Three Brothers

So today I thought I would talk about the "Three Brothers Restaurant and Fun Pub" which is where we are staying. The restaurant and pub was opened up by ... wait for it ... three brothers about 7 years ago. Two years ago they added 8 bed and breakfast rooms. Thanks again to Mine and John who managed to get us a nice two bedroom suite here.

View of Three Brothers Restaurant and Fun Pub from the beach

The staff and three brothers are very friendly and bend over backwards to make sure everyone is happy and confortable. Suat, Memet and Sedat are the three brothers. Suat is the oldest brother and a great fellow. I don't speak Turkish and his english is so so but we manage to comunicate no problem.

Dino (not his real name but a nick name tourists have given him as he looks like Dean Martin) is the manager. Whenever we need something, he is there and always checking on us to make sure everything is ok.

The other fellow we run into a lot in the restaurant is Zeki. Both Dino and Zeki are the first staff you see in the morning as well as the last staff you see as you close up the pub in the early hours (they're still there at 1:00am when we call it a night). In fact the same holds true for all the staff here. I don't know when they sleep or how they manage to have so much energy all day and night.

Zeki striking the pose

So night life at the Three Brothers? have a peak below...

At the end of the evening we finish with some Raki, cigars, fuite, nuts and cheese.

A final nightcap and now off to bed...

Almost didn't make it but...

July 9th

Hello from Marmaris.

So reflecting on the past few days, let's start with our departure to the airport on July 6th. Mine had made arrangements through the hotel to have a large van waiting for us at 9:30am to take us to the airport. At 9:45, still no van so Mine phoned the driver to find out he changed his mind. Apparently the hotel wanted too much of a kick back from the driver so he told them he wouldn't come. Unfortunately nobody told us. After some heated discussion in hungarian between the hotel and Mine, we went with plan "B" and flagged down three taxis. Then the race was on to get to the airport. Cut to the end, we made the flight and settled back in our seats for a short 1 hour flight. At this airport there was a nice air conditioned bus which took us to Marmaris.

In Marmaris we arrived at a Restaurant called "The Three Brothers" which also had a B&B operation in the back. We settled into a nice two bedroom apartment, then met with two friends of John and Mine's. Murat and Charlene live in Vancouver but have family here and spend a lot of vacation time in Turkey. Tonight they made arrangements for us to have dinner on a warf over the Mediterranean. During the day this warf is cluttered with lounge chairs and umbrellas for the tourists but in the evening is transformed into an outdoor restaurant. The food again was great and the scenery of course phenomenal. The local drink here is of course Raki. Murat ordered a litre of it for the guys and we managed to make short work of it which assisted us with sleeping in till almost noon the next day.

Our restaurant over the water

For my motorcycle buddies, check out this bike. Not sure what it is but interesting drive shaft.

So for July 7th 8th and 9th here is what we did:

1. Sleep
2. Eat breakfast
3. Go to beach/pool
4. Eat dinner
5. Sleep
6. Repeat

Stayed turned...

Day trip to Asia

Well everyone slept in today so our breakfast was really a lunch except that we love Turkish breakfasts so much we repeated what we had yesterday.

Nother like a lollypop and massage to complete your breakfast

Today we're starting on the European side of Turkey, touring the Hadice Sultan Palace and then heading to Asia for dinner. Not that often you can have breakfast on one continent and dinner on another.

 The Hadice Sultan Palace housed the last 7 Sultan's until their exile in 1922. We were not allowed to take photos inside but certainly recommend you google the palace and have a look for yourself. The highlight of the interior has to be the grand ballroom which is 6,000 square feet in size and has a 4 1/2 ton chandelier in the middle. The walls and ceiling are all hand painted and the detail amazing. Below are photos of one of the many gates to the palace grounds.

And the last photo was taken from the yacht yesterday

For dinner we headed to the Asian side of Istanbul. John has a favourite restaurant here that in his words serves the best Kabobs anywhere. Last time he was here with Mine, Steve and Leean, they all got to experience this restaurant, but this time there was a little concern when we arrived and found out the restaurant had changed hands 3 weeks ago. All concerns were put to rest though when the food arrive (and arrived and arrived). I'm not sure how many courses we had but we truly had the best meal so far here. Turks are big on meat and vegetables and there was plenty of both. I'm not a big fan of eggplant but had an appetizer of sun dried eggplant stuffed with rice that was to die for. The kabobs of course were fantastic and I also got introduced to a Turkish liquor called Raki. Took a little getting used to but is quite a nice drink with a little punch to it. Spent all the time eating here so the only picture I got was of the sunset over Asia.

Tomorrow is a travel day as we fly from Istanbul to Marmaris on the coast. Won't be blogging tomorrow but will be back in a couple days.

Hail Hail the gangs all here

July 4th

Woke up and started the day enjoying a traditional Turkish breakfast which consists of cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, honey, eggs, bread and pastries. Everything is served family style and we just help ourselves.

After breakfast our friends (and now tour guides) Mine and John showed us along fistiklal Cadasi (a main street in Istanbul). Eventually we came across the park where the recent riots started that we heard so much about in Canada. Gezi Park was in the process of being developed into a mall and already some 200 plus year old walls had been torn down and construction was starting. However, today they were reseeding the grass and reclaiming the park back to its original state. Amazing how when people come together as one voice, change can happen.

Footings were already in place for a new mall to be built.

But not going to happen today, above workers busy putting the park back together again.

And of course no riot would be complete without Fox news being there.

But the police are still ready with machine guns and water cannons. Although this battle may be over with the Government, the war still continues...

Taksim Square is right next to the park. Here everyone mingles around. Even with the police presence, a couple can get married

And a little girl still plays for food and money

And yes me being a softy threw a few lira into her tip box.

In the afternoon we were in for a real treat as Mine and John arranged for us to get onto their friend's yacht. This beautiful boat can hold up to 400 people and is used for special events and tours. Today a group from Macdonalds Corporation (yes the burger people) chartered the first and second levels of this yacht while we got the top deck all to ourselves.

Turkey is the only country I believe that is on two continents with the city of Istanbul connecting them. On the west is Europe and the east is Asian. The Bosphorus Strait runs down the middle. If you head north along the Bosphorus you will enter the Black Sea and south gets you to the Aegean sea.

Our hosts on board Barbaros (right) and Isegul (left) with Mine in the middle. Thank you so much for such a wonderful day and evening.

Speaking of evening, Barbaros and Isegul instructed their crew to head toward a private man made island for dinner. Unfortunately the battery in my camera had died, so no more pictures, but we were treated to a fantastic feast of seafood with Turkish appetizers. In addition to the great calamari I tried octopus for the first time and a couple different white fish as well. It was a great meal and a great end to the day. Tomorrow we head to Asia for the day.

Moving day

So today was a short sightseeing day and a move to a new apartment in a different part of town.

First we trekked off to the spice market. Along the way we managed to get lost and found the photography district (Adam, you would be in heaven), the garment district and then finally the spice market. As we made our way through the garment district we found all those tacky tourist items at half the price as at the Grand Bazaar. A pair of reading glasses I bought from a street vendor outside a restaurant for 30 Turkish lira (that was the price I negotiated him down to) were 5 lira here and three spinning tops I haggled down to 10 lira from a five year old boy at the Bazaar were priced at 2 lira each. So note to self, leather, jewelry and rugs - go to Grand Bazaar, everything else, just get lost in the city and you'll find it cheaper.

Shopping where the locals shop

Entrance to the spice market

And the spices

After lunch we had to pack up and move to a different part of Istanbul. Our taxi driver managed to get lost several times but in Turkey men don't seem to have a problem asking directions, as he shouted out to anyone who would listen, asking where our apartment was. In most cases all he got were shrugged shoulders which led us to believe what sort of place had we book ourselves into? Eventually he did find the place but even as he parked his taxi outside, we were not totally sure this was the right place until Ege, the manager, came running out to great us. four flights of stairs later (no elevators here), we were resting in our one bedroom apartment. The place was very nice and clean and we happily settled in.

 This is the street where our apartment is located and yes that's a bathtub for sale in the middle of the road

We toured around the area a bit and then waited for our friends to arrive from Vancouver (via Paris). Samantha spent her time staring out the window until they arrived.

The greeting party above and our friends below

Back row, Steve, Leean and John

Front row, Mine, Sheryl, Nya, Samantha, Asena and Kylor (missing from photo)

Behind the camera, me

Although jet lagged, everyone was hungry so we grabbed a quick bite and then had the most fantastic dessert called lokma, which is best described as a puff pastry covered in chocolate syrup.

Tomorrow, we cruise on the Bosphorus.

Shopping Day

So we must be on the right time zone now as Sheryl and I slept in and Samantha was up at her usual time of 7:30.

For three days now I've been trying to get used to Turkish coffee and it's not easy. And for three days now, when we leave the hotel, we turn left and head for the sites. Today we were focused on experiencing the Grand Bazaar which required us to make a right from the hotel

 Yes that is our hotel entrance right next to Starbucks.

And I'm a happy guy once again.

So today was a shopping day. The Grand Bazaar hosts over 4,000 merchants who sell carpets, leather, silk, jewellery, spices, antiques, souvenirs and almost anything you can imagine.

We had already purchased our rugs a couple days ago, so we started by looking at the leathers. Once again it didn't take long before a merchant ushered us into his store (again he must have seen me coming a mile away). The merchant's name was Rustu, owner of Karizma Leather. He was the purchaser of the raw leather, the manufactured the leather and the seller the leather (no middle man here). We probably spent the better part of two hours trying on various leather jackets.

That's Rustu on the left trying to sell everyone a leather jacket.

In the end we settled on a this jacket.

We also hunted around for a couple other items which I can't tell you about as we want to surprise two other special ladies who will be receiving them once we get back.

For dinner we intended on exploring new restaurants but as we were leaving the hotel we noticed a waiter performing a ritual with a clay pot and we just had to give this a try. The meal was chicken and lamb with vegetables and a fantastic sause (sause being a requirement in the Jacobson family).

Dinner in Turkey

Another great day in Istanbul.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day everyone! Although they don't celebrate Canada Day here, we did come across a Canadian flag at the Four Season's Hotel so we felt a little more at home. In honour of this special day we all wore red (and Sheryl even added white).

Today was another busy day us. Although I woke up early, I had to wait for the rest to come alive before we could head out to the Basilica Cistern. This structure, built during the 6th century is a large underground cistern that provided filtered water to the the Great Palace of Constantinople and then eventually to the Topkapi Palace. For those number crunchers out there, the cistern is 26 feet underground, covers 105,000 square feet and can hold up to 100,000 tons of water. The roof of the cistern is held up by 336 marble columns. Restored in 1987, the water is now only a couple feet deep and tourists are allowed to roam around.

After we finished this tour, we stopped for lunch, where I had my first taste of the local beer. I was asked if I wanted a small or large glass and I ordered the large thinking it was a pint...

Apparently they don't have pints of beer in Turkey, this one was .7 litres!

After lunch and a couple bathroom breaks we headed over to the Topkapi Palace. This palace was the home to the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 - 1856 and is now museum highlighting the muslim world during this period. We saw jewels galor including a 67 carat diamond, clothing that was 400 years old and the various weapons of the day. Because we were all in shorts, we were not allowed to see the holy relics which apparently includes Muhammed's cloak and sword.

 Hand painted tiles everywhere

And lots of hand painted ceilings too.

I never realized just how much history is in Turkey. As we were walking back to the hotel you see relics everywhere just resting on the side of the road.

The sign to the left says"Please do not touch the relics".

So I'm still not quite used to the Turkish coffee yet, which is causing a little grumpiness in the mornings but I'm usually ok by dinner.