Gezi Park

This is happening. We hear the banging of pots and pans in solidarity. We see our neighbors with their flags on display. We love being here. We want the best for everyone. I have strong opinions about all of this. I will share them with you face to face, but I don't feel like it does any good putting them here. I have to acknowledge that it is happening. That there is more to our own lives than these pictures of smiling faces and amazing sights and delicious food. This is a great country. These are great people.

Trabzon and Rize Day Two

Day Two!

Day two wasn't quite as long as the first, but I think it took a lot out of us, even though it continued to be quite amazing in itself. We started with a fabulous free breakfast at our hotel, finally got some food into our boy and had a leisurely 9 a.m. departure. We (being our family) were following the group itinerary, but it was amorphous and we were not always updated about where we were going, or more important for me, when we were going to stop for food. It all worked out great, but we had to ask several times where it was we were heading.

After loading up in the van again, we headed back into the mountains, albeit on a different road. It was a lot of the same beautiful green and lush green we'd seen the day before. Soon, the traffic died out almost completely and the mountain continued to rise and rise and get drier and hotter. We had entered the rain shadow. Our first stop was Karaca Cave. It was...unique and rather compact, and while the area around it was beautiful, I didn't think the fifteen minutes we were there warranted driving two hours to get there. Also, the boy freaked out at the darkness of it and the cool air and could not be coerced into entering. After that there was hope. Because, first, there was köfte and lamb to be had. I was starting to get burned out on the köfte, but this was some of the best I've had. It was extra crispy and not greasy at all. After that came Sumela Monastery.

On the way to Karaca Cave. I put this picture (with window glare and billboard) here on purpose because of the billboard. We were in an area of a lot of tea production, hence the teapot on the right, and that dish on the left, which consists of flour and melted cheese, is to die for. Or from.

There was a very windy road to get up to the cave, which was pretty much at the top of the mountain.

This charming village greeted us on the way up the mountain. It was so hot and dry, I didn't remember it being this green. I guess that's why we have cameras.

Sumela Monastery dates from the fourth century, although most structures are much newer. It is a fabulous place to visit because of its beauty, location and how you get there. Again, you drive up windy roads, pay a small fee for vehicle entrance and then cross your fingers for somewhere to park. This place was VERY popular. After exiting our van, we were faced with two options, walk the 3 km trail to the top or pay 6 TL for a round trip ride to the top. I opted for the ride. It was money well spent. Once at the top, there is a 300 meter rocky trail to navigate, which was somewhat tricky for me with a heavy boy on my back. He was feeling very happy to be out of the van, albeit locked in the backpack, but also a little feisty as well. There was loads of attention paid to him and he was almost flippant in his responses to people smiling at him.

Once you reach the top, there is another small fee to pay (unless you have the much appreciated Muze Kart, thank you!) which is the equivalent of about five dollars. Climb one more set of stairs and behold! This place is amazing! It is like a small city tucked into the side of a mountain. It is incredible. I can't imagine how inspiring and lonely it must have been to have lived here so long ago. There is a myriad of different buildings with different functions. I particularly enjoyed the library, which had a window that looked out way down the cliff face and across to the hillside opposite. There was a very nice and intimate dining room and a bakery with very low doorways. The rock chapel was obviously the most hallowed spot and it was awash in frescoes on almost every surface and was literally carved into the rock of the cliff. There was even a nice courtyard to give you a sense of openness after being in all the tiny rooms. There's nothing that I can compare it to. It really is just stunning.

Intrepid travelers all.

Happy family.

Looking up from where we entered.

Inside the Rock Chapel. 

The frescoes are uncovered and an arm length away. So many of the frescoes had been vandalized. What was surprising was that some of the vandals marked the year of their destruction, some dated to 1809, and there were many different languages etched into them, Greek, Georgian, some Cyrillic.

After retracing our way back to a van that would bring us back to OUR van, the boy was presented with a complimentary ice cream cone. He's still working on how to eat them. Note large glob of ice cream in Mlle's hair.

One last Trabzon note:

The area around Trabzon is fiercely proud of their little corner of the world. And they love their football team, which is remarkably successful for being based in a town of only 300,000. They are quite competitive with the larger clubs from Istanbul. That said, there is quite a bit of decoration on buildings around town in the team's colors of claret and sky blue.

Here they are on a factory outside of town.

And on a bus shelter.

Trabzon and Rize Day One

I'm breaking this up into three parts because there was so much fun that we had and this post would be pages and pages with all of the photos I want to include.

Trabzon!

Memorial Day weekend gave us three days to get out of Istanbul and explore some more of this country. We were invited to go with some friends to Trabzon, off in the northeast corner of the country. Trabzon has about 250,000 people and of course, compared to Istanbul's 18 million plus, it seems like such a quaint little village.

We woke up at four something in the morning to hop on a shuttle with our friends and travel mates to take us to the the airport on the Asian side of the city. The flight to Trabzon takes about an hour and a half. They have a tiny airport right on the Black Sea. We met our driver, arranged beforehand by another travel mate and we were off.

Our first stop was Uzungöl, Long Lake, up in the mountains. Yes, there are beautiful green forested mountains! It was so refreshing to see and once we got out of the van, refreshing to breathe clean mountain air. It's been so long!

It is nice to be there, but Uzungöl is a rather smallish lake, so there is little to do except for strolling about the touristy village and maybe grab a bite to eat. They do have paddle boats and bicycles for rent, but it was a bit chilly, so we opted for a mere stroll.

Requisite family shot. And snow!

Uzungöl. A-frames on the far shore. There was a lot of alpine architecture going on.

After Uzungöl, we stopped for a bite and descended back to Trabzon to see their Hagia Sophia, walk the pazar and check into our hotel.

Hagia Sophia is a compact church from the thirteenth century. The church is located on a hill above the city and has wonderful views. They also have beautiful grounds for strolling, or in our case, running after a very excited toddler who was about done being in a van all day.

Some of the frescoes inside the church.

The church and bell tower.

Getting a peek at the city below.

Looking west. A sample of the coastline.

He climbed into a fountain, rather, I let him climb in the fountain because it was dry.

Mama and her babe.

From there, we strolled along Uzun Street looking at shops and stuff and entertaining the crowds with a tall bearded man carrying a toddler in a backpack. No surprise, but the people of Trabzon are as friendly as they are here in Istanbul. It was a good jaunt through the narrow and twisty streets. Nothing was purchased save some apricots and we piled back into our van to see our hotel.

We stayed at the Novotel, which is not a telecom company, but a hotel chain which isn't too shabby. It is located right off the beach and had beautiful grounds to walk around and it's own exit to the Black Sea beaches. The beach is nice, but the water is COLD, plus it being early season and not too sunny, they were mostly empty.

With us fighting off exhaustion and hunger, our driver returned to take us to a splendid restaurant, again located on the water, where we dined on white bean salad, Akçabaat köfte and lamb. The boy was thoroughly exhausted and would not eat and just wanted to run around. The staff of the restaurant were more than happy to chase him too so his mom and pop could quickly eat some food. After that, glorious sleep.

odds and sods*

*British & Australian informal of 'Odds and Ends'

This is and Odds and Sods post because I want to sit down and right about a little something, but I'm feeling a little aimless about it too. Also I like a nice batch of new photos to accompany my dry and dusty prose and I have none, so I'm including some random photos in here today.

It is May 17! We have been in Istanbul for one year and one day! We still love it and don't want to think about leaving. Leaving is part of the deal so we've got to face that at some point. We have a busy busy year ahead of us (meaning just the rest of 2013) and I don't know how we'll be able to do everything we want to do while we're still here. We have an in country trip planned soon that is in an area that I've wanted to see so I'll feel better about having done that. This country rivals the U.S. as far as how many sights there are to be seen and different types of geography and cuisine and history and on and on. I'll try to get as much done and seen as I can, but this country has been around for a long time and will continue to exist. I can always come back. And hopefully we'll always have friends to come back and see.

You can't feel welcome if you don't feel comfortable and I think we're definitely comfortable here now. 

I found this in TimeOut Istanbul. So nice! This month's in season fruits are strawberries, sour green plums, mulberries and loquats, WHICH is what I wrote about and are known locally as Malta Erik. Who knew? I'd never seen or tasted a loquat before!

A small boy in his jaunty hat and dapper footwear.

I think he may have a knife tucked into his Snoopy pants.

This place has pretty good burgers. They also have some good side dishes. Hellim is cheese, Tursu is pickles.

Enjoying the healthy (well maybe except for the lunchmeat) lunch his papa fixed for him. Cucumbers, cheese, olives, pickles, lunchmeat, organic strawberries and a few apple slices leftover from breakfast. Oops, I forgot his carbs!

More Food and Some Walking

I present to you a few more foods that are nice to look at and decent to eat too. These all came from the grocery, not the street market, but you can find the first two there no problem.

First up is Erik. That's me! Sort of. These are sour green plums. Some are more tart than others. This is the first batch I've ever bought so my sample is pretty small. These taste mostly like fruit that isn't ripe, which makes sense since that's exactly what they look like. They are just very mild tasting and very crunchy. I'll try to pick up more at the pazar tomorrow.

This is garlic. Fresh green garlic. I haven't untied it so I don't know what it's like. It smells wonderful though. I'll have to find a garlic-centric recipe for it.

This is sausage like you see in the old-timey cartoons. The label says it is Hindi Sucuk, which is sausage made with turkey. It doesn't taste like that to me though. I only bought it because of its appearance and I have to say it's quite tasty. I slice it thin and make sandwiches using fresh baked bread  and some kasar cheese (which is anywhere between mozzarella, cheddar and provolone, depending on the brand. Confusing? Why, yes!) and throw it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Now onto today's activities. It's Friday. The boy took a late nap yesterday and we ended up missing playgroup for the third week in a row. I was looking forward to going, but it was a new and unusual time in our schedule. So today, we decided to do something else fun and go for our usual Emirgan walk. The weather has been cool, breezy and cloudy, just like this time last year when we first arrived. I over-bundled each of us and we were off. The weather actually ended up being just about perfect. It wasn't too cold at all and felt really good to be outside. It was a good walk. Everything seemed new, but I had the confidence of knowing the ins and outs of where I was going and what I was doing.

I wish I'd gotten a few pictures from the first part of the walk, but I'll have to go again and take them. These are all from Emirgan, which is less crowded now that the tulips have passed, but is still a very popular park. They opened up a new section, which is quite nice and not terribly overcrowded just yet.

I picked up a bottle of black mulberry juice/soda at the playground for 2 Lira and a fresh loaf of bread on the way home for 1 Lira. I love how delicious and affordable the food is here.

Laying out the designs before the flowers go in.

A painted tree stump.

Flowers! No tulips though.

The painted stump. There has to be a prettier name for it than that.

Some mosaic (if that's the right term) using different colors of river rock. This is all new.

The homage to our fair city.

This is new as well. This area was part of the park, but undeveloped until just recently. Now it has a new water feature and bridge.

There is now an aviary with some colorful birds.

There is also a gigantic skywalk for the children. The only way up is climbing the massive rope pyramid at the end or climbing up the ladder tube. The slide is the largest I have seen in a public park anywhere. Litigious Americans prevent this structure from ever making its way across the ocean.

A Brief Excursion Overseas

I was recently afforded a trip back to the homeland rather unexpectedly which was A Very Wonderful Thing. Granted the whole family is scheduled to return to those environs late next month, but this was just me. Last minute. Colorado bound. It was so nice to be back, but the reason for my visit was the unease of having a loved one in ill, but overall unknown health and not knowing what was wrong, how long you might have to visit or how bad any of it truly was.

The loved one in question is the handsome devil below, my grandfather Fred Elmer. He's currently 92 years old and before April was the picture of health for most of his adult life. He was driving into the mountains to ice fish alone. Last year. He took a fishing trip to Wisconsin the year before that. He is an avid fisherman, golfer and wood carver. He volunteered at the local reservoir until he was 90. He's definitely the patriarch of the family, and probably the most admired man I've ever known.

Handsome young chap. Maybe only 22 or 23 years old at this time (maybe younger) with a wife and young son (my Uncle Dennis) at home as he sailed to Europe to participate in WWII.

This isn't a eulogy. He's alive and well. And getting better. But he was not so well before I came and is taking some time getting back to his old self, which we all expect him to do. I don't know how it feels to have so many family members descend on you when you're in a state like that. Is it comforting knowing what a great family you have and how much they love you? Or are you thinking "Oh sh*t, I must be really sick."? For him (who wouldn't think a swear word anyway) it was the former. It was so nice for me just to be in his presence. He seemed glad to have a house full of people chatting and catching up. We gave him plenty of time for rest, don't worry.

I hate to say it, but it was really good. I've never before put into words how much he means to me and don't always think about him as much as I could or should. I let him know, in a letter, how much he really does mean to me and to his whole family and all of his many, many friends. We're going back in late June and it'll be nice to see him again. It'll be nice to not have to worry about him while he's sitting next to you. It'll be nice to tell him in person how much I love him.

–– • ––

Now for the other part of the trip. It was really nice to experience America again after being away in a lovely, yet foreign country for a year. My cravings for the unobtainable foods had mostly subsided, but since I was there, I felt I owed it to myself and my wife to indulge. Straight from the airport in the rental car, I stopped at Wendy's for a Son of Baconator. Terrible name, so-so burger. But the fries! They were salted! And the drink had ICE in it! It was a revelation. The next day, we visited the average BBQ place down the street, although this time it was GOOD. It was amazingly good! It was the first pulled pork I had in over a year. So I had it the next day and the next until come three days later, all I wanted was some fresh fruit.

So after dropping my brother off at the airport, I stopped in at the grocery store and picked some up. And some Hebrew National hot dogs (they had Nathan's too, but I had a craving!). And some beer. American craft beer. Oh, delicious IPAs. Oh delicious porters. Oh, what's this? A variation on an already unique stout. I've had several oyster stouts before and I love them. They date back to a time when beer was safer to drink than water and if you could get some added nutrients from other foods, then even better! For the uninitiated, the beer does not contain actual oysters. They run the hot wort (pre-fermented beer) through a vat full of oysters to impart it with taste and nutrients. It generally picks up some minerally notes. Wynkoop outdid them all though with this concoction. I haven't tried them yet, but I will. I'm not afraid. And they only sell them in a pair. Classic.

A Brief Post About Food

The boy and I had lunch with the missus today at Backhaus in the mall. I knew it was a bakery that sold good bread and delicious doughnuts, but what I didn't know how mediocre their quesadillas were (although who am I really kidding with that one?) or how amazing looking their desserts were? I say looking because these beauties are still in my fridge. Who knows a thing or two about restraint, huh?

Little birdies on the boxes. What could be in there?

Peck. Peck.

Glorious!

For scale.

Dessert the first.

Dessert the second.

Now onto other food. We picked up this mysterious fruit at the market this weekend. The missus told me of these small fruits that look bruised that are supposed to be good and we found them. They are very different, but quite good. They are called Erik Malta. Erik is Turkish for plum, so they are definitely plums. They are quite small, the size of a very small plum or a very large strawberry.

You peel off the woody stem and cut them stem to stern. They have one to three smooth nut-like seeds inside. There is also a fine membrane surrounding the seeds that you scrape away. Then you can pop them in your mouth and enjoy. They are a little tart and a little sweet. The boy loves them.