Memories... Visiting Out!

Wow, while writing yesterday's post, I was surprised by how many people visited in Italy! Not all of them came specifically to visit me, but I am still surprised by the sheer number of visitors I had. I also did a good amount of visiting myself. Here's where I visited:

• In December 2011, I headed to London to stay with Miranda. I also got to see Peter, a sweet family friend. He took me to his print shop! I had so much fun doing all the Christmas stuff there. London really is a smashing place to be.




• I visited home for the winter holidays. Ross and I made it out to Christmas with my family.


• I mentioned yesterday that when Ross was here we visited his sister Dawn in Paris for a few days.




• I visited in the US in March for Esther and Tom's wedding at West Point. That's a beautiful campus!


• I had lots of visitors in April, May, and June, so while I did visit some other cities in Italy during that time (like Riccione, as mentioned in my last post!), I didn't go for travel anywhere else until my cousin Ferg's wedding in Newport Beach. Ross joined me for that. A fun time hanging out with all the relatives!


• During true Italian Vacation Time (aka August), I headed for 11 days in Germany and Luxembourg. Esther and I saw the whole country of Luxembourg in one weekend, it was awesome. I spent a couple nights visiting with my friend Stacy in Oberkochen in the middle of that time. It's a really picturesque spot in the summer! Then Esther and I joined her husband's family near Worms for a weekend of wine. I had a blast!




• I mentioned that I traveled to Rome, Venice, and Florence and the like with visiting friends and family during the fall. My only "independent" trip in that time was to a conference in Istanbul. Now that's a cool city, layers of history underneath but modern and happening on the surface, with great food. I also had a blast with the other conference participants, they were fun. I would give Istanbul high marks, worth a trip.

I had a lot of awesome trips. While I did do a lot of visits back to the US (one for Christmas, two for weddings), I made it out a few times. I really did more traveling within Italy. I was lucky that I had so many visitors!

Istanbul Odds and Ends

I still have a few Istanbul things I want to share! First off, the evil eye. At our hotel, there were protecting eyes on the elevator plaques.



I bought a glass eye bracelet, to wear with my Rome bracelet! Linda, is yours still in one piece?



This is a simit, sort of like a sesame bagel. A popular street food in Istanbul.



Istanbul is full of cats and dogs. They don't seem to fight. The cats seemed particularly calm and confident. I saw this cat just sleeping in a shop window.



I also liked the ever-present ablution taps.



I think I am finally finished talking about Istanbul. I really enjoyed the city, and would definitely recommend it as a destination!

Topkapi

Saturday afternoon I headed to Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman Empire. These gates are the entrance to the museum area.



A lot of the palace is open to see, along with different collections of treasures. This part is the Divan, where the sultan's advisors would confer. There's a little hidden window that the sultan could use to peek in at.



The palace is full of lovely decorations. Tiles, of course, are prevalent.



I loved the atmosphere and the decorations, but some of the collections were just amazing. The collection of arms and armor had some amazing pieces. Many of the swords are known properties of different sultans. The swords of the sultans were particularly amazing. Many of them have engraved blades with calligraphy inlaid in gold and hilts with jewels. There's also the true treasure collection, with huge diamonds and emeralds, thrones, and the famous Topkapi dagger.



The sunset was beautiful from the palace.

Saturday with the Students

Saturday I relaxed in the morning. I took my time at the breakfast buffet. I met up with Markus, Anne, and Kai at breakfast, so we could all go out sightseeing. We headed down to the Sultanahmet district. Some older tourists asked us to take their picture, and enthusiastically wanted to take ours for us! This is in front of the second gate of Topkapi Palace.



We were on our way to the Blue Mosque. I thought it was quite beautiful, but I must admit I had thought it would be bluer!



Since it's still a house of worship, you must remove your shoes and women must cover their hair.



The mosque is in great shape, it doesn't look 400 years old. The interior designs are amazing. It would be cool to be able read all the calligraphy. Most of the mosque is blocked off for worshipers, so we just sat on the carpet and admired the interior from one vantage. We started walking back toward Hagia Sophia and Topkapi, and got distracted by this candy-maker.



I treated Kai to a candy. Mine was kiwi and sour cherry. The candy doesn't harden, it's halfway between a hard candy and molasses in texture.



We sat down in the square and had a little lunch snack, before we parted ways, them for Hagia Sophia, and me for Topkapi...

Friday in Istanbul

Friday the conference had a day at Tubitak, one of the government research labs of Turkey. The institute is on the Asian side, and the grounds overlook the Marmara Sea.



Unfortunately, it took almost two hours to get there by bus, and well over that to get back to the hotel in the evening. One lady even missed her flight because we got back so late. I don't think it was the best idea to have a whole day event someplace so far away for a three day conference. I would prefer more paper session time for the conference instead. Or perhaps a visit to one of the universities in the city? Something easier to visit. It's just too binary a proposition for a conference that's so short. I was exhausted when we got back to the hotel. I ran into some of the German crowd, they were heading out for dinner at 8pm. I decided I really needed a rest instead, so I headed out for an early dinner on my own. (I made it back to the hotel by 9pm!) One of my high school friends, Rachel, suggested this place, Hamdi, and she was totally right on!



I loved the food I had there. I stuffed myself. Lentil soup to start, cold eggplant salad, thick yogurt with garlic and herbs, and cılı ezme, a chili-walnut paste, all with bread. Pomegranate juice. And Hamdi's baklava. I did a pretty good job on all that!



I am happy I made it to Hamdi. It's a pretty famous place, and everyone I mentioned it to has said "great but expensive". I have to say the food was great, but really, the price wasn't high compared to eating out in Milan. It was definitely the best meal I had in Istanbul!

Bosphorus Cruise

Thursday night, the gala dinner for the conference was on a Bosphorus Cruise! We took off near the Dolmabahçe Mosque. The traffic getting to the boat was crazy! They actually had us get out and walk the last few blocks.



The boat had lots of nice outdoor seating, so we could enjoy the view as we cruised along. In the background of this shot is the Bosphorus Bridge, which has an LED light system that cycles through several colors and patterns. In this shot it's in the middle of its rain sequence.



We had dinner indoors. The food on the boat was OK, but not as good as the restaurant food! The conference speeches were kept to a minimum. After dinner we got another look at the sights. This is Rumelihisarı, the castle near the second Bosphorus bridge.



I had a really good time just enjoying the view from the boat, and got to chat with a few more people. It was a good evening, but we didn't get back to the hotel until eleven thirty or so, it was a long day so I was pretty wiped out.

Thursday Spice Market

After Hagia Sophia, I ran into Martin and his friend Robert at the hotel, on their way to the Spice Market. They talked me into joining them, and it was great. The Spice Market was a manageable size and crowd level. And it did smell great in there.



Spices were popular, as were teas. All the booths had plenty of workers, and while they weren't shy to start talking to you, they weren't super aggressive.



Besides spices and teas, there were candies, jewelry, scarves and other clothes, toiletries, toys, and more. One of the coolest things we saw were natural sponges. Robert ended up buying one for his son.



We ended up at stall 54 buying spices. Martin and Robert both bought a lot of different things for their wives, which we all enjoyed tasting. I bought just star anise, and I think the price I got was alright.



It was a fun distraction from the conference!

Hagia Sophia

On Thursday I took a little time to see the Hagia Sophia. I think this was my favorite "sight" that I saw. When you go to see Hagia Sophia, you are too close to it to take a good picture of the outside. It's just that big. So these are all interior shots of the magnificent building!



All the mosques I visited had beautiful chandeliers. They're usually hung low, as they used to utilize oil lamps that weren't so bright and required a lot of tending. You can see them here in this shot of the interior through the Imperial Gates.



This was the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years, built by Emperor Justinian. It was converted into a mosque in the 1400's. The original architectural decorations were already fairly geometric in nature, as they were in a Byzantine style. You can see some of the conversion decorations in the background here, including the giant calligraphic shields with names of prophets. You can see the incredible patterned marbles on the floor too.



Empress Zoe mosaic was neat. These are leftovers from the Christian era, I believe they were plastered over while it was a mosque.



Overall, I was really impressed with Hagia Sophia. I followed the tour in the Rick Steves guidebook I borrowed from Esther and it led me all around the building, describing the obvious stuff, and pointing out the slightly off track stuff, like the pillar of St. Gregory, with the miracles and all that. If you go to Istanbul, don't miss this place!

Late Wednesday Night

After dinner, we wandered around the Galata tower. Matthias convinced us that going to a shot bar was the correct idea. The place we ended up going had some kind of odd sombrero thing going on. Funny hats mandatory. The nine of us decided on a four shot course.



Luckily, these were "cocktail" shots, with very low alcohol content, so it was not a terrifying prospect to finish them all. They were quite sweet. I'm not saying there was no effect, based on the smiles in the photos!



We decided to walk back to the hotel, which really only took about 20 minutes after we stopped and admired Galata Tower. This is an Italian relic in Istanbul. The Genovese had a trade center in Istanbul, and built this tower in the 1300's.



We walked down the hill to the Galata Bridge, and crossed over to our side of town. Even late in the evening, there were lots of fisherman lining the bridge. That's the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent in the background.



I was ready for bed when I got back to the hotel!

Wednesday in Istanbul

Wednesday was my first full day in Istanbul, thus the first morning I got to have delicious hotel breakfast. The conference was at the Legacy Ottoman Hotel, and like I said, it's in a great location. It also has an excellent breakfast buffet, with all kinds of fruit, cheeses, pastries, hot food, sweets, drinks, on and on. It was just a huge buffet. I stuffed myself. And then I headed down for the conference opening and keynotes.



I attended the whole day of talks and such. They served us lunch at the hotel, which was pretty decent. The day ended with a cocktail reception at Marmara University, near the Blue Mosque. This is the scene from right outside.



Since they weren't doing dinner for us that night, I left with a bunch of the young German contingent, to join for dinner in the new district, in the Galata area. The street decorations and busy shopping atmosphere reminded me of London and Verona. A very European feel.



The restaurant we went to for dinner had four stories of dining area, with tourists and locals mixed in. We made it all the way up to the top story terrace, where it was a little chilly but gave a good view of the street. Most of us started with lentil soup, it's really the thing in Istanbul. I finally got to have ayran, a yogurt drink, much like a salty lassi.



We ate all kinds of mezze (starters). I didn't have it in me to have coffee so late at night, but Kai did and Rene told his fortune from the grounds!



One of the professor, Matthias, was kind enough to get dinner for all nine of us. It was a good meal with good company and atmosphere!

Istanbul!

Istanbul! From the airplane, it's a huge city. I got different answers from different people for the number of inhabitants of the city, from 12 to 20 million. You can see waves of expansion in the developments of apartment complexes that stretch out from the city's historic core. I got to experience that on the ground, too. I took the Metro and Tram from Ataturk airport to my hotel, between Sirkeci and the Spice Bazaar, in the thick of the old district. On getting to the hotel, I was lucky enough to be greeted by the conference chair, Dr. Seliger, who introduced me to a bunch of the Berlin contingent. I joined them for dinner in the Sultanahmet neighborhood. We ended up at a sort of touristy restaurant, but it still had good food. I split all this stuff with Markus, another vegetarian. Mushroom casserole, cheese-stuffed bread, hummus, and stuffed eggplants. Yum.



After dinner we stopped by a bakery and had our first taste of real Turkish Delight.



We walked back past the hotel to the Galata Bridge. Instead of heading up and over, we stayed on the lower level to find a place to enjoy views and beers.



It was a slow night, so we were able to sit right on the water. This picture isn't great, but you can see the lines of the fisherman that cast from the upper level of the bridge. The bright streak up the middle of the photo is a line being hauled in, with a small catch. The fishermen swing their lines under the bridge when they cast them, over the heads of the restaurant patrons. It adds a level of excitement to your evening!



We drank Efes, a Turkish pilsner, which I enjoyed. It was a good start to the conference, and I spent more time out on the town with these folks over the course of the trip.