Staying in Venice and Istanbul

 Hello my friends.  Sorry I've not posted in a long time but I just returned home from Turkey this week.

My husband and I spent three weeks at our home in Turkey before the rest of the family joined us to continue the vacation.  I've come to the conclusion that our family "travels" as their hobby.  The photo above was taken at a wine tasting we enjoyed in Greece.

We enjoyed our time in the south of Turkey before venturing off for rest of the vacation.

Our first stop was Venice.  It was my third visit to this amazing city but this time I had the pleasure to stay three nights in this magical place.

My daughter rented two different apartments for the family and we stayed in this unique place where we had our own private courtyard.  It had been completely renovated and was very modern and comfortable but I missed the old world charm a bit. 

Venice is an interesting city.  The population now is around 55,000 residents; it used to be close to 175,000.  As the people have left, the homes have been bought up by investors who can rent them at a high rate of rent. Thereby, the average, younger Venetian cannot afford to live in Venice anymore.  It's a very sad case. Also, many Venetians are against the cruise ships coming into their city.  I totally agree with them.  Cruise ships can ruin the unique atmosphere of a place.

The apartment my daughter and her family stayed in was a perfectly styled Italian apartment with Venetian glass chandeliers.  It overlooked a canal and the light that came into the room was amazing.

Here's the beautiful hallway with the wood floors and a wall of framed handpainted watercolors.

I'm hoping to recreate one of these watercolors. . .

On our last night in Venice we had a family dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant.  It was in a square but there was a private courtyard behind.  We had spied this place a day earlier when the waiter told us about the menu.  The waiter from the restaurant next door saw us and told us "You don't want to eat there - it's owned by Pakistani's and is not Italian food".  My husband was shocked and told him "I'm Pakistani".  He isn't but that wasn't the point. Later that day, we went to lunch at this restaurant and it was the best Italian food I've ever had.  The owner is Italian but all the servers are from Bangladesh.  They were so kind to us and offered superb customer service.


  Hence, the last night in Venice we returned to the same place for dinner with all the family.  I didn't realize until later that Rome and surrounding areas of Italy has the second highest population of Bangladesh immigrants outside of London.  They are an integral part of Venice and I admire their ability to learn a new language and adjust to a different cullture.

We left Venice on a cruise and upon our return, we took a flight back to Istanbul.  I love this city, too.  

Again, my daughter had booked two different homes for us to stay in the area of Balat/Fener.  This area is off the Golden Horn and is the old Greek and Jewish part of the city.  Of course, now the demographics have changed.


At first look, the neighborhood can look a little rough in parts but it was quite charming and we felt safe too.  They were putting in new streets with beautiful pavers.
  

The home we stayed in was actually five floors; the bottom floor being a separate studio apartment.  It had been completed renovated to a classic style with beautiful period furnishings.

One of the unique features was this stunning, original wooden ceiling.

And, the stairwell continued to wind up each floor. Our Greek friend, Dmitra, joined us in Istanbul and told us about the Greek community of Turkey from the turn of the century who would have lived in these kind of homes.  They were well off merchants and other successful traders.  After World War I, many of them returned to Greece where they were thought of as a kind of aristocracy among the other Greeks.  Many  more left in the 1970's over the issues with Cyprus.  

The neighborhood is transitioning and becoming a very artsy area.  There were some lovely little cafes a few steps away where they served their style of "Turkish breakfast".

From the top floor balcony, we had a great view of Phanar Greek Othodox College.  It was built by an Ottoman Greek architect beginning in 1881.  The red tower is a well known landmark.

Also nearby, is the  Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I resides.  

It was an enjoyable time to be with the family.  However, it's always good to return home and get back to my routine.  Lilly was patiently waiting at the door for us when we arrived Tuesday night.

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  It's been unusually hot and humid here for this week but our normal, dry, hot weather is expected to return on Monday.

My best wishes to you,

Pat

Going to Guatemala on Holland America's Rotterdam

Happy weekend my dear friends.  I've been away on a short spring break vacation with my family.  I actually returned home last Monday but I thought it was time to update my blog.

On April 1st we sailed out of Tampa, Florida on Holland America's Rotterdam.  It was our first time sailing on Holland America and I must say, it's going to be one of my favorites.

Leaving the port in Tampa, I loved seeing these iconic homes along the shore all dressed up in their pastel colors.  

Our first port stop was Key West, Florida.  It had almost been 20 years since I'd been to Key West.  Last time I went there it was extremely hot, humid and uncomfortable in the heat of an August summer.  This time the weather was quite agreeable but I must say, the quaint town has been damaged by being a cruise port.  I saw the typical cruise shops you will find in any port city.  Loud music and lots of people.  We did take the conch train ride and ventured a little ways outside the main center.  I loved this home that is still wearing it's natural wood color.  It's now a home decor shop over 100 years old.

On the same street was this cafe/coffee shop dating from 1909.  It's amazing that it still is standing and still doing business.

At this same place, this sign was posted on the fence.  Imagine that  President Truman was here in 1946. I'm sure Key West was a charming seaside city back then.

Next up was Roatan, Honduras.  I'd been to Roatan before but never to Mahogony Bay. It was a private beach area for the cruise lines.  The beach was beautiful but crowded with 3 ships in port!

One place I'd never been before was Guatemala and I am in love with this country!  Such natural beauty.  We took a proper tour and drove over an hour through the lush, green countryside.  Our port was in San Tomas de Castilla which is an industrial port city.  But, once outside, it was beautiful.

Our destination was the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara which is on the Dulce River. 

The fortress dates from the early 17th century.  This property was added to the  UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. 

The canons are still mounted and aimed at the intruders which came via the Dulce River.

This is the inner courtyard of the fortress.

Upon entering the fortress, is was surrounded by a moat.  It was soon time to get back on board the bus and head back to the ship.  It was a most interesting ride back as we went through a little town where the people where making tamales, selling and buying fruits and vegetables and also selling ready made meals for the workers.  Our tour guide had light brown hair and blue eyes; his grandparents were Belgian and English!  He told us it was the Germans who developed the coffee industry in Guatemala and still today there are a large group of Guatemalans with German ancestry.  It was very quite interesting.  My dear son-in-law was born in Guatemala of Guatemalan and Spanish ancestry.  

We stopped at a port in Mexico where I had never been before; Costa Maya.  Here is a replica of a Mayan monument in the city square.  It's a small beach town with a thriving tourist industry.

We ventured off to a private beach club, Maya Chan, owned by Americans from San Diego, CA.  It was really quite lovely and excellent hospitality from our gracious hosts.  They had all kinds of nonmotorized watercraft at our disposal, and all inclusive food and drink.  The only glitch is that this part of the ocean has an abundance of sea grass but it was wonderful being out in the water and enjoying this beautiful, tranquil setting.

Many times I read where people say they will never take a cruise.  My family started cruising 20 years ago and we go at least once a year.  It makes it so much easier as a family since you know where you are going to sleep each night, you can eat whatever your heart desires at anytime, and there are so many activities to do. My little grandson who is 8, just completed his 12 cruise and my granddaughter who is 2 just finished her 4th!  It's a pleasant way to see the world.  As I mentioned above, I was really impressed by Holland America.  Guest Services printed out a list of the art that is onboard.  The above is in the center atrium of the ship.

This is a very poor photo I took of a 17th century Italian desk with all these little compartments.  The parquet design was amazing.

And, this is a lovely marble design in floor of one of the lounges on board.

There was a lovely mix of passengers on board; old, not too old, young and a few youngsters.  Just the right mix.  And I enjoyed the ambiance of the ship.  It was a lovely trip except for our flights.  We had chosen the discount airline Spirit Air and it turned out to be a disaster.  Long story short, our flight home was postponed, we spent an extra night in Tampa and arrived back home on Monday instead of Sunday!  But, all is well and everyone is back to their routine.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  My Saturday was spent at a Norwegian heritage fair where I made waffles!

My best wishes to you,

Pat

My Universe is Complete

Hello my friends.  Do you like the title of my post?  Haha, a play on words.  My Sophie's Universe blanket is finally completed! It's new home will be in Turkey.

You may remember that I began this project back in July of 2017.  I diligently worked on it every day until I left for Turkey and when I returned home, it kind of sat in a bag in the closet.

But, like many of you, I hate to have unfinished projects.  So, since the middle of January I have been working to get this blanket completed.  I added my own design for the border (starts with the green leaves shown above), as I loved doing the red roses and wanted to incorporate it the edging. It's such an intricate designed blanket that I felt it needed a little more pizazz for a border.

Here's the little bag of yarn leftovers from this project.  I must say, this blanket is a yarn eater!  Originally, I purchased 15 shades of yarn but ended up using 13 skeins.  I had purchased this yarn to make another Attic24 coastal ripple blanket in a different color combination. But, after working on it awhile, I frogged it.  My inspiration for this blanket was Kate over at Kate's Adventures; look at her gorgeous blanket she made! Isn't it amazing with that additional border? I ran out of energy and yarn to make my blanket any larger. . .  

I completed my Vintage Fairy Lights socks.  This was a fun and easy knit from talented designer Helen Stewart.  I'm now awaiting to begin The Handmade Sock Society.  My new DPNs and sock yarn are ready! 

It's Saturday night here and my little grandchildren just left.  My dear children pictured above, took off for a short 3 day cruise.  So, I and my dear son-in-law along with my dear husband, took care of the little ones.  It was a fun time for all.  We will all be cruising together later in the summer.  

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday and I know absolutely nothing about football.  But, we will celebrate on this day nonetheless.

Take care my dear friends and thank you again for all your great advice regarding my new bed.  The bed arrived a week ago, is all put together and now I'm waiting on the new mattress.  Patience. . .

With my best wishes,

Pat  

Egyptian Christmas Cookies Along With Danish!

Are you getting ready for my favorite time of Year?  I've had a great couple of days spending time in my kitchen and baking my favorite Christmas cookies.

First on the list were my Egyptian petit fours.  I tweeked the recipe a bit and made them in single cookies without any filling.  And, I just had to add some green Christmas trees.  Every year my Danish grandma would make "spritz" cookies in the shape of green Christmas trees.  I have kept the same tradition for my family. If you want the recipe, you can find it here on my blog from a few years ago.  Remember, the key to this recipe is using clarified butter and powdered sugar which gives this cookie it's unique texture :)

Another popular Egyptian holiday cookie is Uraybee* or Ghorayebah* or as it's known in turkey, Kurabiyesi.  I bought this mix in Turkey and brought it home with me.  Luckily, it had only two ingredients I had to "translate" and again I used clarified butter and oil. (My oil looks green because it's grapeseed oil!)  The cookies came out perfect!  I'm sold on this cookie mix and plan to buy it again.  Kurabiyesi is a rich, buttery, shortbread type cookie with a very fine texture.  My favorite - yum!

Now, we're going to head back to Denmark and here's my pebernodder (peppernuts) that I made this year.  Again, this is one of my Grandma's recipes and I just had to make them since my brother will be joining us for the holidays and he loves these as much as I do!  You can find the recipe here from a previous blog post.  Remember, you need to prepare the dough the night before so that it can ripen  the wonderful, spicy flavor. I love to pop them in my mouth, savor the flavor a minute or two before I bite into this delicious crunchiness.

 

Today I made my Danish Kleiner.  It seems that every culture has their own favorite fried cookie and this is our family's tradition from Denmark.  Again, it's my Grandma's recipe that I treasure.  Hopefully, I can pass this onto my little granddaughter so that she can make them one day.  They will be put away in an air tight tin and wait the arrival of my son since this is his favorite cookie.

Four down and one more cookie to make.  Tomorrow I hope to make some plain, old, much loved, chocolate chip cookies but with a twist using Nestle's Holiday Baking Chips.  Don't you just love how colorful these are?  I'm using my dear friend Elizabeth's recipe which you can find here.

What are you baking?  If you would like to share, please feel free in the comments below.  That's  about all that is happening here at Lilly My Cat.  I hope to share another post soon.

Blessings to everyone,

Pat 

PS *the Arabic language can be hard sometimes to translate into the Latin alphabet since there is no standardized translation.  But, you can google this cookie and see what you come up with since it's a popular cookie for all the countries in the Middle East. 

Another Glimpse of Turkey and my Birthday!

Hello everyone.  I returned home from Turkey one month ago today.  Time goes by so, so fast these days.  It's been awhile since I shared anything about my time in Turkey so I thought I'd take you to one of my favorite places.  The Kale (castle) in Alanya, in the Antalya province of Turkey.

This is the Red Tower on the castle hill.  It dates from 1221 and is still standing, watching over the port after all these years.  It's a popular place for not only tourists but for Turkish people too.  I loved walked along the wall and thinking about those who passed this way hundreds of years ago.

The Turkish people are very proud of their Ottoman history and this shows in the architecture today and even in their food.  This is the entrance to a boutique hotel which is situated on the castle hill. 

We didn't venture to drive our car up this small, narrow street so we parked it at the entrance to this area. I loved walking the cobblestone streets.  It's so quiet and beautiful with the tree lining the streets and walkways.

We had dinner at our new favorite restaurant overlooking the harbor.  Although the menu is in both Turkish and English, we had a few questions for our server.  Luckily, our dear friend Irina was there to translate for us as Irina's first language is Russian and the server, who was from Georgia (the country), spoke fluent Russian.  So, it was easy for us to order the items we wanted.  The second time we came for dinner, the resident cat had had kittens and they were so adorable curled up on the sofa and chairs.  Turkish people love their cats and they are very well cared for.  Along the streets, you will see water bowls and food bowls that people put out for these little creatures.

Walking back down to our car, we discovered this amazing Ottoman style home that was restored by the original occupant's family.

Sorry for the bad photo but here is the history of this home.

And, another view of the perfectly restored residence.  Just across from this area, we toured a "new" Ottoman style villa that overlooks the sea.  It was four floors and probably 6,000 sq. ft. A large home by any means.  I think the price was close to $900K.

Above is a photo of an Ottoman style home that is not restored.  I'm not sure I would feel safe going up there with these old timbers.  But, just imagine the history attached to this place.

I loved seeing these benches made in the form of a boat.

And, how I wanted to go up to these people's yard and pick a ruby red pomegranate from their tree!

There are two sides to the castle area.  I think this side is my favorite.  You have to drive through windy, narrow lanes before you arrive at the beginning of this area.  And, what a view you will enjoy.

Speaking of views, this area is very popular with wedding parties for photos.  Here's a photo of a bride and groom on their wedding day.  I loved seeing the dress; isn't it beautiful?

It was time to go back to our home after a wonderful time at the castle.  When I looked at the photo above that I have in my living room, I was amazed to see how little the area had changed since this photo was taken.  It's a reprint of an old sepia print, probably from late 1800's.

The time we spent in Turkey was so  magical.  I think we finally have some sense of community there.  We have made friends with two wonderful Turkish families whom we shared dinners and outings with.  The one family are our neighbors and the other family is in charge of our complex.  It was so kind of them to invite us into their home and share such hospitality. It was very special to us as we feel if we "live" somewhere, we need to be a part of the community and somehow assimilate.  Hopefully, one of these days, we will stay long enough so that one of us can attend language school so that we can be better versed to truly be a part of this amazing culture.

On a side note, politics is a messy business.  America suspended visas to all Turkish and hence Turkey reciprocated.  I'm hoping that things get settled soon.  From what I understand, if you are American and want to enter Turkey directly from coming from the US, you are out of luck.  If you wish to enter Turkey from another country, there is a good chance you will get the visa to enter.  I hope that it gets worked out soon.  We never felt unsafe, harassed or uneasy wherever we went on this trip.  The Turkish people were always very gracious to us.

I will close with this very poor photo of me today.  My dear daughter took me to a wonderful lunch today to celebrate my birthday. It was one of those "farm to table" restaurants where the food was amazing as was the ambience.  I've had such a great day with lovely gifts from my dear family and good wishes from my friends.

I hope that you too have a wonderful weekend where ever you may be.  

With my best wishes,

Pat