Secondly, the tourism industry is on a whole new scale in Istanbul. According to Wiki: 11.6 million foreigners visited Istanbul in 2012, "two years after it was named a European Capital of Culture, making the city the world's fifth-most-popular tourist destination." While in Eastern Europe we mostly met tourists from the North America, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, & other Eastern European countries, in Istanbul we saw bus-loads of tourists from all the world over; Istanbul is an impressively global city. And this strong flow of visitors sustains an impressively dynamic and sometimes aggressive tourism industry. We felt constantly assailed by shop-keepers, market sellers, restaurant-owners, excursion planners, and pan-handlers trying to sell us everything imaginable. They would approach us with all sorts of creative queries: most often "Where are you from?!" "Can I help you find something?" "Would you like some tea?" and then the conversation slowly turned to whatever's for sale, often leading to dramatic acts of anger or guilt-tripping in a last attempt to sell. It seemed like an unceasing cultural struggle: while I enjoyed talking to strangers about their worlds and felt rude/uncomfortable ignoring calls, I did not understand the bartering banter & parameters or meanings of discourse. Similarly the markets were seriously male-dominated, almost every person who hailed us was a man and they often spoke straight to Nate, not making eye-contact with me unless I responded. People were warm + welcoming but also conservative & perplexing. This kind of cultural confusion could make the daily experience quite overwhelming.
One quick internet search revealed that night-bus tickets from Sofia to Istanbul cost about thirty dollars - and to that we said 'why not?!' So we waddled with our bags to the Sofia bus terminal at midnight, jumped on a coach, passed out, woke up to the bus driver giving us plastic cups of water and chocolate muffin-y cakes, woke up a second time to being dropped off at the Bulgaria-Turkey border, walked in the darkness from one country's border patrol window to another & faded to sleep once more. We arrived after four am as the sky struggled to lighten. Miles-long lines of buses & cars crowded every road, ramp and tunnel into the massive Otogar bus terminal. The crowds, noise & unknown of it all seriously shocked my startled-awake anxiety into high. Somehow we grabbed our bags, wandered through several different food stalls asking for directions, found an atm for Turkish Lira + found a metro entrance with a token dispenser + map to guide us to our next temporary home - all before the sun was up! This time we tested a house-share rental, where Nate & I rented a private bedroom and shared everything else in the apartment. We lived in a neighborhood called Aksaray, situated on a main tram line and boulevard that leads straight to the famous Sultanahmet & Grand Bazaar attraction areas. We were a bit out from the center though (about 45 minutes worth of strolling), in a largely Syrian populated neighborhood filled with great, cheap food and no tourist trinket shops. All in all a wonderful place to rest after a day of hardcore touring. We had a couple new challenges here. Firstly, Istanbul is a massive city, spanning over 2,000 square miles and two continents - really it lies half on the European & half on the Asia portions of Eurasia (and people refer to the general areas as 'the Asian side' etc.). So while Nate & I made good attempts at our typical all-day-pedestrian touring, the city was just too big & our legs couldn't make it within the hours of the day ... but we tried! Secondly, the tourism industry is on a whole new scale in Istanbul. According to Wiki: 11.6 million foreigners visited Istanbul in 2012, "two years after it was named a European Capital of Culture, making the city the world's fifth-most-popular tourist destination." While in Eastern Europe we mostly met tourists from the North America, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, & other Eastern European countries, in Istanbul we saw bus-loads of tourists from all the world over; Istanbul is an impressively global city. And this strong flow of visitors sustains an impressively dynamic and sometimes aggressive tourism industry. We felt constantly assailed by shop-keepers, market sellers, restaurant-owners, excursion planners, and pan-handlers trying to sell us everything imaginable. They would approach us with all sorts of creative queries: most often "Where are you from?!" "Can I help you find something?" "Would you like some tea?" and then the conversation slowly turned to whatever's for sale, often leading to dramatic acts of anger or guilt-tripping in a last attempt to sell. It seemed like an unceasing cultural struggle: while I enjoyed talking to strangers about their worlds and felt rude/uncomfortable ignoring calls, I did not understand the bartering banter & parameters or meanings of discourse. Similarly the markets were seriously male-dominated, almost every person who hailed us was a man and they often spoke straight to Nate, not making eye-contact with me unless I responded. People were warm + welcoming but also conservative & perplexing. This kind of cultural confusion could make the daily experience quite overwhelming. Topkapi Palace was the massive estate of the Ottoman royalty, statesmen & their many servants for over 400 years. It comprised of many elaborately ordered and decorated buildings, each serving a niche purpose for either state or royal occasions. While Topkapi Palace does not house any royalty today, it still contains a massive royal treasury of bejeweled spoils of war, a bizarre (and also huge) collection of Muslim religious relics (including Moses' staff, Joseph's robe + hair from Muhammad's beard), a large collections of Muslim calligraphic arts as well as many beautiful rooms to explore. Some of Istanbul's most impressive attractions are religious structures: among many others are the Blue + Suleymaniye Mosques, the Hagia Sofia, + Church of Saint Anthony of Padua. Here are some quick views from the bustling capitol of Bulgaria, Sofia. We wandered the city for a few days, getting lost here & there. On the way we discovered sprawling parks, elaborately adorned theaters + churches, sky-scratching communist statues, hot-sulfur mineral springs and of course the famed yellow-paved roads. As you can tell from the end the city also served as a crash-course in Cyrillic ... but I'm afraid we're not quite there yet in our understanding. ;) The music is from a great collection of Bulgarian gypsy music you can find here.
Sofia (locally София) is the capitol city of Bulgaria (locally pronounced with an emphasis on the 'o' rather than the 'i' as with the lady-name). Sofia surprised me with its intensive mix of architectural styles and layered histories. This mixing of stories has been our normal experience throughout Europe so far, as each country carries a long list of warring empires through their stories, but Sofia presented some special layers. This city was the first to remind me of other famous large-scale Western cities like Paris or New York. It has a well-established network of subways, trams, buses and trains. It has huge, straight radial boulevards that are crowded with shops and wide tree-lined sidewalks. It is filled with ornate cultural institutions and sculptural monuments like churches, museums, and many many theaters. However Sofia also distinguishes itself with some brutal communist buildings, 49 thermal & mineral springs popping out of the city streets, yellow brick roads, sidewalk squat-shops called Klek (Клек), dress-up statues and of course, everything's in Cyrillic! The Klek shops (above) are interesting phenomena. Their history relied on the legalization of private businesses and the shift from communism in the late 1980s. Building space was expensive and capitalism was new, so cheap basement spaces were converted to low-lying convenience shops as the market emerged. Klek shops typically sell alcohol, water, cigarettes and snacky items, but some specialty klek shops include shoe repair, meat shops, and other services. Check out some good Klek photos here. The hot springs were another highlight of Sofia. Bath houses were built by both Romans and Ottomans during their reigns and later converted or rebuilt for the modern era. We followed the lead of locals who visited the hot spring with shopping carts of 5 liter plastic bottles and filled our bottles with its hot sulfuric water (that's touted for its great health benefits). Surprisingly the strong sulfur odor faded as the water cooled. Also, the bottles second as a hand and nose warming device when I hadn't bought gloves yet. :) Of the massive statues to communism that we saw during our visit, the Monument to the Soviet Army near Sofia University has a most interesting recent history as it's become a vehicle for local discussion of Bulgarian-Russian relations. The original statue was constructed in 1954 as part of a larger sculptural complex of heroically poised Soviet soldiers. A high-relief metal statue depicts a dense group of soldiers valiantly pushing forward into battle. It is this relief that has been the topic of debate because a series of crafty spray-painters have transformed it into satirical scenes. The most famous example is from 2011 when soldiers were painted as American pop-culture characters with Superman, Joker, Robin, Captain America, Ronald McDonald, Santa Claus, Wolverine, and Wonder Woman in the dramatic fray. The monument has also been decorated with Pussy Riot masks to protest their arrest in 2012. It was painted as the Bulgarian flag on the national day for the commemoration of the victims of communism. It was covered in pink in 2013 on the anniversary of the Prague spring, underneath stating "Bulgaria apologizes." And more recently the monument was painted with in support of the Ukrainian Revolution, with the country's colors, some aggressive words towards Putin and "Glory to Ukraine" written. There's an awful lot of debate over whether to keep or destroy the grand and controversial Monument to the Soviet Soldier, but I'm certain it's creators did not envision it catalyzing such great debates of the country's future sixty years ago. In the meantime, scroll through this amazing group of photographs of "Forgotten Monuments from the Communist Era in Bulgaria" - some of them are spectacularly surreal. + we ate things tooPizza Reviews by Nate: Bulgaria EditionAs I walked the streets of the city I quickly noticed they have a lot of walk-up window food options, with large individual slices of pizza being one of the many options. I however was looking for a whole pizza so we stopped at the supposedly famous 24-hour pizza chain Ugo that has three locations throughout the city. I second guessed myself walking into the restaurant thinking the place was way too nice to be a pizza place only to find an extensive menu with at least five pages dedicated to pizza. On paper the Kro sounded a bit interesting with its ingredients listed as tomato sauce, yellow cheese, smoked cheese, smoked chicken fillet, egg, peas, and pickles. To be honest I just like the idea of smoked chicken and cheese & Meg loves pickles! Looking back, I guess I did not know, but there was definitely a moment in which I paused and reevaluated the situation. Pickles – different. Peas – weird. Combine all the ingredients together with some sort of scrambled egg whites on very thick crust and only one thing came to mind – Chicken and Biscuits. No smokiness to be found anywhere, it was difficult to discern between the toppings as the chicken intermixed with the cheese(s?), peas creating a gravy like consistency with the egg and the crust quickly softened as it soaked up the sauce and pickle juice. It may have been a poor choice of toppings but I have a feeling that this pizza may be directed towards late night partyers in need of something salty and cheesy and pizza rather than the exquisite pre-tea-time luncheon I was imagining from the looks of the place. I will give them points for the inventiveness of their topping selection, but their execution left me wanting more, just not of this pizza. As we concluded our time in Tirana, Nate + I decided to treat ourselves to a few work-free days full of forests, water & fresh air. We considered our local options and found many possibilities in the neighboring country of Macedonia (locally pronounced mack-uh-dough-nee-uh), well known for its highland lakes and low, forested mountains. Several visitors to our hostel bar had mentioned a lovely, historic city called Ohrid, only 4 hours away by coach. So we packed our bags, boarded a bus and left Albania in search of a much desired lung break. I didn't know a thing about Macedonia before going there - sounded more like an age in early human history than a place. However the lovely country that holds Ohrid has gained much appreciation from me. I certainly ranted about how beautiful the lake was and how great the air felt on an hourly basis. Our experience of the city was centered on the dense old town that stacks up a hillside on Lake Ohrid's edge. It's like a shrunken Amalfi coast - a staircase town of stone houses, terracotta roofs, cliffs and water-front promenades - very picturesque. The city & lake together acquired a special UNESCO status as both Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites. The city uniquely contained 365 religious buildings at one point, was called the "Jerusalem (of the Balkans)," a town of great religious importance or so the stories go. There are a strange number of churches for such a small area and population. We did not spot 365, but every view seemed to contain a chapel, church or cathedral. We even met the man whose family dips candles for over 300 churches in the metropolitan area. I can hardly imagine how these religious spaces were ever put to use - especially with one for each day of the year! Nate + I had a good adventure visiting the medieval fortress atop the hill in Ohrid's Old Town. Actually the adventure started with us climbing the wrong side of the hill and struggling to find the massive structure's proper entrance. We stomped through all sorts of scrubby forest patches and slowly circled the huge fortress-walls in a hilarious confusion - One pot of hot oil would've done us in ... we are not savvy invaders. The fortress was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the medieval rule of Samuil (so says wiki). There are many ongoing excavations, some recent Macedonian archaeologists allege that this Sam's fortress was built on the place of a 4th century B.C. fortification, which was probably built by king Phillip II of Macedon. Regardless, it's a really interesting, massive site to explore and provides wide & wonderful views of this equally splendid town. Food TimesAfter that good bout of losing and finding ourselves again we were hungry! So we set out to find good eats on the waterfront. We were shuffling down the stone roads when I heard a voice yelling 'Nate!' It actually took a few shouts to register (because how could we know someone in Macedonia?) but eventually Nate + I snapped out of our hunger-fog, turned around and saw none other than Artie! A boisterous, hilarious Albanian man who hung out with us at the hostel bar in Tirana. He and his wife had traveled from Maryland where they live, back home to Albania to celebrate a birth in his family - of course visiting the best bar I know in Tirana on the way ;). It was an amazing small world moment. They invited us to drink a beer with them, which turned into two beers, which turned into a huge feast of Macedonian delights proceeding well into the night. What a special surprise dinner with a seriously vivacious couple! There were too many pizza places that won our attention in Ohrid, so Nate's gonna have to lead our Macedonian food discussion - but here's a few alternatives: Pizza reviews by Nate: Macedonia Edition
It was spicy thanks to the pepperoni and peppers - an adjective that I have missed using given the fact that so far everywhere we have traveled seems to be afraid/not understand or appreciate the element of heat. The selection of mushrooms added a divergent element to the pizza while the additional seasonings kept the tastes exciting. I have become to expect this combination of spice with the thin crispiness in crusts from coastal cities, albeit a lake coast and this pizza was well worth the bus ride and a bit of luck as the first pizza place we saw. The next night, upon discovering that there was more to the city than a network of coastal roads, we ventured inland on their main strip to settle on a neon lit establishment glowing in back of one the alleyways. We soon realized we had not just sat in a themed bar/restaurant but a hostel as well, a business that we were both familiar with from days before, although here they had waitresses. Deciding on the vegetarian, it arrived with the toppings one would expect on frozen pizza including mushrooms, peppers, onions and olives and it very well might have been. Just bread, maybe some sauce, cheese and toppings, the pizza lucky came with a side dish of sauce. It was very easy to fashion small spoon like shapes from the very doughy and lightly baked crust to create the illusion of eating cheesy bread sticks dipped a rustic garden themed sauce. The reality was not so pretty and the extra sauce really only saved this pizza because of its ability to evoke recollections of lunches past, a simpler time – eating Spaghetti-Os out of the can. How nostalgic. For our last meal before catching our bus, we decided on getting two pizzas so we could eat some now and have the rest to eat on the road. We found a pizza place with seating on the lake’s edge and we each made a selection. Meg’s pizza was another vegetarian, definitely fresh and a little crispy looking. The addition of black olives instead of green, tomato slices and a trip first – broccoli, together added a welcomed gradient of texture and flavor proving the importance of ingredient selection and cooking times when comparing it to the pizza from the night before. I on the other hand ordered the four seasons or something along the lines of “četiri godišni vreminja”. In Ohrid that translated to squid, mussels, mushrooms and anchovies, but from having learned my lesson back in Albania I asked them to switch that last topping out for anything else. A pizza topped with such a high density of a single topping showcases a flavor much like a sample platter rather than attempt to create a flavor through mixing ingredients. I preferred the texture and flavor of the mussels to that of the chewy squid rings and my mystery “season” of imitation crab meat, from what I could guess was sweet and like the rest of the toppings was enjoyable to eat in juxtaposition with the crunch of the slightly over baked crust.
It was then that we discovered: if we want leftovers, we should probably order three pizzas. ;) |
AuthorAn Upstate New York-grown, art history + Italian major turned organic farm volunteer turned Home Health Aide turned Landscape Architecture Grad student currently adventuring about the globe and taking far too many photos for one travel blog to handle. Archives
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