The flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Guayaquil, Ecuador is a lot longer than we prefer to stay on an airplane. We therefore decided to break up the long flight home with a night in Amsterdam on the way back. We weren’t expecting very much, other than a chance to stretch our legs and grab some […]
Turkey 24 – Life in Istanbul
Now that our latest vacation is complete, this is a summary of what it feels like to live in Istanbul, even if only for a couple of months. First, mosques are everywhere and a part of daily life, even for those who are not practicing Muslims. There are 2,995 active mosques here, and every one […]
Turkey 23 – Safety and Security
[NOTE: This post was written before the bombing at the Istanbul airport. The contents here still applies though. Such mass attacks have occurred in Belgium, Paris, London, and… Orlando. The world seems to be rapidly going crazy. Anytime you choose to leave your home, you at risk of an attack… or simply being hit by […]
Turkey 22 – Market – Tarihi Sali Pazari
We read about a large market on the Asian side (where we are staying), and decided to go there. We got the address and directions from a web site on local Istanbul markets, and off we went. First we walk to the metro, take that to the end of the line, then find bus 8A, […]
Turkey 21 – Ortaköy
The “Blue Hour” at Ortaköy Camii We traveled by ferry to Beşiktas, today, then took a long walk to Ortaköy Mosque, which is located right at the foot of the Bosphorous Bridge, specifically to photograph the “camii” (in Turkish) as the sun set. When we arrived at Beşiktaş, we tried to find the bus to take […]
Turkey 20 – Dolmabahçe Palace and Eyüp
Yesterday, we started at a crafts market in Üsküdar, then took the ferry across the Bosphorous to tour the Dolmabahçe Palace, which was built in 1853. It is easy to look at all these palaces, and wonder why “each new sultan had to build his own“. In this case, though, it was replacing Topkapi Palace, […]
Turkey 19 – Sea Life Aquarium
We are now in our final week in Istanbul, and are starting to explore places that have been on our “would like to see if we had time” list. Today, that brought us to the Sea Life Aquarium. Because our first two businesses back in the early 1970’s related to tropical fish (a long story […]
Turkey 18 – Bosphorus Cruise
Today, we cruised along the Bosphorus Strait, a body of water that connects the Sea of Marmara (where we start) to the Black Sea (where we turn around), as well as separating the continents of Asia and Europe. The cruise takes about 90 minutes, plus a 3 hour break at Anadolu Kavagi, then 90 minutes […]
Cyprus 7 – Final Sunsets
Our last two nights exploring Cyprus included two final sunset photography ops. First, we had read about a shipwreck very near shore that looked like it would provide an interesting foreground. We drove up and down the coast north of Paphos, asking people in English where a “shipwreck” was located, and nobody seemed to know. […]
Cyprus 6 – Evelyn’s Birthday
Today was Evelyn’s birthday, and it turned out to be quite eventful (but remember that we never ask a woman how old she is…). As we were driving from the village of Vouni to Paphos in Cyprus this morning, we saw some goats in a field, and decided to stop to photograph them. Every time […]