Hey folks,
Am ensconced in s warm hostel in Skopje, finally updating this, checking email, etc etc. We got here this afternoon from Prishtina, Kosovo, which we arrived at from Montenegro and Croatia. We've gone from the icy bitter cold of Sarajevo, to the blinding sun and pleasant warmth of Mostar, to the rain of Split, Dubrovnik, and Kotor, and then back to the cold and ice of Zabljak. Skopje is still chilly, as it's inland, but luckily not hat-and-scarf weather.
A whirlwind update from last time:
Mostar is charming; it may be our favorite town on the whole trip. It was a little quiet, nice and warm, and we stayed with this wonderful couple who brought us fresh homemade cake and tea in bed. Life was great.
From Mostar, we daytripped to Medugorje, Roman Catholic pilgrimmage site since the early 1980s, when 6 teenagers first saw an image of the Virgin Mary. It was beautiful; they've built a massive church, lots of areas for devotions and rosaries and ways of the cross all over and around the town. It was, however, very strange: the town is clearly set up for receiving thousands of tourists a day, which it does get in the summer. But I think we were the only 2 tourists in town. We had the church, and Apparition Hill almost entirely to ourselves, and the restaurant where we grabbed lunch opened just for us. We really appreciated the town, but both agreed we'd really dislike it in summer: we saw photos, and it's absolutely wall-to-wall pilgrims. As it was, it was incredibly peaceful and contemplative, and we had a great day there.
Next up was Split, where we saw the old walled city in the rain. It's the site of Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace, and the city was kind of built up inside the old palace. It's incredibly picturesque and fronts the Adriatic. We just spent an afternoon there, before heading on to Dubrovnic, which was a little similar setup, a walled city on the Adriatic. Both Split and Dubrovnik were so fun to just stroll around and appreciate. The not fun part for us was that Croatia is more developed and threfore much more expensive than everywhere else we'd been. Still, we were able to stay with a family in Dubrovnik, who shared their homemade carob liqueur and told stories of their travelling days.
From Croatia, we headed to Montenegro, first to Kotor, which was gorgeously set on the water, surrounded by mountains on 3 sides. In the morning the fog and coulds kind of rolled over the mountains towards the city, it was incredibly picturesque.
From Kotor, we caught a bus to Podgorica, and then on to Zabljak, which is in Durmitor National Park. During that bus ride, we switched from balmy if damp warm Adriatic weather to cold mountain air; it was a bit of a surprise getting off the bus to snow again. At Zabljak, we went skiing, as one does when one is in Zabljak. It was adventuresome; I'll write more later of course, but suffice to say we got more stories from our day skiing than any other day on our trip.
From Zabljak, we headed to Kosovo, where, due to a ridiculously fast bus and fast customs, we arrived at 2:30 this morning. Arriving at a bus station at 2:30am when one was not planning on grabbing a hotel is not fun; luckily the security guard let us into the bus station, which actually had couches, and the bus station cafe opened at 4:30, so we could collapse into chairs with tea and books. We went through Prishtina, the capital of the Kosovo region, pretty quickly as it's a smallish town. It's also a fun town: to get to the city center we took Bil Klinton Bulevard until it met up with Mother Theresa Street. I enjoyed Prishtina.
We then hopped a bus to Skopje, where we've pretty much done nothing but relax so far; we'll see the town tomorrow before heading Istanbulward. It's been quite an adventure, and we're entering the home stretch...
kib,
-R
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Another city, another hostel, another internet cafe...
A few thoughts on Sarajevo:
-A few of you have asked about the gas crisis and how it's affecting our trip. Well, today we found the most visible sign: Sarajevo's eternal flame has gone out, because there's not enough gas to power it. Yeah. We've also found that most of the hostels in town have shut down their larger, cheaper rooms because those rooms don't have electric heating, and there is no gas for the central heating. Thankfully, while our hostel here would win absolutely no awards, it is warm and does have hot showers, neither of which we were sure we'd find in Sarajevo.
-One thing that I've found really interesting here is the appearance of microcredit institutions. This is the first time we've seen them in Eastern Europe, and there are a fair few of them, around the city.
-There's still damage from the shelling of the city in 1992-1995 visible on many buildings in town. It's a little odd to think that in my lifetime, this city was a war zone.
-Bosnia is soooo Turkish, it's incredible. They have borek, kebap, mercimek corbasi, and patlican salatasi in the restaurants. The cafes serve Bosnaski kafe (Turkish coffee, by another name; a little less thick though). The cake shops sell baklava (in servings 4-5 times the size of Turkish servings) and helva. The guy next to me at this internet cafe is speaking Turkish to his friend. The hotels have names like Merak (Curiosity) and Yildiz (Star). The district with all the shops and restaurants is called Bascarsi (the head/chief market). It's wonderful. I think I will really enjoy Bosnia.
Sarajevo is, as much as Eastern Europe has been, beautiful and cold. We saw a few churches, mosques, and monuments today, including the Latin bridge, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, thus sparking World War One. It was incredible. The other highlight of our day was finding an English bookshop, so we are now fully stocked and ready for many long bus and train rides to come. As long as they're in daylight hours.
kib,
-R
-A few of you have asked about the gas crisis and how it's affecting our trip. Well, today we found the most visible sign: Sarajevo's eternal flame has gone out, because there's not enough gas to power it. Yeah. We've also found that most of the hostels in town have shut down their larger, cheaper rooms because those rooms don't have electric heating, and there is no gas for the central heating. Thankfully, while our hostel here would win absolutely no awards, it is warm and does have hot showers, neither of which we were sure we'd find in Sarajevo.
-One thing that I've found really interesting here is the appearance of microcredit institutions. This is the first time we've seen them in Eastern Europe, and there are a fair few of them, around the city.
-There's still damage from the shelling of the city in 1992-1995 visible on many buildings in town. It's a little odd to think that in my lifetime, this city was a war zone.
-Bosnia is soooo Turkish, it's incredible. They have borek, kebap, mercimek corbasi, and patlican salatasi in the restaurants. The cafes serve Bosnaski kafe (Turkish coffee, by another name; a little less thick though). The cake shops sell baklava (in servings 4-5 times the size of Turkish servings) and helva. The guy next to me at this internet cafe is speaking Turkish to his friend. The hotels have names like Merak (Curiosity) and Yildiz (Star). The district with all the shops and restaurants is called Bascarsi (the head/chief market). It's wonderful. I think I will really enjoy Bosnia.
Sarajevo is, as much as Eastern Europe has been, beautiful and cold. We saw a few churches, mosques, and monuments today, including the Latin bridge, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, thus sparking World War One. It was incredible. The other highlight of our day was finding an English bookshop, so we are now fully stocked and ready for many long bus and train rides to come. As long as they're in daylight hours.
kib,
-R
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Epic Joyage
A few things:
-Kel and I have decided we are horrible backpackers. First of all, we don't have legit backpacks--we're travelling around with a school-size backpack and a laptop backback, respectively. Our hostelmates without fail have legit, backpacking backpacks. Second, unlike many of the other backpackers in our hostels, we're in bed by ridiculous-o-clock early, because we're usually exhausted from travelling/staying warm/climbing citadels. Third, we have a bad habit of just showing up in a city, and looking for a hostel once we get out of the bus/train station. Thus we end up like last night, when our train got in to Bucharest after 9, we started walking towards a hostel, got lost, had to take a cab (which ripped us off by a factor of 3, but the end total was still under $5), found that hostel dark and shut down, and took another cab to another hostel. That cab got really ridiculously lost, and we ended up having to call the hostel owner for directions in Romanian before finally showing up at 11:30pm, hoping they actually had rooms. Luckily, winter is most definitely the off season for this region, so they had beds. The last way (for now) that we are just bad backpackers is our choice of time to go voyaging: these areas are clearly set up for summer tourists, generally, and most backpackers come through Eastern Europe once it's not iced over. Oh well... We add our own distinctive flair to our travelling.
-Mishaps so far: I lost my phone yesterday in Bucharest, presumably to a pickpocket. I'm really more unhappy about losing the number than the phone. Kel was grazed by a car this morning, also in Bucharest (don't worry parents and Grandma, she is fine). She stepped into the second part of a 2-median road without looking in the right direction, and a car clipped her with its rearview mirror. Luckily, the car saw her and was braking, and her 4 layers of coats/shirts took away most of the force, so she pretty much was just grazed and scared the living daylights out of both me and the driver, who stopped and got out to yell at us in Romanian. I have spent the rest of the day making sure she looks both ways.
-Both Bulgaria and Romania love love love American pop music. Particularly Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl". I think we hear it at least 3-4 times a day, usually interspersed by Rihanna. Some of these songs I've never heard before, because I'm a square and don't follow new music and such.
-There is a ridiculous Turkish influence here, mostly apparent in food, vocabulary, and traditional music. They've got the same soups, stuffed dishes, stews, and other traditional foods. There are a noticeable few Turkish words in Bulgarian and in Romanian, although not really enough for me to get by speaking Turkish. And the traditional music is verry similar, played with the same instruments and occasionally the same melodies. Of course, the Bulgarians and Romanians will vehemently deny it, as there's still quite a bit of resentment for the Turkish invaders here, even though they were Ottoman and centuries ago. Some things take awhile to change...
On that note, we have a train to catch, so I'll update from another computer, in another country. Hopefully a warmer country.... We think we'll be heading from Belgrade to Sarajevo, then out to the coast to Mostar, Split, Dubrovnik, and points south. Of course, we change our plans nearly every day, so we'll see what happens...
kib,
-R
-Kel and I have decided we are horrible backpackers. First of all, we don't have legit backpacks--we're travelling around with a school-size backpack and a laptop backback, respectively. Our hostelmates without fail have legit, backpacking backpacks. Second, unlike many of the other backpackers in our hostels, we're in bed by ridiculous-o-clock early, because we're usually exhausted from travelling/staying warm/climbing citadels. Third, we have a bad habit of just showing up in a city, and looking for a hostel once we get out of the bus/train station. Thus we end up like last night, when our train got in to Bucharest after 9, we started walking towards a hostel, got lost, had to take a cab (which ripped us off by a factor of 3, but the end total was still under $5), found that hostel dark and shut down, and took another cab to another hostel. That cab got really ridiculously lost, and we ended up having to call the hostel owner for directions in Romanian before finally showing up at 11:30pm, hoping they actually had rooms. Luckily, winter is most definitely the off season for this region, so they had beds. The last way (for now) that we are just bad backpackers is our choice of time to go voyaging: these areas are clearly set up for summer tourists, generally, and most backpackers come through Eastern Europe once it's not iced over. Oh well... We add our own distinctive flair to our travelling.
-Mishaps so far: I lost my phone yesterday in Bucharest, presumably to a pickpocket. I'm really more unhappy about losing the number than the phone. Kel was grazed by a car this morning, also in Bucharest (don't worry parents and Grandma, she is fine). She stepped into the second part of a 2-median road without looking in the right direction, and a car clipped her with its rearview mirror. Luckily, the car saw her and was braking, and her 4 layers of coats/shirts took away most of the force, so she pretty much was just grazed and scared the living daylights out of both me and the driver, who stopped and got out to yell at us in Romanian. I have spent the rest of the day making sure she looks both ways.
-Both Bulgaria and Romania love love love American pop music. Particularly Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl". I think we hear it at least 3-4 times a day, usually interspersed by Rihanna. Some of these songs I've never heard before, because I'm a square and don't follow new music and such.
-There is a ridiculous Turkish influence here, mostly apparent in food, vocabulary, and traditional music. They've got the same soups, stuffed dishes, stews, and other traditional foods. There are a noticeable few Turkish words in Bulgarian and in Romanian, although not really enough for me to get by speaking Turkish. And the traditional music is verry similar, played with the same instruments and occasionally the same melodies. Of course, the Bulgarians and Romanians will vehemently deny it, as there's still quite a bit of resentment for the Turkish invaders here, even though they were Ottoman and centuries ago. Some things take awhile to change...
On that note, we have a train to catch, so I'll update from another computer, in another country. Hopefully a warmer country.... We think we'll be heading from Belgrade to Sarajevo, then out to the coast to Mostar, Split, Dubrovnik, and points south. Of course, we change our plans nearly every day, so we'll see what happens...
kib,
-R
C-c-c-cold
We made it to Romania, after a fun travel experience (taking a bus to the one border town with an international ticket office still open, buying said tickets literally 7 minutes before the office closed, and then getting to wait around 7 hours in a not-heated-after-midnight train station for our 3am train). When we got in, we headed straight up to Brasov, in Transylvania/the Carpathian Mountains, where we collapsed at a hostel and later worked up the strength to tour the town a little bit. Brasov is a really charming town, it had a skating rink in the center, right next to the town Christmas tree, and a little Christmas-y market selling gingerbread, handmade mittens and hats, and the like. Kel bought handknitted wool socks, and I bought a handmade hat there, and we both agreed those are some of our best purchases on this trip yet. At dinner that night, the restaurant had boiled wine--we clearly are no longer in the Muslim world.
Our next day in Brasov, we headed out to Bram, to see Dracula's Castle (they call it Bram Castle, and Vlad the Impaler visited it like once, but it's the traditional castle of Dracula). It was magnificently imposing, and Bran itself was an adorable village, clearly swarming with tourists in the summer, but laid back in the winter. We bought handknitted mittens there, which are also some of the best purchases we'd made thus far; my leather driving gloves may suit just fine in Ankara, but in the mountains of Romania they were not cutting it. After Bran, we headed over to Rasnov, which has a more impressive on the interior castle, with a catch: you have to climb several hundred stairs to get there from the village. In that weather, it was a little painful, but we did it and it was worth it. Still, we were soooo glad to get on the heated bus back to Brasov afterwards, where we met up with some other folks from our hostel for dinner. That night, we watched a vampire movie with a guy at the hostel, Vampire Hunter, which we figured was only fitting given where we were.
The next day, we got up and out of town early to get to Curtea de Arges, to see their Princely Court and 16th century Monastery. Our bus ended up taking 5 hours after in broke down on a mountain road and we had to wait for a replacement bus; that was fun. Curtea was snowy and beautiful; we walked a few kilometers between sights, and their monastery was gorgeous and full of art that was a little different than what we saw in Bulgaria. We headed from there to Bucharest, via the smallest train I've ever seen, and are currently there, where we've yet to see the town butwill do so today before heading out tonight inshallah, for Belgrade.
kib,
-R
Our next day in Brasov, we headed out to Bram, to see Dracula's Castle (they call it Bram Castle, and Vlad the Impaler visited it like once, but it's the traditional castle of Dracula). It was magnificently imposing, and Bran itself was an adorable village, clearly swarming with tourists in the summer, but laid back in the winter. We bought handknitted mittens there, which are also some of the best purchases we'd made thus far; my leather driving gloves may suit just fine in Ankara, but in the mountains of Romania they were not cutting it. After Bran, we headed over to Rasnov, which has a more impressive on the interior castle, with a catch: you have to climb several hundred stairs to get there from the village. In that weather, it was a little painful, but we did it and it was worth it. Still, we were soooo glad to get on the heated bus back to Brasov afterwards, where we met up with some other folks from our hostel for dinner. That night, we watched a vampire movie with a guy at the hostel, Vampire Hunter, which we figured was only fitting given where we were.
The next day, we got up and out of town early to get to Curtea de Arges, to see their Princely Court and 16th century Monastery. Our bus ended up taking 5 hours after in broke down on a mountain road and we had to wait for a replacement bus; that was fun. Curtea was snowy and beautiful; we walked a few kilometers between sights, and their monastery was gorgeous and full of art that was a little different than what we saw in Bulgaria. We headed from there to Bucharest, via the smallest train I've ever seen, and are currently there, where we've yet to see the town butwill do so today before heading out tonight inshallah, for Belgrade.
kib,
-R
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Quick update from the road
Kel and I are in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, which is fun to say. We went through Sofia relatively quickly (again, museums were closed, although the museum gift shop was open at least--I seem to be particularly gifted at travelling on holidays that result in the closure of buildings), but still saw everything important.
We got in to Veliko Tarnovo last night, so are doing the see-everything thing today, but so far this is a wonderful town. I could quite easily come back, especially in like May, when it's not ice-covered. Our hostel is cozy and chill, and the owner so far has gone out of his way to pick us up at the bus station, go over maps of the town and potential touring routes with us, and give us info on the train to Bucharest; they also include light dinner and breakfast in the price, so it's a fantastic deal for a backpacking hostel. After we got in and got settled, we went out for dinner to this fantastic restaurant with literally over 500 items on their menu. It was ridiculous--page after page of delicious-sounding dishes. The food was amazing as well--Bulgarian food has a Turkish influence but is a bit heartier, which makes sense because it's definitely colder here. On the way back from dinner, we could see the fortress complex above the town, all lit up--Veliko Tarnovo was the capitol for centuries, so it has a huuuuge fortress complex, which we're seeing today.
That's all for now,
more from Romania,
-R
We got in to Veliko Tarnovo last night, so are doing the see-everything thing today, but so far this is a wonderful town. I could quite easily come back, especially in like May, when it's not ice-covered. Our hostel is cozy and chill, and the owner so far has gone out of his way to pick us up at the bus station, go over maps of the town and potential touring routes with us, and give us info on the train to Bucharest; they also include light dinner and breakfast in the price, so it's a fantastic deal for a backpacking hostel. After we got in and got settled, we went out for dinner to this fantastic restaurant with literally over 500 items on their menu. It was ridiculous--page after page of delicious-sounding dishes. The food was amazing as well--Bulgarian food has a Turkish influence but is a bit heartier, which makes sense because it's definitely colder here. On the way back from dinner, we could see the fortress complex above the town, all lit up--Veliko Tarnovo was the capitol for centuries, so it has a huuuuge fortress complex, which we're seeing today.
That's all for now,
more from Romania,
-R
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
An open letter to the town of Plovdiv
Dear Plovdiv,
You had such potential. Lonely Planet argued that you were perhaps the most enjoyable town in Bulgaria. Your old quarter seemed full of churches, museums, a mosque, and ruins--perfect for the first stop of our trip. Granted, we did arrive at your doorstep at 6am, but that was due to ridiculously fast lines at the border, not our own planning. Thank you for the train station, where we killed time for 2 hours before striking out to see your sights, that was much appreciated.
However, I must say I'm disappointed in you. I can understand the churches being closed during Mass, but locked up immediately after Mass? There are tourist shop windows inside all three churches we attempted to visit, so clearly you accept that tourists visit these places and are used to them coming to the extent that you have various religious tchotchkes available for purchase inside the churches. To lock them up so we can't actually see them is a bit cruel. Same with the mosque--I know once we crossed the border, we switched out major religions, and Muslims are no longer the majority, but you have the oldest mosque in the Balkans right in your downtown, and you keep that locked as well? We were 0-4 for religious building viewings in your town.
And then there are the museums. Not a single one open? The Old Town is pretty much entirely museums, we couldn't even get into the ones that weren't on our itinerary. I know there are fewer visitors in the winter, but most of them had winter hours posted, and were clearly not open during those hours. And you'd think if they're closed for the New Years holiday someone would have the decency to put up a sign, even in Bulgarian. Apparently not. Even the wine museum was closed. It was like negative 10 degrees out, we were really looking forward to that museum and its wine tasting. But no, we had to trudge back to the train station, to board a train to Sofia before noon, when we'd planned on spending the entire day seeing the charms of Plovdiv, freezing and wholly disenfranchised by this allegedly-endearing town.
Your one saving grace, Plovdiv, was your Roman ruins: they were outside and open-air, and thus could not be closed. It was, however, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, so even that, and wandering through your array of modern statues downtown, was not so pleasant and really rather hurried.
Now, I can see the potential, Plovdiv. Had all the museums been open, and the churches and mosques been unlocked, and more of your fine retail and dining establishments been open before we left (I'm as big a fan of a lie-in as anybody, but shops and cafes are normally open before noon, no?), and especially had it been about 30C warmer, you may have been an adorable little town. But it's painfully apparent that winter is just not your forte. At all.
Hugs,
R and Kel
We did make it to Sofia, and are figuring out where our hostel is before heading out for some fantastic-sounding Bulgarian food. We may never take a train again though, after this 4-year-old across the aisle screamed for the entire 2.5 hour ride from Plovdiv to Sofia. We also may never have children. Jury's still out.
Frustrations with individual cities aside, Bulgaria is a great country so far. The Cyrillic alphabet is taking a little getting used to, but we're getting it down slowly but surely, and can say 'yes,' 'no,' 'where is,' and '2 student tickets please' so far, so pretty much we're set. We had breakfast at a great cafe in Plovdiv that had a featured beverage that was half Coca Cola, half coffee. Clearly these are my people, I've been drinking Diet Coke and coffee mixes since high school. The border crossing was decently straightforward, as we were the only non-Turks, non-Bulgarians on the bus. Last night in Istanbul, we got in with enough time to hie to my favorite restaurant, Bodrum Manti, for dinner before heading to buy tickets and get to the bus station. At the bus station in Istanbul, we had some time to kill, so we followed some signs Kel saw to what may be the world's sketchiest Internet cafe. It was in this sub-basement level of the bus station, in this maze of shops and commerce businesses that clearly had been abandoned for quite some time. It looked like the set of a horror movie, and it smelled like one too. When we got back to the main level, we saw a huge, clean, non-sketchy internet cafe literally right in front of our noses, that we somehow had missed entirely in our singleminded determination to choose the least legit business in the entire Istanbul bus station (a difficult task, as those who've spent time there are well aware). So much for an auspicious start to the trip...
Hope you all are doing great!
Happy New Year,
-R
You had such potential. Lonely Planet argued that you were perhaps the most enjoyable town in Bulgaria. Your old quarter seemed full of churches, museums, a mosque, and ruins--perfect for the first stop of our trip. Granted, we did arrive at your doorstep at 6am, but that was due to ridiculously fast lines at the border, not our own planning. Thank you for the train station, where we killed time for 2 hours before striking out to see your sights, that was much appreciated.
However, I must say I'm disappointed in you. I can understand the churches being closed during Mass, but locked up immediately after Mass? There are tourist shop windows inside all three churches we attempted to visit, so clearly you accept that tourists visit these places and are used to them coming to the extent that you have various religious tchotchkes available for purchase inside the churches. To lock them up so we can't actually see them is a bit cruel. Same with the mosque--I know once we crossed the border, we switched out major religions, and Muslims are no longer the majority, but you have the oldest mosque in the Balkans right in your downtown, and you keep that locked as well? We were 0-4 for religious building viewings in your town.
And then there are the museums. Not a single one open? The Old Town is pretty much entirely museums, we couldn't even get into the ones that weren't on our itinerary. I know there are fewer visitors in the winter, but most of them had winter hours posted, and were clearly not open during those hours. And you'd think if they're closed for the New Years holiday someone would have the decency to put up a sign, even in Bulgarian. Apparently not. Even the wine museum was closed. It was like negative 10 degrees out, we were really looking forward to that museum and its wine tasting. But no, we had to trudge back to the train station, to board a train to Sofia before noon, when we'd planned on spending the entire day seeing the charms of Plovdiv, freezing and wholly disenfranchised by this allegedly-endearing town.
Your one saving grace, Plovdiv, was your Roman ruins: they were outside and open-air, and thus could not be closed. It was, however, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, so even that, and wandering through your array of modern statues downtown, was not so pleasant and really rather hurried.
Now, I can see the potential, Plovdiv. Had all the museums been open, and the churches and mosques been unlocked, and more of your fine retail and dining establishments been open before we left (I'm as big a fan of a lie-in as anybody, but shops and cafes are normally open before noon, no?), and especially had it been about 30C warmer, you may have been an adorable little town. But it's painfully apparent that winter is just not your forte. At all.
Hugs,
R and Kel
We did make it to Sofia, and are figuring out where our hostel is before heading out for some fantastic-sounding Bulgarian food. We may never take a train again though, after this 4-year-old across the aisle screamed for the entire 2.5 hour ride from Plovdiv to Sofia. We also may never have children. Jury's still out.
Frustrations with individual cities aside, Bulgaria is a great country so far. The Cyrillic alphabet is taking a little getting used to, but we're getting it down slowly but surely, and can say 'yes,' 'no,' 'where is,' and '2 student tickets please' so far, so pretty much we're set. We had breakfast at a great cafe in Plovdiv that had a featured beverage that was half Coca Cola, half coffee. Clearly these are my people, I've been drinking Diet Coke and coffee mixes since high school. The border crossing was decently straightforward, as we were the only non-Turks, non-Bulgarians on the bus. Last night in Istanbul, we got in with enough time to hie to my favorite restaurant, Bodrum Manti, for dinner before heading to buy tickets and get to the bus station. At the bus station in Istanbul, we had some time to kill, so we followed some signs Kel saw to what may be the world's sketchiest Internet cafe. It was in this sub-basement level of the bus station, in this maze of shops and commerce businesses that clearly had been abandoned for quite some time. It looked like the set of a horror movie, and it smelled like one too. When we got back to the main level, we saw a huge, clean, non-sketchy internet cafe literally right in front of our noses, that we somehow had missed entirely in our singleminded determination to choose the least legit business in the entire Istanbul bus station (a difficult task, as those who've spent time there are well aware). So much for an auspicious start to the trip...
Hope you all are doing great!
Happy New Year,
-R
Monday, December 29, 2008
Holidays
Well it's quieted down somewhat here in Ankara--I gained 3 houseguests, lost two, and now am gearing up to take off for a jam-packed tour of Eastern Europe with my sister. This week has been mostly settling things up and packing/buying wool socks and other warm things in preparation for the snowy wilds of the Balkans; Lonely Planet casually mentioned that the part of Romania we're passing through gets to -35 Celsius in the winter. Oh boy.
Last week I picked up Kel and her 2 friends in Istanbul, after some miscommunication on meeting points and rain. We headed straight out to Arnavutkoy, to drop my stuff off at my hostel and then to have manti at my favorite Istanbul restaurant, Bodrum manti. They all got different kinds of manti, and we stayed for coffee and got free dessert, so it was a good time. We then headed over to ARIT, where I was staying, because there was a lecture there that night by a professor from Princeton. I'd been told it was going to be about Ataturk, which I was excited about, but when we got there, the guy started talking about 14th century Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, so we were a little bewildered. It was a really interesting lecture though, and we met up with friends and fellow Fulbrighters of mine at the reception afterward. ARIT, incidentally, is the American Research Institute in Turkey, a very awesome organization with offices, libraries, and hostels in Istanbul and Ankara. I stayed at the Ankara hostel when I moved in August.
We took the bus back to Ankara Tuesday, after Kel and her friend Katelyn toured Dolmabahce Palace and the 3 of us headed over to Kadikoy for the Tuesday Bazaar only to be told that the Tuesday Bazaar was "finished". We were a little confused, and later saw a news report of policemen violently suppressing something at the Tuesday Bazaar earlier that day, so I'm not sure what was going on in Asian Istanbul that morning. Our bus back to Ankara was a little interesting: the ticket man called it a 'bistro bus,' because it was 2 levels, and the bottom level had a 20-seat cafe, serving hot snacks. It was pretty darn cool. It also had wireless internet, but I sadly neglected to bring my computer, so couldn't enjoy that.
Wednesday, I sent the three travellers off to Ulus to see the citadel and Museum while I made stew and danced around my apartment to Christmas music. Once they got back, we all headed to the Vatican Embassy for midnight Mass, which was at 7:30. We arrived early enough to snag a pew, but over half of the people who showed up ended up standing in the back, in the aisles, and even behind the altar. It was packed. There also was beefed-up security, as there was at least one Ambassador and his family there (I think it was the French Ambassador). The Papal Nuncio celebrated Mass, which was very cool as I'd never seen him before; the Papal Nuncio is the Vatican's Ambassador, an archbishop in his own right, and usually assigned to a posting for life. They are awesome. Mass was beautiful: all the songs were sung in English, Latin, French, and Turkish, and there were songs in Tagalog and an African language as well. The readings were in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Gospel was in Arabic (and then in English by little kids). After Communion, some of the members of the African community here in Ankara sang 2 songs and danced through the center of the church, which was really lovely. A friend of mine tried her hand at matchmaking and found a Marine to sit next to me for Mass; he was nice but a little confused by all the Latin as he wasn't Catholic. Anyway, he seemed nice and is also here for a year, but I never end up running into the Marines in the city (maybe they go to all the student bars that I never get to). After Mass, there were homemade Christmas cookies and spice cakes and wassail in the church library, and I introduced my posse of houseguests to an Arabic-speaking acquaintance of mine, who proceeded to chat with them for a good while. As we left, he told me Kel's Arabic was "super", so that was nice.
Back at chez moi, we had an enjoyable Christmas Eve of chicken stew, hummus, and Love Actually. Kel and I got to talk with the extended family via Skype, and opened our gifts over video; we both got lefse boards, and were inordinately excited about that. The next day was a bit of a lazy day: my posse went off in search of Anitkabir while I got some work done, and we watched Christmas movies all day. I didn't really want to cook, so we went to my neighborhood traditional Turkish restaurant for guvec and gozleme, which they'd not had before. The next day, Katelyn and Tommy both skipped town, one for the airport and a flight home, the other for Istanbul and a flight to Serbia, so it was a little discombobulated around the old apartment. I had my last Turkish lesson, which was bittersweet, as I really enjoyed those lessons and learned quite a bit.
Friday night Kel and I met up with several of the Ankarali Fulbrighters for dinner at Sedir and dancing at the Turkish American Association's 'Send in the New Year' party. The party was a lot of fun, and we all danced dorkily, as is our wont. It helped that I think we were the only yabancis in the room. Kel wowed the crowd with her snazzy Ecuadorian-night-club dancing, and Joan and George I think were polka-ing it up at one point, so we were an eclecticly fun group of dancers.
The weekend was pretty much given over to working on this round of grad apps, planning out our trip, and watching way too many movies (I have to get my fill of internet before going computerless for the entire length of the Balkans, you know). I stopped by ASTI to see when we could get a bus to Plovdiv, which is our destination in Bulgaria, and was slightly disheartened when, after asking the Varan representative "Bulgaristan'a gidiyor musunuz?", he responded with "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Fantastic. At least the Metro rep was appreciative of my Turkish and had 6 busses to Bulgaria, to boot.
The whole neighborhood loves Kel; every single checkout girl stopped to ask if we were sisters, and how long she's in town, and such, as well as the corner shop guy next door and the restauranteurs down the street. Today I stopped by one of the grocery stores without Kel, and the checkout girl asked if my sister had left already, in a slightly worried tone; I explained that she'd be in town for a few more days still.
It snowed here for Christmas, which was wonderful, and again on Sunday, which really brought winter to the city. I'd forgotten how much I love taking a walk while the snow falls. We should see plenty of that up north; I'll probably be ready for another trip to Gaziantep or Antakya by the time we get back.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Istanbul, and then on to the shiny metropolis of Plovdiv, and then beyond to the great cold wonders of Eastern Europe. I'll try to keep this updated on the road, and inshallah will be able to upload pictures from larger cities along the way.
Hope your holidays were/are relaxing and wonderful,
kendine iyi bak,
-R
Last week I picked up Kel and her 2 friends in Istanbul, after some miscommunication on meeting points and rain. We headed straight out to Arnavutkoy, to drop my stuff off at my hostel and then to have manti at my favorite Istanbul restaurant, Bodrum manti. They all got different kinds of manti, and we stayed for coffee and got free dessert, so it was a good time. We then headed over to ARIT, where I was staying, because there was a lecture there that night by a professor from Princeton. I'd been told it was going to be about Ataturk, which I was excited about, but when we got there, the guy started talking about 14th century Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, so we were a little bewildered. It was a really interesting lecture though, and we met up with friends and fellow Fulbrighters of mine at the reception afterward. ARIT, incidentally, is the American Research Institute in Turkey, a very awesome organization with offices, libraries, and hostels in Istanbul and Ankara. I stayed at the Ankara hostel when I moved in August.
We took the bus back to Ankara Tuesday, after Kel and her friend Katelyn toured Dolmabahce Palace and the 3 of us headed over to Kadikoy for the Tuesday Bazaar only to be told that the Tuesday Bazaar was "finished". We were a little confused, and later saw a news report of policemen violently suppressing something at the Tuesday Bazaar earlier that day, so I'm not sure what was going on in Asian Istanbul that morning. Our bus back to Ankara was a little interesting: the ticket man called it a 'bistro bus,' because it was 2 levels, and the bottom level had a 20-seat cafe, serving hot snacks. It was pretty darn cool. It also had wireless internet, but I sadly neglected to bring my computer, so couldn't enjoy that.
Wednesday, I sent the three travellers off to Ulus to see the citadel and Museum while I made stew and danced around my apartment to Christmas music. Once they got back, we all headed to the Vatican Embassy for midnight Mass, which was at 7:30. We arrived early enough to snag a pew, but over half of the people who showed up ended up standing in the back, in the aisles, and even behind the altar. It was packed. There also was beefed-up security, as there was at least one Ambassador and his family there (I think it was the French Ambassador). The Papal Nuncio celebrated Mass, which was very cool as I'd never seen him before; the Papal Nuncio is the Vatican's Ambassador, an archbishop in his own right, and usually assigned to a posting for life. They are awesome. Mass was beautiful: all the songs were sung in English, Latin, French, and Turkish, and there were songs in Tagalog and an African language as well. The readings were in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Gospel was in Arabic (and then in English by little kids). After Communion, some of the members of the African community here in Ankara sang 2 songs and danced through the center of the church, which was really lovely. A friend of mine tried her hand at matchmaking and found a Marine to sit next to me for Mass; he was nice but a little confused by all the Latin as he wasn't Catholic. Anyway, he seemed nice and is also here for a year, but I never end up running into the Marines in the city (maybe they go to all the student bars that I never get to). After Mass, there were homemade Christmas cookies and spice cakes and wassail in the church library, and I introduced my posse of houseguests to an Arabic-speaking acquaintance of mine, who proceeded to chat with them for a good while. As we left, he told me Kel's Arabic was "super", so that was nice.
Back at chez moi, we had an enjoyable Christmas Eve of chicken stew, hummus, and Love Actually. Kel and I got to talk with the extended family via Skype, and opened our gifts over video; we both got lefse boards, and were inordinately excited about that. The next day was a bit of a lazy day: my posse went off in search of Anitkabir while I got some work done, and we watched Christmas movies all day. I didn't really want to cook, so we went to my neighborhood traditional Turkish restaurant for guvec and gozleme, which they'd not had before. The next day, Katelyn and Tommy both skipped town, one for the airport and a flight home, the other for Istanbul and a flight to Serbia, so it was a little discombobulated around the old apartment. I had my last Turkish lesson, which was bittersweet, as I really enjoyed those lessons and learned quite a bit.
Friday night Kel and I met up with several of the Ankarali Fulbrighters for dinner at Sedir and dancing at the Turkish American Association's 'Send in the New Year' party. The party was a lot of fun, and we all danced dorkily, as is our wont. It helped that I think we were the only yabancis in the room. Kel wowed the crowd with her snazzy Ecuadorian-night-club dancing, and Joan and George I think were polka-ing it up at one point, so we were an eclecticly fun group of dancers.
The weekend was pretty much given over to working on this round of grad apps, planning out our trip, and watching way too many movies (I have to get my fill of internet before going computerless for the entire length of the Balkans, you know). I stopped by ASTI to see when we could get a bus to Plovdiv, which is our destination in Bulgaria, and was slightly disheartened when, after asking the Varan representative "Bulgaristan'a gidiyor musunuz?", he responded with "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Fantastic. At least the Metro rep was appreciative of my Turkish and had 6 busses to Bulgaria, to boot.
The whole neighborhood loves Kel; every single checkout girl stopped to ask if we were sisters, and how long she's in town, and such, as well as the corner shop guy next door and the restauranteurs down the street. Today I stopped by one of the grocery stores without Kel, and the checkout girl asked if my sister had left already, in a slightly worried tone; I explained that she'd be in town for a few more days still.
It snowed here for Christmas, which was wonderful, and again on Sunday, which really brought winter to the city. I'd forgotten how much I love taking a walk while the snow falls. We should see plenty of that up north; I'll probably be ready for another trip to Gaziantep or Antakya by the time we get back.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Istanbul, and then on to the shiny metropolis of Plovdiv, and then beyond to the great cold wonders of Eastern Europe. I'll try to keep this updated on the road, and inshallah will be able to upload pictures from larger cities along the way.
Hope your holidays were/are relaxing and wonderful,
kendine iyi bak,
-R
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