Getting To Istanbul

It took us all day to get to Istanbul. We woke up at 6:45, ate breakfast, and tidied up the boat before catching an 8am bus to Victoria Station where we found a mini-riot at the bus platform. The 8am bus to the airport had broken down and the guys in charge were not. They were trying to make people queue up, but it wasn’t working. We got onto a bus at 8:40 (we had 8:30 tickets, so this wasn’t that bad) and set off through London and East London. Along the way, we stopped because a girl threw up on the bus. Luckily we were towards the back and didn’t have to deal with the smell. At the airport we checked-in, and tried to get money out of an ATM. The ATMs were really temperamental and Jess’s bank had frozen her account. I was finally able to get some pounds to change them to euros to pay for our hotel here, but it was a frustrating endeavor. We went through security and into the waiting lounge.

Inside, I went to Starbucks to see if they had free wifi (they didn’t) and I asked about gluten-free desserts. They had a dairy-free, gluten-free Belgian chocolate cake, but it had nuts. I was so happy they had something and then so let down to find out it contained nuts. This has been happening to me often: in Dublin with the cupcakes, in other Starbucks where the only wheat-free stuff has oats and nuts, and at Edinburgh castle where the chocolate cake had nuts. I am able to buy cookies at health-food stores, but they’re pretty expensive and they’re not chocolate cake. I’m going to have to develop a recipe/find something in Tel Aviv.

So we took the airport shuttle to out terminal and found it completely deserted. It was also 20 degrees hotter than the other part of the airport. After a while, more people started to show up and finally the airline workers arrived. We were the only flight out of this terminal. It’s because we were flying Pegasus Airlines instead of Ryanair or Easy Jet like most of the flights at Stanstead.

On the plane, the flight attendants immediately started rambling to me in Turkish. I told them I only spoke English and they quickly switched. They handed us a medical form which we were told to fill out. It asked us where we had been recently and if we had come into contact with anyone who could potentially have swine flu. We were required to provide our seat number on the plane and contact details in Turkey. We filled out the forms and returned them to the attendants.

At the airport, we had to pay a visa fee and then go through immigration – not a big deal at all. More people (other passengers) tried to talk to me in Turkish and got quite discouraged when I had no clue what they were saying. We got our bags and walked through customs. We tried again to get cash at the ATM. This time, my American card wouldn’t give me money because I had taken out so much in the UK. Jess called her bank and they said they would remove her hold, but then the guy didn’t do it properly so she had to call again. Luckily, my temperamental, Tesco-hating Spanish card actually pulled through and worked here, so we got some cash and took a city bus to the ferry. We landed in Asia and had to take a ferry across the Bosphorus to get to our hotel, which is in Europe. From the boat we could see the sun setting behind the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque which are practically next to our hotel.

We walked from the ferry to our hotel. Turkey is similar to the old part of Sarajevo, which makes sense because the Ottoman Empire extended all the way to Bosnia. There are tram-tracks through this part of the city and lots of shops and restaurants. We got to the hotel and pretty much crashed. I used the internet and washed clothing; Jess watched TV and read. We’re finally in Istanbul!

The Cherry Orchard (and Day Two in London)

We slept late…this time there was less rocking when the tide came in. Jess and I poached eggs, which is quite difficult because you have to crack the egg and drop it into swirling boiling water. I swirled the water and she dropped the egg in. We ate our breakfast and watched more movies.

When we finally set out for the day, we walked along the Thames toward the center of London. At one point, we came to a building where people were taking an elevator up and belaying down. We’re pretty sure it was a fundraiser of sorts. I was sad that I was wearing sandals and a skirt because I totally would have tried it. We walked through the Westminster area and Trafalgar Square heading east, toward Millennium Bridge. We stopped into a Korean culture center and saw an exhibit on comics. Artists had taken known paintings (by Mondrion and Lichtenstein for example) and re-done them as comics.

On the southern side of the city, we went to the Tate Modern to check out what was up in the Turbine Room. The Tate has a large room on the lowest level (which can be seen from other parts of the museum). They invite artists to put up large-scale shows there. Last time I was there, I saw what can only be described as a “city” made of gigantic sugar cubes. Jess saw one that was slides from the upper levels down to the room. This time, there was a series of gymnastics/playground equipment: slides, balance beams, a life-sized hamster wheel, and a section where you had to try to walk up two vertical walls (they were close together and you had to use pressure to brace yourself and climb up).

We played around on the slides (which were covered) for a while, before trying out the hamster wheel. I went in barefoot (better than wearing the sandals) and in my skirt. Jess used all her body force to make that thing roll. Luckily there were sandbags on either side to keep the wheel in place, because we both felt like we were going to roll away. When we exited, the next pair to enter (two teenage guys) actually got the wheel to roll over the sandbags and outside the barrier. The museum guard told them their time inside was over.

We left the museum and wandered around the neighborhood. We had tickets to see a show called the Cherry Orchard. The theater was near to the museum, so we walked over, picked up our tickets and walked around a bit more. The show was about a family who had lost all its money and had to sell their house and cherry orchard. It was set in Russia at the turn of the 20^th century and spoke about the family’s hardships as well as Russia’s changes in labor laws and other social class issues of the time. The cast was a mix of English actors and American ones, including Ethan Hawk.

Our seats were super cheap. They were some of the only ones available when we purchased them. We were all the way upstairs in the “restricted viewing” area. Basically we were on the side of the auditorium. We didn’t really even have seats; we had places along a bench. No one really sat: you either leaned forward or stood in your place. We were lucky because we had the two best views (closest to the center) of this section. Even with this annoyance, the show was still enjoyable and we had a nice evening. Afterwards, we took the tube back to Kensington/Chelsea and walked to our boat.

The Thames is Tidal!

We hadn’t found a hostel in London, so I wrote about it in my facebook status. A woman responded to my posting that her father-in-law had a houseboat on the Thames. Jessica had babysat her son and I had filled-in one day. She kept in touch and was happy to figure out the details and make it all work. So we arrived at around midnight, found the keys just outside the door to the boat and explored our new “digs.” It’s like living in a small, one-bedroom apartment: there’s a living room area with a TV/DVD player, a kitchen, a full bathroom and a bedroom. When we got here, it was late and the tide was out. We just figured there wasn’t much water in the river due to lack of rain or something like that. We made some tea, watched a movie and had snacks. Then we went to bed. At 5 am the next morning (Friday) the boat was rocking vigorously. We were too tired to get up and figure out what was going on, so we rolled over and went back to sleep. When we got up at 10, we were in the mud again. We thought maybe the rocking was from the break of a big boat or something. It wasn’t until we returned back to the boat at 7:30pm that I realized the Thames is tidal. This time the boat and all the docks connecting the berths were under water. The tide went as we cooked dinner and watched another movie.

Our houseboat is in a nice neighborhood: we’re in Chelsea and have a great view. We started Friday with a walk to explore our neighborhood. Eventually we wound up at Hyde Park where we checked out The Serpentine Gallery. Then we walked toward the center of London, stopping at a Mexican-Polish restaurant for lunch. I had prawn and crayfish cocktail with guacamole (Mexican) and Jess had wild boar sausage (Polish). The food was great the place was really charming. We were served by an older Polish lady who seemed to be running the place alone (there were people in the kitchen to help her). It was nice out, so we sat at a sidewalk table and people watched.

Then we wandered through the center and eventually found the Orla Kiely store, which was amazing! They had tons of things I had never seen before and all the bags I had been seeing on the internet. After that we walked through Russell Square to a school and shop called the School of Life. Jess had read about them in the New York Times. Basically they do a lot of classes, workshops, sermons and dinners on practical subjects like how to make polite dinner conversation. They can also arrange one-on-one conversations with experts in various fields and can help with ideas about what kinds of books you might find interesting. Their quirky store had books and postcards around the various themes of their classes.

We walked toward Kings Cross and turned back to The Church at St. Pancras where we saw a show called “The Space Between” in its crypt-gallery. The space was dark (we were given flashlights to see one of the pieces) and it was chilly under the church. I had never seen a show in a crypt before and it was kind of creepy. The artwork wasn’t that exciting, for me it was more about seeing the space.

Leaving the Camden area of the city, we walked back through Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park and the Westminster area before stopping at a grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner. When we arrived, we were in water!

Edinburgh

Thursday morning I woke up and took an early train to Edinburgh. I wanted to see Edinburgh Castle because I had some castles in Spain and I wanted to compare the two styles. Edinburgh is a really pretty city. Glasgow was nice, but it was much more industrial and economic – people were walking around like they would in midtown or the Wall St. area: business-like. Edinburgh’s High St. was full of touristy shops, but the buildings were old and there were several stone churches and a cathedral. I climbed the hill up to the castle which had bleachers around the entrance. They’re preparing for the Military Tattoo, a performance where countries send their bands to march like an American marching band competition.

The castle itself was a complex of many buildings including a chapel from the 1100s, a palace, a military hospital and military barracks. Today these buildings are almost all used as museums, except the Governor’s House which still functions as such. It’s on a hill in the center of Edinburgh which gives it great views of the city and the coast.

I took the audio tour of the castle. I figured it was the best way to learn about the different structures and a bit about the history of Scotland as well. The rock itself was formed by a volcano 340 million years ago. In 1140, the castle was used as meeting place for the Scottish Parliament. There’s a gigantic gun called Mons Meg that was given to James II in 1457. It’s so big that it could only travel 3 miles a day and had to be pulled by 100 men. The castle is also where in 1566 Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James, King of Scotland and England.

The museums inside the castle were mostly military themed: one on the horse units, one of the prisoners of war who were kept at the castle, and one on the Royal Guards (men who fight in the name of Scotland, but fight with the English troops-I’m not sure if that was their name or not). The best indoor exhibit was the Crown Jewels of Scotland. The exhibit had a lot of audio elements and explained the history of the jewels. One is The Stone of Destiny: the rock which is the mythical foundation of the country and upon which kings of Scotland were inaugurated. In 1296, the English stole it and put it in Westminster. It was returned to Scotland in 1996. The other jewels in the case included a scepter, crown and sword, all of which were locked in a chest in 1707 when Scotland came under the control of the British Parliament. These were rediscovered in 1818 by Walter Scott and stored at the castle. During WWII, the Scots buried the jewels in the castle walls to keep them safe. They even had plans drawn up to send them to Canada, just in case.

This castle was different from Spanish castles because the castles in Southern Spain were designed to protect entire towns (especially the one in Alcala la Real). This isn’t true of all Spanish castles; the one in Priego was used to protect the just the governor. This castle was meant to protect the governor and hold an army. It has many more embattlements than a Spanish castle, because cannons were used here. The Spanish castles were built before cannons were common, while Edinburgh was built and rebuilt to include spaces for them. This castle was also made of a much heavier, more durable stone. Also, the palace part of the castle was much better preserved and much more opulent, partly because the rooms are still used for functions today.

I’m glad I went to Edinburgh and wish I could have spent more time there. It was a nice city, but I had a hard time imagining living there because there were a lot of tourists. I took the train there, and Scottish trains are really comfortable. There’s one running every 15 minutes between Glasgow and Edinburgh which makes it really easy for people to commute or travel between the two cities.

Glasgow

We flew back to Glasgow Tuesday night and caught a train to Johnstone, the town where we were staying, which was an apartment with Jess’s family friends, Margaret and Steven. We almost never saw Steven because he’s a chef at a golf club and June is the busy season. Margaret just broke her arm and can’t go to work or drive, so she was home most of the time and happy to have us there to entertain her. Their Johnstone apartment was well situated: 15 minutes from Glasgow center and 30 minutes from the airport.

Wednesday morning we went into Glasgow and walked to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. We concluded that it was probably one of the best museums we’ve ever been to. Half of it was dedicated to “Life” the other half to “Expression.” It was built as a teaching museum, to explain things to people of all ages. When we entered, an organ concert was in progress. We walked into the great hall with organ music playing above our heads. It was so surreal. Life was the more sciency half of the building. The main room was about animals in the world and those native to Scotland. There was also a part about religious separatism and why prejudice is bad. Another room dealt with wars in an exhibit called “Conflict and Consequence.” The center cases contained armor alongside animals which had body parts performing the same functions. Around the sides, the walls were dedicated to themes like the Holocaust and British involvement in wars with particular attention to Scottish involvement. I really liked that the museum seemed to be saying, “This is what Scotland has done in the world, we know it’s not good, but it’s our history.” The expression half of the museum was more focused on art, but also dealt with anthropology. There were some exhibits about different cultures and their celebrations. Also, cases of stuffed animals were next to objects. For example a porcupine was next to a security vest to show how both were means of protection. There was a modest collection of paintings, and most important historical genres were represented. These were hung low enough so a child could enjoy them and importance was placed on the story behind the painting. In each room there was something interactive: some kind of hands-on element to the exhibit. Groups of children were in the museum on field trips. In the animals section the kids were dressed up in animal costumes. Some were dressed as people from the 1800s. They were in the History of Scotland room. I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed by a museum. There were also groups of adults walking through the museum who were acting like the children: glad to be learning about the world around them.

We ventured across the street to the Museum of Transport, where they really take the word “transport” seriously. The museum included trains, trams, ships, cars, motorcycles, bikes, and even strollers! It wasn’t quite as awesome as the Ford museum in Detroit, but the collection was nice.

We walked around Glasgow for a while. It’s a small city, built on a river. The buildings are either old and made of stone with classic details or steel and glass structures. This is because Glasglow flourished as a shipbuilding city and then declined during the 1900s. Finally it had a slight resurgence in the 1980s and that’s when the steel and glass buildings were constructed. There is also an art school in Glasgow and we tried to go to the contemporary art museum there (the exhibits had closed).

Dublin

First thing we did when we arrived (late at night) was to find the hostel. Once again, I took longer at the airport even though my immigration line was much shorter (two people versus 60). This is because the non-EU citizens have to answer questions upon entering a country and Jess holds a UK passport.

Our first day in Dublin we took a free walking tour based on the theme “Dublin in the 19^th Century.” We went to St. Stephen’s Green, a park which was used for public executions, passed the house Oscar Wilde grew up in, walked through Trinity College and ended up in front of the port at a statue remembering the Potato Famine. The tour guide was a girl our age who was born in Dublin to Romanian and Israeli parents, but grew up in Canada. She sounded like she was a college student from the northeast.

That afternoon, a Sunday, we wandered around the city a bit, passing through Dublin Castle, many cafes, an Asian supermarket (where I bought dried yams and plantain chips), and passed the oldest pub in the city (from the 1100s). We also visited the National Gallery of Ireland and I discovered a new painter I like: Jack B. Yeats. He’s an impressionist painter and uses lots of bright colors in his images. He wasn’t actually Irish (born in London), but he lived there for a long time.

We also stumbled upon an exhibit called “Infectious: Stay Away.” We had to wear pendants that lit up when we became “infected” with the “disease.” The exhibit was put on by The Science Gallery at Trinity College and there were people around to answer questions about germs and how disease can spread. One part of the exhibit was a mental game. Two people sit on opposite sides of a table with headbands around their heads. In between then is a ball on a track on the table and some computer screens which are attached to the headbands by a cable. The ball starts in the center and you have to “push” it mentally toward the other person. The computer screens show brain activity. The person who is able to relax more will be able to push the ball to the other side. I lost horribly….three times. Apparently, Jess is better at relaxing than I am.

Monday, we started early, heading first to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript. The exhibition showed first how illuminated manuscripts were made: different paint colors, paper types, and symbols used. Then you enter a dark room where the book is in a glass case in the center and you can lean over it and read the open page. There are actually four books in the set (one for each of the four gospels), two of which are on display. It was pretty impressive to see such workmanship in real life, especially since I had studied them in art history class.

After seeing the book, we continued upstairs to an old library. The room had a vaulted ceiling (the vaulting was added to allow for more space for books) and was really long and narrow. There was an exhibit on the mystery book, which I wasn’t too interested in, but the room and being inside this library was extremely cool.

Next stop was to the National College of Art and Design for its graduate student show. Each department took over a different part of the school. We started in the glass and ceramic area, where students had well-thought and put together projects. Next we saw media instillations which weren’t that exciting, except for one in which the viewer is told to watch a movie and is actually on camera and can be seen from another room.

We went next to Kilmainham Gaol, a prison from the Victorian era and the place where the organizers of the 1916 Easter Rebellion were held. During the plague people committed crimes because they wanted to be arrested and thrown into the jail. This was because prisoners’ rations were sufficient, whereas the average person had trouble feeding himself. At first I though our tour was going to be awful because there were 50 or 60 people and one guide. However, he was great: quite a character and made the few children in the group participate. Throughout the tour we were shown where prisoners slept, prayed, and exercised. We also saw where the 1916 organizers were shot. The jail’s museum had a lot of photos, letters and other objects left behind by the prisoners.

Monday evening we went to Howth, a coastal town near Dublin. We actually took the city bus there. First we walked the pier and took pictures of the lighthouse. Then we walked up one side of the town, which is a peninsula, and climbed around on the cliffs. We took some pictures of the pier and town from above and then went and got dinner at a place called the Bloody Stream, where I had a seafood plate and cider. We went back to Dublin that evening and went to sleep early.

Tuesday morning we went to the National Museum of Ireland. The building was more interesting than most of the collection it housed. There was a main room with wrought iron arches and highly complex columns with capitals like pyramids. The best part of the collection was the bog bodies. A body disposed of in a bog can be preserved for thousands of years. The skin is the best-maintained part. The bones are not well preserved and the organs, completely gone. Of the four bog bodies, only one was complete. One had a hand which was so fleshy and substantial that it looked real. Some still had their hair.

We went next door to the National Library where we saw an exhibit on poet WH Yeats’s life and work. The exhibit was thorough and we also attended a reading of his poetry (some Irish actor with his sister accompanying on flute). Later that day we went to another library: the Chester Beatty Library. Beatty was a rich American who collected books and left them to a library established in his name. His collection of old (we’re talking hundreds of years old) books from Asia and the Middle East was incredible. The illustrations were bright and detailed and the range of books was large. In another gallery we saw an exhibit on religion. It contained mostly religious books Beatty collected over the years. Some were scraps of parchment of original bibles from the turn of the century.

I was surprised at how cosmopolitan Dublin was. It’s the capital city and yes, it’s an important city in Ireland, but it’s quite small (450,000). Everywhere we looked there were restaurants from different cultures, hipster cafes, bakeries with gluten-free cupcakes (they had nuts though), skater shops, Urban Outfitters, and tons of local pubs, too. I knew it would be a city, but I didn’t realize it would have quite the diversity it had. The center was still small and walk-able, which was great for touring around.

Climbing Criffel

Thursday, Jess and I went with her cousin Margaret and her co-workers to climb Criffel, a hill just outside Dumfries. Margaret is in her 50s and works as a nurse at a mental hospital. Her co-workers were in their 30s-50s. They were climbing to raise money for their ward at the hospital. Criffel is a hill (not a mountain – it’s too short) which people climb here as a right of passage. Most of the group had climbed it when they were 16 or so. Jessica had specifically wanted to come to see her family and climb Criffel. I was happy to accompany the group on their hike. After a few wrong turns, we started out at 10 am. One woman had brought her two German Shepards with her. They were much faster climbers than us and kept running up and doubling back.

The path was rocky at the beginning and muddy in many places. It only took us an hour and a half to get up the hill. From the windy top, we had views of an inlet and the Scottish coast on the other side. We could also see a wind farm off the coast. In addition, we could see tons of farms, a reservoir and a river. It was really pretty, but cold. We spent 45 minutes at the top and ate our lunch there. Coming down was more challenging than going up. The path was muddy and we couldn’t find our way at first. We had to come through plants and it was difficult to figure out how far down your foot would go as you took a step. Jess and I got down before the rest of the group and we hung out in her cousin’s car to wait.

After our climb the group went to a nearby inn for a drink; we had tea. It was pretty difficult to follow the conversation, but I tried as best as I could.

Jess’s family is so nice. We’re staying at her mom’s cousin’s house. Helen is in her 40s or 50s and has a husband, son and daughter. The kids are in high school; they’re 13 and 14. Helen is super accommodating. She is constantly making sure I have food to eat for dinner and dessert. She made stewed rhubarb (like a compote), which was really tasty especially since I had never tried rhubarb before. She’s also been really kind: when she made mashed potatoes, she left some plain boiled potatoes for me. I like staying with the family on their farm because they’re teaching me about living in Scotland. I’ve had Sara, 14, explain the school system to me.