We Won the Superbowl!

Well, not really. But that doesn't change the fact that in a little over one month the Tengi family will be packing up and headin' on down to Disney World!

The Tengi's have a long and enjoyable history with the Happiest Place on Earth and wind up going back to visit it every few years to see what's new and revel in everything that has remained the same. Being nearly four years since the last family visit, this may be the longest hiatus yet!

Seeing as I am the Tengi child who has left the nest, I am not privy to all of the planning going into this trip and therefore do not know all of the details. But that doesn't change the fact that I am super excited for the upcoming adventure!

Let's go be kids again!

Blog Posting Delay

Well, our vacation is nearly at it's end. Randee and I have a few more
blog posts that we'd like to make, but at the moment our only reliable
computing device is my iPhone. *Somebody* left his MacBook charger in
southern Turkey - but I'm not naming names.

So, as nobody really enjoys typing on the iPhone, it looks like future
posts will have to await our return to NJ on Sunday (unless some
Londoner lends us a charger when we overnight there on Saturday :-) ).

2009/08/08 12:20 AM (Istanbul time)

/Chris

Dirty Dancing

On Sunday we hired a boat to show us the local sights. The day before we had made arrangements with Abdulah down at the dock for a day long boat trip for 20 lira apiece (about $14). At 10am we were at the dock, and shown to our yacht – a flat, bargelike boat (picture Disney’s Jungle Cruise boat, only bigger, with a real engine). Because of the size of our group we had the boat all to ourselves. Our tour guide was not Abdulah, but elderly Hassan, who was missing a few teeth and spoke virtually no English. This was going to be an adventure!

We motored slowly through the very twisty river, which is lined with reeds and sits in between steep mountains. The language barrier meant that we were never quite sure what our itinerary was. Hassan seemed to say “yes, yes” to everything we said.

First stop was the local mud bath and thermal spa. At first we thought we were going to the “little” one, but somehow we later thought it was the “big” one (see what I mean about his “yes, yes” reply?)… Whether it was big or small didn’t matter – we hadn’t laughed so hard – well, since the night before when the guy showed up for his friend’s party. The mud bath itself is about a 20’ square of grey liquid, about 18” deep, with a foot or two of mud below. Everyone goes in wearing their bathing suit and comes out looking like a grey statue. We slipped and slid our way through, coating ourselves and each other, screaming with laughter from beginning to end. Once you got over how disgusting it felt it was absolutely hysterical. After painting ourselves, we then had to dry in the sun before washing the mud off under outdoor showers – there was mud in places it just should never be. Next up were the thermal baths. We had our choice of inside or outside. The outside one was pretty yucky – extremely hot and smelly, and full of flotsom on the surface. The inside one was better – hot but bearable (in fact, once you got in it was very soothing), cleaner, but smelling equally bad of sulfur.

Suffering from the Benjamin Button Effect, looking 10 years younger after the mud bath (Lizzie quickly figured out she was now only 2), but still needing a bath, our next stop was a swimming break in Lake Köyceğiz. The water was warm but refreshing, very deep and calm, and the boys had a great time diving off the front of the boat. The swim was followed by lunch at a riverside cafeteria (included in the 20 lira price) – a large, open, covered tent filled with other tourists from other boats. There were a few of these restaurants along the river – clearly different boats have arrangements with different riverside eateries. Lunch was adequate – nothing to write home about, but just fine – various mezes (appetizers) and a choice of chicken, fish or meatballs (köfte).

The ruins of Kaunos were our next stop. The boat stopped at a tiny dock and somehow our tour guide managed to get across to us that we should walk up the road to the ruins, then down the opposite side and he would pick us up on the other side of the ruins in an hour. In retrospect, this was pretty risky business – we could easily have misunderstood and would have been stranded in the hot sun. The ruins were a long, hot, dusty walk up a hill. We drank all the water we brought on the way up, and unfortunately by the time we hiked to the ruins, there was little interest in seeing them. We poked around the main part of the site and sat in the theater for a while, but didn’t really explore most of the ruins. The macho males all attempted to climb up to the top of the hill where the fortress structure was, but the path didn’t go all the way up and they returned in defeat. It took a while to find the path that led down toward the river – another long and dusty road. When we finally got to the river the only boat we found wasn’t ours. That’s when we first realized we may have misunderstood Hassan’s instructions. But, no real adventure here – he was waiting for us around the next bend. We all took a quick dunk in the river to get off the dust and got back on the boat for the journey to our final stop – the Iztuzu (turtle) beach.

The beach itself is nothing to write home about – wet, fine sand that was more dirt-like than the sand we’re used to at home. The water was very warm – even warmer than the river – and shallow. We walked out very far, but never got far enough to be in over our heads. No waves, either – just peaceful, calm, clear waters. After about an hour on the beach we were sufficiently breaded and baked, and totally wiped out from the excursion. The trip back to Dalyan took about 20 minutes, and we staggered off the boat to our cars. It was about 6pm, and we had been out since 10 – a very fun and full day.

Grand Central Station

We’re now (as of July 31) at our rental house in Dalyan. It’s a villa just outside of the village amongst other rental villas, small hotels and apartments, and local residents. Some maps show Dalyan on the Aegean and others show it on the Mediterranean – it’s right about where the two meet, at the southeast corner of Turkey. Dalyan is on the Dalyan River, which winds its way a few kilometers from the sea to Koyceğiz Lake. The town itself is small and now tourism is its main business so there are many restaurants, villa sales and rental offices, tour operators and boats for hire. While this may not sound very appealing, the village is actually very pretty, clean and charming, with a street right along the river lined with restaurants and boats for hire.

Everywhere in Turkey the people have been extremely friendly, and Dalyan is no exception. In fact, on Saturday, our first full day at the villa, we had no fewer than 7 visitors! Each time we’d settle in for a quiet nap after the stressful work of shopping, cooking, eating and swimming, someone else would stroll up the walk.

Early in the morning, before most of us were up, the pool guy came to start up the filter. He was relatively unobtrusive, and most of us didn’t even know he’d come by. After that the cleaning women came to collect the towels they had left on the line the afternoon before, and to pick up the trash.

Later in the morning a guy from the rental company came by, presumably to give us information about Turkey, the villa, and the region. This was his opening to a sales pitch for the tours that the company offers. We listened politely and sent him on his way.

Next was Charlie’s friend Salim. Charles Bentley own the villa – he’s from England, as are many of the tourists and villa owners in the resort areas of Turkey. Salim told us he was like Charlie’s Turkish brother, and that he owned a restaurant in town should we want to go out for dinner. He first started chatting up Nick, who did a good job of chatting him up right back – he told him, “Sure, if we go out we’ll come by.”

The day before we arrived in Dalyan one of the renters of our villa was involved in a scooter accident. It was pretty serious, and she spent 2 days in the hospital. We had heard various versions of the accident story from the rental office and Charlie. Late in the afternoon a woman strolled up the path – none other than the “Accident Victim” herself. Apparently they left in a hurry, with her husband packing up the house for her and their family while she was in the hospital, and he had left a few things behind. “AV” was out of the hospital now and doing well, but she did have a big bandage on her neck. Her injury was pretty serious – she hit the accelerator instead of the brake and rammed into the back of a truck. Good ‘ole Charlie had helped them find a place to stay for a few days since they couldn’t leave when scheduled. Hearing about her accident cured us of any plans we might have had about renting scooters to get around.

Some time before dinner, the pool guy snuck in again, this time to turn off the filter.

We were laughing over dinner about all the social activity of our quiet day when the most unusual visitor of the day turned up. Dining ‘al fresco’, with some music playing and lots of chatter (we are a group of 15, so we tend to make a lot of noise), we were surprised when a thin, older man strolled up the walk. He spoke virtually no English, but managed to say that he was looking for “the party of his friend.” We explained that this wasn’t a party, but he seemed to want to hang around for a while. When we asked for his friend’s name, he said he didn’t know – at least that was his answer to the question, which we can only assume he didn’t understand. He finally left and we laughed for a very long time about his search for the party for his nameless friend.

By the beautiful sea.

On Monday we left Istanbul, headed for four nights in the seaside village of Kaş (pronounced "cash") due south of Istanbul on the "Med". Aside from the driver almost taking us to the wrong airport (Istanbul has two), we arrived in Dalaman after a short flight on Turkish Airlines. We picked up our cars and drove about 2 hours east to Kaş. The drive was mostly along the coast, with huge mountains coming straight up, seemingly right out of the water, to our left. After a particularly twisty, turn-y maze of passages, all alike (let's see how many of you get THAT reference), we made our way onto the Çukurbağ peninsula just outside of the village. The peninsula juts out into the Mediterranean for several kilometers, and has many private villas and small hotels built into the hillside.

Hotel Hadrian is a small, absolutely beautiful hotel. It's built into the hillside with stairs and terraces all down the hill to the sea. The sections of the hotel are built around a terrace with a pool, bar, sitting areas, and an outdoor dining room, with gorgeous flowers growing up the sides of the buildings. We have 3 rooms - one for each set of parents, and one "family room" for all 4 boys. We got the luggage sorted out and I haven't been back to the kids' room since. I am a little afraid of what I will find, so rather than ruin the trip by making a fuss over their mess, I'm staying away until the very end.

It is hot. No two ways about it. Well into the 90s. Little humidity, so you can bear to be outside, but the sun is very strong and it is definitely hot. Janet found a terrace with 4 lounges and big umbrellas, about half way down the hill, and we've planted ourselves there for the past 2 days. The boys have settled into a terrace right above us which has built in couches and a table, and have been playing games, reading, and swimming. Each time we need a dip, we have a difficult decision to make - down to the sea or up to the pool. Life is good...

The sea is definitely cooler (but far from cold) and is just rough enough to make you work if you don't want to drift away. There's no beach - the coast here is very rocky - but there is a big, sturdy ladder going down into the water, and also a spot, maybe 7 or 8 feet up, where you can jump off. The pool is my favorite - it's filled with salt water (a surprise the first time around) and is warm but still feels refreshing when you have been in the hot sun. The best thing about the pool is that you cannot sink - I imagine it's a bit like the Dead Sea. I could float in there for hours - it's effortless - you just tilt your head back and your entire body rises as if some invisible force is pushing it up. No need to tread water - you can literally "sit" in the pool with no effort whatsoever. That's me. Chris can still manage to sink like a stone. I guess this is one time when having some extra body fat is beneficial.

The food is surprisingly good. Breakfast and lunch are included, and they offer very reasonably priced lunches off the menu. Breakfast is the typical buffet - muesli cereal, cocoa puffs (probably not so typical), yogurt, raisins, breads, jams, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, fruit, delicious apricot and peach nectar. The dinners have been excellent - buffet style, with many, many choices - loads of delicious meze (appetizers) of lentils, beans, salads, smoked eggplant pate (babaganoush, I suppose), tomato salad, etc., main selections of veggies (finally - a more Mediterranean diet), potatoes or rice, some kind of protein. Last night they had whole breaded and lightly fried fish. I have no idea what kind of fish is was - something mild and light - it was outstanding.

Tuesday afternoon Martin and I left the nest and drove into the village of Kaş to check out the local color. Not much going on - some boats in the Marina, typical shops in the middle of town selling suntan lotion, flip flops (which I needed to buy - forgot to pack mine), goggles (also had to buy for the boys), bottled water, snacks, etc. We walked all through the town - it was very hot - past an interesting mosque with a store selling Bosch stuff (not sure exactly what) on the bottom floor, and watermelons outside. In addition to the flip flops and goggles, we bought some fresh almonds (not roasted) which are delicious. There are Lycian tombs built into the hills right above the village - practically in people's backyards. Otherwise, there are restaurants and the ruins of a theater, and not much else. You can book many different boat excursions - to the Greek island of Meis which is just off the coast, to the "sunken city" of Simena (sunk by an earthquake in the 2nd century), scuba diving, and the like, but we've decided that this is the resort part of our vacation and we'll stay put by the pool. There will also be many boating excursions available in Dalyan once we hook up with the Bunnages.

Saving the best for last

Our final day (for now) in Istanbul was spent seeing Istanbul's most famous sights - the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia, both utterly beautiful and amazing buildings, literally across the street from one another. We entered the grounds of the Blue Mosque as directed by the guidebooks - from the Hippodrome side so you enter the courtyard facing the front of the building. The courtyard is the same size as the mosque's interior, and the sheer size is very impressive. Non-worshipers can only enter the mosque itself through a side door. You must take off your shoes and put them in a plastic bag (provided). Men can enter in shorts if they cover the knees, so our crew, in their long shorts, were OK. Janet was in a skirt, which didn't quite make it to her knees, and had to cover up with a blue schmata that closed with velcro (also provided). We had brought our head scarves, so we didn't have to borrow one of those. Getting in was a production with all the removing of shoes and socks, and covering up, but we all managed to make it through.

The mosque itself is very beautiful - the tilework covering the walls is indeed mostly blue (hence the name), but there are also many other colors, mainly shades of red and rose. The space is immense, and huge columns hold up the ceiling. They only let you walk through the rear 1/4 of the mosque - the main part of the inside is empty and you can't go up into it. We took a lot of photos, but it is hard to capture the beauty and scale.

As promised, the Aya Sophia is one of the most "significant" buildings in the world. It was originally built as a Byzantine church in the mid 6th century, and was converted to a mosque after the rise of Islam 900 years later. The domes and arches of the interior were originally covered in mosaics (a Byzantine art). Later these were covered up with ceramic tiles by the Ottomans. Even later, after many of the tiles and mosaics had been damaged or had fallen, a restoration attempt used paint to fill in the missing parts. We had an excellent guide who knew a great deal of the history of the building, the artwork, and the times, and he really made the visit interesting and educational. Books have been written about this building and it's clear why. The stone slabs covering the walls were cut and installed such that they are mirror images of one another, in beautiful color combinations of subtle purple, green, grey, white, cream. The detail in the restored mosaics is stunning. The immense interior is an architectural marvel, with no visible columns to support the domes.

In comparison, the Blue Mosque is exquisite from the outside, and the Aya Sophia, while not much to look at from the street, is exquisite inside.

We finished out our afternoon in the Sultanahmet district with a visit to the Basilica Cistern. This underground water tank was built by the same Roman Emperor who built the Aya Sophia, Justinian, also in the 6th century. Hundreds of columns support the ceiling's arches. Many were salvaged from ruins from other parts of the empire - guess they were cost conscious back then - no sense spending a lot of money for columns to be installed underground where nobody would see them. It was both fascinating and a little creepy. Tons of fish (carp, I presume) swim through the foot or so of water. It's huge, and was built to provide water to Topkapi palace during times of drought or siege. The water came from a forest just outside the city. The cistern was actually forgotten about until 1545 when an archaeologist back then (I find it funny to think of someone in the 1500's as an archaeologist) was told about basements in the neighborhood where people could lower a bucket and get water.

After visiting the cistern, we were for some reason in the mood for fish, so we took the local train, which has a station right down the street from our hotel, one stop to the Kumkapi section of the city, the fishing district on the Sea of Marmara. The train itself was definitely for the locals, not the tourists - old, no A/C, and doors that don't all close. Kumkapi is sort of funky - I think outside of the restaurant district, the area is pretty seedy. There's a town square from which 5 or 6 streets radiate. The square and part way up the street are lined with fish restaurants. They all serve the same things - I mean exactly the same things - the menus are exactly the same, with the prices written in sharpie. Most were willing to deal - discount the prices, give you something "on the house", etc. Tourism must be way down - at the height of the season the 20 or 25 restaurants were really pushing hard to lure in the few customers. We settled on what turned out to be an excellent choice - meze (appetizers) and fish for us, with complimentary dessert - a plate of fruits, and what I thought was the most delicious part of the meal - banana slices drizzled in honey, dusted with chopped pistachios, and topped with the Turkish form of whipped cream. Yum. The kids opted to roam on their own and had kebaps for dinner - also a good and frugal choice. The only disappointment was the wine - Janet ordered a glass of white wine which she described as "paint stripper". I had a sip and had to agree. In fact, she emailed our friends who are coming from England to meet up with us on Friday and told them to bring wine as the local stuff is undrinkable!

The Mighty Bosphorus

Everyone - Turks and tourists alike - said a Bosphorus cruise is a must, so we set out on Saturday morning for a 6 hour cruise - 1.5 hours up the Bosphorus to Anadolu Kavaği, with a few stops along to the way to load/unload passengers (but no chance to get off to sight-see), a 3 hour layover in Anadolu Kavaği, then 1.5 hours back. We chose the right day - it was very hot but there was a great breeze on the river. The Bosphorus river connects the Black Sea up north with the Sea of Marmara, which Istanbul is on, due south. The mighty Bosphorus is a busy shipping lane, maybe 20 miles from end to end, and unfortunately the many tankers and other cargo ships detract a bit from the view.

The cruise itself was peaceful, and a great opportunity to people-watch. The Muslim women were particularly interesting - we saw one woman covered head to toe in black, even black gloves on her hands. I just don't know how she could breathe and not pass out from the heat. Other, mainly young, women covered their heads and arms (down to the wrists), and legs to the floor, but were very stylishly dressed - high heels, colorful outfits, matching purses. Much better outfits than I can put together for a day of sightseeing.

Anadolu Kavaği is mainly a tourist stop catering to the Bosphorus cruises, with numerous restaurants along the waterfront selling fish and ice cream. From the waterfront you can hike straight up, about 1/2 a mile, to the "castle" on top of the hill. From there you can see the rest of the way to the Black Sea, and back down to Istanbul. It was quite a hike, and very, very hot, but worth the climb. The castle itself is in a shambles, but you can sit on the wall and look out and catch the breeze. After walking around the ruins a bit, we headed back down the hill for our cruise back to Istanbul.

The food in Istanbul is good, but not great. Surprisingly few veggies - lots of meat and bread. We went to the Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi restaurant, famous for its köfte (Turkish meatballs). You need to check out their very cool website. After dinner we encountered our first (and only, to date) scam. There is this interesting Turkish ice cream that looks like taffy - they stretch it out of deep vats with a paddle. Vendors sell it up and down the street. As we were walking past one kebap shop with an ice cream vendor out front, the kid (maybe 14?) started doing a "show" involving Eric - it was long, well orchestrated, and designed to suck you in - he'd act like he was going to put an ice cream in your hand, then at the last second would leave you with an empty cone, stuff like that. Before we knew it we had 5 cones. When we asked the price, his accomplice said "50 lira" (about $35). We gawked at that and said we'd pay him 10 lira (ice cream earlier in the day was 1.5 lira so this seemed fair). It was just terrible - he lowered his price, but stopped at 25 lira, and we kept offering 10, then 12. It was clearly in his best interests to take what we offered and have us move on because during this argument we told the other people coming by not to get sucked into the "show". It ended with us leaving 15 lira and walking away, but it was very awkward and unpleasant. We had heard of other scams involving shoe shines and restaurants that give you food you didn't order, acting like it's free, then charging you for it, but this was a new one for us. The ice cream wasn't even that good...