Week of January 24th, 2014

How about those Hawks.  This is one of those runs that come along infrequently...in my lifetime, the '76 Raiders, '88 Dodgers, '95 Mariners, and '96 Sonics come to mind.  A time when the stars align and unites people forever...I will run into strangers and if they happen to have been around the teams above, we are instantly linked by experience.  Teams like these provide such joy that makes you keep on loving them for the rest of your life and keep you coming back every season, even those when the team on the field blows and the management is inept.  Amazing game last Sunday in every way...including the Richard Sherman postgame comments.  While I will say that it was not a classy display, thought it was refreshing to see a postgame interview without clichés or giving credit to God for his direct help in vanquishing his foe.  That one gets me more than any other.  And the Super Bowl shapes up to be one of the most intriguing ever.  Epically great offense against an all-time defense, Manning attempting to become immortal, teams from the two states that have legalized pot.  Am busting and can barely contain myself this week (and have 10 more days to go).  I don't usually feel super confident picking winners, especially with a streak of gambling luck that inspired a move, but am feeling very strong about the Hawks winning.  Take it to the bank.

To finish off the Istanbul travelogue, a couple of other sites bear mentioning.  The Topkapi Palace was the home of the Sultans and center of the Ottoman Empire for over 400 years.  As it was never sacked, it is still in immaculate condition.  The grounds are immense and interesting.  We went on a tour with our guide of the Harem complex.  The Harem is the living area of the Sultans and there are  several layers to it.  Areas where guests and visiting dignitaries would visit, the living quarters of the Sultans consorts and concubines, spaces for the children to play (including swimming pools overlooking the Bosporus Strait), just a brilliant way to live.  We were regaled with stories of how the women of the Harem were selected (by the Sultan's mother) from all parts of the empire, and how the eunuchs were chosen and made eunuchs.  They typically came from North African areas that were loyal to the Ottomans.  They were castrated by having their genitalia tied off to prevent blood flow, and hot chili powder was used as an anesthetic to reduce the pain/prevent infection when removing their little fellas.  The women were chosen by the Sultan's mother, but the Sultan got to choose from the group, numbering as high as 140 women.  The Sultan often had many children (duh) and it was typically the first boy that was in line to the thrown.  When it came time for the transition of power, the other younger sons were usually killed with the lucky ones fleeing to live outside of the empire. 

As the Ottomans were a dominant empire for several centuries, and had good relations with many of the other powers of the day, they would receive gifts from all over the world, so a visit to the Treasury is a must.  Jewel encrusted everythings from every corner of the world are featured and are spectacular (including the second largest diamond in the world).  We also popped our heads into the armory that displayed weapons used by the Ottomans over the centuries.  The kids and I love ourselves a good weapons display and this was a good one.  I am a fan of maces and they had several excellent ones.  Carolyn appreciated the mother of pearl inlaid sword.  Another part of the palace that was undersold in our guidebook was the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle.  When the Ottomans assumed the caliphate (leadership of Islam) in the 16th century, the relics from all religions found their way into the palace.  The guidebook told us there was cool stuff from Islam here, most importantly items from Mohamed like his mantle, parts of his beard and an impression of his footprint.  There are holy men there constantly chanting from the Koran, which lends to the atmosphere.  What wasn't in the guidebook was mention of other relics from religious history like the Arm of John the Baptist, the turban of the Prophet Joseph, the sword David used to kill Goliath, and the staff Moses used to part the Red Sea (of which Paul commented, "Damn that's a powerful stick").  We later read that there is some debate as to the authenticity of these items, yet they still made a huge impression.  In reading about the Palace beforehand, and listening to people tell us what to do in Istanbul, I was lukewarm on it being a great destination.  I was totally wrong and am glad we spent time there and feel it is a place I could return and spend another day exploring. 

I mentioned we hired a guide for just us for two days and would recommend that if you visit there, that you hire one too.  We got his name (Cengiz Yuksel) from our hotel and he turned out to be perfect for us.  As we were getting to know him on our first day, he told us that he had lived in the States for many years working in the carpet industry (total cliché) and we soon learned that his store was in Pasadena and he lived in Duarte...two cities that border my hometown of Arcadia.  We quickly reminisced on life in the valley and were instantly familiar, which made the next two days a joy.  After the Topkapi palace, our time with Cengiz was just about up, but as he had a love for Turkish carpets, he wanted to take us to a shop so we had a chance to look at authentic ones. 

In Turkey, they are very proud of their rugs and we learned a lot about the techniques that make them special.  We went into the shop skeptical that it was a tourist trap, but with the passion Cengiz showed about them, and talking to the proprietors of the store, we felt comfortable shopping there.  It was better than getting a pitch from one of the dudes on the street who you suspected were selling an inferior product or ripping us off.  We ended up buying two rugs for the price of a cheap used car.  Was expecting some buyers remorse, but even after getting them home, neither Betty nor I felt any. 

As we're in a shopping mood, a place that also needs to be explored on any visit to Istanbul is the Grand Bazaar.  Probably the place that everyone has heard about in some way more than any other site in town, 800 years old, 61 covered streets, over 3000 shops...kinda blows you away at first.  While the majority of the stores now cater to the tourist trade, the structure easily takes you back in time to when it was the trading post of the world.  I was prepared to hate it with warnings of aggressive shopkeepers pestering you endlessly for a sale, and while they were persistent, found them to be mostly delightful and often times funny.  They'd see Betty and Carolyn and start throwing out their limited Asian sayings to get their attention,  We'd stop if they said 'Ni hao', but if they rattled off 'konichiwa', we tell them wrong and keep on walking.  We didn't buy a lot there, but along with the obligatory tourist purchases (magnets/t-shirts) did get some trinkets like bathrobes and a nice copper and mother of pearl inlaid backgammon set.  You could also sit down at a café and watch the world pass by.  As it was near our hotel, we found ourselves there 4 different times.

We spent a week in Istanbul, and in retrospect, we could have spent a couple more days in Israel and gone to Petra (in Jordan), or arranged a day trip to a site around Turkey.  The good thing about spending extended periods of time in a city is getting the chance to slow down and get a real feel of it.  After our first two days of concentrated touring, we were able to look at the more obscure parts of the guide book and act upon Google searches titled "Unusual things to do in Istanbul".  We hopped on the ferry that took us up the Bosporus almost to the Black Sea, got off in a town that doesn't see many tourists for lunch, then hunt for a bus that ultimately took us back along the coast.  The straight is lined with Yalis (posh summer homes from the 19th century), fortresses that protected Istanbul from invasion from the north, and little bays with fishing boats and cool villages.  The waterway is busy with ships from tiny fishing boats to massive container ships and is shared by dolphin pods.  The kids enjoyed taking photos of the seagulls that followed the boat for the first 30 minutes as the passengers were feeding them in air.

Quick note about that bridge...there are two that span the Bosporus, linking Asia and Europe.  The first was built by Americans in 1972, and the one above by the Japanese in the 90's.  Recently completed (October 2013) was the first tunnel under the straight linking the Asian to the European side.  It is part of a massive subway project and the tunnel is the deepest ever built (we took it just to say we did).  That tunnel was also built by the Japanese.  Our guide told us that Istanbul was one of the finalists for the 2020 Olympic games that was ultimately won by Tokyo.  He said that the joke around town leading up to the vote was that no matter what happened, the Japanese would be building a lot of Olympic venues.

In our free days, we took a couple of self guided walking tours and ended up getting a bit lost, which is always cool.  Some places that we saw, but that I won't detail but need to mention for posterity are, Rustem Pasa Mosque, Galata Tower, Eqyptian Market and Spice Bazaar, Dolumbahce Palace, Taksim Square, the Church of Chora, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate (seat of the Greek Orthodox Church since 1601).  On New Year's Eve, we went to a 7PM show featuring a traditional Whilring Dervish show...more of a religious ceremony than I expected but featured 5 dudes in heavy woolen robes spinning in unison for a good 30 minutes accompanied by live music and chanting.  Very trippy...we all felt a tad nauseous watching them go 'round and 'round.  Then headed back home for a late dinner at one of our local favorite places, who had a belly dancer in for the evening.

Time to talk about the food.  Much like Israel, kebabs are omnipresent, although they write it as kebap.  We had many yummy ones and cannot remember any two we had all trip that tasted alike and cannot recall one we didn't enjoy.  A nice surprise was Turkish pizza, where the savory meat toppings are cooked onto an open pita bread   My notes say we only had one clunker meal, and that was our own fault cause we broke our two rules on choosing places to eat.  One, never go into a place whose menu is in more than two languages.  Two, never let Betty pick a place when she is tired, hungry and desperate to eat (cranky).  This day, we all had bad food, including the only bowl of lentil soup (which we ate daily) that was not sublime.  That day, I had a sausage and French fry sandwich that was far more disappointing than such a brilliant creation should have been.

By far the most fabulous restaurant we ate at the whole trip, and a place we will all remember fondly forever, was right around the corner from the hotel called The Stone House.  Recommended by a fellow hotel guest we met over breakfast our second day, we decided to pop in that night and were simply blown away.  Owned and run by Kurdish people, they offered the typical fare from around town, but we let the host/waiter recommend some of their specialties.   Perfectly spiced lentil soup started us off, followed by a fired clay pot meat dish, a lamb and cheese stew-like creation, and this spinach casserole that was close to perfect.  For dessert, they offered us baklava, which I have always found to be dry, but was sweet and moist and delicious.  All capped off with a delicious apple tea.  The dudes in here were so nice to us, chatting table side at times, answering our questions about the Kurdish people, so delightful.  The combination of great food and their hospitality vaulted the Kurds onto the top (just beating out the Druze) of my favorite people we encountered.  We loved it so much that we went back 4 nights (out of the 7 dinners we ate).

The only weird thing was the guy that stands out front to help encourage passerbys to come inside (most places have such a person).  He took a shine to Carolyn that was uncomfortable.  Everywhere we went this week, the fellas took an interest in her immediately...she must have been called Princess by at least a couple of dozen men.  The Stone House shepherd would come inside and literally stare at her with these creepy googly eyes.  He kept trying to touch her and kissing her hand.  We ultimately had to assume that they were infatuated by her unusual and exotic (to Turks) appearance.  That, and (from my opinion) the slim pickings of the local talent.  While there were some cute ones, found the majority of the local girls to have poor complexions and husky body shapes.  And if looking at the copious amounts of body hair sticking out of the shirts of the men and their constant 5 o'clock shadows is any indication, the female hair removal industry in Turkey must be vibrant.  This opinion might be skewed as many (about half) of the women cover their hair in the Muslim tradition.  They do so for the most part using scarves and not the total burka head to toe covering style, although you do see that from time to time.  We learned in our Muslim lessons that women cover their hair as it is the sexiest part of the woman and by covering it will prevent the men from temptation.  That said, one day on the tram, I think I noticed this woman dressed in total black head to toe burka with only her eyes showing totally checking me out lustfully.

 

My direct experience in Muslim countries is limited to Turkey, but my understanding is that it's government is secular and that while devout, the majority of the population is wary of fundamentalists.  We talked with some locals about the protests in Taksim Square last Fall and how many are bristling against the encroachments by the conservative (re. Islamic) current government (democratically elected and in power for almost a decade) into the daily life of the regular Turk.  Walking past a certain mosque one day near Taksim, our guide said this was the one where a lot of protesters sought refuge from the riot police and tear gas, and there were famous photos of the protesters in the mosque wearing shoes, which is forbidden.  In the ultra-conservative  newspaper from the time, they showed a photo of some in that mosque holding beer, which is not only forbidden, but blasphemous (apparently, Turkey has their own version of Fox News)  The Imam of the church came out publicly saying this was categorically untrue and he was "reassigned" to some deserted mosque in the sticks.  This is all happening with the Syrian conflict right next door, with hundreds of thousands of refugees now in Turkey.  A big story in the news was how foreign fighters are easily slipping across that border and it is almost as simple as getting a plane ticket to Istanbul.  While we were there, the two bombs went off in Volgograd, Russia in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics, which is only a few hundred miles from Turkey. 

Our hotel had cable with about 600 channels.  Unfortunately, only about 5 of them were in English and they were all news stations.  The good news was that Al Jazeera in English was one of them, so we landed on that as the station we watched in the couple of hours between touring and dinner.  Have always wanted to watch it as had heard a lot about it...good and bad.  It was a revelation.  I found it to be extremely even handed and was nice to watch a news channel that wasn't focused on the US (or in the case of the BBC, Western) perspective.  The news of the day was reported crisply, and they spent the second half of the news hour focusing on a major story.  Their coverage of the bombings and current sectarian strife in Lebanon was eye opening...they let the talking heads from both (all) sides speak in depth, with little name calling and no shouting.  I would happily make this part of my news watching rotation if it was offered.  Anyway, watching the news, talking to people, roaming the streets in Israel and Turkey, being so close to these events and areas of (seemingly) constant turmoil gave a fresh perspective on them.  Have always felt that the Muslims (and Jews) that I know were all delightful people, and the ones we met along the way this time were equally so, and it was always hard to understand how with all these rational minds, fabulous cultures with so much in common (peace through kebab/kebaps?) could not get it together and live in harmony.  But you scratch the surface just a wee bit, and you can feel their prejudices.  I knew that these divides date back millennia but always felt that the common sense I know from my friends could translate into harmony but after this trip, am afraid they will never be able to get it together.  The extremes on every side will never be able to make peace and the soft middle seems incapable of calling bullshit on them, and wonder if in their heart of hearts, they even want to. 

Our final day found us totally free, so we decided to use the Internet to find us something goofy to do.  We took a bus up the road to a neighborhood in the shadow of the Bosporus Bridge (the American built one) called Oratkoy, which is famous for their kumpir.  Kumpir is a baked potato turned inside out and mixed with whatever you want from a list of fixin's. 

Brilliant.  Oratkoy is not on the tourist agenda and is a market area geared more to local tastes, so not as much of the crap stalls, but cooler stuff...and dozens of kumpir shacks.  It is right on the water and would appear to be a place to hang out on a cheap date.  We found a place with a 2nd floor balcony view and enjoyed a view of the harbor and boats, again just watching the world go by.

Oh yeah...here's a close up of that boat in the foreground (insert Bevis and Butthead laugh here).


After a leisurely lunch, we decided to go back for another Turkish bath.  We all went for one a few days earlier at the Suleyman Baths.  It was 800 years old and built by Sinan (who seemingly designed every other building in town) for Suleyman the Great.  A Turkish bath works this way...you go to a private little cabana and change out of your clothes into a towel, then hit the steam area where you lie on a giant marble slab with the other bathers.  The slab is heated from below and is almost to hot to bear...almost.  You lie there for 20-40 minutes and sweat is pouring off you and loosening up all the pores.  Then the bather dude tells you its time and he proceeds to exfoliate your entire body with a loofah while simultaneously giving a quick massage.  Then it's onto the washing area where they soap  and rinse you off with cool water, and then you are toweled up and relax with a drink/tea.  The Suleyman Bath was co-ed and while it was very cool, Carolyn didn't really groove on it.  When we decided to go back on our last day, we picked one where the boys and girls were separated (Cemberlitas Baths...another Sinan design) and she had a lovely time.  My scrubber/masseuse that day was this wiry little guy, and before he started in on me, he asked in broken English if I was Jewish.  Not sure if he peeked under the towel before asking, but he was the third Turk that was bold enough to ask that, so along with being mistaken for a Jew often in Israel as well, I must really resemble one physically.  I didn't think it was a great thing to be considered a Jew in this particular situation so told him "no no, Italiano".  Not sure if he believed me or not, or just was really into it cause he scrubbed me raw...my forehead was bleeding afterwards.  And his massage was as painful as any I've ever had...felt amazing afterwards, but really thought he was gonna break something.   

We had picked out this bath in advance and right next door was a barber shop.  Still had my Movember beard and decided to get a Turkish shave before heading into the baths.  I decided that you can put the word "Turkish" in front of almost anything and it'll sound dirty.  Turkish taxi cab, Turkish babysitter, Turkish remote control, and of course, the famous Turkish Delight.  It's a fun game...kinda like saying "between the sheets" after reading a fortune cookie.  I did get my Turkish shave, by a dude using a straight razor.  Worried a bit that he would think I was a Jew. 

 

At the end he goes, "ear wax?", and figuring these Turks know a thing or two about hair removal, said sure.  A little warm goo and with a little tearing sound, whatever hair was on/in there came right off/out.

After the shave, and then the bath, my head hadn't felt this smooth and soft since the 5th grade.  Our flight out that night was at 1AM, and our hotel (Aren Suites) was cool enough to let us stay till we had to depart for the airport without charging us an extra night, so we had a chance to go back and change our clothes and relax after the bath.  It was off to the Stone House for one final feast, we hugged our new Kurdish friends goodbye and hit the road.  Great times.

Week of January 17th, 2014

Before delving into Istanbul this week, a quick thought about the Philippines.  We watch the first 10 minutes of CNN headline news while eating breakfast before school, and the weather portion focused on a current storm in the Philippines that was causing some serious flooding.  This of course follows the recent worst typhoon on record that wiped out a decent chunk of coast land, and in the year and a half we've been here, it seems that flooding is a constant theme.  You can toss in any other natural disaster (earthquakes/volcanoes) into the discussion and the place just gets pummeled constantly.  Have mentioned that the cable channel that shows the NFL runs the same 6 commercials over and over, and currently, three of the six are calls for help for the suffering Filipinos complete with horror shots that would make Gloria Stivic cringe.  The kids school and community center have been running fundraisers for months and the country of Taiwan as a whole was one of the top donors of money and aid after Typhoon Haiyan (as opposed to mainland China who (in)famously provided a paltry US$200,000.

It is my impression that the Chinese don't respect the Filipinos much, viewing them at best as cheap labor, but inferior in all other respects.  I have found them to be honest, hard working, deeply loving of their families, and as respectful of a people as any.  The female caregivers/domestic help here are universally Filipina (and consistently excellent) and I can recall during so many recent blow-ups in countries that were falling apart due to civil strife (Syria and Libya come to mind) that there were massive airlifts of Filipinos that were working in the construction/oil fields out of those places.  It may be partially due to the fact that my job these days is as caregiver/domestic help that I have a special admiration for them.  There are a lot of places on the planet that have it bad, but what we need more of are those like the Filipinos that work hard and remain calm in spite of their plight, and urge you to consider them with your charity dollars over people and places that just seem to be simultaneously taking from and hating us.

My one word review of Istanbul...superfantastic.  There was a couple more milenia of history in Israel, but when looking at the sites there, you had to use more imagination to "see" it as it had been famously destroyed multiple times.  Still awesome, but in Istanbul, the levels of destruction were far less and you could still experience a lot of the sites in nearly the same state as when they were created.  My "brief" history starts around the sixth century, with the Eastern Roman Empire and then a few centuries later, the rise of the Ottomans ran an uninterrupted hold on the place for a 1000 years with much of that time being the center of an empire that was as dominant as any on the planet.  While the empire fell into decay and disappeared at the time of WWI, Istanbul never "fell" or was sacked, but rather transformed into a secular state under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk.  In college, I did my senior paper on him, so I was going in with a respect that fueled a desire to see if what I had learned was true. 

The core of the old city is relatively small and was easily (even for a quasi-disabled person like myself) to navigate.  Our hotel was perfectly located at the western end of the Hippodrome that served as the cultural center of the city even before it was Constantinople.  Our days would start walking along the path the chariots ran and still contains massive obelisks "imported" from Egypt that are 5000 years old.  One of the constants of the world is the selective history you get while visiting sites.  We were shown the obelisks with pride, but in the middle of the stadium is a tower that used to contain at the top a set of 4 golden chariot horses, and I had read/we were told by our guide that the horses were "stolen" by the Venetians centuries ago and are now housed in St. Marks church, which we saw on our trip there last winter.  I always find it telling that countries are still pissed about past indiscretions against them, seem to leave out the parts about their own atrocities (did not hear a peep about what they did to the poor Armenians), yet are so proud showing off their spoils of conquest.

Along the Hippodrome are the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia which are two of the most outstanding buildings not only in the area, but in the world.  The mosque (completed in 1616) looked good as new...massive on the outside and impressively adorned inside.  Their use of Iznik tiles not only here, but in several of the mosques around town astounds.  We had a personal guide for a couple of days and he taught us so much about the customs and beliefs of the Muslims that I had only known peripherally.  Eating habits, how they pray, the pillars of Islam, why women cover their heads, truly enlightening.  Had heard about calls to prayer of course, but had never been to a country where it is part of the fabric.  5 times a day the calls come simultaneously from the 2000 mosques scattered about and they became a cool part of the scenery.  Except for the one at 6:19am every morning of course.   All the family except me was able to sleep through it, but it got me up every morning.  Would then go up to the rooftop terrace from our hotel to commune with the city...couple of sunrise shots of the Bosphorus and Blue Mosque.

I won't bore you with all the details of what we learned, but will say that it was a reminder that understanding a culture helps to appreciate it instead of only knowing it by prejudice/Fox News.  One aspect of Islam that was unexpected and delightful was their respect of cats.  Cats , thousands of them, roamed the streets EVERYWHERE.  Our guide explained that Mohammad loved his cat and there are several stories of his admiration of them...one is that a cat saved him from a snake attack and that after he pat the cat on his head and back, this act granted all felines with the "righting reflex" for all of time.  The cats, seemingly all stray, are well cared for by the citizens.  We'd see cat beds in front of restaurants and bowls of food and milk laid out all over town. 

There is this stone in the central hippodrome complex that is a remnant from an ancient palace, and in the evening, someone fills all the pock marks of it with cat food and then becomes jammed with the local kitty community.

Betty and Paul are not down with cats, but Carolyn and I were smitten and have already been discussing names for one.

Next to the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia.  It was a Christian church built in 537 by the "Roman" emperor Justinian after the earlier one was destroyed during the Nika riots of 530 (another fascinating tale) .  It was later turned into a mosque for centuries but is now a museum.  It was the largest building in the world for a 1000 years and is in remarkable condition.  The juxtaposition of the Christian and Islamic decoration boggles the mind.

Having lived in earthquake prone areas most of my life and knowing that Istanbul experiences frequent and significant ones, the ability to create such a massive structure using 6th century skills, and have it last for 1500 years was impressive.  The locals have been reinforcing it almost as long and you can find external (flying buttresses) signs of this retrofitting.  With a cursory glance inside, everything looks straight, but once you look closer, you can feel the floors tilting and see the archways and pillars bowing due to the pressure of the structure.

Magnificent.  Another architectural marvel, and my personal favorite place in Istanbul, are the Basilica Cisterns also built in the 6th century.  These are massive interconnected underground water reservoirs that were used to supply water to (then) Constantinople.  Fed by Roman style aqueducts, they could hold 2.8 million square feet of water and are supported by columns of cobalt (which doesn't deteriorate in water as marble does).  The Cistern is now a tourist destination...there is still a few feet of water at the bottom and is full of fish.

The place is eerie, exhilarating and awe inspiring.  I first read about them last summer while reading Dan Brown's (author of DaVinci Code/Angels and Demons) latest book called Inferno, and the climactic scene occurs in them. 

I couldn't get the camera to accurately capture just how immense and incredible they are.  In the summer, they perform concerts there and could just imagine how creepy and great they must sound.  Also in the Cistern, they have set-up the tourist photo area where you can dress like a Sultan and his harem (more on them later).  Our family always bites on the cheesy photo shoot opportunities and in this case, we are happy we did.

Running out of time to finish this before the end of Friday, so Istanbul is going to be a two parter.  Sunday (Monday AM our time) is the Seahawk v 49er playoff game with the winner moving on to the Super Bowl.  GO HAWKS.



 

Week of January 10th, 2014

Just returned from X-mas vacation...pretty incredible one with a week in Israel and another in Istanbul.  For this week's installment, Israel.

Talking about this destination with people before hand, received two comments...why are you going there, and isn't it dangerous?   I can understand the dangerous concern as 'trouble in the Middle East' has been a headline as long as I can remember.  But why?  It has always been a dream of mine to see where so much history of man went down and is such a pivotal point in the future of that history.  My reply is, who could possibly not want to go there?

Through friends, we got hooked up with a tour company called Made In Israel.  Sent them our wish list and they came back with itinerary with everything we wanted and more.  They hooked us up with personal guides at times, on a tour at others, and a driver for the trip to the north.  They also arranged for our hotels and airport transfer and at every turn, everything went totally perfectly and hope I can recommend them to friends down the line.

So much happened in the area that is Israel that it would take weeks to recount all of the names and history we heard and learned.  Will go into a couple of the cooler ones below, but in my notes, here are many of the people/places/things that we encountered.  King Herod, King David, Abraham, King Soloman, Rachel, the Disciples, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Joseph (both dad and prophet), Bethlehem, Nativity Church, Mt. of Olives, Mt. Zion, the Wailing Wall and Temple Mount, the Last Supper, Via Dolarosa, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Mohammed, Crusaders, Bedouins, Masada, the Dead Sea, Judean dessert, Ali Baba, the Good Samaritan, Samuel, Cesearea, Bosnian refugees, Jericho, the Palestinians, Haifa, the Bahai, Acco/Acre, the Templars, Saladin, the Ottomans, Armenians, the Hospitaliers, Pontius Pilate, Mt. of Beatitudes, Alicia, The Assassins, Golan Heights, the Druze, the Valley of Tears, Nigerian pilgrims, the borders of Jordan/Lebanon/Syria, the "mighty Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, a bunch of miracles, Nazareth, Virgin Mary's House, Megido (aka Armegeddon), Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and of course...JC himself.   We were with a really excellent guide most of the way, and while I knew about most of these things, she provided depth and made these events come alive. 

Some personal highlights...
- On the Via Dolarosa, which is the route JC took to the crucifixion and the 9 stations of the cross, there is a spot where Jesus fell and put his hand on a wall to steady himself. 

- We all wrote down a prayer and inserted it into the Wailing Wall.  They split the boys from the girls into different sections.  Paul and I had to strap on yarmulkes...oy vey.  I learned that the purpose of the yarmulke is to signify the separation between man and God.

I really should have invested in a proper yarmulke.  I have been posing as a Jew for years, rather successfully in some cases.  This started around a dinner table once when I declared that I really disliked camping and a friend asked me, "what are you, Jewish?"  A group of buddies who were long time accomplices with this charade and I  are out at a club one night and there is another long time work aquaintence there, and one of my buddies tells her that I'm Jewish.  She looks right at me and declares, "that explains everything."  There must really be something to that as people assumed I was Israeli/Jesish many times during the week.  Being asked questions in Hebrew in the street, getting menu's in Hebrew while the rest of the family got theirs in English...at every turn I was treated as one of them and was made comfortable.  This was later turned into a bit of discomfort when the same thing happened in Istanbul, but more on that next week.

- Visiting Masada was a dream in so many ways.  If you don't know the story, the 1981 TV mini-series starring recently departed Peter O'Toole is where I knew the story from and does a pretty decent job telling it.  Even knowing the story well, visiting the site and seeing it's isolated location in the heart of the driest of desserts was stunning and spectacular.  I've seen a lot of pictures and heard so many stories about it, but none of those remotely captured the essence of it.  A must must see.

- While you're there, Masada is near the shores of the Dead Sea and we had the chance to float in it.  At 427 meters below sea level, it is the lowest elevation on Earth.  It was a Sea that became isolated from the oceans millions of years ago when two plates separated (and still are) and a line can be drawn from here all the way through east Africa where the Earth is splitting apart.  Due to it's isolation and evaporation, it is now so salty (33%) and is so buoyant that it is near impossible to go under the water.  You sorta bob on the top of it like a bouy in the water.  We were warned not to get any in our eyes/mouth, but I slurped up a small amount by accident and it was like drinking pure salt mixed with battery acid.  Truly bizzare.  On the shore, they had put buckets of the local mud that is said to have regenitive powers and you could lather up from head to toe.  The girls and I did so...even my flabby skin felt tight as a drum that evening.  The water is so corrosive that we were told not to take our cameras to the water, so have no photos of that moment, but this is the site of the beach we visited, and you can see what it's all about.  We went there near sunset time, and on the other side of the Dead Sea are the hills of Jordan, and as the sun was going down, there was this explosion of orange colors that would change in the fading light that was mesmerizing. 

- To visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born, we had to cross over into the Palestinian governed territories.  What was stunning about the border, and really about our entire stay in Israel, was the near absence of visible military/police/security.  We barely saw any anywhere, although our hotel in the Golan Heights area advertised their facility had a  "complimentary bomb shelter".  You would see these groups of new soldiers all over the place, but it seemed they were all at camp rather than in the army.  Military service is required for everyone (3 years for men/18 months for women), and as part of their boot camp, they travel to the historic sites to get an appreciateion of their heritage and land.  We had our passports, but when we hit the checkpoint into Palestine, the guards looked in the window and waved us through and the same thing happened on the way back into Israel.  After the Palestinian intifadas, all of their setttlements have been surrounded by 30 foot walls. 

They have art shows featuring the graffiti on some of them.  So once we made it into Bethlehem, which is literally 2 miles from Jerusalem (the proximity of everything in Israel was another revelation), we visited the Church of the Nativity.  This is the traditional site where Jesus was born, and this church was extra lively as Christmas eve was the following day.  The first thing we noticed where huge groups of Africans.  We learned that the government of Nigeria pays for every person in the country to make a pilgrimage in their lifetime.  Christinas go to Israel and Muslims go to Mecca, all paid for by the government.  Everywhere we went in Israel, we would encounter busloads of Nigerians.  The Church of the Nativity is very modest, and in the basement there is this shrine that marks the spot of JC's birth.  The line to touch/pray on it was long, but we snuck our hands in for some quick karma.

We then heard an interesting story about the birth and how he got Jesus got his name that I had never heard.  He was born at this site in what is now a busy city, but Bethlehem was a small villiage at the time, and he was born in a tiny wooden shack that was made as a pen for goats.  At the moment of birth, Joseph was so startled that he stood up quickly, banged his head on the low beam of the pen and yelled, "Jesus Christ!" 

OK, so I had planned ahead and was ready to share that gag at the appropriate moment...our guides (non-practicing Jews/Muslims all) seemed to like it.

- Another favorite spot of mine was the city of Acco (also called Acre).  Continuously inhabited for over 4000 years, it had been a key trading city for most of its history.  The old city as it is now dates mostly from the period during the crusades and was a key city in the staging area for the siege of Jerusalem.  The walls and escape tunnels erected by the Templars were chilling to say the least.  It is now mainly inhabited by Arabs and lies a dozen kilometers from Lebanon.  Acco at sunset was gorgeous

- We spent the better part of two days touring the Sea of Galilee and Golan Heights areas.  In the Galilee, we were led to places where Jesus performed many miracles, and at the Mount of Beatitudes, our guide broke out her bible and had Paul read this passage.  A fun moment.

- Need to talk about the food for a few.  Israel has immigrants from everywhere.  For instance, since the end of the Soviet Union, over a million Russians have emigrated to Israel (which in a country of only 8 million is  a pretty significant slice of the pie).  Being the newbies in town, they are now the race that does all the dirty jobs, like maid/sanitation/etc.  Before them, it was Europeans escaping WWII, and Jewish Arabs from all over the MIddle East, so there is not a lack of diining options around.  However, the go-to street food for quick meals almost exclusively consists of hummus, falafel, schwarma and kebabs.  That was just fine with us as we love love love all of the above.  We had pizza one night, and went to a non-kosher restaurant on Shabbat, but other than that, every lunch and dinner contained one of those four food groups.  We ate a lot of kebabs, and everyone had their favorites, but for me, the best were in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem at this Arab place called Shab.  Our Isreali friends that live in Taiwan told us these were the best and to try them.  This link  describes the place pretty well, but what it doesn't say is that there is no sign above the door saying it's there and you'd probably walk by it if you weren't looking for it.  Our guide, who we had given the address (and was a vegetarian) had to ask a dozen people before we found it, and it was so worth the journey.  Like it says in the description, their only menu item is kebabs (the best) served with grilled onions and tomatoes and jammed into a pita pocket.  Take them and get out of the way.  We walked a few feet and ate them on the steps of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site where JC was crucified/buried).  Talk about a religious experience.

 

That's our guide Keren next to Carolyn.  If you are vegetarian or are squeamish about watching people eat, you may want to skip the next 3 snaps.

Oh baby....

Probably the best overall meal we had in Israel was in the Golan Heights area in a Druze village.  Had heard about the Druze before, mainly associated with the Lebanon Civil War in the 80's and the presence of the Druze Militia, but learned there is so much more to them.  A unique religion leaning towards Islam, but very distinct and insular.  Their traditional homeland for their 1000 year plus existence skirts the areas in the Syrian/Lebanese/Israeli borders, which is certainly some turbulent land, but their peaceful nature allows them to roll with the ever changing tides without being slaughtered.  Very interesting.  Anyhoo, at this Druze restaurant, they served up the standard falafel/kebab/hummus fare, but each dish had a unique spin to it and was superbly prepared.  We had a memorable feast.

Thinking we couldn't manage another bite, the guide said that the place next door served up some good kanafeh.  Our family was introduced to kanafeh recently on Arab St. in Singapore, and we were prepared to explore its wonders on this trip knowing that the area was its home turf.  If you know about it, you can appreciate our quest.  If you haven't tried it, go find a Turkish or other Mediterannean restaurant and get some NOW.   In my limited and humble opinion, the kanefeh served in this village was the best. 

We encountered several cultures in Israel, but the combination of their peaceful coexistence with hostile neighbors and fabulous food, the Druze shot to the top of my Middle Eastern rankings.  They will later be challenged by our experience with the Kurds in Turkey, but more on them next time.

It wouldn't be a proper posting in this diary if I didn't share my thoughts on the local chicks.  Will go into the Arab ones a bit more next week, but as for the "Israelis", as they are Jews from all over the world, they didn't have one type.  The Western looking ones were cute assuming you like your breasts a bit floppy and your thighs a bit meaty.  Not fat, just floppy and meaty.  In the neighborhood we were in, there seemed to be a lot of American girls, and it reminded both Betty and I of a large swath of the girls that we went to American University with and called JAP's (Jewish American Princesses).  You have to know one to love one. 

Finally for Israel, it is hard to go there and not be curious about how the Jews interact with their neighbors.  The total lack of any signs of strife was surprising.  Watching the news, there was a recent bomb that was planted on a bus in Tel Aviv, and the Israelis had reported 127 incidents of Palestinian "attacks" on Israelis the previous month, but we got no feel for that as we toured around.  We would be driving along and it looked like the valley in So Cal with strip malls, Ikea's and Office Depot's along the road, then would turn down another street, and all the signs would be in Arabic and we would be immersed in one of their neighborhoods (minus the business signs from Western conglomerates).  Of the 8 million inhabitants in Israel, nearly 2 million of them are Arab/Muslim.  Talking to the Israelis we met, they all said that this was a time of peace and it would take some prodding before they would go into their time in the military or during the intifadas/wars.  Our guide remembered a time during one of them when she was 8 years old and often going into bomb shelters and how at that age, she thought of it as an adventure.  One of our drivers was an older guy that liked to point out sites along the way, and when we would be going through Arab neighborhoods, he would say that "these are good Arabs" or point to areas surrounded by walls and say they caused a lot of trouble.  John Kerry happened to be in the area at the time, and the one day I pressed him about the current negotiations going on between Palestinians/Israelis was the one time he raised his voice declaring that they will never ever be able to recognize and make peace with Arabs as they only "want to destroy".  Asking him what they wanted to destroy, his reply was "everything".  While it is far more complicated, the feeling I got during the week was a layer of total calm in every aspect of society, but that it is not a very thick one.

I have rambled on too long, but have so many more notes and things I would love to share.  This was a place that offers so much, be it religiously, historically, culturally, even gastronomically, that I feel that I will be reflecting on it for the rest of my life.  I know that every time I hear a story about current events in the Middle East, or watch a movie about the history of the area, that my perspective has been forever changed.