Turkish Delight

After I ruined Rachel's last day in Bratislava by giving Jenn and her bad directions to the art museum and causing them to get lost and waste several hours, we headed out on Wednesday for Istanbul. Rach had her choice of places to go when she came for her visit and Istanbul was the designated spot. We were also meeting up with her (and our) friend, Anna, who was flying in from New York.

Our first impression of Istanbul, as we drove through the streets in the airport shuttle, was that it reminded us a lot of Israel, but with mosques; lots of them. It actually was a blend of Israel and Athens. Water surrounds the city, so we saw some nice views, but also squeezed through some very narrow streets filled with shop after shop after shop selling carpets, pashminas, "hand" painted dishes, souvenirs, and lots of other random junk. After we spent several days there, we couldn't get over how many shops were selling the exact same things. I'm still not sure what differentiates one store from the next, but there are certainly plenty of people there spending money, so I guess it's working.

Istanbul as a whole is interesting. I wouldn't call it pretty, but the landscape is unique and it's overflowing with rich culture and history. There are so many people. The streets feel awfully crowded. I don't do well in this type of environment when I don't get much personal space and what I do have isn't respected or recognized by others. There are roughly 11 million people living in the city and it feels like it. The food is outstanding and consists primarily of grilled meats, mostly lamb, and eggplant prepared hundreds of different ways. When you factor in the fact that there are some great tourist attractions, it really makes it a great destination.

We stayed at the Hotellino, which Jenn found on Trip Advisor. The location was perfect. It was a block or so from the Gulhane tram stop and within walking distance of all the major attractions. It definitely wasn't fancy and didn't offer much in amenities besides three bottles of water per person per day (which is amazing when you stop and think about the fact that many hotels charge $5 if you open up the bottles of water they put out), but the rooms were simple, clean, and breakfast and internet were included.

After arriving, we walked around for the remainder of the afternoon to get our bearings. We walked across the Galata bridge and up past the Galata Tower to the Beyoglu area and walked down Istiklal Caddesi, the main shopping street. It was very crowded. With all the well known stores, it could have been a busy shopping street in any city. Dinner was on a side street at Zubeyir Ocakbasi where we ate grilled meats and kebabs. Anna had done some good restaurant research on ChowHound, so we were well prepared. It's nice to travel with someone who puts as much importance on food as we do. We were all exhausted from traveling, so we headed back early to get some rest.

Our first full day was very busy. It also happened to be Thanksgiving. There was no Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and no turkey to be found, but we made due. We started out with a visit to the Topkapi Palace, which was great. We ate lunch at Subasi, which was a small dive serving Turkish comfort food, and then spent some time walking through the Grand Bazaar. I didn't find it all that grand and thought it was more bizarre than bazaar. The place is filled with literally thousands of stores selling pretty much the same stuff. It's a maze where I have no idea how people find specific stores. We then walked over and through the Blue Mosque, which really wasn't that blue. The exterior was beautiful, but the inside didn't do it for me. After a couple of hours of rest at the hotel, we walked over for a quick stroll through the spice bazaar before boarding the ferry for the Asian side of the city. It was at this point that Rachel chose to try a fish sandwich, a local specialty, even though we were on our way to eat. Dinner at Ciya was good. It sits within the fish market on the Asian side, but really didn't have any seafood on the menu. Their kebabs were better than the traditional Turkish dishes. It wasn't the grand Thanksgiving feast we wanted, but it was still pretty good.
On Friday, we started off at the Cemberlitas Turkish Bath, which seems to be the thing to do there. This really deserves its own blog post and will get it. All I can say is that I will never be the same. The girls enjoyed it. We had a really nice lunch and molten chocolate cake at Rumeli Cafe. At this point, it was raining a good bit, so we didn't want to go far. We walked through another market, the Arasta Bazaar, and did some more shopping. A trip to Istanbul involves much more shopping than I prefer, but I was pretty patient. I'm not sure what Rach and Anna did at this point, but Jenn and I escaped the rain with a walk through the Haghia Sophia, which is an extremely old Mosque that is no longer used for prayer and is now just for tours and viewing. The exterior is stunning, but the inside was also spectacular. We spent our last evening with Rachel and Anna eating dinner at Antiocha, a small, trendy place in the Beyoglu area. The menu was limited, but everything was excellent. Because we didn't have a reservation, we had to sit at an outside table, which was fine for a while, until it started raining. We headed back to the Sultanahmet neighborhood, where our hotel was, and had dessert at Mado. Their specialty is sliced ice cream, which is exactly as it sounds. It was fine, but more a novelty than a great dessert. Rachel and Anna were leaving in the morning, so we said our goodbyes before going to bed.
For our last day, Jenn and I slept late and then ate a nice lunch at a seafood place called Balikci Sabahattin, which was pretty good, but maybe a bit overrated by all the guide books that laud its cuisine. After lunch, we hit one more mosque, the Suleymaniye Mosque, which we actually liked much more than the Blue Mosque. We walked across the Galata Bridge, took the Tunel Funicular up to Istiklal, and then rode the tram up to Taksim Square where we took the metro to what we thought was going to be a nice boutique shopping area. It was not. Sometimes guidebooks are very helpful. Other times, they are not. We gave up after a few blocks and headed back to Beyoglu as it was getting close to dinner time. Our final dinner was at Mikla, the much hyped restaurant from Mehmet Gurs, who is a well known Turkish chef, we think. The swanky restaurant sits on the 17th floor of the Marmara Pera Hotel and has amazing views from every table. Jenn's beef tenderloin and my smoked lamb were both outstanding. The warm chocolate cake for dessert was a delicious and fitting end to the dinner and our time in Istanbul.

We really enjoyed this trip. It was very different than other places we visited, and that's a good thing. The more and more we see of the world, the more and more we want to see.

We arrived back to a snow covered Bratislava. Winter is officially here.

Christmas Market

We met up with friends the other night at the Christmas market. Jory is also from the US and is on a 2 year stint working in the treasury group. He was with his girlfriend, Jana, who he met in Bratislava. The Yeagers, Charles, Geneva, and their children, Alexa and Dylan, arrived from Austin right around the same time we did. We've become close friends as we went through the expatriation process together and we spend a lot of time together here in Bratislava.

The market runs for about a month and is filled with booths either selling locally made goods or Slovak street food. Rachel was a veteran of Christmas markets. She had been to several during her travels when she was living in London. She thought she was really cool. We had a good time and I imagine we'll be wandering over there often for dinner. On this night, we both ate ciganska, which is basically chicken or pork with onions on a hot bun. It's really good when it's cold outside.

We thought the market was great. We've heard it's better than the ones in bigger cities because they are more commercial and aren't selling as much locally made stuff. I guess we'll see. 

Czech Please

We're back in Prague where I had work to do this week. We arrived on Tuesday by train from Bratislava where we spent two nights after the week in Paris. Audit work is not for the weary.

It was cold, rainy, and altogether unpleasant throughout the week, so we didn't venture too far from out hotel in the evenings. Cafe Imperial was recommended by our hotel and was good. It had classic charm to it, with a mosaic tiled ceiling. We also enjoyed Pravda, which is located right next to the Old New Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. They do classic Czech cuisine, but in an updated way. The chocolate fondant for dessert was perfectly cooked, with the center oozing liquid chocolate, just as Jenn likes it.

Once the work week ended, Jenn and I ventured out into the rain on Friday night and had dinner at Monarch, a wine restaurant. We each had a glass of Czech wine because we felt like more than that would put us to sleep. The wine complimented the mozzarella and tomato foam salad, beef carpaccio, and cheese plate. Everything was tasty. It was a perfect meal to end the week.

Instead of going to sleep and getting some rest, which we probably should have done, we took in a late showing of The Social Network at the movie theater not far from our hotel. We both really enjoyed it. I'm not on Facebook, but was really interested in the movie from a business perspective. I've been told that the movie takes a lot of liberties with the story of how the company and site were born, but regardless, as a movie, it worked really well. I'd be interested to read Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires, on which the movie was based. There were a lot things the movie made me think about, but mostly that the site became so successful because of exclusivity and being cool. Now that almost everyone is on it, including parents, grandparents, teachers, bosses, and anyone else you can think of that you wouldn't want looking in on your personal life, is it still cool to be on Facebook? And if not, how much longer will it last? I personally think privacy and not posting status reports every time one changes their child's diaper is cool, but that's for another blog posting.

My sister, Rachel, arrived this morning and met us at the hotel. We switched hotels to be closer to the city center. The Moods hotel is modern and very simple. It's a tight squeeze for the third bed for Rach, but it's only for one night. This is us before bed this evening. Rachel had already crashed. Please note that we did not call up someone from the hotel to take this picture. The camera was on automatic.

We are big believers in hitting the ground running after traveling and not stopping to nap or rest. We find that it is much better for the jet lag. Rachel arrived after breakfast. We stopped for coffee (for her) and hot chocolate (for us) at the Praha Bakeshop. We discovered it on our last trip with my parents and now we can't get enough of it.

We joined a free walking tour that took us around the city center, showing us the highlights, and giving some of the history. I know it was free and you can't ask for much, but the tour guide was kind of an asshole. It was almost like he was on an ego trip about having 40 or so tourists following him around and listening to his every word. He was very rude and patronizing to the entire group. This wasn't our biggest problem. He was way too casual in the way he hit on certain parts of the history of the city that are more serious. I'm not sure if he didn't know what he was talking about, was trying to be funny, or, as mentioned above, really is an asshole. The perfect example of what I'm talking about here is when we were in the Jewish Quarter and he explained that the Jews had "a pretty hard time" in Word War 2. Jenn actually said something to him about it after the tour, so hopefully he took it to heart.

We walked with Rachel across the Charles Bridge, past the John Lennon peace wall, and had a nice lunch at a Thai place called Noi. We then walked up to the castle, stopped in a pub for some good and very cheap beer, and then headed back to the hotel for a break. We lost Rach at this point, but we knew she needed to get some sleep. Jenn and I headed off to dinner. It was very cold, so we didn't want to venture far, and found a pizza place, that wasn't bad.

I was skeptical when Rachel made her plans to come here and was only giving herself two days in Prague, but it looks like that will turn out to be plenty of time as we saw most everything today already. We'll head back to Bratislava on the train tomorrow afternoon. 

Still Here

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because I've been incredibly busy.

Work sent me to Lodz (pronounced "Woodge"), Poland. It's an industrial town, similar to what I imagine Detroit and Cleveland to look like. We stayed at a nice hotel there, the Andel's Hotel, that was connected with a new development (Manufaktura) with shops and restaurants. It wasn't a bad place to be for a week of work. I didn't have the time or energy to visit the Jewish ghetto that contained a couple hundred thousand Jews during World War 2. There is also a large Jewish cemetery that I did not visit. The weather was terrible on the one free day I had, so I went with a co-worker to see a movie at the theater next to our hotel.

We saw Due Date, which wasn't bad; but wasn't necessarily good either. It's a very poor man's "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", though I really shouldn't compare the two as PTAA is a masterpiece and one of my favorite movies. If you've never seen it, it's the perfect Thanksgiving movie, so go rent it (or however it is you watch movies) tonight. You won't be sorry.

The following week was in Paris. Jenn met me there. While Paris does sound awesome, being there for work is very different. The days were extremely long and tiring, but we did find time to eat some crepes, chocolate, French onion soup, and of course, macaroons from Pierre Herme. The world just seems a little better after eating a Pierre Herme macaroon.

On the mornings I didn't have a croissant for breakfast, I had an egg and cheese crepe. I think I'd weigh 1000 pounds if I lived in Paris. And I'd be broke because good lord, it is expensive there.

Over the weekend, even though it was raining, we did a lot of walking around the city and of course did some good eating. We each bought some European shoes, which is very exciting. On Sunday, we went to see this Louis Vuitton Exhibit at the Musee Carnavalet. It was much less horrible than you would think it would be. I hate to admit, but I actually enjoyed it.

Food highlights of note were as follows: French onion soup from Au Pied De Cochon, lunch at Cafe Voltaire, and steak frites at Relais de Entrecote.

Oh, and over the weekend, Jenn found the street she would like to live on one day...