Travelling in the Dark

We seem to always be travelling in the dark - our flight from Canada to Istanbul was an overnight flight - our trip from Istanbul to Goreme was an overnight bus trip. We left the Tourista Agency via a tour bus to the main bus terminal to get the Suha Turizm bus to Goreme.

At this point I would like to tell you all that our travel arrangements were setup by Rina Svensson of Insight Travel Agency. My daughter Tracy described our best trip ideas and they worked together to make this adventure come off without a hitch. There was always someone to meet us, greet us and get us to the next destination. All our tours and hotels were fabulous.

Back to the bus. We finally arrived at this HUGE bus depot. We did enjoy the sights along the way.

I love this apartment building with all the laundry and satellite TV dishes.

Then we pass by the remants of the old city wall.

I said this was a busy bus depot.

 

So after a short wait we are shown to our bus. Not many people here speak English so it is a little scary thinking you might be getting on the wrong bus but after our tickets are checked and rechecked and checked again we are settled in our seats. Tracy and Cheryl together and me by myself - but not for long. I get a seat companion. I was a little aprehensive at first. It was a young girl and I was worried that this was going to be a long ride with no conversation but it turns out that she spoke some English - and this was a good thing as we soon find out there are only 8 on the bus that speak English the rest Turkish. We have two drivers and a hostess - no English. Any communication with the English speaking passengers is going to be done via my new friend.

 

I am sad that we are leaving Istanbul in the dark as we cannot see the scenery. It seems to take forever to get out of the city. Finally after at least an hour and a half we are on our way. I have lots of questions and with our limited knowledge of each other language and lots of writing down of words we talk. I find out that she has just graduated university as an architect and now has a position teaching until she gets another job in her field. We discuss houses and families - how many generations live in the same house - that her family is living in the same house that was built over 100 years ago. The night is long and we get lots of "pit" stops. As the sun rises the countryside has changed from a city to very desert, desolate looking scenery - almost like around Kamloops. I spy what looks like a soddy. There are houses and farm land. Finally we arrive in Nevsehir and disembark. My partner gets onto another bus to go to her destination and we wait and wait and wait. We are panicking a bit as we have an appointment at 10 a.m. to meet at our hotel for a tour.

 

Finally a bus comes and we get on. We arrive in Goreme at about 9:30 a.m. and are dropped at the bus depot there. Our itinerary says we are to walk to our hotel - well where is it - so I go and ask. I am told that someone will be along shortly. We wait - finally a man comes and we drag our suitcases up the hill to our hotel - The Local Cave House. OMG.

Here now - satalite dishes on ? WHAT IS THIS?

And here was are --- oh this is going to be good. We dump our luggage and depart for our tour - hungry and tired and excited.

Evil Eyes

Day 3 of our trip started with a leisurely buffet breakfast at our hotel. We were lucky to enjoy it most days in the walled patio. The breakfasts consisted of wonderful breads and cakes, dried figs, apricots, cheese, wonderful cheese, some cheese wrapped in pastry and then the usual fare. We did not have to be anywhere until after lunch so we wandered around enjoying our surroundings.
Turkey is truly a feast for the eyes. Around every corner we find such magical sights.

This lamp is on the entrance to our hotel - Nazar Boncuk charms (or Evil Eye Beads) are everywhere.

Some people believe the Evil Eye is good luck to guard against evil. I read somewhere that "The Evil Eye is a reminder that underneath it all, we are all the same human beings, even if we think we're different." I like that explanation. I have also heard that throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, many people believe envious gazes or high praise from others can bring you bad luck.

We have seen them embedded into cement, on walls and fabrics, even on dog collars.

 

We went into a shop where they had amazing hand made pottery and tiles done in the Iznik style - this wall was made of the remnants of broken pieces of bowls, tiles and plates - they are just too beautiful to throw away.

 The courtyard of this tiny boutique hotel is paved with a pebble mosaic.

 There was something going on in the area in front of the Hagia Sofia today. There were flags from many countries and people dressed in costume. This group was from F.Y.R.O.M (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)

 

This just tickled my fancy - the old with the new. This cart was on a bicycle. Just amazing.

At 1 o'clock we were waiting at our hotel for someone to come for us for the half day tour to the Topkapi Palace. We were checked out of the hotel so that after the tour we could take our luggage Tourista Travel Agency to be picked up and taken to the main bus station for our over night bus trip to Goreme.

The Topkapi Palace is a spectacular place. It is situated on the hill overlooking the Bosphorus and was the home of the Ottoman Sultans between the 15th and 19th century A.D.  It was built in between 1466 and 1478 by the Sultan Mehmet II. The model below shows the the size of the palace and the various gardens and buildings.



We have so many pictures of the palace and I am only going to post a few so you can see how beautiful it is.

We were supposed to get a tour of the Grand Bazaar but our tour got waylaid by a couple of people who went missing. We did end up at the Grand Bazaar but we had been there before and just wanted to get back to our hotel, grab our luggage and start on the overnight trip to Goreme.

The Blue Mosque and other interesting places

Our first day in Istanbul was walking around, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. It is a busy city especially around the Blue Mosque. Just to put this all in prospective the Blue Mosque and our hotel are situated in the old part of Istanbul.

Istanbul started out as Byzantium around 660 BC, then in 330 AD the name was changed to Constantinopolis - or Contantinople by Constantine the Great. The name Istanbul was adopted around 1930. It is part of both Asia and Europe divided by the Golden Horn. The geography of this area is played signifigant part in the history of this city and this country.

So to the Blue Mosque, we had walked around the area where the Blue Mosque is and Hagia Sophia sit. And were awestruck. So on our second day we had a half day tour and were taken to see the Blue Mosque, the Saint Sophia (Hagia Sofia), the Hippodrome and the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum - a visit to a carpet place was thrown in - this became a bit of an issue but more later.

The Blue Mosque (Called Sultanahmet Camii in Turkish) is an historical mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is known as the Blue Mosque because of blue tiles surrounding the walls of interior design.Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 years, during the rule of Ahmed I. just like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasa and a hospice.Besides still used as a mosque, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque has also become a popular tourist attraction in Istanbul.

Besides being tourist attraction, it's also a active mosque, so it's closed to non worshippers for a half hour or so during the five daily prayers.

We have so many pictures of the Blue Mosque. It is rich in details - beautiful doors, stained glass windows. I just could not include them all - but the last one that I will show is the entry to the courtyard. See how worn down that is - and this is marble - just imagine the feet that have crossed this threshold.

 

Sitting opposite the Blue Mosque across a large square is Hagia Sophia. For 900 years Hagia Sophia was the center of Orthodox Christianity until 1453 when the city became under the rule of  the Ottoman empire. For the next 500 years it became a jewel of the Muslim world, the grand mosque of the sultans. In 1935, Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum of Turkish Republic by the orders of Ataturk. In 1985, Hagia Sophia was choosen a world heritage site.

 

 

The walls are covered with beautiful marble. Huge chandeliers hang from the ceiling and the dome is clad with fabulous tiles.

 

This part of the floor is sectioned off to protect the incredible marble inlay. And again I could add more and more pictures.

 

Now on to the rest of our day. We continued to the Hippodrome, but what a surprise that was - we had been walking through it, around it and in it for the last couple of days. In ancient times (203 AD) this structure was created with walls and seating for sporting events such as chariot racing. But all that is left now is the middle barrier and three obelisks - see this map held by our guide Mustafa.

 

 

Left is the Egyptian Obelisk, below is the Walled Obelisk and below that what is left of the Sepentine Obelisk.

 

Our next stop was the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum - this was originally built as a Palace but now is the home to beautiful examples of Islamic calligraphy, tiles and carpets. It is here we had our first cup of Turkish Coffee and parted with our tour guide and the other guests.

 

The tour group continued on for lunch and the rest of their tour, but we had the afternoon free to wander. We decided to take the tram and subway across the Galata Bridge to Taksim Square on the European side of Istanbul. A long pedestrian shopping street exits from the square called Istiklal Caddesi. A cute little tram runs from Taksim Square down the length of this street. The shopping features clothing, shoes, home dec and lots of boutiques. The side streets are filled with tourist shops, restaurants and small markets. "They" say that over 3 million people visit this street every single day.

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish Coffee - Move over Starbucks; Make-way Timmy's

About the coffee!!! Coffee in Turkey is like no other that I have had. It is strong but not bitingly so. It is served very hot and with a glass of cold water. Our first introduction to wonders of Turkish coffee came during a tour to the  Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. After our tour and free time I met up with the rest of our group and our guide in the courtyard where they were having coffee.

 So basically Turkish coffee is a method of preparation, not a kind of coffee. There is no special type of bean but they are ground to the finest possible powder; finer than for any other way of preparation.

Cold water is put into these little long handled vessel and a few heaping teaspoons of coffee is added and if sweet is desired it is also added at this point - we were always asked - no sugar, little sugar, medium sugar or a lot of sugar. I settled on a little sugar and my understanding of that was about a half a teaspoon.

The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on moderate heat; if too high, the coffee comes to the boil too quickly, without time to extract the flavour. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee comes to the boil, the pot is removed from the heat. It is usually kept off the heat for a short time, then brought to boil a second and a third time, then the coffee is poured into the cups.
Getting the thickest possible layer of foam is considered the peak of the coffee maker's art. One way to maximise this is to pour slowly and try to lift the pot higher and higher as the pouring continues. Regardless of these techniques, getting the same amount of foam into all cups is hard to achieve, and the cup with the most foam is considered the best of the lot.

The others that joined us on our first introduction to Turkish coffee were a newly wed couple from Sorrentini, Greece. They were familiar with this method of making coffee as they do the same in Greece. She said slowly cooked, very slowly. Also you are not supposed to drink down to the grounds that are left in the bottom of the cup and it is a very small cup - expresso sized.

And so began my love affair with Turkish coffee - one sip at a time.

One of the discussed musts of this trip was our fortune told. The grounds left after drinking Turkish coffee can be used for fortune-telling. The cup is commonly turned over into the saucer to cool, and then the patterns of the coffee grounds can be used for a method of fortune telling known as kahve falı. One of the Turkish travel books we had recommended the Majestic as the BEST place to have your fortune told - so a tram ride over the Galata Bridge that spans the Golden Horn and asubway ride to Taksim Square we happened upon this place - and it was a happenstance - we were just wandering enjoying the sites looking for a place to eat and ............ there it was - The Majestic - must have been kismet. But once inside we opted to have a tarot cards read - still was fun - coffee/tea/baklava and insight into our future.

We did get a personal lesson from Theresa at the Ikonium Studio and that is another story for sure.