Cats of Istanbul: So. Many. Cats.

Istanbul Part III

Photo Time!

Our apartment was on a lovely twisting road in Sultanhamet, the old part of Istanbul. 

 

During our first full day, we checked out Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. The line to see Sofia was monstrous.

Worth it.

 

 

After Aya Sofia, we headed to Tokapi Palace. The lines, again, were long, but the palace was cool. I especially enjoyed walking around the harem. 

 

Here are a couple of views from the palace.

The sun actually came out after the first few chilly, cloudy days. I was so excited! This is the Blue Mosque.

Emily and Talia were brave enough to take a Bosphorus Tour. (I hate small boats and opted to take a ferry to the Asia side later. The ferries are bigger.) Beth and I stayed on the shore, but I did take a photo of the guy selling tickets in case they didn't come back. :) 

 One of the most interesting parts of Istanbul is the Grand Market and the Spice Bazaar. It seems that I only got one photo of the Grand Bazaar.

 

Here is the Spice Bazaar. Lovely! 

 

  

After the girls left for Cappadocia, I headed to the newer part of the city (Taksim) and explored. Here is the inside of a huge vintage store.

 

And perhaps the creepist picture of the entire trip is below. This is NOT a good way to display child mannequins! (This was a common way of displaying them, by the way.)

 I also went to the Balisica Cistern and the Asia side of Istanbul, but I forgot my camera. Whoops. You should totally check out Beth's blog: The Grand Adventures of Anna Ravioli for more photos. She's a lot better at taking photos than I am. (I'm notoriously picture impatient.)

This post is brought to you by Ryan Adams, Oh My Sweet Carolina. (Oh the sweetest winds, they blow across the south.)

Istanbul Part II

One thing I was both excited and worried about upon arrival in Istanbul was the hamam. A Hamam is a tranditional Turkish bath. On our first night, after dinner, we decided to scrape off the travel (literally) at Çemberlitas Hamam, one of the oldest baths in the city. It is, admittedly, very touristy and probably more expensive than other, lesser-known, baths. We went around 10pm, however, and had the place to ourselves. All of us opted for the full bath experience. It was around $60 and included a bath, a scrub-down, a massage, and a shampoo. Seems simple enough?


Not so much.

First off, the bath is not a bathtub. It's a giant cavernous room with sinks along the walls and a big heated rock in the center. Kind of like the Chamber of Secrets. I expected a giant basilisk to appear at

First, you strip down and "wash, wash, wash." Then you rinse. Next, you lay on the giant rock platform in the middle of the room. I felt a lot like a lizard. Once you've sweated out, you "wash, wash, wash" again and rinse. Then you repeat. (I couldn't take photos for obvious reasons, so here are some from the website. They don't show how giant the place is in reality. You can see more photos at the site.)

Here is the ceiling of the room.

This is where you "wash, wash, wash!"
 

This is where you sweat on the warm rock. 

 

After about half an hour of this, the real fun begins. The bath assistants come in and, while you lay on the platform, soap you up and scrub you down with a mitt. And they scrub everywhere. This is not an experience for the faint of heart. After you've been scrubbed, they take you to a basin to wash and rinse you. Then you go back to platform and get a massage. It wasn't the best massage I've had, but it was a good part of the experience. After your massage, you sit near a sink and have your hair shampooed. Next is a rinse. (My lady was quite clinical and simply dumped a bucked of water over my head and tossed some water in my face.)

And it's over. The whole thing takes about an hour. You go back to your little room where you left your clothes and dress. They had hairdryers in the room, which was good since it was chilly outside and I didn't want to walk back to the apartment with a wet head.

I was worried about my sensitive skin, but the bath products make me break out or anything. I do recommend taking body lotion with you since the soap is not moisturizing and it's good to moisturize having your skin scraped off.

This bath had separate areas for men and women. Some baths are specifically for couples and families. It was a great experience and a great way to bond with the other girls at the start of our trip. It's hard not to be friends with someone after you've seen each other spread-eagle on a giant warming rock in the middle of the Chamber of Secrets.


This post is brought to you by "I'm Going to Wash that Man Right Out of my Hair."

Istanbul: Part I

I got home from Istanbul last night at midnight. It was a wonderful trip. I will post on it in parts since I don't want to overwhelm you with a load of text and a barrage of photos. (Yes, I took photos!)

For this first part, I'll just lay out my reasoning behind choosing Turkey.

My first reason for choosing Turkey: I wanted to go somewhere that wouldn't bombard me with familiar happy Christmas family images. This is my first holiday season away from my family and it's been hard enough without being reminded all of the time that I'm not home drinking cocktails and playing board games with the clan. Istanbul had the requisite Christmas adverts and acknowledged the holiday since the city is quite mixed religiously, but mostly it was just another day.

I will admit that I cried in my baklava on Christmas Eve. The hardest part, I think, about being away from my family so long is that I'm experiencing so many things that I know they would love. Our family life revolves, in many ways, around cooking (and drinking) together. (Well, I mostly drink a cocktail and observe the cooking process, but I'm okay with that role.) Sometimes, I get quite homesick when I'm eating something that I know my family would love. I want to share these experiences with them and I can't, so I end up crying over my baklava in a cute little cafe in Istanbul on Christmas Eve. I Skyped them later, though, and felt much better. Thank God for the interwebs.

Secondly, I chose Istanbul because I've traveled mostly in Eastern Europe (none in Western Europe) and I wanted a change. I expected Turkey to be wildly different than most of my past travel. It wasn't as different as I expected since Istanbul is a huge, modern city, but I loved seeing mosques and different styles of architecture. I think I've mentioned before that sometimes I get worn out by travel and stop seeing the wonder of a new city. Istanbul, I think, recharged those batteries in many ways just because it was quite different than other cities I've visited.

I also chose Istanbul because I wanted warmth. There was a little snow on the ground when we landed and it was chilly the first couple of days, but the weather warmed up nicely and I enjoyed having the sun on my face and leaving my gloves and giant down coat at home.

 After three days in Istanbul, the other ladies headed south to Cappadocia and I moved from our apartment in Sultanhamet (the old city) to a hostel in Taksim (the new town). I decided not to go to Cappadocia because I really wanted to stay in one place for the full week. They were happy with their trip, but I think I would have felt a bit overwhelmed and like I hadn't seen either place properly. Also, I love cities. I grew up in a small town and have lived in small towns my entire life. Currently, I'm in a small town. I wanted to soak up city life for the duration of the trip. I love nothing more than sitting in a foreign cafe and people watching and Istanbul delivered on both counts.

So, that's my reasons for choosing to go to Istanbul. I'll post later about the actual trip, my recommendations, and my impressions of Istanbul (both good and bad).

This post is brought to you by Dragonette, Big Sunglasses.

Frozen Toes and St. Lucia

I went to Riga to see off a friend, attend a concert with another friend, and retrieve my camera from concert-friend's apartment. And what did I do with my camera? I took pictures of the freezy-frozen snowy-snow.(I didn't take a lot of photos since A) the snow is not going anywhere and B) taking photos required me to un-glove my hands and in those few precious seconds of no-gloves my little hands freezy-froze.)

1. Rendi and I went to the Christmas market in search of very specific stockings for her window. 

2. Here is the Christmas market at night.

3. Here are some freezey-frozen ducky-ducks in the park.

4. And the park was also lovely at night. I think this was around 6pm.

5. There were giant frames set up for photo ops. This is my "I'm just casually leaning against this photo frame" pose. 

 

6. Lastly, we went to the St. Lucia's Day concert at Rigas Doms. I think some of the others got better photos, so I will try to pilfer those and post on the blog for you lovlies to see. And, yes, some jerk put a tripod up right in front of us. (I think he was an official jerk, but still....)

That is all for now. I'm sure there will be more snow photos since, you know, we have a crap-load of snow. Next week, though, I am in Istanbul! I will take photos! And eat lavash!

This post is brought to you by Sufjan Stevens' Sister Winter.