Istanbul!!!

February 24th
I will have to catch up on other aspects of Odessa and what we did when we came back to Kyiv, but for now, I will write about Istanbul…

Now, I am on a plane heading to Istanbul!! I miss AGG but am so excited about Istanbul. It truly is one of the wonderful aspects of living in Europe for a while, that one can jump on a plane and be in a place like Istanbul in one hour and 30 minutes. I just finished my vegetarian lunch and it was great. I can already tell that Turkish food is healthier than Ukrainian food. Can’t wait to see this city!!

Fast forward about 8 hours:

I just finished my first day in Istanbul and already I think this is one of the greatest places on our planet. This city is bustling with energy but has clearly not forgotten that faith and relationships lie at the center of what brings the most meaning to life. I LOVE Istanbul.

Istanbul and I got off to a great start together because when we landed it was sunny, there was no snow, and I didn’t need a coat. There is no need here for long underwear, gloves, a hat, and a parka and that makes me SO HAPPY. I guess I didn’t realize how much I missed sunshine and a mild winter. And my happiness with the weather situation here jumped from a 10 out of 10 to a 15 plus when I saw water and palm trees!!! Again, I am really, really happy to be here. And just when I didn’t think it could get better, I looked out the balcony and had this AMAZING view of Hagia Sophia.

I have heard so much about Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and thus seeing the Blue Mosque was a really, really exciting moment.

After checking in at Faros I immediately walked over to Sultanhamet Square, a courtyard between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. There are street stalls everywhere and I picked up a sahlep ( a winter hot drink made from orchid root with milk, honey, cinnamon and some other spices), some roasted maize, a piece of simit (bread that looked a little like a pretzel covered in sesame seeds) and some nuts that looked like roasted chestnuts. It was so nice to just walk around in the sun and be able to look up at these beautiful structures without worrying that my eyes had left the ground for more than a few seconds (I have realized that if I want to look at a building or monument in Chernivtsi or Kyiv I just need to stand still to do that and when I’m done I just refocus on the ice below).


I saw the serpentine column (the Obelisk of Theodosius, 390 AD, an Egyptian obelisk, the column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus aka the Brazen Column, and a structure commemorating Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany’s visit to Istanbul in 1898 (Germany and the Ottoman Empire, of which Turkey was part, fought together in WWI, which began 16 years later). This was also the area where the Hippodrome (stadium) once stood, and there are ruins of it near the square.

There are outdoor cafes crawling all over the city. I love outdoor cafés and restaurants so I am really loving this. There are also stalls to buy pashminas, samovars, plates, tea sets, chess sets, leather, and the biggie, rugs (called carpet over here) around every corner and on the street. My guide book described Istanbul as a food and shopping lovers paradise and that description seems right on target.

About this time I was stopped on the street by someone who evidently overheard my voice. This Turkish man introduced himself to us and it turns out he is married to a woman from Charleston whose father was a professor at The Citadel and who now lives in Florida and is a rug/carpet dealer based in the US. He was very friendly and gave all his contact info.

More photos of the Blue Mosque:

And the Hagia Sophia:

After walking around the Hagia Sophia I discovered an adorable café with a terrace with a great view of the mosque. Five minutes after sitting down, the speakers on the minarets all over town began blaring. Witnessing my first call to worship is something I’ll never forget. There is something really wonderful about having built-in prayer reminders throughout the day. Incredible.

On the walk the historian in me couldn’t help but notice how the old and the new have merged in Istanbul. Look at this old city wall and this very new townhouse complex:

The view from the cafe:

Other sights of Sultanahmet:

While walking around I inadvertently became wrapped up in a 45 minutes rug discovery session with a high pressure salesman, which is evidently the norm around here. He/Emo was very, very nice and ended up giving me a magnet even though I didn’t buy anything today. Beautiful rugs here. Turks refer to them as carpets.

After walking some more I discovered the Basilica Sistern and another mosque. Walking around I noticed how there are women making pancackes and other food items on the periphery of the tables who are filled with men eating what the woman are creating. Very interesting.

After walking some more I decided to return to a restaurant I had discovered earlier. Again, Turkish food is much healthier than Ukrainian and thank goodness for that. I ordered some classic Turkish dishes (for those of you in Gvegas, think mix between Pita House and Pomegranate). Great food at Adonin (on Ticarethane), including my personal favorite, grape leaves (yalanci yaprak dolmasi).

After dinner I looked for a headscarf bc I don’t have one and I need one to enter the mosques. While looking at some on the street this very kind older man invited me downstairs into his shop. We had read that it was not uncommon for men who own stores to ask you to come in, spend some time with you, and offer you tea. Sure enough, five minutes into my headscarf shopping experience he offered tea and I, now a big time Turkish tea lover, accepted. I ended up sitting and spending time with Selcuk for about an hour, talking with him about where he grew up. He offered a tour of his favorite mosque, imparted his knowledge of rugs/carpets, and even asked if I wanted to have second breakfast with him around 9:45 (evidently first breakfast is around 5:30-6AM, which is also the first call to prayer from what I understand. …he is such a sweetheart. He also pinned these yellow and blue things on me that are supposed to guard anything anything bad happening. He said that whether or not I buy more from him (I bought 3 headscarfs) his store was my home and I was welcome to come for tea anytime. The people here are so inviting and warm.

I can’t wait for Day 2 in Istanbul!! I am LOVING it here.

PS: A few other brief observations: Cats roam Istanbul like dogs/sebaca roam Chernivtsi. People are very friendly. Everyone speaks English, and I mean everyone, from the woman on the street selling socks she is knitting at 11pm to the waiters to the store owners and everyone else I have encountered.

PPS: In the previous blog posting, the 2 people wearing the colors of Ukraine (blue and yellow) are the pairs figure skating team that represented Ukraine in Vancouver. AGG sat with them on the plane. And if you’re wondering, yes, they had the super cool Olympic rings on their jackets.

AGG's Visit Action I

As wIwaited for AGG's arrival in Kyiv, the Ukrainian pairs figure skating team walked by. Turns out AGG was sitting right beside them on the plane! The following are some highlights from her trip thus far. It was AMAZING to see her.






Ukrainian fashion:

Odessa skating rink outside the window of our apartment:





Here AGG takes her first (and last) quarter shot of horilka).














AGG and I have decided to title this post AGG's Visit Action I bc our English language program when we went to see Madame Butterfly at the Odessa Opera House last night described the opera in three "actions" as opposed to acts. Super funny.

We have decided to compile a highlights of Ukraine for her trip thus far.

AGG and CT's Highlights:

Meeting a stinky American man at breakfast whose name shall go unmentioned but whose email address (we know this from the "social card" he gave us) is usabadboy@... and who was taking a Sponge Bob balloon to his young Ukrainian girlfriend (whose photo appeared on his social card with him).

After visiting a beautiful cathedral, wrapped up in discussion about how the Soviets painted over all the beautiful frescoes in this Russian Orthodox Cathedral, we suddently we encounterd a babushka peeing on a street corner. Not squatting, standing up, broad daylight. Cops on the corner not doing anything about it.

While nestled on our cheetah sheets in the Kyiv apartment, we were awakened at 5:09 AM by the sound of a glacier falling from the top of a building, landing on several cars below, setting off multiple car alarms. It sounded like there was a random shooting followed by the arrival on multiple cops on the scene. We aren't really sure how this situation ended we just know that the madness in the courtyard outside the apartment on Me-high-a-lift-ska (this is AGG's spelling of our address) eventually went away.

The ubuitous possibility of the "shake-down" by the Odessa police: this is a notorious rite of passage for Americans coming to Odessa, from what we read in Lonely Planet. AGG has already negotiated her bribe, $12 USD, and waits impatiently for the moment when the Odessa police will take her into an alley, threaten to arrest her, demand her passport, repeat the phrase "big problem" over and over again, just so she can offer $12USD (which she very conveniently placed in the outside pocket of her camera bag) so that all parties can happily exit the negotiation, post-photo opp.

The Odessa Opera House: we were told it was one of the three most beautiful in the world (alongside Vienna and L'viv) and no doubt it was. So after taking an unexpected nap, we dragged ouselves to the opera house to buy tickets 15 minutes into the performance. The ticket woman responded to us in exasperated Russian, which of course we did not understand. After telling us the only tickets available were for 100 UAG each, I just gave up and bought them (to keep this in perspective, this really only was about 16.50 USD each, but when we went to the ballet it cost USD 2.50 so I thought this was exorbitant in a relative sense). Upon being shown the private door that led to the private door that led to our three person box, I realized every one of those 300 hyrvnias was worth it. This places was AMAZING. The perfomance was also beautiful, but this opera house is truly somthing to see. Here I am, whipping out some moves from my ballet days in front of the Opera House, also the home of the Odessa Ballet (and speaking of ballet check out the pink ballet faux Uggs I found at the Pryvoz Market).




For some reason, the English version of the program had the title of the performance listed as Chio-Chio-San. AGG offered an excellent reading of the program, culminating in a very dramatic conclusion in Action III, when Mimi kills herself with a dagger. Chio-Chio-San, it turns out, is actually a very sad story.

Other highlights...The super fun skating rink right outside our apartment that cranks out Russian pop at all hours of the day and well into the night. It sounds like a club even inside the apartment, and has provided some very fun dance opportunities on the balcony of the apartment and beyond.

Breakfast at Odessa Executive Apartments:it includes all the usual breakfast items, plus french fries. For breakfast?

Seeing the Black Sea for the first time. Really, really fun.

Realizing that we were in Oksana Baiul's hometown, and thus taking advantage of the computer and internet service in our apartment to find out what she has been up to lately (she lives in New Jersey, for those of you who are interested).

The giant Russian, babies come out of the womb looking like this in the Soviet Union statue in front of the entrance to the Odessa Port. Crazy.

While eagerly anticipating the shake down and a visit to a beautiful cathedral, we watched 2 70-year old plus men pretend they were Rocky Balboa and assume fight mode and draw blood. This was just after we had very precariously walked around an alleged political protest, saturdated with cops who we just knew where going to take us around the corner for our shake down.

We are about to call it a night on our last night in Odessa, and are sad to report that we have yet to attract enough attention wiht our American-ness to prompt a shake down, although we are trying very hard to bring about such attn with AGG's black wedge boots (they keep prompting funny looks and stares) and CT's English- with- a- Ukrainian- accent in hopes that will be easier for Urkainians to understand. Oh, well...

And our final highlight is the fact that our coat closet reeks of smoke and no one in this person smokes. Nasty. Evidently Ukraine passed a law that requires non-smoking areas but not all places are on board with that new law yet.

We're having a blast!!!!!

February 17

Today I woke up early bc I had a lot to do given the fact that I was teaching today and getting ready to leave tomorrow to go away. Worked this AM and was able to take a shower without the hot water running out (I will never take hot water for granted again...it is one of the things about daily living I miss most), which was fantastic.

Lately the locals have been complaining that the city isn't doing what it should in term of winter clean up...snow and ice still cover the city, sidewalks and roads are rarely cleaned, and icicles are falling from buildings...sometimes very, very large and heavy icicles.

Walking to the university today, all my shortcuts were blocked bc the city started their icicle demolition efforts.

The sidewalks are often blocked as well bc these bad boys are falling like crazy. The silver lining of this is that when icicles melt it means it is getting warmer! Yay!

Classes went well today. I lectured on the American Revolution. For the past 2 weeks, we have read and discussed the Decaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and all 27 Amendments to the Constitution. I'm embarassed to write that this may be the first time I have sat down and read them all thoroughly. They are beautiful documents that make me proud to be an American! I have really enjoyed scrutinizing many of the passages. Thank you Senator DeMint's office for getting those to me before I left; the students here seem to be excited that they now have their own bound copies.

The graduate students I am teaching are particularly fun. Between classes, Mykola arranged for my computer to be connected to the university's server which meant I had a decent internet connection! Mine at the flat is slow, but at least I have one.

After working out the details out this upcoming travel (AGG gets here in 2 days!) I headed to the gym. Since I'm going to be on the road for a while I got in an extra hard workout. Felt good.

When leaving the gym tonight I had a moment where I was all alone in the courtyard area of the gym. It was my favorite time of day (dusk) and it was so pretty and peaceful. The snow here is white and pretty, not like it is in most other places. I started to think about how grateful I am to be here and how I really feel that this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing at this moment in my life. It is really wonderful when everything aligns and you feel that God has placed you exactly where He wants you to be.

Coming home, I stopped at the mini-market to pick up a can of peas. Don't know why, I just knew I had a really odd assortment of things that needed to be eaten or else they would go bad. I thought about what I would eat when I came back from the trip and, realizing there wouldn't be anything there, bought a can of peas.

I LOVE the fact that I walk just about everywhere, and that on my walk back to the flat I pass mulitple markets, coffee shops, restaurants, etc. So convenient. I think I may move to downtown Gvegas when I come back.

Walking, however, can be difficult. Myron, the director of the Fulbright Office for Ukraine, told me I had to keep both eyes locked on the ground when walking and to be super careful of the undulations, of which there are many. Evidently the husband of a Fulbrighter fell in Kyiv on his second day in country and had to be medivaced to the US bc he broke his shoulder. The news reports in Kyiv indicate that over 6000 people have had broken bones this winter bc of the snow and ice.

Walking home after my workout I started sliding a lot, which is not uncommon, but I was by myself and it was dark and so I couldn't see much. On one street this nice man came over to me, held my arm and walked me down the hill. He was sliding too, and we were the only 2 people on this street. He spoke no English and I speak little Ukraine, so we didn't really communicate, but the gesture was very kind and I appreciated it. I really do feel very safe here, especially in Chernivtsi. By far the biggest threat I face everday is the challenge of walking on all this snow and ice. I can't wait for this stuff to melt! I really think this will be a totally different place. Right now when I think of Ukraine it is mostly without color bc so much of the image that appears in my head is white. I look forward to seeing these places when they are not covered in white.

Tonight I cooked a rather odd meal that turned out to be great. It is amazing what you can create with odd items in the kitchen. If you're wondering why I am posting about food when I rarely cook in the US, it is bc I am so proud of how creative I have become with the foods that I have regular access to. There is a large supermarket outside of town. I have been there once but I am waiting to go back after I return. The pickings in the markets in town can be somewhat narrow and have forced me to become creative. Here is my Thai rice with sauteed onions, peas, and pineapple with a side of sliced tomatoes (not shown).

It was delicious and will enter the culinary rotation. I did some more trip planning (Odessa and Istanbul), packed, and am now heading to bed. Night!!

February 18!!!!!

AGG leaves the U.S. TODAY to come to Ukraine!!! YAAAAYYY!

This girl is one of my closest, closest friends and she is a champ! She had her tickets to come over and visit me one month and a half before I even had my plane tickets! Love her and am so excited she is coming over. She lands tomorrow at 13:15.

I was planning on flying to Kyiv this morning (only one flight per day to Kyiv and it leaves at 8:50) so we could get settled before picking up AGG tomorrow. Mykola came over to pick me up and just as he got to my flat, he finally got through to someone at the airport, who informed him that the plane did not come to Chernivtsi from Kyiv bc of the fog. The plane instead went to Uzhhorod. Uzhhorod is a small town on the border with Poland.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

This is the second week in a row this has happened. Last Thursday it was snow so no plane. This Thursday it was fog so no plane. I am told the flying situation will improve in the spring. I hope so. I certainly have been knocked off my American-minded pedestal regarding attitudes about hopping on a plane to get somewhere.

So guess what I'm doing now? Yes, I am on yet another train ride up to Kyiv, crossing about half the country once again. This time the train I usually would take was sold out so I am on the 16 hour and 3o minutes train instead. The Ukrainian countryside is quite famliar to me now. Snow, snow, and then some more snow.

Have I mentioned on my blog that one of the things I mention in my morning prayer is that I do not fall and hurt myself to the point beyond that which I can just suck it up and nurse myself? It appears I now need to add, "And please don't let me get slammed on the head with a 18 inch long icicle six inches in diameter that has fallen from thirty feet above where I happen to be walking." The icicles are huge and indeed they have been falling all over the streets.

Speaking of...so I wandered around Chernivtsi today bc I had to go once again to the travel agency for a refund. It actually turned out to be a fun day. I asked about a place where I could get holubsi and upon finding said place realized it is on one of my favorite streets, they have a menu in English, and the food looks great...traditional Bukovnyian (Bukovyna is the region surrounding Chernivtsi...).

Near the beginning of the walk to the travel agent, I was walking carefully, staring at the ground and occasionally looking up to make sure no icicles or snow were about to fall on my head, when all of a sudden, BOOM. Right in front of me this HUGE pile of snow came falling from the sky and landed with a very, very loud noise about 4 feet in front of me. I screamed, which prompted this lady on the top floor of the building (who was dumping all the snow that had accuulated on her balcony onto the ground below) to start yelling something at me in Ukrainian. If that pile had landed on me it would have knocked me out flat. That was the most exciting part of the day.

Here is a photograph of City Hall and the art museum, which are across the street from the travel agency. Now that city officials are knocking icicles and snow off the roofs, you can actually get a better glimpse of what the buildings look like.

Pretty, huh?

After visiting with Oksana and Ellyna, my two favorite travel agents, I walked back to the flat, packed the rest of the stuff, grabbed a bite at a cafe on Koblyianski, and then took a taxi to the train station. We've walked it before with bags but the roads and sidewalks are in bad shape right now (as if I hadn't mentioned that before!) so I decided against walking.

This train will arrive in Kyiv at 9:20 and at 1:15 I will be at KBP to pick up AGG!

By the way, I have to mention this and please know that I am not picking on her sweet soul but given our experience we found this to be hilarious. So, sweet AGG offers to go through customs, get her bags, and get a taxi to meet us somewhere in the city. Makes sense, is nice of her to offer, and sounds totally innocuous, right? I laughed so hard at her suggestion my sides hurt. I emailed her back and said that while that was a very nice offer, I, without 1) a driver from the Fulbright office who knew to wait for me at the airport come hell or high water, 2) access to a human translater that the driver and I knew at the Fulbright office via cell phone, 3) a totally pre-arranged deal in which I would pay US Dollars, and 4) a driver who knew exactly where to take me to hand me off to a person (Igor) who spoke English who then showed me where I would stay for the night, I may not have ever made it out of the Kyiv airport. Needless to say, this place is not tourist friendly. If you do not speak Russian or Ukrainian or read Cyrillic or have a handy translation book, you are toast. Occasionally I find someone who speaks some Engligh in Kyiv, and twice, I have thrown out some French and lo and behold the person responded to me en francais!! I have tried the French many other times however and it is not effective. So after laughing, I emailed her that there was NO WAY that I was going to be anywhere but KBP on Friday at 1:15. Same with my family when they get here.

7:12pm here...14 more hours on this train. I guess I'll read and rest, bc once AGG gets here it is ON!! :)