Monday 25 February 2008

istanbul was constantinople now its



Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- Hello from (slightly outside of) Jacksonville!

It's my second night here and I'd have checked many more things off my

to do list had I not been sick this morning. Ah well. A great night at

The Pearl is better than anything.

My baby bro and I went to our favorite bar and killed the place. I was

so happy to be there; I was smiling the whole night and admiring all

the new stuff on the walls. The DJ played everything I requested and

gave me a whole list of music to find.

The craziest thing was that one of the bartenders -- who's been

serving me beer since late 2002 -- told my brother, a friend of his,

that I'm hot. Really? All of a sudden? After nearly five years? Maybe

it was the smile. Maybe it was the black pants, black tank and grey

heels. Whatever. He kept saying things like, "Josh, mind if I'm your

brother-in-law" and asking me if I'd like to move to Oregon. It was

... interesting. The part that still blows me away is that I've

"known" this guy longer than my brother has. Hell, I introduced Josh

to the bar!

The only downside was that when we left, someone had broken into

Josh's car. He called the insurance company and I called the cops. And

I went back inside for water, whereupon the DJ told me it's a bad

neighborhood. I replied, "it's coming back, it's not as bad as it used

to be, oh, and I used to live around here. Don't start with me about

the dangers of the neighborhood."

I crashed at my brother's house, so very happy with sore feet from

dancing like crazy to beautiful indie music.

Today, instead of driving around Jax to do my 10,000 errands, I slept,

puked, slept, and finally awoke to pack up dishes, crystal, and random

other things to take back to Melly. Mom's going to be a travel nurse,

if she can ever get the contract together. And maybe by Turkey Day

I'll have the money to get all my future furniture!

Maybe, too, at Thanksgiving I'll hit the Pearl three nights instead of


another great day in istanbul



Another great day in Istanbul

Yesterday we went to see Topkapi Palace, the Sultan's residences. Then

we spent the afternoon at a street-facing coffee shop along our

favorite street here, Istiklal Cadessi (see a video here). We people

watched for hours in between sips of dark Turkish tea. We then walked


istanbul




istanbul to zonguldak



Istanbul to Zonguldak

Hi all, yesterday we left Istanbul at 7.00am and headed for Zonguldak

on the Black sea arriving just after mid day. We past thru Eregli

which is huge ship building port with coal and steel prouction as

well.

We have hired a car and driver/guide for 6 days and will go from the

Black Sea down thru Capadocia to the Mediterainan and back to

Istanbul. He is proving very good value, we took a bit of a gamble

having engaged him from using him as a taxi driver one night in

Istanbul.

Whilst wandering around Zonguldak a english speaking teacher

approached and offered to take us to visit his private school with 350

children. Of course there was no holding Pauline back so we ended up

by being mobbed by hundreds of screeming kids (just like home). We

then headed for Bartin and onto Amasa where we stayed the night. On

the way we saw farmers making hay the old way - cutting by hand,

loading it dried and unbaled onto trailers and thhen hand stacking. We

stopped to take photos and were asked home for a drink of sour yogurt

which we accepted of course, although I somehow managed a sore tummy

on the way - no way was I going to drink that! But Pauline bravely

managed some - and survived. What friendly people, within no time the

almost whole village (300) joined in.

Next thing the cows started wandering up the street, being returned

from grazing in the nearby hills. (everyones in the same herd) They

all knew which house they belonged to, turning into the dirves without

direction where they would be hand milked and spend the night under

the house.

These people are very poor - no tractors or cars for most, but they

share what they have. The women and old men do all the work, the young

men just seemed to wander about watching. The Black Sea seems to be

very foggy most of the time, but the countryside is very green and

quite steep and hilly. Its hard to imagine it snows here in the


istinye istanbul



Istinye, Istanbul

Summer has arrived very early in Istanbul and although it creates a

more aesthetically pleasing environment it is creating concerns for

the summer's water supply - same issues all around the world by the

sound of it. Here are a couple of snaps taken on the week. Istinye is

a 20 minute bus ride from home, along the Bosphorus.

Istinye, Istanbul Turkey

Istinye, Istanbul Turkey


turkey travelogue 11f istanbul



Turkey Travelogue 11f - The Istanbul Archaeological Museum (Cont'd)

The museum complex also has a large collection of treasures from the

Ancient Near East. I took pictures of a few highlights.

These are reliefs from the Ishtar gate in Babylon, which was

constructed by Nebuchadnezzar II in 575 BC and excavated between

1902-1914 (according to Wikipedia):

Other reliefs from the same gate are apparently scattered in museums

around the world including Detroit, Sweden and the Louvre.

According to the write-up beside this picture, this "winged genie" was

taken from the northwest palace of King Assurnasirhpal II (ca. 883-859

B.C.):

And this is Shalmaneser II (858-824 BC), king of Assyria:

(In case you are wondering, the Shalmaneser mentioned in 2 Kings 17:3

and 18:9 is Shalmaneser V who ruled between 727-722 BC.)

The tile museum is housed in a building constructed in 1472. Lots of

pretty things here. This looks like one of t's home-made Christmas

decorations:

Wall decorations:


istanbul 2006 may



Istanbul 2006 May

Finally uploaded the latest photos that were made during my last stop

over on my way to Hungary. The weather was hot and humid and

everything but ideal for taking good photos, neverless - here they

are. Except for 2 or 3, I was using only the 14-45

zoom:http://balazsgats.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=a


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