Vacation 2003 Journal/Pics

Day 1 - July 1st/2nd

My travel to Turkey was pretty uneventful. I boarded my plane in Denver at 9:00pm-ish local time. I arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at around Noon local time. 3 hours later, I went to board my plane to Turkey and encountered a travel-first for me. The Turkish staff manning the gate for this flight was employing a drug/bomb/whatevah sniffing dog. He was really cute in a scruffy stray street dog sort of way. Anyway, of course I passed his sniff test with flying colors and proceeded on my way to Istanbul. I arrived at like 10pm local time. I paid my blood money for a Turkish Visa (100 US) and went through passport control. For some ridiculous reason the visa guy put my stuff on like the 5th entry page in my passport, so it took the stamp guy a few moments to figure out where to stamp my entry. I picked up my baggage and some requested alcohol at the Duty Free shop and then proceeded to walk past the lazy customs guys. I imagine I could have brought anything I wanted into the country without declaring. ;)

Anyway, I met Toby on the way out. After the normal exchange of pleasantries, he gave me some sort of ID card belonging to one of his students, Celil (pronounced Jal-eel). It was to be used for the subways and buses in Turkey. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me anything about how it worked. So a few minutes later when we got to the train, Toby cruised smoothly through a turn-style and I found myself fumbling in front of one. I waved my card like a magic wand at the turn-style all the while nervously watching the police officer that was eyeing me with increasing interest. It looked like perhaps I would get to visit a Turkish prison on my first night in Istanbul, but as the officer approached, Toby quickly snatched the card out of my hand and depressed the metal circle on the back of it into a circular slot on the turn-style. I quickly went through and Toby waved me to continue as the officer called out. Toby exchanged some words in Turkish with the officer, showed him his card, and then caught up to me further down the tunnel. Crisis averted!

After a bit of travel, we arrived at Toby's apartment on the campus of the school he teaches at, Darussafaka. We spent a few hours on his balcony talking and drinking the duty free alcohol before turning in for the night.

Toby in some weird outfit.

Toby's Kitchen.

Toby's Bedroom.
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Day 2 - July 3rd

We started off the day by taking a bus to the old part of Istanbul, Sultanahmet. We had a brief on-the-go breakfast consisting of Pogaca(pronounced Pocha), which is basically a kind of Turkish roll, it was good. Next up, we walked across to the Southern End of the Galata bridge which crosses the Golden Horn. We walked past and kind of under a Mosque(New Mosque I believe, Yeni Cami) and into the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. Just imagine huge piles of different colored spices, jewelry, and rugs and you get the picture. Definitely had a very distinctive smell, a good smell, which I can't really describe I'm afraid. Anyway, it was really neat. From there we proceeded to the Basilica Cistern. There are cistern's all over Istanbul. They provided water to the people going back as far as the Roman Empire. Picture an underground setting, Roman columns stretching into the distance, a wooden walkway winding through the columns, and of course, a layer of water completely covering the bottom of the whole place. One of the most interesting things about this place is that every one of the columns is different. They had been cannabilized from other Roman buildings as time went on.

Next up, we went to Haghia Sophia(Ayasofya, "The Church of Holy Wisdom"). Amazing. Words really can't describe how fantastic this place is. It has been standing for over 1400 years now, since Emperor Justinian had it built in the 6th Century AD. It spent a good portion of its life as a Church and then was turned into a Mosque in the 1400s. Around 60 years ago it became a museum. I have a lot of pictures of this place, so I will hold off on the descriptions.

We broke for lunch. I had a Pide(pronounced Pee-Day), which is essentially a Turkish flat bread pizza. It had cheese and some form of mystery meat on it. It was quite good. :) After lunch, we went to Topkapi Palace. This place was the seat of the Ottoman Sultan's from the mid 1400s with Mehmet II, until the mid 1800s. The palace itself is kind of impressive, however, the real treat here are the museums inside now. The treasures held inside run the gamut from the simple(silverware, cups, pottery), to the horribly ornate(golden thrones, full suits of golden jewel adorned chainmail, jeweled daggers, etc). But by far, the strangest and most memorable things in Topkapi are the Religious icons and sacred objects. Among other things, John the Baptists hand(I kid you not! I looked it up and apparently it was stolen by the Turks at some point...at least according to the Christians), various clippings from Mohammed's beard, some soil from his grave, his footprint, and some of his teeth. I don't have pictures of any of this stuff, I'm truly sorry, but if you really want to know more and/or look through some pictures, they can be found here.

After we got kicked out of the palace at closing time, we went and got some dinner at a place called Ali Baba's. I'm pretty sure I had the Cop Sis here(Pronounced Chope Shish). Cop means garbage. Hehe. But in terms of meals, this basically means it was like a mixed grill. It was Lamb, Chicken, Yogurt, Rice, Cracked Wheat, and some doner I think, which is like spit roasted mystery meat that roasts all day long and they slice thin slices off of it. It was all really good. We then took a ride on a Ferry on the Bosphorous. After the Ferry ride, I had experienced pretty much every form of mass transit that Istanbul had to offer.

Mass Transportation in Turkey is fascinating really. Istanbul, as an example, is a city of well over 10 million people. It seems to me, that a hell of a lot of those people make use of mass transit. Like any big city, a lot of the bus and rail transportation is standing room only a lot of the time. In Turkey this seems to be amplified slightly by the Turkish peoples utter lack of a "personal bubble". This translates into packing people in to these things like sardines. Speaking of packed like sardines, one of the popular forms of mass transit in Turkey is the Dolmus(pronounced Dole-Moosh), which means quite literally, stuffed. These are like mini-buses like you would find a hotel running from airports here in the states. They are designed to seat maybe 10 people, but instead, each ride becomes like a circus clown car event where you have like 25 people stuffed into every nook and cranny in the vehicle. AND, the Dolmus driver will continue to honk at passerby and try and get them to also join the fun and take a ride. I swear that I am not exaggerating for effect here. :) With the way that I've described the density of passengers on these things, you'd think that perhaps there is a shortage of them. Not a chance. Any random glance down the street will yield a view of many buses, taxis and dolmus jockying for position. In fact, in the few random pictures of mosques I took that happened to also take in the street, there were always at least 1 of each in the picture.

The Golden Horn off the Galata bridge. Far to the left is a piece of Topkapi.

The Golden Horn and a mosque I cannot identify.

Toby on the Galata Bridge. I believe that is Yeni Cami in the middle.

The Galata Bridge, 1 bus, 1 dolmus, 5+ taxis.

Medusa pillar in the Basilica Cistern.

*** 12 second movie(4mb) - Inside of Haghia Sophia. Right click and save as.

Inside of Haghia Sophia.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Toby.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Vase.

Inside of Haghia Sophia.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Toby, staircase.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Toby, eyes closed.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Pigeon.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Same shot, different lighting.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - looking out at fountain.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - fountain part deux.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Mosaic.

Inside of Haghia Sophia.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Mosaic, Toby.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Mosaic.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Mosaic - Constantine IX, Zoe and Christ.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - looking out at Blue Mosque.

Inside of Haghia Sophia - Mosaic Archway.

Outside of Haghia Sophia.

Outside of Haghia Sophia - Me.

Outside of Haghia Sophia - Fountain.

Outside of Haghia Sophia - Fountain, Me squinting.

Outside of Blue Mosque from same spot as Sophia pictures.

Outside of Blue Mosque - Closer.

Bosphorous from a Ferry.

An Ataturk statue face on a seemingly random wall.

View of 3 mosques from Topkapi Palace.

Me on outskirts of Topkapi Palace, Bosphorous behind.

Me in Topkapi Palace, rare toothy smile!
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Day 3 - July 4th

Today we started out by visiting the Grand Bazaar, the oldest and largest closed bazaar in the world. This place was seriously a trip. Its like a small city. There are thousands of different shops here, set up along numerous criss crossing/twisting corridors/streets. Pretty much anything you can imagine was on sale here somewhere: Antiques, carpets, fabric, books, clothes, precious metals, leatherwork, ceramics, water pipes, etc. It was quite easy to get thoroughly lost inside this place. Toby took me to see Nick the Calligrapher, who does some amazing paintings onto leaves. I can't possibly describe them, just go take a look for yourself at his website. I vowed to visit his shop again before I left Turkey. I'm afraid I took no pictures in the Grand Bazaar. Sorry, dunno what I was thinking. You can go here if you want to see a few pictures of the place.

After the Bazaar, we took in the Turkish Archaelogical Museums. I don't remember enough about everything we saw here to speak intelligently about it, but needless to say, it involved lots of sarcophagi, statues, pottery, stone tablets, etc. One example of a stone tablet to be found here is The Treaty of Kadesh, written in Akkadian, way back in 1269 BC! Similar writings and coins from those eras were common. As Turkey, throughout time, was kind of a central point for trade and travel for the whole area, the collections here include things from many surrounding countries, such as Egypt, Palestine and Syria. We spent a loooong time here.

After the museums, we had some lunch. This time I had Kuzu Sis(Shish) or lamb kebab. It was served with cracked wheat and was pretty yummy. I really liked the lamb in Turkey. It became my safety net food to always fall back on. After lunch we spent a bit of time at an internet cafe, and then proceeded into a section of Istanbul called Taksim.

Taksim is essentially "downtown" Istanbul. It is like the party place where all the young people go. It had a very familiar and nice feeling for me. :) If I'm not mistaken, I believe we ended up having schlotzky's for dinner here. Yes, Yes, I know, how could I. ;) We met one of Toby's friends and fellow teachers, Molly. We spoke to some of her English students for a bit and then went back to Molly's place for some ice cream and conversation. Molly's house has like a patio on the roof of what must be at least a 4 story building. It was absolutely beautiful looking out on the city at night from her patio. I really need to pummel myself for not getting any pictures from here. :( After Molly's we had to power hike over to the bus station pick up. We boarded a night bus to Cannukale. Side note: Our tickets just had seat numbers in the spot where our names were supposed to be, so you can call me "44."

Outside of the New Mosque I think, Yeni Cami.

Museum - Toby with a statue.

Museum - Toby with a statue, posing.

Museum - Toby with a Lion of Babylonian Bricks.

Museum - Babylonian Bricks, no idea what animal that would be.

Museum - Corpse!

Museum - The Alexander Sarcophogas, look at that detail!

Museum - Again, Closer.

Museum - Toby with a Roman statue.

Please forgive me, I couldn't help myself.
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Day 4 - July 5th

Our bus pulled up near Cannukale around sunrise. We got off the bus and met a Turkish fellow who worked for the travel company we were taking a tour with that day. We had a few moments to wash up a bit and relax, and then we shared some tea and some borek (boo-rek), which is sort of a bready/cheesy Turkish food. We were on the European side of Turkey, so we took a ferry across the Sea of Marmara I believe (or at least a small part of it) to the Asian side of Turkey. Once there, we met up with our Troy tour guide and spent a few hours touring the ruins.

About mid-day, we again boarded a bus, this time heading to Ephesus, or more specifically the city of Selcuk. For this trip, my name was changed to "43". On the way, I beat Toby at chess and we had doner sandwiches and Doritos A La Turka for lunch. Brief aside here, the two Turkish Doritos flavors are bar-none, the best Doritos flavors that exist.

We arrived in Selcuk and were immediately mobbed by Turkish hotel owners and their various lackeys. We immediately walked away from them all and became the head of a parade for a brief time as they all chased after us waving their hotel brochures. One lady made a point of telling us that there were Korean girls at her hotel. I'm not quite sure what significance that was supposed to have. We eventually found our hotel of choice, the Hotel Bella. We had a nice Pide dinner at a local establishment, and then turned in after a bit of alcohol and a game of Tavla (like Turkish checkers). I beat Hassan at it my first time playing.

Toby on the Ferry.

View from Ferry, Our Asian side destination to the left.

Toby and Hassan in a mock-up of the Trojan Horse.

View from Troy, Where I stand to take this was once the coast.

Troy ruins.

Troy ruins - theatre.

*** 7 second movie(2.5mb) - Toby playing Tetris in our bus to Ephesus. Right click, Save As.
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Day 5 - July 6th

Woke up and had a traditional Turkish breakfast (cucumber, orange, olives, egg, bread, cheese, honey, tea). Then we walked over to the Temple of Artemis. This consists, unfortunately, of only two columns now. However, it was larger than the Parthenon in its prime, and was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. We then proceeded to Ephesus, an old but excellently preserved Roman city. I took enough pictures and video of this place that I will refrain from further description.

After Ephesus, we took in the Ephesus museum, which included lots of Roman statuary. There was also a gladiator exhibit, which proved pretty fascinating. I had another Pide for lunch, and then we hopped on a dolmus to Kusadasi (Koo-sha-dah-seh), which means bird island. We briefly toured a castle known as Pigeon Island Castle and then went swimming in the Aegean Sea. It was very beautiful, but the water itself where we were was kind of dirty with little bits of fallen leaves. No pictures on this part of the trip I'm afraid, as I couldn't exactly take my camera swimming. :) We had some dinner and baklava for dessert while some little British kids played some game involving the word "five" nearby. Later that night, we played a Turkish game called Pishte, which is a card game involving capturing, cards in a central pile. I smoked Toby and Hassan at it. =)

By this day I had picked up a few Turkish words and phrases, which I will share with you. Bordisa Turkiye means, in essence, this is Turkey. It is used when you encounter something that really doesn't make much sense. Yabanci (Yah-bon-jeh) means foreigner or stranger. Su means water. Bir (beer) means one. Hiyir (higher) means no. Evet (eh-vet) means yes.