Closed on Sundays

When I headed out to my boulangerie today, I was horrified to discover that it was closed. Apparently in France, most stores and other establishments are closed on Sunday. Even the libraries are closed. Overcome by intense vertigo, I staggered helplessly trying to come to grips with the reality of the situation. I recovered enough to stumble down the street where, two blocks away, I found another pastry shop that, miraculously, didn't know that it was Sunday. I did not buy a pain au chocolate, instead, in my delirium, pointed to some kind of twirly thing with chocolate and pistachios. I brought it back to the apartment to eat with our homemade coffee. It was pretty good. I am happy to report that I have now fully recovered.

At sunrise, I spent a few minutes finally photographing the apartment. The wide angle lens makes it look really big.  The reality is that it is only 450 square feet.  It really has begun to feel like home. We're lucky to have found such a comfy spot.

Because everything is closed today, we did not follow the order of the "walks" in the Frommer's book. The next walk on the list is one that involves a lot of browsing in antique stores, which would be closed. Instead, we skipped to "Walk 8” which is a walk through Pere Lachaise Cemetery. The dead do not take weekends off. We spent a couple of very pleasant hours there, strolling up and down the walkways. There lots of famous people buried there, but we hunted down just a few: Chopin, Rossini, Oscar Wilde, Balzac etc. It was a cool but sunny day today.

Directly from Pere Lachaise we went to the Eiffel Tower area to do “Walk 17” which is basically around the Ecole Militaire and the Eiffel Tower. First, we had lunch crepes on Rue Cler, which is a favorite spot of guidebook writer Rick Steves. It's okay, but he overrates it a bit. The crepes there WERE great. Diane had a simple crepe filled with melted cheese. I had the Big Kahuna crepe filled with cheese, ham and a fried egg. Awesome. This gave us energy to walk around the Eiffel Tower. It's always cool walking up to that structure. It is so big. What's not cool are the huge crowds which accumulate underneath it. It's a sea of humanity.

We returned to the apartment by midafternoon. We watched T.V. a little bit to get updated on world affairs. There is a lot of today news about plastic explosives and there was a bombing in Istanbul. It really doesn't affect anything but it is upsetting. I had walked through that main square on October 24. The square is a long way away from the tourist district where we spent all of our time.

On CNN World Sports we even saw highlights (lowlights?) of the Giants vs. Rangers game.

Tonight we're foraging the fridge for food. We've got a bit of bread, a bit of salad, a bit of cheese and other bits of things to eat. We have sufficient provisions to make it through the night. Tomorrow is All Saints Day though, which is a National Holiday (tonight is Hallows Eve) so we may be foraging for restaurant food. Such suffering.

The Day without Crepes

Diane and I actually managed to get through the day without eating crepes.  This is no mean feat, but considering there is probably 40 grams of fat in each one, something had to be done.  We have survived.

It was raining this morning so the start to the day was extra slow.  It is great not feeling rushed here, slow mornings are so pleasant.  Eventually, I went downstairs and had my usual pain au chocolate (we call them “chocolate croissants” in the U.S.) and café crème at the boulangerie two doors down.  They are very nice to me.  A “maxi” pain au chocolate  and café crème costs 4 €.

After the rain stopped, Diane and I walked down to Rue Mouffetard which is a famous market street on the Left Bank just south of the Pantheon.  We strolled the street, ogled the crepe stands, had lunch there and Diane bought herself another scarf. 

There is a Paris Library on Rue Mouffetard, so I went in to test my new Library card.  Horror of horrors: it did not work.  It turns out that my library card was for the “specialty” libraries in Paris (“Cinema”, “Music”, “Fine Arts”, Government Administration” etc).  Fortunately, all you need to get a regular Library card is a name and an address, both of which I had.  Now I have a regular Paris library card too. 

We took the Metro back to the apartment, refreshed ourselves, and jumped back on the Metro again to the Palais Royal area.  Our mission was to follow walk number two in Frommer’s “24 Great Walks in Paris.”  The structure is useful, because there are lots of small galleries and nooks that we would not find ourselves.  We also walked through a few of the major tourist sights, including passing through the free parts of the Louvre complex.

My highlight of the day was finding the large gold statue of Joan of Arc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc).  After a 100 years at war, this crazy 18 year old girl rides up to the King of France and says that she has been charged by God to lead the French army to kick the English out of France.  I am sure it sounded so wacky and nothing else was working that he just consented.  She successfully reclaimed France.  Too bad she was burned at the stake by age 19.  Saint Joan.

Diane made spaghetti and broccoli tonight.  It was awesome.  I almost dashed out afterward to buy a couple of Crème Brules, but lethargy and the fear of calories won in the end.  I have been stooped over my computer chatting with Jen.

A Perfect Day

Today, the magic happened.  A great day.  There were so many “small” experiences today that felt like we were Parisians.  We are connected to a flow of time now, part of this place that has been here for 2,000 years.

I woke early and felt like a walk.  I was curious too about that weird silhouette that “appeared” in Diane's photo yesterday.  I walked down to the Notre Dame (about 5 minutes from our apartment), solved the mystery of the silhouette and went into the cathedral.  There was not a single tourist inside.  There was a congregation of about 20 or 30 people conducting mass.  They were singing and chanting.  The sun was rising and the stain glass windows were lighting up.  I could walk wherever I wanted and look at the church at leisure.   I guess I can’t describe the experience.  It was sublime.

I returned to the apartment area and had my pain au chocolate at the boulangerie.  Diane was awake and we left soon thereafter.  We went to the Hotel du Ville Post Office to get stamps. Queued in line with the rest of the Parisians.

Diane has overcome her shyness about trying to speak French.  She is now disappointed when she does not have opportunities to practice. 

We bought me a scarf today.  I like my new scarf.  Absolutely everyone wears one.  Urban camouflage.  They are very comfortable.  We got it at C&A for 10 €.  This is a lot better than the other one I liked at Galleries Lafayette yesterday: it cost 290 €.

Diane tried to give my old scarf to a homeless person, but that person wouldn’t wake up, so Diane just lay my old scarf  on top of him/her.

We didn’t eat lunch today, instead we picked up a couple of crepes avec Nutella at a kiosk on the Ile de la Cité.  We were following Walk Number One in the Frommer’s book “24 Great Walks in Paris”.  We walked the walk.  It was kind of fun following along.  It was also humorous to see other tourists with the book, walking the same path.  The tourist path is so narrow.  One of our goals this trip is to walk all 24 walks.

One of my kooky goals here is to get a Paris Public Library card.  We went to Bibliothèque Fourney, which is about 3 blocks from our apartment.  Diane figured it out (in French) and we both now have cards.  All you need was photo ID (we used our California Driver’s licenses) and an address in Paris.  It is a beautiful building with lots of interesting books.  My goal was to get a library card, but I may actually take some books out.

Diane likes watching T.V.  We get about 50 channels in the apartment but none carry the shows that Diane wants to watch (Modern Family, Oprah, Glee, Gray’s Anatomy, etc).  Today I set up a VPN connection on Diane’s laptop which makes it look like she is connected in the U.S..  This is necessary to watch stuff on-line.  She has been happily watching her shows.  I can't get Netflix "On Demand" to work yet though.

Since the apartment is small, I also went down to FNAC (like a Best Buy or Future Shop) in the Montparnasse District and bought a headphone extension cord so that Diane can watch T.V. without me having to listen.  They were also quite hospitably regarding letting me try camera equipment. They had lots of nice stuff that I want.

I made dinner tonight; big salad, cheese, bread, olives and a bottle of rose wine.  Good.  After dinner we have just relaxed together in our little apartment.

Simple Day: Got Money / Ate Crepes

There is a Boulangerie two doors down from our apartment.  I have gone there both mornings so far for my “pain au chocolate” and “café crème.”  Diane is saving the empty calories for crepes, so so far she has been eating a fruit breakfast at the apartment.  Eating pain au chocolate does not seem to be affecting my ability to consume crepes.

We brought a bunch of Travelers Cheques in case we lost our Debit Card or it didn’t work.  Since we had them along, we thought we’d try cashing a few to see if we got a more favorable exchange rate than our Debit Card.  NOT.  The Travelers Cheque exchange rate at the American Express office was 1.49 $/€.  Debit Card gave us 1.38 $/€.  That is $ 0.09 per dollar less.  Wow.  Forget the Travelers Cheques.

That took us to lunch time (can’t say it was a particularly energetic day).  We bought take-away from Galleries Lafayette and brought back to our apartment. Me: spinach and salmon quiche: She: Apricot torte (well, it looked like meat in the deli).

Eating Daily Portion of Crepe with Nutella

For dessert, we walked back to the crepe stand on the side of the Notre Dame and ordered crepes with Nutella.  The cook is friendly and remembered us.  You wouldn't expect the crepe stand next to the Notre Dame to be a good deal, but it is.

Diane has no idea whatsoever what the silhouette is on the right side of the picture.  Tomorrow, I must investigate.

Inside of Notre Dame Cathedral

We went into the Notre Dame.  It never ceases to amaze me that the church is 700 years old.  How could a bunch of farmers build something so grand?  There is a remarkable number of tourists still in Paris, although not like the crazy numbers through the summer.

View of Restaurant from our Apartment Window

For dinner, we consulted the Michelin Guide.  Diane spotted a restaurant right on our street that is recommended in the Guide.  It is a big deal getting into the Michelin Guide.  I looked out the window and saw that it was directly across the street.   I didn’t even bother wearing a jacket.  It serves food from the Burgundy Region.  We had Escargot Bourgogne, Beef Bourgogne with Bourgogne wine.  Good.  We both feel garlic overload from the snails.

Moving In

We didn’t have to head to the Istanbul airport yesterday until 10:30 AM.   That allowed us to pack in the morning and have a nice last leisurely breakfast on the terrace before we left.  Things went downhill from that point on.

Our plane was delayed on the tarmac at Istanbul airport.  Don’t know why.  We only had a scheduled 55 minute layover in Munich before our connection to Paris departed so landing 30 minutes late meant we landed after boarding had begun.  In Munich, we still had to go through EU Customs and Immigration, change terminals and pass through security x-ray screening before we could board the next flight.  We decided to “give it a shot”.  We made the connection.  Wondered when our bags would join us.  Miraculously, they arrived with our flight in Paris.  There were some good things in the day.

In Paris, the RER train was a sardine can: so full the view was of someone else’s ear at 6 inches away.  At our transfer station, critical escalators had broken down.  It was brutal.  Diane and I took a pounding.  Complain, complain, complain.  We made it.  When it is time to leave Paris, we vowed to return to the airport by taxi, ... regardless of cost.  It was that bad.

We met the Property Manager who was waiting outside the apartment door.  We shlepped our 50 lb. bags up the 2 storeys of stairs while he waited at the top.  He showed us around.  We signed papers and he left. 

Today, we unpacked for the first time this trip.  Put the suitcases away.  The apartment really needed a cleaning and, although we should really be able to call the Property Management company and say “clean it”, there was no single thing we could point to which was grossly dirty.  We just like things cleaner than they were.  We went to the local supermarket and bought a couple of wash clothes and some soap and cleaned it all ourselves. It feels a bit like “home” now too because of it.  That’s now we spent the morning.

This afternoon we tried to do a power walk in the triangle between our apartment, Dayton & Gaye’s hotel and Greg & Lauri’s hotel.  Each side of the triangle is about 1 mile.  It took over 40 minutes to walk each side, just because of the crowds, the stoplights, crepe kiosks (don’t ask) (okay: the crepes here are GREAT), and shopping for long French scarves.

Our First Crepes

Dayton & Gaye's Hotel - Old Style French

Greg & Lauri's Hotel - Avant Garde French

Our Apartment Building Door

Diane has embargoed photographs at the apartment at the present.  She wants it to look perfect before I can photograph.  I may have brought this upon myself when I, unthinkingly, tried to photograph Diane in the bedroom while she was folding her underwear.  Maybe tomorrow.

Uncle Steve

We got an email today from my parents that my Uncle Steve died on Sunday.  It’s a typical story: one day he wasn’t feeling quite right; the next day he was terminally ill.  Cancer.

I wrote him a letter about a month and a half ago, but never got around to sending it.  It was a simple note, just thanking him for the things he taught me.  I am too late.  Any death is a reminder of the urgency to live.  There is no time to dawdle, like I did with my letter.

Uncle Steve was a city transit bus driver.  I rode his bus sometimes when I was in University.  At City Hall stop, he once took on an extremely belligerent passenger.  Uncle Steve listened and showed empathy and calmed the man down and let him on his bus.  At age 20, I was astounded at such diplomacy, as I sat there cowling and wondering if bus drivers were allowed to carry weapons. Nothing like that necessary for Uncle Steve.   In a 3 minute interaction, he taught me charity and civility.

I imagine he died with the same calm and unblinking resolve.

We are in Paris.  The apartment is fine.  We are fine.  Tomorrow is another opportunity to do something.

tea sugar a dream

The words in Turkish for “thank you” are “teşekkür ederim.” Phonetically in English, this sounds a lot like ‘tea sugar a dream” (when said with a Turkish accent).  Turkey has been a wonderful host, and we must say thanks.

The above is a slide show of a bunch of street shots I’ve taken over these days with a focus on the characters that we’ve encountered. If you use a Mac, you can also view it at: http://picasaweb.google.com/102268653845615318598/SlideshowIstanbulStreetScenes?feat=directlink

Time is rushing by: tomorrow we pack up and fly off to Paris.   

We did a couple of things today though nothing too ambitions.  We walked down to the Spice Market via an ambling route.  At the market, I shopped for Turkish Delight.  I purchased a 1 kg box of a variety of Turkish Delight hand-packed to my personal requests.  I had it shrink wrapped to ensure that it would last until morning.  Actually, it is my goal to have a little bit left to offer Greg, Lauri, Dayton and Gaye in 2 weeks’ time.  It will take every ounce of fortitude that I have.

We also bought picnic lunch material from a deli at the Spice Market.  We brought this back to the hotel and had a very leisurely lunch on the terrace.

Today was a beautiful day in Istanbul.  It’s easy to think that sunbathing requires a beach, but we had a pleasant afternoon just finding sunny park benches, sitting and watching the world go by.  We basically did this all afternoon.

Later, we crashed the Four Seasons hotel, just because it used to be a prison and we're practicing in hopes that we can crash the Ritz in Paris. 

I went out for yet another walk and Diane drank yet more tea with local merchants.

.

Winding Down

We’re winding down in Istanbul.  Tomorrow is our last day here.  We’ve already picked our last restaurants and are planning pretty minor activities tomorrow such as returning to the Spice Market to amass a STDR (Strategic Turkish Delight Reserve) for Paris.

Today, we visited the last major site on our list of “must sees”: we spent the morning touring the Topkapı Palace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace).  It is the palace of the Ottoman Sultans, active in the 17^th century.  Like all good palaces, it’s filled with courtyards, trees, patios and surrounded by a high stone wall.  It will be interesting to contrast 17^th century Turkish Royalty with 17^th century French Royalty beginning next later this week.  I know already that the French Kings did not have a Harem, concubines or a staff of eunuch slaves.  Then again, the Sultans did not have guillotines.

After walking through the courtyards (there are four), we toured some of the buildings including the Harem, which really means “forbidden” and was the private quarters for the Sultan’s wives, concubines and family.  We also toured some of the museum areas which included some of the most significant relics of the Muslim world such as the Prophet Mohammad’s cloak and sword, the gold frame for the Black Stone in Mecca and other relics.  There was lots of bling to see too, such as the 86 carat Spoonmaker’s Diamond and the Topkapı Dagger.

We were done by lunch.  We abandoned restaurants and went to a grocery store to buy bread, cheese, drink etc. for a picnic lunch, which we had on the rooftop patio of our hotel.  It was a beautiful sunny day of about 25C (75F).  Great lunch.

After lunch we split up.  Diane went shopping and I took the tram to the New City which is supposed to be a great place to stroll.  I did not like it.  Maybe it was just because if was Sunday, but the main drags was profoundly crowded.  I made my way through the crowds and walked back home (probably an 8 mile walk) to rejoin Diane.  Her afternoon was much more tranquil; she had shared tea with a nearby merchant and had purchased a small brightly colored bowl.

This evening we dined in Sultanahmet district in a nice sidewalk café.  Diane had rice-something and I had a salad.  Good.

The Full Body Scrub

Brian already described what when on the rest of the day, so I will fill you in about my “massage”.

Armed with my kese and pestemal , I ventured into the world of Turkish baths.  At 5:00 I bid farewell to Brian and told him I would meet him back at the hotel at 7:00 (tour book said to plan for 1.5 to 2 hours).

Once I was wrapped in my pestemal (a large piece of cotton fabric), I was given a pair of wooden sandals and directed into a big marble room.  The room was warm, humid and full of naked women lying on a center slab of marble in the middle of the room.  I was first guided to the side of the room where I was told to take off my pestemal, sit on the marble ledge and this attendant picked up a silver basin and proceeded to dump water over my head and body.  She then passed the bowl to me and told me to wash.  OK – I continued the process. 

I sat there for about 15 minutes until an attendant in a black wrestling leotard and weighing about 200 lbs arrived.  With no pause for an introduction, she immediately took my arm and leaded me to the marble in the middle of the room, stripped me of my pestemal and told me to lie down.  Relief, the marble is at least warm. She took my kese and began to scrub me down from head to toe – front and back.  No part of my body is neglected.   She even does my face!!  Relaxing? Not yet!  It feels like I have been scrubbed with a brillo pad.

This was followed by a 7 minute scrub down (oops...I mean massage); a rinse; a soapy bubbly massage done with some sort of a wooly rag; another rinse;  a head shampoo and massage and the final rinse.  I was immediately directed back to the change area and I marched out the door at 6:00 p.m.

Relaxing –I can’t say it was. It felt rushed but I am cleaner than I’ve ever been and my skin feels as soft as a baby’s bottom.  I am happy for the experience.  Maybe next time it will be more relaxing.

Shopping

We woke up late, dawdled, had breakfast and checked out of our suite.  We trudged, with the small roll-aboard we’ve both been living out of these last two days, the couple of blocks down the street to our main hotel and checked back in there.  We were also reunited with our huge boat-anchor suitcases which were in storage while we were driving around the west side of Turkey.  It’s nice to be reunited.

Diane decided to risk her skin in the name of science.  Today’s destination was the famous Grand Bazaar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul). It is a huge place, and this photo shows only one of many (10? 20?) halls of wares.  We went there with the shopping objective of purchasing a Turkish Bath towel and a pot scrubber.  There is a famous place there for that stuff which we sought-out and Diane purchased the finest of wares. 

After that, the rest of the bazaar was anticlimactic and we just wandered around.  I took pictures.  It is noteworthy how attractive wildly colored ethnic pottery looks when resting in an exotic store in Istanbul’s famous Grand Bazaar.  I also began thinking that I might look good in a shirt with gold piping.

After lunch in a street café near the Grand Bazaar, we headed to The Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent.  This required some iteration even with my GPS.  Once there, we learned that it had been closed for extensive restoration since 2007 and is scheduled to reopen later this year.  Oh well.  It is supposed to rival the Blue Mosque inside.  We visited a couple of mausoleums for the Sultan and his wife.

I walked Diane over to the Turkish Bath.  While Diane was doing that, I wandered around the Old City a little more and even went into the Blue Mosque again.

I reunited with a thoroughly exfoliated Diane (gawd, I am glad I didn’t go) at our agreed to time.  We strolled around a restaurant district a little, stopped for a “pita”, which is more like pizza and went back to the room.  Another day done well.

Luxury

We have returned safely to the Old City portion of Istanbul. 

Due to a minor Administrative error (not naming any names, but she is my wife) we have to stay one night (tonight) in a different hotel.  No problem.  We scored an upgrade to a suite!  We have a patio with a view so good we can see from Europe to Asia.  By contrast, the rooms we have had so far have been so small that a nightstand could only one side of the bed.  (Fortunately, at both prior hotels, the nightstand has been on MY side of the bed.)  Our current suite has 2 nightstands and they do not even touch the walls!

Ephesus

We have been going pretty hard so far, so getting upgraded to a suite is perfect timing.  We are over jetlag had intended on making tomorrow an alarm-clock-free morning even before we knew about the suite.  Now it’s even better.

Today went “according to plan.”  We woke early, had a big free breakfast on the roof patio at our hotel and took the free shuttle to Ephesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus).   It was comical/ominous how many tour buses there were outside; quite a bit different than the places yesterday.  Despite the crowds, we spent several interesting hours crawling in around the ruins and visiting the museum.

Like yesterday, the understanding that Ephesus brings to me is the enormity of time.  How many generations have walked this earth.  How many people have contributed to what we have now.  It is amazing.

Interior of a house at Ephesus

At Ephesus, they are reconstructing eight houses which were destroyed in a major earthquake around 400 AD-ish.  There are 120,000 fragments of wall tiles, floor tiles and ceiling stuff that needs to be put back together.  There is enough done already to be able to see what life was like back then.  The plumbing is startling: running water, toilets and steam-heating in the walls.  They painted pretty good too.

Locals & Tourists at Şirince

After Ephesus, we were looking for reprieve from the tour buses, so we headed for the hills to the quaint city of Şirince.  Well, it’s quaint, but we were horrified to see a tour bus careening down the narrow two-way/ one-lane access road.  Yup: they were there too.  I guess Şirince has been “discovered” by the big-box tour industry.  Oh well.  Having said all that, it was really enjoyable walking.  We were able to find a local restaurant with a great view across the valley and was wonderfully quiet … for about 30 minutes at which time a yellow umbrella wielding tour guide marched his wards into the restaurant and occupied every seat in the place.  The charming sizzle and smells wafting from the kitchen were the cooks feverishly preparing to feed an army.  The oddest moment was when we overheard (it was not hard) the person sitting behind me say that she was from San Ramon.  Wow.  Small world.  We spoke.

Selçuk

The rest of the day was spent ambling around Selçuk, driving back to Izmir and flying to Istanbul.  We had a video call with Jennifer this evening, which was really nice.  She seems happy. 

Ancient times

We woke early this morning, went to the airport and caught a flight from Point A to Point B as shown on the map I posted on September 25.  We rented a car (Hertz) in Izmir and headed south.  We are now in Selçuk. 

Diane finds the greatest of hotels and this one is to her usual standard:  $100 / night, location is perfect, it has rooftop restaurant (which I am writing from right now), free shuttles to Effesus, free breakfast, free tea, free wifi, free guidebooks.  I like “free.”  The proprietor sat with us for about 30 minutes when we first arrived, giving us his informed opinions about what to do and helped us decide on the order to do things.

Selçuk is the purported place where John the Apostle wrote a bunch of his book for the bible and did a lot of evangelizing, St Pete visited here, and it is said that Mary, mother of Jesus, died here.  And they are the newcomers.  Homer wrote a lot of stuff while here, and the ancient cities around here, which once were harbors, are now surrounded by farmland.

As someone who grew up in North America,  which is dominantly Christian, it can seem as though history begins at the birth of Jesus and the detailed historical record only starts sometime after 1492.  In this area of the world, the historical record begins long before any of this. 

Tomorrow we go to the famed Ephesus, but today we went for a car trip down to the ancient Greek town of Priene and the Roman town of Miletus.  Both are stunningly intact. 

Priene was not rebuilt by the Romans, and remains an ancient Greek town, because through the 300s BC, the river silted up the harbor so badly that the Romans had no interest in Priene.  We wandered through the town, temples, squares and houses.  I felt a bit like a time-reversed ghost, being able to walk through walls and across barriers in a way that its original residents never could have.  If all time exists at the same time, today my ghost image must have terrified the ancient residents of Priene.

Meletus  was about 30 minutes further down the road.  It has a spectacular Roman amphitheater which sat 25,000 people (I kid you not).  There were orchestral performances, drama and oratorios there.  I can imagine that people would gather there just to listen to someone read a book, since very few towns would own them at that time. 

I’ve always wondered about amphitheater acoustics.   Remarkably a bus tour of German tourists descended upon the Miletus amphitheater and about ten in the crowd walked onto the stage and began singing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”.  At the time, Diane and I were sitting in the sun at the absolute very top seats of the amphitheater and it was amazing how clearly we would hear the song.  Beautiful.  We could talk back to the choir without shouting.  Amazing.

We returned back to Selçuk shortly before dusk and immediately went to the rooftop for dinner.  No debate about where to eat this evening: full concord.  Diane and I shared a bottle of wine, and if this journal entry is duller than usual, that is the reason.  My mind is currently as sharp as a blunt axe.

Bosporus Cruise

We spent the day cruising the Bosporus Straights.  I’ve worked ona project a few times which was dependent on the Bosporus, so I've always wanted to see them first-hand.  What a crowded place this Bosporus Straights is.

The elapsed duration of the cruise (really a Governement Ferry, but they call it cruise, so I will too) is 6 hours, but it’s only about 90 minutes from one end of the Straights to the other.  We had a 3 hour lunch break at a town on the Black Sea on the Asia side.  It was Diane’s first trip to Asia.  After lunch we hiked up to a castle to take in the view of the Black Sea. 

I gotta head back to the room.  Tomorrow morning we head back to the airport to fly out to Izmir for a couple of days.  We are going there to visit the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus.

Diane's Delight Fright

Diane is regrouping.  Her big indulgence here in Istanbul was going to be to go to a Turkish Bath for the whole experience: bath, steam, shower and an hour-long massage.  They are inexpensive and world famous.  Top of her agenda arriving here was to get to the Grand Bazaar or other such place to buy the appropriate wrap and a kese.  It is not the idea of being massaged buck naked that bothers her; it is her discovery that a "kese" has the texture of what we would call a “pot scrubber”.  This is not your warm river stones and scented candles massage.  The intention of a Turkish Massage is to exfoliate the entire body of all dead skin.  I envision a bright pink Diane.  Like I say, she is having second thoughts.

Me?  I ain’t never had a massage and don’t intend on starting now.

We had a lazy day.  What the heck, we still have 7 weeks.  Started our day at the top of our hotel with the usual breakfast of 5 cups of coffee. 

I knew Istanbul is an ancient city, but I was not prepared.  For example, there is an obelisk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk_of_Theodosius) pillaged from ancient Egypt that stands in one of the squares in old Istanbul.  It was brought to Istanbul and erected on its current site in 390 AD!  So it was already 1,400 years old when it was brought to Istanbul , where it has since stood for the last 1,600 years.  It is hard for me to get my little brain around these big numbers.

Across the street from the Blue Mosque (more or less) is the Hagia Sophia Church/Mosque/Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia).  It started out as a church in the 500 AD or so, was converted to a mosque in 1400 or so and then was converted to a museum in the 1930s.  It’s a mixture of Islamic patterns and scripts and Christian iconography.  It is big and was the biggest dome in the world for something like 1,000 years.

After Hagia Sophia, we went to the Basilica Cistern which is huge and was built in 532 AD.  There are walkways all through it, so pretty cool to see.

We sat down for a Turkish coffee immediately thereafter, which, given the caffeine and sugar fired me up pretty good.  We wandered the street, successfully foraged for food (pita bread in a style more like pizza than bread).  I loaded a little Turkish Delight on top of that, just to pack it down.

The rest of the day is not noteworthy;  we went back to the hotel where I promptly feel  asleep in a chair.  Diane surfed the ‘net, while I went for a walk to figure out the logistics for a Bosporus cruise tomorrow.  We dined across from the Blue Mosque; me: Chicken kabobs / Diane: Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Turkish Delight

Brian’s Delight was discovering that Turkish Delight is an actual confection much available made-fresh in Turkey.  The challenge will be not consuming so much of it that meals are still possible.  It’s not like ice-cream or other low-calorie treats. I bought 6 pieces after lunch and munched them down immediately.  I also got a bunch of free samples at the Spice Market.  This is going to take discipline.  My “line in the sand” is that I will NOT take any back to the hotel; only that which can be consumed on-the-spot.

Both of us are suffering with chronic jetlag.  I don’t usually get it at all traveling East, but this morning I really woke up with that I-feel-bad / I-wish-I-was-home feeling.  We didn’t get rolling until 9:00 AM and at that was only to crawl to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast.

Five cups of coffee later, we hit the cobblestones to just wander around to start to get the lay of the land.  It’s was a drizzly day.

The Blue Mosque  is really close to us, so we decided to go in for a look.  It truly is spectacular.  They let Diane in without her Burka (joke).  We had to take off our shoes, but they gave out plastic bags so you wouldn’t lose them in a shoe mountain.  I took lots of pictures inside, just enjoying the profound symmetry of the architecture and decoration.  The place smells delicately of feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque

We bought a couple of meat (lamb?) pita bread wraps for lunch at a sit-down restaurant.  Diane had pomegranate juice; I had water.  Excellent.

There after we wandered the streets all the way to the Spice Market.  We also went into the “New Mosque” which was built in the 1500s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mosque_(Istanbul)).  Our route back to the hotel was along the ocean.  We are headed out soon for dinner.

I don’t know where Diane is right now.  I have been up here on the roof top for about 90 minutes editing my photos.  She said she was coming up too.  I fear she has fallen asleep.