When I walked out of the hotel this morning (as Michael left to go the University to teach) I was determined not to get lost!!!  Since the streets are in a grid format, I decided to not worry about which street I was on, but instead to remember if I was walking parallel or perpendicular with the street that housed the hotel and also to remember if I was on the front side of the hotel or the back side.  This was a much easier approach as I always knew at least the general direction of the hotel!!!!

I knew that I wanted to head back toward the market area of town and enjoyed walking along and looking in the various stores.  There were several people sprinkling or throwing water on the sidewalks.  I thought that they were just getting rid of their cleaning water, but I also saw one man sprinkling water from a bottle.  My only thought is that they were trying to control some of the dust from the sidewalks…..we will never know!!!

I stopped in one shop that carried all sorts of glass goods and cooking items….bowls, pans, etc.  The thing that caught my eye was a salt and pepper shaker that was an interesting design.   There were no prices, so I asked at the counter how much it was.  The two young men hesitated so I pulled out my small calculator and he punched in 15 but said 25.  I tried to ask which amount he meant but finally just gave him 15 Lira and he was happy with the transaction.

I found myself constantly looking down so that I wouldn’t stumble on broken bricks but stopped at one corner and saw this beautiful building.  I love the colors and they really stand out in this city…..

I passed the military post but didn’t linger (for obvious reasons)…..

I passed this large pile of firewood….. I looked around the corner and saw them chopping all of this by hand….what a job….

Here are a few street scenes from the market area of town where the shops spill out onto the sidewalk..…. I assume that they bring all of this in every night although that would be quite a big job!!!

I have passed many small vegetable markets but this was the first “dried fruit and nut” market that I had seen.  I love that the proprietor is sitting on a bag of something….

 

As you can imagine, this display caught my eye!!!! The fabrics were  beautiful colors and were a heavier fabric.  I didn’t buy any here because we have a guide to take us thru the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and she is a textile importer.  I figure that she can help me with fabrics there!!!

I ended up at the tourist bureau…..

Interestingly, there is no tourist information there but there was a lot of fun children’s art….

I especially liked these weavings…..

Some of the art was more sophisticated…sorry for the angle on this photo!!

And obviously, they had done a class in paper marbling.  There were some wonderful examples of this technique…… 

Once again Michael called to say that he was on his way to pick me up and this time, thankfully, I knew where I was and how to get back home again!!!!

On Wednesday night we were invited to have dinner with two of the PhD students and one of their girlfriends.  They are 24 and 25 years old, thus they are “kids” to us!!!! 

Orkun met us at the hotel and walked with us to Esma’s apartment.  His girlfriend, Emel, was there as well.

When we arrived they offered for us to sit in the living room but we asked if we could watch them cook instead…..

They prepared a vegetarian feast for us!! 

We had individual servings of a mixture with tomatoes, eggplant, onions and spices that was served with peppered rice.

The dish in the center starts with a very fine grain that has tomatoes, mint, onions and lots of spices added to it.  We ate it by placing this mixture on lettuce leaves and then rolling them up.

The white bowls contained yoghurt and cucumbers with dried mint on the top.

It was all delicious and we ate until we couldn’t move!!

After dinner we had Baklava with ice cream and then Emel offered to make Turkish coffee…..

 

Before we left, they gave us three wonderful gifts…..a can of Turkish coffee, a set of coffee cups and a big platter of Turkish delight!!!

and then they kindly walked us back to the hotel……..

THANK YOU FOR A VERY SPECIAL EVENING!!!!!

On Wednesday morning, Michael left to travel to the University and I set out to explore Kars so I walked out of the hotel and turned right…..or was it left!!!  I was determined NOT to get lost….oh well!!!!

I love to just walk along and observe the shops and people, although these children mannequins kind of gave me the willies…..

I looked into a Sweet Shop that had all sorts of Turkish Delight and many boxes of chocolates too.  The next shop that I saw was a Men’s clothing shop where they would custom make the suits.  There was one man sitting at a sewing machine and an entire wall of suit fabrics.  By the way, the favorite suit fabric is black or grey and shiny.

I love just going into stores to see what I can find and the first one was interesting.  It had three sections…..beauty products /laundry detergents, jewelry and finally, auto repair/home improvement.  Quite the combination.  I did find this tape that was strange…..it was aluminum foil that had a sticky backing on it…..

The next store that I entered sold all sorts of cooking utensils, from pots and pans to mixers etc.   Most of the pots and pans were sold in sets and looked like this…..

There was a huge selection of teapots.  They are always two levels…the bottom holds water and the top has the tea…..

Oh yeah, when I am walking around, I dont carry our big camera but instead use my Sony pocket camera.  It is much easier to take surreptitious photos or photos on the fly as I am walking by.

I finally figured out that “Giris” means enter and “Cikis” means exit.  This was learned by much trial and error!!!!

I saw two fish markets that didn’t have a single fish in them.  So far no one has been able to tell me why!!!

I especially enjoy visiting grocery stores and was astounded by the selection of pasta, rice, bulghar and lentils.  It goes to show the Turkish love affair with Carbs!!!….

Apparently if you by a bag of tea, you get a glass mug along with it…..

I really liked this statue…..

…..and this water-less fountain……

There are two different types of bakeries here.  The first cooks the most wonderful types of bread…..

and the second one cooks sweets….baklavas and other similar items.  I passed one of these shops and decided to go in for a “Turkish Donut”.  It is basically fried dough that has been soaked in a sugar solution…..

I had planned to take it with me and eat while I walked, but the proprietor motioned for me to sit and eat so I did.  Here is a shot of his shop. Doesn’t it all look SO good……  I asked the locals about whether they cooked these sweets or purchased them and was told that the older women still cook them but most people purchase them.

As I walked I could easily tell which were the “up-market” areas and which were for the working people.  I came across an outdoor market and decided to buy some cherries.  The little boy in this photo helped me and the older man tried to speak to me in English.   They thanked me after I took their photo.  The older man has his hand over his heart which is apparently a sign of blessing…. We have been told that having a haircut is not just a need but an experience!!   I could always tell when there was a Barbershop because there would be a wooden rack on the street with towels drying on it.

I found the clothing store that I had seen before and checked out the dresses that I had liked.  Unfortunately they did not have sizes that would fit me.  The only thing that was in my size were the less fashionable and dowdy shirts!!  I also checked out the men’s clothes and noticed that dress shirts were of three types…. solid (white or light blue), stripe or garish plaid.

I came across another Mosque that was being built.  This one was on top of a parking deck.  It is certainly bright and shiny!!!!….. 

Now by this time, I had made a lot of turns and was completely lost!!!   I ended up in an industrial area that had lumber yards, automotive shops and such….

And of course, this was when Michael called to say that they were on their way to pick me up from the hotel.  Oops!!!!    I kept heading in the direction that I felt was right and finally caught sight of the Castle at the end of one street….HOORAY, now I KNOW where I am!!!!

I was picked up by Michael and Ilhame and taken to another wonderful restaurant called Semazen.  We started with Lentil soup and bread The soup was spicy and WONDERFUL!!!!

Michael ordered Ayran (the yoghurt drink) and it was served in this gorgeous copper cup.  We are going to look for these in the Istanbul market and try to bring a few home!!!

Ilhame suggested that we order Pide and it came out on a long wooden platter that was sat on the napkin holders and filled the length of the table…… It was a thin dough with pieces of spiced beef pressed into it.  We ate it by adding some of the condiments (spiced yogurt, roasted peppers or tomato and cucumber salad), folding it over and stuffing it into our mouth…..

It was SO SO SO good and we both ate until we couldn’t move

We were picked up at 3:00pm by three PhD students and driven to Kuyucuk Lake where there is a bird tagging project going on

We stopped for gas at a large station on the outskirts of town.  Immediately a young boy appeared carrying 5 glasses of juice for us to enjoy.  I initially thought that it had been ordered by one of our hosts but saw him run out to a car that had just pulled up as well.

The head of the project is Sedat Inak who is a PhD student at Kafkas University in Kars.  He is extremely knowledgeable and has an obvious love for these beautiful creatures.……

He is collecting and banding birds at three locations in Turkey and is looking at the diversity of birds and also how and where the move.    He is also on the lookout for endangered species and is looking for ways to conserve the habitat.

This particular site is located about 40 kilometers outside of Kars and is a beautiful area.  He has already found around 360 species of birds in this one spot.

When we arrived there was a flurry of photographs with everyone wanting to have their photo taken with Dr. Arnold (with him is Mohammet, Orkun and Dogan)……

….including ME……  We hiked to the observation tower……  ….and began looking at the birds on the lake……

Sedat could easily identify each of the birds and would tell us about their habitat and other interesting information.

I loved this apple……

 

There were LOTS more photos taken.  Mohammet had a new camera so he tried every setting and lens.  Here I am with Esma.  We are both laughing because she is standing on her tip-toes….. 

We met two very interesting couples from France who were volunteering with the program.    This couple own a farm in France but came here for holiday…….

This couple were very interesting.  They are living nomadic lives, traveling where there are volunteer projects that they can be involved with.  He is an engineer working with water purification projects in Africa and she is a Forester.  They were such fun to talk to……

This is the camp set up.  They sleep in tents or on bunk beds in the stone building.  The portable building is where they cook and do the tagging. 

They normally open the nets early in the morning before the sun is up and then close them mid morning.  They are re-opened around 6:00 and closed after sunset.  However, since we were coming they had opened them early and had caught two birds for us to see.

The tags are store on long ropes and each one has a number etched in the metal.  There are different sizes for each type of bird.

Sedat carefully banded the bird…..

He blew on the chest feathers and would look for the amount of fat on the bird and assign a number from 0 to 8.  He told us that the birds would add fat when they were getting ready to migrate so that was a good indicator to be noted.  He said that the fat was yellow in color so it was easy to determine.  He then took lots of measurements of the wings and body length.

And finally weighed the bird by putting his head into a cardboard cone.  Immediately the bird would become stiff and stay still while his head was covered……

Look how carefully he holds the bird and how relaxed the bird is…..    The second bird that he tagged was a Sedge Warbler and when it was time to release it, he handed it to me.  He showed me how to carefully hold its neck between two fingers and then cradle it with my other hand.   And then….viola it was gone…….   If you know how a cat will shake his leg when there is something foreign on his paw….we figure that the little bird is shaking his leg trying to figure out what is going on.

We then walked around to see some of the nets.  The first one was set up on dry ground and was for smaller birds and had much smaller openings in the netting. 

The second net was set over water and was designed to catch the larger birds.  (you may have to click on the photo to actually see the net) 

While we were at these nets, there was a lot of yelling from the camp and Sedat used his binoculars to see what they were saying.  Apparently a large bird (a Harrier) had flown into one of the nets but had escaped…..too bad….it would have been fun to see!!!

We ended the afternoon all sitting around an talking.  Everyone was so kind and answered our millions of questions and it was so fun to realize that we were part of this very special group….. We arrived back at the hotel around 8:00pm and Muhammet called to say that he needed to meet with us.  He told us that his wife, Hulya, was having complications with her pregnancy and that the hospital here wasn’t prepared to take care of her.  So, they were getting ready to travel to her home town where the medical care was better.  Unfortunately this is a 13 hour drive!!!!  Since he was not going to be here we decided that it would be best for us to leave Kars early (once Michael finished teaching on Friday) and travel to Istanbul.  We confirmed that our hotel would be available for the extra days and then asked the hotel staff to help us change our airline reservations. 

As of the writing of this post,  Thursday morning, we have heard that they arrived safely and that Hulya is in the hospital.

On Tuesday morning, Michael was picked up by one of the students and driven to the University to teach his course.  I grabbed my stuff and headed out to explore the city of Kars.

I didn’t have a map of the city and was worried about getting completely lost, so I got onto Google maps and drew out  a map for myself, showing the main streets and also wrote down the name and address of the hotel just in case I had to catch a taxi back home.

My first destination was the Kars Citadel that is located on the edge of town but only a few blocks from our hotel.    It was built in 1153AD and substantially repaired in 1579….just a few years ago.

As you can see, it is almost straight up hill!!!

I shared the path with this older gentleman and his two cows who would stop to graze the grassy areas.  I love his umbrella…… 

I have noticed that when I am sightseeing by myself, I look at things in a  different way and notice things that appeal to the quilter in me.  Consequently, one of the first photos that I took was of this wonderful door…..I can definitely see a quilt in that design…. I am also enamored with windows and doorways…..

I also could see making a quilt with some of the windows, with these flower seed pods quilted on them…..

I slowly climbed this set of 37 STEEP stairs to reach to top most level….

As I climbed up and especially down these steps, I thought of my friend Lyn who is currently hiking the Appalachian trail.  If my thighs are this sore after 37 steps, I cant imagine what she is going thru!!!!

This is the view of the city of Kars from the top of the Citadel…..

Unlike in the US, there are NO railings or safety guards on the property so I had to be VERY careful while taking photos.

I love the bright splash of color that comes with the Turkish flag…..   

….and especially when viewed thru a window….. I also found the old rusted door hinges to  be interesting…..

Here are a few more windows/doorways that I found interesting…

This is the view to the back of the Citadel….. As I walked down off of the upper levels, I visited the snack bar and found this wonderful device sitting on a table.  There is a wood fire in the bottom chamber, water in the large urn and tea in the little pot on the right.  Copious amounts of smoke were pouring out of the upper pipe……

As I watched, the proprietor picked up this contraption by the wooden handles and carried it over to a group of men sitting under an umbrella.  He originally sat it down under the umbrella, but the area filled with smoke and all of the inhabitants started coughing.   He quickly moved it  onto a table not under the umbrella……. 

What happens is that the steam from the urn filters into the two appendages and that keeps the tea pot warm.  Muhammet said that this system gives the water a slightly smoky flavor that is very nice…..

You also need to know that the Turkish tea  is brewed to be VERY strong and most people add a bit of water to the mixture.  Thus the need for the water and spigot.

As I was exiting the castle, I stopped to look at the tomb of  Jalal Baba.  There was an older man there who was in charge of the tomb who shook my hand and said “Englais?”.  I said yes and then looked into the tomb.  When I came out again he pointed to the name “Jala Baba” and  he took his hand and slashed it across his neck to indicate that Jalal had been decapitated…..an effective way getting his point across…..

I had passed three young girls (maybe 14 years old) dressed in school uniforms.  The first time that I saw them I said hello and they tittered after we had passed.  A few minutes later I saw them coming toward me again and I heard them practicing  English phrases before they got to me.   We had a short but very sweet conversation where one of them told me “Welcome to Turkey”!!

In the same vein, as I was walking thru one of the Mosque areas, a young boy and his Dad were sitting and waiting for the Prayer time to begin.  The father asked if I spoke English and then motioned for his son to speak to me.  The boy shyly said “hello”.   I asked him if he spoke English and he moved his hands to say “so-so”.   I then asked him his name.  He told me (Muhammet something) and I told him mine.  Then, almost simultaneously, we both said “It is nice to meet you”.  Both the boy and his father beamed with excitement that he had known what to say. 

I then walked further down the hill to the “Church of the Apostles” which I talked about in a previous post, but was able to get a better photo of it….

A bit further down the hill took me to the Grand Mosque which is the largest Ottoman-era mosque in the city and was built in the 17 century.  It was severely damaged in the 1870’s but was restored and reopened in 2009……… 

I couldn’t enter the building,  but did surreptitiously take a photo looking inside one of the doors……   

I like this photo that shows the two older gentlemen praying before they enter one of the side doors…..

As the time neared for the mid-day prayers, I found a place to sit on some steps and just observe the comings and goings. …..

I saw that the women entered using the small door  on the right side….they are not allowed to pray with the men and must be kept separate.

The men  would go under the porch entrance, take off their shoes, and place them on shelves located against the wall.

As time drew near, more and more men entered the courtyard and began filtering into the Mosque.    There were mostly men, but they were all ages.  Many of the older men wore suits while some of the younger ones were more casually dressed.  Some wore hats of various types including a “skull cap” and almost all carried a set of prayer beads in their hands.  Many would greet their friends with a 3-cheek kiss or would place their hands on their hearts.  Most would raise their hands in a supplication pose before they entered the Mosque.  I had planned to wait until the Call to Prayer began, but Michael called and said that they were on their way to the hotel to pick me up so I hurried back to meet them.

Muhammet, Hulya, Michael and I went to yet another restaurant (Ani Ocakbasi) and tried a different style of Turkish cooking.

As usual, it began with a wonderful bread…..

….followed by the usual series of appetizers.  Today we had spicy Bulghar, red pepper puree, spiced yoghurt and tomato and cucumber salad…… On difference this time was that the waiter brought olive oil and Pomegranate Molasses to pour over the tomato salad.

I dont remember the name of my dish but it was basically a kebab made from beef and lamb.  This had been rolled in a thin bread and then sliced into bite-size pieces.  It was wonderful with the yoghurt and bulghar.

Michael had the kebab meatballs that were very similar to our first meal in Istanbul…..

And just when we thought we had enough food, the waiter brought out this huge, air-filled  bread loaf…..

 

We waddled our way back to the hotel!!!!!