New Years in istanbul

Next we went to istanbul (but this time we flew). The first thing we noticed here was how friendly everyone was (like the guy we met on the plane who's mother picked him up and gave us a ride into the city), overwhelmingly friendly, right down to the tauts selling cups of tea. No hasseling, no strange male-weirdness because we were women or because we were Americans - we felt safe and we felt welcomed.

istanbul is located on 3 penninsulas surrounded by water - the western side is European, the eastern side is Asian. We stayed on the northwestern penninsula (Beyoğlu) near Taksim Square and the Old City is on the southwestern penninsula.


We couchsurfed with Fatih and his two crazy cats -they were entirely too generous! We ate tasty Turkish food at little places Chelsea and I would have never stumbled upon on our own, had great breakfast conversations over olives and bread and fresh cheeses, and spent New Years Eve together with Fatih's friends. He is a ridiculously talented Kurdish painter and I loved looking at all of his photo-quality works of art...and discussing which kinds of Gypsies we liked best- ha ha.

Fatih gürbüz ( http://www.fatihgurbuz.com/)

fatih gürbüz ( http://www.fatihgurbuz.com/)

fatih gürbüz ( http://www.fatihgurbuz.com/)

In front of Fatih's apartment.

Overfishing the Golden Horn - fishermen lined the bridge between Galata and The Old City day and night.

The Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia) built in the 500's as a Christian church and converted into a mosque during the Ottoman Empire in the 1500's.

Outstanding marble - everywhere!

The dome of the Aya Sofya appears like it's hanging because the columns are concealed in the walls. Tallest dome in the world for centuries.

The Christian mosaics originally covering the walls in Aya Sofya were plastered over when it was converted to a mosque instead of destroyed. This mural depictings the ultimate connection between Church & State: Empress Zoe and her husband (she had 3 during this time, Romanus, Micahel IV, and Constantine, and the face in the mural changed as each husband came into power and then died) dealing directly with Jesus.

Turkish Delight - utterly delightlful. If tourists in Charlevoix are called Fudgies, are tourists in istanbul called Turkish Delighties?

The Spice Market in the Old Town.

Delivering the oranges

The Basilica Cistern was built under the Old Town in 532 to store water for the town but forgotten over the centuries. It was rediscovered in 1545 after women found water by lowering buckets through holes in their basements.

The Cemberlitas Hamami (picture - rov.ln), a turkish bath designed by Sinan in 1584. You lay on this heated slab of marble while a matronly Turkish woman scrubs you down from head to toe. New Years Eve treat!

Breakfast at a Lokanta - point and smile (lots of dishes with chickpeas, pilaf, bread, vegetables, and always tea)

...and always tea.

Chelesa and Fatih with the best chicken kebabs I have ever had and it's perfect complement, ayran, a salted and whipped yogurt drink.

Fatih and me

Chelsea and I took the overnight train from istanbul to Sofia, Bulgaria.

An old Easter German sleeper car, the cabin conductor kept the wood fire stoaked at night for warmth.

Christmas 2009 with the Martinis in Italy!

Chelsea came visit me over Christmas Break, which seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition, lucky for me! We were invited to spend Christmas with Daniela Martini and her family, who treated us as their own and spoiled us so much with all their wonderful food and friendship that I'm never going to be able to order a coffee without hoping for a tiny cup of espresso or eat another breadstick without thinking of those long, thin flakey works of art they always put on the table.

We drove to Italy (thanks for the GPS for Christmas, Dad!) and we left from Oberursel and headed south to Freiburg, Germany for a few days (I actually came a bit late due to an emergency kiddy surgery), home of the German Green Party and some great sustainable community projects.

We spent another night in Zurich - this is the view from our hostel room. The city wasn't actually on fire, but it's surrounded by mountains and is besides a large lake and it just might be "on fire".

We drove through some serious mountains in Switzerland, the GPS liked to take us the back way somtimes, especially on dark, snowy nights.

The "freeways" in Switzerland is mostly 2-lane, curvy roads with lots of tunels and switchbacks. STS9, podcasts from Seattle radio station KEXP, and Vampire Weekend got us through.

We stopped along the way at various architectural accomplishments of interest to Chelsea - like this chapel in the tiny town of Sumitvej designed by Peter Zumthur. We also treated ourselves to a day (5 hours in the water, we were absolute prunes) at the thermal baths in Vals, another design by Peter Zumthur -

Therme Vals (photo http://www.therme-vals.ch/en/spa/

Therme Vals (photo http://www.therme-vals.ch/en/spa/)

We couchsurfed with Tom, a carpenter in Mels, about 20 minutes away from Vals, located in a beautiful valley. We wandered around the little side roads which zig-zagged up the mountains, through little towns with traditional wood houses like this one...doesn't it just make ya want to put slippers on and drink hot tea?

And when we made it to Chiere, Italy, we were welcomed with big hugs by Emanuela and Vittorio, Daniela's sister and brother in law, in their big beautiful house in the countryside. We stayed with them for our time in Italy and ate cookies for breakfast every morning.

Christmas Eve dinner with the Martinis at Dani's parents' house! (Me, Dani, Vittorio, Michele, Magda, and Manu) We ate so much spectacular food...but that was only just a start!

Modeling our new Christmas hats (Chelsea, Dani, and I all had the same idea somehow)

Chelsea and Silvana preparing Christmas dinner in the kitchen - check out that great alien necklace!

Manu sets the table for Christmas dinner

We ate for 4 hours...

Thank you so much for letting us be part of your family for Christmas!

The Post-Christmas-Dinner YaYas. .

Dessert = chocolate mousse, tiramisu, popcorn cake, sweet bruchette, lemonchella, and a tiny coffee.

Manu and I take in some fresh air at Superga.

We visited Auntie Rita and Uncle Ernesto, who are 80 years old and live on a farm in Chiere (the town grew up around them) and, until 2 years ago, kept milk cows. She insisted we take this home-grown squash home with us and was prepared to hack it to bits to give us a part, if we couldn't take the whole thing, because this one was the best. We left with two comparably smaller beasts.

Auntie Rita's bike. She's never ridden in a car before. She bikes or walks or drives her tractor everywhere.

Vittorio and Chelsea snowboaring and skiing Val Tournanche in Val d'Aosta

Chowing down on cheesy polenta and wine after hitting the slopes (a variation of beer and sausages in Germany)!

A woman stirring polenta in the mechanical nativity scene hand-made by a man in Dani's village. It filled a small chapel behind their main church.

Footbridge from the Lingotto center (where they used to test-drive Ferraris on the roof) and the Olympic Village from the 2006 games.

Eataly!

Dani, me, Chelsea, and Silvana in front.

Red Sea Ecological Dive Trip

In November I took my Higher Level Biology students on an ecological diving trip in the Red Sea. They all completed PADI dive certification this fall and were ready to go by the time we got to Hurghada, Egypt. We spent a week diving, studying reef ecology, and the impacts of tourism, development, and overfishing on the Red Sea. The students practiced underwater data collection techniques and designed their own investigations - this is a little part of our trip. (much of the video/photos were taken by Sven Kahlbrock and Pete Sinclair)

Katze leiter!

behold - the cat ladder - bringing access and enjoyment to world one feline at a time.