Monday
We left for Bulgaria at 8 am. It took an hour to get out of the city -- on fast highways --such a huge place. The traffic heading into Istanbul was horrendous. Horrible communate which can take several hours. Most people live in the outskirts -- in thousands and thousands of highrises. Only saw a few single family homes in the outer area. 72% own their own home (read condo) and mortgages have only been available in the past five years. Istanbul has a western life style. They shop in malls for the most part (95 in the city). A new rule for cars: when you buy a new one you must also buy a parking spot.One gallon of gas is $10 (68% taxes).
There are now new rules for building since the earthquake of 15 years ago when 17,000 were killed. Would have been more if the epicenter was in the city. All schools have been reinforced as well as gov't buildings. They are working on the homeowners to do theirs. Turkey sits on the Asian, European, African and Arabic plates so lots of movement.
All education is free including university. Out of town students also get accommodation and meals paid for. By the end of this year, every student will have their own computer.
Had a bathroom stop at Corlo where we had Turkish black tea.It's served in a funny shaped glass on a saucer.Turkish people drink the most tea in the world -- per person.Ireland is next then China.
They produce 70% of the world's hazlenuts but lost their crop this spring due to an untimely frost.We also passed fields of sunflowers which were wrecked by heavy rains in June.The area heading north is like "big sky" country. Lots of crops grown here.
I now know how to make Turkish coffee so will try it as soon as I get home. We had a typical Turkish lunch in a town just south of the border -- chicken on a stick, fried meat balls, rice and salad. Dessert was watermelon.
At the border we had to get out of the bus and hand our passports in then got them back right away. This took some time as there were 3 busloads of us. Then our driver had some problem and it was ages before he finally showed up. Must have spent more than an hour cooling our heels. We had switched to Bulgarian busses at the lunch spot. Then we had to drive a few hundred yards to the Bulgarian border and show our passports again. This was very straightforward thank goodness. We felt sorry for the transport trucks going back into Turkey -- solid line for a mile and could take two days to get through.
23 degrees and sunny. First time we've been able to walk around without jackets.
We had about 5 hours of driving so finally got to our hotel in Provdin. We then had a small walking tour of the old town. They have found really old ruins under what was supposed to be a new building. Needless to say construction stopped and the area has become a dig. Just down the street they've uncovered an old coleseum (or rather a part of it). The rest is under the town.
Dinner was a typical Bulgarian meal -- very nice -- salad, a piece of scalloped potato, then pork with mashed potato followed by dessert of unknown content but delicious.
By the way, my scarf did double duty the other day. I'd been wearing it to keep my neck warm then it turned into a head scarf for going into the mosque.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Istanbul #2
Forgot a few things from yesterday. We saw in the Hagia Sophia huge columns supporting the roof. These were all recycled. Many buildings over the centuries have collapsed due to earthquakes, leaving these columns standing. Another place which recycled them was the cistern. This place is huge and used to be filled to the top with water. So, when they used the recycled stuff, they didn't bother with what it would look like. The columns had different bottoms and tops and in one area there were two bases with Medusa carved in them. One was upside down and the other sideways. This cistern was abandoned for years until some smart city official figured out that they could make big bucks charging for tourists to look at it all.
The breakfast spread is enormous but has some interesting differences: halvah, Turkish delight and honeycombs.
Our sleep patterns are normal. I slept 9 hours the first night so no jet lag.
Interesting things which I've noted in my travels: the more expensive hotels charge for internet and the cheaper ones don't.
Windy this morning. Hard rain in the nite. We are told they often get a spell of this weather after the summer then Oct. can be beautiful. Forecast for tomorrow is for mostly sunny. Today the wind was so strong they cancelled our boat tour of the Bosphorus.
This morning we toured the Topkapi Palace which was used by many Sultans for 400 years. This was during the Ottoman empire which ended in 1914. We toured the harem quarters. Interesting fact: the concubines were from 8 to 14 years old and they were there to get an education. After 14 they could marry (would be to royalty, someone high up in the military or government) or they could stay and work, teach, etc. They were never even seen by the Sultan and were virgins until they married. We all had the idea it was otherwise. The Sultan's mother ruled the household and his wives fought over who would be the mother of the next Sultan. Eunochs guarded the harem. There were 684 rooms in the palace -- simple small rooms (easier to heat).
Speaking of heat: they rarely get snow in Istanbul and it goes down to about 7 or so in the winter.
In another area of the palace we saw the magnificent gifts given to various Sultans eg. gem encrusted swords, crowns, boxes, and even thrones. Saw the world's largest diamond-- 87 carats.
In the afternoon we were driven to the Spice Market which I found more interesting than the huge Grand Bazaar was yesterday. Bought some genuine Turkish delight -- at our guide's favorite booth. I had bought some yesterday made with sugar and cheaper. The good stuff is made with honey.
That was the end of our day. Lots of wind with some rain. The street vendors sell umbrellas which are so cheap they blow inside out right away. Saw many abandoned ones by the sidewalk.
See lots of cats around -- no owners. And today I saw some dogs which are also strays. Rare to see dogs on leashes.
Traffic is horrendous. Driving here as a foreigner would be a nightmare.They don't seem to worry about lanes and all juggle for one small space. Amazingly the cars appear intact.
Tomorrow we move north by bus to Bulgaria.
Forgot a few things from yesterday. We saw in the Hagia Sophia huge columns supporting the roof. These were all recycled. Many buildings over the centuries have collapsed due to earthquakes, leaving these columns standing. Another place which recycled them was the cistern. This place is huge and used to be filled to the top with water. So, when they used the recycled stuff, they didn't bother with what it would look like. The columns had different bottoms and tops and in one area there were two bases with Medusa carved in them. One was upside down and the other sideways. This cistern was abandoned for years until some smart city official figured out that they could make big bucks charging for tourists to look at it all.
The breakfast spread is enormous but has some interesting differences: halvah, Turkish delight and honeycombs.
Our sleep patterns are normal. I slept 9 hours the first night so no jet lag.
Interesting things which I've noted in my travels: the more expensive hotels charge for internet and the cheaper ones don't.
Windy this morning. Hard rain in the nite. We are told they often get a spell of this weather after the summer then Oct. can be beautiful. Forecast for tomorrow is for mostly sunny. Today the wind was so strong they cancelled our boat tour of the Bosphorus.
This morning we toured the Topkapi Palace which was used by many Sultans for 400 years. This was during the Ottoman empire which ended in 1914. We toured the harem quarters. Interesting fact: the concubines were from 8 to 14 years old and they were there to get an education. After 14 they could marry (would be to royalty, someone high up in the military or government) or they could stay and work, teach, etc. They were never even seen by the Sultan and were virgins until they married. We all had the idea it was otherwise. The Sultan's mother ruled the household and his wives fought over who would be the mother of the next Sultan. Eunochs guarded the harem. There were 684 rooms in the palace -- simple small rooms (easier to heat).
Speaking of heat: they rarely get snow in Istanbul and it goes down to about 7 or so in the winter.
In another area of the palace we saw the magnificent gifts given to various Sultans eg. gem encrusted swords, crowns, boxes, and even thrones. Saw the world's largest diamond-- 87 carats.
In the afternoon we were driven to the Spice Market which I found more interesting than the huge Grand Bazaar was yesterday. Bought some genuine Turkish delight -- at our guide's favorite booth. I had bought some yesterday made with sugar and cheaper. The good stuff is made with honey.
That was the end of our day. Lots of wind with some rain. The street vendors sell umbrellas which are so cheap they blow inside out right away. Saw many abandoned ones by the sidewalk.
See lots of cats around -- no owners. And today I saw some dogs which are also strays. Rare to see dogs on leashes.
Traffic is horrendous. Driving here as a foreigner would be a nightmare.They don't seem to worry about lanes and all juggle for one small space. Amazingly the cars appear intact.
Tomorrow we move north by bus to Bulgaria.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Istanbul #1 -- Thurs/Fri Sept 25/26
Travel is very tiring. We got up at 6 am and were here eating supper by 10 am (the next day) your time and 8 pm our time here. There are so many hours spent waiting in airports. But, all in all, the flights went well. Eleanor -- it was cloudy so I didn't see those wind turbines in the North Sea though we probably flew over that area. Only clear sky was just south of Glasgow so saw a few lights.
It's so nice being looked after. We were met at the airport along with two other couples. A van took us to our hotel. This took about an hour because of distance plus rush hour traffic. This city is huge. They have some beautiful landscaping in the newer areas. There are geometrical and freeform arrangements of planted flowers/shrubs through the grass meridians. Very nice and also unusual. Then we got into some of the older areas. Interesting buildings -- many seem to be about one room width wide. There is often a missing one or one with no windows. The narrowness is quite noticeable because they can be three or four stories high.
We are both exhausted. I slept a fair bit on the plane but by the time we got here my body was telling me to stay asleep.
I had an interesting supper -- warm dates stuffed with goat cheese over a bed of interesting greens. The "butter"with the buns must have been goat as it had such an nice flavor.
This is a 5 star (at least) hotel. Huge lobby with live music, beautiful flower arrangements, etc. Our cruise company has a desk that's open all day.
Saturday
What a busy, interesting day (though it rained a lot). We had a bus tour of the city. It is very, very old and certainly worth a second trip sometime for anyone interested in old stuff. We saw classical Ottoman, Roman and Byzantine architecture. The aqueducts were made 1600 years ago and brought water into the city cisterns until the 19th century.
The old city walls had three stages: first one was low and easy to climb, the second one was harder and taller then the third was tall and smooth. The first two sucked in the invaders who were then trapped between 2 and 3 to get killed by arrows or else have boiling oil poured on them. Today the area on the road side of the walls is farmed for organic vegetables. This provides income for people plus keeps the riff raff out of the area. The towers are mostly destroyed by earthquakes. There are 20 miles of wall.
Population and economy are booming. Pop was 1.7 million in 1953, 7 million in 1986 and today is 16 million. Two thirds of these live on the Europe side and one third on the Asian side. Nine hundred new cars are registered daily. There are 3.5 million cars -- highest density in the world. And it is the largest city in the world.
The Bosphorus is the body of water between the two parts of the city. When digging a new tunnel to go under this they found 38 wrecks, including cargos, from 400 years ago -- probably caused by an earthquake and ensuing tidal wave. At the moment all this is being preserved. They also found 8400 year old settlements under the old harbour where the wrecks were found.Turkey is also home to the oldest cave homes -- up to 45,000 years old.
Turkey's #1 industry is agriculture. Istanbul's #1 is textiles followed by automotive manufacturing.They had 8.6% growth in 2012 with a GDP of $11,000 per person -- up 3x in the past 10 years. All industry is banned from the city core and shorelines of the Bosphorus so the air is now clean. This industry is moved to the outskirsts.
Lots of Jews have come here over the centuries -- whenever they were persecuted in their original countries. So the part of Istanbul they settled in became very rich.
There are 2 million refugees in the eastern part. They are well looked after with schools, health care, etc.They are the best refugee camps in the world. They are strongly discouraged from coming to the west part as then they go on into Europe. These countries frown on that so Turkey tries to stop it from happening.
We had a walking tour of the old City which included the Hippodrome where they used to have horse races way back when. Also had a tour of the Blue Mosque. It is called Blue because of the interior decor of tiles. Blue was the cheapest color to make them of plus it withstands the firing process quite well so less breakage. After this was a carpet making demo. It is absolutely amazing how many knots are in a square inch of carpet -- thousands. Smaller rugs take up to 2 years to make! The silk ones are the hardest wearing, lasting over 200 years in a high traffic area. Also are easy to wash. We, of course, got the showing of many carpets plus an onslot of salesmen to "help" us after. I actually bought a small one for a wall hanging. Full sized floor ones were running 16 to 20,000 dollars in the silk. Other fibers were marino wool, pashmina or cotton. They served us a variety of drinks plus a snack. I had strong Turkish coffee. It is made with the sugar in it already. When I was done there was a thick layer on sludge at the bottom of the cup. Delicious. Don had the famous apple tea which is very similar to our hot apple cider.
The afternoon was spent going through the Hagia Sophia which is one of the world's great buildings. Completed 1500 years ago as a church, it became a mosque in 1453 then a museum in 1935. After this we had an hour in the famous Grand Bazaar. Actually, it had maybe ten or twelve different stores repeated over and over. The jewelry was out of sight "glitter" -- quite ugly. The ceramics are gaudy and unsafe as they likely have lead.
Travel is very tiring. We got up at 6 am and were here eating supper by 10 am (the next day) your time and 8 pm our time here. There are so many hours spent waiting in airports. But, all in all, the flights went well. Eleanor -- it was cloudy so I didn't see those wind turbines in the North Sea though we probably flew over that area. Only clear sky was just south of Glasgow so saw a few lights.
It's so nice being looked after. We were met at the airport along with two other couples. A van took us to our hotel. This took about an hour because of distance plus rush hour traffic. This city is huge. They have some beautiful landscaping in the newer areas. There are geometrical and freeform arrangements of planted flowers/shrubs through the grass meridians. Very nice and also unusual. Then we got into some of the older areas. Interesting buildings -- many seem to be about one room width wide. There is often a missing one or one with no windows. The narrowness is quite noticeable because they can be three or four stories high.
We are both exhausted. I slept a fair bit on the plane but by the time we got here my body was telling me to stay asleep.
I had an interesting supper -- warm dates stuffed with goat cheese over a bed of interesting greens. The "butter"with the buns must have been goat as it had such an nice flavor.
This is a 5 star (at least) hotel. Huge lobby with live music, beautiful flower arrangements, etc. Our cruise company has a desk that's open all day.
Saturday
What a busy, interesting day (though it rained a lot). We had a bus tour of the city. It is very, very old and certainly worth a second trip sometime for anyone interested in old stuff. We saw classical Ottoman, Roman and Byzantine architecture. The aqueducts were made 1600 years ago and brought water into the city cisterns until the 19th century.
The old city walls had three stages: first one was low and easy to climb, the second one was harder and taller then the third was tall and smooth. The first two sucked in the invaders who were then trapped between 2 and 3 to get killed by arrows or else have boiling oil poured on them. Today the area on the road side of the walls is farmed for organic vegetables. This provides income for people plus keeps the riff raff out of the area. The towers are mostly destroyed by earthquakes. There are 20 miles of wall.
Population and economy are booming. Pop was 1.7 million in 1953, 7 million in 1986 and today is 16 million. Two thirds of these live on the Europe side and one third on the Asian side. Nine hundred new cars are registered daily. There are 3.5 million cars -- highest density in the world. And it is the largest city in the world.
The Bosphorus is the body of water between the two parts of the city. When digging a new tunnel to go under this they found 38 wrecks, including cargos, from 400 years ago -- probably caused by an earthquake and ensuing tidal wave. At the moment all this is being preserved. They also found 8400 year old settlements under the old harbour where the wrecks were found.Turkey is also home to the oldest cave homes -- up to 45,000 years old.
Turkey's #1 industry is agriculture. Istanbul's #1 is textiles followed by automotive manufacturing.They had 8.6% growth in 2012 with a GDP of $11,000 per person -- up 3x in the past 10 years. All industry is banned from the city core and shorelines of the Bosphorus so the air is now clean. This industry is moved to the outskirsts.
Lots of Jews have come here over the centuries -- whenever they were persecuted in their original countries. So the part of Istanbul they settled in became very rich.
There are 2 million refugees in the eastern part. They are well looked after with schools, health care, etc.They are the best refugee camps in the world. They are strongly discouraged from coming to the west part as then they go on into Europe. These countries frown on that so Turkey tries to stop it from happening.
We had a walking tour of the old City which included the Hippodrome where they used to have horse races way back when. Also had a tour of the Blue Mosque. It is called Blue because of the interior decor of tiles. Blue was the cheapest color to make them of plus it withstands the firing process quite well so less breakage. After this was a carpet making demo. It is absolutely amazing how many knots are in a square inch of carpet -- thousands. Smaller rugs take up to 2 years to make! The silk ones are the hardest wearing, lasting over 200 years in a high traffic area. Also are easy to wash. We, of course, got the showing of many carpets plus an onslot of salesmen to "help" us after. I actually bought a small one for a wall hanging. Full sized floor ones were running 16 to 20,000 dollars in the silk. Other fibers were marino wool, pashmina or cotton. They served us a variety of drinks plus a snack. I had strong Turkish coffee. It is made with the sugar in it already. When I was done there was a thick layer on sludge at the bottom of the cup. Delicious. Don had the famous apple tea which is very similar to our hot apple cider.
The afternoon was spent going through the Hagia Sophia which is one of the world's great buildings. Completed 1500 years ago as a church, it became a mosque in 1453 then a museum in 1935. After this we had an hour in the famous Grand Bazaar. Actually, it had maybe ten or twelve different stores repeated over and over. The jewelry was out of sight "glitter" -- quite ugly. The ceramics are gaudy and unsafe as they likely have lead.
Friday, September 12, 2014
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