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Another Trip of Discovery of Feminine Charm with DW and DD the Younger

Another Trip of Discovery of Feminine Charm with DW and DD the Younger

Old Nov 16th, 2014, 09:59 AM
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Another Trip of Discovery of Feminine Charm with DW and DD the Younger

I mentioned on other threads that I was emotionally and intellectually preparing for this trip.

The physical preparation is also now in full swing (meaning it has its ups and downs) and the financial preparation is a procrastinator's nightmare.

DD is now with us from Chicago since Friday, provoking a 20 person chaotic family dinner at our house as usual. DW's pop of 86 to DD the older's SIL's and my nephew's 18 months boys, not all appearing in the customary family photograph.

DD the younger asked for Turkish fare, so we had Circasian chicken, Fava, Steam Kebap (small pieces of lamb wrapped in thin slices of fried eggplant,) two types of pilav, borek, my fusion blackeyed peas, cabbage and grape leave wraps and "Asure" pronounced ashourae, for dessert.

In between all the hullabaloo, I managed to put together three files for our Schengen visa applications, ownership papers, car papers, hotel reservation, IDs, passport, photograph (mine and DD's excellent if not a full liking, DW's reflecting some inner misery)

Will go to deliver files and be fingerprinted, like the culprits we evidently are, tomorrow morning and then visit the Grand Bazaar and streets below for a supposedly inpromptu visit, totally unapproved by me.

We expect to fly to Leipzig with THY in 8 days, spend one night there and drive to Prague for three nights. I checked for an interesting small town on the way back for our fifth and final night and not finding anything, decided to honour Handel, this time, and spend that night in Halle.

Hopefully, this will give us short periods at leipzig, Dresden and Halle and two full days in Prague.

We shall be taking Kafka with us and hope to acquire Bach, Handel and the various beers as well as the suckling pig, cabbage and dumplings on the trip.

So far, the diplomatic relations between the female contingent are quite amicable with no intermediation. I do not know if this is the calm before the storm or the start of a long and serene period in their lives.
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Old Nov 16th, 2014, 10:09 AM
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Oh boy, I've got to follow this one! It's a winner from the start.
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Old Nov 16th, 2014, 10:15 AM
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yep, I'm here too.

love the addition of Halle to the mix - if I didn't mention it before the Haendelhaus is a treat and just up the road from there is an excellent microbrewery.

That dinner sounds terrific OC - was that enough food for 20 of you?
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Old Nov 16th, 2014, 11:53 AM
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Anxious to hear more!
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Old Nov 16th, 2014, 12:03 PM
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Can't wait to follow this one. Have fun!
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Old Nov 17th, 2014, 06:21 AM
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The visa application process was easy as pie (not the edible kind, although free coffee was available while one waited.)

The subcontractor had pleasant ladies at the windows, who helped us by making some corrections and filling in gaps. DW's delicate (but possibly filed) fingers refused to give up legible prints even when the finger printing lady pushed on them herself. However she was told that that should be fine until she applies for another Schengen visa.

Than the time came about which I had been forewarned. The taxi took my instructions to deliver us to the Beyazit square in record time where we passed through the used book store arcade where I used to by my American comic books in the 1950's. We stopped at one book dealer, became friends and DD bought a reprint of the first Ottoman Architecture book originally published in mid 19th century.

Then I had to visit the little boys' room, but apparently there was a water cut in the whole district and all loos were closed indefinitely. The next two and a half hours passed in bouts of agony and misery in some strange order. During that time, we bought three silk pillow cases, $225 worth Czeck Crones, an old thick silver bracelet for DD, an interesting small silver bowl for a distant nephew as a wedding gift, a set of six silver napkin holders for DD's best friend in the States who got married recently and whose family has adopted us and vice versa, a leather vest for DD, a sports jacket for DD's DH, two knit designer ties, one for me one for DD's DH.

We also ate wraps of Adana Kebap and Shish kebap combined with roasted chilis, lettuce and onions at Durumcu Mehmet, near the Grand Bazaar, and shared one simit. Later we stopped to have new batteries placed in our watches. And I was still dry when we reached home. -

I am hogging the dining room table with my laptop, pads, fountain pens (an idiosyncracy) where I can witness everything and can intervene physically, verbally and emotionally. I find that this keeps the mind healthy and young because it requires me to multi-task. Although listening to DW and DD watch reruns(?) of Top Model and gossip about other people while I write this, check my mails and tweet is not really multi-tasking.

I checked for concerts at Prague, was going to ask them to pick one but they were too deeply embroiled in making comparisons with those on TV to respond to my generous and democratic offer. This will give me the chance to:

1. Not too choose an opera
2. Not too choose another sit-through of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons
3. Not to choose anything blatantly touristic
4. Not to choose something performed in an place with hard wooden seats or pews.
5. Not to choose something that is longer than 90 minutes.

The prices look quite good in comparison to Turkey or the United States, ranging from 450 to 1,200 Crones.

Unfortunately, the Prague Symphony play list is not available. So, it will be difficult to pick something with a great deal of forcando, crescendo, con forzo to keep me awake, and generally aa vivace or allegro to keep various parts of my body moving to the consternation of mes dammes.

Tomorrow, I will try to start increasing my German vocabulary from 16 to 32 words and Czeck vocabulary from 0 to 10. And I shall practice on my snickering family who do not have the good manners to appreciate it as a form of instruction in globalization.
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Old Nov 17th, 2014, 08:32 AM
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On for the ride

I have an image of a svelte young safe-cracker with filed fingers for extra sensitivity

You probably know all this but you can a get a three day pass for the Prague public transport system

http://www.pragueexperience.com/trav...-transport.asp
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Old Nov 20th, 2014, 11:51 AM
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A very tense night.
DW and DD were very busy meeting old friends, visiting granpa, braving horrendous traffic, having manicure, pedicure, shampoo and shaping plus some shopping and arriving just in time for dinner which was dense kofte soup, Thai/Italian fusion zuccini-eggplant-sweet green chilis antipasto and tomato-cucumber salad. My BIL also showed up and stayed till 21:30.

I reminded Eser that she had to scan some documents on her late great uncle and send those together with some photos of his mother-of-pearl inlay works of art to an auction house, and then pack for the pre-trip trip to Alexandroupolis, Greece.

This may sound crazy, but it makes wonderful sense: The three of us are driving just over the border to Greece for an overnighter, leaving home sometime around 6AM tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be about a four hour drive + any time spent, fueling the car and ourselves and customs clearance.

Hopefully, we will have enough time to visit the antique ruins at Enes before the border where the worlds's first discovered oyster or mussel storage house is found.

No fisticuffs yet, just nasty looks thrown every which way and each of the three angling to discover a partner so that the two can gang up on the third. But we are all rather experienced and check to the sides and back and anyone approaching through a blind spot can easily be spotted.

I believe some Melatonin is called for before forced sleep, so that we can start a cloudy morning with some showers and lower temperaturs.

After the early hours tommorrow, the holy google says we will not be bothered with any more precipitation but we should not expect to find the German and Czech skies happily welcoming us. Alexandroupolis is another matter. The Greeks, with tourism revenues down, are now more or less dependent on what meager numbers of Turkish tourists come across and will hopefully welcome us with open arms, putting aside past bygones.

We are also expecting to compare the Turkish and Greek versions of the same food. I do the taste comparisons. DW does presentation, DD does smell (or stink, as the case may be, since she walked about our flat complaining of a stingk for two days until DW finally allowed her to throw away some dried flowers.)

I may or may not take this laptop tomorrow, depending on how courageous I feel about getting connected through my kindle.
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Old Nov 21st, 2014, 12:10 PM
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Writing from Hotel Mitropolis at Alexandropouli, Greece after a long day of driving, walking and eating.

Woke up at 5:30 AM and then at 5:35 and 5:40 and finally was forced out of the bed by the plaintive cries of one of our American short hairs, asking for a reward (!) Took us about an hour to leave home, was surprised at the amount of traffic, got sleepy about 45 miles out and then at 50 miles out and 55 miles out. Found the rest of the team snoring as accompaniment to Pink Martini. Finally had to stop for a second breakfast and some wakee-up tea (three glasses each).

DD took over when we detoured to Enez to see the neolithic, Roman and Byzantine ruins. Saw remnants of the Roman highway below a hole strewn with junk, possibly a 1,500 year old church on someone's property where the villager had built his home against the single remaining wall of the church and we hit the eternal weekly market.

The market had a truck from the town of Usak, selling factory and hand made kilims for very reasonable prices. DD who had brought an extra suitcase to Turkey for that reason, immediately bought two rugs. the salesman was so happy for the lack of bargaining that he gave three small colorfull seat pads as presents.

Passing through customs was easier than expected despite the Greek passport police attempting to hold down DW's fingers for the hand prints which refused his advances, as well they should.

Both D's making fun of my three finger keyboard profficincy, so will continue the rest tommorrow.
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Old Nov 21st, 2014, 12:52 PM
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sounds like a nice start to your journey.
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Old Nov 21st, 2014, 02:00 PM
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three fingers, OC? that's just one less than me, and i manage pretty well.

good news about the rugs, but are you going to take them with you all the way to Germany and back?
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Old Nov 23rd, 2014, 03:51 AM
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The real journey has not started yet.

That was a warm up.

We dove 4 1/2 hours to Alexandroupoli with a detour through the sleepy ugly town of Enez which refused to divulge much of its secrets to us, stayed one night at the hostel like Hotel Mitropolis for 55 Euros for one night in a triple room including breakfast and then drove a horrendous Seven hours back, hitting Greeks crossing the border for shopping at the large Kesan weekly market which resulted in wait of 75 minutes and then a murderous, wormly, crawling three lane to 8 lane to 5 lane to three lane to four lane to three lane to two lane traffic about ten miles or so from Istanbul, all the way home.

Ann, I am starting to believe that the third finger is a luxury I can well dispose off since it has a mind of its own and punches wronf letters just to ire me. (se the gormer f for a g)

We liked Alexandroupoli. Some resort towns appear deppressing and deserted off-season, but not this one. It was lively. The bars were full and it was full of bars. There were fewer restaurants than we hoped but I guess ouzo and various cocktails can be quite nourishing.

There were old Anatolian style cafes just as in Turkey where middle aged and older men sat, playing cards and drinking tea or coffee and gazing at ugly blank walls rather than at each others' misery.

The fish restaurant , Gialos, where we ate, had standard meze in much larger portions than you would get in Turkey and somewhat cheaper also. There were three other tables of Turks who had come by bus and the restaurant next door has signs in Turkish but not in English !

The small restaurant, in the evening was nicer. They also had a menu in Turkish. The fares were similar.

You either have fish or lots of meze. Forget the white and red meat.
We wanted to ty their pork and chicken and were not too happy. Grilled chicken was like shoe in-soles and the pork over-fried. The breakfast at our hotel was much better than the Hampden Inn free breakfast which it somehow resembled.

the beds at the hotel may have been made to deter fleas. They were so hard and tight that a flea calculating a safe jump on one would have found itself over the other edge, or even out of the window or door, totally confused, in unknown territory.

I would expect the location of this hotel to be rather noisy in season. It is very centrally placed within good walking distance to most bars, restaurants, cafes (for old and young), expensive shopping, but has single pane windows. Room size was fine and the small refrigerator worked as a work station for a laptop.

When we plugged the refrigerator back again, it gave vent to its displeasure with strange moans which no modern appliance should have been able to produce. It took us almost ten minutes to discover where the intermittent sounds were coming, a time spent including eavesdropping at doors of neighboring rooms in the corridor, staring at the cold street from mosquito inviting windows, putting our ears to walls, flushing the toilet multiple times and discussing sexual habits and ghosts of different cultures.

After breakfast, we took off, visiting the outskirts of the city (I said intentionally, the ladies said because I took a number of wrong turns) and then drove the 44 kilometres to the border to join the shopping crazy Greeks on a queue of possibly 80-100 cars.

There was a pink slip attached to the wiper on the windshield of the car. It was totally unintelligible in this strange alphabet the Greeks use. My wife jealously said it could be a love note from a heavy set matron who ran a grocery store across from the curb on which I had parked the car. DD said it could be a commendation by the civic authorities for ability to park in the small space between some strange signs. In any case, we did not wish to bother the border police by asking what it meant and just drove through the border check point after showing our passports.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2014, 03:54 AM
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Tomorrow morning we fly to Leipzig where we hope are softer mattresses and no love notes in pink.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2014, 05:04 AM
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how brave to make such a long trip just before you are due to go somewhere else, OC. it's nice to know that Turks are made so welcome in Greece - that's not always the impression that we are given. I bet that your mattress was no harder than the one I "slept" on in Sorrento last year - and that was for a whole week - i hadn't thought of it as a technique for repelling bed bugs though.

It has been pointed out to me that my typing style is very weird - I use the middle three fingers on my left hand, and only the middle finger on my right - and I'm right-handed.

gute Reise!
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Old Nov 24th, 2014, 12:26 PM
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In hotel room after interesting game based meal, partridge, hare, goose, etc. not far from exciting, minimalistic but tasteful Fredehouse Hotel where the reception closes down after 8PM and you have to get back in using strange contraptions, walk through deserted maximalistix courtyard and empty corridors to reach rooms with creaking doors yet with the highest quality materials and fixtures. Rather scary after watching the film Adele last night.

Found out that we were upgraded to a Mercedes with a NAVI which refused to speak English. Rechts and Links were OK but other fascistic commands had to be ignored especially when we hit roads closed off for construction or so we thought.

Anyway, we made it to the lovely hotel in a terrific location, just off a market and some interesting looking restaurants and bars.

The free hotspot wifi gives me 30 minutes only, so will communicate after drive to Prague tomorrow.

Suffice to say, Leipzig was all and more than what we expected even when the NAVI followed on the bad manners of the passport lady who wanted to find out whether we had enough money or any credit cards, hotel reservations, retuen tickets. Must be because she was envious of the ladies and maybe thought they were snuggling me into Germany as a refugee from Syria.
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Old Nov 24th, 2014, 01:33 PM
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Found out that we were upgraded to a Mercedes with a NAVI which refused to speak English. Rechts and Links were OK but other fascistic commands had to be ignored especially when we hit roads closed off for construction or so we thought>>

glad you liked Leipzig, OC, despite the officiousness of the passport officer. two words which may be useful when trying to understand your "Navi" - Stau means a queue or hold-up, and "Umleitung" means diversion. If you manage to navigate round Germany without coming across at least one Umleitung, you'll be doing very well!
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Old Nov 26th, 2014, 12:50 AM
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We are enamored with Prague. Arriving after dark, as usual, it was a dream landscape filled with people of all ages and types. The touristy chintz and glintz was easy to ignore. The rather coarse and noisy cobblestones were not the best surface for dragging suitcases even on wheels and on tired feet but could not hinder our move into a very comfortable suite at Hotel Metamorphis, in a courtyard in the thick of things in the Old Town.

I gained back the respect i thought I was losing from DW and DD with the lucky hotel and car arrangements.

Before I forget, the two issues with Hotel Metamorphis are the excessive parking charge and inefficient WI-FI connection.

Driving here was fine while in Germany. We got out of Leipzig after a good breakfast at a nice place we stumbled upon after a heated argument of empty stomachs has erupted.

Immediately upon entering Czech Rep. we were beset by a rather dense fog. The stomachs had somehow managed to forget their earlier input. There were some diversions on the road, and once on highway 55, I made the terrific decision to stay on it rather than go back to motorway 8.

This brought us to a diner in a small town somewhere on the hills where we were offered a liver soup reminding me of Aduchamp and his chopped liver offering at 2nd Ave. deli in NY. (not in a very pleasant way, unfortunately) But their schnitzels were excellent and the price terrific.

What we saw of the landscape was rather dull, either flat or with low rolling hills.

The ladies are requiring me to stop to catch a tour bus to Prague castle. Will continue later.
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Old Nov 26th, 2014, 06:41 AM
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ah defenestration is coming up.
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Old Nov 26th, 2014, 08:47 AM
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Thanks for taking us along. Liver soup???? Doesn't sound appetizing.
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Old Nov 26th, 2014, 11:41 AM
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the 2nd defenestration, no less.

[I couldn't get what might have happened at the first one out of my head when the guide kept telling us about the 2nd one]

When we visited some Christmases ago, we had a very pleasant lunch [ soup but not liver! ] at a cafe at the top of the hill going up to the Castle, which we needed as it was pretty cold. Hope you find somewhere equally nice, OC!
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