10 May 2012

The Drink Needs a New Name

On St Patrick’s Day, a group of friends and I were listening to the most insipid set I’d ever heard, at a bar in Allentown, Buffalo- no toes were tapping, and even the rowdiest Poques song was done in a mournful, off-key wail -  when suddenly, a group of five people walked in, setting everyone else on alert.  It wasn’t just the two incredibly drunk men wearing red t-shirts bearing the Polish Orzeł Biały – the white eagle on the crest of Poland – or the two women wearing green t-shirts that asked they be kissed because they weren’t Irish; mostly it was the fifth person.  This guy wore a green shirt with a simple math equation done in symbols and the words “craic agus ceol” (translated from the Irish – craic and music, which essentially means a good time) on it.

The composition of the equation was: an outline of a stout glass with a shamrock in it + an outline of a jigger with, yep, a shamrock in it = an exploding car, with craic agus ceol immediately below it.   At least the designer put only three leafs on each clover. Continue reading →

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10 May 2012

Egypt On Offer

In case you were wondering, the sales are still going in Egypt; when there’s a revolution, luxury resorts go on sale! Check out Bloomspot’s latest deal.  (And good luck with the wifi!)

Bloomspot’s offer for Egypt.

If you can deal with a guide to every tourist now is the time to go.

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18 August 2011

The Art of the Self Date

Most of the time, company can be a good thing, but occasionally it is just as nice to be by oneself.  Some signs you might need a self-date are: an incredible need to decompress, have the time to finish just one crossword, ideally with a glass of wine by your hand, or you may just happen to be in a completely new country where you know no one else.  Provided, in the latter that it is safe to go out, do so.  It is the best way to experience a country and get to know people.

I had narrowed my Istanbul self-date down to two choices. Dukkan, a steakhouse I covered in 2008 and which was started by Defne Koryürek and Emre Mermer, two Istanbulites who are local food advocates.  Their premise for a restaurant multiple reviewers have called  “Carnivore Heaven” was to instill pride in a national cuisine.  Until 2007, the top two cuisines represented in Istanbul were Chinese and Italian, catering to the many businessmen who came through the city. Continue reading →

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12 August 2011

Call Me Laura

Stopping at Istanbul seemed like a good transition from Egypt back to the US. It is a country in which more than 90 percent of the population is Muslim, but unlike Egypt which is definitely an African/Asian mashup of Middle Eastern culture, Turkey is mostly Western, for all that it lies in both Asia and Europe.

Blue Mosque Entry Way

The Arch leading into the Blue Mosque of Istanbul

The median age of the almost 50/50 male/female population is young – only 28. Male literacy is around 95 percent, while female literacy is almost 20 percentage points below that. This fact reflects a lot of my experience in Turkey. In Egypt, I lived a harlem-like experience- my exposure was mostly to women, children and older married men. As a family, we didn’t go out that much at night – the only times I was out after dark involved carrying a 5 year old home.

In Istanbul, you don’t have to wait for the night to see signs of life, and you can sit out on the Bosporus and have a cup of coffee or a beer. But like Egypt, almost all public–facing positions – shopkeepers, waiters, bus drivers to bankers – are filled by males. It is a male dominated society, with over 60 percent of the economy driven by the service and industry sectors. So basically, anything you want to do, you have to interact with a male. And some of them can get quite pushy. Continue reading →

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27 July 2011

Hagia Sofia and The Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque

Istanbul makes UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – list for most culturally significant places that provide Outstanding Universal Value.  The city has been culturally and historically significant for more than 2000 years.  One of the most amazing sites within the UNESCO recognized heritage site of Old City is the Hagia Sophia - from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, “Holy Wisdom“; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya (Wikiepdia).   The name is apt – the structure was a church – originally an Orthodox and then Catholic – from 360 to 1453.  From that date until 1931 it was a mosque.  It was closed, secularized and opened as a museum in 1935.  For more on the site, visit Wikipedia.  It’s appeal is a lot like the khamsa, it’s a polygot sacred site.

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Like Rome, Istanbul is called the City of Seven Hills.  Popular belief is that on each hill top rests a mosque.  But no mosque in the city is quite comparable to the 16th century Sultan Ahmet Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles on its interior.  This is not the oldest mosque in the city, but definitely one of the most formidable.

 

 

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27 July 2011

Istanbul Not Constantinople

The name change – from Constantinople to Istanbul – didn’t happen until the 20th century. But the city itself has been inhabited since the 13-11th centuries BCE. Since then it has been Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul, which translate to The City.   Today,  the city – which is a megacity and an alpha world city as it is in both Europe and Asia – has a population of over 13 million and is larger than Moscow (the largest city solely in Europe).

Below are some of the pictures from Istanbul – one of the coolest things about the city is that the history is reflected so evidently in its cityscape and architecture.  The styles range from Byzantine, Greek, Roman, Ottoman and even Genoese.  The city is booming – the economy is spread across many industries including the traditional textiles but also manufacturing, agriculture and industrial and service sectors.  There is a strong middle class entrepreneurial movement and just as strong arts vibe in the city.  I pretty much want to move back there.

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One of the interesting things to see was that in a city as well groomed as Istanbul, that like Egypt, it is really hard to get the right permits to renovate buildings, so there are lots of decrepit buildings whose owners are just letting them fall apart because it  is cheaper to rebuild from scratch rather than renovate.

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26 July 2011

Leaving Cairo

The next stop – Istanbul.  But first I had to get out of Cairo.  I chose a late flight because I hadn’t seen very much of Cairo at night.  The airport looks out on some of the city, and the drive to the airport from Maadi was through most of the city.  And what a drive it was.  A cab was hailed in Maadi, and the man assured me he knew how to get to the airport.  What he forgot to mention, in between trying to convince me that I should stay in Cairo and marry him, and that heavy metal was the best music around (right, thank you, but just because I’m American, it doesn’t mean that I am a HUGE fan of metal.  Really.) was that he would have to make a couple of stops along the way. Continue reading →

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