Alas, we are home after 19 days of travel. We headed out to San Francisco on the 19th of March leaving the house around 2:30 a.m. Neither of us could sleep anticipating the journey and worrying about oversleeping. We arrived in San Francisco mid afternoon the same day 26 hours later. Nothing like flying against the clock to confuse your head and body!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP0dcSjZeNUjndhuFkYN7s6quTG152xK_J9b7TobCjJkd90RFvSbT-gCDjLSzhbcVtU3cAX2QNBy8FsG4uyqW6eO7cZ4mLlslu6b858-bmJ8ClbYkFa950hes2nVEc2wb9f4aIXY7SISRB/s320/Image0107.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iv6qLTpxv3oxrWAIsBD6ZwgbMbOPqL3GVhq90ShIJAdIkbSaZEowGB2qJvZnwt0YFVsFaTmN_1Q0aX7YN-2ZtlRSf2gxUuorRWZfXQEQWXcNJI-x8ZInU4BGyAzFpSlnjBHXhOq4OEac/s200/Image0115.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEillmQ7r3_JOt1q7mso_6q9YLNBYMkJ2HF3-9vioiyJQTuy4fnmzf7KHpO6Pi3WVcUQBf1hablRTziEHxt4ajsT45yvQAJqG86cN92sEtuJA9dVu-g6r2RfhDC2UyRxyoj7bnGw5DZhK6Ly/s200/Goloden+gate.jpg)
Monday Ron headed off to his meetings and I went shopping with two other wives, one of whom is Patty Culpepper, a good friend from Tbilisi. I discovered that my lowly Lee Jeans aren’t available in the city and would require me going out of the area to find them. Bummer. I did manage to go to a pharmacy and a grocery store and get many of the items we needed in Tbilisi. Shopping in the US is so easy due to the availability of goods. I went to the deYoung Museum with Dee on Tuesday to see an Amish quilt show of quilts made between 1900-1930’s. What a treat for my eyes. Some of them were real gems. We ate lunch at a Jewish deli and waddled out afterwards. On Wednesday I went to see a show of Cartier jewels with Patty and another friend. Talk about gems, oh my goodness. Some of the items displayed had belonged to the rich and famous: people like Liz Taylor and Princess Grace of Monaco. It was amazing to see all the items that had been custom made for celebrities.
On Thursday I took the ferry over to meet Dee and pick up Kirsten’s tax return to bring back to Tbilisi. Dee took me on another excursion to Sonoma, a charming old California town with lots a real cool shops and a lovely town square.
Friday we flew to LA to see Sonia and Bob, Ron’s mom and her partner. We were very fortunate in that Ron’s sister, Sandi and her husband Bill from Rhode Island were there also. Ron only gets two weeks vacation so being able to see family is a real treat when we are so far away. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and regretted that our time was so short.
On Monday afternoon we flew back to SF and caught a 9:00 p.m. flight to Munich where we stayed overnight for a 24 hr layover. This time we were flying with the clock so we left SF on Monday arriving in Germany on Tuesday and left late at night on Wednesday arriving in Tbilisi on Thursday at 3:00 a.m. In Munich we had fun taking a self guided two hour of the neighborhood. I spied an amber shop and my dear husband brought me a honey amber pendant to go with the large cuff bracelet he had gotten me several years ago when he had a study tour in central Europe. I stayed home on that trip to save money as it was quite expensive. It was a decision that we both regretted and now rarely do I stay at home on these long trips. We left Munich late at night and got here at 3:00 a.m. OY! Not a good schedule but welcome to Georgia. We waited a long time for luggage because the kiosk said our luggage would be on carousel 2 and it was on carousel 1 along with another flight’s luggage. It was after 6:00 before we got to sleep and I was up at 9:00 as Kirsten was coming by to pick up her tax forms. I never went back to bed. Nino, our housekeeper was sick the entire time we were gone so the house was a mess. We repacked for Turkey and got on a 5:00 p.m. flight for Istanbul. Guess you could call us jet setters or just plain nuts…
I forgot to mention that 24 hours before our flight to Istanbul our hotel cancelled our rooms. This was a major problem as we were out of the country with limited access to computers and Istanbul is swarming with tourists on Easter weekend. Laurie headed out to the Embassy and got us a room that morning using the travel agency. Our hotel had a super location although it was somewhat seedy. Our room had three single beds, a hole in the wall as though there had been a fight, a hole in the bathroom door as thought someone tried to put their fist through it and the oddest thing was the hole someone had cut into a painting. Go figure. Rooms cost a small fortune due to the popularity of Istanbul at Easter. Normally we would pay about $300 for four nights in a three star hotel but we paid $544.
An ever so brief history of Istanbul. The foundation of Istanbul dates to 667 BC when a Greek colonist, Byzas, led an expedition from the overcrowded cities of Athens and Megara to establish a colony on the European side of the Bosphorus. (The Bosphorus is a body of water that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara then the Aegean and Mediteranean and is the dividing line between Europe and Asia.)This colony known as Byzantion grew to a successful independent city-state. In 64 BC it was subsumed into the Roman Empire and became Byzantium. In 324 Constantine become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium. Later the city became known as Constantinople. The ruler was instrumental in the spread of Christianity. The 6th century was dominated by the extraordinary genius of Justinian (527-65) who developed the city into a thriving city and re-conquered lost provinces. At the time of his death the empire had expanded to its greatest size and covered Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, the Balkans, Italy, southern Spain, parts of northern Africa including Egypt. Jumping ahead, The Ottoman state was born in 1301 when Osman I, a leader of warriors who were fighting for the Muslin faith declared his independence. The new state quickly expanded. By 1453 the Ottomans had captured Constantinople. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire steadily lost territory thorough wars with Russia and Austria. In WWI the empire was on the losing side. The peace treaties rewarded victors with Ottoman territory and as a result stimulated nationalists to take over power from the sultan. Mustafa Kemal Pasa, known at Ataturk ‘the father of Turks’ set in motion an ambitious program of political and social change. The sultanate was abolished in 1922 and religion and state were formally separated when the country was declared a secular republic a year later. His reforms included replacing the Arabic alphabet with a Roman one, allowing women greater rights, encouraging western dress (the fez was banned) and obliging all Turks to choose a surname! Needless to say, I skipped over 299 pages of my history book but thought it would be helpful to know that three distinct civilizations ruled here for long periods of time.
We ate lunch at a place within the spice bazaar that had been recommended by a friend in Tbilisi. It is always fun to note weird translations and this menu was no exception with ‘write rice’ and our all time favorite ‘burnt bottom milk pudding of chicken breast’. Do chickens have milk? I don’t think so. Anyone who can give us some insight into this dish will be rewarded…with a free serving of the above! In the Spice Bizaar we purchased a box of Turkish Delight that Ron will share with is office.
Afterwards we ate at a hotel nearby. We sat outside on the terrace as the weather was wonderful everyday we were in Istanbul. This was the nicest place we had dined in Istanbul. Excellent service and Jock said his meal was the best of his life. Laurie agreed. I told the manager when I went inside to use the restroom and he said it was their signature dish. As a thank you he gave each couple a jar of their homemade apple jam.
On the way to visit a church I asked if I could pop into a shop that sold carpets and textiles. Three and a half hours and three cups of tea later, we had bought four village textiles with lovely embroidery and the Conly’s out spent us by buying a carpet, a wall hanging and a lovely bedspread. It was too late to visit the church but we made it there our last morning. Below is a picture of the happy seller and the happy buyers.
We tried to visit a carpet museum but it was closed for remodeling. We did make it to the Mosaic Museum. This museum was created by roofing over a part of the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors which was discovered in the 1930s. In its heyday the palace had hundreds of rooms, many of them glittering with gold mosaics. The surviving mosaic floor shows a variety of animals which made us wonder: were there lions and leopards here at some point? The palace is thought to have been built in the late 5th century.
Our last morning we went to visit the “Little Hagia Sophia, Saints Sergius ad Bacchus’ Church. This church was built in 527, again by Justinian. It was converted into a mosque in 1453 after the conquest. It was a real beauty with white walls and a blue and soft green decoration. The original marble carved frieze remains intact.
All in all it was a great trip. Ron divided vacations into three categories: vacations of obligation (this is when you visit family), tourists on speed (you may never pass this way again so you had better see and do everything you can with the time you have) and PMB (Park My Butt: sleeping in, lying on a beach under a palm tree reading a book and taking a nap after lunch). This trip to Istanbul was definitely tourists on speed. Although we were tired when we came home, we wouldn’t change anything about the trip. The best part was traveling with Laurie and Jock. It was fun to discover how similar we are in terms of interests, values and a sense of play.
No comments:
Post a Comment