Family time

The high spot of our trip to Istanbul was visiting Erkut's family (he's married to Alex).  They welcomed us as though we were family, too.  Erkut did a fabulous job of translation, since we had no Turkish and only his Mom had a little English.  Alex is learning, though.  As always, the food was wonderful.  We ate out in the garden, under a tree.  There was a mid-afternoon "snack" when we arrived--the most gorgeous boreg made by hand (below), and a lovely almond cake.

Then we got down to serious eating....barbequed chicken, fish, and lamb.  The fish are small but, oh so tasty.  After a long, leisurely dinner, friends and family dropped over, several of whom spoke English, so there was lots of conversation.  We were still going strong at 10:30, which is about when Ken and I tend to fall face-first into our food, because we can no long stay awake.

The next morning was a fantastic brunch that included home-made preserves.

After which we waddled to the car and said goodbye (burp!).L-->R, Ken, me, Erkut, Alex, "Mom" and "Dad"--we'll have to ask, as we've forgotten.  I can see why Alex said meeting his parents was the clincher for her.  :):)

Miscellaneous Goreme sighting

I guess it had to happen.  Where more appropriate than the home of the often very phallic "fairy chimneys"?  (You'll see what I mean in a subsequent post that has more pictures.

Here's a tree covered with the blue-and-white "eye" disks made of glass that we think are good luck symbols.  We saw several of these but we didn't know if they were just a marketing ploy or had some other significance. (Ken forgot to learn Turkish and, unlike the Greeks, most do not know English except for the most rudimentary commercial phrases.)

 

The view from our roof-garden  at breakfast time and then later in the day.

 

The balloon industry is also wildly popular here.  The locals told us they cost 140 Euros per person and the baskets hold 25 people.  Based on the number of balloons we saw in the morning sky (that's when the winds are quietest), this is an incredibly lucrative industry--which attracts lots of people who probably shouldn't be running a high-risk venture. 

Goreme: home of the "fairy chimneys"

This is in Kappadociea, Turkey.  These amazing structures (some several hundred feet tall) result from  weathering of a particular geological formation.  The town of Goreme (which is in the middle of nowhere) has become a major tour bus stop, as a result.  Local people actually do live in some of the natural caves formed (or cut into) these structures.  More recently, several hotels have co-opted nature, as well.  

In order to upload videos, they have to be shorter than one minute.  The three that follow are a sequence.

The video below was taken inside an ancient (11th century?) church built into one of the "cave" formations.   Here is a picture of the outside (which has been rebuilt in modern times.  The inside is about the size of a very large living room with high ceilings.

 The religious iconography was plastered over when the Ottoman empire took charge and Christianity was no longer the state religion.  This fortunately preserved many of the early frescos, though clearly there was also some damage.

Below that is another panoramic video of the formations that may give a better sense of the scale.

And here are several photos of the formations.  Some are obviously huge (you can compare to the size of people (very small--you'll have to look for them), and cars in some of the pictures.

 There are people in this photo in the middle of the left edge--one of them has on red pants.

You can size this one by the horse in the lower right hand side of the photo, in front of the tree

Is this really "camelot"?

Or is it just a lot of camel? I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

Street scenes

Istanbul is a very old city--many streets were just fine for pre-auto transportation...but those same streets are now filled with cars.  Istanbulites have developed their own special ways of dealing with the problem. In this series of videos, you will see what happens when two cars that cannot pass one another meet.  Spoiler alert--it involves several people backing up, driving over stairs, backing into side streets, performing Y-turns, and somehow working it all out.  

About 5 cars were involved in this action.  Three had to back most of the way up a steep hill.  In the second video, one of them backed into into a side street and waited until there was room for him to continue down the hill.  But (3d video) he didn't have enough room and ended up with his wheels over the pedestrian walkway--in this instance, stairs.  As you will see, through this complicated maneuver, no one seems to get their knickers in a knot. 

Water scenes

Istanbul has water all around it and through the middle of it.  I copied (and edited) this blub off the web: Istanbul embraces two continents, one arm reaching out to Asia, the other to Europe. Through the city 's heart flows, the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the waters of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn.  Here are some water scenes.

And here we are, coming back at sunset from a ferryboat trip to Asia.  (Istanbul is on two continents.)

Miscellaneous Istanbul scenes (including food)

This splendidly dressed young man (he's 5 or 6) doesn't know what fate awaits him.  Tomorrow he's going to be circumcised.  This dress up is part of the tradition....he's essentially king for a day (or pasha, maybe).  Then . . .snip.  We passed many store windows with even more fantastic costumes for this purpose--and they didn't come cheap!  Our Turkish friend told us that it was typical in many families to do several boys at one time.  He was only three, but his oldest brother (there were four of them being done on the same day) was 10.  OUCH!!!!!!

Istanbul is very hilly and many streets are narrow.  But even on streets where two cars can pass one another, a lot of hauling is done with hand-trucks.  Boxes are stacked together, then wrapped in sheets of plastic.  At each end of the top of the stack, the wrapper will leave a "tail" or "ear"--a several inches-long piece to use as a handle when slinging it on the cart or over one's shoulder. (You can see the "tail" right beyond the fellow walking past the cart.)  

There are also folks who do "take out"--very often, the inevitable small glass of tea that everyone seems to drink a dozen times a day.  They are carried on little metal trays, sometimes by a delivery person (the guy in the picture below--his friend wanted to get in the picture, too); at other times, by the people who go to get their order. (Apparently, everyone brings back the trays.)

And here's one of our "finds."  We ate here twice....a generous portion of grilled chicken breast, plus a lot of rice or bulghur, and some lettuce, tomato and red cabbage: $4.50.  (The bread was a few cents extra.)

The rice and bulgur were made in advance (and some of the combo dishes--you can see them through the glass), but the meat was fresh grilled.  This is where "real people" ate--they also did take out.  Each individual plate (real plate: no styrofoam) was wrapped in plastic; then layered on a tray (big tray, multiple layers of plates) which was also wrapped in gigantic sheets of plastic; then multiple trays were layered on top of one another and wrapped again.  This made for a very heavy pile of stuff that the delivery kid took by hand (or on his scooter) to the folks who had ordered.  I asked to get a picture, but he didn't want me to do it.  I couldn't explain that I wouldn't include him in the shot, so you'll just have to try to imagine it.

Then there was the fancy dinner at a restaurant our friends suggested. The waiter is opening one magical dish after another.  In the immortal words of the movie, Babe--"at'll do pig."  (Though of course, there was no actual pig involved.)

Eat

And here's how they make the Turkish version of souvlaki (at just about every street corner.)  It's a meal for the equivalent of about $2.50.  




 Why are there goats on the streets of Istanbul?  Heck if I know. (I'm cheating--they were stuffed goats to attract people to the wool shop.)

This was a surprise...though this was not one of the main tourist streets, there were tourist hotels within a couple of blocks in any direction...a very rickety house where (it appeared) no one lived.  But right next door (the brown one with flowers at the second story window) was another not-so-great looking house were people definitely did live, and went inside as soon as they saw the camera. (There will be later blog entries about Erdogan's building spree throughout Turkey.)