Istanbul - Meeting the East

Traveling to Turkey was the place to test us as independent travelers in what we expected to be a very different culture. So far our travels in Western Europe were in cultures similar to our own and most of our travel arrangements had been made before leaving home. As travelers, Turkey was going to be our step into the unknown. Apart from having an airline tickets to Istanbul, the intention to depart Turkey by ferry to the island of Rhodes, and some advice from a friend in Newfoundland, this part of our journey was going to be by the seat of our pants.

Tea!!

We arrived in Istanbul, on December 29 and as soon as we arrived at our hotel we knew the Turkish people had a different approach. Before we even checked in we were served tea (the first of many during our time in Turkey) and the check-in process was a combination of socialization and business as we got to know our hosts and they us. What we were soon to discover drinking tea and getting to know people are an important part of Turkish culture and hospitality. This particularly extended to Aaron, who attracted special attention from our hosts at the hotel, restaurants, and even people just passing by.

Our hotel was well located in the Sultanahamet section of the city and we were within walking distance of most of the major attractions and markets. On our first afternoon we did a little exploration along the main street and soon learned that as you passed any restaurant or fastfood stand someone would greet you and try to convince you to eat in their restaurant. Eventually, we let ourselves be convinced by one and sat down for our first Turkish meal of warm pita bread, salads, and main course followed by our first of many cups of apple tea.

Blue Mosque

The next day we decided to start our explorations in earnest with a visit to the Blue Mosque, Istanbul's equivalent to the famous cathedrals we visited in France. The mosque is famous for its domes, 6 minarets, and the blue mosaics on the inside. Unlike the churches, a mosque has now pews. People pray on the carpeted floor and to keep them clean we were asked to remove our shoes. In someways it was just like home in Newfoundland, take your shoes off when you come inside except this was 100's of people doing it all at once.

After leaving the mosque and its beautiful mosaics and carpets we got our first of what would be many invitations to visit a carpet shop. It seems to be that every visitor is expected to buy a carpet or it is assumed every visitor wants to buy one. As beautiful and colourful as they are we decided we would not be tempted. For us it was more exploring and soon we discovered the Spice Bazaar near the shores of the harbour called the Golden Horn.

Spice Bazaar

The Spice Bazaar was an incredible market of spices, foods, jewelry, and all sorts of Turkish handcrafts. The colours, smells, and swell of people created an amazing atmosphere. It was fascinating to watch and we were soon drawn into it and discovered first hand the markets life and vibrancy as people conducted busines in that Turkish way of forth right sales pitch combined with hospitality. We made a few purchases but wished we had more room in our suitcases as there were so many beautiful items.

Spices at the Spice Bazaar

We finished our day by attending a show of traditional Turkish folk dancing and music. The music was great and the dancing spectacular. The band consisted of a violin, accordion, clarinet, a guitar like instrument, and some percussion and together they produced some lively and fun rthyms. In many ways it was like a traditional band in Newfoundland just “plankin'er down” except the music was completely different. The dances were very diverse from the expected belly dancing to something more akin to Ukraine dancing and all this was combined with the bright colours of their costumes. It was a great show, even the boys enjoyed it a lot. Of course Aaron and Niall liked the dances that involved sword fights and throwing flaming knives but I preferred the belly dancing.

The next day was New Year's Eve and we decided to visit the Grand Bazaar. This was a much bigger market than the Spice Bazaar, it is suppose to have over a thousand shops and to us it was like a maze. It wasn't long before we were lost and soon one carpet shop looked like the rest. It didn't seem to be very busy and of course everywhere we went we were invited in to view the merchandise. In the end, we tried our hand at bargaining but I don't think we were too successful. We much preferred the Spice Bazaar as it was busier and there, if you were not interested the shopkeepers would leave you alone and move onto another customer.

In the afternoon we visited Topkapi Palace, once the home of the Sultans that ruled Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Like kings of the large European empires, the sultans lived in great luxury and amassed some amazing treasures. After visiting the palace we had an appreciation for how there is a whole other history in this part of the world that we know so little about in the west.

Out with new friends

New Year's Eve is not a big day in Istanbul, but they do try to put on a few celebrations for the tourists. Our hotel had a few fireworks and wine in the restaurant on the top floor. It was here we met another Canadian family, Monique and Greg and their 2 children Molly (9 years) and Noah (11 years). They are teachers in Saudi Arabia and were visiting Turkey over Christmas. The kids hit it off great and we made plans to do the boat tour of the Bosphorus River the next day.

The boat tour the next day was great but even better was the conversation with some new found friends. The kids entertained each other all day giving the adults a break and Susan and I enjoyed talking with other adults and comparing travel notes. The day went by quickly and left us just enough time to visit an impressive underground cistern before we rejoined our new friends for supper.

Roman cistern

Soon New Year's Day was drawing to a close and our new friends were taking a night flight back to Saudi Arabia and we had to pack for our departure to Selcuk, the next stop in our Turkish travels. Our time in Istanbul was great. The city was fascinating and the people were friendly. Each day as we understood the Turkish way of doing things we came to better appreciate the hospitality of Turkish people. It was a great start to our visit to Turkey and a confidence booster to our travel skills.

For more photos check out our web album of Istanbul.

Christmas in Germany

Christmas in Germany was a nice break for us as we were joined by my brother Andrew and his family, wife Sandy, there two girls Gabby and Lila and Oliver their 8 month old. After almost 2 months of traveling on our own, it was nice to spend some time with some familiar faces. Our home for the week was a holiday home in the small rural village of Tandern. We were about a 45 minute drive northwest of Munich and thanks to the miracles of a GPS we were able to wind our way through the German country side to our home for the week.

Over the course of the week with Andrew's family we managed to visit a Christmas market  in Augsburg. There we enjoyed some German sausages and glühwein (mulled wine) while doing some Christmas shopping. The market was full of stalls of German treats and Christmas decorations. If you are into nativity scenes, this seems to be the place to go; shepherds, sheep, wise men, camels of all different sizes and craftsmanship. We managed to pickup a small tree, some tasty gingerbread, and a few decorations.

Another day we took a trip to the German Alps and visited Schloss Neuschwanstein, the fairy tale castle. When we arrived we learned there were actually two castles, the older castle that apparently was not beautiful enough for King Ludwig and the fairy tale castle that he had built using the inspiration of Wagner's music. It was this castle that led to King Ludwig's bankruptcy and loss of the throne. We had the opportunity to tour both castles. We all enjoyed the visits and even though my 2 nieces found it a long day they love princess so seeing these castles will be a great memory for them.

On the morning of Christmas Eve we were greeted by snow and Sonja, our host, with another Christmas tree, treats, a bottle of glühwein, and a Christmas basket. She was very nice and very helpful which included doing our laundry. Andrew and I took care of the preparations for the Christmas dinner of chicken and duck while most of the kids played in the snow. Aaron working on a snow fort and Gabby and Niall making a snowman. Before long it was 5 o'clock and we walked through the falling snow to the local church for the Christmas Eve service. Although we didn't understand the language the service was familiar enough as children performed the Christmas Pageant and did some great singing. Of course the service ended with Stille Nacht or as we know it Silent Night.

Christmas day showed us that even with all our traveling, Santa could still track us down. And in the German tradition he left the boys a toy, a book, and an article of clothing. The boys exchanged gifts with their cousins and everybody was happy. Later Susan and Sandy wandered down to the local wifi hot spot (outside the local bar) and Skyped and Facebooked family and friends back home.  In the afternoon we all took a short walk around the countryside and played in the snow before returning for Christmas dinner.

It was a great Christmas for us. I enjoyed the time catching up with my brother, the boys and the girls had fun seeing each other, Susan especially enjoyed her time with her new nephew Oliver, and I am sure Sandy enjoyed the help of an additional mother. Overall it was a great family reunion between 2 families that usually find themselves much farther apart at Christmas. But of course it was all too short. It wasn't long before December 27th came around and we had to say our good-byes. As Andrew and his family returned to their home in England, it was not without some jealousy that we knew in a few hours they would be home and enjoying another week of Christmas. As they departed, we were left with the reality of how lonely traveling can be at times. I think we all were thinking of our friends and family back home and missing the time we spend with them at Christmas. All too soon we had to make plans for our visit to Turkey and continue our journey.

For more pictures of our stay in Germany, check out our web album.

Castling in Carcassone

We took the train from Paris to Carcassone on Saturday, December 11. After a week of standing on the Paris Metro and constantly looking for those few public washrooms in Paris, it was comforting being on the train knowing we had reserved seats and were only a few steps from a bathroom (a real necessity when traveling with kids). The question that remained, Would southern France give us warmer and sunnier weather than we found in Paris? After only hour on the high speed train, the grey skies started to break up and by the time we reached the Mediterranean coast it was clear blue skies and 15 degrees!

At the train station in Carcassonne we were met by Lester, the man we were renting our house from for our stay. After a mix up with a taxi, Lester took us on a short walking tour of the historic downtown. As we made our way to our home for the week we were greeted with a spectacular view of the castle. Our house for the week was well located, just a 5 minute walk from the castle's main gate. The house was a typical timeless stone house found in France that could be 40 or 400 hundred years old. Our host was very nice and helped us familiarize with the area and our new home and he had two more surprises, a bottle of the local wine and free telephone calls to Canada!

After settling in we began our ritual of looking for a grocery store and getting ourselves provisioned for the week. We took the 15 minute walk from our house to downtown, crossing a 14th century stone bridge over the Aude River to get there. As it was still sunny and warm, we took time to explore a bit and enjoy the festive Christmas atmosphere and the more relaxed pace than Paris. The city has an annual Christmas festival with carnival rides, food and craft stalls, skating rink, and of course Pére Noël. And on a sunny afternoon lots of people were out enjoying themselves.

Sunday morning we took it easy, slept late and had a leisurely breakfast before heading off for our first of several visits to the castle and the historic old city of Carcassonne. We were not disappointed. The castle is protected by 2 sets of walls. An inner wall dating from the Roman age and an outer wall built in the Medieval age. Together there were 3 kilometres of walls and the boys took to exploring the outer walls and of course playing on them with their imaginary games. From a top of these walls we could see the Pyrenees, a reminder of how close we were to the Spanish border and the reason for the castle's existence.

Over the course of the week we made several more visits to the castle, exploring its inner walls, keep, an old cathedral and of course the shops and restaurants. Through these visits we learned that the castle had been restored in the late 19th century by the French government as part of a program to preserve some of its great buildings like this castle and the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Later in the week, things turned cold and we had some snow and a couple of cold wet days. We took advantage of this to try and catch up on the boys school work but also took time to enjoy some amazing hot chocolate and get pictures taken with Pére Noël. Soon it was the end of another week and our time in Carcassonne was coming to a close. Friday afternoon we visited some of the food stalls and tried a fried pastry called churros which were quite tasty and no doubt very fattening. We enjoyed a nice meal in a small restaurant inside the castle.

Saturday, with clothes all washed and packed it was time to enjoy a last sunny day in Carcassonne before we took a night train to Paris on our way to Germany. We took the time to visit the castle one last time and while the boys explored the walls again, Susan and I took some time to shop for souvenirs. I returned to find that the boys  had discovered a new hidden passage in the walls and were sharing their discovery with some English kids they had met. Then it was off to the Christmas festival in the town square of the new city. We had promised the boys they could enjoy some of the carnival rides before we left. And as we left the festival to leave we decided to try roasted chestnuts -- we had always heard about them but had never tried them. After a quick lesson on how to eat them we had our taste and realized that we should have stuck with the churros.

As we left on the train, we all agreed it was a good week for us in Carcassonne, enjoying the castle, Christmas atmosphere, hospitality, and the slower pace of life. But as our luck would have it, train schedules and weather conspired against us and we awoke the next morning to another snowy wet day in Paris.