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.