Category: 1 – Photography

Holiday in Switzerland

Posted on by chappyshi

I am in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Christmas holiday visiting my brother and his family.  My parents have flown down from Wales for the holiday also.  My brother’s wife’s niece who attends college in Munich, Germany, is visiting too.  As such, we have a full house but it is quite big enough for all of us to hang together and/or spread out as necessary.  The location is out in the country on a road with three houses, a river in the back yard, and France on the other side.

We have been out and about to the city of Geneva, to the historic town of Gruyere for fondue, to Borc to tour the Cailler Chocolate factory, hit the farmers’ market in Vivonne-les-Bains, France, and walked the burg of Nyon on the shores of Lake Geneva.  As it may sound, we have kept busy touring and also shopping for food for meals and presents for Christmas.  I have taken a number of pictures that I am posting when I can.  They can be seen by accessing the link on the right hand side of my home page under photography.  I’ll add a couple here for convenience.

Visit to the Norfolk Zoo

Posted on by chappyshi

I went to the Norfolk Zoo with Kim and Don yesterday.  It was overcast, windy, and chilly but an enjoyable time nonetheless.  A few of the exhibits were empty due to the weather but that was insignificant.  Kim and I took a bunch of pictures.  I am still working on mine for publishing to my photo album but here are some shots of a particularly brazen peacock.

Dalyan, Turkey, Day 1

Posted on by chappyshi

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I woke up shortly before my 0430 wake up call so I finished packing and getting my poop in group.  Once my call came in I jumped in the shower.  Five hours later I was sipping coffee poolside at the Aydos Club Hotel in Dalyan.  My shuttle driver was running a bit behind schedule.  I debated whether or not I was going to have to cab it when I remembered I had printed out the hotel’s contact info.  Before I could even get that out of my backpack, the driver showed up.  30 minutes or so later I was at the hotel.

Since my family was not going to get in for about six hours, I took the short walk along the river path in to town. There are a number of hotels with riverside cafes along the way that are pretty low key. The closer one gets to town, after about a 10 minute walk, the busier it gets with more densely packed hotels and restaurants.  There is a lot of mostly tourist boat traffic on the river for trips to the beach downriver and the lake upriver.

In town are many more restaurants, tourist shops, and convenience stores.  There is a small town square with a kid’s playground and the mandatory mosque.  I did a quick recon for necessities such as beer and water and returned to the hotel.

Chilling around the pool and/or the pool side bar is the order of the day at any time of the day so that is what I did until my family got in at about at 1530.  I greeted them and we all had a quick catch up before they took the time to get settled in.  Afterward, they all explored the hotel grounds and we all met up for drinks by the pool before dinner. We ate a traditional Turkish dinner consisting of a selection of mezes and meat dishes, including kebabs and fish, by the pool. It was a very nice, relaxing meal which made for a great way to wind up our first day here at the Aydos Club hotel in Dalyan, Turkey.

Istanbul, Turkey, Day 5

Posted on by chappyshi

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It is my last day in Istanbul.  I am leaving for Dalyan, Turkey, tomorrow for a week on the Aegean Sea with family.  I have greatly enjoyed Istanbul I am not sure that will miss it.  After 4.5 days of doing the tourist thing, I am ready for a break.  I remember asking my Uncle Cliff, who will be in Dalyan with us, whether he was interested in seeing Istanbul with me.  His response was that he was not much of a city person which I realize but it was worth asking.

Looking back I realized Cliff would have gone nuts in this city of 17 million natives and God knows how many tourists.  My hotel is at the heart of the tourist district.  All I have to do is walk 200 meters to insanity that lasts from about 0800 until 2000.  The fact that I have seen everything I wanted to see in four days and still have not been in a vehicle is a testament to the location but I am done.  I do not need to see another mosque for quite a while and I look forward to not having some many cool thing to take pictures of if that makes any sense.

I am still an overweight beer swilling slob but at least I got another good day of walking in today.  If ever I could use and enjoy a hot tub, now would be the time.  I think if I were flying home to D.C. today, I would have to be paraplegic so I could manage the flight without my legs driving me nuts. I walked from the hotel to the Mosque of Suleymaniye the Magnificent which was awesome but, as I said, I am starting to feel like a character in the “Red Mosque of Death.”  I am no longer minaready!

From the mosque, which was built on of the seven hills of the city, think Rome, I walked down to the Spice Market and across the street to the Galata Bridge, famous for being a hot fishing spot for locals and a so so place for seafood for tourists.  On the way, I came across yet another huge mosque, the New Mosque.  The fisherman do their thing from both sides on the top of the bridge and restaurants are located underneath with a break in the middle for boats to get through.  My intent was to cross the bridge and go up into Galata tower which was reputed to have the best view over all of the city.

The tower lived up to its reputation but I am lucky I lived walking up to it.  Thankfully there was an elevator that took you up nearly to the top.  There were the usual tourist traps near the top, a restaurant and a night club that no one was really using.  I can see where the club might have been cool, at night with a 360 degree view of the city, including the Golden Horn and Old Districts. I cannot imagine getting down the hill from there after a few drinks though.  Talk about rolling drunks….

Anyhow, after exiting the elevator, you go up two more stories on a spiral staircase…more on spiral staircases later.  The staircase is adequate for one person, one way but had to handle multiple people both ways including those individuals who thought for some dumb reason that they needed to take pictures of each other on the staircase.  Slowly we turn and all that.

The capper, pun intended since we were at the top of the tower, was the instruction to go around the outside viewing area passage way, which was about as wide as the average back street in the Old District, two feet.  The sign clearly said to go around to the right, clockwise. There was no clock wisedom for about half the crew.  As I worked my way around to the right, I battled the idiots that didn’t get the picture.  Oh, and speaking of pictures, did I mention that getting around the viewing area was made difficult not only because of the wrong way Randy’s but because of…wait for it…the people that had to take pictures of each other while on a narrow walkway 100 feet off the ground.

Before I forget, I have to mention that today seems to be the driest day I have had here with a wicked nice breeze blowing off the water.  I have been up on the rooftop terrace for about three hours and am just loving it, Laughing Gulls notwithstanding.

And so, after a lotta Galata, I headed back down from the tower and back across the bridge.  I stopped at a seafood restaurant for lunch which was good but expensive.  I ordered the grill swordfish with a salad.  That came with bread and spices and herb in oil to dip it in.  I only ate have the bread and half the salad but the swordfish came out grilled on a skewer with only five or six pieces on it.  At 55 TL with tip I thought that was pricey but it was recommended.  Once again, I wish I could have had a doggy bag.  I could have cut my meal expense by a third if I could have taken my leftovers with me.

After lunch, I generally followed the tram line back up to Hagia Sophia from where it was a short walk back to the hotel.  As usual, I washed up, read, and cooled off for awhile.  Since then I have been on the rooftop terrace writing and talking to Craig and Karen, the Aussies.  I wanted to work on photos but the brilliant sunshine made viewing the laptop screen difficult enough that doing so was nearly impossible.

I think it is time now to get some grub.  I might see about getting a small pizza so I can save half of it for breakfast tomorrow. Since I am heading off to the airport at 0500, I am not sure what my eating opportunities are going to be in the morning.

I ended up going to the Sultan Hostel Cafe where I had a couple of brews and ordered a the pizza.  I ate half of it and saved the rest for breakfast as planned.  While there there was a woman who I assumed was Turkish.  She looked very pregnant and apparently felt very pregnant.  One of the waiters at the place appeared to be the father of the child.  She was riding him unmercifully.

First she demanded candy and after he brought it to her, she chowed down on 2 or 3 chocolate bars and a bag of gummy worms. Then she ordered some salad that she just shoved into her gaping maw complaining about the food the whole time.  Meanwhile, the future father sat with her to eat a pizza out of which he got only about two slices.  It was pretty funny to watch his coworkers come over and steal slices when he wasn’t looking!

Last night was the Euro Cup soccer final featuring Spain vs. Italy..only a moderately huge rivalry.  They had three wide screens in the place and the manager was, in a very biased manner, giving out the best seats to his cronies.  Eventually he asked ne if I would move over join the pregnant monster at her table.  I was afraid but I agreed.  Come to find out the woman is from Swansee, Wales, and has been teaching preschool for five years in Istanbul.  She was not as far along in her pregnancy as I imagined.  She was at 6.5 months and preparing to head home to have the baby in Wales before she lost her National Health coverage.

She got all excited when told her we were going to Dalyan noting that she had been there a couple of times and really enjoyed it.  I bailed out of the eatery shortly before the soccer match.  It was really filling up w/ spectators and I had no interest in the match so I gave up my seat for someone that cared.  Oddly, I noted on the way back to the hotel that after one block there were hardly any lights on.  I stopped at my usual corner store to get some water where the proprietor told me that power was out all over the district.

That did not seem to be the case because lights were still on in some places. The desk clerk at my hotel told me that power outages are common enough that some places, including hotels were required to have generators.  Of course mine did not have one. Thankfully, as per my custom, I had a flash light with me.  I went in and packed up my bags then went out and chatted up the cabal of desk clerks in the area and the the Aussies, Craig and Karen.

I crashed at about 0030 which was stupid because I had to be up at 0430.  Thankfully it had been a fairly cool day with a strong wind so I opened up my balcony door which made for a comfortable, albeit short, sleep.  the off to Daylan.

On a final note for this entry, if I never see a another spiral staircase again in my life I won’t regret, after repeatedly climbing the spiral staircase up and down three flights between my room and the roof top terrace in my hotel, I am done with them.  They were narrrow and dark and since I was drinking beer on the roof I kept having to go down three flights to my room to use the bathroom.

Istanbul, Turkey, Day 4

Posted on by chappyshi

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Well, again I sit on my balcony at 0600. I hit the fart sac at about 0030 this morning and still woke up at about 0400. I shut off the AC and opened the door to the balcony since the temperature was 70 degrees or less.  Of course the gulls were raucously laughing like drunks at a Robin Williams show but by now I just block them out.  I managed to cheese out a another hour and a half of sleep before succumbing to the avian comedy show.

I spent some time last night on the rooftop terrace chatting up some of the other guests in the hotel.  It was the first time anyone hung out there in the evening other than myself.  I had intended to work on my photo collection, which continues to grow, but that was a wash.  Instead I learned a bit about Jason and his wife, whose name escapes me.  They are both living in Bahrain and stopped here in Istanbul en route Sweden where the wife is from.  Jason, who hails from near Whitefish, Montana, teaches ancient history but I am not sure what his wife does.  She’s been in Bahrain ever since her Dad, who is a tennis pro, moved there.

Craig, who needs to take a chill pill…talks incessantly, and his wife Karen are from Melbourne, Australia.  Craig is an HVAC tech but I am not sure what Karen does.  Her family emigrated to Australia from Holland in the early 1950’s.  They are on a crazy trip that took them from Australia to Holland, Ireland, here in Istanbul for eight days and then they are stopping in Dubai on their way home.  On another human interest note, while having a brew at the Sultan Hostel and Restaurant, one of the waiters saw me reading the Washington Post and asked me where I was from.  I said Washington, D.C. of course. He asked me if I knew where New Jersey was and when I told him I was born there he got all excited.  He had lived in central and norther Jersey for 12 years.

Speaking of the Sultan Hostel and Restaurant which is on the strip hotels, bars, and restaurants near my hotel where I have been hanging out when not seeing the sights, I must address the silly traffic on that road.  Yesterday, early evening, on my fourth day of hanging out there, and enduring the traffic, including tourist bus after tourist bus blowing nasty, hot diesel dike fumes on me, I realized that the level of traffic could not be normal.  There is no way all those eateries almost everyone of which has outdoor, roadside tables, could have survived.

I know from having walked it that the only place that traffic could be going was the coastal highway to which the only route was through a two lane underpass that the tram passed over.  It was no wonder the traffic got so backed up.  I found out from the waiter who had lived in Jersey that, due to road construction, all the traffic including every stinking tour bus, from the tourist area that included Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Underground Cistern, the Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace has to take this route out of the area.  What a buzz kill!

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, I learned a bit more about the area I am staying in.  I misread the directions to Topkapi Palace, my first destination yesterday.  Instead of what should have been a ten minute walk to the Palace entrance, I took an hour walk all the way around the grounds of the palace on the coastal highway path.  As one should have inferred from my previous notes, I needed the exercise.

The morning was beautiful, people were jogging and biking on the path and even at before 1000 in the morning, men were fishing and, apparently, swimming in the, what I have read is not very clean, water.  The landward side of the path consisted mostly of the ruins of what I assumed were the old city walls.  I managed to get all the way back around to the entrance to the official palace grounds by walking through a lovely, shaded stretch of parkland bordered by the palace, a military compound, and the Museum of Islamic Technological History.

The touring agenda yesterday was Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.  Both were a bit overpowering. As previously mentioned, what should have been a ten minute walk to the palace turned into an hour.  By the time I got there the madding crowd had already arrived.  I had to bypass the kitchen area because that was already closed.  Some of the interior parts of the complex had lines so long that I just did not have the patience to wait.  Accordingly, I ambled about, saw what I could, which was a lot, learned a bit about Ottomand history and took lots of pictures.

As has become my routine, I came back to the hotel to rest, read, and cool off for a while before heading back out.  It was recommended that one take the tram to the Grand Bazaar but it was only about 400 meters to the tram and then another 400 meters to the bazaar from there so I hoofed it.  Let me say before I forget that hoofing it around here is not unlike most places I have been in Asia.  The tourists are clueless stopping everywhere and anywhere to take pictures of the sites and their travel mates.  Digital cameras have done for tourism what the Nazis did to Europe.  The locals, probably immune to the rudeness, barrel through the crowds like bulls in Barcelona.

Nonetheless, I made it to the bazaar intact which might have been strange.  Since the bazaar is reputed to be pickpocket hell I didn’t carry my usual load of cameras, binos, accessories, etc., but just took my point and shoot and my travel guide.  The travel guide, which has a suggested tour of the bazaar, was virtually useless.  Once you get inside that maze of corridors in the bazaar you might as well just give up the plan. Having to stop every 30 meters to consult the map and the signs made it pretty difficult to enjoy and get a feel for the place.  I had no intention of buying anything so I did not really need to get anywhere in particular.

As it was I just rambled about totally lost, took some pictures to record the feel of the place, had some lunch and somehow miraculously exited the labyrinth at exactly the point the guide said I should.  800 meters later I was back at the hotel for round two of rest and relaxation, cooling off, reading, and showering up. The best part of the bazaar was stopping for a late lunch at a restaurant recommended by the Rick Steves Istanbul travel guide, Kardeslar (Brothers) Restaurant.  It was tucked up two flights of stairs in a han.  There was a party of Israeli’s eating there with a Texan who obviously live here and one very Oriental looking Turk there when I arrived.  The dining area sat only about about 25 people on an open terrace protected from the sun by an arbor of grape plants.  Speaking Turkish would definitely have helped because I wound up eating what the waiter recommended; stewed meatballs and potatoes, a variety of mezes, and beans.  The food was awesome and, since there was enough food for two people, the price at 29 TL was quite reasonable.  Wish I had a doggy bag…or maybe not…

After that I had intended to have a couple of brews on the rooftop terrace and work on my photos but ended up doing some maintenance tasks such as backing up the photos and wiping the flash disk so I could have a fresh start.  It was then that I met the folks from Australia and then later the folks from Bahrain came up so it turned into social, instead of anti-social hour.  Much later I ended up at the Sultan for a night cap before returning to the hotel for much needed sleep.

And breakfast starts in four minutes.  I have to enjoy this morning since it is my last in Istanbul.  Tomorrow I will be up early again but headed of to my flight to Dalaman and road trip to Dalyan.  More news from there!