This is the case, for example, when the thing that you are asked to do is completely stupid: no matter what choices you are given, it is always going to end in a bad way. Even worse, in this kind of cases, the fact of having choices adds to the awfulness of the situation, as you end up having to spend extra time to try to understand what is the best way to control the damage rather than finding a nice solution to the initial problem.

My advice, in this kind of situations, is to say a nice, clear and loud “FUCK YOU!”. In case you can’t do this immediately, use your right to choose to try to minimize the damage, brace for impact, resist the inevitable storm and wait until the right moment to say the above mentioned “FUCK YOU!”.

Yep, that is very true. Even more true is that the world is full of stupid people. Image borrowed from http://joechianakas.wordpress.com/

We dedicated the fifth day of our trip to one of the most famous historical sites in Istanbul, the Topkapi palace. The Topkapi palace has been the main residence of the Sultan and his court, being also the seat of government. In reality, the palace was much more: it was a city within the city, completely independent. It had own kitchens, guards, working areas, leisure places and religious places. It was so independent that, in fact, most of the inhabitants of the palace rarely left it.

Our visit to the palace took 5+ hours, under the burning Turkish sun, and every minute of the visit was worth it. If you happen to go there, I would recommend both taking the audio commentary (which is cheap and quite well done) and definetely to pay the extra fee required to enter the harem. The harem is, in fact, one of the most charming locations inside the palace, where all the hidden politics happened.

The gates to the palace

Palace garden

Magnificent view from one of the many balcony of the palace

Magnificent view from one of the many balconies of the palace, 2

Room decoration, 1

Room decoration, 2

Ceiling decoration

After the monstrous visit to the palace, me and Popot decided to call it a day, and we went straight to the hotel, got changed, and took the boat to the Asian side of Instanbul, to have dinner at Ciya Sofrasi. The Asian side is quite different, much less turistic and more full of small streets and open markets. The restaurant was a bit of a let down for me, but Popot appreciated it quite a bit, so I guess you’ll have to go there to form your own opinion. On our way back, I was able to take this picture, that I am particularly fond of.

Sunset over Instanbul's European side

Day number 6 was dedicated to Aya Sofia and the great Basilica Cistern. There is not much to say about this two places, as they are simply magnificent… I hope that the pictures below can give you an idea. The Basilica Cistern was especially appealing to me, it was kind of a magical place.

Hagia Sophia majestic view

The atmosphere is quite mystical down in the depths of the Basilica Cistern

The last day was dedicated to the Blue Mosque, mostly because it was located in front of our small hotel. I have no words to express how fabulous this building is, let me just say that it has been the most magnificent mosque that I have seen throughout the whole trip.

The outstanding Blue Mosque

After the visit to the mosque, we chilled out under the trees, drinking tea and smoking the Narghilè (maybe I should say that I was smoking it ) until the time to move the airport arrived… And we got back to cold Finland

Summing it up, it has been a wonderful trip: Istanbul is a fantastic city and a unique blend of ancient and modern; the people are nice and friendly; the food is great. What are you waiting for? Go there and have fun!

The idea was great, and it was a ton of fun! Below some pictures

Our cabin in the woods

Lake view...

Reflections...

Lakeside sunset...

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from our afternoon, I hope you’ll like them!

Some stubborn berry still resists on the trees...

I love the warm colors of the autumn...

PS: I know that we have still to finish the tale of our vacations, but please be patient… The next three installments will come soon! Promised-promised!

The final result

And to prove that it’s home-made:

The main ingredients

Now what should I challenge Shany to make? Carelian pastries? Fresh pasta?

So, we got up on the morning of our third day, packed diligently our bags, and proceeded in enjoying one last time the breakfast in our luxurius hotel. After that, we checked out, took a cab, and moved on to the new base. For those who are not familiar with the area of Sultanahmet, I will just say that it is where all the big shots are located: the Topkapi palace, the Blue Mosque & Aya Sofia, the Cistern, the Grand Bazaar – it is obvious that it was the center of the activity in the ancient times, and now it is still the center of the attention of the turists.

The first big change that we experienced was in the accomodation: we moved from a sparky five star hotel, to a ottoman boutique hotel, that is a small independently run hotel that puts more weight on personal service. The room there was quite small, but clean and nice. Additionally, the hotel had a wonderful terrace with a view over the Blue Mosque:

Also the service was quite different: no more legions of people attending us, but rather a small (but friendly) staff that covered multiple roles. Personally, I liked this one more, I felt less of a silly turist.

After unpacking our bags and settling in, we decided to follow a walk recommended by the city guide (thank you, LonelyPlanet Istanbul!), that would’ve led us to the Grand Bazaar. So we started walking, and immediately noticed that we are literally a few meters away from Aya Sofia and the Topkapi palace also! Anyway, we soon stopped to get some lunch in one of the many Kebap places around: I have to say that although I have eaten Kebap a lot during this vacation, I never got bored of it…. The Turkish people know their stuff!

Anyway, after a lot of walking and seeing countless minor mosques, we arrived at one of the entrances of the Grand Bazaar:

Describing the Grand Bazaar is quite difficult… As Popot puts it, it feels like dropping down the rabbit hole and finding yourself in a weird mix of Walmart and the One Thousand and One Nights. Anyway, we started wandering the place and looking around, and it is huge. It is also quite annoying because everyone there approaches you and wants to drag you in their shop…. The feeling of rip-off was looming in the air! On a different note and against my expectations, the Grand Bazaar is a very safe place, that even has its own police station.

After a good while, we got bored, and we decided to head back to the hotel via a different route, which lead us to the Rüstem Paşha Mosque, which is a very small but wonderfully decorated Mosque that is still in use. Here are some pictures:

After this, we moved back to the hotel, refreshed ourselves and went for a dinner in a very turistic place, the Cafè Meşale. According to our guide, this is a “turistic trap par excellance”, but it still recommended to check it out, and so we did. I have to say that the food was great, but the service was awful – they did stick us in a crappy miserable table in the middle of the courtyard, and I got really upset. Luckily after a while, I managed to get a different table. Anyway, we got a chance of seeing the mythical Dervish dance performed by a “real” Dervish monk, check out some pics here:

After dinner, we strolled around a bit, and we saw what happens during Ramadan when the day is over: a big celebration where families sit at the shadow of the big mosques, have dinner together and recover from the fasting of the day… It was a very nice display of happiness. Of course, the monuments are also set up for the occasion and everything is shiny:

We joined in the celebration by sitting in the same outdoors cafe as the locals, having tea and enjoying the evening…

According to history (thanks Wikipedia!), these islands were used as fancy residence of exiled nobility, at least in the very early days. Later on, the islands became the residence of the rich and the wealthy, while now they are simply the place were many middle class turks spend part of their vacation:

During the Byzantine period, prince and other royalty were exiled on the islands, and later members of the Ottoman sultans family were exiled there too, giving the islands their present name. They were taken by the Ottoman fleet during the siege of Constantinople in 1453. During the nineteenth century, the islands became a popular resort for Istanbul’s wealthy, and Victorian-era cottages and houses are still preserved on the largest of the Princes’ Islands. The islands have become more and more ethnically Turkish in character due to the influx of wealthy Turkish jetsetters, a process which began in the first days of the Turkish Republic when the British Yacht Club on Büyükada was appropriated as Anadolu Kulübü, for Turkish parliamentarians to enjoy Istanbul in the summer. The islands are an interesting anomaly because they allow for a very rare, albeit incomplete, insight into a multicultural society in modern Turkey, possibly alike to the multicultural society that once existed during the Ottoman Empire in places such as nearby Istanbul/Constantinople. Prior to 1950s, each of the inhabited islands had significant communities of ethnic minorities of Turkey, which is only the case to a much smaller extent. Since the vast majority of the residents and visitors are Turkish, today their legacy is of cultural rather than of demographic importance.

When we decided to take this trip, we had to select which islands to go and what to do there: we soon discovered that the ferry stops only in 4 out of the 9 islands, and that the first two are too small to do anything but take a bath. According to our guide, the best choice would’ve been to disembark at the final stop of the ferry, Büyükada. Me and Popot got up relatively early, got breakfast (yes! Olives for breakfast!) and started walking in the building heat towards the ferry. After buying a couple of jetons to allow us to get on the ferry, we started our journey.

I have to say that Istanbul’s ferry system is really nice and comfortable. Me and Popot sat on the upper deck on the boat, in the shade and with the wind keeping us mildly cool, so that we were able to enjoy the trip and the view. After a moment on the boat, it is quite clear that the importance of the Bosphorus is still immense, as it can be seen by the amount of oil tankers and container boats waiting for their turn to go through.

Anyway, after a good hour and a half, we arrived to Büyükada. Büyükada is mostly filled with the summer residences of turkish people and turist-milking attractions, but there is also a nice Orthodox monastery to visit there. Immediately after disembarking Popot started talking about talking a horse pulled cart to tour the island, and no matter what I said she went on and on… Until I said yes and I resigned to the thought of spending time next to a stinky horse.In the end, it was not such a bad idea, as the island was quite hilly, which combined with the Turkish heat could result in a very distressed Grumpyboo.

Anyhow, we left our dear stinky horse & cart at the so called “luna park”, which is a weird group of buildings at the bottom of the road that leads to the monastery (as of today, I still have no idea of why it is called “luna park”), and we started walking up to the monastery itself.

The road to the monastery is actually deadly: 2 km with heavy inclination, and we did it all under a striking sun. I think that both me and Popot were about to give up at least 10 times during our ascent… Luckily we didn’t: the monastery’s location is absolutely awesome, with a view that is breathtaking:

Luckily enough, next to the monastery there is a lovely rustic restaurant, and me and Popot had a lovely meal (chicken shish for me, salad, yogurthy stuff for Popot and some deepfried cheese filled pastries) in the shade. After the refreshments we visited the monastery (which is cute, but nothing compared to the wonderful mosques that we will show you in the following posts), then we went down the hill, this time without much effort, then took another stinky trip with the horse. After the stinky horse, Popot had some local ice cream (that looks terrible, imo) and we took the boat back.

We came back to the hotel quite late, so we decided to go for some quick dinner at the bazar: lamb kofta for both of us with tea to close the meal.

Be sure to be here for the next episode, when GrumpyBoo and Popot change completely scenario and move to Sultanahmet!

Decades of IKEA catalogues... Tons and tons of wasted paper?

Now, IKEA has started to provide the same and more content that was available in the catalogue through their website, and this is good. I myself prefer checking there, as I know that the information is more specific, I have search features and possibly can do my shopping from there too.

But luckily IKEA did not stop to this! I discovered tonight that they have released an iPhone/iPod/iPad catalogue application! I have spent little time with this application, but this is a nice step in the way of avoiding printing all that mass of catalogues – and it gives you the possibility of downloading the catalogue in different languages!!

Good job IKEA! Hopefully lots of companies will follow your example!

Well, too late to dwell on that. Armed with guidebook, sunscreen and camera as proper tourists we bravely ventured out into the bright light.

Our first stop was Taksim square, where we had planned to get the chargeable devices for the local system of public transport, or Akbil. This proved to be more complicated than we had anticipated; all the kiosks we tried were out of them, and in a more official-looking booth a man told us simply NO AKBIL FOR YOU! If you say so…

In the end we managed just fine by buying tokens for the trams, metro and ferries as we went. We saw other tourists with the Akbil-devices, but didn’t bother to ask how and where they had obtained them. A lot of things are more fun when they remain small mysteries, even if we at the time felt like we were in the middle of an episode of Monthy Python.

From Taksim we strolled down Istiklal Caddesi, the main street of Beyoglu. The street and the areas around it are amongst other things home to many european consulates built during the Ottoman era, designed by many of the same architects who designed palaces and mosques for the sultans.

There is also a roman catholic church there, sunk down below street level since no christian church towers were allowed to show up against the horizon with the minarets.

Every now and then we would seek shelter from the oppressive heat in an air-conditioned store along the way. Still the heat felt quite oppressive at times, and my darling found it hilarious to compare me to a lobster.

Yes, I’m  fair, and yes, when I’m warm it shows. It’s during moments like these that I for some reason find it enormously gratifying(for no reason at all…)to loudly exclaim my joy over having hair on my head…

Galata Tower

We made our way to Galata Tower, an impressive sight and also enjoyed our second Kebaps of the trip in as many days. Lamb shish for Boo and aubergine and lamb kebab for me.

After lunch we continued down towards Karaköy, seeing the Kamondo stairs and some street art on the way.

Kamondo Stairs

Street Art

Our plan was to make our way to the museum of modern art, which is built inside an old dockside warehouse. Aside from the permanent exhibition there was also an exhibition by Hussein Chalayan. No cameras allowed inside, but here is Boo outside the museum. This proved to be an extremely nice idea, since the museum had the added bonus of AC. The exhibitions were enjoyable in their own right as well.

Outside Istanbul Modern

For a change the pic is taken by me and not Boo.

After quite an amount of walking we eventually made our way back to Besiktas and the hotel. After a well needed shower we tried out the hotel restaurant, not too bad as hotel restaurants go. Enjoyed a nightcap in the lounge before calling it a day.

For some strange reason sleep came very easily to both of us.