DAY 4 - "Oohh - those "Fresh" Turkish Men!

March 23 - The Grand Bazaar

Saturday morning began with sleeping in, then we prepared a breakfast with “Bear” pancakes – banana eyes, grape nose, apple smiley face. We also made a Denver omelet, but it turned out to be glorified scrambled eggs. Then we had a fruit salad with THE BEST Turkish yogurt! By the way, the Turkish people invented Greek yogurt, but somehow the Greeks took credit for it, and the Turks are NOT happy about it.

Our Last Breakfast - we cooked and cleaned up

We want to thank Ela, Kemal, and Mine for a wonderful 1st couch surfing experience!

We went to Old Istanbul again to visit the Old Baazar today. First we took a quick tour through the Yeni Cammii (New Mosque). The construction began in 1597 and wasn't completed until nearly a century later – 1663. The women have to cover their heads to go in and everyone takes off their shoes. The moment I went in, I felt a sense of “awe,” and literally the sight took my breath away. I was moved to tears and really could hardly contain myself. I felt such a reverence for the Muslim religion and for all of the people who had come before me. 

When Muslims pray at the mosque, they stand very close together in long lines. Muslims all make the same movements together, at the same time and they always face East, towards Makkah. Makkah is a holy place for Muslims where they make a pilgrimage to at least once in their lives. We took a video which I will add tomorrow, but we have the beautiful ezan recorded for you to hear.  The ezan (call to prayer) summons the faithful to the mosque for prayers.  The first morning in Istanbul, we were awakened at 5 a.m. with the drone sound of a male voice, then we heard another and another, and soon the whole city was singing.  It is quite interesting as there are mosques about every 1/4 of a mile dotted everywhere throughout the city.  There are over 3,000, so you can imagine what it sounds like 5 times a day.

Two beautiful women pose for a picture

A sweet couple so in love

Men in front of a small mosque at prayer time - 6 x daily

 The Grand Bazaar is right next to the New Mosque (some call it the Spice Market) and is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. It employs 26,000 people. We unfortunately went at noon on a Saturday, the busiest day of the week. 

"Beans, Beans, Nothing but Beans!"

"Which leech is the fattest and cutest?"

There were aisles of different foods, seeds, plants, flowers, birds - we couldn't even take it all in.  What was crazy, though, was that on nearly every aisle, there were  BIG containers of leeches to purchase.  Evidently the Muslims believe that if you have a sore or open wound, one must put a leech on it to suck out the poison and you would heal much quicker.  I guess it's true - who wants to try it to see if it works?

So we had our backpacks on as we hadn't yet settled down at our next Couch Surfer's home.  I noticed a man standing quite close, listening to us talk about going down one of the aisles to check it out.  As we walked further into the Bazaar, it got more and more crowded.  In fact, we were packed in there with a two lines of people going both ways.  I noticed this same man standing right behind Rich and thought it odd that he seemed to be following us.  Then we couldn't hardly move either direction and all of a sudden I felt a hand on my rear.  I turned and he was right beside me with a grin on his face.  I sternly said, "No, No."  - Rich said to turn quickly and just start making a move, so I did and with our packs on, we rammed our way through the crowd.  Oh my, that was crazy!  That man was crazy and I felt like I had gone crazy!!  We decided we didn't need to see any more of the market.

We couldn't meet our next Couch Surfer until 7 p.m., so we killed some time, then went up a very steep hill to where we thought we were to meet him.  45 minutes later, we realized we had gone up the wrong hill, so we ended up taking a bus to the right place and met Mert, a 39 year old single man living with his sister.  He took us to dinner to a cute little place where we had meatballs, fries, and bread.

Next time we'll get an amazing Turkish Salad Bar

  We became acquainted with him and found out that he spoke VERY good English.  We had many questions for him and he really helped us to understand some things we didn't know.  He lives close to the "hub-bub" of the city.  Another day gone and only 200 left to go!!

DAY 3 - Do I really want a Turkish Rug for $24,000 OR What to Sing in the Pouring Rain?

March 22 - Downtown Historic Istanbul

Today we enjoyed a day downtown and our first museums.  It started off with an amazing breakfast with THE WORKS!!  Mint, parsley, and dill were added to the eggs.  mmm...3 kinds of olives, three types of cheese, and in the 4 small covered bowls were blackberry preserves, honey butter, raspberry jam, and berry molasses for whole wheat bread.  It was delicious!

In the back are juice, candied oranges, cucumbers,yummy bacon

We drove with Kemal for 30 minutes as he had a work appointment downtown (Asian side).  We then caught a ferry across the Bosphorus Channel -beautiful ride although it was cloudy. Istanbul is surrounded by three seas - The Agean, Black, and Marmara.  Rich was designated to be the one to ask the questions or for directions. He would find the prettiest woman, asking if they spoke English. :)  It saved us several times, however.  We followed the first one off the ferry to the tram station, did another connection, and finally ended up where all the historical part of Istanbul is.

Basilica Cistern - 500 A.D.

Medusa Head Pillar

 As we were wandering around trying to decide what to visit first, a young Turkish man came up and was so kind to give us some tips and told us what we should see.  He insisted we see the Basilica Cistern because it wouldn't be very crowded at the noon hour, then we should come look at his shop. It is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city. The cistern was built in the 6th century.  It provided a water filtration system for that area and has the capacity to store 100,000 tons of water, despite being virtually empty today with only a few feet of water lining the bottom.  Ancient texts suggest that the tears on one of the columns pay tribute to the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the Basilica.  (7,000 slaves were involved in building the cistern.)


 
Back to the young man....he was waiting for us outside the Cistern (an hour later).  Turns out - his job was to haul in "would-be" buyers to a rug shop, then turn them over to his boss who would convince the tourist they just had to have a rug from Turkey.  Granted....they were beautiful, but $24,000!!!  We said "bye-bye" and left as quick as we could....lesson learned!

Shari admires this rug which is only 4 inches and has already taken 5 months to make

 We visited the Topkapi Palace next. This palace was home to Ottoman sultans for many centuries (1465-1856) and is the main attraction in Istanbul. It was built in the mid 1400′s.  Rich enjoyed the weaponry display the most.  It was amazing how many different weapons have been used from the beginning of mankind.
 We also saw the Prophet Mohammed's belongings.  95% of the 15 million people in Istanbul are Muslims, so this is a very important place to them.

Rich stands beside a 600 year old original pillar from Topkapi Palace

The Topkapi Palace

Hagia Sofia is a former Orthodox Patriarchal Basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum.   From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.. A masterwork of Roman engineering, the huge 30 m diameter dome covers what was for over 1000 years the largest enclosed space in the world. The church was looted by the fourth Crusaders in 1204, and became a mosque in the 15th century when The Ottomans conquered the city. It was converted into a museum in 1935.  The mosaics are simply amazing.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

 

Hagia Sophia - the most visited site in Istanbul

 We went to the market place to buy some groceries to breakfast to treat our hosts.  It was funny watching Rich ask for where to buy flour and salami and cheese when we had no idea what the Turkish names for it was.  Quite an experience!

Shari learns to do a Turkish folk dance with Mine & Ela

Our host family expected us at 7 p.m. and we tried to get back by catching a fast mini-bus....wrong choice as we stood in a line for over an hour waiting for it to come.  We were drenched as it poured rain the whole time.  BUT...we did come back to a lovely dinner, singing, dancing, and playing the piano by candlelight.   Their 8 year old daughter, Ela was so cute!  Shari even learned a Turkish folk dance!

Shari finally gets a picture of Ela!

Tomato-Herb soup, Meatballs, Semizotu, Sarma, Salad, 

more...

DAYS 1 & 2 Blast-Off & 1st Couch Surfing Nite

MARCH 20 & 21 - Istanbul, Turkey

Our “Trip of a Lifetime” began at 2:00 p.m. flying from Idaho Falls into Denver on March 19th and then on to Washington DC.

Ready for take-off  at Idaho Falls with our 22 lb. backpacks

 We followed a HUGE river along the way, which I assume was the Mississippi River. The sunset was beautiful! Then we had a 3 hour layover, leaving for Istanbul at midnight. We had the most amazing experience on the Turkish Airlines. We were greeted by a hostess who gave us a red zipper case with a toothbrush and paste, eye cover-ups, ear plugs, bootie-type socks, and lip balm. A chef all decked out in white with a chef hat also welcomed us. Rich had understood that there would be no meals served, so during our time at Dulles Airport, we had two passes to the United Club for gold card members. They had an assortment of fruit, crackers, cheeses, and snack items, so we loaded up! :) Back to the airplane experience! Here's what we encountered:

1. 8 seats across and a football-length of rows (well, not quite, but this AirBus 340 plane was HUGE! Dave Couillard – Rich's dad who flew in WWII would have enjoyed flying this one!
2. Greetings by a half dozen beautiful Turkish airline hostesses...slim, hair in buns, uniforms and with smiles and twinkling eyes.
3. On our seats was a beautiful Turkish blanket, a pillow, and earphones. We sat next to a sweet girl from Iran with her hair covered by the most beautiful lavendar scarf.
   
   
   
   
   
4. No longer had we sat down when a stewardess passed out a type of square chewy candy with almonds and powdered sugar...very tasty!
5. A large platter was brought by with hot washcloths wrapped up in a roll to wash our faces. It felt so good after having traveled for 11 hours.
6. The hostesses carried a cart of newspapers in both Turkish and English for passengers to read.
7. We were then presented with menus and drink items to order from for the 10 hour flight. We were sure it would cost, but everything was free including alcoholic beverages – crazy! (Of course we didn't order any of those!)
8. Then the plane took off which felt like we were gliding along the runway – so smooth!
   Dinner – at 2 a.m.;( look at the picture); so very good. The cheese was very mild. The main dish was grilled chicken with sauteed eggplant and zucchini and potatoes with a little tube of olive oil and spices to drizzle on top. Black forest cake was dessert. 

   

   TYLER - the chef of the family....these food photos are for YOU!

   
   

Lights out! We tried to catch some shut-eye until 8 a.m. When the lights came up and breakfast began to be served. As I walked the aisles around 5 a.m., they offered me some juice and sandwiches which were in the back of the plane. They were very fancy, but I was definitely not hungry.

Breakfast – egg omelet with potatoes, fruit, and more. Each seat had an individual TV with so many different channels: Turkish music, movies (all kinds in both English and Turkish)., news of the day, documentaries, and everything was complimentary.

We landed about 5 p.m. Turkish time and we breezed through customs, paying our $20 each to get a visa.  

We saw posters and signs everywhere about the 2020 Istanbul Olympics.  They have been nominated and will be voted on soon, so everyone is very excited!  It reminded me of the Salt Lake Olympic bid that Utah eventually received. 

We met our CS host at TurkCell and we drove to the Asian side of Istanbul during rush hour, so it took nearly 2 hours (50 milometers) to drive to his apartment, meeting his wife and 8 yr. old daughter.

They spoke very little English, but Kemal did pretty well, so excited to be learning more English from us. We had a delightful meal of chicken & pasta soup, and purslane & rice soup, with baklava and other pastries. She fed us cashews, pistachios, and dried fruits beforehand. They offered us Chai Tea (very popular here) afterwards. Ela and I enjoyed playing piano together (they had a keyboard). I tried to help her with her studies as she didn't really like to practice. She giggled as I played “Alley Cat” to her 9 month old kitten. They have a very clean and sophisticated 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. Our sheets and towels smelled so clean – Mine (pronounced "mee-nay") uses “Ariel” detergent. I wish we could buy it in the states. Bedtime at 11 p.m. 

********************

Day 2 began with needing to go to Greece (I know we just barely had gotten into Turkey), but there is a law here that says you cannot visit more than 90 days in the European Union countries (26 of them) within a 180 day period.  Since we are going to be in Europe for 204 days, we needed to get our passport stamped right away to start our clock ticking.  What adventures we had trying to do that on our own with the language barrier.  Luckily Kemal had written down some phrases we could show the border patrols and with the help of him via telephone, (remember his english is very limited), some pantomiming, some praying, and some luck, we were able to get it done.  It took 13 hours to finish the process - between bus and taxi rides and two hitch-hiking experiences.  (no worries...they were safe).  :)  Rich took most of the pictures today on his camera, and he's in bed, so more pix tomorrow from our adventures today.

Baklava (yum) and a bread that is VERY popular here.

ok - everyone has to go to the bathroom...right?  Just thought you might want to see how the Turkish bathrooms are.  there is a hole in the ground with a porcelain covering over it.  So everyone stands up while using it.  You can see the gridded area for your feet and the little pitcher of water for pouring in after using it.  There is no toilet paper and you must pay a Turkish Lira after you use the bathroom.  (about 80 cents).  It's an experience!

While we were in a little town in Greece after having received our stamp on our passports, we were quite the spectacle!  There were no other tourists around, so we attracted children (they wanted to practice their English on us - picture later), babies staring at us, and generally the "eye" from everyone with our lighter skin and hair.  

Kemal, Mine, and Ela were happy to have us get back safely and we sat down to a 10 p.m. light meal of

Su Borek, Kuru Dolma, Biber Patlican, Tavuk Sote, and Yogurt.  I had Mine tell me the Turkish words.

Goodnight everyone!  Stay tuned for more adventures in our blog!

My Pictures with Labels

Jeremy turns 15! With Grandma, his mom, Krisalyn and brothers, Donovan, 4 and Benjamin, 9.

Ok - I think I may have figured out the picture labeling, so this is a test:   Yeah - I think I did it!

48 Hours to Lift-Off!

We rented our house, we've moved out, we're living with a friend, and we've got a week's worth of things yet to do! HELP!! One of the things on my list is to learn how to use this blog better: how to put on music, how to label pictures, and how to make it easy! Using a remote control to our TV has been hard enough, but I CAN DO IT! So friends and family - I hope you read along and enjoy our travels because this will sure be fun! Can anyone enlighten me as to how to label my pictures? These 3 show my daughters (Krisalyn, Janelle, and Arianne)and "Sister's Day", the Elders playing my piano for the last time (for 2 years) and cleaning our walls, and the 3rd pictures is Piano Gallery and the Elders moving my Kawai Grand down our steps and to my friend, Kris Hiatt's house to store. Thank you everyone for your well-wishes, your calls and emails, and all your support. It's hard to move from our home of 10 years. We'll sure enjoy sleeping on different beds/couches/mattresses (I think??) for the next 7 months. We do have our own sleeping liners and pillows packed in our backpack for those of you who have expressed an interest about the "bed bugs". So, no worries - ok? Next post! From Istanbul, Greece, on Wednesday, March 20th. Remember - you can always post here or email us. AND...we still have Magic Jack, so you can call us with no charge for you. Leave a message and we'll get back to you ASAP. Love you All xxxx Rich & Shari

Two Days + 2 Weeks Left to Get It All Done!

We may have found a renter for our home...fingers crossed! Now to clean, paint, and finish packing before they move in. I'm still teaching for two more weeks, so LOTS TO DO!! We're so excited to have our first two months lines up with our couch surfing hosts. Hopefully everything will work out and: - we won't get lost - I won't lose my glasses, or other stuff (I have a reputation for that!) - the couch surfers will have comfy beds - our family won't miss us TOO much! - we won't have forgotten anything - we can carry our 22-lb. backpacks from place to place - we don't encounter "pick-pockets" - we have it covered by button pockets. :) Stay tuned for one more post BEFORE we leave! Thanks for tuning in! R & S

30 days til ISTANBUL!

Packing and planning and posting and praying that we'll find some renters for our home.  This will help pay for our trip. Priding ourselves in living in this beautiful 4 level home will be hard to leave.  We've been here 10 years already.  BUT...now on to new adventures:  Europe trip for 7 months, then finishing our new home in Woodville (15 minutes from Idaho Falls).  We are excited for the challenges that lay ahead.  BUT...we will REALLY miss our family and grandchildren.  Hopefully we can stay in touch with this blog, email, facebook, and skype.

We have many couch surf hosts already lined up, especially in Turkey and Greece.  Hosts do not like to accept surfers more than 2 months out.  We've also been in touch with some distant cousins in Sweden which we're really excited to visit.  We found some information on Rich's great great (many greats) grandfather - Louis Hebert - so we'll be going to Paris to find out more about him.

Please take time to drop a note here or email or facebook to let us know how you are and if you have any suggestions for what we should see.  We will try and post nearly every day, so you can keep up with all that we'll be seeing and doing.  they won't be long posts, so as not to make you bored.  :)
 Love you all!!