I just got back from vacation and oh baby was it glorious! First I flew to Sana’a to collect Matt and to depart from an airport that was larger than just one singular gate. I visited my beloved and delicious American coffee shop and got to spend some time with my former roommate Catherine. A good start to the trip!
Matt and I flew out to Egypt (where we had a 7 million hour layover in a beautiful, but unfinished new terminal with a paucity of seats) and then on to Athens! We bummed around Athens for a full day and then took the overnight ferry to Heraklion, on the East side of the island of Crete.
Chania, Greece. Turned out to not be the sea port we were so arduously looking for.
Over and over we would exhaustingly navigate- almost solely on public transportation- our way to some sort of laudable historical site only to find we were way too early (damn you ferries! Why can’t you dock sometime after daybreak!?) or that it was obscenely expensive. We were like, we did all the work to come to your d-word country, can’t you showcase your wonders at a slightly reduced cost? How about those Euros, huh? They sure add up quickly.
We also opted for the “lets-see-where-the-wind-blows-us/ we-hate-being-tied-down” vacation plan…which, clearly was no plan at all. Which clearly came back to haunt us.
I want to eat you. But in fermented liquid form.
At one point as matt and I were trudging along on a drizzly, pre-dawn morning after another sleepless night on public transportation with the dregs-of-humanity
(side note: clearly people from other countries do not have the same hygiene and personal aroma standards that Americans, or at least, I have)
looking for anything that was open, and anything that could clue us in to where we were, I turned to Matt and asked in all seriousness: “Umm… do we.. like vacations?” To which he solemnly replied, “Uh.. I think so…”
Poppa and Matt
After laboriously making our way to western Crete, to the lovely port city of Chania, we planned to look around a bit and then head on to Santorini, and maybe Hydra depending on time. But when the hotel manager asked us how many nights we would be staying in Chania we both instantly and without consulting each other said, “two!” opting to spend the remainder of our time in Crete.
Cute. Sweet pose, Kallyn.
Greece was fantastic and we spent most of our time (when we finally realized we were missing out on our entire vacation by constantly trying to do too much, trying to get to various places) eating delicious, fresh foods, knocking back carafes of delicious local wine, and soaking in as much sun as possible (D it all to H I got all riled up and forgot that I’m on a type of malaria medicine that makes me hypersensitive to the sun and I got a pretty wicked sun burn… ) but it was soooo relaxing at the beach. And they had coronas! Also the cabana boy.. no no, really, the cabana boy at the beach might just be my future husband- he had scruff AND green eyes. Instantly smitten.
A backpackers vacay is a lot of waiting, a lot of work, and I gotta say traveling on a budget is clearly not the most relaxing way to travel. Obviously I’m still waiting for my sugar-daddy to whisk me away on a life of leisure..
Matt and I were both pretty pumped to get to Turkey where we knew that my family was waiting to coddle and pamper us, with hotels, plans and everything else sorted out and our only job would to be to sip some brews, and blindly acquiesce to their plans. Hamduliallah!
Turkish Round Up
Upon arriving in Istanbul we got trapped in the interminable customs line next to an older American couple from the South- I haven’t heard a Southern drawl in months and months and I found it both distinctive and absurd- after treating us to a thorough account of their vacation plans the two of them then proceeded to have a vociferous, inane conversation about mindless minutiae including many, many little factoids that should have come up in any of the myriad conversations that two people married and vacationing together should have already had previous to arrival at their destination- like the fact that neither of them had ever been to Turkey before. After we finally escaped them, Matt and I both turned to each other all, “Do they even know each other?!” A couple days later while we were at a café enjoying some fresh squeezed juice, we saw them coming up the sidewalk. It was long since past the time they should have left on their cruise, and she was leaning on him heavily with quite an exaggerated limp going on. We did not hail them, or inquire as to what happened, and so it shall remain a mystery forevermore.
We found our way via metro to the Sultanhamet (historical) district of Istanbul and were perambulating about without clear direction in an effort to find my fam, about to give up and find an internet café in the hopes that further directions would be forthcoming when around the corner came poppa! And a few blocks further down! Mom, and Kallyn! They marched us right up to the apartment, took us to the rooftop terrace where we were rewarded with a stunning vista of the city, and immediately put a cold, delicious beers in our hands! Hamduliallah, I’m home!
Kallyn had a senior moment when she started raving about the delicious edamame she was eating. Matt and I were looking around in bewilderment for a bowl of edamame- while my parents were just nodding their assent, yeah, good edamame! Finally we realized she was talking about the little green nuggets in her chocolate bar- ummmm, pistachios Kallyn, not edamame. Clearly, clearly those are pistachios.
A word we all quickly learned was “tuvalet” which means “toilet” in Turkish. It’s a completely fun word to say and was foremost in our minds, and dancing off the tip of our tongues for several days until Kallyn quipped, “maybe we should all stop chanting and shouting ‘tuvalet tuvalet tuvalllllllet!’ because really at this point we’re just a bunch of tourists publicly shouting ‘toilet toilet toilllllllet!’ everywhere we go." Point taken.
Mother also gave the excellent advice which we quickly learned to heed, “never, NEVER pass up a good tuvalet.” Sound advice in a land of squat tuvalets.
They tried to sell us this when I was browsing the suq with my dad... not at all awkward
Outside the spice bazaar we found a coffee shop that sells freshly ground Turkish coffee- it was super exciting for me because it is the exact brand of coffee I used to by from a specialty Turkish butcher shop in Bethlehem and here I was getting some directly from the source. Not gonna lie, it was kinda thrilling for me. And it's damn delicious too.
We also found a shop that sold pretty much only MEAT and CHEESE. It was a mecca of savory delights and my palate was weeping tears of joy- Matt and I gorged on a delicious meal of cured, prosciutto-like meats, cheese, and crusty bread, with various side delights of deep-fried meat, and an abundance of vegetables hollowed out and stuffed with cheese. Heaven in my mouth.
Cheese. That's all. Just Glorious, Decadent Cheese.
Heaven? No... just a MEAT EXPLOSION
Istanbul is stunningly beautiful. I’m kinda in love with it. Maybe I liked Istanbul better than Greece because I was actually sedentary for several days and got to enjoy it- whereas in Greece I felt like we were constantly on the move. But Istanbul had the bustling yet historical feel of New York (a city I love), with Middle Eastern influences and charm, and the ever present, and hauntingly beautiful call of muezzin- something that even after 5 times a day, for seven months straight, I still love.
The things that I appreciated so much on vacation were the simplest of things- trees and plants and parks, coffee shops, normal weather, short sleeved shirts. For awhile I’ve been thinking that I’m being super picky and needy and high maintenance about Yemen, and perhaps a bit whiny too. But no. I’m not. I’m just requiring what is natural and necessary- coffee, company, and comfort.
All in all it was a fantastic, never-to-be-forgotten vacay, the highlight of which was most certainly getting to spend some time with my family.
view from our beloved rooftop terrace
view from the Galotta Bridge (there is no way I spelled that right)
