vita

Pergamon

vita — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We left Istanbul just before the floods started, so timing was perfect for us. We slowly made our way south and stopped for a day in Bergama, where a little drizzle didn't deter us from visiting Roman ruins. This is a picture from the Acropolis, where Jeremy and Sasha are standing in the amphitheater that was built about two thousand years ago!

the spice bazaar

vita — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

spice market

The bazaars here are as grand as expected. Crowded, all the haggling and bargaining in multiple languages, very vibrant. As expected, we needed nothing but walked out significantly more poor.

Last day in Istanbul

vita — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Blue mosque - built in 15th century

Sasha demonstrating the use of a pillow for granddad

Today was our last day in Istanbul and it rained periodically. I think Vita and I are both done with the press of the city, the traffic and all of the people. We went with Sasha to the grand bazaar and bargained our brains out and ended up with a beautiful 6 tile piece very representative of the early tiles in Turkey. it is a handmade piece that I will have to frame on returning to the states. Luckily I will be getting my chop box and biscuit cutter from Denver very soon.

Sasha has suddenly started to talk in the last several days. She now says 'No', 'More' and 'Milk'. She has the cutest little voice, which I am sure will change once she gains some confidence.

Tomorrow we are taking a ferry across the Bosporous to a smaller town and picking up a rental car and then travelling to Iznik. Iznik is a small town that has been making the tiles I mentioned since about the 15 or 16 th century without much change. I am looking forward to checking it out. We are then taking 2 days to make our way to the coast and we will visit the ruins at Euphesus.

Well we had a great time with David and Patricia and I hope they will recover from the intense Sasha time within a few months. They may need counseling.

We will blog it up as soon as we can although we may be out of touch for a few days.

Jeremy

The baby assault

vita — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sasha with a gang of town kids

In Turkey our child seems to feel that she is finally getting the attention she deserves. No Turkish person seems to be able to resist walking up to her, and at the very least give her a smile. She usually gets her cheek pinched and sometimes head or foot patted. Older children fight over who is going to push her stroller. People rush to her help if she falls down or drops (well, to be honest, throws) something on the ground. It is now Ramadan, so around the Blue Mosque in Istanbul there is a huge celebration every evening, with tons of people and food and music. Our Sasha interprets it as an opportunity to dance and run around. People offer her food, candy, and sometimes even take her photograph. It will be a rude awakening for her when we will return to our puritan WASPy culture

street candy

vita — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

enjoying freshly made candy

street candy maker

All around the Blue Mosque there are food stands. This one is where they custom make hard candy on a stick for you. At the end they pour a little fresh lemon juice on top to give it a little tang. Yummm

Istanbul

vita — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Turkish coffee

Enjoying Turkish coffee in an outdoor cafe! Delicious!

attempting to make pottery

vita — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Pottery in Avonos

We did a little side trip, using public buses, to a neighboring town famous for it's pottery. we went into a shop/studio, the owner claimed to be 4th generation pottery maker, some of his items were just amazing. He demonstrated at first, and then he let me try. My creation is not one of those pieces. But luckily my child has no experience, and was fascinated by the whole process and clapped at the end.

Puppet show

vita — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Madrid

vita — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Today Vita and I Split up to go to a museum called the Prada. The Prada is a huge collection of painitngs of mostly italian and Spanish painters dating to the 1500's. It was amazing to see these works from "El Greco" or The Greek, Velasquez and Goya. Goya in particular went through a despondent period right around the 1800's called the black period where he painted in exile in france. It was all amazing works, I was blown away and actually moved to tears!

Well Madrid has looked up since we arrived. Tomorrow we are headed to the original capital of Spain called Toledo, as in Holy Toledo!

porto parks

vita — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

While the city of Porto is impressively dirty, local parks are just stunning!

bird market

vita — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

it is always surprising to me to actually see a bird market. May be I am just used to America where you can go to Petsmart and get any animal you want... But the number of birds and other small animals was just amazing. And really kind of sad to see all of them caged. But Sasha, who is just learning the words for fish and bird, just loved it.

madrid

vita — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sasha's initial impression of Madrid

Well, we got to Madrid last night. Holly shit! this is a big city, and we are smack in the middle of it. If Barcelona was like San Francisco, Madrid is more like New York. Except we haven't found the Central Park yet. And who really wants to go to New York in the middle of August?

Our apartment, Plaza Espana II, does have a lot of local charm, just as advertized. It features such local flavors as bathroom separated from the bedroom by a curtain, rustic furniture that falls apart when you just look at it, and a couch that hasn't been replaced since 1960's. The building itself is also very authentic - it has an old marble and very slipery stairway with rickety railing and we are on the third floor (british system, so actually 4 flights as the ground floor is 0). And no no, not safe to leave the stroller downstairs, must bring it up all the way. But at least we feel safe - there is a police station and a jail on our street, right next to the bail bonds and a few strip clubs.

All right, more on Madrid later, these are just a few of the initial impressions...

oporto

vita — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Porto has been a city of contrasts for us. It is striking from a distance – high banks of the river, castle like city walls, overhanging bridges. But upclose you can’t help but see the disrepair of the buildings and the dog poop on all the streets. It’s the same with the food – even though there are amazing pastries and good coffee, their dinners have been very disappointing. And port – we haven’t had much, but had some really bad, and some pretty good (never even new there was white port, yummy).

the beach

vita — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Today we discovered an amazing beach. About 20 min away from us, right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, is the Sand Dunes National Park. And the beach has the most pristine sand I have ever seen. Although the water is a bit cold, Sasha absolutely loved it. She pretty much ran around naked except for a sun hat, squealing with delight.

I know she will kill us for this picture when she is older, but we couldn't resist...

Santiago de Compostella

vita — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We took a half day trip to Spain/Santiago-de-Compostela– a gorgeous little town, but completely overrun by pilgrims. It was interesting to learn that it is believed that James, one of the 12 apostles, was buried here. Hence all the craziness...

hike

vita — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

hike

roman bridge on the hike

Jeremy and I went on a hike yesterday. Ok, since we’ve done some driving here now we realize that Spaniards are not big on street signs. But I didn’t realize that the same goes for trail markers. So in addition to going through beautiful forest and by a peaceful creek (things you will see in the pictures), there were some things we didn’t photograph – asphalt road under the scorching sun, burned down ladder we climbed on, angry dogs Barking at us, Jeremy hiking in wet shoes for 3 Miles because he fell into a creek… With all that said, laying in the sun on a large rock in the middle of a mountain creek was the most relaxing couple hours I have ever had.

Northern Spain

vita — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We are now in Green Spain - the North West portion of the country, where the climate is somewhat similar to our Pacific Northwest. It rains a lot of the time here, so everything is Green, hence the name. The capital, and the biggest attraction, is Santiago de Compostela - it's a final destination of a 500 km piligrimage to honor St James.

We are staying in a tiny little town about an hour away, on the Atlantic Coast, just a block away from the main beach and a board walk. It's just gorgeous. It's been sweater weather here, which is such a welcome relief. The wind didn't stop us from hanging out on the beach - Sasha loved all the shells, and I loved that she didn't try to eat them. She must get enough Calcium, as well she should with all the cheese she eats. At first she ignored the water, but soon she got curious. She has never seen the waves before, so she thought it was a game and didn't hesitate just to walk straight in. Shoes and pants and all. She got mad when I wouldn't let her sit in the water, but all in all, she loved it. Afterwards she kept licking her hands with surprise, probably tasting the salt.

Yesterday my mom flew in from Denver, and it's been such a treat to have her. Sasha just loves her, and she is more than happy to hang out with her, take her for walks, and let Jeremy and I go out. It's been an amazing treat. J and I had tapas and wine on a deck overlooking the ocean last night. It was very romantic - would have been even more so if the music was not cheesy American 90s and we weren't eating Octopus. But I am not complaining, it was our first night out without the baby in almost a month, so no Octopus can ruin it!

The language barrier is a bit more of an issue here - since it's so rural not too many people speak English. In fact right now we are at a cafe, and Jeremy is drinking a non-alcoholic beer. He asked for dark, she named it, he said ok, and there you have it. 0% alcohol. Hee hee hee.

I'll upload some pictures soon, so stay tuned...

Cordoba

vita — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Cordoba

Jeremy and I took turns visiting Cordoba. I just got back yesterday - had a wonderful time. Took a high speed train, AVE, which was just amazing. First of all it looks sleek from the outside. Inside it's ridiculously spacious and comfortable. They show movies and give you headphones. There is a cafe. The ride is very smooth, you can barely feel you are moving. And it can go up to 180 mi/hr! It really was state of the art.

Cordoba itself is a gorgeous little town where through architecture you can really see history. As everything in this region of Spain, it was first Roman, then Muslim. In 10th and 11th century Cordoba apparently was the center of the cultural world in Europe - 3 times the size of Paris, it was a place where Christians, Muslims, and jews actually coexisted in piece and where art and science was valued. There is still one of the oldest Sinagouges in Spain the Jewish quarters.

Seville

vita — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We are now on our day #3 in Seville. It is a gorgeous town, the whole downtown is a pedestrian zone, so it's wonderful to just walk around and check out local shops and cafes. I took a great 2 hour walking tour of the town yesterday, so my head is full of random statistics and history. The architecture here is amazing - the city was first Roman, then moorish, then catholic. So it's an amazing mix of Roman columns, gorgeous blue and white tiles, and gold covered crosses. They are trying to build a metro here, but having a very hard time because they keep unearthing ancient sites. So the metro has been projecte to be completed in 1982, and there is still only one line.

So far it has been unbearably hot. I was glad to learn that they are in the middle of a heat wave, and today should be better, but I'll believe it when I see it. I think the heat explains the city's schedule - everything shuts down between 2 and 6, and no self respecting restaurant even opens till 8 pm - which is Spanish 8, more like 8:30 - 9. After 9 pm the city comes to life, and by 10 the streets are full and most of the tables in the outdoor cafes are taken. What really amazed us is that our neighborhood playground, empty most of the day, finally gets packed with happy children.

Unfortunately for us by 10 we are all exhausted and there is no way we can stay out with Sasha. So because all the interesting things here, such as outdoor concerts and Flamenco performances start so late here, we have really started to feel the strain of traveling with the baby. While it's easy to take turns going on a tour or to a museum, or occasionally have Sasha run around through a fortress while we are sightseeing, it is really no fun to go out at night by yourself. So no Flamenco for us - but we've gotten Twinkle Twinkle little star down!

Seville

vita — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

boardwalk by the beach in Barcelona

Patricia and Sasha in Istanbul

We arrived in Seville after a zoo in the airport. We took a local flight and the airport was mobbed. Sasha and everyone slept poorly last night do to teathing and we were all in a terrible mood. THis trip has done little to improve my Spanish and I am pretty sure that the lady in front of us was asking if we had ear plugs. Sasha is now asleep after we walked down to the main square and had some Sangria. We stopped to see if we could get some take out at the cafe down our street and we were informed that they opened in 10 minutes at 8:30 Pm. I feel very American or very much the father of a little girl!

The pictures are from another Gaudi building. This was a bourgiousie apartment building overlooking downtown Barcelona