We've spent the past 3 days in Istanbul. It's an amazing city. So much history, so many people...it's overwhelming. But first, let's pick up where we left off.
We arrived in Bodrum, Turkey, via ferry from Kos. We spent the day walking around the busy port city, visiting the castle and its underwater archeology museum and getting our first tastes of the amazing Turkish cuisine. We also saw one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum of Helicarnassus. It was strange that we were the only tourists there--but then again, there's not all that much there to see. That evening we decided to go see The Matrix 2. Either they had a really crappy projector, or had a copy of a copy, because the sound and film quality wasn't all that great, but it was still entertaining. We laughed when halfway through the movie they paused for a 10 minute intermission so everyone can have their smoke break.
From Bodrum, we headed up to Selcuk to visit Ephesus, probably the most impressive and well-preserved ancient Roman city. On our walk over to Ephesus from Selcuk, we got to see another of the Seven Wonders, the Temple of Artemis. There's actually even less to see here--just a single column in a large rectangular pool of water. Apparently there's more of it in the British Museum.
The highlight of our few days in Selcuk, though, was our home there, Homeros Pension. When we arrived, after fending off the hordes of men at the bus station trying to convince us to go to their hostels, we were greeted by Oya, a very friendly and talkative woman who insisted we sit down and join her for lunch. Before we knew it we were being fed a yummy home-cooked meal. The rest of the stay was similarly enjoyable. Highlights include the jovial and energetic owner Dervish (Oya's brother), the free nighly "Sunset Wine" on the rooftop terrace, featuring suprisingly good homemade wine, made by Oya's husband, followed by huge dinners made by Oya and her mother. (One night's dinner included zucchinis that we bought for Oya that day at a local market.)
If there were more to do in the Selcuk area, we would have loved to have stayed longer. Alas, there isn't, so after a couple days we took a night bus to Istanbul.
We've hit many of the main tourist attractions--the Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia, the Palace, the underground water reserve, the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. Much of our time has been spent just wandering the streets, though. It can be like a video game; people everywhere, cars going down the smallest, most pedestrian-packed streets...crazy.
The best part has been the food, however. Yesterday we were treated to a day of decadence by Ceyda, one of Jacqueline's father's students, home in Istanbul for vacation. Lunch was in a famous 200-year-old restaurant in the entrance to the Spice Bazaar. She didn't even bother with the menu; she just talked to the waiter and asked what was fresh. We ate foods that we would have never discovered on our own. It was after 3pm when we left, so Ceyda moved our dinner reservations back an hour. Later, she took us for dessert and coffee at another Istanbul institution, where we had a tableful of sweets, including a wonderful sticky concoction called "Chicken Breast" (but in Turkish), and actually made with chicken (have you ever had a meat dessert before?). We rolled out of there stuffed to the gills and immediately moved our dinner reservations back another hour. Before dinner, we went to a tea house where Ceyda introduced us to the water pipe. Although the tabacco is heavily filtered through water, both of us, not used to tabacco, got quite light-headed. Ceyda's boyfriend joined us there, and we all went to dinner together. Despite still being full, we still managed to consume large amounts of food, including pistachio kebab, walnut meatballs baked in a bulgar shell, and many other delicacies. It was a fabulous day; there's nothing like getting a tour--culinary or otherwise--by a local.
We woke up this morning with a food hangover. We're going to try to walk it off today, maybe do some shopping (are you serious about a rug, mom?). Tonight we're taking a night bus to Cappadoccia, an area in Central Turkey filled with strange volcanic rock formations, some of which have been turned into dwellings. There's also a mountainous region nearby where we hope to do some hiking. We've spent too much time in cities in the last week--we need our nature fix.
We might not be near computers much over the next few days, so it might be a while before the next post.
Cheers,
-b & j
Posted by brad at June 7, 2003 03:04 AM