Istanbul...Constantinople

Well, here we are now after this and that in Istanbul...Constantinople.  The Greeks wish it were still called Constantinople we've learned...but, it is not.

lipton tea you can have all over the world

You can sing the song if you want, we can't find it on YouTube, it is blocked here (citing a law and code we don't know) so I can't tell you.

the little cafe/gas station
for lunch

 Anyway, Turkey is a whole different country than Greece.  Shortly after crossing the border, we entered into another pastoral setting but this time different.  Much more populated and much fewer empty half built buildings and there are people everywhere.  We drove through several towns with apartments lining hillsides and hugging the roads with the Sea of Marmara just over from the highway.  We ate at a cute little gas station on the way and had good simple food and learned that our Euros are no longer the accepted currency.  I guess we missed that news report in which we learned Turkey had not made it into the European Union yet.  I would keep this lack of knowledge to myself since I wouldn't want anyone to know how sadly behind on the news I am, but I am not alone, it seems, no one in the group (including our travel agent) knew that, so maybe you didn't either.

team pride from our guide Selçuk

We have a new tour guide, his name is Selçhuk and he cheers for Besiktas, one of the two Istanbul soccer clubs.  This is one more time I knew a little bit more about soccer.  Every time Jeff senses a lull in the conversation with a male from anywhere in the world, he whips out some soccer fact and has that guy in the palm of his hand.  Soccer...it magically brings the world together.  (I might market that line, don't anybody steal it.)  I asked our tour guide about the football club he cheers for and he brightened for a minute but lost interest in talking to me the second he realized I had no idea what else to say other than, "Tell me about your Football club."

Extensive information
regarding use of the toilet
hope I didn't get anything
wrong.

I sit in the front of the tour bus like a total grade A student mostly because I don't want to throw up again but it also means that the tour guide has his/her eye on me.  The problem with this is that a little after breakfast, during the four hours we drove this morning when our guide was really getting into the nitty gritty of Turkish/Kurdish/Ottoman history, I totally fell asleep.  I missed most of the narration.  I think I was okay by him though because when I woke up I looked over at him a little ashamed and he asked me if I was Turkish because, he said, I looked like a Turk...I totally should have gone with it since he would have then thought I fell asleep because I already knew it all.  I blew that cover though later when I asked him three questions in a row that he had already gone into in great detail.  He only tells us stuff once, so thank goodness for the internet.

Part of the fortification of old Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul late in the afternoon.  This is one amazing city.  17 million people live here, SEVENTEEN MILLION.  That's a lot. AH-mazing.  For sure one of the coolest places I've seen so far.  It sits on the border of two continents (Europe and Asia) and is divided by the Bosporus Straights.  Like all of the other topography I've described, the city goes up up up from the water and the jamming together of apartments and beautiful mosques and palaces is breathtaking.  It is like an exotic European city.  The streets are narrow and lack organization of any kind, the city itself is a mishmash of colors, design and architecture.  We went to Topkapi Palace (visited relics, saw a huge diamond, some jewel encrusted daggers and there was so much more we couldn't get to, the crowds were huge)  and spent about an hour there but only saw the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sophia from the outside, we plan to visit there tomorrow morning.  Beautiful beautiful beautiful.  It doesn't have the feeling of a middle eastern place even though it is totally Islamic, it feels cosmopolitan and modern in one sense and ancient and reverent in another.  The call to prayer rings out over this very unique city, the reminder of where we are.

The view from the palace

The bazaar by door number 2

Finally, we were let loose in the famous Istanbul bazaar for one whole hour.   We were supposed to stay together, but I just couldn't stand it another second and bolted, telling someone I'd be back in a jiffy.  Two or three or four turns later I was completely lost and the headlines flashed through my brain for a second about a short Turkish woman who spoke like an American wandering for hours.  A pretty good movie could come of it, I think.  Then anticlimactically I found a police woman and asked her where door 1 to the Bazaar was (there are 21 entrances).  I hurried around and found a couple little tiny painted things as a memory of this place.  The man told me they were painted with cat hairs, which I bought hook, line and sinker since I've seen about a million feral cats around that would be useful for such a purpose.

This is a great city.  We are in a hotel in the Asian side, so now I've visited Asia, I guess.  I will totally check that off my bucket list, but I will come back to Istanbul, I promise.

Top 10...or so

Shelly and me having our coffee

In honor of Shelly White, who is on this trip with me, I am going to come up with around 10 things I have learned so far while in Greece.  Shelly has been sending home lists of 10 things each day.  It has taken me three days to come up with ten because there is too much to process.  Shelly said one of the 10 things she learned was that she gets carsick...but not as carsick as me.  Glad I can be of service.

It turns out that originally, the group was supposed to fly into Istanbul on the 23rd of April and then spend a little time in northern Greece before getting on the ship to tool around the Mediterranean...see, I didn't know that because I signed up for this trip so much later.  So, instead of spending the last two days driving as we have (11 hours yesterday and 8 hours today), we would have been here one day less and seen a little more.  Truthfully, we have seen a lot of Greek countryside and only a few memorable monuments/relics/ruins.  Lots of Greek countryside, I repeat.

route from Friday April 25th

Greek Countryside looks a lot like the mountains of North Carolina countryside.  Pretty green covered mountains and some plains.  So, we have had all this driving time and it has given Maria, our tour guide until tomorrow when we cross into Turkey lots of Greek information to share with us.  I have retained a little of it.  I think I might have retained more if we had gotten out of the bus more than twice and actually walked around and seen, touched and smelt the different places we slowed down but still simply drove past.

For instance, I will never forget the green rectangular garbage can where I threw away my motion sickness bag on the side of the highway.  There was a blue garbage can next to it.  It was nice.

Anyway, I have learned more than 10 things, but since I am here and you are there and maybe are interested, I will share some of what I have learned so far.

1.  Those plains I talked about above that are surrounded by pretty green mountains:  those plains are where important battles took place.  The battles took place on the plains because that was often were the food was for both man and beast.  They would fight all day and then fortify themselves and their battlements at night.

2.  Most Greek young adults have moved out of the country looking for work.  There are some here, but in my very informal and unscientific survey, the tour guides' daughters are living abroad for work and the waiter at the restaurant we went to tonight is trying to leave for the Netherlands where he hopes to finish his masters and also get work.  Yes, the economic strain is showing from what I can tell here.  Many many many buildings are either half built or in various stages of disrepair.   So many.

3.  "OK"  means ola kala in Greek, which translates to "always well."

4.  There are over 6,000 islands that make up Greece.  We have seen them only from the bus so far.

5.  The major economic forces in Greece are 1. Greek merchant navy, 2. tourism, 3. agriculture, and 4. money sent to Greece from abroad (from Greeks who live outside of Greece, which I found to be telling and interesting).

6.  Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle who was tutored by Pluto who was tutored by Socrates, which means he had a pretty amazing education.

7.  Harry Truman is beloved by Greeks since he provided financial aid to Greece through the Marshall Plan and Truman doctrine.

8.  We saw in the distance a peninsula called Avadon where there are 20 monasteries by which no woman is allowed within 500 meters.  One must get a special dispensation to visit and stay no longer than 1 night at each monastery...only if one is a male.  Even if flying by helicopter the 500 m rule applies.

9.  The Apostle Paul walked nearly 1400 miles during his missionary journeys.  Which is about how far we have driven, or so it seems.

10.  Alexander the Great said:  "For me, any good foreigner is a Greek, and any bad Greek is worse than a barbarian."  I like that.

We drove another long distance today and were able to get to our hotel outside of Alexandroupolis by around 4:30 this afternoon.  We stopped to see the location where Paul baptized Lydia as one of the first converts in the area of Philippi.  We also saw a prison cell near the place where Paul may have been imprisoned and saw a beautiful amphitheater that at one time would have seated 12,000 people and is still in use today.  It was raining, though, so it wasn't as lovely as it could have been.

commemorating the spot where Paul baptized Lydia

the church ruins in Philippi

I really want to return to Kavala, a pretty town jutting up from the Aegean with houses and apartment buildings nearly standing on top of one another.  It was really pretty there.

Kavala-a beautiful city on the Aegean

Finally, we arrived at our hotel and a few of us took a public bus into town and walked around, found a little cafe and had some fantastic coffee (me a double espresso, it was the best ever) and then, we wandered around until we found a little restaurant for dinner.  We couldn't face another hotel buffet.  And, this little restaurant singlehandedly resurrected my love of Greek food.  It was so good.  Not only that, but it felt like we had experienced a little of Greece the way it was meant to be experienced.

the  food that resurrected Greece for me

As I said, we leave for Turkey and Istanbul is our first stop tomorrow.  It might be another long day of driving.  I have loaded up on dramamine so I am good for the time being.

Good night.
  taking too long to upload pictures and I am tired, I will upload them tomorrow am...

a memorial (one of hundreds) that line the roadsides

BV, IV, AV

No, those aren't my attempt at writing to you in Greek.  Today was a bummer day, I mean, I am in Greece, so it was still awesome, but it had a couple low moments.  Let's just say I got tour bus sick...

I haven't chucked my cookies in years because of motion sickness, but today was my lucky day.  So, I am dividing this day mentally up into three segments...Before Vomit, Imminent Vomit and After Vomit.  Okay, it wasn't like I threw up all day but I had just had an awesome cup of espresso after our first pit stop about  two hours out of Athens and that's when we hit the mountain range.

Much of our route today, couldn't fit in Thessaloniki

Greece is 80% mountainous.  I think we hit a majority of it today and they don't mess around with slow curves around here, nor do they think twice about throwing in several memorial markers noting someone who either died or was in a terrible accident (I would have taken a picture of the hundreds we saw but frankly, I couldn't stomach it.)  A tour bus has two things against it:  first because you are up so high when you take a hairpin curve, you sway back and forth like the Sears tower in a windstorm; secondly, it has awesome shock absorbers which contributes to a bouncing motion when hitting potholes.  Yum.

We drove from Athens to Thessaloniki today.  We mostly drove with only a couple of stops and we started at 8:30 am this morning and arrived around 7:30pm.  It is funny sitting for two days in a row is killer.  I would way rather hike and walk and move, way less tiring.

This place is amazing because, well, it is the birthplace of Western Civilization.  Pretty much everything we do and say and think has been influenced in some way by someone from Ancient Greece.  The Greeks are crazy proud of this, and it is warranted.  Our tour guide, Maria, is a gem, and she filled us in on battles, unique natural phenomenon, philosophers, rulers and it was enough to make your head spin. (My stomach was spinning).  She is a font of knowledge.

In tribute to Boston, we drove by Marathon, site of the battle from which Phedipedes ran 42km or 26.2 miles to tell of the victory there and then dropped dead.   A warning to us all.   It was nestled just outside of Athens and surrounded of course, by mountains.  It was a hard marathon to run, I assume.

We learned some Greek phrases, but at that point, I was in cold sweats and sitting in the jump seat at the front of the bus while the bus driver was looking nervously over at me every 3 minutes.  I will have to follow up on those phrases later.

A view of Meteroa, which means suspended between space and land, like a meteor floating.
You can see one of the monasteries on the right, but there were many.  

The best places we visited today were Meteora, where many monasteries are perched atop jutting rock. It is beautiful, and heavenly.

We also visited Veria (or Berea) where Paul met with the Bereans as chronicled in Acts 17 and they evaluated carefully everything he said.  We went to see the three steps that they feel is the exact spot (more or less) that Paul stood and shared his Good News.

Thessaloniki in Greek road signs

Now, for the night we are in Thessaloniki, as I said.  We got here in time for dinner and a couple of us walked around the city for a bit after dinner even though we are gratefully ready for bed.  It is a very European city and I, of course, forced my companions into a little bakery where we all sampled some variations of baklava, it was the best, and also it was fun to walk around.

The little bakery we visited.  

My walking partners

I hope to see more of the city tomorrow, it is beautiful and cosmopolitan.  We have another full day tomorrow so I am heading off to bed now.

PS.  Sorry food didn't make much of an appearance in this post.  So far, it has been fair, mostly tourist stop foods.  I also wasn't hungry.

Greeceward Bound

Well, I didn't know at all I would be going on a trip to Greece and Turkey 13 days ago, but here I am and I made it.

There is nothing to report that is significant, we flew a long time, had a long layover in Chicago and one in Munich and arrived in Athens at nearly 7pm (Athens is 8 hours later than Central Time in MN).

My first view of Greece from the window of the plane.

We drove to the hotel in our big touring bus. There are 28 women in this group and we could have probably all fit into something smaller, but it feels more touristy in the bus...which is just what we are after.

So far, I have seen the site where the 2004 Olympics were held...it is run down and many of the storefronts we passed on the way here were shuttered or plain empty...economic downturn?  We saw the Aegean, met our tour guide for the next three days and she told us lots of interesting facts.  I retained very few, but definitely heard that I should pick up some olive oil while I am here...twist my arm.  Although, not sure how I would get it home.

We stay at our hotel in Athens just one night and then we drive several hours to Thessaloniki tomorrow

, leaving in the morning.

There is the promise of delicious Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts for breakfast tomorrow.  I better head to bed, even if I am not tired, I don't want to sleep through that!

Dinner tonight at the hotel, I was so excited for Greek food, I had to try it all, although I had more plates than anyone, which was sort of embarrassing.  It was fine, good tabbouleh, but nothing to write about.

The Franklin Effect

We had no idea that our trip to Texas ended the minute we finished eating at Franklin BBQ.  We didn't realize that the energy had been sucked out of us.  All motivation was gone - smoked out of us like the connective tissue in a 22 hour smoked brisket.

It is hard to explain what happened to us after eating the best BBQ in the world - and perhaps the best meal I have ever partaken.  Janna and I were shot.  All our chips were in and we had even used up the house money.  Franklin BBQ was so good, that nothing seemed worth eating.  We had no desire to eat anything after that, much less some other variant of BBQ, which would surely be kindergarten compared to Harvard.

Kreuz and Smitty's were of no interest.  In fact, we couldn't eat at any more restaurants.  We instead walked to Whole Foods on Friday after stopping by Book People (bookstore).  We got salads and sandwiches. We went back to the hotel and sat by the pool.  It was cool, sunny and windy.  We tried our best to come out of our food coma from the day before, but nothing seemed worth it.  We were basically depressed.  It is like the feeling I have dreamt of when I envision the Vikings winning the Superbowl - that feeling of realization that there is no better feeling.  The day after winning the Superbowl you are not winning the Superbowl anymore - that was yesterday.  But not only that.  The journey is over.  Now what?  You can't win your first Superbowl a second time.  I have heard hunters say that the hunt is better than the kill.  Well, when you have hunted for good food for 20 years and then you, perhaps, stumble upon the best food in the world, is the hunt over?

No.  It's not.  I know that.  Deep down inside I know that there is better food out there.  But that doesn't mean I shall soon forget Franklin.  His BBQ imprint on my soul was branded with a hot iron.  We just need a couple of days to let that brand scar over.

The Franklin Effect changed our plans.  No more attempts at good food.  In fact, no more Texas.  We needed to get out of Texas ASAP.  And it wasn't just me and Janna.  The kids had been in there pajamas as much as possible since Franklin.  It seemed that our Texas journey had come to a ceremonial end - either that or the smoke put some kind of spell on us.

I called Delta and changed our flight.  We cut our trip short.  Lockhart would have to wait.  We hopped on the earliest flight out of Austin - Saturday at 6:30am.  We were on the ground in Minneapolis by 9:15am.

Spring Break was over.  We saw San Antonio, the Hill Country, and Austin.  We ate delicious meals, spent good time with family, and saw some of what Texas has to offer.

And we ate at the best BBQ in Austin - perhaps the best BBQ in Texas.  Maybe in the USA.  Perhaps in the world.

Oh. My. Heavens.

Best meat I have ever had.  Hands down.  No doubt.  Insane.

Sorry.  Getting ahead of myself a bit.

Woke up relatively early to work out, shower, and then walk to Franklin BBQ.  I was walking thru Austin by 8:35 and reached my destination at 8:55am.  Once there, I stood in line…for 3.5 hours.

Line stretched around the back of the building.  My rental chair is the pink one.

A little backstory is probably needed here.  Austin is known for its BBQ.  The process of smoking meats is something that people take very seriously.  It is an art and a science.  It is also a religion.  In 2008/9 a dude in a food truck started pumping out BBQ that quickly gained local star status.  People would wait in line for hours to get some of his meats.  Aaron Franklin's BBQ was special and he soon opened a brick and mortar restaurant.  The store is open from "11:00am till gone" and the line forms as early as 6:30am, according to local lore.

For a newcomer to impress Austinians is impressive.  But to impress the nation is insane.  Franklin's is the best.  After eating there, I truly believe that.  I just don't know how it could be done better.

Sorry, I will slow down.

Duder's clipboard.  B is for Brisket.

Finally the front door.

I got in line behind a couple that had driven straight thru the night from Isanti, MN.  I was in front of a guy from Melbourne, Australia.  This place is famous, and everyone knows the drill.  I stood for about a half hour before renting a chair for $5 (a local entrepreneur, not Aaron Franklin, rents out chairs to people standing in line).  At about 9:30, the employees start milling around outside, chatting with the people in line.  At about 10 a dude with a clip board canvassed the line to get an idea how much meat was going to be ordered.  They get a good idea and tell the end of the line the good or bad news regarding the brisket.  The brisket rarely makes it all the way to the end of the line.

I was told by the dude with the clipboard that I would make it to the door by 12:00 or so.  He was right.    That is when Janna and the girls met me after they had done a tour of the Capitol.  From the door it was a half hour before we hit the counter where you can order.

Inside.  Only 25 minutes to go!

Let me just say that the employees were over the top friendly.  It made the experience even more entertaining.

We over ordered as always.  Brisket, Pulled Pork, Ribs, Sausage, and Turkey (made into sandwiches - good choice).

Out.  Ra.  Geous.

The meat is so tender and so perfectly seasoned (only salt and pepper!) that I could not put sauce on it.  I hope you heard that correctly.  No sauce.  Sure, there is sauce on the table, but I could not do it.  And I LOVE sauce.  Love it.  But I couldn't do it.  The meat was falling apart and every bite was seasoned perfectly.  Every meat I tried sucked me in.  I could not stop eating the ribs (with no sauce!), but then I tried the brisket again.  My mouth is watering just rethinking it.  Then the pulled pork.  Oh, and that turkey sandwich - I only got one bite because my kids devoured it.


Confession: I ate with my hands.  A fork seemed out of place.

It would be very difficult for me to think of a better meal that I have had.  Certainly there has never been a meat that I have eaten that could compare to this.  The 3.5 hours I waited in line did not seem enough.  I would have waited 24 hours - easily.

I could go on and on.  Totally insane.

On campus at UT.  Quinn is smiling!

From there we went on a walking tour of the University of Texas campus.  Quinn was in heaven.  She so badly wants to go to college, and now she has a new favorite school.  Students were milling around between classes.  It was fun.

After that we hopped in the car and went to Allen Boots - a local, famous boot shop.  We bought some stuff and then decided to make Shelby's dreams come true by going to a mall and seeing the new Muppet movie.  I slept thru most of it.

Waiting for the bats.

We then raced to the Congress Ave Bridge so that we could see the bats.  They fly out at dusk by the hundreds of thousands.  Kinda cool (I was expecting more).  After some crepes from a food truck (love the food trucks!), we headed home.

A good day.

Crepes.

Enchanted Rock

Climbing Enchanted Rock.

We checked out of the Y.O. by 9am and headed toward Fredericksburg.  North of Fredericksburg is Enchanted Rock, which is a large granite mound of rock that is bursting out of the earth - very much like Stone Mountain in Georgia.  We were there by 10am and started hiking immediately.  We had been hoping to do more hiking in the hill country, but, quite frankly, there are not really many hiking trails.  It makes sense, tho.  This is Texas, the land of horses and oil.  Hiking would have a tough time surpassing cars and horses in this state.  That said, if this beautiful land was in Switzerland, there would be countless marked trails criss-crossing the region.

Bluebonnets everywhere.

But Enchanted Rock offered to scratch our itch.  We put in a total of 6.5 miles over 3+ hours, including a hike to the summit.  It was awesome and the girls were all in.  Quinn and Shelby led the way.  No one complained.  Everyone finished strong.  I was very proud of them.

The girls at the summit.

From there we made it back to Fredericksburg for a late lunch.  Hondo's on Main.  This place is great.  First of all, they have menus on a table outside with sign telling you to pick what you want before you come in and give your order at the bar.  At that point, they give you a buzzer and tell you to grab a table.  When your food is ready, the buzzer goes off and you go to "the window" and pick up your food.  Not a lot of hand holding here.  Just a lot of figure-it-out.  Hondo's looks like it rocks in the evenings.  It smells like a yeasty fraternity house and has a stage where I can only imagine live music plays often.  There was also a second stage outside.  

Death Burger.

Tortilla Soup.

The food was great.  Tortilla Soup, Ham and Cheese sandwiches, Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, Frito Pie, and my favorite, the Death Burger - a perfectly cooked half pound of ground beef, onions and peppers, topped with more peppers.  Delicious.

After some window shopping (Fredericksburg really deserved more of our time, it is a very cute town with lots of shops to hit on Main Street), we headed East to Austin.

It was almost 5 by the time we got to our hotel.  A DoubleTree that is super nice.  The creepy Y.O. is a distant memory now (oh, when I checked out, I asked the person at the Y.O. why it was so quiet there.  She just smiled and assured me it gets really busy on the weekends.  I asked when the busy season was - she said it's always the busy season, except for November and December.  ?  I dunno, I am extremely confused.  The Y.O. mystery will go unsolved for now).

We drove to dinner at 6:30.  Destination: Via 313, the hottest pizza joint in town.  We were surprised to find out that the Via 313 is actually a food truck.  It is in a part of town where other food trucks are "permanently" parked.  It is something out of a State Fair meets Iron Chef meets circus carney.  I guess this little corner of Austin teams with people during the lunch hour, when downtown workers descend on this area for a quick and decent meal.  The Via brags about it's "Detroit-style" pizzas (new to me), which are really akin to a Little Caesars or Rocky Rococos (Via is similar only in shape and style, not in taste or quality).  The pizzas are square panned, and have a thick, airy crust, a rich sweet sauce and quality toppings.  Enough people want these pizzas that we got ours 30 minutes after we ordered.  We ate them on a picnic table covered in bird poop right next to the truck.  Crazy, but fun.  Via 313 was well worth it.

BTW, if I lived in Austin, I would hit each and every food truck on this corner.  All looked awesome.  Something to come back to, I guess.

Are you kidding me?  Who wouldn't eat that!

From there we drove to the Central Market, which is similar to Whole Foods, but less presumptuous.  We picked up some stuff for breakfast (we have a full kitchen in our DoubleTree room, yeah!) and some coffee and desserts.

Central Market cheese isle.  Better than Byerly's,

Austin is so cool.  Obviously very different from San Antonio.  The Mexican/Spanish influence is gone.  In its place is an artistic feeling dominated by music.  The entire town feels like more like a Dinkytown and Uptown mix.  Hipsters, college kids, yuppies, foodies and live music on every block.  Quinn is in heaven.