Not Constantinople

It's our last full day in Istanbul - sob!!! Tomorrow, Sonia flies home to Melbourne and Phil and I head back to Munich.

The question for today is "how can we not order that incredible breakfast we had the other day". "I know it was really too huge, but how can we not order it?"


Olives, honey, pear jam, salad, pepper chutney, grilled haloumi


Turkish cheeses


Menemen - tomato, egg, onion and capsicum


It took FOUR photos to capture the epic "Aegean for 2" breakfast. It was as good as it looks - but we did resist it today...

This dilemma captures the tenor of our week in Istanbul. Not that it's all about food - more that we have only had good choices.



Okay, some of it was about food... Sonia treated us to afternoon tea at the gorgeous Pera Palace Hotel

Do we spend half a day in our apartment on our terrace with one of our visiting cats?? More on this below.

Or wander around the neighbourhood peeking into antique shops, ceramic studios and jewellery stores? Or sit in a cafe for an hour or two drinking the sort of cold drip filter coffee that the Greeks can only dream of making - Nescafe begone!!.

Or walk the streets patting the beautiful cats? Or do some actual sightseeing of the beautiful Bosphorus, mosques and markets?? Only good choices. We've basically spent the week doing all of the above.

I think our experience in Istanbul this week has been massively boosted by our neighbourhood, Cihangir. It's a relatively quiet (for Istanbul - so actually not that quiet) residential area wedged in between Galata and Taksim.

Every other spot we've been to in Istanbul has been veritably thronging with crowds... There are 14 million residents in Istanbul and it seems like almost as many tourists at some of the sightseeing hot spots!! But our (very confusing) local streets were lively without being nuts.

Cat-stanbul

Without doubt, one of my favourite things about Istanbul - and especially Cihangir - is the beautiful cats. There is no way to describe how many cats there are wandering around.

I tried to look up an estimate of the number of cats in Istanbul, and Wikipedia was simply not up to the task. Phil suggested a plethora of cats. But even that's not sufficient. There is a cat every 15 metres or less. Does that give you an idea??

I am in heaven. I have taken a seriously crazy number of cat photos this week. Cats on cars, cats on balconies, cats on shop awnings, cats snoozing on vespas. They are pretty much all clean, friendly and healthy to boot - at least partly because half the city leaves cat food outside their doors!

This morning we arrived at the cafe for breakfast. This one was already seated at our table:


We just manoeuvred around her and she slept there while we ate


Then this other kitty jumped onto my lap and sat there for half an hour soaking up the sun... I tried to feed her some gozleme, but she obviously had better prospects elsewhere.

And as if that's not enough for this cat lover, we have had not one but two cats turn up on our fourth floor balcony and let themselves in (okay, maybe I let them in). They make themselves very much at home:


Phil called this one Patty Hearst... So untrue - she comes and goes as she pleases!!


I got a quick shot in before this one was shooed off the kitchen bench and "re-educated" about indoors behaviour

Things to love about Istanbul - besides cats

We've kept ourselves busy, despite the luxuriously slow pace. We've visit the Galata tower (worth it for the 360 degree views), the Egyptian spice market, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Gulhane Park, Galata bridge and the Istanbul Modern art gallery.


Views from the Galata tower

I just loved the colour and life in the spice market! Heaped piles of orange turmeric, multi-coloured teas, Turkish delight, vine leaves for dolmades, nuts and sultanas.


Nuts as far as the eye can see...

The Blue Mosque was my other top sight. It is the first mosque I've ever been to - it was stunningly beautiful with the softest carpets underfoot.

I loved just wandering around the steep streets and catching glimpses of life:


This is veggie delivery Istanbul-style


The LGBT pride parade went right past our street yesterday


Taksim square shopping at night - absolutely packed!!

This has definitely been a fun and indulgent city visit!!

Of course, nothing lasts forever - even more so when you're travelling... So tomorrow we hop on a Lufthansa flight back to Munich where we started our Euro journey almost 3 months ago.

Our plans are wide open at this stage. I think it's time to finally make good on the rollerblade plans and grab a pair in Munich!! Stay tuned for some no-doubt embarrassing tumbles...

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Happy birthday Sonia

Sonia Palmer, yurt expert

Istanbul is a city everyone seems to rave about. Even those who hated the tea, or the cats, or the heat, still love Istanbul.

It is is an ancient city, it's been the centre of empires and the point where the East meets the West. So there are plenty of great reasons to come to Istanbul and both Phil and I have had it on our must-see list for a while. But the main reason we are in Istanbul now is to meet up with my mum - Sonia - and celebrate her 70th birthday!!

If I'd known about the cats, it might have been reason enough for a visit. Look!!!


There is an empty lot in the next street from our apartment that has a litter of these insanely adorable kittens... I am visiting 2x daily!


I am straight up losing my mind from the cuteness of the kittens...I'm up to about 200 photos of cats in 3 days... I wonder when one can refer to this as a "pathology"?


I mean, give a girl a break...

Anyway, back to Sonia. She has just finished a tour of the Silk Road, taking her through China, and then a tour through some
off-the-track spots in Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. Her final stop was Istanbul, so we encouraged her to stay an extra week so we could meet her for her bday.

Sonia always has awesome travel stories. This trip she visited yurts, rode camels in the desert, saw camels in the snow(!?!?!) and managed to arrive in Georgia the day after all the animals escaped from the zoo. She said, "oh yes, the tigers were still running around and killing people the day we got there". OMG - only mum.

She also told us that their local guide in Turkey (who had all the $$$ for the whole tour group) disappeared with all the cash, leaving them to rock up to their hotels only to be told that the reservations have been cancelled because no one paid the hotel! It all worked out in the end...

The big b'day
So today was the big day and we were all excited to spend it together. There is something wonderful about celebrating a birthday while on holidays. But the drawback is it can be harder to arrange a whole day of awesomeness because you don't really know the place and you're taking a gamble on trying new places.

Let me end the suspense... the day could not have turned out better. It started with Sonia finding her diamond earring (a 60th bday present from Lex and I) on the bathroom floor, which she dropped on the floor yesterday and we couldn't find ANYWHERE despite a very thorough search. A good omen, perhaps?

We had seen a cute cafe/ gallery just around the corner from our rented apartment called Heirloom yesterday and decided to give it a go for b'day brunch. It looked great with a lovely courtyard:


The cafe was actually quite full when we arrived...

Our brunch was delicious and I whispered in the ear of the manager that it was Sonia's birthday and could he bring a little cake. This was the result:



The whole cafe sang happy birthday!!!

It turned out that Heirloom is not just a cafe but also a gorgeous guesthouse and the owner, Dilek, gave us a tour and filled us in on the history of the place.

I would definitely stay at Heirloom next time I visit Istanbul. Dilek was so generous and hospitable (refusing to charge for the birthday muffin and gifting a postcard that Sonia liked "for her birthday"). The guesthouse has been beautifully restored and looked so inviting, I could have moved in immediately.

That being said, our current airbnb apartment is great. The best feature is a wonderful balcony with views of the Galata:



Views from our balcony

Our neighbourhood - Cihangir - is filled with great cafes, antique shops, art galleries and ceramic studios. We are in (shopping) heaven here and made the most of it this afternoon with some bday purchases. And yesterday with some purchases and probably tomorrow with... well, you get it. I have been in a non-buying mode for quite a while now - and more so on this trip - so a few splurges at Sephora was an extra treat!!

This evening, we had dinner at a restaurant called Nicole that was conveniently located 5 mins walk away. The view was magnificent, and so was the whole evening:


Gawd, I love a sunset!!


View over the Bosphorus


There's some artichoke buried in there...

Perfect days are rare, even travelling days. But today was just perfect - and it's 12.02am so no jinxes!!

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Duck, Duck, G(r)eese... and Turkey

Our Grexit

After three glorious, super relaxing weeks in gorgeous Greece, it's finally time to leave. It's our Greek exit - Grexit*!

*Grexit is also what the non-stop news coverage has termed Greece's potential exit from the Euro. The coverage is on hyper drive at the moment because there's a big meeting tomorrow on Greece's debt repayment.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from our trip to Greece, given the economic crisis. At one point, I was wondering if it would be better not to go at all.








But I'm so glad we did. Greece has been a fantastic trip - it is stunning and filled with the nicest people!

My worst case scenario persona was imagining protests, riots, banking collapse and general despair. But there has been barely a hint of the crisis we keep seeing on the news. The people we have met are friendly and welcoming and the shops, cafes, restaurants etc are full.

It seems from the news coverage that a lot of people have been badly impacted by the economic issues. But from the glimpse of an outsider, the Greek spirit is strong... buffered by friends, family, good food, a frappe and some Greek worry beads to hand.

It's not exactly polite to broach the topic with someone you met five minutes ago... but this morning our taxi driver shared his view on the way to the airport, laughing heartily, "I was poor with the drachma, now I'm poor with the Euro!"

We did bump into some riot police on the way home from a late dinner on Friday night who had roped off several roads and told us to change our route because it wasn't safe... but then nothing seemed to happen that night at all.

Athens
Anyway, we spent our last week in Athens, and went a bit museum crazy.

In addition to the Acropolis and Byzantine museums I mentioned last post, we went to the main Benaki museum which was filled with antiquities and its other branch across town had an impressive photography exhibition. Phil loved the photography exhibition so much, he went twice!

We hit the Acropolis and the shopping district and walked through a few different neighbourhoods just trying to soak it all in.



At the Acropolis... I was melting from the heat in this pic

We also ate many, many, many Greek salads, drank plenty of frappes - and at one point (may have been after a glass of wine at lunchtime), I managed to walk into the men's restrooms in the very posh Cafe de Athenes, much to Phil's amusement.

Apparently, he was onto it the moment I walked in. I noticed nothing. How mortifying right? Except, I couldn't even work up to mortification!! I think I'm in what's called a holiday bubble...

Living with cats
One of the highlights of the stay was our accommodation. Our first airbnb apartment with Louise was gorgeous and once it was just Phil and I, we moved to a smaller place across town... with cats!


Playful Leila... check out those amazing eyes


Slightly grumpy Titoo

It's pretty unusual to find an apartment on airbnb that includes pets, so I jumped at the chance to spend some time with some kitties (I've been missing my own...) and it was so nice!! As nice as cuddling reluctant cats in 36 degrees with no air con could be!Totally worth it though.

Istanbul!!

And now, we're in Istanbul! There was only the option of a flight or a 14 hour bus, so we took our first plane trip since I arrived in February.

The GOMP hates everything about air travel, declaring the 1.5 hour flight "slightly better than a 14 hour bus ride". But then he assented to a taxi to the airport, so I think he's going soft...

We have only been in Turkey for a couple of hours and we have already seen wonders of nature... No, not the Bosphorus. We've barely made it out of the airport!!

Let me explain. Sonia Palmer, aka, my mum is flying into Istanbul tomorrow morning and Phil and I are spending just over a week with her in an apartment.

We flew from Athens to Istanbul, arriving today at 5pm and she arrives tomorrow morning at 6.30am. So rather than make a trip into town and then back to the airport, we decided to spend the night at the airport hotel and swing by to pick her up in the (very early) morning.

On arrival, we noticed a couple of restaurants just next to the hotel and decided to check them out for dinner, without a great deal of optimism for authentic Turkish fare. Which was spot on. But we got something even better... Turkey in Turkey!! Like this sort of turkey:


Gobble, gobble - he really made that sound...

We had stumbled into a restaurant with large garden and pond filled with ducks, chickens, geese (and adorable baby geese) and this guy above. Just strolling around the yard like he owned the place. I was beside myself and tried to take as many pics as possible.


Awww... Look at these little guys...

The strangest thing about the restaurant was that everyone was just sitting there eating, as though it's normal to have a giant preening turkey wandering around a restaurant. Weirdos!!

So what are the plans?
It's my mum's birthday on Wednesday, so I've booked a nice place for dinner to celebrate, but apart from that, we have no plans at all in Istanbul.

There's a lot to see, but we have 8 days and I'm looking forward to just letting the city tell us what to do.

I'll keep you posted!




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Is Greek is good...

Athens

It was with some effort, that we (now Phil, Louise and I) packed our bags and boarded a bus from Nafplio to Athens. Partly because we had such a fantastic and relaxing time in Nafplio, no one wanted to leave. Partly because we knew Athens was going to be scorching hot. And not least, partly because we had a bus-booking fail.


Ahhhh... Nafplio.

Despite staying a mere 4 minutes walk from the bus stop and ticket office, we left it until midday to book the 12.30pm bus - "sorry, full". Whoops!!

Fortunately the 2pm bus had seats, and our next airbnb host was relaxed, so it was no drama. But it gives a sense of just how relaxed (*borderline comatose) we had become in Nafplio.

It was a slightly overbooked and under-air conditioned 2.5 hour bus ride, followed by a metro trip to get to our Athens apartment, so we were pretty thrilled to have a lovely place with three air conditioners and a welcome bottle of wine - woo hoo!!

We spent our first night walking to Athens ancient centre, Plaka for dinner. It was packed but atmospheric and gave us our first glimpse of the Acropolis.


Plaka! No Acropolis in this shot...

Since then, we've checked out the Byzantine museum and Acropolis museum - both very impressive and an absolute bargain at €4 and €5 respectively. They had oil lamps at the Acropolis museum that were from 2000BC. As in 4000 years old!! That completely blows my mind...



Ruins - cos it's Athens. This is the temple of the Olympian Zeus!!


Sleepy Athenian kitty

Is Greek, is delicious
We have eaten well in Greece and Athens is proving no exception.

We followed our airbnb host's advice last night and tried a local restaurant for dinner. It was completely abandoned when we arrived at 9.30pm and we weren't sure if we were early/ late/ in the right place??

Turned out we were possibly early - two more tables filled up around 9.45pm - and definitely in the right place. It was the best Greek food I've tried (and that is saying a bit - we've eaten well here)!!


Two salads and anchovies


Mushrooms and yoghurt pie... Plus there was a squid dish - on the house - and drinks for... €33. Not each.

Phil declared it the meal of the trip. Louise forgot to drink her wine. It was that good!!

From the sublime to the ridiculous

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we've spent a lot of time walking around. And as the weather has warmed up, I've noticed some bits and pieces of... a tan!!

This is exciting for me because I'm not a great tanner. I burn super fast and tan very erratically. But because of constant exposure, my usually lily white legs even have a bit of colour.

However, I've still managed to pick up some quite ridiculous tan lines over the past months.

Behold:


Foot tan is thanks to my campers... This is going to be with me for a while!

And more recently, a day riding the Nafplio open top bus wearing this:




Nafplio hop on hop off bus was totally worth the effort, taking us to the top of the Palimidi fortress which is where I took the first photo of this post

Resulted in this:


In addition to looking really strange, it also stings...

And next??
After two glorious weeks, Louise jets off tomorrow leaving Phil and I on our own in Athens for a few days. We've had a wonderful time with both Louise and Lex in Greece and will miss them heaps!!

Tomorrow, we're moving to another (smaller) airbnb apartment which comes with... two cats. I can't wait!!

And on Sunday, we're taking our first flight since the beginning to Istanbul to meet my mum for a week!! Having never been to Turkey, I am pumped. Plus, we're celebrating her birthday, so I foresee some shopping too!!

Til next time...

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Iasos!!

Or maybe it's "Yassos!!". Either way it's the greeting here in Greece that's accompanied by a huge smile and a (very cold) coffee. Which is a good thing, because it is HOT!!

Phil has just commented that the weather is ridiculous... Greece in summer in the low-30s?? He is now talking about escaping to Scotland and Northern Scandanavia...

We have spent the last week in Nafplio, the ancient capital of Greece, a gorgeous holiday town in the Peloponnese region by the sea with Lex and Louise.

Nafplio has turned out to be a perfect choice for intensive relaxation in a gorgeous spot with stunning scenery and great food.

It is part of the Greek mainland (ie not technically an island) but it has a wonderful quiet beach town feel, with holiday apartments everywhere and a slow pace of life. Local shops sell kids beach bucket sets and the town is full of casual tavernas, souvlaki shops and beachwear.

We've been lucky with our airbnb pick here which is an elegant, sprawling house in the centre of town overlooking a park and a huge hill with the Palamidi castle at the top.

The owner is an artist and so is her mother, so the place is absolutely covered with drawings, paintings and sculptures and filled with vintage furniture. The best feature is the balcony which is a perfect, shady spot to watch Greek life go by, catching the evening breeze while reading a book and sipping a beer.


Our arty hallway

The week started off a bit variable - a bit of sun, a bit of rain. But over the last few days, summer has arrived and a bright, beating heat has the outdoor cafes filled with groups drinking iced coffees, smoking, eating and clicking Greek worry beads.

So one could say we haven't been up to very much... or you could say that we've been active participants in the Greek cultural experience!!

We have certainly been getting into the Greek food culture. Between Greek salads, grilled octopus and souvlakis, there was a night where Phil declared himself defeated by food!! This has literally never happened before... Donuts may have played a minor role...

We haven't just been sitting around drinking coffee... We (minus Phil who is not a huge fan of boat travel) spent a day on an island cruise to check out the nearby islands of Hydra and Spetses.


Hydra... breathtaking

It was a big day - 12 hours in all - but we all loved the gorgeous Hydra with its donkeys (which are virtually the only transport on the island), filled with souvenir shops and jewellery stores and eateries. We picked one with a view to die for:


Food wasn't bad either!!



Spicy mussels

What struck me about Hydra was how incredibly busy it was after the much sleepier Nafplio, which has tourists, of course, but in much lower doses.

Spetses on the other hand was deserted on our arrival. Here in Nafplio there is a long afternoon siesta where commerce grinds to a halt - and that was about the time we hit Spetses. It was a touch deserted - but still, it had gelati!


Spetses

What else? We visited the museum one day which had a fantastic photography exhibition- and a boatload of school kids. We've spent some time (mostly window) shopping in the old town and wandering down by the waterfront.




Nafplio Old town filled with picturesque alleys and interesting cafes

We also discovered a beach club just a few minutes away which is an ideal spot to sit in the shade, have a cold drink and watch people splashing about the water.

Yesterday we went slightly further afield and came across a beautiful little pebble beach with water so clear I could see the little clear fish swimming around my feet!!


View on our walk to the beach

Sadly, Lex had to head home on Thursday and we've only got another two days before its time to leave Nafplio ourselves!!



Even the stray dogs came to see Lex off!! You can also see my handmade Nafplio sandals in the corner which became an essential purchase as the heat rose this week!!

Then it's on to Athens for a couple of days of sightseeing with Louise followed by a couple of days of exploring on our own.

It's going to be very hard to leave!!! After dreaming about a Greek island experience for aaages, imagining warm sun, crystal clear waters and delicious salads and seafood, Nafplio has delivered in spades. I'll leave you with a final pic.


Feel free to book your tickets immediately!

May I introduce you to June??

May recap

So May is over - I cannot believe it's already June!! We've spent the month travelling through four countries... and keeping my maths skills up with five currencies!!

The Polish zloty, Hungarian forint, Bulgarian Lev, Euro and Czech koruna for our brief unscheduled stop in Brclav on the way to Slovakia thanks to verrry slow Polish trains.

We started off May with a week in Warsaw, including a visit to my ancestoral home of Chelm. Warsaw delivered a gorgeous old town, warm Sunday afternoon farmers market in the park, hipster coffee and vegan burgers(!!), and a wonderful apartment to chill out in.



Just your run of the mill roundabout in Warsaw...

I am so glad we searched out the Polish milk bars. With Polish food reminiscent of my grandmother's cooking, and a constant stream of locals queuing for a cheap, hearty meal, it was definitely a highlight.

Next up was Bratislava where we soaked up the weather by the waterfront and in the large and beautiful old town. We checked out the castle where Hungarian kings were crowned for hundreds of years and got incredible views over the city.


The Eurovea mall by the waterfront was a popular spot for locals on the weekend

Bratislava was a really interesting city - a perfectly preserved centre full of tourists surrounded by a normal city that felt slightly abandoned by its people and dotted with abandoned buildings with blown out windows.

My favourite feature was the forest - a mere 4km from the city centre and accessible by local bus. It's so nice to get in a bit of nature when you're spending so much time in cities!

A two-day planned stay in Budapest morphed into eight as we slowed our pace. Despite having been in Budapest in April, there was plenty we hadn't seen, and it gave us a chance to wander the city aimlessly for days. Budapest has something interesting around every corner as demonstrated by a stumbling onto a cafe filled with wildlife where you drink a coffee and stroke a chameleon.


City park on a sunny day - love, love, love Budapest!!

After an epic train ride (a highlight in itself), we hit Bulgaria for the first time. Sofia was the first destination with very little obvious tourism - not even the ubiquitous "hop on hop off" tour - and yet the first place we joined a (hiking) tour.

Almost half of Bulgarians live in (greater) Sofia and the rural life we saw from the train looked as though it belonged to another time (horse and carts at more than one station).


Bulgarian countryside

Super friendly people, incredible value for money and an awesome apartment kept us there for 10 days and rounded out May. I'd head back to Sofia for its understated elegance and $5.50 IMAX anytime...

Nafplio, Greece
We are currently soaking up the sun (and a bit of the rain) in Nafplio in the Peloponnese region of Greece with my sis, Lex and our friend, Louise.

We've found ourselves staying in a gorgeous old art-filled home overlooking a lovely park and a gigantic hill with impressive ruins.



View of gigantic hill and ruins

The town is centred around its waterfront and old town built by the Venetians and filled with picturesque alleys.



We've got a couple of plans for the coming days, including a day cruise to a couple of neighbouring islands... As always, I'll let you know how we go!!



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