Now that the conference is over, I had one more day in Istanbul before the night bus to Goreme. So, I decided that I needed to see the Asian side. I also wanted to go through the Dolambace Palace which was built in the 1800s with a decidely European style.
First stop was the Asian side. It's a quick ferry ride over there, but once there, there's not much to do. There's a ton of mosques because it's the part of Istanbul closest to Mecca & Medina, but because of Ramadan, there were prayers going on the whole time I was over there. So, I couldn't go in to see them. The only other place of interest is a small island just off the coast. Apparently, at one point, there was a giant chain strung from that island across the Bosporos to Istanbul. This would prevent ships from sailing behind the city, thus making it easier to defend. Famously though, one invading fleet (I forget which one) got around this by going at night, then unloading everybody on the shore. Next, they picked up the boats and took them overland around the chain and put them back in the water. This let them attack the city from behind at dawn.
My only other stop on the Asian side was for lunch where I went to a cafeteria like place that was recommended by Lonely Planet. You could order almost any traditional Turkish food including Pig Trotters. I had an eggplant and ground beef dish and a warm yogurt & mint soup. For desert, I had a semolina pudding like desert soaked in honey and topped with almond. It was delicious as the semolina give it a little bit of texture. It would be a great base to experiment with some simple deserts. Add a little bit of liquor or candied fruit or fresh berries and you're rocking.
Back on the European side, I visited Dolhambace palace, which was the last Ottoman palace. At some point, the Sulatans were starting to westernize and decided that the Tokapi palace was too Eastern, so they built this gigantic medieval style palace. Of course, it's filled with rugs, but it's also painted in the Renaissance style and has gilt everywhere. Plus, the chandeliers. Tons of them including one that's 4.5 tons in the main reception hall. Basically the whole thing is very European monarch: ostentatious as hell.
Finally, after visiting the palace, I went back to the hostel and chilled until it was time to head to the bus station.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Last Day of the Conference
It's the last day of the conference and I have my presentation early in the morning. When I got to the conference, the place was dead. As you'd expect, people were tiring of listening to talks and seeing posters and slept in. Ok, I'll be honest, I expect that a lot of people were also taking advantage of the night life the night after the banquet last night.
Anyway, when I presented, it went fairly well. Enough people were there that I was able to have some good conversations about the work and I met people from 4 other groups that are doing similar work (with a different twist) and 2 of them I didn't know about before. So it was valuable making those contacts.
As the conference was winding down, I ran into Malin, who was also staying at my hostel. She was trying to collect people for going out in the evening. The plan wasn't very well setup because we were supposed to meet in front of the French Embassy but nobody knew the time. There were phone numbers and e-mail addresses floating around and I left to go back to my hostel to drop off my stuff, relax and get some food before people were to go out. The plan was that I'd get an e-mail with the time.
Well that never happened, so around 8, I figured that I'd go and wander around Taksim Square and as it turns out, I ran into a group of people by the consulate. Pure luck. There were five of us: Cat from Wales, Fredrick from Germany, Abdul from India and Pranam from Australia. We first hit up a restaurant because some people hadn't eaten. I ended up trying Aryan, which is a drink made of yogurt, water and salt. A lot of salt. It was interesting. I also tried their rice pudding, which had a fairly loose custard with a little bit of rice. It was pretty good. After that, we went to a bar for drinks, Hooka and chatting. After a while, we went down the Cadessi to the Gelata Tower because Cat had been there and knew there was a good bar. Instead of a bar, we found a gathering jugglers, slack liners and people just dancing and enjoying the night with many languages being spoken. It was fantastic to see. We had some tea in a cafe and relaxed for a little while.
After that, we made our way back up towards Taksim Square and found another bar, which was more lively. A lot of people were dancing in the street and two of the bars were duking it out over who could play the loudest. It was kind of hilarious. Eventually, people got tired and we said goodbye, but it was a fun evening getting to know some other folks and enjoying what the city had to offer.
Anyway, when I presented, it went fairly well. Enough people were there that I was able to have some good conversations about the work and I met people from 4 other groups that are doing similar work (with a different twist) and 2 of them I didn't know about before. So it was valuable making those contacts.
As the conference was winding down, I ran into Malin, who was also staying at my hostel. She was trying to collect people for going out in the evening. The plan wasn't very well setup because we were supposed to meet in front of the French Embassy but nobody knew the time. There were phone numbers and e-mail addresses floating around and I left to go back to my hostel to drop off my stuff, relax and get some food before people were to go out. The plan was that I'd get an e-mail with the time.
Well that never happened, so around 8, I figured that I'd go and wander around Taksim Square and as it turns out, I ran into a group of people by the consulate. Pure luck. There were five of us: Cat from Wales, Fredrick from Germany, Abdul from India and Pranam from Australia. We first hit up a restaurant because some people hadn't eaten. I ended up trying Aryan, which is a drink made of yogurt, water and salt. A lot of salt. It was interesting. I also tried their rice pudding, which had a fairly loose custard with a little bit of rice. It was pretty good. After that, we went to a bar for drinks, Hooka and chatting. After a while, we went down the Cadessi to the Gelata Tower because Cat had been there and knew there was a good bar. Instead of a bar, we found a gathering jugglers, slack liners and people just dancing and enjoying the night with many languages being spoken. It was fantastic to see. We had some tea in a cafe and relaxed for a little while.
After that, we made our way back up towards Taksim Square and found another bar, which was more lively. A lot of people were dancing in the street and two of the bars were duking it out over who could play the loudest. It was kind of hilarious. Eventually, people got tired and we said goodbye, but it was a fun evening getting to know some other folks and enjoying what the city had to offer.
Monday, August 23, 2010
And a Conferencing We Will Go
Today was the first day of the conference. So the day was full of talks and walking around the poster sessions. There are a lot of papers being presented and many of them not very strong. CVPR was definitely a lot more rigorous, but I guess that's to be expected since it's a lot harder to get into. I feel that ICPR (this conference) is a good fit for first papers in a set or applied ones because you can talk to people and see what other ideas are out there, but something like CVPR is about publishing a new fangled technique.
That being said, I did have to wade through a lot of chaff that wasn't very useful. I did find a paper from Finland where the guy was working on detecting people from heavy industrial rigs. They have a dataset that will be useful for the CAT work we're doing.
For dinner, we were sheparded on a bus for 1.5 hours to go maybe 5km to the university that was hosting the conference. I did say the traffic was bad :-). There, at the reception, they wined and dined us. More drinks that you could shake a fist at and nibblies to start. Then, for dinner, it was a buffet of varied Turkish food from dolomari (stuff grape leaves) to baked fish with a tomato, chili sauce. Very tasty. After dinner, the band started up. They had 5 singers and an ensemble including a guitar, keyboard, violin and drums. They played everything from showtunes in English and German, to traditional Turkish songs to "I will survive" in Turkish. It was a little surreal. Most of the evening I spent talking with some German's and Russians about everything but work :-)
That being said, I did have to wade through a lot of chaff that wasn't very useful. I did find a paper from Finland where the guy was working on detecting people from heavy industrial rigs. They have a dataset that will be useful for the CAT work we're doing.
For dinner, we were sheparded on a bus for 1.5 hours to go maybe 5km to the university that was hosting the conference. I did say the traffic was bad :-). There, at the reception, they wined and dined us. More drinks that you could shake a fist at and nibblies to start. Then, for dinner, it was a buffet of varied Turkish food from dolomari (stuff grape leaves) to baked fish with a tomato, chili sauce. Very tasty. After dinner, the band started up. They had 5 singers and an ensemble including a guitar, keyboard, violin and drums. They played everything from showtunes in English and German, to traditional Turkish songs to "I will survive" in Turkish. It was a little surreal. Most of the evening I spent talking with some German's and Russians about everything but work :-)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Chora Church And Jaw Dropping Mosaics
Today I needed to switch hostels. The one I was staying in was too far away from the conference and it would be silly to commute, so I was going to the Stray Cat Hostel. It's a nice, chill hostel with, yes, stray cats living there. It's up near Taksim Square and there are frankly a ton of stray cats and dogs around the city. They're just everywhere. People even leave bowls of food on the street for them, so I'm sure that exacerbates the problem. The other thing that's different about Taksim is the traffic. There wasn't much in Sultanmahet because there are hardly any roads. But Taksim, it's chaos. Technically there are some stop lights, but most pedestrians ignore them so everybody's darting in and out of the flow of cars, which means there's lots of horn beeping. It's nuts.
Since I got to the hostel early, I just chilled until my room was ready. Then, I went to go see the Chora Church. It's on the outskirts of town and required a bus ride to get there. The bus took a route that went through an aqueduct and then up a major commercial street. I suspect this street was the wedding street because there were a ton of wedding dress shops with their wares shown on manequins in really big windows. Also, we very quickly ended up in a fairly run down part of the city where random lots would be filled with building rubble and lots of people about. The areas of the city are just so different.
Once I found the church and walked in, my jaw hit the floor. The mosaics are incredible. It's a byzantine church with very intricate mosaics and frescos. The pictures were made of such small stones that the scenes almost looked lifelike. Plus, they covered almost every wall and ceiling.
After that, I stopped by a restaurant that serves Ottoman food. Apparently the Ottoman never wrote down recipes because each cooking guild jealously guarded their secrets. So, to make these dishes, the restaurant did research into the palace records and tried to recreate the ancient dishes.The menu can be seen here: http://www.asitanerestaurant.com/English/summer_menu.php. I ordered the almond soup (which was too salty) and the stuffed calamari (which was divine). The most interesting thing on the menu (but I wasn't hungry enough to eat) was:
Kavun Dolması (1539) (Stu fed Melon):
Cored melon stuf ed with minced lamb and beef meat, rice, herbs, almonds, currants and pine nuts and baked in the oven
I'll have to try making it back home.
After eating, I returned to the hostel and mostly relaxed for the evening.
Since I got to the hostel early, I just chilled until my room was ready. Then, I went to go see the Chora Church. It's on the outskirts of town and required a bus ride to get there. The bus took a route that went through an aqueduct and then up a major commercial street. I suspect this street was the wedding street because there were a ton of wedding dress shops with their wares shown on manequins in really big windows. Also, we very quickly ended up in a fairly run down part of the city where random lots would be filled with building rubble and lots of people about. The areas of the city are just so different.
Once I found the church and walked in, my jaw hit the floor. The mosaics are incredible. It's a byzantine church with very intricate mosaics and frescos. The pictures were made of such small stones that the scenes almost looked lifelike. Plus, they covered almost every wall and ceiling.
After that, I stopped by a restaurant that serves Ottoman food. Apparently the Ottoman never wrote down recipes because each cooking guild jealously guarded their secrets. So, to make these dishes, the restaurant did research into the palace records and tried to recreate the ancient dishes.The menu can be seen here: http://www.asitanerestaurant.com/English/summer_menu.php. I ordered the almond soup (which was too salty) and the stuffed calamari (which was divine). The most interesting thing on the menu (but I wasn't hungry enough to eat) was:
Kavun Dolması (1539) (Stu fed Melon):
Cored melon stuf ed with minced lamb and beef meat, rice, herbs, almonds, currants and pine nuts and baked in the oven
I'll have to try making it back home.
After eating, I returned to the hostel and mostly relaxed for the evening.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
To the Palace
I got a late start to the day. The trouble began when I woke up around 3 am and then couldn't get back to sleep. Of course once I realized that I was awake, it just makes it worse because you lie there thinking: "Dammit, I'm going to be a complete wreak. If I can only get 5 hours of sleep in my first 3 days, I won't be able to do anything coherently. It will not be fun." Fortunately, around 6 I managed to drift back to sleep and woke up around noon and felt a hell of a lot better.
So, to make the most of what was left in the day, I first decided to hit up the Tokapi palace, which is where the old Sultans used to live. It was very barren compared to other palaces I've been to in Europe and it took me a while to figure out why. When people were living there, everything would have been covered in carpets, cushions etc. Once you take that stuff out, you're just left with stone benches. It was interesting though and the treasury had a lot of interesting things, from a huge diamond, to intricate scimitars to some of Mohammed's hair. I don't understand the religious relic thing that some religions do. Why do you want the shriveled hand or microscopic hair from somebody who died 1000 years ago? It's supposed to be the spirit that's immortal and holy, while the body is just a shell. So why hang onto it? Resurrection? I don't know.
After the palace, it was time to go over the Blue Mosque. You can't go in during prayer services and to control visitors, you have to enter in the back, where you take off your shoes and if you're a woman, put on a head scarf. Inside, it's huge, but it's really just one big room, with big windows facing Mecca. Half of it is for men praying and you're not supposed to take pictures of them. Reasonable enough. The other half is for tourists. And finally, at the back, there are walled off pens for the women to pray in. Such an obsession in treating men and women differently.
After the Blue Mosque, I wandered quickly through the grand bazaar which is chaos to say the least. All sorts of "streets" and wares spilling everywhere. I did end up buying a kilim, even though I wasn't planning on getting one until I get back to Istanbul. I have a problem saying no, I'm leaving. I went into one of the carpet shop and the guy got me sucked into the process. He kept pulling out piece after piece for me to look at and I honestly couldn't decide what I'd like. Eventually, he starts listing prices and he's asking me "what's the most you'll pay". I didn't want to answer because then I'd be held to it, but eventually, he figures out I didn't want to pay much and we looked at the kilims. He says the price is $350 which even I know was ridiculous and so I thought, he if I super low ball it, then I can get out of here. So I tell him the most I could pay is $50. Well long story short, I get sick of this game and just want to leave, so I tried walking out the door like 5 times and each time he grabs me to shake my hand, or says I have to finish my tea or so on. Eventually, he comes down to the $50 and because I said it, I had to buy it. I probably got ripped off a little but at least the damage wasn't too bad.
For dinner, I went to a restaurant near the hostel that had good reviews online. It turns out that they were right. The prices weren't too bad and I had a traditional turkish dish that's a lamb ravioli in a yogurt tomato sauce. Yum!
So, to make the most of what was left in the day, I first decided to hit up the Tokapi palace, which is where the old Sultans used to live. It was very barren compared to other palaces I've been to in Europe and it took me a while to figure out why. When people were living there, everything would have been covered in carpets, cushions etc. Once you take that stuff out, you're just left with stone benches. It was interesting though and the treasury had a lot of interesting things, from a huge diamond, to intricate scimitars to some of Mohammed's hair. I don't understand the religious relic thing that some religions do. Why do you want the shriveled hand or microscopic hair from somebody who died 1000 years ago? It's supposed to be the spirit that's immortal and holy, while the body is just a shell. So why hang onto it? Resurrection? I don't know.
After the palace, it was time to go over the Blue Mosque. You can't go in during prayer services and to control visitors, you have to enter in the back, where you take off your shoes and if you're a woman, put on a head scarf. Inside, it's huge, but it's really just one big room, with big windows facing Mecca. Half of it is for men praying and you're not supposed to take pictures of them. Reasonable enough. The other half is for tourists. And finally, at the back, there are walled off pens for the women to pray in. Such an obsession in treating men and women differently.
After the Blue Mosque, I wandered quickly through the grand bazaar which is chaos to say the least. All sorts of "streets" and wares spilling everywhere. I did end up buying a kilim, even though I wasn't planning on getting one until I get back to Istanbul. I have a problem saying no, I'm leaving. I went into one of the carpet shop and the guy got me sucked into the process. He kept pulling out piece after piece for me to look at and I honestly couldn't decide what I'd like. Eventually, he starts listing prices and he's asking me "what's the most you'll pay". I didn't want to answer because then I'd be held to it, but eventually, he figures out I didn't want to pay much and we looked at the kilims. He says the price is $350 which even I know was ridiculous and so I thought, he if I super low ball it, then I can get out of here. So I tell him the most I could pay is $50. Well long story short, I get sick of this game and just want to leave, so I tried walking out the door like 5 times and each time he grabs me to shake my hand, or says I have to finish my tea or so on. Eventually, he comes down to the $50 and because I said it, I had to buy it. I probably got ripped off a little but at least the damage wasn't too bad.
For dinner, I went to a restaurant near the hostel that had good reviews online. It turns out that they were right. The prices weren't too bad and I had a traditional turkish dish that's a lamb ravioli in a yogurt tomato sauce. Yum!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Ancient History And Some Tasty Treats
Day 2 and with very little sleep to work with, I decided to make the most of it, scarf some coffee, and hit the sights. I went to the Haight Sofia and the Archeological Musem, which are almost beside each other. The Haight Sofia was interesting because it was originally built by the Byzantines as a church and then turned into a mosque by the Muslims in the middle ages. It looked really weird because they had uncovered some of the old frescoes that the Muslims had plastered over. Also, it was designed to be a church, but then used as a mosque, which has a different shape. So, it almost felt like it was just massive vandalism.
Next, the archeological museum was really interesting although I did feel that I couldn't take stuff in after a while because I just ran of steam. But there were some really intricate tombs and carvings that were completely jaw breaking. They also had artifacts from Troy and apparently, they think the city was rebuilt at least 4 separate times, but that was about all I got :-).
I made it back to the hostel at midafternoon and spent the timing chilling until my cooking class at 4:30. It turns out that it was only a block away, so super simple. The class was fantastic and realistically was my first taste of real Turkish food that wasn't crappy versions of street food. The class was taught by Eveline, and she runs the school/restaurant called Cookingalaturka. It's an interesting business model. She teaches a lunch and/or evening class with the help of two staff members. During the class, which has about 8 people, you cook up a 5 course traditional meal. Of course, you make more than 8 people can eat so the extra food is sold to any potential patrons who decide to drop in. So, we ended up cooking a red lentil soup that's a little spicy but also has mint, dill and parsley so it's one of those soups that has new flavours with every bite. After that we had eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and slow poached in olive oil/water for an hour. Next, we had some zuchinni pancakes with some turish cheese (similar to Feta) and spices mixed in. After that, the only meat dish, was grape leaves stuffed with lamb, beef and love. Finally, for desert, we made these delicious semolina sponge cookies dripping in syrup. Fantastic.
Next, the archeological museum was really interesting although I did feel that I couldn't take stuff in after a while because I just ran of steam. But there were some really intricate tombs and carvings that were completely jaw breaking. They also had artifacts from Troy and apparently, they think the city was rebuilt at least 4 separate times, but that was about all I got :-).
I made it back to the hostel at midafternoon and spent the timing chilling until my cooking class at 4:30. It turns out that it was only a block away, so super simple. The class was fantastic and realistically was my first taste of real Turkish food that wasn't crappy versions of street food. The class was taught by Eveline, and she runs the school/restaurant called Cookingalaturka. It's an interesting business model. She teaches a lunch and/or evening class with the help of two staff members. During the class, which has about 8 people, you cook up a 5 course traditional meal. Of course, you make more than 8 people can eat so the extra food is sold to any potential patrons who decide to drop in. So, we ended up cooking a red lentil soup that's a little spicy but also has mint, dill and parsley so it's one of those soups that has new flavours with every bite. After that we had eggplant stuffed with tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and slow poached in olive oil/water for an hour. Next, we had some zuchinni pancakes with some turish cheese (similar to Feta) and spices mixed in. After that, the only meat dish, was grape leaves stuffed with lamb, beef and love. Finally, for desert, we made these delicious semolina sponge cookies dripping in syrup. Fantastic.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Into Istanbul
The flight to Istanbul was pretty uneventful. Always a good thing when you take to the skies and need to sleep along the way. When I got to Turkey, there was a slight snag though. I had booked a shared shuttle to take me from the airport to the hostel. So, the driver flagged me down along with a old British couple. They were irate. They were staying at the four seasons and paid lots of money to ensure that they had a private car to their hotel. Would they think of not worrying about it too much since it wouldn't take any extra time (if they were dropped off first) and then they could just get the hotel to reimburse them? There was more than enough room in the car. Absolutely not. I couldn't come in the car. They didn't know me and thus didn't trust me. Self-righteous pricks! I didn't say that last part :-). After a good 15 min of two old fogies bitching and complaining at the driver, he decided that it would just be easier to get a separate taxi for me at the same price. So off I went although it did end up costing me an extra 5 euros because the taxi driver claimed he didn't have any change, even a 5 lira note, which is what I asked for. Oh well. Oh and ironically, it turns out that the four seasons was about a 2 min walk from where I was staying.After checking in, I decided to check out some of the sights. It was late afternoon by this point, so I just went and looked at the Bascilica Cistern, which was nice and eerie, and the monuments on the Hippodrome. They oldest monument in Istanbul turns out to be an Egyptian obelisk carved out of granite. It was made in 2500 BC! The thing that got me is that the carving looked like it was done yesterday and boy was it precise.
After this, I went back to the hostel to see if they had recommendations for food. Tony, one of the guys who worked there had an even better idea. Him and a bunch of the other guests were going out for some fish later. mmmmm fish. I was in. Although it wasn't for a while, so I chatted with the other folks who were going and we went out for a quick bite a beers. They were two girls from Uxbridge of all places, and two guys from Perth, Australia. They were a fun crowd and we had a good evening even if it did last a little and I didn't get to bed until 2.Though it was fun, that was a bad idea. I ended up waking up around 5 and then couldn't get back to sleep. Can anybody say sleep deprivation.
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