We’re at a restaurant now, having our last tavuk şiş (chicken kebabs). We’ll get up in the middle of the night and walk one kilometer with our luggage to the palace where we’re meeting our taxi driver at 4 am. Our flight to Paris leaves at 6:25 am. We’re pretty excited but will miss, among…
The Grand Bazaar was built shortly after the Ottoman takeover in the 1450’s and has been added on to and improved over the centuries. With that in mind, I was expecting something distinctly Turkish when we went there on Friday, October 17, but was disappointed to find it was just a pretty but low-end mall…
First, I want to give an update on Jen & Dave who are very grateful for everyone’s thoughts and prayers. Dave is out of ICU but still in the hospital. His kidneys are still not functioning, but he’s feeling a bit better than earlier in the week. We met our tour guide, Safiye, at Sultanahmet…
“Do you need help?” I asked in English. The stooped, old woman, wearing a babushka/hijab and carrying a cane and carpet bag was stopped on the sidewalk a few doors down from my apartment building last week. I’m not sure what I planned to do for her, but I hated to breeze by her. She…
We arrived here Wednesday afternoon and walked one kilometer from Dolmabahçe Palace, where the taxi (from the airport) dropped us off, to our apartment. There wasn’t a normal address for the apartment, and the website information said to have the taxi driver call to get directions. I looked at a map and figured we could…
We visited three, Ancient Greek cities with Tuğrul again Tuesday. He and Mario, the driver, picked us up at 8:45 am and returned us to our apartment at 6:30 pm. The humidity was probably near 100%, but it was worth it. The sites are amazing, especially with Tuğrul’s explanations. The photo below has nothing to do with…
A few days ago Mom wanted milk in her tea. She wanted to see how the milk smelled. She smelled the milk. It didn’t smell bad. She poured the milk in a glass, and it was chunky. She thought the fridge was too cold and that the milk was frozen. She takes a little drink…
The tour of Ephesus with Tuğrul (“TOO-rule” – The ğ is silent. It just elongates the preceding vowel.) today was very informative, but I think we enjoyed the next tours even more. Tuğrul tries to bring attention to local artisans who he says generally go unnoticed and unappreciated. At the rug maker’s facility, we watched…
This morning we took a taxi to beautiful Dilek Peninsula National Park, about 50 minutes south of our Kusadasi apartment. It’s a wooded peninsula with four beaches – one dirt, three pebble. The island in the distance (in the Charlie photo) is the Greek island of Samos. I’d like to take the ferry there, but…
We arrived Friday late morning in this booming, beautiful, seaside, resort town. Mel, whose wife Jan listed the apartment on Airbnb, picked us up (for a fee) in their van from our Izmir airport hotel at 10 am and drove us an hour south to Kusadasi. Mel said when he moved here from Istanbul in…
Travels with Charlie and Laurel 