Impressions of Istanbul

Destinations, Managing Money, Our Travel Stories

We weren’t really sure what to expect from Turkey. We had friends and fellow travelers who raved about Istanbul, but after Morocco, we were a little leary. What we found in Istanbul was, in some ways what we originally expected in Morocco.

The people were incredibly friendly and welcoming. The city is modern and cosmopolitan for the most part, especially the Asia side, in Kadikoy where we stayed. The area on the northern peninsula around Taksim Square seem a bit more run down and the southern peninsula has the amazing old mosques, palaces and architecture of the Roman, Ottoman and Byzantine Empires. It was the capital of each at different points in history.

Obelisk and Mosque — An example of historical and cultural diversity in Istanbul – An obelisk stands in a former Roman hippodrome on the doorstep of the Blue Mosque.

I’ve never seen so many clothes stores or really stores in general. It appears there is a lot of shopping going on here. No matter where you go or what time of day, there are lots of people! Its bustling for sure, but in an organized modern developed country kind of way, with no donkey carts and where motor bikes stay on the road, while pedestrians stay on the sidewalks and walking streets.

In the city you get the impression of progress. There is a lot of construction and improvements being made, rather than things falling into disrepair as we’ve seen in various places (Zimbabwe and Morocco come immediately to mind). For example, in October, a brand new subway line dramatically cut the transit time from the Europe to Asia side of Istanbul. Previously a ferry was the fastest public transportation option between the two sides, but this subway route runs under the Bosphrous Strait, apparently its the deepest subway in the world. The stray cats were even well fed. I have a working theory that the condition of stray animals reflects on the condition of a society. Istanbul has A LOT of cats, every where, but almost all appear healthy and well-fed. These cats aren’t scavenging, people are buying cat food for them and putting it on the street. Frequently, there are even piles of “excess”, so there’s need to fight over it.

I can see why Istanbul is so popular among Western tourists. It’s a European city, but because of its history as the center of three separate empires, it is unlike any other European city. It is also the only city bridging two continents, creating a unique fusion of Europe, Middle East and Asia. It feels foreign and exotic, but still familiarly European as well. For instance, there’s the Grand Bazaar, but also plenty of modern shopping malls.

The huge domes and tall minarets of the mosques dominate the skyline and the call to prayer is heard everywhere. Head scarves and burkas are seen, but aren’t predominant. There is a noticeable societal segregation between men and women. For instance, we saw few women in bars and hookah cafes, but that was true in the pubs of Ireland as well. There don’t seem to be rules forcing this, society seemed pretty free, it just seems to be the way it happens.

Speaking of bars, even though this is a predominently Muslim county, there are bars and liquor stores in about the same quantity as we are familiar with in the US. This is a significant difference from Morocco, where these were few and far between and most were obviously targeted at tourists.

Even though though it seems Europeans come to Istanbul to party, alcoholic beverages are not what I would call affordable. We were in Istanbul for New Year’s Eve and enjoyed two pints of Guiness – for $15US. It was worth it though – we do love a good Guiness 🙂

Another surprise was that we found that many Christmas customs have actually made their was to Istanbul.

At first glance it just seemed like just a normal, if completely secular version of Christmas – Santa Claus, Christmas trees, etc, but then we noticed it was oddly fused with New Year’s, like they were part of the same holiday. We were tipped off by our host who talked about Christmas and New Year’s interchangeably almost like they were two names for the same thing. We thought this might be a language or translation thing, but then we saw it everywhere.
While in the US, Christmas and New Year’s are pretty separate holidays, each with their own “things”, in Turkey, anything appropriate at Christmas seems appropriate for New Year’s. For instance, our waitress on New Year’s Eve was wearing a Santa hat, and they were playing Christmas carols. Other waitresses were wearing devil horns…making for an interesting combination. I am only sorry I don’t have a photo of that for you.

Venice – Italy’s Most Romantic City?

Destinations, Managing Money, Our Travel Stories

Next, we were off to Venice by train. This 5-day trip to Italy was really just a case of making use of layovers. To get from Morocco to Istanbul, we had to fly through Europe somewhere. Milan happened to be one of the cheapest options (thank you, RyanAir), and Venice is just a short train ride away. Since I’ve always wanted to see Venice, it seemed a good opportunity – so we took it.

Venice is unlike any other city, with transport only by foot or boat. It’s made up of 118 islands separated by canals and connected by bridges. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I just find the idea of Venice and the look and feel of it romantic. I didn’t feel the need necessarily to do or see anything, in particular, just to wander and get lost in it. And that’s what we did for 3 days.

The weather was a little dreary, but the city was bustling. There is a lot of shopping to be done here, lots of Italian leather goods, Venetian glass, and clothes, and being the week before Christmas, things were busy.

One of the best parts of Italy is the food and wine. Our favorite places for inexpensive, tasty food were Alfredo’s Fresh Pasta and Antico Forno. At Alfredo’s, you could get fresh pasta for 6 euros, but there are only a few seats. We got to sit both times we visited, but you need to be ready to stand. At Antico Forno, you could get delicious pizza slices for 2.50 euros. They were pretty busy, so the chance to get a slice of a pie right out of the oven was quite good.

I’ve had people tell me that they think Venice is overrated, but I disagree. I loved it for the character that comes from the canals and hundreds of little alleys. Even when it is crowded on the main streets, there are plenty of out-of-the-way places to get away and wander. It won’t take long to find yourself alone. I do think Venice is an inherently romantic place. There is just something about it that makes you feel like there are treasures to be discovered around every corner. This city offers you so many moments with romantic potential its hard to ignore.

City Discount Cards – Deal or Rip-off?

Managing Money, Travel Tips

City discount cards, are they too good to be true?

City Discount Cards

As we’ve traveled in Europe, we’ve found that most of the major cities will have some type of City Discount Card.

The London Pass, I Amsterdam City Card, the Berlin Pass, etc.

A lot of passes include public transport and more than once, we’ve found ourselves, tired from a long journey, standing at a ticket machine trying to decide whether we want the Pass or just a ticket to our hotel. So do yourself a favor and do a little research before you arrive to make the best decision and get the most for your money.

How to decide if a Pass is a good fit for you:

Make a list of all your “must see” attractions in town.
See which ones are included in the Pass.
Determine if you can actually see all those things during the length of the pass.
Add up the entry fees for your included must-sees.
If public transport is included in the pass, use the public transport website for your city to determine how much transport will run you for the same period of time. Add that amount to #3.
If the total is more or pretty close to the price of the pass, give it a try.
Try it and keep a record so you can see if you got a good deal.

Additional benefits to the Pass to keep in mind, in addition to saving money:

You’ll be able to use public transport anytime you want without a thought for cost. This includes no worries when you make a wrong choice and have to backtrack or u-turn. (We never do this 🙂
If you have extra time you can stop in to additional attractions.
If you don’t like an attraction, you don’t feel obligated to stay “because you paid”, you just leave and try something else.
You might discover something really cool you never would have directly paid money for.

Usually the longer you are in town, the better the deal.

When we’ve been in a city only one or two days, we’ve generally opted not to buy passes because we inevitably want to spend some time on attractions that are included and some on attractions that aren’t included and also free things like just walking around seeing the city. Usually it turns out to be either not a good deal or a wash.

However, if you either want to see a lot of paid attractions (and the Pass includes the ones you want to see) or you are in a place for more than a day or two it is likely to be a good deal.

Our experience: We are in London for a month and just finished up our 6-day London Pass. We figured we had plenty of time to see the things not on the Pass and we could dedicate 6 days to all the things we wanted to see that were.

We kept close track of where we went and what we would have paid without the Pass.

Here’s the outcome: The Passes cost us $234 each and we tallied $340 in entry fees. That means we saved over $100 each on attraction entries and that doesn’t even include all the public transport we used. We figure we probably each used at least $7 a day in transport, so add another $42. We figure between the two of us, we are up $300 on the deal.

These city discount cards definitely deserve a look, but don’t just assume they are a good deal.

It all depends on how much time you have and how you want to spend it.

How Fast Is Too Fast?

Managing Money, Travel Tips

We were pretty tired coming into our time in Ireland last week, but we kept our eyes on the dangling carrot of an upcoming month in London. While we absolutely loved Ireland, after a busy 4-day tour, 2-day conference and 3-day tour in the Emerald Isle, we were spent – emotionally, physically and mentally.

It isn’t just that we had a busy week in Ireland. I was looking back at my travel notes and realized that we haven’t slept in the same bed for more than 4 consecutive nights in 50 days and the average is actually less than 2. (Here is the list of destinations and nights stayed for the first 6 months if you are interested.)

Yes, traveling is indeed amazing. It can also be exhausting. Its important to give serious thought to your pace of travel both before leaving home and while on the road.

Why travel can be exhausting
If you haven’t traveled for an extended period, you may not realize the toll that being constantly on the road can take. I know I didn’t fully appreciate it. Traveling requires that you are on alert, attentive and in problem-solving mode. If you are traveling quickly from place to place, it requires that you are almost always in that mode. There is no auto-pilot, no familiar environments, no established habits. There are constant decisions, not just about what to go see in a city, but about mundane things like, can you wash laundry here and if so, will it be dry before you need to pack it again. I’ve actually found myself breathing a sigh of relief when breakfast is included with our lodging not because it saves us money, but because it saves us from having to make early morning pre-coffee decisions.

In addition, the way you choose to travel can add stresses. Frequent stays in the homes of strangers through Couchsurfing and Airbnb have been an awesome opportunity to meet really fantastic people, and we have loved every stay. However, these stays also require varying degrees of assessing and fitting into someone else’s space and schedule.

By chosing to keep our travel plans fairly open, mostly booking just far enough out to keep the prices low, we get maximum flexibility to adjust plans. We also spend time and energy on the road finding wifi and researching and coordinating the logistics of planes, trains, buses and lodging for our upcoming destinations. The faster we travel the more of this we do.

How we are preventing travel burnout
Individual preferences for speed of travel certainly vary and until you’ve been on the road for a month or two it is hard to know how you will react. Many people do the 10-day trip to Europe where they pack in nearly a city a day and that works out fine. I would be one of those people. For some people, that is already not their idea of fun. When you stretch out the length of the trip, any discomfort gets compounded. No one can keep the pace of a 2-week vacation for a year. And even if they could, who would want to.

So, we are learning. We are learning that Daryle and I have different tolerances for faster travel and a different recovery period. This means its something we have to talk about on a regular basis. If you are traveling with someone, expect to talk about this and expect to disagree.

We’ve found we seem to function best when we base in a location for 3 or more nights. We would rather base in one location and explore out from there on day trips, than take a linear roadtrip with a new hotel each night. This is easier to plan and easier to manage since you only have to unpack and repack once. We find the feeling of coming “home” after a long day is really worthwhile. Three nights is the minimum we like to stay in one place. There are times when we need to be moving faster, like on our tours of Ireland last week, so afterward, we balance them out with a chance to reset. This means lodging where we can be comfortable and spend atleast 3 nights including one full day with no plans beyond sleeping in, doing laundry and catching up on internet work.

Besides having more chance to enjoy the journey, there are other benefits to traveling more slowly as well, not the least of which is that its easier to keep the travel budget low, which I’ll get to in another post.

With all this in mind, there is a good chance we will be ushering in a slower-moving second half of the journey when we leave London next month.

If you’ve taken a long journey, we’d love to hear how you’ve paced your travel. Do you have any guidelines or advice?

Safari Camping

Animals & Nature, Destinations, Managing Money, Our Travel Stories, Safari

Safari Camping in Tsavo, Kenya – August 2013

Lions Bluff Lodge. located above the 125,000-acre Lumo Community Wildlife Sanctuary (where we saw the lions) has an award-winning lodge. In fact it’s the only property I’ve ever seen with a 99% thumbs up on Tripadvisor. Its not unreasonable for a safari lodge, but a little pricey for our budget. However, as an unusual addition, they also offer the Cheetah Campsite, perfect for those who want a safari experience but with a smaller pricetag. We rented a comfy canvas tent and bedding and it was all set up and waiting when we arrived.

Safari Camping

But somehow when we booked this campsite for 3 nights we were picturing the lodge much closer, maybe just a very short walk up a path, where we could pop by for dinner or drinks in the evening. When we arrived, we discovered that in reality the campsite was quite remote. Amazingly beautiful and peaceful, but also 10-20 4WD minutes from the lodge.

So we got a real honest-to-goodness chance to camp out in the African bush. We saw elephants. I imagined lions. It was both terrifying and wonderful. Certainly an altogether new and different camping experience.

Safari camping also offered us an affordable way to go on one more African safari as the price of the campsite was much less than the price of the rooms in the lodge. Sure the bathroom and the showers where not as nice but the experience was one we will never forget. In fact we hope to return and do it again one day as it was probably one of the most unique camping experiences we’ve ever had.

How about you? Where have you camped that is a bit unusual? Have you done any safari camping? If so please let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear about it.

Visiting Victoria Falls

Destinations, Managing Money, Our Travel Stories

Victoria Falls has been on my must-see list for quite a long time. A few weeks ago, after two nights on buses and one on a train (read more about that interesting ride on Daryle’s blog – DaryleDickens.com) we finally made it. From the time the train started to pull into the station, you could see the mist in the distance, but it wasn’t until we lifted off in a helicopter that we really got a hint of the full scale of the falls.

While we generally tend to be pretty cheap travelers, we opted to make an exception for the helicoptor ride over the Falls. It was without question a good decision. The combination of the view from the air and the ground gives you the chance to appreciate both the scale and the power of the falls. AND I got my first ever helicopter ride.

The falls stretch 5,603 feet across and crash into a deep canyon, so you aren’t able to view the entire falls from any one location on the ground.

From the air you don’t get to feel the mist generated by the powerful falls forcing its way up out of the canyon or hear the crashing of the water.

There are actually surprisingly few places that the falls can be seen at all. There are parks with viewpoints on both the Zambia and Zimbabwe sides and then from the air – that is pretty much it.

Victoria Falls Was Worth Every Penny

The helicopter ride is not a cheap view, the trip lasts 12-13 minutes and will cost you about $140USD per person, but given the amount of effort, time and/or money you likely spent just to get here, it sort of pales in comparison. There are actually surprisingly few places that the falls can be seen at all. There are parks with viewpoints on both the Zambia and Zimbabwe sides and then from the air – that is pretty much it. I would say the view from the air was well worth it.