Berlin weekend blast

Berlin was a quick weekend filled with sightseeing, visiting with a friend, meeting her parents, and visiting with the Juneau-Gastineau Rotary Club's Exchange student in Berlin!

Friday was a long day with getting up early to get to the Moscow airport and then walking around with Laura  in Berlin in the late afternoon and evening.   We left the Moscow apartment at 7am and got to the airport a bit after 8 for my 11:15 flight.  Gave me time to spend my last 1000 rubles – about $30, on lattes and breakfast.  There was a grouchy old woman on the plane who tried to take my seat – not too sure what that was all about as I couldn’t understand her, but I almost had to push her onto the other side of the aisle where her seat was!  Not really, but it seemed like it!  When I arrived in Berlin, passport control, baggage claim and getting my “Welcome Berlin” card for 48 hours of transit and discounts off of miscellaneous things that I will never get a discount on, all went smoothly and I even walked right out the front door and caught the bus that pulled up at the same time.  It took me a couple minutes to orient myself as to where I was when I got off the bus, but finally figured it out and headed right for the hostel.  Not bad.  In a room with two other girls, and when I got back after my first round of sightseeing with Laura, I was kind of surprised to find them both in the room: one reading and the other typing away! 

Laura met me at the hostel and we took off to see the highlights of Berlin.  I stayed in East Berlin in an area known as Mitte – which means middle. We headed down past the Radio Tower, a cathedral, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the Victory Column.  We were heading back to the center, past the Holocaust Memorial and to a Christmas Market when it started to rain.  We were right outside the Komische Opera House where we saw people entering.  We ran inside, asked what was playing and if there were tickets.  We scored with tickets to the Die Fledermaus Operetta and watched that through two acts, when our hunger got the most of us and we took of in search of dinner!  Found a small Italian restaurant and I had Minestrone Soup and a salad.

Saturday I was up early and met Laura at 9:00am; we were at the Pergamon Museum at 9:50 ready to go.  I really wanted to go to this museum as it has items from Pergamon in Turkey in it – kind of final, pull-it-all-together visit.  There was a special exhibit – a full panorama of the Acropolis of Pergamon that required us to climb to a platform in the interior of a cylindrical building and then we could walk around 360 degrees to see the panorama of the whole city. It showed the place in daylight and at night, and there were the sounds of the birds, dogs, animals and people, which added to the whole experience.  It was wonderful to finish my Turkey experience by seeing the alter of Zeus and the gate to the market area.  The gate is made of 60% of the original materials and 40% of other materials allowing for the gate to have been rebuilt inside the museum.  The alter re-creation is really the friezes from around the base of it, with panels of the original pieces put together the best they could.  There are big gaps and pieces missing, but it is still quite impressive.

After a quick break, we were off again – Laura was a great tour guide because we walked past a couple of places were we ended up seeing things we hadn’t originally intended, but they were very interesting.  The New Synagogue was spared during what was called “crystal night” in 1938 when all of the Jewish people in the area were rounded up and their homes destroyed, but it was pretty much blown to nothing during the allied bombings.  It was restored in 1995 and was quite beautiful from the outside.  The Moorish gold dome has become a Berlin landmark and police now guard it around the clock.

Not far from there, we wandered into an old style apartment block complex that was common before the war.  There are only a few left in the city.  From the street, you enter a courtyard, and the apartments around that courtyard where the nicest.  As you proceed through more arches, into subsequent courtyards, the apartments became less expensive.  One of these now houses a theatre and is real upscale, and the one next to it is more the rough Berlin with graffiti and outdoor art…

We went past these two places while we were heading to the East Side Gallery, which is a portion of the Berlin wall that did not come down.  During the day, there was art on the west side’s wall, but not on the east side’s.  In 1990 art was done on the East side of the remaining wall and this art has been redone several times.  This section is over a mile long and has work by 118 different artists from 24 countries.

Back onto the train for a trip to a Christmas market, we chowed down on different foods and caught a bit of a performance of the Nutcracker by a children’s dance group.  I got to enjoy a Hungarian Langos!  Most of the booths were food, but the location was pretty cool, with churches at either end of the square.

We were pretty exhausted at this point, so back to the hostel we went and regrouped.  Laura looked at photos from Turkey as she is planning a trip there next summer.  We had dinner with her parents in a traditional German restaurant and I had a white beer with some green liquid in it made from a forest herb.  We couldn’t figure out the name in English at the time; but Laura figured out when she got home that it is called sweet woodruff in English.  Anyway, I had that along with a pad dish of potatoes, veggies and a little bit of sausage.  My one German meal here!

Both of Laura’s parents are journalists; her father a newspaper editor and her mother a freelance radio (reporter?)  It was very interesting talking to them about before and after the GDR.

Today I was up early again, this time to meet Jonah, my Rotary Club’s exchange student who is living in Berlin!  We met at the hostel and then walked around a bit: it was good to hear his stories on how he is adjusting and about some of the things he has been able to do.  His host family is actually from Poland; the father is the Polish Ambassador to Germany!  (Oh no, or was it that he was the head of the Polish Consulate here?)   Whichever, he has had some great opportunities to go places and meet people and has more to come.  I think he will look back at this year wih amazement at all the opportunities later.

Here's the link to all the Berlin pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/Berlin112527201102?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzJitD-0ZGFUQ

Moscow This and That

The doors here seem to be really heavy and you have to watch out when entering the subway, as the door swings way back and you could easily break a wrist if you tried to catch it at the wrong place.

Women wear beautiful coats: puffy, wool, leather, fur.  And they are not afraid to wear hats, some of which are quite styled, or their hoods with their face beautifully surrounded by fur.  It's been about 20 degrees and they are bundled up with their fur coats, hats, scarfs, gloves and boots.  I can't imagine that most of the boots I am seeing are very warm, as they are leather and healed --- I remember watching the women in Hungary getting around on the ice in their stiletto heals -- there is no ice here yet, so not sure if they leave these boots on or trade them out for something more comfortable.  One thought that runs through my mind, is that they must have a selection of winter coats, as some are long, others short, etc.  Oh, and of course, there are young girls and 20-somethings wearing boots up to their knees and mini-skirts and short coats with their legs only covered by tights.

Daily I have been asked directions, or something, in Russian by people on the streets, and I have to say "sorry, I only speak English".  Kind of frustrating that I can't even say that in Russian, but haven't had time to study.  I've had some of the ticket sellers and guards in the museum rooms speak a bit of English, but it is pretty limited.  It was kind of confusing going onto the Kremlin grounds, as I wasn't sure what my ticket covered and what there was to see, even with the map the provided, as they said some of the things were closed.

Went to the Pharmacy with Terri this morning, and she was able to get her husband's prescriptions filled with a handwritten note from over a  year ago that just listed the meds and the strength.  She needed two months worth of one of them, and tried to explain it and the pharmacist was confused.  A young man from behind us came forward and helped -- that was nice.  She says it doesn't happen very often!  The other interesting thing was that we entered the store on the street level and then at the back of the store was a narrow staircase that we had to go down to the pharmacy area.  Kind of creepy - not sure I would have done it the first time!  The main floor had a lot of other meds, some that we would have needed prescriptions for, but don't need prescriptions for here.

Went to the little store next door this evening to get a few items.  They have a lot of stuff in a small space -- really narrow aisles.  When paying here and everywhere else, they really get on you if you don't have small sized bills to pay with.  But, the ATM I used only gave out large bills which is so typical. 

Something I saw in Turkey as well, is that napkins seem to be hard to come by!  It's not that they don't have them, they just don't put them on the table with the silverware.  Even in nice places with tablecloths, there often are not cloth napkins, rather maybe papernapkins in a holder on the table.  Napkins aren't always given to you with something you bought from a counter, etc.

In Moscow the cigarettes are CHEAP!  Less than 50 cents a pack!  Everyone seems to smoke. 

It's common to see parked cars on the sidewalk, sometimes horizontal to the street/building.  Then, outside apartments and stores, you will see a whole line of cars waiting.  Especially outside of apartments, these will be cars with drivers, waiting for the clients.  Each time we left the apartment to ride in the company car, there were at least three other cars sitting there waiting for their clients.


Trying to think of other differences, but right now, that's about it!  Really enjoyed seeing Moscow and Russia, although it seemed surreal most of the time.

Leaving Moscow

My last two days in Moscow were wonderful.  On Wednesday, November 23, I actually slept in to 9:40am!  The two previous days must have done me in!  But on Wednesday afternoon, Terri and I went on a cruise on the Moscow River.  She had done this before and wanted to make sure I did it as it was such a nice experience -- and it was.  We went on the Radisson Cruise which included lunch service and was a beautiful boat.   The only "bad" thing was that we got there right as the boat was ready to go, so we were checking out the menu and discussing that as we took off, and I never got it together to listen to the narrative...actually, it would have been weird to listen to the narrative, as we were sitting at a table visiting and I wouldn't have wanted the earphones in my ears!

It was a great view of Moscow from the river, which winds it's way through Moscow, almost looping back on itself at one point.  We finished the tour as sunset, so got a few shots of buildings with all their lights lit.  Beautiful.  There are seven  buildings here that look very much the same and are known in English as the Seven Sisters.  From Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_%28Moscow%29

The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki (Russian: Сталинские высотки), "(Stalin's) high-rises". They were built from 1947 to 1953,^[1] in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles, and the technology used in building American skyscrapers^[2].

The Radisson Hotel from where we began and ended the tour is one of them:

Here's a view of the Kremlin walls, buildings and churches from the river.

On my last day, Thursday, Nov 24, I gave in and arranged for Sasha the driver to take me to a Monastery and then there was a church and museum I wanted to go to.  Sasha was able to take me to the Monastery, but I was told I couldn't go to the church as there was a special cloth being displayed there that people were waiting up to 24 hours (outside in the cold) to see it and I would have to wait in this line!  So, I just went to the museum instead, but it was next to the church and it took over an over to go a couple of miles from the monastery to the museum!  The Museum I visited was the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, Private Collection.  In this building was a special exhibit of Annie Leibowitz photos, including some I had seen years ago in Washington DC.  Great photographer.  Then there was a Kandinsky exhibit and a number of others that had been donated by locals who had collected, glassware, small porcline paintings, equine statues, etc. 

I caught the metro back from there, and was acutally quite proud of myself.  I not only bought my ticket, but also had to switch lines and I did it with no problems.  I was a bit nervous when the police officer wouldn't let me pass to enter the Metro by the church, but he pointed me in the dirction of another entrance to the same stop and I made my way through it.

Up this morning very early to finish packing and the long drive to the Moscow airport.  This is a different airport than the one we flew into and is quite modern.  It is divided up into sectors and each sector has it's own passport control and security check, making for much shorter lines.  We also got here in plenty of time, so the lines weren't bad at the check in desk for me either.

Now, off to Berlin!  I've downloaded an app with a ton of information that I will read on the plane. 

State & Kremlin Museums

The last two days I have been going and going!  I can't believe how long I can spend in a museum! Good thing the second museum didn't allow photos!  Between standing and walking, I was on my feet for at least 6 hours STRAIGHT on my feet! 

The State Historical Museum was very interesting, with each room designed/decorated to match the period in history on exhibit in that room.  The exhibits went from from pre-historic (which I breezed through) to the early 1900's.  Here is a link to my photo page, with WAY too many photos and a link to a blurb about the Museum: 


https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/Nov21StateHistoricalMuseum

http://www.moscow.info/museums/state-historical-museum.aspx

After the museum I walked round through Alexander Park on the outside of the Kremlin walls and scoped out the ticket booth for the next day.  There was the tomb of the unknown soldier and also a wonderful fountain  with statutues from fairy tales.  I took a few photos.  Then, I noticed a McDonalds.  Just cracks me up to see a McDonalds, a sign of American Capitalism, right outside the Kremlin walls.

Terri was relieved when I got home  yesterday, that she had not gone with me !  She is getting ready for their move from Moscow to London and was able to get quite a bit done, on top of making the best ever burritos in her own red chili sauce.  To die for.

This morning we had Sasha drive us down to the Red Square area and we went into the GUM (pronounced Goom), which is an absolutely beautiful shopping center and has a very long facade along the side of Red Square opposite the Kremlin wall. Here is a link, which is to their main page which has a real nice pic of the building across the top banner.  Click on the link for the history though, as it's pretty interesting.  http://www.gum.ru/en/

From there I headed over to the Kremlin ticket window and got tickets to go into the grounds and churches and another for the Armoury, which is a museum "...which boasts a staggering collection of Tsarist artifacts, Russian and foreign jewelry and armour. Although the museum has been open to the public since the mid-19^th Century, the current collection was established as recently as 1986, which means that display techniques are relatively modern, the layout is clear and coherent, and there is even plenty of labeling in English."  To read more, go here:
http://www.moscow.info/museums/kremlin-armory-museum.aspx

On my way to the Museum, I had time to stop in two of the churches and also to see the largest bell in the world and the Tsar Cannon.

No photos were allowed in the Museum, which was really ato my benefit, as I would have gone into overload.  The Bible covers and Icons were way and beyond those in the State Historical Museum, with dainty gold filigree and huge jewels.  Case after case of silver and gold trinkets, trays, silver services, etc., that were given to the Tzar's as gifts from European Ambassadors.  Military armor for men and horses, guns, swords, etc.  Crowns, regalia, thrones, clothing including coronation and wedding gowns, etc. Ivan the Terrible's throne was there; made of ivory and actually quite small/short.  There was even a step for his feet to rest on, and I don't think the chair was that high.  There was also a double throne for when two of the tzar's, age 10 & 12 ascended to the throne together -- or so the audio guide told me!  In one of the last rooms were carriages and sledges: a sledge that one of the women rode in over three days in the winter to travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow to take over when her father died.  There were two little ones for children; one a sledge and the other to be carried by people.  The audio guide explained that midgets were hired to carry it, so to give the impression that all was full-sized.  There were three in the rococo style with gold gilding and then there was Catherine the Greats carriage with a decorative banner painted around the top each, with diamonds encrusted.  Incredible. 

And last, but not least there were Faberge Eggs. There was the one with the railroad in it, another that had a miniature of one of the palaces, another that had a clock on it and a bouquet of flowers coming out the top, another set on a base of the spires of the towers of the Kremlin, and another with a miniature boat.  Here are a few pics I took of cards I bought with some of the eggs.

Inside the museum, but totally separate is the "Diamond Fund" with billions of dollars worth of raw gold, silver, diamonds and royal objects made out of these as well.  They control the number of people in this chamber by allowing small groups to enter every 20 minutes.  It sure is nice to be sightseeing in the winter, as I was able to go in the next time the door opened.  I can't imagine what a nightmare it must be in the summer to get into it!  

Tomorrow I think I will do sightseeing sitting down!

Weekend in Moscow

Saturday was a fun day with Terri, Dave and I hanging out together and going to breakfast, mastering the metro, going to a local market area and then going to dinner at a co-worker of Dave's.

First, a little about the money.  Here's what it looks like, front and back.  It's weird dealing with the huge amounts.  This 1600 rubles is worth just under $52.00 today. It's hard for me to quickly do a conversion to think if the price of what I want to buy is reasonable.

We went to breakfast at a little American style diner!  Sausage AND bacon along with pancakes, eggs and fried potatoes was a standard breakfast!  And, after two and a half months in a land of no pork, I had some of both the sausage and bacon! 

As we walked to the diner, we saw signs over the metro entry and figured out it was closed.  We didn't realize immediately, that it wasn't just that entrance that was closed, but instead the whole line!  Thank goodness Dave was with us, or Terri and I wouldn't have been able to go to the market.  We had to walk about three city blocks to an entrance to another line of the metro and then use three different lines to get where we were going.  But, the good thing about this is that I then saw more of these fantastic Metro stations!  Here are a couple of photos:

This station was dedicated to Dmitri Mendeleev, who developed the presentation of the periodic table!

Beautiful stained glass in this one.

Riding the rails home with my goodies -- it was COLD and wet!

Thought I was back in Turkey and the old Roman and Greek stuff!

Great mosaics!

 

The market was an outdoor market with a lot of junk and then a few fantastic booths in between. We had fun looking and then bartering for our chosen items and ran out of rubles rather quickly.  Actually, I used up my dollars and Euros and held on to the Rubles that I had.

Here's a couple of things to notice -- kind of like Juneau with the wet and the cold.  People really do wear there hoods here, and not just the men.  Check out the shopping cart: there was a woman pushing this through, selling hot coffee and tea and other snacks.  Not in the picture, is the DVD sales booth.  All illegal I'm sure, like in Peru.


We ended up buying a few things from this guy.  Absolutely loved his work.  He does some of the paintings and his wife the others.  Most of their work is take-offs on the artist Klimt who did the famous piece called "The Kiss". 

And here is what Terri got:

Old man winter with some of the patterns incorporated from the Klimt art work.

They are absolutely beautiful and so much detail.  The egg on the left actually depicts a piece by artist Mucha whose museum I visited in Prague.

We had a dinner invite from one of David's co-workers which turned into a very interesting time for me.  The man is from Norway, his wife is from Canada, and they have two teenage daughters.  They have only been here since this past summer.  They live on a "compound" - gated community - on the outskirts of the city.  The American School is literally right next to them, so this neighborhood is full of ex-pats with kids attending school.  They have lived in Singapore, Azerbajan, South Africa, and Houston.  Some were short stays and others were longer, for example, they lived in South Africa for six years.  Both girls were very nice and enjoyed sitting around and chatting with us.  The woman is a nurse and is working at the American School.  (She didn't  know the librarian Anne, as Anne left before she got there.)  Oh, and we had smoked pork for dinner!  And mashed potatoes and a green salad!  Was wonderful to be in a familiar environment! 

Posing in Lynn's Russian hat and holding a bottle of Vodka.

Nov 18th Moscow, Red Square, St Basil's

Today we went by Metro to Red Square and toured St. Basils Basicalica.

The subway was interesting, as the subway stations here are just beautiful.  We saw two of them: Mayakovskaya, close to Terri's house and Teatralnaya, where we got off in front of the Bolshoi Theatre next to the Red Square.  I took photos in the first one, but was so focused on which way to get out of the second one, I didn't take any photos.  What was interesting though was that the trains themselves were pretty old and clunky looking, but moved at a pretty darn good clip.  There was also a lack of handles to hold onto and people standing in one area had no handle to grasp and would lose their footing as we went around a corner or two.  The other thing that Terri pointed out was the announcing voice.  On the way into the center of the city, it's a male voice, but going the other way, it's a woman's voice!  She said that during the soviet days, they would say something along the lines of "sending our men to work" and "our men are coming home". 

Here is a link to more info about the metro if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayakovskaya_%28Moscow_Metro%29

Here's the first paragraph:
Mayakovskaya (Russian: Маяковская), is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system, it is one of the finest examples of pre-World War II Stalinist Architecture making it one of the most famous Metro stations in the world. The name as well as the design is a reference to Futurism and its prominent Russian exponent Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Exiting the Metro, we were not inside the Red Square, but were on another square with the Bolshoi Theatre across the way.  We walked over to our left and there behind us were the gates to enter Red Square.   Two beautiful arches and we could see St. Basil's through on the other end of the square.  We slowly walked through, looking at everything, with the Kremlin to our right, the Gum to our right, St. Basil's in front, and some beautiful red brick building behind us -- will have to look it up! Here is a link with quite a bit of info on the buildings of the square (but not on this particular one I am talking about): http://www.moscow.info/red-square/index.aspx

It was a pretty amazing feeling standing there....it brought back foggy memories and a feeling of fear of seeing soldiers amassed here during Communism times.  Also, two thirds of the square was cordoned off for the construction going on, so it the size of the square was downplayed by this.


Standing in front of St. Basils, it struck me that it was not as big as I thought it was!   I'm thinking that the Notre Dame stands much taller.  We went in and it was awesome, but again different than I thought.  (I didn't do much research for this trip, so haven't read in advance a lot about what I am seeing.)  It's not a church per se, but many small chapels around a larger center chapel, but even calling them chapels is being generous, as they are not constructed to hold more than a few people in each room.  Here are a few photos:

Arrival in Moscow

Arrived last night into Moscow.  Although our flight was only about 2 1/2 hours, our whole day was taken with travel -- the traffic at both ends and time difference didn't help either!  We left the hotel in Istanbul at 10:30am and arrived to the Moscow apartment at 9:00pm!

I had an interesting evening with Terri briefing me about how things work here in Moscow for her, her husband and other ex-pats and how it has changed in the short period of time she has been here, in terms of shopping for household things, etc.

Today we went shopping at "Metro" - a European "Costco" equivalent. First, to get there was an experience in itself.  Because of being in Moscow, the company requires Terri and her husband get around by a company provided car and driver. When Terri just wants to go out in the neighborhood (and weather permitting), it's ok for her to go by herself, but otherwise, she must have someone with her.   Its not that it's because it's so dangerous, although there is an element of danger, it's just the different culture, language, Cyrillic alphabet, etc., that adds to the situation.

Anyway, the store is between 5 and 10 miles away, and it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get there, and our return was 2 hours.  The traffic at times just crawls, for no known reason, and, get this! The left turns are so far and few between, you can go for miles and miles before you can do a turn to get where you need to go.  For example, on our return from the store -- we went past the the apartment building and then turned and came back to it -- took an extra 40 minutes!  That's just the way it is!

It is dark, grey, and slushy wet out with the windows of the car tinted and dirty with road grim -- basically a weather situation all of us are used to in Juneau!  So although I was able to see a few things -- domes, intricate iron work, fancy building facades and the Moscow river, but was unable to take pictures of them.

But I did take photos related to shopping and they are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/Moscow
I've put in explanations on each of the photos, so make sure you look at each one so you see the captions. 
 

Good bye Istanbul and Turkey

I left my last family on Saturday, November 12th and moved to a hotel to stay with my friend from Juneau, Terri.  We have spent the last few days having a wonderful, laid back time, catching up and comparing travel notes not only for Turkey, but also for Croatia and travel in general. 

We both had ideas of things to do while we were there together, and we did some of them, but we also chose to take it easy.  It was really nice, as there was no pressure to hurry and see sights, schedule activities around transport times, etc., and as the weather was cold, rainy and windy, we enjoyed being inside.

We made it to the cooking class which was very informative.  I think we will be able to make various similar recipes as well as the ones we learned, as we learned how to handle the foods, for example the eggplants and the vine leaves for dolmas.  The Dolmas can be stuffed with many different things, so a recipe for the filling will be easy enough to find, and now we know the technique for making them.  There were four other Americans in the class, which was a perfect size.  Besides the hostess/owner, there was also a chef, a cleaner, and a host to meet any other customers who might have come in. We had a nice conversation during dinner and discovered the owner had a story in the book, "Tales of the Ex-Pat Harem" that I read before I left Alaska!!  For those who have read the book, her story was about managing a hotel in Istanbul and a picture that she hung on the lobby wall that offended one of her employees.

We also had a full spa treatment at the hotel -- turkish bath and massage; headed out shopping at the Grand Bazaar where I had a long conversation with a ceramic dealer which turned into a discussion about religion; shopped at a mall for winter clothes and coat for me; enjoyed a few meals out and even made it to a disco!!!  Crazy!  But we also spent more than half of one day just lounging around the room, feeling happy that we weren't outside in the cold rain and wind.

Off to Moscow today....more stories to come!

November 10th

For most people, the holiday was over on Wednesday, but for some reason, Mete’s school (private) declared they would take Thursday and Friday off as well, making for a very long holiday for them.  Elif had to work for a while yesterday, but has Friday off as is her regular schedule. 

Yesterday, November 10^th was Attaturk’s Memorial Day – the day he passed away.  Attaturk was the founder of the Republic of Turkey after WWI when they fought their war of independence from the WWI allies.  At 9:05am, for one minute, sirens went off, cars stopped driving and honked their horns, and people on the street stopped and stood still.  Elif was one of a couple of teachers responsible for a program at school to honor Attaturk.  She said their program included students reading quotes and they also sang some songs.

While Elif was at school, I spent some time with Mete, working on his English homework. Reminded me of the days of old!  He is making a poster about a country and needed to list specific things about it and draw pictures to go with it. 

The biggest event of the day was getting two boxes mailed home!  So relieved to have all that stuff out of here.  It was kind of funny how I got the boxes.  Around 11 or so, I took my clothes to the laundry and dropped them off.  When I walked out the door, I put my head down and was thinking how difficult it would be to find two boxes the right size, as stores put out their boxes on the street early and the gypsies come by and collect all the cardboard.  I looked up, and about 30 feet in front of me was a stack of boxes – and it wasn’t even in front of a store, rather in front of an apartment as apparently someone was moving in!  The boxes are full of my summer clothes; some brochures, books etc.; and a few gifts.  We had to take a cab to the post office, although it isn’t very far, and then it took us about 45 minutes there.  But it was well worth the time.  I will now have just my small suitcase and it’s small backpack attached, and then my larger daypack as well.  And, I got it all to fit - finally!  Yea!

Throughout my time here, there have been a few English faux pas that have made us all laugh.  First, it is pomegranate season, and they are everywhere.  We were talking about them and Elif said their name a couple of times and I was listening as it seamed she was miss-pronouncing it.  I asked her what she was saying and it was “pom-a-gre-nade” !  She thought the last part of the word was grenade not granate!  We had a good laugh over that – it made some sense though, as if you threw one on the ground, it would explode and those seeds would go everywhere.

The other one is Mete’s and has to do with a song, Michael Jackson’s “Beat it”.  Mete loves the Pita bread they have here.  He goes around singing “Pi-ta”, like “Beat it” and doesn’t understand that he has the word wrong! 

When I was in Izmir, since the family’s English wasn’t as advanced, there were many times when they could not think of, or just didn’t know the Enlgish word for something, so had to try to explain what they were talking about.  One day we were getting out of the car and my camera was on the seat and Derya said, “Don’t forget your photo machine”!  And then another time she couldn’t think of the word “statue” so described them as, “You know, people made out of marble”.  Hakam’s English was very, very limited, and one time he was trying to explain a turtle, and said, like a VW bus and used his hands to show the pop-up feature of the campertop!  That one was pretty funny – and it took me a bit to get it, but I did figure it out.  It was often like playing charades with him and we laughed a lot over it.

Today will be my last full day with the family.  I feel I have seen so much of Istanbul and that any thing else I see will be a bonus!  I have certainly seen and experienced more than the typical tourist here.  I have gained a much, much better understanding of this culture and their history, and a little of the politics and the religion.  The parts of this country that I have seen are certainly more “westernized” than I thought it would be.  Most of the time, when looking around me at the people, I could have been anywhere in Western Europe – and not just in tourist areas.  In fact, in tourist areas, I see more throwback to the Ottoman Empire in Ottoman type costumes and paraphernalia.   There are definitely the areas where I am taken back in time by the narrow streets, the street sellers, and the people’s dress, but I have seen these same types of things in other European countries and in South America.  Basically, from the parts of Turkey I have seen, I would align its people more with Europe than the Middle East. 

Busy last few days

These last few days have been very full.  It is a religious holiday called Kurban Bayram which started on Saturday and went through today.  More about the holiday itself later, but what it has meant for me and this family is busy times!

On Saturday an old friend of Levent's and his family came to visit from Ankara.  We had a busy day getting ready for the company and I took Mete out to the waterfront and around the neighborhood for over three hours.  We had a good time and the weather was sunny, but cool so it was nice to be outside for so long.  He worked hard on talking to me and we seemed to communicate well.  I enjoyed visiting with Levent's friend, his wife and his sister. His friend is a professor at a University in Ankara, his wife is a computer programer for a California company and his sister is a biologist.

Then on Sunday, the whole family went across Istanbul to Levent's brother's house to visit.  Levent's mother was there too.  I used this time to go to the Pera Museum and catch up a bit on some of my internet time.  I've posted photos from this Museum on my picasa page:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117120466845854055422/PeraMuseum

On Monday, Elif, Mete and I went to water front and walked around it onto a canal leading to a different park.  Actually, Elif and I walked and Mete was able to ride his bike.  We then went to Elif's mom's for the late afternoon and stayed for dinner.  We were invited due to the holiday.  Levent has been working on a project at work so had gone to work for the day, but joined us for dinner.

Tuesday Elif, Mete and I again went out on our own.  We walked through the local area again, Mete got a hair cut and we had Durem Doner's (Lamb Wraps) for lunch at a little place close by. We then went to an area by the first bridge over the Bosphorus  where I visited a summer palace and Mete went fishing while Elif got to sit out in the winter sun!  The Palace was fabulous and I was quite happy to visit it as I had seen it on my first day here in Istanbul when I took one of the "hop-on & off" bus tours.  We had a great time after I joined them: I watched the fishermen for awhile and then we stopped in a cafe and had hot drinks and goodies and then caught the bus back home.  The bus both ways for this trip took quite some time, as the traffic was horrendous, especially around the cemetery that we passed as so many people were trying to visit family grave sites.  There weren't many buses running, so the bus was very crowded.  On the way back, we decided to take a different route and make a transfer.  Wow, sooo many people and so many vehicles.  We took a "dolmash" - a van that runs between two points and costs much less than a taxi -- from the transfer point instead of a bus.  It was dark by the time we got back to our waterfront and walked home.  All along the water front are fish restuarants -- well, I guess restarants - as all they sell are fish sandwhiches.  Were there aren't restaurants, there are ferry landings, and in between all of this, are men fishing.  Mete just loves all the fishing to-do, and always stops to talk to the fishermen. 

Today was our last day of the holiday and we went to "Miniaturk" which is a really cool outdoor museum with models of many of the famous buildings throughout Istanbul and Turkey.  Interesting to look down on the buildings, especially the mosques, as it is such a different perspective than looking up at them!