Istanbul, Constantinople... The title was Brandon's idea and he started singing, but doesn't know the words to the song. If you don't know what I am am talking about, don't worry about it.
On to other things.
Love the Bazaars! They are full of color, smells, activity, and well, people. Everywhere and I can just imagine how this very touristy area called Sultanamet would be in the summer at the height of tourist season. We toured Topkapi palace yesterday and it took about 4 hours. It was the home of the Sultan built and redesigned over a 600 year period, I believe. Our first stop in the palace was the Harem. I can imagine that this was the most exotic portion of the palace. We have a few pictures that do not do it justice. Once thing I love about the palace and alot of the places here is the porceline tiles in beautiful vibrant colors, but mostly shades of blue, green, and red. I regret that I have to haul my pack around for another 2 weeks otherwise I would spend a fortune on tiles and plates and beautiful ceramics. The carpets are beautiful too, but I love the ceramics. Thanksfully, for my wallet's sake, we are leaving Istanbul tomorrow evening.
Today we left after breakfast (bread, jam, cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, and delicious turkish tea) on the ferry for a tour of the Bosphorous. It was a great day to do this since it rained the whole morning. In the rain we hiked up to the castle at the entrance of the Bosphorous connecting it to the Black sea. The Bosphorous connects Turkey (Istanbul) to the rest of Europe and Asia. Speaking of Asia...we spent 3 hours on the Asian shore today and tomorrow, our bus departs from the Asian side of Istanbul. I can add another continent to my list, not that I'm counting. :O)
Somehow I forgot that we were coming to an Islamic (partially) country at the height of Ramadan. It ends on 19 September, the day before we leave Turkey. During Ramadan, practicing Muslims fast from dawn to sunset. The foods lines get busier after this point. Throughout the day we hear Islamic prayers over loud speakers from all the many many Mosques around Istanbul. It is very captivating.
Tomorrow we board our over night bus for Pamukkale. It leaves from Istanbul at 10pm and arrives just outside of Pamukkale at 7:30am. Because we're a bit crazy, we are taking the best bus line (Varan) in Turkey, or so the rumor goes. We'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Turkish delights, kabaps, baklava...
We arrived in Istanbul today. We easily took the metro to the area of Istanbul where our pension is located. We stepped off the metro between Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque. Beautiful buildings. They are even amazing at night. We will visit tomorrow. I bought a head scarf at the Grand Bazaar today for the occasion. Being a woman, I cannot enter the mosque without my head covered.I found a beautiful turkish silk printed scarf. :O)
For dinner we headed through town and up a hill. Plenty of flat bread and a meze platter to taste all the goods. Everything was delicious. We then stopped in a dessert shop for turkish delight, which is absolutely delightful.
Tomorrow we will wander through Topaki Palace and eat and eat. Everything we have had so far has been wonderful, hope we don't gain 20kg!
For dinner we headed through town and up a hill. Plenty of flat bread and a meze platter to taste all the goods. Everything was delicious. We then stopped in a dessert shop for turkish delight, which is absolutely delightful.
Tomorrow we will wander through Topaki Palace and eat and eat. Everything we have had so far has been wonderful, hope we don't gain 20kg!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Waddle and Daub
Yesterday we toured more of Kiev including the Lavra (another Ukranian Orthodox monestary complete with entombd monks in a couple of caves with shrivey, leathery hands) and the WWII monument. I'll tell you about that when we get back.
Today we headed out to Alister and Sarah's Dacha (or country home) in the countryside about 1 1/2 hours from Kiev. Beautiful area and the house needs lots (!) of work. We learned to waddle and daub. We're exhausted but are about to enjoy a classic Kiev torte so this is all for now and update this again later. Meanwhile, Google waddle and daub and pray for us because we just found out Istanbul is flooded as we speak.
Today we headed out to Alister and Sarah's Dacha (or country home) in the countryside about 1 1/2 hours from Kiev. Beautiful area and the house needs lots (!) of work. We learned to waddle and daub. We're exhausted but are about to enjoy a classic Kiev torte so this is all for now and update this again later. Meanwhile, Google waddle and daub and pray for us because we just found out Istanbul is flooded as we speak.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Do you speak Russian?
How about Ukranian? Neither do we. This has been the most difficult part about being in Ukraine. A lot of countries in Europe speak a lot of English and it's not that Ukranianians don't, but they are less apt to. Additionally, the alphabet is cyrillic, not Roman. This means that I can't read any of the signs. If you have ever wondered what it feels like to be illiterate, come to a country that doesn't use the same alphabet as we do in English, German, French, Spanish...just to name a few. So once I look at a sign, I must change to letters to their roman letter counter parts and not all the letters have a single letter equivelent. Then, I might be able to read the sign and sort of pronounce it, but since I don't have a Russian vocabulary, I can't understand it anyway. It's a sad sad state of affairs. Regardless... drast va tu! Hello!
We spent today and yesterday touring Kiev on foot mostly. The city is very spread out, but different parts of the city are accessible by subway and Kiev's subway is pretty good. We attended a reformed Christian church yesterday. It is Presbyterian. Most Ukranians are Christian, but are Ukranian or Russian Orthodox. Pictures of some of these churches to come. They are quite fasinating if you have never seen one. In so parts of the country are Roman catholic pockets. Kiev has a little bit of every religion I suspect since the population is 5 million people. (Yes, and most people live in apartment buildings built of cement) These past 2 days we have visited 3 churches and will visit the Lavra tomorrow, which is a monestary. Some of the churches date to the 11th century. They are so different from churches that I have seen in the states and western Europe. Gilded. That is my one word for them.
We visited the city square yesterday, where the Orange Revolution took place. Passed by huge government buildings. Strolled through the city's center square park. Took in some Ukranian live music. It was a fun way to pass a Sunday. Of course, Sarah topped it off with a roast chicken with carrots and potatoes. I can 99% guarantee that there were no antibiotics or hormones in that bird. It was delicious.
Today we visited the Chernobyl museum. It obviously is a newer museum since the tragedy occurred only 23 years ago. It was and is a tragedy. There still exists an exclusion zone. I was hoping to see recent info about the area, but the museum mostly focused on the 6 months after the tragedy, understandably.
Before coming to Ukraine, I knew basically nothing about the country and it's people. Considering all we have learned about their history, these people have my respect. Most people we have met are kind, gracious, and friendly really. If you ask for help (well when Sarah asks for help since she speaks Russian), they often take you right where you need to go but at the very least will point you on your way.
We spent today and yesterday touring Kiev on foot mostly. The city is very spread out, but different parts of the city are accessible by subway and Kiev's subway is pretty good. We attended a reformed Christian church yesterday. It is Presbyterian. Most Ukranians are Christian, but are Ukranian or Russian Orthodox. Pictures of some of these churches to come. They are quite fasinating if you have never seen one. In so parts of the country are Roman catholic pockets. Kiev has a little bit of every religion I suspect since the population is 5 million people. (Yes, and most people live in apartment buildings built of cement) These past 2 days we have visited 3 churches and will visit the Lavra tomorrow, which is a monestary. Some of the churches date to the 11th century. They are so different from churches that I have seen in the states and western Europe. Gilded. That is my one word for them.
We visited the city square yesterday, where the Orange Revolution took place. Passed by huge government buildings. Strolled through the city's center square park. Took in some Ukranian live music. It was a fun way to pass a Sunday. Of course, Sarah topped it off with a roast chicken with carrots and potatoes. I can 99% guarantee that there were no antibiotics or hormones in that bird. It was delicious.
Today we visited the Chernobyl museum. It obviously is a newer museum since the tragedy occurred only 23 years ago. It was and is a tragedy. There still exists an exclusion zone. I was hoping to see recent info about the area, but the museum mostly focused on the 6 months after the tragedy, understandably.
Before coming to Ukraine, I knew basically nothing about the country and it's people. Considering all we have learned about their history, these people have my respect. Most people we have met are kind, gracious, and friendly really. If you ask for help (well when Sarah asks for help since she speaks Russian), they often take you right where you need to go but at the very least will point you on your way.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
24 hours of travel
The first time I am able to hop on the internet.
Brandon and I left the morning of September 1st. We had hoped to catch an earlier flight out of Pittsburgh to Newark to assure ourselves that we would not miss our flight to London. We were unable to catch an earlier flight, but it didn't matter since all flights were on time and we connected to our international flight in the same terminal. The flight to London was long, but the air time was only about 5 1/2 hours which was pretty short. We had personal TV screens and we each watched a bag movie before attempting to sleep. Key word: attempt, we were pretty unsuccessful such that, when we arrived in London at 7am, we were pretty tired. We were in London long enough to take a bus to another terminal and figure out that they really do drive on the other side of the road, go through security again, and take in just enough British accents.
Our flight to Kiev was delayed by an hour or so; the only flight in the British Airways terminal to be delayed. I did not think this was a good omen. Our flight was smooth, but not in the literal sense since we experienced quite a bit of turbulence. We flew with a pretty rowdy group too and I think most of the people on the plane got up to use the bathroom at least once, maybe 2 or 3 times. Since we sat in the back by the bathroom, we noticed this and if we had not, the stewardesses yelling at people to sit down would have drawn our attention.
Since our flight was late, we arrived with 2 other international flights into Kiev. Passport control took about 45 minutes. I still don't have a stamp in my new passport either, but I must hold onto a slip of paper saying that I'm legal to be in the country.
Once we arrived at Sarah and Alister's apartment, we freshened up and repacked for our bags for an overnight train to Lviv. Our train left at 10:15pm and arrived at 6:30am. We had a new sleeper car. Although Sarah said a new car wasn't quite the experience of an old one, it was still a good experience. Brandon and I both slept well, probably because we were so exhausted.
Lviv is a pretty city near the Polish border. Being so close to Poland means that it has more European influence than Russian/Soviet. People mostly speak Ukranian in Lviv, opposed to Russian in Kiev. It didn't matter much as Brandon and I don't speak either, which has already gotten frustrating. Thank goodness for Sarah and her friend Olga! We stayed in a nice apartment at the City Center; close to all the action and food!
We took 2 buses to visit a castle out of town. Don't get any ideas of Sleeping Beauty's castle, it was much smaller and much less grand. It was recently restored and still being worked on. The ride out of the city took about 1 1/2 hours in a stuffy bus. It was worth it though! We saw plenty of countryside, part of the reason we toured this particular castle.
The next day we criss-crossed the city center, probably 6 times or so. We climbed over 400 stairs to the top of the court house clock tower to take in the entire city of Lviv, just less than 1 million people. We visited quite a few churches of many denominations, the armory and just before dinner climbed to the top of the nearest hill to have another overview of the city. Just about then the fog rolled in, obscuring our view. Did I mention that Lviv gets a lot of rain? We were lucky the first day, sunny with 80 degree temps, but not so lucky the second day.
We spent the rest of the evening in a cafe. We had our bags and our train didn't leave until 10:45pm. So we had dinner (Ukrainian food-drunken pork for me and meat/bread/veggies for Brandon), tried a bit of honey vodka (yum!), and local desserts (huckleberry strudel and baked apples...yeah, not so local, but tasty). We then took a very Soviet-era tram to the train station and settled in for the night. We unfortunately didn't sleep to much, not because it of the train necessarily, but probably because it was 5pm Eastern time and we still aren't quite adjusted. Ahh well, will probably get a cat nap sometime today.
Speaking of cats, Sarah's cat was definitely thrilled we were back home, safe and sound.
Brandon and I left the morning of September 1st. We had hoped to catch an earlier flight out of Pittsburgh to Newark to assure ourselves that we would not miss our flight to London. We were unable to catch an earlier flight, but it didn't matter since all flights were on time and we connected to our international flight in the same terminal. The flight to London was long, but the air time was only about 5 1/2 hours which was pretty short. We had personal TV screens and we each watched a bag movie before attempting to sleep. Key word: attempt, we were pretty unsuccessful such that, when we arrived in London at 7am, we were pretty tired. We were in London long enough to take a bus to another terminal and figure out that they really do drive on the other side of the road, go through security again, and take in just enough British accents.
Our flight to Kiev was delayed by an hour or so; the only flight in the British Airways terminal to be delayed. I did not think this was a good omen. Our flight was smooth, but not in the literal sense since we experienced quite a bit of turbulence. We flew with a pretty rowdy group too and I think most of the people on the plane got up to use the bathroom at least once, maybe 2 or 3 times. Since we sat in the back by the bathroom, we noticed this and if we had not, the stewardesses yelling at people to sit down would have drawn our attention.
Since our flight was late, we arrived with 2 other international flights into Kiev. Passport control took about 45 minutes. I still don't have a stamp in my new passport either, but I must hold onto a slip of paper saying that I'm legal to be in the country.
Once we arrived at Sarah and Alister's apartment, we freshened up and repacked for our bags for an overnight train to Lviv. Our train left at 10:15pm and arrived at 6:30am. We had a new sleeper car. Although Sarah said a new car wasn't quite the experience of an old one, it was still a good experience. Brandon and I both slept well, probably because we were so exhausted.
Lviv is a pretty city near the Polish border. Being so close to Poland means that it has more European influence than Russian/Soviet. People mostly speak Ukranian in Lviv, opposed to Russian in Kiev. It didn't matter much as Brandon and I don't speak either, which has already gotten frustrating. Thank goodness for Sarah and her friend Olga! We stayed in a nice apartment at the City Center; close to all the action and food!
We took 2 buses to visit a castle out of town. Don't get any ideas of Sleeping Beauty's castle, it was much smaller and much less grand. It was recently restored and still being worked on. The ride out of the city took about 1 1/2 hours in a stuffy bus. It was worth it though! We saw plenty of countryside, part of the reason we toured this particular castle.
The next day we criss-crossed the city center, probably 6 times or so. We climbed over 400 stairs to the top of the court house clock tower to take in the entire city of Lviv, just less than 1 million people. We visited quite a few churches of many denominations, the armory and just before dinner climbed to the top of the nearest hill to have another overview of the city. Just about then the fog rolled in, obscuring our view. Did I mention that Lviv gets a lot of rain? We were lucky the first day, sunny with 80 degree temps, but not so lucky the second day.
We spent the rest of the evening in a cafe. We had our bags and our train didn't leave until 10:45pm. So we had dinner (Ukrainian food-drunken pork for me and meat/bread/veggies for Brandon), tried a bit of honey vodka (yum!), and local desserts (huckleberry strudel and baked apples...yeah, not so local, but tasty). We then took a very Soviet-era tram to the train station and settled in for the night. We unfortunately didn't sleep to much, not because it of the train necessarily, but probably because it was 5pm Eastern time and we still aren't quite adjusted. Ahh well, will probably get a cat nap sometime today.
Speaking of cats, Sarah's cat was definitely thrilled we were back home, safe and sound.
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