T-Minus 2 Weeks to Malaysia!

In 10 days I will be heading to Malaysia! I am going to be a chaperon for one of my school's Habitat For Humanity trips, and so on April 1st I will be heading to Kuching (on the Borneo part of Malaysia) with 12 high school students and a high school teacher as the other chaperon. We will be spending 9 days in Malaysia (5 building, 2 R&R, and 2 travel days) with the [obvious] primary objective of building a house for a needy family in the Kuching community. But, we will also be getting a city tour, and will go on a 9-hour kayaking adventure with stops at an Orangutan wildlife preservation and also a traditional Malaysian long house. Needless to say, I am absolutely psyched! I've never really been anywhere in southeast Asia before (except Nepal), and this should be a truly unique experience. The countdown is on and I am sure I will have loads of stories and adventures to share upon my return. Wish me luck!

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Last weekend we had an absolutely wonderful (albeit freezing cold and rainy) trip to Istanbul, Turkey. It is a place that has been high on our list to visit since we got here, and we figured there was no better excuse to go than to celebrate our 8 year anniversary.

Jared actually planned the trip as a surprise for me (he surprised me a couple weeks before by hiding an Istanbul guidebook in one of my drawers in the bureau so that I found it one morning when I was getting dressed for work!) so we had a couple weeks to read up, plan what we wanted to do, and get excited.

And since we were going to celebrate our anniversary, Jared booked us a room at one of the nicest hotels in the city, the Four Seasons Istanbul, which has a perfect location in Sultanahmet and with a rooftop terrace overlooking the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque. We took an early morning flight on FlyDubai (a budget airline in the region) and arrived by 11am (it's only a 4 hour flight) and then took a shuttle to our hotel. When we arrived to check in, they told us that they had upgraded our room to a deluxe King and then showed us to a gorgeous room with a view down into the hotel's beautiful courtyard. Just lovely!

Our Room!

The lovely bathroom.

Another view of the bathroom. What you can't see though is the flat-screen tv hanging on the wall of the bathroom. I am fervently against having a tv in my bedroom, however, a tv in the bathroom was fantastic. Catching up on the news while taking a shower was quite convenient!

View from our room into the hotel courtyard below.

Another view out the window. Just beautiful! I can only imagine how lovely it must be when it isn't 38 degrees and raining and windy.

As soon as we settled in, we decided to head out to explore and make the most of the time that we had (really only a day and a half with travel on either end). It was very windy and raining so we grabbed some apple tea (super yummy) from the hotel, borrowed some umbrellas and set out to explore Sultanahmet. Sultanahmet is located on a peninsula that is surrounded by water (the 'Golden Horn' River to the north, the Bosphorus on the east, and Sea of Marmara to the south). It is the historic neighborhood of Istanbul and seems to have the highest concentration of historical sights, which was lucky for us given the weather because most of the things we wanted to see were within walking distance of our hotel.

Our first stop was the famous "Blue Mosque." Even through the rain it is breathtaking.

Another view of the Blue Mosque with its 6 minarets (viewed as quite ostentatious). It caused a bit of a scandal when it was built, I guess, because it is the only mosque outside of Mecca to have 6 minarets.

A closer view. I definitely got a bit carried away with the Blue Mosque photos.

Blue Mosque self-take.

Unlike the UAE, Turkey is a secular state and they seem to be pretty flexible with allowing non-Muslim tourists to visit the mosques (the only time you aren't allowed is during prayer times, which seems completely reasonable). So we were able to visit the inside for free, with the only requirement being that we remove our shoes, which is required to enter any mosque.

Blue Mosque dome.

The beautiful stained glass.

Another view of the outside. After we finished exploring the inside, we decided to go find the nearby Hippodrome -- old chariot racetrack, basically a mini version of the Circus Maximus in Rome, but found it to be a mud pit under construction, so ended up just walking around the perimeter of the Blue Mosque (and therefore getting even more carried away with my camera).

A zoom shot of the Blue Mosque dome.

View from another angle.

Another self-take attempt. You can see us beginning to get colder and wetter the longer we were outside. When Jared was planning the trip, the average temperature for this time of year is supposed to be around the mid 50's. So we therefore packed what we would view to be 'spring' clothes that we'd wear back home (rain coats, jeans, long sleeve shirts, and ballet flats for shoes for me). And to be fair, that is pretty much the extent of the 'warm' clothes we have in Dubai anyway, since I left all my sweaters and sweatshirts home this past Christmas to make room in the suitcase for Christmas gifts. Well, when we arrived in Istanbul, we found the temperature to be around 20 degrees cooler than that, with pouring rain and heavy wind. Ill-prepared for the weather is a complete understatement. I only had lime green raincoats [yes, I own more than one] and Jared only had a red spring jacket/raincoat. As we were walking around Jared's first comment was, "Nope, we don't look like tourists wearing our pastel colored raincoats while everyone else is wearing black wool winter coats." Anyway, you get the idea.

A final self-take attempt and last photo of the Blue Mosque (I promise).

And directly across from the Blue Mosque is the ancient Aya Sofia church. Not nearly as pretty from the outside, but absolutely bursting with history.

Jared in front of the Aya Sofia. Not sure why he will smile for a picture for me when he's standing in the rain freezing his ass off, but won't on normal occasions.

Ruins of the second earlier Aya Sofia built by Theodosius II in 415. One of my favorite parts about Istanbul is the deep rich history. It reminded me a bit of Rome in that way with just layers upon layers of history. Of course, it would have probably meant more to me if I'd visited sometime during the 5 years I took Latin in middle and high school and could tell you all about Constantinople and all the different Roman Emperors. Ah well.

The main apse and semi-dome that you see when you walk in.

A closer picture of the semi-dome. I might have been as obsessed with the interior of the Aya Sofia as I was with the exterior of the Blue Mosque. I found it so fascinating though because I've never been anywhere that has such historical significance for both Christians and Muslims. From 537 to 1453 it was the greatest church in the Christian world, and was then converted to a mosque in 1453 when Mehmet the Conqueror took possession for Islam during the Conquest of Constantinople. What's amazing to me though, is that he left all of the Christian iconography. I've never been anywhere where Christian and Muslim iconography are side-by-side in the same building. Absolutely fascinating!

A zoomed view of the Madonna and Child mosaic in the apse. From the 9th century. Pretty unbelievable.

The famous free-standing main dome.

Beautiful copper ceiling tiles in one of the small archways.

Side view of the main apse from the Imperial Loge (ie, upstairs).

My attempt at being artsy. A photo toward the main apse through some of the Muslim-style grating.

Christ as Pantocrator mosaic.

Mosaic of Mary and the Christ Child with Emperor John Comnenus II on the left and Empress Eirene on the right.

Yet another mosaic with Christ in the middle and an emperor and empress on either side. Told you I got carried away. They are quite amazing though when you consider their age.

19th century Arabic medallions by master calligrapher Mustafa Izzet Efendi.

Ceiling of the Inner Narthex. Just beautiful.

Another view of the ceiling mosaics. I don't think I've been anywhere else that has such a crazy amount of mosaics (they apparently used 30 million gold mosaic tiles. Not sure who counted all those).

I think this was the point where Jared dragged me out because I was getting so carried away with my camera inside the Aya Sofia. What can I say. There is so little 'history' in the UAE that apparently I feel the need to get completely consumed when I go somewhere that has actual historic significance.

After we left the Aya Sofia, we decided to check out the Basilica Cistern, a subterrainian Byzantine cistern built by Justinian in 532. There is no other way to describe it than to just say that it is amazing and not really like anywhere else I've ever been.

The Basilica Cistern: It has 336 columns arranged in 12 rows, and once held 80,000 cubic meters of water delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea. Pretty awesome technology for the time when you think about it.

And I guess the cistern was constructed using columns, capitals, and plinths from ruined buildings, so they are all unique and different.

One of the two famous Medusa-head columns.

The other Medusa-head. Slightly random and no one seems to know the history behind them.

Jared in the Basilica Cistern. They have raised platforms throughout the Cistern to walk around on because the whole floor is covered with about a foot and a half of water (hence, it is a cistern). You can also see tons of carp swimming around in the water. Kind of eerie.

And by this time, we were completely freezing our asses off (we had been walking around in the wind, rain, and cold for about 4-5 hours by then), so decided that we needed to go somewhere warmer, and where better to go than the Grand Bazaar! We were also absolutely starving by this point, not really having had lunch (I had grabbed an apple off of the lovely plate of fruit we found waiting for us in our hotel room, but that was it since breakfast at the airport). So we stopped on the street for some chicken shawarma which we inhaled while shivering at a table beside the shawarma stand, before continuing onward to the warmth of the Grand Bazaar.

One of the probably 50 entrances to the Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar).

Inside the Grand Bazaar. It felt like a warm safe haven after being out in the cold all day. It is also perhaps the coolest (and certainly largest) souq I have ever been in. We wandered around for an hour or so before deciding to check out one of the glass lantern shops as I'd had my eye on getting a lantern. The owner was a lovely man who immediately started talking to us about the NBA and a Turkish player who plays for the Boston Celtics (who knew the Turks were so into the NBA??). Needless to say, after our day in the cold I couldn't help but get a little carried away with my purchases...

After my brief shopping spree, we decided to head back to the hotel to defrost and relax for the rest of the evening. We had made a dinner booking at the nice restaurant in our hotel called "Seasons" which seemed like a good choice given the weather. I thawed my body by enjoying the lovely soaking tub and then we had a fantastic dinner at the hotel, where we were able to dress up a little but not have to venture back into the rain and cold. It seemed the best option. And the food did not disappoint. I started with a curry soup with chicken dumplings (yummy and unique), Jared started with the grilled octopus; and then I had homemade pumpkin and ox ravioli and Jared had the rack of lamb. It felt like the ultimate comfort food after our cold day.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to find the weather worse than the previous day (if that was possible). The temperature was cooler and the rain was harder. I decided to seriously rethink what I was going to wear if I was going to make it through a day of walking around Istanbul, and also decided to throw all dignity and fashion sense out the window. Layering seemed to be the key to avoiding hypothermia, so I put on my long-sleeve t-shirt with my zip-up hooded waffle sweatshirt (that I use as pajamas and would never be caught dead wearing outside the house, but desperate times call for desperate measures) on top. I decided that my inadequate footwear (ballet flats) was probably where I was losing a lot of my body heat, so decided that since all dignity was gone, I would need to wear a pair of Jared's brown work socks (pulled up to my knees) with my periwinkle blue ballet flats. I looked completely ridiculous, especially once I put on my limegreen hooded raincoat (on top of the already hooded sweatshirt hood, two hoods seemed better than one). So as bundled as we could possibly be, we set out.

Our first stop was the rooftop terrace of our hotel (to gauge just how bad the weather was -- conclusion: pretty damn bad), but oh the view is fantastic!

View of the Aya Sofia from the rooftop terrace. Why oh why did we not plan our trip in the summer, we just kept asking ourselves.

View down to the Bosphorus from the rooftop terrace. Really, it is an unbeatable view, which we sadly, could not enjoy for more than 1 minute without getting drenched and blown away. A pity.

Our first stop of the day was the Topkapi Palace, the opulent Sultan's palace, which housed the Sultan's from the 1453 Conquest of Constantinople onward to the 19th century.

It is truly an amazing palace, which I feel we couldn't adequately enjoy given the weather and that the real highlight is supposed to be the amazing gardens (what gardens? all we could see was drizzle).

Outside of one of the royal reception rooms.

Dome inside the royal reception room.

Another view inside the reception room. Lots of gold, as a palace should.

The seating area in the royal reception room. I loved all the beautiful painted tiles. So Turkish!

Jared with a view of the Palace interior. The Palace was made up of about 20 separate free-standing buildings (different structures served different purposes, reception rooms, library, kitchens, etc. with the actual private living quarters of the Sultan in the Harem, which you had to pay extra to visit, and therefore we passed because we were so cold by the time we'd seen the main parts that we were ready to leave).

Me in the Palace with some of the beautiful tiles behind. The whole palace was decorated in this style. Just lovely.

We probably spent the most time in the Palace in the treasury, which was actually awesome because it houses all of the elaborate jewelry and gifts the Sultans received from other rulers over the years, so had some amazing gold and precious stone jewelry (including the 5th largest diamond in the world, pretty stunning).

And we felt that we needed to go check out the terrace and gardens overlooking the Bosphorus before we left, because it just didn't feel right to miss out on it (although you can't exactly say the view of the Bosphorus across to the Asian part of Istanbul was anything to see given the weather). I'm sure the views are amazing when the weather is nice.

Another view down toward the Bosphorus and the old city walls.

View of the Palace terrace. I guess the upside of coming when it was such lousy weather is that there were no crowds to fight and we had basically full reign over all the sights we visited and didn't have to wait in any lines or basically be around big crowds at all.

The main palace gate. I took a quick photo as we were making a hasty exit to go back to our hotel and regroup/defrost.

After our only hour and a half out at the palace we were absolutely chilled to the bone and our spirits were a little dampened, because we didn't know how we could possibly continue to walk around all day with the weather. We headed back to get some apple tea and make a new plan. While our dinner the night before was delicious, one of our main objectives was to try Turkish food. So we discussed our options and decided that staying close to the hotel for dinner seemed the best idea, and that we would head to one of the restaurants we'd read about with good Turkish kebaps for lunch (and we would go via taxi). With our new plan in place we bundled up again and went out to find a taxi to take us to Taksim Square, from where it would be a short walk to the restaurant.

Taksim Square.

Istiklal Caddesi, the city's most famous pedestrian boulevard.

So we headed to lunch at Zubeyir Ocakbasi, right off Istiklal. We had read about Zubeyir in a few different places, and it seemed the perfect place to try authentic Turkish kebaps (kebabs) and mezze. We had read that it is ordinarily packed to the brim, but given that it was lunchtime, and that it was snowing sideways out, we weren't surprised that we were the only people there. We were seated right next to the copper-hooded indoor barbecue and we were able to watch as our vegetables and meat were grilled. We started with warm eggplant and pumpkin dips with fresh from the oven bread for mezze, and then I had the chicken kebaps (shish taouk) and Jared had the mixed grilled which included lamb and mutton, along with organ meat (no, thank you). He, of course, loved it. And it blew any Arabic kebabs we've had way out of the water. Absolutely delicious and hit the spot as a perfect comfort food for the occasion.

Turkish sweets... Mmmm.

Then after lunch we began walking down Istiklal, and only made it about 50 yards before these Turkish sweets beckoned us in for dessert (and it actually seemed like a good call as some sort of Pro-Communist rally was making its way down the Istiklal right behind us, so it seemed a good idea to get out of the way). The sweets were delicious, although Jared chastised me for taking a picture in a restaurant (something he considers to be a HUGE faux pas). Oh well.

After dessert we decided to try and walk all the way to the bottom of the Istiklal and then look for a taxi to take us back to the Grand Bazaar (we had more shopping to do!). Well, we walked to the bottom of the Istiklal and then some in search of a taxi, who drove us across the Golden Horn, but then dropped us off to fend for ourselves in finding the Grand Bazaar. So we ended up wondering around much longer than intended, but did catch some great views...

Random Istanbul shot, but it kind of epitomizes the city.

So by the time we finally found our way to the Grand Bazaar, we were once again ready to do some shopping. This time, we were in the market for ceramics, and got lost for an hour or so before settling on one ceramic shop where we ended up buying a beautiful 6-tile mosaic painting (I can't wait to get it framed!) and I managed to walk away with no less than 5 ceramic bowls (some are gifts though...)... Oops.

Another view in the Grand Bazaar. I think this was more in the antiques area.

A lantern shop. I just loved them!

Lanterns!

So after shopping, wandering around, and drinking apple tea in the Grand Bazaar we decided to head back to the hotel to relax with some Raki (Turkish Aniseed Brandy) and Effes (Turkish Beer) before heading back out to dinner. We justified this decision by saying that if we were paying to stay at such a nice hotel, we might as well enjoy it. So I napped while Jared watched Conan (we can't get him in Dubai, so had to make the most of it while we could). We had made dinner reservations at a restaurant close to the hotel called Balikci Sabahattin Restaurant which specialized in fresh fish (another mainstay in the Turkish diet, given all the water surrounding the city). What we didn't realize was that it was an exclusively fish restaurant. So we started with fried calamari, and then I had the sea bass (super fresh and grilled simply with just lemon) and Jared had the whole snapper. Mr. K. (Jared's dad) would have been in heaven. After dinner we headed back to the hotel lounge where Jared had another beer and I had a hot chocolate by the fire. We got to bed early and got a good night's sleep before having to take the shuttle to the airport early the next morning. It was an absolutely wonderful, and truly memorable trip to Istanbul. Now, I am just dying to go back in the warmer months! We'll see...