boat trip and more tea

So I haven't posted for a few days--I may have to go back to posting iphone photos, my laptop is way too slow for dealing with the camera and posting here, hours of suffering!

The best thing about Istanbul is that you can take a commuter ferry to Asia for about 60 cents and a boat to beautiful islands about 40 minutes away from the city for $1.50. We took the ferry to the islands on Saturday, after Kahraman came back from Ankara.

Even better than cheap ferries, on the ferries, even if it's only 10-15 minutes to go to the Asian side, they serve tea in little glasses with little ceramic saucers. This I will miss about Istanbul, too adorable. I'm already accumulating the list of things I will miss and things I won't(insane traffic and people smoking everywhere I will not miss!).

We went to Helbeyliadas island, not sure if the spelling is right as it was a mouthful; to say. We wanted to see a huge Greek monastary on the island and climbed up and enormous hill to visit only to find that they figured out how to thwart the tourists by requiring an advanced reservation to visit. Luckily we brought a picnic and found a beautiful shady place to eat and gaze at the view. 

The water was incredibly turquoise and fantastical.

After we got back we met some friends from New York and walked the streets and drank tea by Galata Tower. This guy was selling fresh chickpeas in bunches--they were delicious, kind of like eating fresh peas.

Galata Tower with spooky birds flying all around, no one could really explain to me what they were doing there but they were screeching and flying madly in circles like some kind of edgar allen poe story.

Near the base of the tower was a shoe-shine man whispering to some gypsies, I thought they were european tourists. I'm not sure what makes the gypsies recognizable to everyone. Shoe-shine guys carry every possible color of shoe shine.

The lights from the tower lit up buildings on the side streets--I still love looking at the shapes of the pieces of sky made by the narrow streets.

Some other kind of great baklava with whole pistachios in it--we drank tea by the tower but most tea places only serve tea and beverages so we ran over to another shop and bought some baklava. a feast.

palaces and peacocks

K has been away in Ankara for the past few days--on Saturday he interviewed Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the UN in Istanbul so he had to follow up with a prompt visit to all the Turkish Television guys. This has led to less photographs, unfortunately, I am much more comfortable looking like a complete tourist and taking photos when I'm next to him.

Before he left we went to the Asian side--(Istanbul is half in Europe and half in Asia--it's okay, I had to be educated on this) and had dinner at the Ciya Sofrasi restaurant that was written up in the New Yorker (link to an abstract of the article). The chef is digging up traditional Turkish recipes and home-cooking and trying to preserve them as well as driving to local villages to purchase ingredients. The food was delicious, much different from most of the food we've been having. One stand-out was lamb cooked with sour plums--I should have taken photos, I know, but I forgot. And a stuffed squash with yogurt sauce, mmm. maybe we'll go back.

While K is gone I've been doing less ambitious trips to places that I know I can get home from by myself, since I have no ability to understand directions that I am given. I went to The Istanbul Modern, which was a gorgeous building. I have to say I like visiting the old churches and mosques better than the art--I'm not sure what this means or that I like admitting to it! Yesterday I went to the Dolmabahce palace which was huge, huge but they didn't let you wander around on your own which was disappointing. So we were herded around in a tour of the last palace of the Ottoman empire--I think I read that it cost 34 tons of gold to build, but that sounds like alot so maybe I'm misremembering. It was faded opulence at its best, with fat blue peacocks on the lawn--peacocks are much bigger than I thought they were, really huge. all the ceilings had a amazing tromp l'oeil ceilings with scenes and fruit and all kinds of stuff painted into them. I could have laid on the floor and stared at the ceilings for days. Dolmabahce was the huge palace that we got stuck in the rain outside drinking tea last week. Unfortunately they don't allow any photography--I thought about sneaking but there were those military guards with the supposedly unloaded guns everywhere.

a post that is far too long for a Sunday

We met our friends for breakfast in their completely improbable Istanbul apartment, huge windows facing a beautiful lush garden/ backyard. 

And in addition to delicious food they speak English so I could be a part of the conversation, another thing I take for granted in my daily life. We ate and then set off on a wild tour of Istanbul churches and mosques. We stopped first at a fabulous corner of the city walls, unfortunately I didn't take photos as I thought we were walking around this part but we left as soon as we got there. 

Ks friend M kindly brought his enormous book of walking tours of Istanbul which we got a good laugh out of since it wasn't really portable but he carried it everywhere and read us facts about what we were seeing. not that I actually retained any of them, unfortunately.

We saw another section of the wall later that people were living in, note the laundry hanging out, apparently people just move into the ruins and live there.

This metal church is cast iron, built by Bulgarians apparently to compete with the Greek church that we saw later--the Bulgarian church was entirely built from prefabricated parts and assembled on site. We didn't go inside as the church was flooded with a tour bus load full of Bulgarians. We then went to the Greek church, except we went to another Greek church first--all Greek church photos are mixed together, they were both fantastic. 

The first on was simpler and didn't allow photography but had a holy water spring inside-I snuck a few photos in the entry including the fabulous red and blue glass cross photo. 

The second church was pretty medieval in the vestibule but inside was incredibly opulent, chandeliers dripping with crystals and gold, gold, gold everywhere. It was so over-the-top, I think perhaps I was born a secret greek orthodox--since I am so incredibly attracted to shiny and sparkley things.

We walked through narrow streets in the "old" section of Istanbul, interestingly this part is not very built up or renovated--K said alot of people who live in this part are from the south-east and it definitely felt very different from the Istanbul that we are staying in. We tried to see a couple of small mosques but some were closed. gratuitous pretty door shot included since I am really all about the colors.

We walked up to the Suleymaniye Mosque which is the huge one at the top of a lot of istanbul photos, unfortunately it is under renovation until the end of the year but it must be really amazing inside--we saw the gardens and cemetery and the tomb of Suleymaniye and then had delicious beans across from the mosque. I thought the place was going to be a total tourist trap, I realized today that I can't really tell what a turkish tourist trap looks like--this was a place locals come to apparently when they want this delicious white bean dish that I can't remember the name of.

We walked more and found a lovely garden to have tea in--I'm not sure where it was or what the place was but I didn't take photos for a while. Afterwards we walked down to the bridge back to the 'new' Istanbul, which is not new by US standards--both sides are older than our entire US culture, not counting the native americans, of course.

As we walked down to the bridge we saw several young boys dressed as little kings--some Turkish people don't circumcize their boys until they are pretty big, 4 to 10 years old, so they can remember it--it's a ceremony that I don't pretend to understand but they dress the boys up in robes and feed them lots of candy and as Kahraman said, the boys have no idea what is coming next. This one was pretty small but we also saw one who was between 8 and 10 years old. ouch.

Another fortune teller with dirty white bunnies and this one had a rooster, too. Apparently they pick out your fortune but I really wanted to know what the roles were--like does it make a difference if the bunny or rooster picks your fortune? However I didn't want to know badly enough to want to know my fortune, so whatever.

More fishing from the bridge, hundreds of people fishing. some were women too.

Next amazing baklava--some with butter and some with olive oil. I expected that I would like the butter better but I actually loved the olive oil. much lighter. Baklava here is better than I've ever tasted, maybe it's fresher and they use sugar not corn syrup but also they pistachio insides are tastier than walnut to me. I was never a big fan of baklava but am becoming much more of one.

Finally we climb the long hill back up to Cihangir and out cute apartment-- my legs are getting used to going up and down so it's much easier--plus we learned the streets a bit so we can walk a little further but up and down less, google maps routes are not so useful here as you can pick what looks like the best shortest route and it is so not the shortest route! Plus stairways are on the map as streets so I'm not sure how anyone drives here.


Also if anyone is actually still reading this I would love some emails--Kahraman is going to Ankara for a few days some I think unless I email people I won't actually be speaking to anyone until he gets back!

fruit and gypsies

After we bought the fruit today at a market near our house, we passed some gypsy women who asked us for some fruit. K told them they shouldn't let the baby smoke, as they had a 3 or 4 yr old boy who was smoking a cigarette. The gypsy ladies had pretty shiny headscarves.  


I have yet to get a photo but there is a truck that drives around with gas canisters and plays a gas song--I actually should try to get video for the song, it's kind of a cute song. Fruit and vegetable trucks drive around too and men push carts through the streets collecting plastic and metal and seem seem to collect electrical wires--apparently you can sell them your old wires, etc.  


No more shoddy "it's on the other camera excuses" here--I am finally hooking up the big camera to the blog which is lucky since I have given up on shooting with the iphone recently! Attaching photos of a market and a really nice shiny red house. except i can't figure out how to rotate the house photo...arggh.

Walking across Istanbul

A full day of walking was had by all. We started out walking down, the
neighborhood we're staying in is high up on a hill so we pretty much
always start out walking down, not really thinking about how we will
need to walk back up. We walked down to the water and checked out a
huge building that K thought was a church but turned out to be an
armory or place they made weapons, not sure in the translation but it
was incredibly massive with 2-3 foot thick walls. Then went into the
Mosque and sat quietly--this is the fantastic tiled ceiling photo.
There was a wonderful venus/half shell situation on the wall with a
little ladder for the imam to climb in and speak from the clam shell,
photos on other camera.

 

We left and walked forever past sleeping dogs and a million stray cats
and stopped to have tea and simit at a palace. The palace wasn't open
but the tea terrace was. (palace clocktower in the photo) 

Simit is kind of like a bagel except covered with sesame seeds, they are sold
from little carts all over the city--I think they are a little dry but
K adores them.

Apparently this was the palace that Ataturk stayed at
and died in so there was a huge military presence--soldiers marching
around with big guns and knives, K told me that the guns aren't loaded
but that they carry amunition with them. I guess this makes me feel
safer when looking at a bunch of teenagers with automatic weapons.
We watched a duck swallow a big fish whole and then it started to
pour. Luckily there were tented awnings to sit under and the tea
continued to be delivered in the downpour, although the waiters sent
the underlings scurrying out to get it. The guard continued to march
around in the rain, I snapped a photo of him talking on the phone in
his little guard shack.

We continued walking but it was still raining so we ducked into the
maritime museum where we saw wonderful carved figureheads of dragons
and a sad lion from ships. There were others but I especially liked
the dragons.

Eventually we reached our destination, Ortakoy, where we shared an
exciting but somewhat disgusting kumpir, a giant baked potato stuffed
with everything from sliced hot dogs and olives to pickled cabbage and
some kind of pink goo which they claimed was horse radish. Let's just
say that we decided which place to eat by the number of teenagers
sitting outside!

More walking brought us to the bus to nursey cousins house for dinner,
he couldn't go to the village as planned today so we did dinner
instead. He lives far out of the main city in a pretty seaside town.
We walked around after and found a full nighttime flea market
happening.
By the water there were what looked to be 4 clotheslines
full of balloons strung up--apparently you can pay some money and use
a gun to shoot the balloons. Strange.

All meat all the time

So last night I ate liver and almost liked it. We met Ks cousin, we
call him "nursey cousin" to distinguish from all the other cousins and
because he is a nurse, and his choice for dinner was either liver
kabobs or kokorec. Kokorec is sheep intestines wrapped around a stick
and grilled so we opted for the liver. The meat came with chopped
tomato and cucumber salad, tomatoey hot sauce, fresh mint and parsley,
roasted tomatoes onions and peppers and raw onions marinated in sumac
with pomegrate molasses as well as thin bread for wrapping the whole
package. The first wrap I made I could barely taste the liver which
was great, the second one the liver was more obvious so for the third
on I skipped the liver entirely which was perfect. Better than sheep
intestines.

 

 

Today was a big holiday, Turkish independence day--on Monday I noticed
that the flags hanging around were especially large. There's alot of
flag-displayng here anyways but I was seeing huge, full building flags
everywhere, sometimes multiple flags covering all the windows in a
building, I was happy to get the explanation for this. We missed most
of the festivities however as I collapsed in bed for the day, having
done too much hill walking with very little sleeping the last few
days. K went and did work stuff while I slothed around.

 

In the evening, we ran into some kind of a vigil/parade sort-of thing
for Ks ex-boss who is still in prison for organizing huge protests
against the government. Everyone in the parade was carrying a torch,
like a flaming real torch. I think it was a little strange for K, the
police were taking photos of everything and the photo of his bosses
face was about 7ft tall, in the photo they had just put it down so
it's not showing.

 

We came home with strange and delicious desserts. The white one was a
white milky pudding with no sugar in it at all and powdered sugar and
rose water on top. The brown one is my favorite, kazandibi--another
milky pudding but sweet and sticky with chicken in it, I know it
sounds weird and I hope my vegan friends will still speak to me but it
was stunningly delicious.

 

Traffic and toilets

Good to know that Istanbul traffic hasn't changed at all since we last
visited, we sprint across streets and intersections as cars and
motorbikes accelerate towards us! We just sat outside eating water
burek, which is completely addictive, (kind of like lasagna if it was
made with thinner layers of pasta, butter and salty cheese) and
watching the madness.

 

 I haven't really detailed the whole toilet situation, I can't remember
if I went into it on the last visit or not but since toilets are
pretty much always entertaining...I took the photo of the "modern"
toilet sign today in Istanbul as it cracked me up. In the village, the
toilet is a nice hole in the ground with a porcelain surrounding part
to step on, in a little shed removed just far enough from the house to
prevent smells from carrying and to ensure that I had a really good
chance of falling in the mud when I was sleepily stumbling down the
path in the dark. Big improvements in the village this year were a
roof, (very nice,) a birds nest with 2 baby birds and a light bulb
wired down from the house whose electrical supply exploded in a smoky
ball the 3rd day we were there. There is a big plastic container of
water that you fill a little plastic container with and pour from that
onto your hand and deal with things. Toilet paper is not one of the
options available.

In Istanbul, there is the city version of this which includes a faucet
for the running water, sometimes toilet paper and no birds nests. Some
public bathrooms have both a Turkish toilet and a "modern" toilet as
people have preferences. Luckily our apartment has a modern toilet.

We saw the wall with the red writing says "smiley face clean" sisli--
Sisli is the name of the neighborhood and the writing is some kind of
a pr campaign for how clean Sisli is. Right after this we saw someone
telling fortunes with a dirty white rabbit--I was a little tempted but
kept walking.

 

The photo with the yellow buildings and trees is the view of the
street from our cute little apartment in Cihangir.

I'm going to come back with very strong legs as everywhere we walk involves walking
straight up and the straight down.

Another one of the falling-down wooden buildings that I love.