Prince's Island - Wednesday

Prince's Island, about an 1.5 hours away from Istanbul by ferry, is a chain of fishing and resort islands where locals go to get out of the city in the heat of summer - along with a standing-room-only ferry full of tourists. No vehicles are allowed on the island, so you either walk, rent a bike, or hire a horse and carriage. As I prefer to exercise as little as possible on vacation, we took the carriage. It's about a 15 minute ride to Luna Park, which is the bottom of a hill on top of which sits a monastery and an outdoor restaurant that had the most amazing views we've seen the entire trip (along with the WORST service of the trip, but I'll take the view). 

To get up the hill, you can either rent a donkey or walk directly uphill for 20 minutes. Despite my commitment to not exercising, the donkeys were such a rip off that we just couldn't do it. My calves, I'm embarrassed to admit, are still sore. But, again, the views were worth it. 

The landscape looked very Carribean and was a gorgeous contrast to the Istanbul we were used to. The houses people "keep on the island are a mix of Southern mansion, modern style, and old Ottoman. Very cool. 

The seagulls surround the ferry and are so close and there are so many of them it's a little unsettling, especially if you have seen the Hitchcock flick "The Birds". That movie apparently did not make it to Turkey, because these people throw food to the birds the entire trip. I have to give the gulls some credit for their accuracy in catching small pieces of bread in the wind, though. 

Wednesday night we went back to Istiklal street and ate a bunch of cold mesas (apps) that were fabulous. This mushy eggplant stuff that I would normally not touch was incredible, and the biggest artichoke heart I've ever seen. Have I mentioned the feta cheese in turkey yet? It's outstanding. For breakfast every morning I eat what looks like a lady finger but is actually feta rolled up in some flat dough and fried. MMMMM. 

Turkish Bath Day - Thursday

I know I haven't posted yesterday's trip to Prince's Island yet, but I have to get this out while it's fresh in my mind. 

Well today was a first, that's for sure. We got traditional Turkish baths at this place:

http://www.cagalogluhamami.com.tr/

You have to go to the Web site to see the photos ... this black and white one was all I could find on the Web, and once you read below, you'll understand why I couldn't take photos myself. Please look at the link above, as the building itself is beautiful and historic. Coming here is listed in that book "1,000 Things you should See Before you Die" and I'm so glad that I did. 

Back in the day, the weekly trip to the bath was the only social outlet women had, as they were to be seldom seen and never heard.  They spent the whole afternoon there gossiping and gabbing with their friends. 

So you go in and let them know what service you want - we got top of the line, obviously. Full bath, hair wash, foam massage. Here's the rundown:

We get a dressing room and are told to strip. They give us a little blanket called a pestemal to cover up with. We walk into a room that looks like the one pictured above - all marble with little holes in the ceiling to the sky. A very large woman guides us to one of many faucets along the wall with a marble sink and hands us each a metal bowl. To demonstrate what we are supposed to do, she scoops some water up in the bowl and throws it on me. Temperature and humidity of a steam room. 

At this point, Kezia and I realize that the other women have at least their bathing suit bottoms or underwear on, which we do not, so we go back to the room to remedy that. Good thing we did because that's the only smidge of privacy you get in the whole process. 

So after a lot of sitting around in your birthday suit, dumping water on yourself with the bowl, your "bather" comes in and orders you to "LIE DOWN!" on the central marble octagon in the middle of the room. Before you can protest, she starts scrubbing every inch of you with a rough fabric glove called a kese (as a side note, we were given the option to buy our own kese or to use the "community kese". Needless to say, we bought our own). This part of the bath is like a full body pedicure. Skin comes off in handfuls. It's shocking. 

Then, you get a ten minute massage with soap. Let's just say there are  no "towel covered portions" that are off limits like there are during a regular massage. There are three or four other women on the octogan with us. When it's time to "TURN OVER!", it's like trying to walk down a Slip N' Slide or pick up a goldfish. Instead of the huge, also naked, Turkish woman moving herself to get from your head to your feet, she just slides your body along the soapy marble. 

Back to the marble sink to rinse off with the metal bowls and "LIE DOWN!" again. She uses what looks like the end of a witch's broom to slop huge suds of a new kind of soap all over you and you get another massage. 

"SIT!" in front of the marble sink and she washes your hair. "NOW YOU FINISH!"

Despite how it may sound, it's been the highlight of the trip. I have never felt so clean - exfoliation in the States is a joke. The bather was harsh but sweet at the same time, and it was actually relaxing - which we appreciated on our last day in Istanbul. 

You can see them scrub the marble surface thoroughly after each person gets up. I don't know how, but it seems completely sanitary. Kezia thinks that's a strong statement, but I am going with it for peace of mind. Jennifer Wright and Cameron Espy would no more step foot in this joint than jump off a cliff. If given the option, they'd both choose the cliff and hope for the best.

And that's our day at the Turkish bath house. 

I leave for Budapest tomorrow (without my traveling companions :( ) and my hotel has the most famous thermal bath in Hungary. I'm hooked!

I'm so sad to leave Turkey tomorrow. This has been an incredible experience. I'll definitely be back .... when I can afford to stay at the Four Seasons Ortakoy. 

Istanbul (Ortakoy) - Tuesday

First, here is a much requested photo of Chipo. Last night we actually had to lock him out of our room, and it broke my heart. I will miss him dearly when I leave Turkey. 

A few general comments. The amount of smoking done here is inconceivable. It's a national pastime in every country we've been to. We got so excited yesterday when we were asked if we'd like to sit in smoking or non-smoking. After sitting down and commenting that on our table was the first "No Smoking" sign we had seen, four men sat directly behind us. They handed their "No Smoking" sign to the waitress. She handed them an ashtray. They each lit up immediately. Oh well. 

Another observation - lines mean nothing here or in Austria. It's every man and woman for themselves. If you don't push your way up, then you'll never buy your ticket or place your order or get on the ferry. It's odd because people are generally nice, and they don't seem to know that they are being offensive.  I think it's more startling than it would be if not for the lack of deodorant use. 

Anyway ... so Tuesday morning we checked off the final tourist site - Ayasofia (or Hagia Sophia ... The Hag as we affectionately call her). It's a former mosque that has been converted into a museum and is known as one of the grandest buildings in the world. Definitely grand, but we rank it fourth after Topkapi, the Cistern, and the Blue Mosque. 

Jason then orchestrated our day in a wealthy suburb of Istanbul called Ortakoy. We took a ferry along the Bosphorus to Besitkas and then walk about 1 km. First, there was a very cool palace that we opted out of touring - but the exterior is phenomenal. Then, in Ortakoy, we just walked along the water among the other day trippers and Istanbul's elite locals. After a loud, cumbersome walk along a several-lane highway ... we landed at a cafe on the water (The House Cafe, where we had also eaten in the city) and had the most picturesque lunch of the trip. GORGEOUS. Ladies lunching everywhere - we felt like locals. 

When I begin traveling via luxury horse-drawn carriage, the horses will transport me to the Four Seasons in Ortakoy. We sat on the water and considered having our things delivered to us but decided against it in the end. Next time. 

Ferry ride back .... although it seemed clearly marked to all of us, we got on the wrong boat and headed to the Asia side of Turkey. In the end it cost us about one dollar and 30 extra minutes, plus the ride was lovely and now I've been to Asia. So there. It's not every day that you accidentally go to the wrong continent.

What's not lovely is that once we got off the CORRECT ferry in Europe, a bird whose lunch apparently did not agree with him hit all three of us at once. No one was spared the dumping. Could have been worse if it had happened at the beginning of the day, but still one of the grosser things I've experienced. Disgusting. 

I'm adding a few random pictures to this post because I jst looked through them all and feel like I haven't done Turkey justice with the last post. The grilled corn on the side of the street is covered in salt and delightful. They give you a toothpick and a hand wipe after you're finished. Some giant flip flops in a store on Isteklal Street ... odd. And a few more of the palace and some landscapes. It's just amazing here. 

Istanbul - Sunday and Monday

     


I'm blocked by the sheer amount of information I feel like I have to tell about Turkey .... but I'll try to keep it as short as I can. It's like being in a cartoon ... Aladin meets Paris. It's a city of 15 to 16 million people, and I'm convinced at least a quarter of them are actually Japanese tour groups, and not much less than that were in front of us in each and every sight. But it's well worth the crowds. 

We got here Sunday and were a little too beat to do much other than eat and walk around Sultanhamet, which is the area of our hotel and all of the main tourist attractions. It's definitely another tourist culture with restaurant and store owners pestering you to come in and buy the most beautiful rug in all of Turkey. 

I'm surprised by the food ... Turkish pizza is deeeeelicious and the flatbread they bring at each meal is to die for. Lots of meat and rice ... yummy. 

Back to Sunday ... we sat at a nargila (by the way, I'm not even attempting to spell things correctly) joint outside and smoked the hooka (apple flavor). The atmosphere is really fun at these places, plus the waiter asked me to marry him. Apparently, I look very Turkish - or at least I don't look American. No one believes I am from The States. 

Monday was jam packed with touristy sightseeing. The Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, and Topkapi palace. This stuff is old as dirt - some of it form the 500's. The Cistern is really cool - it's an old underground water storage facility (with beautiful columns and fish swimming around - nothing industrial looking about it). It was apparently discovered when some archeologists found that the people living on top of it were fishing through holes in the floors of their houses. It's a super dark dungeon and the ceiling drips. (It's the dark photo with columns lit from the bottom).

A highlight of the trip was realizing that the Turkish instrumental music being played down in the Cistern was actually "Don't Speak" .... as in the song by No Doubt. A Madonna number followed. 

Topkapi Palace takes about 3 hours to get through and is a little city in itself. You can see the actual clothes some of the emporers wore, their private apartments, and the herum. Every wall is covered in beautiful tile ... most rooms are lined with sofa-like seating. Canopy beds ... ornate ceilings. These emperors had it MADE.  The herum is the private residence of the royal family and his (hundreds of) concubines. It's against Muslim culture to enslave other Muslims, so the concubines were from other countries and actually would leave the herum at some point and become powerful women in society, married to rich men. 

 

Your have to cover your head and take off your shoes at the Blue Mosque - it's really interesting to see the prayers. The structure itself was stunning but I won't lie, it smells like feet. It's amazing to think how long these places have been here, and that they are still operational and for the most part haven't changed much. Unreal. 

Needless to say, we were exhausted after the day of sightseeing, but we powered through to the other side of the Golden Horn (water that separates Old and Modern Istanbul), which is the cosmopolitan part of the city. The people are crawling like ants. I have been in New York several years now and am not sure I've ever been in a more crowded place. Huge, wide cobble stones streets just PACKED with people. And the season supposedly hasn't even started yet. 

We had beetroot mojitos (yum) on a famous terrace roof bar called 360, only the terrace was closed for renovations. The view was still spectacular, and the mojito neon pink. We ate at a super-authentic joint where we did not order, they just brought us food. More meat, rice, peppers, hummus. We ate into coma state once again. 

We came home to play catch with Chipo, the hotel dog. A chihuahua that looks like a bat crossed with a deer. He LOVES us - more than other guests for sure. If you ever come cross Chipo and he is in possession of a toy, I'd advise against trying to get it from him. Otherwise he's a peach. This morning he tried to accompany us on our venture out and tonight he followed us up the stairs into our room and jumped up on the bed. 

More to come on today's adventure across the Bosphorus, but I am entirely too tired to go into how we got lost and ended up in Asia. You'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

Vienna - Saturday

Vienna is like walking around in a gigantic, incredibly ornate wedding cake. It's all white and every surface is covered with some sort of decoration. The best word to describe it is GRAND. Everything is huge and it smells like dessert everywhere. The "fruit" pictured here isn't fruit. It's marzipan carved into fruit shapes. Could have fooled me. 

We went to the Hapsburg Palace (more like a complex - it's enormous), where the very loved Empress Elizabeth lived. She was a very interesting woman - anorexic (the first known monarch to be) and exercise obsessed. She hated court life and ceremony, so she entertained herself by traveling all over the place and writing provocative verse. She was ironically killed by an anarchist who was making a statement against the monarchy, not knowing she also hated the monarchy.

I am traveling with Kezia and her friend, Jason, from Michigan Business School. Jason has friends in Vienna who were wonderful tour guides. They walked us all over the city to see the amazing architecture and took us to inexpensive places to eat that were fabulous. 

I love Austrians and the German language. 

The Viennese decided to move all of their museums to a modern cultural complex called The Museum Quartier so that they would all be in one place. Hispters and hoodlums hang out all around it - that's who the people lounging on the yellow blocks are. They paint the blocks a different color every year. 

Some highlights - our hotel had heated bathroom floors; I saw a horse drawn carriage driver in full imperial costume ... texting while driving; and I'm pretty sure I was meant to travel via private luxury carriage pulled by horses. 

Saturday evening we went to a wine and cheese festival in the park that was a lot of fun. Lots of Austrian pride. This, clearly, is where Kezia and I found our stark white, chiseled friend. 

We are now in Istanbul. I can't wait to get into this city - it's so interesting already. More to come. Auf Wiedersen!

Prague Days 2 and 3 (sort of)

So on Wednesday we visited Pragie Castle - creepy rainy day but as good a day as any for castle browsing in my opinion. The catherdral is GORGEOUS - pictures never do those things justice with all of the stained glass and such.

Then we walked around the Jewish Quarter and Old Town - the buildings there are not restored like they are in our part of town and are older/black and add to the whole mysterious feeling of this city. Half the time I feel like I'm at Hogwarts and half the time I feel like I'm in the middle of The Other Boleyn Girl. The views of the castle from other parts of the city really are spectacular, and the statues on the Charles Bridge at night are flat out scary.

Thursday I spent in bed. Nasty sinus infection that completely incompacitated me. Luckily Kezia had a Z-pack handy and today I'm on the up and up. I'm so sad that I missed yesterday (the first pretty day) but just pretending it didn't happen. I attached a photo of the Old Jewish Cemetery Kezia took.

The food here has been great - mussels, pasta and some yummy soup. The architecture is really the thing that makes Prague unique. I hope some of the photos have given you an idea.

Lastly, I think this last photo really captires the "weird modern art" thing I've been talking about. It's in front of the Kafka Museum (Kafka is a major theme). The men are supposedly writing their names in tinkle.

Today we take a scenic train to Vienna - it's a gorgeous day. I will really miss Prague.

Talk to you again soon!

Prague Day One (Tuesday)

Prague!! After an uneventful flight (with a empty seat next to me - one of God's greatest gifts), we arrived safely in Prague. Our room wasn't ready, so we walked over the Charles Bridge, which is the only thing so far that is ringing a bell so far from my visit here in college.

It's chilly chilly, but the city is GORGEOUS and very clean. The Wallenstein Gardens and Palace, which were built to mirror Italian royal gardens, are nearby and were beautiful. A couple of grouchy peacocks weren't nearly as happy to see us as we were to see them. Photo attached.

Also, as you can see from the photos, the modern art is quite interesting. The little creatures are sitting inside a scene built inside an old TV set and were part of the decor at dinner last night. The giant baby .... I'm not quite sure what to say about that. We just passed them on our way to the gardens.

Dinner .... yummy and cozy in a little cellar pub. It's true what they say about the beer here. It's like the beef in Argentine - it's just better.

It's rainy and cold today - we may settle in with a book for a while before heading out. Castle, Jewish Cemetary, and Kafka museum are on the books.

Everyone speaks English, but for some reason I keep responding in Spanish.

XOXO!