Istanbul - I recommend it!

I just got back from a beautiful week in Istanbul (followed by a relaxing solo trip to Vienna). I was in Istanbul for work and then my sister joined me for four days of exploring. Beautiful sights in Istanbul include all of the Sultanahmet area, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, The Basilica cisterns, The Grand Bazaar, and so many more. It is a colorful, wonderful and interesting place!

Some highlights of our trip (aside from my unhealthy love of Starbucks and the fact that it became the evening meeting place on nights that we went into Taksim for dancing) include: first and foremost the wonderful and hilarious hamam experience (to be described in detail below), the incredibly polite and soft-spoken heckling on the street (quiet little "Excuse Me"'s and "I have what you want" and "oh heavenly angels" and "is it my turn?" as one walks by...but ever so quiet and soft and almost meek... It does not at all leave one with the feeling of being assaulted, instead it is actually mildly amusing and oddly apologetic), the waiter who was referred to as Al Pacino but looked nothing like him, the silent handy man at the hotel who was called Jay Leno and DID look exactly like him, the frequent use of the phrase "Life is short" to answer any concern about what to do or the consequences of any action (it was the reason given to do anything by some of the Turkish folks we met there), grilled corn on the street, smoking strawberry tobacco out of the waterpipe, dancing on rooftop disco's with work friends to Shakira, the amazing stuffed peppers (green peppers sweet and stuffed with rice and barley and spices!) and the fantastic ultra-thin crepe-like pancakes stuffed with cheese, spinach and potato. I loved Istanbul.

But no visit to Istanbul is complete with a visit to a hamam. The 300 year old hamam (featured in the book "1000 Places to See Before You Die" was the place that my sister and I went (after MUCH cajoling on my part to make it happen...she wasn't that interested in it at the mere description of it :) . The experience is so funny and surreal and amazing! A hamam is a group bathing facility, also known as a Turkish Bath. They were originally built at times and places when water was unreliable in homes but Islam promoted cleanliness...and so people went to public hamams to get clean. They are old and beautiful and go WAY beyond your ordinary steam room and sauna.

We entered the hamam and looked at the range of services to pay for: self-service bath (you wash yourself), scrubbing (done by an employee), massage, shampoo, and so on. I knew that I wanted the full experience of the scrubbing and massage, my sister was not so convinced. We paid (seriously around $20 for an hour of the best services!) and then were brought to the women-only part of the building. We were given a changing room for us to share, that had beds and a mirror in it and was very relaxing, and there we put on a towel and locked our room. We then stumbled in funny wooden shoes (meant for use in the hamam, I suppose for hygiene reasons) into the big beautiful steam room. The room was large and round and had an amazing dome ceiling with holes in it. All around the room were little washing stations with sinks and water flowing and silver pans to fill with water and dump over yourself, and in the center of the room was a slightly raised round marble slab that was large enough for a dozen women or more to lay around the circumference. After some time sitting naked by a washing station wondering what the hell was next, my sister and I were each led by a very large Turkish women (wearing a bathing suit) onto the marble slabs...this would be one of the last times I saw my sister before the whole experience was over, since soon thereafter I was completely covered in suds and soap, being pushed and pulled and scrubbed down. It was so funny but also so incredible the kind of cleaning and exfoliating that was done by this woman with her version of a loofah. I mean no fancy spa salt scrub has ever given me the sort of body polish glow that I had after my afternoon at the hamam. On the marble slab, covered in soapy suds that smell amazing (olive oil, lavender, who knows what it all was but it was great), this woman could turn me over and slide me around with ease it was so slippery! The scrubbing and sloughing was followed by a really good massage (that included her sitting me up, moving me around, pulling my arms into the folks of her very large body and breasts - which she wasn't afraid to leverage to push, pull and scrub me at all). Then I went to the washing station to rinse off all the soap and dirt, and was led to another washing station where I sat down with my back to the woman, who proceeded to shampoo and lather my head and face up with more shampoo and bubbles than I think I have had covering my face since being a baby. It was great and funny and the whole time I was being worked over by this woman I was finding it both incredibly hilarious and a true funny scene if anyone had been watching, but also so pleasant and wonderful and clean and soft! Both my sister and I left the hamam very happy and relaxed. It was the perfect thing to do after an afternoon navigating the Grand Bazaar. And the quality of the service surpassed any spa in New York or Boston that I have been too :) .

Pure Vegetarian

Recently a friend was leaving Azerbaijan for good, heading back to New York after a year of doing important work here, and we threw him a little going away party. As one of his parting gifts we gave him a traditional Azerbaijani hat, which I am modeling in this photo.

I am still finding myself a little challenged in the food department, particularly when going out with Azerbaijani friends - as one may imagine, almost ALL food revolves around meat here. One Sunday night I was at an Azeri restaurant and we ordered grilled vegetables for me (while meat was aplenty for my friends) and I semi-happily ate my grilled pepper, and had some yummy grilled eggplant skin but left most of the rest of the eggplant on my plate. I gave the other half of the eggplant to one of my friends who kindly pointed out (nearly too late for me!) that the grilled eggplant had been STUFFED WITH SHEEP FAT THE SAME COLOR AS THE INSIDE OF THE EGGPLANT! Needless to say I was more than a little queasy at the thought of what I had accidentally consumed that night.

But this has been a fun week. The excitement over the World Cup games is enormous, and pubs are packed with internationals for games starting at 8 pm and then second games air at midnight - it is easy to get into the spirit of this major worldwide event, despite the U.S.'s tragic loss to Ghana.

The Airport Bazaar

Today was another adventure to a new bazaar near the airport. It stretches for miles and miles and sells ABSOLUTELY everything you can imagine - carpets, toiletries, kitchen goods, clothing, shoes, bedding, lighting (chandeliers!). It is impossible to see it all in one day and walking through it, as four Americans, we were quite a spectacle. Needless to say, everyone was very nice and very interested in showing us their wares (and once brandishing a camera, everyone wanted to be in the photos).

THE BIRDS!

I've been trying to find a way to convey this amazing thing that has been happening here recently - at the Maiden's Tower there is a whole school (of hundreds!) of birds that swirl around in a mad frenzy all day every day. Walking to work each day it is as though I am passing through an imaginary set for Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds." They are zooming around in circles around the tower at a rapid pace...it is almost ominous - like a sign of something serious to come! This photo is the closest I have come to being to capture it - and still it doesn't do the scene justice (they are just moving too damn fast to get with the camera!).