Turkey Means Food!

The Blue Mosque of Istanbul

My favorite quotes:
• From 4 year old Nico: “You’re going to Turkey? Will you send me a postcard with turkeys on it?!”

• From a taxi driver: “Trust everything on a stick!” 
(he meant food, like kebabs).

Even before you get to the country, the clues are there: Turkish Airlines serves a meal and freshly squeezed orange juice, even on a short three hour flight (take note United Airlines!). More than that: when you walk onto the plane there are regular flight attendants but also one dressed like a cook, in white apron and tall white cook’s hat. The airline magazine sports recipes.
Everyone is Israel who heard the word ‘Turkey’, said “Food!”, rubbing their bellies and licking their lips. Apparently Turkey means good food. “Eat! Eat! Eat!” said our last taxi driver in Tel Aviv. He didn't speak much more English than that.

The impressive interior of the Blue Mosque.

We arrived at one of Istanbul’s two airports: Sabiha Gökçen. It is about an hour out of town and in Asia. Our hotel had quoted us 70 euros for airport transportation. I just about choked. But after some internet research (Trip Advisor) I found a hotel shuttle for 10 euros p.p. I booked this via their website (http://www.istanbulairportshuttle.com/).
They even met us upon arrival with a large name sign and brought us to our hotel. It is good to know, when traveling to Istanbul, that the OTHER airport, Atatürk, is 20 minutes away and in Europe. Be sure to double check at which airport you will arrive and depart. In our case we arrived at one but will depart from the other. Tricky.

Ancient city walls.

Halfway between the airport and the city we crossed a large bridge over the Bosporus. I spotted a sign along the road saying “Welcome to Europe!”
Again, we are thrilled with the hotel we booked via the internet. It is often a gamble and difficult to judge but we lucked out again. Angel’s Home is in the old city: Sultanahmet. Its crooked, narrow streets and hills remind me of Mont Martre in Paris but its atmosphere is distinctly Middle Eastern with many cafe’s and patios along the streets, fruit stands, water pipes, and twinkling lights.

Cats, cats everywhere.

Cats. What’s with cats in this part of the world? We must have seen thousands of cats, all over Israel, Jordan and now Turkey. Cats around apartment buildings, cats outside stores, cats in garbage cans and along the water front. Cats have inundated the Middle East, it seems. There are more cats here than there are bunnies on Salt Spring…

Mosques dominate the skyline and the call to prayer twirls out of many minarets, swirling its haunting tunes over the rooftops.

Tonight we obliged those who told us to “Eat!”. We had traditional Turkish food in a roadside restaurant, served on beautiful white tablecloths, under colorful lights made of gourds.

A traditional Turkish dish.

A sizzling stone dish held chicken and veggies and mushrooms and rice. We had chestnut puree in a type of corn pastry for dessert, with Turkish coffee and Turkish tea... Then we rolled home to our hotel to watch the lit up skyline and freight ships on the Bosporus.

Best date I ever had!

Best dates I ever tasted!

No, not a date with my husband but fresh dates bought on the market in Nazareth. I have never seen or tasted such incredible dates. Oy Vey! Soft, sweet, huge.

We left the Cana Wedding Guest House, after breakfast of tomatoes, cucumbers, pita bread, hummus, yogurt and omelet.

Shoe store in Cana

Hiking out of Cana we grinned at the shoe store. Would have never known this was a shoe store... But yesterday my boots were killing me and the son of the guesthouse owner took us to this store. It was closed and no shoes in sight. A lady across the road came with a key and sold me a pair of running shoes. This is why I am now hiking the hills of the Galilee in fluorescent green shoes.... Oy vey again!

My new running shoes!

We are on day two of the four day Jesus Trail. Yesterday we hiked for 15 KM, same today. The weather was overcast but no rain. And it's perfect to do this hike without sun beating down on us. You can only do the hike in spring and fall, because the summer's heat is too much. On the outskirts of Cana we were appalled by all the garbage strewn left and right. People seem to dump everything they don't need anymore on the outskirts of town, in the hills. There are empty bottles and plastic bags but also broken office chairs, TV's, a whole playground set, and more. Kees said "there are not many places in Israel where you cannot see any garbage." And this is right, the beach being a big exception where every little bit of garbage was picked up. But if the government wants to promote tourism through hiking trails, people will have to learn how to clean up! The scents of Israel to me, right now, are heavy sweet blossoms mixed with rotting garbage. There must a millions of cats in the country, living around all of the open garbage cans we see.

Hiking in the hills of Galilee

The trail today led through rocky, green hills and along wheat fields. At one point it turned into a narrow cattle trail, leading over hills. Our view was mostly of the Golan Heights to the east.

We also walked through a lovely forest of olive, laurel and pine trees. We had a picnic lunch at the base of a sign, in Hebrew, that had two words in English: Frican Forest. There was no place to sit but we shared a chunk of wood at the base of the sign to eat our pita bread with cheese, freshly roasted pecans and amazing dates! As soon as we walked into the Frican Forest, we saw picnic tables! And not just one or two but many! The Hebrew sign had probably said that there were picnic tables coming up!

The hills are alive.. with wild flowers.

When we got close to our destination, the Kibbutz Lavi, we could see the buildings on the top of a hill but no road or path leading to it. We got lost trying to follow the trail and looking for the right path. We probably walked some 2 KMs wrong but eventually took a road straight up the hill, arriving huffing and puffing at the hotel (at least I did, Kees is in much better shape after hiking in Spain for 10 days). 

The hotel is beautiful and has a huge indoor pool. Which we used!

Dinner was kibbutz style in a huge dining room: fish, chicken, roast vegetables and much more. It is interesting to note that this is a traditional, orthodox kibbutz and all food is prepared according to strict rules under supervision of a rabbi. It was very tasty!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure: it promises to be unusual again.

Amazing hedges of cacti!

Rules You Can Sleep By!

Roof top patio of Hashimi Hotel

The hotel in which we are staying in Jerusalem is pretty amazing. I found it on the internet. Checked out bookings.com, Orbitz, and more but also the website of the hotel itself. It looked nice. It was in the old city, which I wanted. I also looked at AirB&B, hostels and more. But this place sounded like it was a reasonable price, in the old city, and had everything we were looking for. 

We happened to see the sign: Hashimi Hotel!

Until we arrived, I had NO idea that 'in the old city' means that you can only get here on foot. I wonder how many older people are in for a shock. It's at least 10 minutes walking through a maze of alleys. Now I know why I never saw a photo of the outside of the building. There is only a front door, squeezed between a falafel place and a little shop. But once you open the door, up you go - marble staircase after marble staircase. Narrow and up. The first floor is a lobby with a desk, and with old, heavy wooden furniture where you can sit and have tea or coffee.

Jerusalem is all stairs - inside and out.

We are on the next floor in a room not much bigger than the bed. But it has a private tiny bathroom with shower. And, unlike many places in the old city, it actually has warm water.
There are no windows except for a tiny window onto the hallway. This makes the place a bit noisy. The men are very loud and we often wake up to loud voices and laughter in the hallways.

Fresh baked bread everywhere.

On the 3rd floor is a place to have breakfast: falafel, hard boiled eggs, tomato, cucumber, hummus, cheese and lovely flaxseed cookies.
On the 4th floor is the best feature: a large roof top terrace. This might well be the only hotel in the old city where you can sit and look out over the entire city. Our view is over rooftops, minarets, church bells, the white graves of the Mount of Olives and the golden, glistening Dome of the Rocks. Couldn't be better. We sit here day and night, gazing at the surreal panorama.

 Last

So much colorful food!

night we were invited to join the hotel's workers for a dinner of a huge platter with a kind of potato curry, with vegetables on the side. They all dipped in with fingers and with pita bread. Too bad we had just eaten...
If you ever come to visit here, we do recommend Hashimi Hotel, with all its quirks and personality. The owners live part time in the US and speak perfect English.

In Spain, Kees was lucky if he found something to eat, anywhere, before 9 PM.
Here, at least in Jerusalem, we are lucky if we can still find a restaurant open at 6 PM, many close so early. We are in the Muslim Quarter and the restaurants seem to all serve the same food. One of the best things is the freshly squeezed juice: oranges, grapefruits, anything. They just put it in a large squeezer and voila! For dinner each night we have about six different salads (creamy cucumber, creamy tomato, something identified on one menu as 'colslo' - meaning coleslaw - hummus, pita bread and sheskabab of lamb or chicken. No beer or wine. The Muslim Quarter is dry.

It's interesting to note that the 'H' in hebrew is pronounced as a 'G' - a harsh, Dutch guttural 'g'. So a town named HaHaGaNa is pronounced Ga-a-gana. Today someone who passed us said "Ghai!" instead of 'hi'!


Leaving Jerusalem to return to the coast, we found a great taxi driver who jovially offered to drive us not just to the train station but all the way past Tel Aviv and to the door of the hotel, for less than half the normal cost because he had to go that direction anyway. He entertained us with loud stories, using his arms and hands more for storytelling than for driving. When he heard we were from Canada, his face lit up. "Ah! Solomon!"
I wrecked my brain for biblical knowledge of Solomon. "Fresh Solomon," he continued throwing his arms up and forward as if reeling in a big catch, "You go fishing for fresh solomon?"  Ah, salmon...

We bought fresh bread, juicy strawberries and fresh juice for lunch.

The taxi drove through the corridor, from Jerusalem to the rest of Israel,  through the Westbank. Both sides protected by huge concrete walls and barbed wire fences, with the occasional check point to cross into the Westbank. It reminds us of the Berlin Wall.
And it is in sharp contrast to the people who are all so kind and outgoing - the Palestinians, the Jews, the Arabs and the Christians. All are so friendly and welcoming to us.

A Hot Spring Getaway

Looks idyllic, doesn't it? It's that - and more.
We are spending two nights at Harrison Hot Springs Resort. Not a bad way to spend a few days of January - soaking up the hot minerals and strolling through the small, mostly deserted resort town.
The hotel has newer wings and an old heart. In previous years we've stayed in the newer, more modern rooms which, sometimes, even have heated bathroom floors. This time we're in the old part, the floors creak but it does elude more charm - reminiscent of days when people flocked to the resort town to soak in the hot springs.
If you do come all the way here to stay, it is nice to stay in the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel itself which is the only hotel that offers 3 pools of (the original hot springs) hot mineral water. The lap pool is slightly warm, the children's pool is warmer and the adult soaking pool is really warm!
There are several other local hotels which are nice and have views of the lake, but without access to these pools. The local public pool is, of course, open to anyone even if you are just in town for the day.

The hotel has changed since the 'good old days': there's WIFI and gift shops. But even those have their charm.
We had a nice dinner in The Black Forest Restaurant in town.
My favorite gift store is closing, which is too bad but I am enjoying the 50% off prices while I'm here. We'll also stock up on the local specialty: hazelnuts straight from the orchard.

I highly recommend a few days at Harrison. It's an easy drive from the ferries and the Vancouver area. The hot water is divine, the hotel luxurious and the views... amazing when the sun broke out today to reveal snowcapped mountains surrounding the lake. Only problem is: the days are too short to do all the things I wanted to do while we're here!

Check out: http://www.harrisonresort.com/