Honeymoon Day 4: Istanbul

Friday, May 8, 2009

10 am: Since we did not make it to Ayasofya on Thursday, this was our last chance! After breakfast at our hotel, we walked over to the Ayasofya. The basilica is a museum now, and not a place of worship. It is absolutely huge and it’s gorgeous. Gabby wanted to know why the basilica was so much grander than the palace.

11 am: After the Ayasofya, we headed to the Blue Mosque. The Mosque is currently used, and therefore there were some rules to follow: No shoes, no bare knees, no bare shoulders. We lined up and a guard gave us plastic bags for our shoes. After the guard deemed that Gabby’s shoulders were not entirely covered, he have her a shawl to wear into the mosque. Gabby was shocked, as she specifically dressed in what she though was modest clothing. It was interesting to see the mosque, as neither of us had ever been to one. The men and the women pray separately in the mosque. The men go to the middle of the room, and the women must stay on the sides.

Noon: Headed back to Beyoglu district. Tom was unprepared for the cold and did not bring enough long socks, so we had to go to the Nike store to buy some dri-fit.

1-2 pm: Proceeded to walk through the neighborhoods of Galata and Beyoglu. Walked across the Bosporous along the Galata Bridge. Ended up at a Kebab place in Sirkeci.

3-5 pm: Decided to head back to the Bazaars. Went to the Spice Market again. Then went back to the Grand Bazaar to shop.

5 pm: Headed back to the hotel to rest.

8 pm: Dinner at Amedros. Our waiter informed us that the cats begging for food all lived on that street and had names. He also told us that it is common for restaurant and store owners to put collars on stray neighborhood cats and dogs, so that animal control does not take them.

11 pm: We decided to get ice cream at Mado. Mado is an ice cream chain it Turkey that specializes in ice cream thickened with salep, a powder milled from wild orchid bulbs grown in the Anatolian mountains. It gives the ice cream, made without cream or eggs, its elastic texture. Mado has exotic flavors including sour cherry and mulberry, but Gabby settled on caramel and Tom settled on chocolate.

11:30: Exhausted, yet again, we headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

Honeymoon day 3: Istanbul

Thursday, May 7th 2009
9 am: Woke up late. Got ready to MTV Europe. Then down to breakfast . . .

11 am: Walked to Ayasofia, but it was really crowded. We agreed to come back the next day earlier.

Noon: Topkapi Palace. Gabby doesn’t like that it’s laid out like a campus, as opposed to a vertical palace. 

It’s teeming with Turkish school kids on class trips. They like to wave hello to us. We can’t tell if they actually like us, or if they’re taunting us. The tulips around the palace are beautiful. They are a very deep violet, almost black.

1 pm: Palace is cool, but Harem is awesome. Only 20 of the rooms are open to the public, but those that are are pretty impressive. Definitely the best part of the palace.

2 pm: After we finished looking at the Palace, we walked to the Grand Bazaar. This gave Tom time to think about how to convince Gabby that having a concubine is the way to go. We stopped at a graveyard in the middle of town on the way, but the Sultans tombs were closed. The graveyard was a very popular spot for all the neighborhood cats, however.

2:30 pm: We walked around the Grand Bazaar and shopped. Gabby bought a purse from evil purse man. Did we mention that all prices are negotiable in Turkey? You have to haggle at every store and negotiate a price.

3:45 p.m.: Headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our cooking class.

4:35: Late for cooking class. Before our trip, we had read about a half day class at Cooking Alaturka. After having tea, we met the 6 other people in our class. There were two other couples from Los Angeles and a couple from Scotland.

Our instructor, Eveline, briefed us on the traditional Ottoman food we would be cooking:
Ezogelin corbasi - spicy lentil and bulgar soup
Imam bayildi - Aubergine braised in olive oil with onion and tomato
Kabak mucveri - Zucchini patties with herbs and cheese
Etli yaprak dolmasi - Vine leaves stuffed with minced meat (or for Gabby, stuffed with mushrooms)
Sekerpare - syrupy semolina sponge cakes with hazelnuts

We then put on our aprons and got to cooking. Our first task was chopping all of the parsley, dill and mint. We used the biggest knife we have ever seen!

Another task of interest was folding the vine leaves into the shape of a cigar. This was difficult, as the leaves had to be packed tightly and they all had to be approximately the same length and width.

We used a few ingredients that are not available in America. The first ingredient is bell pepper paste. It is like tomato paste, but it is made from bell peppers and it is spicy. We also used preserved vine leaves. Finally, we used red pepper (as opposed to the black pepper commonly used in America).

7:15 p.m. With 8 cooks, an instructor and a sous chef, it still took us almost 3 hours to make dinner! We finally sat down to dinner. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed the wine and conversation. 

 

9:30 p.m. As we left the cooking school, we surveyed the mess in the kitchen. We had used literally dozens of pots and pans to make our meal and had created quite a mess. We can’t imagine having to clean it up! Dinner took almost 3 hours to make, included ingredients not available in America, and used more pots and pans than we own (including our new All Clad Stainless set-thanks, Sheila!) If anyone wants great Turkish food, we know how to make it...but we refuse to cook it at our house or clean up!

Since we were in the neighborhood of the Four Seasons hotel, we decided to check it out. The Four Seasons Istanbul is located in a former Turkish prison. Surprisingly, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

10:30: After going back to our hotel to change, we decided to go out in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. Beyoglu is at the top of the city, so we took a funicular there.

11:00 p.m. Beyoglu seems to be popular with the locals. The main pedestrian only street has tons of stores on the first floors, but bars, restaurants and clubs above. All of the side streets are filled entirely with bars. Luckily, one of the guys in our cooking class had recommended a bar to us. We took his suggestion and went to Leb-i Derya bar, located on the top floor of the Richmond hotel. The view from the top floor was amazing. The floor to ceiling windows looked out over the harbor and the entire city. After a few very expensive drinks (Turkey has a 25% tax on alcohol!), we headed back to our hotel to go to sleep.

   

Honeymoon day 2: Istanbul

Wednesday, May 6th 2009

Landed at 9 am. Had to pass by a thermal imaging “swine flu” checkpoint. Anyone who had a fever would have been taken off the line and shot. Then there was the drunk 80 year old man who decided to start a fight with the customs officer at passport control. That was awesome. Then we waited in the entire passport line, only to discover that there was a separate line for visas. We had to get a visa, then get back on the passport line. Needless to say, it took forever.

The hotel sent someone to pick us up at the airport, who was very nice. Our hotel was in between Sultanhamet and Sirkeci, which is the old, windy part of the city. It took us 10 minutes to drive the first 14 kilometers from Ataturk to Sultanhamet, and 30 minutes to drive the final 2 through the streets to the hotel.

11 am: Checked in. Everyone was incredibly nice. We arrived just in time for breakfast, which included a tremendous bowl of yogurt and a real honeycomb.

Noon: It’s surprisingly cold here. The temperature is just like LA, except that we primarily brought shorts. Decided to walk to the Egyptian Bazaar. Walked down to the Galata Bridge. Gabby thought we were lost. Then we found the spice bazaar, but before we found it we walked through the live animal bazaar. We don’t know if that was an official bazaar.

1 pm: Spice bazaar. Bought tasty candied chickpeas. Almost bought a hookah. There were many types of spices. We never knew there were different types of paprika.

2 pm: Attempted to leave spice bazaar. Found windy, hilly streets behind spice bazaar. Buildings too tall to navigate using the sun. Had to walk and hope for the best. The streets were crowded quasi-bazaars. It was like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

3 pm: While trying to find our way out, found Grand Bazaar. Beautiful, colossal building. We were really able to appreciate it because it wasn’t very crowded. Looked at a variety of things, but eventually Gabby found the handbag section.  Looked but didn’t buy.

4 pm: Finally found our way out. We were starving. We found this café in front of the Istanbul University train station. It turned out to be awesome. Gabby’s favorite chicken dish thus far, and this is a girl who knows her chicken.

5 pm: Back at the hotel. Nap time.

7 pm: We wake up to MTV. We get dressed to go out. We wander around Sultanhamet until we find a restaurant called Adonin. Very good. Did we mention how good the food in Turkey is?

10 pm: Delirious. Go to bed early. Even though we went to bed early, because we had Wi-fi in the room, and a broad selection of English TV stations, we didn’t go to sleep until after midnight.

Honeymoon day 1: Flying to Istanbul

Tuesday, May 5th 2009

Our flight left at 6:30 am, so we had to get to the airport at 4:30. No problems on the first leg.
Landed at JFK. Unfortunately, due to the Delta/Northwest merger, they landed us at Terminal 4, but we needed to be at Terminal 3. Instead of letting us walk through the airport, they loaded us onto a “people mover” which drove us across the airport. This took forever. We didn’t get into the terminal until 45 minutes after we should have, so we had no time to eat.

Then we couldn’t board the plane because of an “odor problem.” They wouldn’t let rows 31-45 board. Of course, we were in row 45. After delaying us for half an hour, they let us on board. We were in 45 A & B. The odor problem was coming from 45 G & H. They moved everyone sitting in 45 C - H, but we were “far enough away” from the problem. The good news was that our row wasn’t very crowded. The bad news was that it smelled like Lysol.

We learned on the flight that Turks spoil their kids. One little girl rang the flight attendant button for the entire 10 hour flight. Nonstop. Other kids spent the flight racing around the plane. Amazing.