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

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>> 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).

Burger King and Ali Baba

So far Ali is winning. Here's the view from the terrace of our hotel. 360 degrees from Bosphorous to Hagia Sophia AND surround sound when it comes time to call the devout to prayer.
I'm not wearing near enough eye make-up, but other than that all is well. Arrived rest, walked through historic district and along Sea of Marmara. Tomorrow is Mosques and Markets.

Eat and Go

Waiting for the 10 hour flight:
Turkish vocabulary lesson #1
Kadayif
Baklava
and a sandwich crepe-like delight called "Gozleme"

I am NOT going to have fun with the insistent predictive spelling function on this computer.
Perhaps I'll shift from photos of laundry to photos of "gulborek","donner" and the ever-popular "yogurt." If the ghost of Steve Jobs will let me.

Halloween is on its way

On our last day in America before returning for the Election, I realized that I'd be missing Halloween for the first time in my life. The really do it up back East with every house decorating with some sort of pumpkin, Dracula or Skeleton on their porch. Taj did this "imaginary drawing" that I'll carry to Turkey to TRY to explain the tradition of ghosts, ghouls, goblins, Disney Princesses and the occasional policitian.

The Final Details...

While I've taken this little New York, Boston, North Carolina pre-trip art-family-and-friends-reunion, my traveling companions are home completing a myriad of last minute minutiae: list compiling, bill paying, note writing, instruction leaving. Sultans had scribes.

This sweet little pen and ink water color in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is attributed to the Venetian painter, Bellini (memorialized by the refreshing drink combining fresh peaches and champagne) in 1479. Bellini was brought to the court of Constantinople by Royal decree. Story has it that when the Sultan was dissatisfied with Bellini's painting of John the Baptist, he decapitated a slave in his presence to show him what a severed head really looked like.

I'm imagining a foreign country and an even more foreign time. How could "modern" notions of civil rights, personal expression and aesthetics have stood up to absolute power? Did such thinking even exist? Worth pondering: the Byzantine civilization was a star that shown brightly during Europe's Dark Ages. The Classical Greek word "to innovate" was transformed into "to injure." For nearly fourteen hundred years, Christian orthodoxy demanded bending to the yoke of obedience. Six hundred years - and millions of lives later- in modern Turkey, "islam" means "to submit."

When traveling, I always learn at least as much about myself, our time and place as I do about the host country, their history and art. I'll keep capturing images and writing observations. Can't promise learning calligraphy, however.

The ocean is to the EAST

A Painters' Paradise BUT there is something profoundly disorienting to us Californians about having a HUGE body of water on the EAST. It also means that NORTH is SOUTH. And then there is the business of vegetation being tall and bright green right up to the water's edge in the October. Is it climate change or a case of personal topsy turvy?

October's oldsters, oysters,okra

The real deal at Carolina Beach

October's oldsters, oysters,okra

The real deal at Carolina Beach

Southern Wheel of Fortune

The art scene in North Carolina is filled with the unexpected: no boundaries, lots of beaches and internationally recognized artists. LOTS of color, congeniality and comrades in the Acme Art Studios.

BOSTON UNCOMMON

Looks like that ubiquitous Moby Dick of the glass blowing world has been sighted again. This time in the HUGE All American Cafe in the All New American Wing of the Museum of Fine Art. Looks like a giant herb.
Also the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has blasted out the back side of her chock-o-block Venetian Palazzo with a new modern wing, performance space, school, studio and artist residences. All Green and Eco-Artistry from basement to peaked glass roof.
No photos allowed of the 2,500 piece collection so you'll just have to take my word for it.

John Singer Sargent's Room

His dorm? Or maybe it's a hotel. This is way before the era of The Container Store.