Krakow during the holidays

Here are a couple Christmas traditions in Krakow: the three kings and "szopki krakowskie". Three Kings Day was January 6th, so we went to see the procession of the three kings that culminated on the square. It was cold and the kings from Asia and Europe were behind schedule, but before we bowed out we did get to see the king from Africa make his way to the square to honor our Lord. (He's the guy in black-face dressed in blue -- that's how you know he's from Africa.)

We also got a chance this week to check out the "szopki", which are on display this month at the city museum on the square. "Szopki" are homemade nativity scenes. This is a big tradition in Krakow. Every year there's a competition and people enter their elaborate and colorful "krakowskie szopki" in the judging contest. In addition to the tradition biblical figures, there are often Krakowian elements to the models, like the Lajkonik, the Mariacki church, and the Wawel dragon, which JR enjoyed finding.

Holiday travels 2012

Krakow's Christmas market

In Vienna

At the Kempinski Hotel in the High Tatras just before Christmas Eve Dinner with friends

This year we decided to travel to Vienna and the High Tatras for Christmastime. We spent two days in Vienna, along with several other Olmsteders, and then spent Christmas Eve and Christmas at a hotel in the Slovakian High Tatras, where a total of seven Olmsted couples and families met up.

In Vienna we visited the Christmas market, the Belvedere Palace, and a cool aquarium called Haus des Meers, installed in flak tower from the Second World War. That's now the third time we've been to Vienna, so we're starting to feel like we "know" the city. Crazy.

In the Tatras we enjoyed meeting up with Olmsted scholars from all over Europe and even Morroco. And Tom got to go skiing on Christmas Day.

Balloon ride

Pretty happy for 6am

Up, up, and away

Just a few of the 40+ balloons flying that morning

Better than flying in a Cessna, not quite an F-16 though

So one of the things to do in Cappadocia is to take a balloon ride.  Each morning, weather permitting, the sky if filled with 40-50 hot air balloons.  The experience of a hot air balloon flight is cool, but the added benefit of the landscape makes it one of those things really worth doing.  They wouldn't allow children younger than six, so we were in a little bit of a tight spot, but the owner of the hotel offered to watch JR for us.  Our hosts were pretty generous.  We couldn't even pay them for it.  It was just "my house is your house."  Nice people.  Jill and I had a great time and JR was no worse for wear when we got back.  He watched the balloons flying the next two mornings.  For the ride itself he'll have to do until he gets a bit older.

Here's a quick video.  This is the part where we were flying over some of the cave dwellings.  When you hear the pilot firing the propane burners you will see why they don't let young kids fly.  It could be scary for them.  It was very cool for us though.  Jill was pretty much on cloud nine the entire one hour ride.  I'm glad we did it.

Cappadocia

In front of a cave "monastery"

One of the simple frescoes in a 10th century cave church

At the Goreme National Park

Cave dwellings in the Goreme National Park

90 meters deep in the underground cave system at Kaymakli -- JR sized tunnels

A stone that was used to seal off an entrance in the underground city

After Istanbul we traveled to Cappadocia, which is a region in the center of Turkey.  Thanks to my Uncle Jim for suggesting we visit this area.  It really blew us away.  We spent three days in Goreme at a lovely hotel called the Vineyard Cave Hotel and were just amazed at the sights around us.

The natural landscape was formed by volcanoes millions of years ago and over many millennia erosion has shaped the environment into something resembling another planet, with dramatic spires, cliffs, and jutting hills of soft rock.  People (troglodytes if you will) have been making their homes in these rocks for thousands of years.  The area became particularly important for early Christian monastics and those seeking refuge from attack.  They built caves, churches, and sanctuaries out of the rock -- even entire underground cities up to six levels deep.  This was absolutely fascinating to learn about before our trip and even more amazing to see in person.

We never thought we'd be exploring underground cave cities that were built a thousand plus years ago!  It was just completely otherworldly.

Here's a link to a Youtube video on Cappadocia, and also a link to the UNESCO description of Goreme and Cappadocia.

More on Istanbul

Decorative lamps for sale in the Grand Bazaar

Blue Mosque

With the Hagia Sophia in the background

Sporting an old style Turkish hat

At the spice market

We spent the first four days in Turkey in Istanbul.  Wow.  Talk about an interesting city.  It's filled with history, from the founding of the Byzantine empire to being the capital of the Ottoman empire, to the radical changes and secularization introduced with the Turkish Republic.  The awesome presence of Hagia Sophia and the other-worldly Blue Mosque combined with the natural geographic significance of city bestride two continents give Istanbul a definite feeling of being at the heart of an empire.

Speaking of centers and empires, I think it's fair to say that trade is what makes an empire.  And if you'll allow me that shortcut of thinking, we can talk about the Grand Bazaar (the world's oldest shopping mall?)  It's an enormous series of covered pedestrian streets with around 3,000 shops (stalls) selling everything from jewelry to rugs to leather goods to cheap souvenirs.  The place is a maze and can be a little overwhelming, especially for a two year old.  JR had just about had it after an hour in there on the first day.  "How do we get out?" was his question -- and mine at times!  It's a shopper's heaven, but come prepared to haggle.  The first price is about twice what you'll pay.  It's all about anchoring, so you're best to have an idea yourself of the value of what you're looking at.  With that in mind, we steered clear of the $1000 Turkish rugs..

More up our alley was the spice market.  We all enjoyed smelling the samples of tea and spices and tasting the Turkish delight (lokum).  I think we sampled as much as we bought, so I wasn't too concerned with the haggling on that one!

We visited the Hagia Sophia, which was built as a Christian cathedral in 360, but then became a mosque in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Muslims.  It was secularized in 1935 and is now considered a museum.  The beautiful 12th century mosaics that were for years covered in plaster are visible again.  The place is huge too.  The guidebook says the statue of liberty could fit inside.  And do jumping jacks.  Okay.  Well, regardless of whether that's true, I will say that, considering its history, it's one of the most fascinating buildings I've ever seen.

Just across the way from the Hagia Sophia sits the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque).  This mosque was built to impress.  It was completed in 1616 and was built to rival in splendor the mosque in Mecca.  The fact that it was built with six minarets was kind of a big deal.  The mosque in Mecca apparently had only four at the time, so they decided to add two more.  Amazingly women are not strictly required to cover their hair when entering, although they did have shawls you could borrow to do so, so Jill took one and she did.  Seemed like the right thing to do.

The whole covering your head thing for women in Turkey is interesting.  Only a few years ago it was actually not permitted for women attending public universities to cover their heads -- an example of the secular principles that Ataturk enacted when he formed the Republic in 1923.  In the name of "religious expression", however, women are now allowed to cover their heads.  It's an interesting situation where the conservative elements in society are advancing their interests through calls for greater freedom of expression.

Oh, and we also visited a harem, but that wasn't as exciting as it sounds.  It was the part of the sultan's palace (Topkapi Palace) where the harem used to reside, guarded by black eunuchs, of course...  Anyway, the tour was all very G rated.  They put an interesting spin on the whole harem idea, playing up the fact that that's where the sultan's future bride was selected and trained and how the sultan's mother ran the show, all while playing down the enslavement, concubine, and polygamy aspects.  Oh, and murdering princely offspring that might someday challenge the sultan.  Messy history.  Better to whitewash it I guess.

At any rate, that will do it for a quick summary of our time in Istanbul.  On to Cappadocia!

Turkey

In one of the courtyards at Topkapi Palace

In the harem section, actually..

In the background are Europe (left) and Asia (right)

We just got back from a week-long trip to Turkey.

We visited Istanbul for four days and then the Cappadocia region, in central Turkey, for three.  In Istanbul we saw some of the oldest and most significant sites from the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, in Cappadocia we explored ancient cave dwellings built by early Christian monastics and refugees, and overall we met many friendly, generous, and welcoming Turks.  It was a real eye-opener of a trip and we saw and did so many remarkable things that it'll take a few blog posts to cover it all!

We stayed with an Olmsted scholar family, the Williams, in Istanbul.  As usual, it was really helpful to have the perspective of someone who's lived in the city and knows the language and culture.  You could certainly visit Istanbul without knowing someone and get along just fine, but it's nice to have that insider knowledge.  The size of the city took a little getting used to since we live in a provincial village compared with the megalopolis that is Istanbul (750k in Krakow versus 12 million in Istanbul), but the people are friendly for a city of that size.  There were many times when people offered Jill their seat on the bus and JR got plenty of smiles (and plenty of candy from shopkeepers).

We visited the big sites, such as Topkapi Palace, where the sultans hung their turbans for four centuries.  The architecture and decoration were beautiful.  I think if you were into interior design, Istanbul would be heaven for you.  Alas, I am not.  But it looked good to me..  One of the things I read in a guidebook was that because Islam forbids depictions of holy figures, the Ottomans focused on elaborate patterns and designs.  Sounds believable.  Another interesting thing about this location was that it looks out over the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus, so you can take in the view of two continents and the waterway that separates them.  (Sarah Palin would love it!)

More on Istanbul in the next post.. Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and more.  Stay tuned!

L'viv

The Opera

Lychakivske Cemetery

On a L'viv playground

Sampling L'viv chocolate

Happy traveler

We visited L'viv for three days last weekend. The weather was nice, so despite it being early November, we were able to spend some time walking around the city and getting a feel for it.

L'viv was a Polish city for centuries, then part of the Austrian empire after the partitions of Poland, then became part of Ukraine when Poland ceded Galacia to Stalin after WWII. Poles still speak of it fondly, so I thought we should see it.

We felt like L'viv shares with Krakow a certain atmosphere -- the way the old city areas are laid out and the architecture. It's definitely a gem in need of some polishing, but you can see evidence of what it once was. The historic mix of peoples and religions was evident there too. I don't think I've seen Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian and Greek Orthodox cathedrals and a Jewish synagogue all so close to each other before.

We didn't go far outside the old city, but we did check out the main tourist sights, rode the tram a bit, and checked out the area around the Ivan Franko University, where another scholar will be studying starting next year.

We also visited the Lychakiv Cemetery, which, although it sounds weird, was a scenic place, in a melancholy sort of way. It's a well know place as far as sights in L'viv go. The guide book compares it to Paris' Pere Lachaise. (So, now I know what Pere Lachaise is..)

Anyway, getting to and from L'viv was a cinch. We had a direct flight from Krakow and the terminal at L'viv airport is brand spanking new. Thank you Euro Cup. Getting through passport and customs was even a breeze.

I was able to speak to some people, like our cab driver, in Polish, which was awesome. And I was able to pick my way through some Ukrainian once I figured out how to decode Cyrillic. We definitely felt more comfortable there than in Kiev.

Oh, and food was super cheap, which was nice.