Istanbul: One Sweet Taste of History!

Our four nights in Istanbul came no where near satiating our sensory experiences. Although we made a valiant attempt. Too many sights, sounds, smells and tastes will simply have to wait until ‘next time’!

On our quest to ‘see everything’ we logged 9.5 miles on our pedometer our first day in town and agreed that we had earned a visit to the popular confectionery  “Hafiz Mustafa 1864” just off Taksim Square.

At the time, we didn’t know anything about the place other than it tempted with confectionery treats that made your mouth water just looking at them. The photo below is only one small section of one of the many displays:



From a history page in the menu, we learned that this candy store got its start 150 years ago during the early years of Sultan Abdulaziz’s reign of the Ottoman Empire.

Founder Ismail Hakke Zade came to Istanbul to be a money lender. He began making a candy called, “akide” a type of rock candy in the basement of his shop.  It wasn’t long before his son Hafiz Mustafa came up with another creation, ‘pogaca’ – palm-sized buns served with or without filling. The two items were hits and the rest, as they say, is history.

Hafiz took over the business and by the early 1900’s had won 11 European medals for confectionery creations. Over the years the location has been renovated and updated but still has a wonderful historic feel to it. During our brief visit we watched the tables pictured below fill completely and lines three and four people deep were continuous at the take-away counters.

 

The menu itself was a treat - a small volume complete with photos and descriptions of candies, cakes, pastries, teas, and coffees. Its cover features the Hafiz Mustafa logo with the word, “Istanbul” written in Turkish.

So, in what did we indulge? We had a ‘filter coffee’ (meaning regular coffee) and a cappuccino and. . .

This is chocolate mousse with sponge cake at the bottom. The sprinkles on top are chocolate, coconut and pistachio nuts. The picture doesn’t show the size of this serving - it was a bowl, not a dish – it was huge and easily shared by two.

If you find yourself in Istanbul, be sure to visit this ‘historic site’ for one sweet taste of history! For hours, menus, location and time visit their web site: www.hafizmustafa.com  We are linking up today with Inside Journey’s Foodie Tuesday.

Road Warriors need a Bath. . .Turkish, that is!

We’ve been on the road (or in planes, ferries, buses or trains) for nearly six weeks now. One of our longer European expeditions is coming to an end with our return home on Tuesday.

 

The image you probably have of us -- with more than a month in Greece --  is that of a deeply tanned Apollo and Venus with sun-streaked hair; each emanating a golden glow – poster children for boomer-age rest and relaxation. Not so, this trip.

TravelnWrite does Ios Island

We have more of a wind-blown look about us, like the photo above (my hair was pretty much always standing on end).

On this final afternoon in Istanbul we’ve scheduled Turkish baths at our in-hotel ‘hammam’. The thought of having someone else scrub our bodies from head to toe and then massage us with a magic elixir of restorative oils seems the perfect way to end this exhilarating, but sometimes tiring, adventure.

We’ve felt at times – and probably looked like as well - road warriors. Our hair has grown long and certainly is lighter, but not sun-bleached. (You boomers understand that one.) Joel has visited barbers twice along the way. Our skin has been both sun-kissed and rain-water washed resulting in a nice reptilian scale effect.

Slow cooked beef in tomato sauce with feta cheese

  

We’ve eaten and drank far too much fabulous Greek food and wine. I don’t plan to weigh myself for at least 10 days after returning home.

Loading up in the Lobby of Hotel Nef - Nafpaktos, Greece

We’ve lived out of those 22-inch TravelPro suitcases and the limited wardrobe they contained for what seems a l-o-n-g time. Even with limited clothing we brought, we’ve both been saying we must cut the weight of those on future trips.  Hauling them up subway steps or onto ferries, just has to be done on trips like this one, so the lighter the better.

My newly adopted cousins, Eva and Sofia in Kardamyli, Peloponnese

 This trip has renewed and rejuvenated us – just like the Turkish bath will do to our bodies. Our brains and hearts are on overload and in overdrive. Too many wonderful experiences, too many drop-dead-gorgeous-views, too many wonderful people along the way. A road trip in a foreign country is not necessarily a relaxing one – but it certainly is one that awakens your ‘life-sensors’.

Venetian port - Nafpaktos, Greece

  

At times during the trip we’ve remarked that we felt decades younger and at other times, decades older. We believe we have grown from our experiences.  We’ve chased those daydreams I wrote about in an earlier post; we caught them and released them, depending on the day and our mood. Our world of friends has expanded. Our passion for travel has intensified.
 
So we will repack those bags after being rejuvenated in the hammam and prepare to return to the other world in which we live. . . I suspect it won’t be long before we are planning another road trip in this part of the world – there’s still a lot left to discover. . .and we are not quite done with those day-dreams either!



Thanks to those of you who’ve come along on our adventure, especially those who’ve taken the time to write emails or jot a comment. They’ve been most appreciated! Please stay with us as we have some wonderful people and places to introduce you to in future posts.

 Note: We’ve just returned from our Turkish baths (reptile skin is now baby soft and we can’t remember being this relaxed). . .an incredible experience. If you get to Istanbul you really should try it!

Istanbul Arrival: What a blast!

We were reminded yesterday that travel is always filled with surprises.  Some a bit startling. 

 

Having left Seattle some 20 hours prior to our arrival in Istanbul (the overnight stop in our trip to Greece) we were enjoying the fresh air outside the Istanbul airport and watching the hypnotizing traffic: taxi horns honking, buses jostling to edge near the curb, drivers weaving between them.

Arriving Istanbul

Mesmerizing to our jet-lagged brains as we waited for the Marriott Courtyard shuttle van to pick us up. We also noted a police car, lights flashing that seemed to be chasing waiting taxis from the curb. Parking violations, we reasoned.

Then it occurred to us the street had cleared: no vehicles were arriving, large groups of waiting travelers were at curbside. Traffic was stopped some distance away.

A fellow traveler joined our waiting group and said, “'It’s a security issue,” he explained. “They are holding traffic for a half hour or so.”

And so we waited. Then. . .

KA-BOOM! from the far end of the Terminal.

Yep, a security issue alright.  Something suspicious was blown up.
Traffic resumed.
Our shuttle arrived. 
You might say our arrival here was a real blast.

More from Greece. . .when we get there!

Travel Tuesday: “Screamin’” and other Cyber deals

We’re taking a break from our Tales of the South Pacific because we have some tips on travel deals for you today. . .

We’d been home from the South Pacific for about 72 hours, travel clothes were still piled in the family room awaiting their turn in the washing machine.

That’s when The Scout came across such a ‘screamin’* deal that we booked ourselves to Istanbul, Turkey. Just like that!

That’s the way it works most the time with the ‘real deals.’ They come and they go within hours so there’s not a lot of room to waffle. . . you book, and go. 

Since we’d already penciled in a return trip to Greece next spring, the deal just forced us to give it real dates and a starting point.

Now we can start planning the Greek trip with the bonus of Istanbul at either end.

Istanbul's Spice Market

The ‘screamin’ deal:  Round-trip ticket Seattle to Istanbul for $608US, flying Lufthansa Airlines with a stop and change of planes in Frankfurt.

 The Scout found and booked the deal on Kayak (this link takes you to the flight page).

Those low rates were still available Monday, Nov. 4, at the time of writing this post.To put that fare in perspective, the round-trip ticket price from Seattle to Honolulu in January on Alaska Airlines is $880 and the best we could find to Athens was more than $1,000!




Closer to Home – Some Tempting Pacific Northwest Cyber Deals

On Dec. 2, Provenance Hotels is launching its first ever Cyber Monday sale offering Facebook fans and email subscribers of the award-winning, art-filled hotels a discount of 35% off the best available rates at Hotel Max in Seattle, Hotel Murano in Tacoma, and Portland’s Hotel deluxe, Hotel Lucia and Governor Hotel for stays between December 2, 2013 and March 31, 2014. (They also have a hotel in Nashville).

Note: Cyber Monday sale booking links will be emailed to subscribers and posted on the hotels’ Facebook pages on Monday, December 2, 2013 at 10 a.m. PST.  Travelers can subscribe to email newsletters and follow the hotels on Facebook at:

•       Hotel Max - www.hotelmaxseattle.com, www.facebook.com/HotelMaxSeattle
•       Hotel Murano – www.murano.com, www.facebook.com/HotelMuranoTacoma
•       Hotel Preston – www.hotelpreston.com, www.facebook.com/HotelPrestonNashville
•       Hotel Lucia – www.hotellucia.com, www.facebook.com/HotelLuciaPortland
•       Hotel deluxe – www.hoteldeluxe.com, www.facebook.com/HoteldeLuxePortland
•       Governor Hotel – www.governorhotel.com, www.facebook.com/GovernorHotel

The catch: The 35% Cyber Monday discount will be available to the first 100 people that book prepaid nonrefundable reservations at each hotel or until December 5, 2013, whichever comes first. Blackout dates may apply.

Or check out Vancouver, B.C.’s "Holiday Shopping Days" Deal

· This deal is good from Nov.22 until Dec 1, 2013. 

· What you get: One-night stays at $88, $118 and $148 price points at a wide selection of Vancouver hotels and one $50 American Express Gift Card (which you can use anywhere) for every reservation booked.  · You also get passes to the Holiday Shopping Days Shuttle on Vancouver Trolley. 

From November 22 to December 1, The Shopping Days Shuttle will connect shoppers from the West End to the West Side with drop-offs at various shopping districts throughout the afternoon. The Shuttle runs four times each day so you can hop-on and hop-off as you want. · Book it at:  www.tourismvancouer/shop (will be live on Nov 5)


Thanks for the time you spent with us today~ please encourage others to drop by. Check out our Deal Finder page for links to other resources. Then head back here on Travel Photo Thursday.

And about that ‘screamin’ deal: our neighbor is from Istanbul and travels there often. We ran the deal past him and he labeled it, not just good, but screamin’ good! And  that's when we booked.

The Bosphorus Strait - Fact and Fantasy

Our journey through the Bosphorus Strait from a practical standpoint took us to and from the Black Sea.  But it seemed as though this waterway was leading us on a magical journey into the land of myths and fables.

Rumeli Fortress in the morning mist

We'd left Istanbul in the middle of the night (by our standards) at 11 p.m. For that reason, I was alone on our balcony watching the lights of the Asian shore as the Westerdam, our 82,348-ton cruise ship, glided toward the Black Sea on a rather chilly night in early October. (Joel, a bit more sensible, opted to sight see on our early morning return trip.)

It took just a bit more than a half hour to traverse the 20-mile long Bosphorus, the waterway connecting the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. This narrow channel, the fabled waterway of Jason and the Argonauts, varies from a half mile to 1.5 miles in width, bisecting two continents, Europe and Asia. 

Leaving Istanbul's busy harbor, we began our journey by sailing under the Bosphorus Bridge; so grand a structure that it seems more an elaborate sculpture sweeping across the waterway than a major highway between the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.

At night it is as brightly lit as a theatre marquee.  Just as we passed under the bridge, a light show began above, magically, it seemed. The clear lights illuminating the cable spans chased back and forth, off-and-on like tumbling dominoes between the towering bridge pillars outlined in blue lights. (It probably happens every hour, but I'd like to believe it was done for our benefit - setting the scene for our magical, mythical journey.)

Allowing that myth and magic to guide my imagination, I envisioned the kings and queens and mythical beings who lived in the grand buildings lining the Asian shore; some of which were outlined with lights and others mere shadows against the dark sky. Tourist maps show that they were, in fact, -  hotels, the Beylerbeyi Palace, a school, a pavilion, and numerous unknown structures. Those buildings gave way to expanses of darkness,  then the few lights in a small fishing community and we were entering the Black Sea.

We need to return to towns along the Bosphorus

Our return trip was on a misty-almost-rainy early morning (before 7 a.m.) which again lent itself to a magical wrap that softened the views of villages and structures along the shore.  The ship's topmost deck was our viewing platform where, with a handful of fellow cruisers, we'd race from side to side so as not to miss anything along the way.

It was all too soon over and we were passing Istanbul's Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace en route to Athens.  But this short stretch of waterway will draw us back one day. Next time, though, we'll use local ferries from Istanbul's harbor.  Guide books say ferries can take from 5.5 to 7 hours depending on the stops made along the way. . .now that will be a cruise!

Note: Photos in this post are the property of Jackie Smith, permission required prior to re-use.