Category Archives: Holidays

Day 467 In Beijing: Prayer At A Mosque.

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I love the little girl eating food. She probably has not reached puberty so she doesn't have to cover.

I love the little girl eating food. She probably has not reached puberty so she doesn’t have to cover.

Jill and I walked out of the Harem and started to walk up the hill to the Grand Bazaar.

We happened to walk out during prayer time even though we had no idea.

It wasn’t until we walked by this mosque that we realized that we were in the middle of prayer time.

We decided to wait, and just watch, as the prayer continued.

Up until this time, every time we’ve seen a prayer service, the people have been inside and the mosque had enough room.

This time, and maybe because it was Ramadan, it was overflowing with followers.

We thought it would only be in the courtyard but then we walked on and noticed that it was in the yard beside the mosque and it was fantastic.

There is something impressive, and moving, to seeing a large crowd of people, all moving in unison, as they stand up, sit down, bow forward, and then get up again and disperse as the prayers ended.

You can see the Blue Mosque in the background of one of the pictures and I love how it brings everything together and makes the picture seem finished.

About 2 minutes after the prayer ended the park was empty and everyone had gone back to what they were doing.

Thinking of it now, I probably should have gotten a photograph of it to show how different the park looked during and after.

Maybe next time we are in Istanbul I will do just that.

 

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Day 466 In Beijing: Topkapi Palace Harem, Part 2.

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Jill and me at the Harem.

Jill and me at the Harem.

Jill and I continued to meander through the Harem and continued to be overwhelmed by the beauty and style.

It is so disconcerting, in a positive way, to walk from a city that is fully engaged in the 21st century, with trains, cars, phones, and other “necessities” of life and then go to a place that is so quiet, tranquil and calm.

Well, other than the 20,000 or so other tourists in the palace as we walked around it.

Maybe that is an exaggeration but there are a lot of people and they do an excellent job of keeping the lines moving and making sure that tourists can see the exhibitions and not feel rushed at the same time.

It is so different from the tourist areas in China, which are overwhelmed with people, because so many people go on vacation at the same time.

Just to give an example: During the Spring Break vacation, here in China, 150,000,000 people travel within one week.

One Hundred And Fifty Million people.

That is half the total population of the USA who would be traveling, in one week, to a destination.

And back to work during that same week.

And many of those destinations are inside China so the transit system is totally overwhelmed.

It also is a sign of the times and how families are split apart since so many of the parents are working in massive cities, like Beijing, and only go home to see their children during these times.

There is an excellent movie, Last Train Home, that I would recommend to anyone that would like to get a feeling for what 150,000,000 people trying to get home, and then back to work, in one week feels like.

We had to deal with it when we visited the Great Wall, one time, and we will never do it again.

 

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Day 465 In Beijing: Topkapi Palace Harem, Part 1.

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One of the many spectacular domes in the Harem.

One of the many spectacular domes in the Harem.

I had a lot of nicknames in high school:

Aram Scare ’em.

A-ram.

Sogs (my last name is Sohigian so it sounds about the same)

and, in no way connected to my horrible dating prowess, Aram’s Harem.

I actually visited a real harem and, trust me, it was nothing like my room.

The Topkapi Palace Harem is amazing.

It takes about 1 hour to walk through it and we could have spent a whole day in it.

The harem is inside the Topkapi Palace but needs its own blog entries because it is so magical and different.

The harem has over 400 rooms in it and seems like a maze that we could have followed for days.

The harem, back in the day, had around between 600-1000 eunuchs there (yes, they had been castrated and therefore couldn’t do anything) and many concubines.

All of the eunuchs and concubines were slaves and had no choice in their being included in this type of service.

The Queen Mother and the Sultan basically had total control and were able to do whatever they wanted.

I’m not so sure I would have liked to live in those times, since there seemed to be very little freedom, especially if you were a slave, but the buildings they made, and the amazing architecture, is truly impressive.

 

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Day 464 In Beijing: Great Palace Mosaic Museum.

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I love me a griffin eating some freshly caught prey!

I love me a griffin eating some freshly caught prey!

Neither Jill nor I had ever heard of the Mosaic Museum before this trip.

We actually didn’t hear of it until we were on this trip.

We bought a 3 day pass that allowed us to see a bunch of different sites and the Mosaic Museum was one of the attractions.

We decided to check it out, since it was free, but we didn’t expect much.

We were blown away.

The Mosaic Museum is about 1000 meters behind the Blue Mosque and a hidden treasure.

It is hardly noticeable from the outside, and if we hadn’t been asking directions, there is no way we would have found it.

There was a guard/ticket agent and he seemed somewhat surprised, and happy, to see us.

For about half of our visit, we were the only people in this amazing structure.

The mosaics seem to be from Emperor Justinian’s reign, which was about 527-565 AD.  They were found by two Turkish archaeologists in the 1930s and 1950s.

It originally covered an area of about 3500-4000 square meters and now is about 1900 square meters.

It supposedly has over 400,000 stones that were used to make the mosaics.

In other words, it is one massive mosaic.

Some are in excellent condition but most have seen the wear and tear of time.

Jill and I were, once again, very moved by this bit of history and art that has been found and restored.

 

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Day 463 In Beijing: Topkapi Palace, Part 2.

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A gorgeously designed room and ceiling.

A gorgeously designed room and ceiling.

Jill and I both realized that Turkish, unlike Mandarin, is actually quite easily to learn.

Their written language sounds exactly like it is spelled, unlike Mandarin, and we were able to have minimal conversations with people within a few days.

Nothing more than “hi”, “thank you” and a few other comments but it was definitely easy not to have to try to figure out the tones and indecipherable written language.

I lived in Japan, back in 1996-1997, and I was able to get along after 2 years of college Japanese and some time there.

The written language there, which is quite similar to the Chinese written language (I’m not going to start an war about who used it first) was much easier, in my mind, because the kanji was the first part of the word and then there were two other written alphabets that let you know the rest of the word.

Being that there were three written alphabets, it would seem much more complicated but it wasn’t.

This is because you only had to learn about 2,000 kanji, and the two other alphabets that were “add ons” and you could know everything.

In Chinese, it seems like there are around 14,000 written characters and that is just way too much.

Especially when they become something totally different as they are lined up and added onto each other.

I just don’t have the time, or energy, to figure it out.

Call me lazy.  I don’t mind.

The reason I bring this up is the “i” in Topkapi is actually pronounced like “uh” so it sounds more like “Tope-kap-uh” if it was pronounced correctly.

However, I actually never heard it pronounced that way so I’m guessing, since there are so many tourists that pronounce it, “Topkapi” that the Turks have started to do the same.

I could very easily be wrong, and probably am, and it would be interesting to find out.

As for the palace, it was built in 1460 and finished in 1478.  It takes up 700,000 square meters.  It was turned into a museum in 1924 and is one of the largest museums in Turkey.

It is truly impressive and Jill and I would like to spend more time there the next time we go and just sit and relax.

 

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Day 462 In Beijing: Topkapi Palace, Part 1.

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My love and me.

My love and me.

Topkapi Palace is huge.

It is stunningly beautiful and it is also hot as heck during the summer months.

This may or may not be obvious, from the shorts and tank tops we are wearing, but just to make sure of it, it was boiling.

That is why so many of the Turks go on vacation and the city is more empty than usual.

It still has around 14,000,000 people in it, which is a lot, but it seemed quite easy to navigate and take mass transit without being crowded and knocked over all the time.

When we hit Athens, it was similar but when we hit the Islands, they were packed because of everyone being on vacation and getting out of the cities.

It was an interesting experience since being “packed” in Greece meant about 1/1,000,000th of what we’ve become used to as being “packed” here in Beijing and China.

We could move easily, not have to deal with much traffic, and people seemed much more content to take their time and be courteous to each other.  It is the island lifestyle, I guess.

As for the Palace, there are a number of different buildings and exhibitions.

The Crown Jewels, for example, you are allowed to visit but you are not allowed to take pictures.

We probably saw more gold, and jewels, there compared to anywhere else we’ve been.

Maybe, in my case, the Vatican would have an equal amount but I don’t quite remember.

Either way, it was stunning and breathtaking.

We also had a light snack overlooking the Bosphorus and enjoyed that immensely.

 

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Day 461 In Beijing: KKKKKKKKKAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!

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Me doing the famous "KHHHHHAAAANNNN!" yell popularized by William Shatner.

Me doing the famous “KHHHHHAAAANNNN!” yell popularized by William Shatner.

Any lovers of Star Trek will know immediately why I love the title of the blog post.

If you don’t know it, here is the classic over-acted scene by William Shatner, as James Tiberius Kirk, in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

Unlike the Khan in the movie, this Kaan is an very kind, generous and wonderful person.

He also didn’t have a J.J. Abrams movie made about him that utterly stunk and has basically shown that there should never be an English accented Khan.  And that Abrams is a hack who is going to destroy the whole Star Trek mythos.

Shameful.

Our Kaan met Jill in 2006 at a wedding in Istanbul.

Kaan also lived in San Francisco but they didn’t really become friends until 2010 when she came over to live in Turkey for 3 months after quitting her job and deciding to strike out on her own.

Kaan is a really funny, and enthusiast guy, who also happens to be a cheese and wine connoisseur.

Jill had told me about this but we both didn’t realize nearly how specialized his knowledge, and his skills, were until we hung out with him during the evening.

First off, we bought some cheese as a gift and then felt incredibly embarrassed by our choice since the cheeses he brought were amazing!

We bought the classic white cheese that they have in Turkey.  We love it beyond belief and it is very hard to get it here in Beijing so we thought it would be good enough.

Kaan, being the cheese guru, had bought cheeses from Italy and they were incredibly tasty.

Kaan also makes his own wine so he pulled out a few bottles, including my favorite, “the mutt” which is a blend of a bunch of different grapes, all from the Thrace region in Turkey.

It was quite yummy and went great with the cheeses.

Kaan was a fantastic host and it was a joy to meet him.   He would be traveling, most of the rest of our trip, so we sadly didn’t get a chance to see him again, but we will when we start living in Turkey in a few years.

And, seriously, how cool is it I was able to do the “KHHHHHHAAAAANNNNNNN” yell with someone actually named Kaan.

You can see he is rather bemused, and very kind to humor me, in my silliness.

 

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Day 460 In Beijing: Yenikoy.

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The Embarcadero at Yenikoy.

The Embarcadero at Yenikoy.

Jill’s friend, Kaan, lives in Yenikoy.

It is just north of the 2nd bridge and a world away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Istanbul.

We walked around, checked out the views and the dogs, and just took our time since Kaan wouldn’t be home for an hour or two.

It was so peaceful and so relaxing that we didn’t want to leave.

We stopped by the little market and bought a few beers and just sat down and had a break.

There were a few older men sitting by us and they were doing the same thing.

Since Turkey is a Muslim country, drinking is somewhat looked down upon.

However, we saw loads of people drinking and doing whatever they wanted so we weren’t really worried.

That being said, we made sure to keep our beer in a bag and put it under the bench we were sitting on, so as not to attract any attention.

Yenikoy really reminded me of Marin and Sonoma County and both Jill and I felt a little bit homesick.

We were able to get over it, pretty quickly, since we were having so much fun and enjoying seeing this beautiful bit of Istanbul.

 

Day 459 In Istanbul: Dog Days Of Summer.

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Happy doggie.

Happy doggie.

There are a lot of stray dogs in Istanbul.

This was quite a change from Beijing as there are almost no stray dogs in that city.

The laws are very strict about dogs and it is actually illegal to have a dog, over a certain size, in the Beijing city limits.

Of course, if you have enough money, or the right connections, you can easily get around this law and I’ve seen dogs that are well above the height limit walking around downtown Beijing.

The stray dogs in Istanbul are different from stray dogs I’ve seen elsewhere.

They are mostly clean, well fed, and quite friendly.

The only group of unfriendly dogs we met occurred when Jill and I hung out with my second cousin, Nate, and he informed us there was a pack of wild dogs that terrorized the neighborhood every night around 11 pm.

The second time we visited him, we took a cab, and were unfortunate to be dropped off near the pack’s home and they did not like us being anywhere near them.

There were about 10-15 dogs and they look very vicious, mean, and ready to eat us if we happened to walk the wrong way.

We made a hasty retreat and headed for safety.

However, the dog in these pictures is a perfect example of 99% of the dogs we met in Istanbul.

If you notice, he has a blue tag on his ear.

This means he has been spayed and has had his shots.

Supposedly the government goes around, each year, and rounds up all the strays and gives them their shots.  They neuter the males, since it is inexpensive, but don’t spay the females, since it is expensive, and this seems to work fairly well.

They Istanbul government was trying to round all the dogs up and move them to “natural habitat” parks a few years ago, but the city’s populace had marches and rallies against it and they backed down.

These dogs, and cats also, are part of the “family” in each district and they seem to be very well accepted and loved.

It is quite cute and nice to have a doggie at your feet when you walk into a cafe and sit down.

It feels like home.

 

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Day 458 In Beijing: Ferry Ride to Besiktas.

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Vacation time!

Vacation time!

Jill and I headed off to the ferry terminal and hopped on one that was just about to take off.

We had to take two different ferries, since we couldn’t figure out how to get a direct one, and we were fine with that.

Jill and I love ferries, trains, buses and any way to travel that doesn’t include us having to drive or do the work of paying attention to where we are going.

The two ferries cost something 3 or 4 Turkish Lira, which comes out to about 1.50 USD.

We sat outside, on the top level, and just took pictures and enjoyed our trip.

Thinking back, as I write these blog posts about 1 month after the trip ended, I’m still stunned as to how much we did in on our first full day in Istanbul and how easy it is to get around, get things done, and not run into problems.

It was such a welcome relief from Beijing, where things are so hectic, changing constantly, and confusing.

I know this sounds repetitive but we will definitely be living in Turkey, and now Greece, in a few years.

There is something so special, about both these countries, and we instantly felt at home.

The joy of being able to ferry all around Istanbul, and other parts of Turkey and Greece, is such a blast and so freeing.

We just sat back, let the wind flow through our hair, and met people that were smiling, happy and probably on vacation too.

 

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