Beyoğlu and Grand Bazaar

I don't particularly feel like writing a whole lot about our last couple days in Turkey, as it's just weird to try and do so from my house here in the US. So this is mostly pictures, with some commentary thrown in!

Yeni Cami at sunset

Sunday evening, we tried to go to a meyhane (tavern) in Beyoğlu, across the Golden Horn. When trying to make a reservation, most meyhaneler were closed on Sunday, which should have tipped us off that it's not the night to go to one, but it was the only time that worked, so we went anyways.

Mini bazaar at the wharf

The view from Galata Bridge at sunset

Birds! Mosque! Bridge!

What a cutie

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Google Maps is basically hopeless in İstanbul, so we got lost, and ended up asking at least 5 people for directions, all of which were conflicting. It took us 45 minutes to find the place (inside a hotel, which hadn't helped the search!), and upon arriving found it to be nearly empty, with only two other customers.

Beyoğlu: a tiny slice

Meyhaneler are supposed to be rocking affairs, with music and lots of people and drinks, but I was incredibly hungry so we ate there anyways. It was a nice restaurant (free water!!!), and we got the cheese plate, which was enormous, and some sigara böreği, cheese-filled pastries shaped like cigars.

sigara böreği

bajillion cheeses

Aww

It was all very tasty, and the view was beautiful over İstanbul, but it was definitely not the experience I had been hoping for. Oh, well––a real meyhane visit is on the docket for next time!

We came across a steel drums player
on our way home, which was cool.

Our last day, we visited Süleymaniye Camii, which was recently renovated.

Imposing!

I wore my black maxi skirt and brought a headscarf, but it turned out I hadn't needed to––they had robes available for Western visitors. At least I didn't have to worry about sweating in something someone else would have to wear! The mosque was beautiful and very large; there was some gorgeous painting detailing and stunning stained glass windows, but it was overall quite simple, which just emphasized how huge it was.

Gorgeous, no?

Stained glass at the front

Concentric domes! 

Big.

Really, really stunning glass 

Main dome

It was approaching prayer time when we
were there, and before we left, the
imam started singing.

Seriously, the cutest.

I'll have to visit the Blue Mosque next time I'm in İstanbul, but I liked Süleymaniye very much!

We spent a couple hours at the Bazaar, where I found a lot of presents to bring home. If you want the best prices, don't wait until the Grand Bazaar––Marcos saw carpets for much, much cheaper in Selçuk, and we found some knick knacks for cheaper (even post-bargaining) just out on the street in front of our hotel. Still, it's worth checking out the Bazaar just for kicks!

Along the main jewelry street; we saw a 30,000 USD
diamond dragonfly pin in one of the stores. We did not
buy it, surprisingly.

Surreptitious photo of some insanely detailed ceramics

My tiles!

Just don't ask how much things cost out of curiosity; sellers will always think you're wanting to purchase and will get offended if, upon being asked how much you'd be able to pay, you answer honestly and very low, as happened to us at a carpet shop. Some people really love the process of bargaining, but Marcos and I do not count ourselves among that crowd, so I am frankly quite happy to be back in the land of fixed prices. For myself, I got a couple of hand-painted tiles; they were originally 160 TL, but Marcos bargained him down to 100 (roughly $52). They're absolutely gorgeous and I plan to get them framed to have forever more!

For our last meal, we decided to splurge and get a terracotta stew, which is cooked in fire in a terracotta sealed vase, then broken open with a knife when ready to eat.

The breaking-open process

It was an obscene amount of food, and absolutely delicious, but I ate way too much and paid for it on the flight back the next day.

He gave me more than he gave Marcos; I guess he
could sense I eat more!

Om nom nom

Oh well! We had hoped to try rakı, aniseed liquor, but after dinner I was just too tired and wanted to pack. Another thing for the next trip!

The trip home was fine, though very long, and I'm still not on a "normal" sleep schedule.

An assortment of some of the warnings on boxes of cigarettes

in Atatürk airport. They're pretty awesome.

I wonder how many people buying
cigarettes in an airport haven't yet
started smoking...

Hahahahaha, they should probably
focus on this in all the PSAs.

Marlboro kept it simple: Smoking Kills.

If you have the choice, don't fly into the US at JFK––customs and passport control there is a nightmare. Especially when you have to pee, as there is no bathroom between deplaning and exiting customs. By the time the hour and a half re-entry process had finished, I was about ready to explode. The joys of air travel...

I'll have one last wrap-up/reflections post up sometime later this week, but for now, thank you for reading!

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and Berlin decided to celebrate by not being 1000 degrees. It was a much more reasonable 73, and while it did pour later in the night, I preferred that to dying of water loss.

Some epic clouds, foreshadowing
the downpour to come

Marcos and I slept in, because what is your birthday for except getting obscene amounts of rest? Then we walked to Maximilian's, a traditional German restaurant about 20 minutes away. We got the Bavarian starters, which included a couple of dips (one cheese, one yogurt) and a pretzel––the ratio of carbs to dip was not nearly ideal, as we had a good 2/3 of the dips leftover, but it was very tasty––and the "sausage parade", which was 6 sausages of 3 different types with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.

Marcos deemed the white one "grub-like". Fortunately,
it tasted better than it looked.

There were radishes, which we did not eat. Meat and
carbohydrates only!

It was very delicious and extremely filling! We also got a light Munich beer, which Marcos found to be extremely mild and therefore drinkable.

Deutscher Dom

Afterwards, we ventured to Gendarmenmarkt, the square with the Französischer Dom and Deutscher Dom churches (which I visited 3 years ago), and then went to Fassbender-Rausch chocolatiers (which I also visited 3 years ago!).

Französischer Dom in the background

I had wanted to go to the Operncafe for my birthday cake, but they closed in 2011, sob.

Thanks for the gigantic chocolate recreation of the Reichstag,
honey––it's just what I wanted!

F-R was delicious, though! We got a mocha chocolate mousse cake and an Eisschokolade, which was cold chocolate and ice cream––very rich and filling.

OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED

We then booked it back to the hotel so I could try and Skype with the family, but they had not had success getting it to work and were a bit annoyed by the time we finally got in contact. Still, it was nice to hear their voices :-)

Ric came over around 8:00, and in my excitement to see him I managed to break a wineglass in the bathroom, so we chilled in the hotel room while we waited for housekeeping to come up and clean up the glass.

Marcos had gone to get razors and got to walk in to a glass-strewn room, which was probably less surprising than I might hope, given my general flusteredness. Ric is doing really well––he's married (we get to meet his husband later this week, at which point we can apparently also do laundry at their place, hurray!) and runs a modeling agency and seems very happy with his life, which is great! We drank the rest of the vişne şarap (wine) we'd gotten in Şirince, and then ventured out for a birthday drink/snack. It was raining by that point, but we trekked up to Potsdamer Platz and had a cocktail in the Sony Center, after which Marcos and I headed up north to meet Matt at a jazz club.

The S-bahn did not seem to be running that direction, so we took a cab up there and arrived just as the jazz was ending. I was quite tired and a bit hungry, so we took the S-bahn back down to our hotel (it's less than a block away from the station!) but were unable to find any open food places, so I snacked on some Tibs and called it a night. All in all, it was a very pleasant day, and it's nice to be back in Berlin!

This is half a block from our hotel; Ric said it is the only part
remaining of the old head train station, through which all
deported Jews were processed on the way to the Concentration Camps.
Hence why nothing else is left of it. Such poignant reminders
strewn throughout the city of its horrific past.

Today, we were thinking of going to Potsdam but after all the walking yesterday, but I ended up not feeling up to it, so instead we just took an easy day in. We walked to the döner place around the corner (only 3€ this time!), and then to the grocery store a couple blocks away where we bought 4 different kinds of chocolate and some off-brand Pringles, because we are adults.

Mm, yes, the Brandenburg Gate

You can see here, the horses and columns representing
militaristic strength

Truly, a memorable monument.

I actually have no idea what this thing is. --Marcos

Me: Look happy about meeting your true love!
Marcos: They're never happy about it when they meet him.
Me: Then look unhappy about meeting your true love!
Marcos: (This face.)

Me: Am I allowed to eat my true love? Otherwise,
I am not interested.

Then I did some preparation for the conference, though not as much as I had hoped as the sites I was supposed to download content from were not working, and just chilled out, as it was raining and gross for most of the day. For dinner, we went to a Vietnamese-sushi place a couple blocks away (I'd forgotten how there's no such thing as non-fusion Asian restaurants around here!), which was quite affordable and, as usual, very filling. Now we are relaxing in our very nice hotel room (free upgrade!). We're moving hotels tomorrow to be closer to the conference, and I have a tutorial to go to tomorrow afternoon about using Mechanical Turk for research, so no more nice relaxing days for awhile. Marcos is planning to wake up early and go to Gendarmenmarkt to get the Domen in the morning light, when they're not backlit. We'll probably eat döners for lunch again, haha––so cheap, so delicious!