Photos from Turkey

My photo album from my Turkish travel adventures is now posted online. Please click here to be directed to the online photo album. Once you see the album, click on a photo to enlarge it. I recommend clicking on the first photo and then progressing through in order by clicking "Next" above each photo.

I'm delighted to spit this stuff out

Turkey's national candy is called Turkish Delight. Also known as loukoum, this confection is comprised primarily of starch and sugar, and is often flavored with rosewater (Sorry, but I have no idea what that is.) and lemon. Turkish Delight is characterized by a jelly-like and sticky consistency, and is often packaged and eaten in small cubes that are dusted with sugar to prevent sticking. Some types contain small nut pieces, such as pistachio. Further, one out of one Catons agree that it tastes like crap; truly an insult to the senses.

Everybody get jingoistic with it!

During my first day in Turkey, I was taken aback by the quantity of Turkish national flags that were draped about the city. The city was literally awash with crescent moons. Turkish flags were festooned everywhere I went: hanging from the mosques, flying from everything that even resembled a flag pole, on the side of every large building visible from the Bosphorus, and in nearly every child's hand. While Turkey has a perfectly nice flag, I initially found all this more than a little disconcerting. That red and white flags were plastered to the side of anything stationary seemed - to me, at least - eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And I think we can all agree that the rise of Nazism was not one Western civilization's proudest moments.

Fortunately, I was walking outside Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque one night and found a large banner (which the Turkish government had been kind enough to translate to English). As it would happen, October 29 is Turkey's "Republic Day," which commemorates the formation of the Republic of Turkey (and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire) on October 29, 1923. This, it turns out, explained the abundance of flags; the Turks were simply celebrating an annual holiday. Well, in that case, break out the flags! Surely there are a few spare square centimeters that don't have one yet...

Invading Istanbul (though I'm not exactly the first to do so)

People have been fighting over the city of Istanbul for centuries: Istanbul has been besieged countless times by invading armies and has served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). During this time, the city has gone through more name changes than Jackie Kennedy. Since 667 BC, the city has had at least ten monikers, the most famous of which include Byzantium, Constantinople, Stamboul, and, naturally, Istanbul. Interestingly, Istanbul prides itself as the only major city to straddle two continents. The city is bisected by the Bosphorus Strait, which may resemble a river to the untrained eye. The Bosphorus, however, is a narrow strip of water that connects two seas – the Mediterranean Sea (via the Sea of Marmara) and the Black Sea. The eastern side of the city is called the “Asian” side, while the western side is the “European” side.

Istanbul straddles the East and the West not only geographically, but culturally as well. Despite its rather tumultuous history, Istanbul seems to have extracted the best that every passing culture had to offer and has subsequently incorporated these good bits into its own persona. The shopping areas, for instance, boast a distinctively European flair; I was reminded that I was in a Muslim city only when the city’s 2,000 mosques emitted their regular (and cacophonous) calls to prayer. Istanbul is not, however, just a city of mosques (many of which are architectural masterpieces); you can also find churches and synagogues. Even better, nobody seems the least bit interested in blowing any of them up.

And, while you’re enjoying not getting blown up, you can explore a captivating city. If you're a shopper, you'll love the fact that Istanbul is awash with (sometimes aggressive) vendors of Oriental rugs and other decorative arts (So I’m told. I didn’t devote even one moment to shopping during my visit.). You can also toss back some of the most delicious food you’ll ever encounter (Turkish food is quite similar to most other Mediterranean foods, so it’s heavy on olive oil, chickpeas, lamb, and such. That said, the Turks seem to have devised a method to make these simple ingredients taste better than most other Mediterranean cooks.) The streets (particularly on the European side of the city) are spotlessly clean, the architecture is breathtaking, and, if you visit during October (as I did), you’ll enjoy sublime weather.

In short, it’s easy to see why everyone’s been bickering over Istanbul for centuries; the place is fantastic. If you’ve ever considered visiting Istanbul, I’ve got a bit of advice for you: do.

Photos from Greece

My photo album from my Greek travel adventures is now posted online. Please click here to be directed to the online photo album. Once you see the album, click on a photo to enlarge it. I recommend clicking on the first photo and then progressing through in order by clicking "Next" above each photo.

I flew 6,000 miles for this?

I'm beginning to think that the writers at The Onion had it right in their analysis of Greece: "Ancient Greece was the birthplace of art, science, democracy, medicine, and philosophy. Today, however, the nation has more important things to do than contribute to the advancement of the human race."

If you've ever considered visiting Athens, I've got a bit of advice for you: don't. If you must, ensure that you've included Athens only as part of a much broader itinerary (I hear the Greek isles are lovely, but the resorts were mostly closed during my visit in October.).

"Now Caton," you say, "what's so bad about Athens?" Well, I'll tell you. Put simply, there's almost nothing to do. On the first morning, for instance, we left our hotel full of energy and wonder, ready to tackle this new city. So, we walked to the Acropolis (If you're keen to be particular, it should actually be called "The Acropolis of Athens" since it's one of many such sites. In ancient times, the Greeks typically built an acropolis - the word literally means "high city" - in all key cities, so the Acropolis at Athens was by no means the only acropolis. It was one of many acropoleis.), climbed to the top, ooh'd and ahh'd at the ruins (This took all of one hour. The Acropolis is surprisingly diminuitive.), then walked back down for a long lunch (The fact that the lunch was long had nothing to do with our personal preferences and everything to do with Greek notions of table service.)

Afterwards, we visited an ancient bathhouse just outside the Acropolis, where I received a tongue-lashing from the guards (To be fair, I probably deserved it; I was climbing on a bit of the ruins as if it were a jungle gym, but at least somebody was having fun.). This second "national treasure" took 15 minutes to explore.

Unimpressed, we then walked over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which consisted of: (1) some admittedly impressive Greek columns standing in a field; (2) a lawn with no grass; and (3) a surprising quantity of "Do Not Touch" placards. It's as if they were daring me to touch something. I resisted (mostly), for the entire 20 minutes we spent there.

And that was it. After a scant four hours of touring Athens – the majority of which were spent awaiting a Greek salad – we had seen the wonders of Athens. I looked over my map in desperation – surely I had missed some ancient wonder that we had yet to see – but no; we were indeed finished. I turned to Drea, who appeared similarly puzzled:

Me: Well, we're done. But we've we got six more days to burn. And I'm not so sure that I want to spend them here.

Drea: Me neither. This place reminds me of Matamoros (Matamoros is an infamously unattractive border town just across the border from Brownsville, Texas.), except dirtier.

Fortunately, I'm not the type of person to let one bad decision ruin a vacation, so I proposed a change to the itinerary:

Me: How about Istanbul? It's a quick flight over. Let's go there.

Drea: Istanbul? Are you sure that's safe?

Me (I had no idea whether or not Istanbul was safe): Of course it's safe! It's like Disneyland, but with mosques. Oh, that, and the occasional holy war, but they haven't had one of those in quite some time now. The Christian crusaders and the Muslims eventually tired of fighting and they've kissed and made up for the time being.

Drea: Well, okay.

Me: Sweet!

So, we went back to the hotel's internet café, booked a flight to Istanbul online, and woke up the next morning at 5 to catch a flight aboard Olympic Airlines – Greece's national airline – to Istanbul.

KLM helps me to "travel light."

After a somewhat arduous journey to Athens (Note: If you ever fly via Continental’s hub at Newark, you will encounter delays. Thanks to one inexplicably cancelled flight, two delayed flights, and a broken jetway, we were forced to take a rather circuitous route to Athens, complete with an unplanned stop in Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, by the way, was a monument to efficiency and modernity. So, kudos to the Dutch for their airport.), we immediately set to getting ripped off by the local taxi drivers (Well, this was after we spent an hour submitting claims for our lost luggage to the airline, but that’s another matter).

After a long and expensive taxi ride into the city center, we dropped off our hand luggage at the hotel (You’ll recall that our actual luggage had not yet arrived. This confused the taxi driver to no end; since we didn’t resemble the typical American tourist with loads of luggage, he couldn’t decide to which degree we should be ripped off.) and headed out for a meal. After getting lost repeatedly (My keen sense of direction is no match for the mess of streets known as Athens.), we finally found a suitably overpriced restaurant in an area filled with other tourists, and settled down for a much-deserved meal. I ordered moussaka, a traditional Greek casserole consisting primarily of ground/minced beef and eggplant, and Drea enjoyed a bit of spanakopita, which is little more than a puff pastry filled with spinach and cheese, though it is, admittedly, delicious. After a rather long dinner (Invariably, I found table service in Greece to be slow to a truly shocking degree; I once waited 90 minutes for a lunch that consisted of nothing more than a Greek salad.), we trudged back to the hotel for some well-earned rest.

I Need a Vacation

Note: As many of you will be keen to point out, my “Round the World” travel didn’t officially commence until December 29, when I took off for Peru. That said, my decision to undertake a global journey was cemented (though perhaps not known to others) by August 2007. Therefore, I’ve decided to include all travels after August 2007 in this travelogue. If this is unsuitable to you, please send me an email detailing your grievances, which I will promptly ignore.

I needed a vacation. After reviewing my calendar, I realized in August 2007 that I hadn’t take a real vacation (i.e., more than two consecutive days away from work) in at least 10 months. Fortunately, due to extensive business travel around the world, I’d amassed an impressive arsenal of Continental OnePass miles, so this journey could be completed at minimal cost. So, during a brief visit to my Dad’s house in August, I called up my friend Drea to see if she’d like to go on vacation with me. The conversation went a bit like this:

Me: “Hi Drea! How are things?”

Drea: “Oh, hey. How are you?”

Me (ignoring her question): You haven’t been on vacation in a good while, right? I didn’t wait for her to answer. So, I think you should join me on my next vacation.

Drea: Um, okay. Where are you going?

Me: Well, I haven’t planned that yet. But I’m pulling up the Continental Airlines route map on the Internet. Okay, here it is. Oh yes! Let’s go to Buenos Aires!

Drea: I’ve never been all that interested in South America.

Me: What? Your name is Andrea Garza! Your grandparents didn’t even speak English and were immigrants from Mexico. How can you not be interested in your own culture?

Drea: Right. My family is of Mexican descent. That’s got nothing to do with Argentina.

Me: Well, I know, but I was hoping that I could sway you with my mock indignation.

Drea: Nope. But good try.

Me: Thanks. Well, fine then. Okay, I’m looking at the map now. The weather will be awful in October, so let’s nix the UK. Studied abroad in Spain, so that’s out…”

Drea: I’ve never been to Paris. I’ve always wanted to go there…

Me (ignoring Drea again as I continue to think aloud): So, that eliminates all of western Europe. Oh! It says here that Continental just began service to Athens. I’ve never been there. How about Greece? We can look at loads of old stuff there. You were a History major; you love old stuff!

Drea (by now rather bemused): Okay. That sounds fine.

Me: Done deal.

And that was that. On October 10, 2007, I was off for Athens.