Blogging and packing, packing and blogging

At the moment, we have been derailed by our impending move to 6446 Colby Street around July 1. We seem to have done OK traveling, so we decided we might as well move in together. We found a great new place surprisingly quickly between Elmwood and Rockridge, just north of Alcatraz on Colby.

So blogging has been superseded by sorting and packing. Come visit the Glen garage sale on Saturday, June 23! Moving and packing volunteers welcome, of course.

And a shameless plug that we are looking to store a few boxes somewhere, as our new place has limited storage, if anyone can help us out.

Now, bit more about the trip, which is starting to seem so long ago even though it only two weeks in the past!

Istanbul

We started out in Istanbul, after a decent KLM flight through Amsterdam. (Here we are with Dave's mom, Audrey, and our mericfully little luggage.) Total flight time was about 15 hours including a layover; not too bad, really.

Istanbul is overwhelming at first. A city of about 15 million, it is both old and modern simultaneously. Zeynep had warned us that coming from the airport it doesn’t look as appealing as it actually is, driving by all those big Soviet style apartment buildings. But soon the mosques come into view. And the hills. And the water everywhere.

And if it is around 5 a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m., or 10 p.m., you soon hear the call to prayer, projected from loudspeakers on the top of mosque minarets everywhere. We found the call to prayer to be different place to place, but always incredibly compelling. (We still don’t understand why it was often followed by two beeps, as if a phone recording was hanging up.)

Kybele Hotel, Istanbul: 5 stars from us

Our base, for this city and really for our trip, was the absolutely wonderful Kybele Hotel. Nil and Zeynep have stayed there and sent many friends there, but even if you are not a “friend of Nilly from San Francisco,” I know you will be treated well. The guys all speak English, have several free computer terminals with Internet access, will give you advice about just about everything, have a delicious breakfast in the garden, and have all those beautiful lamps that Dave has mentioned before.

Nearly everywhere we stayed had several associated businesses with the hotel. The Kybele has multiple: they produce these beautiful handmade, colorful ceiling glass lamps (each room had about 80 but only a quarter or so were lit with small bulbs, so you could admire the colors without being flooded by bright light); have a rug shop (Nil and Zeynep recommend buying a rug from Mike if you are going to buy one anywhere; we forewent rugs in favor of a couple of lovely little lamps); are starting a new restaurant in the basement of the hotel; and also have an associated restaurant up the street.

The rooms are lovely and comfortable, though avoid room 204, and its location can’t be beat: about a block from the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia. In our last stop on the Mediterranean, Antalya, we stayed at a backpacker hostel that wasn’t a great choice and we kept saying we couldn’t wait to return to the Kybele. They greeted us warmly and we felt like we were “home.”

A few things not to miss in Istanbul:

1. The Cisterns (practically next door to our hotel)
2. Riding a ferry, somewhere, anywhere
3. One great place to ride a ferry is my favorite restaurant of the trip, Ciya, on the Asian side
4. Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar
5. The Bosphorus (we did the city-run ferry day trip)
6. Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque, of course
7. Dave would add the Archaeology Museum at the Topakai Palace

Bust of Sappho, from Istanbul archaeology museum

Kybele Hotel, Istanbul, http://www.kybelehotel.com, ***** (I give it 5 stars out of a possible 5)

On the road to ruin: Selcuk

The Kybele is friends with a travel agent down the street, True Blue Tours, info@truebluetour.com. Yilmiz speaks perfect English and became our buddy as he was always sitting at his desk at the front of the office whenever we walked by, whether 9 a.m. or 10 p.m. We worked with him before we got to Turkey to set up flights within the country.

Flying within Turkey

Zeynep recommended we fly Turkish Airlines within the country, and I would stick with Turkish despite recommendations otherwise. One of our flights was with Onur, which ended up being not much cheaper, was an hour late (though the board continually read a 15-minute delay, even after 60 minutes), and would not allow us to carry on our luggage.

There are multiple ways to get to the airport in Istanbul, and if you don’t have a lot of luggage stick with the Metro. If the times work, many travel agencies have an airport shuttle (I think through one of the airlines) for a reasonable 4 Euros. We ended up getting a ride through the Kybele to the airport and flying to Izmir for our ruins part of the trip.

Yilmiz had arranged for us to be picked up at the airport and driven to Selcuk at a reasonable price, so we got to take in the combination of arid desert and fertile farmland from the comfort of an AC car as it was well into the 80s.

Eva’s grandmother comes from Izmir so I took a careful look at what is a big modern city in the middle of desert and incredible history.

Selcuk/Ephesus

Hotel Bella, 4 stars out of 5

We had picked Hotel Bella from Trip Advisor, and it was known as a boutique hotel. It was pretty ordinary (apparently they had had a fire recently, and I thought the room still smelled a bit of smoke) with a good location right next to a famous ruin, a great rooftop terrace where you could eat meals or just hang out and watch the storks while updating your journal or blog (see Dave’s entry previously).

What really set the Bella apart was an incredible host, Erdahl, who plays multiple roles of hotel owner, chauffeur, travel agent, restaurant head, and, is often the case, rug store owner. And the hotel rate was extremely reasonable.

Erdahl drove us everywhere, dropping us off to have lunch at a place where we discovered the wonderful Turkish pancakes, gozleme (my Anthony Bourdain moment was eating gozleme in Seven Sleepers).

Ephesus

Ephesus was supposed to be for Dave, but it turned out I really liked the ruins. Walking down a 4th century BC street just can't be beat.

Kybele

We spent one afternoon at Ephesus and then did a bus trip the next day to Didyma, Prienne, and Miletus. We liked Prienne the best because it had very few people and wasn't all reconstructed the way the others were. Check out the Tiddliwink column remnants.

Great Selcuk restaurant, Old House

The food at the hotel was pretty good, with a truly wonderful setting, but we were tipped off to a really great restaurant in town called Old House by a couple we met on our tour to Prienne, Miletus, and Didyma: Marianne and Dennis from Portland (we saw shades of ourselves in 30 years in them as she complained about all his pictures of Greek writing and he said she kept taking pictures of wildflowers; yup…).

Escaping the craziness of Fethiye and Olenduliz to the haven of Villa Rhapsody, Kayakoy

Erdahl arranged our bus ticket and dropped us at the bus station for our one long bus trip of the vacation, a very reasonable five-hour ride to Fethiye.

As we pulled in to Fethiye, we thought to ourselves, oh no. Fethiye is a huge sprawling place with tons of brand-new vacation homes built for Brits. The signs are in English and the sprawl unsightly.

The minibus

We had an amusing time finding the dolmus, or minibus, to Kayakoy (even though we could have called Villa Rhapsody for a ride). One guy said wait here for 15 minutes and then 30 seconds later revised it to 5 minutes. Then it turned out we had to go somewhere else, so he passed us off to someone else, who walked us a block to another busy road, waited until the dolmus came, and pointed. He spoke no English but was incredibly helpful, something we found everywhere.

The dolmus was already packed and getting on board with no seats and two bags was interesting. The road to Kayakoy was mountainous and perilous, and of course there were no seatbelts or even sufficient seats in sight. Just another ordinary dolmus ride!

We rode through the truly hideous British vacation spot of Hironomu (accurate spelling forthcoming), which had signs advertising bangers and mash and a bar called “The Alcohol Station.” The setting was beautiful as we climbed through a pine forest for about 20 minutes, but we were beginning to doubt our planning for this stop.

Kayakoy

Then we arrived in the tiny town—no, village—of Kayakoy. Set in a lush valley that you can’t tell is right near the sea, it includes an abandoned ghost village, Levissi, that is the subject of the latest Louis de Bernieres, Birds without Wings (he is best known as the writer of Corelli’s Mandolin).

The dolmus driver dropped us in the vicinity of Villa Rhapsody. As we walked in the beautiful gate, through the incredible garden, Attila and Jeanne were sitting on the porch still waiting for us to call for a ride from Fethiye.

Villa Rhapsody: 7 stars out of 5

Teatime

After tea and cake (at 5:00 they would seek you out wherever you were and bring you tea and homemade cake; the next day we were half-asleep next to the pool, nursing a midday beer and wondering what deliciousness could be cooking for dinner, definitely the hard life…), we got settled into our room before dinner, one of the best meals we have had anywhere in a long time, cooked by Jeanne.

I think I already wrote enough about this in my previous post, though I am tempted to wax ecstatic about Jeanne's cooking again and Attila's garden and the landscape and the chickens that woke us up in the morning...

Kas

Hideaway Hotel, Kas, 5 stars out of 5

After Attila, Jeanne, and their four-year-old daughter, Lara, dropped us at the bus station, we traveled for a couple hours to Kas.

When we got off the bus in Kas, a beautiful seaside town that Dave compared to Carmel, someone literally whisked us off to our hotel while we're still figuring out how they knew who we were and that we were staying there.

It all became clear eventually, and once again we were impressed with Turkish hospitality. The people from the Hideaway seemed to meet most of the buses that arrive to drive you the few blocks to their beautiful hotel. The Hideaway sits on the edge of town, next to a ruin on one side with the Mediterranean and a Greek island spread out on the other.

A room with a view

It was worth the extra $10 for the seaside view, complete with balcony. I want a room like my room at the Hideaway one day: white walls the color of vanilla ice cream, white bedding, curtains out of fabric that could have been used for a wedding dress, and the turquoise sea just out the window (that part may be a little bit more difficult). I wasn't feeling well in Kas and it was a perfect place to relax.

Ahmet’s sister, Aisha, was an amazing cook and did wonderful breakfasts and dinners at the Hideaway. They had a little puppy, named Buddy by some visiting Americans, who was only a couple months old but had a broken leg. Buddy dragged himself around the roof terrace and took a particular liking to Dave, whom he would nuzzle up against.

Che's Beach

One of our favorite days of the whole trip was our time at Che's Beach. A beautiful beach just outside of town, Ahmet from the hotel drove us here after breakfast.

We call it Che's beach because the guy who owned a restaurant on the beach looks a little bit like Che and then took it all the way with T-shirt and beret. We will post a photo. It was a little tiny beach, good for swimming, with beautiful mountains and views.

Che runs a little restaurant on the beach, and he will bring you tea and chat with you while you lie on the wood-slat chaise lounges soaking up sun (in Dave's case, a little too much sun).

While sitting there, a guy with a snorkel emerged from the water. A 60-plus German man who owns a house in town, he swims over to the beach from town, has tea and a nap, and then swims home.

The British invasion

I asked him, practicing my rusty German, about the huge number of often half-finished monster houses blanketing most of the pretty towns we had encountered. A strong Euro has led to Turkey's discovery by European vacationers, many British, who were buying up these houses in droves.

The network

Ahmet and Che and many of the other people we encountered that day (because they all worked at places Ahmet recommended and thus were his friends) were not their usual perky selves because they were hung over from a big engagement party the night before.

After encountering one tired guy after another we saw how much the tourism industry relies on friends and word-of-mouth. Che, for example, welcomed us and promptly lay down and took a long nap on the beach nearby.

Cirali

Myland retreat center, 1 star out of 5

Of all the trip planning, I was most looking forward to this yoga and meditation retreat. However, although Cirali (right next to the better-known town of Olympus) was amazingly beautiful, I quite disliked the place and would not recommend it.

Cirali is a beach extraordinaire, really one of most spectacular I have seen, but it is a complete tourist place, not really a real place any more, and the people at Myland were not friendly or welcoming and charged us for every little thing.

I was disappointed when the water at the beach was full of trash at high tide so my swim was cut short by that and the chilly water. The beaches here are usually not sand but large rocks. Beautiful rocks, but tough on the feet. I found the beach best for strolling with shoes.

Krozeja found

One notable thing about Cirali is that Dave found Krozeja, or something resembling it. Krozeja is a land he imagined as a kid. It lives on in the name of the blog and Dave's e-mail address.

When we arrived in Cirali, looking toward Olympus where the mountains rose from the ocean and coves were hidden behind lush hills and the turquoise sea, Dave said, "I think Krozeja may be back there."

The ever-burning flames

The one plus was the chimerae. Very near Mount Olympus, there is a spot where flames spontaneously spout from the rock part way up a mountain. This is not one measly flame but more like 20. They never go out and are lit from natural gases from within the earth. Dave can tell you more about the ways these have made it into myths.

We climbed up the 1000-meter mountain at sunset, since it's best to admire the flames of various sizes in the dark or near dark. (My headlamp, a constant travel companion thanks to a recommendation from Lisa Tracy, came in quite handy here.) These claims are really quite amazing, creating a somewhat surreal environment, even with all the tourists.

The only negative review of the trip

Back at Myland the next morning, the yoga class was rather disappointing but I did like the hammocks. And Myland, in a small amount of credit I will give it, did serve the best breakfast of the trip with homemade bread, homemade jams from quince and other fruit on the property, eggs fresh from the chickens running around the place, and all sorts of interesting fruits, many of which I had never seen before, including dried carob.

Yes, we have no buses

What earned my big thumbs-down was that there is no public transit in or out of Cirali except sometime in June through about August, I believe.

Myland had not told us this, so our bus was met by a taxi masquerading as a minibus. A 7-kilometer ride cost $15. Myland offered no help at all on us getting out, but they did recommend hitching, which we did successfully.

As soon as our ride dropped us at the main road, a minibus was trundling along toward Antalya. We flagged it down and soon were squished into our seats for a two-hour ride that would take us along the Mediterranean for the last time.

Antalya

Even before we got to Myland we had decided to cut our stay there to just one night and add a night in Antalya. We were talked into a backpacker-type hotel by all met at the Hideaway (his brother-in-law even gave us a whole bag of pamphlets to hand-delivered to the Sabah Pensione) and it turned out not to be a great choice. People were very nice but we ended up with what could've just been a very bad room.

Bright lights, big city

I am actually very glad we stopped in this big, modern city with one of the most spectacular locations I have ever seen.There are a number of reasonably priced options here, and Antalya is worth a visit as you start or end a trip to the Mediterranean.

Some years ago they moved the working port to a different side of the city and freed up a section of real estate on the Mediterranean where mountains across the water rise dramatically out of the sea. Now there are condos everywhere, but it's still quite an impressive setting, especially at sunset, when we admired it.

Antalya reminded me a bit of San Diego. Modern, young, with a great climate and new architecture. There was an impressive city park with the best view. I saw fewer women in headscarves, and more up-to-the-minute fashion, at least where we were, than in other big cities.

We stayed in a part of town, Beyoglu, known for its old wooden houses--probably only 18th century so relatively modern by Turkey standards. This section is where tourists come and it's in the midst of massive gentrification. The streets were literally torn up pretty much everywhere, with gaping holes covered by pretty much nothing, so it made for interesting wheeling with my suitcase from the tram.

Public transit

I like to take public transit while traveling, a joy that Dave does not share, especially when he gets stuck helping me with my suitcase and riding for 15 minutes standing on a bus with clearance of about 5’8” (Dave is 6 feet tall), as we did here.

We had a bit of an adventure as the main bus driver dropped us at a location that was not what our guidebook had let us to believe. A guardian angel from our bus directed us, with no English at all, to the right minibus, wrote along with us, and gestured appropriately until we got off and switched to a tram that dropped us in the quarter we were seeking.

I found it kind of fun. Dave made me promise we would take a taxi to the airport.

But this time we were pretty worn out, and we did not have enough time to make it to do Antalya Archaeology Museum, which Dave really wanted to see.

I scream, you scream… for a knife and fork

A high point of this city was ice cream. Not your usual ice cream. They bring you a knife and fork. See details on the previous post about this interesting dessert. I liked it best when covered in chocolate sauce.

Here we also experienced our second wedding, once again on a Wednesday night. (Apparently any night is a good night for a wedding in Turkey.) Live music and dancing were watched by a crowd who became an audience in the street. It went on well into the wee hours. We had the same experience and Selcuk, where there was a really great band.

Women in Turkey, in my limited experience

In my last post I promised to mention something about women in Turkey, in my limited experience on the subject.

One thing that was interesting to me is that we encountered pretty much no women working in any hotel or restaurant. At the Hideaway, Ahmet's sister, Aisha, did the cooking, and our tour guide to Didyma etc., was a woman, coincidentally also named Aisha.

But, in our experience, women were not servers and restaurants or working in hotels, other than cooking or cleaning up. I did see women in shops sometimes, though not in the bazaar.

I found it particularly interesting that the ground crew at the Istanbul airport both times we arrived was all women!

It was interesting to have men in charge of hospitality here! They were very good at it and tended to all manner of visitor needs in thoughtful yet enterprising ways.

I saw only one woman wearing a full burqa, and interestingly she was walking along holding a man's hand, something we were told by our guidebook to be not generally accepted (turned out not really to be the case, and our experience).

A lot of women, of various ages, wore colorful headscarves, either back on their hair, less modest, or pulled down at their forehead, more modest. Many of these women also wore full-length raincoats, an alternative to the burqa I guess.

That's all, folks

At least for now. It's been really fun to write this, though my paper journal was filled during the trip and much of it has not been translated here. Several people have asked for a slideshow, and I hope to put one together for Kaiser that we can repeat elsewhere. Let us know if you have any questions at all. And stop on by 6446 Colby St. any time after July 8.

--Suzanne