food

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

A night cruise on the Bosphorus strait - Istanbul

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the Topkapi place on our second afternoon in Istanbul, we got back to the hotel to catch up with the little one who was busy studying. Did a quick shower, change into nicer clothes and off we went on an Uber to the docks. We had booked a Viator cruise on the Bosphorus strait which included a vegetarian dinner and live entertainment.

We were flanked on either side by a group of desi boys who had all started working recently after graduating and a family from Germany with two little kids. We were chit chatting and before we knew it, there was some really good entertainment. We even got a visual of the swirling dervishes. Not posting pictures as it is all in the video.

Between the food and entertainment, we went out to the deck to get pictures. The iconic golden gate looking bridge that shows up in every Turkish serial that San watches was there in front of us! It is really as beautiful to see the coastline as it is in the serials!

There was a photographer who took shots of all of us and obviously sold the nice pictures to us at the end of the cruise. It was more of a memorabilia for me. My girls are always pretty in my eyes, but to see them from another persons lens made me smile.

The gallery of lights as seen from the cruise..

A few other pictures from this cruise and on our way back to the hotel.. where the mosques light up the place.

A video highlights reel of the cruise and the entertainment..

Strongly recommend this cruise if you visit Istanbul. Given my allergies and food restrictions, they gave me enough to eat to keep me going for the two plus hours on the cruise. We found a nice driver called Mustafa who took us from the hotel to the place and he told us “god willing, I will get to take you back when you return as my house is close to your hotel”.. and sure enough, god willed for him. We hailed for an Uber in the crowd and Mustafa shows up!

We had a really great time as a family on this cruise. It was chilly when we got out. We were going to wake up and go for one last interesting experience the following morning before leaving the city.. god willing, will write that post tonight.

, , , , , , , , ,

Amazing places of worship- Istanbul Day 2

, , , , , , , , ,

The previous post in this series is here..

Day 2 started with a nice breakfast at our hotel and we walked to the tour guide for an all day walking tour of Old Istanbul. Our Viator guide came on time and told us that we will have an hour and a half break. The other two folks in our tour (from Kerala, India) had opted for lunch while we didn’t. So he was going to give us a break. That meant everyone in our group was making their own plan for the rest of the day already! The kids are no longer kids, you see..

We walked through the Hippodrome area, got a lot of history of the place, how Christianity came to be what it is today, how Islam came to be what it is today, etc. One thing was certain.. no matter how big the empires and how great the buildings, time has a way of changing empires, religion and we are moving forward.

The grandeur of the two mosques we visited.. got my backbends for the day done, taking these pano shots.

First the few photos of us.. I just went nuts taking photos of the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia. These buildings are architectural marvels that are places of worship. The idea is to inspire awe, and that they do effortlessly as soon as you walk in. They humble you!

The portrait picture gallery..

And the gallery of landscape photos..

After the tour was done, we were taken to a multistory leather goods shop (apparently has a tie up with the tour for our rates). We got treated to a catwalk show of leather clothes. Given none of us in the family wear leather, we just enjoyed the experience, walked around the store, then went to the rooftop to take in views of the city. There was no obligation to buy and I could get Ramarajan shirts from 0 to 255 on the RGB color scale for the price of one of these jackets.

Then we walked to a nice restaurant called Sultana Cafe, which had vegetarian options. Our guide did good by taking us to this place. They had rice, aaloo parathas Turkish cousin, made right in front of us! and other veggie dishes that delighted the family. (also we saw Turkish crows that look like desi crows but have brown, black and gray feathers.. they are also called Kaa Kaa!!)

The photo I cherish the most from this days trip…

After this it was back to the hotel. It was hot out and we all wanted to clean up, rest our feet before meeting our tourguide for the afternoon session.

A video highlight reel of the mornings tour..

It was getting really hot and we made a dash for our hotel.. we had 90 minutes before catching our guide at the post lunch stop..

will pick it up there tomorrow.

, , , , , , , , ,

Family vacation - something for everyone - Day 1 Istanbul

, , , , , , , , ,

Our trips for the year are usually planned by end of January.. at least till Thanksgiving. The kids rarely commit for family trips. This year we planned a trip to Istanbul for Labor day. My college mates had done a mini reunion in Istanbul that I could not attend earlier. To make up for it, wanted to see the city with family. San has been going nuts watching Turkish soap operas since Covid and has also been craving a visit. I also wanted to see Kapadokya. The kids were not so keen. As an appeasement move we combined to different wish lists. Spend half the vacation in Turkey, and the other half in the Amalfi coast in Italy. Our friends had visited recently and gave the place rave reviews. The kids being interested in cuisine wanted to do this leg. Not that we had an issue.

After a lot of haggling, we planned the Turkey leg and they planned the Italy leg.

Original plan was to take the four remaining days of long weekend and go. Thanks to some flight timing changes between the time we booked and the actual trip, had to take the Friday off as well and go to the airport by Noon. Turkish airlines is excellent and we had a direct flight from SFO to Istanbul. The car ride to our hotel (an excellent place to stay in old town) called Carina Gold Hotel was a long one. We also ended up waiting 45 minutes to get our Taxi at the airport. By the time we reached the hotel we were tired. After some turkish tea, we decided to go sightseeing. This hotel is walking distance from most of the sights in old town area.

We were told by the hotel staff that the Grand Bazaar would be closed the next day.. so we were in luck to visit the bazaar for an hour and a half. The day also happened to be some special holiday in Istanbul, which explained the crowds everywhere and the traffic to reach the hotel.

My grad school buddy Sedat, who is now a professor in Gebsi in Istanbul was constantly in my mind. Had told the family so many stories of our time together that they wanted to meet him and his family. However we missed each other on the coms (we were both trekkies and would sit and watch Simpsons and Star Trek with our third buddy Indra, who is also a Professor). At that time I also wanted to be a professor, but my dream wavered. He must have got the hiccups when i was thinking of him. If I wasn’t the shops reminded me.

We saw shops as far as the eye could see, bought some stuff, took some cheesy pictures and were off to our next stop.

The grand Cistern. This underground water storage place with giant pillars had an audio visual show for 20 mintues. We enjoyed it thoroghly.

We saw this cat feeding station. You can pay and the cats get food! There were cats everywhere. The kids were happy. I was immediately concerned about allergies!

After that we went for a walk around the market in Sultanahmet mosque area. After some ice cream and window shopping we got a feel for the city. Then we went to find dinner at a rooftop restaurant. It was a lot of climbing to the fifth floor but worth it. They had vegetarian food. After a nice dinner we walked back to the hotel.

There were happy smiling faces so far. The next day was going to be a lot of sight seeing.

A video highlights reel..

will pick up the blog where this leaves off tomorrow..

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.