#big bus istanbul

[octuscle]

With the help of Allah

Bosse had been on the road for three days. On the road on a trip around the world as a gift for his A-levels. In fact, he hadn't been given very much money. But his parents had generously allowed him to start his studies in a year's time. And until then, with a little help from his parents, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. The original plan had been to fly to Istanbul and make his way from there to Cairo by bus, train or hitchhiking. The war in Israel had thwarted his plans and so he had flown directly to Cairo. And after a day at the pyramids, he was red as a sheet and he was sick of everything. To give his skin a rest, he spent a day at the big bazaar today. At least it was shady there. Even if it was unbearably hot. But the posts of the last few days had been very successful; initially only family, friends and maybe a few teachers had followed him, but the number of his followers was actually growing by a few dozen every day. Measured against the initial number of perhaps 200 followers, that was a huge success. And this success was to be further boosted today with a few reels from the Bazaar.

The Bazaar was overwhelming. Confusing, full of people and smells. A babble of voices in which only a few snatches of words recognizable as English could be heard. Bosse loved the bazaar. But he hated the rubbing of his rucksack on his burnt shoulders. Suddenly he heard something. Rather unconsciously. Something irked him… It was… Swedish! Someone was speaking Swedish! "Unge herrn! Kom hit, snälla!" Bosse looked around. There was no one far and wide who was blonde and over six feet tall. He was in a crowd of short, black-haired people. And yet he heard it very clearly: "Unge herrn! Kom hit, snälla!" It was quiet… Much quieter than the Arab yelling of the other traders… But it came from one direction. Clearly… Bosse wasn't sure whether he wasn't beginning to hallucinate amidst the vapors of tens of thousands of people and the scent of spices from 1,001 nights. But the voice became louder and clearer "Unge herrn! Kom hit, snälla!" And then he was standing in front of the stall of a merchant who was one of the hairiest men Bosse had ever seen. Not many merchants showed their shoulders here in the Grand Bazaar. And to Bosse's taste, this man had better not have done so either… But now he stood before him with his hairy chest, hairy shoulders, hairy arms and huge, impressive beard. "Young sir, it's good that you're here. May I grant you relief from your pain?" Bosse looked at him as if bewitched. The man, who looked as Arabic as one could look, spoke to him in Swedish as if he had studied in Lund.

"Young sir, you are not used to the sun. The sun is the Arab's friend. But the enemy of the men from the north. Buy one of my amulets, young sir! And your pain will be alleviated." The merchant took an amulet from a stand and placed it on Boss's shoulder. The feeling was wonderful. Coolness flowed through his skin. The pain of the backpack straps at least on one side of his battered body. "Young master, only 40 pounds. Not even ten crowns yet! And you will sleep the sleep of the righteous tonight. No pain. Young master, try it. And don't pay until tomorrow when it's worked. No risk, young sir!" Bosse didn't even think about paying tomorrow. Obviously this amulet was at least not harmful. He took a 50-pound note and gave it to the merchant. "Young sir. I'll gladly take the money. But allow me: this is the great bazaar of Cairo. You must haggle. This amulet would never have been worth more than 10 pounds." Laughing, he gave Bosse 30 pounds in change. Bosse hung the amulet around his neck, put the 30 pounds in his wallet and turned around to thank him. He almost collided with a giant of a man. He was in the coppersmith's alley. There was no one selling amulets for miles around. Bosse mumbled a "Maghfira" and set off in confusion. He walked deeper and deeper into the bazaar. No souvenirs or sweets interested him. He needed new shoes. Something more practical than his sandals. And if he wanted to visit the mosque later, he should get himself a prayer cap. The amulet on his chest felt great. And his skin changed from a glowing red to a rich olive color. He moved as confidently as a cat in the corridors of the labyrinth. This felt so familiar. He greeted a familiar face again and again. Every store he stopped in gave him a cup of tea. Rumors and gossip were exchanged. Besse overheard a lot on his way through the bazaar. And he knew that information had to be bought with other information. By the end of the day, Bessem was exhausted. The pedometer on his cell phone showed that he had walked almost 15 kilometers. But it had been worth it. He had done everything he had planned for his day off. He had fed his TikTok channel with all kinds of news. And all he had to do was survive tomorrow, Thursday, and then it was the weekend.

Essam's day started early. His father was one of the biggest traders of copper in the big bazaar. And even though he was the crown prince, Essam was actually nothing more than an errand boy and porter. But Essam loves the job. He loved the bazaar. You met people all the time. Acquaintances and friends. But also strangers who gratefully let themselves be led out of the maze for a few pounds. Essam was well known in the relevant channels. Those who found him and let him "rescue" them were sometimes allowed to return the favor in kind. Essam was still a boy. But his cock was that of a stallion!

Pics by @ki-kink

[floweryprosegarden]

About me

• Turkish/Kurdish

• English Major

• Introverted perfectionist

• Lover of art, classic literature and aesthetics, morally grey fictional characters, novels with lots of gloom and doom

Writerly Habits

• I write in the same font as most legal documents—Times New Roman (bland, I know)

• Single-spaced forever—I like big chunks of text

• Fountain pen enthusiast

• Could spend the rest of my life at the desk

 Wips (some of which fill me with dread to continue)

• Yellow Houses /// adult lit-fic novel. Unhinged university students vandalize houses, painting them school-bus yellow, then write about wondering who did it in the local paper. Hmm...

• Liquor and Locusts /// adult modern fantasy novel. TW because this is a pandemic story! A squatter crashes at a countryside manor during a pandemic, befriending an elderly gardener and his very emo apprentice. There is somehow also a talking locust who loves brandy.

• Red Pleather /// lit short fiction. A teenage girl’s relationship with her older brother who constricts her from the world outside their crowded apartment complex. Warning: a lot of stair climbing and internal monologues in this one.

CURRENT PROJECT: PROJECT ISTANBUL

lit fic? Thriller? Noir Novel // Heavyyy dark academia aesthetics // Set in Istanbul, Turkey.

You would like this if you enjoy reading about morally grey journalists, secret clubs, etc.

***

Note: Wanted to say that this is an updated blog introduction— I’ve been away for some time,,,, but anyways! I’m back here now to share my current wips, writerly frustrations, and general artsy aesthetics.

That said, other writeblrs! Please interact so I can read all of your beautiful wips~

Also, I attached a random illustration I made for the Project Istanbul MCs, as well as a link to the wip intro. Hope you enjoy!

See link above for the wip intro!

[greenbagjosh]

Friday 31 July 1998 - Night at the Rustler (W-Penzing) - guided by Franz Kaida’s voice - eating pizza rectangles in Schottentor - finally can take photos with the new camera

Friday 31 July 1998 Grüß Gott und Servus! Today twenty years ago marks the end of what is known as the Alte Rechtschreibung in German.  The Neue Rechtschreibung is the new orthography of German, which is not limited to just spelling but also punctuation.  I will tell more about it later on but that is one of the big news items of that day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../German_orthography_reform_of... This will be the first of three days heading eastward, possibly the farthest east from München I have ever been (Istanbul Sirkeci station in Turkey to date is the farthest).  I will be going to Vienna, then Budapest, then return stopping at Vienna Westbahnhof - the Hauptbahnhof next to Südbahnhof was not constructed and opened until 2016.  So here is the overview of what I did on Friday 31 July 1998.

- woke up about 7 AM from apartment - swung by the SSKM in Marienplatz to withdraw ATS 500 notes - arrived at München Hbf about 8:45 AM in time to find my Sommer Spezial car and reserved seat in 1st class - crossed into Austria about 10:30 AM, arrived in Salzburg around 10:45 AM, DB staff changed to ÖBB - a miracle with the camera happens about 12:15 PM, have lunch in the dining car to celebrate - arrive at Vienna Westbahnhof about 1:30 PM, try to find a hotel as the youth hostels are booked up - leave clothes bag at hotel room, walk to Johnstraße U-Bahn station - take U-Bahn to Prater via Philadelphiabrücke/Meidling station, end up at Prater by S-Bahn - take a trip down memory lane at the Prater, see the large Riesenrad Ferris Wheel - go into central Vienna with the U-2 via Schottentor.  Have pizza slices before making the transfer - listen to FM4 La Boum de Luxe and hear a bit of "Mo Betta Blues" Denzel Washington "What the world needs now (is *not* another love song)!" - take a tram tour to the Upper Belvedere, just get postcard of "der Kuss" by Gustav Klimt - stroll along to Stephansplatz and admire the multicolored tiled roof. - have a cup of Segafreddo coffee, go to Westbahnhof to buy a phrasebook with Hungarian - take U-3 to Johnstraße and bus 51 to Linzer Straße - listen to Hit Radio Ö3, read phrasebook and go to sleep

Okay, are you ready to have fun in Vienna?😀😃😄🇦🇹 Let me give you some background on Vienna.  Unlike Zürich, which I could remember from a relatively recent visit, I had only been to Vienna once as a young child.  I barely even remember what I did there.  I had to study maps so that I would have a general idea of what to see.  I also had a German-language guidebook on Vienna, which included vocabulary not otherwise used in Germany, or even in most parts of Austria for that matter.  The one map I needed to familiarize myself with, was the U-Bahn system.  I think I did fine overall.  Oh, and at work, everyone knew in advance that I was taking Friday the 31st July off, so it was no problem.😀

As the last weekend in July is usually the time that Bavaria and Austria are let go for the summer holidays, it was impossible to book a bed in any youth hostel.  I had to improvise, but I did not know of any hotels in Vienna, so I went without any reservation - very unusual for me, given my custom of prior booking in advance.  So with an open mind, I woke up (I forgot to do something important but could not remember what) about 6:30 AM, took my shower to avoid clashing with the roommates schedules, had a quick breakfast with coffee and then took the bus and U-Bahn into Marienplatz.  The Stadtsparkasse had ATMs that would give 🇦🇹 ATS bills, for example the 500 ATS.  This was worth about € 36 or around 71 D-Mark each.  On the front was Rosa Mayreder who replaced Otto Wagner.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/.../155px-500_Schilling_Rosa....  This was a new and possibly last pre-Euro series.  Moritz Daffinger and Sigmund Freud among others would still be visible on their respective notes.  I think I had withdrawn about 2,500 ATS, more than enough for the weekend.  And it was time to head to München Hbf.

I had a Sommer-Spezial ticket for Vienna, 89,00 D-Mark for one way in first class, quite a bargain, but with the "usual strings attached".  I also had my Eurail Pass which I was going to use on 1st and 2nd August.  I found the train car and it was full, I was the last to arrive.  The train left about 9:10 AM.  I had the radio going,📻🎧 listening to Bayrische Rundfunk 3 aka Bayern3 (which I listened to the most during Summer 1998).  I think about Aying the signal was getting weak so I switched to the Rosenheim repeater frequency.  It worked for a while until Traunstein.  If you have been between München and Salzburg, you can likely imagine you are first going through a fairly flat forest land up to Rosenheim, then slightly hilly terrain up to Freilassing with mountains to the south, with a couple of lakes (eg. Chiemsee).   It is the same trajectory I took 20th and 21st June 1998.

At Freilassing, the Hit Radio Ö3 station could be heard clearly.  After it played "Everybody" by DJ Bobo, the announcer was mentioning the Lassing mine disaster in the Steiermark - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassing_mining_disaster.  It happened 17 July and I heard about it first on 24th July when I was trying to tune in the DRS channels while in Lindau/Bregenz.  After that, the train rolled into Salzburg to change the locomotive from DB to ÖBB to go the rest of the way to Vienna Westbahnhof.  The train would not change direction until then.  

The train stopped at Attnang-Puchheim, then went on to Linz and St Pölten.  I was trying to take photographs with the point and shoot camera I bought in Milan.  Until then I did not know the technique to properly thread in the film, so I had been just clicking the button and turning the thumbwheel, and all the while the counter went up to 36 shots and I had no idea.  Then I had a fresh roll of film that I opened, opened the back, and then there was a slot with a tooth that I should have put the film in, so I did that, and the next thing I knew, there was resistance with the frame advance thumbwheel, and I thought I had mastered the camera.  I took a few shots of the rear of the train (it turned out that the slot was the secret).  😃To celebrate this "victory", I treated myself to a chicken lunch in the dining car.😋  I had the chicken plate with vegetables including red bell pepper and some quinoa-like grain with an Austrian beer.  I think it cost only 350 ATS altogether.  I had to be careful with my finances thereafter, as I did not know, how much the hotel would cost for the night.

When I arrived at Vienna Westbahnhof, it was about 1:30 PM.  I thought there would be some directory for hotels, but there was this office that would take care of travellers so they found a low-budget hotel for me in the Penzing district, about a 15 minute tram ride away.  I would stay at Hotel Rustler, on Linzer Straße 43, close to Johnstraße and reachable by bus, but had to take care of the local transit fares first.  I bought a 24 hour ticket for 80 ATS.  I took the tram to Linzer Straße, and the hotel seemed a bit spooky. 😱 The man took my 350 ATS and gave me a towel.  My room was a single bedroom and had only a sink but no toilet and no shower.  Breakfast was included.  At least I would have some quiet at night.  I left my clothes bag there and went into the city center. I wanted to see the Prater, so I went on a southern approach, kind of through the current Hauptbahnhof which did not exist until 2015 or so.  I did not wait for the bus so I decided to walk to the Johnstraße U-Bahn station.  In Austria cars can have personalized plates, prepended by the district code to which it is registered.  One rich guy who owned a Vienna-registered 🚗 Corvette had "W-HALCO" as his personalized plate, I am not sure where the photo of it is anymore.  At a park along the way, there was a sign "Wer Tauben füttert, füttert auch Ratten" (If you feed pigeons, you also feed rats).  🕊=🐀

Probably 25 minutes after I left the hotel, I arrived at Johnstraße.  The station was the current western terminus of the U-3, and before passing the ticket cancellation machines, there was this grotesque figure called the "Hudriwudri", and stood atop a circular ashtray to remind passengers to not smoke in the station 🚭 and also in the train.  The Hudriwudri wears very little, aside from a homburg hat, circular glasses, a purple and pink necktie and purple shoes.  Passing the Hudriwudri, I went downstairs to the platform where U3 would go to Westbahnhof and change to the U-6 and do the anticlockwise circle to the Prater.  There was a train waiting.  As it departed and headed to Schweglerstraße and on to Westbahnhof, I heard the next-station announcement with the same voice as the tram, following a bing-bong chime.  Almost every time, the voice would also announce the line transfers where applicable.  For busses and trams, he would sometimes say "Kurzstreckengrenze" to announce the end of a current discount fare zone, and sometimes "Wir bitten Sie, an älteren oder behinderten Fahrgästen, sowie Personen mit kleineren Kindern, Sitzpläte zu überlassen." to ask passengers to give up their seats to the elderly, disabled and mothers/fathers with young children.  His voice seemed a bit monotone.  I would find out later the name of the person doing the voices, and he had been doing that from approx 1976 to 2012 when he retired.

After arriving at the U-3 platform for Westbahnhof, I took the passage to the U-6 platform.  The U-6 was built as a low-floor tram originally and was subsequently refurbished to subway standards.  The U-6 was kind of like a roller coaster ride between Westbahnhof and Längenfeldgasse since the Otto-Wagner-designed Gumpendorfer Straße station was elevated while the rest were underground up to Philadelphiabrücke/Meidling.  Meidling is an intermodal transfer stop for S-Bahn and the U-6.  The S Bahn as well as the "Wiener-Baden Bahn" was on the surface.  Waiting for the next S-Bahn to the Praterstern, it took about ten minutes as it was not yet the beginning of the evening rush hour.  The train came and made its way past Matzleinsdorfer Platz, the former Südbahnhof which became Hauptbahnhof, the Belvedere, Wien Mitte commuter rail station and finally Praterstern.  Praterstern is like a Coney Island, less so a Six Flags park.  Admission is free of charge, rides require tickets, including the famous giant ferris wheel. 🎡🎢 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna....

When I walked through the Prater, it was like my previous visit in 1976.  The one thing I remember from that time, was the pony ride, so I stopped by.  There were a few roller coasters, fun-houses, the Liliputbahn, a gravity drop thrill ride, .  There even were a few currency exchange places around the Prater.  They accepted many eastern European currencies to change to the Schilling, particularly the Czech Koruna, Slovak Koruna, Hungarian Forint, Yugoslav Dinar, Polish Zloty, Romanian Leu, Bulgarian Lev and many more.  One place in the Prater that I wish I went, was the Schweizer Haus.  https://www.schweizerhaus.at/menu.asp.  That is Vienna's best beer garden.  Pretty much anything you might find in Germany, is served here as well but with a Vienna twist.  This includes the famous Vienna Sausage known as "Frankfurter", Bratwürstel, Gulasch, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut and the grilled half-chicken, Oktoberfest-style.  They can slice up a fresh white radish, and make their own potato chips in-house.  Powidltascherl are essentially pierogies.  Mohnnudeln are dumplings with ground poppy seed topping.  As for beer, they have proper Czech Budweiser, Gieskirchner and Paulaner Hefe.  At some point I hope to eat at the Schweizer Haus, next time I visit Vienna. 😋🇦🇹

I wanted to see more of Vienna after the Prater.  To go back to the center, particularly Karlsplatz, I would need to take the U-1 to Schwedenplatz, then U-4 and U-2 to Schottentor.  Schottentor has an interesting tram stop which has its lower level exposed as a departures platform.  I bought some pizza, one with ham and mushrooms, and the other a spinach and fried egg, and I ate it at the stop, since eating was not necessarily prohibited at the station, but it was frowned upon in the trams.  I then went on the U-2 to Karlsplatz to have a look around.  Karlsplatz is where the famous Opera building is located, great for ballroom dancing events and professional performances.

I thought after seeing Karlsplatz, it would be a good time to go on a surface tram tour around the city center.  The lines 1 and 2 run along the former location of the city wall.  I went clockwise on line 1 to Schottentor, passing the Parliament and Rathaus.  Then I changed direction, took the tram 1 to Volkstheater and changed to line 2.  I went to about Schwarzenbergplatz so that I could see the Schloß Belvedere.  This is where many of Gustav Klimt's works are stored.  I would return in January 2002 to see his works, including "Der Kuss".  I even bought a postcard for a professor who liked Klimt's works, and she let me know when it arrived in the USA (I think 5th-6th August 1998).  And after that, I went through the Stadtpark to Johannesgasse, then along the Kärntnerstraße (both pedestrian zones) to the Domkirche St Stephan.  This cathedral was built in the 14th Century AD in the gothic style with some romanesque elements here and there.  Its roof is one of the most interesting of all cathedrals I have ever seen, namely on the top there are black, grey, green and white tiles, and in the stripe below there are black, yellow, green and grey in sort of a diamond shape.   One side has two eagles, one with the shield of the Republic of Austria and the other with the shield of the city of Vienna.      

After seeing the ⛪ Stephansplatz, I needed to go to the 🚉 Westbahnhof rail station to buy a🛒📕 phrasebook, hopefully there would be one for Hungarian, even if written for German speakers.  Vienna is close to two other countries so it would seem logical.  But before that, I somehow felt the need to have an espresso, as coffee houses are so common in Vienna.  I found one that featured Segafredo coffee.  I had a cup of espresso and I think also a small cookie about the size of a pink eraser.  And an 8 ounce glass of water to go with that. ☕+🥛+🍪 During the time I was enjoying my evening espresso, I was listening to the FM4 La Boum de Luxe show in "Denglish", namely alternating between English and German.  They even played a section of Mo Better Blues when Denzel Washington as Bleek Gilliam singing a spoof of Jackie DeShannon's "what the world needs now", and he said mockingly "is *not* another love song!".  FM4 is still broadcasting even in 2018.  After that it was time to head to the rail station before the shops would close for the day.      

The journey from ⛪ Stephansplatz to Westbahnhof would be fairly simple.  Get on the U-3 and stay on for five stations and head to the national railways.  I left the radio on and recorded just static for the time I was underground, so however long it takes to get from Stephansplatz to Westbahnhof by the U-3, that is as much white noise as I recorded.  What I wanted to record, was the voice of the subway announcer but that did not work until I went from Westbahnhof to Johnstraße.  But I was not ready, I had to go to a bookshop to buy a phrasebook. 📕🛒 The only relevant phrasebook available was "Osteuropa", it had enough Hungarian for my purposes.  Other languages included Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Romanian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian.  It was written for German speakers, so I had to learn to speak from a German point of view rather than my natural US English view.  The book was bought, and then it was time to go back to the hotel.

I only had to take the U-3 to Johnstraße and the bus 51 to Linzer Straße to get to the hotel.  Once I arrived, I went to my room and read through the phrasebook to try to learn some phrases, like "jó napot", "kerem" and "köszönöm".  Hungarian has about nine vowels and almost 30 consonants, some of which require two letters.  For example, the letter S is pronounced as "Sh" and SZ is pronounced as "S".  The letters Ö and Ü are essentially the same as in German but there long and short versions, German uses a short Ö and Ü by default and to lengthen it, the letter "h" is used, like "öh" and "üh", but in Hungarian, something like a double acute accent is used, as Ő and Ű.  Another consonant that is difficult for most to pronounce is "gy".  It sounds something like a short "dzyerh".  From Wikipedia "The sound voiced palatal plosive / ɟ /, written ?gy?, sounds similar to 'd' in British English 'duty' (in fact, it is more similar to the Macedonian phoneme ' Ђ ' as in '?????'). It occurs in the name of the country, "Magyarország" (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/ "  Oh and what is a "pályaudvar"?  Its an important word to know.  That and "napijegy".  

Well I thought I got pretty much a good vocabulary for my needs, and it would be put to the test the following day.  Before I went to sleep, which would be about 11:50 PM, I would take some time to listen to the radio, a bit of FM4 and then switch over to Hit Radio Ö3.  On the radio was Dr Motte with the 1998 Love Parade theme song "One world one future", then it went to hip-hop flashing back to Summer 1992 for some bizarre reason.  Before the news, Hit Radio Ö3 played "Jump around" by House of Pain, "Jump Jump" by Kriss Kross and an abbreviated "Insane in the membrane" by Cypress Hill.  At midnight the radio announcer said "es ist Null Uhr", and the newsreader did the news, mentioning the Lassing Mine Disaster and progress made, as well as it being from that moment in time, the German Spelling Reform was in effect.  

That was all for 31st July 1998, and it's now a new month, and the new German grammar and punctuation reform goes into effect.  And I visit a new country and virtually visit another (at least through radio waves).  Find out more tomorrow.

Gute Nacht und bis morgen! Jó éjszakát és holnapig! (31st July 1998 I did not learn that phrase) 🇭🇺 Dobrou noc a až zajtra! 🇸🇰

[canakinfan-blog]

Sensizim

Senden uzakta, bir yarım hep seninle.

Neredesin, ne yapmaktasın?

Aklım fikrim hep sende, avunamaz oldum artık,

Soluksuzum. Sensiz kalan bu koca şehirde.

Göreceğim günler var önümde.

Sensizlik kapkara bir zindan gözümde.

Döneceksen çık gel, hasretin kavruldu içimde.

Bekliyorum hala bu koca şehirde.

Günler geçmiyor, saatler, dakikalar duruyor.

Haftalar bitmiyor, zaman sanki benden kopuyor.

İnan, sensiz kalan gönlümde kaçıp gitmek istiyor,

Senin olduğun yere.

Hayal misin, gerçek mi bilemeden,

Yokluğunda varlığını yaşadım ben.

Aklımda sen, ruhumda sen.

Hadi çık git gönlümden, gidebilirsen...

Can Akın

Şair, Yazar

İstanbul

❤️

I am without you

Away from you, one half of me is always with you.

Where are you, what are you doing?

You're always on my mind, I can't find solace anymore, I'm breathless. In this big city without you.

I have days ahead of me.

You are a black dungeon in my eyes.

Come out if you're coming back, your longing is burning inside me.

I'm still waiting in this big city.

Days don't pass, hours and minutes stop.

The weeks don't end, time seems to be breaking away from me.

Believe me, my heart without you wants to run away,

Where you are.

Not knowing if it's a dream or reality,

I lived your presence in your absence.

You in my mind, you in my soul.

Come on get out of my heart, if you can...

Can Akin

Poet, Writer

Istanbul

[morgannalefey]

Trapani and Castellammare del Golfo trip report - Fat, Queer, Trans edition

Us: white, late 50s, fat, queer couple (one genderfluid with mostly femme presentation trans) with some mobility difficulties. My spouse is bigger than I am, with the widest part of their hips being around 73 inches/190cm. I'm around 58 inches at the hips. We are both 5'5" (165cm).

The trip: Fly into Palermo, spend one night, bus to Trapani for four nights, bus to Castellammare del Golfo for five nights, bus back to Palermo for a night, fly back to the US.

From past experiences from trips to Europe I knew that we would arrive completely shattered from the flight. Neither of us is able to sleep on the plane. Since our flight was through Istanbul, it was also a much longer travel day. I found a hotel near the Palermo airport where we could crash immediately upon arrival and this worked really well.

We stayed in the old city part of Trapani and it is gorgeous and easy to get around. It's largely flat, or what slopes the roads have are very gentle. Getting around on foot was easy (definitely worth downloading the map of Sicily so you have offline access to it, if you haven't budgeted for roaming data during your trip). We never felt unwelcome. There were always a few folks who might look at us, or take a second glance, but no one was rude or mean to us at all. We didn't try anyone's patience by holding hands. My spouse was usually identified by most folks as femme (which is completely fine and to be expected) though they weren't doing anything in particular to present that way (just wore shorts and teeshirts, no skirts). Also, because of our size, we're used to folks taking a second glance at us. So we're never sure if it's because of our size or my spouse's ambiguous gender presentation, anyway. It's just another part of what it's like moving through the world as us.

There were many restaurants, bars, cafes, pastry bakeries, gelaterias, and little shops selling doodads. Finding a grocery store for buying a few provisions (like bottles of soda) for a reasonable price was a little challenging but we did find places to go. The main pedestrian ways were very easy to find and get around in. Prices were a bit higher in certain places, but that's to be expected in a tourist area. They were still lower than I'd budgeted for. All of the restaurants had armless chairs that were sturdy enough to support our large bodies. Because it's such an old place with old buildings, places of business tend to be smaller and moving through the spaces can be a little challenging when you're big, but nothing we were trying to do/see was inaccessible to us.

Erice was hard. VERY steep streets to walk up and down. Gorgeous architecture, nice nibblies, and friendly folks. But it was rough going for us, and we had to walk really slowly and take a lot of breaks. Definitely worth the trip, despite this. We spent a few hours there. We didn't go into any of the buildings (there's fees for most of them), but we did enjoy the views and the ancient city.

We also stayed in the old part of Castellammare del Golfo. This city is built on the side of a mountain and is very sloped. Everywhere you go is either uphill or downhill from where you start. Getting around was a bit of a challenge for us, but we found that we were fine so long as we took our time and rested when we needed to. Our lodging was on the main road, Garibaldi, and it was a couple blocks uphill from the main pedestrian area. The city itself is full of really old buildings that are in good repair. We weren't far from the places we were most interested in visiting while there, and it was a nice afternoon ramble to get to the castle on the shore that the city is named for. Unfortunately the museum wasn't open the day we were there, but it looks fascinating.

We went on a boat tour that took us us along the coast with several stops for swimming at interesting sea caves and gave us a beautiful view of Zingaro national park (which was something we'd never have been able to see otherwise because you can only hike into it from a distant parking lot and we simply wouldn't have been able to manage that). We decided not to swim for a couple of reasons, not least of which was the boat we were in was smaller (maximum of 12 passengers, we had 9) and I was a little concerned we would have a hard time getting up the narrow ladder to get back into the boat after jumping off into the sea. There are many other tour boats out there that are much larger that had more sturdy ladders and do a similar tour route along the coast that it'd be worth looking into if you're big like us. I absolutely do recommend doing a boat tour, though. It was a lovely afternoon out (four hours). If you do book a ride, bring your passport. I forgot mine but fortunately they allowed me to go anyway.

The food everywhere we went ranged from yummy to really good with a lot of variety in between. Arancine (spelled with an e on that side of Sicily) were simply too big for me (I can't eat a lot at one sitting), but we were able to share one and got along fine. Do yourself a favor and seek out panelle immediately and repeatedly (fried chickpea thingie). It's brilliantly delicious and we put off trying them just out of ignorance. Gelato is just good. Granite was a delightful surprise. I struggle with thick/heavy pastas like bucatini (my stomach does much better with angel hair), which seem to be the standard here, but the pastas we had were all fresh and very good. Also, eat the potato pizza. We had it for breakfast a couple times from the little bakery near our hotel in Trapani, it was so damn good.

There was one place we didn't feel very welcome in Castellammare del Golfo and that was the little grocery store we went to for bottles of coke. There were two older women who were there most of the times we were there, and they stared hard at us, and had very cold, unwelcoming expressions. I know it was us because I saw them interacting with other people (some locals, some tourists) and they were actually nice to them. I have no idea why they were that way. Could have been the rainbow jewelry we were wearing, could have been because we were large and had to be careful going around the shop so we didn't knock anything over. In any case, it didn't stop us from going back a few times to get more things as we needed them. The other people who were there at other times were actually nice so… ::shrug::

I want to add that I completely get why Vagabondo mentioned that tourism (and I'm guessing American tourism especially, saw loads of Italian tourists all over) is relatively new to these places. The younger folks tended to have decent english and they were often the ones pulled over by older folks to talk to us. We depended heavily on the translate app. Though, even with that, I ran into this situation: I was making my way uphill on THE HOTTEST DAY EVER with a big bag of laundry to go to the self-serve laundromat (which was, despite it being such a hot day, actually fun, well-designed, and easy peasy to use). I paused in the shade to catch my breath under the awning for a local fruit stand that was closed 'cos it was midday. There was an older guy across the street just sitting in a chair and watching the world. He called out to me and came over. He was clearly trying to be helpful. I tried to use the app to talk to him because I told him "Non parlo italiano" and he responded a slightly irritated "No Italiano, Siciliano". Fortunately I didn't really need help, I knew where I was going, and I eventually just thanked him for trying and went on my way. I knew that many folks there spoke Sicilian so I'd been prepared for this possibility. However there wasn't anything I could do. I never was able to find a Sicilian language app or even dictionary to bring along.

Finding information about bus services was difficult and frustrating (but managed more easily because of the wonderful bus reference Vagabondo on TripAdvisor wrote up a few months ago). Getting details for exactly where the bus was going to drop us was just about impossible. I kept having to ask people if they knew where the bus would drop us off (the drivers were nice, but busy and I didn't want to slow things down by asking them directly). There are several different bus companies that service this area. We took Segesta from Palermo airport to Trapani. AST from Trapani to Erice as well as from Trapani to Castellammare del Golfo. We had to catch Russo to take us back to the Palermo airport from Castellammare del Golfo. You can pay on the bus when you board and they all accepted credit cards and apple pay (with my apple watch). In fact, we rarely needed cash. We did pay cash for the tourist fee at our lodging at Castellammare del Golfo, and cash for the taxi that took us up to the Russo bus stop when we were leaving. Otherwise even the smallest shops were good about accepting cards and tap to pay. A note about the AST bus from Trapani, it's the bus the high school kids use to get to the smaller towns outside Trapani at the end of the school day. So it was packed with kids. Though it got emptier as we went along. Otherwise the buses were comfortable and not that full.

Part of the reason we went to these places is my spouse's Nana was born in Castellammare del Golfo and we were trying to find out more about her father, and his father. We managed this with the help of our lodging hosts who gave us the name of the history librarian at the city library, Nunzio. He was so helpful and generous with his time. Apparently, Castellammare del Golfo offers a certificate of being an honorary member of the community if your family comes from there. It was 20 euros and a lovely souvenir. I think we'll be getting a more official documentation of this fact in the mail, but the souvenir certificate is really lovely. We were able to find the address for where Nana lived/was born, where her father was born, and that her grandfather had been a shoemaker. All despite Nunzio not speaking english and us not speaking Italian (again, the app saved us here). We also found out that there's a grape varietal named for my spouse's paternal family line (which we were not looking into but that their grandfather had looked into some 26 years ago). We tried the wine, it was a nice red. The varietal is very old and only grows in that part of Sicily and has recently been recovered (it had been very popular in the 1800s).

This was a wonderful trip. The scenery, architecture, food, people… it was all delightful.

Villa Rosa dei Venti - Cinisi We spent one night on arrival and then a second night before departing at this airport that's only about ten minutes from the airport. They include an airport shuttle that will pick you up and drop you back off at the airport. This was very convenient. The hotel is scrupulously clean and they are still following stringent disinfection procedures (more on this in a moment). We had room 6, with one double bed and two single beds (we need two beds so we don't keep waking each other up). The decorations were delightful with an astronomy theme. There was a small fridge. It was on the ground floor, though there was an elevator if we'd had a first floor room. The mattresses were firm, but not hard. The water pressure was great and the shower was a good size and with a hand-held sprayer. My spouse and I are very large folks, so this was certainly a very welcome aspect. There amenities included a shaving kit, sewing kit, shower cap, and the usual shampoo/body wash and little bar soap. The wifi was pretty decent and stayed connected. Speeds weren't zoomy fast but sufficient for our needs.

The grounds around the hotel are lovely and very tidy. There were a few little ponds with turtles and fish. There's a pool, some lounge chairs, and a lovely terrace outside in the garden. There's a gorgeous view of a mountain from the terrace, as well. Staff were helpful accommodating. Their English was good, though a few times I needed to bring out my translation app (because my Italian is basically non-existant) to explain specifics about our flights. They were nice about it. The breakfast buffet was lovely, and if you can't be there for it, they'll make sure to prepare something for you before you leave if your flight is very early in the morning. We were hungry when we arrived and they heated up a lasagne for us. It was fine. The night before we departed we got delivery from a local place using the Glovo app.

The only down side was that I'd not realized that they have a policy where they close at noon and do not open again until 3:30pm, every day. The last shuttle before they close is at noon. The first shuttle when they reopen is at 3:30. All the guests have to be out of the hotel during those hours. I think I understood the staff to say that they use this time to fully disinfect the entire hotel. Our departing flight wasn't until 19:30. They were gracious and delayed the final shuttle for us by an hour, but we still ended up having to spend far more time at the airport than I'd intended (six hours) when I booked. I had assumed that we'd be able to just lounge around the hotel until it was time to go to the airport. Keep this in mind when booking this hotel if you're using it for resting before/after flights.

Overall this is a lovely hotel, well maintained, with kind and efficient staff and a comfortable shuttle and breakfast included in the rate. I highly recommend it if your plans are suited to their schedule.

Albergo Russo - Trapani We spent four nights at this lovely property. This hotel is very old and located in the tourist part of the old city, right off the main pedestrian street of Emmanuelle. The building has very high ceilings and classical decor with interesting art on the walls. The elevator was on the small side but both of us (two very large folks) and two big suitcases were able to fit. The mattresses in our room with two twin beds (on the third floor) were very hard. The first night was very uncomfortable. I contacted the front desk and asked if they could do anything about that, and they brought in a four inch foam pad to put on top. That helped so much and I was very glad to have asked. The staff are very accommodating and friendly, though they didn't speak much english. We communicated mostly through translation apps and WhatsApp. This worked well. There was a small fridge and the room was very clean. The shower was on the small side for our big bodies and a little awkward to get in and out of. But once in, it was good enough for the purpose. Having a hand-held sprayer made a big difference. The water pressure was good. The internet was very spotty and it disconnected a lot. It's an old building with high ceilings and thick walls. They really could benefit from implementing a network solution like a mesh network that will propagate the signal a better. If they have fiber internet, it wasn't reflected in the internet speeds. This wasn't a huge problem for us but it was a bit frustrating during our down times.

Our room looked out over the main pedestrian street and there were a lot of street sounds but the windows they had in place did a great job at muffling them so sleeping wasn't difficult at all. The location on this main street was perfect. There's a little bakery a block and a half away that had the best breakfasts but there are restaurants and bars and a gelato place all within a very quick and easy walk from the property. The port is also only about five minutes walk away, and you can get tickets for ferries that will take you to the Egadi islands for the beaches if you're so inclined. This is also where you catch the bus to Erice (and where the bus from the airport drops you off).

There is a beach in the city itself, maybe a ten minute walk away, and we saw several folks swimming there when we stopped to visit it. We didn't swim there ourselves. When we were planning to go visit a beach on one of the Egadi islands, I asked staff for beach towels and they provided them for no extra charge. There was plenty for us to do in the old city and we never really explored further than that part of the city and up to Erice.

Overall this is a wonderful hotel as a base camp for exploring the area. The staff were very helpful and kind. Would definitely stay here again.

Case D'Anna - Castellammare del Golfo We spent five nights in this delightful property. This is a small family hotel right on the main street in the central part of the city. The owners were incredibly kind and helpful throughout our stay. Pietro had pretty good english. His wife didn't have much (we mostly talked through a translation app, which was a little frustrating for both of us as I am sure she would have liked to chat more). We didn't see Peppe (their son) during our stay but he was the one I communicated with via the Booking.com chat feature. Our room was on the second floor and they have a tiny elevator that we had to have one person go up at a time in (we are large folks and we were just barely over the weight limit of 250kg). Despite this, the elevator was good and did its job.

The rooms were beautiful and spacious. We had an entry, a sitting room, a bathroom, and the bedroom. Ours had two beds because we tend to wake each other up if we're in the same bed. The mattresses were firm but not hard. The ceilings were vaulted and decorated nicely with some classic furniture and a few pieces of art. The internet was pretty solid if a little slow, but the signal was weak in the bedroom and would cut out sometimes. It was fine in the sitting room. For the first day and a half there was a regional internet issue so it disconnected a fair bit, but that got resolved and it was OK after. We moved the comfy chairs from the bedroom into the sitting room because the small sofa in the sitting room (which I think would fold out into yet another small bed) was very low and a bit uncomfortable for us to get onto and off of. There was a fridge in the sitting room with a few "mini fridge" types of items you can purchase for extra that we didn't buy. We did use it to keep the water and soda we bought cold, and keep some leftovers.

The bathroom was a little small for our large bodies, and the shower difficult to get into because of how the door was in the corner of the staff, but once we got int, it was OK and the water pressure was fine. The hand-held sprayer helped. There were some small shampoos and little soaps available as well as body wash. Though we mostly used our own toiletries.

The location for this hotel was wonderful. They offered breakfast at a local cafe only a few minutes walk down Garibaldi. Breakfast included a beverage and a choice of a "salty" or "sweet" item. We usually had a sweet thing and a little sandwich that we shared between us and some juice or lemon soda (we don't drink coffee or espresso). There was a nice halal pizza and kebab restaurant right across the street that was open every day we were there. The both the pizza and the kebabs were lovely, substantial, and reasonably priced. Further down Garibaldi, the street becomes a pedestrian zone, and there's another one that heads off to the left towards the city park. The entire tourist area and the marina are within a fairly short walk, though be warned, this entire town sits on a hill and everything is up or downhill from everything else. Because of our mobility issues we needed to allow for more time, and take many rests, while we were out and about.

Pietro, his wife, and Peppe were very kind, helpful, and interested in us. One of the reasons for us visiting this city was because my spouse's grandmother (who moved to the US when she was around five years old) had been born there. We were hoping to maybe find out where she'd lived while there, and maybe find more about her parents and grandparents. Peppe came through with the name of the historian at the city library (which was two blocks away, very easy walk). Nunzio at the library was generous with his time and helped tracked down my spouse's family. Not only that, but because we were able to find their grandmother's house, her father's place of birth, and information about his father, my spouse was offered a certificate that made them an honorary member of the community of Castellammare del Golfo. It was absolutely the best souvenir for us to buy. We found out where Nana had been born, where her papa had been born, and that her grandfather had been a shoemaker. All because of the kindness of the owners.

I would absolutely stay here again and highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

Villa Siesta Hotel - Istanbul We had a 17 hour layover in Istanbul with our flight arriving around 23:00. I booked this hotel because they offered a shuttle service (for an extra, reasonable fee) to and from the airport, and they had no problem picking us up so late at night. It was only about a half an hour ride from the airport. The hotel had the bonus of being right across the street from the beach/boardwalk on the Black Sea. We only spent one night here, but it was exactly what we needed. Much better, more comfortable, and more affordable than staying in the airport.

The room was sparkling clean with a thick, soft foam mattress on the king size bed. It had two seats and a low table as well as counters around the walls for putting things on. There was a large built in wardrobe with room for dressing next to it on the way into the bathroom. The window opened and let in the lovely sounds of surf from the nearby sea and it had a view of the water. The bathroom wonderfully appointed with a huge shower, good water pressure, and hand-held sprayer.

Staff were kind and helpful. I had absolutely no Turkish, but their english was very good and they were able to get us through. Breakfast was included with the room and what a lovely breakfast it was! We opted for juice and out came a large platter for two, covered with cheeses, some meat, fruit, and vegetables. There was a big basket of bread, butter, honey, and cherry jam. It was all so delicious. Check out time was a very generous 12:00 but they were happy for us to enjoy the hotel and beach before checking out. They arranged the shuttle to get us to the airport by 14:00 to catch our flight at 16:00 and brought us some beverages while we relaxed on a sofa downstairs in the little cafe attached to the hotel.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I strongly recommend this place over staying in the airport. It was a wonderful value.

Mare and More Boat Tour We booked a four hour boat tour that took us along the coast and past Zingaro national park with Mare and More. The boat was a smaller one that fit maybe 12 people (we had 9 on our tour), a tour guide and a skipper. They provide fruit, water, and wine if you like. There are several stops along the way to swim in sea caves/grottos. They also have snorkeling equipment if you're so inclined. They give around half an hour to swim at each of the swim stops. The scenery was wonderful. It was an absolutely delightful boat tour. It was leisurely on the way out, but on the way back the boat went very fast and the sea was a wee bit rough, so the boat went up and down a lot. That was a bit uncomfortable but not awful. We are large folks, and decided not to go swimming but just to enjoy the day out on the sea. The boat had a small, narrow ladder to get back in and I was concerned it would be difficult to get back into the boat with it. That's not a problem with Mare and More, though, that's just a general accommodation issue because of our size (and something we're used to dealing with. Bring your passport when you go for the tour. I forgot mine but fortunately my spouse had theirs. So they let us go and just took my general information down. This was a great way to spend a half day that was warm and sunny (though it did start to cloud up at the end, it never actually rained). The crew were very professional and spoke english well enough to explain what we were seeing. Highly recommend this company and their boat tours.

[balapann-blog]

Day 26 - 1 October - Istanbul > Konya

Woke up early and checked out of the hotel and got the metro to the high speed rail station on the Asian side. After quite a long queue we got on board. We are in first class which is pretty nice, lots of leg room and food provided! The line goes all along the eastern side of the Sea of Marmara and went past the islands that we went to a few days ago. There was lots of shipping apparatus (containers etc.) stored in yards all along the coast and lots of ships moored. We didn’t really see countryside till we had got past Izmit. It is dawning on me quite how big Turkey is! We went through the great Anatolian Plain which was this vast expanse of arid landscape, on closer inspection you could see that all the land had been tilled, which seemed crazy considering there were almost no houses to be seen along the whole route and very little water to be seen anywhere.

We arrived in Konya and walked to our hotel. We are only here for a night so the hotel owner gave us a list of a few places to go. The main place is the tomb of Rumi the Sufi saint which was beautiful. His sect the Mavlevi’s are the whirling dervishes, and have deep significance for islam in turkey and the Ottoman Empire, although they were outlawed by Ataturk who did a Henry VIII and confiscated all their land. We then went to a couple of mosques and this lovely covered food market where among massive cabbages and large amounts of different chilli pastes there was this very interesting looking crumbly blue cheese that Nina and I had never seen before.

After that we went to this restaurant for dinner and had a kinda of Lamachun thing and some lamb and cooked vegetables. This along with two soups was delicious but I was full. After this we went to a whirling dervish ceremony that was really interesting but was slightly ruined by the fact that everyone in the audience was filming it for the entire time. We both took a couple of photos and videos but it seemed a very serious religious experience (done for tourists obviously) but I don’t think that someone needed to instagram live it like this one person did. Although the sect were outlawed, people are allowed to do the ceremony for tourism, which was slightly strange was it just a tourist show or a way for people to do something that they are not allowed to do otherwise? It must take lots of practice since it is very difficult to spin like that! We then walked home and went to sleep since we needed to be up early for our bus to Cappadocia.

What we ate - Maruf Turbonu Loktantasi

What we liked - Maruf was delicious I think the lamb cooked in veg was delicious!

Day 27 - 2 October - Konya > Avanos (Cappadocia)

Woke up and had quite a delicious hotel breakfast which included the crumbly blue cheese we had seen the day before. I had lots of the delicious honey. After that we got a taxi to the bus station. The Turks love a ‘central’ bus station 30 mins outside a city. Our bus was cancelled, but they managed to put us on an earlier bus that was barely filled and was pretty lux so we had a lovely 3 hour journey. We passed Aksaray prison which was a bit weird, but then got to Nevsehir without incident.

We then got quite an expensive taxi to our hotel and checked in. The hotel is in a lovely stone mansion and our room is very big and comfortable. Reading about the town on Wikipedia the old houses were mainly Greek and Armenian family houses pre 1923 and the forced movement of Greeks out of Anatolia. We went for lunch in a fairly average place where the manti (dumpling like things in a yogurt like sauce) and beans we good, but the pickles were a bit moldy and the salad was a bit gritty, I think we are at the limit of places we can order salads now.

We went to the top of the town for sunset and then to this really nice wine bar that sells local wine (Cappadocia is famous for it) and wrote some postcards. We then had a very illicit McDonald’s which was great, Big Mac meal and nugs each! We then went home as we had an even earlier start the next day.

Where we ate -Fatima’nin Sofraisi, McDonald’s

What we liked - Maccies really scratched an itch, also the upstairs had all these fun rugs and Turkish coats framed on the walls.

[vivanorealty]

İstanbul’da Gayrimenkul Yatırımları: Vivano Realty ile Stratejik Fırsatlar

İstanbul, Türkiye’nin en büyük ve en dinamik şehri olarak, gayrimenkul yatırımları açısından büyük fırsatlar sunmaktadır. İstanbul emlak piyasası, yerli ve uluslararası yatırımcılar için cazip seçenekler ve yüksek getiriler vadeder. Vivano Realty (www.vivanorealty.com), bu fırsatları en iyi şekilde değerlendirmek isteyen yatırımcılara kapsamlı danışmanlık hizmetleri sunarak öne çıkmaktadır.

İstanbul Gayrimenkul Pazarının Öne Çıkan Avantajları

Ekonomik Büyüme ve İstikrar: İstanbul, Türkiye’nin ekonomik kalbi olarak sürekli büyümekte ve yatırımcılar için güvenli bir ortam sunmaktadır. Şehrin gayrimenkul sektörü, ekonomik canlılık ve yüksek talep ile dikkat çekmektedir.

Nüfus Yoğunluğu ve Talep: İstanbul’un yaklaşık 16 milyonluk nüfusu, konut talebinin yüksek olmasına neden olmaktadır. Genç nüfus ve artan göç, emlak sektöründe sürekli bir büyüme ve gelişim sağlamaktadır.

Turizm ve Kültürel Çekicilik: İstanbul, tarihi ve kültürel zenginlikleri ile dünya çapında bir turistik merkezdir. Bu, turistik gayrimenkul yatırımları için büyük fırsatlar sunmaktadır. Özellikle tarihi bölgelerdeki konut ve ticari projeler, yüksek kazanç potansiyeline sahiptir.

Vivano Realty ile İstanbul’daki Yatırımlar

Vivano Realty (www.vivanorealty.com), İstanbul’daki emlak yatırımları için yatırımcılara stratejik rehberlik sunar. Şirket, pazar analizi, değerleme hizmetleri, portföy yönetimi ve hukuki danışmanlık gibi alanlarda kapsamlı çözümler sunmaktadır.

Vivano Realty’nin sunduğu bazı hizmetler:

Emlak Değerleme: İstanbul’daki konutlar, ticari gayrimenkuller ve arsa yatırımları hakkında profesyonel değerleme hizmetleri sunarak, yatırımcıların doğru kararlar almasına yardımcı oluyoruz.

Pazar Analizi ve Raporlama: İstanbul’un tüm bölgelerinde emlak pazar analizi yaparak, yatırımcılar için en uygun fırsatları belirliyoruz.

Portföy Yönetimi: İstanbul’daki emlak portföylerini optimize ediyor, riskleri minimize ediyor ve kazançları maksimize ediyoruz.

Hukuki Danışmanlık: İstanbul’daki yabancı yatırımcılar için gerekli hukuki süreçleri yönetiyor, vatandaşlık programları gibi avantajları sunuyoruz.

Teknoloji ve İnovasyonla İstanbul’daki Yatırımlar

Vivano Realty, İstanbul’daki gayrimenkul projeleri için en son teknolojileri kullanarak yatırımcılara yapay zeka, big data ve dijital çözümler sunmaktadır. İstanbul emlak piyasasındaki güncel bilgileri ve piyasa trendlerini yatırımcılarla paylaşarak, bilinçli yatırım kararları alınmasını sağlıyoruz.

Vivano Realty (www.vivanorealty.com) ile çalışarak, İstanbul gayrimenkul piyasasındaki en kazançlı projelere hızlı bir şekilde erişebilir ve güvenle yatırımlarınızı gerçekleştirebilirsiniz.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

İstanbul gayrimenkul sektörü, İstanbul emlak piyasası, konut projeleri, ticari emlak, arsa yatırımları, emlak danışmanlığı, emlak değerleme, pazar analizi, portföy yönetimi, yabancı yatırımcı, İstanbul emlak pazarı, turistik gayrimenkul, vatandaşlık programı, emlak trendleri, İstanbul ekonomisi, genç nüfus, yatırım fırsatları, büyük şehirlerde gayrimenkul, kültürel çekicilik, yatırım danışmanlığı

[pazaryerigundem]

Dünya için Tarkan zamanı! 'Kuantum 51' dünya platformlarında

https://pazaryerigundem.com/haber/177990/dunya-icin-tarkan-zamani-kuantum-51-dunya-platformlarinda/

Dünya için Tarkan zamanı! 'Kuantum 51' dünya platformlarında

Megastar Tarkan’ın, 7 yıl aradan sonra kaydettiği ilk albümü “Kuantum 51” 14 Haziran’da sevenleriyle buluştu. Kuantum 51, tüm dünyadaki dijital platformların farklı ülkelerdeki ana sayfalarında ve özel listelerin kapaklarında en geniş şekilde yerini buldu.

İSTANBUL (İGFA) – Tarkan, Amerika’dan Almanya’ya, Brezilya’dan Rusya’ya, Fransa’dan Arap dünyasına farklı ülkelerde dijital platformların ana sayfalarında ve çalma listelerinde yayınlandığı günden itibaren en kapsamlı şekilde yer edinen ilk Türk sanatçı olurken, Kuantum 51 ise Türkçe albüm olarak dünya müzik platformlarında bu derece etkin tanıtım alan ilk türkçe albüm oldu.

Tarkan’ın Hitt Müzik etiketi ile yayınlanan 12 şarkılık yeni albümü “Kuantum 51”e tüm dünyadan tanıtım desteği geldi.

Albümü ilk olarak Apple Music, Almanya, Hollanda, Belçika, İsviçre, Lüksemburg’da ana sayfaya taşıdı. Apple Fransa ana sayfada ve World Music listesinde albüme yer verdi. Ayrıca Kuantum 51’in, 1 hafta boyunca Apple Fransa’ da önerilen çıkışlar bölümünde yer alacağı açıklandı. “Kuantum 51”in etkisi tüm dünyayı sararken, Apple Music Brezilya ve Amerika’da albümü ana sayfadan tanıttı.

4 GÜNDE TÜM DÜNYA “KUANTUM51” DEDİ

Spotify globalde ilk kez Türkiye haricinde, Almanya, Amerika, Hollanda ve Meksika’da türkçe bir albüme ana sayfalarında yer verdi. Rusya’da Yandex The Big Names ve Worlwide Pop Hits listelerinde birinci sıraya ve MTS Music Pop ise, Premier listesinde Kuantum 51’i ilk sıraya taşıdı. Orta Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika Bölgesi’nin bir numaralı müzik platformu Anghami’de New Turkish Playlist’te kapakta Slovenya, Sırbistan, Bulgaristan, Yunanistan, Hırvatistan ve Litvanya, Letonya, Estonya ekipleri de albümü ’New Music’ alanlarında Tarkan ve yeni albümü yer aldı.

BU Haber İGF HABER AJANSI tarafından servis edilmiştir.

[xaniro]

Прывітанне, мой дарагі чытач. Вітаю цябе ў часопісе 'Запіскі Вандроўніка'.

Сёння я запрашаю цябе ў вялікае падарожжа з Поўначы Турэччыны аж да Грузіі.

Армагедон

Каб больш караценька - скажу так: Поўнач Турцыі неверагодна прыгожая.

Зусім іншая. Ад пейзажаў да людзей. Ад маўлення да ежы.

План з цікавымі лакацымі, гатэлямі і транспартам мы саставілі яшчэ дома, што раю і вам рабіць. Рукзакі на спіну  і наперад!

Hello, my dear reader.  I welcome you to the journal 'Traveler's notes.'

Today I invite you to a great journey in the North of Turkey all the way to Georgia.

Armageddon

In order to tell more briefly - I will say this: the North of Turkey is incredibly beautiful.

Completely different.  From landscapes to people.  From speech to food.

We have compiled a plan with interesting locations, hotels and transport, which I advise you to do as well.  Backpacks on the back and forward!

Па-першае,нам трэба было завітацца ў Істанбул. Спачатку былі справы, а потым яны адмяніліся. Мы вырашылі не губляць білеты і ляцець у неафіцыйную сталіцу Турэччыны.

Але ...

Вось як заўсёды, нічога і выдумваць не трэба. У дзень, калі ў нас быў вылет пачаўся нейкі армагедон. Спачатку ліў дождж. Потым біў гром ды маланкі такія, што нават падпрыгвалі з пуду. І што?

Так, пачалі адменьвацца рэйсы. То адзін, то другі, то трэці. Ну вы зразумелі.

Таму , калі ўсё ж такі рэйс падцвердзіўся мы паехалі ў аэрапорт.

Там яшчэ крыху і Вітаем, Істанбул.

It so happened that we had to visit Istanbul.  First there were cases, and then they were canceled.  We decided not to lose our tickets and fly to the unofficial capital of Turkey.

But...

As always, there is no need to invent anything.  On the day when we had a departure, some kind of armageddon began.  At first it rained.  Then there was thunder and lightning so that they even jumped out of the pod.  And what?  Yes, flights started to be canceled.  One, then the second, then the third.  Well, you got it.

Therefore, when the flight was confirmed, we went to the airport.

There is a little more and Welcome, Istanbul.

Істанбул

Мы прыехалі раніцай. З аэрапорта да цэнтра ідзе метро, што вельмі зручна. Спачатку трэба было купіць картку і папоўніць баланс. Гэтая ж картка падыходзіць і для аплаты праезду ў аўтобусе. Таксама можна аплочваць за абодвух.

Аўтобус

Вы глядзелі Гары Потэра? Памятаеце, калі ён сеў у аўтобус і мчаўся ў Лондан? Вось. Тое ж самае. Мы ляцелі на ўсіх парах, было вельмі страшна. Вуліцы вузенькія, застаўленыя машынамі, аўтобус вялікі. Інкалі кіроўца выскокваў і ругаўся з людзьмі ды іншымі кіроўцамі. Было і смешна і грэшна, як кажуць.

Мы дабраліся жывімі. Знайшлі свой гатэль, засяліліся, хоць ён і не спадабаўся. Таму раіць вам яго не буду. Сярэдні кошт гатэля на адну ноч 1000 лір.

Мы доўга гулялі па раёну з трамваем Ісцікляль. Там цудоўна, - зашмат людзей, бараў, крам. А яшчэ зашмат аховы каля кожнага касцёла ці царквы. /Бо, калі вы не ведаеце, былі тэракты ў бок каталіцкай царквы./

Так прайшла наша ноч. Павячэралі мы ў мараканскім кафэ. Нам спадабалася толькі гарбата. Потым пасядзелі ў бары. Вечар задаўся цудоўным. Канешне - вырашае з кім ты побач. Таму наматвайце на вус. Ну і канешне, завітайце да Істанбула. Горад хоць вельмі дарагі, ня ведаю, як там выжываюць людзі, але каштуе таго, каб на яго паглядзець.

Istanbul

We arrived in the morning.  There is a subway from the airport to the center, which is very convenient.  First, you need to buy a card and top up your balance.  The same card is also suitable for paying a bus fare.  You can also pay for both persons.

Bus

Have you watched 'Harry Potter'?  Remember when he got on the bus and raced to London? 

Well ... Here.  The same thing.  We flew on all steams, it was very scary.  The streets are narrow lined with cars, the bus is big.  Sometimes the driver would jump out and scream at people and other drivers.  It was both funny and sinful, as they say.

We made it there alive.  We found our hotel.  We settled in, even though we didn't like it.  Therefore, I will not advise you.  The average price of a hotel for one night is 1000 lira.

We walked around the district for a long time with the Istiklal tram.  It's wonderful there, lots of people, bars, shops.  And there is also a lot of security around every church.  /Recently if you don't know there were terrorist attacks towards the Catholic Church/

That's how our night went.  We had dinner in a Moroccan cafe.  We only liked the tea.  Then we sat at the bar.  The evening turned out to be wonderful.  Of course - it decides who you are with. And of course, visit Istanbul.  Although the city is very expensive, I don't know how people survive there, but it is worth to see it.

Трабзон

На гэты раз мы вылецелі ў час. Час у небе - каля гадзіны, мо паўтары. Туркіш эйрланс яшчэ прапануе невялічкі сэндвіч і напоі. Што напрыклад ужо знікае ў іншых авіакампаніях.

Трабзон невялічкі гарадок на Поўначы. Амывае яго чорнае мора. Так, яно вельмі адрозніваецца ад Серадземнага. Мы адразу вырашылі спачатку ўзяць машыну, а ўжо потым шукаць наш гатэль.

Праз хвілін 7 пешшу мы дайшлі да рэнта машыны. (Мы бралі ў Avec. Цудоўна працуюць, добрыя машыны і кошт).

Тут пачаўся дождж, менавіта той, што ліў у Анталіі. Ну а мы селі ў машынку, што абыйшлося нам ў 750 лір плюс 2000 залога, які ўжо вярнуўся, і паехалі глядзець Трабзон.

Першым пунктам быў батанічны сад. Цудоўнае невялічкае месца з аленямі, трусікамі, нейкімі птушкамі. Яны проста ходзюць сабе, глядзяць на людзей. Навокал кветкі розныя, дрэвы. Таксама на тэрыторыі ёсць кафэ, бібліятэка, прыбіральня. Ўсё гэта безкаштоўнае.

Вось так.

Надвор'е было такое сабе і мы пачалі шукаць месца для вячэры. Гэта было не так проста, бо Гугл карта падманвала. Але мы знайшлі наша мястэчка, якое зараз я раю ўсім!! Гэта неверагодны рэстаран Çınaraltı. Там цудоўныя супрацоўнікі, смачная ежа ды падарункі ў выглядзе блюд. І кошт такі танны, што мы былі ў прыемным шоцы. Абавязкова наведайце гэтае месца.

А мы паехалі ў гатэль. Гатэль знаходзіўся крыху далеч ад горада, але на машыне мо тры хвіліны. Таксама магу рэкамендаваць ' La perla blanca'. У нас быў нумар за 750 лір. Нас чакалі дзве вялікія комнаты. Засяліліся мы ўвечары і ўжо ў раніцы паехалі на іншую лакацыю, якую вельмі хацелі паглядзець - Панагія Сумела.

Манастыр

Дарога была нібыта ў казцы. Туман, кручоны серпантын, які ўзнімаў нас вышэй і вышэй. Быццам з малака выскаквалі горныя казлы, інадзі людзі, дамы. Дарогі амаль што не было відаць. Прыгажосць аж да дрыжыкаў.

А потым я ўпершыню села за руль.

Такое адчуванне, не перадаць. Мы даехалі да сярэдняй кропкі, горад Мачкі, адтуль яшчэ крыху і ўжо нас чакала маршрутка, якая давезла менавіта ў манастыр. (Сваім ходам аж да манастыру даехаць нельга. Там вялікія вароты і платны ўваход. Але маршрутка каштавала каля 40лір. І яшчэ адно - памятаеце пра муз.карту? Музейная карта - дык вось з ёй па амаль што ўсім музеям Турэччыны ты праходзіш безкаштоўна)!!

Trabzon

This time we flew back in time.  The time in the sky is about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.  Turkish Airlines also offers a small sandwich and drinks.  Which, for example, is already disappearing in other airlines.

Trabzon is a small town in the North.  It is washed by the black sea.  Yes, it is very different from the Mediterranean.  We immediately decided to take the car first, and then look for our hotel.

After 7 minutes of walking from the airport, we reached the car rental.  (We bought from Avec. Great work, good car and value).

Here it started to rain, exactly the kind that poured in Antalya.  Well, we got into the car, which cost us 750 lira plus a 2,000 deposit, which has already been returned, and went to see Trabzon.

The first point was the botanical garden.  A wonderful little place with deer, rabbits, some birds.  They just walk by themselves, look at people.  Various flowers and trees are around.  There is also a cafe, a library, and a toilet on the territory.  All this is free.

That's it.

The weather was so-so and we started looking for a place for dinner.  It was not so easy, because the Google map was deceiving.  But we found one and I recommend to everyone!!  This is an incredible Çınaraltı restaurant.  There are wonderful employees, delicious food and gifts in the form of dishes.  And the price is so cheap that we were pleasantly shocked.  Be sure to visit this place.

And we went to the hotel. 

The hotel was located a little far from the city, but it was a three-minute drive.  I can also recommend 'La perla blanca'.  We had a room for 750 lira.  Two large rooms awaited us.  We checked in in the evening and already in the morning we went to another location that we really wanted to see.

Monastery

The road was like in a fairy tale.  The fog, a twisting serpentine, which lifted us higher and higher.  It was as if mountain goats, sometimes people, houses jumped out of milk.  The road was almost invisible.  Beauty to the point of chills.

And then I sat behind the wheel for the first time.

Such a feeling cannot be conveyed.  We reached the middle point, the town of Machki, a little further from there and a minibus was waiting for us, which took us to the monastery.  (You can't go all the way to the monastery on your own. There are big gates and an entrance fee. But the minibus cost about 40 lira. And one more thing - do you remember the museum card? With it you can visit almost all museums in Turkey for free)!  !

Панагія сумела

Што ж. Гэта месца ўраджае. І сваім месцазнаходжаннем, і відамі, і архітэктурай, фрэскай. Нажаль, амаль што ўсе малюнкі знізу былі знішчаны мусульманамі і проста вандаламі. Але там, дзе не дасталі - раскрывалася прыгажосць, прастата і нейкая духоўная скромнасць. Намоленасць нельга знішчыць, ці выцарапаць. Яна застаецца ў каменні, у вачах, у сэрцы.

Таму вельмі рэкамендую завітаць у Трабзон. Паглядзець на цуд прыроды - батанічны сад ды парк. Смачна паесці ў

Чынаралты і адчуць святасць манастыру.

Panagia Sumela

Well.  This place is yielding.  And its location, and views, and architecture, fresco.  Unfortunately, almost all the pictures below were destroyed by Muslims and vandals.  But where they didn't get it, beauty, simplicity and a kind of spiritual modesty were revealed.  Supplication cannot be destroyed or scratched away.  It remains in the stone, in the eyes, in the heart.

Therefore, I highly recommend visiting Trabzon.  Look at the wonder of nature - the botanical garden and park.  It's delicious to eat in

Chinaralty and feel the sanctity of Sumela monastery.

Трабзон - Ван лаф.

З любоўю ў сэрцы, (с) Аксана Машара

У наступных запіскай працяг гісторыі аб Поўначы Турэччыны, а таксама падарожжа ў новую краіну.

Trabzon - One love.

With love in my heart, (c) Aksana Mashara.

In the next note, the continuation of the story about the North of Turkey, as well as a journey to a new country.

[baranakin]

Nov 16, 2023: We had relatively a short bus drive today from Merzifon to Samsun. it is a big city developed during the Republican Era and also has an important place in the independence of Turkish people after WW1. We visited the Museum of Ataturk, where the independence campaign begun, model of the ship he took from Istanbul to Samsun in May, 1919 as an inspector General for the Ottoman Army, great parks the city has and a brand new shopping mall by thr Black Sea. We had very delicious fish lunch and I enjoyed the expensive canopy in the mall.

[ayveluna]

istanbul beyefendisi mi starboy mu big boy mu hangisi bu cocuk

[lindsaystravelblogs3]

Day 70 – Wednesday, 2 August - Gallipoli

We had a really great day today - far better than I expected.  I am not a big fan of war and war memorials and all the jingoism that goes with that, but we did a tour of Gallipoli and I found it an unexpectedly moving day.

We were picked up at 6:15 am for our four-and-a-half hour drive to ANZAC Cove.  It is about 320 kms from Istanbul, starting with a couple of hours of stop-start peak hour traffic, followed by about the same amount of time, (often) driving at a hundred kilometres per hour above the speed limit.  The Turks seem to think that all the speed restriction signs are misprints, with the leading ‘1’ having been omitted - except those that already have the leading 1, in which case they imagine that the 1 should be a 2.   They have lots of other vision issues too - like all the GURs (Stop signs) painted in red octagons.  They seem to read them as ‘SLOW - 100’.  And they usually only go one way in One Way streets too – whichever way they want to go.  Surprisingly, their interaction with pedestrians is much less consistent.  Sometimes, it is a race to run the red light, with an average of about twenty seconds after the light turns red that some think they should slow down - unless there are real pedestrians on the crosswalk, which is a trigger to plant the foot a little harder.  But at other times, a pedestrian might be approaching an arterial road, when one of the thousands of vehicles will stop on the middle of the road to let them cross (even if they didn’t intend to) - and can you imagine the chaos that creates behind them?  Notwithstanding, traffic flows a lot better here than in Australia and it doesn’t seem to be a big deal for drivers - just an occasional toot, but nothing even approaching road rage.

But I diverge…….  Once free of the city, the country opens out into huge areas of cultivation - much of it being sunflowers.  I wonder how many we saw - certainly many billions, perhaps even trillions - kilometre after kilometre after kilometre for hundreds of kilometres. We were also driving fairly close to the ocean by now, and we had some good  views of the Dardanelles, with quite a few tankers and other cargo ships making their way both north and south.

One of many thousands of Sunflower paddocks.

We stopped for a restroom break at 10:30 and by 11:30, we were eating lunch a few kilometres further down the road.  We thought breakfast was included but we had to buy our own.  We both ordered gozlemes - one vegetarian, and one with meat.  We were served two vegetarian ones and decided not to mention it - they were close to the same price anyway.  We were just about to eat the last piece when they came running up, full of apologies, but we said everything was good and we didn’t want any more.  Needless to say, within a couple of minutes, another whole plate arrived brimming with meat ones.  We managed to eat one piece each and tried to give the rest away - but no, the little lady came back with a box and wrapping, and sent us away with a full doggy box. 

Lunch was also more than we could eat and we got slightly dudded when we paid for our drinks that were not included.  They only take Turkish lira and we didn’t have enough.  Not to worry - we had some US dollars.   They did what seems common practice here.  They convert the bill in lira to euros and round it up – with a conversion rate that is just a bit in their favour.   Then they convert the euros to dollars and round it up again - a bit more in their favour.  So our almost $AU9 drinks cost us $AU13 - but maybe they need it more than we do.

Te real tour started from there.  Back on the bus, we drove to most of the sights at Gallipoli.  We had a really excellent guide – a Turk who only does tours for English speakers.  I thought his comments were very fair, but I suspected a slight undertone of contempt for his own country’s efforts.

We went to all three of the Australian landing points – all within about a kilometre – and were regaled with many heartbreaking stories of incidents that occurred over the nine months our Diggers were there.  And because our soldiers (and theirs) were tunnelling under the enemy lines for much of the campaign, our men got the nickname of Diggers – I never knew how they got the name before.

We heard about various landmarks: the most notable was probably the Sphinx – our Diggers had been fighting in Egypt before Gallipoli and a rocky bluff near their attack point reminded them of the Egyptian sphinx.  I learned a lot about the whole campaign that day, much of it pretty heart-tugging.  It made me even more disgusted than ever with the Brits who threw the ANZACs in, essentially to divert attention and make their (and the French) planned landing easier and safer a few kilometres south of ANZAC Cove.  (Churchill wasn’t called Churchill the Butcher for nothing!)  They had sailed their big fleet up the Dardanelle Strait a few days earlier, thinking they could just take over Istanbul and the whole of Greece without a fight – and lost more than half the entire fleet because the Turks had mined the narrowest point.  How stupid could Churchill be, imagining that the Brits could do as they liked without any risk from the Turks?  So he decided to sacrifice the ANZACs to avoid a further disappointment with the British landing – that he suffered anyway.  The ANZACS were loaded into landing craft eight miles out to sea with the expectation that they would row in, but Churchill thought our boys would be too tired to fight after all that work - so the Brits towed the craft in to where they were still well out of range of enemy fire and cast them loose to row the rest of the way, while the Brits scurried away out of harm's way.

I also learned that on the very first day, the Australian forces got to within a couple of hundred metres of their high-point target before the Turks regrouped and pushed them right back to the shore where they had landed.  The Kiwis did reach their target, but only held it a couple of days before being pushed back to the beach too.  Ataturk was a great General and did almost everything right. The whole campaign could well have been over with an Allied victory on the very first day if the British officers had just thougt a little more carefully about their strategy.

We went to the Lone Pine cemetery where lots of Aussies are buried – in unmarked graves, but with commemorative plaques indicating who were thought to be there.  Lone Pine has a single thirty-year-old pine tree.  The original one was destroyed but some seeds were returned to Australia and new generations of trees were grown from it and a new tree planted there in the nineties.

The current Lone Pine and a typical gravestone identifying those believed to be buried in the Lone Pine cemetery.

We were shown where the respective front lines were at either end of the cemetery - a complete stalemate for months, despite a couple of temporary successful forays and setbacks during the time.  We were also shown some of the trenches the soldiers dug and lived in – about twenty metres apart in that area, but in some places, as close as eight metres – and tunnelling and booby-trapping under the enemies’ lines was common on both sides. 

But all was not violence and hatred.  There was once a half-day truce between the two armies in the area, during which soldiers of both sides helped each other remove the dead and wounded from no-man’s land – and then retreated to the trenches and started shooting at each other again.  And there were plenty of stories of soldiers throwing things to each other (apart from grenades) – at least cigarettes and the makings.  The Turks had tobacco, but no papers, and the Aussies had papers, but no tobacco, so they would throw packages of each across the lines to each other.

We also visited the New Zealand and Turkish Memorials.  Both were a little overshadowed by giant statues of Ataturk (Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, as our guide invariably referred to him), but there is no denying that he was a massive influence in the Turkish war and is rightly regarded as the Father of Modern Turkey.

Maybe the most compelling emotion I experienced on the day was fury at the very concept of war – and that campaign in particular.  Many of the decision-makers (the officers, and especially the top brass) were utter morons, making stupid decisions that cost many hundreds of lives on both sides – and all for what?  It was a pointless scrap over a pointless scrap of land that produced no positive outcome anyway.  The Poms and Aussie officers were probably the worst, but we never heard much detail from the other side – although their decisions must have been somewhat better because the Allies never beat them at anything.  The Battle of the Neck was perhaps the most stupid series of mistakes, bad timing and absurd decisions of any – but maybe too difficult to describe here.  Six hundred Australians killed in less than an hour with no Turkish casualties due to ridiculous decisions by a Pommy Commander.  He threw us in in four waves of 150 each, when he imagined that the reports he was given after each wave must have been in error.  At least he was sacked and kicked out of the Army after an Enquiry - but far too late.

There were also stories of great valour and secret victories. Perhaps the one that inspired me most was during the withdrawal of the entire ANZAC force without a single casualty, because they set up automatic firing guns, cut-out figures, and other decoys to make the Turks think we were still there.

Overall, what a waste of human lives and resources for nothing.  War is Hell for the participants (but not the Generals), as much as it is Hell for those left behind to wait and mourn.  But worse still is that nobody has ever learned how pointless their silly games really are.  Our trip this year has reinforced this as constant over the millennia – mighty powers have risen up, fought horrific wars, and created empires, but not one of them has survived for more than a few hundred years at best.

The area is now very peaceful but the horror of war and the folly of the warmakers is really 'in one’s face' when one is put so close to the reality of what it must have been like for the soldiers on the ground.  They were there in 40-odd degree heat in the summer and still there, quite a few literally freezing to death in the winter, all fighting nobly to protect someone else’s ego.  I was profoundly affected on the day and hold the ANZACs and the Turks in greater respect as a result.  The Turks were in almost exactly the same situation as the Allies and they hold us in deep respect as much as we hold them in respect.  I was talking with our guide as I was getting on the bus to return to Istanbul and said I felt like hugging a Turk – and he was more than happy to reciprocate – it was a very touching moment.

It was just as far back to Istanbul as it was to get to Gallipoli and it was about 9.30 before we arrived back at our hotel.  Neither of us felt like eating much so we made do with what we had in the fridge and crashed into bed after a long but very satisfying, if disturbing, day.

[greenbagjosh]

Day 2 and 3 - 10th and 11th October 2009 in Kyiv (original post)

Привет, как ты? Сегодня мы совершим пешеходную экскурсию по Киеву.

Привітання, як справи? Сьогодні ми здійснимо пішохідну екскурсію по Києву.

Прывітанне, як справы? Сёння мы зробім пешаходную экскурсію па Кіеву.

Today, Saturday the 10th October 2009, is the great walk day in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The weather is supposed to be cloudy and cold, maybe in the upper 40s / around 8 or 9 Celsius. Rain is not forecast until Sunday the 11th.

What time zone is Ukraine in? In 2009, it was the same as in Bucharest, Athens, Istanbul, Sofia and Nikosia, as well as Kaliningrad and Minsk, using daylight savings time, so one hour ahead of most of Central Europe, and one hour behind Moscow and St. Petersburg. At that time of the year, the sun rises no earlier than 8 AM (go up north to about 60N latitude, it may not even rise until 8:45 AM!). So that makes waking up a bit difficult for those who came from lower latitudes. We will make it to breakfast time somehow! I showered and got dressed and put my camera in my day bag. Somehow I went the wrong way down the hall, and ended up with a view of an Orthodox church Микільський собор / Mykilʹsʹkyy Sobor, and I found the other USSR-era elevator that served the even floors, as opposed to the odd floors.

The hostel building itself did not have a specific breakfast room, so there was a restaurant close to Vulitsa Mykoly Pymonenka. I had some coffee with eggs, bacon and toast. I probably sat at the table for half an hour, thinking about the Lonely Planet walk route. I wondered if I would also have time to see the Пам'ятник жертвам нацизму / monument to victims of Nazism site, called “Babin Yar” and near the Dorohozhychi metro station.

After breakfast, I walked to a ticket kiosk and bought a ticket for the trolley bus. I caught the bus at Vulitsa Hoholivska and went to the Lukianivska metro station. Just like on the metro, the busses also had the “Обережно, двері закриваються.” announcement with next stop. I bought a few more turquoise tokens for the metro, and rode the green line to Zoloti Vorota, changed to the red line at Teatral’na (did not hear the Natalya Morozova song that time, but the next time I was not so lucky), rode one stop to Kreshchatyk and exited to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central independence square, where the walk supposedly started. My only goal was to complete the walk before sunset and not get turkey-dropped, a common “lost-wallet” scam of some unscrupulous locals.

The walk started off, crossing the Vulitsa Kreshchatyk, which was blocked off to normal vehicular traffic for the weekend, and follow along Arkhitektora Horodetsko to the Mykola Yakovenko statue. That led to the Gorodetsky House that had chimera gargoyles sculpted on the outside, and also the presidential administration building. In the Ukraine you can take photos of the outside of the presidential administration building without the local police and secret service really caring too much, but if you do the same in Minsk, Belarus? You can get into big trouble, but more about that later.

After the presidential palace, I walked southwest on Vulitsa Bankova, to Vulitsa Liuteranska, and to the end of Vulitsa Shovkovychna, where the Ukrainian Parliament building is located, and has its own traffic signal (I think you may have seen the parliament building in the video). At that time, about maybe 11 AM was a demonstration at the Mariinsky Park next door. I spent maybe ten minutes listening and realizing I did not understand well enough what was going on, so I walked further towards the Dnieper.

Saturdays when the weather is good in Kiev, couples making their wedding photos like to go to the Mariinsky Park for example. I must have counted six or seven couples in total, having photo parties and such. Even at one stage, I saw a Chrysler 300C extended limo driving along the driveway. The park consists also of the grounds of the Dinamo soccer stadium, Park Bridge and Museum of Water, as well as the Friendship of Nations Arch. I think that is where I saw my final wedding couple, or so I thought.

After crossing the Congress Center at Vulitsa Mykhaila Hrushevskoho, I took a break at Volodymyrska Hill, I ate some beer nuts and drank one of my bottles of Kvass. I think I was at the halfway point, and it was around 1 PM. I did not run into any turkey droppers. Not yet anyway.

After the Volodymyrska Hill, I walked to the St. Michael’s monastery. Nearby is the funicular train, marked in Cyrillic as “Фунікулер”, that descends to almost the shore level of the Dnieper at the Metro station Poshtova Ploshcha. And it costs about 1.70 UAH per ride. The monastery chapel explicitly forbade the wedding parties to film at that spot, as there was a written sign in Ukrainian to that effect. I took some photos of the golden domed monastery before moving on to the bell tower of Saint Sophia. The clouds gave way at that moment and it must have warmed up to the mid 50s, or about 12 to 14 C.

After the Saint Sophia bell tower, I walked along Vulitsa Volodymyrska to the Golden Gate Park. I think this is where the first failed turkey drop happened. The turkey drop is some scam where a local has some money in a plastic bag and he drops it, and if someone picks it up, they are the turkey. That is how I understand it. If there is any money, it is best to leave it alone and nothing will happen. Until the next person anyway. Information on that scam at https://www.lonelyplanet.com/.../for-all-the-great-kiev.... The next one would be along the Булвар Tarasa Shevchenko after St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral. Don’t think anything of that turkey drop and then walk further to enjoy a bit of the Taras Shevchenko Park, before taking a break at the Shalena Mama café. I had a glass of Kvass there, though they served meals, and I was more in the mood for a bowl of borsht at the Viola’s Bierstube. Sadly since after my visit in October 2009, the Shalena Mama closed down years after, and was replaced by a Domino’s Pizza. Gosh, even Kiev is not immune to globalization.

I found the Viola’s Bierstube just at the intersection of Bulvar Tarasa Shevchenka and Vulitsa Khreshchatyk. There is, or rather, was, a statue of Lenin, at that intersection, but it was replaced with a big stone with Ukranian engraving. Across the road is an underground mall, connected to the Bessarabsky Market. In the Viola Bierstube I had a beer and a bowl of borsht – passing on the four ounces of complimentary mustard that they seem to freely give out, they do the same thing at the original Bierstube on Vulitsa Velyka Vasylkivska near the Ploshcha Lva Tolshtoho / Palats Sportu metro station. I was careful not to spend too much, as most places in Ukraine do not accept credit cards. After making it to the Bessarabsky Market, I had reached the end of the walk as stated in the Lonely Planet Guide. I think it was getting around 7 PM or so, and sunset was around 7:30 PM. I had other places I wanted to visit, but I was feeling worn out. Even the original Bierstube was a bit difficult to find but I think I found it on Monday the 13th.

I went back to the hostel, left my day bag in the room and went to Vino e Cucina on Sichovykh Striltsiv for pizza. The pizza was good. I went to bed after walking back home. At some point, I would have to get a train ticket for Minsk in Belarus for Monday evening arriving in Minsk on Tuesday the 14th. I would try my luck the next day at the Кіїв Пассажірскії rail station.

Tomorrow Sunday 11th October 2009 is the pilgrimage to the Lavra, a large campus of Ukrainian Orthodox chapels, near the Arsenal’na metro station. Also the city military museum (some content there can be disturbing) with the Motherland Monument, Indian food, rickety tram ride on a USSR-era Tatra unit, and the monument to WWII victims. To cap it off, a dinner on Khreshchatyk and breakdancing just like from the early to mid 1980s. Stay tuned for more!

Спокойной ночи и до завтра!

На добраніч, і до завтра!

Дабранач, і да заўтра!

[ipeker1952]

Susuzluk,

Küresel ısınma ve bunun doğurduğu iklim değişikliği insanlığın başına bela olacak gibi gözüküyor, susuzluk giderek daha çok kendisini hissettiriyor, yazlık yörelerde yazın nüfusun artması ile çamaşır makineleri çalışamaz hale geldi, peyzajlar sulanamıyor, çimler sararıyor, belki yaz sonuna doğru büyük şehirlerde başta İstanbul olmak üzere ciddi su sıkıntıları yaşanacak. Peki bunun için ne yapmalıyız? Bunlardan biri yağmur suyu toplama, yani yağmur suyu hasadı, Akdeniz kuşağında bulunduğumuz için kışın yağmur yağıyor, yazları çok kurak geçiyor. Dolayısıyla kışın, yani yağmur sularını kirlenmeden, toprağa karışmadan bir şekilde yeraltı depolarında veya yer üstü depolarında toplamamız gerekiyor. Tabii bu pahalı bir sistem, her şeyden önce yer ve büyük tanklar gerektiriyor. Fakat bunun için iyi araştırmalar yapılırsa belki pratik çözümler bulunabilir. Örneğin suların yer altında depolanması veya mebran serili göletler yapılması, veya buna benzer daha başka pratik metotların geliştirilmesi lazım, bence geleceğin en büyük işlerinden biri yağmur suyu toplama konusundaki Mühendislik alanında olacak. Bu hayatımızda meslek seçiminden banyo yapmamıza, dişimizi fırçalamamızdan sebze meyve fiyatlarına kadar her şeyi değiştirecek bir olay. Insanoğlunu çok zorlayacak son 50 yılın ilk yıllarına girmiş bulunuyoruz.

lack of water

Global warming and the climate change caused by it seems to be a problem for humanity, thirst is becoming more and more felt, washing machines have become inoperable with the increase in the population in summer areas, landscapes cannot be watered, grasses turn yellow, maybe towards the end of summer, serious problems can arise in big cities, especially in Istanbul. There will be water shortages. So what should we do for this? One of them is rainwater harvesting, that is, rainwater harvesting. Since we are in the Mediterranean belt, it rains in winter and it is very dry in summer. Therefore, in winter, we need to collect rainwater in underground or above-ground tanks in a way that does not pollute or mix with the soil. Of course, this is an expensive system, first of all it requires space and large tanks. But if good research is done for this, maybe practical solutions can be found. For example, it is necessary to store water underground, to construct membrane-lined ponds, or to develop other practical methods. This is an event that will change everything in our lives, from choosing a profession to taking a bath, from brushing our teeth to the prices of vegetables and fruits. We have entered the first years of the last 50 years, which will force mankind very hard.

[yeniyazar]

Denizin ardındaki masallar ülkesi Rusya’yı rüyalarımda yalınayak gezerdim. Bütün şehirleri bana selam verirdi geçerken önlerinden. Kızıl Meydanı gözüm kapalı gezerdim. Dostoyevski ile buhranlara girer Tolstoy ile dertleşirdim. En büyük dert ortağım Gogol olurdu. Moskova’nın büyük ve geniş sokaklarında beş parasızım ama dert değil yürümek parayla değil ya! Geceleyin bir başka güzel bu şehir hükmeden güç gündüz değil gece. Ahalinin keyfi nasıl diye sorarsanız d vitaminden başka bir eksikleri yok. Yılın çoğunluğu hava soğuk ve gri. Rusya’nın soğuk havası insanı soğuk yaparmış pek doğru değil komünizm döneminde kalma güven eksikliği var insanlarda. Kolay kolay kimseyi içlerine almıyorlar. Rusya’da bir yerde bir yere gitmek için araba mı metro mu derseniz metroları tercih edin derim. 175 yıllık metrolarıyla yolculuk ederseniz kendinizi bir zaman yolcusu gibi hissedebilirsiniz. Rusya Eski ile yeni birbirine selamlayarak baktığı ülkenin ta kendisidir. Benim güzel İstanbul’umda ise yeniyi var etmek için eski tarumar ediliyor ne yazık ki. Sokaklarda gezerken karşınıza ihtişamlı tiyatro binaları çıkar. İçeri girmek için bir aylık maaşımı yatırmam gerekiyor. İçeri girmek yerine uzaktan bakıyorum. Bu sorun sadece benim değil Rusya halkı da muzdarip pahalılıktan. Ülkenin refah seviyesi kitap okumaları değil araba markalarının yüksekliği ile ölçülüyor. Bir evde üç dört araba bulunması normal bir şeymiş. İnsanlar otuz yıllık taksitle araba alabiliyorlar. İstanbul trafiğine laf edenler gelip burada araba sürmeliler. Neyse arabaları bir kenara bırakıp manzaranın tadını çıkartıyorum. Büyük tüten bacalar görüyorum ne olduğunu soruyorum. Rusya’da ısıtma sistemleri tek bir merkezden her yere dağıtılıyormuş. Evde kombi ya da şofben kullanılmıyor. Sadece sayaç var ne kadar kullandığınızı görmek için. Tek sorun yılda bir kez ısıtma sisteminin bakımı için on gün boyunca ne sıcak suyunuz var ne de sıcak bir eviniz. 21. Yüzyılın Rusya gerçeği. Belediyenin hopörlerinden çalan hafif bir müzik çalıyor karlı ve soğuk havayı dramatize ediyor. Açıkçası yazın gelmediğim için biraz üzgünüm Rusya’nın beyaz gecelerini göremeden gideceğim. Rusya’da gündüz saatlerinin on dokuz saatlere kadar çıkarmış. Yani gecenin 2’sinde dahi hava kararmamış oluyor. Mayıs’ın sonunda başlayıp Ağustos’a kadar sürermiş. Rusya’ya gelen her turistin yaptığı gibi Aziz Vasil Katedrali’nin önünde fotoğraf çektirip küçük ama temiz otelimin yolunu tutuyorum. Başta parasızım dediğime bakmayın buraya gelmek için de paraya ihtiyaç var. Burada yaşayanlara göre parasızım. Eşyalarımı topluyorum gece 12’de uçağım kalkıyor. Son kez odama bakıyorum benim ağırlayan bu oda güzel bir hatıra olarak bende kalacak. Belki hayatım boyunca yaşayamayacak olsam da hayatımda bir bölümünü geçirdiğimin için şanslı hissediyorum. Hafif bir buruklukla ayrılıyorum buradan. Uzak bir diyara gidince fark ediyorum ki insan ne görmek istiyorsa onu görüyor. Dostoyevski yaratan Rusya’yı görmek isteyen de güzel kızlarını görmek isteyen de görüyor. Kimin gönlünde ne varsa onu görüyor. Buna ne diyorlardı ha hatırladım; algıda seçicilik

I used to travel barefoot in my dreams across Russia, the land of fairy tales beyond the sea. All its cities would greet me as I passed by. I used to walk around the Red Square with my eyes closed. I would get into depressions with Dostoevsky and commiserate with Tolstoy. Gogol would be my greatest companion. I am penniless in the big and wide streets of Moscow, but it doesn't matter, walking doesn't cost money! This city is different at night, night, not day, is the ruling power. If you ask how the locals are enjoying themselves, they lack nothing but vitamin D. The weather is cold and gray most of the year. It is not true that the cold weather of Russia makes people cold, people have a lack of trust left over from the communist era. They do not let anyone in easily. If you ask whether to go somewhere in Russia by car or subway, I would say you should prefer subways. If you travel on 175-year-old subways, you may feel like a time traveler. Russia is the country where the old and the new look at each other with greetings. Unfortunately, in my beautiful Istanbul, the old is being destroyed to create the new. As you walk through the streets, you come across magnificent theater buildings. I have to pay a month's salary to get inside. Instead of going inside, I look at it from afar. This problem is not only mine, the people of Russia also suffer from the high prices. The welfare level of the country is measured not by reading books but by the number of car brands. It is normal to have three or four cars in a house. People can buy a car with thirty years of installments. Those who criticize Istanbul traffic should come and drive here. Anyway, I leave the cars aside and enjoy the view. I see big smoking chimneys and ask what they are. In Russia, heating systems are distributed everywhere from a single center. There is no boiler or water heater in the house. There is only a meter to see how much you use. The only problem is that once a year for the maintenance of the heating system you have neither hot water nor a warm house for ten days. 21st century Russia reality. A light music playing from the municipality's loudspeakers dramatizes the snowy and cold weather. Honestly, I am a bit sorry that I didn't come in summer, I will leave without seeing the white nights of Russia. It is said that the daylight hours in Russia are up to nineteen hours. In other words, it is not dark even at 2 o'clock in the night. It starts at the end of May and lasts until August. I take a photo in front of St. Vasil's Cathedral like every tourist who comes to Russia and then I head to my small but clean hotel. Don't mind that I said I am broke at the beginning, you need money to come here. According to those who live here, I am broke. I pack my things and my flight leaves at 12 at night. I look at my room for the last time, this room that hosted me will remain with me as a beautiful memory. Maybe I won't be able to live here for the rest of my life, but I feel lucky to have spent a part of it. I leave with a slight bitterness. When I go to a distant land, I realize that one sees what one wants to see. Whether one wants to see the Russia that created Dostoevsky or the beautiful girls. One sees what is in one's heart. I remember what they call this; selectivity in perception.

[balapann-blog]

Day 16 - 21 September - Pristina > Skopje

Lazarus, Liverpool in Istanbul, The Miracle at Medinah, Jesus himself, The forces of men and elves in the battle with Sauron in the first mins of the Fellowship of the Ring. These are just some of the comebacks that have been likened to the turnaround that saw Nina Jones recover from her illness. I went for a run in the early morning, then we packed, checked out, had a Turkish tea and a pastry then took the bus from Pristina to Skopje!

Our bus was very straightforward and our (incredibly lux) apartment was about a 5 min walk from the bus station. We walked into town and went to the archeological museum which was in a massive neoclassical brutalist mashup of a building. The museum itself had some interesting things, the most interesting being pottery statues of the Mother Goddess who had her own cult in Neolithic Ilaria. The museum I imagine could have been better stocked had some of the Western European museums loaned some of the stuff they had got from this part of the world, as it felt a bit depleted.

We walked over this bridge which had loads of statues of famous people from Macedonia. I was looking for Alexander and Philip, but they were not to be found. I needent have worried because we then went along the river and saw a massive statue of Philip II of Macedon and across the river in the main square there is an even bigger one of Alexander on horseback. Skopje loves statues and large neoclassical buildings, it also has some great brutalist buildings too!

We then went to the old bazar, which seemed a world away from the monumental building along the river, this was an Ottoman style bazar that felt like you could be in turkey (complete with big pictures of Erdogan).

After walking around for a bit we went for dinner near where we are staying. The food was nice, we kept it quite simple with vegetable dishes. We then went home and chilled out before going to sleep.

Where we ate - Mama Mantia, Kuka

What we liked - Kuka was really nice I had some Macedonian wine which was quite deep, not my normal thing but it as very tasty

Day 17 - 22 September - Skopje

We woke up and had a coffee in the flat and then went to the bus station, we were going to the Matka canyon for an excursion. This is a normal small river valley that had been dammed, and created this long thin lake behind the dam. We got a burek and an ayran as breakfast and got the bus. The bus annoyingly dropped us about a 30 min walk away from where it normally does so we walked down and got to the main canyon bit.

We first did about 20 mins of kayaking and slightly soaked ourselves, we also stopped because we didn’t have a dry bag and were worried for our stuff. We then hiked along the canyon hoping to come out at this massive cave they kept talking about. There were boats that could take you to the cave along the 5k or so on the water. We liked the walk but it got quite shrubby as it got further along so we were looking forward to getting a boat home When we got to the cave, it was on the other side of the lake! And the path abruptly stopped.

Thankfully, a boat driver called up to us and offered to pick us up on our side and take us back, he also brought us to the cave, it did cost the same as a round trip but we didn’t mind. As we were discussing payment I saw a kingfisher! It’s the third time I’ve seen on and I am always so amazed when I see the electric blue fly across the water! We went into the cave quickly which was quite impressive although I was more impressed with the kingfisher. The boat was a great investment and the journey was very pleasant back.

We then hotfooted it back to the bus stop to make the 14.55 bus, time was against us but we made steady progress against the google maps time and arrived at 14.51. Alas was not early enough and the bus had already gone, just as the annoying taxi driver had said hen he offered us a lift to the but stop 8 minutes earlier. The next bus was at 16.20 which we were not waiting for. Still smarting from the taxi driver, we decided to walk to the next bus stop, this was about 45 mins down some quite random roads but when we eventually found the bus stop and, as a bus came along the second we got to the bus station in we felt vindicated in our actions. The bus looked like an inexact copy of an old route master and it took us to within a couple of minutes walk from the flat. We then chilled in the flat for a bit with the Arsenal / City match on with a nice glass of Macedonian wine that was complementary our apartment (personally I preferred Macedonian white to red as the red was quite heavy).

We then walked quite a long way to have dinner in this restaurant that was recommended to us by the guy who owned our apartment. It was on a very buzzy street with lots of live music and people eating outside. The manager said that the place was full and that they wouldn’t have any space for 2 hours so we went across the road to a very similar place, which as far as we could tell had the same menu and basically the same set up. We had an really good meal actually, we had a salad, a roast aubergine, some amazingly spiced roast spuds and then a pork skewer and I had a little bottle of Macedonian wine (chilled red). There was a band playing folk songs roving round the tables and a really nice vibe. After this we walked home and went to bed.

Where we ate - random bus station burek, Kafana Debar Maalo

What we liked - burek was passable but as mentioned before, i think it is quite hard to mess burek up. Restaurant was good - the spuds seemed to be roasted in a sort of curry spice mix and (probably) pork fat, the pork you could see cooking on a rotisserie and that really was nice.

Day 18 - 23 September - Skopje > Thessaloniki

Woke up and the two of us did a 5k around a couple of bridges along the river, it was the best route we have had this trip I think, due to the fact we didn’t have to stop every 50 meters for a road. We then came back and packed, when we checked out we left our bags in the apartment and were going to pick them up before our bus to Thessaloniki. We actually only had about 3 hours so we went to get some brunch in the town. The area we had been in the night before we liked so went back to that area and found a nice cafe that seemed to do brunchy things (the thought of more rich Macedonian food slightly filled us with dread). The food was okay and a nice place to pass the time. We then started walking in the direction of the flat but stopped to get a drink and chill a bit when we were like 10 mins away.

We then collected our bags, got our stuff and then bought some provisions from the massive supermarket across the road, and walked the 10 mins to the bus station. The bus was a very slick operation compared to previous journeys. It was a Mercedes bus, Nin and I each had 2 seats to ourselves and the guy just bombed it down the motorway pedal to the metal, no stops except for the border and one enforced stop where a woman asked to stop. The driver did stop but was very unhappy about it. Greek customs did ask to look in a few bags and you could tell the guy, used to efficiency was irritated.

We got to Thessaloniki about 8 (we had skipped our second hour forward finally!) and took a taxi to our flat. I was very hungry so we went to this wrap place that was 5star on google. It was slightly pricy compared to what we had been used to and was a bit small but was delicious 5/5 would have again. I was suddenly hit with a wave of tiredness so went to bed around 10.

What we ate - Кафетерија Teeny Тајни (cafe), Laziza Street Food

What we liked - My chicken Shawarma was very nice