Of pleasures and palaces

street art-literally- near Galata tower

We woke up "on vacation", a wonderful feeling wherein all the possibilities of the next two weeks are on the edge of your consciousness, waiting to happen. Even when you are 'retired', there's the same anticipation and refreshing feeling of things 'different'.

T's brother and sister-in-law (from now on referred to as C & S) were arriving later in the day, so we got up and had a very nice breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room.  It was a typical Turkish breakfast: bread, jam, honey, yogurt, sliced cucumbers, tomato wedges, white cheese, black olives, and hard boiled eggs.

my çaydanlık

The preferred morning drink is çay or Turkish tea.  When I first arrived in Turkey it became important that I master the art of making tea and having it available for when someone would drop in.

a couple of my tea glasses

Tea is typically prepared using two stacked kettles (çaydanlık) especially designed for tea preparation. Water is brought to a boil in the larger lower kettle and then some of the water is used to fill the smaller kettle on top and steep several spoons of loose tea leaves, producing a very strong tea.

When served, the remaining water is used to dilute the tea on an individual basis, giving each person the choice between strong (koyu; "dark") or weak (açık; "light").  Tea is drunk from small glasses to enjoy it hot in addition to showing its color, and sweetened with lumps of sugar.

As C & S wouldn't be arriving til evening, we decided to walk along Istikal street, and discover old landmarks and revisit places we'd gone years ago as well as discover where things were - in daylight.

We did manage, along the way, to find a computer guy who got my laptop to work fine at his place of business, because he had unprotected wi-fi.  Still the idiot computer continued to be stubborn in hotel (and all subsequent hotels) so I found myself letting go of my frustration with it and I began to refer to it as "my little door stop".  I figured I'd go on vacation from my computer as well. 

I started keeping a journal on paper again and was amused by the novelty.  However, I can't tell you how glad I was to have printed out all relevant emails, confirmations, and tickets (along with receipts!) that I had arranged before we left on the trip.  Several times, they became VERY important to have to hand.

Hüseyin Aga Camii

We walked from Taksim Square to the Galata tower, taking in the sights and sounds (I have too many pictures of the buildings along the way, as I was fascinated by how lovely so many of them were!)

Along the way we went inside to see St Anthony of Padua Cathedral (link is a cool 360 photograph- not mine) and we also, just to be ecumenical, stopped to see a small but lovely old mosque Hüseyin Aga Camii built in 1597. We hunted up the locations of a few places to visit the following day and then we took the little tram from Galata all the way back up to Taksim Square.

lightly battered shrimp- very yum

We found a very nice Chinese restaurant, full with a lot of locals, where we had lunch.  The food was made by a real Chinese chef and was wonderful, though the decor was seemingly an afterthought.  Still, the prices were reasonable the food delicious, and so for me "Life was Good."

C& S arrived safe and sound and best of all with no problems.  They checked in and then we all went for a short walk, then on to dinner at Haci Baba restaurant. (if you click the link, we sat at the middle table next to the window!) 

end of tour downpour

We all made an early night of it and we off and running shortly after breakfast to visit Dolmabahçe Palace.  We decided to walk, as C& S expressed a need to stretch their legs after 19 hours in an airplane.  So walk we did from our hotel to the Bosphorus!  Then we walked the whole of the Palace tour.  When we finished it was pouring rain, so we decided to visit the little clock museum and the 'crystal palace' which turned out to be a (newly opened to the public) lovely Victorian solarium in one of the houses in the palace grounds.

Were it  not for the rain we might have missed both!  The clock museum was filled with amazing treasures, both Ottoman and European, gorgeous unique clocks (at least one of which took a whole lifetime to build) very nicely displayed.

Kamondo Staircase

From the palace we made our way to the Metro and took the T1 from Beşiktaş to Karaköy. Originally we'd thought of continuing on the metro and taking the second oldest underground rail line, Tünel, (1875; after the London underground in 1863!) but we took the amazing (and iconic thanks to Cartier-Bresson's photo)  Kamondo staircase (1870) instead,  finding yet another little piece of art nouveau tucked away in the city.


We made it to the Galata tower again, (from the other direction this time) and C & S went to the top.  (as T is not fond of heights and I'd been up there already years ago, we stayed below in a little cafe and had a glass of fresh pressed orange juice..)

tea at the Pera Palac

From the tower, we decided on a short walk to the venerable Pera Palace Hotel, there to have our version of "tea".  Two of us had lovely cocktails whilst those of us with real brilliance decided to try the profiteroles.  (and, oh my, were they amazing.)

I was one of the brilliant ones. (see my profiteroles with incredible chocolate sauce, below. They were so good, I have nothing to compare them with!)

profiteroles to die for

We sat in the main salon and listened to classical music and took in the ambiance.  SO cool.  The room had enormously high ceilings making for a rich and wonderful musical sound.

I could imagine myself in an Agatha Christie novel, and expected to see Hercule Poirot step into the room at any moment.

We decided, since we were so close- even though we were pretty well walked out- to go across the street and see the Frieda Kahlo/Diego Rivera exhibit at the Pera Museum.

It was there that I had a little senior moment, as when the lady was about to sell us the tickets, she asked if any of us were students or over 60, and three hands went up, whilst I started to say I wasn't 60 yet... only to remember that in fact I was creeping up on 62!!  Ah the irony!  The last time I was in Istanbul, I wasn't even 50!!  Of course I took a great deal of crap for the rest of the afternoon, from the three hand raiser "over sixties" on that boo-boo.

The exhibits were wonderful but we were totally blown out of the water with the Scenes from Tsarist Russia  exhibit offered from the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg , with paintings from the 19 century, in the period of Russian realism.  It was stunning.  (it also shined a spotlight on the life of the average man and what it meant to be a serf!  Almost makes you understand the Russian revolution.)

After that we all knew it was time to take a little rest before we went out for dinner.  Thankfully.  We all napped well for a couple of hours.

We opted to walk back to Istikal street and search out a place for dinner.  Dinner ended up not so special - and fairly expensive as "we" decided to listen to the "very nice man" who walked along side of us and directed us to his restaurant.  [Reminder to self: NEVER eat in a restaurant where there are no other people...really.]  T and I had misgivings but we figured it was probably going to be a good lesson early on in the trip for C & S.  It was.

After dinner we walked around a bit and took in the lights and made our farewells to Beyoğlu.

The next morning we were packed and ready to check out by 9.  Our transport showed up on time and swept us off in comfort to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus.

And a fine welcome to Asia it was!

Tomorrow I'll write a bit more about the next leg of the journey, but I'll close with a few more pictures from our time in Beyoğlu.

Galata neighborhood

T, C & S walking past a tobacco seller

hanging out my hotel balcony in the rain

Santa Ottoman Hotel

Galata tower at night

Memorial (with Atatürk) Taksim Square

Dolmabahçe in the rain

more Dolmabahçe in the rain

the Palace guard

the Bosphorus

newly restored ceiling in Pera Palace Hotel

Taksim Square at night

Young Turks protesting politely

side street near our hotel

we're having fun!

Nostagia isn't what it used to be

We were going back to Turkey- but this time with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law- and were trying very hard to create a trip that would show them the best of why we chose to move there and stay (in spite of the "work" part...)

T and I left Corfu on the early morning flight, in order to make our connections.  This involved, of course, a significant amount of waiting around while in the Athens airport.

The good news: there is an excellent bookstore in the airport.  The bad news: if you buy heavy books at the start of your trip, you have to drag them around for the whole trip.

T bought the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson.
Total number of pages in trilogy: 1949.  Still it gave us something to do while waiting.

Finally we arrived in Istanbul.  Our first impression was not the typical chaos we remembered but the generic chaos that goes with most arrivals in "any" airport.  Everything looked new.  Passport control was fairly organized.  Rather than a small table off to the side, there was now a "visa" window just next to passport control.  Quick and easy visa purchase and then on to the relatively short wait at passport control for the arrival stamp.

Luggage was actually waiting at carousel.  (unlucky with choice of luggage cart as it had the same problem so many grocery carts seem to have wherein one wheel operates in an alternate universe.  Problem solved while T went to change money, I found a replacement cart.)

On exiting we were confronted with around 90 placards with all names but our own.  It took several tries over a period of about 15 minutes, but we finally connected with our free shuttle to our hotel.

First impressions of Istanbul were that it was VERY much changed.  The airport and the highway to the city were much better organized.  We passed several HUGE shopping malls and literally, an entire new city of tower apartment blocks.  The current population (13,120,596 in 2010) seems to be into shopping!

Then suddenly we came around a corner of the Kennedy Caddesi and there was the Bosphorus!

Of course there were hundreds of cargo ships moving slowly in the distance.  The Bosphorus is like a giant airport for ships picking up and delivering cargo. Turkey is one of the few countries that remains self sufficient and can feed itself.

Among the products produced (though one would think from the local street touts that it's mostly carpets, leather jackets and tourist plates...) the manufacture of textiles is Turkey's largest industry (Domestic cotton and wool provide much of the raw material for the industry) Also produced for export, sugar, flour, processed meat and milk, and fruits and vegetables as well as iron and steel, boron products, caustic soda, chlorine, industrial chemicals, sodium phosphates and automobile parts.

That certainly fills a lot of container ships.


As we continued along we saw the ancient walls of the city, fortified by all and sundry... for more than two thousand years.  The original Byzantium was founded in 667 BC by colonists from Megara, and obviously considerably built on for the next two thousand years!


I was fascinated to discover from my good friend Wikipedia that :
 

"the peninsula was settled thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Thracian tribes established two settlements—Lygos and Semistra—on the Sarayburnu, near where Topkapı Palace now stands, between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. On the Asian side, artifacts have been found in Fikirtepe (present-day Kadıköy) that date back to the Chalcolithic period. The same location was the site of a Phoenician trading post at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC as well as the town of Chalcedon, which was established by Greek settlers from Megara in 685 BC."

Finally we were nearing our destination which was the original European outpost in the city: The Galata area, and Beyoglu.

As we neared our destination the view out the window reminded us that we had missed lunch.

Street food is abundant and really cheap in Istanbul!  (basically the exchange was 1 euro to just a touch over 2 TL which pretty much meant that it was simple to divide the price in half and figure out how much you were actually spending.)

view from a balcony window

So finally we arrived and settled into the Santa Ottoman Hotel, near Taksim Square (5 minutes) and Istikal Street.(3 minutes). The room was lovely.  We had two wonderful balcony windows and a heavenly memory foam mattress bed.

On arrival I texted an old friend and we arranged to meet at 7:30 for dinner.  Then we took a wander out to discover the wonders of Istikal Street.  Istikal street NEVER sleeps.  There are people going somewhere, either up or down the street all day and all night.


We wandered along with the crowds.  I'll end today's post with a few pictures from out wanderings, and tell you that we had a great evening with our friend and had a brilliant dinner at Refik. Tomorrow will be more of our next couple of days in Istanbul (on the Galata side of the bridge, and our departure to Izmir)

Greek Embassy Consulate on Istikal (main Embassy is in Ankara)

Çiçek Pasajı

lovely art nouveau window above pasaji exit (duplicate above entrance as well)

St Antoine Church, Beyoglu, Istanbul

(for you Nina!) I ate one every day.

Galata Tower

and last but not least... where we had our lovely dinner:

tres tasty!

Excursions in my own mind

From whatever place I write you will expect that part of my "Travels" will consist of excursions in my own mind.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1809

Galata tower and bridge from Topkapi Palace

Home at last, and finally.  Not just "arrived" with all the luggage and the laundry, which was, actually, on Monday- but finally I feel here solid and re-rooted in my own soil today. 

There always seems to be a certain disconnect when traveling between places and finally arriving.  Maybe it's because travel is so fast.  Flying time between Corfu and Istanbul is a mere hour and 50 minutes. Of course the airport waits and transfers and posturing is much longer.

Needless to say the dog was ecstatic on our return.  She likes us both to be in the same room with her, so she doesn't have to keep track of where we are.

For sure, we had a marvelous time. 

Turkey was as complicated and confusing and multi-layered as ever, with the same wonderful energy, charm  and hospitality we remembered so well from our time there. (Our surprise was that it was much better organized than when we lived there, as well as much more modern and updated.  In it's heart though, it was just the same...)

We kept fairly close to our initial itinerary schedule, surprisingly enough, to my way of thinking, as it was only an outline of suggested things to do and see.  Still it was an outline that worked and so we all fell into it.  We only made a few changes and that because of time and circumstance.

For me the surprise was that all my arrangements worked fantastically well! (with a few caveats in hindsight)

- We had three great yet very different hotels- all very recommendable!;
- The shuttles all showed up and worked nicely- both private ones and hotel shuttles (six separate shuttles to three different airports!);
- Our domestic flights within Turkey were great (Surprised and very pleased with Istanbul's "other" airport);
- Fortunately we connected with many old friends both in Istanbul and Izmir;
- The car hire worked out well (if a little roughly at first when we realized the car did not initially come with a map!) The fiat Doblo (diesel) is a basic and fairly comfortable car (LOTS of space for 4 people and their junk) to tour Turkey's back roads and ancient archeological ruins.  It's not pretty but it's cheap and did the job.

And finally, once we figured out the new highway system in and around Izmir, driving was actually not as bad as we thought it would be.  (sadly that "figuring out" part only happened the last couple of days... on our way to Pergamom we got lost following what we thought were the highway signs and ended up in a bird sanctuary. Nevertheless we persevered!)

My greatest regret was that I dragged my laptop along, which turned out to be as useful as a doorstop.  In spite of free wi-fi at all our hotels, my laptop pretended it didn't understand what was going on whenever I entered the password of the hotel. 

It did work once, when I found a technician the second day in Istanbul, and he connected with no problem- to an open and unprotected wi-fi signal.  (I will have to figure out how to solve this problem.  It would seem that when my computer was "wiped" and everything re-installed, that particular memory didn't quite awaken in the same way as it had existed previously...)

So this is the first post, but more will follow tomorrow, as I am trying to sort through about 800 pictures (t and i took separate cameras... so he could take HIS pictures, and I could take mine...) As my computer was pretty worthless I went back to my old fashioned journal keeping of years past, in a little spiral notebook.  Except of course that my handwriting seems to have morphed into squiggles that resemble a cross between a doctors script, shorthand and a kind of Arabic swoop that makes it harder to interpret as the time between writing and interpretation gets farther apart.

The last thing I have to say is that, while in the Athens airport (lo-ong delay before our flight to Istanbul) T in his infinite wisdom purchased all three volumes of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played With Fire; The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) These books have totally consumed both of us!!  Really well written, and completely addictive,  with a really unique and original character - not typical in most thrillers.  Anyway, I will recommend them to you with a caveat- they are violent in parts but I will also say that these books grab you and hold on to you right through the end.

So, more tomorrow!

Well I seem to have skipped the rest of January

But all is not lost!

I've spent the better part of last month making all the arrangements (hotels, domestic air tickets, car rental, hotels) for our adventure.

T spent his time wisely and called old friends in Turkey so we could try and get together!!

foggy sunrise a few days ago

Tomorrow we leave on the early morning Aegean flight for Athens and tomorrow afternoon we arrive at Attaturk airport at 3 in the afternoon.

I am SO excited.

We haven't been to visit for almost 15 years.  It will be so nice revisiting old friends and familiar places!

We bought the house here on Corfu, just shortly before we moved from Izmir to Copenhagen.  (we couldn't bear to leave the region and we had fallen in love with Corfu.

Still we would probably have never found Corfu if we hadn't lived in Turkey, so I have a special thankfulness in my heart for our time there.

Our house sitter is here and the dog and cats are happy.  (as is our house sitter - he loves darts, so we put a regulation dart board downstairs in our guest apartment were he'll be staying!)  This is a totally win-win situation as we have someone to keep the house running smoothly, the dog and cats have someone to annoy, and our house sitter will be able to play darts and watch sky tv to his hearts delight.

So this is what I did over the past month... I made all the arrangements for THIS! (except for C& S tickets from Seattle... they did that part!)

Our Itinerary:

Monday-  February 21 brother-in-law and sister-in-law ( C & S) depart Seattle  1:30 PM

Monday- February 21 T and I  depart CFU arrive IST  15:00 PM

Airport pick-up (by free hotel shuttle) Check-in Santa Ottoman Hotel Taksim Square (poor C & S will be stuck in an airplane, while  we hopefully have dinner with old friend in Beyoglu.)

Tuesday- February 22 C & S arrive IST (via FRA) 4:40 PM (16:40)

Airport pick-up (by free hotel shuttle) Check in Santa Ottoman Hotel Taksim Square.  After dropping off bags, we take a walk down the famous Istikal Street in Beyoglu and down into the Galata area. 

Dinner at a nice "inexpensive" restaurant and early night.

Wednesday February 23 Breakfast at hotel then sightseeing. 

[Choices include any or all:  Dolmabache Palace (hrs 9:00-5:00); Galata Tower, (hrs 9:00- 8:00);  Museum of Modern Art (hrs 10:00-6:00); Visit to the Mevlevi Monastery (hrs 9:30-4:30) lovely garden and cemetery (the rest of the monastery may be closed for renovation?); and, maybe a peek at the newly renovated to its former splendor,  Pera Palace Hotel. Or maybe the Pera Museum (10-6) to see Maria Callas grand piano – (special exhibition is Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera!).  Of course there are other things to see and do, checkout the links to Galata Area above!]

Thursday- February 24 Check out of Santa Ottoman Hotel around 8:30- 9:00.

Take private arranged (we pay) shuttle to Istanbul Sabiha Gocken International Airport (SAW) for our flight  12:50 departure to Izmir. (private shuttle for 4 people is cheaper, cleaner, safer and more comfortable than a taxi)

Arrive Izmir 13:50.  Rental car reserved at airport.  (hopefully.)  

 T will drive us to the Balcova  Thermal Hotel in Izmir.   (access to the hot spring "Baths of Agamemnon" to swim in!)

Spend rest of day scoping out our environment and maybe driving into Izmir for dinner (tho apparently dinner and breakfast comes with our hotel rooms- boy, did I make a good deal!) As the Archaeological Museum is close by, we might take the opportunity to drop in and see the loot from many of the sites we’ll be visiting.  

Friday- February 25 Drive to Priene, Miletus and Didyma to visit the ancient cities (may include Euromos, Iassos and Labranda). 

Eat en route (either picnic or small restaurant)  Return to hotel and do dinner and/or go into town and meet with Turkish friends (group will meet us at hotel - we may just stay there and catch up!)

Saturday- February 26 Drive to Pergamon (aka Bergama)

As there are three parts to the city it will probably take the better part of the day to see.  Dinner will either be at the hotel or in Izmir. Will meet with more Turkish friends.

Sunday- February 27   Drive to Ephesus (history), Selcuk (museum) and

Maryamana (house of the virgin Mary  (yes, I know, the URL link SAYS “cappadoccia”, but it’s not)

If we have time we’ll drive to the seaside town of Kusadasi (means “bird island”) and have a bite to eat, hoping no birds are directly overhead.

Monday- February 28  HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear bro-in law!! 

This is the day we drive to Sardis. It’s a very nice archaeological site but not too big so it shouldn’t take up the whole day.

Tuesday- March 1  HAPPY 42 ANNIVERSARY T& Me ! !

Check out of hotel 8:30 ish, and drive to airport in plenty of time to return the car and check in  for return flight to Istanbul  (dep 11:20)

Arrive Istanbul (SAW) 12:20 and take private shuttle service to Sultanahmet and check in to the AyaSofia Hotel.  Ask where a good place to have dinner would be!  Then take a little sightseeing walk.  Maybe visit Hagia Sofia (open 9:00-4:30), and perhaps (around the corner) the Cistern, Yerebatan Sarayi (9:00-5:00). 

Wednesday- March 2  Topkapi  Palace (9- 7) and the Archaeological Museums. (9-7)

Thursday – March 3 Blue Mosque (9-7) cannot enter during prayer time, Sulemaniye Mosque (8-6:30), Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar (day to wear thick socks as must remove shoes)

Friday- March 4 Chora (9:30-6:30), Mosaic Museum (9:30-4:30), Old city walls

(no mosques cause it’s the Muslim prayer day))

Saturday March 5 Catch up day to see (or re-see) anything missed.  Do Turkish Bath?

Or for anything C & S particularly want to see or do.

Or anything needing a second look (also shopping)

Sunday March 6 Relax catch up and pack

(as C & S will be in a state of NON sleep for the bulk of the night.)

Monday March 7 C & S fly out of Istanbul  5:45 AM. 

Hotel will arrange free shuttle to airport.  (will include a wake up call for C &  S…) am guessing  departure from hotel around 3 AM. Gaa.

T and Me depart Istanbul  for Athens, 15:50 (obviously a more civilized hour).  

We return to Corfu 19:15.  (sigh)

and All's well that ends well!

Happy Epiphany (with a lead in to Carnival!)

The word epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation" and is commonly linked in Western Christianity with the visit of the wise men (Magi) to the Christ child.

Customs are unique in different parts of the world, but I'll give you my favorite ones from customs I am familiar with...

 ~~~


Ireland:
Little Christmas (Irish: Nollaig Bheag) is one of the traditional names in Ireland for January 6, more commonly known in the rest of the world as the Celebration of the Epiphany. It is so called because it was the day on which Christmas Day was celebrated under the Julian calendar, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season and the last day of the Christmas holidays for both primary and secondary schools in Ireland.

Little Christmas is also called Women's Christmas (Irish: Nollaig na mBan), and sometimes Women's Little Christmas. The tradition, still very strong in Cork and Kerry is so called because of the Irish men taking on all the household duties for the day. Most women hold parties or go out to celebrate the day with their friends, sisters, mothers, and aunts. Bars and restaurants serve mostly women and girls on this night. Children often buy presents for their mothers and grandmothers.



Belgium:
The Dutch and Flemish call this day Drie Koningen, German speakers call it "Dreikönigstag" (Three Kings' Day). In the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, children in groups of three (symbolising the three kings) proceed in costume from house to house while singing songs typical for the occasion, and receiving a coin or some sweets at each door. They may each carry a paper lantern symbolizing the star. [26] In some places, especially Holland, these troops gather for competitions and present their skits/songs for an audience. As in France, Koningentaart (Kings' tart), puff pastry with almond filling, is prepared with a bean or coin hidden inside. Whoever finds the bean in his or her piece is king or queen for the day. A more typically Dutch version is Koningenbrood, or Kings' bread. Another Low Countries tradition on Epiphany is to open up doors and windows to let good luck in for the coming year.


Greece:
In Greece, Cyprus and the Greek diaspora throughout the world, the feast is colloquially called the "Phōta" (Greek: Φώτα, "Lights") and customs revolve around the Great Blessing of the Waters. It marks the end of the traditional ban on sailing, as the tumultuous winter seas are cleansed of the mischief-prone "kalikántzaroi", the goblins that try to torment God-fearing Christians through the festive season. At this ceremony, a cross is also thrown into the water, and the men present clamour to retrieve it for good luck. The Phota form the middle of another festive triduum, together with Epiphany Eve, January 6 (and eve of January 5), when children sing the Epiphany carols, and the great feast of St. John the Baptist on January 7 (and eve of January 6), when the numerous Johns and Joans celebrate their name-day.

In the USA:

There are many customs, but I like the one in Louisiana the best as it segues into my last bit of information on the holiday....

Epiphany is the beginning of the Carnival season, during which it is customary to bake King Cakes, similar to the Rosca. It is round in shaped, filled with cinnamon, glazed white, and coated in traditional carnival color sanding sugar. The person who finds the doll (or bean) must provide the next king cake. The interval between Epiphany and Mardi Gras is sometimes known as "king cake season", and many may be consumed during this period.

The Carnival season begins on King's Day (Epiphany), and there are many traditions associated with that day in Louisiana and along the Catholic coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. King cakes are first sold then, Carnival krewes begin having their balls on that date, and the first New Orleans krewe parades in street cars that night.

And, as a heads up to all of you out there, mark your calendars for making party plans!!

2011 Greek Carnival Dates

Triodion: Sunday, February 12th
Tsiknopempti or "Burnt Thursday": February 24th
Tsiknopempti Weekend: Friday, February 25th - Sunday, February 27th
Main Carnival Weekend: Friday, March 4th - Sunday, March 6th
Clean Monday: Monday, March 7th

March 9 - Ash Wednesday
April 17 - Palm Sunday
April 21 - Maundy (Holy) Thursday
April 22 - Good Friday
April 24 - Easter Sunday (Western Christianity - Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, Protestant Churches, etc.)
April 24 - Easter Sunday (Orthodox Christianity - Eastern Orthodox Churches)

40 days before the beginning of Lent, Carnival begins on a Saturday evening with the opening of the Triodion, a book containing three sacred odes. This is a religious moment not generally observed outside of the church itself, so don't expect a sudden party to erupt.

The Friday, Saturday, and Sunday preceding "Clean Monday" usually offer vigorous parties, parades, and traditional events wherever Carnival is celebrated. In larger towns or cities "known" for Carnival, such as Rethimno or Patras, the previous weekend will also be filled with activities.

The last Sunday of the Carnival period is known as "Cheese-eating Sunday" or Tyrofagos as no meat products are allowed at this time. Macaroni is often served on this day. Surprisingly enough, the word "macaroni" is not Italian, but comes from the Greek words macaria or "blessed", and aeronia or "eternal". Thus, "macaroni". The preceding day, Saturday, is a special service for the dead in Orthodox churches, and part of the rites includes the making of grain dishes, probably a survival of the ancient rites of Demeter. Thus, "macaroni".

"Clean Monday" or Kathari Deftera, is the actually the first day of Lent (Sarakosti). While a holiday atmosphere still prevails, the foods consumed are all "pure", without the shedding of blood. But this allows cuttlefish and squid, fish roe, and other items. "Lagana" is a flat bread traditionally served on this day.

"Burnt Thursday" or Tsiknopempti is celebrated eleven days before the start of Lent. The "Burnt" part refers to the grilling of meats, a big part of the celebration of this day. The weekend following "Burnt Thursday" will also have parties and other events; technically, that Sunday is the last allowable day for eating meat and is sometimes called "Meat-eating Sunday". The best Greek restaurants will be crowded on this day - but seafood places are a safe bet to have tables available!

In Greece, Carnival dates are tied to Greek Orthodox Easter, which is usually different from Western Easter. Every few years, both calendars will coincide, this seems to be one of those years!

The most vigorous Carnival partying is on the weekend prior to the end of the Carnival season. This is followed by Clean Monday or "Ash Monday", a generally family-oriented day where, picnics and kite-flying prevail. "Clean Monday" is the last day of Carnival for the Greeks. "Fat Tuesday" does not exist in Greece - Burnt Thursday is its closest parallel.

The Greeks pretty much invented Carnival. Most carnival-related events are connected with the ancient worship of the Greek god of wine and divine intoxication, Dionysus. The processions, costuming, and feasting all derive from ancient ceremonies honoring him and other Greek gods and goddesses, though some claim parts of it, including the carrying of models of ships in processions, date back to similar rites in Ancient Egypt.

After the gorging- or what to do with leftovers...

So you decide to cook a ham.

But there's only 2 of you.

Still it tastes SO  good and it's a holiday and something special is in order.  On the other hand what do you DO with all that leftover ham???

Of course there's always the traditional ham and eggs for breakfast  ... or  maybe a nice ham and cheese quiche, with a couple left over to freeze...

Or sandwiches, with lettuce and tomato.... or  Ham and bean soup... OR BOTH!

Yes.  I made some great white bean and ham soup!  I sort of winged it, but of course that's the beauty of soup.

My white bean and ham soup

2 (15.5 ounce-ish) jars great northern beans, rinsed and drained

2 medium carrots, grated

2 celery branches small dice

1 parsnip grated

1 small onion, chopped

1 potato small dice

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 1/4 cups chicken broth (homemade)

1 1/2 cups cubed fully cooked ham

 salt & pepper

1 or 2 T green chili paste (or chopped green chilies in a jar or can- we like spicy so I added a smidge more.)

fresh chopped parsley

In a large saucepan, saute the carrots, celery, parsnip, potato and onion in butter. Stir in the chicken broth, ham, seasonings and the beans; bring to boil then simmer over medium-low heat about 1 hour. Add parsley the last 10 minutes before serving.  (of course you can totally do your beans from dried- soak over night and rinse and add to pot...)  This is VERY good.  It is also good for you.  (It's nice to eat something and feel all sanctimonious afterwards...)

~~~
and there is STILL a little bit of ham left.  (sigh)

Right.  Tomorrow it's Hoppin' John!! (black-eyed peas, ham and rice!) THAT should finish it off!

Do any of you have some good ideas of what to do with leftover ham??  I'd really love to hear!

... Ham Stories

Sadly, this is not a post about crazy Uncle Cecil and his amazing family burlesque show ... rather this post is for my Corfu friends who were impressed with my ham wrangling.  It's a sort of 'photo doc' recipe for putting one together.  (for the sake of the blog, I made another one for Christmas... and it was wonderful.) 

So, here is the where, how, and what I did to make it happen.  (sort of like the olive harvest to the oil pressing post )

This is the place I go to pick it up.  (On the Paleocastritsa road, a little ways past the Casa Lucia sign, on the right hand side - with Town behind you- just next to the gas station.)

The interior of the place with the very nice gentleman (and his family) who run it.  Obviously he sells many other pork things.  He speaks a bit of English and he is charming. 

The "ham" (aka gammon)  Three kilos (+) was under 25 euros.

The before soaking and after soaking:  fill a big pot with apple juice and refill the carton with water.  Make sure the ham is covered completely.  (I'm sure you could use cider as well.  I have also just used water which works fine too)  Put it in the refrigerator and let it soak for about 24 hours.

Empty the pot and remove the ham.  Tie ham into a hamlike shape- don't use colored or plastic string.  (you might have to cut a few pieces off but LEAVE the skin on!)  Next put it back in the pot and refill with water.  Cover the ham.  Bring to a boil and skim.  Leave to very slow boil for about 90 minutes for a 3 + kilo (about 6.5 lbs) ham, roughly 10 minutes a pound.  Let cool and if not cooking refrigerate pot and all.    For all intents and purposes you now have a "cooked" ham, and you CAN eat it.

But, this is the best part;  take the ham out of its cooking juice (it will probably be a bit jellyfied, or at least thicker than water.  I keep about two cups back to make gravy).  Carefully cut the string off and very gently with a sharp knife cut the thick skin off the top of the fat, leaving the fat on the ham.

Turn the oven on at 160C/350F and preheat.  Put the ham in a casserole or baking dish.  Assemble the ingredients for the glaze.

For the glaze I used honey, dark brown sugar, seedy mustard, dijon mustard and soya sauce.  I don't have a recipe- sometimes I use marmalade instead of the seedy mustard and soya sauce, (use whatever tastes right to you....) Don't make too much of it, though. (based on previous experience...)

Bake ham in the oven for about an hour or so. (it's cooked, you just want to heat it up.) Slather the ham with glaze for the last 10 minutes.

Ta-da!  That was our Christmas dinner (which we actually had on Monday cause we both had a bad cold on Christmas Day...)

Happy birthday 2011!

broadbeans (fava) growing in the garden in January...

One of the very best things about living in Corfu is the mild winters.  The climate allows for a year round growing season.

In November T planted broadbeans (aka fava beans), and cauliflower, onions and chard, as well as parsley, parsnips and beets.  (The first year we lived here we made the mistake of planting them in the spring, of course the poor things bolted and died long before they matured or else they just stayed in the ground hiding from the really hot summer sun.)

This month he'll plant potatoes and garlic. I am really looking forward to that harvest in the spring time.  Nature always gives us something marvelous to look forward to.

We are also looking forward to our planned vacation at the end of February.  (Yes we ARE odd.) We are joining my brother-in-law and his delightful wife on a trip to Turkey!!

The timing worked out perfectly all of us.  My brother-in-law has a birthday on the last day of February and of course, it's our anniversary on the first of March... so we'll have a double celebration!  As his business is landscaping, the timing is geared for his "slow" time.  But it works out perfectly for us as we have always preferred to travel "off season".

There are so many things to see and do in Turkey and our fortnight visit will, of course, only scratch the surface... still it will be nice to see some favorite places again and share them with family.

We lived in Turkey for about 5 years, back in the 90's, so it will be interesting to see it again with fresh eyes.

We have all booked our flights but I am still hammering out, via the internet, our details of where to stay, how we're getting from point A to point B (and where point B is exactly...) as well as trying to discover "moderately priced" domestic Turkish travel that doesn't include expensive airline tickets and taxi rides nor leave us exclusively at the mercy of hostels and no star hotels. (It would be nice to be making this trip as a much younger person!!)

For sure we'll spend some time in Istanbul and then we'll be getting ourselves to Izmir.  Somewhere in there we'll probably rent a car (tho NOT in Istanbul!)  and try and visit some of our favorite places with Izmir as the jumping off point.
~~~

Meanwhile, we got lucky with the timing and a good friend (who knows the house and its foibles AND can deal with them!) will be staying in our house taking care of Balou -who can't come with us- and our friend fortunately also knows how to "herd" our cats without losing his mind.    All in all, a win-win situation!

We will also be having house guests before we go...

- The previous "father" of Balou will be visiting for about a week in January
- and a young friend who will be working in Italy will come and stay for a visit on the January-February cusp.

This feels like the best way to start out the new year... looking forward to travel and friends while at the same time grounding yourself in your own back yard. (or "ground", as it were...)


There are other nefarious happy things in the future, which I will no doubt share as we get closer to the timing of it all but for now 2011 is looking pretty good!  So again, I say "Happy Birthday, 2011!"

...And a Happy New Year!

last night's Corfu sunset from the kitchen door

Yes.  Well.

It may seem like I have forgotten this blog (or relegated it to the Well of Souls) but actually since my last post I have had my computer "fixed".

Having an older laptop with XP as my aging operating system, things began to seriously become undone.  It was possible to check the email  and touch base on facebook, but anything requiring doing two things at the same time would cause the computer to crash.

Steadily things got worse until I finally broke down and took it in to my gracious computer tech guy where upon he told me that things were starting to "degrade" (as in photos on my computer were starting to become inaccessible and programs were starting to fail) and I would have to "DO something!".

What this meant was that it was a good thing I'd invested in the re-installation CD's as we had to :"wipe" poor Ms Laptop who had started to develop Altzheimer's, and reinstall my same old XP program again. (this time without all the Dell junk I never used)  Of course we also had to find all the other programs and the updates for the old programs and, and, and...

As for a New Years' Recommendation of "Needful Things to make 2011 a better year"- I recommend a little USB back up hard drive. 

I finally purchased a nifty little back up hard drive, which is about the size of a pack of cards and I recommend to all and sundry BUY ONE, and back-up all your photos and important documents.  ASAP (Unless of course you are one of those "Ant" people, and already have one, as opposed to the rest of us "Grasshopper" sorts who didn't.)

I have now obviously done this, in a proper Ant-like way, but unfortunately I did lose some photos before I could back it all up.  Bummer.

Lesson learned.

Anyway, much of my seemingly cold shoulder to the blog has been because I have been first struggling with my computer, then going through the trauma of trying to save as much as possible on CD's, then taking my baby to the computer doctor to be "wiped". And finally relearning my computer (who is not the same "person" since the lobotomy), and then trying to find the discs to the old printer and other programs (still not up to speed on a lot of stuff), updating all and sundry, ... Oh yeah, and baking cookies, making quiches, cooking holiday meals and generally being a bit of a seasonal bon vivant.

So today I end this year and say, "I am glad you are over 2010".  Between the collapsed septic field, the dried up well and other water issues, moving my mother across the US, the mini wind sheer that made a hole in the roof and took out half of our yucca trees, and of course the computer "fail" that I've just been through, I am thinking that 2011, even as an unknown, is looking pretty good!

For what it's worth, Happy New Year to all and sundry, and may all your toasts be true!

Tomorrow I will try and do a bit of a catch up overview of the past month that does not include technology issues.