Blogs from Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 14

One Thursday morning three kids showed up at our front door. I thought it might be the neighbors asking me to turn down the music. They've never complained before but there's always a first time. So I throw on some pants and I open the door and there are three kids standing there, two boys and a little blonde girl all decked out in their Sunday best except that here it isn't Sunday best; I think that it's more of a Friday best thang and the younger boy is making a show out of hitting a nail with a hammer that he's slapped together out of a couple of twigs that looks like a crucifix quickly constructed in a Blair Witch woods to ward off a vampire, and the older boy, who's about ten years old, ... read more

For day 3, we started our day at Topkapi Palace which served as the sole administrative palace for the Ottoman sultans for more than 400 years. It's quite the complex, and again the Iznik tile work was the most amazing of anything we've seen thus far. There are two areas in the palace that you have to wait in a super long line to get in, the first being the treasury that has golden cradles, swords, and the jewelry of the sultans. It features an 86 carat diamond and a literal bowl full of emeralds. Stunning! The second is the Holy Relics room which has the supposed staff of Moses and the footprint & beard hair from Mohammed. Walking through was like being herded cattle! After the palace we went back to the same place for ... read more

Slept in this morning and had a slow start before we headed out and started making our way to the Grand Bazaar that is over 500 years old and has appx. 4400 shops inside. This market was immediately different from others we have experienced in the world. First, it's indoors. Second, there are actual store fronts and "shop areas" not booths/stalls. And third, far less aggressive shop keepers than in other countries. There was definitely the haggling for price, but not as extreme as with previous trips. About 2 minutes after walking in, we saw a carpet store with a nice rug in the window Matt commented on. The shop owner was an older gentleman and asked if we knew anything about Turkish carpets and we told him very little. He told us he was 4th ... read more

Nach langer Vorbereitung ist es soweit - meine Reise nach Osten, soweit der Osten reicht, hat begonnen. Und welcher Ort wäre passender für den Übergang von Europa nach Asien als Istanbul, der riesige Schmelztiegel am Bosporus (Platz 23 auf der Liste der größten Metropolen der Welt), der sich über beide Kontinente erstreckt! Es ist nun bereits mein fünfter Tag in der Stadt, und bereits jetzt kommt es mir vor, als würden mich Welten von meinem alten Leben und der alten Heimat trennen. Es wird also Zeit auf die ersten Tage zurückzublicken, während ich auf der Dachterrasse meiner Unterkunft im Stadtteil Beyoglu sitze und Chai schlürfe. Tag eins begann mit der Ankunft auf dem im asiatischen Teil gelegenen Flughafen Sabiha Gökcen. Und mit IM meine ich, daß die Häuser bis zur Landebahn reichten und die Dächer bei ... read more

So yes, we really do owe this trip to Dan Brown and his book, Inferno. It was through it and his descriptions that we knew we had to visit Isanbul. It is the only city in the world that spans two continents, Europe and Asia. Not to mention its amazing history spanning the Byzantine, Ottoman, and Roman empires that are all still seen today. Speaking of today, Istanbul is home to more than 20 million people....it's immense! We started out the trip with a stressful, rainy drive to JFK and found our 12:30am flight was delayed. Matt and I are early birds so must admit we were both falling asleep in the waiting area! We took off about 1.5 hours late on Ukranian Air, which I now call the International Spirit Airlines. We got an amazing ... read more