Sweet Mumbai

I arrived in Mumbai yesterday morning and went directly to my host family. The cab ride from the airport was the best one I have had since I started my trip (including the ones in New York). The driver was nice, spoke English, didn't try to over charge me, and got to my destination in significantly less time than I anticipated despite not driving like a lunatic.

My host family greeted me when I arrived and have been so sweet and welcoming. The kids even call me Auntie.

The last two days we have spent site seeing in different parts of the city. We have seen temples, mosques, churches, train stations, museums, the planetarium, and more.

What sticks out to me the most about Mumbai is the smell. Most large cities stink, like exhaust if nothing else. Mumbai is sweet and spicy. I think the monsoon rains must magnify the aroma because it is so pungent.

Crossing the Street

The large cities in Turkey, like large cities everywhere, have streets which are particularly hazardous for pedestrians wishing to cross them. The Turks have come up with a unique solution to safely getting hordes of pedestrians across the street. At major intersections are pedestrian subways. These pedestrian subways are so unique because, instead of being the smelly, dirty, often unsafe pedestrian subways of many cities, these have shops in them, making them part pedestrian subway and part shopping mall. Now that is what I call civilized.

Back to Istanbul

Michele and I returned to Istanbul two days ago. It felt great to arrive someplace we had already been and knew how to get around.

We spent the last couple days taking in the sites we missed on our first stay in the city, such as the Grand Bazzar (we purposly avoided it our first go round so that we wouldn't have to carry our purchases all over Turkey with us), and Galata Tower (where the view of the city is fantastic).

Bursa

After Canakkale, we headed to an inland city called Bursa. Bursa was the original capital of the Ottoman empire, so it had many mosques and other interesting historical buildings. We visited two Mosques in Bursa that were in many aspects different to other mosques we have seen. The Great Mosque, so called because it is the biggest in Bursa, was more simply decorated than most mosques, yet the natural light falling on tile fountain in the middle gave it all the grandeur of any other. The thing that stood out the most about the Great Mosque was the relatively large number of women praying there. The Green Mosque, so called because the inside is almost entirely green tiles, reminded me more of a church than a mosque in that it contained one main prayer area with several smaller prayer areas to the sides, like chapels.

One Kilo is a Lot of Chicken

From one of the Bursa suburbs Michele and I caught a cable car to the top of a near by mountain. The views were nice and the weather a cool departure from the hot city below. We arrived around lunch time, so we found a outdoor cafe which felt like a picnic area and ordered our lunch of chicken, salad, french fries, and yogurt. Then things got strange. The waiter asked us how much chicken we wanted, and suggested, after seeing our confused looks, that we should get one kilo. We agreed and waited for our food to come, enjoying the woodsy environment around us. After a few minutes, the server returned with a small grill full of hot coals. "How cool," we thought, "they are going to cook it in front of us, like at Benihana." Oh were we ever mistaken. Soon the server presented us with a tray full of raw chicken breast, a lot of it, and left it for us to cook ourselves! They didn't even marinate the stuff. Luckily red pepper flakes and oregano are standard table spices in Turkey. We dry spiced our chicken and (gasp) even grilled it ourselves. It turned out quite well. But we still had 4 times as much as we could eat.

After lunch we went for a lovely stroll in the woods to enjoy the plant life and curse the insects.

Troy

Yesterday Michele and I arrived in Canakkale, the jumping off point for visiting the ruins of Troy. The town is a cute harbor town similar to Kusadasi and Cesme, but it feels a little less touristy.

This morning we visited Troy. The coolest part about the site is that it is not just one ruin, but actually 9 built on top of each other. Apparently the city would be deserted after a large war, earthquake, or fire, then after a few years and a few layers of dirt, people would move back and start over. Talk about tenacity. No wonder it took the Greeks 10 years to penetrate the city walls.

Along the water front in Canakkale stands the Trojan Horse used in the recent film version of the story. I look at it and feel in the presences of greatness, Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt touched this.

Donkey Island

Today Michele and I took a yacht trip to three islands near Cesme. The main attraction was called Donkey Island. My first visions were of Pinocchio turned pack animal, but it turns out the island is actually inhabited by wild Donkeys. The place is also home to many wild rabbits. So, it is an entire island is full of jacks and asses.

R&R

Michele and I flew from Istanbul to Izmir 5 days ago and have been slowly working our way back by bus via several coastal towns. We started in Kusadasi, came to Cesme, but are leaving tomorrow for Canakkale. The main attractions of these towns are the beaches and shopping so we have been taking it easy and catching more rays than sights. We have a few more days of this before returning to the bustle of Istanbul.

Curley Hair

Turkey is not a hair straightening culture. I see more curley hair per capita here than in any of my other travels. I love it.

I have also observed a propensity toward variations on the overall concept, though no Osh Kosh.

All in all, I think I would fit right in if I lived here.

California Dreamin' II (or day trip to Ephesus)

The Aegean Coast of Turkey might look a little more like California that the northern mountains of Morocco.

Today, as Michele and I walked from the main road to a Greek ruin called Ephesus I felt like I was strolling through a section of Napa county with a an ancient city in the middle of it.

Ephesus is an amazing ruin because of how well preserved the site is. The library takes the cake as the entire two story facade is in tact, though the amphitheater is in good enough repair for them to still hold concerts in it.

Bosphorus Cruise

The last night in Istanbul we went on a dinner cruise on the Bosphorus which is the body of water that seperates the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. It was beautiful out on the water despite it being choppy and cold. We passed by dozens of beautiful houses sitting right on the water and we learned that the owners cannot change anything in the appearance to preserve the historical nature of the area. The highlight was watching the sunset over the city.

Old Istanbul

Most of the main tourist attractions are located in the older part of the city. Over the last several days we have seen many. One of the oldest, and largest Churches in Europe is the Aya Sofya in the old part of town. While this massıve building served as a church for almost a thousand years before being converted to a mosque. After 500 years as a mosque the building was again converted into a historical monument. The building itself served as a model for mosques built all over the city, including the famed Blue Mosque, so called because the interior is covered with blue tiles. After seeing the inside we are lunch at a cafe wıth terrace seating which offered a fantastic view of the dome and minarets.


Istanbul is also full of amazing secular buildings such as Ottoman Palaces. We visited one which remined me of Herst Castle in how every inch was decorated with gerogeus ceramic tile, marble, and gold inlay. The rooms contaıned the treasures of the empire including an 82 carat diamond originally cut for a ring!

New Istanbul

Michele and I arrived in Istanbul 4 days ago, and from the moment we arrived at our hotel in the newer part of the city we felt as if we had been transported to Western Europe. The area near our hotel most closely resembles Amsterdam with a wide pedestrian boulevard full of shops, restaurants, bars, and movie theaters, leading to a large square.

All the fish are Swimming in the Water

For the last four days Michele and I took scuba diver certification classes in Sharm el-Sheik. We spent the first two days in a classroom and diving in a pool. On the second two days we got to dive in the red sea, exploring the coral and observing the fish. We got to see lots of clown fish, who are very agressive and territorial. One of them came straight at our instructor when she got too close. The highlight of the fish watching was when we came across a huge morey eel tucked into the coral, snapping his jaws. We also had a blast hanging out on the boat with our instructors and fellow students on the boat.

Traffic and Turn Signals

Last night we went from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheik via the tunnel under the Suez canal. The traffic on the road once we passed the canal was crazy. I have never seen anything like it. All of the traffic was from people going from the Sinai Peninsula back to the African part of Egypt. The problem was that due to the slow trafic going that direction, a number of cars decided to drive on the wrong side of the road causing traffic to stop going both ways!


I also found the use of turn signals and hazzard lights amuzing. Drivers here use turn signals for curvs in the road, even if going straight isn't an option. It also seems that the turn signal is used to let another driver know of ones position when passing in opposite directions on a two lane highway. So, if I were driving on a two lane highway and I saw a car appraoching me, I would put on my left turn signal, even though I have no intention of turning left or changing lanes. When a used its breaks to slow down as it appraoched an area of slower traffic, the driver put on the hazzard lights, as if break lights didn't exist.

Cairo

Michele and I spent the last couple days in Cairo.

On Thursday we visited many ancient Egyptian sites around the city, including the famous Giza pyramids and the Shpinx, and the step pyramid (which was the frist ever built) at Saqqara, and the ancient capitol of Memphis. At the Giza pyramids we met up with our cousin Stephen's friend Hamssa who works as an inspector at the Great Pyramid (that is the biggest of them, also one of the seven wonders of the ancient world).


On Friday we visited some not quite so ancient sites, including two Coptic (Egyptian) Christian curches and a georgous mosque. The first church, built in the fourth centry, contained art the reminded me of European art from the 12th century. Now I understand what is meant when people talk about European dark ages. The second church was build over a crypt said to be the hiding place of the holy family for over a month when they escaped to Egypt to save Jesus. A citadel build on the highest point in Cairo enclosed the mosque we visited. The views of the city were good, but due to the haze, not great. The views of the mosque (inside and out) we spectacular. One of the things so striking about mosques is that the main prayer room is open space, so you can appreciate the vastness of the enclosure, unlike churches which can get cluttered by pews and small chaples within.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

This morning we arrived in Cairo and headed straight for the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. The number of artifacts on display boggles the mind. I found the Fayoum portraits most interesting. These were wax paintings on wood done in a period when Greeks and Romans ruled Egypt, and are of a very European style. What makes them most fascinating is that while they are about 2000 years old, they are most reminiscent of European renaissance art. I also found the artifacts from the Amarna period (the time of Queen Nefertiti) interesting because it stylistically diverged from stereotypical Egyptian art. Finally we saw the jewelry and treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen. I felt more like I was shopping than viewing an exhibit in a gallery. Sadly, none of the decadent necklaces and bracelets were for sale.

Nile Cruise

The three night Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan perfectly balanced site seeing and relaxing. Every day we saw temples and tombs from ancient Egypt, but also spent many an hour relaxing and getting to know our fellow travelers.

The ruins were amazing. You can watch all the PBS specials you want, but you simply can’t understand the grandeur of the temples until you see them in person. The largest temple we saw was Karnak in Luxor. Despite its now dilapidated state, you can’t help but feel you are in the Notre Dam of its time.


My favorite temple was the temple of Philae. The island on which the temple originally stood did not hold the temple above the water level when they built a damn down stream at Aswan. Rather than let this beautiful monument to the goddess Isis drown, a group of Italian Egyptologists moved the entire temple piece by piece to higher ground. The new island is lush and green and the temple is as magnificent as ever.


The last nigh of the cruise we celebrated Michele’s birthday. After dinner the crew sang Happy Birthday to her in English and Arabic then danced her around the dining room, finally presenting her with a cake. She blew out the candles with another birthday girl in our group. Later we had an Egyptian costume party and danced our pants off.

Plains, Trains, and Automobiles…and Boats

We took the senic route from Morocco to Egypt. We left Chefchauen around 2 pm one afternoon on a three hour bus ride to Tangier, the clossest city in Morocco to Spain, where we would catch a train to Casablanca. By the time we got to Tangier the only train leaving for Casablanca that day was the sleeper train that would depart in 3 hours. We took a cab to a café on the northern tip of Tangier which overlooked the Straight of Gibralter. From the terraced seating we could even see Spain in the distant fog. We relaxed and watched a beautiful sunset before heading back to the train station and were on the way to Casablanca at last.


From Casablanca, we flew to Spain, where we connected on a flight to Cairo. From the Cairo airport we went directly to the train station where we took yet another night train, this one to Luxor. In Luxor we boarded our Nile cruise. After 48 hours of travel we were ready for a few nights of relaxing on a five star ship.