Let me say that first of all, cops are the same all over the world. There are a lot of different people in Istanbul. You hear a million languages when you walk down the street. I am in Beyoğlu, not in the tourist area of Sultanahmet where all of the historical sites are. People here… (read more)
This is the view crossing the Galata Bridge looking back at Sultanahment. That is Aya Sofya on the right on the hill. Today I walked for about 10 hours and I did not get tired until I put the key in the door of my room at the Grand Hotel de Londres. It was amazing… (read more)
Anything would be a let down after Epheseus, but man, Troy is really hard to take. First off, there is a huge wooden horse inside of the entry gate to Troy. It is filled with laughing school children running around it and climbing inside it. Parents surround the thing to get a photo of their… (read more)
Nothing prepares you for Epheseus. It really is a place that seethes with life. Not just the thousands of camera-toting, sunblock-applying, child-chasing, photo-opping, cell phone-chatting humans around you. You are really catapulted into the past. You walk the same marble sidewalks as people thousands of years ago. You are under the same hard cerulean… (read more)
Well, things came to a head between the Indians and the Italians today. One of the things that happens on these tours is that you go to a site (in this case, today it was Pamukkale, Hieropolis and Aphrodisias) and then you get driven to a “special presentation” where you are offered high quality goods… (read more)
The driver of our tour bus (Omer, not to be confused with Omer, our tour guide) is one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. I don’t know what he is doing driving a bus of tourists around Turkey. He should be a movie star. He smokes, like most Turks and I guess… (read more)
http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAABjzXX0P2a8vxnDt-OvRPGBh5pgTQDTv3fnxFD3kKCUFih4P4ubXAKOph6iURPgusxXkB7BgMKGtu3j-bbX9SRgZ_p2Znf4qnNNfW213TAR_l1fNHilUWDMhw27Cw-ujGffaT41mVeiytOUwUG-R_91KhGTCi79tp7vyjbFjT83Jqg2uRUvJJkrO_VansamdXyNrE4j5X6XdiKS4bkO77FJ_vKaEW3vzv6-SC_mehTCB%26sigh%3Dd0ZzRG-CVA1uy01z9c97jV6QVuI%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0&nogvlm=1&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3Ddcb1549e130c2e62%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DGW3ym6-QPC6-W1dNXZ4hkIoViSE&messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den Anatolian Balloons took a group of us on a tour of the valley via hot air balloon. It was really an incredible experience to see the caves and mountains of Cappadocia from the air. It was the most comfortable air trip I have ever experienced, including the landing. Afterwards, we got flying certificates and… (read more)
Here I am in the lobby of the Perissia Hotel in the Cappadocia Region of Turkey where the lounge entertainment is a young Turkish Man singing with an acoustic guitar. He just finished a version of Kansas’s classic and a significant number of the multinational crowd joined in with him – some in earnest and… (read more)
Blanche DuBois certainly knew what she was talking about. First of all let me say if you are staying at a hotel in the Notting Hill section of London, DO NOT LEAVE ON A SATURDAY MORNING! The world and its wife comes to an open air market on that day. Antiques dealers and pretend antiques… (read more)
Peter Doig. Peter Doig. OH MY GOD! Peter Doig. The show at Tate Britain was amazing. I really have a hard time believing that one person has the abilities that Doig has with a brush. He does things in painting that serve the image and frustrate it at the same time, allowing you the pure… (read more)