kgs of 22 carat gold and covered with literally 1,000s of diamonds. Worker rock crystal that was so fine and so thin that you could mistake it for glass.
Harem fun too. Would love to see the sections closed-off. You can get a peek every now and then and they look fantastic, and well-maintained.
The other fun bit was the relic collection that the Sultans built up over the years. The walking stick Moses used. Probably when he parted the sea, almost certainly he had it under his arm when he was handed the tablets (tho I have always had a problem with the 10 Commandments story. No ratification vote...). The finger of John the Baptist. The Beard of Muhammed, his gold and jewel encrusted sword from a period when he and his followers didn't have a post to piss in. A piece of the cross JC was crucified on. Best of all, the sword David used to kill Golaith. All labeled as though they had just been carbon dated. :-) I guess if the Sultan paid a pile for it, it pretty much has to be genueine, no? Only if it was free or cheap could it be challenged I guess. Would you want to be the one to say "Err, excuse me, but I think Your Highness just dropped a bundle on some chicken bones, wood chips and barber shop sweepings."?
We're off to Pamukkale next Tuesday for the day. Flights were stupid cheap, compared with a 10 hour bus ride it was a no-brainer. One hour flight out about $60 all-in, back about twice that.
Most exciting news of all and every travellers Holy Grail: we found a ritzy hotel not far from ours which has a happy hour hors d'oeuvres buffet that is free. We'll make it a stop each day on our way home for a drink and a free dinner.
Which means I can send even more of these! :-)
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We're close to the mid-point of the holiday portion of the trip and Geri's toe and back could use a break so we're taking a day to hang at the hotel and things nearby, enjoy a bit of sun on the terrace, read, and, yes, do postcards. Beautiful day. I am sitting here watching a steady stream of ships heading from the Med through to the Black Sea. Hardly any coming the other way, I wonder if there are timed traffic patterns? Morning traffic eastbound, afternoons west?
I've lost at least one prior e-postcard that I think was sent, but have also had some get stuck and not go anywhere as the CUPE mail server seems to occasionally decide I am a security risk while here. Apologies for any duplication, the last time it took days for the 'not sent' notification to get to me so I'm going to include some stuff that may have been in a previous message.
1. Love the transit system here. We used the tram (streetcar) yesterday several times and it is up there with Vienna's I think. Toronto's new streetcars should be so good. Under Ford of course it won't matter since they will be sharing what should be an exclusive right of way with cars. Which happens here only in the old part of the city where the streets are narrow. These lovely even down to the multi-lingual stop announcements. We also spent some time on and round Taksim Sq. and so took the funicular that connects the tram line down on the waterfront to the metro station up on the hill at the square. No tourist antiquity, it's a driverless high-tech thingee. Too bad it goes up in a tunnel instead of on the surface though. Nice view of the Bosphorous if it did. There are also commuter trains to the outer suburbs (this a city of 12 million I think). Also almost all very new looking. And electric.
2. I'm never going to develop the ability to speak more than a dozen standard phrases of Turkish. This language right up there with Czech and all the tonal languages as far as difficulty is concerned. But it can be fun to see the Arabic/Moor/Romance/Persian influences and realize that if you speak the word in Urdu or in Spanish or in Italian you suddenly know what it means. Maidan to Meydani for example or Cadde to Calle.
3. Stopped on the main high-end shopping drag, Istklal, for coffee. Facing the windows in comfortable little chairs and suddenly a weird gaggle of Japanese tourists all dressed in electric plastic walked by. Dayglow orange and green and red and whatever coloured plastic clothing and boots. Electric green coat with gold boots just about made me gag. A family/ A club? Street theatre? Then a few minutes later an elderly man came along, re-arranged the flower pots on our window sill to better suit him, smiled at us and walked off.
4. You realize just how clean the city is when in the modern bits. Way cleaner than Toronto for example. Lots of uniformed street cleaners everywhere. Old city has no litter, but is old. But the modern bits sparkle.
5. Nice man showed us how to buy transit tokens yesterday. Everyone like that. You can stop a shopkeeper or tout from trying to take you somewhere or sell you something by asking them directions or how to do something. The pitch stops, they help, everybody smiles, and you can walk off before they get back into sales mode. Very nice.
6. Street food here mostly Turkey's version of bagels, roast corn and roast chestnuts.
7. Just noticed a few days ago that our toilet, and most I have seen, has a nozzle/faucet built-in to the back rim I presume this is the mod con version of the bucket-and-cup substitute for toilet paper that I last ran into in India. Faucet knob on the wall. If pressure sufficient and faucet control fine enough, I could put on a puppet show for myself. Mebbe take photos. :-)
8. Had lunch at Altin Balik on Turnaci just off Istiklal. Wow. Best calamari we ever tasted with an very nice sauce they whipped-up and the local sea bass wonderful. Plus they bring a selection of fresh fish to your table, you pick the beastie you want and tell them how you want it prepared. One very fine meal.
9. Across the street from the second floor of the restaurant was a window either covered with sawdust or containing a room full of sawdust, and some homemade electrical connections worthy of Delhi. So come, eat at this place before it disappears in the fire to come.
10. A shop just off Istiklal sells nothing but booze and potato chips. Reasonable selection of both considering the shop is mebbe 10sm at most. Why go anywhere else?
11. Lots of 'subtle' sexism. As at a restaurant table when I get to taste the wine, I get the bigger pieces of everything and am clearly expected to order for Geri. But some of the complaints I heard at the conference from a young woman travelling outside Canada for the first time may be more about commercial harassment than sexual or gender.
12. Here on our hotel terrace I can see 30+ ships lined-up either for the Bosporus or for one of Istanbul's ports. To my left is Little Hagia Sofia (Little St. Sophia), a 1500 year-old church now a mosque. A little further left are the minarets of the Blue Mosque, and in between is an Ottoman palace on the Asian waterfront of the city. Some kids are playing football on the sports field/community centre across the road, and a nice man is pushing a cart down the street bellowing something that invites folks in the neighbourhood to give him recyclables that he then sells. I wouldn't need to win a whole lot to be able to live like this the rest of my life...
13. I'm keeping pretty much up to date with photo uploading. So if anyone is bothering to look, there are a bunch of new sets. I wish I could convince myself that the photos of buildings like the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi or especially the Hagia Sofia in any way convey how impressive the buildings are, but I can't. Sigh.
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Had lunch in a ritzy restaurant under the Galata Bridge in Istanbul. Way out of our price range, but pretty good, plus it was raining, so...sitting there, watching fishing lines with a half dozen sardines each come up out of the water and disappear up above as the fishers on the roadway pulled in their catch. If it had been warm enough we would have been on the terrace out front, ducking the wriggling fish and the weights at the end of the lines. And there are LOTS of lines. Every metre of waterfront has at least 2 fishers. Later found a bar on the other side of the bridge, beer and a water pipe.
Good thing lunch was first as otherwise watching the fish 'flying' straight up while working the water pipe would have suggested something other than dried apples in it.
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Just quickly (we're both awake in the middleof our night for some reason)...
It was about 8 hours from Toronto to Munich and then about 3 to Istanbul after a change to a Lufthansa flight. We came on points and so had exec class seats. Pods to Munich, the disappointing Lufthansa Business Class from there onwards.
The return flight is through Frankfurt. Unfortunately not ebough of a stop there to justify any time in the Star Alliance exec class lounge. Last time there the 'car wash' toilet seat feature made the extra travel time well worthwhile.
Never felt unsafe. Doesn't mean we weren't of course.
I think all I can say is that no one has shown any hostility in any way. Most actively friendly, and not just folks trying to sell us stuff, but people like the fellow who approached me on the tram platform yesterday when he noticed me taking photos of the New Mosque (new because only 600 years old).
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Now that I'm awake, here are a few more answers:
1. Tipping in taxis is to just round up to the nearest lira. Otherwise a few coins, though at higher-end restaurants 10% is about right and sometimes included in the charge anyway.
2. Weather has been near-identical to Cobourg's.
3. Credit cards everywhere, and better than the US (where we were in September) becuase chip cards are standard here. In this as in many regards, you should expect what you would in any other European country.
4. Better to exchange money at a Cambio than a bank as the charges are less. Banking machines everywhere too
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Odd notes and such this time. Every time??? Geri has a bit of a cold so I am hoping we'll take it easy today and not venture too far from home. So some post-breakfast scribbling on the terrace would seem to be in order. Yesterday was a bit dismal and rained a bit on and off after a few hours of blue skies in the morning. Today the blue seems to be holding. The Sultanahmet area goes from looking washed-out and dingy to pretty in the sun.
1. Only once in all our rides on public transit was Geri not offered a seat by a youngish man. and this without her (mis?)using her cane. :-) But when she has used her cane as when we've had a flu day of hiking around, she has had repeated comments from everywhere from shopkeepers to museum staff about it. Cuban of course, and quite intricately carved.
2. Yesterday in the morning we took a cheap (unguided) cruise up the Bosphorus to the second bridge, not quite to the Black Sea, and back.
3. Fishers really are everywhere along the water. Christopher would fit right in.
4. There's an island not far from the first bridge which is entirely devoted to a couple of restaurants and a cafe. And right next to it is a floating doghouse. Photo to prove, complete with a bird on the doghouse.
5. After, we had lunch in a ritzy restaurant under the Galata Bridge in Istanbul. Way out of our price range, but pretty good, plus it was raining, so...sitting there, watching fishing lines with a half dozen sardines each come up out of the water and disappear up above as the fishers on the roadway pulled in their catch. If it had been warm enough we would have been on the terrace out front, ducking the wriggling fish and the weights at the end of the lines. And there are LOTS of lines. Every metre of waterfront has at least 2 fishers. Later found a bar on the other side of the bridge, beer and a water pipe. Good thing lunch was first as otherwise watching the fish 'flying' straight up while working the water pipe would have suggested something other than dried apples in it. We both quite liked the 'hubble-bubble'. Pleasant apple flavour.
6. We think the anti-smoking laws must be new. Yesterday we could hardly see the no-smoking sign in the bar for all the cigarette, cigar and water pipe smoke. :-)
7. The bar and restaurant (on opposite sides of the bridge but both on the lower level) had fab views of the ferry landings. Quite a show. Continuous and fast.
8. In the bar Swansea vs. A. Villa was on. Swansea getting more cheers. Perhaps out of sympathy: no matter what the game's outcome the team has to return to Swansea. :-)
9. Reading a bit of the local English language papers in our 'free hors d'oeuvres bar'. Parliament just enacted a Council of Europe convention on violence against women Wildly progressive in comparison with our laws. For example arranged marriages are now illegal. Parents can be charged and the marriage itself reversed. But I can't find a definition of 'economic violence' against women. In any case it is now a crime here.
10. Also in the process of amending their constitution. Have to say in many respects their current one, while it has some serious flaws (making the military a kind of constitutional court with the right to stage a coup being one small example), also has some enviable bits. Being secular and so for almost 90 years is one. I find it irksome that I live in a country where a large minority have some other religious belief or none at all but where we all, and our laws, are subject to compliance with the Christian god's rules and regs. Especially while we have a Prime Minister who thinks that The Flintstones was a documentary. It must also be nice to have a head of state who's not only elected but a citizen of the country s/he runs. Oh, and all the legislative bodies of government here are elected...and awake, as far as I can tell. Unlike a certain senate. :-)
11. Where was I before I got all preachy? Ah, yes, the Turkish Constitution. Anyway, the military bit, there since the War of Liberation, is going. And while it will remain secular (it looks like anyway), the current prohibition on any religious display or activity or dress while on public property looks to be going. There will be some provision supportive of religious freedom etc. It recently became possible in law for women to attend university while wearing islamic head scarfs, though not, I think, the full near-purdah clothing. But apparently this change was challenged and it's constitutionality is in doubt so something explicit is to appear in the Constitution.
12. Too bad recognition of minority ethnic rights not in the cards as far as I can tell. Kurds treated like shit here and Kurdish organizations of any kind all appear to be labelled as 'terrorist'. Ditto journos critical of the government. Turkey has more of them in jail than any other country I think. Glad I left my IFJ card at home. :-)
13. Taking photos here starts conversations. Mostly people just smile and say 'welcome'. Probably because that would the limit of their English. But sometimes, as yesterday at the Eminou tram stop, you come across someone with a fair bit of the language and you have a nice chat.
14. The Hippodrome, the Roman horse track, near the Blue Mosque, is closed to most traffic. At the entrances are remote-controlled stainless posts that sink into or rise up from the cobbles when a parking attendant presses a wireless remote button. Stupid I know, but I thought much fun. I used to be a parking lot attendant, bored it would be fun to see if the post motors are powerful enough to lift, oh, say, a garbage truck. A taxi? Or whether they are fast moving enough for a game of chicken with a tour bus. :-)
15. Huge wine industry here. Government can't ban alcohol (see secular constitution above) but does heavily tax all but beer. Some nice wines and some varietals that we have never heard of before. Local only?
16. From the water we got a chance to see the huge Rita-Carleton development in its entirety. Hotel and condos, as in Toronto I think. In the new part of the city's European side it completely dominates the skyline in an area not short of skyscrapers. Remarkably ugly.
Off to walk the area around the spice bazaar, supposed to be the last bit of the old city untouched since the 1950's tourism-wise at least, then our free food bar (the waiter deserves his own entry in one of these e-cards and will get it), then an early night as we're being picked-up around 0500 tomorrow to make our flight to Pamukkale.
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Added a few new folks to the thread. Few of you just slipped through the cracks, another one or two we left off thinking a spouse would pass them along, but then you never know, so....
Getting towards the end of the trip (I can tell because we always through our restaurant budget to the wind and just go for a comfortable spot, regardless if there is a cheaper and possibly even better bit of street food available just outside). :-)
17:45 call to prayer just starting as I write this. Kinda nice, hits us from 3 or more mosques here Not that anybody except the tourists pays attention any more than everyone rushes off to church when the bells ring on Sunday at home.
1. Parks here have lots of clean benches. LOTS. And I think I have yet to see one without a kiddies play area and at least one muni worker sweeping or brushing or washing.
2. On a not-unrelated note, solid waste trucks have 3-man (always men) crews. Nice uniforms too. The Sultanahmet uniform is a nice bright green.
3. In the older parts of town fruit and veg carts are common. Vendor pushes it along, shouting out (I presume) what he has for sale).
4. Lots and lots and lots of cats. And everyone feeds them.
5. Has to be 20+ daily newspapers. Lively, despite the threat of imprisonment under the bizarre (almost as much so as the British) laws re. libel and the rather unique crime of 'insulting Turkishness'.
6. Got a peek at an empty tram car driver's compartment Very star Trek. when I grow up I want to be an Istanbul transit driver.
7. In the old city parking is a world-class sport. People park where and how they can, the city responds with various devices meant to keep cars off curbs and sidewalks etc. But the drivers are both skilled and creative (and on steep hills don't turn their wheels in as it causes the to take up more space). Can also lead to pedestrian traffic jams as tight spaces between parked cars and traffic combines with Turkish politeness ("No, after you...no, after YOU...no...").
8. Stiff climb up to and then part way just up the Galata Tower. 70m or so. Nice view. Sitting inside with a window having tea I could pick out my fellow acrophobes as they slid along the wall and into the window niches when they got to them. Looking very stressed too I should say. I gave it a try but the open railing and narrow deck under my feet was too much. Would have been able to manage it if they had proper safety netting, air bags on the ground, safety harness and ropes, chicken wire wrapping the deck circling the tower, guards along the railing, their arms linked, and a helicopter circling over the waiting ambulances.
9. Only 2 full days here in Istanbul left as tomorrow is out trip to Pammukkale. . Thurs and Fri. The Chora Church's Byzantine mosaics supposed to be spectacular, but after 3 trips to Italy, churches kinda pale. More so after easy-on-the-aye mosques with their geometric decorative designs. The prospect of diabetes-inducing gilt and such not too enticing right now
10. Huge seagull hovering outside our window as we have lunch in the Tower cafe. Muzac system playing 'Three Times a Lady' and 'Can't Stop Loving You'.
11. Istanbul is where tulips came from. Netherlands just controlled the trade. This place in spring makes Ottawa look like a plain lawn.
12. Disappointment: no sufi shrines and all the dervish stuff is faked for tourists.
13. No skateboard or rollerblades seen. Nice!
14. Grand total of two beggars seen, one of them a kid who was rather well-dressed for what he was doing and so may just have been trying it on.
15. Next time we're here: summer, so we can spend more time on terraces. And we'll book cooking classes in advance.
Bye. We need to be up at 0400, so having an early night with the assistance of a couple of large Efes. Some Beyaz white in Geri's case.
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This is likely the second-to-last postcard.
1. Monday night we found a nice little neighbourhood water pipe cafe that may never have seen a tourist before. No alcohol, just a couple of for items, lots of tea and a water pipe for every table. A very nice little cozy spot, if it served beer I'd move in. Server an awkward teenager in leggings who moved like a newborn horse, spoke excellent English. Her parents own the place. Goofy Turkish comedy films on the TV. Lovely spot just outside one of the entrances to the Little Hagia Sofia.
2. The flight out to Denezili went well. The Ataturk airport domestic terminal is dandy, lots of staff for everything and even though they have more security checks, you get through faster because there are more stations. And the security types aren't rent-a-cops, and are mostly women. :-) All spoke English, including the cafe staff.
3. My cold has migrated to Geri.
4. If your ticket and boarding pass say 'be at the gate 45 minutes before departure', do that. A lot of the gates just lead to a bus transfer. Miss the bus and...
5. Men, wear tightish pants when travelling through Ataturk as all belts must come off and a bit of slack can take your pants a long way.
6. Turkish Airlines uses a bunch of Manchester United stars for their safety video. Different.
7. Ataturk's a CAT III airport. Too bad Denezili isn't (see below).
8. We were on an early model A319. New seats and all but the spacing was a reminder of why the 'good old days' are the good old days There was so much knee room people could get the aisle to the window seat without anyone even standing up, let alone having to get out into the aisle and completely out of the way.
9. The flight was early morning. Landscape rugged, small mountains, barren because the wheat and corn harvest is done. Small villages in valleys. Not much water aside from a few large lakes. And some of the lakes appeared to have either salt pans or fish corrals. The former seems more likely to me for some reason.
10. Like most airports here, Denezili's is both civilian and military.
11. The area's big industries appear to be marble/stone works and textiles. Huge textile factories.
12. Our airport transfer took us to the Koray Hotel to wait for the tour start. I would avoid. By Cuban standards a 1.5 star I should think. Heating in the dining...well, really, the everything room...was provided by a wood stove with an over-long horizontal pipe leading to a homemade (and badly) hole in the wall. The hotel also has a door from the third floor bar that leads to nothing more than a three-floor drop. Look for the photo of the door swinging in the breeze.
13. Rural Turkey very, very, very clearly not nearly as prosperous as urban Turkey. Not just Istanbul: the cities and large towns we drove through showed this too.
14. Apartment buildings clearly take some time to complete in rural Turkey as buildings are occupied on the ground floors and up as the upper floors are still under construction.
15. In villages could still see large groups of women getting together to do things to crops to prepare them for eating or storage. All by hand. Regret: driver too fast, couldn't get decent photos
16. First stage of our tour: the Pamkkale necropolis. Cemetery going back to the Greek period. Through Roman, Byzantine periods to 1334 when an earthquake meant it was abandoned. Jewish section from the Roman period. Loved it, but not much to say. See the photos when I get them uploaded (hopefully later today).
17. Ditto the city itself.
18. Small spa-like centre in the national park where an agora (marketplace) sunk in an early earthquake and flooded with hot spring water. Now used as a pool, complete with fallen columns etc. from the Roman period at the bottom.
19. Quite a high-end little place. 25lira just to swim. Plus they have goofy but expensive things like 'doctor fish' treatments wherein you sit in a tank with a bunch of remora-like fish that nibble-off all your dead skin etc. It's the 'etc' that worries me.
20. Full of desiccated German women of a certain age, desiccated German men of a certain age who can be distinguished from the desiccated German women of a certain age only by the fact that they use carbon-fibre walking sticks to go anywhere and everywhere.
21.The calcium deposit cliffs and pools and the walk down the terraces is just amazing. See the photos, but know that they do nothing like justice to the experience. Plus by walking down you feel like the soles of your feet have been exfoliated. Which they have. And scaled by the ater rushing down at the top, frozen by that same water by the time you get to the bottom.
22. While there really was no way around doing a group tour unless we were prepared to spend at least one night out of Istanbul (but then again, see below), we were again reminded why we don't like group tours. There was a museum we would have spent time at if we were on our own, we got stuck in the obligatory visit to an 'onyx factory' which was a sales stop and nothing more, and got to live with other people's enthusiasm for delay.
23. Beer of the day was Efes Dark. Indulged while playing with the cats and watching them go to sleep on my jacket at the spa.
24. Geri's folding stool again proved it's worth. She could rest her back anytime, anywhere. Thing just hangs off my shoulder bag when not in use and folded. Can't weigh much more than and possibly less than 500g.
25. One nice thing about the group tour was meeting a Brit couple. Both a little off-centre. She recently got a free trip to Mexico by volunteering to be a test subject for a drug company with a cholera patch it hopes will replace the shot. I was mildly surprised to find that I am not interested in that kind of free travel. I amy be brighter than I think.
26. There is a town named Batman in Turkey.
27. The restaurant the tour took us to for the included lunch served something that I think can only be described as "dismal food".
24 Back at the Carpak/Denezili airport, which is new and vast and empty, we were told that fog had resulted in our flight being cancelled and we could either get a night in a hotel or a bus ride to an airport 4 hours away at Izmir(ly 4 hours drive away). We took the drive, tried to sleep, made friends with a young Indian couple and sisters from the US, survived, but collapsed into bed when we got to our Istanbul hotel having been up (some bus naps excepted) for something like 28 hours. Izmir airport older but very efficient Interesting, and I think this is true at Ataturk in Istanbul too, there's not much by way of a closed period for flights. Even though residences are visible from the runways.
25. Our second last day: perfect weather but we have low energy. And Geri's cold means she's leaning towards staying in and vegging with her iPad.
26. Red lights in some urban areas have a countdown the way pedestrian crossing lights at home do. A chance to get ready to stomp on it at the earliest opportunity. Not that everyone, including our bus driver on the road to Izmir last night, pays attention to red lights late at night. And drivers in rural areas don't pay a lot of attention to white lines, solid or not.
27. Bus played a Turkish potboiler soap the whole time. By the end I was kinda interested...
28. Turkish politics interesting. AKP religious and extremely right-wing, but really wants into the EU so tidying-up its human rights record. Also clearly plans on replacing the US as it withdraws from the region. Some goofy regional imperial ambitions. References to Cyprus (or the northern bit anyway) as 'our foster-land'.
Ta-ta. Will send on something else if any interesting happens (by my definition, obviously :-) ) before we leave, otherwise just look for a 'home safe and sound' message when we get there and can say that.
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Now in Franfurt in the Lufthansa Biz Class lounge (they have an even ritzier First Class lounge). Nice, as always, and I do enjoy the 'mini car-wash' toilet seats. Been a couple of years since we were last here, good to see they haven't disppeared. Always a bit awkward taking photos though
, so may have to rely on the old ones already on Flickr.This lounge nothing on the Turkish Airlines lounge at Ataturk. Best we've ever seen. Grand piano (with player), pool table, lending library, cinema with mebbe 30 seats, architecturally interesting design...worth the flight on its own.
I added photos of the Ataturk lounge to our Istanbul photo collection.
Anyway, I guess that's about it. Another couple of glasses of champers before we head to the gate. Geri's gagging for some toast, will have to see if they can rustle something up.
Hope somebody got something from all these. Remember most of the posts above were family/friend postcards, so if you can't figure something out or want some further info just ask.
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