Beaches and Bayous

 July 30

We arrived at my house at 2 am this morning and managed to get a few hours of sleep before we re-packed our suitcases and headed out on a road trip for continent #4 of summer vacation. A four drive got us to Gulfport, Mississippi. Charisse wanted to spend a little time at the casino, so we went to the Beau Rivage, but my exhaustion wouldn't let me enjoy myself. I found a quiet spot and just sat down until it was time to go. The next day we went to the beach and finally relaxed for a few hours - until thunder ran us off the beach. We left Gulfport and headed to NOLA for two days. We stayed at a very interesting little Airbnb on Saint Claude Avenue. After a quick trip to Walmart for groceries and a stop by an Italian restaurant for take- out for dinner, Charisse and I attempted to enjoy the hot tub at the Airbnb, but the mosquitoes wouldn't allow it.  The next day we took the bus down to the French Quarter and walked around a bit before getting on a streetcar that dropped us off at Caesar's Palace. Charisse went inside the casino, while Ross and I decided to walk back to Bourbon Street.

 

We wandered in and out of various shops, purchasing a few souvenirs, and a store where I bought a book entitled Spirits of New Orleans. Then we went to Pier 424 Seafood Market, a restaurant where Ross ordered a dish called the taste of New Orleans. It had individual dishes of crawfish etouffee, jambalaya, and gumbo. The crawfish etouffee was his favorite. We then walked on to Tropical Isle, where I got a very large drink called a hand grenade. You can't do NOLA without beignets, so I made sure to stop in at Cafe Beignet for some tasty fried dough. 

                                               

   Later that afternoon the three of us linked back up for a haunted history tour that we had booked. This was a really interesting walking tour that took us around various sites in the French Quarter, including the most haunted building in New Orleans, the LaLaurie house, which was the scene of mass tortures and murders.

There and Back Again

 July 28

Today was our day to travel to the Asian side of Istanbul. Getting there was an ordeal. Every time we asked for directions they were so non-specific that we ended up going about 30 minutes out of our way before finding a tram that would take us to Sirkeci station. Using the Istanbul cart ticketing system was another challenge.  We had Turkish breakfast at Paci Lounge. Turkish breakfast is substantial. The three of us could not finish it all. 

 

After breakfast we took the ferry to Galataport. We had tickets to tour Galata Tower, but Charisse decided to forgo that activity due to the uphill hike required to get to the landmark.  Galata Tower was built by the Byzantine emperor Anastasius as a lighthouse tower in the 6th century and is one of the oldest towers in the world. 

Navigating the tram back to the European side was a lot easier. That evening we had a sunset cruise on a yacht on the Bosphorus River. We saw many of the same landmarks we saw previously, but this time from the water. We also saw the other tower for which Istanbul is famous- the Maiden's Tower.  There is some interesting lore regarding the Maiden's Tower. One story goes that the tower was built by a sultan after a fortune teller predicted his daughter would die from a snake bite. He secluded the girl and her attendants on the island, with their only connection to the outside world being food deliveries. Unfortunately, a snake crawled out of a basket of fruit that was delivered, bit her, and died. The other story goes that the tower was built by the sultan and the girl was exiled to the island in order to keep her away from her many boyfriends. Regardless of the story, Istanbul by sunset is a great way to end the overseas portion of our vacation. 

                                                     

Istanbul City Tour part 2

 July 27

We had the option to split our city tour into two days, so we completed the tour today by going to the Basilica Cistern. Originally intended as a palace, construction was completed around AD 541. The cistern was used as a method of storing water for the people of the city. It was joined to other cisterns throughout the city by aqueducts. It is a rectangular structure containing 336 columns, each eight meters tall, and set four meters apart. In 1962 the cistern was featured in the James Bon movie "From Russia With Love". In the middle of the cistern is one rather unique column, called the "crying column". While the design looks like the evil eye, it actually represents the club carried by Hercules in Greek mythology. In the back corner of the cistern is a small statue of Medusa that casts a rather large shadow when the lights hit just right. 

 

After the Basilica Cistern, we walked to the famous Grand Bazaar. I was unimpressed. In my opinion, the spice bazaar was a lot more interesting.  

                        


Late afternoon, we were scheduled for a Turkish bath at a traditional hamam. There are hamams all over Istanbul- even our hotel offered this service. I chose Cagaloglu Hamam for this activity because it was located in an old Ottoman building and I love the history associated with that. Prepare to be scrubbed thoroughly if you decide to do a Turkish bath. There is a men's side, and a women's side. We started the experience in a sauna, then we were taken to a large room where we were doused in water from head to toe. Ross called it a voluntary waterboarding. Charisse said they were trying to drown her standing up. Then we laid down on a stone slab where we were scrubbed and massaged from head to toe. Then they rinse you before laying you back down for the washing portion. This involved tons of bubbles. One final waterboarding and we were done. Charisse and Ross both got a full body clay mask treatment, which actually came before the scrubbing. I decided to add on a hands, feet, face moisturizing treatment, which actually came after the bath. We all finished at about the same time though. 

                      

Travel tip: Bring water. Lots of water. 

Istanbul City Tour

July 26

Today we had booked a walking tour of historic sites in the Old Town section of Istanbul. Our tour started in what used to be the hippodrome (horse square) during ancient times. Our tour guide was Arda, and he started the tour by giving us some information about the city.

Old Town Istanbul used to be called Byzantium in ancient times, and the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is surrounded by the remnants of Roman walls that extended for 22 kilometers around ancient Byzantium. Old town Istanbul is beautiful and unique. Two obelisks stand in the hippodrome: one is from Karnak Temple in Egypt. The other is of unknown origins. The remnants of the bronze serpent column also stands in the hippodrome. The column was given to Byzantium by the ancient Greeks after a successful battle. Made of three twisted lengths of bronze, the top contained the heads of snakes all pointing in different directions. But there was a period of time when strife and violence was prevalent in Istanbul and the structure was destroyed. Two of the heads are now in museums: one in London and one in Istanbul. The other head has disappeared from history.

 At the other end of the hippodrome is the German Fountain. It was gifted to the city by Kaiser Wilhelm II after his visit there. Our first stop in the tour was at Topkapi Palace. If you plan on going, make sure you have at least three hours to spend there.

                      

There is so much to see. Topkapi was constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, and was in use by the Ottomans until 1856, when they moved the royal household to Dolmabahçe Palace. The palace has three different gates and four courtyards. Walking towards the first gate, we pass by the Hagia Eirene on our left. A smaller mosque built four years before Hagia Sofia, it means “holy peace”.

To our right is the Fountain of Ahmed the Turk. The first gate of Topkapi is called “the gate of rulership”. Topkapi can hold up to 5,000 people. Off of the first courtyard there is a weapons room and a clock room that has SO many different types of Ottoman clocks. Charisse was fascinated by the weapons room. 

 

The second gate is called the "Gate of Salutation" and has European style towers installed by Sulieman. The columns in the palace contain materials from Greece, Egypt, and the Marmara region of Türkiye. Our guide leads us through the many rooms, halls, and courtyards of the palace. Honestly, there are too many to remember them all. But everywhere we go we see the blue tiles for which Türkiye is famous.

 We then go to the eunuch's quarters, where there is a temple, and a hammam, along with the living and sleeping quarters. The eunuch's rooms are right before we get to the harem. In Islam "harem" means "a holy place where not everyone is allowed to enter". These were the quarters of the royal family. The rooms of the harem are expansive. There were rooms for the sultan, his wives, his mother, and his siblings. They had private kitchens, and a long hallway with a stone banquette where the servants would place their food. The harem at Topkapi was initially constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and expanded during the time of Sultan Murad III. We also tour the dormitories where the Sultan's personal soldiers lived before being allowed to explore on our own for the next hour. 

View of Anatolia from Topkapi

Huge swimming pool

                                                      

    

                                      

Our second stop of the day was the Blue Mosque. Because today is Friday, we were not able to get into the mosque until 2pm, which is why we did not start here. Friday at noon is the only time Muslims MUST come to a mosque to pray. Any other time they can pray at home. The Blue Mosque is actually called the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and is unique because it has six minarets. It is the only Ottoman mosque that has six. The typical mosque has two. Only a sultan could build a mosque with more than two minarets. A mosque built by a sultan usually has four. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the more than 20,000 hand painted blue tiles that decorate the walls. Many of the tiles have a tulip design because it was a flower native to the area. Later the flower was exported to the Netherlands. Inside the Blue Mosque there are eight circular plaques with inscriptions. They are for Allah, the prophet Muhammed, the two grandsons of Muhammed, and the four caliphs. The narrow staircase/ tower inside the mosque is where the imam sits to call the prayer. 

                       

                       

We ended the day at the Hagia Sofya. We did not go inside the Hagia Sofya but learned a little about the history. Constructed between AD 532- 537, it was originally built as an orthodox church.  It then became a Catholic church, then a mosque, then a museum, and now it is an active mosque again.  For a while it was the largest religious structure in the world. Both Hagia Sofya (holy wisdom) and Hagia Eirene (holy peace) are dedicated to Jesus. If I ever get back to Istanbul, I would definitely like to go inside the Hagia Sofya. 

City at the Crossroads of the World

July 25

After a slightly delayed flight we arrived in Istanbul today where we were picked up and transported to the Sarniç Hotel. The hotel is located inside an old Ottoman mansion and has the type of ambiance that one might expect from such a setting. It is close to all of the major sites in the Old Town section of Istanbul, which is why I chose it. There are drawbacks to staying in an old historic building: the rooms are small, there are no lifts, and WiFi can sometimes be spotty. Because we arrived late, Charisse and I dropped our luggage at the hotel and headed immediately to our first activity: a mosaic lamp making workshop. We were part of an international group of nine.  Our host, Aleyna, was both knowledgeable and patient.

                        

We left the mosaic lamp workshop with our precious bubble wrapped packages and headed to the world famous spice bazaar. Lovely and colorful, it was exactly what I expected a Turkish market to be. We purchased spices, teas, and souvenirs. 

      

Travel tip: wait until you have cleared baggage claim to look for an atm if you need cash. The fees tend to be lower than those in other parts of the airport. 

Balloon Safari

High on Charisse’s bucket list was riding in a hot air balloon. So we awakened early this morning to meet our driver from Balloon Safari. We loaded into the van where we met our two traveling companions, a mother- daughter duo from the UK. I’ve ridden in a hot air balloon before but this was a different experience. We loaded into the balloon horizontally with the basket lying on the ground. The Mara is beautiful from the air. We saw an exquisite sunrise and many of the same animals that we had seen on our safari. The surprise of the day: sighting two mating hyenas. After the balloon ride was over, we were treated to a champagne breakfast in the savanna. Grazing wildebeests served as our backdrop for a remarkable morning. 

                          

We met up with Sam and Rony at the entrance to the Masai Mara National Reserve to begin our six hour journey back to Nairobi. We checked back into the Radisson Park Inn, but only for a brief few hours, as we had to catch an overnight flight to Istanbul for part two of our journey. 

Phrase of the day: mungu alinipata- “God has got me” - the phrase we’ve used all during our trip whenever something gets stressful or doesn’t go to plan. 

Safari!

 July 22 and 23

Our two day safari adventure started on Sunday, July 22nd. We had two short game drives into the Masai Mara National Reserve, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. The animals aren’t very active during the midday so we went at times we were likely to see the most animals. And we immediately began spotting zebras and warthogs. As we continued the very bumpy ride our eagle eyed guide and driver were both pointing out various animals and native plant life. Charisse’s highlight of the day was the giraffes. Mine was the elephants.

                             

                           

This wasn’t my first safari, but my 2019 safari in Uganda yielded no big cats and no elephants. Therefore I had a lot of excitement regarding what we would see. We lucked up and saw a female lion with two very playful cubs that we nicknamed Toryian and Navi. I learned the difference between the Thompson’s gazelle and the impala, and we also saw an animal I’d never heard of before, called a topi. We then saw a lone water buffalo. Sam informed us that it was an older male who had been expelled from the herd and would remain alone for the rest of its life. During our late afternoon sojourn we saw an adult male lion lounging by himself. 

                             

Day two of our safari was a long day. We left on our gane drive at 8am and didn’t return to the safari camp until nearly 5pm. We entered a different gate this time- a large structure that was crowded by Masai women selling goods. The theme of the day was wildebeests! As far as the eye could see! Having seen 3 of the Big 5 on day one, we didn’t necessarily expect to see the other two. Leopards are nocturnal, and rhinos are not known to be in the Masai Mara. Surprise! We saw a leopard, hidden under some low hanging bushes. He was near a water source where a lot of wildebeests were. The perfect spot for an ambush.

We drove to the Mara River to see hippos and crocodiles and also saw a lot of dead wildebeest bodies floating by. Apparently when crocodiles attack the wildebeests crossing the river, they just take a bite out of them and leave the carcass. We found a juvenile male lion who was enjoying a fresh wildebeest kill. When he got full (and his tummy was VERY full) the carrion eating birds that had been hanging around swooped in and went to work on the leftovers, removing the meat in strips. There are no elephants in this part of the Mara because they don’t like the wildebeests, who are skittish animals.

                          

We also happened upon a pair of mating lions and one very large adult male who was clearly in a food coma, as there was a large bloody bone lying next to him. The pair of mating lions caused quite the traffic jam as all the safari driver communicate to each other by radio, so everyone currently in the Mara rushed over to the area. At one point I counted 40 vehicles in that one spot, which created a choke point at the one tiny bridge until one driver got out of this car and started directing traffic. For a while we chased the reports of a cheetah sighting and when we found them, there turned out to be two juveniles who were calling for their mother. Later on that day we spotted a mother cheetah and four cubs who left a small bush to find safety in a larger cluster of bushes. In the middle of the day we enjoyed a packed lunch right there under a tree in  the savanna. 

                               

                               

Word of the day: hapana- “no” - a word I had to use a lot as the women selling wares at the gate were very persistent