teh Forum

Here I am in the Prague airport. I am on my way out to Istanbul. I traveled all days yesterdays with little out of the ordinary.

My first impression of Prague is that it seems cool, albeit a bit touristy. I was in the touristy part of town, but I couldn't help thinking it was more like a medieval amusement park than a major metropolis. I imagine living here for 3 months will give me a better chance to really get to know the city.

But first I am off to Turkey for 3 weeks. I really have no idea what to expect but I will be sure to report back any sigma team movememts or other improtant goings on from that part o teh world.

Thanks to everyone that made it out to teh BBQ on Tuesday. Croquet was immensely fun and we will have to do it again if it is not too wet and cold in Dec.

Thank you for checking in man-hope to see more reports soon!


The BBQ was great-it was great to see everyone. Thank you Murr-Dawg and Carmen for your hospitality and putting up with me during croquet.

I'm all in for some Christmas croq

Sorry I couldn't make it over. I'm up for Ice Croquet.

btw- your buddies thought it would be *cute* to drag a table into the drive way and promptly beat it to death with wooden clubs...at 3 in the effing morning! Then they yelled "Bring out the shelf!!" Honestly, there were some hardcore furniture rights violations going down, I should have called the police!

Safe travels, endarr!

And to thınk I almost left my table at theır place...

Thanks for the words folks. I am ın Istanbul as we speak. It ıs damn hot here. Actually ıt has cooled down today sınce ıt raıned all last nıght - but stıll quıte warm.

Istanbul ıs pretty all rıght - although not quıte as excıtıng as I had hoped. The gıant mosques all over the cıty are surreal and quıte beautıful and the hıstory ıs overwhelmıng. I am thınkıng of soon headıng off to some beach on the Medıterranean for some maxxın and/or relaxın.

Wıll report back more latar.

PPP

a salam alekum 3ndar!

Dont foget to take some pics for 3ndarzone postfoolery.

enjoy mang!

you know what they say, Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople....

yeh I couldn't resist, sorry.

Be sure to put some that good ol' Art Hist 6A-C knowledge to work!

Yes, I require a full report including photos of their beautiful women.

Tell them, I love them.

I will definitely be sure to post plenty of pics with my new and very much loved and enjoyed toy:

Quick update - I am currently wasting away my days at Atilla's Backpacker Getaway - Basically just lying around the pool and reading.

Carry on...

now that's my version of roughing it!

guess what?!?! i'm seeing the Animation Show tonight and Don H. is gonna be therrrrr.

After all this relaxing by the pool it is time to take a cruise.

Ahh, so here is an actual report. I will relate some observations about Turkey. Plenty of pics will be coming once I get back to my computer in a couple weeks.

I spent the first few days in Istanbul - a city with so much history it is truly overwhelming. The old-town area where all the tourists and backpackers stay is called Sultanahmet. It is a very comfortable little district that does not take much time to get around, as well as being conveniently connected to other parts of town by a tram right down the center. Sultanahmet contains the 4 main tourist destinations: The Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, The Basilica Cistern, and Topkapi Palace (the only one I am saving for when I go back to Istanbul next week).

The mosques really are beautiful. Every once in a while a spire would catch the corner of my eye and I would think I was in Disneyland or something. It is amazing to think what the city must have been like when these were built. Aside from the beauty and history, Istabul is cool - but not spectacular. The food in Sultanahmet is not that impressive and prices are sımılar to any restaurants in the states. It is not easy to find great street food the way that many cities (especially backpacker cities) have either - the döner kebabs in Tokyo and the chicken shawrmas in IV are all better than any wrapped meat I have sampled in Turkey. On top of that, the Turkish guys constantly trying to get your attention to sell you crap is pretty damn annoying (although not nearly as bad as the poor kids in SE Asia). But seriously, can't they think of something better than "hey friend, where are you from?"

I also explored the hip, not-so touristy part of town known as Istikal Cadessi (think Omote Sando - w/o any interesting stores). It is very European with complete focus on stores selling the latest euro-fashions. There are some nicer restaurants over there - but the price goes up quite a bit as well.

I was very pleased to find a Starbucks on Istikal. Getting good coffee is incredibly difficult in Turkey (I am actually tearing up as I type this). Everyone here drinks tea (çay) which doesn't do it for me (although the apple çay is pretty tasty). All the hotels serve up Nescafe for breakfast. eugh - I don't know what it is but it barely passes for coffee. It is proabbly akin to methadone for a heroin addict. Turkish coffee is available in some places (not as many as you would think) but I don't particularly like the taste of Turkish coffee. So it has been difficult, getting by with nescafe - and I actually dreamt I saw a sbux last night. The one in Istanbul was big (4 floors) but pretty standard. They didn't know what Iced Coffee was - but were happy enough to make me an Iced Americano. I will surely be heading straight back there when I get in to Istanbul next week.

An overnight bus trip on a comfy bus got me to Selçuk where I spent the next week relaxing at the Hideaway I mentioned above. Selçuk's claim to fame are the ruins of Ephesus or Efes (also a tasy beer - better than the competitor Tuborg, btw). Ephesus was cool for an hour but it was damn hot and there were really, really too many people there. Forget about trying to take a picture without people in it. It was hard enough to walk 20 feet without getting in the way of someone's posed shot. And after Angkor Wat, I am afraid it takes a lot to impress me as far as ruins are concerned. I actually enjoyed the ruins at St. John's Basillica in downtown Selçuk more. There is also an interesting museum with all the booty they took out of Ephesus.

But other than a few hours at each of those spots, I pretty much just spent that whole week relaxing by Atilla's pool - which was great and I feel much better now.

On Monday I hopped on a bus and headed to the port city of Marmaris. This place is a trip! It is a huge Euro-vacation spot and not at all a backpacker's town. The shops are all crazy expensive - boardshorts for $100 - reef sandals $75 - a trinket that cost $3 at Ephesus was $12 in Marmaris. It was nutty. It was pretty much just how I pictured a town like Monaco being - but without all the millionaires. I did have some damn good food though, but it took a lot of searching.

The reason I went to Marmaris was to catch the ferry to the Greek Isle of Rhodes. I did it as a day trip (only 55 min each way) on Tuesday which was plenty of time. The city of Rhodes at the island's North end is a very impressive medieval fortress. Rhodes is, however, basically a big shopping mall, built into a medieval fortress. But I had a great time exploring the little streets and alley ways and the big palace/museum was well worth the €3 student admission. Greece was notably different than Turkey only in the Greek writing everywhere, the different names for all the same food, and the much MUCH higher prices. I did get some nice tzatziki. But I am glad I didn't pay double the price of the boat (discount for daytrippers) to stay in Rhodes overnight.

Now I have moved on to Fethiye, a charming little port town about 3 hours from Marmaris that is everything Marmaris is not. It is calm, affordable, pleasant, and interesting. There are also some great ruins that line the hills behind the town.

Tomorrow I jump on the boat cruise - which many people have told me is the coolest thing they did in Turkey. Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to that. So I will be out to sea for a few days and post my comments on the Turquise Coast when I return. Until then, Bon Voyage!

you are a coffee nut.

i can't believe that the food is nothing special. that makes me sad. i say find some good turkish pastries or something!! aaaand go!

ps- Joe says "hi and how are ya doing?"