Istanbul Part 5: Turkey Coma

We had seen so many wonderful attractions during our two weeks in Turkey.  But, there are only so many ruins, palaces, or mosques that one can see in two weeks.  We were getting pretty weary from all of the sight-seeing.  Heck, The Wife was even starting to get tired of shopping.  The Kids didn't care either way.  As long as they had their iPads and a Wi-Fi hotspot from Alldaywifi, they were as happy as can be.  But, now was not the time to get too lazy.  We weren't quite done with Turkey.  We still had a few more places to see before that bird was fully cooked.

After sleeping in late, we walked over to the Great Palace Mosaic Museum, located next to the Arasta Bazaar.  Entry was free for The Kids, and included with our Istanbul Museum Passes.

The Emperor Constantine started construction of the Great Palace when he moved the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD.  At it's peak, the building stretched from the Hippodrome all the way to the Hagia Sophia.  Over the next several centuries it fell into disrepair as the Byzantine emperors gave neither adequate attention nor funds for its upkeep.  By the time the Ottomans had taken Constantinople, the Great Palace had long been abandoned.  Eventually, it was torn down and the Blue Mosque was built on top.  In the 19th century, excavation around the Arasta Bazaar uncovered several 5th century mosaics which had decorated the peristyle courtyard of the Great Palace.

Many of the mosaics displayed pastoral scenes.

Water flows into a basin in this rural wellhouse.

A creepy monkey uses a lime covered stick to catch birds.

Farmers milk their goats.

A man watches intently...

...as a hunter does...god knows what...to his dog.

Other mosaics also depict children playing.

A guide leads two boys on a camel.  The youth in the front wears clothes of an aristocratic family.

Boys play with hoops that represent chariots.  The columns are the monuments in the center
of the Hippodrome.  The colored tunics signify their teams, the "Blues" and the "Greens."

There are also violent scenes of hunting.

A pair of leopards feasts on a gazelle.

A tiger fends off...

...two spearmen.

An eagle defeats a snake.  This represents the victory of light over darkness.

An elephant and a lion battle in mortal combat.

Additionally, there are also mosaics depicting mythological creatures.

A griffin devours a lizard.

The chimera clashes with Bellerophon.  The mythical beast had three
heads--a lion in the front, a goat on the back, and a snake on the tail.
Only Bellerophon's spear tip and Pegasus' legs remain in this mosaic.  

Overall, the Great Palace Mosaic Museum was a nice, quick tour of beautiful Byzantine artwork.

We then took the tram up to Kabataş Station and walked twenty minutes to Dolmabahçe Palace.  In the 18th and 19th century, European powers became stronger while the Ottoman Empire declined.  Sultan Abdülmecid I commissioned the construction of a contemporary, European-style palace to replace the medieval, Asiatic Topkapi Palace.  Designed with Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical styles, Dolmabahçe Palace was finished in 1856.  It became the largest palace in Turkey and costs so much that it accelerated the empire's decline into bankruptcy.  A total of six sultans lived in Dolmabahçe Palace before it was seized by the new Republic of Turkey in 1924.

The Dolmabahçe Clock Tower was added later in 1895.

Entrance into the grounds were through the Gate of the Sultan.

Although they are closed in the present day, the Gate of the Treasury...

...and the Gate to the Bosphorus were additional points of entry to the palace.

A pond with an ornate fountain greets
visitors to Dolmabahçe Palace.

Statues of lionesses and their cubs guard the well-manicured lawns.

The entrance fee for Dolmabahçe Palace is not covered by the museum card, and only children under six are free.  There are three options of seeing the palace.  The ticket for the selamlık (the area reserved for men) is 30 TL and the harem 20 TL.  A combination ticket for both is 40 TL.  Photography is prohibited inside.

We purchased a ticket for the selamlik only as many
guidebooks state that the harem is not that impressive.

In my opinion, Dolmabahçe Palace is a good example of how not to run a tourist attraction.  The palace can only be visited as part of a guided tour.  A private guide can be used, but most people just go with the one provided with the entrance fee.  However, the tours are only given in Turkish or English.  When we arrived, the Turkish group was manageable with less than 15 people in it.  The English group however, had about 100 people.  There is no way that this many people can hear a guide’s explanations.  Several of these foreign tourists have a very limited understanding of English so they really couldn't understand the guide anyway.  They would compound the problem by constantly speaking in their own language during the tour.  This would prevent others from hearing the tour guide.  Furthermore, the tour just seemed rushed.  The guide would start giving the explanation for a room before the entire group even arrived.  Since we had The Kids with us, we ended up lagging in the back, so we hardly heard a word.

For the most part, Dohlmabace Palace is similar to most other European palaces of the 19^th century.  The rooms are opulent, but most are no better than Versailles.  The only exception is the Muayede Hall at the end of the tour.  This room contained the sultan's throne and was used for ceremonies and receptions for foreign dignitaries.  Women were not allowed inside, so they had to watch from windows on the upper floor.  This 2,000 square-meter room has a massive dome that is 36 meters (118 feet) high--enough to accommodate a 12 story building.  A four and a half ton Victorian chandelier hangs from the ceiling which is held up by 56 columns.  The area was so large that it took three days for the central heating system to warm the entire room properly during the winter.  It was by far the best part of the tour.

When we left the palace and its adjacent gardens, there was a light drizzle of rain.  The Wife had wisely insisted that we borrow two umbrellas from the apartment before we had left.  Out of curiosity, we decided to take a taxi to Ortaköy Square.  The area is known for waterfront cafes and boutique shops.  Because of heavy traffic, the cabbie took a detour to get us there faster.  It didn't hurt him that the extra distance added another 10 TL to our fare.  By the time we arrived, it was raining pretty hard.  We walked to the waterfront, but just ducked into the nearest Mado Cafe to get away from the rain.

Mado is a popular Turkish chain restaurant that started with ice cream but branched off into other desserts and entrees.  With over 250 branches that stretch as far as Australia and South Korea, the restaurant delivers consistent yet uninspiring food.  Since this shop is better known for their sweet rather than their savory dishes, we decided to focus more on the desserts.

This would be the only time during our trip where our lack of the Turkish language skills was a problem.  We were handed two menus--one in English and one in Turkish.  However, the menus were not the same.  Some of the items on the English version were not on the Turkish one, and vice-versa.  None of the waiters spoke English either, so we had to use the Turkish menu to order.  We had no problems asking for some of the more common items like köfte or gözleme.  But we had a lot of difficulty ordering some of the less common desserts and drinks.

The Kids got some milkshakes and The Wife and I both had a sherbet to drink.  We tried two desserts that were pretty similar (künefe and kadyif).  Both are made of thin, wiry strings of half-baked dough that are drenched in syrup and served with a dollop of kaymak (clotted cream).  They were good, but the really interesting dessert was tavuk göğsü.  It is a pudding made with milk, sugar, and chicken breast.  Yep, chicken.  The meat is shredded or pounded so finely that it can't really be tasted.  The chicken does help with the thickening, so the pudding has good consistency and sets nicely.  As with the case of pretty much every pudding ever made, it tasted great.

İçli köfte

Gözleme

Künefe

Fıstıklı burma kadayıf

Tavuk göğsü

We had to wait in the cafe for quite some time for the rain to let up.  It didn't just sprinkle, it was a deluge of biblical proportions.  There were several people outside who were planning some sort of music performance right on the waterfront.  They had to abort their plans and run for cover from the torrential rain.  Finally, we had a break in the storm and we were able to leave the restaurant.

It rained and thundered so hard that The Girl inexplicably started bawling.

The Wife was hoping to walk around the many shops and soak in the charm of this artsy and trendy neighborhood. However, the only thing we would be soaking in would be water.  Most of the outdoor shops had their wares covered by large tarps to protect them from the drizzle.  We had to dodge a couple of large puddles in the narrow streets.  Unfortunately, mother nature was not on our side that day.

Although we had just eaten, The Wife wanted to try kumpir, a fast food item that is common in the Ortaköy area.  It's a large baked potato that can be filled with a hodgepodge of fillings.  Some of the more common items are peas, carrots, red beets, pickles, olives, and ketchup.  I wasn't too thrilled by the lack of bacon bits.

Kumpir Sokak (baked potato street) has a whole row of kumpir stands lined up next to each other.

The Wife loaded her kumpir with veggies.  She topped it off
with some purple slime that the vendor told her was mayonnaise.

We decide to take our potato to go as we weren't hungry.  Instead of getting ripped off by a taxi again or walk all the way back to the tram station, we hopped on one of the many buses that were headed to Kabataş Station.  From there, we were able to make it back on the tram to Sultanahmet Square.

We ate the kumpir later that afternoon.  I can't say that I was that huge of a fan.  It wasn't horrible, but there were just so many other foods in Turkey that are so much better.  About 30 minutes later, I was doubled over the toilet puking my guts out.  The Wife was inexplicably fine.  I don't care what she may think, but purple mayonnaise is an abomination of nature!

Baked potato + purple mayonnaise = vomit.

Instead of going out to eat that night, we purchased some dried manti and ground lamb for kofte from a nearby grocery store. With my limited knowledge of Turkish, I managed to buy tomato paste instead of tomato sauce.  Needless to say the dinner was not very good.  But at least it didn't make me throw up.

*****

June 6, 2015

After waking up before 5 AM every morning by the  loud call to prayer (ezan) from the Blue Mosque, I have began to stop hating it.  In fact, I have actually come to enjoy it.  Not all of them though.  Although the songs are saying the same Arabic words, they are sung differently depending on the time of day.  Plus, some of the muezzins have a better voice than others.

After the fiasco with rain from the previous day, we were just going to take it easy and enjoy our last day in Istanbul.  The Wife wanted to do some final shopping before we finished packing our luggage.

On our first day in Istanbul, we had stopped by a shop called Iznik Classics.  This ceramics store has a couple of branches in the Grand and Arasta Bazaars, but the main store was located just a block away from our apartment.  They actually have two separate areas--one selling normal pottery and the other selling Iznik ware.  The normal stuff is gorgeous.  There are plates, bowls, cups, etc painted in both classic Ottoman motifs and more modern styles.  The prices are reasonable considering everything is hand made and hand painted.

Pottery shops in Istanbul are a dime a dozen.  But that doesn't take
away the fact that most have ceramics that are beautifully-made.

What really intrigued us was their Iznik pottery.  Unlike the normal ceramics which are made of clay, real Iznik ceramics have a high proportion of quartz.  The addition of this semi-precious stone makes it harder and more time consuming to make a piece.  But the final product is more durable, and a lot heavier too.  With the loss of Iznik as a pottery production center after the 18th century, very few craftsmen make this type of pottery anymore.  Hence, a true Iznik ceramic tends to fetch a premium price.

Photographs of some of their more famous (and rich)
clientele adorn the wall--Oprah, Tim Duncan,
Tony Parker, Greg Popovich, and Russell Crowe.

There is a reason why Hillary declared that the Clintons were
"dead broke."  Bill had made two visits to Iznik Classics.

We browsed the store's galleries spread out over several floors.  The hospitable owner and salesman showed us pieces of various qualities.  There were some Iznik pieces that are made with varying percentages of quartz.

Some of the younger artists definitely show some talent.

However, we were continuously drawn to the works
of Adnan "Hoca" Güler, a true master of his craft.

After several days of contemplation, we eventually settled on this bowl.

Against my better judgement, I finally broke down and tried one of the ubiquitous döner kebaps for lunch.  The Wife took one bite of it and made a sour face.  The Kids didn't even want to try it.  It wasn't very good which makes me wonder why it is so poplar in Istanbul.  At least it didn't make me vomit.

Lamb, beef, or chicken is grilled on a vertical spit.

Slices are cut off and placed in a pita bread.

A much better food offering is the salted sweet
corn that can be bought from street vendors. 

We also bought more tavuk göğsü from
Çiğdem Pastanesi.  It was also really good.

Later that evening, we walked to Ahırkapı Balıkçısı, a small seafood restaurant several streets over from us.  Unlike most of the Sultanahmet restaurants, there was nobody outside hassling us to try their food.  Even more unique was that there were actually some Turkish people eating there, not just tourists.

We ordered some mezes and our entrees from the display case.

Spicy anchovy fillets and anchovies with olives

Green beans and red peppers

Fried calamari

Grilled blue fish and sea bass, both locally caught.

Except for the fried calamari, I thought that the food at Ahırkapı Balıkçısı was good and well-priced.  The seafood all tasted fresh.  Although most of the people at the restaurant spoke no English (only the waiter/host did), they were very friendly and hospitable.

With still plenty of Turkish Lira in hand and no need for them back in the United States, we decided to get some last minute sweets.

We stopped at yet another pastry store

called Edebiyat Kiraathanesi...

...to purchase some baklava for the journey home.

The display case full of pudding was tempting, but we had no more room for these sweets.

*****

June 7, 2015

Our flight back home left very early so our pick up with Efendi Travel was at 2:45 AM.  We had no issues on our journey back until we got to Chicago.  Unlike last year, we had given ourselves plenty of time to make our 7:30 PM connecting flight.  There would also be plenty of commuter flights back to Memphis just in case there was an issue with ours.

Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do about the weather.  A huge storm hit Chicago that afternoon causing mass cancellations.  We even saw a flight get cancelled as it was boarding because the flight crew would have exceeded the maximum hours set by the NTSB.  The airport was full of tired and angry passengers.  In retrospect, it's probably not a good idea to put a major airline hub in a city nicknamed the "Windy City."

When they cancelled the 5:30 and 9:45 PM flights to Memphis, we were discouraged that ours would be the next to get the ax.  After a three hour delay, multiple gate changes, and dozens of angry passengers left behind on the standby list, our flight finally brought us home well past midnight.

As I promised myself a year ago, I will never fly United Airlines through Chicago O'Hare Airport.

Oh crap.  I just remembered that we had already bought airplane tickets for our trip in October.  Unfortunately, the flight will be on United Airlines through Chicago O'Hare Airport.