Istanbul
Istanbul is one of the world's fabled cities. It straddles the Bosphorous 
-- part of the waterway separating Asia from Europe; one of the only (the only?) cities on two continents. As Byzantium and Constantinople and now Istanbul it has been fought over, conquered, been the capital of empires, seen the passing of the Crusades and become a world-class site for business and tourism. It has been the home of great churches, (many of which were made into mosques under the Ottomans), fantastic palaces, a thriving port and the world's largest bazaar.
And we were there!
(Not for the Crusades or conquests -- but in May of 2006.)
On completion of Chuck's business in Ankara we flew to Istanbul (the Asian side) where Chuck spent a day visiting the Turkish Navy Research Center Command to become acquainted with the work being done there and, as usual, to look for opportunities to encourage collaboration in research. Our hotel was a short distance from the waterfront on the Mediterannean and near a very nice upscale neighborhood of modern brand-name stores. Kathi explored the area on foot and did some window shopping until Chuck finished his visit with the Turkish Navy.
Late in the afternoon we crossed by ferry to the European side, which is the well-known world city and tourist attraction. Our hotel was right in the midst of the great attractions -- the
Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sofia were all within a three minute walk. The grand bazaar was about 15 minutes away on foot. The hotel put us in the "cistern room" -- on the bottom floor, slightly below ground, with a unique decorating scheme dominated by a large bathroom designed to look like a classic Roman or Greek bath -- all granite and marble. It had a small patio that joined the hotel's very peaceful and pleasant courtyard -- the site of relaxed breakfasts.
We found that in Istanbul, as in Ankara, the Turks were very friendly -- in fact unusually so. They were cheerful and polite, outgoing and curious about America.
The areas around the big tourist sites are, of course, a magnet for "touts" trying to sell various trinkets or to offer their services as a guide in places where guides were generally not needed. They all had the same method of trying to engage tourists -- their approach was invariably "hello, where you from". At first we answered "California" or "London", which prompted them to tell us how much they loved those places. We soon realized that this only opened the way to a long series of entreaties that it was then hard to bring to an end -- "5 lira each; OK, 2 for 7 lira; OK I give you one for 3 lira, because I like you; OK, just 2 lira; don't break my heart" -- and so on. We finally devised a scheme to beat this -- we decided we would answer that we were from Pascagoula, Mississippi. We figured Turks were unlikely to have ever heard of that (fine) town.
This led to this exchange: "Where you from?" "Pascagoula, Mississippi". "Oh". "You been to Blue Mosque?". "Yes". "You been to Haggia Sofia?" "Yes". "You been to Topkapi Palace?" "Yes". "Why you not been to my store?" Back to the drawing board.
For some pictures of beautiful Istanbul visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1503827/1
-- part of the waterway separating Asia from Europe; one of the only (the only?) cities on two continents. As Byzantium and Constantinople and now Istanbul it has been fought over, conquered, been the capital of empires, seen the passing of the Crusades and become a world-class site for business and tourism. It has been the home of great churches, (many of which were made into mosques under the Ottomans), fantastic palaces, a thriving port and the world's largest bazaar.And we were there!
(Not for the Crusades or conquests -- but in May of 2006.)
On completion of Chuck's business in Ankara we flew to Istanbul (the Asian side) where Chuck spent a day visiting the Turkish Navy Research Center Command to become acquainted with the work being done there and, as usual, to look for opportunities to encourage collaboration in research. Our hotel was a short distance from the waterfront on the Mediterannean and near a very nice upscale neighborhood of modern brand-name stores. Kathi explored the area on foot and did some window shopping until Chuck finished his visit with the Turkish Navy.
Late in the afternoon we crossed by ferry to the European side, which is the well-known world city and tourist attraction. Our hotel was right in the midst of the great attractions -- the
Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sofia were all within a three minute walk. The grand bazaar was about 15 minutes away on foot. The hotel put us in the "cistern room" -- on the bottom floor, slightly below ground, with a unique decorating scheme dominated by a large bathroom designed to look like a classic Roman or Greek bath -- all granite and marble. It had a small patio that joined the hotel's very peaceful and pleasant courtyard -- the site of relaxed breakfasts.
We found that in Istanbul, as in Ankara, the Turks were very friendly -- in fact unusually so. They were cheerful and polite, outgoing and curious about America.
The areas around the big tourist sites are, of course, a magnet for "touts" trying to sell various trinkets or to offer their services as a guide in places where guides were generally not needed. They all had the same method of trying to engage tourists -- their approach was invariably "hello, where you from". At first we answered "California" or "London", which prompted them to tell us how much they loved those places. We soon realized that this only opened the way to a long series of entreaties that it was then hard to bring to an end -- "5 lira each; OK, 2 for 7 lira; OK I give you one for 3 lira, because I like you; OK, just 2 lira; don't break my heart" -- and so on. We finally devised a scheme to beat this -- we decided we would answer that we were from Pascagoula, Mississippi. We figured Turks were unlikely to have ever heard of that (fine) town.
This led to this exchange: "Where you from?" "Pascagoula, Mississippi". "Oh". "You been to Blue Mosque?". "Yes". "You been to Haggia Sofia?" "Yes". "You been to Topkapi Palace?" "Yes". "Why you not been to my store?" Back to the drawing board.
For some pictures of beautiful Istanbul visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1503827/1
posted by Chuck and Kathi Calvano @ 7:36 PM
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