Blogs from Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 3

Tuesday/Wednesday: Excited and enthusiastic we arrived early for the flight, which was delayed more than one hour leaving San Francisco. The fun of it was that we – meaning the crowd of folks scheduled on the flight – moved gates twice, each time getting to a higher number – 95, 97, 101. There was some fear that the plan was for us to walk to Istanbul in stages, but that proved to be untrue as we boarded, settled in and took off for our 12 hour 15 minute flight. Peggy slept most of the way while John watched all the movies he would never buy but was curious about. Peggy made a number of friends with the crew (a crew of 18 for this Boeing 777) by asking them to help her with her Turkish. The ... read more

We arrived in the morning to Istanbul after a brief 1 1/2hr flight from Athens. We easily took the train from the airport into the main tourist area of Sultanahmet where we walked to Hotel Basileus ($45). The hotel was lovely and the staff incredibly helpful and friendly, and the surrounding neighborhood was a beautiful 17th century style seaport that looked more like New Bedford, Massachusetts than Turkey. We already wished we had more time to spend in this city that has the perfect blend of East meets West. We wandered the serpentine medieval streets of this former Ottoman and Byzantine capital and viewed the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque from the hippodrome sandwiched in between them, where there now is a large Egyptian obelisk and Greek column which we recognized as pilfered from Egypt ... read more

Legend has it the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was in his garden one day. Unbeknownst to him, a deadly snake slithered into his presence. The serpent was poised to strike the prophet when it was pounced upon by a cat, thus saving the Prophet from a painful death. Muhammad stroked the cat’s head in gratitude, and it is said that the stripes that some cats have on their heads is the mark of the Prophet’s fingers. Now, I don’t know if this story is true, but I rather like it, even if I am more of a dog person. There are a number of hadith (collection of quotes purporting to be from Muhammad) that refer to cats, such as “A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good ... read more

Before I came to Istanbul I practiced saying no. “No, thank you.” “No, I’m just looking.” “No, I’m not interested.”“No, it’s too expensive.” “No, stop it.” “NO!” I learned to say no in Turkish as well as English. So how come I ended up in a rug shop drinking tea? I’m an early riser, and I like to get out and about. My first full day in Istanbul I just wanted to walk around and get my bearings before it got too hot and there were too many people around. I was in Sultanahmet Square headed to the Information Center. The bad part of that is that as a single woman who was obviously a visitor, I was a target for every carpet salesman in town. And since there aren’t a lot of tourists around yet, ... read more

Lauantai 6.6. Istanbul Lento meni hyvin lukuunottamatta puolituntista, jonka aikana kaikki räjähti käsiin. Just kun ruokakärry oli kohdalla, A alkoi huutaa täysillä, L:n piti päästä vessaan, tarjottimet liukui syliin, ruokailuvälineet lattialle, vedet penkille, mikään ei toiminut tai sujunut. Ja kuin taikaiskusta kaikki oli taas hyvin kun tarjottimet kerättiin. Pitäis varmaan suosiolla luopua koneruokailuista, mikä ei olis hirveä menetys. Meitä oli vastassa kuski nimikyltin kanssa, helpottavaa. Auto kiemurteli pikkukatuja, kunnes kääntyi ihan mahdottomasta kulmasta parikerroksisen puutalon eteen. Vastaan tuli yltiöystävällinen hotellinpitäjä, joka hymyili korvasta korvaan ja hoki tervetuloa. Tultiin ekaan kerrokseen, josta paljastui olohuone pikkukeittiöllä ja makuuhuone. A:lle oli matkasänky ja sen päällä vaipanvaihtoteline, L:lle oli tehty sänky olkkariin. Paikka on jotenk... read more