Turkey needs some Rybos

Here we are on the Turkish Riviera and only small motor craft, fishing boats, traditional gulets and fake pirate boats to be seen. (I didn't know that Barbarossa was Turkish).
I think anyone with a Rybovich would be a celebrity. We're getting on our little gulet tomorrow night. Expecting fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next three days.

Mythology

As we head to Myra toward Ephesus along the "Turqouise Coast," the stories, heroic tales, Green and Roman myths are coming alive. Every one includes them in their daily life, if only to say "Take a left at Perseus and follow straight down to Apollo-if you hit reach the Mediterranean you've gone too far."
Speaking of fictional stories, we have yet to see, feel or be able to purchase a TURKISH TOWEL. According to our ever honest guide, they DO exist and are designed to last forever. So why wouldn't hotels have them? Not even the highly publicized Turkish Baths called Hamams. As a collector of photos of laundry, I have been on the look out for the last twelve days and have put them in the category of urban and rural myth.

Turkey's happy ending to loosing their marbles

Hercules is home!!
It turns out Boston Museum of Fine Arts (see earlier blog posts) mounted an exhibition of one of their major donor's collections - including the top half of Hercules. The folks at the Antalya Museum picked up on it and, since they had the rest of the torso, negotiated for a reunion of the parts. I'm happy to say Boston behaved well and this sculpture takes your breath away!

And then there is a HUGE hall filled with Nemsis ( or should it be Nemeses?). Once, again, breathtaking.

Turkish Homestay

Saturday night in a village in Turkey was memorable, comfortable and filled with friendship. We started by picking strawberries, watching sunset on the lake and then moved to a feast of fresh vegetables, beef, lamb, pilaf and baklava. Everyone brought gifts to for the hosts and we stumbled through conversations about everyday things - kids, homes, dress and family. It was clean and comfortable, but cold.
We left early in the morning to head over the Tarsus mountains to Antalya. We are now entering Greco-Roman history that dates back some 6,000 years. Don't hold me to historical accuracy.

Carpet-docia

After the pottery "Learn and Discover" (discover how to use your Visa and MasterCard) demonstration, we went to watch Whirling Dervishes perform in a Caravansary built in 1242. Mesmerizing!

Since they were meditating and in a propounding trancelike state -no photos. But the carpet weavers were more than happy to share there techniques and even let us try a knot or two.

Sent from my iPhone

Flying above the vineyards and

This is the perfect time to come to Turkey.The fall colors on this bleak and other worldly landscape are startling!
As we flew over the homes and ancient (11 and 12th Century) churches carved out of stone, we joined 80 other balloons to greet the sunrise -sort of a "balloon eclipse. From an altitude of 2-1000 feet, we were given a real geology lesson and agricultural overview. The topsy-turby green clumps are grape vines that will be harvested soon. Pumpkins are grown only for their seeds-the flesh is left in the fields to fertilize the soil. Modern Cappadocians also carve out and mark bird cotes in the rocks to attract the birds and collect the guano. In earlier times, they used the guano, straw, manure and natural dyes to create astonishing frescos in the churches. Sorry no photos and even these with my iPhone were risky -if I dropped it over the edge of the basket, no more blog.
As it turns out, we're off to a village home stay tomorrow. Blog pause for a few days. Internet isn't everywhere in Turkey, but colors, music, smells and friendly people certainly are.

Ready to be in a balloon

It's a little dark and taken with a legacy iphone but look to the right of the minaret and left of the huge rock you'll see me with my new hand made gloves ready for the hot air ballon ride tomorrow morning. We are staying in a cave hotel without TV, Internet or adequate lighting, but at least we are not hiding from marauding rebels on camels. We DO have a wake up call at 5:00 a.m.
Inshallah.

Waking up in Cappadocia

The Call to Prayer came at 6:32 followed by a sight from our balcony that took my breath away - sixty balloons ascending over the "Fairy Chimneys" of Cappadocia. Tomorrow we'll be in one of them! NOT with droopy crotch pants.

No coffee on the way to Cappadocia

Fact 1: Starbucks does Not have Turkish Coffee.
Fact 2: Turkish Coffee is from Brazil
Fact 4: Turks actually more commonly drink TEA (pronounced "chai") in little tulip shaped glass cups.

All thisoght have helped at four this morning when west to fly to CappDocia. This place is utterly other worldly, lunar at best. People have lived in these caves for centuries! We exited an underground city of 600-1000 people that was completely carved out of rock 15 feet under the earth. Great place for hiding -for months under various seiges and regimes. Tomorrow we go to visit the Fairy Chimneys and see yhe frescos in the cave churches of Görome -a World Heritage Site and have lunch with a Turkish family. Sort of "A Day in the Life." Our hotel is in a cave. (See the view from our balcony -third photo). Of course, right in front are ALL the SOS (same old stuff) vendors. Have resisted buying a carpet.

All the rumors and colors are true

The Grand Bazaar has over 4,000 shops and at least one of Istanbul's 11million people. After visiting Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Taksim Square and Istakal Street, we were up for some serious competitive shopping/negotiating/elbowing. No one got lost, cheated or trampled and the four of us celebrated our surviving the ordeal by finding an exotic restaurant that served flaming clay pots called Testi-kebabs and "Chicken Viagra" for dinner. Sampling ice cream made from wild orchid bulbs, we walked home laughing hysterically (it kept the hawkers and hecklers away). Four women traveling together appears to attract attention in these parts.

Cables Cars then off to Cappadocia

Yesterday it was the Golden Gate, this afternoon we rode on a cable car and this evening we walked by a Chinese restaurant on the way "home." I thought we were half way around the world, but I'm getting confused. Tomorrow we are up at 4:00 a.m. To fly to Capadoccia where we will be living in a cave chimney for three days. It will be extraordinary to say the least. We will probably not have Internet access for a while. Don't be alarmed and just say " Güle, güle!"

Mosque Maidens

>
>
>> Ready, if called to prayer, to enter the screened off women's section of the Sulimaniye Mosque taken by the husband of the woman on the left. What's wrong with this picture? Four smiles. Turkish women do NOT smile spontaneously.

"Steam Table" Dining

Just the rage in Istanbul: in a humid restaurant where tourists point to the food, cafeteria style, then staff translates and scoops it onto your plate and someone else carries it up a narrow staircase to an "air conditioned" room (in fact, the air conditioners are merely decoration - somewhat like the stop signs). Besides dônner, there are stuffed tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and eggplant. Have no idea why it is named "Pudding Shop." We preferred a cold EFES beer and the free samples of Turkish Delight and baklava down the street.

If you only had One Day in Istanbul

They say you should visit the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Grand Bazaar. Since we have a bit more time, we're spreading it out over two days and adding the Spice Market, cruise up the Bosphorus, Taksim Square and Isitklal Street. Things began on an embarrassing note as our guide put up his "Kermit the Frog" umbrella to lead us on to the Topkapi (don't see the 1964 film) Palace. The royal Circumcision Room was packed to capacity so we elected to bypass the Harem. The fountains, panoramic views, kiosks (especially the building dedicated solely to storing the Sultan's turbans) were astonishing -not the 13th Century answer to dual panes windows.
The smells in the Spice (formerly known as the Egyptian) Bazaar were overwhelming. Got some real Turkish coffee to bring home, but did NOT get any leeches which are prescribed for a wide variety of maladies: headaches, sore feet, skin problems... You can get these hungry little suckers TO GO. Didn't we give this up a few hundred years ago?

Turkish Delights

Lokum is cubes of jelly-like fruit confection sweetened with honey, filled with nuts and dusted with powdered sugar. They serve it three meals a day. Baklava has about twenty variations and apricots are everywhere.
One of the other delights are the lines enticing us into stores: "Hey, Angels, I'm Charlie" or "Buy one, get me for free." We have completely resisted buying a rug -well an oriental mouse pad perhaps...
Visited Suleymaniye Complex with its mosque, hospital, public kitchen & school, followed by being at Rustem Pasa Mosque then up to Cembeitas Hammam to take a Turkish bath. All three buildings were created by Sinan who designed over 477 buildings.

I can see Asia from my table

Over the head if the ubiquitous robber gull and past the palm trees, we either have Sarah Pallin vision or really DO see Asia.
Breakfast: olives, cheese and tomatoes along with SORBET (fresh juice made from cherries, oranges, cinnamon and thyme). In fact, most Turks do NOT drink Turkish coffee - if they do , it's late in the afternoon with MUCH dedicated to its preparation and consumption: grinding, boiling, foaming, adding sugar, boiling again, pouring, slowly sipping, no more stirring.

Keep Calm and Cartoon On

We've discovered a dry, witty sense of Turkish humor and, combined with our complete inability to translate or pronounce anything, leave us laughing hysterically at least once an hour. Thank you comes out to be "tea shake he dream." Saying "gul-e..,gul-e" for "see you later" sounds like lyrics to a popular 1960's teen dance. Sometimes folks try to be helpful or reciprocal: in exchange for teaching a fellow to say "Kiwi" we got a sample of his-not-so-unique-but-made-on-the-spot-six-flavor taffy stick sucker. The self-proclaimed "Mr.Delicious" is a charming flirt who produces THE most extraordinary Baklava concoctions ever yet refuses to ship or ever go to America.
We're seeing more chadors and burkas that we thought we would. A funny corollary is seeing passionate public displays of affection (possession?) by young scarf-wearing women. When revealed, most of the faces of men and women young and old alike lend themselves to caricatures. For a painter, both the silvery evening and golden morning lights are impossible to capture.
Walked twelve miles to visit the Dolmabache Palace Harem and Istanbul Modern Museum today. Wild cats are everywhere and this evening dogs are tired.

Cistern

Public Water System - Cistern Basilica.

Tea Teasing

So we discovered that one of the first cup (of the requisite three cups) of tea in any negotiation is Apple tea. It turns out that the Turks call it "tourist tee" because it is assorted chemicals in a packet made instantly and on demand. Not authentic, not Turkish and not good for you.
BUT if you want "real" tea it is Black Tea from (you guessed it) the Black Sea. From there, they also bring in bass spelled "See Bass."
I don't suppose their iPads, nestled comfortably in their Turkish carpet scrap carrying cases, have any trouble with predictive spelling. But how does one add all those dots above and squiggles below nearly every letter?
Pronunciation note: c = ch, k = k, an i without a dot = uh.
And everything has generally three names (i.e. Byzantium, Constantinople Istanbul are all the same city) and thirty layers of history.

Istanbulaundry

Blue denims and the Blue Mosque
Hagia Sophia answers the call to prayer.

Istanbreakfast

An entire feast of dried fruits, olives, six different cheeses, honey (in the comb), jars of spices and jams, nuts and pastries. Ready to head off to the cistern (think James Bond scenes).